I softly groan and flutter my eyes open. I hear leaves rustling and two figures appear at my side. I see a pair of familiar ocean blue eyes blink down at me along with unfamiliar orange orbs.
I sit up and they move back to make space for me. All of a sudden, everything that took place before I passed out crashes down on me. I examine my hand and flex my fingers a little.
"Ellie w-"
"How long was I out for?"
"About fifteen minutes."
I frown at the strange orange eyed girl with her wavy blonde hair who answered instead of Reese.
"And who are you? I thought it was just supposed be 'us'."
I direct the last part of the sentence at Reese. He rubs his neck and shrugs.
"I was in for a surprise too."
"Pardon me, but I did not inform Ai-"
Reese coughs.
"-Reese here that I was coming. I didn't expect you here. It's my fault. I'm Stella by the way."
"Ellie."
"I know who you are."
Stella smiles at me brightly. I give her an unsure nod. I clear my throat awkwardly after a moment and stand up. My head feels light for a second before turning back to normal.
"I'm going home. I'm not going to be the one to disturb whatever plans you had with him."
I nod at the boy sitting comfortably beside me.
"That won't be necessary princess, Stel is here because she wanted to meet you. Not me." Reese says. He dusts the dirt off his pants as he gets up from the ground.
"Can we talk?" Stella asks, also getting up.
I look at Reese uneasily. I mean, I don't even know this girl! She just randomly appeared out of nowhere. Not like random things are not happening to me right now anyway.
"Please, it's important." Stella pleads taking hold of one of my hands. The amulet on my neck swells up with light and gives away the familiar warmth.
"Is this about my superhuman powers?"
"What?" Stella blinks, retracting her hands. Her gaze sweeps down to my still flickering amulet and finally moves to Reese.
"She means her healing powers."
"Hey! Don't say it like it's nothing! I'd like to see you try and heal yourself."
I glare at the boy who puts his hands up in surrender. He takes a not so subtle step behind after a thought and I pretend not to notice.
"Yes, it's about that and more. Can we go to your house? You can trust us, plus you have the Amulet and Guardian Agatha with you. You wouldn't be in trouble. I promise."
"Wait! How do you know about Nana? And what do you mean by 'guardian'? She's family."
Before she could answer, the skies rumble with thunder and lightning flashes across the midnight sky. Since when did it get so dark?
"No time to waste, give me your hands. You too Ellie. Now shut your eyes close and here we go." Reese grabs my hand and the next thing I know, a bright light encloses us.
"You can open your eyes now."
I promptly open them to find that the three of us were now in my drive. I gawk at Reese.
"How did you do that?!"
"You told me you would like to see me try."
"But but bu-"
I am cut off when huge pellets of water splatters on our heads.
"Quick inside the house."
"Wait-"
They run up to my front porch and I follow with a grunt. Stella rings the doorbell cheerfully.
"Are you guys even listening?"
The door opens to reveal Nana. She narrows her eyes when she sees my half wet form. And then her eyes move to the people on either sides.
"Guardian Agatha." Stella and Reese bow their heads lightly.
Nana's eyes widen the slightest bit when she sees Stella and Reese. Without another word, she ushers us inside the house and shuts the door after a glance behind us.
She gives us each a towel and disappears into the kitchen without a word. Kyle walks into the room with Cole behind him. They stop short when they see us.
Or more precisely, the two figures behind me.
Or even more precisely, at Reese.
Seeming to feel their eyes on him, Reese stops drying his hair and looks up. He gives my brothers an easy smile.
"Ellie, who are they?"
"Friends of mine?"
"You don't seem too sure and how come I've never seen them before?"
"Uh.."
"All of you. To the living room."
Nana appears with a tray of steaming mugs. In a matter of five minutes, all of us are seated on the couches spread around the room. Each with a steaming mug of hot chocolate.
"So what you brings you here Stella?"
I look up from my mug at Nana in surprise. She knows Stella?
Well, no shit Sherlock.
"We caught a Rebel yesterday. At the Town Square."
