Sapphyre: Rise of an Angel (Sapphyre Saga Book 3)

by Felicia Leibenguth

  “Lexi!?” she sounds panicked as she swings open the glass door.

  I try to keep my eyes closed. “Hmm?” I grumble a little annoyed. Everyone knows I like to be alone when I’m in here.

  “What happened!?” she starts to freak out. “You’re… You’re covered!”

  I open my eyes. “What are you talking about?” I question confused.

  “Look at yourself!”

  I look down and slightly panic. “Garcia!?” I yell.

  She’s here in a flash.

  “Child… what on earth have you been doing?” she asks wide eyed.

  “Meditating. Though I am not sure how this happened. I didn’t even know I was doing anything.”

  I’m covered every inch up to my neck in vines. I look like a statue that has been overgrown and I’m unable to move any part of my body but my head. There are small leaves that are still growing and I know I’m not doing anything.

  “Well, that’s interesting. How are you feeling? Are you drained?” Garcia asked touching some of the leaves.

  “No, I actually feel stronger, but I always do after I meditate. But I’ve never done this before… that I know of.”

  Garcia smiles while K still looks a bit freaked out.

  “Interesting indeed,” Garcia mumbles. “Can you unwrap yourself?”

  I close my eyes and will the vines to leave my body and recede back into the ground. They do as they are told and I’m able to stand.

  “I don’t understand how that happened.” I look down at the ruffled dirt at my feet.

  “How do you feel now?” Garcia asked.

  I think about it for a moment. “A little drained but fine.”

  Garcia laughs, “You truly are a piece of work child. Very interesting indeed,” she smiles.

  I know I look confused but she doesn’t say anything else and walks away.

  Katrina shakes her head. “What was that about?”

  “I have no idea.”

  K and I both look off after Garcia.

  As night falls I decide to meditate again. A low light glows in the garden and I love that I can look up and see the stars. Taking the same seated position I did before, I close my eyes again, losing myself in the darkness. I know it’s a while before I come out of it, but I’m feeling better each time I meditate.

  “I could get addicted to this,” I said quietly to myself.

  I stand and stretch. My muscles feel good and relaxed, I feel stronger, like a new person.

  Walking out of the garden I’m startled to see everyone watching me. Their eyes are all shocked and awed at the same time.

  “What!?” I snap. They are freaking me out.

  Katrina steps forward. “That… was amazing!”

  I’m completely confused.

  “Child… you don’t know what you’re capable of do you?” Thatch says taking a step around the shocked Donavon.

  I speak slowly, “I have no idea what you are all talking about.”

  Garcia lets out a proud sounding laugh. “I knew you were special from your first plant experience! I told you Thatch!”

  Thatch ignores her.

  “Um, would someone mind explaining?” I look at all their stunned faces.

  Zach sits on his hind legs and looks at me in a way I haven’t seen in his eyes in a long time... pure shock.

  Garcia smiles, “It’s better to show you than tell you. Come child.”

  She leads me to the living room and everyone follows quietly behind me.

  I didn’t notice until now that Garcia holds a small camcorder. She plugs it into the TV and hits the play button.

  What pops up on the screen is the garden from outside the door where everyone had been standing. I’m sitting on the bench like I always meditating. Five minutes pas and nothing happens.

  “Okay, I can sit on a bench. That is truly amazing,” I said sarcastically.

  “Wait for it,” Garcia said not turning her head from the screen. Everyone sits around like they are watching the best movie of their lives.

  “There! Did you see it?” Garcia turns toward me.

  “See what?”

  Garcia sighs and rewinds the tape a few seconds. “Watch.” She points to a small branch on the tree.

  I watch and catch movement of some of the leaves on the branch.

  “Oh wow… That was amazing!” I roll my eyes.

  “Isn’t it!?” She doesn’t even realize I’m being sarcastic.

  We keep watching and within a few minutes I can’t take my eyes off the screen like everyone else.

  Wind is swirling around the room causing my hair to stand on end and look like a mini tornado. Vines break from the ground and encase my entire body like it’s protecting me from the winds.

  Thick green leaves grow off the vines, absorbing the wind. As the winds start calming down, the ground starts to explode with more plants in all shapes and sizes. It starts looking like a jungle is swallowing me whole.

  “What the…” I start to say but I’m cut short with several Shh’s.

  As I continue to watch, I became more and more amazed at what is going on.

  Flowers bloom all around me and the winds become gentle as they caress the plants surrounding me. This goes on for about twenty minutes and every minute a new plant or flower appears. The room gets brighter as if the sun is coming out and I’m in shock when a ball of white light appears in the middle of the garden. It grows with such intensity it hurts to look at it.

  The entire time I sit motionless on the bench, still wrapped in the vines. The light grows into a massive ball, the size of a basketball. It glides toward me, and as it gets closer, the newly formed plants and vines start to disappear back into the earth. The winds settle down even more and seem to center around the bright mass. All that is left is the massive glowing ball and me.

