Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (25 page)

“
Vala’s here, Aden,” Anne gently spoke, at which point I turned around, already dressed, and headed downstairs. I saw the others outside as I opened the door swiftly. For me it was all excitement, thinking of another lesson on how to advance my powers. The others stretched, waiting to commence their training. Though, strangely, Liam was nowhere to be found.

“
Hey, guys, where’s Liam?” I asked, my eyes narrowed and drifting from each one of them.

“
He’s not upstairs?” Tammy asked, sounding rather startled.

“
No, I thought he was with you,” I quickly countered.

This was strange. You
’d think I’d get used to it, due to the fact that Liam was disappearing a lot these days. But it just made me more
curious as to why his behaviour was so suspicious. Our introduction couldn’t have been less awkward and our conversations are hardly lengthy. In fact, his conversations were never
lengthy with anyone except the adults. Behind me, the tall oak trees bordering the aisle to the front door rustled in the darkening atmosphere.

I sighed and forgot about Liam for the mean time. My eyes drifted to the large canopy
of trees next to our house and I saw Vala standing there with her back to all of us. I slowly walked in, underneath the wide circular shade provided by the bowing branches and broad leaves and faced her long white hair. It was incredible; she was taller than me! These alien people were insanely intense. At times, I could see the similarity between us and the humans – but at other moments, I couldn’t see the resemblance.

“
Hi,” I timidly spoke from behind.

“
Hey, Aden,” she turned around, beginning with a warm smile. The strange thing was how she was dressed. I mean, she was dressed for the training occasion alright, but was dressed like a
teen
– at the moment at least. It’s not entirely surprising, but given the high rank of these people mum associates herself with, I would have expected unimaginable style and an exaggeration in fashion. She wore white skinny jeans, a rolled-up, long-sleeved; black, white and blue chequered shirt (that was rather too big for her which she somehow made work) left unbuttoned, showing her white tank top underneath, topped off with a pair of black, long boots; Dr Martens. She had a stunning pair of azure eyes that glistened like some sort of water jewel that matched perfectly with her long white hair.

“
Are you ready to start training?” she asked with a heavenly, regal voice. I nodded excitedly.

“
Right, so I suppose Tobias taught you the basics about blending your elemental aura with the element you want to control?” asked Vala. I nodded confidently several times, but I was still a little nervous.

“
So, what did Tobias teach you so far – and I hope you know I don’t mean Terrakinesis,” she bantered nonchalantly.

“
Well, he taught me how to turn on my aura-vision and taught me the technique of blending your aura with the element you’re controlling…that’s it, really.”

“
He taught you aura-blending? Did he now? I taught him that,” she muttered to herself, grinning and scratching her head as she looked away.

“
So, do you
think
you can get a hold of Aerokinesis?” she asked, looking at me rather seriously but with her usual smile. I winced and looked away into the air.

“
I think
so.”

“That’s your first mistake, bo
y. Nobody can get a hold of Aerokinesis It’s like trying to catch wind. You can never get used to it, but you always excel.”

“I think I can get used to it,” I answered smugly.
She stood aside and waved her hand out, dramatically giving me the floor. I was only a little nervous about showing my attempted Aerokinesis to Vala. She seemed like a social peer.

“
Okay, so you flex the mind muscles to turn on the aura-vision,” my hair quickly streaked itself to white as snow like Vala’s and my eyes froze to a crystal light blue that somehow stayed naturally luminescent.

“
Then, you choose the aura by thought,” I instructed myself aloud. I thought of the natural element of air whilst in this state. Everything remained normal in vision, but the air slowly began to look as if turquoise mist was encircling the area. The tiniest particles of little white specks floated, hardly moving and reminding me of pollen.

I guess it was my Aerokinetic job to
manipulate them. I looked down at my arms and Celtic marks which were lit to a light blue and turquoise. My body gave off some sort of white aura; but it looked more along the lines of frost. The frost-like aura spiralled downwards onto the grass and crept to all corners of wherever it could. With one long inhalation, I gently swayed my hands upwards, merging my aura with that of the air. All of a sudden, the tiny turquoise particles stopped in motion. Within a few seconds, they viciously exploded in wild torrents of air, spreading everywhere hastily and slapping me to the ground so viciously I thought someone had ran past and backhanded me. The canopy was howling around us as the tornados of air circled the circle planted of trees aggressively.

I was then
sent flying backwards and hit the sturdy back of a tree in the canopy. Vala quickly stepped into the centre of the raging wind. Her knees were slightly bent and set far apart, keeping a robust and solid position. Her shirt and hair billowed behind her viciously as she raised her arms and gently lowered them. The wind followed and immediately calmed down. I stood up shakily and shook my head, letting out all the dizziness as silence swiftly fell on us again. The wind had stopped. And suddenly, Vala let out a heavy guffaw.

“
BAHAHAHAHA; Aden, I thought he told you air was stubborn?” she said, high-pitched, as she tried to get the wheezing laughter out of her system.

“
Well, he did, but –” Vala rushed to me and held me by the shoulders

“
Dude,” she started. Did she just call me dude? Informality, heavy belly laughs, casual clothing, bubbly personality….she’s beginning to become the best teacher I’ve ever had.

“
Air is always free and loose. You think it’s ‘gonna’ just let
you take control?”

