by G. K. DeRosa
“O-M-G, are you jealous, Nico?” asked Celeste.
“Of course not. Please! We never said we’d be exclusive while she was gone. We are both adults and are free to do whatever we want.”
“Umhmm…” she murmured.
“Anyway, we weren’t talking about me, we were talking about you avoiding going home to face your mom and guardian aunt,” he retorted.
“I just can’t believe my mom kept this from me. I thought we didn’t have any more secrets. How could she not tell me that my young, cool, flighty aunt was actually a guardian just like me?”
“Maybe there’s a reason why she didn’t tell you,” said Roman returning from his room, now fully clothed. “And Nico’s right. Not that I don’t love having you here, but don’t you think your mom’s going to figure out that you’re not really staying at Jessica’s?”
“I know, I know. I was just hoping I could avoid her for a few more days. Aunt Maddie never stays anywhere for long. I figured she’d be gone soon,” she said, taking a bite of her cereal.
“What exactly is your aunt’s story?” asked Nico.
“All that I know – and who knows if it’s true or not—is that when she turned eighteen, she went to study abroad in Europe somewhere and never came back. My dad wouldn’t talk about her much. She was a lot younger than him by like twelve years, and I just figured they weren’t close because of the huge age difference. Once I heard that she was engaged to some Russian guy, but then they never got married. That’s pretty much all I know.”
“Is she hot?” asked Nico. “Because by my calculations she should be in her mid-thirties which is totally fair game for me.”
“Eww!”
“I’m kidding – kind of,” said Nico with a wink. “But seriously, if she was a guardian living in Europe for the past fifteen years, how did we not know about her?”
Roman shook his head. “You’re right, it is odd.” Then he looked at Celeste and said, “I think it’s time you go back home and learn more about your family history.”
Celeste rolled her eyes at him. “Fine, as soon as Nico finishes beating up those scrambled eggs.”
Celeste took a deep breath as she opened the front door. Her mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway, which meant she only had to deal with her aunt. Rocky ran down the stairs, wagging his tail at her arrival, and she gave him a quick pat on the head.
“Celeste, is that you?”
She heard her aunt’s voice coming from the backyard so she walked through the kitchen and out the back door. Celeste gasped at the sight in front of her. Her aunt was covered in sweat and clad in camo cargo pants, black combat boots, and a black sports bra, but that wasn’t the worst of it. In each hand she wielded broadswords, and she was swinging them through the air battling imaginary opponents.
“Aunt Maddie, what are you doing? What if the neighbors see you?” hissed Celeste as she ran out to the yard. “You can’t be doing that in broad daylight! And those are my swords. How’d you find them?”
Maddie paused and looked at Celeste as if she were the crazy one. “Let me give you a tip kid: don’t keep your weapons under the bed. It’s the first place I looked.”
“Okay fine, but can we please go inside to talk about this?” said Celeste as she glanced around nervously at the houses surrounding her backyard.
“Sure, I was just finishing up anyway,” she said wiping the sweat from her brow. She handed Celeste the two swords with a triumphant smile and ambled up the stairs.
Celeste followed her aunt back into the kitchen, weighed down by the heavy swords. Maddie poured herself a glass of ice water and offered a glass to Celeste before sitting down at the table. She looked expectantly at her.
“You wanted to talk?” she asked.
Celeste gathered her wits and sat down beside her, dropping the metal swords which clattered loudly on the tile floor. She was about to open her mouth when her aunt interrupted.
“Look, I talked to your mom last night and she explained the vampire boyfriend thing. I’m not apologizing for what I did last night, but I guess I understand it a little better now. Your mom can be quite persuasive.”
“Okay, thanks. I think,” said Celeste. She was surprised to hear that her mother had stuck up for Roman. “So you’re not going to try to kill him if you see him again, right?”
“As long as he doesn’t do anything that would warrant killing, no. Your mother explained to me how he fights demons with you, and that he’s saved your life more than once,” she said, her voice laced in disbelief.
“It’s true. I don’t think I would have survived my first few weeks as a Guardian without him,” she said thoughtfully. “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I have a ton of questions for you. Where have you been for the past eight years?”
Maddie smiled wistfully and added, “Lots of places.”
“What have you been doing?”
“A little of this, a little of that.”
Celeste was quickly losing patience with her aunt’s vague replies. “So what happened? You were chosen to be the Guardian and you just left?”
“You say that as if I had a choice in the matter. I was placed in Warsaw, Poland. Believe me, it was the last place I wanted to go. But it wasn’t up to me, and they needed a guardian to cover Eastern Europe. Your dad was handling this region just fine, and he didn’t need me. He didn’t even try to stick up for me when the Council decided to ship me off to that frozen tundra.”
Celeste suddenly felt bad for her. She couldn’t imagine being eighteen and finding out she was a guardian, only to be sent away to a foreign country without any friends or family. “So what did you do?” she asked.
“The Council appointed a guardian from Russia to spend a few months with me to show me the ropes. So I learned everything I know from him,” Maddie said and with a sigh took a gulp of her water.
“I’m so happy to see you two talking again,” said Celeste’s mom as she walked into the kitchen wearing her favorite pink scrubs. She patted Celeste affectionately on the shoulder, which Celeste rewarded with a scowl.
