The roar of the waterfall jolted me out of my rest.
I gasped in shock as I opened my eyes to unfamiliar surroundings. For starters, I didn't remember waterfalls that stretch across the ceiling of any kind of space, but the marvel I stared at arced majestically above me. Underneath me, I could feel cool and smooth stone, though when my fingers reached some areas, I could feel divets and grooves. Carvings?
I stood up on shaky legs, taking in the large stone before me. Indeed, it had a strange, yet familiar carving right in the center. I looked around, taking in the flora all around me. Everything was so vibrant, so brightly colored. Some plants looked familiar, others prehistoric. Trees bearing all kinds of fruit lead off into a forest area. This place was old, it was safe. It-felt like home.
Wait, what?
"Hello, daughter."
Okay, I was definitely dreaming, especially since the voices that referred to me as 'daughter' just now belonged to neither of my parents.
"Well, I suppose we aren't your parents, but we are blood, child." The feminine voice stated, rich like honey, dripping with power and ancient knowledge.
I shivered at the mention of blood. What had those voices said earlier? Blood of the Sidhe?
"Aye, child. It is good to know you've been listening. Hear us now, for we don't have much longer." The owners of the voices stepped into view, and in the light of the sun, they shone magnificently.
They were both tall, the woman at least a head taller than me, her hair was black, but as she took graceful cat-like steps toward me, it shone red in the sunlight. Her olive skin was flawless, and I knew Delia would die to know her skincare routine. Did she even have one?
"Adea is a lady of the fae, she needs not for your mortal salves and potions. Now, child. It is important that you heed our warnings and remember our lessons. We can only teach you so much with the little time we have." The man came up beside me, and I flinched from the sudden sound of his voice next to me. He commanded attention and respect, his long black (blue and black, not blue, not black?) hair tied up in a low ponytail. Both of them had piercing light blue eyes, staring into them made me feel vulnerable, like an ant under a shoe.
"Valgius speaks the truth. Dearest Bailey, a time of darkness approaches." The woman, Adea, gestured to the large stone. "For thousands of years, we have kept balance in our world, and in the mortal realm through the Seal. The balance is now in danger, and so we and the Seal now face this danger as well."
Valgius spoke again. "You were brought here because you are our blood, because you now wield the power of that blood. You must find the strength and bravery within yourself and your friends if you should stand any chance of overcoming these dark times."
The two of them begin to fade away, and they grab my hands, their eyes betraying their fear for only a second.
"We are the Sidhe, and we need your help."
I jolted straight up out of my sleep, breathing heavily and trying to wrap my mind around what I'd just learned. Oh god, I really did burn Alex's leg earlier. I had powers, and it had to do with-blood?
The people, Adea and Valgius? They'd said the powers were in the blood, but I hadn't been burning anything with my mind until today, and it wasn't like I'd been bleeding. I found myself tiptoeing to my desk and pulling out a random notebook, flipping to an open page. I wrote their names, the words balance, Seal, and Sidhe jumped out of my mind onto paper. I'm sure none of it really made any sense, but I had to get it all down. My eyelids began to droop more as I wrote, and my body felt heavy once more as I slumped over in my chair.
"Your hair looks like the stars."
Kane and I were dancing once more, my hair shining silver once again and his loving gaze never leaving mine. We twirled and swayed to music I almost recognized. The moon loomed over us in its magnificence, lighting our beautiful little balcony as we danced and danced and danced-
"You're the brightest star of all."
He was gone again.
"Why's she sleeping at her desk?"
"It looks like she was writing something."
Someone shook my shoulder. "Rise and shine Sleeping Beauty! What's with the candlelight writing?"
I shook my head and glanced down at the notebook, trying to blink the sleep-blur out of my eyes. Suddenly, I remembered the dream I had.
"What dream, Bailey? What's going on?" Annabelle asks me, glancing down at the notebook.
"It was really weird, I was in some kind of forest with a waterfall and a giant stone with a weird carving in the middle, and these people walked up to me and told me that the world was in danger and we had to gather the strength and bravery to stop whomever is trying to destroy everything. Gah, I know it sounds crazy, but trust me when I say the crazy train hasn't even left the station."
