Ignite: The Awakening Read online

  Once both girls had settled a little in their grief, Celeste pushed herself up from the floor, adjusted her beautifully flowing, pastel summer dress, and made her way over to the door.

  ‘I am going to go and make some much-needed coffee, and some breakfast’ she stated, her voice full of sadness. ‘I know you won’t be feeling very hungry, but you’ll need the energy. When you’re both feeling ready, I’ll have it all set up on the dining table, and we can sit and talk’. With that she bowed her head and left the room, pulling the door closed behind her.

  The girls sat in silence for quite some time. Lexi struggling to pull her eyes away from the dry patch of what was clearly her Father’s blood, on the floor in front of her. There was something strange about it, it seemed to glisten in the sunlight. Eventually Amber reached for her hand and squeezed it firmly.

  ‘C’mon, I don’t know about you, but I could really do with some of that coffee Mum offered earlier.’ She smiled sadly, as she pulled herself up from the floor. For the first time, Lexi really looked at her, she was such a beautiful girl. She had long flowing, curly Auburn hair, framing a pale freckled face with piercing blue eyes, very much like Lexi’s. She was quite short and slender, petite and delicate, Lexi thought to herself, was a particularly good description. Lexi half-heartedly smiled back, letting Amber help her from the floor. As they left the room, Lexi glanced back at the patch on the floor, so many questions starting to take shape in her mind.

  As they entered the Living room, they could see there was a large pot of coffee ready and waiting, along with some freshly made toast with butter and jam set to one side.

  ‘Get yourselves comfy girls, I’ll be right back’ Celeste announced, as she disappeared back out the door. Lexi and Amber sat themselves down at the table. Lexi helped herself to a coffee, added a little sugar and milk, stirred, and took a sip. The warmth and smell of the coffee somehow felt quite comforting. She took a slice of toast, buttered it, and half-heartedly had a nibble of it. Celeste returned a few minutes later, with a plate of various biscuits to accompany the coffee. Sitting down, she looked solemnly at both girls. Lexi realised that both Mother and Daughter looked very much alike, except for their eyes, Celeste had eyes that could only be described as a shimmering jade green.

  ‘I’m so sorry Lexi’ She said, reaching across the table, ‘You must be so confused right now. I’ll try my best to help you understand. Your Father loved you very much. His loss...’ She hesitated, unable to speak as a tear escaped, rolling down her cheek. Lexi placed her toast back onto her plate, barely touched. She looked Celeste in the eyes, a little anger rising up within her,

  ‘I appreciate your sentiment, but I barely knew my Father. I scarcely saw him for as long back as I can remember, and now he’s dead. Gone in a way I can’t even begin to explain, or understand’. She took a deep breath, fighting to hold back the tears, ‘I don’t know why, and maybe I don’t want to know. I think all I want right now, is to go home to my Mum!’. Her lip began to quiver, allowing a tear to escape, despite her efforts to stop it. Celeste took her hand,

  ‘Honey, I’m so sorry you feel that way. Your Father had a lot of responsibilities in his life, but his main goal through it all, was keeping you safe.’ Lexi’s brow furrowed,

  ‘Why would he feel like he needed to keep me safe, especially when he was barely around?’. Celeste reached across the table to something sitting on the far edge.

  ‘You were never far from his thoughts Lexi, he often looked at this’ she sighed mournfully, as she picked up Dad’s wallet, still sitting on the table, where he must have left it the night before. She opened it, and there, in the picture sleeve, was a photo, not of Celeste and Amber, as Lexi had expected, but of her, that he’d taken last summer. She could see that there were others behind it. She reached over and pulled it towards her, drew out the photos, realising there must be a photo for every year of her life. Tears began to roll down her cheeks uncontrollably.

  ‘Then why?’ she asked pleadingly, ‘he was always so distant!’. Celeste shook her head,

  ‘Oh Sweet girl, he never wanted to hurt you, I know it must be such a difficult thing to understand. I think he felt the less you knew him, the safer you were. But he could never completely distance himself, he wanted to be a part of your life. He was very torn as to what was best for you’. She stood from the table and reached over, wrapping her arms around Lexi as she cried.

