Awakenings (Elemental Series - Book 1) (20 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Identities
When you look in the mirror who do you see?
When you question it who answers?
When you find the truth who listens?
Who, in hindsight, does it really matter to?
You.

A
fter Mom and Dad left, Jen and Hudson helped me pack up all the boxes I’d been going through and put them back. There was so much more to see, but that was for another day. Aunt Grace left the attic and went down to call Eve to find out the schedule for the next day. While we were packing everything, I kept out the book with all the symbols on it. There was something about it I knew would help me.

Once we’d finished putting everything away, we went downstairs and I curled up on one of the leather recliners in the sunroom. Jen took the other chair in the room. Hudson sat on the floor by her feet. While we were all staring out into the backyard, I said, “When do I learn to pull a rabbit out of my hat?” It was a sick attempt at humor, but nonetheless, an attempt. No one responded.

“So, from my take on things, everyone here is involved.
Everyone
here is a Nemelite? Am I right?” After an uncomfortable silence, Hudson spoke up.

“Not all of us, Jacey. Some of the people you saw in town today aren’t Nemelites. They’re not of our kind. They have no powers. But all of us
here
are Nemelite.” Hudson paused, looking at Jen.

“Jacey, I want to get a grip on what you’ve caught on to from everyone so far,” Hudson said softly.

“Hudson, I have absolutely no idea what a
Nemelite
is. I’ve known since the time in Mom and Dad’s hospital room there was some pretty crazy out of this world things going on, but I had no idea that we were magic. I honestly thought I was seeing things and pretty much losing my mind at the same time.”

“I’ve wanted to tell you everything for so long, but I knew I wasn’t the right one to explain it all. I only found out about being a Nemelite myself a couple years ago. I—we’ve been waiting for the right time to return to Nemele. We obviously waited a little too long...”

“Who are the ‘we’ you’re referring to? And where is this Nemele everyone keeps mentioning?” I asked.

“Me, Mom, Dad, and Aunt Grace,” Hudson replied. “We’re way more than magic.” Hudson got up and went over to the window overlooking the backyard.

“We were born into this. It’s a part of us, like our arms and legs. None of us have a choice in whether we’re Nemelite or not. Nemele is all around us. It’s a place only those who belong to our bloodlines can enter. All over the world there are Bulwarks which we take to enter Nemele. Bulwarks are gates which hold this world and the world of Nemele apart. To be or become a part of Nemele, like Dad said, in time everyone who has their Awakening gets to find out which Nemelite they are. If you live in Nemele, then this lifestyle is like breathing air, it’s normal to them.” Hudson stared out the window as I mulled over what he was telling me.

“Did Mom and Dad die because we’re part of this world?” I asked.

“The elders are still piecing everything together, but my guess is …yeah,” Hudson stated without moving a muscle in his face.

“Are we going to die?” I asked.

“Not if we have anything to do with it,” Jen answered this time.

I whipped around to face her. “What’s your involvement, Jen?” I felt sad and angry at the same time. “Remember our last conversation? I do—you said no more lies, and look where we are yet again.”

“Don’t be rude to Jen,” Hudson snapped. He turned and went back to stand beside her. He was about to speak when Jen cut him off.

“No, it’s okay, I deserved that,” she said. She looked up at him and pulled on his arm. He nodded and stood silently beside her. “I guess from everything you’ve learned so far, you kind of caught on that I’m a Nemelite, too?”

“Yeah, I kind of caught on, Jen,” I replied.

“Since everyone has told you a little about themselves and the Nemelites, I figure I won’t get into too much trouble telling you a little about me,” Jen said. Hudson looked over at her with obvious worry.

“Don’t worry, Hudson, I’ve been doing this long enough to know
this
is a special circumstance,” she said, tapping his leg. She sat up in her chair and turned all of her attention to me. I watched as she appeared to prep herself.

As I watched my friend, a warm glow started to emanate around her. The color was a mix of purple and red, lasting only for a few seconds, but it was there and I had seen it.

“What was that?” I whispered.

“That, Jacey, is my aura. Every Nemelite has one and it’s how we usually identify one another,” she explained.

“Identify one another?” I asked, more curious now than ever.

“Our auras are what we use to distinguish whether one is Nemelite or Yietimpi. The colors of the Nemelite are pure and bright. The colors of the Yietimpi are dark and clouded. Some don’t have an aura at all, they have abilities which allow them to cloak their true kinships. The aura of a being usually indicates what gift they have. The colors I have are generally associated with guardianship. Remember when your dad mentioned the Sentry to you earlier?”

The word rang a bell, taking me a second to remember when I’d heard the word before.

“Yeah, he did. But Aunt Grace also mentioned it in my
dream
, the one I’d had the first night we arrived here. The one with the onyx-eyed girl floating in the tree tops outside my bedroom window…” I looked into Hudson and Jen’s eyes. They were watching me as if I should have caught on to something more than just the memory of my dream…
Then the lights came on…in my mind, that is
.

“It wasn’t
just
a dream, was it?” I blurted, but I already knew the answer.

“It wasn’t a dream. She was here, and so were a number of her kind. It was an extremely rare and dangerous event. It happened so quickly. None of us knew they were here—which, by the way, is not the norm. Usually, we can track them for hundreds of miles before they can even get close to any of us. This time, they’d appeared out of thin air.” Jen stopped for a second to reflect on what she revealed.

“When I say ‘we,’ I mean the Sentry. Your Dad said we use our gifts to protect others. That’s who I’m a part of in our society. We’re guardians.”

While I went over everything she said, only a few hundred questions flew into my mind. I knew she couldn’t answer all of them.

“So the only reason we became friends, the only reason you came into my life, was to protect me?”

“No,” she said, genuinely truthful.

