Just In Time

Chapter Seventeen

If someone could craft out Declan's worst nightmare into reality, this would have been it.

Not only had his stupid powers gone haywire when he'd needed them but it had brought him back to the place that he frequently saw in his nightmares.

Atlantis.

The last time he'd been stuck in the watery hellhole, his trip had lasted for a day.

One horrible day of his life.

"You look just like me." Aubrey spoke up looking at the newest addition to Decalan's very very shitty day. 

Eyes as blue as Aubrey's and a set of features that matched the former exactly, the only thing that distinguished the princess of Atlantis from Aubrey was the color of her hair.

Honey blonde, like the sun.

He'd memorised that shade in his head long back, ever since he had been a scared ten year old who had travelled back to Atlantis without even understanding his powers.

And he'd been seeing it in his nightmares ever since.

The princess looked at Raphael confused,"What's wrong with her?"

"Crap." Aubrey continued,"You look exactly like me. Not the hair obviously, I think my hair looked like that too, but after dying it-"

"Is Aubrielle quite alright?" The princess asked Raphael. There was something very airy about her tone that distinguished her from her doppelganger. It was far more refined, a mark of someone high class.

"Well, they aren't quite themselves."
Raphael answered.

"I don't understand." The princess responded.

"Yeah neither do I." Aubrey said casting a sideways glance towards Declan.

There was something about her gaze that irked Declan. She'd always been tougher to read, more than most people and for a scary moment Declan wondered if she'd seen right through him.

But the entire possibility of that was ridiculous.

There was no way she could know.
There was no way any of them could know what he was hiding.

And yet Declan found himself straining himself to use a power he rarely used.

Although he couldn't read minds, there were moments, moments of clarity in which Declan could hear them.

It wasn't a power that worked with everyone, only a selective few and that too occasionally.

Aubrey though, was the exception to the rule.

Her voice dominated over all others. He could hear her from miles apart, every tiny thought that was going on in her head.

And when he thought back, she listened.

And yet there were times when her mind and her face likewise were absolutely opaque.

This was one such time.

Of course, Declan thought, The one time he needed to know what was going on her head everything had gone silent.

He'd heard her grumbling through out their walk here but now there was nothing.

"Well these are younger versions of them." Raphael said slowly,"Versions from their past."

The princess stood with a blank face until it dawned on her. She glanced at Declan,"So they don't know who I am?"

"No. They are clueless about everything." Raphael said,"This is before they ever met us."

The princess stood still and for that second Declan can't help but cast his mind on everything that was different about the two girls who looked almost exactly like each other.