I sat on the damp sand of the beach eating the most miserable plate of fish and chips I'd ever tasted. The fish was grey, the batter was slimy, and the chips were just pathetic. But I was hungry, so I wasn't really complaining, I'd have eaten it raw if push came to shove.

It was about an hour since I'd last seen Shadow and Sheira and in that time I'd spent about twenty minutes scrubbing myself clean under the mercifully hot water. I didn't realise how filthy I was until I physically had to unblock the drain with the handle of a toilet brush. Mud, dirt, grime, blood all flowed off me taking the soreness and stiffness in my muscles away with it. I also took the time to brush my teeth and clip my nails, because hygiene. My hair was a bit tragic but there was only so much I could do with that mess on a good day. Feeling suitably refreshed, I wandered downstairs, ran into the very nice landlady of the bed and breakfast who asked how I was feeling and then offered to wash my dirty clothes for me (I damn near kissed her for that), and told me the general direction that Shadow and Sheira had disappeared to.

I knew that the two of them were meeting me down at the pier and I wanted to give Sheira as much time as she needed to recover so I decided to take a walk along the promenade, the salty sea air waking me up like a seaweed scented slap to the face. My mind wandered to day trips to Brighton, eating rock and paddling in the steely grey waters with my brother and sister filled my thoughts. After we found them I was definitely going to take them away on a little holiday. Maybe not Brighton, somewhere with sand.

So long as there's light, there's hope.

Shadow's words span round my head like a broken record, repeating over and over again but I was also focusing on his sudden change of tune. We certainly didn't insult each other as much as we did before. He smiled briefly and seemed sad about Juliet, a girl he only knew through the Army. And as for that speech? Well I certainly wasn't expecting that to come out of his mouth to say the least. But up close, it sounded like something he would say. His eyes were looked old and tired, impossibly old. What had he seen? What had he done? What was he not telling us? What was his speck of light to keep fighting for?

My stomach growled unhappily as the Lucozade and Belvita biscuit wore off which lead me back to the current moment in time. Sat under a dingy pier, eating mediocre fish and chips as the tide crept out to sea. Flame lounged comfortably behind a sand pile which meant that he was obscured from any of the holiday makers who were meandering down the brown sand, swatting lazily at any seagull that came to close. He had almost eaten one, but I'd seen enough blood in the last week than I had in my entire previous life, so I rescued it from his jaws, gave it a chip, and sent it on its way a little battered (Unintentional pun).

This quiet moment on my own meant that my thoughts were allowed to wander freely, dredging up the events of the previous day. When left to its own devices your brain either calms itself down or goes into full scale mental breakdown mode. My brain had chosen to dump the latter on me. Josh's dead eyes stared into mine, judging me for every crime I had ever committed. His blood-soaked lips whispered the blame onto me. The cavernous wound gaped angrily. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. It felt like a hand was squeezing round my heart.

Oh wonderful. Now I'm having a panic attack.

I didn't used to have many attacks. I really didn't, but a combination of suddenly having to step into a father role for the kids, school and the goddamn estates we've had to live in meant that I now have one every other day. And they chose to pop up at the most inconvenient of moments, like now for instance.

I tried desperately to control my breathing, which was escaping me in short sharp gasps as my pulse began to race under my hands. Flame looked up, obviously worried as I employed the techniques that the school therapist had taught me. Breathe in for three, out for five, in for three, out for five. Flame pushed his head up against my chest, his own steady breathing blowing warm jets of air against my chest. It gave me something to focus on as my breathing steadily slowed. Without saying a word Flame lifted his head and gave me a friendly lick. It had the texture of wet sandpaper, but I was not complaining about having a friendly face to comfort me.

I ran my fingers through Flame's mane as he purred happily, until his ears twitched, and he looked sharply behind me. With lighting speed, I raised my hand to the amulet and readied an explanation to the poor holiday goers who were staring at a teenage boy petting a spontaneously combusting lion. Luckily, Shadow and Sheira were used to the sight of Flame and I. Flame padded back to his spot behind the sand pile as I scooted over on the coat that I was using as a beach towel so the two of them could sit down.

Even then, none of us said a word. It wasn't awkward or anything, all three of us were just sat in silence, obviously trying to think of a way to start a conversation. I was fine with putting off that particular discussion as I may as well be allergic to small talk. I stared back out to sea and popped another chunk of fish into my mouth. And then I bit down on something hard.

Crunch.

I reflexively winced and pulled the object from my mouth. "Oh, come on. How the hell do you manage to leave a bone in a plate of fish and chips?"