  As Lexi’s tears lessened, Celeste gently released her soothing embrace, placing her hand on Ambers shoulder,

  ‘Amber, I think it might be a comfort to Lexi, if we introduce her to her extended family’. Amber nodded with a faint smile, as she stood from the table and held out her hand to Lexi.

  ‘Come on, you’re going to love them. It’ll help you understand who your Dad really was, and who you are’. Lexi warily took her hand, letting Amber lead her through the door, into their bedroom and out through the french doors, into the back yard.

  ‘Are you ready for this?’ Amber queried, a playful smile growing on her face. She let go of Lexi’s hand, kicked off her shoes and stepped barefoot onto the grass. Flowers began to spring up around her feet. Lexi couldn’t believe her eyes and watched in awe as an amazing, beautiful pair of delicate wings, like those of a dragonfly, emerged from Ambers back and she began to float, her wings glistening in the sunlight.

  ‘What are you?’ Lexi whispered, almost too quiet to hear. Amber gently glided back down to the ground in front of her. Where her single toe touched the earth, a daisy bloomed. Lexi could see in her peripheral vision, the woodland coming to life around the clearing that was the back yard, various creatures starting to appear.

  ‘I’m a fairy Lexi, as are you. On your Father’s side anyway’ she smiled, extending her hand elegantly towards Lexi. As Lexi reached out and touched Ambers hand, she felt a tingling sensation throughout her whole body, and could feel herself beginning to lift ever so gently from the ground. She could sense an odd trembling between her shoulders. Looking behind her, she was surprised to see she had grown her very own beautiful set of wings, just like Amber’s, except hers seemed to be darker with a vein of shimmering silver running through them. The feeling of having wings was so peculiar, almost like she had extra arms. Instinctively they moved with her thoughts.

  ‘This is insane!’ she exclaimed, as she let go of Amber’s hand and glided slowly around the clearing. She looked up into the sky and her wings lifted her upwards, until she was level with the treetops. Gazing around at the canopy of leaves, stretching as far as the eye could see, in every direction, she shook her head in disbelief. Wow! This is amazing! she thought, Lets test these babies out! She instinctively drew her wings in and nose-dived headfirst, picking up speed as she plummeted toward the ground. With only a short distance remaining, she drew out her wings and soared remarkably close to the ground, parting the long grass as she skimmed over it, exhilaration pumping through her body. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Celeste stood at the glass doors. She gently drifted forward, lowering herself back to the ground in front of her. Celeste bowed gracefully to Lexi as she landed. Lexi, a little confused, glanced around the clearing, to see all the creatures were doing the same. The puzzled expression on Lexi’s face evident, Amber floated to the ground beside her, also giving a low bow.

  Lexi, your Father was extremely important to us.’ She stood and reached forward, placing her hand on Lexi’s shoulder, ‘He was the King of our Realm’. Amber paused to give Lexi an opportunity to absorb some of what she was saying. ‘You Lexi, are his only heir. You have always been our mysterious hidden Princess, but you are now our Queen’.

  Into the Woods

  Lexi fell to her knees, her mind spinning with all that was happening. Her whole world had been turned upside down and inside out. Surely this can’t be real, she thought to herself, but looking around at all the creatures surrounding the clearing, not to mention the fact that she’d just grown wings and flown, she knew there had to be some truth in it. Ei
ther that, or she was having a complete mental breakdown. Amber delicately sat herself on the grass beside her,

  ‘Lexi, it’s okay, it’s a lot to take in’, she gently placed her hand on Lexi’s knee to comfort her. ‘Your Dad wanted you to have a normal human childhood. He never wanted to put the pressures of your position in this Realm on your shoulders, not until you were old enough to deal with it. He brought you here because the danger of them finding you had become too great, and he needed you to embrace and learn your powers, in order to protect yourself. He’d wanted to teach you himself.’ Her expression grew sad as she spoke of him.

  ‘But why have I never seen or felt any of these powers until just now? I’ve just sprouted wings as if it’s perfectly normal, this is crazy! I’ve always felt different, but doesn’t everyone, in one way or another? I’ve never had anything weird happen to me, not like this’. There was a pleading in her eyes, a desperation for answers. Celeste approached and joined them on the cool, damp ground, not yet warmed by the morning sun.

