Daeva: Black Diamond Chrysalis, Danielle Bolger [best books to read for success TXT] 📗

and they all live with their mummies and daddies, but you and Cameron and Michael all live away. How come?"

"Because, Kyle." I explained as I fiddled with the wrapper to the chocolate in my hands. "We're not full brother and sister. We have the same mum but different dads so when Mum passed away your dad took you with him, since the rest of us aren't related to him."

"Ohh! But where's your daddy? Is he up in Heaven like Mummy?" He questioned innocently.

"No, he's not in Heaven. He's just... away."

"Away where?"

"With another family." I answered him steadily but the chocolate exploded through the wrapping from my firm squeeze of it.

Kyle saw this and laughed. "Bethie, it's all over your hands!"

"Yeah," I smirked, "but not for long!" I threw my hand aside and wiped a smear of it on his cheek.

Laughing he jumped from the bench and started to run away from me, dropping and spilling the packet of lollies onto the ground.

"Don't think you can get away from me that easily! I still have all this chocolate that I need to wipe off with your face!" I threatened as I ran after him slowly so his little stubby legs could maintain a lead.

"No, Bethie!" He giggled as he turned back and then ran all the harder forward. "Don't get me dirty!"

"I'm gonna get you and you'll be covered in chocolate!"

"You can't get me!"

"Oh, is that a challenge!?"

My brother only giggled as he ran faster until finally I picked him up with one arm and with my other hand spread dark brown matter all across his mouth.

"Mwhahaha!" I roared with my best evil laugh. "I've got you now and I'm never gonna let go!"

"No!" He protested, laughing. "Let me go!"

"Bethanie, what are you doing to him? Put him down!" A man jogged across the park to us with concern written plainly on his features.

"It's okay, Paul, we're just playing around!" I said with a giggle.

Though Paul's voice diminished in volume his frown however did not lessen. "What on earth is on his face, it's all over him!" Here the man walked up and, pulling a hanky from his pocket, began to rub fervently at Kyle's skin.

"Daddy! It's okay, I can lick it off!"

"It's just chocolate." I explained showing him my hand and grazed my tongue against it. "See? No harm done!"

Paul only rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay, but still I don't want Kyle getting all dirty like this, we're off to see his grandmother now and I want him looking at least a little presentable."

"Yay, Grandma's!" Kyle threw both hands into the air happily.

"Already?" I asked timidly. "But I thought we had a little longer together..."

Paul sighed. "I'm sorry, Bethanie, but we need to get back down the mountain now. Kyle's grandmother is getting old and can't entertain guests too late any longer so now really is the time to leave. But you two had fun catching up, didn't you, Kyle?" His tone softened at the end as he placed a gentle hand around his son.

Looking up into his father's eyes Kyle answered, "I love Bethie! Daddy, can Bethie come and live with us, she could be my mummy!"

Paul laughed. "Bethanie's a bit young to fill that role, don't you think? And what about Simone? I know that she thinks of you as her son."

"Simone?" Kyle parroted quizzically. "Yeah, I guess she's okay."

Paul seemed at least encouraged by that response and maintained his smile as he turned to me. "Well, thanks for spending time with Kyle, I know that you must be very busy with school and all those friends that you have but it means the world to him. He really does like playing with you."

"It was no trouble at all." I smiled. "I love Kyle too, we always have lots of fun together, don't we, pip-squeak." I winked at the boy.

Kyle however blew out his cheeks like a blow-fish before retorting. "I'm no pip-squeak, I'm a big boy and one day I'll be taller than you and Cameron and even Michael, Dad says so!"

"Yeah, I don't doubt it, but right now you're still a pip-squeak!"

A hostile tongue out and a courteous nod from son and father and then the two were gone to leave me returning back to the bench. There I picked up all the uneaten lollies, gave them a brush and returned them back to the bag. They may have been a tiny bit dirty but they were still sweet.

-

The rest of the day passed without too much mishap, mostly because my other two brothers were out of the house: Michael was at work for a Sunday session at the club and Cameron was probably drinking and crashing at a friend's so that left me alone to fend for my dinner and sort out my washing for the week ahead. I didn't mind it though, I enjoyed the occasional isolation and distance from my eldest brother was never a bad thing.

Once I was done I sat watching mindless television as my thoughts involuntarily wandered to all the craziness of the previous evening, Ariel's betrayal and the concept of daeva-noxes ushering in a world of darkness, and then of course, the black rock that formed on my thigh.

It wasn't very large, just a small shard of a thing really and though it stung as it developed there it seemed to make its presence since unfelt. Besides the rigid bump under my clothing it was just as perceptible, or imperceptible really, as a small cyst and seemingly just as innocuous.

