Chapter 16

Holy cow, whatever they gave me must have knocked me out good. I seem to be in a room somewhere, but I don't remember anything past Michael sticking that needle in my arm. That crap leaves one hell of a head ache. Ok Kenna focus, you can do this.

Well, at least there is a window. Might as well see what is outside. It is night outside, how long was I out? Or is it still the same night? No way, if we flew to Ireland it has to be the following night, I hope. I seem to be in the middle of nowhere. Huh, so if Aidan is right I am somewhere in Ireland, but that isn't really a lot of help here. I wonder how the others are doing.

I can feel Aidan, but I can't reach him. That is weird, maybe it is the distance or something. I can't worry about them anyway. I have to figure out how to save myself. But from the looks of it I am some type of tower, and in a castle no less. Well, I always wanted to stay in a castle, not under these types of circumstances, but you know you gotta take what you can get.

I can still feel the elements though, I can't do anything with air, but the other three I can still work. If I wasn't so high I would just disintegrate this stone, but without air I really can't get down to the ground. At least they still believe I can only control the air. That has to help me out of this somehow. Oh, what's that? Sounds like someone is coming.

I got myself situated back on the bed just as Brad came in with food. "I thought they wanted me dead, what is the point in feeding me?"

"The counsel has questions for you before they eliminate you from this world. I suggest you answer them. Things will go a lot easier for you if you do, and in the end you die either way. So you can go easily or hard. It doesn't really matter to them. But I would prefer you take the hard way." Talk about evil grins, this man has some serious issues.

"Good to know, thanks for the tip."I watched Brad walk out of my cell, it really is a room, but cell is what it feels like. I can go a few days without food, and who knows what they did to it anyway. And it smells kinda funny, well can't leave it hear on the plate. Behind the dresser it is, but not all of it, I just want it to look like I ate a little, not just threw it out. Ok wonder what happens next?

Didn't take long to find out what that was, about thirty minutes after Brad brought me the food, he came back to get me. He took me down to what had to be the great hall of the castle, and there were eight people there all in high backed chairs up on a dais type thing, so this must be the counsel. Well let the fun begin. "Please sit." The one in the biggest chair said, and of course this chair is put in the center of the other chairs. Don't you guys know if you had nine people the center chair would really be centered and not lopsided with three on one side and four on the other. You know it is a dang good thing I do manage to keep some things to myself.

And of course there is an empty seat in the middle of the room, oh this will be fun. Might as well go sit, what is it going to hurt. "How did you enjoy your dinner?"

"It was ok, no reason to starve myself, never know how long you are gonna want to keep me around." They seemed pretty satisfied with that answer, interesting.

"Very good, you are going to be very disappointed in yourself now. We put a truth serum in your food, contrary to popular belief we prefer to avoid torture. Although I am sure there are a few that would love to torture you if it comes to that." Damn, glad I didn't eat that food. The last thing I need to tell these people is the truth.

"Now please tell us your history, we need to know where you came from and where the rest of your family is hiding." So to go along with the truth serum thing I couldn't very well sit here silently and I really didn't see any harm in telling them about my history, there really wasn't much to tell, and I can drag this out because most of my history has nothing to do with the elements. Oh this is gonna be fun.

So I spent the next few hours telling them about life in Washington, and I could tell they were getting impatient with me, I wonder how long this truth stuff lasts? "That is enough! What do you know about your heritage?"

"My heritage? Well I told you I was raise by my grandmother, I found out very recently that there is a lot more to my family then I had ever thought."

"What do you mean by that?"

"When Granny died she left me a letter that led me to a trunk she had hidden in the basement," no need to really tell them where that trunk is, "I didn't believe what she said at first, but found the trunk anyway, and in it was a journal from someone I came to find out was a great ancestor of mine. As well as a letter from my mother and some family photos, I looked at all of this but still did not believe it was possible, I thought I had a family full of nutcases."

"What is it exactly you found out about your family?"

"That we have some kinda elemental power thing."

"Then what happened?"

"I decided to test and see if anything that was in my Granny's letter was true. I didn't believe I could control anything like air, but after trying a few times I was able to make a breeze come through my house. Honestly it freaked the shit outta me, stuff like that is suppose to just be in books and stories, not real life."

"You mean to tell me that you didn't know you could do this until a few months ago?"

"Yes, I had no idea I had this within me, I always thought I was just a regular girl who had lost her parents."

"What did you do once you found out it was true?"

"I went in search of my brother. I never knew I had family until after Granny died, and the only thing in the trunk about them was a picture of Aidan in front of his high school, that is how I found his home, and met his parents." They all started talking among themselves and seemed to be arguing about something, but I couldn't hear what.

