“Now, I haven’t met Kern. What was he like?”
My head snapped back up. “Scary.”
“Scary how?”
“Well…he was gorgeous, which I hadn’t expected.”
Ramsey chuckled loudly. “That makes him scary?”
I blushed. “Well, it was more that I didn’t expect that. I expected demon like, freaky, ugly and then there was this beautiful, dark haired guy in front of me. Young too. It was just something that threw me,” I admitted.
“Okay, what else?”
“He was rambling on about me being his bride and ruling the world together whether I liked it or not. If I didn’t give myself to him voluntarily, he was prepared to force me by brainwashing me or something.”
“Did he say how he planned to rule the world?”
“Only that he was going to unleash demons. First, small ones, then bigger, and bigger until we all bowed to him.” I shuddered, remembering his words.
“We can’t allow that.”
Duh. “So, how do we stop him? Do we attack first?”
“No. We can’t do that. Both the gifted and the faeries are peaceful beings,” Vala said. “Being who I am, I too, am peaceful, bound by the Earth. I cannot start a fight. I can help and protect though, once that fight has been started.”
“I have been in many battles,” Ramsey said. “But none were started by my people. We have to be very careful here. Kern has to attack first, and then we can step in.”
A timer started beeping. “Oh good, dinner is ready.” He served us steaks, potatoes, and green beans. Being as hungry as I was, the green beans tasted like cookies! I ate everything on my plate and asked for seconds.
“Why don’t you get some sleep now. I’ll be waking you early in the morning to start. No time to waste.”
I nodded, wiping my face. “Dinner was delicious. Of course, I haven’t eaten much in days.” I stole a look at Vala who almost cracked a smile. “Vala, you said you’d be able to find out if my friends were okay. Is that something you can do anytime? Can you tell me how they are before I start this training?”
She nodded. “Go get ready for bed. I’ll be in to see you.”
“Okay.” I rinsed my plate off and headed upstairs.
I heard Ramsey speak to Vala, “Are you sure you should tell her how her friends are? Will that distract her?”
“No, I think she’ll do better knowing how they are rather than wondering. I think it’ll help her focus.”
I continued up the stairs and got ready for bed. When I walked back into my room from the bathroom, Vala was sitting on the chair. She had a faraway look on her face. I guessed she was checking in to see how everyone was. I sat on the bed and waited for her to speak.
After what seemed like an hour, she finally looked at me. “First, they are all fine. Alive. No injuries,” she reported. “Mira is, well, she’s devastated. But, Auralee has finally convinced her to eat and go to class. Noe hasn’t seen anything yet. Daxton is hurting; he too hasn’t been taking good care of himself. But, Zane got on him and he’s starting to recover. The school has started trainings too. Physical stuff, weapons trainings, a lot of the same things we’ll be teaching you.”
I smiled and tears sprang to my eyes. “They’re all okay.”
“Yes, they are. That doesn’t mean they don’t miss you every minute of the day, and I am sorry about that. I know how much you miss them. Just hang on. I will get you back to them. I promise that.”
“Thank you, Vala.”
“You’re welcome. Sleep now and tomorrow I want you focused and alert. Don’t make me regret filling you in.”
“Yes Ma’am.” I got under the covers. “Good night, Vala.”
“Good night, Kassia.” She turned off the lights and closed the door.
I sobbed silently in my pillow until I fell asleep.
* * *
Morning came way too early. Gone were the days of sleeping in and hitting the snooze button. “Rise and shine!” Ramsey pounded on the door. “Time to get up and face the day.”
When I opened my eyes, I noticed the sun had already peeked over the horizon. At least he waited until sunrise. “Coming.” I said and slid out of bed. The air was chilly, so I quickly slipped on the only clean jeans and t-shirt I had. I grabbed my hoodie from the chair and threw that on too.
