Destiny Rising

Chapter 11

I came back up, sputtering the lake water that I had accidentally swallowed when I went down. I turned towards the beach and saw Michael pulling off his sweater just as I went under again. I tried to kick to the surface but couldn’t, it felt as though something was caught around my ankle and pulling me down. I kept fighting to the surface with all the strength I had, but even with all my kicking and pulling, I still couldn’t seem to pull up to the surface. Instead, I just kept going further into the water. Reaching down, I tried to pull whatever was pulling me down off, but my hands met nothing but the smooth skin of my ankle. I’m not sure how long I had been underwater, but I knew I was running out of time since my lungs were starting to burn from lack of oxygen. I was starting to get cold, and my limbs were getting heavy. I had a feeling I was going to die tonight. There was such a slim chance that Michael would be able to find me out there. I wanted so badly to kick and fight my way to the surface, to see if there could be something between Michael and me beyond friendship. But I was just so tired, too tired to move, and I let the darkness descend upon me.

“Sapphire!” someone was yelling “Sapphire, come on baby. Wake up!”

Whoever was yelling sounded worried, and I was vaguely aware of them yelling my name and my name and I was lying on my side. I slowly blinked open my eyes and squinted at the figure leaning over me. All I could see from my position was a bare chest and abs above the waistband of…pants? Shorts? I didn’t know. Lifting my head slightly, I discovered that was a bad idea. It was throbbing, probably from when I blacked out and lack of oxygen from being underwater for so long. How long was it though? I tried to open my mouth to speak but was met with a dry and scratchy mouth like someone had shoved cotton balls into my mouth.

“Here, have some water.” The voice, which I now recognized as Michael’s, pressed a bottle of water against my lower lips and felt the cool water flow into my mouth and trickle down my throat.

“Thank you.” I croaked out after a gloriously cool and refreshing sip and shivered at the breeze over my wet skin.

“Anytime. Jesus Sapphire, your freezing.” He said as he held me and rubbed my arms in an attempt to warm me up.

“Guess that’s what happens when you take a dip in cool water,” I replied as my teeth chattered.

“Here, take my sweater. You need it more than I do.” He said, wrapping his sweater around my shoulders. It was deliciously warm and the smell of him enveloped me as I pulled in tight around me.

“Thanks, but now you’ll get cold,” I said as I observed his bare chest and blushed.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. Plus, the cold never bothered me and I have a t-shirt over there.” He replied and pointed to where a t-shirt, shoes, and wallet lay discarded.

“Oh”

“Yeah, so do you want to tell me what happened?” He asked.

“Um, I decided to go for a swim and slipped?”

“Try again, this time without the question mark.” He glared at me.

“Okay, okay.” I sighed “I don’t know what happened. I was just sitting over on that boulder over there where my sandals, phone, and keys were. I was sitting there waiting for you and watching the water. Suddenly, it was like I was being drawn into the water against my will. I wasn’t even really sure what was happening. It was like I was in a trance.” I shivered again and wrapped my arms and sweater tighter around myself.

“A trance…” He muttered, “More powerful than I thought.”

“More powerful? What are you talking about?”

“What were you thinking about when you were looking at the water?”

“I was watching the happy families playing, thinking about what had happened at my house and the need to disappear into the lake. Why?”

“It was your power that drew you out to the lake.”

“My powers tried to drown me?”

“No, once you touched the water, your powers called out to the sprites of the water.”

“Huh?”

“You said you were feeling the need to disappear into the lake. Right?”

“Yeah…”

“So, your powers just put you in a trance to pull you into the water, you command the waters. Then, as soon as you touch an open body of water, your formerly dormant powers had called the sprites. The sprites came and were only acting upon your need to be in the water.”

“If I command the water, why didn’t those things try to drown me until after I came out of the trance?”

“My guess is that your powers drew you willingly into the water. But once you broke the trance and tried to leave, they sensed your vulnerability and lack of control over your powers. Basically, they took advantage of you and tried to keep you in the water to get you to protect them.”

“Protect them from what?”

“The coming darkness. A war between Light and Dark over the power of The Elementals.”

“Okay…I’m even more confused than I was an hour ago. What is going on? If I’m part of this war, I have the right to know.”

“Your right, what do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

“Alright, 194 years ago in a completely different realm, a 16-year-old girl was gifted by the Elders the power over the 4 elements. Earth, wind, fire, and water. The girl was tasked to protect and control them, or else chaos would ensue. She did her duty for 176 years of peace and prosperity. Unfortunately, the peace did not last. 18 years ago, the moons had aligned for the first time in 450 years. The veil that divided the realms thinned just enough for a monster that walks and talks like a man to break out of his Hell into the girl’s realm. He launched attack after attack on the girl's castle. He wanted the powers for himself, and he wanted them for evil. Since the powers themselves are neutral and can be used for good or bad.”

“Go on, Michael. What happened to the girl?”

“She must have known that they could not defeat the man. So, she fled to the tower and opened a portal, then cast the powers from herself, divided them, and sent them through the portal to another dimension altogether. The portal had just closed when he stormed her tower. She refused to tell him where she sent them, and he killed her. His power spread throughout the realm and it fell into total darkness.”

