Dying Light

Preface

Survival of the Luckiest

He lifted his finger to his lips, and his dark brown eyes intensified under the shadow of his drawn brow. His hair sprung out in little dark curls, sitting lighter than a summer breeze on his creased forehead.

“When I say run, you run. Don’t look back,” he murmured as his finger rested over my parted lips.

I wasn’t aware that I was making any noise until the motion drew attention to the small whimper escaping me.

“No, I’m not leaving you,” I breathed.

I was too afraid to give myself too much of a voice in case it betrayed us both.

“You have to, Sienna,” he whispered. “Survival is always number one. That’s what we were taught.”

“Then why can’t you come with me?”

I grabbed his shirt, and he freed himself from my grip.

“This is life and death, Sienna. You need to run, or everything we’ve done will have been for nothing,” he said and then disappeared into the darkness.

I was frozen with fear and shock as I battled against reason and my better judgement. I shouldn’t leave him here because he would be as good as dead like all the others if they found him. But if I stayed, I’d be no better than any of them.

Survival was everything. It defined us as Light Lacers, so was our number one golden rule. So why was I wasting time deliberating when every passing second put me in danger? Why, after years of indoctrination, was the mere prospect of being the sole survivor too much for me to bear? It didn’t make any sense.

In the beginning, there had been a group of Light Lacers. We were different from regular people, which meant that we needed to be kept concealed from everyone. Not so much sheltered from the outside world but protected from it in our secluded reservation.

We were raised like any other children. I know now that what we learnt about the world was similar to what anyone else was taught. Except our lessons were more practical and emphasised the need to survive.

That was our sole purpose in life: to remain alive.

When I was sixteen, some rogue killers known as Shadow Weavers attacked the reservation where I lived. The three of them in charge had been on a path of destruction to commit genocide and wipe our entire breed from the world since well before I was born. Their mission was almost a complete success, killing everyone except me and one other.

Until now.

One

Incomplete Assignment

“Sienna, Sienna,” Felicity hissed as she tapped my arm. “Here comes Riley McIlhoney! Oh, freeze, he looks good today.”

I glanced up and blushed. “Flick, he looks good every day.”

“Has he asked you to be his girlfriend yet?” she murmured. “Sapphira said he was going to ask you.”

I smiled. “Not yet.”

Riley glanced up and tipped his head towards Felicity as he walked by. She giggled, and I frowned at the floor. A moment later, a shadow crept over me as his light grey shoes appeared in my view.

“Sienna,” he said.

My eyes lifted to his glowing face as he adjusted his bag over his shoulder. His fire-like hair was effortlessly styled as if he’d conjured the wind to do it for him. Being what we were, that was highly possible.

“Hi, Riley,” I replied as I played with the ends of my hair.

“How are you?” he asked.

“I’m… I’m good, and you?”

“Good.” He nodded. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

Felicity squirmed behind him, and I elbowed her. Riley continued to look at me with his meadow-coloured eyes.

“A-ask me,” I stuttered. “Ask me what?”

Riley glanced behind me as my friend Sapphira walked up. Sapphira was a year older than Felicity and me and the same age as Riley. They were in classes together. She opened her mouth to speak, but Felicity shushed her before she could get a word out.

“Meet me after your ice class at the olive grove,” he whispered. “We can talk then.”

“Okay,” I answered. “I… I’ll see you after… after ice class. At the olive grove.”

He nodded and stepped back through the murmurs that were now surrounding him – surrounding us.

Felicity squealed and began jumping up and down as he walked away. Sapphira just smiled.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Felicity exclaimed. “He wants to meet you. You, Sienna!”

I wiggled. “I know! Oh my gosh!”

“He’s just a boy,” Sapphira sighed.

“Not just any boy,” I replied.

“Sienna Sullivan and Felicity DeVine, are you coming to class or shall we all join you out here?” Miss Aurora Raine asked as she stuck her head out of the classroom. “Right—”

We both gasped as our books disappeared from our arms to the pale pink shimmer of her orb.

“In,” she demanded. “Sapphira Gleam, aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?”

“Probably.” She smiled. “I’ll see you girls later.”

I sighed and followed Felicity into the classroom where our books were waiting, neatly stacked on our desks.

*

“Sienna, where’s your assignment? Did you finish it?” a voice asked from far away at almost the end of class.

I blinked, and my daydream of the outside sunshine melted into the familiar white surroundings of the classroom. I looked at Miss Aurora.

“I… no, I couldn’t finish it,” I answered. “I couldn’t get the temperature right—” I heard some giggles around me and added. “On some things.”

“You couldn’t freeze them?”

I glanced around a little self-consciously before shaking my head in the slightest. Miss Aurora sighed.

“Could someone please assist Sienna with her assignment?” she asked in an almost rhetoric fashion.

