Chapter 1
“Maybe we can take it out of you,” he spat, saying “it” like it was disgusting, too terrible to speak. “How, you ask? Well…” He grinned, holding up the dagger. My body tensed, my breath quickened. He traced my jawline with the tip of the dagger, smiling. He stopped, applying more pressure. I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to show the hatred that I had running through my veins.
“No…Father...no,”
His eyes turned angry, and he stabbed the dagger into my leg. I let out a scream. “You think you can tell ME what to do?” He stood up, looking down at me. “Weak. I don’t understand why people think you’re dangerous. You. Are. Nothing.”
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My eyes shot open, and I lay in a bed, my heart racing. I look down at my leg, and there was a pool of blood on my thigh. So it wasn’t all a dream. Just a memory. Where am I? is one of my first thoughts. Why couldn’t I remember anything? I look around. A bedroom. I attempt to get out of the bed I am in, but chains hold me back. I was chained to the bed frame? I wonder if this is some sort of prank. I lay back on the bed, looking down at my hands. I try to swirl my Shadow around my fingertips, but it doesn’t come. What the hell? I look around, wondering why I am in an unknown bedroom, chained up, and my Shadow is gone.
Suddenly a door slams shut, scaring the crap out of me. “Who’s there? Can someone tell me what in the name of Puterra is going on?” I yell.
I hear a laugh coming up the stairs, and I immediately know who it is. “Mo,” I roll my eyes at my sister. “What kind of sick joke is this?”
She appears in the doorway, trying to stay serious. “You know this isn’t a joke Zeke,”
“What’re you talking about? Is this a game? I’m chained to a bed I don’t recognize.” I show her my wrists. “Help?”
Now her smile disappears completely. “You-you don’t remember? I chained you up.”
“Wh. . . why would you do that!” I say, more of an exclamation than a question.
“You seriously don’t remember? God, it must be your Shadow. Has this happened before? When you take someone out? You blacked out for, like, three days.” she says.
I bolt upright, but pain courses through my entire body. It was like someone took a knife and sliced me in half. “What? Three days? What happened, Morana? Take someone out? You’re freaking me out, here.”
“Zeke. . . you, uh. . .” she bit her lip, tearing up.
“Spit it out. What did I do.” I say, my voice shaking slightly.
“You. . . you killed Father,” she gasps.
The universe stopped. Utter surprise went through me, and some relief. My whole life I had been abused by him because of my ‘curse’. I liked to call it a gift more than a curse. My Shadow was powerful, more powerful than him and he hated that. He saw what I had done, and what I could do. I could kill in seconds. I wasn’t a regular Dark One. I didn’t control stars, or manipulate darkness, or have the power of starlight. I was the darkness. My mother said the darkness was me. I hated when she said that. Father saw me as a threat, and an outcast of the Dark One society. He tried to banish me many times, and when that didn’t work, he abused me, mentally and physically. He made my whole life miserable.
“Zeke,” Morana’s voice brought me back to reality. “Are you okay?
I snort trying to hold back my laughter. “Are you kidding? He made me feel like crap. Actually he made me feel like nothing.”
“Zeke, I know he abused you but. . .”
“But what, Mo?” I spat.
“When you killed him. . . it wasn’t you. It was the Shadow. It overpowered you. So after you, uh, killed Father, you didn’t want to stop. You destroyed our village, and killed most of the villagers.” she says sadly. “I hated Father for what he did to you, but you didn’t just kill him,”
I tensed in shock. I had done horrible things with my Shadow before, but I always had an idea of what I was doing. I didn’t know what to say. “Mother? Is she okay?” I had always had a soft spot for my mother - she had always told me that I wasn’t a monster and made me soup with cookies and comforted me after my father abused me. She could never say anything because she was scared of him, too. She just had to stand there and watch him hurt me. She always told me she loved me, but I think part of her was scared of me too.
“Yes she’s fine,” Morana replies as she sits on the velvet chair in the corner of the room. “Just shocked. She was scared too.”
“Well can we go see her? I need to apologize, to her and Adhera,” Worry floods through me as I think of my kingdom. I had always been jealous of my friends that were able to control the stars and I was just stuck with darkness. Maybe that’s why my Shadow couldn’t stop with just my Father. Could my Shadow understand me and my feelings. . . including jealousy? I struggle against the chains again. Usually I could break the chains with one muster of my Shadow. But for some reason, I can’t sense my Shadow. It’s not there. It’s like I’m powerless.