“Then the powers came to Earth. But I wasn’t even alive 18 years ago. I’m not even 17 yet. So how did I get one? Also, if I have Water and Bianca has Wind, who has Fire and Earth?”

“The best we can figure out is that the powers waited for just the right daughter to be born. But it’s hard to tell who the guardians are. Bianca was found first before she was even born, and we arranged her adoption. Also, you were easily found when you were a baby and your powers were tapped into. You made quite a mess and we had a lot of damage control to do there.”

“Wait, I tapped into them when I was a baby? How? When? What did I do? Why don’t I or anyone else remember?”

“We aren’t sure how it happened. It shouldn’t have happened that young. You were about 3 years old at the time, and you were in a public indoor pool with your mother and sisters when the fire sprinklers went off all over the building. All the water fried the electronics and the building's power went out and nothing would open due to the automatic doors locking when the power went out. The pool started overflowing when the pumps went down and it was just mass chaos. People rushed to get out, which only made the already full pool become wavy and people got hurt. Some even died. We stepped in and fixed them, then did some work so that everyone thought it was just technical difficulties that caused it.

“How do you know it was actually me and not just technical difficulties then?”

“We have been keeping a close eye on you since you were born, for obvious reasons, and right before it happened, you started crying and screaming since your mother said it was time to go. Geez, you really had a set of lungs on you back then. I’m pretty sure people could hear you in Africa.”

“You were there! How old are you?”

“Yes, I was there. I had been tasked with watching over you since birth. Also, to answer your question, I’m 97 years old.”

“Okay, this is totally messed up. Who are you really?”

“I’m Michael, Guardian of the Water Threshold. I stand guard over the water guardian, which would be you, and all the water thresholds.”

“What the heck is a threshold anyway?”

“It’s sorta like a doorway into other dimensions. They are all over the world and we protect them from being discovered or used for the wrong reasons.”

“Oh,” I replied as I leaned against his shoulder. He was still shirtless, and I noticed he had two tattoos, a Chinese symbol over his heart and a tribal band around his right biceps. He also was incredibly athletic, so it paid off with his defined muscles and 6-pack abs. He looked every inch like a 16-year-old male, so I still couldn’t process the fact he was actually 97 years old. He looked down at me, and I couldn’t help but feel my face flush. Wanting to put some space between us, I scrambled to my feet and walked over to the boulder where my sandals, phone, and keys still sat. I quickly checked my phone and there were 10 more texts, 4 missed calls, and 1 voicemail. Sighing, I listened to a voicemail from my sister Jayde, calling me a narcissist for running out thinking only of myself and ignoring everyone else. I slid down until I was sitting on the sand with my back against the boulder.

“You okay?” Michael asked with concern as I felt him sit beside me.

“I will be. It’s just a lot that has happened in the past couple hours and it’s going to take some time to let it all sink in.” I replied as I stared out at the last of the sun’s rays shining over the water.

“Everything will be fine, Sapphire. I’m here for you.” He said as he put an arm around my shoulder. I pulled the hood of his sweater up over my wet hair, I let out a sigh and leaned my head against his now t-shirt-covered shoulder.

“Thanks,” I answered quietly.

“Don’t worry, we will figure this out and who the other two Guardians are.” He said as we watched the sun finally disappear and the moon took its place high in the sky.

I woke with a start as the sun shone brightly on me. I was curled up on the sand by the boulder where I sat with Michael last night. Looking around, I realized that he was gone, but I was still wearing his sweater. Then it dawned on me what had awoken me, it was my phone ringing. Hadn’t I put it on vibrate? Apparently, now, it stopped ringing and a few moments later beeped an incoming voicemail. This time it was my dad informing me that everyone was going to brunch in London, and if I wanted to come with him, to call and they would wait for me.

“Fat chance of that,” I muttered and deleted it. Standing up, I stretched and looked around, thankfully it was a bit early for the crowds to arrive, but there were a few fishing boats and a single paddle boarder out on the water. I gathered up my things and strolled slowly along the beach, back to where I had parked my car. While walking, I kept a foot or so of space between the water and my feet, just to be on the safe side. By the time I got back to the house, it was 10:30 am. It was mercifully empty, and I trudged myself upstairs to my room. Walking in, I stopped short and glared at my bed. It was messed up like someone had slept in it. Quickly glancing around, I saw the rollaway bed was perfectly made up and Jasmine’s cheerleading duffle bag was on the day bed. That meant one thing: Darci Flame had slept in my bed! I angrily tore the bedding off and stuffed it in a wicker basket, then hauled it down to the laundry room and tossed it in the washer. While the load was running, I headed back upstairs to take a quick shower. After the shower, I towel-dried quickly and pulled my hair back into a little ponytail, then pulled on a deep blue bikini with jean shorts and a white tank top. Bounding back downstairs to the laundry room, I yanked the bedding out of the washer and stuffed it into the dryer. While the dryer tumbled away, I grabbed a bottle of Pure Leaf Lemon Ice Tea from the fridge and my iPod from my purse that was still lying forgotten on a chair in the entry hallway. Plugging my headphones in, I switched it on to Adam Lambert’s “Better Then I Know Myself” blaring in my ears on repeat. Taking my iced tea, I wandered out onto the deck and headed for the bench in the back corner. I sat down so my back was arrested and my legs were stretched out in front of me and just soaked up the sun.