Chapter Sixteen

S i g h i n g, I bent over and pulled my white ankle socks further up my legs, as if they would be any stability right now. My stomach was churning and I fidgeted uncomfortably. My t-shirt felt itchy. It was stupid, I was procrastinating over going into a classroom.

Finally, I bit my cheek and told myself to get a grip. I brought my unusually pale hand to the door knob and pushed it open.

Carlo was sitting at his desk, a creased frown on his face, making it so his eyebrows resembled one, bushy caterpillar. Six chairs fitted around the desk, but only two were filled. Lee and Harlow sat at the far end. Harlow's shoulders were hunched and she didn't look up when I came into the room.

"Aidan," Carlo said, gesturing in a welcoming manner. All I managed was a weak smile that probably looked more like a grimace than a beam. I struggled to keep my knees from clinking together like spoons. "Come take a seat as we wait for the others."

I felt numb as I nodded, sashaying with false confidence across to the three and sat down in the seat beside Lee.

A tense silence fell upon the group, and I brought my thumbnail and tugged at the nail nervously. Of course I had seen and heard on Buzzfeed all the awful things you could get from biting your nails - but hey, I thought it was worse than cracking my knuckles

My foot prickled with a thousand invisible needles, as if I had sat on my legs watching Friends for hours. Which I have before. Don't ask.

I glanced up at Carlo to try and read his expression, but he was stony, his expression etched into marble as he sifted through some paper work, but didn't probably look at it really.

I side ways looked at Lee, but his on his lap resided a book that was upside down.

Harlow was staring at the door, her eyes darting across it, the golden enhanced speckles worried. At least she had calmed down. Lee had told me in AP History that she was asthmatic and Lee was smart enough to bring her inhaler, that was now clutched in her sun kissed hand. But apart from that - he had calmed her down, which he said was no mean feet, then convinced her to return to class after homeroom.

Suddenly, the door opened again with a squeal, making me just, and my nail ripped away from my nail. Ouch. I thought, as a few beads of crimson formed at the side of the nail. A stinging pain zipped up my thumb. I sucked on the blood, just as Ducky, Scarlett and Gabriel came round the corner.

I was so nervous I thought I was gonna throw up again. I could feel sweat beading on my forehead as they walked towards us. Gabriel sat right next to me, and surely he could feel the sparks that ran up my arm when our limbs brushed.

Carlo cleared his throat and the atmosphere in the room got thicker, as if I could almost cut it with a butter knife.

He took of his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I'm sure you're wondering why I gathered you here today."

"Not really," Ducky interjected as we all turned to face him. "I mean, you're probably here to talk about Harlow's act of super strength for a small bean like herself."

Harlow's face went redder than a tomato and crossed her arms, sinking down from the chair.

"Well... yes." Carlo said, eyes glittering curiously. "And Aidan, don't think I didn't see the sparks in your hands. It was quite the feat."

My chest tightened and I nodded, hoping to remove the attention from myself.

Carlo pulled the draw open and pulled out a book, identical to the one that Lee found on the night of the party. He sifted though the boom till he landed on the yellow page that was all too familiar. My breathing hitched and my muscles tensed.

"There was always something about you six." He said, dragging his gaze around so he made eye contact with all of us. "First it was the comet, then Gabriel choosing a girl he's known for a week over a life long friend." My cheeks went pink. "Then the physical powers. I think that-"

Lee brought his chair forward and cut Carlo off. "No offence, sir, but we already know all this."

Carlo pulled a face of shock and slight bewilderment. "Go on then."

"Well, that's the Saints Prophecy, correct?" Lee Asked, pointing to the page. Carlo nodded, his glasses slipping further down his nose. I felt a tug of amusement, it's funny that we all knew what he was talking about before he could even talk. I frowned as I tried to remember the prophecy.

When the day is done
And the night starts to roar
The shadows will return
To shake the world to its core.
Six Saints will be chosen
To hold the power of the clouds
Under a 1 in 3000 chance
To melt the frozen
They will head east
Towards the rising sun there they will find
All they need to defeat the beast
And summon the sun once more.

Yay for my photographic memory.