Morana’s eyes flicker with sadness. “We can’t,” she stands up and walks to the door. “Blaze, come on up,”
“What? Why not? Who’s Blaze? And why the hell is my Shadow gone?” I feel myself panicking. I’ve always been a calm person.
Morana backs up as a boy my age walks in. He has dark skin and orange-ish hair. His hair is gelled up, but one part hangs floppily in the middle of his eyes. I notice he has multiple scars on his face, one through his eye, under his eye, and through his lip. “Why is he here? Where are we?”
“We’re in the flame kingdom,” Morana says. “I took you away from Adhera. . . people are trying to kill you, Zeke, for what you’ve done to our village. Blaze knows all about this stuff. He’s here to help us. I think you two will get along just fine.” She gives me a small smile.
Part of me was furious at her. Why would we need a Flame to help with my problems? What did he have to do with it? And it bothered me the way he stared at my sister. . . But the other part of me wanted to look at her with undying love. She was just trying to help me. Of course she was the one who knew I was drowning in my power. I didn’t want her to feel the pleasure of being right. “We don’t need him. Why would we? I can handle this by myself.”
“We do, Zeke. He is one of the most powerful Flames in Calidi.” Morana says coming over to me, sitting on the bed.
“How did you even meet? How do you trust him? You just met!” I yell.
“I saw she needed help, so I offered her some. I told her my story and she said she felt safe here,” Blaze replies.
“I wasn’t asking you,” I glare at him.
“I can teach you how to control your powers like I did,” Blaze steps forward. “I might also add that I was tortured by the Night Queen for 2 ½ years because of my power. She tested all kinds of things on me.” I looked him in the eyes, watching him remember his past.
Morana stood up abruptly. “What? The Night Queen wouldn’t do that. The books say otherwise,”
Blaze glared at her. “Are you going to believe books or a real person? You’ve never met her, and you don’t know her plans for Puterra,” he says, then smirks. “Of course a Dark One would say that. She is Adhera’s queen. But did you know she is planning to take over Puterra? All five kingdoms.”
Now even I was in shock. “Woah woah, we’re getting off track here. What is the Night Queen planning?” I ask.
“I was in a cell for almost 3 years, so I picked up some things. First of all she wants to take over Puterra, all five kingdoms, like I just said. And let me tell you. . . she is going to do a lot of killing in the process. Probably the most powerful in each society, kind of like you two. And me. She sees you as threats to her throne.” Blaze sits down in a chair, and I realize this is going to take a long time.
“Me? I’m an ordinary Dark One, though,” Morana finally says something, “Zeke is all darkness and I’m normal,”
Blaze raises an eyebrow. “Really? I thought I sensed power on you,” He looks at her questionably.
Hope flickers through Morana’s eyes. My heart sinks for her a little. She’s always wanted to be special, everything but normal. She thinks what I have is amazing. I like to think that way too, but I know it’s a curse.
“ZEKE,” Blaze yells.
“Sorry,” I say sheepishly, “I got lost in thought again. What were you saying?”
Morana rolled her eyes as he continues, “I was just telling you guys about my torture at the Night Palace. Your sister wanted to know more about what the Night Queen did to me. She’s hanging onto hope that what I’m saying is a lie,” Blaze looks directly at me while he says it, like Mo isn’t even in the room with us at all.
“Okay, so,” I take a big sigh, knowing there isn’t anything else I could do but talk to him. You could sleep, part of me says. But that’s boring. “Go on.”
Satisfaction flashes across Blaze’s face. “She’d cut me up, as you’ve probably noticed.” He starts, and takes his shirt off. Morana gasps. He had the Night Queen’s symbol on it, a moon with a knife going through it. “She did this to me too. She knew I probably wouldn’t cooperate with her as she carved her way into my body, so she gave me this shot. I have no idea what it was, but I intend to find out. It made me weak, and it was painful. I couldn’t summon my powers. But I wasn’t weak enough to pass out, sadly. I could still feel everything she did to me.”
I was shocked. And I thought I had it bad. But something he says makes me wonder. . . “Did you say you couldn’t summon your powers? Does that have anything to do with these chains? I can’t for the life of me, summon my Shadow.”
“That’s exactly why I stole those chains the night I escaped. I wanted to test them. But I can’t figure out what’s in them. The Night Queen would usually chain me up with regular chains since I can’t melt them, but when she hated me she would use those.” Blaze replies, putting his shirt back on.
