Captive Treasure, page 3
“Oh my goodness, Gwen, you’re missing it,” my vapid sister, Anastacia, said. I had fallen asleep, exhausted from the day’s journey. I opened my eyes and glanced at the clock on the wall. Crap, it was nearing dinner. I had to get out of my Earth clothing and change into one of my gowns.
“I’m not missing dinner. It hasn’t started yet,” I protested as I slipped out of bed.
“No, silly, you’re missing out on the betting that’s going on. Dad is having one of his doctors implant Jade with a Hyndroyl crystal,” Anastacia reported as she fluffed her blue gown, which was complete with a corset. I highly doubted that Lena approved of her twin suffering through such danger. But I wasn’t going to worry about it. Lena wasn’t stupid enough to actually voice her opinion. Well, I hoped she wasn’t.
“What are the stakes?” I asked as I walked over to the closet.
“How many days it will take for Jade to die. The doctors told Dad that putting the Hyndroyl crystal in her body is detrimental to her health. But Dad doesn’t care. I’m guessing that he really wants to teach her a lesson,” Anastacia gossiped. I decided to shut the closet door to get dressed in a loose-fitting green gown. It was the quickest to put on. As I dressed, I couldn’t help but think that Father was very cruel. First, he snatched Jade from a loving home, murdered her foster parents, then was potentially killing her. And the worst part of it all was that some of my siblings were actually betting on whether she lived or died. Yeah, Mother, tell me who lacks a soul?
Chapter 5 Sheena
Earth (Silversmith, MA)
My eyes flew open, the wave of despair hitting me even before I could sit up. It was January first, and I had ascended. I wasn’t proud of my accomplishment, but that still didn’t explain the utter hopelessness that I felt. Fine, I was one of the rare casters that received their powers on their birthday. A millennia ago, the casters allegedly defeated the Olympians. Yes, I’m talking about Zeus and Hera. If anyone dared call them Greek gods to the stuffy casters, they would gasp, as if you had said something blasphemous. So after the false Greek gods, who were really aliens, were sent packing, casters began scattering. Due to marrying humans, the bloodlines of the casters were diluted. Then, before coven leaders new it, only ten percent of casters ever ascended on their eighteenth birthdays.
After being adopted by Julia and Grant, two casters who ascended, Celest, our coven leader, revealed that it was no accident that I had been scooped up by casters. You see, my pediatrician made the habit of testing the blood of all of his patients for the enzyme that declared someone a caster, and discovered that I belonged with his coven. So Celest had ordered Julia to adopt me. I hoped to escape a life of responsibility, but ended up with an unwanted gift.
The damn despair wouldn’t leave me. My intuition suddenly kicked in, and I just knew that I had to call Jade. I got out of my full-sized bed and glanced around my bedroom. My phone was on my desk, where I abandoned it the night before. I walked over and reached out to pick it up when I felt a stinging sensation on the inside of the wrist of my left hand. I glanced at my skin and groaned. A silver circle decorated the inside of my wrist, the mark no bigger than a quarter. It was the symbol that appeared on the skin of a caster who was an oracle. Seeing the conformation that my intuition was telling me something, I quickly dialed Jade’s number and pressed the phone to my ear. I was disappointed when my friend didn’t answer.
“Good morning,” Amber sang as she flung the door open. I dropped the phone and clutched my chest. Amber had nearly given me a heart attack. I spun to face the girl who shared the same birthday as me. Amber García was beautiful, with olive skin, long, jet-black curly ringlets, and chocolate brown eyes. But she was the type who wasn’t concerned with fashion. She dressed in comfortable worn blue jeans, a Nightmare on Elm Street t-shirt and a pair of ankle boots. Seeing her made me feel really crappy about lying to Jade. The poor girl assumed that I was on some farm, mucking out stalls. But my parents warned me that I shouldn’t tell anyone about the casters, the protectors of Earth. Amber lifted her hand and a ball of energy floated in the air.