“I still don’t understand why you didn’t tell me we had another guardian in the family,” Celeste said. Her mother shot Maddie a quick glance and then turned back.
“It wasn’t her secret to share,” interrupted Maddie, “and it was my fault. I wasn’t the greatest at keeping in touch. It would have been pointless for your mom to tell you when you would never have been able to find me anyway.”
Celeste was about to object when her phone vibrated in her pocket.
Double date’s all set. Meet out front at 7pm.
Celeste glanced at her watch and turned to her aunt. “I gotta run, but we are not done with this talk. I have so many more questions for you. Are you going to stick around for a while?”
“Sure. That’s what I’m here for. We can catch up later,” she said with a smile.
Celeste returned the warm smile and hurried up the stairs to her room.
“Matilda, you need to tell her the whole story,” said Mrs. Wilder once she heard Celeste’s door slam shut. “She needs to know the truth.”
“I will. Eventually.”
Brian pulled open the tinted glass door, and the group was blasted by an onslaught of arcade sounds and neon lights. The constant bing bing of games came from every direction. As they walked through the maze of noisy video games and billiards, the smell of greasy fried food assaulted them, permeating the stale air. Celeste’s eyes lit up when they passed by Dance Revolution, but she was quickly shot down by glares from both Brian and Roman. She thrust her lower lip out in a pout to no avail. After a few more paces, Brian stopped in front of the Whack & Win. He looked at Marie and asked, “Why don’t we start here?”
She nodded and they each took a foam-covered mallet and began whacking away at the disappearing and reappearing moles.
Roman whispered in Celeste’s ear, “You have to admit my guess was pretty spot on. It might not be pizza and bowling, but it’s pre
tty close.” She stifled a giggle and elbowed him in the stomach.
“Come on, let’s go see what else they have in here,” she said to him with a wave at the others.
Celeste and Roman navigated the labyrinth of games, hand in hand, not finding anything of particular interest. Shooting monsters in a video game just didn’t seem that exciting when a person battled real monsters on a daily basis. Though the arcade was loud, Celeste noticed that there weren’t that many people in it. Most of the games must have been set on autopilot, she reasoned. They finally came across a neon sign with an arrow pointing down a dark corridor for laser tag.
“Now that could be fun,” said Roman with a smirk.
“Let’s go back and get them!”
When they found Brian and Marie, the pair was playing one of those shooting games where the pistol shoots water and you have to blow up the balloon to win. Brian’s balloon was almost fully inflated, and he looked triumphantly over to Celeste. As he turned away, Celeste saw Marie twitch her nose and suddenly his water gun jumped out of his hands. The wayward gun sprayed water everywhere as the attendant scrambled to get it under control. Celeste couldn’t believe it. Did Marie just use magic to cheat? But if she had used magic, she would have felt it. She looked over at Roman, but his face was expressionless. He didn’t seem to have noticed anything.
“I guess you won that one,” said Brian with a grimace. He was one of the most competitive people Celeste knew, and she could hear the displeasure in his tone.
“It was about time. You beat me at all the other games,” Marie said with a casual brush against his arm. His grimace quickly turned into a shy smile as she leaned in closer to him as they walked side by side.
“We found laser tag up on the second floor. You guys up for a challenge?” asked Roman.
“Definitely,” answered Brian.
“Why don’t we do boys against girls to make it more interesting?” Marie asked with a mischievous grin.
Celeste didn’t like the sound of that. She didn’t trust this girl one bit, and now she had to be partnered with her in laser tag? Celeste was about to object when Roman and Brian both agreed.
The four of them met the attendant at the laser tag arena who brought them their gear. As each was fitted with a silver laser gun and matching vest, Celeste surveyed the area, and noticed they were the only ones in the enormous dark room. As she adjusted the strap on her vest, she watched Marie. She was tall and thin with luminous, flowing red hair and the fluorescent green neon lights from the lasers gave her bright green eyes an unearthly glow. Marie turned and caught Celeste staring at her, but she just smiled. “You ready to beat those boys?”
“Sure,” said Celeste in a tone that indicated quite the opposite.
Each team was told the rules of the game and then moved to opposite sides of the giant ring. The room was pitch black, with various obstacles scattered throughout and only a few neon lights illuminating the walls. Celeste could barely see Roman and Brian on the other side of the arena. She could just make out their vests, which emitted a soft red glow. Suddenly, a clock overhead lit up and began to count down – three, two, one – and then a buzzer rang through the darkness.
“You go for Roman and I’ll take Brian,” said Marie as she snuck around one of the tall crates and disappeared.
