“Rocks?” I stared at the iridescent stones in Seth’s hands. There were maybe … twenty of them? “Your plan is rocks?”
“They’re rune stones, sis. They’re what trigger magic.”
“But you said you triggered mine,” I insisted. “And i don’t remember any rocks.”
“Rune. stones.” seth seethed. “Check your locket.”
I looked down at my ever-present silver locket. “What about my-” “just open it.” I fingered the tiny latch and it popped open. Something fell out and clattered to the floor. I bent over and gasped- an iridescent, smooth rune stone.
“damn you!” I laughed, snatching the stone. I carefully put it back into the locket and closed it. “Thanks.”
“no problem, Sis.” Seth mussed my hair. I smirked and swatted him away.
“hey,”
I turned around to Marcus behind me. My face turned bright pink. “Hi.”
Marcus wasn’t wearing his crown. He wasn’t dressed in his usual glamour, either. A plain white shirt and matching slacks. The parallels between him and Seth was a bit unnerving.
Marcus looked down and ran a hand through his curly hair. “Can I…” he tilted his head and gestured to the main floor of the library, where we’d first met. “Can we talk privately?”
I nodded eagerly and followed him down the stairs. I could hear Seth thinking, good luck.
Marcus led me near the old gramophone and took both of my hands in his.
“Marcus, if this is about-“
“please just listen,” he whispered. My chest tightened, but I nodded.
”You- when you disappeared, I was so worried,” He started. His eyes were full of pain. “But… Liliad you’re amazing. You’re smart and talented and funny and… ugh.” He smiled. “I think I’m in love with you.”
my mouth fell open. I didn’t know what to say.
Marcus cringed. “Is… is that horrible? Jeez, you must hate me-“
“yes!” I cried, too loud. “I- I mean no. No, I don’t hate you.” I sighed and swiped my hair from my eyes. “I mean… I don’t know what I mean. You- um, you’re cute.” My face turned redder than a tomato. “I’m an idiot,” I muttered.
“well if you are, then so am I.” Marcus said, grinning brighter than the sun. I giggled. “Thanks.”
I had to stand on my toes, but I gave Marcus a quick kiss on the cheek. He turned red and smiled even wider.
what did I tell you? Seth’s voice filled my head, startling me. I didn’t realize he was listening. Very romantic, isn’t it?
shut up, I thought.
Marcus squeezed my hands. “We should meet the others.” He reminded me.
“yeah,” I nodded. “Of course.”
I hurried up the stairs, the prince in tow. Seth had apparently already started with Cass, Rune, Kayla and Acosta- the ultimate chaos team. Of course Seth would gravitate towards them first.
He’d spilled the rune stones onto a table he’d dragged over from gods know where, and made the four girls stand in a circle with their hands over the pile. I froze at the top of the stairs.
“Seth, what the hell are they doing?”
“what were you two doing,” Edda snapped, eyeing me and Marcus. I sighed.
“okay, you’re right.” Seth declared. “Its kinda stupid to make you feel them out, there are hundreds of these.” He plunged his hand into the pile and pulled out four stones. “I need a piece of wood.”
no one volunteered anything.
Seth sighed. “Okayyy.” He took out a pocket knife from- well, his pocket- clicked out the blade, and slashed at one of the table legs. A few screams went out. I jumped back, knocking into… Kai.
I tried to bury my face in my hair. This was so not what I needed right now.
“relax, I just need the wood,” Seth said, picking up the wood he’d cut off. “Rune, c’mere.” He gestured for her. Rune advanced cautiously.
“okay. According to my random and compulsory visions, you are a great physic manipulator. Well, you become one.” He handed her the wood and a single rune stone, and instructed her to rub them together.
Rune started frantically scrubbing the wood and stone. Almost immediately they exploded into sparks. A few of them landed in her hair- but instead of lighting on fire, a burst of light erupted out of Rune.
When the light cleared, she looked… exactly the same. Except, her smile was a little brighter, and her eyes had a certain twinkle.
Seth grinned. “Who’s next?”
“what are our powers going to be?” Jamie interrupted.