It was Nana's turn to look surprised.
"A Rebel."
"Yes."
A few moments of silence pass by.
"Is it as bad as it was the last time?" Cole asks giving me a fleeting glance. I frown. Did he think I would know something? I didn't know there was a 'last time.'
Reese shakes his head before Stella could answer.
"We wouldn't allow it. They're just trying to scare us. Like a sort of warning."
"How can you be so sure? The last time it happened, well, you know what followed."
This time it was Kyle. He knew all about it too. How amazing. Seems like I'm the only one left in the dark.
"We have soldiers trained especially for this. We are prepared for the attack this time. Corona is prepared."
Stella says firmly. Her fingers clench tightly around the mug. I felt the heat surge from my amulet to the whole of my body. There was no pain like before but it was warm. Very warm.
"Is that where you are from?"
My voice was barely audible to my own ears. Yet it caught the attention of all the ears in the room. I wouldn't look at anyone. I stared down at my feet. I continue when nobody answers.
"Where we are from?"
I notice swirls of silver and gold appear around my ankles. I didn't know why I was calm about the whole thing. I should be freaking out and yelling my head off. But here I am, sitting like I've done this my whole life. I feel this calm deep inside me. It was the only thing keeping me sane. I felt like everything they said was familiar. Like this was familiar.
"Yes. That's where we are from."
Nana took the mug away from my hand gently. Outside the storm was louder than ever. It rumbled and growled. Like an angry bear.
I notice the swirls appear on the top of my hand, stopping at my wrist. The same Silver and Gold. That's when everyone seemed to notice the changes on me too.
Reese sucked in a breath and moved towards me but Nana put up her hand to stop him. He wanted to protest but stayed silent.
A strange glow engulfed me. I could hear the voices from before in my head. They were repeating the same words over and over again.
'Stay safe for me pumpkin.'
It was a man's voice. I felt like I've heard it all my life. It felt so familiar.
'Don't stop until you get there, even if somebody asks you to.'
This time it was a woman's voice. It was soft and she seemed unhappy.
What made her unhappy? I didn't have a clue.
I felt Nana pull Kyle next to her. Away from me. Was I scaring them? I didn't mean to. I didn't know what was happening to me. I was afraid too.
"Ellie, what are you feeling?" Nana asks moving a little closer to me.
"Warmth." I answer.
I felt the heat scorch up my shoulder blades and the back of my neck. It went on till it reached my forehead. There the heat stopped.
I could distinctly hear Reese's voice calling out my name softly. At the same time, it seemed like he never opened his mouth. I wanted to reach out to him. Ask him what was happening to me. But I couldn't. It was as if my hands were glued to my body and wouldn't move. My brothers looked worriedly at me.
I felt a chill run down my spine and through my hair roots. I could hear a slight crackling sound. I shut my eyes close. I shivered slightly and then everything was gone.
I felt normal. There were no more voices in my head. No heat or chill running through my body. But I saw that my new changes remained. And so did the bright glow from my amulet.
When I opened my eyes, I strangely felt like my senses were a whole lot sensitive than it had been before. But it all seemed to be in a blur.
I blinked.
Once. Twice. Thrice.
They always said third time's a charm.
The first thing I noticed was everyone's gaze on me. Well, I guess I did put up a show.
My amulet completely stopped glowing and every calm and familiar feelings I felt, vanished.
I felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on me. I look up and finally settle my eyes on Nana.
Guardian Agatha they'd called her. I wonder why.
"What just happened?"
My eyes widen at my own voice. I sound different. Very very different. But, it was a good different. A Royal different.
"I think you just had a makeover." Kyle bluttered out. Cole looked like he just saw his favorite celebrity.
Black dots appeared before my vision. I went in and out of consciousness as Nana asked me something. Reese frowned, pressing his index and thumb finger on his forehead.
I squinted trying to clear the blur from my vision. He glanced at me, his frown deepening. For some strange reason, I felt this pull towards him. He felt familiar. I slowly reached out my hand towards him and then everything went black for the second time that day.