by Jade Frances
“Oh my god, I thought you weren’t going to come around,” Rose said as she grabbed me into her arms. Now that my eyes had fully adjusted, I could see tears spilling down her cheeks.
“Rose, what happened?” I asked again. However, it was Sandra that replied.
“The darkness was too strong, it overpowered all of us.” There was a small bit of bitterness in her voice, but I could feel worry emanating from her.
“We felt the strength behind it. It overtook us like Sandra said. We… we heard him as well, Evvy,” Rose sobbed. Memories flashed to the forefront of my mind. The dark mist that had intrigued the girls, the way it unravelled when they touched it. Followed by the darkness that had engulfed me, the pain and the voice that came with it. His voice. Aresollo. The same hoarse voice I had heard in my nightmares for the past ten years. Rubbing my eyes, I let go of Rose to stand up. Only then realising that we had all been on the floor. Clinging to the back of a chair, I could feel how wobbly my legs were. I was weak, drained. My head was pounding. Made even worse when I thought of the pain the darkness had inflicted on me.
“Can I get something for my head please,” I asked no one in particular.
“Here,” I heard Avetta respond. Reaching out my hands, I waited for tablets to drop into them. Instead, Avetta held her hands up to my head. They were warm and steady. Unlike mine that were currently shaking. Energy filled the air. The pain in my head was slowly filtering out. Once the final bit left me, I gasped.
“How?” I looked at Avetta. The twinkle in her eyes told me I would get the same response I always had when asking about what she can do.
“In time, Evangeline. Let’s go sit somewhere more comfortable so you can all tell me exactly what happened,” she replied and turned to walk out of the room. Needing no more instruction, we all followed silently behind. Sandra grasped my hand as we left.
“Can I have a word?” she asked. Startled, I responded with a nod. She paused in the hallway, waiting for Rose and Avetta to walk ahead. Then looked at me sheepishly.
“I don’t hate you. I found it hard to like you at first, but I’ve never hated you,” she gave me a small smile and cast her eyes to the ground. This was not what I envisioned. I wasn’t sure how to react. Or what response she expected from me.
“You had a normal life, Evvy. A human life. Do you know how much I would love to have that? To not hide or run. To live free, to do what I want, when I want. You had that, and you went searching for answers. Why would you give that up?” Her honesty was refreshing. Now I could understand why she had been so bitter toward me. Taking a deep breath, I thought of why I had chosen the path that led me here.
“I needed to know who I was, Sandra. That hole in my life needed filled. I have people around me now. To help me through. I’m growing, changing. I’m learning so much about myself, and there’s still so much more to learn. This is my journey, Sandra,” I told her. With a sigh, I carried on. “In all honesty, I wasn’t living. Not really living. There was always something missing. I understand your want for a normal life. But that’s not what we are destined for.”
“I get that. It must have been hard. We should probably go see Avetta now. She won’t enjoy waiting.” Sandra hung her head and walked to the room they had disappeared in. Well, that was uncomfortable.
As I walked into the living room, I took a good look around. This was my favorite room in the house. Now that I knew it had been Darryl and Adam’s home, I loved it that much more. The enormous bay window overlooked the countryside beyond. The dark wood that made up all the furniture fit perfectly with the deep beige walls. The massive fireplace was the most beautiful feature in here. Taking a seat in the armchair next to it, I relished in the heat it gave off. Such a warm and homely room. Yet there were no pictures lining the walls, strange for a family home I thought. Especially when they had so many in the hut.
Darryl had us take them all down, hurt him too much to look at them every day. I looked at Rose beside me. I should have been mad that she was in my head, especially after what we had just gone through. But something in the bond said she was just worried about me and checking in. Giving her an understanding smile, I looked towards Avetta. She wasn’t the most patient of women.
“Ok. Tell me everything. What were you two so curious about, and what in god’s name happened to Evangeline?” she directed at Rose and Sandra. Thank god because I really didn’t have the energy to go into it. I settled back in the armchair to listen to their take on what had happened.
