Extraordinary (The Extraordinary Saga #4)

Chapter 13

Peter felt the blast before he saw it. In fact, he never saw it at all.

And in that moment, he only thought one thing: Jordyn and Jay, I told you not to.

He should have figured this would happen. Was it really that much of a surprise? Even so, as he dragged himself out of his bedroom window, sneaking out without his dads' permission, there was a knot of frustration in his gut.

The earth rumbled under his feet, but that wasn't anything unusual. He was used to feeling the tremors caused by every little thing. At least he'd had his dads to help him understand it. Especially Tom. Not that Brian didn't know a ton about magic, but Tom had lived through it.

Yes, indeed, Peter's dad's childhood best friend had encountered magic before. Aether. The second Peter had moved that rock with his mind, he had been filled in with every single inexplicable phenomenon known to humankind, including the fact that he was one.

That was months ago. By now, he thought he knew everything - how Aether would fluctuate depending on months and years, when not to go and mess with magic, how the whole ordeal got started.

And so did Jay and Jordyn. So why would they go and do something as itiotic as this?

He followed the vibrations in the earth until it was clear what he was looking for - someone had left a large, gaping hole right at the base of a mountain.

Talk about obvious.

He peered down the hole, shocked to see a cave down underneath. How had there been a tunnel in the earth he'd never known about? The earth was his territory, not like Jay or Jordyn. And the worst part about it was they'd specifically mentioned coming here to examine the lake.

Clearly, that had gone south. Peter had warned them, after all. He made a mental note to tell them: next time they found something freaking extraordinary on his turf, they had to let him know.

He jumped into the cave, feeling the earth ripple under his feet as he landed.

And the second he looked up, a wave of gold shot down the cave and past his face. It happened so fast he didn't even have time to flinch.

Guess I'm in the right place.

He turned around in time to see a glowing cloud of gold dust...

Something, unbeknownst to Peter, that was a not-shadow.

When Peter looked around for it, he saw it was gone. The only hint of it was the strange path of yellow engraved into the wall of the cave - something Peter knew was connected to Aether and had been there long before the golden thing flew at him. Following the direction it came from, he turned down the tunnel. It wasn't long before he heard voices echoing down the chasm.

"What the-"

"Where did it come from?!"

"Rowan, what did you do?"

That last one was Jordyn, but Peter didn't recognize any of the other voices. And from the sound of it, there were more people than just those three.

Who was Rowan?

"I-I didn't do anything," a girl, Peter assumed Rowan, pleaded. Even in the dim light - which seemed to come from another person's hand - Peter could see Rowan's wild eyes, darting around behind her glasses.

"The wall just... spit it out," someone else said. He was tall and tan with brown hair, and his hands were trembling - which, admittedly, made sense. "Is that where it comes from?"

Peter didn't have any idea what they were talking about, but his attention was pulled away by the sound of footsteps behind him.

He turned, half expecting to see another cloud of particles. To his relief, all he saw was a person.

She looked terrified, so Peter knew she wasn't a part of the original group that Jay and Jordyn seemed to be involved in. Her green eyes darted from him, to the glowing wall, to the other six people who were still deep in an argument.

Peter turned to her and made himself appear calm. He lowered his voice so that he could barely hear himself.

"You need to get out of here," he whispered.

The girl blinked, then shook her head, her blonde-and-green hair falling around her shoulders.

"No," she insisted, seemingly surprising herself as much as Peter. "Well, yes. But you all need to run, too."

Peter started to respond, then stopped. This girl's aura was so... familiar, so strong, even in the face of the Aether all around them. "Who are you?"

She narrowed her eyes. "My name is Hope."

Peter said nothing.

"And you are?" Hope added when Peter didn't visibly react to her statement. But Peter didn't get to answer, because Jay had turned around, his grey eyes staring straight at him.

"Peter?"