Emerald (The Silvia Saga Book 1)

by Jenna Lee

  I take in what Jolie says and I do as I’m told. I focus my thoughts on being in the forest. I inhale, and I can smell the fresh flowers. I clear away all the negative thoughts going on in my head.

  “You are doing really well. Now, I want you to look deep into your mind. Look for a red cord that is connected to a blue sphere,” she explains, still holding my hands.

  I look into the recesses of my mind in search of the blue sphere she mentions. It takes some time, but once I find it, I see the red cord that is connected to it. I nod to her while my eyes are still closed.

  “Yes. You have got it. Next, I want you to pull that red cord off the sphere.”

  I do as she says, focusing on the red cord, grabbing a hold of it and pulling it off. It takes a bit of pressure to remove it from its hold, but finally, it releases. The warmth in my body is replaced by a big rush of coldness and the feeling of loss.

  “Great, Dara. You just removed your connection to your Warriors. They will no longer be able to hear your thoughts or feelings, your connection to them is gone. To get it back you need to take the opposite action. You need to focus and connect the red cord back to the sphere. Want to try?” Jolie asks, which makes complete sense.

  I miss the connection to my Warriors. I feel lost and empty. I repeat Jolie’s instructions, connecting the red cord back to the blue sphere. Once the connection is in place, warmth spreads over my body once again, making me feel instantly at ease. Moments ago, I loved the idea of blocking my warriors out, but now that I have experienced it, I wasn’t sure I want to do that all the time. Yeah, it was good to know how when I needed my space, but the feeling of being alone was terrible. I have never felt so broken, alone and cold before. Jolie releases my hands and I open my eyes to look at her.

  “How did that feel?” she asks.

  I shake my head at her. “It was awful, I have never felt so cold and empty like that before,” I admit shamelessly to her.

  She nods in agreement, “That’s because we have always been connected to you, Dara. You didn’t know what it feels like to be disconnected. I felt the exact same when you disconnected from us, and I am sure all of the guys did too. But, if you ever feel the need to be alone with your thoughts, we won’t stop you. I understand that at times you will want to be completely by yourself with your thoughts. At least you now know what it feels like and how to do it,” she explains, which makes sense.

  I hear footsteps coming up behind us and I look over to see all the guys storming through the door.

  “What the fuck was that? Dara, are you okay? What happened?” Oliver surprises me by lifting me up and inspecting every inch of my body. The guys are behind him with the same concerned look in their eyes.

  “Chill, guys, I was just teaching Dara how to remove her connection to us. For when she needs to be alone with her own thoughts,” Jolie explains.

  I am grateful for Jolie’s intervention, as I can’t seem to form any words right now. I am surprised at the guys’ concern for me, I haven’t had anyone care for me like that before. I can feel my heart beating heavily in my chest.

  “Thank god, that was the worst feeling in the world. Please don’t disconnect from us again, Dara. Not unless you really need to. That feeling was terrible. I never want to experience that again. After being connected to you for so long. I forgot what it felt like to be alone,” Oliver admits, hurt etched all over his face.

  I give him a quick tight hug to try and take away the hurt from his face. His features soften instantly. “I’m okay, guys. Seriously. I am sorry to worry you and I will try not to do that regularly. It was the worst.” They all nod in understanding.

  “Alright guys, now back off. It’s my time with Dara and we are just getting started. So, leave us be,” Jolie orders, as she pushes them out of the room. When they leave she returns to stand in front of me.

  “Okay sweetie, next comes the fun part. We are going to access all that magic you have hidden away in that mind of yours,” Jolie blurts out.

  Oh shit, here is the part that had me most anxious. What if I couldn’t do it? What happens if I wasn’t as special as they thought?

  I guess I am about to find out.

  Chapter 23

  Dara

  Jolie sets up a circle around us with all kinds of crystals and weird bunches of herbs. I stay still, watching her set them up. After she is finished, there is a perfect circle surrounding us. She motions for me to sit down. I do as I’m told, and Jolie sits down with me.

