by Holly Martin
I felt my eyes widen in excitement.
She pulled me out the church and my Guardians followed. She looked around and obviously spotted a likely target.
‘Here, this branch, it’s small and light enough for your first go.’ She waved the branch at me and placed it on top of the bonnet of the car. ‘So you can see it clearly. Now quite obviously the lighter things are easier to move than heavier things, so we’ll start off easy. You just have to visualize it moving in your mind. You might want to imagine that you are touching it with your hands, see yourself picking it up.’
I stared at the branch, unblinking, willing it to move. I stared at it until my eyes started to water under the strain, but it didn’t even flicker. I sighed. ‘Are you sure I have all this great power?’
‘You just don’t believe you can do it, you have to believe in it for it to happen, concentrate on it happening, don’t hope it will happen, know that it will happen,’ Persia told me, sternly.
‘Ok, I can lift the branch, I can,’ I said, more for her benefit than mine. I stared at it, imagining it lifting it off the bonnet of the car. Suddenly it flickered, rattled a little bit and then was still. ‘I did it, I can’t believe it.’ I clapped my hands excitedly.
‘Easy there kid, the wind could have done that,’ Seth said with a grin.
I would show him, now I knew I had it in me, I would show him. I focussed on the branch harder, knowing I could make it move. I visualized lifting the branch and pulling it to me. I held my hand towards it, hoping to catch it if it flew in my direction. I pulled as hard as I could. Something in the reflection of the car’s windscreen caught my attention and to my horror the car suddenly flicked up as if it was caught in a hurricane and came soaring through the air towards me. Seth moved in a blur to stand in front of me but Persia was seemingly quicker, with a flick of her hand the car changed direction at the last second and crashed upside down against a nearby tree.
I stood aghast at the crumpled wreckage; this great silver Land Rover now nothing more than a pile of twisted metal. The silence from my Guardians was almost tangible. I chanced a look at Eli to see whether he was likely to kill me but he was staring at the car with his mouth hanging open.
Izri let out a stifled giggle and I looked at her. ‘Wow,’ she said.
‘You can say that again,’ said Quinn, momentarily distracted from his horrific burns.
Seth turned to look at me, his face filled with elated excitement, though his expression quickly changed as a wave of tiredness swept through me.
‘Whoa Eve are you ok, you’ve just gone white.’
‘I’m fine.’ And I was. As quickly as the tiredness had arrived it had vanished.
Eli suddenly recovered himself from the shock of seeing his car wrecked as he tensed at a noise from the drive. The other Guardians tensed too
8. Zeki
He relaxed. ‘Constance is here.’
My heart leapt. A healer. I had so much to ask her. I could hear the muttering long before I saw her. As she walked towards us, she glared at me and let out a tirade in a language I didn’t know. Her coppery skin was so wrinkly and creased, like the bark on an ancient tree. Her eyes were exactly the same colour as her thinning silvery hair. She continued her tirade as she went straight to Quinn, she held her hand over his arm for a few seconds, still glaring at me and cursing me in her tongue. To my shock, the burns quickly faded then disappeared. Then, as soon as she arrived, she left still muttering to me or anyone that would listen. I could still hear her angry mumblings as she reached the drive way, but then it faded into the wind and was gone.
I giggled nervously as I looked at Eli. ‘What was wrong with her?’
He smiled, dryly. ‘Well the polite version of what she was saying is basically that you’re too young, too immature and foolish, and this was bound to happen and then she had a go at Seth saying it was all his fault.’
Alexandria grinned at me. ‘You’ll be like that one day.’
‘What?’ I looked at her incredulously. ‘Short and very grumpy?’
‘No, a healer, you have the healing powers of the Zeki within you too, when you’re strong enough you will be able to heal.’
‘Really?’
Persia nodded, with a grin. ‘I’m quite jealous of that, that’s one thing the Donum can’t do that I wish we could, healing would be very useful.’
I grinned. I moved back to inspect Quinn’s arm, the blisters, the raw flesh had gone, his arm looked completely unscathed.
