Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (15 page)

“
Aw no
,” Tantrus exhaled. A look of fright swept over everyone but us.

“
Wait, what’s so bad about these
Demon Grinners
?”

“
There are nine of them; one for each continent on Earth, one for Vernaesce and one for the Barons. Two are now awake,” Robbie answered.

“
They grin because they pride themselves on seeing people in pain,” Jojo said plainly, fiddling with the tips of her hair.

“
So, somehow like a sadist?” I asked. “Something similar to that,” mum started. “But now that you will all start living here and go through changes, you all just have to promise to be careful. Also, none of you must
breathe
a word of this to anyone.”

“
Why? Not saying that I will; but why?”

“
The rest of Vernaesce thinks it’s a myth,” Jojo said, practically pouncing on me with the answer. Jaden and I looked at each other awkwardly from the corners of our eyes.

“
As in…they don’t believe it’s true?” Jaden asked before I got a chance to.

“
No. As in they actually
think
it’s a myth. Like Norwegian folklore or Greek mythology. When parents want to tell their small children creepy stories, they talk of
‘the tales of the Nobles’
– not knowing they exist! Since all the warriors except dad who fought in the war are dead and since the initial conflicts between them and the current monarchy were confidential, there’s no one to testify that the existence of the Nobles was ever real or to carry on the tales,” Jojo quickly responded.

“
So say a word about this to a Vernaescian and they’ll think you’re crazy,” granddad joked.

“When has anybody ever thought otherwise?” Jade said to me in a brash tone with a wink and devious smile.

“That’s ironic,” I mumbled. “How is it ironic?” mum asked with a slight smile.

“
Well, on
Earth
if we told anybody we were aliens they wouldn’t believe us, and
here
where everyone has powers and the like, they wouldn’t believe that there are
other
existing super-beings? That has irony
written all over it,” I answered dully. At this point, I felt like I was spinning. I just couldn’t tell what was real anymore. What had started out as a normal week, had gradually evolved into a twisted, warped and more gruesome version of Alice in Wonderland.

Jade slowly leaned over to Tammy.
“What happened to you?” she whispered calmly.

“
I don’t know, what
did
happen to me?” Tammy repeated to Jade, lost in what Jade was trying to ask.

“
You’re burnt.” Jade looked at Tammy’s arm and then back at her. All attention suddenly turned to the two girls. Tammy had a scar of a bad burn that had tried to heal itself over time but seemed to have rather deformed her skin. It stretched down from her left shoulder to her left hand.

“
Oh, that’s not an actual burn,” she told Jade. “It’s just a cover up for a Vernaescian birth mark. Look, Robbie and Jojo have one too.”

Robbie
’s mark was on his right arm where his armband was. It stretched from his right elbow to his right hand and Jojo had hers on the back of her right and left hands. But I
had never seen that burn on Jojo’s hands before until now. It must have been the mirror illusion that allowed us to see each other the way we do now. Since I hadn’t seen my true self this entire time, neither could I see Jojo in hers.

Robbie waved his left hand over
his right arm. I watched, mesmerised at how the mark cleared up only to divulge his smooth brown complexioned skin. Then, a pattern slowly began to emerge as if it were being drawn onto his skin with an invisible marker. From his elbow, intricate, swirl-like Celtic patterns were marking themselves in thick inky black on his right arm until they reached his right hand, just like a tattoo.

Jojo and Tammy did the same. They waved their hands over the areas which were burnt and revealed the same sorts of
complex labyrinthine black patterns.

“
You see, Vernaescians have some strange connection to the ancient Celts. These are Celtic patterns. Our lineage also crosses with Norsemen,” Tammy explained.

“
Oh, that’s so cool! I wish
I had one of those,” Jade uttered to herself, biting down on her lip stud.  Jojo chuckled.

“
You can’t just
get
them. They’re naturally attained during childhood. You guys grew up on Earth and therefore didn’t get them. But you’re here now so…”

Robbie
pointed to our arms with his chin and gesticulated for us to look to where he had prompted. Jade, Jaden and I looked at our arms and automatically felt a sudden, deep cold rushing circularly around our arms. On me, the Celtic patterns appeared on my hands, spreading from the fire holes and extending to my elbows on each arm.

For Jade, her marks
wrapped her left arm. They started off at her left shoulder, then went spiralling down to her hand. Finally, they stretched up her palm and wrapped itself around her middle finger. And for Jaden, his patterns appeared as a straight line on his right arm. It went from his left wrist to his forearm’s crease.

“
That is
so
cool!” I exclaimed quietly, strangely unable to let out a smile due to my astonishment. But as we were watching the outlines being drawn onto our arms, they glowed, reflecting light on our various faces. Jojo’s reflected emerald green light, Robbie had a bright and plain white light, Jade had a purple one, Tammy’s was that of an intense pink that faded into a purple and followed by repetition, Jaden had a golden luminescence and mine was bizarrely multi-coloured; starting off as a blue, fading into a red, eventually changing into a green, then taking form of a yellow, morphing into an azure and finally into a turquoise – and then repeating carefully.

“
What are those colours?” Jaden asked, analysing his arm.

“
At the moment
,
that’s your ability manifesting itself. But it’s generally just your power,” replied Jojo. Jade looked at her arm, examining it in excitement and curiosity.

“This is so cool,” she muttered. Suddenly, her patterns shone for a split second and the glass of the armoire instantly shattered, shards exploding in all directions as Jade had her hand outstretched.

