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Hale looked over at Daliah as she spoke. There was that word again! Dimoni He knew that he had heard that word before, and it wasn’t just from Stormy and then Daliah. It was like the word echoed, resonated in his bones. It was a tangible thing really, almost making his bones chatter and shiver. He got a cold feeling inside him and he knew that it was important. But why? He looked over at the other kids, trying to see if they were having similar reactions.
He looked at Daliah for answers because he knew that none of them really knew. She was staring at all of them. Hale thought back to Archer’s question. He did have powers and apparently so did Archer. What about the others? He thought. Do they have powers too? Maybe someone can control fire like me. Daliah cleared that all up with her next words.
She introduced all of their powers and when she said that Azalea had the power to control Earth, Hale stared. Fire and Earth complimented each other, right? ”Not only that, but we have some brilliant souls with some talented gifts. Tyler with your persuasion, Payton with your blood manipulation, Shiloh with her necromancy, and Archer with his Telekinesis."
When she mentioned high-school, he stared at her. “We have to go to school again?” He looked around at his companions. Oh God! School was going to be hell, he thought as Archer walked over to him and showed him a picture. Remember this? He asked. The weird thing was that Hale did remember it. And he never remembered anything from before he was six years old. So he mutely nodded and then searched through the pictures himself.
He only found two pictures, not counting the one Archer had pulled out. One shot was of a small brown-haired boy with freckles, smiling at a woman standing a little ways away from you. She was holding a camera and looked like she was taking a picture of him as someone else took a picture of them. The woman was laughing, her eyes shut tight, her head tipped back. And she was stunningly beautiful, with the same dark-brown hair and blue eyes. Her jaw-line was the perfect blend o round and sharp-edged and she had a slim nose set between her large eyes.
The second picture showed him a little older, maybe 5 years old, and he was smiling with Archer next to him, his arm around Archer. Archer's arm was also around Hale and he was smiling also. They looked the same age, but Hale knew that Archer was a year older. In the background of the picture, there seemed to be snow-peaked mountains with a blue, cloudless sky. He didn't remember that place, but other memories started to flood back to him. Hale remembered being mad because his mother wouldn't let him go outside alone, him sad because his small stuffed bunny had fallen out the open window and into a lake, Hale happy and laughing at something his father had said, excited because he was going to learn what his middle name was. All of them included Archer there with him, experiencing it all. His best friend.