“It was a dark mist, I’ve never seen or felt anything like it before,” Sandra started.
“I haven’t felt it when I’ve connected to Evvy before either. But then I wasn’t exactly looking for it. But this time it was just hovering there, clear as day in front of us,” Rose butted in, shifting her seat slightly. I could tell she was anxious, but she carried on. “I could feel a strange pull towards it, I know Sandra felt it too. We moved as one. We heard Evvy shout not to touch it, but it was too late, we couldn’t help it,” she looked to the floor, this time seemingly unable to carry on. Sandra took over where she left off with ease.
“Whatever it was, we unlocked it. The darkness swarmed us from everywhere. You couldn’t tell where it was coming from. We tried to fight it, but it was too strong,” she paused and looked towards me. Sympathy filled her eyes. “We could feel Evvy’s pain through the bond, it was horrific. I don’t know how you endured that. Then, right before it pushed us out, we heard his voice. We heard him call out to Evvy.”
The three of us sat silently, Avetta studied us from across the room. I couldn’t meet her eyes just yet, I was still trying to take it all in myself.
“Hmm, and what did this voice say?” Avetta asked. I knew she was looking directly at me. It was my turn to answer. My voice was shaky, but I delivered the line as best as I could remember.
“Evangeline, there you are. Thank you for letting me in. See you soon.” Repeating it sent shivers down my spine. The nightmares I had gotten used to. But this was new, this was direct contact with me.
Finally, looking up at Avetta, I could see she was thinking about what it meant.
“Ok, any idea who the voice belongs to?” she asked very non complacently. Oh god, here it was, the question I had been dreading.
“No one I know,” Sandra answered.
“Me neither,” Rose followed.
“Aresollo,” I whispered.
“Speak up Evangeline, what did you say?” she insisted.
“I said… Aresollo,” I spoke slightly louder. The collective gasps around me let me know they all heard the name I had spoken.
“No way,” Sandra exclaimed.
“It couldn’t be,” Rosemary said at the same time. Both were staring at me like I had gone mad or grown horns. Either one.
Avetta sat, staring wide eyed at me. Not saying a word. I saw her eyes glaze over for only a second before they were normal again. Maybe I imagined that.
“We have less time than I thought. Are you positive, Evangeline?” her tone had gone all business.
“Yes, yes, I remember it clearly from my, my...”
“Your nightmares.” She cut me off. The girls weren’t aware of my recurring nightmares. Well, they are now. Moving towards the living room door, Avetta opened it. As if hearing something we didn’t, she peered around it. Minutes later, three massive guys walked in, each nodding their head to her as they passed. Who in the hell? I looked at Rose and Sandra, who, like me, had their mouths hanging open and a look of shock on their faces. For once, I didn’t seem to be the only one out of the loop.
“Girls meet your new guardians and trainers,” Avetta stated. Like somehow, we should have known to expect them.
She must be joking, I sent through our bond.
Surely…
Better be, were the only two replies I got back.
We all sat there gawping at the three strangers in the room. Sandra was the first of us to come to the realisation that she wasn’t joking.
<
br /> “Sorry what? This can’t be for real,” she shouted.
“As you so rudely have already asked each other through your bond, no I am not joking. I have assigned you one. Come meet them, don’t be discourteous,” Avetta replied bluntly. The tone in her voice let us know that we didn’t have a choice. One by one we started getting up to head over. I was the slowest, inspecting them before we approached. They looked like triplets. All had the same muddy brown hair with the same brown colour eyes to match. Except for the most intimidating one of them, his eyes were a piercing grey, unusual. Sun-kissed skin, they towered over me in height. I felt their energy, it was strong in each of them. It differed from anything I have felt so far. Yet that wasn’t what made me wary. It was the steely look on their faces. They didn’t even glance at us once as we approached, just stared straight ahead.
Guardians from the academy, they are magic users Rose sent to us.
