THE CIRCLE

Chapter 5

Amy's POV

"Open your eyes" I heard Adrianne voice. I opened me eyes slowly, my jaw dropped at the beautiful sight my eyes were beholding, Adrianne was right, this was a real castle, it was grand and exquisite, purely beautiful, the gates were golden, I stood in awe staring at the magnificent castle.

I looked at Ace, he was also taking in the beautiful sight.

"This is truly beautiful" I said to them. Ace nodded in agreement but Adrianne didn't seem to care, he was probably used to it but I don't think I can ever get over this lovely building.

"Let's go, you have all time to explore the castle" Adrianne said as he led us inside the castle.

I couldn't help but gape at the attractive masterpiece artworks hung on the walls, he led us through another room.

There were pictures frames of different women and men hung on the wall in an order.

"Who are they" I couldn't help but ask.

"They are the past rulers of the castle, the past council" he replied. I noticed their reigns were over 1000 years, I was puzzled, are they immortal or what.

"The years, are they real" I asked.

"Yes they are, time is different in this realm, years are fast here, it's like an hour of the human world which is why it took 10 seconds to get here instead of hours"

"Ohh, that's awesome" Ace said and I looked at him.

Adrianne led us to the second floor, my legs ached badly, I wondered how far we still had to go.

"Do you guys do this every day" I asked. He stopped looking at me puzzled.

"Do what"

"Walk down the stairs, my legs bloody ache" I said. I stopped and crouched low.

They stopped and looked at me, I could not help it, Ace was a freaking detective and Adrianne had the build of a cow, and I'm just Emily.

"No we don't, we prefer to jump down the window"

I looked at him stunned and he laughed.

"You will learn too, it's part of our training"

I stared at him with disbelief.

"There's no freaking way I'm jumping down a 128 feet high building"

"Well that's what we all say at first" he scoffed and continued walking.

Ace helped me up, I rested on his shoulders as we walked then he suddenly stopped.

I looked at him confusedly, then my eyes darted to the wall he was staring at

I froze at the sight.

It was a portrait of my mom, I gasped.

she looked so elegant.

Next to her portrait was my dads', he was smiling, he looked handsome in his suit

Walking down, they were pictures of other people I didn't know, I stared at the picture of the couples after my parents portraits, they seemed strangely familiar but I couldn't place where I had seen them.

I saw Adrianne stop at the next picture, it was a man, he was dressed in a regal attire.

"That's my dad"

I looked at him, his expression was sad.

"Did he also die in the plane crash" I asked.

He nodded.

"Yes and her" he said pointing at the picture next to his father with a sad smile

"My mother" . She was so beautiful, her red flowing dress was extravagant. Looking at her, Adrianne bared a resemblance to her.

"All the remaining pictures are parents of the rest of us seven" he said.

I took my time looking at the portraits before we finally climbed the stairs to the third floor.

"This is our final destination, it's time to meet them" Adrianne said.

My heart started beating erratically. I was nervous for some reason, Ace came and held my hands, he knew me too well, I ignored the tingles that ran down my spine as his fingers grazed mine.

Then Adrianne led us to a room, a large room, they were whisperings everywhere, it finally stopped as I closed the door.

A blonde haired girl came running towards us, she squealed.

"I've been waiting forever to meet you" she said and gave me a quick hug, I hugged her back awkwardly, a voice interrupted us from behind.

"Don't mind Mia, she's just to huggy" a chestnut haired girl said, she was really beautiful.

Mia finally let me go and the chestnut haired girl stretched forth her hands to me

"I'm Stacy, it's nice finally meeting you Amy" she said. Wow no need to introduce myself then.

Her eyes darted to Ace, I quickly introduced him.

"This is Ace" .

"Is he your boyfriend?" Amy asked as she stared down at our linked hands

Ace removed his hands from mine awkwardly and I felt sort of heartbroken.

"No, he was my brother's bestfriend, he didn't want to leave my side, so he tagged along"

"I'm sorry about your brother, he was a good person" Stacy said with sad eyes

I felt uncomfortable, I hadn't gotten used to receiving sympathy from people even after losing my parents and now my brother.

Mia grabbed my arm and looked at me with the most beautiful set of emerald eyes

"It's going to be fine, we are all here for you, Tyler was awesome" she said, her eyes were devoid of pity and I loved her instantly.

They led us into the inner room where two other boys and a girl with green hair were sitting, Mia introduced all of them.

"This is Jacob, good with arrows never misses" she said as she pointed to a buff guy with brown hair

He waved at me and I offered him a smile.

"I'm Miranda, mother nature" the green haired said quickly and Mia laughed, she offered me a smile which I returned.

"And that's Kyle" Mia chipped in pointing to the guy sitting at the very narrow end. I noticed she didn't mention his powers.

I offered him a smile but he paid no attention to me, I looked at Mia, she shrugged.

There was silence throughout the room, I took in my surroundings, the room we were in had tools stacked up, rifles, arrows, other metals I have never seen before.

"What do we do now, you said the elders would summon us" Miranda said looking at Adrianne, he shrugged, then she lowered her gaze to Kyle.

"We wait" he said with a rich deep voice, I couldn't stop staring at his lips, they were full and pink.

