utilizing your abilities, then we can move on to more specialized aspects, depending on what you’re most interested in doing. As the daughter to Daliah and Brooks, you’ll be able to choose whatever you want.”
Sigh. Of course, I would be able to.
“Thank you for the information. We’ll let the rest of you get to whatever business it is you need to discuss,” I said, then stood at the same time as Jordan.
The council members stood as well, followed by my parents. As soon as I hugged them and left the room with Jordan, a sense of dread settled into me.
“You could have prepared me a little better for this, you know? Little hints here and there wouldn’t have hurt anything,” I grumbled.
She laughed. “But this is so much more fun considering how you tortured me on your birthday with all the crap you kept spewing.”
Grinding my jaw, I really regretted finding so much joy from her discomfort, because this payback was not what I had in mind.
Chapter Eight
We exited what Jordan had called the town hall and headed for the main streets we had skipped by earlier.
“Everyone is staring,” I groaned when we passed by the first store.
“Nah, they’re simply using their peripherals to peek and then turning to whisper about you to the nearest person. Totally different.”
I really needed to rethink my friend choices.
Our stroll down the main street wasn’t even enjoyable since I was so distracted by all the prying eyes. I mostly kept my head down and wished my hair wasn’t in a ponytail so I could hide behind it. When we got near the end and I completely missed everything Jordan had said, I was irritated I hadn’t taken a single moment to admire the fountain I’d seen earlier from the distance.
“How about we head to the training field? You told Selene you wanted to mentally prepare for what came next, so this might help,” Jordan offered.
“Will there be less people there?” I asked.
“Sort of. More like less people who give a crap about who you are. Guardians tend to not gawk as much as regular Arvaytans.”
“What exactly does it mean to be a guardian?”
“Well, think of them like the military you’re used to on Earth. Guardians are battle-trained, and the council assigns them duties as needed. Guardians help not only in Arvayta, but also in the Otherworld and Earth as requested, too.”
Interesting but not so surprising, given what I already knew. At least it wasn’t something that came with a shock factor like almost everything else I’d been told.
We turned left and headed down a hill to a field with a running track, some sand areas, large rock boulders, and a metal building behind all of that.
“So, what will this training consist of?” I asked.
“Hard to say until your magic starts to show what it’s capable of on an instinctual level. It could be a number of things depending on how basic we need to go. Since Stryx wasn’t able to do anything with your magic ahead of time, it might be back to kindergarten for you.”
Well, that didn’t sound like fun. Plus, I didn’t have high hopes I was going to be an exemplary student, considering I couldn’t sense an ounce of anything extraordinary within me.
A guy with shaggy blond hair, fair skin, and a wide smile jogged up to us and wrapped Jordan up in a massive hug. “You’re on my bad side for not coming to see me last night.”
She grimaced. “Well, I had a bit of a situation I had to take care of with Ryland.” Her eyes widened as she realized she’d said something she hadn’t meant to.
The newcomer’s grey eyes glanced at me, then offered his hand and a grin. “I’m Oliver. You must be Kaliah.”
“Please, call me Kali. It’s nice to meet you.” I smiled in return.
His gaze moved back to Jordan. “These fields weren’t near as exciting without you here to put us in our place. It’s been rather boring, actually, but I hear that’s about to change.”
“Yeah, a vengeful dark fae will do that. Have you heard anything about Alaryk? The council was pretty tight-lipped about it when we were in there earlier,” Jordan said.
“Nope, not a word. Though, I can sense a shift in things. Might be harder for you since you’ve been on Earth for so long, but the magic within our waters isn’t as strong as it was even a week ago.”
My mouth opened to say something, but I closed it right away,