Chapter 12

“Lilly? Foster?” Some yelled, and Liona groaned in protest to the noise.
“Oh my God, it’s them, look!”
Liona was getting very irritated by the noise, and slowly opened her eyes. Several feet in front of her stood Kali and Allister.
“What’s going on?” She grumbled sleepily. “Why are you being so loud?”
Kali instantly ran up to her, pulling her into a hug. “We thought we lost you, or that another one of those things got you. Why are you guys sleeping? It’s like four in the afternoon.”
Liona pulled away, looking at Kali and frowning. “What?”
“Holy crap.” Foster said, sitting up suddenly. “Where am I?”
Allister walked up to them slowly and crouched down, staring at them intently. “What do you remember?”
Liona frowned, grabbing her sore head and trying to think back to what happened. Then, it all came flooding back. She jumped to her feet and looked around her, realizing the ancient tree had disappeared. They were in a regular stretch of forest, much different than where they had fallen asleep.
“The ancient one.” Liona whispered. “We found the ancient one.”
Allister nodded, walking up to Liona. “What did she say?”
“Darius broke the truce.” Liona said, looking up at him. “He set Bakanua free, but he also broke the truce somehow, because of some sort of spell he said.”
Allister’s eyes widened. “He couldn’t have done that unless he was a wizard.”
“How come all these wizards seem to know they’re wizards?” Foster said, frowning. “I thought you said it was too long ago.”
Liona shook her head. “No, the ancient one said he didn’t know what he was doing. I don’t think he knew he was a wizard.”
“Then how did he get that book the tree was talking about?” Foster asked.
“Book?” Allister asked. “Liona, do you know what book Darius had?”
Liona shrugged. “It was big and ancient looking, but that’s all I really know about it. It was brown with a golden lock on one side.”
“What shape was the lock?” Allister asked.
She thought back to the vision the tree had given her. “I think it was in the shape of…well, the same symbol we saw scratched into that tree back at the first forest.”
Allister nodded slowly, looking down at the ground. “This is worse than I thought.”
“Great.” Foster said, rolling his eyes. “More bad news.”
Ignoring Foster, Allister turned back to Liona. “That book belonged to a family of magic humans tracing back to the very beginning of the earth. The very first witch and wizard. When Marion passed on, she left the family with a book of spells meant to help them should the dark ones decide to return. Those spells were the most powerful spells on this earth, with the power to create and destroy. After King James, the book was supposedly burned, as it aided in some of his work to destroy the magic.”
Liona shook her head. “A book that powerful? I doubt it could be burned. I bet someone in the family kept it and lied about it being destroyed.”
“And geeky old Darius found it.” Foster said, nodding. “The power of ignorance.”
“So, what? Bakanua or whatever took over his body?” Kali asked.
Liona nodded solemnly “I think so. The ancient one showed me what happened, but cut it off right before he died. He’s either shape shifted into Darius or is living in his body.”
“Oh, gross.” Foster said, standing up. “As pleasant as this conversation is, where are Adara and Jack?”
“We set up camp a little ways away.” Kali said. “It’s almost dark, we wanted to have a place set up just incase you were hurt or something.”
Liona whipped around to look at Foster. “Your ankle?”
“Oh wow.” He said, looking down and flexing his foot. “It’s fine now.”
Liona smiled. “Well then. Let’s get to camp to figure out what to do next.”