  ‘Lexi, your powers have been dormant since the day you were born. The only sign that you were anything but human, has always been the silver streak in your hair.’ She reached over and gently ran a finger through the front of Lexi’s hair, making the streak stand out more prominently. ‘Your Father brought you here because this house is the Gateway to our Realm. It protects us from humans, who would otherwise stumble across us too easily. Furthermore, it controls travel of our own people into the human world. This is the only way in and out. It also has the ability to unlock dormant powers. Which is why you are now able to unearth some of yours. The longer you spend within the Realm, the more your powers will grow and reveal themselves’, she paused for a moment, as if uncertain whether to say what she was thinking. She sighed deeply, ‘Lexi, your Father was killed, and the person who did it, did not come through the front door. Therefore, they weren’t from the outside world, it was someone from within the Realm, one of our own people.’ Her eyes were full of fresh tears, which she fought to keep from spilling over.

  ‘Someone here killed my Dad?’ whispered Lexi, guardedly looking around at the many different forest creatures around her.

  ‘No, oh no! they’re not here at the Gateway. They wouldn’t dare show their face here, in this clearing’, Celeste answered, a flash of anger on her face. ‘No, they are most likely back in hiding in the darkest part of the forest, somewhere very few of us dare to go.’ Lexi tensed,

  ‘Do you know who killed him?’ she questioned. Celeste nodded ominously. She paused for quite some time, deciding how best to reveal the truth to Lexi. She bowed her head,

  ‘Your Father had two brothers Lexi, it was one of his brothers who murdered him.’ She replied, ‘He’s your Uncle, although he doesn’t deserve to be referred to as that, after what he did.’ Fresh tears, welling in her eyes.

  ‘You mean because he killed my Dad?’ Lexi murmured. Celeste shook her head, fighting back the tears.

  ‘No Lexi, because he tried to assassinate you, the day you were born.’

  The clearing was deathly silent, all ears were on the conversation taking place. From the gathering a young boy, a fairy, stepped forward. He must have been not much older than Lexi, with white spiked hair, a stripe of black either side going from front to back, similar to a skunk in reverse. He walked through the clearing towards the group. It was at this point he caught Lexi’s eye. She turned her head to watch him approach, tears blurring her vision. She noted how he walked with an unusual grace for a boy. He was tall and lean, bare chested with a bow and quiver strapped around his torso. He wore a pair of what appeared to be camo shorts, but as he got closer, she could see they were somehow made of leaves all pieced together. He walked barefoot, but unlike Amber, his footsteps weren’t causing flowers to bloom in the grass. She turned to Amber and whispered, ‘The boy coming towards us, he’s barefoot, why aren’t there flowers growing in the grass? Is he not a fairy?’

  Amber whispered back, into Lexi’s ear,

  ‘Only Royals can summon the flowers to bloom at their touch’. Lexi turned swiftly to face Amber, an expression of shock on her face.

  ‘Are we related? Is that why you can summon flowers?’. Amber smiled and nodded,

  ‘My Father was your Uncle’ Lexi tensed and shuffled back a little, away from Amber. Amber reached out and quickly took her hand, ‘Not that Uncle, gods no! Your Father was the eldest of three brothers remember, my Father was the youngest, his name was Orrin. He was killed at the battle of the Marshlands, by their middle brother. His name is Garrick’. Her eyes filled with tears as she lowered her head at the thought of her father. Lexi squeezed her hand and turned to Celeste.

  ‘But I thought you and my Dad were an item?’, even more confused by the situation.

  ‘We were’, Celeste replied, ‘Orrin died a long time ago. Your Father was a great comfort to Amber and I after his death. We were friends for a long time, eventually we became more.’ Lexi nodded her head in understanding. She’d seen that happen with Mum and Marcus. They had been friends for a while before they started dating.