  “All of these crystals and herbs will help with the release of your magic. They will help be a barrier that surrounds us,” she explains. “Hold out your hands, Dara, and close your eyes.” She places something in each of my hands. By the feel of it, it is a crystal.

  I hear Jolie get up and move around the room. The smell of herbs waft around my senses. I inhale, taking in the fresh smell of jasmine and mint. I feel her sit down again and she grabs a hold of my wrists.

  “Now Dara, I want you to go to your happy place. Block out everything that is happening here. Breathe in and out and calm yourself.”

  Turns out it was easier said than done, especially with all of this weird voodoo shit going on around us. I try to do as I am told and focus first on my breathing. I take in a deep breath, inhaling the fresh smell of the jasmine and mint, focusing on my happy place. I envision walking in the forest. Focusing on my happy place seems quicker and easier this time around. Once my body is relaxed, I enjoy the feeling of my happy place. We stay like this for a long time. I guess you would call it meditation, even though I have never meditated in my life. I imagine this is what it feels like.

  “I want you to go deep within your mind again, Dara. This time I want you to look for a purple sphere that is bigger than the blue one. It will be deeper within your mind, so you will need to put all your focus on finding it. It will be covered in black cords, like something being covered in cobwebs. Let me know once you have found it,” Jolie says.

  I take in a deep breath and go in search of it. I go past the blue sphere and go further in search of this purple sphere. After a few minutes of searching I get frustrated with myself for not being able to find it. My negative thoughts kick me out of my mind, so I start again. This time I clear my head and focus on my happy place, filling my head with positive thoughts and reassuring myself that I really can do this.

  Once again, I go past the blue sphere. But once I pass that I see something faintly in the distance. On closer inspection I see it is how Jolie explained. The purple sphere is covered in a thick layer of black cords wrapped all around it. It reminds me of a ball of elastic bands.

  “Yes, that’s it, Dara. Now, I want you to keep focusing on it and keep your positive thoughts going. I need you to start removing each black cord from the sphere. Use the same process you did with the red one. These black cords are blocking your magic. They are stopping you from becoming what you are destined for,” Jolie’s words encourage me to focus on removing those black cords.

  I hesitate at first, thinking that it would be like the red cord. But as Jolie explained, these are bad cords blocking me from my magic. There are many black cords surrounding the purple sphere. Not to be overwhelmed, I pick one cord and start removing it at a slow pace. Once that is done, I move onto the next cord. Then the next. As I get to the final three, my body starts to lose strength. I feel it slowly starting to fade.

  I hear a voice inside my head. It sounds like Jolie. “Come on Dara, you came this far. Don’t give up now.” I focus on her encouragement. Not wanting to let her down now.

  The final three cords are the hardest to remove. I eventually manage to remove two, which leaves one remaining. My strength is almost gone. I muster up my last ounce of strength and remove the final black cord.

  Memories flood back into my vision. I see a young girl being held by a beautiful lady with long black hair, like mine. I realise the young girl is me. A man looks over her shoulder into my eyes. His eyes are the ex
act same colour as mine. The memories morph to when I was five years old, playing with a group of boys and a girl. These children look like younger versions of my Warriors. That’s when it hits me, that these are my memories. My lost childhood memories, all coming back to me at once.

  Then it changes to the man leaning over the lady who looks a lot like me. It hits me that these are my parents. It is my mother and father. He is crying out in pain and she is not responding. Anna and Albert come into view and hug my father. They are in tears. The final memory that appears is of my father. He has tears in his eyes and I listen closely to what he says.

  “It’s all for the best, my Princess. You will understand one day. I will see you again, my darling.” He chants out some words that I don’t understand. That’s when I black out and wake up on Earth.

