Hidden Heirs and Fallen Crowns (Complete)

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I'm sleeping in exactly the same position that I fell asleep that night. The Sun is shining through the windows, blinding me. I get up slowly, rubbing my eyes after the long night that I spent struggling to fall asleep.  

When I take my hands away from my eyes, I see the crystal chandelier right in front of my face.  

"What the ... ?" I say. I look up at the ceiling, and see part of the chandelier still connected to the ceiling. What's this part doing here, then? I ask myself. I sit up and reach out to make sure it's real. It is. It must have broken, but what was holding it up? Was it just suspended in the air?  

I slide out of bed to get a good view of what was wrong with the chandelier and freeze, staring at the room.  

Everything.  

Every object in the room is suspended in the air, slowly moving and rotating and rising and sinking. 

Jasmine! Zed! I think. Help!  

They come bursting in the room a moment later.  

"What's wrong ..." Jasmine trails off, staring wide-eyed at the suspended objects. "What's happening?" she whispers. 

Zed just smiles. "Thirtieth day." 

"What talent's that?" I whisper, still looking around warily.  

He grins again. "Relax," he says. "Just relax and watch." 

I do as he tells me with difficulty, and every object reluctantly drops to the ground.  

"Wind-bender," he tells me. "Just like you wanted." 

*** 

I sat up suddenly, eyes wide open. That had been the weirdest dream I'd ever dreamt. I look around the room to make sure that it had been a dream ...  

Rise and shine, Princess! Zed greets me.  

"Zed?" I whispered, still not believing my eyes. I rubbed them thoroughly, and opened them wide to take in what I was seeing a bit more clearly.  

I wasn't dreaming. The chandelier ... just like in the dream! I looked around and my jaw dropped open in awe. That dream hadn't been a dream after all.  

"Zed! Jasmine!" I yelled. "Help!"  

Jasmine flung my door open instantly, and stopped dead in her tracks.  

"What have you done?" she asked. "What are they doing in the air? " 

"I honestly have no idea," I told her, sliding out of bed and joining her at the door. "It was the same in my dream," I whispered. "I woke up, and ..."  

"Wind-bender," I heard. Zed was behind me, smiling in exactly the same way he had in the dream. "All you need to do is relax." 

"I know," I muttered. I tried to relax my coiled body. The objects came down a bit, stopped, fell a bit further, and stopped again. Jasmine winced every time the cups and plates seemed to be yanked down.  

"Could you put my china down gently?" she said, wincing again as they stopped inches from the floor. "I knew decorating your room with china cupboards wasn't a good idea," she added.  

"Er, I'll try, but I can't guarantee a full china set when I'm done," I warned her. I relax completely and, sure enough, they all drop down to the wooden floorboards. She winced as a few cups met their deaths.