The two of them chuckled lightly. Of all things to break the ice with, a chewed-up fish bone was not what I had in mind, but you take what you can get.

"Ugh!" I tossed the bone back into the wrapping and offered the rest of the fish to Flame. The batter slid off and landed with a soft splatting sound. "Have at it buddy."

"Also, kid, how much ketchup does one man physically need?" Shadow said, eyeing up the mushy box of what may be potatoes. Although to be fair I could have sworn I saw one of them move at one point.

"Oh, this is nothing, there's six packets of salt on these bad boys just to make them halfway edible. I mean look," I pulled out a limp, grey stick of spud and waved it to the rest of the group, "that's just pathetic." The 'chip' took that moment to disintegrate and drop to the floor. All three of us stared at it for a few seconds, "that's a literal representation of my life right now."

That triggered an audible laugh from Sheira and a noise from Shadow which is the best I was going to get.

Sheira seemed to have cheered up a little bit but I could tell that something was still off. I turned to her, "how are you feeling?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I'm fine. Its you that we should be thinking about. We only heard the story, you had to see it. I can't imagine what that was like."

"It wasn't pleasant, but I could have been a record setter. Nick Hayden, first man to successfully throw up in a dream. You can see that up in lights, can't you?"

She bumped me with her shoulder, "be serious."

"Humour is my coping mechanism, if you didn't have this you'd be getting a blubbering mess right now."

The other two didn't say anything to respond to that. I just studied the pile of batter that was slowing melting into the sand.

"I can't imagine what it was like," Sheira said eventually.

"The smell was the worst."

"You had your sense of smell?" said Shadow.

I nodded. "I could feel everything. I wasn't like a movie, it was like I was there. It felt so real that I felt like Molly would suddenly turn around and talk to me it was horrible."

Shadow and Sheira exchanged glances at that point. That was concerning. "this isn't like anything we've ever seen before," muttered Sheira.

"Wonderful," I said cheerfully, "I'm a freak of nature!"

"Don't say that."

"But he's kind of right," said Shadow. I was kind of hoping that they'd both oppose the self-deprecating joke, but this was sadly not the case. "From what you've told us and the type of vision you were having it doesn't match up with anything. We even checked back on your family line to see if there was anything. Two ancient families would have everything incredibly well documented and we came up with nothing."

"So, it's not inherited," Sheira marked that off with her fingers. "We did find something that Vessel Spirits sometimes pass down abilities to the offspring of their Vessel, but your mother lost the spirit two years before you were even born, so that a no go again."

"Is it an elemental thing?" I asked. "Do some Fire's have the ability to read prophecies like...erm...what's her name? The red haired one from Game of Thrones that worships the fire god."

"Melisandre?" said Shadow.

"Yeah that one...wait you watch Game of Thrones?"

"Who doesn't?"

Sheira coughed to get our attention back to the relevant topic. "That's a TV show, it's not real. Although...some pyromancers have the ability to see the future using fire but they have to have a magic element somewhere in their DNA and so far, there's nothing like that from you."

I sighed and slumped back onto my elbows. I pondered for a few seconds before letting my little theory lose onto the world. "Here's a thought, could I have been given the ability?" I said.

Shadow and Sheira seemed to consider this. "You mean as like a gift?" Shadow clarified.

"Yes, is that possible?"

"Maybe...Sheira, are there any prophetic elementals at your camp?"

Sheira nibbled her lip in thought. "Hmmm...I suppose there's Tegan, she's a Time. But she gets her visons during the day and she has to use a timepiece to channel that energy...There's also Giovanni...He's an Omen, but again he uses an object to channel his power rather than going to sleep or spacing out. And even if you were showing similar abilities to those two, you've never even met them. Tegan's family left the country in March and Giovanni goes to Eton so he's still at boarding school. So, they couldn't have given their powers to you."

"I mean the closest thing we've found is "Prophetic Dreaming" but that doesn't answer all the questions meaning we're back at square one then," muttered Shadow.

"Perhaps, but I swear to god you're barking up the wrong tree." The two of them just stared at me half in disbelief, half wanting to here my take on events. "Just hear me out. I went to sleep at midnight, yeah?"

"Yes."

"Which meant it was literally the middle of the night."

"Yeah..."

"But when I was having my vision because I refuse to call it a dream, the sun was till up, meaning that it had already happened. Something was showing me what was happening." I ran my fingers though the sand, "I think it might have been my dad," I murmured quietly.

