by K. L. Morton
"We have to help her!" Trinny cried out.
"I have to keep you safe." Aarion pulled Trinny out the doors and was quickly followed by Garus and Emma. They all managed to get past the garden gate when the Banshees terrifying scream was heard once more.
"Ow!" Morthos held his arm where a hand shaped burn mark appear on it, he had let go of Nina to cradle his wound. She ran back into the house just as flames consumed it. The gas bottles near the kitchen exploded and they were all sent flying back onto the hard earth. They looked back toward the house to see a flaming figure fly up through the roof. It was the Banshee. It flew toward Trinny, it's fiery hideous hands reaching for her, she had nowhere to go and braced herself for a hard hit. Suddenly huge balls of fire came one after another hitting the Banshee hard; it fell to the ground at Trinny's feet. Aarion pulled her back from the screaming creature. Nina and her Grandmother were standing behind the Banshee, their bodies engulfed in flames but with no sign of pain or burnt skin, and they hurled a firebomb attack on the monster. At last the Banshee's screams were silent. The flames that encompassed Nina and her Grandmother went out in an instant, as if the oxygen had been sucked out of the air. There was not a mark on them. The Banshee was dead.
"How did you do that?" Asked Emma in shock and admiration.
"Flames don't hurt us, but they certainly hurt Banshees, evil creatures that they are. I was pleased you didn't listen Nina, I don't have the same power as I use to, thank you my dear." Sinéad was holding her granddaughters hand.
"I can't believe you were not going to let me protect you Grandma, you are a stubborn old fool sometimes."
"Seems I have passed that trait on too." Sinéad smiled at Nina. "You will go now Nina, and you will help these people in anyway you can."
"But..."
"No buts, I will be fine, I'll go stay with the neighbors, seems I may have to rebuild." She was looking sternly at Nina, and then gave her a loving smile when Nina nodded unwillingly. "Go now sons of Taeith, the Dark Empress must know what you are doing, and is trying to get to the Elementals before you do. She has power over the dark creatures that reside in the different realms; they'll be searching out anyone who could come up against their Empress. Go, and take care of my granddaughter."
"We will protect her with all we have." Morthos said as he held the burn on his arm.
"Sorry about that, you're very strong and I had to help my Grandma.” Nina felt a little guilty as Morthos nodded with understanding. Nina hugged her grandmother and followed behind the group of five people she had only just met. Aarion led them back to the place they had arrived and took out the Cipher to open the portal. Emma was still in shock from the event and shivering from the freezing wind, she huddled next to Trinny and kept silent. Trinny whispered in her ear.
"What do you think Nina's Grandmother meant by my dad knowing about the dark Empress not being dead, how would my dad know that?"
"I don't know Trin, this is all pretty freaky stuff." Emma willed a smile on her face for her friend and they moved quicker to catch up with the others. They reached the patch of grass where Aarion had just opened the portal and the spectrum of light had spilled out onto the old stonewall. Trinny looked to see a dirty alleyway through the orange and yellow reflective colors. "I'm riding with him this time." Emma latched on to Morthos muscular arm; he looked taken aback by her forcible action, but led her through with no questions. Garus motioned to Nina to go before him. She did as he gestured. They were gone, Aarion took hold of Trinny just like last time and quickly ushered her through the open portal, it sealed behind them.
CHAPTER FIVE
'The blustery day turned into a blustery night.
To Pooh, it was an anxious sort of night, filled with anxious sort of noises. And one of the noises was a sound that had never been heard before.'
- A.A. Milne
Trinny opened her eyes to find they were standing in a dark alleyway. It was nighttime. There was only one light that was flickering over a locked door at the very end of the ally. The air smelled foul. Rubbish was everywhere; a large bin that took up a lot of the small alleys space was spilling over with waste, from what looked like food scraps.
"Where the heck are we now?" Emma asked looking a little scared.
"Chicago." Morthos answered abruptly.
"I came here when I was about 10 years old, my mum really wanted to be part of the live TV audience for Oprah." Trinny smiled at the memory, and then turned to Aarion, she noticed he looked distant. His hair was a little tousled, and his eyes looked dark, how can someone look that good all the time, she thought to herself. "Aarion, are we far from the next Elemental?"
"No, not far, the Keitha tracks down the power force of the Elemental, then I let the Cipher know the destination, it opens the closest portal, he must be close. I can see a park across the road at the end of this ally, the Keitha is leading us in that direction, he must be near there, lets move." Aarion's lean muscular frame brushed past Trinny as he lead the way, she felt a tingling sensation at his touch, then she felt a cold small hand place itself in hers and she turned to see her bright brown eyed friend smirking at her.
"Don't go getting a crush on some 'fairy boy,' who is most likely going to break your heart my friend." Emma never missed a thing.
"I'm not crushing on him. And that 'fairy boy' thing, it just doesn't sound right Em, they aren't some drag queens from Vegas." Trinny smiled at Emma and her friend gave a knowing look as they stepped out into the cool of the windy street.
Garus and Morthos had moved quickly in behind Aarion, Garus turned back and urged the girls to hurry. Nina walked out from the alleyway with a sullen look on her face.