  It comes closer until it’s almost touching me. It pause for a moment, then I watch as I raise my hands to caress the glowing mass, placing my hands on either side of it. The winds disappear once I place my hands on the white light. I am the only one supporting it. I draw it closer to my body and I see my lips move slightly, then the white mass enters into my chest.

  My eyes grow wide. I can’t take my eyes from the screen. It’s only a few moments later that I awake from my meditation and stretch out like nothing has happened.

  Knowing it’s over, I look down at my hands expecting there to be some sort of marks, but nothing is there. I start to panic as I pull the neck of my shirt down to look at my chest. Again, nothing is there.

  I look up in a panic and everyone is looking at me with a renewed awe.

  “It seems your mind knows more than it allows you to know.” Garcia watches me with new bright eyes.

  “I… What…” I can’t form a sentence, I’m in such shock at what I have seen.

  I look down at my hands again trying to grasp what that was, what I am capable of doing. My thoughts are all jumbled and I can’t form a coherent thought.

  Katrina kneels in front of me. “You are truly amazing. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe what you were capable of. That was truly the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life.”

  I give an unsure smile and look at Garcia. “What… how did I do that?”

  “That, dear child, would be a mystery. It seems you have stronger gifts than any of us could imagine. Only you are able to teach yourself what you are capable of. It also appears your meditating has awoken an ability, not even you knew, you had.”

  I shake my head trying to absorb this. “But why don’t I feel tired? Controlling plants has always drained me.”

  “It’s possible that controlling them in your subconscious has no effect on your energy.”

  I think for a minute while everyone watches me. But I don’t have much to say.

  Thatch starts talking before the silence becomes awkward. “I wonder what would happen if you meditated in a larger space…” He’s lost in thought himself.

  “I
don’t know what would happen. But there is one way to find out I guess. I just wonder if this has been happening every time I have meditated. I had no idea that I was doing it.”

  Katrina starts shaking her head. “Not the first few times when you and I meditated. Nothing happened then. Apparently it didn’t start until you were by yourself.”

  Donavon steps forward. “I don’t know what or how, but if you can control that power without meditating, you would have a much better chance at destroying Malvent. You only have a week, so I suggest you figure it out.”

  Awakening

  Six days and counting…

  Today I’m going to try to meditate again, but outside. I don’t know what is going to happen and I’m very nervous. But like Donavon told me, if I can control it outside of meditating, I know I will feel a whole lot better about this War. I’ll feel like I at least have a chance.

  Sitting on the back deck trying to do my thing is very hard. I can feel everyone’s eyes on me peering from the windows. They all want to see what is going to happen. I’m afraid, but excited at the same time. I try to tune out the feeling of eyes at my back and get into my silent state of mind. Without them being there I know I’d feel more comfortable, but I also know they have to see what will happen. I told Zach, if things start to get to crazy, to stop me. I don’t want to do any damage or hurt anyone.

  Slowing my mind down and stopping all my thoughts from whirling around my in head, I’m throw into the darkness that I find so comforting these days. I try to keep my mind quiet but also trying to feel out where this power is coming from at the same time without losing my concentration. It’s not easy. I start to lose my concentration several times and have to start over again. The fifth time I’m able to hold my concentration. A few minutes pass and I feel completely in the zone. I allow my mind the peace it needs but I’m also able to feel a twinge of something deep in my mind. It’s so slight, I barely feel it. But it’s there.

  Feeling the direction it’s coming from in my mind, I search further, deeper. All I see is the darkness that surrounds me, then a small pin point of light starts to glow. I quickly start running toward it, and the closer I get, the larger it grows. I continue toward it until I find myself completely surrounded in a brilliant white light. I know this is the place I’m looking for.

  Farther inside the light, I find the glow of the white ball of energy that had entered my body. It sits suspended in midair. The wind still swirls calmly around it.

  Unsure what to do, I follow my instinct. I reach out for the mass and once my hand reaches into the wind, everything seems to slow down. The winds leave the glowing ball and swirl gently moving up my arm. I feel the gentleness as it glides softly over my skin and begins encasing my entire body. It’s comforting to be encased in such a gentle, loving embrace.

  I reach out farther for the glowing ball, touching it with my fingers. It feels silky smooth and warm like my own personal sun. I feel the energy that flows inside and it’s like nothing I have ever felt before. This is my full power, my full ability encapsulated in this shell. I feel the eagerness vibrate from both me and my ball of power. It’s time for us to become one and we both feel this is the time.

  I hold the ball in my hands, supporting it.

  “I want to become one with you, if you will allow it,” I speak aloud to the mass I hold in my hands. I know it sounds silly, but I feel it’s something I need to do.

  Watching the ball, I see as it starts to crack and split. The shell holding the power inside is breaking. I don’t know if I should drop it and run or hold my ground. But I didn’t come here to back out. I know this is something I have to do.

  The shell finishes cracking then shatters as the power inside explodes. A brilliant array of colors bursts outward, creating rays of light that pierce through the white space and into the darkness of my mind. I feel as it surrounds and fills my mind, not leaving one spot untouched by its warmth and knowledge.

