Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (29 page)

“
Are they dead?” I continued. Tarmo rolled his transparent eyes and sighed, exasperated at my monotonous questions which I’m sure he found annoying. “They’re asleep,” he answered. Tammy nudged herself past and carried the front of her dress as she went to stand by Tarmo’s side.

“
Tams, what are you doing?” Robbie asked.

“
Hey, Tammy, you okay?”

“
I’m good, Tarmo,” they spoke to themselves undertone.

“
You guys
know
each other?” Robbie seemed more surprised than us, even sounding horrified by the idea.

“
Yes, but we don’t have time to explain. Now, come on!” Tarmo urged. We looked at each other again, but our curiosity got the better of us; we wanted to know. Therefore, without asking any more questions, we rushed up the stairs as Tarmo touched the guards’ necks.

They suddenly stood up straight, but they didn
’t look or seem to be in control of themselves. Their eyes were clouded with light blue mist like Tarmo’s, almost transparent by their colour.

“
What happened to them?” I asked, progressively becoming scared.

“
Look, they’ll be fine – they’re hypnotised.” With that, we quickly rushed through the spiralling marble staircase and we ended up on the balcony. We quickly moved forward, out of the guests’ sight and we faced a wide but short hallway. I had a feeling that we were about to be exposed to even
more
information, but this time it was coming from another teenager – would that possibly mean that at least he was experiencing the constant secrecy from his parents and awkward atmosphere around the adults he knew? Or was it just my siblings and me experiencing such unfortunate mistrust?

A series of
smaller chandeliers ran down the hallway’s ceiling. The walls were covered with cream and floral wallpaper and a few classical portraits hung on them. We stood on a crimson carpet that descended the corridor. Three round coffee tables were pressed against the right wall with thin glass flower vases on top of them. The back wall was close, seeing as the hallway was short with two small corridors at both ends.

Suddenly, as we still stood close to the balcony
(though out of sight) a man turned from the left corridor at the end, with a crystal flute glass filled with golden, bubbling champagne. He was tall, seemed to be in his late thirties and his face reflected something unprecedented; powerful. However, I now learnt not to assume that thirty-year-old-looking people were probably in
no
way actually
thirty years old
!
There was a ninety percent chance they were most likely a good two centuries older than me. This strange man had long, back-length, well-looked-after chestnut brown hair. He carried himself with shoulders thrown back and a perfect posture, seeming grand and royal, dressed like a renaissance nobleman in black and grey – kind of like…
a king.
Hang on:

We were in a
Castle, invited here by the
king
, and this particular part of the Castle was guarded by sentries. I
instantly
began hoping that this man was not who I thought he was but my fear was realised once Tarmo immediately fell to one knee and bowed his head

Oh dear.
               

My stomach churned and I thought that all the digested contents of whatever I had eaten t
oday would spill out of my mouth, causing me further embarrassment than I was already feeling.

All of us guys followed
Tarmo and fell to our knees without delay whilst the girls immediately curtsied and held their dresses out by their black and grey silk frills. The man stopped at once and looked at us curiously – partly baffled, partly enraged.

“
What…
are you kids doing up here?” he asked, squinting at us from the edge of his nose. Our breaths grew heavier and the air grew thicker as we stayed bowed in front of the king in this awkward moment. I gulped. However, out of the blue, we were saved by a stern, dominant, yet elegant voice.

“
It’s okay, father. They’re with me.” We looked up and saw a girl of approximately Jade’s age approaching with her black mask over her eyes and across her nose. Her dress seemed to be made from thin grey and black material and was the most elegant outfit I had yet seen. It was exploding with fabric, skirts and frills in a spiral from her waist downwards and, like Anne and mum’s, it was corseted, with its laces showing as a sharp black and contrasting with her silver-ash dress. The top of her dress started as a very light, misty grey that darkened to silver and fell into an artistic mix of black as it descended.

Her stature made her seem like a cross between a prima ballerina and
a gymnast with a
perfect
figure and posture; back and shoulders straight. Her hair was a thick, rich and glossy black that fell to her waist. From where I was, I could clearly see that the tips were cut straight so that each strand of hair was equal to the other in length. She had a full, heavy fringe that covered her forehead; a shiny headband rested delicately on her head with a large plastic rose on its side. She had let her hair loose and it swayed behind her as she walked over to us nobly.

Her skin was without blemish and
its complexion between a light beige and pale pink. Her eyelashes were swept to their sides and her eyebrows were thin and black, like her hair. Her lips were evenly full and painted with a very dark shade of blood-red lipstick. But the soul-stealing feature about her that we noticed as she marched were her
eyes
.

They were remarkable and uncanny
; her irises were outlined with a thick outstanding black that matched her pupils. The colour of her irises – well…that’s just it, you see…they
had
no colour. It was if her irises were the same colour as her eye-whites and merely looked like there was an emptiness between the rims of her irises and pupils. However, in between, there were thin and thick patterns of silvery-grey straight lines that sort of made her eyes seem like wheels. Better yet, her makeup was exquisitely done; starting with her eyelashes, lacquered in thick mascara and her precious eyes outlined by a wonderful work of eyeliner, bringing out their beauty and rareness. Her face was porcelain and emotionless, striding towards us with an undisturbed face of elegance and raw power that we could not match. For sure, it was safe to say that our hearts (the guys at least) rose to our throats and choked us as soon as we laid eyes on the display of magnificence approaching.

As soon as she had declared we were with her, the king
’s face lightened up.