"Is that all you know of your siblings?"

"In the trunk all I found about them was that there were five of us all together," heck they already knew that is who we were anyway, "and that when my mother died the courts would not let my grandmother keep all five of us, because they felt she didn't have the means to support all five. So the courts sent us all to different places. I don't know where the others are, I just got lucky with the picture of Aidan."

I lowered my head and made to look like I was starting to cry. I needed them to think I was upset, I didn't want them to realize I was only giving them information I wanted to.

"And you found you could control the air, is that correct? And what of your brother?"

"He can control fire." Control, I wonder if they know I can create it? Well of course they can't, they don't know I can do anything with the other elements. Shit the guy is talking again, "I am sorry sir, I was lost in thoughts about my brother."

"I asked if you had any idea where your brother is now?"

"Trying to find me, we were staying in the house right across the street from his parents. But he will be looking for me again."

"Do you have any reason to believe he will know where to find you?"

"No, the last I talked to Aidan was before Michael took him. I hope he made it to safety and is in hiding, but in my heart I know he won't do that. He will do whatever he can to find me."

"Well, hopefully that will make him easier to find." Shit, "Aidan, Aidan." Crap I still can't reach him, but he seems closer somehow.

"That seems to really upset you, when I tell you we are going to find your brother."

"Yes it does, I hope he can stay hidden and you can't find him or anyone else like us."

"I see, you do not like us?"

"I hate you, you want me dead and others I love dead."

"Child this is not your fault, but you must be dealt with."

"Dealt with, I will deal with you!" I made it look like I was trying to use the air, even though I know I can't but I might as well get as much info as I can from these guys. People tend to tell you more when they think they are gonna kill you in the end anyway.

"Ha-ha, try all you want child, you cannot harm us. You see over the years we have developed protection from the likes of you. We have found a way to suppress your powers. You cannot use air."

"What? How?"

"Science, we had to come up with four individual serums to use on the different powers, but we finally have it now."

So it is individualized. They only dosed me with the air serum, so as long as they don't know about the other powers I have them to use. "You are all crazy! Let me go, let me go. Somebody get me out of here!"

"Ok that is enough, please take her back to her room." Immediately Brad grabbed my arm and started leading me out of the room, well more like dragging me out of the room. Now I have to figure out how I am going to get out of this damn place.

Once I was back in my room I started really checking everything out. I have to work out a way to get myself outta here. If they don't think I can give them anymore info then I am sure my life isn't worth much. The horrible thing is I really can't come up with anything when I couldn't use air.

"Well, I could go through the castle to get out, but I bet there are a crap ton of guards. If I can get out of my room then that would be a start."

"It's a big oak door though and I would bet someone is standing on the other side of it. Yep, sure as hell there is a shadow outside the door. So I have a guard. Wonder if he ever takes a break? It's probably Brad, and from what I have seen he would take great pleasure in teaching me how bad it is to try and escape."

"Crap. I can't do anything that would let him know I have the other abilities."

"Ok Kenna it is already late you really need to figure out something to get you out of here."

"You also have to quit talking to yourself, because people will think you are crazy. But who else am I gonna talk to, I am whispering so it isn't like they can hear me. But seriously stop talking to yourself."

Ok what do I have in this room, a bed, dresser, and that is about it. What can I do with this stuff? There has to be some way out of here. Think think think.

How far up am I? It is pitch black outside, how am I suppose to know how far up I am? Doesn't matter I have to get out of here. Ok they make it look really easy in the movies. Just take my sheets, blankets and tie them all together. I can do this.

What kind of knot do you tie in the sheets? I don't want them to come loose and fall to my death that would suck. Just test them, this bed is one of those really huge oak ones, I can tie off to that and test each knot as I tie it.

So I have two sheets and one blanket, so that is about eighteen feet, is that enough? Well I really have no idea do I, I could be way higher than that. I have to find something else.

Really, they could have put more crap in this room to help me out! Hey wait, drapes, the window has drapes. But how in the heck do I get those down? I don't want Brad to hear me in here. He should think I am sleeping by now anyways.

Maybe if I stand on the window ledge I can get the rod down and take the drapes off. I just have to get up on this ledge. This ledge is a little smaller than I thought it would be. Oh crap, well it is a good thing that damn rod is in so well or I would have just went crashing to the ground. Really Kenna you have to get better at this stuff. Alright quietly let yourself back onto the floor. Deep breath let's try this again and try not to be so dang clumsy!

Up on the ledge again, no falling this time girl. Just reach up and take the rod down, no no don't drop the damn thing on the floor. Whew, I stopped it maybe an inch before it hit the floor. If I ever get out of this place I really have to do some damn boot camp thing or something to help with this kinda stuff!