After getting ready, I hurried downstairs and had breakfast. I had no idea what Ramsey and Vala had in store for me. Imagine my surprise when I walked out the door to find them with a cat-hound. I froze. My eyes widened, and I looked back and forth between them trying to figure out if I had been duped.
Vala shook her head. “No,” she answered the question I had asked in my head. “We caught him a while ago and now we want to see you kill him.”
“I need to see what you can already do.” Ramsey gestured.
I let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, move out of the way then.” I walked down the porch steps and faced the demon as they moved to the sides. I planted my feet and glared at the cat-hound sending him my death stare. Being a smaller, weaker demon, it only took me ten seconds to have him flat on the ground and another five for him to die.
“Impressive.” Ramsey clapped. “Our goal is to get that down to less than five seconds.”
“Smaller ones are easier,” I told him. “Bigger ones are more difficult. And when there are a lot, I can do more than one, but not hundreds at a time.”
“You will.”
“How are we supposed to test this?”
“Nobody ever told you that you could do other things?” Ramsey asked.
My jaw dropped. “Um…no. I would have remembered that.”
“Tell me, when you kill like that, how do you feel inside?”
“Angry. I get mad and then whoever is there suffers from pain or death.”
“So, your body fills with anger and hate?”
“Pretty much.”
“What do you hate? Bugs? Birds?”
“Definitely bugs.”
He stood next to me. “I want you to look out in the field and see the bugs. They’re out there. You need to focus and concentrate enough that you can see every bug.”
I shot him a look. “Really?”
“Yes, really. I’ll be sitting over there when you’re done.”
That made me laugh. Bugs? Really? Okay. I concentrated on the bugs. Some I could pick out right away; however, I was certain there were more of them. I tried to push my mind further, expanding beyond a few feet, but it felt blocked somehow. I glanced over at Ramsey who was smiling. I wasn’t laughing anymore. Sighing, I tried again. After about an hour, I threw my hands up and sat on the ground.
I held my head in my hands trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. How was I supposed to find every bug here? How do I open up and let my mind go?
Ramsey finally got up off his butt and walked over to where I sat. “Get up,” he ordered. I stood. “You can’t give up. You can do this. Empty your mind and listen.”
I nodded. First, I closed my eyes for a few seconds. I tried to let every thought in my head disappear. Then I opened my eyes and listened. I envisioned seeing the bugs showing themselves. And they I did — not all of them — but there was definitely more than before. Just not enough.
“Better,” Ramsey said. “Now, do it again and try to push back further.”
I did the same thing as before. I could see the ones I had earlier. I focused further on a spot in the distance and concentrated on getting every bug around to show up. More started to appear and I got excited. Suddenly, then they all disappeared again.
“Good, but see what happened? When you got excited, you broke concentration, and you lost power. You have to hold it until you’re done with them. Remember you are in control. You have the fate of any living thing in your hands.”
Any living thing?
It took another few hours to really get it down, but I was pretty sure every bug nearby was visible. As I held my focus, I heard Ramsey whisper
to me, “Now kill them.”
My eyes narrowed, and the power within me sprang to life. It was almost like Kern had said. The power enjoyed being used. When the power reached its limit, I told the bugs to die. About a third of them dropped right then and there. “Damn,” I swore.
“That was better. Not enough, but better.” He looked up at the sky. “I want to you to jog around the tree line for twenty minutes and then come inside for lunch.”
I looked up at him to see if he was serious. He was. I sighed and started jogging. I did what I was told, and it felt good to be actively doing something. Lunch consisted of sandwiches and soup. They let me have a half an hour break before taking me back outside to practice more. Each time I tried it, I got a little better. After a couple more hours, Ramsey told me he wanted to teach me martial arts in case I ever needed it. “With your gift, I doubt you will. But, there may come a time when it comes in handy.”
“Sure.” I shrugged. I had learned the basics at Glendale, so Ramsey taught me the next steps. We worked on them for the rest of the afternoon. After dinner, I excused myself to my room. I sat on the bed reading one of the books from the bookshelf. I only got a few chapters in. My mind just wasn’t in it.
