The Cousins

Chapter 3 - September 4th

A few minutes later, Solana and Veronica were slowly dragging a very intoxicated and very heavy Kelvin across campus to either one of their cars, which one was still up for debate. Veronica, being as tall as Kelvin, had far less trouble dragging him than his cousin.

"THAT'S WHY YOU CAME!" Veronica said. "You knew that was going to happen...whatever that was!"

"I swear, I didn't," Solana replied. "That's not the family issue I'm talking about!"

"Oh yeah, then what is it?"

Solana turned away. "I can't say." Veronica and Kelvin had only been dating for a year, there was no way she could tell her something that important. Although finding an alternate story for her fire powers was much easier than whatever these wings were. They weren't exactly connected to him physically, but they could not be forcefully moved from their position, almost as if they were invisibly stuck to him. There was nothing in any of her books that she had read about wings or transformations, which made this all the more shocking to her and everyone who saw...which was about a quarter of campus.

"What do you mean you can't say? This boy literally just sprouted wings and they definitely don't look fake so I'm sorry that I'm a LITTLE confused."

"Because it's a secret! Not even Kelvin knows about it yet!"

"What the hell? Why not? Are y'all a band of secret fairies or something?"

"No!" Solana rolled her eyes. They passed the large willow tree as the darkness spread throughout more of the field.

"Hey, who's that?" Veronica asked.

Solana saw in the distance a petite, woman-like figure with a ski-mask that covered her whole head, except for her eyes, which were red. The woman carried a small dagger with her. "I don't know," The girl in the distance held her blade up and started running towards them. "But she can't be good."

"What are you talking about?" Veronica said a little more quietly.

Solana took Kelvin's arm off of her, letting the limp extremity fall down and shoved him onto Veronica. "Take him home, my Aunt Judy can explain everything!"

"But what are you going to-" Solana summoned a fireball. Veronica's jaw dropped once again that night. "Got it, Judy will explain everything."

Solana watched Veronica drag Kelvin in another direction, then focused on the woman running towards her. "I don't want to fight!" She said summoning another fireball on the other hand. The flames shook with her hand, she had yet to fight anyone with guidance; Aunt Judy kept pushing back her fighting training so she could focus on creating fire, which Solana had no trouble doing. Instead she trained on her own, practicing against the dummies in her backyard. But she had no experience against a real person.

The girl didn't hesitate as she leaped into the air and pulled her arm with the dagger back ready to strike. Solana threw both fireballs at her, and with grace the girl sliced both fireballs as if she were cutting softened butter. She landed and ran towards Solana. Solana snapped her fingers and a ring of fire circled the ground around her. She raised her hand and the ring became a wall, stopping the girl in her tracks.

"Gotcha!" Solana said as she got in horse stance. She pushed her arms out and the fire wall quickly expanded.

As far as it got, Solana didn't hear a scream, nor did the fire wall pass over the girl. In fact, to Solana's astonishment, the girl leaped over the wall, which was about ten feet tall. While in mid-air the girl pointed the dagger at Solana and a beam of dark energy was released. Solana closed in the wall, but the beam pierced the flames, striking Solana and knocking her down. The wall dissipated. While on the floor the girl ran towards Solana, she summoned a fireball in defense.