"Nina, are you okay?" Trinny asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just the first time I have used my powers in a battle before."
"How did you survive the heat, all those flames?" Trinny asked in disbelief.
"You really don't know much about Elementals do you?" Trinny shook her head feeling slightly embarrassed.
"My Gran and I are Fire Elementals, fire burns through our veins." As she spoke the veins on her arms and hands seemed to brighten and you could see the lines of blood, it was like lava flowing through her. "We can draw the fire from our very being, we don't need a flame to ignite, it comes on command."
"That is so cool. I'm Emma by the way, and this is Trinny!" Emma was always so bold when talking to new people; she's the most confident person Trinny had met in her life.
"So what are you?" Nina asked. "It's obvious your friend Trinny is an Earth elemental," motioning toward Trinny. "Are you from the Fae realm like those others guys?"
"No, I'm just a human tag-along, would be nice to have some cool power though, water elemental would be nice!"
"I don't mean to be rude, but why are you here then? My Gran said the Fae don't like to have humans involved with anything about their world!"
"Long story short! Those three guys..." Trinny pointed to the boys who were walking several feet away from them in a triangular formation talking among themselves, "...gate crashed my sweet sixteenth birthday party. Then followed us home, told me I was to rescue their world and Emma wanted to come, they didn't like it but my mum said that she could which really shocked me. We took full advantage of her decision, then we showed up at your house in Ireland and now here we are in Chicago of all places!" Trinny hadn't realized how fast she was speaking until after she had finished, she felt better now, like she had released some of the stress she hadn't realized she was carrying.
"Okay. So the Fae turned up at your house and told you you had to save their world and Emma wanted to come?"
"Yes. Correct!" Emma said as they approached a busy street with taxi's and cars driving up and down.
"That's cool! Oh Emma, the water elemental thing, that power was lost 500 years ago when the dark Empress wiped out the last of it's line, only Earth, Air and Fire are left." Nina informed them.
"That's horrible." Trinny said in a low voice. "How is it obvi
ous to you that I'm an Earth Elemental?" Trinny wondered how she could look so different that Nina and her Grandmother knew.
"Ultimately, our ancestry is the same and our blood lines are from the realm of Cassis. Elementals can see another of their kind straight away." Nina said matter-of-factly.
"I didn't know you were one." Trinny was feeling like she knew nothing about who she was and what she was meant to be able to do, Nina gave her a reassuring smile.
"You would of, if you knew what you were looking for, or even if you knew you should be looking for something. You were not brought up the same as me. I have always had the old ways taught to me, and I have been trained from my Awakening on how to use my abilities, because your father died just before it was time to train you, you have not known what to look out for."
"What's an Awakening?" Trinny was intrigued.
"Awakening is when the powers from within us begin to emerge, it happens when you turn sixteen years old. Sixteen is considered adulthood for Elementals."
"I turned sixteen today."
"Everything will fall into place, and your powers will come when needed, just trust in your gift. You're lucky, you have one of the stones of Cassis, and it will lead you."
"Do you have one too?" Trinny asked as she held her pendant.
"Only royal lines have the gem stones, Earth is a pendant, Air was a bracelet, and Water and Fire both had rings. If I ever find that ring, I will claim it for my people." Nina stepped up her pace to catch up with the others.
"Did she just tell you that you are some type of princess?" Emma was looking impressed. "How cool is that, not only do you have some power you have no clue on how to use, but you are some royal princess from a race of powerful people, this is just to good to be true, my best friend is like Cinderella slash Wonder woman." Trinny was still trying to process the whole conversation, and didn't even answer, this was all a bit much for her to comprehend right now, she grabbed Emma's hand and pulled her toward the four people who had just become a huge part of her life.
They had all come to a stop in front of a very expensive looking apartment building, there was a short stumpy doorman wearing a burgundy suit with a matching hat. Morthos approached the man. "We are here to see Micah Govad, please tell him it is regarding the Ora!" The doorman looked at the interesting collection of people wanting to see one of his buildings most prominent tenants.
"Please wait in the foyer while I contact Mr. Govad for you." He opened the door for them all to enter, even though you could see he was a little suspicious. After a few minutes he came back to Morthos. "Mr. Govad will be down to see you in a few moments." The doorman went back outside the entrance to his position.
"The last time there were three different races of Elementals in the same place was 500 years ago." Nina said with some excitement in her voice. She had made herself comfortable on the foyer sofa and was putting her feet up on the coffee table when the doors to the foyer lift opened and a tall muscular man in his late 30's stepped out. He was very handsome Trinny thought to herself, and was about the same age that her dad would have been. He had a smooth bald head, and his skin was almost black, his eyes were the darkest chocolate brown, such warm eyes, Trinny thought. He wore black business suit pants, a dark blue business shirt without a tie and a long black winter coat that looked very expensive. His face was very serious as he laid eyes on Aarion. He looked around at the group of six young people who looked like they had taken up residence in his buildings foyer. Stopping at Trinny his eyes softened, he had a somber smile on his face as he spoke.
