Sealed

Chapter 1

I sighed as the rural landscape zipped by, bringing us closer and closer to our destination. With every mile my panic mounted, I didn't want to go back to Helmsley, not yet, I wasn't ready for the months of living hell I was about to endure. Sensing my panic my twin, Caleb, looked over. He knew exactly why I was dreading going back, because he endured it for the better part of last year along with me. "It'll be fine Ela."

I laughed bitterly, " How do you suppose? Do you think everyone will magically forget that I'm a Maverick? Or that I'm the first sophomore in the history of Helmsley to still be undetermined? Did you forget how horrible they are?" I didn't even wait for his response before turning back to the window and popping in my ear buds.

Caleb was the lucky one, he managed to escape the stigma that surrounds our family but even then he was only tolerated. You see Caleb just so happens to be a Fire Shifter, the second rarest type of Shifter. While this limits the number of forms he can take, he is still extremely powerful.

You would think that having the most forms would be desirable, but that is not the case. Power is a strange thing with shifters, the most common group, Land Shifters, have the most forms, yet they have considerably less power. The next group is Water Shifters, while still common they are fractionally more powerful than the Land Shifters, nobody's quite sure why that is. After Water comes Celestial Shifters, these are the ones who can become mythical creatures. Celestials make up about sixteen percent of the population, while Land and Water are forty and thirty respectively. Fire Shifters makeup about thirteen percent. The final one percent is Universal Shifters. Universal Shifters are the exception to the rule, they have an infinite number of forms and are extremely powerful. The downside to this is that the sheer amount of power that they possess is, literally, maddening. Most Universals die within in three years of being determined, the use of their powers begins to tear them apart from the inside out. The lucky ones end up going insane, at this point they are practically dead, their power is completely drained and with it goes their will to live. There is only one known case where a Universal Shifter hasn't had their body and mind destroyed, the case of Lucidious Maverick. Coincidentally he is the one who tried to destroy the world and in the processes managed to destroy our family's reputation.

Of course this is only one of the reasons why our family is hated, the other being the long standing rivalry between us and the royal family, the Cadeyrns. My ancestors tried, more than once, to overthrow the royal line. They never came close to succeeding, that is until the final revolt about two centuries ago. My family, once known as the Maverdarians, actually managed to get into the castle where the royal family was residing and killed all but one member of the Cadeyrn line. The Maverdarians where defeated and the head of the family was brought to the new King. The King knew he couldn't punish the Maverdarians due to the agreement between the families made almost a millennia before, so instead he changed our name to Maverick and made sure that while we would be allowed to live on we would never do so in peace. The results of this decree have only magnified with time, the rivalry between the families is still very much alive.

I cringed at the thought of having to see his royal pain in the ass, Prince Stephan Kristofer Aron Dane Cadeyrn, again. Aron was the worst out of all of my tormentors, he went out of his way to make my life terrible. So naturally I went out of my way to annoy him. Just because I don't want to be noticed, doesn't mean I don't have a spine. At first I let it go, but as time went on Aron didn't let up, finally I had had enough and I fought back. Understandably this did nothing to help my situation but it sure as hell made me feel better.

The car ride seemed to last forever and as much as I hated that place, Helmsley was one of the few places where I was allowed to be myself. My parents enforced a strict code of conduct, making it nearly impossible for me and Caleb to actually do something with our lives, much less enjoy the summer. I can promise you if I have to spend one more minute with this stupid headband in I was going to lose it!