A Heart Like Glass [Book 1]

Chapter 8

Pain echoed in my head as flashes of light appeared.

What the heck is this? What's going on? I thought as my hands went to my head in a panic. Looking around, I wasn't in the library anymore. Instead, I was in Adaliah's bedroom, sitting on her bed... but the room was decorated... differently. A few children's toys were scattered in different places, and the blue comforter had been replaced with a faded pink one.

Another odd thing is that there was some kind of hazy film coating the air, dulling the brightness that I had adjusted to over the past few hours.

Looking straight ahead of me, I noticed a tiny version of Olivier was crying in the arms of a much younger Adaliah. She stroked his hair gently, comforting him.

"Is... is this a memory?" I whispered to myself quietly.

"I can't do it, Ada," the small boy spoke up through sniffs. "I can't."

"Shhhh..." She comforted him. "Don't think about it right now." She petted his curly-tapped head. Her face is red from what seemed or felt to be a slap.

I lifted my hand to my cheek. Somehow, I could feel the sting too.

"He- "Olivier swallowed back another sob. "Father wants me to poison him with my fire." He lifted his trembling hands to look at them. "I... I can't do it. And he got so mad at me. But I can't do it. I can't poison Father. I don't want to hurt him."

Then I watched as the time went by quickly. It was like watching a sped-up video. My eyes didn't leave the spot they had been sitting in as the days and nights passed by swiftly. During the nights, Olivier visited Adaliah over and over again, just like this.

Until he stopped.

Until I grimly realized... until he finally did what Andreas wanted him to do.

Suddenly, the picture melted around me, causing the library to slowly reform before my eyes. A wave of nausea hit me. I took a deep breath trying to ease myself.

Andreas really is an awful person. Making his young son poison him with magic as a training exercise is messed up. The Olivier I'd just seen had to be no older than eight or nine years old, which meant Adaliah must have been around ten or eleven. It also means that Andreas has been abusing her for years...

I groaned. That had been one of Adaliah's memories... but how did I see it?

I wish I had some water to drink. I feel drained.

 A nap would be even better, but that's probably out of the question. There's no telling what kind of schedule this girl has. I might not see her room again until the evening.

"Don't get too frustrated Lady Adaliah," Mrs. Claviot interrupted my thoughts with a bored tone. "You still have five minutes to think of something."

With that, I pushed through my feelings and went back to my writing. I can figure out the mystery behind the flashback later. I'm sure there's a good explanation for it. Making a scene about it here and now isn't going to help me. If anything, they will all think I'm crazy. So, right now, I have to think and behave rationally. There are more important concerns to deal with than getting freaked out by flashbacks. 

I dipped my pen in the ink bottle before writing, Ceruleans, on the paper. 

It bothers me that I don't know about this one. I guess I'll have to fill in the description for it whenever she tells us more about it. But I'm sure it's a powerful kind of magic if it's being kept a secret.