"What made you come to that conclusion?" Shadow didn't sound like he was just winding me up, he sounded genuinely interested.

I sucked in a breath. "Because I've been having weird dreams since he died."

Shadow didn't say anything, which was the reaction I was expecting, and Sheira looked like she wanted to kill me. Also, the reaction I was expecting. I braced myself for a barrage of questions that all went along the lines of 'why have we just found out about it now?'

"And you've only thought to tell us about this now?" Sheira growled through gritted teeth. (There it is)

"In my defence it hadn't been important till now!"

"Weird dreams are never a good thing! Period! Even if you're a prophetic element unexplained dreams have a very nasty habit of being very, very bad. And you're not a prophetic elemental so this is even worse!"

"But it could also be a good thing!" I retorted. "If I didn't have that dream we would have never figured out there was a spy at camp, or Molly was developing a new serum or that she was tracking us. My visions have been helpful so someone or something is trying to help us!"

"Stop arguing you two!" yelled Flame. Sheira and I turned to look at him who was glaring fiercely at us. "Nick's right. His visions don't seem to be negative an anyway it showed something that had already happened. Someone's rereading a chapter instead of skipping to the last paragraph if you'll take that analogy."

Sheira sighed, massaging the sides of her temples. "I'm going to go grey after all this..." she muttered. She turned back to me. "You said that this has been happening since your father died. Can you explain that?"

"Yeah. I mean I didn't used to dream a lot, before he died that is, and I suppose that was normal. But after he died I started having quite graphic nightmares. Naturally I just thought that this was normal, Dad had just died, I was due to start my GCSE's and I suddenly had to grow up to take care of my family, so I just presumed that these dreams were caused by stress. Of course, I would, it was the only logical explanation I could come up with."

"But you said these dreams were quite graphic," said Shadow, "what do you mean by that?"

"I mean I could feel everything. The heat, the fear, I could even smell burning."

"So, you were in a fire?"

"Wait, you told me that was how your dad died."

"Yeah, so again I just presumed that was stress and trauma from losing a parent. But it got weirder. I could never remember what had happened in the morning, ever. I'd wake up in a cold sweat with the feeling of fear and that someone was out to get me, but I could never remember any other details. Has this happened before?"

Both of them were completely silent. Well, that was a good sign. I was expecting at least one of them to pipe up and say something or at least mention a possibility or something. I would take any explanation at this point, but it seemed that I was an anomaly, something that couldn't be measured or lumped into any category. What was happening to me? I watched the waves pulse steadily along the sand. I don't like large bodies of water, period, but the ocean could be quite peaceful, so I didn't mind just sitting and watching the waves on school trips while the other kids in my year splashed in the shallows. So long as it stays away from me, I don't bother it.

Sheira broke the silence that had stretched out for about five minutes. "What was the last dream you had, before the one that you saw Molly."

"Why?"

"I need you to remember something, anything that could be helpful."

I pondered. Last dream...when was that? "I think it was...the night of the third of July. Yeah! It was the day I met you, because I fell out of bed and I had this massive bruise on my forehead. My mum even asked about it and I told her that I couldn't remember anything...That's probably not what you wanted to hear right?"

Sheira shrugged, "I was wondering where that bruise had come from. But we now know that you had one recently, can you remember anything."

"I looked my own mother in the eye and told her that I couldn't, it was a total blank spot."

"Can you try?" persisted Shadow.

If I had struggled to remember something when I was awake was difficult then trying to remember something that I had seen in a dream was going to be mission impossible. I sighed and cast my mind back. "Um...well it was warm and sunny."

"You could have got that from the weather report," Shadow pointed out.

"I know!" I snapped, "but I could feel the heat, I could feel the wind, but I felt scared. Something was coming..."

"What?"

"I...I'm not sure. There was a building, I think, like an old brick Victorian workhouse you see in the East End. It was surrounded by concrete at the front and there was green at the back...I think it was a school."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, um...I went upstairs and into this room, a classroom."

"So definitely a school then."

"Uh huh. But it's really weird saying this out loud but couldn't see everyone. Like, I knew they were there, but they were blurred, and I could only clearly see one person– Where the hell is all this coming from!" I yelled. "How can I suddenly remember all this, I told my mum that I couldn't remember anything, what's different now?!"

"We'll figure that out later. Come on kid, you're onto something." (I was going to have to have a private word with Shadow about him calling me 'Kid')

Sheira leaned in closer. "Who could you see? What did they look like?"

