Elementals: The Prophecy of Shadows

by Michelle Madow

  I pointed to the paper. “There’s no person mentioned here.”

  “I’ll let you figure that out for yourself,” he said. “But I have to leave and take care of some business at home. Good luck, Nicole.” He gathered his briefcase and left the room, leaving me alone with the paper.

  “Thanks,” I muttered, shaking my head and picking up the supposed prophecy.

  Only a week and a half into a new school, and not only was I a freaky super-witch who made a glass explode in class, but I also had extra homework.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Re-reading the prophecy didn’t help me understand it, and I left the room after about five minutes of failed attempts. The library was nearly empty except for a few scattered students. I headed for the doors, but the sight of one person in particular made me stop in place.

  Blake sat at a nearby table, absorbed in his history textbook. He leaned back in the chair, one knee propped against the edge of the table to balance the book on his leg. In the week and a half that I’d known him, I’d never seen him look so focused. Maybe he’d put yellow energy into his water that morning and had chugged it to help him study.

  Which might have made sense, except that we shared the same history class, and we didn’t have any tests or papers due in the near future. So he had no reason to be here.

  Unless he was waiting to talk to me.

  Feeling braver than usual—perhaps because of the orange energy I’d gathered this morning—I slid into the seat next to him. “You didn’t strike me as a ‘stay after school on a Friday to do homework’ type of guy,” I said, leaning back and making myself comfortable.

  He smirked and placed his textbook down on the table. “How do you know I’m not trying to get ahead on the paper that’s due…” He looked up at the ceiling, scrunching his eyebrows as though in deep thought. “In a month?”

  “Because no one starts papers that far in advance.” I shook my head and laughed. “Unless they’re super uptight about school, and you don’t seem like you are.” I looked around the library to make sure no one was close enough to hear us, and lowered my voice. “Plus, why spend so much time studying when we can put an energy boost into our drinks and get our work done in double-time?”

  “Or quadruple-time if we’re talking about you,” he said, holding my gaze. “Speaking of energy boosts in drinks, what happened in homeroom this morning?”

  He certainly knew how to get to the point. And with Blake, I was quickly learning what that point always was—to get information about my abilities. He loved power.

  And apparently I was bursting with it.

  “I have no idea.” I shook my head, my thoughts returning to the prophecy. Maybe I should show it to Blake and get his opinion. After all, he’d shown me his secret with the fire. Which meant he owed it to me to keep my secret about this.

  I took out the paper and placed it on the table. “Darius gave me this,” I told him, scanning over the short paragraph again. “He says it’s a prophecy. A girl in Kinsley wrote it more than three hundred years ago, and Darius thinks I can figure out what it means. So far I haven’t had any luck.”

  Blake read it over, scrunching his eyebrows as he soaked it in. “What’s an aether?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he read it again.

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “The whole thing makes no sense.”

  “So let’s look it up.” He pulled out his phone, and I rolled my eyes, feeling like an idiot for not thinking of doing online research myself. I guess I’d thought the answers would come to me, like magic.

  He opened the web browser and typed “Aether” into the search engine. The first link that showed up led to the global encyclopedia. He clicked it, and the entry was huge.

  “It says here that aether’s the fifth element, also called spirit, and it’s thought to be heavenly and not of the material world,” he read out loud. He picked up the paper and held it next to his phone, as if trying to connect the information. “The prophecy says ‘five representing each part of the world. That sounds like it could be related.”

  I took the phone and scrolled through the entry. A circular diagram listed all of the elements, each in a different color. “Air, fire, earth, and water,” I said, “with aether in the middle.” I stared at it for a few more seconds, the pieces coming together. “There are five elements, and five of us were in the group under the comet. You can control fire. Danielle might be water. Kate mentioned something about her plants in biology growing more than they should have—maybe she’s earth. Then there’s Chris and me. I haven’t noticed anything about the air, but maybe Chris and I are either air or aether.”

  “The prophecy could mean that something happened on the night of the comet to set this all into motion,” Blake continued, scrolling down and reading more. “Which would make sense, since I didn’t get my power over fire until after the comet.”

  I picked up the paper and re-read the prophecy. “So some sort of wall grew thin when the comet passed through the sky, our powers were ignited, and we need to restore the balance. But that still makes no sense. What does it mean that a wall is growing thin? And what sort of ‘balance?’”

  “I don’t know.” He sat back in his chair and scanned the page again, his brow wrinkled in thought.

  “The five of us need to meet,” I decided. “Because if we’re right, it looks like we’re going to have to work together in order to ‘restore the balance’—whatever that means. We have to tell them about this as soon as possible so we can start brainstorming.”

  “Let’s call them and meet at my house tonight,” he said. “It’s time we figure out some answers.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Kate and I walked up to Blake’s house in silence. She’d been quieter than usual since I’d updated her during the car ride about the prophecy and what Blake and I had discussed. She didn’t even mention the cut on my arm that she saw this morning before I healed it. Maybe she was waiting for me to bring it up first. Which I did plan on doing, once the group was together.

