Chapter 18

EIGHTEEN

COLLINS

“You do know you’re the Stone Keeper, right?” Jada pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

“Yes,” I growled. “I know. I found out last night and then was told I’d have time to train before coming here.”

She narrowed her dark eyes and cocked her head to the side. “You haven’t trained, at all?”

I shook my head. Helpless desperation flooded my system. “I just found out last night. Mom says I have magic but . . .”

“But what? You don’t believe her?”

“I don’t know, just seems far-fetched. I’ve never felt magical. I’ve always felt totally and completely human.” I shrugged. “I don’t feel any different.”

“Don’t you, though?” She pursed her lips and gestured to me. “Did you look like this in First Realm?”

I opened my mouth, then shut it. She was right. I didn’t. My entire life, or all of it I remembered, I had brown hair and light-blue eyes. The moment I stepped out of that portal, I had bright aquamarine eyes and hair the color of not one but two different cotton candy flavors.

“If it walks like a fae . . .” she reached out and tugged on the tips of my ear. Then she lifted my hand in hers and held my arm up at an angle to show the way my skin now shimmered. “If it talks like a fae . . .”

I grimaced. My skin had a shimmer to it, like I rolled in lip gloss or something. It wasn’t glittery. It was smoother than that . . . kinda like those abalone shells in the ocean. She cleared her throat and then tapped on her own ear. I already knew they were pointed now, but it still was weird to feel it. Especially since the diamond studs I wore along my entire ear were still there.

I sighed. “I’m not doubting I’m fae, I just have doubts about this magic stuff.”

“But how do you feel ?”

“Absolutely terrified.”

She giggled and it sounded like windchimes, like this answer entertained her a great deal. “Well, I can’t say I don’t see why. But I meant deeper than that.”

I had no idea what face I made, but it caused her to sigh and roll her eyes. “You’re the Stone Keeper, Collins. You’ve been told what that means and the extent of your destiny. There’s no possible way you could do that without having magic. You were born here. Even without your special role, you’d still have power. All fae, even the measly little ones born from Megelle Island, have power and magic. We can sense the auras of people around us. We can feel life in everything. I know you’ve sensed this growing up, but for you it would have been dimmed because Araqiel was hiding you, and thus hiding your power. Hiding you. But you’ve been trying to shine through despite what the angels robbed from you. After all, look at all the crystals on your fingers.”

I looked down at my hands and all my silver rings, each one adorned with a different crystal. There were several of them on each finger, including midi rings . . . and on my toes.

“You’re drawn to crystals not because they’re fascinating and pretty, but because you were born of one. The Chaos Stone runs in your veins. It shines through your eyes.” She strolled forward and tapped one fingertip on the center of my chest, then on my forehead. “Stop worrying, and ask yourself why you are the way you are. Magic is a piece of yourself. There’s a gate within your mind and soul. It’s time to open it.”

My chest tightened. Had there always been something seething under the surface for me? Yes. It was there, lingering like a muscle that I hadn’t used but wanted to so badly. I spent my days holding a part of myself under tight control, making sure everything went according to the way they needed to go. Anything wild or free I held onto and barely let out.

“Open the gate, Collins,” Jada snapped. “Close your eyes.”

I closed them tight.

“Look inside yourself. Find the chaos and release it. The fae are not timid, nor do they hold anything back. They do what they want when they want. Do you do that, Collins? Or do you hold it in and act how you’re expected to?”

She said it like it was a bad thing to have common manners, but I knew what she was talking about. There’d always been a part of me that I locked away from the world. And now I had to reach for it. I let go of the knots in my stomach and allowed that tight control to slip. A tingling warmth spread through my body. It wasn’t like pins and needles. This was more like sinking into a warm bath. It spread from my stomach out toward my limbs. It moved through my body and a pulse of excitement flowed over me. Power like I’d never felt before filled my veins. I wanted to move, to run, to let myself go into the forest and disappear among the creatures. Wildness filled me and I wanted to let it go.

“There it is. That’s the feeling I’m looking for.” Jada clapped her hands. “Now, open your eyes.”

When I opened my eyes, I looked down at my hands—and gasped. “OH MY GOD.”

Tiny swirls of sparkling aquamarine mist billowed from my fingers and palms to float in the air around us. Crystal flowers exploded all around my feet, springing up in a huge patch around me. They wound around my ankles and popped into my hair.

“Holy shit.” I jumped backwards, but the misty swirls followed me. “Oh my God. Oh my GOD.”

