“You should thank Adam for that,” Xander explained. “Right after you left him and Mary, he noticed that Daniel’s aura was darker than most people’s. He’d seen that phenomenon only around one other person… me. Vivian was also at the party. She said she was dancing inside when Adam called her and asked her to make sure you were all right. He had enough on his hands, taking care of Mary, especially since she’d started being sick…
“Anyway, Vivian reluctantly left the dance floor and spied on your conversation with your sister while still on the phone with Adam. She knew something was off when Wyatt and the other Rascals came out of a SUV.
“Adam had parked his car on Reid Street. He came running after me immediately and we were able to follow you until you entered the parking lot. We couldn’t park next to their car, or they would have suspected something, so we parked a little farther away and that’s when I called Karl. He told us not to follow you, that he would be there soon, but I couldn’t let you out of my sight… until you went pass the large rock at the top of the hill. But at least we knew where you were.
“Two guards were patrolling the area and we knew at least half a dozen Rascals were inside, so we started making plans. Karl called Michelle and—”
“—and she came here with my parents using Jeffrey’s convy, and they paid a load of money to create golden bullets. Yeah, my father told me the rest. I still cannot believe they spent all their money to save us—me.” I paused, thinking about how lucky I had been. Were it not for them, I would still be inside that mountain, struggling against revealing the location of Pandora’s Jar.
The memory of my first attempt to Sojourn into the Guardian’s head came rushing to me. Why hadn’t I been able to Sojourn without touching his skin? I had told Delilah it was because I was tired, but that had never stopped me before.
Expecting my friends to help me find an explanation, I told them what had happened as well as my two attempts to Sojourn on Wyatt as we were climbing up the hill.
Samera stopped biting her upper lip and frowned. Xander, however, looked as though he already had an answer.
“I feared this would happen,” he said. “The moment we discovered that gold could burn my skin almost permanently, I started thinking about the effect it would have on a human, if I were to try and feed on them. I was planning on experimenting further when we were back in New York, but I believe that gold can also block a Rascal’s power on somebody.”
“But I wasn’t a Rascal then.”
“You had your father’s genes.” He smiled to himself, satisfied with his theory. “What you just told me confirms it. You were wearing Madame M.’s golden necklace when you tried to Sojourn into Wyatt’s mind, weren’t you?” I nodded. “And then, not only were you under the influence of the necklace, but the Guardian’s skin is brimming with gold. That’s why the ability you have that the rest of your family doesn’t—the ability to Sojourn without skin-to-skin contact, which is only an effect of having Rascal genes—didn’t work. It makes sense.”
“Yeah, it actually does,” I mused.
So, if I understood correctly, I had known for a long time that the essence of vanilla could block my ability to Sojourn, but that was only because I was a Seraph. Now gold could prevent me from using my special Rascal powers. What if, for instance, someone was wearing a golden necklace sprayed with vanilla? Would that protect them against me completely?
“Okay, I can’t take it anymore,” Samera burst. “I have to tell you! I need to share this with someone or I might explode.”
“If it’s about you chatting with your boyfriend and completely ignoring us this past week, we already know,” Xander said.
“NO! That’s not IT!” She frowned. “Why would I be chatting with Joshua? No!” She looked at me. “And it’s not about feeling responsible. I’ve been—well, it did start because I was feeling responsible, but that’s not what I want to tell you,” she added when both Xander and I opened our mouths to stop her. “I was feeling bad about Gareth. That his memory was erased with no good reason… so I started looking on the Internet for him, you know, on Tinder and Facebook, to befriend him. He was probably very lonely starting a new job with a fake identity.”
“You’ve been talking to Gareth?” Xander uttered.
“Well, yes… but there’s more,” Samera continued, looking rather shy. “I found him quickly under the name Gareth Walter. Mom had told me they couldn’t alter his name too much or his memory would come back more easily. Changing his last name from Williams to Walter was just enough to avoid some undesirable recollections of his brother. I friended him on Facebook and we started talking about stuff. He was so confused with his fake life that I couldn’t let him go on…”
“Sam, what did you do?” I said warningly.
“Well, I kind of told him part of the truth.” Her cheeks turned crimson. “I said his memory had been erased by the government and I knew who he was. Haven’t told him anything about the Protectors or anything supernatural, but he’s been wanting to see me ever since. I let him know that if we were to ever meet, I would tell him everything I knew.”
I stood there, not believing my ears. Sam had not only disobeyed her mother, but she had gone against every living Protector as well.
“Is that what you were doing in your room and on your father’s phone? You were chatting with Gareth?”
She nodded miserably. “What have I done? But I have to tell him! He suspected he didn’t belong long before I even said anything. He isn’t happy where they sent him.”
“But at least he’s safe!” Xander said angrily. “He crossed one of the most powerful organizations in this Dimension, Sam. He needed to disappear. His happiness is the least of his problems and you know that.”
Xander glanced in my direction for help, but I couldn’t give it to him. Not only did I agree with Samera, but I also thought we needed Gareth back.
“Do you remember what I said about Pandora’s Jar?” I told them. “That it was somewhere underwater? Well, I might have an idea of where it is… and I might have told the Rascals about it. I had no choice; I wanted to keep my sister from getting hurt again—if you’d seen the burn marks… Anyway, I believe the jar is in a temple in the Lost City.”
“Atlantis, you mean?” Sam laughed, unconvinced. “It’s a myth, Amya. Gareth only talked about Atlantis—”
“Pandora’s Jar was also a myth. And the Guardian of Chupa. And Rascals. And Seraphs… I think it’s time we acknowledge myths as possible options. And if the jar really is in Atlantis, then we need to find it before the Rascals do.” I imagined my sister smirking victoriously with the jar open in her hands and our Dimension completely destroyed. I could see her surrounded by Wyatt and Daniel, Julian and Meo… all looking down at the rest of the world… “And if we cross their path along the way,” I continued, more determined than ever, “I want to be ready.”
“Ready?”
I ignored Samera’s question. I ignored every feeling of loss and heartbreak I felt toward my sister, or my growing fear of my new ability. Instead, I stared into Xander’s beautiful, reassuring eyes, and said, “I want you to teach me how to fight.”
About the author
Lydhia Marie was born in a small town in Quebec, Canada. She discovered her passion for writing later in life during her last summer as an English student at Bishop’s University. To be honest, she wasn’t much of a reader before she started her degree, but this hate for words transformed into a passion for reading, and then morphed into a need for writing. Strange, but nonetheless true.
After finishing her first draft, she attended a three-week creative writing course at the University of Oxford, where she realized that her first manuscript was very badly written. Fortunately, the idea behind the writing was “so unique and different,” according to an early critique of the novel, so she decided to rewrite the entire manuscript, from a blank page to the epilogue.
She enjoys books that transports her into a new world and characters that ar
e both original and relatable. But most of all, she loves spending time writing or reading with her dog, Bookie, on her lap, looking adorable with his legs in the air and his belly ready to be rubbed.
For more information, you can find her on:
-Facebook: Lydhia Marie – Author
-www.lydhiamarie.com
-Twitter: @LydhiaMarie
-Goodreads
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AMANI: Reveal Page 28