Hailey-

There was a silence that lasted about a minute, I still couldn't process what that lady had just told me. Aunt Neferet? My paternal aunt? I remember that I once had an aunt, my father's sister, but when I was three years old she died or so my parents told me and I don't really remember much, since I was a very little girl at the time.

"You can't be my aunt," I said and she called her waiter, he handed her a cup of tea, “my aunt is dead.”

“No, I am not," she said, "I had to fake my death fourteen years ago, get away from my whole family because I was in trouble.”

“What problems?”

“I can't tell you now, you'll understand later," she smiled, but I wasn't sure he was telling me the truth, “now eat that we'll have to take a little trip.”

“I'm not hungry and I don't want to take any trips, the only place I want to go now is home," I frowned, " and tell me what's happening to me.”

She looked at Zenda and then she looked at me.

"You can't go home, Hailey."

I looked at her in amazement: “What are you saying? Why can't I go back?”

“Your house is no longer safe," she said, I just looked at her and could see that she was telling the truth, her eyes were fixed on mine and at no time did they move except to blink, “Also, Travis is waiting for you, he's asked me about you many times.”

“Travis?” My heart's racing. I want to see Travis! “How long was I asleep?”

“A day and a few hours," she replied, "you had to get your strength back, honey.”

“I need to know what's happening to me,” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, I didn't feel very good.

“Okay," she said and I looked at her, "maybe everything I say will seem false to you, but I swear I will only tell you the truth. Do you want me to continue?” I nodded, “There are many people in this world who have powers, but not most, so we decided to hide from the sight of the mortal human and pretend our lives as if we were one of them. Powers usually develop in childhood, in your case it is the exception, and for that we created the Fire Eagle Academy. There we teach children with powers to control them and know how to use them, but we also protect them,” she paused, “we have to take you there to protect you, and above all to help you understand your powers”

“Protect me from who?” I was getting tired of hearing everyone talking about my protection.

“There is a dangerous organization called "The Mirror Organization", they want to kidnap people like us to use us for the national army, they want to exploit us and use us as weapons," she said, looking sad, "they want to brainwash us, so that we kill innocent lives.”

I didn't know what to say, did people like that really exist?

“Of course," answered Zenda, reading my thoughts again, "and they wanted to take you too, because they knew you were not under the protection of the academy.”

“Those men? Was it them?” I asked and Neferet nodded.

“Do you understand why we need you to come with us?” she asked.

I really had a great feeling that told me that everything they said was true and that the right choice was to follow them, but it's very difficult for me. Almost a week ago I was starting my senior year in high school, my mind was on it and it wasn't long before my life changed, I can't believe what's going on and I don't like that it's happening. To leave my normal life and go on a big adventure like this? And what about Logan, will I be able to keep seeing him? I'm not going to lie, I always dreamed of living something like this, but now that it's happening it's terrifying me and as far as I know, my life depends on these people. I won't be able to live safely anymore, if it's on my own. They'll know how to take care of me.

I sighed, I had no choice but to accept: “Can I talk to my mother when we get there?”

She smiled and nodded. I was too nervous and anxious to see that academy, besides seeing Travis.

(...)

We were in a van that looked like a commercial van, the windows were tinted and they had locked all the doors, that scared me, but I was sure that nothing bad was going to happen being with those people. We were not alone, there were two armed men with us and the driver, who seemed to be armed too. I felt that our lives were fragile and that's why they had to accompany us, maybe someone would want to follow us and hurt us. The van was quietly following the road, my Aunt Neferet had taken my hand so I wasn't nervous and that really worked. I kept looking out the window, we were in a place only inhabited by trees. Then I remembered when Travis wanted to take me to a place, before the bald men attacked us, and the road was the same, we were heading to the same place. Just trees all around us, until the car swerved its way, going into the trees and stopping in front of what looked like a mountain, with a big rock in front of it. Within seconds of the van stopping, the rock moved, giving way to a large tunnel and seemed to be inside the mountain. I tensed up a bit, the van followed the right path of the tunnel and the rock seemed to close behind it. It wasn't dark, there were lights inside the tunnel to guide the cars through. The road was not so long, it only seemed to be so, at the end of the road there was a gate guarded by two men, unlike the men who attacked me they had hair and did not dress alike, they just wore the same bulletproof vests and the same gun holder. These men nodded to the driver and both of them hit the gate for whoever was behind to open it. And so it was, the gate opened and the driver didn't hesitate to pass.