“ That is your magic.” Jada crossed her arms over her chest and arched one eyebrow. “Check your doubts at the door, child. It’ll make things much faster if you just trust me.”

My jaw dropped. I waved my arms around like I was holding sparklers on the Fourth of July, and more of that aquamarine magic spilled out of me. A crazy kind of squeal slipped from my lips. Oh my God. Holy shit. I have magic. I HAVE MAGIC! I giggled and wiggled my fingers. Flowers and crystals popped up all around me. They were even tangled in my hair.

For a few moments, I lost myself to the magic of me. I just could not believe I had this all this time. I felt a bit robbed for having been kept in the dark, but I didn’t want to focus on that feeling. This was epic. I couldn’t wait to see what else I could do. Having magical powers was everyone’s dream come true, and somehow it was my reality.

“All right.” Jada cleared her throat. “So, now that you have discovered your magic, our priority must be finding the Chaos Stone. The fate of Third Realm relies on it. Concentrate on what you are doing.”

“I am.”

“You’re not. You’re playing.”

I threw my hands up and sighed—and a huge flower crown appeared over Jada’s head. I gasped and it dropped down on top of her.

She plucked it off and held in her hand. “Beautiful, but not exactly what we we’re trying to do.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Can’t I have a second to test out my magic for the first time?”

“No, you can’t. This Realm is dying . We have to get moving. You can play with your magic later. Right now, we need you focus on feeling the crystals in the world around you.” She opened her arms wide, motioning to the open area next to the trickling river. “You’re more than swirly magic. Feel the crystals.”

I threw my hands up. Again. Jada was far less patient than I expected her to be. “What does feel the crystal even mean? Can you try to remember I’m new here and have no idea what I’m doing?”

“It means every crystal has a power—an energy it gives off. As the Stone Keeper, you should be able to tap into that energy and harness it. But most of all, you should be able to sense the presence of crystals around you, which means you should be able to lead us to the Chaos Stone.” She bent over and plucked a crystally green leaf from one of the flowers close to the riverbed, then marched over and sat it in the palm of my hand. She curled my fingers around the leaf and gave my fist a little squeeze. She dropped my hand and backed away. “Close your eyes.”

I did as she said.

“Now, concentrate on the stone in your hand. What’s it telling you?”

I shrugged and wrinkled my nose. There was nothing, only the light howling of the wind and the trickling of water. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Not with your ears, with your soul. Every crystal has a distinct feel, power, and vibration. What does it say to you? Dig deep.”

Dig deep. Dig deep. She kept saying that. For some stupid reason, my mind began singing that song from Princess and the Frog where Mama Odie told them to dig a little deeper while surrounded by dancing flamingos and fireflies—and one jazz playing alligator. Focus, Collins. Dammit. Though, Mama Odie wasn’t wrong. I needed to shut my brain off and feel. I already knew crystals had energy and power. I’d been raised to know that. But if mom and Jada both insisted I had this extra power, then I had to stop doubting it. No one had time for me to question them. My whole body looked different just from stepping foot in this Realm. That really was all the proof I needed.

I took a deep breath and focused on the stone in my hand. Focus. What do you feel, bro? The first thing I felt was the warmth of the crystal, and the way it vibrated in my hand and sent little pulses of energy into my skin. But it wasn’t painful or unnerving. In fact, a sense of calmness washed over me. My pulse slowed.

“ There you go, ” Jada whispered from nearby. “Really soak it in.”

I sucked in a deep breath and let it out, letting every worry wash away. The sound of the trickling water filled my ears like music. Tiny snowflakes landed on my face and hands. They were cold enough to almost sting. Wind blew through my hair. I felt it tangling the long, colorful strands behind me. The smell of fresh, clean snow tickled my nose, but it was a surprisingly refreshing scent. We didn’t get snow like this in Vegas.

"Take that feeling in your gut and try to . . . push it out of you, like you’re pouring water from a glass.”

I nodded and wiggled my fingers. I imagined myself holding a glass of water in each hand and then tipped them forward, dumping the liquid onto the ground around me. Light flashed in my eyes. I gasped but squeezed my eyes tighter. All at once, I felt everything around me like the flip of a switch. The world pulsed and moved. In every direction there were blasts of heat and electricity. They were so sharp and precise that I knew I could track them down with my eyes open. For the first time, I understood what Pocahontas meant by painting with all the colors in the wind because behind my eyelids looked like a watercolor painting.

“Good.” Jada’s voice sounded like it was far away. “Now see if you can pull that energy into yourself. It’s yours for the taking. Just grab it and pull it in.”