"It was a girl. She had blonde hair, strawberry blonde would be more accurate, that was styled into a sort of bob cut but it sort of flicked out at the sides. She had quite fair skin, freckles, bright green eyes and she was wearing this uniform. A burgundy blazer, grey skirt..." this description seemed very familiar all of a sudden. Where had I heard this before? It was in the morning, I was having my breakfast and I picked up the paper. "Rose," I mumbled in shock. "I saw Rose Coultard."

Shiera's eyes widened until the resembled teacup saucers. But Shadow didn't look like he believed me. "You could have just got that from the newspaper, her description was all over the front page."

He had a point (And I cannot believe that I just thought that) but I could just be parroting back what I'd read when I woke up. I needed more details, something that wouldn't have been mentioned by the news. Hmm...

"Was she wearing any jewellery?" Sheira suggested.

"She was wearing a white watch on the left wrist and she was wearing earrings, like daisies."

"And her backpack had cats on, right?"

I was about to open my mouth to agree but then I stopped myself. That didn't sound right. "No. It had like a leaf pattern...wait that was to try and trip me up wasn't it?"

Sheira nodded, "and you passed."

"What was her beast?" asked Shadow.

"A bumblebee, Flower, she called Rose 'Honey'."

"Someone could have told you that."

Someone could have, but they hadn't. Rose wasn't from my cabin, so they'd only mentioned her in passing. They hadn't told me her beast's name, her specific power or what she really looked like, so I spouted out as many details as I could remember.

"She was a Nature, the further away she was from natural area's the weaker she was, she was a decent whip fighter, trained by the Harpy herself, she kept a hunting knife sewn into the fabric of her backpack, she–"

"Woah, woah, woah, I believed you when you said Flower," said Sheira, her hands raised to stop me from talking. "And you're right, about everything. Now what happened to Rose."

I recounted the events that I'd seen. I explained how she got from the school to the alleyway near my flat which now made a hell of a lot more sense. The details flowed freely now like water from a fountain and I described everything in the same detail that I'd seen it, it was like I was describing a movie. But again, for the second time today I had to watch Sheira's face as I told her what happened to her friend. It was even worse than the first time. My whole story couldn't have taken more than ten minutes and further five minutes of that was Shadow and I trying to stop Sheira crying. After a while the only sounds we could here where Sheira's broken and uneven sobs.

"She went out fighting," I said in an attempt to comfort her.

"I...I...I knew she would," she sniffed, "she wouldn't have just given up."

"She seemed so scared at first," noted Shadow.

"She's a very good actor. A school she played a mild, sweet student, a bit of a Mary Jane, but in reality, she's very scary when you got on the wrong side of her." She chuckled, "I swear on my life that I once saw her beat someone into fertilizer for stealing a cookie."

"Sounds like my sort of person," I chuckled.

Sheira smiled sadly, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Yeah...You would have liked her." She sighed, gazing at the puffy white clouds drifting lazily across the sky, "but you know what I don't get? I don't understand why you saw here, you've never met her before, why her and not anyone you know?"

"It is odd," agreed Shadow. "This girl you don't know shows up in your dream and then you wake up tomorrow morning and find out that everything has already happened. Sounds a bit suspicious in my humble opinion. Why tell you about something that has already happened rather than give you warning?"

"I don't know!" I snapped. I was up on my feet and pacing by this point in frustration. "I don't know how this" I jabbed a finger at my head, "works. My vision about Sabrina was the first time I was actually there. When I was with Rose, I felt detached from her, like a stranger looking in, well technically I was, but I didn't feel like I was standing next to her like I did with Sabrina. It was kind of like..." I snapped my fingers, searching for an analogy, "like I was at the movies, but I had one of those blind headphones on that was describing everything I saw. No wait, here's one better, like I was reading a third person book. I knew what was happening, but I needed someone else to narrate the images because I didn't know what was going on, does that make sense?"

Shadow and Sheira considered this for a moment before they both unanimously shrugged. Considering the fact that I barely understood what was going on myself, that had to be a good sign that I wasn't on a one-way trip to the funny farm.

"Its just really weird," I continued. "I'm suddenly able to remember all the dreams I've had for no apparent reason other than I've found out what the elemental world is. It doesn't make any sense."

"Perhaps its something separate," Sheira guessed. "When did the visions start becoming clearer?"

I pondered for a moment. "Back end of May, early June I suppose..." Those dates felt incredibly meaningful. I trailed my fingers over the remnant of the mark on my wrist. "The thirty first of May," I whispered.