I looked at Seth. ‘Is that what happened to your ankle when you got back from skiing, a Zeki healed it?’
He nodded. ‘It was broken in four places, I couldn’t walk on it. Two minutes with a Zeki and I was healed, completely.’
I liked that. I’d always thought about being a doctor, and now I would help people in my own unique way. For the time being I wanted to continue practising my other powers.
‘Can we try something else?’ I ignored Eli’s pointed stare and went back into the church so I wouldn’t have to look at my last mistake.
‘Seth said you pulled him to you last night, we could try that again.’
Lucas nodded keenly. ‘It would be useful for you to learn that, to pull your Guardians to you if you needed them.’
Seth backed up to the other side of the church. ‘She pulled me a good mile or two last night, so a few feet shouldn’t be a problem.’
‘I don’t know how I did it,’ I protested, not keen to make a fool out of myself again.
‘You know Seth so well, this should be easy. Just close your eyes and think about his smell, the sound of his voice, the way his hand feels in yours.’
I blushed, furiously, as I closed my eyes.
In my mind I reached for him. My best friend for the last thirteen years. Surely knowing him so well, would make it easier to pull him to me. The bond between us was so strong. I imagined what that bond would look like if it was a tangible thing you could hold. I visualized this bond in my head, it was a thick golden rope, so thick I could barely hold it in both hands. I grabbed hold of it and pulled with all my might.
Suddenly my head was filled with a thousand images, thoughts and feelings. Images of me when I was little, flashed through my head like a film played on fast forward, images of me on my first day of school, falling over in the playground, covered in mud, me playing in the paint and the sand, me playing on the climbing frame and falling off and then I realised these weren’t my memories, these were Seth’s. I watched me get older through his eyes, the times we had played up here at the ruins, him teaching me to ride his motorbike, the images just flashed through me so quickly I barely had time to register each one, before it was replaced with another. And as the images of me got older, there was a feeling of love there too, I loved this little girl in the images, but I knew it was Seth’s love for me that I was feeling. As the years flashed by in a matter of seconds, the love grew as I grew, a love that was so strong, so overpowering it nearly knocked the breath out of me.
‘Eve, stop!’ Seth’s voice, quiet and so close, interrupted me. I tried to open my eyes but the images kept coming and I couldn’t turn them off. I felt his hand in my hand, squeezing it gently. ‘Please Eve, stop.’ At his touch, the images sped up, my head felt like it was going to explode, like it was literally sucking these memories from Seth, like my brain was having to grow to accommodate these new memories and feelings.
‘Seth, I can’t.’ My voice trembled.
‘Persia?’ Seth’s voice was anxious. ‘Do something.’
The images started to change, some of them were clearly not memories but dreams. I was invading Seth’s innermost thoughts and feelings, even his dreams weren’t safe from me. This wasn’t right. As the image of me kissing Seth, passionately, filled my head, I made myself think of a bubble surrounding Seth, a bubble to protect him from me and as the bubble strengthened, the images slowed and then suddenly winked out. I staggered back as the connection was cut, strong arms were around me and I forc
ed my eyes open. Seth was staring at me in shock and horror, I realised it was Quinn that was holding me up. My head throbbed, painfully.
I righted myself. ‘Seth I’m sorry,’ I whispered aghast. ‘I don’t know how I did that, I’m so sorry.’
Persia looked worried. ‘I couldn’t break it Seth, the connection was so strong I couldn’t sever it.’
Seth looked at her. ‘No she did.’ He looked back at me. ‘She shielded me, she’s still shielding me now, I can’t feel her anymore.’
I closed my eyes, and in my mind I could still see Seth surrounded by the bubble. I tentatively lifted the bubble, but held it there over him, in case I needed it again. But no images came, the connection, or whatever it was, was gone. I released the bubble completely.
Seth breathed a small sigh of relief. I opened my eyes again and looked at him. There really was no words to say for what I had just seen, or felt. He always said he loved me, but I had no idea how deep the feelings he had for me ran, they didn’t just run deep, they consumed him. ‘Seth…’
Seth shook his head, as he stepped away from me. ‘I’m erm… I’m going to go. Eli, you’ll make sure she gets home safely?’