“
No, but –” Vala suddenly slipped her leg through the opening between mine and brutally kicked my ankle back. I tripped forward and by reflex, she prevented me from falling by holding my chest. As soon as she caught me – slanted diagonally and tilting forward – she conjured a spiral of air to drag my hovering foot behind me and within a second, had it pull my leg back to the ground, stretched far apart from my other. She pushed me back up to stay standing and I found that I was now in a wide squat with aching hamstrings. She had done this rapidly in the blink of an eye.

“
There are
no
alternatives in this game, White-Hair,” Vala commenced as she slowly walked around me whilst I suffered in this hamstring-tearing position. “There’s only one way of doing things. Aerokinesis is all about taking charge; being in control – but how do you expect to do that when you can’t even make air do your will? You
have
to take charge, show that
this
is your domain!
Like this
!” Vala twisted herself around and maliciously shot out her arm towards the entire valley that this mountain faced. A spiteful and backbiting tornado of wind shot out of her hand dangerously, cutting its way through all the trees in its path and throughout the
entire
plain of where we lived. The wind seemed to push the clouds away and extended much further than the hilltop of which our house was perched.

Had
she been calling me White-Hair this whole time?

She turned around, folded her arms, began tapping the soles
of her boots at me and grew a devious, self-satisfied smirk.

“
That was quite a display,” I muttered, my eyes fixed hypnotically on where the air once was.

“
How did you take control of it like that –?”

“
You were timid,” she immediately intruded. “You have to use the technique Tobias taught you,
which I so voluntarily taught him,
and then stick yourself in the air and then take charge! Need another demonstration?”

“
No, no – I’ll be okay,” I surrendered. I stood up from this hell of a squat she had forced me into, with my leg joints clicking like unlubricated cogs; and I did as she playfully asked. My eyes became equipped for Aerokinetic aura vision again. My frost-like aura blended with the air. As soon as I blended it like before, I saw the air particles on the verge of exploding. It was as if they did not like being manipulated. I stood my ground and bent my legs, keeping my stance stiff. The gale of air was mental. I didn’t think I could control it. It was about to aggressively lash out at my face again, more brash than it had been. But I then took the advice Vala had given me. Take control,
be
in charge. As soon as the wind was about to brush over me, I followed its movement and spun around, redirecting my hand outwards. To my delight, the wind followed flawlessly and
an inexplicable force of strong air blew up into the sky.

I was mesmerised. M
y hand was still held outstretched with the wind roughly swirling up above as it formed a hole in the clouds and punctured the veils of gases and dust floating across the sky. The hole in the clouds continued to grow bigger until I dropped my hand and breathed out calmly. I blinked and flexed my mind muscles, enabling my vision to return to normal and my hair and eyes to respectively return to their initial colours. I found it bizarre; gruesome almost, that we Vernaescians actually had a way of putting pressure on muscles in our heads to allow our abilities to work. Vala raised her hand up to me and I quickly high-fived her whilst panting heavily, my chest rising and falling quite rapidly.

“Awesome,” I let out, breathless
.

I grinned, showing my
pointy canines. The scars that they left on my lips started to heal at least. My smile slowly receded though, as I looked over to the entrance of the canopy. Vala stood closely next to me and held me by the arm. I swallowed hard but I now
knew not to be afraid.

“
Have you ever seen them before?” Vala quietly asked. She could obviously see them as well.

“
What, the ghosts of Samhain? Not until earlier this week,” I replied. The large crowd of dressed-in-black emotionless ghosts stared us directly in the face and then merely disappeared in the blink of an eye. I sighed and bowed my head.

“
Are you okay?” Vala asked me quietly.

“
Yeah, fine,” I glumly whispered. “It’s the thirty-first tomorrow. Can I ask you something?”

“
Sure, go ahead.” I looked out to the others who were training and I pulled Vala deeper into the canopy, nearly
away from sight.

“
On the card, it said the time of the ball – by the way,
are
you going to the ball?”

“
Yeah, the king invites a few ‘execs’ from Lappington. Carry on.”

“
Well, it said the time was when time stops? What does that mean?” I asked keenly, my eyes squinted in perplex.

“
You see, Samhain is a festival held outside the universe – I know that might not make sense. It’s held in the midst of other realms and God
knows
that’s not in this universe,” I gulped and looked down, then fiddling with my fingers.

“
What’s wrong? You don’t want to see the Samhain celebration? Unfortunately it’s unavoidable. This world has ties to Celtic history – it’s very complicated. Scholars of the monarchy keep trying to find the strands of time that connect to our origins which may answer questions. Most earthlings have forgotten about it but Vernaesce keeps it alive.”

“
No, it’s not so much that I want to avoid it – well, maybe but –” I couldn’t find the strength to finish my sentence. I was too worried.

“
A.J., what’s wrong?” I bowed my head again, mulling over my thoughts in worry. Finally, I looked back up at Vala. My chest was still rising and falling quite heavily.

“
The thing is….I think I’m being followed.”

“
Followed? What –?”

“
There’s one guy; he looks
just
like me, Vala. Almost as if he
is
me. Whenever he shows up, he’s always dressed in exactly what I’m wearing but in black – that’s the thing. It’s like he’s a ghost because his eyes are black like theirs and so are his clothes and hair. He’s spoken to me
twice
only and he never shows any emotion.” Vala sighed.

“
That doesn’t sound like a ghost to me. I’ve never heard of an account where ghosts of Samhain have spoken to the living. Not even mediums. And it’s worse that he’s stalking you.” I sighed and rubbed my arms due to the Goosebumps running rigid over my skin. She cupped my face in both her hands.