Confused, Keegan asked, “Do you mean because
of the dark elf?”
With a worried look still on her face, her
mother said, “This is much bigger than you can understand. Once
your father gets home we’ll have your grandmother come over and
then decide what to do.”
Her mother jumped up and made some phone
calls.
It wasn’t like her mom to be so cryptic.
Keegan shivered, brushing the feeling away. She didn’t understand
what was going on, but she hoped that her mom was just
overreacting. Grabbing her iPad, she went up to her room.
She decided to do some research on dark elves
and was surprised at how much information there was on Google.
Obviously, most of the information was incorrect. The dark elf
didn’t seem bothered that she was out during the day, and she was
far from ugly. Most humans would be shocked if they knew the extent
of supernatural beings that blended into their world each day.
Before the front door had even opened, Keegan
knew her father was home. After the reaction her mother gave her,
his presence made her feel a little apprehensive.
A few minutes later, she heard her
grandmother arrived, the soft mumble of her voice drifting to her
room. Her father’s voiced boomed up the stairs, “Family
meeting!”
Keegan dragged herself from her desk chair
and headed down the hall. Thaddeus glared at her as she passed his
open doorway. He was sitting on the floor in front of his
television, game controller in hand. “Are you kidding me, Keegan!
What have you done this time? I’m in the middle of a game.”
Keegan stopped, leaning on the doorjamb and
sighing. “Just get downstairs. You know how dad gets if he thinks
we’re not listening to him.”
He reached over, grumbling under his breath,
and turned off the Xbox. “This better be good.”
“I thought you knew everything,” Keegan
teased as they started down the hall, ruffling her hand in her
brother’s soft auburn hair. Though he was four years younger than
her, he was quickly catching up to her in height.
“Shut up. You know that’s not how it works,”
he responded, ducking away from her grasp.
They headed down the stairs as if they were
marching to their death. Unplanned family meetings were generally
not a good thing.
Warrick was sitting in the corner building
towers out of his brightly colored blocks. Keegan envied the fact
he was excused from family meetings because of his age. No one knew
yet what his power would be. He was not yet two, but one glimpse
into his inquisitive eyes revealed that he seemed to understand
more than an infant could at his age. He babbled happily at her as
she passed, so she gave him a quick kiss on the top of head.
Her mother and father sat on one side of the
table, with her grandmother, Mary, seated quietly on the other side
in her pressed khaki slacks and blue cardigan sweater.
Grandmother was a tiny woman with bright red
hair, clear blue eyes, and youthful looks, thanks to her healing
abilities. Her round, rosy face was always kind and usually
smiling, but she looked more somber than Keegan could ever remember
seeing her.
Keegan’s father liked things to be organized
and official. His stocky body seemed to nearly take up the entire
kitchen as he seated himself in his favorite armchair and gazed
sternly at Keegan from across the table. “We have called this
family meeting to deal with the consequences of Keegan’s
actions.”
His blatant mention of her name made her
flush with anger. “Excuse me? Consequences of my actions? All I did
was go out with my friends. Why are you all making such a big deal
out of this?” Keegan yelled.
Her grandmother placed a warm hand over hers,
shooting Richard a look to be silent. “There are things that you
don’t know and we were hoping we had more time to teach you. We
wanted to let you guys be kids and not learn about the difficulties
that come with our kind.”
As if on cue Warrick toppled his blocks and
filled the house with laughter. Turning her wise eyes back to
Keegan, Mary continued, “Do you even know what your father
does?”
Keegan glanced at her father. Richard’s stern
eyes were watching her silently, his large, muscular arms crossed
over his chest. The scars that pockmarked his skin had always been
there. “I know he was in the military and fought in many wars.”
“Yes, that is true but he serves a greater
purpose than that,” her grandmother explained, shooting a soothing
smile to Keegan’s father.
Still confused, Keegan asked, “How is that
possible?”
Her grandmother closed her eyes and when she
reopened them she began, “There is a war. It has been going on
since the beginning of time. Great care has been taken to shield it
from the eyes of humans. It is the war of dark and light. Your
father is the chosen one; the one who will lead us in the great
battle. We have reached a tipping point and it’s unknown who will
win in the end.”
“Why are we even fighting?”
Emerald and Richard exchanged glances with
Mary. Emerald sat forward, reaching across the table for her
daughter’s hand. Feeling a little weird, Keegan took her mom’s hand
with her free one, her grandmother still holding the other. They
were acting like someone had died.
“Keegan, it’s a fight that began thousands of
years ago. The two sides didn’t always hate each other. We once
lived together in peace. However, there was a falling out by a
single ruling family over a land dispute that led to a splintering
of the two sides. As strong emotions can often do, the hatred has
only built more as time has passed.” Her mother smiled sadly. “The
battle has been coming for a long time. There is nothing we can do
to stop it.”
Keegan looked over at her brother Thaddeus.
“Shouldn’t he be able to tell us something?”
Thaddeus shook his head.
Although her brother was only twelve, he was
one of the most powerful seers their kind had ever known; and he
was only just beginning to come into his powers. It was always hard
for her to believe that her brother, the same one who drove her
crazy and lived on his Xbox, could see the future. She believed
that was the reason he’d become so antisocial and preferred friends
that were digital; with the exception of Sam, another elf with whom
he’d been best friends with forever. It was overwhelming for
Thaddeus to be around people. He had not yet gained the ability to
block his gift, and as such, he was forced to see all the good, and
all the terrible, things that would happen.
Her grandmother picked up the conversation.
“He cannot see it because it has not been determined yet.”
“Well, then we still have a chance. What does
my visit to the fair have to do with this?”
“Keegan, most of the people that go to those
fairs are fakes and are in it for the money. On rare occasions,
however, they are the real deal and possess true gifts. As you
know, people do not always use their gifts for positive reasons.