"And how is that important?" asked Shadow.

"It's my birthday."

"And?"

"That's the day this came off," I presented the little squiggle on my wrist to him.

Instantly, Shadow's eyes widened in shock as he leant forwards to examine the mark. His whole face was etched with surprise as he studied the relatively simple sigil that had somehow hidden me from the world for fifteen years of my life. Sigils were freaky.

"That's incredible," he whispered in awe.

"Do you know what it is?" I asked. All things considered the Harpy hadn't told us anything about whatever this sigil was, just that it was very old, very rare, and she was going to murder the guy who gave it to me. You know, as you do.

Shadow nodded in response, "yeah. This...is the Jerika Cloaking Sigil."

Oh. I was expecting it to have a cooler name than that. Like, the sigil of eternal invisibility or something like that (That is also the reason why I don't name things).

"You know what it is?" said Sheira.

Shadow nodded again. "The Jerika Cloaking Sigil is one of the oldest, and rarest, sigils known throughout history. The story goes that during the invasion of the Romans a Celtic leader named Jerika was afraid of his tribe being attacked for their beliefs, having their houses robbed and killed in their sleep by the invading legions. The rumour goes that one night the guy was dreaming when he saw the Sigil in his mind. The truth was that he was more than likely a supressed elemental, most likely a Magic. Anyways, he wakes up, yells eureka and spends the next few weeks locked in his study trying to recreate what he saw, with varying degrees of success. Eventually, and with the Roman legions closing in, he perfects the sigil and carves it into the skin of every one of his tribe, and wouldn't you know it, the Romans walk right past them and they continue to do so for the next fifteen years. Over the years Jerika creates a single book detailing the creation of the sigil, which only a handful of people throughout history have ever read it and even fewer have managed to perfect it. My best guess is that only four people alive could have put this on you, well three technically."

"How come?" asked Sheira.

"I'm one of them," Shadow replied simply.

Okay...Shadow didn't seem to think about his simple answers or how they just threw up more question when Sheira and I were concerned but I was seriously going to have to have a word with him about confusing the hell out of us mere simpletons. But while he's being the fountain of all knowledge, you may as well drink, so to speak.

"Could this have hidden my dreams from me?" I asked, "or clouded them at least."

Shadow nodded. "This would have hidden anything from the elemental world from your view, including in your dreams." He looked closer at the faded mark and sighed. "What I don't get is why your mother chose this sigil in particular."

"How come?" Sheira asked, puzzlement clear in her voice.

"Here's the thing, there are other clocking sigils, including ones that are easier to apply, are less painful, and last just as well, even if you do have to reapply them every few years. The Jerika provides complete protection from a certain group or person–"

"The entire elemental world in my case."

"But its almost impossible to apply due to only four people knowing about its existence and the whole thing being about as complicated as the ending of Lost."

"It doesn't look complicated," I said peering closely at the hood shaped sigil on my wrist. It seemed relatively simple to me but if Shadow was using that comparison then obviously it really wasn't.

Shadow now seemed to be rummaging around in his backpack for something. After a few minutes of digging Shadow gave a quiet aha and revealed what he had been looking for. It didn't look like much, although from my previous experiences (i.e. everything that had happened to me in the previous week) I knew that appearances could be very deceiving. The object that he was holding looked like a small brass box, about the size of your average iPhone crossed with a matchbox. Sigils were inscribed faintly into the metalwork itself, but other than that you could have easily mistaken it for a really jazzy phone case.

Shadow didn't seem to be bothered by this and just as I was wondering what this could be for, Shadow said the word, "Magnifying glass." Instantly the box sprung apart, the metal folding outwards like a pop out card, shifting and warping until the whole thing had turned into one of those old-fashioned magnifying glasses.

"Well that sure beats a swiss army knife," I said.

Shadow rolled his eyes and motioned form me to hold out my wrist. I crouched down and did so, peering through the glass at the sigil. Well, Shadow was right about one thing, that sigil was not simple. It was the complete opposite from simple, think as complicate as trying to solve a Rubik's cube in a straightjacket while skydiving without a parachute. The sigil, while appearing to be a single solid mass was actually a network of tiny lines, intercepting and criss-crossing over one another to form an unbroken chain of protective power. The individual lines were about as thin as a single hair that had been sliced in half so the margin for error wasn't exactly small. But it was definitely clear why only four people alive today knew how to create the symbol, you had to have hands of a surgeon, the eyes of creepy nocturnal lemur thingies and the patience of a godamn saint. Made you wonder what would happen if you got it wrong.

