Lumen (20 page)

“Daniel,” Jac said. “Jeez, I did tell you that I was coming.”

“When? You’ve just been telling me all this stuff about 
them
 and being all cryptic and everything and then you’re here. Why didn’t you tell me then?” Daniel sighed and sat on his bed. “What did you break?”

“A cup, it was an accident, and in my defence it was a lot more important than telling you I was in your room,” Jac said. “Besides, you’re the one that goes to the 
fancy 
school. You do know how to fix it, don’t you?”

Daniel rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Just brush it to the side and I’ll deal with it later.”

Jac noticed the plimsolls on Daniel’s feet and raised an eyebrow. “Really?” he grinned.

“Yeah, you have to wear them, or cut your feet open on the rock,” he replied. “Anyway, what are you doing here?”

“Because I said that I was gonna, and let’s face it, you were chucking your guts up and blocking me out.”

“I wasn’t poisoned though,” Daniel said with uncertainty. “Did you tell my parents that you're coming?”

“Yeah,” he said and hummed some laughter. He sat on Daniel’s bed and then bounced up and down on it. “They sure do treat you like royalty here then.”

“All of the rooms are like this,” Daniel said.

There was a knock at the door and Daniel froze on the spot.

“Should I get that?” Jac asked, “or go hide?” he grinned.

“Yeah, go in the wardrobe, and take 
that
!” Daniel shooed Jac and kicked his satchel to him as he climbed into the wardrobe.

“It’s roomy in here,” Jac said, sliding the door shut.

Daniel fumbled with the lock, although it only went clockwise. His worst fears were that this was Reuben and he knew what he’d done. He closed his eyes and pulled the handle to open the door.

“I saw you today,” Carlie said, bursting in through the door and shoved a hand on Daniel’s chest, pushing him over to his bed and kicking the door behind her. “I saw all of that power you used, that was a—a lot of power.”

“Why are you here?” he asked, swiping her hand from his chest.

She bit her lip playfully. “I came for you, silly!” she said, slowly putting her hand on his upper arm.

“Please, just go back to Jasper,” he said, shaking her hand off his arm.

“He doesn’t protest as much as you.”

“
How come you didn’t tell me?
” Jac whispered.

“There’s nothing going on here,” Daniel replied to them both.

She stood on the balls of her feet and kissed him on his lips. Daniel pushed her slightly; she fluttered her eyelashes and grinned. She stroked the right side of his face and then turned around and then ran towards the door, teleporting before she would have hit it.

Jac opened the wardrobe and walked out, blinking and bug-eyed. “Are you sure there’s nothing going on?” he asked.

“Listen, she’s crazy, probably one of the reasons why Jasper hates me.”

“And what happened to Mia?”

“Nothing, I like her and she likes me, but it’s all too weird. I’m here and she’s,” he paused, “off the island,” he whispered.

The phone in his pocket started to buzz and tickle at his legs. He pulled it out; it was a message from Reuben. He read it to himself, and then read it out loud while Jac made a sly comment about Daniel having a phone.

“Reuben needs to see me now. I think I know what it’s about,” he said, biting the inside of his lip.

“Go on, tell me,” Jac said.

“I set him free. I don’t know what I did but I let the Luminary go,” Daniel said, he opened his mouth to say something else, like how he knew it was Karsar and how he’d been invading his dreams, but that would make him sound crazy.

“Thank goodness! Well if you don’t come back I’ll presume you’re lying around in a ditch somewhere,” he said.

Daniel glared at Jac and shook his head. Daniel was outside Reuben’s door within seconds, the black enveloped Daniel as he stepped backwards to see the door. He took a deep breath; the door was bigger than it had been. He wiped his sweaty palms on the back of his jeans and then swiped his hair away from his eyes. His slipped his phone back into his pocket and then exhaled.

“Come in,” Reuben shouted before Daniel could knock.

Daniel opened the door, and before he could let go of the handle he was thrown to the floor in Reuben's office.

“I have an urgent matter at hand,” Reuben continued.

“Oh, what about? I haven’t don’t anything wrong have I?” Daniel asked, standing and brushing himself off.

