"Are you almost done it do I have to wait another hour?" I ask Nate, not bothering to hide my irritation. It's like he's trying to rile me up because he's annoying the shit out of me. It's a good thing that he can't read my mind because what's going through it right now isn't pleasant.

He snorts and rolls his eyes playfully at me. "You are no fun, Cami." I glare, which makes him raises his hands up in surrender. "Okay. Okay, okay, play time's over, let's get to work."

Finally.

I sigh in relief and raise my leg over the bench before sitting opposite Nate. "What to do now?" I ask, eyeing the map.

He drops his elbows on his thigh and rests his chin on his fist. "That depends, who are you trying to locate?"

"My parents." I answer.

"Easy," he removes his chin from his fist and dips his hand through the pocket of his short, for someone that told me he had class. He brings out a pocket knife. "You aren't afraid of blood, are you?" He asks as he drags the controller up, revealing the blade.

"How long have you been carrying that with you?"

He shrugs. "Give me your palm, all I need is a little blood." He says.

I mean it's easy, I get it, since they are my parents and we share the same blood. It's better that no one except the headmaster knows that I'm adopted. That'll save me load of questions.

I stretch my palm out and Nate drops the knife in it, not cutting me himself. "If you're going to bleed then do it yourself," he answers like he can hear what I'm thinking about. "Why do a location spell? Why not just call them?" He doesn't sound curious.

Ignoring his question, I take the knife, not thinking twice as I proceed to cut my palm with it. The blood rushes out as the knife tears my skin. I put the knife down and look at Nate for the next thing to do.

"Just squeeze like two to three drops on the map, and make sure not to turn it into a bloody sheet," he warns and picks up his knife.

I do as he says, squeezing my hand above the map and watch my blood drip on it. I pull away and see Nate whisper something, his knife becomes clean after that. He returns it inside his pocket and stares at the map.

"Oh, great. Now, let's begin." He wipes his palms on his short and cast the location finder spell. "Lass dess locoso."

The blood begins to to spread around the map. I smile and wait anxiously. This is the moment I've been waiting for. The moment I find my biological parents, I–

The trails of the blood begins to circulate the map but that's not the only thing weird, it's spreading everywhere.

"Is it supposed to be doing this?" I ask and look at Nate, who seems like he doesn't have any idea of what's going on.

My red blood begins to turn black. I stand up and ask, "what's going on? Nate, what is happening?"

He shake his head. "I don't know, I–"

He doesn't get to finish his sentence as the a surge of power releases from the map, the energy pushes both of us away. I groan as my back slams against the wall but that's not the only part of me that's broken. My eyes finds the bench or what's left of it. The surge must have ruined the map.

I hear Nate curse from the other side of the room. "Bloody hell." He then groans and sits upright. He look forward and his eyes widens when he sees the state I'm in. "Oh my God! Cami, are you okay?"

I try to roll my eyes but with the amount of pain I'm in right now, I don't think that'll be possible. My eyes fall down and the iron rod is sticking from my stomach.

Nate rushes in front of me and brings his hands to my face, pushing the hair off my face, tucking them behind my ear. "Cami, are you–?"

"If you ask if I'm okay one more time, I will fucking kill you myself! I'm fucking staked to a fucking wall and you're asking if I'm–” I groan again and place my hand on the wound but before I can touch it, Nate holds my hand, stopping me.

"Look, we have two options here, Camille. One, I try to heal you or I get the headmaster. Your pick?"

I mean he could call the headmaster but then we'll have to explain why the map exploded and I don't think Nate has any idea why it did. He going to give me detention for pulling Nate out of class, either way we're screwed.

"The healing spell," I mutter and dig my head against the wood. How the fuck did a rod get stabbed into a wall anyway?

He nods and looks at me. "I'm going to pull you, and it's going to hurt," he warns me.

"No shit, you don't think I'm hurting already."

"It's going to hurt more. Are you sure you want me to? I can still go and get the headmaster." I don't have time to look at his or analyse his doubt.

"Get me out of here and heal me or I swear I will fucking stab you with it!" I groan. Fuck this hurts like a fucking bitch.

I keep my eyes closed as I feel his hands on my waist. He begins to pull me forward and the more I move the more painful it get, and I sure let him know how it feels. "Argh! Fuck, Nate, it's–argh!"

"Sorry, you're almost there," he says.

"It hurt. Fuck!" I groan.

When I'm almost at the edge of the rod, he pulls with force which causes me to fall forward, making him fall on his ass with me on him. He groans and wraps his arms around my body before gently setting me aside. I roll and lay on back as Nate sorts himself and hover over me. I bring my hand to wound and cover it.

"What are you doing?" Nate asks but I'm too out of it to reply him, that and because I have no idea what he's talking about. All I'm doing is touching my wound and waiting for him to start healing me, but the strangest thing happen moments late. I begin to feel something inside me that I've never felt before. It's like the lines inside me are being straight like I'm being repaired.

I gasp and open my eyes to see a glowing dark light coming from under my hand, I remove my hand and see it's my wound glowing. The pain I felt minutes ago becomes bearable as I begin to feel better until the wound is completely healed, not leaving any trace of the accident.

Sitting upright, I trace my lower stomach and notice nothing but the smooth skin.

I look up to see Nate with his lips parted in surprise or maybe it's shock. I think I have an idea of what's going on in his mind.

"What? How did you–" I don't bother letting him finish.

"I don't know."

What I mean to say is 'what in the freaking hell is going on?' my wound just healed itself and I didn't do anything. I didn't cast any spell. I was just laying down, groaning away my pains but then...I can't even explain how it happened.

"You didn't cast any spell."

Yeah, took the words right out of my mind buddy.

"I fucking know."

"Then how did you do it?"