  All of the memories clear from view and I am greeted with the most beautiful large purple sphere that has blue swirls moving throughout. It doubles in size and is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. My whole body feels as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I feel light and free. I stay there watching the sphere and its shades of purple and blues whirling throughout.

  Soon I open my eyes, and I am back to the room, Jolie sitting cross legged in front of me, still holding onto my wrists, with the crystals in each of my hands. So that’s how I ended up on Earth. My mother died, and my father protected me by sending me there. It made sense now, especially now that I have seen it with my own eyes.

  Jolie breaks out into a huge smile. She lets go of my wrists and jumps on me giving me a huge hug as we fall to the ground both laughing aloud.

  “I can’t believe you did it, Dara. You’re back! You have your powers back! I can’t believe it. Look at you. You’re glowing,” she says, as we lay on the ground, hugging with smiles on our faces. It is such a relief to be done with this phase.

  She is right, I feel amazing. I feel whole, like something was missing and now it is back. I feel like I was floating, flying above. I am relieved that I now know what happened to my parents. I wish I had a chance to get to know them, but I was incredibly grateful to my father. I understood why he did what he did. Sending me away was the best decision at the time.

  My destiny was to kill James and save Silvia, bringing it back to its former glory. I would fulfil my destiny and make my parents proud. I believed that they were looking down on me, watching every move.

  Jolie and I stay like this for an hour, just lying there hugging each other, with huge smiles on our faces. Jolie was like a long-lost sister to me, someone I had wanted and needed but was never there, until now. It feels too soon when Jolie lets go. We sit up and get our bearings again. It will take some time getting used to the feeling of my whole body. I feel completely different than I did just hours ago.

  Jolie looks at me, “I seriously can’t believe how well you did, Dara. I am sorry that your memories came back with such force. When your father put the block on your magic, he also stored all your memories from your life. That’s why you never remembered us. I am now glad that you have them back. It will make everything clear and things will make sense now,” she explains. “How are you feeling?” Jolie asks.

  I smile brightly at her. “I feel fantastic. I feel like a whole new person. Can we learn some magic tricks already?” I ask, eager to get started.

  She smirks at my excitement. “Yes, but I don’t want to overdo it today. You only just released your magic. You need to take it easy. We will start off by channelling your magic. Then tomorrow we will step it up.”

  I am disappointed, but I trust her judgement. I don’t want to know what it would feel like to overuse my magic. I can imagine it would be very painful. I’m surprised that the guys haven’t stormed in to check on my progress. I am sure it is annoying the hell out of them. I do recall Jolie telling them this morning that they are to stay away when we do our training together, I need to focus and can’t have them around distracting me.

  I could imagine the outburst Jolie would have if they disobeyed her order. Jolie clears the crystals and herbs that are surrounding us. I have a deep connection to crystals and now I understood why. A lot of things make sense to me after my time in Silvia. My love for the forest and always feeling at home there. It was because that’s where my true home is, deep within the forest surrounded by nature.

  Jolie comes back and motions for me to stand up. I do as she says and stretch out all of my stiff muscles.

  “To channel your magic and bring it forth, you will need to do what we did earlier. Focus on your happy place and look deep into your mind. You will need to go deep within the purple sphere. Within the purple sphere there will be another layer. This layer is where your power is stored. It will look like blue fog. You will need to focus all of your energy into grabbing a hold of the blue fog and pulling it to the surface. Pull it forward, bringing it back to the very start of your mind where the red sphere is. Does this make sense? Please tell me if it doesn’t.”

  I take in what Jolie explains. It makes sense listening her, but I won’t know if it makes sense until I try it. I was the type of person that had to learn by taking action.

  “Yeah, I guess so. Let’s try it,” I say to her.

  She nods her head in approval, “Now if it doesn’t work on the first try don’t get disheartened, Dara. I will be very surprised if you can do it after the first three tries. It is very hard the first time, but it does get easier to channel. I didn’t get it until after my fifth try. Then it became easier each time. It becomes second nature. Okay, let’s do this,” Jolie squeezes my hand, giving me the encouragement I need.