“Sorry,” she muttered, red-faced, whilst Robbie quickly repaired it.

“
You said we were descendants of Celts, from which part of Europe?” Jaden asked.

“
Irish, my ancestors hailed from Celtic Ireland.” I sighed and ran my fingers through my long blue hair, thinking about all the news that was just dumped on me, on
us
.

“
But we have just been attacked. Do you think it safe for us to go back?” my brother asked, more than worried.

“
You
won’t
be going back. A couple of years back, I had a house built here on Vernaesce. Tantrus, Anne and Jojo have been living there and will continue to do so,” mum answered with a kind smile as she stroked my blue hair.

“But will there be enough space?” Jade asked, however smiling
at the fact that she would be with her best friend.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Anne answered warmly.

“And our stuff in London; how are we going to get
that
back? I’ll admit it, I’m a bit scared to return to that land of the dead,” I said.

“
And aren’t we going to go to school at all tomorrow?” asked Jaden.

“
All in good time boys,” said our grandfather resonantly, who seemed to be getting a tad fed up with the constant quizzing. Robbie scoffed. Jaden, Jade and I looked at him swiftly. He seemed so laid back, rocking on his chair and childishly attempting to play himself
in a game of thumb wars blithely.

“
What’s with the attitude?” Tammy asked with a subtle smile. Robbie’s eyes zoomed up to us and his childish smile receded. He lifted both of his arms, having the straps and handles of our suitcases and bags wrapped around them and their heavy contents hanging below.

“
You didn’t?
” I exclaimed in astonishment. “How?” I was honestly bewildered at how he had managed to pull that off.

“You have a lot to learn, little sir.”
Little
? His jokes were surely taking the wrong turn about me and I could tell they were purely lame due to the fact that Jaden found them funny. I might’ve as well plunged into lava. Calling me a little sir – the cheek. He grew back his restrained smile as he went back to fiddling with his thumbs. Anne slammed her hands on the glass table and stood up.

“
Well, I don’t mean to be rude – but I think it’s time to get a move on. There are some things that need to be sorted out at the Supremacy,” she said with a sigh. On that note, everybody automatically rose from their seats. Jaden, Jade and I stood next to each other, obliged to be open to all the changes that would swiftly occur. It was so overwhelming that the emotion itself was starting to inflict a new
feeling on us.

“
Oh, one more thing; Liam, Tammy and Robbie will be attending school with you at Cressile from now on and you’ll be having training lessons here in Vernaesce on how to tame, control and expand your abilities,” said granddad.

“
Yet you
still
won’t tell me what my ability is –” I snarled to myself through gritted teeth.

“
– wait, who’s Liam?” Jade quickly asked.

“
You’ll see,” granddad exhaled, rolling his eyes in a manner which emphasized how overly annoying I must have been; asking all of those questions. Jaden looked over to Jade with narrowed eyes.

“
Why are you looking at me like that?” Jade asked our brother as she had her leg on a chair; tightening her knee-high Converses.

“
I’m not going to feel safe around you anymore. You’re always
going to be snooping around my head,” Jaden answered, still looking at Jade under his thin black eyebrows.

“
Correction:
will
snoop around – can’t do it yet.”

“
Oh, so you admit
you will,” Jaden retaliated.

“
Jaden, stop being such a drama queen and leave your sister alone. I’ve been in your head an innumerable amount of times. Besides, there’s nothing in there but space, literature, science and
more
space. It’s like a bloody hard drive,” mum said bluntly as she nudged her way past the quarrelling pair. And, as if she had not said enough, she turned, looked at him and added with that evil smile that always meant embarrassment for whoever it was addressed to “oh, and that globe-big crush that you have on that tall brunette at school, stop thinking about kissing her!” Jaden’s face instantly sunk into a frown as Jade and I began to choke on our laughter.

“
Don’t worry. All will be clear and explained soon,” Tantrus added whilst Jojo disappeared with a flash of green sparks. Tantrus and Anne walked over to us.

“
Okay, hold my hand and whatever happens, do
not
let go.” Anne came closer to me.

“
Alright,” I replied timidly. I held my breath as my suitcase began to tremble violently, before exploding into green embers that drifted off into the atmosphere. I gasped and swiftly looked at Anne.

“What was –?” But I had no time to speak. Our surroundings instantly exploded into rushing green and white light that circled us all too rapidly, as if we were spiralling down the middle of a chaotic, life-sized tornado of white light, green
time threads and emerald embers. Anne grabbed my arms firmly as we plummeted rapidly whilst the bright spectrums circled the pair of us. I felt like tilting backwards and letting my body twist into grotesque positions like the impact of the teleportation was forcing me to do. As soon as I started leaning back however, Anne strengthened her hold on me.

“Hang on!” she yelled through the raging vortex of time. We were both suddenly interrupted by the resonating sound of Big Ben’s chiming bells. We looked up and saw what seemed to be the life-sized Queen Elizabeth Tower falling towards us
with great momentum. Anne wrapped her arm around me and shot her other hand up towards the colossal monument dropping towards us. It immediately dispersed into millions of green embers.

“WHAT WAS THAT?!” I yelled.

“I’m sorry! I must have gotten too close to London. Stay still – WE’RE HERE!” she responded through the raging tornado of light. We were still dropping vertically at an unwitnessed speed. I closed my eyes. Suddenly, just when I expected to crash and disfigure my body, it seemed that the ground had been elevated to stand underneath my feet. My knees bent slightly as green embers suddenly spread out from Anne and me in an explosion. We had arrived.