“When we’re assigned to protect certain families or people, we keep ourselves in the shadows of their lives. With you and Hudson, initially we came upon you by accident. It wasn’t until we had already become friends that I realized exactly who you were.”

“Who is ‘we’? You keep saying we, and how’s it possible you didn’t know who we were until after you met me?” I asked.

“
We
, is my Mom, Dad, and I,” Jen said. “Believe me, it’s fairly impossible for those who are from any of our worlds to not be detected by us. My entire family is Sentry. With the three of us, we can detect energies anywhere in the universe, but again, with you and your family, it was another first,” Jen said, smiling shyly up at Hudson.

“So once you discovered
us
, what happened?” I asked.

“Both of your parents were strong Nemelites when they were active. Since they had been hiding their gifts for so long, it was second nature for them to assume regular human roles in their day to day lives. Their auras were cloaked to the point of nothingness…they had hidden them so well they were pretty much invisible to everyone, including the Nemelite and Yietimpi. Only a select few knew where your family was and kept tabs on what progression you and Hudson had made. When I met your parents for the first time, there was no hiding I was a Nemelite from them. They knew the instant I became involved in your life. Me, on the other hand, I didn’t know until your parents and Hudson
decided
to reveal themselves to me. It was a huge shock considering I’ve never had a surprise reveal…ever, and trust me, I’ve been doing this for quite some time now.”

“How long?” I asked, thinking she would say for the last two years.

“Well,” Jen said slowly, “There’s another part of our heritage you’ll be surprised about. I don’t know if I’m the right person to explain the whole thing to you, but I think I can tell you how old I am.”

“What do you mean how
old
you are? You’re sixteen like me, aren’t you?”

“I know I
look
sixteen. I’ve been this way for quite some time now, but if you were to guess my true chronological age, it would be more like one hundred and fifty.”

It was my turn to laugh. I actually snorted in disbelief. “Yeah, right. How’s that even possible?” Before she could answer, I said, “I need to wrap my mind around this. You’re how much older than Hudson? Like one hundred and thirty-two years older? Doesn’t anyone see a huge problem with that?” I sat back and counted on my fingers and in my head, thinking I was adding things up wrong.

Hudson put both of his hands on my shoulders to stop me from counting. When he did, I started crying, feeling stupid, used, and hysterical. How was I supposed to trust anyone here when they kept keeping things from me?

“Jace, you’re going to see a lot of things which will seem strange and unbelievable. This, Jen and I, is something neither one of us expected or had any control over. Because Jen grew up in Nemele, her chronological age pretty much equals a sixteen year old in our time.” I looked at my brother, who I trusted, as though I were seeing him for the first time—ever.

This made absolutely no sense to me. I truly was expecting to wake up any second and realize I was dreaming. However, something in the back of my mind was chanting
Brace yourself, this is your new reality.

“There are reasons I haven’t aged and those reasons will be explained to you by someone other than Hudson or me,” Jen said softly, kneeling in front of me and taking my hand. “It will be the elders and only when they are ready. I’ll probably be in trouble for telling you as much as I have, but I needed to. I need you to understand that I
am
here and always have been because I’m your friend before I’m anything else. I’m sorry I couldn’t be completely truthful with you before. Now maybe you understand why.” She looked at me through tear-filled eyes.

I knew what she’d revealed to me was the truth. There would be more to come. Everything which I’d believed had been happening was, in fact, happening; nothing had been a figment of my imagination.

“I believe you.” We stood together and hugged until Aunt Grace walked in.

“Everything all right in here?” she asked, seeming a little afraid.

“Everything’s good,” I answered as I let go of Jen and sat back down. Another question popped into my head, this time, directed at Aunt Grace.

“What type of Nemelite are you, Aunt Grace?”

She stopped. “It’s never been my intent to keep you or your brother in the dark about our heritage. I’ve always been a proponent of telling the two of you everything from the time you were born. However, I respected your parents’ decisions. They were doing what they thought was best. Telling you everything now would only cause confusion and turmoil and go against the rules we as Nemelites have followed since the beginning of time.”

Aunt Grace paused as she stepped over to the windows overlooking the backyard. “I won’t break the rules. I’ve treaded a fine line over the last week in what I have revealed and what I could not. I’ve been tempted on more than one occasion to break them. This situation is among one of the greatest challenges I’ve ever faced. I’ll guide you when the time is right,” Aunt Grace said without room for question.

“When will I find out about all the magic and stuff? Everything I haven’t been told yet?” I put the question out into the room.

Aunt Grace changed the subject. “Don’t forget tomorrow is your first day at a new school. It should keep you busy for at least for one day. Right now, it should really be your number one priority. Leave all of the
‘magic and stuff’
to us for one more day. When you do go to St. Nemele tomorrow, be aware that not everyone who lives in Nemele is a part of the Nemelite Society. Now more than ever, you need to come across like an average teenager. I don’t think you’ll have a hard time pulling it off. I know over the years you’ve had a lot of practice at being the new girl in school. Jen will be able to help you out. She grew up here and has a number of friends both Nemelite and Mornal.”

“What’s a Mornal?” I asked.

“A Mornal is a person who’s from this world without powers. They’re humans. Jacey, Nemele and the Nemelites have been here since before the beginning of time, and I think one more day of not knowing everything won’t hurt. Keep in mind the Elders know everything that’s going on right now and by tomorrow, they should have made some important decisions for us,” Aunt Grace said.

Jen and Aunt Grace had probably put themselves in hot water by telling me as much as they had. I knew I wasn’t going to get any more info tonight, but I risked asking just one more.

“Are we safe here tonight?”

“We are for tonight. We have a Sentry Guard of ten outside,” Aunt Grace answered.