They all glance at each other, then back at me. "You're not still freaked out about the whole fire thing, right?"
Of course I was! I caused it!
"Bailey, there's no way that fire was your fault. You can't blame yourself for that." Annabelle reassured me.
"But it was my fault! The people in my dream, they said that I had powers now, that the power was in blood and-"
"Bailey never said anything about causing the fire." Delia looked over Annabelle.
"Yes, she did. Just a second ago." Annabelle frowned at Delia.
No, I hadn't said it. I'd thought it. Oh God.
Annabelle, can you hear me?
"Loud and clear, Bailey." she replied, her voice bathed in sarcasm.
Yeah, but look at me.
An eye roll later and Annabelle and I locked eyes. My mouth was clamped firmly shut.
The people in my dream told me that we all had to gather the courage to stop what's going on. I think this proves I'm not the only one who has powers.
"Oh." Annabelle whispered, stumbling backwards onto the bed. "Oh my God."
Zoe stomped up to her cousin. "Alright, what's with you and Bay? You're both acting weird as hell!"
"I set Alexandra Atkins on fire yesterday. Annabelle can read thoughts." I stated blandly.
Zoe opened her mouth to argue again, but Annabelle cut her off. "You're thinking about food as usual, but specifically the pancakes you can smell from downstairs. You're hoping they're chocolate pancakes. Delia dreamed about the dance last night and how amazing we'll all look together." Annabelle smiled at Delia.
Zoe huffed and sputtered for a bit before recovering. "Okaaaay, so where's my powers? Or Delia's? Where'd they even come from?" A pout formed on her face.
I lifted up my night shirt, a sharp jolt passing through my spine as my fingers brushed against blue-green. "I'm pretty sure they come from the tattoos. This thing burned me to hell and back and you even said that it looked red around the edges. When I burned Alex, my entire body felt like it was on fire too."
"And you were burning up when you hugged me." Zoe muttered, lifting up her arms to show me red spots that had formed.
I sucked in a deep breath. I had powers for less than a day and I was hurting people. My friends. How could things possibly get worse?
Oh wait, the whole she comes and she will destroy everything and all that you know crap was still going on. So now I had to figure out how to navigate life while being a human lighter. God, I had set someone on fire, I burned Zoe just by hugging her! I was angry when it all happened, so I just had to keep my temper under control and maybe the neighborhood would still be standing by Monday.
"You really need to calm down, Bailey." I looked up at Annabelle, and saw heat waves in the air.
I wheezed out, and held my breath, trying to still my nerves. I didn't want to hurt anyone else. I wasn't even angry now but I was still getting worked up! I breathed out again and took in a deep breath, holding it as my body went stiff.
"That's not working, you need to breathe." Annabelle sounded so far away, but she was right next to me. Everything was too hot, the air, the room, my skin. It was burning, everything was burning.
"Bailey!"
A horrified scream. A hand against my forehead, and the cool, overwhelming sense of calm washed over me like a tidal wave. My breathing slowly began to regulate, and the room cooled down. I could smell burnt fabric, could hear the panicked gasps of my friends. What did I do?!
"You had a panic attack. You're scared. We are too, but you have to keep your head. We'll figure all of this out."
"Well we better figure something out about the burned carpet before Bailey's mom starts interrogating us." Zoe was already searching the room for something. Delia was opening the windows, and as I caught a glimpse of her tattoo, I remembered Zoe mentioning that Delia's looked more glittery than ours. It hadn't looked like that when I bought them. They'd all been the same vibrant blue-green, yet Delia's was very clearly glittering in the sunlight.
Annabelle held my face in one hand and ran the other gently through my hair, rocking me back and forth. I focused on the feeling of calmness that washed over me, soothing waves that counteracted my fire. Well, Annabelle's tattoo did look like crescent moons-
"Girls, I heard screaming and I smelled burning, what is going on up here?!" My mother's voice barged into the room, and Annabelle only held me tighter, the calm waves almost drowning me.
