Return To Pandora: Book 1 in The Pandora Series (8 page)

I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She has the same ability as my mother and she knows what we all dreamed of last night.

“Zackary and I, we had the same dream. It involved ourselves but the outcome was the same, we both died at the hands of our so called friends,” I said to her, lost in thought and a little upset since I was reliving that horrible dream again.

She just stared at me as if trying to think of a way to comfort me.

“I had the same dream of a ‘friend’ of mine literally stabbing me in the back,” she said using her fingers to put quotation marks around the word friend. “I didn’t know if it was the Queen’s possession or if it was actually her, but I had to kill her myself before she could kill me. That was the same week your mother faked her death as well as yours and skipped out on her people. So I had a rough few days with my twin
dying
and his family
dying
and then having to kill my friend. I had no one to turn to except Derek. He’s really a sweet and caring guy, he just doesn’t like to portray himself like that, you know. He wants people to think of him as this big strong man.” She spoke of him as someone in love and I couldn’t help but think of how she was in love with someone who wanted a sixteen year old as a bride.

“Did he really want to take me as a bride? I mean I’m young and I didn’t grow up in that world to want to or even think of marrying an older man.”

“He knew your mother really wouldn’t force you to do something you didn’t want to do and he knew you had a strong will about you, so he just said it to get under your skin and your mothers. He really doesn’t want that, he’s in love, he just doesn’t know it yet,” she said looking pleased that she had come to this revelation on her own.

I just nodded my head not knowing what to say to that. By the end of practice that day Olivia and I had bonded more than I thought possible. She shared stories of my mother and father and she shared stories of when they first brought me home. She was so excited she threw a party for me and I was only two days old. I was six months old when my mother faked our deaths and vanished from Pandora. She found us with the people who were close to my mother and helped her escape.

I stayed after everyone had left and ran a few laps. I was too wound up to even think about sleep. I was on my fourth lap when I felt a cold breeze wash over me. This wasn’t like a normal breeze it felt manipulated. I stopped and surveyed my surroundings, there was nothing out of the ordinary and I couldn’t see anyone so I finished my lap and grabbed my bag on my run out of the field.

I ran all the way home and I still couldn’t shake the cold manipulated breeze that seemed to be following me. I picked up my pace and called on my power to control the wind and had it carry me all the way home. I made it go faster than my legs could have carried me and I was high up in the sky so no one could see me.

When I landed in my back yard I was met with the reason for the cold wind following me. There was a man I couldn’t deny was my father because he looked completely identical to his twin sister Olivia.

“Hello Jackie,” he said. “I’ve been dying to see you since the day you disappeared.”

Then he collapsed to the ground having what looked like a seizure.

All I could do to help was yell to my mother, “MOM!”

Reality

My mother came rushing outside and crumpled to ground beside me and said, “What happened? How did they find us? How did he get here? Oh my God he’s still alive.”

The words just flew out of her mouth before I even had the time to say anything.

“So I was right, this is my father?” I asked her as she motioned for me to help her get him inside.

“Yes this is Stephan, your father and the true King of Pandora, my husband and soul mate,” she said as we laid him down on the couch.

He had stopped convulsing by the time my mother had come out of the house and I had him in an upright position, to keep him from choking.

Mom stayed there to try and nurse him back to health, but I left. I didn’t know what I could do. So I did the only thing I knew I could do, I called Olivia.

“Olivia!” I said through the receiver of the phone.

“Jackie? What’s wrong? Why do you sound so panicked?” She asked, picking up on my stress level and anxiety.

“It’s my father. He’s here and he’s in a really bad condition. I don’t know what is wrong with him and I don’t even know how he got here. Just come over right now please!” I said to her pleading for some help other than my mother.

His appearance was too sudden and after my dream I couldn’t put this feeling aside that something was not right.

“Alright, I’m on my way, I’ll be there in a minute,” then she hung up.

I desperately wanted to call Zackary, but with the way things ended earlier today I didn’t know how to approach him. We didn’t speak at all the rest of the day and I thought he would have stayed behind with me when the others left, but he didn’t. I don’t know how to fix things, if he doesn’t talk to me. I still don’t even know what I did to him. We were just practicing our powers and he got all ‘I’m sick of this crap’ and abandoned me.

I was walking out of the dining room and back into the living room when I heard a knock on the door.

“Wow that was fast,” I muttered to myself.

I went to the door, opened it and in came Olivia looking the same as she always does, beautifully dressed wearing a black dress and black leggings with a silver belt and grey boots. Her long hair was braided down her right side. She hugged me briefly and quickly walked to where my mother and father were in the living room.