I wished Auralee’s gift worked long distance. I could send her a message; let her know I was okay. It seemed wrong to allow them to think I was dead. I missed my friends. I missed talking to them and hanging out with them. I missed Daxton’s kisses and Mira’s laugh. I curled up on the bed and tried to fall asleep.
Even though I was exhausted, I couldn’t sleep. I was so used to hearing Mira breathe whether I was asleep or awake, that it was just too quiet here. And in the quiet, the loneliness settled in. I felt completely and utterly alone, even with Vala and Ramsey nearby.
There was no window seat in this room and standing at the window just felt weird. So, I stayed in bed, tossing and turning, my heart empty. A few tears fell down my cheeks, but I quickly wiped them away. I couldn’t dwell on this. I had to figure out how to do better. I had to save them.
The next morning, I couldn’t do any better. Ramsey was silently pacing around me. “Kassia…concentrate on these bugs. Try to see them as enemies. As demon bugs. They are a threat to you, to your friends, to the world.”
I fought back the urge to laugh. Imagery had always been hard for me. That’s why I loved Daxton’s gift. He could take what I wanted to see and show it to me. I took some deep breaths and cleared my mind. I thought about my friends and how I had to save them from this evil looming over us. I opened my eyes and tried again, thinking of the bugs as the enemy. This time almost all of them died. “Whoa.”
“Good Kassia!” Vala cheered.
I smiled, proud of myself. “Yes, very well done,” Ramsey added. “Take a break and we’ll get started on some martial arts and work on your dagger skills too.”
By the end of the week, I was pretty confident that I could do some serious damage in a battle. I wasn’t perfect yet, but I was on my way. I kept up with all the trainings they threw at me.
One night, I stayed out on the porch steps. Looking up at the night sky, I remembered the date night I had spent with Daxton. It seemed like a lifetime ago. I smiled, reliving Daxton’s soft touch. I remembered the way he had held me against the tree. The sound of the leaves rustling as he kissed me. The way he had made me feel when he challenged the power within me.
The pain in my heart brought tears to my eyes once again. I had a hard time seeing him clearly. I wished I had my phone, which had pictures of him and Mira on it. I had left it in my room at school when we ran.
As the days passed, I still found the nights to be the hardest. Some nights I found myself falling asleep quickly, probably from pure exhaustion. Other nights I laid awake no matter what. When I did fall asleep, I would wake up to a tear soaked pillow.
I had found an old journal and wrote letters to my friends in it. I knew they would never be read, but it felt good to get what I was feeling off my chest. I worried that once we were reunited, they’d be mad and hate me. I wasn’t sure how well I’d accept that. It wasn’t my fault. I suppose I could have told Vala no and found a phone, but I really did fear for all of our lives. I wished I could talk to Mira about it. She’d know what to do. She always knew what to do.
At breakfast the next morning, I asked the question that had been bothering me for a while. “You said you knew my parents.”
Ramsey looked up. “Yes.”
When he didn’t offer any more, I asked, “How did you know them?”
“They came here with you when you were little,” he answered.
“How old was I?”
“Not yet five.”
“What did they want?” I asked, annoyed that he wasn’t being more forthright.
Stealing a glimpse at Vala, he said, “You had already shown signs of your gift. They were scared. You were very young and didn’t understand.”
I let that sink in. “When you say that…do you mean I harmed people?”
He mashed his lips a little. I could tell he was trying to think of how to answer that. You know when a question goes unanswered too long, it can’t be an answer you want to hear. “Because you were so little and didn’t understand, sometimes when you had a temper tantrum, your gift would release.”
“Oh my God! Did I kill people?”
“No. Your parents kept you pretty secluded.”
“I hurt my parents then.”
He hesitated. “Yes, but you didn’t kill them.”