I was interrupted from my thoughts by a loud noise.

We all turned to each other as we heard the sound again, it was like the background noise of a voice recorder, the whole building started vibrating, things started crashing on the floor, I searched everyone faces looking for answers, they shook their heads looking puzzled.

"What's wrong" I said into the thin air.

"Are we being summoned" Mia asked and I stared at Adrianne. He shook his head.

"I don't know" he shrugged.

The vibrations increased, I screamed as I lost my balance, I went flying across the room

I waited for the final blow until I felt cold hands grab my arm,

I looked up to the most dazzling set of dark blue eyes.

The vibrations suddenly stopped and I felt my butt hit the ground, I winced in pain.

"Kyle, did you have to do that" Stacy stated and I looked up at the culprit grinning.

"At least, it's a lot better than the body ache she would have gotten if she was thrown across the wall" he replied with a smirk and I glared at him.

Ace came to help me stand also glaring daggers at Kyle.

"Are you okay" he asked

I nodded "Yes, I guess so, do you guys experience this often?" I asked them.

"The vibrations" I added panting hard from anxiety.

"No we don't, but I think it's because of us" Adrianne replied.

"Us? How" Mia asked.

"We are finally all together, our bond became stronger so will our powers" Kyle replied as he walked to the window, others nodded in understanding.

I squealed as the buff looking guy jumped out of the window, Ace ran towards the window obviously astonished too, I looked at Kyle knowing he was about to do the same, he was staring at me with an unreadable expression before he finally turned to the window.

"Kyle" Adrianne called out just as Kyle gripped the window sill. Kyle turned back to look at him.

"Um, you might have to share a room with Ace" he stated.

"What!" Ace and I looked at him stunned.

"You said the castle has plenty of rooms" I said glaring at Adrianne.

"Yh I did, but we only have access to one floor Amy, I figured he could share a room with Kyle"

I looked at Ace, I knew he hated this as much as I did.

"Why Kyle" I said looking at the cruel creature, on a norm, I don't judge people based on the first encounter but after what just happened, I hated his guts.

"Because he's the only one without a roommate yet" Adrianne stated. And I sighed in frustration.

"Guess your babysitter is stuck with me" Kyle said as jumped out of the window with a mischievous grin plastered on his face.

"It's okay Amy, I'm not here for luxury, I'm here for you" Ace said and I nodded. I looked at Adrianne and realised everyone was staring at us, I cleared my throat.

"So where I'm I staying". I asked Adrianne and he shifted his gaze Mia.

"With me, I've been waiting for this day since forever" she said and I smiled, happy that I wasn't sharing room with a psychopath.

"Let's go" she said excitedly bouncing her short blonde hair.

I followed her to the outer room, she grabbed my box leaving me to carry only my duffel bag, I gave Ace a slight wink as I followed her out of the room.

Our room was three rooms away from the general room we just came from, if the castle was this big, why were we sharing rooms, not like I had a problem with it, I just wondered why as the realisation hit me that they were not so many workers too.

"Here we are" Mia said chirpingly obviously more excited than I am. I scrutinised the room, it was not as large as the room we just came from but it was more beautifully decorated, the walls were white but the orange highlights made it more beautiful and lively.

They were two single beds placed parallel to each other, each side looked like a separate room but they were no barriers, Mia's side of the room was easy to locate, it looked more lively like her personality and more colorful, her bedspread was purple with lilac flowers imprinted on it, but the other side was plain just like me, just the way I liked it, it was so bluey, I loved it because that was my favourite color, the bedsheet was striped with different shades of blue, it was lovely because it wasn't too feminine, just normal.

"Do you love it" Mia said and I looked at her, her brown eyes were pleading for me to say yes, I looked away from her, I could feel her eyes following my movements.

I sat on my bed running my hands over the bedspread, then I looked at her and burst out into laughter at her sad expression.

"It's lovely, I love it" I said and she squealed in excitement. I could tell that she put in lots of effort and it was truly great.

"I knew you would love it" she said and I smiled.

"I really love the colors, blue is my favourite color" I said.

"Yes I know, Tyler told me a lot about you" she said and I looked at her with suprise.

"You knew my brother"

"Yh we were quite close" she said quietly and I nodded. It felt like Tyler lived a double life, I also felt sad that I didn't know a lot about him until he died.

"Why didn't I see you at the church for his burial service" I asked her and she stated at me with large brown eyes.

"The elders sealed the castle, we were under attack, two guardians also died a day after Tyler died, so we decided to mourn them all here" she said as she sat on her bed.

I nodded.

"So how close were my brother and you" I asked smiling, I was actually surprised Tyler has a close girl friend.

"As close as you are with Ace" she said giving a wink.

"Ace and I aren't that close, he's just protecting me because he feels bad about not protecting Tyler, he was Tyler's bestfriend"

"I know that, Ty didn't speak of him that much but I see how you guys are around each other, like lovers"

I gulped out at her words.

"We are definitely not that, that's absurd"

"Sure Amy, that's what I see anyway"

"So what are we going to do tomorrow" I asked trying to change the topic.

"We continue training, and our trainer is super hot" she said as she plopped on her bed.