  I close my eyes and take myself to my happy place. I look deep into my mind in search of my purple sphere. I find it faster this time. Now the tricky part, getting inside it. I visualise going inside the sphere and push myself forward. I am met with a strong force, that is blocking my entrance. I try not to panic, taking a deep breath within and relaxing my body.

  “Come on Dara, you can do this. You’re the strongest women I have ever known. Focus, you can do it.” I hear Jolie’s voice within my thoughts, encouraging me to keep going. I refocus on the purple sphere and try again. There is another strong force that stops me, but it isn’t as strong as it was before.

  If I just try to push harder, I know I will break it. I continue to push trying with all the force I can muster. I feel my body weaken and the next thing I know everything goes black.

  ***

  I come awake and see Jolie leaning over me. Her face is pale and lined with worry. I smirk at her which has her frowning in return.

  “Fuck, Dara you scared the shit out of me. Now you’re fucking smirking like this is all some kind of sick joke. Are you serious?”

  I instantly wipe the smirk off my face at her words. “Sorry, Jolie. I didn’t mean to scare you or turn it into a joke. Just seeing your face, it just made me laugh. Sorry, I feel fine. I must have pushed too hard. I am fine now, let’s try again,” I say as I try to stand up.

  She puts her hand out, stopping me. “Just chill, Dara. You pushed it too hard and you need to stop for a minute. Regain your strength. I can’t stop you from trying again because I agree and think it would be beneficial to try again today before we finish up. But if you feel yourself fading away please pull back and stop before it happens. Understood?”

  I nod in agreement.

  I get up to my feet, taking a little bit to get myself steady. I take in several deep breaths refocusing my mind and body and realigning my inner Zen. This is one of those times I wish I used to meditate. That shit would really come in handy right about now. Focus, happy place. “Think of your happy place”, Jolie’s voice booms into my head. Instantly snapping me out of my thoughts.

  I regain my inner Zen and calm my mind once again. Going in search of my purple sphere, I find it quickly, which gets me excited. I try to gain access to the sphere, but again I am met with a strong force. This time I try pushing inside with little pokes, n
ot going full force as I did before. I feel the wall breaking down slowly.

  I keep my momentum going for another good twenty tries. Finally, I break the barrier and I am in. I stop breathing at the sight before me. Before me is the most beautiful blue fog. A misty smoke that has me mesmerised. I mentally grab hold of the smoke and bring it forward outside of the purple sphere. I keep my hold on it and bring it even further through my mind and out. Jolie lets out a heavy breath. I open my eyes to see the blue fog hovering above my palms. I look at Jolie for guidance, her mouth is wide open in shock at what she sees.

  “Oh, my god, Dara. I can’t believe what I am seeing right now. How in the fuck did you manage to master that so quickly? It’s insane,” she admits.

  I am smiling at my achievement. The blue smoke still hovers above my hands. I motion to Jolie asking what the hell I am supposed to do now.

  “Okay, I want you to visualise what you want to do. Think of anything. For example, if you want that couch over there to move, you would imagine it moving in your mind. Then you would release your smoke toward that object and voila, it should do it,” she explains.

  Which has me believing that she is crazy. She needs to go to a crazy person home and lock herself up.

  I try to deny her request, but of course, my body has a different thought. Next thing I know, my hands are lifting upwards. My mind plays along, imagining the couch lifting up and smashing into the wall to the right. It feels like it happens in slow motion.

  The smoke releases from my hands. The couch lifts up, hovering, then it smashes into the wall to the right, making a huge bang, leaving a massive dent. I let go of the smoke and it fades from my hands. Both Jolie and I stare at the wall in shock at what we see.

  That’s when all of the guys come running in.

  My face breaks into a huge grin, the look on their faces is priceless.

  Chapter 24

  Dara