“You stole those!?” Morana squeaks.
“I was curious,” I could tell he was holding back his smile.
“Well why did you put them on me?” I ask that like I don’t know the answer.
Morana rolls her eyes again and comes over to me, unlocking the chains. “Don’t you dare run away. I will stop you.” she says, letting starlight flicker on her fingertips, letting me know she has something that I don’t.
I nod as the chains come off. I gasp, looking at the wretched burns they left on my wrists. I then realize something. “Wait, you escaped the Night Palace? Isn’t the queen looking for you? And why would you come back to your kingdom? That’s the first place Adhera’s army will look for you!”
Blaze stifles a laugh. “Well, ironically, I escaped last night. Your sister found me this morning,”
“Her name is Morana. She’s standing right there, act like it.” I clench my jaw. This guy was getting on my nerves, and he knew fairly well not to get on my bad side.
Morana turned scarlet and Blaze’s mouth opened and closed, then opened again. “Anyways, as I was saying,” he spoke, “if the Night Queen’s army finds me with you guys, they’ll kill you because they’ll think you helped me escape. Which is why we need to get out of Calidi.”
“But Zeke could take on the army. He could kill all of them in seconds.” Morana stated.
“Not if they have those special guns, with something in it to take his powers,” Blaze shoots back.
“But what if they haven’t made bullets yet? You said she gave you a shot, like a syringe. I don’t think they would make bullets,” Morana says quietly.
I can see Blaze taking what she said into consideration, then realizing she’s right. “Well where would we go, if we did leave Calidi?” I spat.
“I have a place in Drita. I know someone there.” Blaze says with triumph.
“DRITA?” I yelp. The Light Kingdom. I had nothing against Rays, which were ones who have the power of light and electricity. It was just so far away. “That’s miles away. How are we going to get there?!”
“Well, I was thinking Morana could make us a portal there. You know, since she can control galaxies and that stuff.”
My jaw dropped, and Morana’s eyes widened. “I don’t know how to do that!” she exclaims.
“Oh, it’s easy. Start with some starlight, then think of the place you want to go, and a portal should appear. I thought they taught that in year 3. . . but I guess not,” Blaze shrugs.
“How would you know about Dark One magic? You’re a Flame,” I say, annoyed.
“As I said, I picked things up when I was at the Night Palace. But if we want to go, we need to go soon. Maybe now.” Blaze replies.
“Why should we help you?” I ask.
“He let us stay here, Zeke. He’s helping us too. If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t know the Night Queen is after you. And maybe me,” Morana cuts in. “I’ll do it. And if I’m in, Zeke’s in,”
She knew I would never leave her. “Okay, fine,” I give up fighting them. “But two things. One; can you specify where we’re going? Is it a house? A bunker? I need more details. Two; I am starving and would really like a sandwich or something.”
Morana laughs, “I’ll go make you one.” She heads out of the room, leaving me and Blaze together. I watch his gaze as his eyes follow her out of the room.
Once she’s out of earshot, I yell at him. “Why do you keep looking at her like that? Stop it. It’s weird.”
Blaze’s eyes widen. “I’m not doing such things. Now, to answer your question,” he glares at me, hoping to get a sign of fear from me, “I have a friend in Drita. She’s been looking for the same people the Night Queen has on her hit list, so she can help them.”
“Classic Ray,” I mutter.
Blaze continues, “She has a cabin, way north of Drita, by the waters surrounding Puterra. We’ll stay there.”
“So there’s others besides us? Wonderful.” I say.
“It will help with your social skills, which you clearly need,” Blaze clears his throat.
“I want to rip your head off,” I say, feeling my Shadow swirl around my fingertips.
“Go ahead and try,” he challenges, flames coming up from his hand.
I raise my eyebrows, but hear Morana coming up the steps. We both immediately hide our powers, and Blaze sits in a chair while I plop on the bed. She comes in with a huge plateful of ham and cheese sandwiches. “I made a lot.” she giggles.
I grin back at her. “Thanks, Mo,” I say, and grab four sandwiches, eating them within seconds. I hadn’t realized how hungry I had been until now.
“Okay,” starts Blaze with his mouth full, “After we eat, we should head for Drita. Think you can do it Morana?”
Morana turns pink, and she nods. “Yeah, it seems easy enough.”
