Daeva: Black Diamond Chrysalis - Danielle Bolger (essential reading txt) 📗

could get you to talk to me was to tease you. I get that it's not cool, but I guess I just wanted to have you acknowledge me again. Then yesterday was different, you actually opened up. You were a total bitch about it, but you shared your pain with me and as angry as I was and am still, I wanted to do the same." Here he rose his eyebrows and shook his head as if not even believing his own words. "I dunno, maybe all this is just another contest between us, who has the most screwed up home-life."

I realised then that my hand was still rubbing his soothingly but I did not break the contact. I bit my lower lip. "We're such idiots to compare, our situations are completely different but also exactly the same."

Kieran glanced down at our hands. "So, Beth, now that you know what is going on what do you think I should do? Can I jump back into normal life like you, try hard at school so I can get into some stupid degree at uni and talk about nothing with my friends at lunchtime? Can I do all that and pretend that none of this bothers me?"

"No," I murmured, "I don't think you can."

"So then, Beth, what do I do?"

Squeezing his hand I responded. "I don't know."

Chapter 18

 

Abigail

 

During the day as I passed between classes Pearl had suddenly appeared next to me and whispered in my ear to meet her at the soccer oval after school. I was shocked to find that not only was the flower design still next to her eye but that it was also unconcealed, her golden hair doing nothing to cover the raised dark pattern. She had walked away too quickly for me to enquire about it but as she turned to talk to another school-mate I became aware that no one seemed to detect anything off about her - they can't see the crystals.

Then later, after Bethanie dismissed me by the school gate that afternoon I headed straight for the school oval where I found all four of the daeva-luxes in deep conversation. Pearl and Lara still touched by their dark markings.

I heard Vanessa's voice first. "That proves it! She's going just the same way as Ariel, Lara we have to stop her before it's too late!"

"Hold on, Vanessa!" Pearl shouted. "Even if that is the case there's no way to stop the process except for killing her!"

"And what's so wrong with that when we know what they're capable of as phantoms?"

"What's wrong with that?" Pearl asked incredulously. "Killing is wrong under any circumstance! Besides, there's no reason to believe she'll become one of them, most of us don't become nox, after all!"

"I don't like to agree with Vanessa, but in this case I think I have to." Rebecca stated with her usual detached voice. "The girl is definitely a daeva but not our sort of daeva. There's something more to her, an unyielding determination in her eyes that tells me she'll reach her goal regardless of the cost."

"You too, Rebecca?" Pearl cried. "Please, girls, think about what you are suggesting!"

"They have thought about it." Lara weighed. "And their suspicions are well-grounded, but like you say, Pearl, we cannot act so prematurely. The girl is still free to make a choice, just the same as the rest of us is and when the time comes we have to put faith that she will make the right one."

Vanessa scoffed. "Or else we regret we didn't act when we had the chance..."

As I neared closer across the field Lara's eyes met mine and the group fell silent.

Pearl, turning, smiled at me. "Abigail, welcome. Thanks for coming."

"And why is Polly Pocket here!?" Vanessa shouted. "Pearl, don't tell me you invited her just so she could eavesdrop on our conversation? We don't even know which side those girls are on, for all we know they could go and report to Shirley Temple!"

"They're not on their side, they're on ours. They just need a little explaining!" Pearl refuted.

"That's what you reckon but you don't know Ariel like I do, I'm telling you she'll have them both brain washed. That's why there's just the one here, am I right?" Vanessa directed this at me. "Send in the lamb where behind the bushes the lion sits ready to make her pounce!"

"Vanessa - shut up!" Lara reprimanded. "Abigail is welcome to join us, she hasn't found her erosreaver yet but she is still a daeva and by her kindness I can see that she can only be of the lux quality."

All eyes were on me then as they appraised me. I turned to Pearl and asked hesitantly, "Why is everyone so upset? What were you just talking about?"

Pearl tilted her head down to me. "Don't worry, sweet-heart. It is nothing against you, I promise. We're just worried about the nox girls' actions."

"They've almost completed the gateway." Vanessa cut across to explain with a dark smirk. "They just need one more girl, one more daeva to provide them with the opening to the final dimension and then boom!" Vanessa exclaimed as her arms stretched out wide. "The whole world ends!"

"Shut up, jack-arse." Rebecca groaned. "You're scaring her."

"That's rich," Vanessa snarled, "coming from you!"

"So it's true, those girls really want to destroy the world?" I cowered towards Pearl where she rubbed my shoulder warmly.

"That's what they want but they won't succeed." Pearl soothed, "Not with us standing in their way."

"I don't understand." I whimpered. "Why do the other girls want to destroy the world? How could anybody want such a thing?"

