~ 56: The Night of Blessings and Curses - Part 1 ~

I stood at the steps under the porch of my building, waiting for the person who promised to fetch me. He said that he wanted me ready thirty minutes before midnight, although it would take us mere seconds to reach the destined place. Thus, he had given me a day off from training to rest for the important night.

The first morning of the weekend should have been fun. It started well with Mel and I taking a walk around the beautiful park as she wouldn't let me sleep. When she finally left the house to spend time with her parents at their house, I slipped into bed to try and get back my sleep, yet to no avail.

I tried calling Aidan, but he said he was busy, as he was on a live broadcast with his fans. That was certainly some terrible timing and I sat on the bed, facepalming myself. There was no one to be with and I could only idly sit and watch his show, gazing away at his emerald eyes.

He and his teammates were trying to compete with each other to make the best dish in the most comedic way possible. One of them was a wise fool to have created only a sauce. Another had gone ahead to create ramen, adding whatsoever they could find to the pot and thought would taste good with it.

Aidan had gone ahead to prepare simple rolls, which got half-burnt in the process, to go with his first mate's sauce. The last one was sensible enough to make real food by grilling meat in a good mixture of spices. I ended up taking notes on how to prepare the dish.

With all of them spilling the food by bashing into each other in the small space or being clumsy, the fans were enjoying the show and admiring all the members' average cooking skills. Yet none of them lacked in decorating their somewhat nasty food elegantly.

Thinking about the day, what I had done, and what more I could have done without whiling my time away at trying to sleep caused a yawn to escape my lips. I covered my whole face in response to the big yawn.

Opening my eyelids to catch the view of an eye close to my face startled me so much that I fell on my behind. The man hadn't bothered to catch me and only chortled hard at my reaction.

"Can you please not sneak up like that?" I asked him politely but with annoyance. "I haven't got the sleep you wanted me to get except for one extra hour. You can't expect me to be very alert."

"Looks like you will need some more drilling on why is it important to be alert at all times," he responded. "We will leave that for another day. Now, shall we proceed?"

I took his outstretched hand, which he gave a kiss, and then dragged me to the alley next to the building. We walked until we arrived in an isolated spot.

He caught my waist and picked me up a step, hugging me whilst touching his now levelled head with mine. I put my arms around his shoulder, wondering the meaning of the action.

"Why?" I questioned. "Is this necessary?"

"Stand like this for two minutes and think of what this reminds you of," he whispered, his breath touching my lips.

With my eyes closed as I took in his beautiful scent, I was reminded of the first time we had met, and how in a matter of a few days we had become as close as siblings. The position we stood in brought back the memory of how I had tried to play along in order to break free at the right time and bring back my missing friend.

The passing minutes brought a smile to my face. I brushed a hand through his lovingly and pecked his forehead. He huffed a laugh right before the red strings of his power flared around us in the form of a ball. We closed our eyes and held tightly onto each other as the ground shifted beneath us.

We landed on plain solid ground, and I would have slipped off if it were his powerful arms still holding me intact in the position we had left the alley. He set me down as we gazed up at the clear sky at night, light up brilliantly by stars.

I observed our surroundings and felt the ground sink in slightly in some places. We had reached a beach where tides could be high enough to beyond a trail of rocks and pebbles. Lucas's arms came to clasp me before I could touch or reach the pretty water in front of me.

"Don't leave without me," he breathed in my hair. "Don't take a step without me being by your side."

His words brought back the words my mother had said right when the pendant had healed her lifeless body. Now I felt afraid to go near the water body, although I felt attached to it. Being a sea child and not seeing the sea in what felt like a long time left a small pang in my heart.

"Are these the doomed waters?" I asked softly, feeling the cool breeze sweep past us.

"I don't have concrete proof to say anything," he replied, as he wrapped his arms tighter around me. "All I can tell you is that I was the one who had sent you the paper to call upon me. But since we didn't have any promise binding us, I had set afloat the bottle in these waters, hoping it will find you and stay hidden until you blowed the conch shell.

"It was crucial for you to have that pendant once you officially turned into an adult. That is the age of complete independence and whatever decisions you make should be from your conscience. In simple words, you are responsible for your own actions.

"My only responsibility is finding you and keeping you safe until the assigned time came. You have a lot of work to do to reach that stage. We may not have as much as we think we imagine we do. So please, just listen to what I say and I will answer your questions at the right time."

My unhappy pout made him kiss my cheek. I held onto the warmth a little longer until he had to let go of me.

"We are going to have to walk to that jutting cliff," he said, pointing in its direction.

"Without magic?" I asked in a quite astonished tone.

"That boundary of rocks you passed doesn't allow any magic to be used beyond that point. Using it would mean that you aren't ready to sacrifice the little human quality you have been blessed in order to get what you wish."

We walked ahead calmly until we saw the sacrifice we had to pay.