"Trinity Gaia, you are your fathers daughter, but you have your mothers beauty!" Trinny felt her face turning it's usual beetroot at a compliment, she also noticed that Aarion was looking at her, almost like he was seeing her with new eyes, it made her heart flutter and she found herself looking down at her feet. "We've meet before Trinny, your father visited me a few years ago, you and your mother came with him, you may not remember me."
Trinny looked at him.
"That's right, you were my dads old college friend."
"Well, not college friends, but yes we were friends. I'm Micah." Micah smiled at her warmly, and then directed his gaze at Aarion. "Lets walk, there's a park across the street where it's quieter and you can explain why you're here." Aarion agreed and Micah led the way out of the building and across the street. He walked for a few minutes through the park until he could tell there was no one around then turned to face the young group. "Why are you here? What is wrong with the Ora? And why have you brought two Elementals with you? Especially one who doesn't even know her true power yet?"
Aarion spent the next few minutes filling Micah in on the situation with the Ora and how he needed three elementals. Micah took a deep breath and gave a tired smile. He looked at Trinny. "Your father always knew this would happen, he told me that this day would come, I wish he were here, he is the only one who would have known exactly what to do."
Trinny looked puzzled.
"Why would my dad know what to do?"
Micah looked at Trinny for a few moments before he spoke.
"Because of who he is...was."
"I don't understand, who was he, was he some sort of prince, Nina was saying that the gem stones are only for royal blood lines, was he a descendant of a royal family?" She so wanted to uncover this secret life her father had led.
"He was a prince. You are a princess!"
"Yeah, that one will take a while to sink in." Trinny was not coping well with the sound of this new title; she felt she was the most unlikely person to have ended up being some princess.
Micah spoke up again.
"It's more than that Trinny, your blood has not been tainted through the centuries, you have pure royal blood, through and through. You have power beyond what you or we can even imagine, you can do more than what your father could ever do, that's why your father hid you away, he didn't tell you about any of this because he was protecting you." Aarion and Morthos looked at each other and then to Micah, but it was Garus who spoke up first.
"What are you saying?"
Micah went to answer, but his head suddenly tilted up, his expression looked dark and the leaves started to swirl around his feet.
"What it is?" Morthos asked in a whispered tone.
"There's danger here, we must go. What was your plan to get us out?"
"We need to get to the alleyway where the portal opened, it isn't far." Aarion lead the way and Emma grabbed Trinny by the hand, she was not going to let her friend go. As they moved quickly toward the entrance of the park, they could see dark figures moving with speed through the trees on either side of them.
"What are they?" Nina cried out.
"Wolves!" Micah replied.
"But they're on two legs, wolves walk on four like dogs." There was a suppressed fear in Nina’s voice.
"Lycanthrope, half men, half wolves, servants of the Dark Empress." As Micah said the words, Trinny and Emma let out a scream, a large dark figure leapt out from a tree they were passing and took a swipe at the two of them. But faster than Trinny and Emma could have ever imagined, there was Morthos, he had moved in front of them both and taken the force of the hit. He was thrown to the ground next to them. Aarion drew a sword from behind his back; Trinny wondered how she had never noticed that he could have been wearing something like that. He leaped at the werewolf, slashing at its chest. It let out a piercing howl of pain, Aarion slashed again at the beast, severing its arm from its body. The wolf fell to the ground just as Morthos was getting up looking a little dazed. There were now at least a dozen of the creatures surrounding the group. They were all tall, but hunched over slightly with very bent knees; if they had been standing straight they could have been nearly eight feet high. They had human physiques, but with more muscle in the legs and chest areas which were sparsely covered in a course black hair. Trinny could see that their skin was layered in dirt, and a wet dog odor was filling the air. Their faces were a combination of human and wolf, long snou
t noses and pointy ears that curled over at the tips. They had pronounced foreheads and huge sharp teeth that shone brightly in the moonlight, a deep growling resonated loudly from the backs of their throats and their snarling lips dripped with thick drool.
"Get back to back." Micah called out. Everyone formed a circle with his or her backs to each other, Aarion had given his sword to Garus, and Morthos also had one.
"Have you got another one of those, I would appreciate one right now?" Emma's look was dead serious.
"No, but even if I did, little girls shouldn't play with sharp objects." Morthos smart remark did not fair well with Emma.
"Good thing you don't, as the Werewolves would be the least of your troubles." Emma gave Morthos a look that could have killed had she really had a sword in her hand, and even though they were surrounded by a pack of snarling monsters, he could not help but let out an amused laugh.
Nina’s hands were in flames and Aarion's seemed to be glowing, a ball of pure light was forming in each of his palms. Emma watched as wind started to whip around, there were leaves and sticks just barely missing their faces. They looked up and could see something that appeared to be like a tornado forming around them, Trinny glanced at Micah who was standing on her left. His hands were held high and his eyes seemed as if the wind was being reflected behind the iris, like clouds moving fast on a stormy day. She knew then that it was he causing the mini tornado they were now in the center of. There were now larger pieces of debris that were circling and the Werewolves seemed confused by it. One of the Wolves came closer to see if he could break through but found himself swept up into the whirling wind. Suddenly a bright red light burst through the tornadoes side.