I knew he was scared but didn’t want me to know just how much. I knew what it was like to walk away from a parent; this was going to be the hardest part of the trip.
“So, Adam, what’s your weapon of choice?” my mother asked, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
“If I say words, will you laugh at me?” he joked.
“I have so much I can’t wait to show you,” my mother promised him, sounding excited.
“I have so much I want to learn,” he replied.
He sounded cheerful enough, but when I looked in the mirror, he appeared troubled.
“Will I have a bed to fall into when we get there?” I asked.
“Nope, as soon as we get there you have training,” my mother told me. “We are a few days away from the resurrection, and you have to get your part right.”
I grumbled and put my earbuds in my ears. I knew it was something that I had to do, but I would have been happier if she had told me I could get a few more hours of sleep beforehand.
I must have passed out somewhere between the farmhouse and our destination because when I woke up, we were pulling into the driveway of a large white house surrounded by open land.
“Could you find a house further in the woods? How many acres does it have?” I asked, glancing at my mother as she navigated down the drive.
“Two hundred. Enough to hide away in, and enough room for those that join us.”
She brought the car to a stop behind a black Corvette that I assumed instinctively was my father’s.
“I was expecting the country, but I wasn’t expecting this,” I said, fumbling to get my stuff together. I looked in the back seat and saw that Adam was passed out, snoring softly.
“He fell asleep right after you did,” my mother told me when she noticed me staring at him.
I touched Adam’s leg, and his eyes shot open.
“We’re here,” I said.
His jaw dropped. “Is this house like the other?” he asked.
“Yes, it’s protected,” my mother answered as we got out and unloaded our bags.
When we walked inside, I nearly fell over. The place was magnificent! I could tell that my father had had a lot to do with the planning of the house. It wasn’t dissimilar to the house he had in Dallas, from the marble entryway to the crystal chandeliers. The doors were dark mahogany and the whole place smelled of fresh flowers.
“Dawn!” My father emerged beaming from one of the rooms to the right of the entry. He put his arms around me and held me close.
“Dad.”
“You ready for this?” he asked, pushing my hair back from my face.
“Of course, she’s ready for this,” Helen said over his shoulder. “She’s ready for anything. I mean, look at her.”
“Hey, Helen,” I said as she grabbed my hand and pulled me away from my father.
“We have a lot to do,” she told me. “Minerva is out back waiting for you.”
She led me from the room, leaving my parents to catch up out of earshot.
We went out the back door and into the yard, where Minerva and Shawn were throwing fireballs back and forth. It was amazing to see. The white eyes of Minerva were locked on the black eyes of Shawn, and they seemed to be in perfect harmony. I watched for a second as Minerva’s hands shot a perfect white fireball at Shawn and he miraculously caught it, turning the color from white to red. Then they both seemed to feel my presence, and their eyes instantly transformed back to normal as they came toward us.
The beautiful blonde girl smiled at me and held out her hand. The moment she touched me the power in her radiated through my body, and I felt my skin crawl. The force she emitted must have pissed off the dark side of me, which was telling me to back up.
“Nice to see you again,” she said.
“Yeah.” I nodded at my brother as he took his place beside Helen.
“Okay,” said Minerva, “let me see what you have. Try to focus only on the white light. The dark light will do much the same, but for Earth to function correctly, you need the white.”
She stepped back, and I closed my eyes. Nothing happened at first. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get the prickle to come. Then I raised an image in my head of Wesley and the bitch he had run off with. All I had to do was think of it, and I burst into flames. I heard Minerva gasp behind me. Then I felt my feet lift from the ground and the sparks begin to fly. When I was done and had lowered myself to the grass, I got a round of applause from the peanut gallery.
“Well, that was interesting, to say the least,” Minerva said, looking at my brother.
“Told you she was full of fire.”
Shawn motioned for me to come and sit at the table on the back porch.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Minerva said, sitting down next to me. “I must admit it makes my job a lot easier.”
“What’s the problem then?” I asked, looking at the house.
“Well, I told you only to bring the white.” She looked at Shawn then back at me. “You brought both.”
I shrugged. “I find it hard to fixate on just one side. I keep having them split. The white comes from one side, the dark from the other. Makes me wonder what will happen if I mix them together.” Discussing such things with fellow fire elementals was good.
“If I didn’t know what you were, I would find it rather frightening,” Minerva confessed. “Your eyes are amazing too.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, frowning. I had seen them in reflection only once, the day that we ran into Xic in the school hallway. I hadn’t thought about them since.
“One is black, and one is white.