I can’t believe she has sent us guardians. They are the worst, whined Sandra. Giving both girls a questioning glance, they gave me a, we will talk later look from both of them.
“One by one, they will step forward and state their name, their specialty and who they are assigned to. Then less formal introductions can be made,” Avetta asserted. With a swift nod to the guy closest to her, stepped forward.
“Egan, fire, Sandra,” he stated, then stepped back. Interesting, I thought. Egan was the smallest of the three, not that there was anything small about him at all. Tall and very muscular, just like the other two. I bet he could pack a punch in training. I looked over to see Sandra studying him intently. I wonder what she’s thinking. Then the next stepped forward.
“Barak, lightning, Rosemary.” Taking him in, I could see he was just slightly taller than Egan. They had to be brothers. Fire and lightning, that was noteworthy. It seemed; they had assigned the girls the guy who had opposite elemental specialties to theirs. That would make for great training, I thought. Wonder what mine had. Stepping forward, he spoke clearer and much louder than the others.
“Pearce, stone and rock, Evangeline.” My shoulders sagged, stone and rock! Couldn’t throw anything better at me than that? Ah well, guess I would have to deal. Studying him as I had the others, I noticed a distinct air about him. He stood taller, was more confident, and that steely look on their faces was a lot more noticeable on his. Great, I thought, I get the miserable beast of the three. As if sensing my thoughts his grey eyes flicked towards me, but only for a moment.
“Fantastic. Now that’s out of the way, I will leave you to it. I have much to do and need to go bring Darryl back,” Avetta said and moved away. Shock rang through our bond again, but this time I was first to snap out of it.
“Wait, and Adam?” I asked.
“We will see,” was all I got back. Again, I felt my shoulders dropping in disappointment. This just wasn’t my day. She paused slightly to say “girls, be nice.” Then she was gone. I turned to look at the other two to see what their reaction was, but they were still studying their assigned guardians. What in the hell were we supposed to do now? This had happened a bit too fast for me to comprehend. I was still reeling from the events of our bonding. That horrible voice was grating the back of my mind, just lingering there. The threat was genuine now, and like Avetta said, we didn’t have much time left before they came for me.
“Are you brothers?” Sandra asked the guys, bringing me back to the present. Pearce was the one to speak.
“Yes,” was all he replied. Rolling my eyes, I threw myself back into the armchair. Typical, we were left with three guys who took their roles seriously. I bet they were ‘duty first’ kind of guys. At least Sandra had confirmed that they were brothers. That was one less question for me to ask. Didn’t exactly look like they would be freely handing out information anytime soon.
“What do we do now?” Rose directed her question at Barak, the guardian assigned to her. It didn’t look like he would answer, but after a minute’s silence he replied.
“We get you battle ready.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Opening up the bond to the other girls, I marvelled at just how easily it came to me. I felt a lot more comfortable with them being in my head after yesterday’s events; I guess I had nothing to hide now. I found it just as easy to get a sense of their location, without needing to concentrate too much. They were a part of me as much as my mind was. A moment later, I knew that Sandra was in the shower and Rose was downstairs arranging breakfast. We had been ordered to go straight to our bedrooms to rest after meeting our guardians. Absolute killjoys they would be. Not that we wanted to stay up all night partying, but they obviously did not understand we could communicate, anyway.
Last night I had laid down on my bed as soon as I got into my room and reached out through our bond.
Girls, time to explain, I sent to them. They knew I was asking about the small mention of the guardians being sent from the academy.
Rose your turn, I’m going to sleep. Stupid guardians put me in a right mood. See you both in the morning. Sandra sent back. I felt her energy go, leaving just me and Rose. I thought I heard her sigh through the bond but couldn’t be sure.
Ok Evvy, I’ll tell you what I know about the guardians, Rose eventually replied. Finally, I might get some concrete answers, instead of being the only clueless one here. I listened keenly as she spoke. Guardians are the strongest of their kind, she began.