Seth swooped his eyes over the crowd. “Liliad’s is obviously lightning. Cass’s is controlling precious stones and metals, Marcus and Guinevere have hydrokineticy, Kai’s is terrakineticy, Grace’s is emotional molding, Theresa is also a terrakinetic, Jamie is a summoner, Acosta and Lavinia are both pyrokinetics, Thalia and Selene are icers, like my little bro here-“ he pointed to Dioval. “-Jamie is a skypainter, Velma is a bodily manipulator, Charity can summon storms, Valentina is a contorter, Rachel and Agatha can both control wind, and Undine is an adapter.”
“what?”
“this is taking too long,” Edda huffed.
Seth rolled his eyes. “In that case, Dioval, Rune, Liliad, get away from the group.” we hesitated, but scrambled over to a corner and huddled.
“What’s he doing?” I muttered.
“I never know with my brother,” Dioval sighed.
Rune and I glanced at each other. “Your bro-”
Seth slashed off another, larger piece of wood. More screams. “You need to stop doing that!” marcus yelled.
“Sorry Princey, i’ll put them back later.” he started rubbing the two pieces of wood together, and then they burst into fire.
“THERE’D BETTER BE A DAMN GOOD EXPLANATION FOR THIS!” Kayla yelled. Seth chuckled as he put the two flaming planks on the floor. He swiped the table and the rune stones clattered into the fire. Then he pointed at us. “Duck and cover!”
I was frozen. Rune grabbed my hand and dragged me behind the bookshelf. “Were you listening? Get down!” she hissed.
I shut my eyes and clapped my hands over my ears.
there was a loud BOOM and a flash of light and smoke. The three of us were pushed forward, just enough to make us stumble.
“Okay,” i muttered, poking my head out to where everyone else was. “Is everyone alright?”
They were all lying on their backs. Kai gave me a thumbs up. “We’re good.”
“I had an adrenaline rush so now i'm shaking,” Undine squeaked.
“I think i'm going to explode,” Jamie moaned.
Seth jumped to his feet. “Was that quick enough, Edda?”
Cass propped herself up and glared at him. “I’m going to murder you.”
“Ooookay, no murdering just yet,” I interrupted as the three of us tried to pull the others to their feet. “Trust me, I kind of want him dead too, but we need him.” I added, yanking grace to her feet.
“Do we?” cass speculated.
“He’s a seer, so kind of.”
“And he’s my brother,” Dioval piped up.
Everyone froze. Dioval shrugged. “Well, half brother. We’re only related on my dad’s side. So i have magic but he doesn’t, because dad didn’t have magic but my mom did.”
“Cool,” Agatha mutered.
Kai scrambled up. “Can we test out our powers now?” he asked, bouncing on his toes like an excited puppy. I grinned. I’d forgotten how much I missed my friend.
“Lets split into groups of three to practice,” Seth decided. Gwen immediately grabbed my arm. “I call home team! Kai and Liliad, you’re with me.”
Gwen dragged us downstairs into a forgotten corner. “Okay,” she said, finally stopping. “So we have earth, fire and lightning. What can we do with that?”
“Destroy a building,” Kai offered. I grinned.
“We could put on one hell of a light show,” Gwen agreed.
“Why don’t we just start with smaller things?” i decided. “Like, lighting a torch, a small tremor, a single bolt of lightning… small things.”
Gwen nodded. “Okay. but first, you need to tell us what the prince had to tell you earlier that was so important.” she smirked and popped her hands on her hips. Kai agreed, a little less eager.
“Oh my gods… you won didn't you!” Gwen gasped. “You’re going to be queen!”
My face turned pink again. “What? No! He didn’t propose or anything, he just…”
“Not yet.”
“He just…”. I looked at Gwen, then at Kai. my oldest friends. My only friends. “He said he was in love with me.”
Guinevere squealed and clapped her hands. Kai looked away. “He’s totally going to propose, Liliad! I’m telling you, you’re going to become Queen!”
“What did you say to him?” Kai asked, gentler.
I looked down. “He thought i would hate him. I said that I didn't.”
“That’s it?” Gwen gasped. “Liliad, do you like him or not?”
I flushed. “I didn’t reallize he was so tall,” i muttered.
“Did you kiss him?!” Gwen exploded. Kai and I hurried to shush her. “No! Not even.” i defended. “I mean, b-barely. Just on the cheek.”
Kai smiled at last. “You’re a mess, Flowers.”
“I knowww,” i groaned. The two of them pulled me into a hug.
“We love you liliad,” Kai said as he pulled away. I beamed. “I love you guys, too.”
Comments (0)
See all