The Necklace: The Trial Realm

Chapter Thirty Six: Hope

"What do you mean the stones have been compromised?" Raysmith's voice is shrill and every person in the room looks pale and petrified. Even Raven has the good sense to look concerned, though he's still eying Oliver out of the corner of his eyes.

"That's impossible." Tonyedda says, shaking her head and I squeeze my fist around my own stone, mirroring the actions of everyone else. We all feel the connections to our stones and the thought of something being wrong with them is a scary one.

"I wish it weren't." Oliver nods once, staring down at his shackled hands. "But it is. It wasn't fair, but The six said that if the Demi could meddle in their realms to pick their Custodes, then they could meddle with their stones."

"This is terrible." A man at the other side of the room sighs. "What have they done to them? Will they not work anymore? How will we have the power to keep the peace if our stones don't work?"

"They still work," Oliver says and most of the room relaxes with deep exhales of nerves and breath. "But..." He stalls, looking around and then back at me until Raven glares him into looking away again. "They don't choose properly." He spits it out and the air in the room seems to get colder as everyone's fear is brought back in full force.

"Don't work properly?" Raysmith repeats him slowly.

Oliver's red hair glints in the light as he nods. "They messed with the magic of the stones that seeks out the right person for it." He says quickly, sounding ashamed, as he should be. "The plan was to use the stones to undermine the Custodes, and cause you to fail, but so many that were chosen falsely were rising to the challenge once they were here and so they began to up their game with it."

"Meaning?" Raysmith asks.

"Falsely chosen?" Tonyedda spits out at the same time.

I feel my world spinning around me and Raven's hand slides into mine, steadying me. Oliver notices it too, his eyes glued to mine and Raven's joined hands.

"You move on fast." He says under his breath and I'm not sure who's rage I'm feeling first, mine or Raven's. He stiffens beside me and I lurch forward only to be pulled back although Raven looks like it was the last thing in the world he wanted to have to do.

"Are you kidding me?" I snap at Oliver. "How's your girlfriend Courtlyn? Oh, that's right," I hold a finger to my chin. "You killed her right before you then tried to kill me too. Screw off, Oliver!"

Oliver and Raven both seem to be oblivious to everything else but their glaring stare match until Tonyedda clears her throat and Raysmith folds her arms over her chest in disapproval. "Are we here to play games and bicker or are we here to resolve the issue of the Gods conspiring against us? Because the bigger issue to me is the lives at stake, not which boy is this Newb's boyfriend." She snaps and burn bright red as Oliver sweeps his eyes back to his own hands on the table.

He still takes a minute to get himself back on track, but then he begins speaking again. "They messed with the stones to have them go off and chose the wrong people for them." He says. "That was an issue for a lot because most of them weren't cut out for this life and so they would fail bootcamp or decide at the end to not take their oath and they would default back to their home realms. But that wasn't working fast enough for The Six or making enough of a mess. So that's when they started messing with the heads of a few Custodes and forcing them to help the stones choose the wrong people and then...then they'd have me, or any other person under their control, to make friends with the person and lead them astray or convince them to leave. Anything to ruin the Custodes chances."