Disclaimer: I don't own anything.


If there was something that was unique in Scotland, apart from the bagpipes, Gaelic, and kilts, it were the spontaneous changes in weather. I was used to it, and it didn't disturb me anymore because I learned that the weather was nice as long as it didn't rain.

Too bad it was raining this morning.

Since I had left the city with my car, the sky was cloudy and grey. But I still didn't have any troubles to find the way because I have been here a couple of times before. I didn't stop the car at the parking in front of the castle but at the viewing platform. The raindrops were hammering against the glasspanes of the car while I looked at the sea and the Dunvegan Castle in front of me – the castle on Skye that belonged to the clan of the Campbells. Everyone around here knew that it was uninhabited and served as some kind of museum for visitors most of the time. I had already been to an exhibition and went through the imposing rooms with ancient furniture and multiple portraits on the walls. But I never would have guessed I was part of that clan.

After I grew up with the lastname of my dad, I never questioned my roots. And now, I belonged to some ancient clan whose members could control water? How?

I looked over to the surface of Dunvegan's loch. The waves were breaking around the castles. Did the family know about their abilities? Was that the reason they built their castle at this place? Eleanor's words came to my mind again. The first immigrants of Scotland got special gifts from fairies. To this day, people claimed that the Campbells had a special bond to said fairies. I never believed them, but now, I was unsure. I looked back and forth between my hands and the castle. It was too early for sightseeing, but the garden was surely open now. Dad brought me there when I was eight, shortly after mum's death, we took a walk on the grand estate. I remembered how magical that place was to me back then. Those flowers, the bushes, and plants whose names sounded so exotic and I still couldn't say correctly. Did he know? Did he know that I might belong to that clan? Was that the reason for our trip?

Years later, I came here alone, it became my second retreat after the cliffs, the beach close to school, or Fairy Glen, those hills with the stone formations. For hours, I followed the paths of Dunvegan garden or sat on the hidden bench close to the waterfall or at the pavilion in the garden. I've always felt fascinated about the place, as if one part of me knew of the special connection to this place. No, I thought now, not to this place. To this family.

My family, perhaps?

Even though that castle was directly in front of me, there was no one that would be able to answer my questions. No one that could tell me whether Sebastian and Eleanor had told the truth. Whether I was the last one of my clan that had powers. While I was sitting in my car and staring at the castle, more and more questions popped up in my head.

Whether the Campbells knew of me? Did my own clan know about my existence and still ignore me? Did they banish me before I had a clue about clans? Or didn't they know I existed? Did my mom keep me from my own family? But that didn't make any sense. Why would my grandparents, aunts, and uncles not know of me? I was eight years old when mum died. Way too young to remember any details. Maybe I knew mum's family, maybe I didn't. Until yesterday, I didn't even know she had family. Dad never talked about mum whenever I didn't ask him about it, the sad look in his eyes whenever I posed questions had kept me from asking any further questions. I didn't know anything about her. I suddenly felt like retrieving my phone to find out more about the Campbells, but I doubted that I would find any important facts about them. They wouldn't be stupid enough to upload a list with all the magical families, their abilities, or their members. Apart from that, the signal out here was awfully bad.

That ignorance was frustrating me. Not the new abilities, nor the unfamiliar power that was cursing through my veins, but the fact that everyone around me knew more than me. Not even Blaine had been honest to me. Even though he was the only one that didn't know of my connection to the Campbells – he didn't tell me the rest. His own origin and his clan. The Andersons, obviously the family with the power over energy. I tried gathering the pieces of information I had by now.

There was Sebastian Smythe. He seemed to belong to the fire clan. And Eleanor's family? They were in the know, but which elements did the Jones control? And what did Mrs Jones mean when she said that her family was merely tolerated here and she had an agreement with dad? How was dad involved in all that? Was he the reason I was never in touch with the Campbells? He just needed to know something, after all, he was the one who trained me and told me about elementals. According to the media, mum died at a tragic ship accident, just like so many other people, but I knew better. It was no ordinary accident. Even though my memories were holey and blurry, I remembered that something had been odd that day. There was that crackling in the air, the destructive forces of the waves. It took a long time until dad told me the truth: elementals had killed her. They pulled mum into the depths of the sea and never set her free.

Now, I wondered whether mum had been in the possession of powers as well and whether that was the reason those monsters attacked us. Whether she went through the same things as I did. Though that thought scared me a little, I felt a little connected to her right now. For the first time in years, I got the feeling that she wouldn't become a blurry memory one day, even though the same magic had taken her life.

I rubbed my hands, shivering. Outside, it was still raining, albeit not that strong than before. In here, it was freezing cold for some reason. Hesitating, I checked the rearview mirror – and inhaled sharply. The entire rear window was covered in frost that spread more and more. A shiver ran down my spine. I did not only need answers; I needed someone that could explain my powers. Someone who showed me how to stop them. Or how to control them.