"Well, since you know the prophecy, it talks about saints and gods and physical powers, and there's six of us, we have physical powers, that relate to the Gods." Lee continued. I straightened my posture when he talked like that, my insides feeling as though they were on the Smiley at Whizers Park in North Dakota.

"Do tell. What powers may you posses?" Carlo said.

"Well," Lee opened his mouth but Ducky beat him to it, sitting upright. He pointed to all of us at a time. "Scarlett has slight mind control so her soul is Hades. I have water, so Poseidon. Gabriel has healing so he matched with Aphrodite." Ducky pointed to me and I felt my face dust with pink. "Aidan has electricity so her soul is like Zeus'. Lee with forcefields and Athena, and last but certainly not least, Harlow with super strength and Ares."

Carlo whistled. "That's certainly impressive." His eyes sparked with... what was it, admiration? "Could you show me these powers?"

So one by one, we revealed our powers, which was admittedly pretty funny. Scarlett made Carlo say he was a poop-head, Ducky gatherer a storm cloud. I broke a lamp, and so on.

"I don't suppose you six have something to do with the Minotaur - so you?"

"It figured the prophecy out before we did." Harlow spoke up, looking a little more confident After lifting both Lee and Carlo into the air at once. It was a show, to say the least. "It attacked Aidan and I on Friday. I don't know how we killed it, to be honest." I saw Scarlett breathe a sigh of relief when Harlow chose not to mention her drunk fiasco.

"Wait;" Carlo's eyes stretched wide. "You mean to tell me two Sophomores took on a fully grown female Minotaur and lived to tell the tale?"

"We're not just any Sophomores," I reminded him, my voice slightly croaky as I hadn't talked through out this whole afternoon. "We're the 'saints' with super magic powers."

Carlo frowned. "I don't think you realise how important this situation is." I furrowed my eyebrows and cocked my head to the side in a silent what do you mean? "This is a Prophecy that's been around for a millennium, and everyone knows about it." He ran a hand through his hair. "If this slips out you would be known all across the world. You could be targeted."

"Targeted?" Scarlett said sharply. I bit my lip, my fingers twitching to start cracking again.

"Why yes," Carlo leaned back in his chair. "You are - in fact - what some would call the chosen ones. Here to rid us of the darkness."

Gabriel scratcher the back of his neck. "About that. Does anyone even know what this so called darkness is?"

Tension rushed through my veins. A certain darkness? Um... that was slightly unnerving; to say the least. I shifted uncomfortably.

Carlo looked up through his eyebrows at us, his eyes glimmering darkly. "Yes. We've been thinking about that. The other Elders and I, as well as many across the globe assume the assume the Prophecy is talking about Cronus. The Titan god."

Fear twisted through my heart, tightening like a rope, and I froze. Everyone knew about the Titans; in the real world, anyway. They were like the Olympians, but scarier, more powerful and much more deadly. Immediately, my hand went to grasp something reassuring, and it suddenly wrapped around another warm palm. I looked down at my hand, that was interlocked with Gabriel's slightly cooler, pale hand. My eyes rose up and I met Gabriel's eyes. They were sparkling, like a hurricane with a turmoil of emotions. Fear, anger, confusion, and one I couldn't recognise.

My eyebrows furrowed, and suddenly my breath caught in my throat. I had found the calm still of the eye of the hurricane of Gabriel's eye. The emotion I didn't recognise was gleaming, loud and clear like a diamond. It was adoration.

My ears rang, all I could hear was the unsteady breath of my lungs. The electricity broke from my heart, it's spark almost familiar now, fizzed through my skin, zipping to where I was holding Gabriel, and pushed out of my hand into the real world. I drew my hand away and shook it out. I looked and gasped silently, realising that everyone was suddenly looking at us.

I wasn't afraid though. Maybe I had just taken a shot of red without realising, but I now I knew something.

The Olympians had given us these powers for a reason. They believed in us. We could do it. Harlow and I took down that Minotaur exhausted and new to our powers. What do you think we were capable of if we practised. All of us, six of us could do it. We just needed to believe.

We talked a while longer, but nothing interesting came up. Carlo set off us home with a promise of more information tomorrow after he had discussed it with the high Elders.

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