Eli nodded.
‘Seth please don’t,’ I pleaded, quietly.
Seth paused without looking at me, then walked out the church.
I turned back to face Persia. ‘What happened?’
Persia pulled a face. ‘You read his mind.’
‘Well I did a whole lot more than that, I downloaded all of his memories, his dreams, his feelings. How did I do that?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen it done before. All Donum can communicate telepathically and some can read minds. But to have access to everything… is unheard of. I imagine it’s to do with your bond with him and your strength, you pulled in everything, every thought, feeling, memory, dream he ever had.’
‘I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t let him go. Oh god, I’m a horrible person, Seth is going to hate me.’ I pushed my hands through my hair.
‘Hey, don’t be hard on yourself,’ Quinn said. ‘You’re just learning. You’re doing so well, it’s not just going to all run smoothly. You have to learn to control your powers, it’s going to take time.’ He put his arm around me, hugging me tight. ‘Besides I don’t think it’s possible for Seth to hate you.’ I could hear the smile in his voice.
I looked up at him horrified. ‘Did you see what I saw?’
‘No, love but it’s not hard to guess, it’s quite obvious to all of us how he feels about you.’
‘I wish it had been obvious to me,’ I mumbled.
‘Eve, I don’t understand something,’ Persia asked, her brow creasing into a frown. ‘When I realised what was happening, I tried to sever your contact with him, but it was like cutting through a thick rope, a rope as thick as a tree trunk. I could see it in my mind, this golden rope between the two of you, and I might as well have been trying to cut it with a pair of tiny scissors, with the amount of difference I made to it.’
I looked at Persia in bewilderment. ‘You saw the golden rope? I visualized that as a tangible representation of the bond between me and Seth.’
‘Mmmm. Visualization, that’s a really good way to control your powers, where you imagine your powers as a solid thing you can manipulate. Is that what you did when you shielded him?’ Persia asked.
‘Yeah I visualized a bubble around him.’
‘Interesting. Oh I’ve just thought of something else you can try, it’s really easy and no one can get harmed.’
This sounded much better. Although we had thought that about pulling Seth to me and he had just left, feeling humiliated.
‘You can control the weather too. You can’t do the impossible, like make it snow in the middle of the summer, but as we’re firmly in the middle of winter, you could probably make it snow now. Your skill for visualization will probably come in handy here. Close your eyes and imagine yourself floating up into the clouds.’
I did what I was told and imagined myself getting lighter and lighter. In my mind I floated out of the church and up into the sky. ‘Ok I’m in the clouds.’ I said.
‘Ok now I want you to think about the coldest places, the North Pole for example, or the top of a mountain, I want you to feel how cold it is in those places.’
I thought about my trip to Prague when I was younger. It had been November and they were experiencing a rather bitter cold spell. I remembered, the biting winds, whipping my face viciously. I remembered, buying jumpers, coats, hats and scarves and I still couldn’t get any relief from the painful cold. I remembered thinking that I was going to die from it. I remembered thinking I would never be warm again. I shivered now as I recalled those memories.
‘Ok, good.’ I could hear the smile in Persia’s voice. ‘Now imagine that cold all round you, covering the clouds in a blanket of cold.’
I imagined that the clouds were not just covered with a layer of cold, but I imagined cold to be a solid thing, and that the clouds were actually made from it. I shivered violently as the cold surrounded me. It wasn’t just a memory anymore; I could feel the biting cold on my face. My headache was even worse now, my brain felt like it was banging against my skull.
‘Imagine that cold falling from the clouds.’
I did as I was told and opened my eyes, looking up at the suddenly heavy sky.
Persia looked up too smiling. She took my hand and held it palm upwards to the sky. ‘Wait for it.’
