Heritage (22 page)

He took a sip out of his glass and placed it back on the desk with a sigh.

“They smashed up the Grave?” He whispered taking a big gulp of scotch.

“What?” I gasped “Dad I’m Sorry.”

Crossing the table I gave my father a hug. I knew this would have been hard on him. He loved her even I knew that. He used to talk about her a lot when she died, but after a while he couldn’t stand to hear her name in the castle. He only spoke about her with Ethan when they had their times together. Releasing him from my hug, I sat on his desk facing him. The sad look on his face broke my heart. I hated seeing him hurting.

“I’m guessing you haven’t told Ethan then?”

“No, how can I tell him? I can barely come to terms with it myself, he will be crushed, or by that sudden outburst he could possibly go crazy.” Holding his head in his hands, he shook it and then stared at me.

“Maybe you can…”

“No Dad, this will be better coming from you. I know that if my mother not that she has a grave, was vandalised like that. I would like you to tell me,” I smiled.

“You could apologies while you’re at it.” Kissing him on the forehead and rising from the desk. I headed towards the door.

“Come on I’ll Walk with you.”

“Fine, where did you get your level head from,” He laughed opening the double doors.

“Not from you obviously,” I mocked as we began to walk down the corridor towards Ethan’s room.

“Adabelle! Oh Sorry your highness, can we borrow Adabelle for a minute? It’s kinda super important,” Adam voice squeaked before he appeared in a ball of clouds.

“Super important,” Genevieve bounced as she jumped into view. Her long hair swept around her face as if she had been blown by a gust of wind.

“Sure little ones, Adabelle I’ll see you later.” Bidding us goodbye he kissed me on the forehead and continued down the corridor. He best go to Ethan and not chicken out because that would be seriously annoying. My thought pondering was broken by a tug on my trousers.

“Oh sorry Genevieve. How can I help?”

“You have to come see!” They both cried in unison each taking one of my hands.  Before I could argue I was already standing outside in the cold air. The chill breeze covered my whole body in goose bumps.  Adam and Genevieve were twins and each had the ability to transport people from realm to realm, which was seen as a great talent for a grown woman to do, never mind two eight year olds.  These children were the cutest children I have ever seen, with both of their long hair blowing in the seriously windy weather.

“Look Look,” They called as they ran through the trees that ran around the back of the castle.

Fine I can definitely eat a big slice of that chocolate cake Emerald made later. A two hour gym session with Leo and now a run through the fields, definitely glad I chose the right foot wear.

“Where did you go?” I called to them. I had walked so far into the forest that all I could see were more trees, but no little children. If they had brought me in here for no reason or to play a joke on me, I’m going to be so mad.

“Here!” Adam called. I heard him, but I couldn’t see where he has.  Crunching the leaves under my feet as I search the behind all the trees. Maybe they were playing hide and seek amongst the trees.

“Adabelle Come on!” They called sounding frustrated. It’s not my fault I couldn’t find them. I was never any good at this game. It’s a lot harder when all the other players have the ability to turn into anything they want, or could become invisible. 

“I have no idea where are you guys... Whoa!”  Well at least I found half of them.  Adams arm hung in the air on its own as it gestured for me to follow them.

“What the…”

“It’s a portal” Genevieve laughed as her head appeared unattached from her body, floating in mid air.

That is some excellent witchcraft going on here. An invisible portal to another world, that’s fantastic.  Circling the floating head and arm I tried to find the crystals or anything that could be creating it.

“Are you coming or not,” bugged Adam stepping out of the portal, so his body was all attached? No idea what I’m letting myself in for but the main concern is where them children are going to. It could be dangerous for them. Taking a deep breath I followed Adam through the portal and left the safety of the forest, into blaring sunlight.

“Could of warned me about the sun Kids,” I moaned shielding my eyes as I began to see dark spots forming in my sight.

“Kids?” Great off they go again. “Wait up,” I shouted chasing after them, as they ran through the corn field the portal had led us to.  We had only run a short way before they disappeared again into thin air.

“What? What is this?” I mumbled jumping through the next portal and into a graveyard, that stretched for about a mile filled with broken down grave stones.  Scanning the gloomy field of dead bodies, my arm developed Goosebumps. The thought of decomposing bodies underneath my feet made me want to puke.

“See!” Adam clucked jumping in a hyper manner.

“See what? Dead people yeah! Just call me Bruce Willis. What exactly am I supposed to be looking at here?”

“Don’t you recognise it?” She shrilled running around all the headstones pointing at each of them like it was supposed to ring any bells, which funnily enough it wasn’t.

“Look Ryann..Nny… Crag..Crai”

“Ryany Craig Genevieve. It says
Ryany Craig. Oh my days are we in Icarus?” I gasped kneeling in front of the newly placed headstone. There, it was carved in stone, Ryany Craig
born twenty sixth of September eighteen seventy four, died thirteenth of October two thousand and ten.  Well he was defiantly old poor fellow, died aged one hundred and thirty six. I’ll be happy if I lived that long. Well I’d be a lot happier if I didn’t die painfully by being burnt alive, yeah that would be better.

“You kids shouldn’t be here, it’s too dangerous”

“Dangerous pfft! Danger is our middle names!” Adam ducked behind a head stone and jumped out as if he was scaring someone.

“We aren’t afraid of nuffing.” Folding her arms in irritation towards me, then following her brother. They ran around the graveyard jumping over the bumps in the ground and over the array of graves.

“Fine but still, how did you find these portals anyway?” I asked stepping over a gravestone or two to reach them.

“We were playing with Boggle, and he ran in to the woods..

“So we followed him.” Adam interrupted. The finishing each other sentences thing, was so cute.

