Prologue:
”Happy you-day, mate!”
Elijah let a faint smile grace his face as he listened to the voice mail his best friend had sent him on his phone. It was the first smile he had managed to muster in days and the thought made it fade. He paused the message and sighed. Honestly, he didn't want anything special for his fourteenth birthday as most would wish. A simple cake was enough for him, no presents or a fun party. Just himself and his adoptive sister, Athena Tarry. Maybe his adoptive father too. He had already had enough chaos to deal with.
Roughly a year ago, Elijah, Athena and his friends, Tyler and Sabrina Sharma decided to fix a road trip since the twins’ (Jamie and Duncan Sawyer) parents had gone missing late at night. In that case, everyone agreed on “borrowing” Nicolay’s, Elijah’s adoptive father’s, Mercedes. But everything went terribly wrong. The memory made him shudder. His finger accidentally clicked play on the voice mail and he listened as Tyler’s voice spoke loudly the restaurant again, making him receive nasty glares.
“Hope you’re okay. France is great! When I get back, I promise I’ll tell you all about it. Trust me, it’s amazing.”
There was a brief pause in which Elijah sipped his cool, strawberry milkshake. Knowing this would be rather embarrassing, he turned down the volume a few notches.
“Look, I know you’re still hung up over the… incident. It’s understandable; you’ve been through a lot. But, guess what? I get to visit England before returning to France a few days and leaving to England again! So, I’ve been thinking: why don’t we go hangout or some? Maybe go get an ice cream or some? It would be good to get you out of your comfort zone. You wanna?”
As the message ended and Tyler’s voice died away, he gazed at his phone. He was tempted to go. A voice scared him.
“I think you should.” It was masculinely deep, a hint of a Russian accent running with their words.
Elijah had forgotten all about his friend who had accompanied him to the place and looked up at him.
Jamie was eighteen, with pale green eyes, handsome dark skin and long black hair brushed back in a very small ponytail. A smile spread across his face, showing two rows flashy white teeth. He was the twin of Duncan Sawer, who looked almost identical to him apart from he had no freckles while Duncan had a body full of them. Since their parents had gone missing and were assumed to be dead, they were both orphans.
“As Ty-Ty said, it will be good for you to leave the house.”
“I came here with you though!” His voice sounded rather childish and finicky. He hated it.
“Well, that’s once in about… er …two months,” Jamie frowned. “Hey, don’t give me that face! It’s not my fault stuff happened, okay?”
Elijah grimaced too. Depression shined in his hazel eyes. He fingered a stray curl of his fiery hair and a sigh passed his lips before he bowed his head, looking at the checkered table cloth.
“C’mon, Eli…” He coaxed gently. “Trust me, an ice cream would be good in this weather.” Drawing a hand across his forehead, he wiped away pretend sweat.
The ginger smiled and, slowly, reached for the voice mail button. “Yeah, that sounds good, Ty. When are you coming?” He sent it.
“Uhh.” Almost immediately, there was a text back. “Sunday, I think. Two days. Prepare yourself, mate, prepare.”
Jamie chuckled lowly. “Ominous!”