I was amazed to see that place, it looked like a huge old mansion. Above the front door there was a sculpture of an eagle with flames of fire attached to the wall, and below it was a big sign with the name of the academy. The academy seemed to have many rooms with different functions, it also had a garden that was too well cared for and seemed to have no end, flowers and trees of all kinds, it seemed to be taken from a movie. I looked at my Aunt Neferet who smiled at my excited expression, she was eager to go through every part of this place. The van stopped in front of the main door, first the armed men came down and then us. My Aunt Neferet thanked the men for coming with us and signaled me to follow her into the place. As expected, the place was beautiful inside and all I saw so far was the hall. A big staircase was in front of us, which seemed to lead to another staircase and so on. Landscape and portrait paintings everywhere you looked, too elegant sculptures and the upholstery was very similar to the house we came from. The floor was made of wood, but it had a big carpet that matched the upholstery and there was a big golden candlestick in the middle of the room.

“What do you think?” asked my aunt Neferet, "Do you like the place?”

“It's beautiful,” I smiled, “but I can't judge it without knowing it completely.”

“You will, but first you must rest.”

“Rest?” I frowned, “we just got here!” I complained.

“I know, but rest a bit and then you'll see the place," I rolled my eyes and she ordered Zenda to do something that I didn't hear. Zenda left through one of the doors and then returned, but with a girl of my age, "She is Eider, she will be your roommate and will be in charge of guiding you through the place, as well as helping you with your classes.”

I looked at the girl in front of me: She was taller than me, but not by much, her skin was golden and shiny, her hair was long and straight and jet black, her eyes were yellow and almost the same as a cat's.

“Nice to meet you Eider, I'm Hailey,” I introduced myself and extended my hand so that she took it in salute, she laughed and rejected my hand, but after a few seconds she shook me in her arms and the truth is that I had a lot of strength, “you don't let me breathe,” I complained as much as I could.

“I'm sorry," she stopped the hug in sorrow, "sometimes I don't control my strength.”

“I'll keep that in mind,” I said and she laughed.

“Eider, take Hailey to see her room," Aunt Neferet ordered, and she nodded.

She signaled me to follow her, so we went upstairs and I couldn't stop looking around, I wanted to explore the place and meet all the people who live there. We went back up another staircase and another one, my legs were already hurting. Until he stopped at a door and then opened it, it was not a room, but a corridor that led to many rooms and there were teenagers standing in that corridor talking to each other. They all stopped what they were doing to watch us, I noticed that they were all wearing the same uniform; the girls had black skirts and a burgundy shirt, with a black tie over it, and the men had the same, but instead of a skirt they were wearing black pants. I felt like my cheeks turned red when I saw so many people watching me, it was too embarrassing.

“What are you looking at? Did you lose something?” asked Eider in an aggressive tone and nobody answered, everyone went on with their business. I was surprised, they seemed to be afraid of her, “around here,” she smiled and I followed her. We passed among those people until we reached the end of the corridor on our right where the door to our room was. She opened the door and let me in first, "The bed by the window is mine, you can have that one over there," she pointed to another bed which was just in front of hers, positioned vertically in my view.

There was no kind of decoration on my side of the room, it seemed that nobody occupied that place in a good time. Eider's side was decorated with band posters and book phrases, there were also books on her bedside table and stuffed animals on her bed. I sat down on the bed that belonged to me and looked around the room. On the right side next to my partner's bed was a desk with a laptop and lots of papers on it, there was also another empty desk positioned horizontally next to the door, and on the other side of the door was a wall-mounted closet. The place looked warm, the color of the upholstery was a pale pink and although there was only one window a lot of light came in. I watched Eider, she was waiting for me to say something, but I didn't know how to start the conversation and she seemed eager to talk to me. I smiled at her and she sat down on her bed, took one of her stuffed animals and looked at me.

“I remember how difficult it was for me to enter this room for the first time, I was just a child,” she smiled sadly, “it is not easy to get used to the powers, but it is important to do so, they are part of us and although many of us want to be normal humans, go to a normal high school and have normal teenage problems, our duty is to stay here,” I noticed that she was nostalgic, “I don't want to impose anything on you, but if you need a friend, I am here.”

I smiled: “You'll be my first choice.”

“I'm glad to hear that, the other girls here are too irritating,” we laugh, “Want to take a shower? Eat?”

“I could really use a shower.”

“Then come, I'll guide you to the bathroom,” she got up, left his stuffed animal in its previous position and went to the wardrobe, took out a piece of clothing and handed it to me, “this is your uniform, when you want a pair of pajamas you let me know, I have too many.”

“Thank you,” I took the uniform and we left the room.

This time there was no one in the hallways, maybe they were in class or something. I was anxious to start studying here.