Disclaimer: I don't own anything.


It was raining. Of course, it was, any other weather in Edinburgh would have surprised me, even in June. At least, it wasn't my fault this time – or so I hoped. I was staring at the gate in front of the cemetery that was open now. The sky seemed to get darker and darker the more time passed as if some higher force up there was trying to keep us from executing our plans.

We had spent most of the ride in silence and only took a short break even though Eleanor had tried to lighten the mood. In vain, by the way.

Even though I was somewhat grateful Blaine brought us here and wanted to help, I wasn't quite sure whether to trust our peace. No, I need to rephrase it: I didn't trust him. For an entire year, he had pretended he was an ordinary boy, never showed any signs of special powers – and just when I got abilities of my own, he revealed his, just to leave me out in the rain – not only figuratively. Just to help me shortly after that and push me away at the same time. What the hell was his problem? Just because I belonged to some ancient clan all of a sudden didn't mean I changed my personality. It didn't change anything.

"You don't need to do that", I mumbled.

Blaine was standing next to me and followed my glance to Greyfriars Kirk. We couldn't see that much from where we were standing because the chapel was right in front of it.

"It's a little late for that, right? Besides, it's not as altruistic as you might think."

"I didn't expect that anyway." I put my hands in the pockets of my jacket.

Blaine looked as if he wanted to say something, but he decided against it when Eleanor came over to us. She had gone ahead to check whether the coast was clear and count the stormwarriors that were patrolling.

"There are three guards", she informed us and brushed a strand from her face. "One at the entrance, the other ones are on the right and left of the cemetery."

"I will take care of the two in the back", Blaine said without any further explanation. "Make sure those at the entrance are distracted and that no tourists enter."

She grimaced. "We don't need to worry about that during that crappy weather." She relaxed her shoulders, smiled determinedly, and marched to the gate.

Blaine motioned me to follow him. "There is a second unused entry. As soon as the guards are distracted, you sneak in. You find the tombstone in the west with the symbol of the water: An upside-down triangle."

I had already seen that sign on the letters and the documents mom had kept in that box, but I never would have thought it would mean something. I should have known better. Everything seemed to mean something. Instead of answering, I just nodded, went to the side, and pretended to look at the books of a store from the shop window that was right next to Greyfriars Kirk. Blaine went to the side entrance. I waited a couple of seconds and followed him unnoticeably.

The cemetery was on a small hill. Blaine was nowhere to be seen, hopefully he knew what he was doing. I didn't see Eleanor, either.

I stopped between a set of trees and turned around slowly. And where was the west supposed to be? The sky was still cloudy and dark. Frowning, I looked around and past the tombstones, but I didn't see anything noticeable. They were all old and varied in sizes, shapes, and grey shades. Sighing, I pulled out my phone and opened the compass app. Phone in hand, I spun around once, when I found the west, I got moving. I searched through all the tombstones systematically, but I just couldn't find the sign I was searching for. Until one name on a high plate drew my attention: Campbell.

My heart started racing. I stared at the banisters of the tombstone, back to the names and dates on the stone. Whoever was buried there, he was dead for over seven hundred years, just like his wife and children. The first sunrays broke through the clouds. I blinked, trying to find the symbol of the water between all these names. With my fingers, I touched the stone. When I finally found the triangle, I almost would have laughed. It was a small symbol that had been carved into the stone randomly, only if one paid attention to the other symbols that pointed towards it, it was possible to find it.

"Smart", I muttered, looked around one last time and pulled my pocket knife out of the jacket. It would have been too risky to come here with my other weapons, especially because Edinburgh was neutral territory, according to Len. Whatever that was supposed to mean…

I cut myself in the thumb until a drop of blood appeared on the skin. I had no idea how that was supposed to work. It sounded easy in theory: magic and blood. But sadly, there was no tag with the instruction: Press here!

I pressed my thumb on the centre of the tombstone, right on the triangle. And waited. Nothing happened. The clouds disappeared and the birds started chirping. Soon, the visitors would come to the cemetery and make a tour. I needed to hurry up a little even though I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I needed to identify with blood and magic, according to Eleanor. That's well and good, but how could I identify with magic? Before I could think about it, I felt something cool on my skin. It came creeping down my arm, to my hand and to the tips of my fingers. Like on autopilot, I put the palm of my hand on the stone. I thought it was water, but ice was spreading on the tombstone now.