I whistled to further demonstrate how impressed I was by the sheer craftsmanship of the sigil. "Okay, definitely not simple then, and you're telling me that I managed to sit still for long enough at a year old to have this applied?"

"They probably knocked you out," Shadow said bluntly. He tapped a button on the handle of the magnifying glass and with a satisfying swish the whole thing folded back into a bronze box. "It would have taken hours to apply, unimaginable pain but it would have provided complete protection from the elemental world."

"Which explains why your dreams have only been clear since your birthday."

Shadow grunted, "we only know that the last two were dreams connected to current events. I still think that some of them were just nightmares."

Of course, he did. Although, to be honest, he had a point. The fourteen-year-old dreams could have been caused by the trauma that was losing a parent and I could only remember the past two of them. If you were to go about this logically then you would probably find yourself agreeing with Shadow.

Sheira didn't agree with this because as soon as Shadow finished his statement, Sheira pulled out a fat leather bound book from her bag. It looked like John Winchesters journal. The whole thing was barely contained by its thin leather strings as its pages bulged with notes and images, paper clips and shiny Sellotape keeping everything in place and the worn leather cover clearly strained under its own bulk. As soon as Sheira undid the strings the whole thing sprung open revealing years' worth of hand written notes, diagrams, maps, photographs and drawings. The whole thing must have weighed as much as your average dog, and she'd been luging that around for over a week?! Respect.

Sheira flipped through the pages and pulled the book, (with significant effort) up to her chest, blocking the words from my view. "This book contains everything I know about the people who have gone missing," she explained, "I want to use this to test your abilities. When I say a date, you tell me who went missing, that way we can prove that this is your power, not" she shot a particularly menacing glare at Shadow, who scowled back in return, "a nightmare."

Exams are not my strong point, in fact it'll be a miracle if I don't fail half of my subjects when I get my results back in August, but I got Sheira's point because at the current moment in time I was partially agreeing with Shadow. I had no way to explain my dreams and if I least figured out if they were visions or not then I could be a lot more secure in what I was seeing. Knowing if my visions were dangerous or helpful wouldn't hurt either.

I sighed and nodded firmly. "Sure, lets give this a try."

Sheira nodded triumphantly at Shadow, whose expression soured further. It seemed we now had the old Shadow back. She looked up from the pages she was looking at, "lets start with the second of January."

Oh, recall tests, the bane of my existence. I racked my brain for the answers. Second of January, second of January what happened then. After a few minutes of silence and with no answers from me Shadow, who was clearly getting bored, made a move to leave. "Wait!" I yelled, "I think I'm getting something. It was night-time, in a city...Manchester I think, it was a guy, about nineteen."

"That would have been in the news," he snapped.

"He was trying to win a bet!" I yelled. Shadow and Sheira looked slightly taken aback by my outburst, now more surprised than me. How did I know that? He was stumbling around drunk, very drunk and looked like he'd been in a couple of fights. His clothes were torn, his blonde hair was messy crusted together with something I really didn't want to identify, his brown eyes were half closed and unfocused, but how did I know about that bet? A conversation flooded my ears, words that were happening hundreds of miles away in a crowded club.

"One of his friends made a bet with him that he couldn't last a week without going home, he had to survive on a hundred quid and without getting arrested. He was drunk, but he agreed and somehow managed to keep it up. Not for long though, he only made it to eleven o'clock of that night. He got jumped by Molly herself, I think she wanted to see if her potion worked with her own eyes. He couldn't fight back, he wasn't strong enough his element..." I trailed off and focused on his power, strong and unyielding. Everything suddenly clicked into place, "he was an Earth, Rock specifically, his beast was a dingo called Onyx." I looked down at Sheira, "the elementals name was Lewis Price and he was lost on the second of January at eleven thirty-six."

The silence between the three of us, four if you counted Flame, stretched out for a few seconds, and then Sheira's moth turned up into a smile. "Exactly right."

Shadow continued to look unimpressed, "He could have got that from–"

Sheira stood up with such speed and clear aggression that Shadow wisely decided to keep his mouth shut. Somehow, she managed to tower over him as he sank a little lower into the sand to avoid her piercing gaze. "Nick," she growled, "February twenty seventh."

Flame and I were now backing away as quickly as we could to avoid getting into a full-blown fistfight. "What?"

"FEBURARY TWENTY SEVENTH!" She screamed. Shadow had now become a quivering puddle on the sand.