That was eventful, but I got the drapes!! That doubled the length, hopefully that is enough. Ok here goes nothing. You know, sitting on a window trying to get yourself to step out into the darkness is a lot harder than they make it seem like in movies. You can do this, you don't have a choice, you can do it! You have done repelling before you can do this.

But with repelling you had a harness around you so there was no way you were going to go plummeting to you death. Can't think about that Kenna, this is gonna be easy, now go on the count of three go!

One, Two , Three Ok I am out. Just hanging on the side of a castle, yeah nothing weird about that. Just close your eyes and start walking down the side.

This is so not easy, my muscles are killing me! I was never meant to use all of these muscles, oh my God, I have only gone maybe ten feet. I really need to get the move on or my muscles are going to just give out on me anyway.

Another five feet, oh shit, I can't hold on, CRAP! Oh that fricken hurt! Shouldn't I be able to make the ground soften when I land on it? I think I am gonna just lay here for a minute, catch my breath. At least I wasn't as far from the ground as I thought I was.

"Kenna are you finished."

Oh shit, Michael. "For a minute or two, that really knocked the wind out of me."

"Did you honestly think they wouldn't have guards outside?"

"If you didn't notice it is pretty dark out here, I couldn't tell anything."

"That was good effort though, we weren't too sure you would try this, most people don't think they can do it."

"I just figured falling to my death was better than letting you guys kill me."

"I see, sorry it didn't work out that way for you. Let's go."

Michael walked me back into the castle, I thought about using my other abilities, but I still didn't want them to know who I am. "Where are we going? This isn't the way to my room."

"If you did try to get out he wanted to see you."

"Who is he?"

"The head of the council."

"Am I not allowed to know his name or something?"

"That is his place to tell you if he feels you deserve to know it, but he wishes to see you and that is all you need to know."

"Great, lead on." Michael just glared at me, sweet, at least I am getting on his nerves if nothing else. He led me to another room I haven't seen. Looks like a library or something. And guess what, head chair guy is sitting right behind some gargantuan desk. Talk about a cliché.

"Thank you Michael that will be all."

"Yes sir," and Michael just turned around and walked out of the room. That is weird, Michael seems to want to please this guy a lot, and he doesn't seem to give two shits about Michael.

"You are very observant child."

"What do you mean?"

"And very bad at hiding what you are thinking."

"Ok so what was I thinking."

"About the exchange between me and Michael. Would it be hard for you to believe he used to be my right hand man."

"Yeah sure he was."

"He was, but he made a very big mistake and I could not trust him in that position anymore." Huh I wonder if he is talking about Julie's mom. "Like right there, you know something about me not trusting Michael. I told you that you are very bad at hiding what you are thinking."

Shit! I really got a lot to work on. "Ok so I believe you, Michael did something extremely bad, like married one of us." Ha that got him, he didn't expect me to actually know something like that.

"How do you know that?"

"Sorry, can't reveal my source, just safe to say I know."

"You are right it does not matter, but there is more to you than meets the eye. Michael is trying to work on getting his position back. Him bringing us Halaina's journal is helping him greatly with that. It also proves he was right and the original family is still alive, but he still has a long way to go before I can fully trust him again, and with his daughter running off with your brother. Well the only real way to get my trust back would be to bring me his daughter himself and eliminate her."

"You mean you want him to murder his own daughter?"

"It is not murder, we pardoned her when we found out about her mom, but it would seem we were wrong. She is too much like her mother."

"I have a really nice bed upstairs waiting for me I know you didn't bring me here to discuss Michael and his family. What do you want?"

"I would think you would be nicer to the man that holds your fate in his hands."

"Yeah well you thought wrong."

"I want to know more about you, but you aren't going to tell me more about yourself are you?"

"Look you guess right about something!"

"You cannot geode me into a fight Kenna, I have dealt with your kind longer than you can imagine."

"What do you want?"

"I wasn't sure you would try what you did tonight, however it shows your spirit. I believe you are going to be trouble while we keep you here. However, there is much we can learn from you, so you are here for the long haul."

"That's it, you brought me here to tell me you aren't gonna kill me anytime soon?"

"I thought you may be more open, but you are not, you will be taken back to your room. The nights here can get pretty cold hope that won't bother you too much since you no longer have sheets and a blanket on your bed." Michael raised his voice louder and said, "Brad take her back to her room, she won't try going out that window again."

Brad walked in, "yes sir," he took my arm and back to my room we go. That definitely didn't go as well as I hoped it would go.

Well no help for it now, I guess I just go to bed.