Destiny felt her hand stiffen. She looked at it to see blood drying on her palm. It was the cut of the glowing dagger, she knew. It wasn’t paining her much but the thought that pierced her heart was that the father she knew died in an accident was actually killed. The thought racked her entire body. Cara was still sleeping soundly beside her. 

“Destiny, I need you in the hall in five minutes.” Seth’s voice startled her suddenly. 

Where was his voice coming from?

And why did it sound so familiar? 

On the bedside table, Destiny noticed her luminosa glowing brilliantly. His voice was coming from it. Shock made her paralysed for a second and then with a sigh of released bafflement, she held the stick and it stopped glowing, going back to it’s dull iron finish. 

She decided to let Cara sleep as it was just six in the morning. What work could Seth possibly had with her? He didn’t even talk to her that much or know her properly. She adjusted her clothes and made her way towards the hall. 

The door to the hall was open and she entered inside to find Seth standing in front of the huge window, his back facing her. He was wearing workout clothes and for an instant, she couldn’t help but drool on his sweat soaked body. 

“Destiny.” He turned towards her and smiled. But it wasn’t an easy and open smile like Chris's. It was reserved. 

“Why did you call me?” She asked politely, fidgeting with her fingers. 

He picked up four large shopping bags and gave them to her. “Here, these are some clothes for you and Cara. Lily bought them. I hope they’re okay.” 

“Of course, thank you so much.” 

“Thank Lily. It was all her.” The mention of her name brought a beautiful smile on his lips, Destiny noticed. 

She nodded her head. “I'll be sure to thank her when I see her. Can I go now?” 

“Yes, but you both will be needed at the Information Center at sharp eight o’clock.” 

“Where’s that?” 

“I'll sent Chris to take you both there.” He promised and turned back towards the window again. 

His stillness kind of scared her. Perhaps it was the sunlight making his skin so pale, of the lack of wind letting every hair hang without movement, I wasn’t sure. He didn’t even blink, just kept his eyes on the lake as if it whispered secrets to him. The lake outside the huge glass window looked less still than him. 

“Your voice seems very familiar, as if I've heard it before,” 

Before she could complete, he turned towards her with a sudden jerk. “Yes, you have.” Measuring her confusion, he added. “It was when you held the dagger that tried to attack you. I asked it to attack you.” 

The land beneath her slipped. Asking a dagger? The silliness of the matter almost cracked Destiny but she knew better. She knew everything that was happening wasn’t false. 

“Why?” 

“I wanted to test your abilities. Scarlet is an illusionist, so she created an illusion of Chris being far away from you and Cara. She made you see what she wanted you to see. The path of light was created by Evangeline through magic and the dagger was sent by me.” 

“And as you wanted, Cara used her vision to see the energy path and I,” 

“You showed your alertness and extreme flexibility.” He finished for her. “Go to sleep now. Be ready by eight.” 

She decided to listen to him. He turned away again. He wasn’t such a big talker, she guessed. Retracing her steps back to her room, she casually sat beside her cousin and opened the bags. 

The clothes were beautiful. There were in total six big paper bags. Three of them had her name and the other three had Cara’s name tag. For her, Lily had bought a few skinny jeans, four simple tops and casual shirts, an elegant gown, two denim skirts and of course, two beautiful knee-length dresses. The clothes were absolutely according to her taste. 

She decided to let Cara open her own bags but she just peeped inside for once. And the shiny, glamorous designs caught her eyes. Exactly like Cara prefers, she thought. 

Shrugging away thoughts, she tried to get some sleep. But her habit of not getting sleep once waking up was disturbing her. She got up again and saw that it was already seven. It was useless to sleep again. 

Lily wondered around in the corridor. It was her favourite pastime to wake up early and roam around the corridors of the keep. Solitude was bliss for her. Her power was unique, just like the rest of them. She could hear thoughts, ideas and understand choices of a person. In short, she could read minds. Hearing thoughts of every single person around her made life chaotic and only the walks she took alone with her own thoughts reinstated her peace of mind. 

She'd known about the dress choices of Cara and Destiny through her powers itself. She kept on walking through the corridor until she bumped into Seth. 

“Ouch,” She hissed, rubbing her arm. 

“Again one of your early morning lonely walks?” 

Lily glowered at Seth and nodded her head in reply. “What are you doing here? You're following me, aren’t you?” 

She said it with so much surety that his heart skipped a beat. “Are you reading minds without permission again?” 

“Oh, no. I’m controlling. I just guessed.” 

“Yeah, Evangeline taught all of us to express control on our powers. We can’t just show them to anyone. Especially, you. You can’t go on reading minds!” His tone was subtle. 

He could never say a harsh word to Lily. She was special to him. As a leader of the squad, he had a problem with a member who had no control over his or power, but more importantly, in Lily’s case, he was afraid; afraid of letting her find his thoughts, as his thoughts mostly contained her. 

“Is your lecture over? I got to go.” She jokingly hit his chest and then retreated towards her room. 

He looked on. She was swaying her hips and walking away from him. He knew she considered him only as a friend. But his mind, his heart? They spoke her name at all times. Shrugging away the thoughts that disturbed him as well as soothed him, he decided to concentrate on the present situation; Elias was growing more powerful. The green crystal was gone. The location of Meyercliffe was soon going to be compromised.

Evangeline was using her magic to conceal the location but she wouldn’t be able to do it for much longer. With the crystal gone, the ball of light was falling weak. And if it became completely dark, all the luminosas would lose their power too. Then The Sequinned Potential would no longer be undefeatable. The flashing images disturbed Seth. It was unbearable for him to even think what would happen. 

Some action must be taken quick, his brain rattled.