Legacy Rises (Lorien Legacies: Book 7)

Chapter 7: Nine

"Come on, guys! Go faster!" I yell from across the street. Ella, Marina, and I had crossed the street so we could spread out and now I am in front of a clothing store.

"We're coming, Nine!" Marina moans as she and Ella make their way across a crosswalk.

"My legs can't run that fast! I'm only eleven, remember?" Ella complains.

I sigh in defeat and meet them halfway across the street. I grab Ella and fling her over my shoulder. She shrieks in delight and starts giggling. She's extremely light and I easily carry her across the street.

I set her down and Marina joins us.

"Thanks, Nine!" Ella says, still grinning.

"Umm as helpful as that was, some people were giving us some strange looks," Marina says nervously.

"Let's go inside a store. We definitely need new clothes," I say, motioning to my T-shirt that Ella is wearing.

We walk into a store which, to my dismay, is a girl's store, the walls painted pink and red.

"Can we go somewhere else?" I ask.

"Nope," Marina says. She hands me her backpack from Lexa, which has her and Ella's money in it. Then she playfully rubs my head and her and Ella walk into the ocean of clothes.

I sigh and sit next to the door. I really hate shopping, but really need some new clothes. I'm pretty sure I smell like a sewer.

I fall asleep against the wall and probably start snoring. I wake up to a little girl tapping me on the shoulder.

"Huh?" I say, sitting up groggily. The girl looks about eight years old and has auburn hair, like Ella's.

"You were sleeping on the floor," she says, her voice high with youth.

"Yeah, what'd you wake me up for?" I say, annoyed to be awoken from a needed nap.

"Oh. Sorry. I just thought you might want to know that someone stole your backpack."

"What!" I stand up quickly and brush my black hair out of my face. I really need to cut it. "Who took my backpack?"

"I just saw some girl take it and run towards the bakery," the girl replies, pointing out the door to the right.

"Crap! That had all of our money in it!" I exclaim. "Thanks, kid, I gotta go."

I gently move the little girl out of the way and bolt out the door, turning to the right. I run down the sidewalk, dodging startled pedestrians, and use my enhanced vision to look at the stores. There's a sign hanging above a door that says 'The Sifted Flour Bakery.' I sprint towards it when I reach a staircase. When I reach the top of the stairs and am about to drop onto the first step, the stairs freeze over with ice, making the stairs into an icy, cold ramp. Before I can stop myself, I fall and slide down the stairs. I yell, but it's cut short when I hit the ground. I sit up and moan. I see a girl back away from the door of the bakery.

Suddenly, it all becomes clear to me. The little girl. The ice. The backpack with our money in it. I just got pranked by Ella and Marina.

"Ha ha ha. Very funny," I say sarcastically. "Marina, Ella, you can come out now."

Marina walks out of the bakery and the little girl walks up behind me. I stand up and watch as the little girl seems to age forward and turns back to Ella.

"Aeternus is a very useful Legacy when it comes to pranks," Ella says, grinning.

"Sorry about that, Nine!" Marina says. She presses her hands to my head and I feel her healing Legacy dulling the throb in my head. "We saw you sleeping and thought it would be fun to pull a prank on you."