"Aidan you can't do that, you can't exchange yourself for one of your parents. They would never want you to do that." Jake looks pissed about what Aidan might do, which is what I expected but this is Aidan's choice not Jake's.
"Jake leave him alone, this isn't your decision, we have let you make most of the decisions since this whole thing started, but this choice is not yours it is his, and you cannot make it for him no matter how much you want to. We are not children to be lead around by you."
"Kenna I didn't mean, that is. I know you aren't children, but this is a really bad choice."
"Again it isn't your choice, so you can either live with what Aidan decides or you can leave. That is a choice that is yours."
"Kenna I can't just leave you, you are my responsibility."
"I know, I am the priceless china doll you have to protect, but I am 25 years old and old enough to make my own decisions as well. I didn't ask for your help though I do appreciate it greatly, but this is our lives they are trying to destroy not yours."
"Kenna, Jake is just trying to help." Ok Lexi siding with Jake does kinda irk me a little.
"I know that Lexi, But it isn't his choice."
"Guys please, Kenna is right, and there is nothing either you or Lexi can do about what I decide Jake, so please stop, I have a lot to think about, I would ask for some space but I am pretty sure even if I locked myself in a room Kenna wouldn't leave me alone," he smiled just for me to see, Jake and Lexi don't know we already had this discussion anyway, "so I will stay right here, but if you want to help wait for my decisions and whether you like it or not help come up with a plan to see it through."
"Ok."
"Ok." Jake and Lexi still don't seem too happy about any of it, but they really don't have a choice.
"Kenna can I talk to you alone?" Great what did Jake want now?
"Actually right now doesn't really work for me."
"Come on Kenna I really need to talk to you."
"You know Jake you and I have been in each other's space a lot here recently, I really need you out of my space for a while. So can you please just back off, I know I am your job and everything, but this job needs some space."
"Kenna, he is only trying to help." Lexi said.
"Lexi I love you, and value your opinion more than anything, but I swear if you side with Jake against me one more time we are going to have some serious issues besides the fact that you have been lying to me for the last five years."
"Kenna that isn't fair."
"Lexi I am not kidding. What I need right now is space. I don't need anyone telling me how to handle anything right now. I have had enough thrown at me to last a life time."
Just then Aidan came up behind me and wrapped me in a hug. How is it in all of this he is the one I lean on? "Kenna calm your fire. She is your best friend, you don't want to put a wedge between that."
"Why is it they think everything is ok. It isn't ok, Jake has pretty much known me my entire life even though I don't know him from adam. And Lexi has kept a pretty big secret from me for five years. I don't know what to do Aidan."
"Breath, all we can do is breath and keep moving forward. There is no going back."
"Oh how I wish I could, my life was way simpler before all of this."
"But then you wouldn't have met your big brother sis."
"You do make it all worth it. We are gonna make it through all of this Aidan, I know we are."
"We will, you and I can do anything when we put our heads together."
"Fine, Jake lets go." We went upstairs to the master suite and Jake shut and locked the doors, is he really this mad at me, I was just telling him the truth?
"Kenna I need to apologize, I have spent my entire life watching over you, and I just want to keep you safe."
"I know you do Jake, but I am a living breathing person with a mind and will of her own, I am not just a job you can force a direction you want it to go."
"Kenna you mean way more to me than any job, I know you better than I probably should, and I know that if given the chance you would exchange yourself for Aidan's parents as well. I just, I can't see that happen."
Jake, who I barely know, took my hand as he is telling me this. I know he is suppose to be my protector, but he knows way more about me than I do about him. "Jake don't please, I can honestly say I really liked you when we met in Hawaii, but that was a lifetime ago, before all this happened. And we didn't really just meet in Hawaii, you have know me my entire life, and I don't know how I feel about that. Your number one job is to protect me, and that will come above everything else to you." I pulled my hand away from Jake and started to walk away, but Jake pulled me back.
"Kenna I know there is a lot going on right now, and I am not asking anything of you other than to please keep yourself safe and don't take any crazy risks. You can never be just a job to me, you have always seemed more."
Ok, I really am not sure where this is going. Does Jake have actual feelings for me? Or am I like a sister to him, just someone that has always been quietly in his family even though I didn't know it?