“Oh my God! It’s true, he really is here,” she said. “How the heck did he get here?”

My mother got up and looked at Olivia in a way that should have been menacing, but all of a sudden she ran to her and hugged her tight and sobbed in her arms. I have never seen my mother act like this and especially towards Olivia, who she thinks is responsible for my father’s abduction.

“It’s poison, from Pandora,” I heard my mom say into her ear.

She must have thought she was whispering, but she was far from it. I couldn’t take this by myself, I called Zack and told him to bring his parents. If we were dealing with something from Pandora we needed back up and I couldn’t think of anyone else besides them to do the backing up.

“What kind? Is it reversible? How far has it gotten?”

They were talking as if they knew of this type of stuff and I had no idea how to help so I went into the kitchen to fix some tea and hot chocolate. I didn’t even hear the knock at the door, just the familiar sound of his footsteps on the floor as he walked closer to me.

I was expecting him to stay in the room with the adults, but I was surprised when he came rushing in here to me.

“Are you ok? When did he get here? How did he get here? Do they know what’s wrong?” He asked as he pulled me into his embrace.

I relaxed a little just from being in his arms.

“I’m fine. I’m making drinks for the adults. He got here right when I did about an hour ago. I don’t know how or why or what is wrong with him. I heard my mom and aunt talking about it being a poison from Pandora and that freaked me out more, that’s when I called you,” I said looking up into his eyes. “I wasn’t sure you would want to be here with me, since you clearly didn’t want to be with me today during training.”

I looked down and tucked my head up against his chest and he pulled away from me so he can look at me.

“What I did today was stupid. I’m ashamed that I can’t beat you and if I can’t beat you, how am I supposed to protect you?” He asked, sounding defeated.

“I don’t want you protecting me,” I said to him. “If you’re protecting me that means that you could die, I don’t want you to die. I can’t risk your life for mine. Who says that my life is more valuable than yours just because I’m a Princess? We do it together to concur together. Remember?”

He didn’t even respond, probably trying to avoid the fight that was bound to happen over his duty to protect me. Instead he just kissed me to make up for the whole day of avoiding me.

“Ok, let’s get these drinks to the adults and hopefully find out what’s happening to my father,” I said as I brought the container of hot water over with the chocolate mix and tea bags and Zack brought over the cups and spoons.

I walked into a very tense room as I said, “Hot drinks anyone?” They all froze as if forgetting we were here, this is odd.

My mother answered first saying, “Yes, hot chocolate please.”

So we went to her and she fixed her cup as we went around the room most of them getting tea. I grabbed a hot chocolate as well as Zack and we sat in the corner of the room trying to eavesdrop on their findings.

From the sounds of things they have come up with a theory for what happened to my dad. It was the poison called Conium. It is very fatal and if it is not taken out right away will lead to death.

I didn’t want to say anything I didn’t know what to say so I sat and listened. They had to contact a healer from Pandora and that was risky since this could all be a trap. If that poison doesn’t come out of his body he will die and then I will never know my father.

I cleared my throat and again they froze as if forgetting we were there.

“So we all know that I have um added abilities,” I said choosing my words wisely.

I looked directly at my mom since she knows what I am talking about and I hoped that she understood where I was going. All I got were blank stares.

“Okay. I can heal myself, right? So would that work on healing others?”

Again, blank stares. Zack’s parents weren’t here when I figured out I could heal myself, so they had shocked looks on their faces.

“If you are showing signs of healing, then you may be able to heal him, but you need to know how to do it and we don’t have a healer here who can teach you,” John said looking at me in awe.

“What if I try to focus on it? I mean, I didn’t really try to do anything special with my other gifts and they just happened,” I said looking at them all as if what I was saying was the obvious choice.

“It’s worth a shot,” My mother and Olivia said in unison.

“Ok, good. Tell me what I have to do, like what you’ve seen other healers doing. That is how I usually get the powers to show. It’s what happened when I first started showing signs of my powers with Zack.”

So about five minutes later I was seated by the bed with some weird looking herbs and a cloth and bowl with warm water in it. I was to take the herbs and mix them into the bowl with the water. After that I will place the cloth in it and let it sit for a few moments. Then without wringing out the water, I am to place the cloth on my father’s face and use my hands over it, concentrating on the poison being removed from his system. When I asked why we should do this process if I have the magic, they said they were just being cautious.

So there I sat alone with my father and mother, my father’s face covered by a cloth that is soaked in magical herbs and water, trying to extract the poison from him. I sat like that for at least ten minutes and when I was sure I was done I looked to my mother.

She shook her head indicating that nothing is happening and I went back to it.