Magic users that is, Sandra piped up out of nowhere, I hadn’t even felt her re-join us.
Hey! I thought you were leaving this to me, Rose threw at her.
Yeah, don’t think I’ll be sleeping for a while, that stupid guardians outside my door. The ars…
That’s enough, Sandra. She was cut off swiftly by Rose who no doubt knew the profanities that would come out her mouth, or mind in this case. Can I continue? Rose asked.
Fine, Sandra replied moodily.
Ok. Either way they are strong, it’s usually hereditary. Passed down through the same family lines. They are bound into guardianship the moment they are born. Although Sandra have you ever heard of three from the same line? She stopped for a moment to let Sandra speak.
No. Never. I thought about that earlier when I asked if they were brothers. Even though that was obvious, she replied. I didn’t have a clue why this was relevant, but that was soon answered by Sandra again. It’s not exactly easy for them to conceive, that’s why there’s so few of them. At least that’s what we get taught. Made sense to question three in the same family then, I thought to myself.
We can figure that out later Rose started again. Anyway, back when the gifted lived relatively normal lives, we had a monarchy just like the humans do. They created and kept order. And obviously they needed protection. So, guardians went through training until they were eighteen. Trained by the best of the best, they become nearly unstoppable. Killing machines. Then on graduating they would be personally assigned to either a royal family member or a high ranking gifted.
A monarchy for the gifted, now that was an interesting piece of history that Avetta had left out. I wonder why she didn’t tell me. Then something occurred to me.
If there’s no monarchy now, why are they still around? I inquired.
There are still important people in our world, Evvy, although hidden they are still there. Also, I believe several of them guard the academy. This was the third time they had brought the academy up. What was this place? And why was no one talking about it? Before I asked, Rose and Sandra said they were settling for the night and swiftly left the bond. Leaving just me with more questions, as usual.
A loud rapping on my door brought me back to the here and now. I wonder how long I had been sitting there reminiscing over our conversation last night. Reluctantly, I threw my quilt back and got up to answer it. Pearce’s eyes seemed to stare straight through me when I opened the door.
“Training, now,” was all he said before he walked off.
“I haven’t had breakfast, you’ll have to wait!” I called out
after him, slightly irritated. He has no social skills. Couldn’t have given us friendly guardians, I thought. Although remembering last night’s conversation, that isn’t exactly what they were trained for. A quick peek in the bond again told me that Sandra and Rose were in the dining room. I threw on some joggers and a tank top and rushed downstairs to join them. Just as I had sat down with a plate full of food, the three guardians entered and lined the wall behind us.
“You have five minutes,” Pearce stated, very matter of fact.
Sure got yourself a fun one there, Sandra giggled at me from across the table.
Tell me about it, I huffed back, yours any better?
Nah, mine doesn’t speak at all. But Rose got a smile off of hers earlier, probably fancies her ha. Rose started blushing as soon as the words formed in her mind. I held back a small giggle, shifting slightly. It put Pearce right in my line of sight. It was then that I noticed him watching us, his head cocked slightly to the side, examining our silent exchange.
Think mine’s onto us girls, I sent. As one, they both turned to look directly at him, beaming smiles on their faces. It took him by surprise. His eyebrows raised for a second and a slight twitch in the corner of his mouth gave him away. It was only a fleeting moment. Guardian face back on. I couldn’t help but let out the giggle that had formed in my chest.
If we didn’t laugh in this situation, we might cry.
“Evvy, are you working on your gifts today?” Sandra asked politely. This new friendliness she was showing me made me slightly wary, but I could feel that she was genuine. Since Aresollo’s appearance in our bond and our brief talk, she had softened towards me. She was trying, at least.
“No clue, do you know what you are doing?” I replied. Before Sandra could answer, Pearce interrupted us.
“It’s time. Outside,” he barked. Rolling my eyes I moved from the table, giving a longing look toward the food we were leaving behind.
I guess we will find out; I sent to the girls who were already two steps ahead of me and out of the room.