Dad was out of question. Not only had he lied to me and was on the way, but he also wanted me to stop hunting. Stop hunting altogether had been out of question before – but now? Now that I suddenly had elemental powers myself that could come in handy during a fight? I would definitely not stop now. I would find out what the matter with the Campbells was.

My buzzing phone was so loud that I flinched. I rummaged through my bag to take it and cursed quietly. It was the alarm that reminded me to go to school now. Okay, the hunting trip needed to wait because I was running late, just like always.

Eleanor was sitting at her place when I rushed into the chemistry lab and slumped down next to her. I was out of breath because I drove the way from Dunvegan Castle to school in record time. Eleanor, however, looked pale and had dark bags under her eyes as if she hadn't slept well.

"Hi." I threw my bag onto the table and almost knocked over the utensils, but I couldn't care less about that. Instead, I scrutinized my best friend sideways. "You didn't tell me today whether I should pick you up…"

She looked down sheepishly. "I took my bike. You didn't text or call me; I didn't know whether you wanted to see me ever again after yesterday…"

"You mean, you were afraid I would just leave you back, take your bike, and throw it off a cliff?"

She pressed her lips together and cocked her eyebrow in surprise. "That sounds oddly specific."

"I had enough time to think about it."

"Did you already talk to your dad?"

"About my life that was based on a lie?" I shrugged, put off my burgundy blazer, and replaced it with the white lab coat. "No, we didn't have time yet. He is on the way for a couple of days and when Carole returned from the pub, I was already asleep."

Or at least, I pretended I was sleeping when she was knocking on the door quietly to look after me. But even after she did, I hadn't slept that well. Looked like finding out that you had powers and the people the closest to you had lied to you was impacting the quality of your sleep severely.

"What about Sebastian?", I asked.

Sighing, Eleanor sorted her sheets and put on the protective glasses. "He left the island. He probably went back to Glasgow to his family."

The fire clan. I never would have thought that he was capable of controlling fire until I saw him disappear in said element.

Before I could pose her more questions, Ms Madison entered the room, and the students went silent. While our teacher started the class, I turned my pencil in my fingers and looked around in the room. Everything was normal. Tired and bored students were next to the few ones that were actually looking forward to the class and already raised their hands. I was positive that we even had homework to do. If only I knew what exactly we…

"I understand that you are angry with me", Eleanor whispered after a while without looking at me.

"I'm not angry…", I mumbled like on autopilot, but sighed and threw my pencil onto the book. "Okay, I am. But most of all, I'm so…disappointed. I just don't get how you couldn't tell me about that!"

She flinched. "I know. And I'm so sorry…"

Yes, so was I. I was sorry that I trusted the girl I grew up with and was like a sister to me, while she lied to me all the time. On the other hand, I didn't tell Eleanor about the training and the hunting trips either, but only because I assumed she didn't know of those creatures. How could I know that my best friend I knew since I was a toddler belonged to a powerful clan with elemental powers?

Suddenly, it all shed new light on this whole situation. Our mums had been friends for a long time, before Len and her parents moved to Skye, but I never understood why Eleanor and her family moved away from Aberdeen after mum's death. I neve questioned it, though. I had been only eight and grateful that my best friend was closer to me. But if there had been some kind of agreement between the Jones and the Campbells and the former ones knew of water magic in the first place, it all made sense. Since there was no Campbell close to me, they probably needed to make sure they were close in case I developed abilities. Or they just wanted to make sure I didn't turn into an elemental. But how were those monsters connected to us humans? Elementals were in no way human, but they had the same powers as Sebastian, Blaine – and me. The liquid in the test tube was bubbling a little. I didn't even notice how Eleanor and the rest of my classmates had started the experiment, or what we even needed to do. I only recognized the sodium hydroxide solution and the glucose in front of me. Frowning, I looked from our test tube to the others left and right. None of those bubbled as if it would seethe, their chemicals remained calm. I noticed how Eleanor looked at me questioningly and grit my teeth. That was not me. I didn't control that darned liquid. But no matter how often I tried telling myself so, it didn't change the matter of fact.

The boys at the next table started whispering something, someone behind me groaned. I grabbed the seething test tube. As if none of that was happening, I glanced to the instructions and handed my lab partner the dropper and the chemicals. Eleanor hesitated but decided to drop the liquid into the test tube carefully. The chemicals mixed, but something was wrong. My heart was racing. Before Eleanor could put the test tube into the pot of warm water, the liquid foamed up.

Something shattered. I flinched and backed away, but the test tube was in shards now and the mixture on the table. I hastily pushed the sheets and bags to the side.

