By the time the guard's footsteps faded away, my necklace was shaking so much it was hurting my skin. I reached down through the collar of my dress to pick it up.
"What's going on?" someone said, sounding scared. I didn't recognize the voice, so it must have been the new boy. Once again, I could barely see in the darkness of the box. I looked up to tell him that I had no clue when I noticed that he had a glowing necklace draped around his neck as well. That was when I really started to doubt this was all coincidental.
Beside me, Lae was staring at a small spot on the floor, her face scrunched up in concentration. Perhaps she was searching her brain for answers. Lae found a reason for everything, it seemed, so I trusted her to do all the major thinking. I slid over towards her, and my necklace seemed to do the same. The beautiful blue jewel sort of jumped off my chest toward Lae, and Lae's necklace reached out toward mine so both necklaces were vibrating in midair. Lae looked up, her concentration broken by this change. Her eyes narrowed. I could almost see the gears turning inside her head. Then she spoke, her eyes never going back to normal.
"The necklaces are acting like magnets. They must be!" She tested this theory by sliding over to me until my butt was touching hers. It was intimidating, really. Even though Lae was a bit smaller than me, I still felt as if she were some bully trying to squash me in the corner. Especially since she was staring at me with this intense face that reminded me of Mrs. Roy about to blame me for something I clearly hadn't done. But she was right about the necklaces being magnets. My jewel slammed into hers as soon as the two were close enough together. For the first time, I got a good look at Lae's jewel. It was not blue like mine, but spring green, and shaped like a leaf. I wondered what the others' jewels looked like.
"That's it!" Lae actually smiled. "Everybody, meet me in the center!" She got on her hands and knees and started crawling, however, she was stopped almost immediately as I was still sitting in the corner and was now connected to her. "Come on!" she urged. I sighed and crawled over to her. Rennoc was the first one in the center. Lae and I met him there, and our necklaces connected to his. Then Nika crawled over and was attached to the three of us. We had formed a circle, but there was one empty spot. The new boy then crawled over and filled it in. His necklace shot up and connected to ours.
At once, there was a huge blinding flash of light, except it didn't blind me like it should have, and traveled much slower than normal light. It started in the center where our necklace jewels were attached. Like a large balloon, the light grew bigger and bigger, until we were all inside of it. Bright, white light was all I could see. Everything was light, and yet my eyes didn't seem bothered by it one bit. It was the strangest thing. Then the light went out. It was gone, just like that. I almost doubted I'd seen it at all, and I would have, had I not had enough time to read everyone's faces before the next strange thing happened. They all wore pretty much the same expression, confused, scared, maybe slightly angry, and a tiny bit excited. That was exactly how I felt, and it made me feel better to know that I wasn't the only one who had experienced the abnormal light.
Another ball rose from the five necklaces, but this one was not light. It was made of colors, swirling around the ball like smoke – red, blue, brown, green, and white. Then it split into five bubbles, one of each color – red, blue, brown, green, and white. The blue floated towards me. It was the same aqua blue color as the jewel on my necklace. The same color as my mother's eyes. A lump grew in my throat, but it was quickly chased away and replaced with excitement and fear and anticipation of what was to come. The blue bubble halted directly in front of my face. Part of me wanted to reach out and grab it, but somehow I knew I shouldn't. The bubble began to rise. I followed it with my eyes until it froze again mere inches from the top of my head.
YOU ARE READING
Aqua Jewel
Fantasia(Book 1 of The Globe of Tarahabi series) Once a year in Mencia, every thirteen-year-old has a chance to gain a talent. You could have the power to fly, or to become invisible. You might be telepathic, or telekinetic. There's such a wide variety. But...
