The Breeze Trials

Chapter 12

With the return of school came a suspicion of everyone that walked passed, wondering if they were the person we needed. It wasn't just from me, but Jace as well. We both narrowed our eyes and reached out for something special among the strangers. Most of the week, I hadn't seen Aaron, who was mostly keeping his space, but he assured me he was keeping a lookout as well.

Our little trio wasn't the only group with suspicions, though. We were running around looking strange the day the popular kids disappeared, and that made people question if we knew anything. Luckily, we weren't bothered too much once the rumor started that they ran away together to take a vacation in Vegas. Apparently, that was a 'very Karina-like move'. I doubted now that her friends had any clue what "Karina-like" really was, but it was convenient for us.

"So, who could it be?" I asked my friends, trying not to run away from the dense atmosphere. "Going off of what clues we can gather," Jace started. "It has to be someone at this school. A student more than likely, since we're all around the same age, at least, in human form, that is." I leaned back, ignoring his comment, and tangled my fingers in my hair. "This is so frustrating!" I fell back onto the table and looked from him to Aaron. It was hard to ignore the recent events, especially when Aaron arrived and had to clearly think about who he wanted to sit on the same side with, but I had to make an effort to keep him close to me, even though he picked Jace. Hunting teams before meowing Queens, I guess. "Can't we just use some sort of locator thing? I mean, if they were made as a set then shouldn't they be able to find each other or something?"

"Calm down, Breezy." Aaron said with a half smile. I glanced in his direction, I couldn't look at him long without seeing the hurt in his eyes, not that I could look at Jace when he glanced at my lips every five seconds, either. "This is such a mess. Why can't Green just saunter up with a smile? " I put my head on the table, starting to feel more stressed than ever before.

"To answer your question, there isn't a locator. They were found based on riddles, as most powerful magical objects." Jace popped a fry drowning in red into his mouth after explaining. Aaron, who for once didn't look sick at the other boy's voice, nodded. "Maybe we can figure this out after we find Black. We can worry about the missing stone later."

"And do you have any ideas on how to do that, then?" Jace responded. I looked at the two in front of me, similar but still so different. While Jace didn't throw things at me in class upon first meeting, he did make me equally as mad as Aaron had back then, they both stood the same way occasionally, but as far as personality, they were night and day. "Karina or Jay aren't at school," I piped in drearily. "And I highly doubt the rumors are true, even if it's faster to teleport to Vegas than fly."

That's when Aaron snapped his attention to me. "Breeze, wait a minute, it just hit me. This is great!" He looked around, noticing he was drawing attention, and lowered his voice. "You always find me no matter where I am," his eyes clouded over for a second. "So, uh, maybe you can try finding one of them. Never mind the stone, look for the tag-along."

"You want me to try and find Jay?"

"Wow, bro, that's actually not a bad idea." Jace sounded impressed. "After school?" I offered. This caused Aaron to shake his head furiously. "Now. We can't waste time staring at people and hoping for a sign."

"We have classes!" I shouted, exasperated. "Breeze, if this goes on and some huge thing kills everybody, I'm pretty sure classes will be the last of their worries. All of us have barely missed anything, we'll be okay. As for new guy here, he definitely looks like the skipping type." Jace raised his eyebrow, amused. I had to admit that Aaron made sense. With a sigh, I stood up and motioned for them to follow. Why does this have to be my job?

. . . . .

"Why can't Jace do this?" I moaned. I didn't want to let everyone down with my inexperience. "I've never been good at that sort of thing." He muttered, distracted. Sure, he wasn't. Mr. Teacher obviously had many weaknesses.