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My eyes flew open, the wave of despair hitting me even before I could sit up. It was January first, and I had ascended. I wasn’t proud of my accomplishment, but that still didn’t explain the utter hopelessness that I felt. Fine, I was one of the rare casters that received their powers on their birthday. A millennia ago, the casters allegedly defeated the Olympians. Yes, I’m talking about Zeus and Hera. If anyone dared call them Greek gods to the stuffy casters, they would gasp, as if you had said something blasphemous. So after the false Greek gods, who were really aliens, were sent packing, casters began scattering. Due to marrying humans, the bloodlines of the casters were diluted. Then, before coven leaders new it, only ten percent of casters ever ascended on their eighteenth birthdays.
After being adopted by Julia and Grant, two casters who ascended, Celest, our coven leader, revealed that it was no accident that I had been scooped up by casters. You see, my pediatrician made the habit of testing the blood of all of his patients for the enzyme that declared someone a caster, and discovered that I belonged with his coven. So Celest had ordered Julia to adopt me. I hoped to escape a life of responsibility, but ended up with an unwanted gift.
The damn despair wouldn’t leave me. My intuition suddenly kicked in, and I just knew that I had to call Jade. I got out of my full-sized bed and glanced around my bedroom. My phone was on my desk, where I abandoned it the night before. I walked over and reached out to pick it up when I felt a stinging sensation on the inside of the wrist of my left hand. I glanced at my skin and groaned. A silver circle decorated the inside of my wrist, the mark no bigger than a quarter. It was the symbol that appeared on the skin of a caster who was an oracle. Seeing the conformation that my intuition was telling me something, I quickly dialed Jade’s number and pressed the phone to my ear. I was disappointed when my friend didn’t answer.
“Good morning,” Amber sang as she flung the door open. I dropped the phone and clutched my chest. Amber had nearly given me a heart attack. I spun to face the girl who shared the same birthday as me. Amber García was beautiful, with olive skin, long, jet-black curly ringlets, and chocolate brown eyes. But she was the type who wasn’t concerned with fashion. She dressed in comfortable worn blue jeans, a Nightmare on Elm Street t-shirt and a pair of ankle boots. Seeing her made me feel really crappy about lying to Jade. The poor girl assumed that I was on some farm, mucking out stalls. But my parents warned me that I shouldn’t tell anyone about the casters, the protectors of Earth. Amber lifted her hand and a ball of energy floated in the air.
“So you’re a knight,” I said, mentally hating her for having a kick-ass gift. A wide grin split her face, and her joy diminished my feeling of doom for just a moment. But then, the warning flared to life again.
“I think that something’s wrong with Jade,” I admitted.
“Well then, let’s check on her. Get dressed, Ben’s downstairs. I’ll drag him with us,” Amber ordered before running from the room. Amber probably assumed that I had some sort of vision. I wouldn’t correct her, since I needed her to help me.
I ran into my cluttered closet and selected a sweatshirt and jeans, not wanting to take the time to coordinate my outfit. I sensed that time was of the essence. I quickly got dressed, slipped into my boots, and rushed to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Then I hurried down the carpeted staircase and dashed into the kitchen, where my brother, Ben, stood, already in his winter jacket.
“Amber is waiting for you outside. What did you see?” The genuine concern on his face squeezed my heart. I was lucky that Ben and his family had rescued me from the foster care system, despite their motives. I hoped that the Banes could do that for Jade. They were great people with a lot of love in their hearts. Thinking of the couple made my stomach cramp up. Was I wrong about them?
“Something isn’t right with Jade,” I said. Ben shook his head.
“You already told her that you were at a farm. What is she going to think if you show up to her house?” Ben asked. But the pain in my stomach only got worse.
“I feel it, Ben. Something’s wrong,” I rasped out. Ben sighed.
“I’ll do this for you once, Sheena. But you’ll have to cut ties with Jade eventually,” he lectured, which pissed me off. Jade was like a sister to me, and I wasn’t going to abandon her.
“Fine,” I lied. Ben nodded and we exited the front door of the cozy two-story home that I had lived in for eight years.