Reuben chuckled. “No, of course not. I was supposed to grab you before everyone left this morning. It’s about my nephew’s girlfriend, Carlie. She seems to be staring at you, a lot.”

“It’s not what it seems,” he said and waved a hand frantically to protest.

Reuben chuckled harder. “I know it’s not, I’m actually protecting you in a different way by telling you this. Carlie leaches of the energy of others, she does not source from natural sources, although she would argue that we are 
her 
natural source,” he grinned. “Jasper sleeps with replenishing stones under his pillow, they give him his edge, but you’re stronger than Jasper, if she got to you then she’d take more and that would take a lot longer for you to get it back into your system.”

“I think I’m following,” Daniel said, after all Jasper’s uncle just said that he was stronger. “Wait, how does she take energy?”

“Through touch, even if it’s a brush against her, the littlest brush she might catch a hold of that and come on to you.”

Daniel started to breathe heavily and his heart started to hiccup in his chest. “Hm. She kissed me once. But I pushed her away.”

Reuben pushed the glasses to the end of his nose and looked Daniel in the eye. “I should have known, I should have addressed you when I found out about your flare,” he sighed. “We’re not allowed to make statements to the school, telling people about students who are afflicted, like her, it’s classed as discrimination. But it would have averted any crisis.”

“I’m fine though. But what happens if she does get too close and takes all of your energy?”

“You’d die, I’m surprised you don’t already know that, but I’m not the person you should be talking to about Carlie’s condition. Marianne is in her room now, I think she’d be happy enough to talk to you about it, just tell her that I sent you and Carlie kissed you.”

“Oh, and Daniel, please can you return the plates to the kitchen, I know you must be building a bit of a 
nest 
in your room with all the clutter,” Reuben said, “okay, now off you go.”

Daniel’s eyes widened, it made him sound like Carlie had some weird disease and he needed some help getting it off him. He almost debated on whether he wanted to go and see Marianne after leaving Reuben’s room. He stood at the bottom of the third floor steps and glanced around the doors.

“Daniel, you have a look in your eyes,” Marianne said, glancing up from her chair in one of the rooms.

“I was just about to come and see you,” he said, furrowing his brow in thought.

“I knew something was up. Come in then,” she said, gesturing him in with her hand.

Daniel pulled a seat from the lined formation they had all been in for her next class and took a seat across from her.

“So, what is it?”

“Reuben sent me down because Carlie kissed me,” he said with a black expression on his face, still slightly confused.

It began as a hum and then she chuckled. “I bet he told you that you had the plague, didn’t he.” She rolled her eyes. “My husband also sources from people, syphoning energy through touch because their receptors, the sixth one, is 
disabled
 so they can’t get their energy in any other way. That’s all it is.”

“Don’t you worry he’ll take all of your energy?”

“No,” she grinned. “Now, I’d like to ask you a question. How do you explain that you can do things other people can’t, like the advanced stuff?”

Daniel had an answer for that question, it might not have been all that true, but it sure pointed to it. He was doing exactly what Carlie was doing, but only this time he was tapping into the source of a Luminary.

“It’s all I ever did, while everyone’s lives here have been cushy, I went to work with my dad. He works at the library in Faber and all I did was read books. I guess that’s what everyone should do; the library’s big enough for everyone.”

“It’s also a vault,” Marianne said, nodding. She pulled up her sleeve to look at her watch. “And we’re going to have to cut this short. I have a class in ten minutes. So, don’t go near Carlie, but don’t push her away either, you touching her has as much intent as her touching you.”

“Okay,” he said standing and pushing his chair back in line.

“If you have any more questions we’ve always got tomorrow’s lesson.”

Daniel found himself standing in the foyer. He could smell lunch being dished out. “
I’m hungry
,” Jac winged, almost as if he could smell what Daniel smelt. He grabbed two plates, and filled them with sausages and eggs and toast and fried mushrooms. Nobody asked him why he was having two plates, and as soon as he was done, he teleported back to Jac.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Today was the day when there was no unsettling breezes or scorching heats, no windswept looks or clouds in the sky. Karsar shivered in a corner of an alley, hiding beneath a cardboard box, rubbing his hands together and then holding them up to blow into them. His pallid white skin was almost perfect with sickness and he had one single purple bruise beneath his right eye.