  My true power has been awoken. I’m now one with my full abilities.

  I slowly open my eyes, blinking a few times. Raising my head up, the first thing I see is Garcia’s face right in front of me. She is holding onto either side of my face.

  Her eyes widen as she looks at me. She stares right into my eyes and doesn’t seem to blink. Her mouth opens slightly with her shocked face.

  We both sit here for a moment as we’re both trying to process what happened.

  “Lexi, you okay!?” Katrina about panics when she doesn’t see me moving and Garcia isn’t saying a word. She comes around next to Garcia.

  She takes one look into my eyes and her mouth drops much like Garcia’s.

  I clear my mind of what happened and find my voice. “What are you two staring at?”

  Garcia appears to have found her voice. “Your eyes. They… have changed.”

  “Changed!?” Katrina squeaks. “They’re white!”

  Zach, Thomas, Donavon and Thatch all run around to look at me. Then they all stand in stunned silence.

  I ignore them.

  “What do you mean they are white!?”

  “What the hell happened!?” Donavon demanded.

  I ignore him and repeat my last question. “What do you mean they are white?” I look at Katrina, but Garcia speaks.

  “Child… your beautiful blue eyes have turned white. They are stunning!” She turns to Thatch. “Get her a mirror.”

  Thatch nods not taking his eyes off me, then takes off into the house.

  Thatch returns seconds later with a hand held mirror from the bathroom and hands it to me.

  I’m not sure what I’m going to see, but I know I’m scared to look. I raise the mirror up to look and panic at what I see. I flip the mirror over and look away for a second trying to process. I look back into the mirror and who is looking back is a completely different person. My eyes are no longer the sapphire that I loved, but now… the color is gone and white is in its place. I blink and rub my eyes, hoping it isn’t true, but nothing brings my color back.

  Looking closer, my iris is still black and the rims around the white color, is still the black it has always been. The black is pulled into the colored area slightly, creating spokes of a bicycle wheel, blending my eyes into the white color. I have to admit, they are more stunning than my sapphire eyes could have ever hoped to be.

  This is proof that my true abilities have been awakened.

  Power

  I keep looking in the mirror still in disbelief until Donavon opens his mouth again.

  “What happened?”

  I look at him putting the mirror down and give the biggest smile.

  Everyone is looking at me, still hardly talking. I stand up from the deck and I feel stronger than I ever have in my life. It feels amazing and I have some abilities to back it up.

  Ignoring everyone’s questioning looks, I walk down to the middle of the yard and turn to face everyone. I smile again as the mowed grass throughout the yard starts to grow. It’s effortless now and I barely have to think about it. I don’t even have to touch the ground with my hand. I don’t feel drained in the least as the grass reaches six inches in length. Everyone watches looking around as the grass grows. I think it needs some flowers and so I add in some white and pink lilies around the deck.

  Garcia starts to laugh. “Amazing!”

  I grin. Something I have wanted to do for a long time comes to mind. The trees I pummeled into mulch shortly after Bree’s passing needs to be replanted. I planned to do that at a later time, but now seems perfect.

  Everyone’s eyes widen as they hear tree branches snapping and leaves shaking. A mile into the woods, six trees grow to forty feet, becoming slightly taller than those around them.

  I also want to plant a tree in memory of my sister Bree and her sister Oranda. There is no better place than where I’m standing. I take five steps to the side as the ground starts to shake. A small tree burst from the ground and grows into a mammoth Silver Maple shading the whole yard with its large canopy of
leaves. Its trunk is ten feet around, and surrounding the base grows small flower bushes. Bree always loved purple…

  I smile sadly, “This one’s for you Bree.”

  “Thank you… Love you Lex. A minute is all I can give you….” I hear Bree’s voice say.

  “Love you too.”

  Once I finish, I look to everyone standing motionless on the deck all looking to the top of the tree next to me.

  I casually walk up the stairs next to everyone and speak to Donavon.

  “What happened… now you can mow the lawn.” I grin.

  He doesn’t say a word as he can’t take his eyes off the tree.

  “The most beautiful and now the most powerful… I don’t deserve her…” a very familiar voice said.

  I spin to see Zach in his wolf form staring at me with such pride. Our eyes lock.

  “You’re the one I don’t deserve,” I say with a smile.

  He yelps in surprise. “Lexi?”

  I smile as a tear streams down my face. This is what Bree meant by giving me a minute…

  “You… you can hear me can’t you!?” he sounds excited.

  I grin. “A much needed gift from Bree. It will only last a minute.” I run over and hug him tightly. “I love you so much Zach!” I cry.

  “You have no idea how much I love you my lovely Lexi. You are my world and I wouldn’t give it up for anything!” he wraps his leg around my back hugging me. “I only wish I was human so I could hug you again.”

  “I know. I miss it too… so much!” I place my hands on his face and look deep into his golden eyes. “I will find a way to fix this, to make you whole again.”