* * * * *

“So that was a mountain beast?” Adara asked once everyone had settled in around the fire.
Allister nodded. “Yes, a very well developed one too, I might add.”
“So what exactly are mountain beasts?” Liona asked, looking over. “I’ve never read about them.”
“They’re animals that have been possessed by a daemon.” Allister said. “They grow to be five times larger than their original species and kill anything in their way. Usually I can sense them much sooner than that, but I was distracted by what the tree elders had told us.”
Kali frowned. “So, are we in danger now or something? I mean, that happened during the day, what about the night?”
“Well, so long as everything stays predictable, the only night creature there is to worry about is the Banshee.”
There was a pause, and Foster rolled his eyes. “And those are…?”
“Tortured souls of women who were either cheated on by their husbands or had a baby taken away or killed.” Liona said. “Their scream can kill a human.”
Allister nodded. “But the only reason we should run into a Banshee is if someone wanders off alone. Banshee’s like to torture their victims, that’s harder to do if there’s more than one person.”
“Guess we all get to have a safety buddy from now on.” Kali said, sighing. “So what’s for dinner?”
As the group settled down after their meal, Foster, Kali and Jack decided to go to bed early. Allister took off to hunt, leaving Adara and Liona sitting by the fire as the embers slowly died out.
“Lilly, are you alright?” Adara asked, scooting closer.
Liona only sighed. “I don’t know.”
“There was something you weren’t telling us, wasn’t there?” She said.
Liona scrunched her nose. “ More than one thing, actually.”
Adara smiled, looking at Liona mysteriously. “Does one of them have to do with Foster?”
“What?” Liona said, her eyes widening. “How did you know?”
She only shrugged. “The way you were with him today. It wasn’t the same.”
“Well, we sort of kissed.” Liona said, rubbing her temple. “I really don’t know what happened. One minute we were screaming at each other, the next we were making out, it makes no sense.”
“And you wish it hadn’t happened?” Adara asked, smiling at her.
Liona looked over and stuck out her tongue. “Stop getting so much amusement out of this, it’s like kissing a brother.”
“He’s not your brother.” Adara reminded her, raising her eyebrows. “He might be like a brother, but he isn’t your brother.”
Liona nodded, looking back at the fire. “I just don’t know that I like him that way.”
“Could you?” Adara asked.
She only shrugged. “I have no idea. And this isn’t really the place to find that out, is it?”
Adara nodded, following Liona’s gaze towards the fire. “Well, what was the second thing?”
“After the ancient one cut off the vision of Darius, there was one more image. It showed me, floating in the air and…glowing. Like I was possessed or something.”
Adara nodded, frowning. “Perhaps it goes along with what the tree folk said? Lilly I told you before, I think you are a big part of this.”
“It doesn’t make sense though, Addie.” She said. “I’m not magic, I don’t have any powers, I’m just an average human. Why would I be so important?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, Lilly. But everything seems to be pointing to that. Maybe we’re not meant to know yet.”