"It was my fault, Mrs. Morgan." Zoe's voice. "I left a candle burning last night, and Bailey here had a nightmare and accidentally knocked it over when she fell out of bed. It never would have happened if I'd remembered to snuff it." Sometimes I truly was amazed by how good of a liar Zoe could be. She had my mother wrapped around her finger and she was proud of it.
"Well, I'm just glad no one's hurt. Breakfast in fifteen, girls!" My mother went back downstairs and Annabelle finally let go of me. "You can see the future," She started, "You saw Alex Atkins in that green miniskirt. Bailey's mom just now-"
"Was a coincidence. Also, I guessed the ugliest color I could think of. That means nothing!"
"You guessed the ugliest color and what she was wearing?"
"All she ever wears is miniskirts!"
"Zoe, you can't even tell the difference between cotton and linen, which are made from two different plants by the way!" Delia interjected "How did you know the skirt would be corduroy? Bailey's mom-"
"Bailey set her carpet on fire and spooked us! Of course her mom came running!" Zoe rolled her eyes. "I'm going to go shower, maybe by the time I get out, you'll have discovered Delia's power. Or maybe she'll just end up dying Bailey's hair a different blonde."
Zoe was out of the room before she'd even finished her sentence.
We sat in silence for a while before Delia started making weird waving motions in the air. I tilted my head and stared at her, while Annabelle chuckled. "I don't think you're gonna find your power doing that, Delia."
"Well, I wanted to try something!" Delia pouted, then turned to look at me. "You would look cute with a different blonde, though. There's nothing wrong with your natural color, but you should try experimenting!"
I sighed as Delia started playing with my hair. "Imagine the possibilities! What if you went with a honey blonde? Maybe add some streaks, like amber?"
She looked me over thoughtfully, and when my eyes met hers, I saw the most unnatural blue glow coming from them. What the hell?!
"Delia?!" I stumbled backwards, and she let go of my hair, giving me a look of utter shock. Her eyes slowly returned to their normal hazel color.
"B-Bailey? Y-your hair-"
"What about my hair?!"
We both rushed to the mirror, and I balked at my reflection. My hair was exactly as she'd been musing about. Gone was the not-brown, not-blonde shade I'd grown accustomed to.
"I was-just thinking about what your hair would look like. I think-I think I figured out my power?" Delia walked over to my bed, gently fingering my bedspread as she closed her eyes and concentrated. Slowly, the prettiest sky blue I'd ever seen began to leech into the white, swirling together until the fabric resembled a lightly cloudy sky.
"Holy shit." Delia giggled nervously. "I-can change the color of things?!"
"Actually," Annabelle pressed a pencil into Delia's hand, "I think it's more complex than that. Try changing the pencil into something else."
Delia raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Anything that's not sticky, please."
Delia rolled her eyes, concentrating on the pencil. It slowly shrank until it was nearly a third of its original size, the wood turned white and thin, the eraser getting bigger and turning translucent, the red deepening to a cherry-like color. I realized what what happening. She could change the object itself, not just the appearance.
Annabelle smirked as Delia presented her with the cherry lollipop. "I suppose a lollipop wouldn't be sticky unless someone started eating it. Well, whatever or whoever gave us these powers really weren't playing around."
At that moment, Zoe reentered the room completely bare and threw on a tracksuit, plopping down onto my bed once dressed. She glanced at me, then the bedspread, then back up at me, narrowing her eyes.
"What's up, Zoe?" I smirk at her.
"Y-your h-hair. The fuck? Don't tell me the fashion gods are somehow real and Delia is one of them!"
We burst out laughing. "No, Zoe. It's just like you said before you showered. We figured out Delia's power and she dyed Bailey's hair a different blonde. Her power is actually called transmogrification. She turned a pencil into a lollipop and gave Bailey a new bedspread." Annabelle sat down on the edge of the bed, rubbing gently circles on Zoe's back.
Zoe glanced at Delia in mock horror, which became real horror when we saw that she was sitting on the floor, pale and shaking, almost unresponsive.
"Delia?!"