“Why did you show it to me though? Surely you should have showed it to my father?” I asked puzzled by why I was the person they showed it to and not my father or even Josh or Alex. They are more of the adventurous type.

“He told us to,” Adam croaked from behind a broken down tree.

“Who?”

“The Prince” Genevieve smiled poking her head out from the opening of the dead oak. Oh, please let the prince be Ethan, please.

“Ethan?” I asked hopeful that it was my brother and not Logan because that would be another can or worms. I hadn’t seen Logan since the day in the alley, and I was trying to keep it that way. I didn’t want him to ask questions about Lorias, and I hadn’t heard anything from him in a long while.

“No,  not Ethan, the Prince from the feast. He’s very friendly.” They smiled as they climbed under and through the big oak.

“Well you two aren’t so bad yourself,” He complimented materialising next to me.

“How about you guys run along, back home while me and the Princess have a quick word.” Giving them both a smile .they both skipped off through the portal. They left me alone with Logan in the middle of an Elf grave yard. I was trying to concentrate on Logan and not the sudden vision of Zombie elves, rising from the grave. I shivered at the thought.

“Here take this.” Taking off his leather jacket to reveal a dark blue shirt, he wrapped it around my shoulders.

“Thanks but it’s alright” Taking it off my shoulders, I began to give it back to him. He chuckled at me and placed it back on my shoulders.

“Stop being annoying. I don’t want you to freeze to death. It’s a jacket, it’s not an invitation to join the dark side.”

“In that case, Thanks.” Putting my arms through the sleeves, I took a seat on a stump next to the tree the children were playing in.

“So what do you want? Plus how did you even get here?”

“Well I was tired of waiting for you to bring me here. So being the independent man I am. I decided to use my talents to find another way here and what would you know here I am.” He smirked taking my hand and pulling me back up from the stump.

“You have been avoiding me.”

“Now why would I possibly do that.” I moaned removing my hand from his and walking towards the old broken down church, on the far side of the graveyard. Considering this is Icarus, it is really dark and eerie with the lifeless trees stretching over our heads, blocking out the heavy sunlight.

“It could be the fact that you are afraid you would get in trouble, if you spoke to me.” He chuckled walking behind me. Unlike me who was carefully trying not to stand on any grave out of respect, he purposely stood on them.

“That’s so disrespectful walking over dead people and for your information. I never do what I’m told”

The old church doors crumbled as I pulled on the door handle. With a crash,  the wood fell and hit the stone paving. Logan looked at me with a cocky eyebrow raised expression.

“I’m guessing that wasn’t supposed to happen,” he mocked, kicking down the remaining standing wood that was once double doors.

“You still haven’t told me why you brought me here.” As I spoke my voice echoed in the small four walled church. As damaged as it looked on the outside, it was doubled inside. Cobwebs covered all corners of the room and four wooden beams were rotting in the centre, creating separate walkthroughs to the rest of the room.

“This is the last spot on the pentagram. I know that you have all of the element stones. As I’m not, what’s the word. Oh yes, stupid?”

“I’m guessing you want them.” Coughing as I inhaled too much dust. I continued to walk around the church. Exploring every piece of debris that was left after what seemed to be a fire.

“No,  I don’t want them, they are useless.”

Well somebody hasn’t been doing their research. Considering he was a demon, surely he should know that they open a devils gate. Come on Elle you can’t be that dim. He obviously knows about it, he is using reverse psychology on me, or something to that affect.

“If you say so. So this is the last part of the puzzle then. Where the last element stone is?” I asked. This should catch him out. If he had been doing his research then maybe, he would pick up on the fifth element stone not existing.

“Fifth element stone? Now either your trying to catch me out. Or you haven’t been doing your research.” He questioned lifting the lid of a dusty gold chest, that was sitting at the front of an old alter.

“Well what do you know, he is a bright spark.” I mocked walking over to investigate the box with him. Engraved golden vines ran along the rim of the small metal box. Unlike everything else in the room, the box was untouched by debris or dust. It looked like it had been surrounded by an invisible bubble that was protecting it.  The interior was covered in dark red velvet fabric and seemed to be empty. Putting his hand inside. Logan pulled out the bottom revealing a secret compartment.

“How did you know to do that?” I asked.

“I didn’t. I just thought I’d try it.” Taking the false bottom from the box and placing on the side, we could see the entire hidden compartment.

“It’s empty huh!” Logan sighed beginning to put the false bottom back in.

“Wait” I stammered.

“What?”

A diamond indent in the red velvet caught my eye. It was the same size as the diamond that was sent to me last month.  It was so tempting to place the metal diamond that was in my pocket, into the indent to see if it fit. But with Logan being here it would be a bad idea. Maybe he brought me here to do that for some reason, that I still had yet to form in my head.

“Nothing I thought I saw something but I didn’t.” I muttered walking away and looking through the old dusty books on the right side of the altar.

Placing the box back together, he closed the lid and sat on the row of chairs facing the broken altar.

“It’s ok if you don’t want to tell me. That’s fine, but I must warn you. I have a way of finding things out, hence us being here in Icarus together.” He spoke with a huge grin on his face.

“Sure you do.” I spluttered as a cloud of dust formed in front of me as I pulled a book from the shelf.

“Oh I do.  See I know you have all the stones and are planning to find the opening to the Devils gate, which by the way good luck. Only a demon can find that and as far and as I’m aware you’re not one.” He laughed folding his arms, looking full of himself.

“Well Mr. Know it all, you clearly don’t know everything.” I smiled. He was obviously not aware of the fact that I was half demon, which in this case worked in my favour. At least Logan is good for something. I’m pretty sure that’s going to cut down the time spent in the library, trying to sort out this mess.