The Sword Of Tiberius

Chapter 5

Everyone Winks at Me

| Luna | 

Shadow traveling is a dark business. Sorry I keep just skipping ahead without saying what happened before. Let me explain properly. So the next morning we all woke up early. Praetor Frank and Hazel were waiting for us.

"I think you should first stop in Kansas. Then go to Boston, then continue." Frank said.

"All right," I said, "but how do we get to Kansas?"

"We could shadow travel," said a voice behind me.

I turned around to see that James was standing right behind me.

"But how do we shadow travel?" I asked, "and what is shadow travel?"

"It's something that children of the Underworld can do," Hazel said, "we can merge into shadows and go from place to place."

She looked at James a little worriedly.

"But it uses a lot of energy. You will have to do two long jumps. If I would be going with you I could have given you extra strength. But Ella has made it quite clear that you five are supposed to go."

"Hazel, don't worry I'll be fine," James said, "trust me."

Hazel looked a little sceptical but nodded.

"All right then," she said, "good bye."

Then she winked at me before she and Frank went. After they left James beconded us near the shadows.

"All you have to do is hold hands. I will go in the shadows and you guys will get pulled along," he said.

We all nodded. I would be in the centre since no one was willing to hold hands with James, and James was not willing to hold anyone else's hands but mine (for some reason). So I was in the middle, James on my right, and Cia, August and Tristen on my left. As soon as James held my hand, I felt a surge of energy and then we went into darkness.

Now I will say that shadow travelling is a dark business. It was dark, cold and awesome. When we came back up into the light, James immediately fell against me.

"James!" I yelled. He must have been exhausted because his skin felt cold.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, trying to get up slowly, "I thought that I would fall asleep immediately, but for some reason I got some extra strength." He looked at me, and we had the same thought, when we were holding hands we had both felt a surge of energy, so that means we give each other extra strength somehow.

I looked around and saw a billboard.

"Guys," I said, "we have arrived at our first destination."

After we set up camp in the woods, Cia suddenly announced, "We'll need some firewood for the night. We can't risk another jump so let's stay here for the night." Then she turned to August and Tristen, "Come on boys. Let's go."

I suddenly knew what Cia was doing. She purposely wanted to leave me alone with James. Before she left she winked at me. Ugh! What's with everyone winking at me today?!

When they left, James looked at me and said, "So... Did you put some surge of energy through me or something? Because I have never tried shadow travelling for such a long distance and I quite thought that I would black out immediately."

"I don't know what happened," I told him, "Suddenly, as soon as you held my hand, I felt a surge of strength." Then I paused before saying, "Why are you always out of things James? I mean, I noticed that you stay out of most things, but when you are around and no one sees you, you get a sad kind of expression."

He raised an eyebrow at me, "You notice quite a lot of things about me." Then he said, "I know that seems strange, but because I'm a child of Pluto, and a child from the pa-" he stopped immediately.

"You're a child of the past too?" I asked him gently.

He just nodded. Then he looked at me and said, "When you say 'too', do you mean that you are also a child of the past?"

He had cornered me with his question. I didn't know what to say. And most annoyingly, the butterflies came back in my stomach.

Suddenly, James put his hand on mine. I suddenly felt really scared. I could feel myself rapidly breathing. Then something else strange happened. James just gently squeezed my hand.

"Hey," he said, "calm down. It's fine."

Then he winked at me and went off to sleep.