I sat there thinking of the poison and telling my body and mind to extract it from the body in which it lies. I repeated it over and over again until I couldn’t do anything else but think of the damn poison.

I lifted my hands in defeat and said, “It’s useless, I can’t do this. I have no idea if I’m doing it right or if I am even a healer to begin with. I can heal myself, yes, but others? I don’t think so.”

After I was done with my rant I got up and left the room. I couldn’t stand being there watching my father die when I could possibly be doing something to save him. So I went to Zack, he was my rock in everything that I felt was impossible for me to do.

I walked out of the room and he immediately got up and walked to me.

“How did it go?” He asked. Then looked at me and must have realized I didn’t do too well because he said, “We will fix it, I promise, you just need some more practice. You want me to join you in there?”

His confidence in me is what sparked any remaining hope I had left in me to give it another try.

I nodded my head in agreement and he pulled me back into the room with my father. By now the cloth and all the water were cold so we had to start over with the whole process.

As they got everything together I sat down next to my dad and talked to him.

“Daddy, you can’t leave me. I just got you back. Please fight this. There is so much you don’t know about me and so much more that I don’t know about you. Please daddy, come back to me.”

I hadn’t realized that they were finished already until Zack cleared his throat behind me. I took that as my signal to give it another go.

I placed my hands over the cloth and put in all my energy to get him healed. Everything I had left in me. I put my fears and doubts at the back of my mind while bringing fourth the confidence I knew I had and the love and joy I had for my friends and family, which is continuously growing every day. I felt warmth in the palms of my hands and for a split second I thought it was the fire again, except this warmth felt different. It wasn’t as hot as the fire, it was more of a calming feeling seeping through my hands.

My eyes, which I had closed to help me concentrate, shot open and I noticed that my mother had moved closer too. From the palms of my hands you could see a warm yellow glow. I felt my body draining of any energy I had left and the more I kept my hands there the more drained I felt, but I couldn’t let go until I was sure he was going to be alright.

The warmth stopped flowing from my hands and I didn’t even get a chance to check on my father because I fell out of the chair and collapsed on the floor. The last thing I saw was Zack trying to get to me before my head hit the floor and everything went black.

****

When I came to I was lying on my bed with seven people surrounding me. They were all too lost in their own thoughts to notice that I had opened my eyes so I made a motion to get up out of bed and realized I couldn’t move. I tried to scream for help, but I couldn’t talk either. It’s as if I were paralyzed. Then my father got up and walked towards me. He knelt down on the side of my bed and spoke to me.

“Hey honey. I’ve missed you so much. I wish I would have been here to see you grow up. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, and I will try to be there for you now. But you have to listen to me baby. This was a trick, I’m not really here, that man is an imposter. He’s a shape shifter and he came looking as me to get to you and your mother. The Queen knows you’re all alive and she is coming for you. If he goes back to her you are all doomed. Do not and I repeat, DO NOT let him out of your sight. I promise honey everything will reveal itself in time. Just know that no matter how deep of a spell the Queen has on me I never once forgot about you or your mother. You both are my reason for living.”

With that he left and in his place was the shape shifter, a tall lanky man with green eyes and dark brown hair. He has a scar across his left cheek and a menacing smile played across his face.

I shot right up in bed with my eyes wide open and earned myself stares from all the people in my room. I was breathing heavily as if I was running a marathon and just finished. As if my dream earned me some clarity I saw my “father” for what he really was, an imposter.

Without even thinking I flung him into the wall and screamed, “IMPOSTER!”

Everyone looked at me like I had lost my mind, but I didn’t have time to explain it to them.

“Show them who you really are!” I demanded.

The laugh that came from his lips earned me the respect from the others that I deserved. It sounded as evil as he looked.

They all took a stance to protect me and my mother.

I was having none of that. I got up and out of bed and stood in front of them all. Just to see the shaking form of the man who claimed to be my father change into the man he really was.

“You’re too late Princess. Your precious father will die at the Queen’s hands for interfering with our mission.”

Before he got away I saw my aunt throw a dagger at him. It hit him right in the heart and he died mid shimmer.

“What the heck? How did you know that?” Olivia turned to me with questioning eyes.

I let the dead body fall to the floor and when he landed everyone jumped from the sudden thud.

“It was dad, he visited me in my dream. I thought I was awake, but I wasn’t. He told me that he, meaning the guy you just killed, was a shape shifter. I don’t understand where all these powers are coming from. I mean you told me that we don’t have all the powers that witches do, but most of this reminds me of stuff that a witch could do,” I said as I made my way into the kitchen, “and will someone please take care of that dead guy for me, because I really don’t want to sleep with him in my room.”