* * * * *

Shortly after their conversation, the Liona and Adara went to bed. Liona, however, could not fall asleep. She tossed and turned under the cloth blankets they had been using for covers. Trying to sleep, she fell in and out of restless dreams. She dreamt about the image the ancient one showed her, of her glowing self and the five mysterious figures underneath her. She hadn’t been able to see them. She wondered if they were evil.
Giving up, she carefully climbed over the other sleeping humans in the shelter to go out into the open. The sun was barely rising in the horizon, and though the trees blocked her vision, the forest glowed a soft fiery orange color. She smiled to herself as she watched, breathing in the fresh and dew-filled air.
“Be careful now.” Someone said from behind her.
She jumped, but quickly realized who it was. “Sorry Allister, I promise I wasn’t going anywhere by myself.”
“I would hope not.” He said, walking to stand beside her. “You do realize it’s six in the morning.”
She nodded slowly. “Oh, well, I couldn’t sleep.”
He smiled down at her. “Do I not wake you up early enough?”
“I think if you went any earlier you’d have a mutiny on your hands.” She said, smiling back. Her smile quickly faded when she once again noticed how attractive Allister was in the soft light around them. It seemed to almost illuminate his perfect smile.
He frowned at her. “What is wrong?”
“Oh,” She said quickly, “Nothing. I’m fine. It’s just…”
“What?” He pressed. “I’m not like Jack, I can’t read minds.”
She let out a quick laugh and mumbled. “That’s a good thing.”
“What did you say?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. You just…um, you look really good in this light.”
He smiled. “Really?”
“Yes.” She said, turning away to try to hide her blush. Gently, she felt his hand turn her head back towards him. Resting it on the side of her jaw, his soft gray eyes held the gaze of her own green ones. She tried to take a deep breath, but only found she was unable to breathe.
She stood frozen as his head tilted and he leaned very close to her. Slowly, softly, he touched his lips to hers. She couldn’t move, she only stood as his hands cupped her face, kissing her. He wasn’t harsh, and he wasn’t forceful. In fact everything about his movements were careful and calculated, as if he’d been thinking about it for awhile.
Pulling away, he grinned, still holding her face. “I never have kissed a human before.”
Her jaw dropped. “You were listening.”
“I did mention that cats have excellent hearing, didn’t I?” He said, still smiling.
Suddenly, Liona heard cracking noises as if someone were walking on the forest floor. They both turned quickly to see Foster marching off into the forest.
“Oh, no.” She said, pulling away from Allister. “I’m sorry, I have to go after him. I’ll be back.”
“Let me go with you.” He said, beginning to follow her.
She shook her head, holding out her hand to stop him. “No, that wouldn’t be good. Look, I’ll be quick, I just have to get him back.”
He nodded, and she turned to run after Foster. He was walking quickly, and she had to pick up her pace to get within hearing distance.
“Tweak, wait up!”
He shook his head and kept walking. Rolling her eyes, she ran faster until she was nearly next to him.
“I’m serious, stop. We need to talk about this.”
He let out a sarcastic laugh. “Yeah, now we need to talk about it.”
“Foster, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry about what? Kissing two guys in one day? I get it, I was the mistake, but I didn’t think you’d replace me so quick.”
She pursed her lips. “Excuse me, it was not one day, but two days. He kissed me, if you didn’t see that part.”
“You sure didn’t do a whole lot to stop it.”
“Foster!” She said forcefully, grabbing his arm to stop him. “We are going to talk this out right now, so go ahead and scream at me all you want. Get it out, tell me what you need to. Only this time we are so not making out afterward.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. I don’t have anything to get out, Lilly.”
“Don’t do this.” She said, beginning to get distressed. “Why are you so upset about this?”
He shook his head. “Does it even matter? Go, run off into the sunset with your new boyfriend, he’s probably more of what you want anyway.”
“Tweak, you’re acting like I betrayed you or something, you’re still my best friend. You’re still everything to me, why are you jealous of some guy I don’t even know if I like or not?”
He sighed, looking away for a moment before turning to look at her again. “Because maybe it isn’t about that. I know you better than anyone, Lilly, I’ve been there since we were five years old. I know you better than Kali, hell I may even know you better than your parents. And after all those years, maybe I woke up one day and realized that I love you.”
“I love you too.” She said, shaking her head. “Tweak I don’t-”
“No.” He interrupted. “I’m not talking about that kind of love. Not brotherly, not family, none of that. I mean, I love you, Liona.”
Her heart felt as if a steel knife had stabbed it. He looked at her with all the sincerity of an angel, and she realized that he had confessed his darkest secret to her. A secret that he had been holding for who knew how long, and the only secret he had been unable to tell her.
“Foster,” She whispered.
He only shook his head. “It’s okay, Lilly. To be honest, I had to tell you, no matter what. I tried to ignore it, I tried to pretend like I didn’t feel that way, but it didn’t work. It doesn’t matter whether you feel the same way or not, but I had to tell you the truth. Maybe now I can move on.”
“How very sweet.” A dark voice said from behind them. “I do applaud your performance, boy, you might even get her one day.”
Foster and Liona whipped around to see who spoke. To her horror, Liona instantly recognized the face of Darius with his wife Meave standing only a few feet away. He smiled darkly at her, looking her up and down.
“I believe your name was Liona?” He said, walking towards them. “You were Adara’s maid if I remember correctly. What interesting clothes you wear right now. Clothes I have never seen before.”
Liona frowned, her whole body tense with fear. “What do you want, Darius?”
“You remember me too.” He said, nodding. “And it is now that I know more about you, Liona. For you see, at the time I hadn’t realized your origin. Yet just as your side has seers, I have my own future tellers. It’s too bad that their readings will soon change.”
His dark face twisted into a grin, and Liona’s eyes widened. “Run, Tweak!”
She turned to flee, but barely ran a few steps before she felt her whole body cramp up as if something very large was squeezing her. The pain was excruciating, and she tried hard to fight it. Her vision began to cloud, and soon she could do nothing else but surrender to the darkness.