There was a lot of shifting in seats and averted eyes as she waited. It didn’t surprise me that no one wanted to help. We had enough of our own work without helping someone else with theirs. Even Felicity looked away.

“Anyone…?” she continued. “Tobias Hail, you’ve got a natural talent for ice.”

The boy called Tobias Hail raised his head slowly and glanced in my direction. He looked as enthusiastic about helping me as anyone else, though now that someone had been singled out, everyone seemed a little brighter. But then I realised it wasn’t relief in their expressions. It was fear. Fear for me that Miss Aurora Raine had partnered him with me. Although, despite the fear, no one was brave enough to offer their help instead.

“Great, that’s settled,” Miss Aurora said. “Sienna, Tobias will help you get the temperature right, and you will submit your assignment in two days. Is that clear?”

“As ice,” I mumbled, feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment.

I hated that I needed help because I couldn’t seem to set my own thermostat correctly. Everyone else could make ice, but the closest I ever got was cold water. Science was definitely not my strong suit. I also had problems when it came to plantology and growing things as well.

“Okay, class dismissed. I will see everyone at the same time tomorrow,” Miss Aurora announced.

I waited in my seat for everyone to leave and noticed that Tobias had also remained seated.

Tobias Hail. I didn’t really know him, but I certainly knew of him. I knew what others said about him, about the dark outsider that just appeared one day. People were wary of him because he didn’t look like the rest of us. He looked more like one of them, the shadow people that the Elders warn us about, the Weavers.

He didn’t have many friends because he didn’t just look different. He was different. He knew how to do things that most of us still had to learn and acquire. But not only was he at the top of his class in pretty much everything, rumour had it that he was also trained and super talented in spells and Weaver tricks. That was why his presence made me extremely nervous, even if he was supposed to help me.

Tobias slid out of his chair and walked towards my desk. His dark brown eyes looked deep in thought.

“Are we going to do this?” he asked, and his voice wasn’t how I expected it to sound.

I didn’t know what I expected but judging by his dark features. I guess I assumed it would be deeper and more rustic than the smooth, honey-like ring that it had. Plus, he had an accent, a slight proper accent that was different from ours. I think I remembered hearing that he was from London or somewhere near there. People also said that he had been to places that none of us had or would ever be allowed to go if we were to remain undetected.

“Um, actually, can we do this later?” I replied. “There’s someone I need to meet right now.”

He shrugged. “It’s your assignment.”

I frowned. “Um, can I meet you in two hours?”

“Fine.”

“Where, um, where should we meet?”

“Meet me back here,” he said. “We’ll take it from there.”

I nodded and stood up. “Okay. Um, thanks.”

He ran his hand through his dark curly hair and turned to leave. I looked over as Felicity and Sapphira appeared in the doorway. They both scrambled as he headed towards them to leave.

“Why didn’t you just do your assignment?” Felicity muttered.

Sapphira sighed. “Now you have to be alone with the Shadow.”

The Shadow. That’s what they called Tobias since he looked more like a Shadow Weaver, the natural enemy of our breed, the Light Lacers.

I pulled a face.

“Don’t worry about that now, Sienna,” Felicity replied. “You’re going to be late to see Riley!”

“Right.” I nodded. “I’ll just run my books back to my room.”

“No, go now!” Felicity said. “We’ll take them back, go!”

I passed them to her and ran, flitting through the halls at the whirlwind speed of Lacer light. Mere moments had passed when I arrived at the olive grove, and I exhaled when I saw he hadn’t arrived yet. Good, he hadn’t been kept waiting.

I curled my long honey-blonde hair around my hand as I paced up and down the orchard and felt the warm rays of the sun smile down on me. As a Light Lacer, we gained power and energy from the sun, kind of like solar power. Although, I still loved the moon and the darkness. It felt as comfortable to me as daylight did.

Time passed, and I kept pacing as the sun tracked across the sky. Riley was late now. I couldn’t say how late since I never liked wearing a watch and having my life dictated by time. Maybe that was why I was always late to class.

The sun dipped further on its journey to meet the horizon, and I felt my heart sink as I orbed back to the halls in my gold shimmer. I dragged my miserable feet in the direction of the Elder’s suite and then knocked on the door.

“Enter,” a voice called.

I pushed the door open. “Hey, Uncle Finn.”

Finn wasn’t my uncle by blood, but he was the closest thing I’d ever known to a real relative. He never liked to talk about them, my blood people, and it upset him a lot when I brought them up. So, even though I was itching to know what happened to them, I tried not to ask too many questions. I did know that Shadow Weavers had something to do with why they weren’t around anymore, and that my father managed to get away. He hadn’t tried to find me since Finn had brought me to the reservation when I was a baby, so I never knew him.

“Hi, Little Light!” Finn beamed. “I didn’t expect to see you today.”