  The young Fairy boy Lexi had spotted earlier, now stood close by. He waited for a nod from Celeste, then approached the group. He went down on one knee in front of Lexi, placed his arm across his chest and bowed deeply. Amber started to snigger, to which he shot her a sideways glare before addressing Lexi,

  ‘Your Majesty, my name is Rowan. I have been sent by the Elders to guide you through the forest, to your Palace, where you can begin your magical training’. He was so graceful and so serious. Ambers sniggering became infectious, Lexi couldn’t help but join in and laugh out loud. Rowan glanced up, his expression both confused and hurt. Lexi reached forward and touched his shoulder,

  ‘Rowan, relax, there’s no need for all those airs and graces with me’. He relaxed a little, stood and looked directly into her eyes, Lexi paused, lost for a moment. Amber gave her a little nudge and she pulled herself out of it. He smiled the most amazing, warming smile and held out his hand to her,

  ‘May I help you from the ground?’ he offered. Wow, she thought, I’m going to have to watch myself with this Romeo! She took his hand and let him help her to her feet, Amber and Celeste followed.

  ‘Why can’t I just stay here?’ Lexi questioned, motioning her hand toward the house.

  ‘Your Majesty…’, Lexi interrupted him,

  ‘Please, Rowan, my name is Lexi. Not your Majesty, your Highness or any other Royal title, just plain old Lexi will do!’. Rowan appeared a little shocked, but then seemed to relax more.

  ‘Lexi’ He emphasised giving a little smirk, ‘This house is the Gateway to your entire Realm. It would be like you living in a house and only ever sitting on the doorstep. Please, I’ve been ordered to escort you safely through the forest and I will give my life to ensure you reach the Palace safely. Once there you can begin your training.’ Lexi raised an eyebrow,

  ‘You’d really give your life? That’s a little extreme Rowan!’ She tapped him on the chest in jest, wow, that’s an impressive chest, she thought. In an attempt to distract herself she turned to Amber and Celeste. She’d barely known them 24 hours, but it felt like forever. They were now her family. Family she never knew she’d had until now. ‘You’ll come with us, won’t you?’ Celeste shook her head,

  ‘Unfortunately, We’re the guardians of the Gateway, if we leave, there is no one to guard it. I’m sorry honey, this is sadly a journey you’ll have to make alone.’, Amber butted in,

  ‘Not entirely alone though’ she said, winking and nodding her head towards Rowan, making Lexi flush with embarrassment.

  ***

  After just over an hour of frantically trying to pull together the things she thought she may need, squeezing them into a small backpack, Lexi finally stepped out into the clearing through the back doors. She’d changed into a pair of grey hiking shorts and a black Foo Fighters t-shirt with a big cobra on it. She’d also pulled on a good pair of red walking socks and some hik
ing boots. She didn’t yet feel comfortable at the thought of walking around barefoot, even if everyone else seemed to be doing it. As she stepped out into the clearing, she caught Rowans attention. He appeared to look her up and down and settled his attention on her t-shirt, raising an eyebrow he stated,

  ‘That is a very scary graphic, I’m really not a fan of snakes! Please tell me that’s not your spirit animal!’ Lexi looked down at the print on her chest,

  ‘What?! Oh! No! it’s just a band tee’. His expression looked very puzzled. Amber began to laugh,

  ‘Rowan never has any contact with the outside world, he doesn’t know what a band is, do you Rowan?’. His cheeks flushed, as he turned away with embarrassment.

  Lexi approached Celeste and Amber. She couldn’t believe they couldn’t come with her. She gave them each a big hug, Amber squeezing so hard. As Lexi let go, Amber took her hand,

  ‘You will come back, won’t you?’ her voice trembling. Lexi smiled and put her hand on Ambers cheek,

  ‘You’re my family now Amber, I won’t forget you’re here and I’ll definitely be back’. She hugged her again, this time squeezing just as hard.

  ‘Are you Ready your Maj… Lexi? Rowan corrected himself as he bowed and rolled his hand out to point along a path leading towards the forest.

  ‘As I’ll ever be!’ She replied, adjusting her backpack, and setting off.

  Beneath the Stars

  The trek through the forest had started out pleasant. The sun was shining, not too hot, just that nice warm, late summer afternoon sun you get when there’s a light breeze. As the sun began to set however, a chill came over Lexi, the forest seemed a lot scarier as it grew dark and shadows began to creep.

  ‘So, Rowan, surely, we could have saved a lot of time and creepy, dark forest walking and just flown to the Palace?’, flailing her arms in front of her as another spiderweb clung to her face.