After we finish off the sandwiches, we start getting ready to go to the Light Kingdom. Blaze gives me and Morana bags, telling us we can pack anything from the house. As I’m packing, I’m thinking of all the things that could go wrong. What if we get stuck in between dimensions? At least the Night Queen would never get us. And even if we did make it to Drita, what if they find us there? What would happen then? Shut up Zeke. It’s all just a bunch of what ifs. Stop acting like a child.
I shove one last water bottle into my bag, and go to find Blaze and Morana. “Guys? Ready to start the spell? Is that what it’s called? I’m not really sure,”
Blaze and Morana come downstairs, and Blaze says, “I guess you can call it whatever you want. Anyway, Morana needs to go in front of us, and concentrate. It usually takes 3-5 minutes to create the dimension, so don’t be concerned if it feels like it’s taking too long,”
I hated the way he knew everything. He wasn’t a Dark One, yet he was telling us how to use our magic. Morana nods stiffly, and closes her eyes, holding her hands out in front of her. I watch as starlight starts trickling from her fingertips, creating a puddle on the floor. It started to circle around, like someone was mixing it up.
Suddenly there’s a crash upstairs, making me jump. “What was that?” Morana says nervously, still concentrating.
“I’ll check,” I say quickly, not wanting her to freak out, “Blaze will keep an eye down here. Keep concentrating.”
I rush up the stairs quietly, and tiptoe in the hallway. I press my ear to the first door I see, hearing deep whispers on the other side. Whoever they are I can defeat in seconds, I thought, so I kick open the door.
I gasp. Soldiers. There’s about six of them. The Night Queen was already looking for Blaze. They stare at me for a second or two, then charge. One of them tries to stab me, and I snap his neck with a quick motion of my hand. I feel my Shadow rising, wanting to come out, so I let it. The whole room goes black, and the soldiers are screaming. I, however, can see in my darkness. I swipe a sword from a confused soldier’s hand and thrust it into his chest. He lets out a bloodcurdling scream. Then it’s silent. The blackness slowly fades back into me, and I look around. My Shadow had killed the 4 other men. They lay on the ground, their eyes empty, blood pouring from their mouths and ears, their veins black.
I stared at the dead men, breathing hard. Part of me had enjoyed the killing, and had no remorse. Was it because they had come to hurt us? Or was it just the way I was meant to be? I was powerful, and I liked it. I heard someone coming up the stairs, and before I could do anything, Blaze appeared. “Zeke, your sister got the portal -” I watch him stop talking once his gaze falls on the soldiers. “Did you. . .”
“Yes. I killed them.” I say it like I don’t care. Which made me come to realize that I actually don’t care. I don’t care about what I had just done.
His mouth opens and closes his mouth. “I never knew you could do anything like this,”
It was funny, seeing Blaze somewhat speechless. He always knew what to say, and acted so mature. Now he couldn’t speak. It was almost as if he was. . . afraid. I tried to shake off the pride that rushed through me. “What were you saying?” I ask, feeling a new sense of power over him.
“Oh yeah. Morana is ready with the portal. Better hurry, before she runs out of strength,” he replies quickly, then turns around and rushes downstairs.
I take one last look at the dead bodies, and ignore the wicked grin that flickers across my face. I rush downstairs, to see Morana upholding a huge portal. It was mesmerizing, a beautiful purple, indigo, and black galaxy spinning around. A pang of jealousy went through me as I watched her, wishing I could do that.
Wishing I wasn’t a monster. A killer.
“I don’t know if I can hold it much longer,” Morana cried, and she opened her eyes. My mouth drops as I see that her eyes are no longer piercing blue, but a swirling mix of indigo, purple, and starlight.
“Go on in, Zeke. I’ll be right behind you,” Blaze says, pushing me forward.
I gulp, stepping into the portal. As soon as I enter, my whole body freezes, and I am freezing and hot at the same time. My eyes see nothing but flashing lights. I can’t move, speak, feel, see, or hear. All of my senses are gone. I want to scream in annoyance but nothing comes out of my mouth. All I can feel is my head throbbing. Suddenly the air is knocked out of me, and I find myself on a cobblestone walkway. I open my eyes, and my head blasts with agony at the bright sun. I never want to do that again, I think to myself, standing up. I stumble backwards, almost falling into a fountain. I blink multiple times, trying to get my eyes used to the sun.
As they adjust, I see a portal open and spit out Blaze, and, seconds later, Morana. Her bag opens and spills out everywhere. Blaze seems fine, like he’s done this before. He probably has, I think, glaring at him. Morana, however, does not look good. She is paler than usual, and can barely stand. I realize making the portal must have drained her energy. I walk over to her just as she’s about to collapse. Blaze immediately pulls out a bottle of liquid, bringing it to her lips. I look around, seeing people gathering to see the sudden commotion. I had never been to Drita, and it was so. . . nice.