"What happened here?" Ms Madison came rushing over to us with a scowl. I opened my mouth to explain.

"It was me", Eleanor suddenly exclaimed and shrugged apologetically. "I didn't pay enough attention and dropped the test tube."

I stared at her incredulously. It didn't fall down. It exploded. I knew because I felt the compression wave in my chest as strongly as the hammering of my heart. As if the liquid expanded until the glass shattered. Nevertheless, Eleanor took the blame.

"Clean that up." Ms Madison angrily pointed at the table. "And come to me after classes."

Ouch. I looked over to Eleanor who didn't look that happy.

"You shouldn't have done that", I muttered and grabbed a cloth to help her clean it up. "It was my fault."

"I know", she whispered without looking at me. "You cannot control it yet. That's totally normal at the beginning."

The memory of what happened yesterday evening in the bathtub came to my mind again and made fun of me. I grit my teeth and didn't answer, instead I threw away the shards. Our classmates had ended the experiment in the meantime and started with their protocols. We could try again, but I didn't dare to come close to any liquid again. I didn't trust myself anymore.

That day, I didn't see Blaine, neither in our shared classes nor on the hallways of school. We normally interacted multiple times per day even though we only exchanged one glance before we pretended we didn't know each other.

I haven't seen him since the incident at the beach happened and something told me that wouldn't change that soon. He looked so mad, so disappointed, as if it was my fault we both had powers all of a sudden. Powers I didn't know of until yesterday.

The rest of the school day passed slowly. That I was unfocused was nothing new, but that I was entirely somewhere else with my thoughts was a novelty. While my mind was wandering, I scribbled random things onto my notepad instead of taking valuable notes for finals. When lunch break started, my notepad was full of cartoons, the seas, the beach, the cliffs, and a name that showed up more than once – Campbell.

Sighing, I packed my things and left the classroom. At any other day, I would head to the cafeteria, but today was Friday, so the school day ended earlier. Even though my head was still spinning, and I desperately needed some fresh air, I took my time to sort my locker. I knew it was pointless because I wouldn't spend the weekend studying. How was I supposed to focus on school if there were creatures out there that killed humans and animals? How was I supposed to work on my English essay if I knew how dangerous it was out there? That I was one of the few people that could actually do something about the danger? Maybe not so few people after all, considering that there are entire clans of people with powers. Were they fighting elementals too? And if they did, how could I miss that all the years?

I slammed the door of my locker shut; the noise echoed across the empty hallway. On Fridays, the school emptied itself in record time. The hairs on my neck stood on end. With a racing heart, I looked around, but there was nothing. No more students, only teachers here and there that left the building now. But most of all: no elementals. I suppressed the shivers and started walking out of the building as well. On the way out, a boy that was with his friends waved at me. He smiled at me and asked me how I was. I barely knew him and only knew that we shared PA class together, but he was probably the acquaintance of an acquaintance.

"I'm fine", I answered with a smile while I passed him. The standard answer for That's none of your business, leave me the hell alone – just concealed under thousands of layers of British politeness. I was about to get into my car when someone came over to me.

Eleanor looked back and forth between the car and me. "Hey, you are still here…?"

"You too?" I irritatedly closed the car door again. We didn't have time yet to talk about what had happened during chemistry class. The school was probably not the right place to talk about clans and elemental magic even though we had been sitting next to each other. I pressed my lips into a thin line. I shouldn't care. I didn't have anything to do with the Campbells. Hell, I didn't know those people, it only was about my mum until now. Sighing, Eleanor leaned against the car next to me.

"Ms Madison made me clean all the test tubes for punishment." She grimaced. "As if it would take that long. Listen, about Sebastian…"

I cocked my brows. "Do you want to tell me now not to worry?"

She smiled as if she had expected that reaction. And maybe, that was true. We knew each other for half an eternity. "No", she answered and got serious again. "You need to worry."

"Why?"

"His appearance here was no coincidence. It has been a while since a Smythe had set foot onto Skye or one of the other western islands for the last time. According to mum, his family wants to claim Skye for themselves."

"Excuse me?" Frowning, I turned to her entirely. "Are they even able to do it?"

"If there is no one left of the Campbells with water magic and they cannot protect Skye and the Outer Hebrides any longer, another clan may claim them for themselves. That's the law. And the Smythes are the strongest elemental clan, just like the Andersons. They can protect the humans from the elementals, but…"

"They would rule over Skye", I ended her sentence.

Eleanor nodded and lifted her hands. "That doesn't have to be bad. But your family would lose all their rights. They would rule over the Campbells even though you have been living here for centuries. Besides, the Smythes are super rich. Their wealth would be beneficial for the infrastructure, but everything would be theirs in a couple of years, just like in Glasgow. Soon, the Isle of Skye would turn into the Isle of Smythe."