Amber had a stepfather that insisted on buying her love with gifts. She was sitting at the wheel of an impressive, sleek SUV. There was snow on the ground, so the vehicle was practical enough. I hopped into the backseat and pulled the door closed. I had forgotten to put on a coat, and the cold air was getting to me. With shaky fingers, I put on my seatbelt.
“This is the last time you’re visiting Jade,” Ben said from the passenger seat.
“Whatever. Just drive,” I pleaded. I’d tell Ben to butt out of my life after I was assured that my best friend was all right.
***
Amber shrieked and leaped from the SUV, her hands already glowing. Ben followed, but all I could do was stare at the shocking scene. The house where Jade had once lived had been utterly destroyed. The diminishing flames were unnatural, based on the fact that they didn’t spread. There was no hope of saving Jade and her new family. Had the Olympians decided to make their way back to Earth to tangle with the casters again? If that were the case, why would they have targeted Jade and her family? I heard fire trucks in the distance, and guessed that Amber and Ben must have heard them too, because they returned to the vehicle. Amber drove down a few blocks before parking in front of a random house. She then got out of the driver’s seat and sat in the seat beside me. Her face was lined with worry.
“It didn’t smell like Olympian magic. It smelled foreign, chemical, like an explosive, but not quite right. We’ll have to report this to Celest. I’m sorry, Sheena, I didn’t sense any heartbeats.” Right, Amber was trying to delicately tell me that my best friend and her new parents were dead. My guess was that Ben probably felt too guilty to break the news to me. He had wanted me to cut Jade off. Well, he had his wish. The thought of Jade being dead was too difficult to grasp. There was no way in hell that the guarded, kind girl I had always trusted was gone. And there was no way that the Olympians had decided to punish me by killing her. For one thing, those evil freaks hadn’t pestered Earth in thousands of years. And if they were going to bother to make a comeback, they would have targeted one of the covens. That meant that a new threat managed to slip past the casters’ guard and attacked innocent people.
“An unknown alien race?” I asked Amber, who looked overwhelmed.
“Maybe? I’m not sure. But it doesn’t smell like one of the Olympian’s magic. Julia has a pouch of magical residue saved from an Olympian, and trust me, that explosion didn’t smell like that,” Amber noted. I would have asked her why Julia showed her such a powerful artifact, but didn’t bother. Amber was one of the rare casters who had been gifted before she ascended, though she was less powerful before she turned eighteen.
“Well, Ben?” I asked, my anger rising. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“I’m sorry, Sheena,” he softly replied, before growing silent. I’m sorry? Those words meant nothing. “I’m sorry” wasn’t going to turn back the clock to when I lied to Jade. “I’m sorry” wasn’t going to change the situation. Those stupid words weren’t going to bring Jade back.
“Had I told her, none of this would have happened,” I bitterly said. Amber winced, as if she was the one that prevented me from telling Jade my secret. Had she known, my best friend could have spent my birthday with me. Had she known, she wouldn’t have been a part of that burning heap.
“I have contacted Celest. She’s sending casters to assess the situation,” Ben said. So, he wasn’t going to acknowledge what I said.
“She isn’t gone,” I said, trying to believe it. No! Jade was captured. That was it! At any moment, a bad guy was going to call me and tell me that he wanted to make a trade. That’s what always happened in those crazy movies that Ben liked to watch.
“Talk to me, Sheena,” Amber encouraged.
“Take me home,” I ordered. “Jade isn’t dead. I’m sure that an unknown alien took her.” Amber rested a hand on my arm.
“That is a possibility, honey. But it’s too early for us to tell,” Amber softly told me.
“It isn’t a possibility, it’s true. There is no way that someone would burn down Jade’s house and not ours,” I argued. “I bet they took her to hold her for ransom.” What if they wanted money in exchange for her release?”
“Sheena,” Amber said, her gaze filled with worry. I knew that Amber didn’t want me getting too hopeful. But I didn’t care. Jade had to be alive. I refuse to believe that she was dead because of me. There was no way that I would never speak to her again. Jade was alive and breathing, and I was going to find her.
“She isn’t dead,” I pleaded. “I know that she isn’t dead.”