All of the Rays were smiling, and the little houses and shops were so clean and organized. Morana stands up. “Woah, you okay to stand?” I ask her.
“She’ll be fine,” Blaze says.
“How do you know?” I ask.
“Do you wanna know why the queen wants me so bad? I’m a Flame, but as I said, more powerful than that. I have the power to heal. I’ve been practicing mixing concoctions with my power. So that drink that I gave Morana will bring back her strength.” He replies.
Of course he just had to have the perfect answer. Why couldn’t he just be wrong for once? I roll my eyes.
“Well, if you have special healing powers, and Zeke has his Shadow, what makes me special?” Morana squeaks.
“That’s what we have to find out,” Blaze grins at her. “Follow me to the cabin, now. We’re almost there.”
He pulls me aside as Morana packs up her spilled bag. “I’m not so sure that Morana is one of the ones the queen wants, but I don’t want to make her feel bad. Just. . . don’t say anything, OK?”
“So you’re lying to her? Why would you do that? All her life she’s wanted to be special and now she finally feels like she is. What happens when she finds out it’s not true?” I whisper angrily.
“Like I said, I’m not 100% sure. Apparently, it’s one person from each society. You and her would be two,” he continues.
“I can count, Blaze,” I scoff.
“Anywho, we’ll just have to wait and see if she is special. If she isn’t, we can just break the news.” he says through his teeth.
Morana skips up to us, a wide smile on her face. “All right, we should get going!”
Morana and I follow Blaze through the Light Kingdom, annoyed at the way he was walking. But part of me was wondering about the dead men we had left in Blaze’s house. The Night Queen would find out that her guards were dead. Or worse, if she was the one to find the bodies. Would she know it was me? Or a Dark One? Would she know we went to Drita? If so, would she take us as prisoners, or kill us on the spot? No one knew what the Night Queen could do. She hadn’t even been seen much, only by her prisoners. No one knew what she was capable of. I worried she was stronger than me. Was she special like Blaze and I? I hoped not. All these worries swarmed my head, making me sick to my stomach. I hadn’t even been paying attention to where Blaze was taking us. “Here we are!” he says triumphantly.
“How is this hidden? We walked for 2 minutes!” I yell.
Morana comes up behind me, panting. “Uh, Zeke, you okay? That was like a 30 minute walk,” she pants, taking water out of her bag and gulping it down in 4 seconds flat.
“What? But I swear we were just -” I turn around, looking for the village we were just in. But it was far, so far. I could barely see it. The houses were like ants, not even.
“It’s fine,” Blaze interrupts my thoughts, “let’s just go in. They’ll probably be waiting for us,”
Morana and I share a sibling-look. They’re? her eyes say. I had almost forgotten that Blaze said there were others at the cabin. Which, as I was just noticing, was huge.
Blaze walks up to the home, with Mo and I at his heels, and opens the door. We all try to step in, but something holds us back. I try to stick my hand in the house, but I just can’t. “LIA? HELLO?” Blaze screams.
A girl with long, golden hair and green eyes appears. She has her hair in a low french braid. I stare at her for what seems too long. “Blaze! Come on in. Your friends can come too!” Her smile is beautiful, and her teeth are perfect and white.
Blaze smiles back at us and waves us in. For some reason now, I can go in the house. How did that work? Were we not able to go in before because we hadn’t been invited in? What kind of magic was this?
“Zeke, Morana, meet Idalia. She’s a Ray, obviously. Lia, meet Zeke and Morana, who are Dark Ones. Zeke can tell you about his. . . gift,” Blaze looks me up and down. I wince. “Oh, by the way, don’t call her Lia, that’s my thing.”
Idalia giggles. “Well, I’m glad to have you guys. So I’m sure Blaze told you about the prophecy and all of that?”
Morana glares at her. “What prophecy?”
I laugh to myself. It always took Morana to open up to people. She always wanted them to think she was fierce. She could get really mean. I could already tell that it was going to take a long time for her to let them in. I wonder why she let Blaze in so fast?
“Oh, he hasn’t told you?” Idalia looks at Blaze, who is looking sheepish. It’s fun to see him like that. He’s always so confident and full of himself. . . which annoyed me. “Well, take your shoes off, empty your bags, find a room you like. I’ll tell you all about the prophecy, and you can meet the others.”
