7. Always More To Life.

By the time I walked into the room, Orion had fallen asleep on the bed. “Orion, wake up.” I walked over and started poking him.

“Nyuuuh,” he groaned and pulled the covers over his head.

“I get to sleep during daylight, you don’t.” I jumped onto bed, ripping the covers from him. Flopping down, I buried myself in the covers.

“Ugh.” Groggily he got out of bed and went over to the fridge, pulling a sandwich and some juice out of it. “Cover stealer.” He smirked at the giant bundled up lump on the bed.

“It’s what I do.” I grinned.

“Of course it is,” he flicked on the T.V. and drank some juice.

“What kind of sammich is that?” I asked, scurrying across the floor with the blankets.

“Turkey. Last one.” He waved it in front of my face and took a bite. “But, as you now know, it’s mine.” He shrugged and started flipping through the channels.

“Like hell, it is.” I grabbed the sandwich, tore of the part he’d bitten and tossed it back at him. “It’s mine now, loser.” I smirked and stole his juice.

“Hey, that was mine!” he grabbed for it and I pulled it away. “And that was my sandwich.”

“Keyword being was.” I snickered then shoved the whole sandwich in my mouth and slowly ate it. Downing the juice, I handed the glass back to him and smacked my lips. “Thanks for the snack.” Plopping down next to him, I stole the remote and flipped to a channel.

“That was mean.” He said, narrowing his eyes.

“I’m mean,” I shrugged, staring at the TV.

“No, you’re an evil, maniacal genius.” He stared at the TV, too.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Hm, nothing good is on.” I flipped through the channels once more before tossing the remote back to him. “So what are we gonna do till dinner?” I glanced at my watch, “Ugh, it’s two hours away.”

“Wanna go to the beach?” he flipped the TV off and flicked the remote into a couch corner.

“Um,” I glanced out the window, there was a furious thunderstorm raging, “Sure.”




“Hey, Luna!” Orion screamed from twenty feet away as I slowly waded through the icy cold water. “Don’t drown,” he pointed at the giant waves crashing in, several yards away.

“I won’t. If I did, who’d be here to get on your nerves?” I laughed. “Besides, the worst that’ll happen is the waves drown me, carry me away to the middle of nowhere, I get eaten by sharks and nobody misses me. Doesn’t sound too terribly bad.”

“Yeah, well, just don’t drown.” He laughed, setting up a beach chair and lying down in it. “We’ve been here for an hour, when do ya wanna head back?”

“Five more minutes,” I sighed, staring down at the rippling water. Suddenly the water smoothed and a girl stared back. “Holy crap!” I shouted, quickly backing away from the water. The reflection followed me no matter where I went so I decided to just stay put.

“What’s wrong, Luna?” Orion shouted as he stood at the edge of the beach.

“Nothing, go back to your chair thingy.” I waved him away and stared back at the girl. “Cassie?” I choked out as I stared at the familiar image of a girl with long, silver hair and blood-red eyes.

“Luna!” the girl shrieked, reaching to grab me in a hug before she hit whatever it was she saw me through and fell backwards. Rubbing her head, she got back up.

“I thought you were just a figment of my imagination, appearing only in my dreams?” I raised an eyebrow and folded my arms, staring at her expectantly.

“No! Well, sort of,” she said, her face twisting in thought. “That dream happened, and didn’t.”

“Eh?”

“You’re only half of you,” she stated, tilting her head.

“I repeat, eh?”

“Okay, it’s like this: you’re the eldest daughter of the Queen of Shadows. Shadows are one-third vampire, one-third werewolf, and one-third of all other mythological creatures with the appearance of a human, until they reach a certain age. Unless you’re to be the next queen, then you look the same,” she nodded at me then continued, “Shadows are the peacemakers of all creatures. Chaos is reigning because the queen died two months ago, and we need your help.”

“…I’m a queen now?” I sighed, rubbing my temples, “AND I’m supposed to settle a feud between giant, powerful monsters? End chaos, happy ending, that sort of thing?”

“Basically, yes.” She stared blankly back.

“You were wanted dead as a baby by evil creatures, you know. Your spirit was split in half, each getting an identical body, just in case someone actually killed one of you.” Orion hugged me from behind and poked the mirror thing. A spark flew through his finger. “I was sent to guard this half of you,” he grinned and flashed fangs.

“Lemme guess, you didn’t have your shadow power stuff or appearance all this time? And you just got it by touching that mirror thing?”

“Yup.”

“You knew about this all this time?”

“Yup.”

Turning around, I punched him in the face. “You should’ve told me,” I pouted. “Oh, hey, I want powers.” I glanced at Cassie, waiting for her answer.

“You’ll get several after you break this crystal. You’ll learn or pick up others later.”

“Alright!” I raised my arm, ready to punch the crystal.

“WAIT!” she waved frantically. “We need you here. There will be a gate in your room in exactly three hours. Go through it.”

“That all?”

“Yes.”

“Alrighty then!” I beamed and smashed my fist against the crystal. Pulling my arm back, I yelped in pain, the crystal wasn’t broken. “Oh, let me guess.” I sighed, rolling my eyes and flicked the glass lightly. It shattered into a million pieces and flew into me. Pain soared through my body like spikes and the world blacked out.




“Lunaaaa.” My blurry vision cleared, and I saw Orion staring down at me. “You okay? You’ve been out cold for two hours. I had to cancel meeting Ceres for dinner.”

“Ughhh,” I groaned and sat up, my head was spinning.

“How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve been pounded with sledgehammers and struck by lightning,” I smirked, standing up and stretching. “Alright, let’s try this.” I jumped onto the couch, ready to take of. Dashing from one edge to the other, I flew, for two seconds, then fell. “Alright, so I can’t fly.”

Orion burst out laughing, “No, apparently not.” He came over and helped me up. “What on earth made you think that you could fly?”

“I thought it’d be a power I got.”

“What?” he asked confused, staring at me like I was nuts.

“I’m a shadow, aren’t I?”

“A what?”

“Are you kidding me? That couldn’t have been a dream.” I sighed and plopped down onto the couch. Too bad she can’t fly yet, I wonder when she’ll get it. “What’d you say?” I asked, turning to stare at Orion.

“I didn’t say anything,” He shrugged. Did her head get messed up when I whacked it against the door on accident when I was bringing her back from the beach?

“AHA! I knew it! I am a shadow,” I jumped up and pointed at him. “I can read minds. Now why were you trying to convince me that I wasn’t a shadow?”

Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t want you to be put in danger.” I love her too much.

“Geez, I thought the you-liking-me thing was a joke.” I stared, wide-eyed.

“Nope.” He shrugged and sat down, obviously uncomfortable.

“Well, this is awkward,” I plucked a pillow from the couch and started poking at it while avoiding eye contact with Orion.

“Yup.”