Something vibrated. The tombstone shook a little until the ground was moving underneath my feet. And then, the stone started moving too. I backed away and waited anxiously until it had moved to the side entirely. Right in front of me was an entry with stairs that led down to darkness. Movement to the right let me flinch. Blaine lifted his hands in surrender.

"It's okay. It's only me." He looked to the open gate and back. "So it's true. You are the last of your clan with water magic."

I think I might have heard disappointment and anger in his words. I already suspected that I belonged to the clan, but to see the proof with my own eyes was entirely different. I shook my head, trying to grasp it all. The only think I needed to know was the truth. The truth about my roots and mum's death. Or her disappearance in case she really survived the attack. I didn't want to allow myself to hope but I couldn't help my racing heart, thinking how I would get my mother back. If I closed my eyes, I could hear her laughter.

"I will wait here", Blaine said. "Only members of the clan are allowed to go down there."

I reopened my eyes and stared at him. He looked at me emotionlessly. I hated seeing him like that because I knew that he was hiding behind a mask. I knew he was different if he saw the real me – not a new member of the waterclan. But instead of saying that, I just nodded. I took a deep breath, turned on the torch of my phone and started climbing down.

It was dead silent, the steps were irregular, some were sparkling a little. The walls were humid, too. The deeper I went down the narrower the underground got. This was indeed a grave, and if I didn't make it out of there in time… No. I wouldn't think about that now. Instead, I focused on my breathing. I had never been claustrophobic, but the darkness, the silence, and the feeling to be trapped down here – all that reminded me of the day of the accident, the day I almost drowned.

I swallowed and put one foot in front of the other. I had no idea how deep I needed to go down. At the end, the hallway didn't get wider, but at least, there was a light that let me sigh a breath of relief. But it also let me hesitate. The light came from a room at the end of the hallway. I brushed the spiderwebs aside and entered. I didn't know what I expected. Maybe a pit full of bones or walls of skulls like in the catacombs of Paris I had visited with dad, Carole, and Finn two years ago. But I was surprised about what I found here.

Torches? Seriously? They lit up the spacious room I could as well call a hall, it was so spacious I couldn't see its other end. Other than the stairs, it wasn't humid in here. The air was dry, on the walls on both sides were tombstones with labels. I lifted my phone and let the lightbeam wander. The tombstones didn't stop. So many people…so many members of one single clan.

The hairs on my neck stood on end, but I felt weirdly calm. As if I had the right to be here now. That was my family, after all. My heritage. I turned off my phone and put it into the pocket. Instead, I removed one torch from the wall – even though I had no idea how they could burn. Was there someone who lit them regularly?

I felt as if I had stumbled into another world. The silence was somewhat scary, but it soothed me at the same time. No noises from up there disturbed me, everything was so far away. Instead, my thoughts were louder, like my steps that echoed across the hall. One small moment had changed my life forever – twice.

I remembered the boy with those intense emerald eyes. Suddenly, he had been there when I came to, shuddering from the ship accident, drenched and with scratched hands, knees, and elbows. Something warm had embraced me, a blanket, or a jacket and…I blinked in surprised. A bonfire. Sebastian must have had the same powers all those years ago. But he never could have known who I was or that mum was a clanmember, or else, he wouldn't have been so surprised. And maybe, he wouldn't have saved me if he had known… But he had brought me to the next haven. A wet, frostbitten boy with another boy that wasn't from Skye had drawn the attention of people fast. The whispering from the people around us was almost unbearable – until dad showed up. One of the islanders must have recognized me and called him. He had hugged me immediately and promised me that everything would be okay. But it wasn't okay. Mom never came back to us again.

I shook my head and tried to get rid of the memories, but they were like the spiderwebs around here. Barely noticeable, until I touched them. Shuddering, I kept on walking. The light of the torch was dancing around so many names that had been carved in. None of them belonged to mum. I knew her grave; I had visited it countless times and spent hours there because it was at a deserted cemetery on the island. Its chapel was run down. There had been no farewell. One moment, she was there, the next, she was gone.

My stomach twisted violently and I needed to stop to breathe properly again. The air around here was just too dry and hot. No matter how peaceful it was here, staying for too long didn't do me good. It made emotions and memories resurface and shed new light to them as if it all happened yesterday, not years ago. The ghosts of the past seemed to live behind those walls. And with every step, I went further into the memories. Mom's soft voice was so close again and made me remember the bedtime stories she had told me. Of magicians, princesses and princes that could control elements, and of the fairies that were friendly, but also sly. Maybe those were no fairytales, I thought. Maybe she told me the stories of clans. My clan. The stories of people that were buried here.