"How can she be so scary?" Flame whispered from behind the pole he was trembling behind. "She seems so cute..."

"Say that to her face and she'll neuter you with a butter knife," I warned him, he nodded in agreement before consciously adjusting how he was standing. I shook my head fondly at my friend before casting my mind back to the dream I had on that day. This one came clearer than the last one, falling into place in my head like an almost solved jigsaw puzzle. "It was a couple this time, Lily O'Connor and Xander Higgins, a Sky and a Snow. They were out on a camping trip in the Cotswolds as a late valentines day celebration, they got jumped by Molly when they were asleep, Xander went first, Lily held out for another hour or so."

"Correct," snarled Sheira who was still shooting daggers at Shadow, "March third."

The image flashed into my head in less than a second. "two of them, they were from Scotland this time. Girls, twin girls...Oh my god," I gasped, "they were seven, seven years old. Bethany and Becky Federman, Winds. Someone just went into their garden, took them by the hand and lead them away. Holy sh–"

"Right again," Sheira cut me off, "April thirtieth."

"Three of them this time, one from Wales, one from Scotland and one from Northern Ireland. Cecilia Hanlin, Eva Baldwin and George Thaddeus. Sound, Time and a Decay."

"May the fifth."

"Naomi Silvetti, a Thunder. She was on a school trip to a cave system when the teachers lost sight of her. They thought she'd fallen down a gorge or something, but that James kid lured her into a room and then jabbed her."

"June eighteenth!"

"Seventeen," I whispered. The memory of seemingly hundreds of voices cramming my head, desperately trying to be heard flooded my brain. I shuddered at the thought of all those people wanting help and then suddenly being silenced.

"No, the eighteenth," corrected  Shadow.

"Quiet you," Sheira snapped, "you're right, that's how many people went missing."

"Huh?" Flame's head popped out from behind the pillar. He then shrieked loudly and bounced around the area we were standing because a lump of seaweed had touched his foot.

While I was trying to calm my over sized pussy cat down Shadow decided to pitch in another argument of how my vision were a whole lot of crap. "Oh, come on! He just gave you a number, anyone could have known that from reading the news. That's all he's doing, recalling information like a...like a..."

Shadows voice trailed off as he took in the look on Sheira's face. It was the sort of look your most evil, twisted, blood sucking, pulling the joy and happiness from all living things, teacher would give you before they're about to murder you/cover you and honey and feed you to a swarm of killer bees (Not a joke, that is a direct quote from one of my primary school teachers). Sheira was trembling in rage while Shadow was slowly inching away from us. Flame and I took that as our cue to dive for cover.

"He couldn't have known that!" Sheira snarled.

Shadow recovered a bit of his composure and rose to his full height in front of Sheira. There's a foot between them and yet Sheira still managed to be just as intimidating as the six foot something giant that could lift me clear off the ground. His irritating smirk flickered across his lips. "Okay then princess," Sheira's face blazed scarlet in rage, I could feel the heat eradiating from her from ten feet away and behind a sand pile where Flame and I were hiding. "Tell me why not."

"Because only fifteen were reported on that day!" she hollered. "Only the elemental world knew about the last two disappearances as they were reported a week later! HOW COULD HE HAVE KNOWN THAT!!!"

"Oh, I don't know maybe because he ASKED HIS FRIENDS?!"

"WHY WOULD HE DO THAT, HE DIDN'T KNOW, AND THE DETAILS WERE KEPT PRIVATE!"

"YOU COULD HAVE TOLD HIM!"

"WHY WOULD I DO THAT?! YOURE JUST THE STUBBORN ASSEHOLE WHO REFUSES TO SEE WHAT'S IN FRONT OF YOU!"

The two of them then started full on screaming at each other, while also forgetting that we were still in public. I glanced up at the pier where the unmistakable dark shapes of people filtered through the gaps in the wood. They were probably wondering if it was just a couple having an argument or a possible murder attempt. Ninety nine percent of scientists can't tell. I sighed miserably and tried to drown out their shouts with the sound of the sea. Focus on the waves, the relaxing sound of the sea, calming sounds...

"YOURE NOTHING BUT A STUBBORN COWARD WHO DOSENT KNOW REAL DANGER IF IT CRUSHED HIM."

"YOU STUCK UP LITTLE BITCH, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IVE BEEN THROUGH!"

"LAY IT ON ME YOU JERK!"