"Fine, I won't take any unnecessarily crazy risks, we have a lot to figure out once Aidan makes up his mind, can we just focus on that please?"
"Ok, just know that I am here for you for everything Kenna, I will protect you with my life. And I am sorry, I never want you to feel like you are just a job to me. "
"Yeah, got that one thanks." So, I am the little sister he has to protect from everything, like a way too protective older brother! Got it, thanks for letting me know Jake! Huh way to much crap going on to deal with him too.
I walked back downstairs and now Lexi wants to talk to me too, but I am just way to talked out right now, "Maybe another time Lexi, I am just really tired I think I am going to go lay down." And I need to let Aidan know that too. "Aidan, I am going to lay down for a little bit, please wake me when you decide what you want to do."
"Ok, try and get some rest Kenna."
I really couldn't rest, but I really didn't expect too, I just want to be left alone. When we were in Maui I had really started to like Jake, but how much of that was real? And why there, why did Jake approach me in Maui? He has watched me for years and never approached me before. I can't even remember catching a glimpse of him before. So what was so damn special about Maui, did he know the Restorers were around and needed me to trust him? Do I really need a big brother trying to tell me what to do and how I should handle my life? Argh, I don't need this right now.
And then there is Lexi, my best friend, who is now siding against me. Who thinks she can think for me better than I can myself, but they don't understand, it isn't their family that is being hunted it is ours. That isn't something you can just understand. I love her to death, but we have enough drama in our lives without adding this to it also.
I already know what Aidan is going to pick, I just hope like hell I can get him and his dad back. And we have to figure out something to do with his mom, and then if we do get everyone out safely? Then where do we go from there, can we run far enough away to keep everyone safe?
"Kenna? Can I come in?"
Great so much for me not talking to Lexi right now! "I guess."
"So do you want to talk about it?"
"Thought I made that pretty clear that I really didn't want to talk at all"
"Kenna I have known you our whole lives, and no matter how mad you get at me I still know you better than anyone. Even better than your stocker Jake." That actually got a smile out of me.
"It sounds so horrible when you put it that way."
"Well in other situations that is what he would be. His family has been watching you your entire life, doesn't that qualify as a stocker?"
"God you are right, Jake is my own personal stocker, that also thinks he can tell me when to jump and how high."
"And there we are getting to the heart of the problem. Other than Granny you have never really had someone tell you what to do, and she raised you to be pretty independent, so having anyone else try to tell you what is best for you can't be easy on your ego."
"My ego?"
"Ok bad choice of words but you know what I mean. But he is really just trying to look out for you Kenna. He doesn't know any other way to be, it is how he was raised."
"I know Lexi, but Aidan is my family, a family I never thought I would have, and I have met his parents and they are great people, and they don't deserve what is happening to them just because they decided to adopt a baby that had special gifts. Those people, man I don't even know how to describe them. It's like anyone even the slightest bit different shouldn't be around. We were all made to be different, there isn't two of us that are exactly alike in the whole world."
"Kenna you can't try and understand a zealot, that is what they are and there is no way to get inside their heads, and even if you could it would be a crazy mess that wouldn't make any sense anyway."
"Yeah your right, I just wish there was something more I could do to help that would keep everyone safe. Like if I had better control of my powers I would be able to keep everyone protected."
"You can't save everyone no matter how much you want to. And once Aidan makes his choice, which you so adamantly said we have to let him do, we will figure things out from there. We will do everything we can to get everyone out safely and keep them that way. You remember as kids we believed we could do anything if you and I worked at it together?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, you and I are working together, and we will get through everything together."
I love Lexi, she can cheer me up no matter what is going on in our lives, and she is right we can do this, we will get everyone out and away from those crazy Restorers.
"Now, I know about your powers but I have never seen them in action, but I believe you can accomplish anything that you need to with them, especially when you are protecting someone you love."
"I hope you are right."
"I am, you just have to believe in yourself, but I will leave you alone now. I love you girl, and am here whenever you need me even if you don't want me around."
"Ha-ha, ok leave me alone then." We hugged and Lexi left, I just laid down and tried to clear my mind and stop worrying about everything.