Finally, the end of the hall came into sight. The fire was crackling and drew bizarre patterns on the walls. More gravestones were in front of me. I was surrounded by them. Slowly, I looked down. My shoes were dusty, spiderwebs were on my trousers. Even the ground was full of granite plates.

"Oh god", I breathed. A cold shiver ran up my spine. All the time, I have been walking over the graves. That was no archive- it was a mausoleum. That realization gave me goosebumps all over my body. I turned on my heel, ready to break into a run – when a stone caught my attention. It looked different from the others. I gulped repeatedly and went over. I was already buried alive down there. What else could happen to me? Why did I need to think about all the thrillers and horror movies I had ever watched with Finn now? Whenever it got too quiet, something scary happened. Hesitating, I touched the stone. No name, no letters, only numbers. Dates. The plate moved at my touch. I jumped back, frightened. Slowly, some secret drawer opened in front of me. It stored dark red books with golden dates on the front page. I put the torch away and used my phone to have a closer look at their content. Next to the books were folders that had been sorted neatly. Who took care of all that? Was there an archivist of sorts? And if yes, where could I find this person?

The documents dated from the seventeenth to the sixteenth century. Even though they surely were interesting, they were certainly not what I was searching for. Carefully, I put back the documents and pushed the drawer back into the wall, then continued searching for special stones. There was no special order, the granite plates showed up randomly, even on the floor. Only when I had crossed the hall, I found what I had been looking for. Twentieth and twenty-first century.

My heart was hammering against my chest when I put away the torch again and touched the surface plate. That was definitely the place for the most recent documents. I searched through all the documents and forced myself not to hastily browse the books to not overlook something. I pulled out a scroll and unrolled it on the floor. The symbol of the Campbells I already knew from the Dunvegan Castle, lines with names, numbers, and symbols were catching my attention. I traced back the family tree with my index finger until I found mum's name: Elizabeth Campbell. Adorned with a silvery upside-down triangle - which meant that she had been in the possession of waterpowers. Next to her was dad's name, and underneath it… Kurt Hummel Campbell.

My breath came out as white puffs. Something was crackling. I looked down and noticed that ice was spreading on the ground and walls. The floor was shaking a little. Was I the reason for that? Or did elementals show up at the cemetery? But even if they did, Blaine and Eleanor had it under control.

Right?

Right?

My heart was hammering. It became colder but I couldn't just get up and leave. Not yet. Not now when I was so close to finding out the truth. With trembling hands, I took the remaining documents and put them next to the family tree. For the first time, I saw my birth certificate. The names of my parents were on it, but my official lastname was just Hummel. Did that mean that mum had planned to keep my roots secret? To keep my secret from the rest of the world?

Apart from the birth certificate and the entry on the family tree, there were no documents about me, as if the clan knew of me but just ignored my existence on purpose. Even though I had found so many documents about other Campbells: birth and marriage certificates, enrolments on schools, and the like. How could that be? Didn't the remaining clan members know of me? Or didn't they just care about me? According to Eleanor, only those with watermagic had access to the archive. Like mom. Hesitantly, I touched the silvery triangle next to mum's name. Over the centuries, that silvery symbol became rarer among the Campbells…

I bit my lower lip when I pulled out the other documents. More papers about relatives. Mum had sisters, a brother, and cousins. So many people that were related to her. And to me.

I carefully put the papers aside and took the next. Countless names and documents later, I saw what I had been looking for: a death certificate from ten years ago. Bile came up my throat and the trembling in the walls and on the ground grew stronger. Maybe I was the one shaking. It took me a while to decipher the letters on the document. Whatever I had found, it was no death certificate. It was a formular from the hospital. According to that piece of paper, mum's cause of death was not natural.

Again and again, I read the lines a doctor must have written hastily. Only when I knew every single word by heart, I dared to look to the name. I should have known it; the date was the day I almost drowned.

Elizabeth Campbell.

There went my hope. I should have known better; I never should have allowed that silly dream to give me hope. Maybe I did because I felt closer to mom thanks to my new powers. That was the only good thing they had given me. But my hope was nothing but an illusion. For she was dead.

My mother was dead.