"I don't know."

He sighs and sits on the ground in front of me. "Damn sweetheart, you're just showing different sides of you. Wow..." He trails off and looks around the place. "I'm sorry the spell didn't work, I don't know what went wrong." He runs his hands through his hair and continue. "It's never done that before and this isn't my first time doing a location spell. It's a fucking location spell, I can do it in my sleep. Something must have tampered with the spell or someone."

I place my hand on his knee, which makes him look at me. "It's okay, Nate. I'll find another way."

Fuck! I'm back to square one. But it's possible what Nate is saying about someone tampering with the spell. I don't know for sure, in fact I don't know anything and I'm running out of patient. So many questions. So many dead ends. Fuck.

"Are your parents okay?" He asks.

I sigh and shrug. "I don't know. That's why I'm looking for them. I don't know anything."

He nods and looks like he's thinking of something. I wait patiently for him to tell me his thoughts but I should have known better.

"Listen, hmm..." he clears his throat and leans closer like we aren't the only on here, "can you keep this between us? I don't want anyone hearing about this."

"Us doing magic?"

He leans back and says, "Me failing."

I roll my eyes. As if I'm going to tell anyone. "You didn't fail, Nate. And thank you for doing this even if it ended with some bloody situation."

He gives me a genuine smile and asks, "what are you going to do now?"

Well I can't give up, not after everything I know. There's definitely something going on and I can feel like I'm getting close even if it appears like I'm not getting anywhere.

"Be a fucking student for one and continue my research."

****

The next couples of days are almost the same. Still not going to class because I intend to use my sick days off to the fullest even though I'm not sick anymore, not from the coma Arihmatheo put me in or the stab. I've been spending so much time at the lake, apart from the fact that I'm avoiding pretty much everything else and a particular conversation I don't want to have, I need some peace and quiet.

Everything is just so crazy, and a part of me wished I had behave better, so I wouldn't have been sent here, while other parts just screams at me for missing so much. I mean, I could have asked my parents about my biological parents when I had the chance but I didn't. I could have done something about my nightmares. I know there's nothing much I can about the nightmares but I could have connected the dots sooner. Now I'm left with nothing, just more questions.

Why did Arihmatheo show me my parents? How did he know them? What he showed me ended with Sabine telling her parents that she's pregnant. Is that baby really me? I know the headmaster said not to trust Arihmatheo but I don't know.

"You fight like you don't know what you are doing but your skills and technique are unique." An unfamiliar voice snaps me out of my thoughts.

I flinch, dropping the wooden sword in the process. I wasn't expecting anyone else here. The headmaster stopped doing yoga with me since I woke up and it's only us that are usually here, which is why I picked this place as a good hiding spot, no one ever comes to the lake.

I turn around and come face-to-face with a pair of blue eyes. He doesn't look familiar because I'd definitely remember him if I've ever seen him.

Hundreds of questions runs through my mind: who is he? Does he go here? Is this his first time at the lake?

My eyes drops from his to his body. I'm openly gawking at him and I don't feel any shame, I mean how could I not. The guy makes pink look good on men, even better on him. The pink hoodie appears loose on him, which says nothing about his body type and I'm really curious about his muscles. The baggy black sweatpants hangs low on his hips, leaving me with plenty of imaginations. His diamond shaped face just makes his sharp jaws stands out.

He is by far the most handsome guy I've ever seen, and I'm not saying this as a joke or whatever. I've never had a boyfriend because I'm picky when it comes to choosing. I guess the one that draws me to him is the dark and dangerous aura I'm getting from him.

I mean, what am I thinking? I haven't even spoken to the guy.

He moves closer and asks. "Where did you learn it?" Not bothering to apologise for sneaking up on me like a creep.

I shrug. "I didn't. I was playing around with the sword." I answer. I wasn't really doing anything with it. I was just swinging it around. I found the wooden sword at the barn after everything that went down and I picked it up with the thought of training myself with it, but it's pointless. I can't sword fight.

"Not just the sword, but also the way your body was moving and steppings. It's like you were doing it absentmindedly." He tells me, which makes me wonder how long he's been watching me. And I didn't even notice.

"I was actually." I respond, intertwining my fingers behind me to keep my mind off how beautiful he sounds. Like the way the words are rolling off his tongue, it's like poetic.

"The technique is the INARAL WARMAD," he tells me.

I blink my eyes. That definitely doesn't rhyme. I have never heard someone sound hot while saying a foreign word.

"The who to the what?"

He frowns. "You really don't know?"
I just met this guy but I know it's going to be really hard to get any reaction out of him. My words might not show what I'm thinking but my face does. I'm pretty sure my cheeks are red right now.

"I wouldn’t be asking if I did."

"The INARAL WARMAD technique is an ancient skill used only by The DiHipians," he explains.

I nod but not in an understanding or agreeing way. I am totally lost here. "The DiHipians?" I ask with the raise of an eyebrow.

"Spend more time in the library." He advise.

I haven't gone back to library since Arihmatheo's monster almost killed me. I know it has nothing to do with the library but still...

"If it's ancient and only used by some particular group of people. How come you know about it?" I ask curiously.

He dips his hands in his pocket and straightens his back. "Keep practicing and you might get it right," he says in a cold tone that reminds me of Arihmatheo. He turns his back, ready to leave but I call him back

"What's your name?" I ask, staring at his back.

He tilts his head to the side, giving me half of his face. "Damien."

I nod. "Damien, nice name." I smile nervously. "I'm-" He interrupts me rudely.

"Camille Raven Stark. I know." With that, he walks away.

I stare down at the wooden sword and shake my head. "Nice to meet you, Damien. I hope to see you around." I whisper to him as he fades to distance

I bend down to pick the sword.