"They don't see it as destroying the world." Lara explained. "They see it as a kind of remodelling. They want to change the shape of the world to fit in with their new laws and through them their desires may manifest into reality."

"But like I said," Vanessa cut in as if she simply could not help herself. "For that to happen the world must end."

Lara sighed at the interruption. "If the noxes have their way then yes, the world as we know it will end. Slowly at first, then it will speed up until the recreation occurs."

"How!?" I demanded. "How can they achieve this, aren't they just high school girls like us?"

Vanessa smirked and Rebecca rolled her eyes.

"Daeva-noxes aren't the same as daeva-luxes." Pearl next to me explained. "Those girls, they're not human anymore which means they have no compassion and no love. They are as empty as ghosts."

"But Dorothy's song!" I stated. "She's in pain because she knows love! She is human and to know love makes you a person! She's not a ghost, she's real and she's in real pain!"

"A ghost can remember love and can remember pain." Pearl said sadly. "But that does not mean that they feel either of those emotions. In fact they feel none of those but for the emptiness left by their absence upon their disappearance."

"No!" I refuted. "That's not true! How can you say that when you're her friend!?" I glanced between Pearl and Lara. "You were in a band together, I know it! I remember, Lara, you played the guitar and, Pearl, you played guitar too but also you used to sing back-up. And then Dorothy, she was lead vocals, yes - she was! And then there was one more girl, she was on drums but she... she..."

"Abigail, settle-down, you're straining your aura." Pearl cautioned.

"There was another girl! I know, I know it, but... but I can't remember who she was!" Then desperately I turned to Pearl and clutched to her blouse sleeves. "Who was she!? Why can't I remember?"

"Whoa, this one is about to blow!" Vanessa shouted excitedly.

Then Pearl placed a hand on my forehead that made my sight glimmer golden. "You're right, Abigail, there was one other person in our band but she's disappeared now so quieten it from your mind..." And a warm fuzziness entered me, causing me to instantly forget the reason to my rants and had me being guided from there docilely.

A few minutes later it was just the two of us walking past the school grounds.

"Pearl," I asked feeling strangely calm, "what did you just do to me?"

"I'm sorry, Abigail, but I didn't have a choice. I had to subdue your aura or else your agitated state may have awoken your erosreaver."

"Oh..." I murmured feeling content with that as my little legs took five for her every four. "Where are we going?"

"Home, Abigail. I'm afraid I put you under too much strain too soon. It seems you have a hard time processing things without Bethanie's lead to follow."

"I'm not strong like Bethanie..." I admitted.

Pearl sighed. "You are, more than you understand, but your strength lies in a different place to Bethanie's, whilst she has will-power, athleticism and a fierce determination, you have kindness, love and gentility. That's what makes you a perfect match for Bethanie, a perfect complement as both a daeva and a friend."

"Our powers..." I stated thoughtfully as the comfortable tingling sensation was beginning to ebb away. "Do they have anything to do with our personalities?"

Pearl smiled at me. "Sounds like you've noticed something, Abigail, that's very clever."

I frowned as I focused on the thought. "Bethanie, she's very strong, physically but especially mentally. I know this because even after everything she has been through I've never seen her cry. That's why she can lift such a heavy blade, isn't it? Because her willpower is so strong?"

After Pearl's nod I continued. "And it's a sword because she's aggressive, but also straight to the point, but then it's also very long because... she keeps people at a distance most of the time..."

"It sounds like you know your friend very well." Pearl analysed. "But there's one exception to that last rule, isn't there?"

I grinned. "Yeah, she lets me in! She never used to but after persistent niggling into her affairs I finally broke in!"

"Well done." Pearl congratulated. "I can't imagine that was an easy feat."

"No... It was hard because I sort of forced her to stop hanging out with a friend of hers. I know it was for both of their own goods, but still, I feel pretty guilty about it, they were so close."

"I think she understands, otherwise she wouldn't be your best friend now, would she?"

"Yeah, she's really grown up a lot, a heck of a lot more than me! That's why I think she can handle being friends with him again, now that she's in a better place. I want them to be, it just wouldn't be fair otherwise!"

"Ah, a boy, yes they can lead us astray, even with the best of intentions terrible things can be done in the name of love."

I frowned as I looked up at her where Pearl seemed to be lost in a memory of her own.

"Tell me about your band." I demanded sweetly.

Pearl raised her eyebrows but with a shake of head finally relented. "I can see that this point is troubling you so I'll explain it all then. Yes, Lara, Dorothy and I were all in a band, an all-girl band and we used to play gigs at the school from time to time. We didn't play anything fantastic at first as all we could