“I caused them pain,” I whispered. My eyes filled with tears. It had been years since I had seen them. I could hardly remember what they looked like. “What did you do here?”
“I tried working with you, but you were so young, it didn’t really work. So, we kept you here for a while. While I’m not immune to your gift, I can handle it longer than the average person.”
“Why don’t I remember being here?”
“I used a spell.”
“What?” I raised my voice, feeling violated.
“I knew what was coming, Kassia. I couldn’t afford for things to happen earlier than they were supposed to. I couldn’t have you knowing.”
“So you erased my memory?”
“No, I didn’t erase your memory. I just blocked part of it.” He justified what he did. “Do you want to hear the rest?”
I nodded eagerly. “Yes.”
“After a few years and some training, we got you into the institute a little early. But, I had to find someone immune to your gift. I started a search—”
He didn’t get to finish. “You found Mira.”
“Yes.” He nodded. “I found her. I was able to talk to the school and get her assigned as your roommate.”
“So, our friendship was…arranged?” I said quietly.
Vala patted my hand. It was one of the only ways she showed affection. “In a way, yes. But, the two of you grew into the best of friends all on your own. Nobody put a spell on you to become friends. That part happened all by itself.”
I nodded, trying to believe what I was hearing. “Was anybody else a plant?”
“Not really.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, I believe Mr. Eaton told you that Noe and Auralee were put in the room next to yours for a reason. Again, the friendship took a life of it’s own. We didn’t mess with anyone’s mind.”
My eyes got wide. “Daxton.”
“We did have a hand in getting him transferred to your school. You have to realize that we kept hearing that you still couldn’t control your gift. That kids were afraid of you because you could hurt them. We all knew you didn’t mean to do this. Mira was immune and effective, but not always around. We needed someone else and we could only hope that Daxton would be able to stop your anger by using his gift,” Ramsey explained.
“But, we didn’t ask him to fall in love with you. He knew nothing about you. He didn’t even know why he had been transferred,” Vala added.
“So, you knew I’d be back?”
“Yes. We didn’t know the exact circumstances, but we knew at some point, it would be our job to train you. We promised your parents we would.”
“Do you know where my parents are?” I asked.
They exchanged glances again. “We haven’t heard from them in years. Their gifts are essential in the battle to save the world. We think, and please keep in mind that neither of us knows for sure, that they were captured.”
“Captured? You think?” I tried to process that. “Kern?”
“We don’t know.”
“Why don’t you know?” I wasn’t trying to be rude, but these two seemed to know an awful lot. Why didn’t they know this?
“There is something blocking us from seeing them.”
My face fell, and I became silent while I thought about everything they had told me. Many things made more sense to me now than they ever had, but at the same time, brought more questions to my mind. I was frustrated and upset. My parents were being held prisoner somewhere. And here I thought they didn’t care about me. I was so wrong about them. They did love me. They tried to help and protect me. They did everything they could for me. “Did they know that I’d be…so special?”
“Yes.”
So, they knew they had to keep me safe at any expense. Even if it cost them their freedom. Maybe even their lives. I realized at that moment that everybody was counting on me, relying on me, and trusting me to be the best I could to save them. That was one hell of a burden. But, it was one I was willing to commit to.
I looked at Vala and Ramsey. “Let’s go. I want you to train me to be the best mind-blower I can be.”
Chapter Seventeen
Mira
A month had passed since training had begun. I was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Not a day went by that I didn’t find myself in tears. I missed my best friend more than I thought possible. There were days I didn’t want to get out of bed but forced myself to. I wanted revenge so bad I could taste it. The trainings were the only thing keeping me going.
Today we were actually going to be fighting each other. It kind of scared me; I didn’t want to hurt anyone I knew. However, we needed the practice. They broke us into different groups, and each group had a referee. We were told to knock our opponent down, but that was it. I made it through the first few rounds before it got more difficult. I almost lost a couple times, but won in the end. I had been thankful I didn’t have to fight any of my close friends.