Geez, it seems like she’s played before…
Celeste took a few steps opposite of Marie’s direction and strained her eyes to find Roman. She couldn’t see anything. After stumbling around in the darkness for a few minutes, she was beginning to get annoyed. She decided to let down the mental wall she usually maintained around Roman so that she could open up her powers to feel his presence. This was hard to do since she barely felt anything around him anymore. Part of Celeste’s Guardian powers included a sort of “evil radar” as Nico had once jokingly nicknamed it. Being around supernatural creatures caused an ominous sensation to arise inside of her. It had taken her awhile to control her ability, but now she was easily able to put up or take down the mental block as needed. Lowering the wall, she finally felt a slight twinge and hurried in that direction, careful to avoid tripping over the obstacles placed in her path. As she zigzagged along the course, she heard some scuffling to her right. She glanced over but didn’t see the green glow of Marie’s vest or the red from Brian or Roman’s. I must be hearing things. Suddenly she was hit with a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach, a feeling she knew all too well. She immediately stopped and scanned the area – nothing. It was too dark!
Celeste ducked behind a tall crate and pulled out the dagger tucked inside her boot. Still, there was nothing but silence and darkness all around her. Where is everyone? She caught some movement out of the corner of her eye and spun around. “Roman! You almost gave me a heart attack,” she whispered harshly. “Why don’t you have your vest on?”
“I took it off when I realized we weren’t alone in here. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Where are Brian and Marie?”
“I’m not sure. Brian and I split up right after the buzzer went off,” he said.
“We have to find them before it does,” she said. “Any idea what it might be?”
“No, I couldn’t tell. I just know it’s not friendly,” he said with a frown.
Celeste took Roman’s hand and led him through the darkness using her powers to guide them. They walked quickly, crouching behind crates as they moved. As they rounded a corner, Celeste’s attention was drawn to the opposite side of the room, where she could just make out a faint red glow. They turned toward it, and a scream broke the eerie silence. They bolted toward the sound of Marie’s panicked voice. Crouched in a corner they found her holding Brian’s still body. Celeste threw herself to the ground next to them and began frantically searching for a pulse.
“Is he okay?” cried Marie, her ivory skin twice as pale as normal.
“Yes, he’s breathing and his pulse seems normal,” said Celeste, letting out a sigh of relief. “Brian, wake up!” She shook him and when that didn’t work she slapped his cheeks lightly. At that, his eyes began to flutter.
“Let him have some air,” said Roman, pushing the girls back.
Marie nodded and twitched her nose. Suddenly a gentle breeze flowed through the room. It was as if a fan had been turned on right above their heads. Celeste looked at Marie in amazement.
“What? Roman said he needed some air,” she said as she gently fanned Brian with her hand. Finally, Brian began to come to. As he opened his eyes, they saw a bright light shine a few feet away from them, heard a door slam – and then it was dark again.
“What’s going on?” murmured Brian groggily.
“You two stay here with Brian. I’ll be right back,” said Roman.
Brian sat up as the girls hovered worriedly over him. “I’m fine, I think I just got knocked out or something,” he said, wincing as he rubbed the back of his head.
“What happened?” asked Celeste.
“After the buzzer went off I started running in your direction. I could see the green lights in the distance, and I was moving toward them, but then it’s all a blank.”
Again they saw the bright light and heard the door slam. Two seconds later, Roman was back at Celeste’s side. “Whatever it was, it’s gone,” confirmed Roman.
“Come on let’s get out of here,” said Celeste as she helped Brian back onto his feet.
Celeste’s mind was racing as she stared out the car window watching other cars speed by. She absentmindedly twisted the antique sapphire ring around her finger. It was a new habit, recently acquired, for whenever she was nervous. Roman had given Celeste the ring, which had belonged to his mother, for her eighteenth birthday. His mother claimed it had always given her strength; looking at it now, the way it sparkled in the sunlight, Celeste understood why.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find whatever was in the arcade and kill it,” he said reaching out his hand to squeeze hers.
She turned and looked distractedly at hi
m. “Hmm? Oh right,” she said turning back toward the window.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Did you see what Marie did in there?”
“What?” he asked looking surprised.
“I’m pretty sure she cheated when she was playing that water gun game with Brian. I saw her wiggle her nose, and then the gun went out of control. And then that wind that came out of nowhere when we were in the laser tag room? What was that?”
Roman chuckled. “Didn’t you read the books Stellan gave you?”
“No, I didn’t have a chance yet,” she responded peevishly. “And why are you laughing?”
“Celeste, fairies are earth magic users. They can control the elements – water, wind, fire, and air. For someone so intent on finding out more about the Fey, you missed out on a fairly basic point.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “But I didn’t feel anything when she used her magic.”
“That’s because it’s not the type of magic that you are familiar with. It’s tied to the earth, and it’s all natural.”
“So you knew all along?”
“Of course. It’s a known thing among the supernatural.”
“Well, I don’t think she should be using magic to cheat at a game,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Really, Celeste? I think you’re just trying to come up with excuses to not like this girl. Don’t tell me you’ve never used your powers for your own personal gain,” he said with a reprimanding tone.
Celeste thought back to earlier that day when they were playing laser tag. Sure, she had tried to find Roman with her powers, but that was an emergency. She thought they might be in danger. Am I really being too hard on Marie?
“I’m just saying maybe you should give her a chance,” he said. “She doesn’t seem so bad.”
“I guess.”
“Or is it just the fact that Brian likes her?” he asked, his tone taking a serious edge.
“No, I told you that’s not it at all. I just don’t trust her, that’s it,” Celeste said, turning away to stare out the window once more.