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

them." Bethanie stammered.

"Is that, like, part of your ability now?"

Bethanie frowned in thought. "I thought things felt different, I guess now I know. I can feel pain but it's strange, since becoming a daeva I was only ever in pain when I was upset, but now I'm not upset at all. It seems that... I'll only sense my injuries on the outside if I'm hurting on the inside."

"But, I don't understand. What does that mean?"

"Maybe... my soul or mind isn't as connected to my body as it was once."

We both watched the red lesions as the troubling thought lingered.

"Hey look! They're healing!" I called cheerily as the three locations hardened and its colour deepened, but as it continued to do so until they turned jet-black and their shapes distorted. In seconds the process had completed and in each of those spots three new flower designs replaced the wounds.

Hurriedly Bethanie raised her shirt sleeve to reveal clean, unbesmirched skin, then she pulled up a red coated sleeve on the other side which, despite a glowing pink line, was almost as clean as her other shoulder.

"Bethanie..." I breathed. "You're crystal is gone! Well, the one that was there..."

"Not just that, but it looks like a spot where one of the other shades must have attacked me didn't form a crystal as it healed, which means..." My friend responded contemplatively. "That in order to fully heal I must kill every shade I fight."

The gravity of what I had done hit me. "Oh, I'm sorry for stopping you, Bethanie! I didn't realise!"

"No, it's okay, you were right to, I was in no shape to going running off after it. Maybe if it had hung around I could have won but with those wounds, running would have drawn too much blood and I would have been incredibly weakened. There's no way I would have won. And I think the shade thought the same thing and took its chance to escape."

"You think the shade thought all that?" I asked surprised.

Bethanie's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, I do. I don't know exactly what these things are but it appears they're not purely instinctual, but capable of cognition."

I bit my bottom lip, unsure what to make of the discovery.

"Well at least this little escapade wasn't worthless; we learnt one thing at least."

I didn't say it but the understanding held in the air, but the cost of which was too great...

"C'mon, Abigail," Bethanie called light-heartedly as she made her way to her dropped school bag. "Let's call it a day."

During our way home I explained the things in which I had learnt from Pearl: the disappointing revelation that the progression of the chrysalis cannot be stopped, only slowed; the way people's powers seemed to be linked to their skills and personalities; the band that Pearl, Lara and Dorothy were all a part of; Dorothy's sad story and what led her to joining up with the daeva-noxes; and then finally the chilling assertion that those girls were no longer human, but phantoms.

"They're all empty deep down." Bethanie weighed pensively. "Just as Ariel has shown herself to be today."

"But I still don't believe it, Bethanie!" I refuted. "It can't be true, it just can't be! They're just high school girls, just like us!"

"Ones that don't seem to age." Bethanie recited from my retelling of the age discrepancy.

"I don't care if Dorothy doesn't look her age, she still looks pretty human to me! A phantom just can't be right! You know what that means, that says that she's a ghost but you saw Ariel when she fought the luxes, they bleed just like everybody else!"

"That's true, they certainly do appear to exist in our world." My friend replied pensively before switching to another topic. "Abigail, you said that these powers have to do with a person's talents and personalities, right? Lara and Pearl's make sense now, but have you been able to work out Rebecca and Vanessa's?"

"Um, no, I haven't. I guess I don't know enough about them."

"Dual swords and a whip... Abigail, do me a favour and stay away from these girls for a while. I like Pearl and Lara seems to be truthful enough, but that is only from the small amount that I have seen of them. And then as to Rebecca and Vanessa we really have no idea who they are or what their motivations are. Any of them for that matter. Please, don't put your trust into them yet."

"But, Bethanie, they saved us on Monday!"

"That may be true." Bethanie admitted. "But that was only Lara and Pearl and even still, we don't know if they plan on using us as their own pawns. That Dorothy girl may be mental but it certainly seems like the other two noxes want us to stay alive also and I know what they're intending isn't good."

I remembered then, a comment Vanessa had said about a final dimension opening with one more girl joining the nox fold but chose not to voice it at this time. It was because I didn't really understand what they were talking about, or who. That was what I told myself.

"I think they all have their own agendas in this, their own reasons for fighting which I don't think all match up with each others'." Bethanie continued as Vanessa's snarls directed to Rebecca also entered my mind.

"But Pearl! We can trust her, I know it!"

Then Bethanie asked the hard question. "Sure, I believe that but how long will she be around to be our ally for? Lara too, they're both sure to be goners to this chrysalis soon."

Tears began to trickle silently down my face.

"Hey, don't be so down, Abby! Take this as a good little break! I'm not saying stay away forever but just until we work some things out and hey, this will give you a chance to finally go on a real date with Eric!"

I nodded as after rubbing my cheeks with the back of my hand a whitish aura glow clung there.

