"You again?" I ask Ilana when she enters my room in the morning. Does she understand the concept of knocking or privacy? Then I look at the cameras that film every corner of my room and inwardly laugh at the stupidity of my question.
"I talked to Brat." After the way we left things yesterday, she's very short with me. Today we've reached a new level of tension. "This afternoon you'll be able to talk to your siblings."
"Wow, has the love of you life finally learned how to think?"
"You better watch your mouth?"
"Or what? He'll torture my family?" Ilana says nothing. I turn to the first camera, "If you touch any of them, you can say goodbye to the jewel. You'll never get it." I have no idea if he's listening, but it feels good to say it out loud. I'm tired of them bullying me. It's high time I fought back.
In surprise I watch Ilana take a seat in one of the armchairs.
"What are you still doing here?"
"I was told to stay by your side and make sure you try to solve the puzzle."
"I don't need you here."
"I have no doubt," she says in an even voice.
Finally we are Skype-calling Brackwick, and I am seconds away from talking to my siblings, who have been kept hostage for over three weeks. As I wait for them to answer our call, I rub my temples; I guess I knew that this search wouldn't happen overnight, but I still hoped that my family wouldn't have to spend that much time in that creepy castle.
"Good morning." Brackwick's scarred, smiling face appears on our screen, and I immediately feel a rush of aversion. "Ilana, are you there?" She steps in front of the computer and greets her father. "I must say that I'm disappointed with the lack of any results."
"I know." Her eyes aren't blinking and she is very stiff. Apparently, this isn't the first time she's heard this.
"Now, Air, your brothers and sister are here. They know nothing about the first clue so you might want to fill them in."
Brackwick steps aside, and I see Fire's, Water's and Earth's faces. They are serious, but besides that all of them look healthy. This fact pleases me immensely.
"Bro, how are the things?"
"Slow." I answer Earth's question, turning the talisman in my hands. "We're still in Croatia. We've managed to find out what the inscription on the talisman says, but it still doesn't make any sense to me."
"What is it?" Fire leans closer to the camera, her blue eyes looking deeply into mine.
Raising the talisman higher, I move it closer to the camera so that they can read it for themselves.
It's in the stomach of a dark and empty monster
That never sees the light,
Whoever goes there usually dies.
Whoever hasn't seen it,
Will never know the answer.
Fire reads it aloud and turns first left then right to see the reaction of the others. Both Earth and Water frown. They don't have the answer. Water reads it once again and then leans back in his chair, scratching his square jaw.
"It's some kind of a riddle." He states the obvious.
"I think the monster must be a scary place, a dark place, somewhere you don't like or are afraid of," Earth chimes in.
YOU ARE READING
In My True Element
FantasyHe's been the black sheep of his supernatural family for longer than he cares to remember. He wanted to love and be happy; instead he had to lie to his family, strip them off their powers and disappear for over three hundred years without so much as...