He’d spent the past few hours trying to piece the picture of events and stop shaking, but he couldn’t. He told himself over and over, first in thought and then as incoherent mumbling, he didn’t want anyone to find out what had happened, what would they think, what they say about his power. 
Laugh, they’ll laugh. It’s all—all his fault. D—Daniel’s fault!
 He covered his face with his hands and wiped away the tears, flinching as he brushed against the bruise. “Daniel,” he mumbled.

“Satoria,” a surprised voice said. Karsar’s ears pricked as the voice trailed off passed the alley. He cocked his head to the entrance and saw a woman pass with pinks and blues in her hair, and like rain drumming down on a window it washed over him, the twang in the voice was too familiar.

“Hey!” he shouted feebly. “Who are you?” he asked, pushing himself up from the ground. “I know you!” he shouted after her, his knees buckling as he tried to run after her.

“Dammit!” she growled, rushing down the empty street.

“I know you! Wait!” Karsar ran after her, trying to fix the clothes he was wearing to make himself look a bit more presentable in front of a girl.

She stood still and turned. “Listen! You need to stop doing 
whatever
 it is that you’re doing!”

“Aryna?” he said softly, stopping in front of her. They went back a while, in fact Aryna found Karsar sitting in a gutter afraid of himself, just before Richard took him under his wing. “Where are you here?”

“The same reason you are,” she replied.

“I live in the city now.”

“No, for Daniel!” she said, whacking him on his chest. “Don’t play stupid.”

Karsar took a step back and scrunched up his face. He put a hand over his chest, trying not to show that she’d hurt him. “You, you’re here for him?” he asked, almost grinning.

“He needs to make a decision; he’ll need to know both sides. You know that.”

“Well you can’t tell him. You 
know
 that.” Karsar rolled his eyes. “It has to be someone in his bloodline, or his guardian.”

“So let them and stop interfering!” she pushed through her thinning lips. She took a deep breath and then looked Karsar up and down. “Is it still bleeding?” she raised an eyebrow.

He took a deep breath and pulled the bottom of his shirt up, there was a clean white piece of cloth covering something, he pulled at it and a bit of blood dribbled down his finger and pants. He didn’t look at it. The warmth of the blood had his throat constricted; he gulped hard at a knot inside and then pressed the cloth hard against his skin. “I’ve slowed the rate that it bleeds, but it won’t heal.”

“You’re lucky, some people have bled out. And if that happened the title would go to your next living relative.”

“How do you even know that?”

“I read, and I’m in tune to the generations of knowledge from my great-great-great grandmother. That’s how I knew something was going on down here, that and the books in my mom’s library. There, that’s how I know Daniel went through the second stage.”

“I don’t have any living relatives, and that 
palace 
in Greece, wherever it is won’t reveal itself. All of this is your fault.”

“You were the one fearing for your safety because things kept on happening around you. I was only 13 at the time and I travelled across the world because of what I felt.”

Karsar shook his head. “You shouldn’t even be here.”

“I’m staying here because this is the only other place that Daniel knows.”

“I’m sure I can send you a postcard to Australia when he comes back.”

“I’ll go back if you tell me why Daniel was here in the first place.”

“You’re wasting your time, Aryna. I don’t think you should be here, there’s already a lot of tension and you’re just going to be making it worse.”

“Me? You’re the one keeping secrets, and you would have never told us about the seventh. But you tried to anyway. Orlana knows now, so let’s play fair, even though he’ll join us. I know that.”

“You know that? Really.”

“So you think he’s going to want to destroy the island where he grew up. You’re stupid in thinking that.”

“Just go, Aryna.”

“Don’t die on us now,” she said, smacking his stomach where the white bandages covered his cut. He started coughing and pushing at the pain. “I’ll go, when I’m sure that Daniel knows.”

“When Elisa knows you’re in the city it’s only a matter of time before Richard invokes the ruling that forbids unwanted Luminary.”

“Shut up. Daniel will find out that there is a good side to this, and you’re not it.” She turned and teleported.