-

Both Bethanie and Pearl had advised me to keep my distance from the daevas for a time and I had agreed, but did not comply too well. I wasn't actively seeking any of them, but every time I saw them on the playground my eyes just lingered there a little longer and my body turned as if to head in that direction. For the rest of the week I was successful except for when I passed through the corridors after having just finished maths. Through them I was walking with Louise at my flank where she was gushing about the date I agreed to have with Eric over the weekend despite us agreeing not to tell our nosy friends anything.

"How did you even find out about that?" I grumbled.

"Oh, Amy told me!" Louise responded.

"And how did Amy find out then?"

"Bart did."

"And how did Bart know?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

Louise giggled. "Well you know that sneaky text message you made today during recess, well during English Eric pulled out his phone and Bart stole it right from his hands and discovered your little date where he read it aloud for the whole class to hear! Amy is in their English so she messaged me with the goss straight away. Isn't that thoughtful of her!?"

"We are heading to lunch." I groaned, "I'm sure she just would have told you now..."

Louise appeared aghast by my words. "But then I wouldn't have been able to have this one-on-one time with you where you tell me what you're wearing, how you're going to do your hair, how far you're willing to go when you make out..."

"This is precisely why we were trying to keep it between text messages..."  I spoke over the top of her but she just continued as if I hadn't said anything.

"... How you're gonna do your eyes - you gotta do smoky eyes! That's what all the pretty girls in the movies do and you gotta tell me how you're getting there, oh! I completely forgot to ask what he has planned!"

"Guitar..." I murmured.

"Oh, he's serenading you! That's so sweet!"

"No, I mean, I can hear the guitar. It's coming from the music rooms..." I gestured off to an adjoining hall where a finger-style guitar melody could be heard that possessed occasional strumming. Then, minutely detected, were vocals to accommodate the piece.

I nodded my head in the direction of the studio. "Let's go check it out."

"It does sound very pretty, oh, I wish I could, but I need to get to the library to borrow some books out for this really tough science assignment but if it doesn't take me all lunch then I'll meet you by the tree!" She waved before moving along down the hall.

"Alright, I'll see you later then!" I called but after losing sight of her was actually kind of relieved that Louise's bombardment of questions had finally come to an end.

She doesn't care about the answers, my mind analysed, she just likes to see me squirm. Kids can be so cruel, I added with a wry smile. Then turning I made my way down the music section of the school where it wasn't until I approached the entryway of the classroom that I could finally make out unconfident, albeit smooth vocals over the top of the skilled instrumentation. There, hiding just in from the front of the studio, I listened to the song being played.

 

Flowers grow black atop my pale skin

They do so menacingly, to a poison they are akin

On this foliage there are no thorns

Because all the pain comes with the adorn

 

I reach out to the blue overhead

And to the Heavens I call for salvation to be shed

But from there I just see the twinkle in the sky

That promises it is alright to die

 

Flowers grow black atop my pale skin

They do so menacingly, almost with a grin

On this foliage there are no thorns

It is merely of non-existence that they forewarn

 

I look to the rivers beneath the ground

Where the power of creation stirs without a sound

To it I ask for my life to be returned

But the platinum flows unconcerned

 

Ebony flowers grow atop my dying skin

No relief heard for one who bears my sin

At the full blossom there strike through the thorns

And as I disappear not a soul remembers to mourn

 

"That's about the crystals, isn't it?" I asked after coming in at the end of the solo, unable to restrain myself from the lull of the tragic melody.

Lara gazed up at me from her acoustic guitar. "I thought I was the only person around."

"I heard you from down the hall." I pointed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude, I just wanted to know who was playing - the guitaring sounds very skilful!"

"But the lyrics aren't much good..."

"No, no!" I interjected. "You have a nice acoustic voice, only..."

She finished for me with a grimace. "It's all pretty dark and depressing." Lara sighed. "The whole thing is really. I used to be able to write some more upbeat stuff, fun summer-time kind of songs, but the last couple of years I just haven't been able to remember how I came up with all those sounds. Even now when I play old ones or just do covers it all seems... forced."

I looked to her neck where, from behind brown wavy hair, were those ebony flowers Lara was just singing about.

"No one can see them, can they?" I asked.

Lara shook her head as she strummed between a few chords softly. "You need the daeva eyes to see them. They can be felt, but most people only believe what their eyes tell them so even if they're accidentally brushed no one ever notices."

"Earlier, when you were talking about the crystals with Pearl you said that they cannot come off now, even if you do destroy the shades?"

Lara tried another chord progression. "That's right, eventually the flowers grow too pervasively within your aura and gets to the point that you cannot keep up with the quantity of shades required to be destroyed. So destroying shades becomes