“
Ah, then, no problem,” he joyfully said. “Rise.” We quickly stood to our feet.

“
Well, well, if it isn’t Tarmo and the Roxeths. If I had known it was you –” the king drifted off into an airy smile. So it seems we would have been okay either way if he had seen the faces of Tarmo, Liam, Robbie or Tammy.

“
But how did you get past the guards? Did you put them to sleep, Tarmo?”

“
As you know –
I have my ways
, Your Majesty,” Tarmo modestly replied. The girl strode and stood next to us. She was exceedingly tall – my height. Then, the king’s royal hazel eyes drifted off to Jojo.

“
You’re Anne and Tantrus’ daughter, am I correct?”

“
Yes, Your Majesty, but how did you –”

“
I could tell by your eyes, my dear; your green eyes. Of course, every Time-Morpher has green eyes, but there’s something particular about your family’s,” he said with a warm grin.

“
Where’s your brother?” he continued. We looked at Jojo in surprise. Well…she failed to mention that she had a sibling.

“
In the Lappington University, Your Majesty. He’s taking courses on Universal Time Management and Archaic History, along with giving lectures. He’s aiming to work at the Supremacy.”

“
What difficult, yet fascinating subjects. Well, my dear, if he keeps up, you tell him I might reserve him a position.” Jojo smiled at the king’s apparent generosity. Finally, his eyes drifted off to Jaden, Jade and me and he didn’t seem as cheerfully warm
as a second ago.

“
Now, who are you?” He asked with a hollow smile. I was getting the impression he wasn’t going to smile at us cordially until he knew who we or our parents were. Well,
parent
.

“
Dad, they’re Jerricho and Angelina’s children,” the girl spoke through gritted teeth, almost as if she didn’t want us hearing. The air suddenly dropped to sub-zero and he narrowed his eyes at us. His glass of champagne instantly froze forthwith. He took a few intimidating steps towards us.

“
How much
…do you know
?” he asked, breathing down on us. I gulped.

“
Erm, well –” Jaden stammered. I gulped again and merely touched the frozen glass of champagne he held to break the tension – we had nothing to say to answer his question. The frozen champagne quickly melted and was enthusiastically fizzing again. I removed my finger and lightly blew. The glass of champagne immediately chilled itself yet remained liquid. He chuckled lightly.

“
All of you, run along with Mychaela,” he referred to his daunting goddess of a daughter. The king stepped forward and suddenly claimed the undivided attention of all the guests in the hall, the orchestra and the butlers.

“
My fellow friends, welcome to my special ball – held privately for only my most revered. So yes…
I admire you all
. From my hardworking friends: the lawyers, historians, solicitors and notaries I work with at the Supremacy,” the audience clapped as the king raised his glass “and to the rest of you, close allies and associates. So, for the five thousandth and twelfth time – as my forefathers have so simply stated before
me
,” The hall filled with courteous laughs, “please enjoy the Samhain ball!”

At the end of the king
’s speech, the audience ruptured into tumultuous applause and the orchestra resumed their enthusiastic symphonies.

“You have a
brother
?! Why didn’t you tell us?” Jade exploded in a hiss to Jojo. Jojo’s tanned face turned pink in embarrassment.

“Now’s not the place, Jade,” she replied lightly.

We began marching down the hallway with Mychaela leading. All the girls held their dresses up and their trains trailed on after them.

“
Can someone please explain all this?” Jaden asked, frustrated as we were about to make a sharp turn into the left corridor.

“
No time to explain at the moment,” Tarmo quickly responded. Jade stopped in motion and she clenched her fists. As we kept walking, about to cut into the left corridor, we hit a force-field. Tarmo and Mychaela tried and tried to break past it, but all they did was inflict glowing purple cracks in it which quickly disappeared like a healing scar. Mychaela smiled.

“
That’s neat. Who’s doing that?” she asked.

“
You can’t just
show
up and drag us without an explanation! I don’t care if you
are
the princess of Vernaesce,” Jade was starting to become just as hungry for an answer as the rest of us. She had finally lost her cool. Mychaela sighed.

“
Look, I know this must be very
awkward and unsettling at the moment, but we just need to get into that room over there and we’ll explain
everything
. I promise.” Mychaela’s puzzling eyes brushed over each and every one of us.

“
Fine
,” Jade sighed, dropping her force-field. We saw as the invisible barrier broke out in purple luminescent cracks and vanished. We quickly rushed through the left corridor and barged into a room whilst Mychaela shut the door behind us without a moment to lose.

The
luminosity in the room was extremely dim; the only light was sourced from the crackling flames in the fireplace. The cosy room we were in was small and round. We stood on a crimson carpet similar to the one in the corridor, armchairs stood inches away from the fireplace and the long velvety drapes were drawn.

But we weren
’t alone. Two other fifteen-year-old girls stood at the back and quietly emerged from the drapes as we entered. They had been looking outside the window, quietly observing the guests’ movements. They were both around my height. One was bleach-blonde with back-length hair and cold, icy-blue eyes – scarily outlined by a black ring around her irises (there seemed to be a lot of that going on at the moment) and the other had back length blonde hair with amber eyes. Her hair was almost waist-length like Mychaela’s. In certain aspects, they both resembled the princess in stature and dressed relatively similar to the other girls present. We immediately broke out in questions.

“
Okay, now get explaining. What’s all this? Tammy, how do you know Tarmo?” Liam quickly interrogated.