I walked in and flopped on his couch. “I’m sad, Uncle Finn.”

He looked up from his desk. “Why?”

“Riley McIlhoney.”

“And what did this Riley McIlhoney do to make you sad?” Finn asked.

“He stood me up,” I mumbled. “Uncle Finn, why do boys do that? Why do they tell you one thing then do another? I could have been good for him. I think he could have liked me, but he never gave me a chance. Why does everyone leave me before they give me a chance?”

“Sienna,” he sighed. “He is one boy. There will be others. In fact, I guarantee you that there will be better ones who are more worthy of your time.”

“But I wanted that one.” I frowned. “And it wasn’t just him. My dad abandoned me too. He didn’t even meet me, and he didn’t want me.”

Finn’s expression broke. “He wanted you, Little Light. He had his reasons for leaving.”

“What reasons?”

He pressed his lips together. “One day, I’ll tell you about him, but not today.”

I groaned. “Why not today?”

“It’s a long story, Little Light. I don’t want to miss anything out,” he said. “I need to teach a water manipulation class in a few. What are you up to?”

Water… ice.

“Crackle,” I gasped. “I’m supposed to meet someone for an assignment.”

“Which assignment?”

“The ice one. I can’t get the setting right, so Miss Aurora made me buddy up with the Shadow.”

“Do you mean Tobias Hail?” he asked, and his tone was disapproving. “He’s not a Shadow, Sienna. He’s a very talented Lacer.”

I shrugged. “He looks like a Shadow.”

Finn folded his arms. “I shouldn’t be saying this, but despite what you’ve been told, not all Shadow Weavers are evil, and you shouldn’t be judging people on how they look. After all, Little Light, you have two different coloured eyes. Some people might find that odd.”

I pulled a face. “It’s not my fault that one is blue and one is grey. It’s a defect. It’s actually so annoying that I can’t see colour out of the one that has no colour.”

I shivered when I remembered all the testing they had put me through in the early days to make sure the defect wasn’t something more.

“Regardless,” he said. “Be open-minded, Little Light. No one is perfect.”

“Riley McIlhoney is,” I grumbled as I stood.

Finn gestured me over to the door.

“Don’t let your schoolwork slip, Sienna,” he replied. “It’s important that you learn how to control your gifts. You never know when you will need them for real.”

“I know,” I answered. “I’ll do better, Uncle Finn. I promise.”

“Okay.”

Finn kissed my head and orbed away in his turquoise shimmer. It was completely unfair that Elders could orb around the place when everyone else got into trouble if they were caught using their powers for fun. The Elders always went on about practising them in a controlled environment until we were of age, which meant we had to be twenty years old. I still had another four years and two weeks until I’d come into my full powers, and that felt like an eternity.

There were four stages of being a Light Lacer. In the first stage, from when we were born to when we turned twelve, we were known as Suns. During this stage, we were marked with our first Light Lacer tattoo, a sun, between our shoulder blades.

When Lacers turned twelve, we became a Greentip, and below the little sun symbol, we received the mark of a green leaf. It was around then that we started to learn more about our powers, and we were finally allowed to use them in a controlled setting. That usually meant just when teachers said we could in the classroom or when we had assignments.

At sixteen, we graduated to Snowflake and received a snowflake symbol beneath the leaf after passing an assessment known as the LITS, or the Lacer Induction Test Simulation. It was something we took to test our control over our abilities as a Light Lacer. Each of us could conjure ice and water, orb things, send someone to sleep with a touch, move at super-speed, breath underwater, revive plants, and orb with a shimmer of light. I still struggled with some of the abilities, like plants and ice, but I hoped I would still pass my LITS when the time came.

The fourth and final stage of being a Lacer was the Elder, which we reached at twenty. That was the year we came of age and were at our full Light Lacer potential. The Elders got one final mark below the snowflake – a little swirl in the shape of a water drop. Finn was an Elder and had been one for several years. However, because we’re magical, we stopped ageing as soon as we reached twenty. I couldn’t wait to be an Elder, but I was still only a Greentip. I loved my little sun and leaf marks, and I couldn’t wait to add to them. The tattoos, to me, were like badges of honour. I was super proud of what I was, but I just wished I didn’t struggle so much with it.

I ran all the way back to meet Tobias at our ice class and hated that I had no idea of the time. I didn’t know how mad he’d be or if he would still even be there.

“You’re late,” he noted as he checked his arm.

I exhaled. “Sorry. I don’t wear a watch. Electrical things make me squeamish.”

“Let’s get going then.”

“Where?”

“I know a place where we can go,” he said.

I watched him walk away from the class and then slowly followed him down the pale hall. I could feel the flashes and cold flushes from the other students practising their craft as we passed. A couple of them even turned to stare before hastily shuffling out of our way.