“So you’re a knight,” I said, mentally hating her for having a kick-ass gift. A wide grin split her face, and her joy diminished my feeling of doom for just a moment. But then, the warning flared to life again.
“I think that something’s wrong with Jade,” I admitted.
“Well then, let’s check on her. Get dressed, Ben’s downstairs. I’ll drag him with us,” Amber ordered before running from the room. Amber probably assumed that I had some sort of vision. I wouldn’t correct her, since I needed her to help me.
I ran into my cluttered closet and selected a sweatshirt and jeans, not wanting to take the time to coordinate my outfit. I sensed that time was of the essence. I quickly got dressed, slipped into my boots, and rushed to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Then I hurried down the carpeted staircase and dashed into the kitchen, where my brother, Ben, stood, already in his winter jacket.
“Amber is waiting for you outside. What did you see?” The genuine concern on his face squeezed my heart. I was lucky that Ben and his family had rescued me from the foster care system, despite their motives. I hoped that the Banes could do that for Jade. They were great people with a lot of love in their hearts. Thinking of the couple made my stomach cramp up. Was I wrong about them?
“Something isn’t right with Jade,” I said. Ben shook his head.
“You already told her that you were at a farm. What is she going to think if you show up to her house?” Ben asked. But the pain in my stomach only got worse.
“I feel it, Ben. Something’s wrong,” I rasped out. Ben sighed.
“I’ll do this for you once, Sheena. But you’ll have to cut ties with Jade eventually,” he lectured, which pissed me off. Jade was like a sister to me, and I wasn’t going to abandon her.
“Fine,” I lied. Ben nodded and we exited the front door of the cozy two-story home that I had lived in for eight years.
Amber had a stepfather that insisted on buying her love with gifts. She was sitting at the wheel of an impressive, sleek SUV. There was snow on the ground, so the vehicle was practical enough. I hopped into the backseat and pulled the door closed. I had forgotten to put on a coat, and the cold air was getting to me. With shaky fingers, I put on my seatbelt.
“This is the last time you’re visiting Jade,” Ben said from the passenger seat.
“Whatever. Just drive,” I pleaded. I’d tell Ben to butt out of my life after I was assured that my best friend was all right.
Amber shrieked and leaped from the SUV, her hands already glowing. Ben followed, but all I could do was stare at the shocking scene. The house where Jade had once lived had been utterly destroyed. The diminishing flames were unnatural, based on the fact that they didn’t spread. There was no hope of saving Jade and her new family. Had the Olympians decided to make their way back to Earth to tangle with the casters again? If that were the case, why would they have targeted Jade and her family? I heard fire trucks in the distance, and guessed that Amber and Ben must have heard them too, because they returned to the vehicle. Amber drove down a few blocks before parking in front of a random house. She then got out of the driver’s seat and sat in the seat beside me. Her face was lined with worry.
“It didn’t smell like Olympian magic. It smelled foreign, chemical, like an explosive, but not quite right. We’ll have to report this to Celest. I’m sorry, Sheena, I didn’t sense any heartbeats.” Right, Amber was trying to delicately tell me that my best friend and her new parents were dead. My guess was that Ben probably felt too guilty to break the news to me. He had wanted me to cut Jade off. Well, he had his wish. The thought of Jade being dead was too difficult to grasp. There was no way in hell that the guarded, kind girl I had always trusted was gone. And there was no way that the Olympians had decided to punish me by killing her. For one thing, those evil freaks hadn’t pestered Earth in thousands of years. And if they were going to bother to make a comeback, they would have targeted one of the covens. That meant that a new threat managed to slip past the casters’ guard and attacked innocent people.
“An unknown alien race?” I asked Amber, who looked overwhelmed.
“Maybe? I’m not sure. But it doesn’t smell like one of the Olympian’s magic. Julia has a pouch of magical residue saved from an Olympian, and trust me, that explosion didn’t smell like that,” Amber noted. I would have asked her why Julia showed her such a powerful artifact, but didn’t bother. Amber was one of the rare casters who had been gifted before she ascended, though she was less powerful before she turned eighteen.
