Orange Shadow Magic: Awaken. Book 1

Chapter 19: A Hidden Choice

Avery was fuming. How could Mally say she wasn't part of the prophecy when she had dedicated her entire life to saving the innocents whom King Expella hurt? Surely that proved where her loyalties lied? Mally had every right to be suspicious of her because of Avery's constant change of sides, but this was going too far. Avery couldn't bear to stay around, for fear of letting her dark side out again. She was a danger to all who knew her. Avery watched Mally's eyes narrow, and she narrowed her own, then calmed herself and began to take slow and depressed steps to the old house that she had seen when Gala had brought her here. It had a dark shingled roof with broken tiles and a cracked frame along the edge of smudged windows. Nobody would find her there.

"I'm going to go rest. I've had a long day," Avery spat and slyly went to go sit on the sand, and when the others had left, she got up and walked inside the shabby house a few feet away. It was filled with cobwebs which stuck to the ceiling and dusty which billowed up as she took small steps into the dining room. The site stopped her dead in her tracks. It looked as if someone had hurriedly produced their last meal here. Drawers were widely opened and the pantry doors were blowing open and closed from the wind. They were the only things without dust. An old pot of stew was still on the burner with the ladle still in it, the wax handle melted. It seemed as if a fight had been conducted here. Cabinet doors were off their hinges, and there were strange burn marks all over the wood, blackened like a piece of toast. Strangely, the tile was cracked beneath her, and even with a film of dust, there were little finger molds which had been pressed into the burnt tile. Everywhere from that point onward, there were marks of fire all over the furniture. The person who had previously stayed here had obviously left in a hurry; in which Avery did not know. Maybe they left because of the fire, but how did the fire start in the first place? She stepped into the living room, and what she saw nearly made her scream. Large claw marks were raked down the curtains, and the edges were singed, but covered in a film of dust. The couch had a huge missing chunk of stuffing, which looked as if it were taken by teeth marks. On the large wooden table was a book, written in sphinxish. Avery had never seen the different language before, but was automatically able to read it. It was a page discussing shadowlades and fairies. Avery was shocked. Something big had happened here. Something that should have definitely not happened. This wasn't normal, and Avery had to find out how it had happened, or else it would come back to haunt her the rest of her life. She looked at the thousands of items within the house, but then saw the room go dark and the door slam forcefully behind her.

"Who's there?" Avery called fearfully into the unbearably treacherous darkness which surrounded her eyes.

"I know how you are feeling inside," a voice called that Avery knew had to be Gala's.

"What do you want?" Avery snapped, wiping the tears from her eyes before Gala could see them. She saw a swish of a cloak through the dark air, but then it was gone like the flames of her heart.

"You are frustrated that Mally cannot see that you mean no harm. You are angry because Mally doesn't know that you have changed. You are fuming because all Mally can see in you is a ruthless villain who is heartless. Maybe she does think those things about you. Maybe all people will ever see in you is a villain with a rough past. Have you ever thought to think that maybe you can't change the way people see you? Maybe you should embrace a little of it....... edge them on. Show them that you were that way once, but you can change. Mally may never trust you, may never love you for who you really are, she may not love me either, but we can love each other. I don't care that we don't share any blood, any relatives, anyone living thing, but we can love each other. We are sisters, bound by oath and by truth and by love. Sisters forever, agreed?" Finally Gala revealed herself from the darkness, covered in an orange cloak like Avery. "We may not be the same age but, I consider us twins!" Avery nodded her head, but Gala's words couldn't seem to fill the raging void in her heart and head. Only one thing could fill it-the truth that she actually belonged among these freedom-fighters. Gala frowned and lifted the orange cloak off the mop of hazel brown hair that lay twisted in front of her eyes. "I know nothing I say can fill the amount of doubt you hold for yourself. So I will show you something I have shown no other living person. It was the original prophecy my mother wrote. I will show you the names. Then you will know who you really are. If you aren't on the list, then you know Mally is right about you. But if your name is on that list, then no matter what anyone else tells you, you've deserved a space right beside me and my jerk sister." Gala smiled and snapped her fingers. A book sprang forward from the dusty case, which caused a hidden corner of the pale stone wall to turn a vibrant glowing lavender color and a door to form. Gala opened it slowly, and beckoned Avery inside. All that was inside the room was an oak desk with a piece of paper sitting fresh on top of it. Avery ran to it and clutched it as if her life depended on it. She scanned the names and gasped. The names read like so: Mally, Gala, Coral, Wrendylan, Avery, Mattzew, and Aaron. Avery gasped and dropped the paper from her fingertips, it spiraling to the ground at Gala's feet.

"I told you silly! You deserve a spot in this group. You think your powers should be used for evil? You are made for good! I can see it in you," Gala pointed at Avery's heart, "right in there!"

"So it is true," Avery whispered, "that I am in the prophecy?" Gala smiled and grabbed the paper from the ground, waving it in front of Avery's face.

"Well, my mother Malaxy wrote it right here!" Gala exclaimed, and finally, Avery smiled just a little.