I smiled at her in confusion. Wait for what exactly. I had possibly made it colder, but it wasn’t snowing. And then I saw it. Slowly, swirling and twisting in the wind a tiny flake gently drifted down onto my hand. I stared at it in wonder as it slowly melted. Then I frowned with disappointment. All that for one flake.
Persia laughed at my face. ‘Eve look up.’
I looked back up to the sky and gasped as slowly, thick snowflakes filled the air, drifting, dancing and twirling in the gentle breeze. I laughed incredulously. Within minutes a thin blanket covered the floor of the church and the snow continued to come, thick and fast.
I closed my eyes and felt the snow gently peppering my face. It was an amazing feeling. I had finally done something well with my powers and no one had got hurt. I opened my eyes and looked at the floor that was now easily an inch deep in snow, my snow. I quickly bent down and scooped a ball of snow into my hands. I squeezed it tight and threw it at Persia. She laughed at me as she stopped the snowball in mid-air and then threw it back at me, without even moving her hands.
I quickly ducked. ‘Hey that’s not fair.’
‘No this wouldn’t be fair.’ She laughed, quickly scooping her arm through the air as I was suddenly deluged with a small explosion of snow.
I cast around for someone else who could be my victim, someone who couldn’t defend themselves like Persia could. I looked at Lucas, who was staring up at the sky in wonder. I quickly scooped up another ball of snow and threw it at him. It splatted against his head with a satisfying wet thud. He blinked once, looking stunned at the sudden attack. Even Eli grinned at his face. I loaded my hands with another snow bullet and threw it at Eli. But then something happened, with a flick of Persia’s hand I felt myself gliding across the church. In less than a second, me and Eli had switched places and I was hit, hard in the face with my own snowball. Eli laughed loudly at this, and then caught himself laughing as if he wasn’t used to that sound coming out of his own mouth.
I laughed myself, but then I was hit with two more snowballs, one from Quinn and one from Izri. I cleared the snow out of my eyes, giggling and then saw Persia, juggling three snow balls in the air, above me. She stopped juggling and the balls landed on me with a splat.
‘Help!’ I giggled. ‘I thought the Guardians were supposed to protect me.’
‘I sense no immediate danger to your life.’ Eli smirked. Lucas, however, had a different answer. When I turned to him imploringly, I was met with a face full of snowball.
‘Right, let’s
see if you can shield yourself in the same way that you shielded Seth. Visualize the bubble again.’ Persia grinned, somewhat evilly I thought.
Suddenly I was pelted with snowball after snowball. There was no reprieve from the attack. No sooner had one snowball hit me, then another took its place, then another. I didn’t even have time to think about the bubble, as I was continually struck all over my body. I shrieked with laughter as I tried to protect myself with my hands. I couldn’t see anything apart from the snowballs. I slipped under the deluge and fell onto my back. Pain surged through my ankle, where I had slipped awkwardly but the attack didn’t relent. I suddenly decided enough was enough. I closed my eyes and imagined the bubble surrounding me and no sooner had I visualized it the attack stopped. I could still hear the soft thudding of the snowballs and I opened my eyes to see the balls disintegrating about a centimetre from my face. It was like another skin, thick and impenetrable. I couldn’t see the bubble, but I knew it was there. I slowly stood up, wincing as I put weight on my ankle. The bubble remained intact. Persia beamed at me. Quinn and Lucas came over to examine the bubble, pressing against it gently with their fingers.
‘It feels like jelly,’ Quinn muttered.
Lucas pressed harder against it but it didn’t shift. ‘Wow, I think the Guardians will be redundant after this.’
My head was pounding painfully now, this was by far, the worst headache I’d ever had. But just as I thought my headache couldn’t get any worse, it quickly intensified, within seconds there was a severe burning tearing through my head. The pain crippled me and I sagged to my knees. I was vaguely aware of the snowballs stopping. I tried to visualize the bubble so I could lift it off me, but the white hot pain, searing through my head, my body, my skin was all I could see. I could hear someone screaming, a sickening, torturous scream ripping through my ears. I fell on my back, writhing in pain. And then it all went black.
9. Constant Vigilance