The prospect of another clan owning this island made me feel nauseous. I may not consider myself a Campbell or something, but Skye was still my home. No matter how many nights I needed to defeat elementals.

"It doesn't have to come that far", I tried reassuring her. "Until now, your family could hold the fort very well, even without water magic. Just because Sebastian was here doesn't mean that his clan, the Andersons, or any other clan want to make demands."

Hold up. The Andersons? As in…Blaine Anderson.

"Let me guess: That clan is into…Lightning? Electricity?"

"They can manipulate all energies, no matter what form. Electricity is only one variant even though it's the most popular one. Another one is life energy."

I exhaled slowly. "Awesome…" I thoughtfully looked at her sideways while she stared straight ahead to the empty parking. "Is that the reason you dislike him?", I asked because I could remember her reaction very well when we talked in the hallways. "Because your families are enemies?"

But Eleanor shook her head. "I don't know him well enough to like or dislike him. But our families are not exactly besties for life. Yours are not either, just by the way."

… that you belonged to the clan that has a blood feud with my family for centuries. My heart was aching. I tried ignoring it the best I could, but the feeling stayed persistent.

I cleared my throat. "And what about you? What's your element?"

The corners of her mouth twitched perfidiously. "Air", she answered and took a deep beath. "My family can control anything that has to do with it."

"And you?", I wanted to know.

Instead of an answer, she cocked an eyebrow. Suddenly, the wind was ruffling my carefully coiffed hair.

"Hey!", I protested, but needed to grin.

"I can cause a tempest", Eleanor added as if it was nothing. At the same time, the wind died down. "The clans have always fought each other and are enemies for centuries." She lowered her voice when the classmates from before walked past us to wish us a nice weekend. Eleanor smiled at them, and I waved friendly. "My family tried not to get involved in the political power plays and stays neutral. For a couple of decades, there has been a pact with the Campbells."

"What pact?"

"To maintain relationships and deepen them, a couple of families or teenagers have been sent to the territory of the other clan for a year. Kind of like a student exchange. That's how yours and my mum got to know each other."

I could remember how Mrs Jones told me once how she and mum had vandalized the kitchen as children. Nice imagination. I sighed quietly.

"Because of that friendship and our neutrality, my parents and I are allowed to stay in Skye even though it's the territory of another clan. I think your mum wanted us to grow up together", she said quietly. "She wanted us to befriend."

I needed to smile even though it hurt. I would have loved to see my mum and Mrs Jones together these days. Just like mum and dad. Carole was great and I was happy that she made dad happy, but it didn't change that I missed my own mother from time to time. She would have known what to do with my powers. She would have told me the truth, or so I hoped. I would never find out. I didn't know how she imagined my future to be like and I couldn't ask her anymore because she wouldn't come back. Never again.

Sighing, I leaned against the car door, trying to digest what I just learned. A ringing pulled me out of my thoughts. Questioning, I looked over to Eleanor. She stared at her phone for a couple of seconds and rolled her eyes.

"My aunt and uncle are coming over for the weekend. Mum reminded me ten times today to buy the tea my cousin liked." She pointed at the other side of the street to a colorful house, a small teashop that had the best tea in all of Skye.

"Who is coming?", I asked curiously because other than me, Eleanor had countless cousins. But – if I really belonged to the Campbells, I surely did have more relatives, right? "That one cousin you can't stand?"

"I mean, I can stand Mercedes." Eleanor grimaced. "But she is always bitching around."

"Oh, right…", I remembered because it was not the first time Eleanor was complaining about her. For as long as I could remember, Mercedes gave Len a hard time. From what I knew, the both of them were the same age and had been inseparable as children. But then, Eleanor moved to Skye with her parents, and for some reason, Mercedes resented her for that. Even though I never met her, Eleanor had told me enough things about her to not like her. If I ever were to meet Mercedes, I doubted that I would be able to hold myself back and give her a piece of my mind.

"Oh, and that's text number eleven." Another time, Eleanor pulled her phone out of her pocket's blazer and scowled. "I need to bring cake. Why doesn't she just send me a list instead of one thousand reminders?"

"You could fly over all the stuff. That should be possible with your powers, right?"

The corners of her mouth twitched amusedly. But it went away quickly when her phone buzzed again. Annoyed, she rolled her eyes. "Oh gosh, they are already there. I need to run. Sorry." She hesitated. "Can I come over tomorrow and we talk about everything?"

No matter how mad I was at her or disappointed, there was only one answer to that question. I just couldn't imagine a life without my best friend. "Sure."

Eleanor smiled back at me and turned on her heel to head to the shop. One second later, I was alone again.