  Blake’s house was on top of a hill, Tudor style with gray and white bricks. It was bigger than most of the others on the street—including Danielle’s. The wooden double door entrance was huge, the arch overhead reminding me of a palace.

  He opened the door soon after we rang the bell. “We’re meeting in my room,” he said, stepping aside to let us in. “Chris and Danielle are already here.”

  I walked through the doors and gazed around in awe. The wooden floors and antique furniture made me feel like I’d stepped into an old movie. A golden chandelier hung overhead, so extravagant that it felt like it should have been in an opera house instead of a foyer. Blake led us down the hall and through the kitchen, which looked like something out of a luxury design magazine. But we didn’t get to see much of the house, because he opened a door leading to the basement and motioned us to go ahead.

  “Your bedroom’s in the basement?” I asked, glancing down the steps.

  “I moved down here at the start of freshman year because it’s more private,” he said simply. “The basement is like my own little house.”

  I reached the bottom of the stairs, looked around, and what he’d said immediately made sense. A large open space held a ping-pong table, a foosball table, two pinball machines, and a small kitchen. We followed him further back into a white-carpeted living room area. Chris and Danielle were already there, the two of them on opposite sides of a wraparound sofa that faced a huge television.

  Chris leaned back into the couch, his feet resting on the ottoman and his hands clasped behind his head. His gray t-shirt said Montgomery Biscuits in huge font, and the logo was cute—a smiling biscuit with a pad of butter for its tongue. Danielle was decked out in black leather pants and a silk strappy top. She looked ready for a party—not to hang out in a basement.

  “Finally you’re here,” she said, studying her nails. “Blake told us about the … thing that Darius showed you.”

  “You mean
the prophecy?” I pulled the folded piece of paper out of my back pocket and waved it in the air.

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that.”

  Blake sat down next to her, and she placed her hand in his, a smug smile crossing her face. He didn’t lean into her, but he didn’t back away, either. He also refused to meet my eyes.

  “So,” I said, sitting as far away from Blake and Danielle as possible. “What do you all know so far?”

  Chris jumped right in. “Blake’s got some crazy fire power, Danielle just told us that she can control water, Kate makes plants grow without meaning to, and you made that glass explode today. And some prophecy talks about the comet making a wall grow thin, five representing each part of the world, and a journey east. I wouldn’t mind a trip to Europe, but it makes no sense.”

  “That’s the gist of it,” I said, placing the paper on the coffee table and flattening out the creases.

  Chris brought his hand up to his mouth and chewed his thumbnail. “So you all have cool powers, and I have nothing,” he said. “That kind of blows.”

  “Maybe you have power over the air,” I suggested. He stared at me blankly, and I continued, “You could try testing it out.”

  “And how should I do that?” The sarcasm in his tone surprised me. “Since you’re apparently the expert on all of this, even though you’ve only been here for a little over a week.”

  “Chill out.” Blake clenched his jaw and glared at Chris. “We won’t figure anything out if we attack each other.”

  My heart leaped at Blake’s defense of me. But when I tried to catch his gaze, he avoided me again, and I quickly deflated. So I looked away from him and focused on Chris. “Let’s see if you have an ability that you didn’t have before,” I suggested. “Try doing something with air control.”

  “Air control?” He laughed and pushed his sleeves up to his elbows. “What does that even mean?”

  “Try harnessing the air to create wind, and blow this paper off the table.”

  “Seriously?” He widened his eyes, looking at me like I’d lost my mind. “No one can do that. Not even the Elders.”

  “The Elders also can’t control fire, water, and plants, or make glasses explode,” Kate said from her spot on the floor. “You should try it. It’s no more far-fetched than what any of us can do.”

  “Nicole’s the one who made the glass explode,” he said. “Couldn’t that mean she’s air?”

  “It could,” I said. “But what I did was … different. I’ll explain soon. First, it’ll help if you try this. Please?”

  He sat straighter and planted both feet on the floor. “All right,” he said, leaning forward and rubbing his hands together. “Here goes nothing.” He stared at the paper and narrowed his eyes, his forehead creased in concentration.

  For a few seconds, nothing happened. Was I wrong in thinking he could do this? But then a gust of wind blew the paper off the table and across the room. It whirled up to slap the ceiling, and then fluttered to the floor next to the television.

  “I did it!” Chris exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. The paper swirled up again and landed back onto the table. “That was awesome.” He fell back down on the couch and gave Kate a high five. She tucked her hair behind her ears and looked back down at the floor, a small smile on her face.

  “Now, we know that you four each have control over a different element,” I said, clasping my hands in my lap and looking at each of them. “It could relate to where the prophecy says, ‘five representing each part of the world.’”

  “Each element has a color it correlates to,” Blake broke in. “Nicole and I looked it up online after Darius showed her the prophecy. Earth is green, fire is red, water is blue, and air is yellow.”

  Danielle huffed and crossed her arms. “Now we’re basing our ideas off of Google searches.” She rolled her eyes, her upper lip curled. “Great.”

  “Do you have any better ideas?” I asked.

  “Not ideas, but I do have a question,” she said. “If what you and Blake are saying is correct, then what does that make you? This says there are ‘five representing each part of the world,’ but there are only four elements.”