Blaze nods us up the stairs to choose a bedroom. I didn’t understand how a cabin-mansion was supposed to be low profile. It was a ginormous home. How could you miss it? I bet the Night Queen wouldn’t. I looked at all the bedrooms, and liked the one at the very end of the hallway. It was just dark, like me. It had gray sheets, spooky black wallpaper, and dark wooden cabinets and nightstands. I had my own bathroom too.
I head back downstairs, finding my way into the living room. I stop in the door frame, seeing four other people I didn’t recognize. Idalia appears, holding a tray of cookies. “Come in and meet everyone!”
I sit down cautiously. Everyone is staring at each other and it’s really awkward. Idalia exhales and speaks, “Let’s introduce ourselves. Say your name, age, society, and. . . your favorite ice cream flavor. I’ll start. Hi, my name is Idalia Lux. I am 16, and I am from the Ray society, pretty obviously. My favorite ice cream flavor is lemon sorbet!” She smiles.
“This is so dumb, Idalia. We’re not frickin’ kids anymore,” a boy with longer curly hair frowns, shaking his head, until he saw the hurt in her eyes. I noticed he had a blue eye and a gray eye. “Fine. Uh, I’m Aster. I’m 18 the last time I checked. I am a Frost. My favorite ice cream flavor is probably chocolate.” He looks at Idalia for approval, who gives him a small grin. He doesn’t smile back.
There’s an awkward pause, until Blaze speaks, “I’ll go. My name is Blaze Vatra, and I am 19 years old. I think all of you can tell I’m a Flame. My favorite ice cream flavor is any sorbet. Uh, I’ll pass the spotlight to Zeke,” he motions at me.
I am completely annoyed at how he chose me to go next, but I reply anyway, “Uh, hi, I’m Zeke Morrow, as Blaze spoiled. I’m 18, and I’m a Dark One. As you all know I was born with only darkness, and my father called me a killing machine and abused me and I think that’s why I’m in the prophecy thing, because of my Shadow. I have no clue what the prophecy even is,” I inhale, “and my favorite ice cream flavor is oreo,” Exhale.
Everyone is staring at me now, and I’m realizing I just poured half my heart out. “Sorry,” I squeak.
“It’s okay, Zeke. We all know you have it harder than us,” Idalia smiles at me. God, she was so nice. And cute.
Aster rolls his eyes. “I’m done. This is bull,” He gets off the couch and stomps upstairs.
“Aster-” Idalia cries, but he’s gone. “Sorry, he’s moody. Anyway, do you want to go?” she points at Morana.
“Sure.” Morana says grimly, hate flickering through her eyes as she stares at where Aster disappeared. She’s gonna kill him later, I think. “I’m Morana, Zeke’s sister. I’m 16, and I’m a normal Dark One as far as I know. I love vanilla ice cream. Also I’ll be right back.” She gets up and storms upstairs.
Everyone is silent, and I say, “I better go keep an eye on her so she doesn’t destroy anything,” and chase after her.
“Mo! C’mon, don’t be mad at him.” I yell. There’s so many bedrooms I don’t know which one she’s in. I open all the doors until I come to the last one, which has to be Aster’s room. I open the door, expecting to see Aster dead, but instead it’s something else.
Morana is on the floor, clutching an arrow that is in her chest. Aster stands over her, his eyes wide, staring at the dead guards that had jumped through the window. They were frozen to death. “GUYS WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY,” I scream downstairs, and everyone comes running. Idalia stops when she sees Morana.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her, standing up. She looks at me in the eyes, speechless. “What is it, Idalia?”
“Zeke, that’s a Glow Bow,” she whispers.
“What the hell is a Glow Bow? Sounds like a stupid toy,” I fume.
“No, Zeke. It was made to kill Dark Ones.”
Blaze’s eyes sadden, and Aster is still frozen in place. I feel myself getting overwhelmed. Push it down Zeke. Don’t kill everyone on the first day, I tell myself. “Well there has to be a cure right?” I ask, fake hopefulness in my voice. “Right?”
“Many people have tried to find a medicine, a cure for the Glow Bow. No one succeeded. Many Dark Ones died in the testing.” a girl with dark skin and short hair steps up. “I’m Valentina, training to be a Warrior,”
I didn’t care what her name was. I didn’t care about anything. One single thought kept repeating itself in my head.
My sister was going to die.