I tried to pry it off since it looked like it was merely glued to my skin but failed miserably, though really I wasn't surprised. Seeing it there and the way it came forth reminded me of a leaf stretching out from a young plant, one that only very recently sprouted its green stem.

I sighed as I changed the channel, looking for something more compelling to take my mind away from the blemish but as I saw an advertisement for an angelic pop sensation coming to the Serene Coast for a tour the golden-haired girl just drew me back to advice I couldn't care less about.

"Those crystals are going to keep spreading on your body." Pearl had warned. "But there is a way to stop its progression, destroy the darkness outside to destroy the darkness growing within yourself."

I didn't say anything, just stared at that spot on my thigh that was surrounded by the twinkling beauty of the green grass of the forest clearing.

"Bethanie, we can help you." She tried again to rouse a reaction but I gave her none. I couldn't, this was all just too much: the violence, betrayal, evil and responsibility. I wanted power but it was suddenly stacking up at too great a cost. People were being put in danger for this power, their souls siphoned away by shades and my best friend doomed to the same painful place I was in. It just was too much, so much that I couldn't even speak.

"Give it a rest, Pearl." Vanessa sneered as she finally managed to sit back upright, her wounds almost completely healed yet blood still covered most of her clothing. "Just look at her, she's going cuckoo with all this."

"Vanessa! Don't be negative! She just needs to understand what happening, then she'll be okay."

"No, Pearl, Vanessa's right." Rebecca interred as she struggled to her feet, besmirched by red drooping spheres herself. "She's had enough for now, just leave her be."

Pearl winced but relented. "Fine, Bethanie have a little breather then and when you're ready come talk to me. I'm just at your school after all so it's easy for you to find me." She forced a smile before finally giving up and walking away.

Later Abigail came to the scene, beaming with excitement with her new sight which almost made me sick. It was all I could do to keep from screaming as the other girls talked with her, then finally I cleared my head enough to lead her away from poisonous daeva words.

I didn't want to lie to her, tell her that we did the right thing, but she was just so frightened and I could see how hard she was trying. So I did lie, told her sweet non-truths that never touched my heart. I hoped with that it would satisfy her for the time-being and stop her seeking more trouble or worse, realise just how dark things were and succumb to despair like me.

Eventually that Sunday night I went to bed and awoke the next morning to a silent household. There I cooked scrambled eggs for breakfast, made up a simple lunch consisting of a peanut butter sandwich, apple and juice popper, then with my school backpack slung about my shoulders met Abigail's warm and cheery family as they drove me to school in their SUV. Besides Abigail gushing and blushing with her family's teasing of her new boyfriend not too much happened. It was all precisely usual actually, only now they all had new material to tease Abigail with for which she responded, Please, that is so inappropriate! I had a good laugh too but could not partake in the usual morning ritual since my mind was thrown into so much turmoil I felt I hardly even knew what I was thinking anymore. All I wanted was for my mind to erase and to achieve that I had to escape.

I saw the other daevas around the school when we arrived there, the four lux variety and also one of nox. Besides Ariel none of the others were in my year so it was easy to give them a wide berth, which meant pretty much pretending that they never existed. But then there was Ariel who, though shared none of my subjects, made her presence known within my cohort. There was no direct communication, just the occasional sideways smirk as she passed me through halls and all the other boys and girls in my grade saying how amazing she was. I wanted to shut them up and tell them all that she was a back-stabbing (something rude) but instead held my tongue. I decided I didn't want to involve myself with their crazy daeva-dark-shade world so I wouldn't. It and her and them, didn't exist as far as I was concerned, just like that black stone stuck onto my thigh.

When physical education came it couldn't have come soon enough and I eagerly launched myself into my tennis match intent on destroying my adversary. Only problem with that was that my opponent was no push-over so I had to concentrate all the harder.

It was a perfect game.

-

"Deuce!" the teenage umpire declared from the high stool of the school tennis court.

"This is such a close game!" I heard one of my peers cry excitedly.

"These two are the best at every sport, it's amazing!" Another student was heard from the sidelines.

"Yeah, but now they're one on one. This time there's no team to help or hinder their performance. It's all about the one!"

"I reckon Kieran will win it!" A boy from the group stated. "Men always out-sport women, it's just biology!"

"I think Bethanie will win," a supporter refuted, unsurprisingly a female. "She's always held her own against even the best of male athletes. And just look at her eyes, there's a type of determination there that will never get tired!"

Kieran caught the ball from a student on the sidelines, bounced it twice, threw it into the air and then swung his body over it deftly. Blindingly fast the ball soared through the air, I heard it land, but where exactly I could not discern. It was very near the corner of the server's box though. I swung as it came past but the ball arced away from me and my racquet only just managed to clip it on its frame. From there the tennis ball pinged away to the fence and became stuck between metal wire webbing.

I narrowed my eyes, reflecting on my