I focused on the stone in my hand, feeling the vibration against my skin. I latched onto it. I pulled at it like a needle pulling thread. I felt the energy slowly slide into myself. When I opened my eyes, aquamarine magic circled around my fist and up my arm. The stone in my hand grew hotter and vibrated faster. I wanted to drop it to the ground. I began to open my fingers?—

“No, don’t.” Jada stopped me with her hand on my hand. “Keep going.”

I didn’t want to. It felt wrong, like I was stealing something I shouldn’t. The stone groaned and scorched my hand. It fractured into pieces. I hissed and opened my hand.

“Do not stop!”

My whole arm shook, and my magic swirled even faster. The stone disintegrated to sand in my hand, and my magic dropped. All feeling and vibration in the stone was gone . . . like I’d killed it.

Jada clapped her hands together. “Now, that’s what I’m talking about. Excellent job.”

“Thanks,” I said under my breath.

But was it excellent? It hadn’t felt excellent. It felt dirty and wrong. It was just a crystal, but it had energy. It had life . . . and I took it. How was that not murderous? Nausea bubbled up my throat and my stomach rolled. Maybe this was just a lesson to show the extent of my power? I glanced around at this beautiful realm and couldn’t fathom destroying it. The Stone Keeper couldn’t have been destined to save the realm by destroying it. Right?

“Okay, now . . . plants.” Jada walked away from me, completely oblivious to the ethical debate raging inside of me. She bent down low in front of a section of real flowers, not crystals but actual living plants. She ran her hands over the closed flower buds. One by one, they blossomed under her touch. “Same principle but bigger. Force your power into the ground and feel what’s there. It’ll feel more vibrant, not so subtle. Search for the life in the soil beneath the snow. The vibrations will be higher and much more vivid.”

I held my hands out to my sides and let my magic flow over the ground. It crept from my hands like a wandering fog. Flowers rolled outward from me like a wave. They all rose from the ground and bloomed, one by one. An array of rainbow colors gathered snow on the colorful petals. A patch of flowers circled around Jada and opened up to bloom at her feet.

She glanced down at them and then back up to me with a smirk. “Very nice, Collins.”

“I love it.” This didn’t feel destructive or harsh. It felt like creating something beautiful that belonged here.

“Now. more like you did before.”

I am confusion. “Like I did before? What do you mean?”

“Those killer plants from when you first got here . . . You didn’t think they just sprang up on their own, did you?”

My heart dropped into my butthole. I was going to throw up. I pressed my hand to my stomach. “Did I . . . did I hurt my mom? I brought those?”

“Unfortunately.” Jada waved it away. “She’ll be fine. Trust me. What’s a little bodily harm between friends?”

“I-I didn’t mean to.” My hands stook and I couldn’t get the picture of her lying there broken and bloody out of my mind.

“Of course you didn’t. She knows that.” She stomped over the flowers around her feet and moved to stand next to me. She pointed toward the flowers. “Now make them bigger.”

I was shook. How could this be? How could I have done that to my mom? I didn’t mean to, didn’t want to. It just happened. I didn’t tell it to! I stood there frozen. Sweat broke out over my body. How was I supposed to help anyone when I couldn’t even protect my own mom?

“Collins.” She snapped her fingers in front of my face to get my attention. “If you want to make sure that doesn’t happen again, you have to learn. That’s why we’re doing this.”

She was right. I knew she was. I shook myself, forcing the thoughts away. It was an accident. I nodded at her. “You’re right. I have to do this so it never happens again.”

She pressed her lips into a firm line and nodded. “Good, now suck it up and do more. This isn’t playtime, this is serious. Control and power are all there is here. If you want to find that Stone, you’re going to have to be damn good.”

“What about the Royals?”

“Power and control. The Stone is the focus. Hopefully, we can avoid that family all together. Otherwise, we’ll be screwed.” She pointed toward the patches of flowers I’d just created. “Now, bigger and more.”

Bigger. More. Right. I threw my hands out and that aqua power flowed over the ground in a rush. I didn’t think of what to create, I simply pulled out what was already lying buried beneath us. Vines covered in sharp crystal barbs rose from the ground and twisted in the air. I flicked my fingers and the vines snapped like a whip. When I lessened my hold, they coiled down toward the ground. I spread my fingers and the barbs smoothed out over the vines, making them look like giant green cinnamon rolls.

Jada arched her eyebrow at me. “I think you’re ready.”

“To find the Stone?”

She chuckled. “No, for the next part of your training.”