“Well, Ben?” I asked, my anger rising. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“I’m sorry, Sheena,” he softly replied, before growing silent. I’m sorry? Those words meant nothing. “I’m sorry” wasn’t going to turn back the clock to when I lied to Jade. “I’m sorry” wasn’t going to change the situation. Those stupid words weren’t going to bring Jade back.
“Had I told her, none of this would have happened,” I bitterly said. Amber winced, as if she was the one that prevented me from telling Jade my secret. Had she known, my best friend could have spent my birthday with me. Had she known, she wouldn’t have been a part of that burning heap.
“I have contacted Celest. She’s sending casters to assess the situation,” Ben said. So, he wasn’t going to acknowledge what I said.
“She isn’t gone,” I said, trying to believe it. No! Jade was captured. That was it! At any moment, a bad guy was going to call me and tell me that he wanted to make a trade. That’s what always happened in those crazy movies that Ben liked to watch.
“Talk to me, Sheena,” Amber encouraged.
“Take me home,” I ordered. “Jade isn’t dead. I’m sure that an unknown alien took her.” Amber rested a hand on my arm.
“That is a possibility, honey. But it’s too early for us to tell,” Amber softly told me.
“It isn’t a possibility, it’s true. There is no way that someone would burn down Jade’s house and not ours,” I argued. “I bet they took her to hold her for ransom.” What if they wanted money in exchange for her release?”
“Sheena,” Amber said, her gaze filled with worry. I knew that Amber didn’t want me getting too hopeful. But I didn’t care. Jade had to be alive. I refuse to believe that she was dead because of me. There was no way that I would never speak to her again. Jade was alive and breathing, and I was going to find her.
“She isn’t dead,” I pleaded. “I know that she isn’t dead.”
Chapter 6 Sheena
Earth (Silversmith, MA)
By the time Ben pulled into the driveway of our house, I felt like I had been turned into an ice block. I shivered as I exited the SUV, my knees knocking together. Amber wrapped a supportive arm around me and led me to the porch. Ben jogged ahead of us and got the door open by the time we traversed the snow-covered steps. As soon as I entered the warm house, the smell of baking cookies hit me. The smell, usually comforting, caused a negative thought to blossom in my mind. If Jade had been caught in the explosion, we would never have hot chocolate and cookies together again. No! Jade wasn’t dead. I wasn’t sure about Jane and Tim, but my instincts were telling me that there was something more to her disappearance.
“Ben, what happened?” my mother, Julia, demanded when Amber helped me into one of the kitchen chairs.
“Um, Jade and her family were killed by an explosion. We aren’t sure if the explosion was magical in nature,” Amber hesitantly explained. “It didn’t smell right.” Julia’s face grew impassive. Then she poured a mug of hot chocolate and put it in front of me.
“Honey, you need to focus,” Julia told me. “I know that losing Jade was a shock, b—”
“No, Jade isn’t dead. I can feel it. She’s alive. I can feel it in my bones,” I shouted. “You have to believe me, I’m an oracle.” Ben rubbed his face, obviously still uncomfortable with being around me. After all, he had been the one to tell me not to interact with Jade anymore.
“I’ll contact Celest and see if she can send some arson experts to check out the scene. If aliens are blowing up the houses of non-casters, we need to know about it. In the meantime, drink your hot chocolate,” Julia replied, before leaving the room. Amber took off her coat and handed it to Ben.
“Make yourself useful and put away my coat,” Amber ordered. Ben seemed more than happy to comply, snatching up the garment and running out of the kitchen. Amber sat down across from me, her blue eyes filled with concern.
“Look, Sheena, you have to get it together. I know it’s hard, but you’re the first oracle that the Silversmith Coven has had in fifty years. We are all counting on you to give us visions to go on,” Amber lectured.
“I don’t know how it works,” I said defensively. I didn’t bother pointing out that I hadn’t yet decided to officially join the Silversmith Coven. Amber closed her eyes for a moment, then sighed.