I growled in frustration. Trying to ignore two people that now have the vocal capacity of a banshee is about as useful as trying to ignore Crash sitting on your foot. It aint happening. I slid further down the sand, my hands covering my ears, mimicking the posture that Flame had now adopted.

"Someone's going to call the police in a minute," I muttered, I glanced over my shoulder. Oh great, now they had resolved to shoving. "Or start a fight."

Flame nodded in agreement, "my money's on Sheira."

"Well they're going to give me a migraine at this rate, and I'm stuck with both of them for...I actually have no idea how long."

"You'd be dead without both of them," Flame pointed out.

He was right, dammit. I sighed in defeat. "Why do you always have to be so sensible?"

"Means you don't end up killing yourself."

"Fair enough," I said emerging from where I'd been sitting.

The situation had escalated quickly to put in bluntly. Elemental powers were now sparkling from their fingertips, Sheira's glass like shards straining against Shadow's black flow of raw energy. Oh, and they were still screaming at each other. There's only one thing from this.

"SHUT IT!!" Apparently, the Lion King used tiger roars because lions weren't loud enough. Flame begged to differ with that notion. His deafening roar probably would have measured on instruments in Germany, never mind ten feet in front of him. Sheira and Shadow instantly stopped shouting and covered their ears to cut out the sheer sound of Flame. The people above us must have thought a bomb had gone off. It might have only gone on for five seconds at the most, but my ears were still ringing, and I had a heads up of what Flame was about to do. Jesus Christ that lion had some vocal chords.

"Well that worked," I said to Flame. He nodded triumphantly, his teeth bared into a cheesy grin.

I shook my head in an attempt to clear the ringing and locked eyes with Shadow and Sheira who were united in a look of a pure desire for murder. I glared back at both of them.

"What the hell WAS THAT FOR!" Shadow roared. His red eyes were blazing with an incredible fury, but I stood my ground, crossing my arms and shooting a series of daggers, swords would be more accurate, at him.

"That was to shut the two of you up or have you forgotten that everyone can hear us!" I jabbed a finger upwards towards the pier. Shadow and Sheira followed my directions and then looked sheepishly at the floor.

"He pissed me off," Sheira muttered.

"Join the club," I snapped. "And as for you, stop picking fights with the two of us, ideally all three of us need to get up to Edinburgh and at this rate there won't be anyone left."

"I don't see how this is my fault," Shadow protested.

"Just shut up!" Surprisingly it worked. I covered my face with my hands and growled in frustration. "I'm not going to play nanny with two squabbling children, you hear me!?"

The two of them muttered their agreement. Peace was restored...for now anyway. "Look, we have just proved that my power works. Uh, uh, uh you don't say a word mister, it works and don't deny it. We might not know why I can do this but can we all agree that its useful, it saved our lives once and it'll help us out again, yes?"

Nod.

"Good. We need to get our act together now, we need to get up to Scotland as fast as we can and in order to do that we need to find out where the castle is, right."

"Yeah, only five thousand to check," Shadow said with sarcasm dripping from his words.

"A little optimism wouldn't hurt," Sheira muttered.

"What have I just said!" I yelled. The two of them went back into scolded child mode. "You two are going to be the death of me. Whatever, we need to get researching. Find anything like a library on your travels?"

Sheira nodded. "Yeah, looks big enough to have what we need. There's internet access as well if we need it."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Times a wasting, lead the way."

Sheira and Shadow looked at each other and scowled at the other. I sighed in frustration and annoyance. It seemed that those two weren't about to make up any time soon. I watched them walk off for a little while before looking down to Flame who was padding along the sand underneath the shelter of the pier behind me. "How the heck am I going to make it with those two?"

"Faith, trust and pixie dust?"

I chuckled lightly, "I could use some of that. Shadow's going to make this trip more difficult than it needs to be."

"We need him, without him the odds are against us. Massively."

"I know, but he changes so quickly. How did he go back to this after what he said in the room?"

"He's one of life's great mysteries. We'll likely never know."

"I know. Now come on, back in the amulet before someone sees us." Flame nodded and vanished with a puff of smoke. I spared one last look over the peaceful beach, and meandering tourists before reluctantly walking over to the bickering twosome. The headache was already throbbing and the next couple of days were probably not going to help. "I need an aspirin," I muttered to no one before walking into what was without a doubt going to be a very long day.

***

And I'm back! Another long haitus that I blame on a surprise exam. Not fun. Anyway the question of the day is what do you think if Nick's power. Is it a force for good or is something else at play here? Comment with what you think and leave a vote if you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks again.