  “There are actually five elements, and I think Nicole is the final one,” Blake spoke up again. “Aether. It also means spirit, or power of life. The prophecy says ‘the Aether will ignite them,’ so ‘them’ must be the four other elements—the elements we can control. Under the comet we felt an electric shock. That could have been when our new powers manifested.”

  “So the comet gave us these powers,” Chris said. “And it was ignited by the Aether. Which is you.” He pointed at me, his eyes serious. “But have you been able to use ‘the spirit of life’—whatever that means?”

  I looked around at all of them and took a deep breath. It was now or never. “You all saw what happened in homeroom this morning—when the glass broke?” I asked.

  Everyone nodded, which I took as a sign to continue. Even Danielle crossed her legs and faced my direction, looking mildly interested in what I had to say.

  “A shard of the glass got into my arm,” I said, glancing down at my wrist. “I panicked and took it out, and when I was putting pressure on it to stop the bleeding, I imagined it healing.” I held my hand over the same spot on my arm, remembering how easy it had been to fix. “It worked.”

  Danielle uncrossed her legs and placed her hands on her knees. “Let me get this straight,” she said. “You healed a gash on your arm in less than a minute?”

  “I don’t know how long it took…”

  “It was about ten seconds,” Kate said.

  “Okay.” I smiled at her in thanks and turned back to Danielle. “Ten seconds. That could be what ‘the spirit of life’ means—the power to heal.”

  Danielle nodded and sat back in the couch. If I didn’t know any better, I might have thought she was impressed. By me.

  “So we’ve gone over most of the prophecy,” Blake said quickly. “But we haven’t talked about the last line—the one about the Journey and the Shadows. Do any of you have an idea about what it could mean?”

  “No clue.” I shrugged and looked around to see if anyone else had an idea. No one spoke up.

  “I’m as stumped as the rest of you,” Chris said after a few long seconds. “And I’m also hungry. Why don’t we go to Sophie’s and talk about it there? Maybe a change of scenery will help us think.”

  I looked at him and tilted my head. “Who’s Sophie?” I asked.

  “Sophie’s Diner.” He laughed. “Open 24 hours, got the best food around.”

  My stomach growled with the thought. “I haven’t been there yet,” I told him. “And food does sound amazing right now.”

  “Then we definitely have to go.” He stood up and headed towards the stairs before anyone could disagree, and we piled into our cars to head to Sophie’s Diner, which Chris swore had the best burgers in the state of Massachusetts.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The delicious smell of greasy food filled my nose the second I walked inside Sophie’s Diner, making my mouth water. The sea foam green booths looked welcoming, and the mini-jukeboxes on the walls gave the place a fun fifties vibe. Even though I hadn’t tried the food yet, I already loved it here.

  “Table for five?” the hostess asked, grabbing menus from the stack on the stand.

  “A booth would be great,” Blake said smoothly.

  We followed her to a booth in the corner, which wrapped around in a semi-circle, and got ourselves situated. The menu had tons of options, but I ultimately went with a burger, since Chris said they were the best.

  The waitress brought our drinks out first. The hot chocolate smelled amazing, and I took a sip without bothering to test how hot it was. It scorched my tongue, and I gasped and chugged some water, hoping I hadn’t temporarily destroyed my taste buds.

  Without asking if I minded, Danielle reached across the table and wrapped her hand around my steaming mug. I almost yanked it out of her gr
ip, but stopped when I saw how intensely she was staring at it.

  Finally, she pulled her hand back and looked at me. “Try it now,” she said simply.

  I hesitated. Hopefully she hadn’t poisoned my drink with gray energy. However, doubting she would do that with everyone watching, I lifted the mug and took a sip, preparing to burn my tongue for a second time.

  The hot chocolate was the perfect temperature.

  “How did you do that?” I asked, placing it back down.

  “My element is water,” she said. “Obviously there’s water in hot chocolate, so I gathered blue energy and thought about the drink cooling off. I guess it worked.”

  “Cool!” Chris placed both palms on the table, his eyes lighting up. “Can you boil my water?”

  “Not unless you want me to melt the plastic.” Danielle laughed, looking at him like he was a few brain cells short. “Although I might be able to do this.” She reached forward and wrapped her hand around his cup, the same intense expression in her eyes that she’d had when cooling my hot chocolate.

  The ice cubes in Chris’s water melted in seconds.

  “Wow.” Chris’s mouth dropped open. “Impressive.”

  “But not exceptionally useful,” she said, dropping her arm back to her side. “I’m going to figure out some more things I can do with it later.”

  It was tempting to say something along the lines of “besides making water fountains explode in peoples faces,” but I held back. There was no need to start an unnecessary argument now.

  “Good plan,” I said instead, taking another sip of hot chocolate.

  “So, why are Journey and Shadows capitalized in the prophecy?” Chris asked after we got our food.

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” Kate said. “In standard English, only proper nouns are capitalized. So the capitalized words could represent names or locations.”

  “Thanks for the grammar lesson,” Danielle said, grabbing a packet of fake sugar and dumping it into her coffee.