“It would be helpful if you had a crystal ball. But you’re out of luck, since carvers are as rare as oracles in our coven. Celest will have to barter with another coven to have one made for you. Until then, you have to wing it. I remember Celest telling me of an oracle that could see things by touching either a person or an object. Touch your mug,” Amber instructed. I touched the mug and didn’t get so much as a tingle. I shook my head and took a sip of the hot chocolate. The chocolate did very little to ease my distress.
“I saw nothing,” I said, stating the obvious.
“Damn. Try touching my hand,” Amber suggested. I didn’t have much hope that it would work. But I reached out and touched Amber’s hand. Moments later, I was shoved out of my body and into the not-so-distant past.
I appeared in a room with a long, rectangular table, white walls, a plush carpet, and a cabinet in the corner. A man with mocha skin and cropped hair stormed into the room, a blue folder in his grip. He sat at the head of the table, a look of impatience filling his face. A woman with long jet-black hair and honey-brown skin materialized, her dark eyes weary.
“Rayon,” she said, as if she knew that something was coming.
“Nicole, you know how I feel about this,” he snapped. “Ciara will not enter our world.” Sadness entered her eyes at the gruff man’s words.
“Rayon, I don’t trust Dayon. He’ll use her against us. Sending Angelo was the right thing to do,” Nicole defended.
“You sent paint boy to protect Ciara? What will he do if he encounters a Najorian warrior, turn his skin different colors?”
Nicole shot Rayon a disapproving look.
“He graduated at the top of his class. Besides, he was the only one that the commander would spare. It isn’t like anyone has any use for him. And he’s twenty-one, young enough to fit in.”
“Fine,” Rayon agreed, as ten men suddenly appeared in the room. Nicole nodded and took the seat beside Rayon. The other men occupied the rest of the seats at the long table. Moments later, a tall man with wavy brown hair and green eyes appeared. He immediately saluted Rayon.
“My king, do I have permission to speak?” the man asked.
“Deric, speak,” the king ordered.
“Winston, Torman, Angelo, Mira, and I canvassed the area. It appears that Jane and Tim didn’t have the time to teleport out. They were incinerated. But Torman sensed that Jade was taken in a transport of some kind. He could trace her energy heading toward the sky,” Deric said.
“What kind of tech?” King Rayon questioned.
“We reached out to Dame, the captain of the crusher. And he reported seeing a Nerethian spaceship orbiting earth. The ship was cloaked,” Deric reported. “But their tech is not as advanced as ours, so Dame was able to see through the cloaking device. We theorize that Jade was taken and was dragged onto the ship.”
“What if Jade was consorting with the Nerethian scum?” a man with jet-black hair and pale skin demanded.
“She wasn’t,” Deric assured. “A little boy living next door saw the entire thing. The Nerethian man teleported Jade and another woman out of the house, and they disappeared after a few steps. And then, according to the kid, the house went boom. I managed to erase his memories before he could tell the police,” Deric replied.
“So, what? Are the Nerethian scum warring with Earth as well as our people?” a short man with chocolate skin asked.
“You can add the Janton to the list,” another man snickered.
“What now?” Nicole wanted to know.
“We are allergic to blictar, and most of the Nerethians’ infrastructure is made out of the stuff. It would be suicide for me to send people to Neretha. But this cannot be unchallenged. For one thing, Earth is one of our homes. We won’t stand for the Nerethians to bring war here. Deric, thank you for your fine work. I just have one question. Have you interviewed Jade’s friends? Rayon asked. ”
“With your permission, sir, I’d like to start. But since I don’t attend Jade’s high school, I think that Angelo has a better chance at earning the trust of those kids,” Deric pointed out.
“Right,” Rayon muttered. “If we’re lucky, Ciara and Jade hang out a lot. If not, it looks like Angelo will have to balance two assignments.”.
“Yes, sir,” Deric agreed.
“You’re dismissed, soldier,” Rayon said, and Deric teleported away.
“Do we try to retrieve Jade?” the short, dark-skinned man inquired.