Why, why in the hell does she have to be so damn frustrating, I am just trying to keep her safe. It is what I have been trained to do my entire life, can't she see I am just trying to help her? Does she really want me to stand idly by while she puts herself in harm's way? How can someone make me so angry with barely a look, nothing I was saying was getting through to that girl at all. Does she really think I don't understand she feels responsible for Aidan's parents?
I can't figure things out this way! I need a clear head to work out what we are going to do once Aidan decides he is going to trade himself for one of his parents, which I am absolutely positive that fool is going to do, and if I didn't know any better I would say that Kenna even helped talk him into this crazy idea.
Thank you, yeah thank you everyone, I know how this is gonna play out, they don't want to listen to me about this trade, but when it comes down to it they are going to be counting on me to have a plan on how to make this work! WOMEN!
Waking on a beach with a beautiful ocean view is not what I was expecting, I am pretty sure I am suppose to be in the Steven's house, waiting for Aidan to trade himself for his mom. But this is way more relaxing, Kenna you really must still be dreaming, and I didn't even think I was gonna be able to sleep at all.
"Child."
"Holy Shit, what the, oh it's you. Of course it is." Great so much for being at a nice beach, look here is the water lord for another one of his great visits.
"I believe we have already discussed the attitude. You do realize who I am child."
"Of course I do. Hello Nereus, but I have a lot of things I am dealing with right now and you expect what from me? Everything? You need me to bring this stupid war to an end with the Restorers. So obviously you need me if you want this to end, so what is it you are expecting from me exactly? Respect? When you have left our family alone for how many years to deal with this crap on their own."
"That is your fire talking, what should I expect, you need to find your center child. You are right that I will not harm you, but if you ever talk to Aedus that way I guarantee you will regret it. We do not step into the affairs of humans."
"Really? Then what the heck are you doing interfering with me?"
"This is not just a human affair, it affects us as well."
"Whatever, so is there a reason you are in my dreams?"
"You have a lot you are trying to deal with right now, you need to find your center. The balance between your elements. Until you find your balance you won't have total control of your powers, your attitude will also flare as it has recently because you are with another fire element and no others. You must keep control above all else."
"Seriously, you came into my dreams to tell me to keep control. You do realize I am human right, and a woman at that, we are lead by our emotions a lot."
"It doesn't matter, you must learn control and in a very short period of time."
"Ok, are we done? I have enough to deal with right now."
"Control child, you must learn control."
"Ok I get it. Why you, why is it always you who comes to me?"
"I deal better with the human world than the others do. For some reason they think humans are very disrespectful."
"Can't imagine where they got that idea."
"You showed great promise when you rescued your brother, but you must learn to use that kind of power whenever it is needed, not just when someone you love is in danger."
"I do understand that, but even though I was born with these abilities it isn't like I have been honing them for years."
"As a young child you used them often. You were always in the woods behind your house doing different things with your elements. I remember a time you fell and scraped your knee.."
"Wait a minute, that isn't just a dream?"
"No, it really happened."
"Then who are the five shadows I keep seeing? At one time one of them looked like Aidan, but that hasn't happened again."
"The shadows are us. Myself and the other lords."
"But there are five shadows, there are only four of you."
"The fifth is Halaina."
"It's who?"
"You heard me, do not make me repeat myself."
"But how?"
"I told you, we do not live by the constraints of human life. As a child we use to visit you. Even then we knew you would be the one to bring an end to this war."
"Nice, you've known this entire time and you choose now to show yourself."
"We knew that to have a chance at winning this war you needed to be allowed to grow up. With as much as you played with your powers as a child we knew the Restorers would eventually find you and before you reached maturity. So we decided to bottle your powers within you until you were ready."
"You think I am ready?"
"You are more ready than you believe, but that dream you keep having is the day we came and bottled your powers within you. We have released your powers, but only you can wield them to win this war."
"I can definitely say I like it better when I didn't talk to you, you make life rather complicated."
"Human life is complicated. Find your center child, you have more power than you could possibly imagine."
Ok now I am really awake, this is definitely where I remember being last. Really, don't they know I am dealing with enough crap already! Learn control? Really, let's just pile this crap on and on and on! If you hadn't bottled my powers maybe I would have that control by now.
Do I get to look forward to these wonderful visits the rest of my life? Am I gonna meet the others some time too? Great, and it is the middle of the night, can't see me getting back to sleep again. Thanks for ruining my dreaming!