Going to a place like that could have given the dark elves an
opportunity to find out more about us.”
Her grandmother leaned back in her chair and
ran her hand across the green linen tablecloth on the table next to
her. Without saying a word, Emerald stood to get her some more
tea.
“You said that you couldn’t move when the
girl made eye contact with you. Do you know why you couldn’t move?
She was going through your mind and you didn’t even know it.
Thankfully, you didn’t know anything of use to her.”
Still feeling defensive, Keegan asked, “Why
are you telling me about this now?”
With a soothing voice, her grandmother
replied, “Because the time is growing near, and we need our family
to be prepared.” She gave Emerald a silent thank-you with her eyes
as a steaming mug was placed in front of her.
Her parents were sat close together across
the table, holding hands. Mother looked worried and her father
looked determined. Being her usual self, Keegan didn’t see what
everyone was so worked up about. So a war was going on which had
been going on forever. They were powerful elves, and there were
more of their kind. Not to mention all the other supernatural
beings that were on the side of light. She honestly didn’t think
they had anything to worry about.
“Has everyone said all you have to say
because if so I’d like to go to my room,” Keegan said.
Her father slammed his fist on the table,
startling Warrick who immediately began to cry. Emerald rushed to
his side as her father snarled, “Damn it Keegan! You need to take
this seriously. We are talking about losing our entire race. Do you
want us to become extinct?”
This threw her for a loop. “Extinct? What do
you mean?”
“I mean, if we do not win this we will all be
erased and evil will take over. Is that what you want?” He looked
like an avenging god, as if he should be holding a lightning bolt,
preparing to smite his enemies.
They had her attention. She hadn’t even met
Rourk yet, and she was greatly looking forward to her future with
him. “I’m sorry.”
“There is something else you need to know, my
love,” Mary went on. Keegan looked contritely away from her dad,
giving her attention to her grandmother. “The Book of Elfin
prophecy specifically mentions a child of the light who will be
born with the gift of sight. A child whose father will lead the
elves in battle.”
Keegan glanced back to her father. He nodded,
taking a deep breath and letting it out before speaking, “A child
who could save our people from extinction.”
“Who?”
“Me,” Thaddeus answered, so softly Keegan
almost didn’t hear him.
She let go of her grandmother’s hand, falling
back in her seat, stunned. “Oh.”
There was silence for a long moment as her
family let the information sink in.
Keegan rallied herself, even though her heart
was beating like a hummingbird’s wings. She had no idea what to
say. “Okay. Tell me what you would like me to do.”
Looking over at his daughter thankfully,
Richard drew a deep breath. “For starters, we need to work on your
fighting skills. Your brother is more than capable. You, on the
other hand, need some work.”
Glaring at her brother across the table, he
smirked back at her. Their father caught the exchange, “Not so
fast, son,” he said. “You are going to be the one to train
her.”
His reaction was priceless. A look of
disbelief came over his face it was quickly replaced with the same
look her father had whenever he was given a task, Keegan knew she
was in trouble. Training with Thaddeus would be grueling. He’d take
no pity on her. Her brother was considered rare. It was not often
that an elf had two main powers. Keegan’s father had come from a
long line of warriors. It was almost impossible for him not to pass
that on to his son. However, along with his gift of strength that
was not just physical but also mental; Thaddeus was also a seer.
This was only known to have happened one other time in their
history. Usually seers were weak and needed to be taken care of.
That wasn’t the case with Thaddeus. His two gifts made for a deadly
combination.
As if her father had thought the same thing,
he continued, “Thaddeus, you need to work on protecting yourself. I
will have your mother work with you.”
Her mother spoke up, “We do not expect you to
give up your lives. We just want you to take your spare time to
sharpen your skills. You also need to be more aware. Creatures of
the dark will start showing up more often the closer we get.”
Keegan hugged her grandmother, said goodnight
to everyone else and went up to her room. She felt mentally
exhausted as she grabbed her phone and fell back on the bed. Five
texts waited for her. Anna asked what she was going to wear to the
party. Lauren wondered if Josh could come with her to the party and
Donald wanted to know if she wanted to go to the movies with him,
Spencer, Sam and Calvron. This brought a smile to her face. She
really liked Donald; too bad he didn’t feel the same. Oh well,
there was always Patrick who had sent her two texts. Apparently, he
heard she was coming to the party. News traveled fast. She didn't
bother to reply; she had too much running through her head.
Hopefully, her parents were overreacting with
all the talk of a great battle. She laid in bed and thought about
that for awhile. What if they really did become extinct and she
never got to meet Rourk? She had their whole life planned out!
She'd been dreaming of meeting her chosen since she was a little
girl.
With all her thoughts muddled and swirling
through her mind, Keegan eventually drifted off to sleep.
R
ourk tensed as Keegan thought his name but quickly
pushed it away; he had other things to deal with at the moment.
This dark elf had been properly trained and had evaded him so far.
He sensed her movement and knew she was to the right of him, but he
continued to look straight ahead, knowing if he looked to the right
she would be gone. He tried his best to seem completely baffled as
if he couldn’t figure out where she might be.
Thinking he’d lost sight of her, the dark elf
moved forward. Rourk pounced. She might have been well trained, but
he was gifted and she didn’t stand a chance. For good measure, he
shielded his mind as he threw her against the wall. She looked
annoyed because she could not use her gift on him.
Rourk asked, “What do you want with the
girl?”
The dark elf glared back at him. “I want
nothing from her. I just happened to notice another elf and wanted
to read her mind.”
He pushed his forearm deep into her throat,
“What were you doing at the fair?” he growled as the dark elf
struggled under his grasp.
She flinched as she looked into his grey
eyes. “I was just having fun. I was bored and I like messing with
humans.”