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to you. I don’t know how you both did it, no one does. It was a
miracle. We don’t know exactly what you are because we have never seen it
before,’ Stella was speaking faster and faster as she tried to explain
everything to Laura, ‘your mother then took you away to live in the human world.
You wouldn’t remember any of that of course because you were only a baby, but she
didn’t want you to grow up in this sort of life, fighting evil, risking your
safety. You were her miracle.’
  Laura shook her head astonished, ‘I could have killed her?’ she whispered.
  She couldn’t believe that her mother had been through such pain, such terror,
all to give birth to her.
  How in the world could any of this be possible? She asked herself. It seemed
ridiculous.
  ‘Don’t blame yourself, Laura. It was a long time ago and you both survived,’
Leo said gently, giving her a warm smile as he reached up and readjusted his
glasses.
  ‘I still don’t understand; why did those people take my mother then?’
  ‘Because they want you. You have great power, more than anyone has ever seen before,
and now people want you,’ Leo said.
  ‘But how? I have never done anything before. I have no power,’ Laura
insisted.
  ‘You do, you just don’t know how to use it because you haven’t had the
training.’ Stella said calmly.
  ‘If I haven’t done the training then how is it possible for everyone to know
I have power?’
  ‘You have the power of a Warlock mixed with the power of a human, which means
you live and breathe. You have warm blood running through your veins, a heart
beating in your chest, air filling your lungs, and that is something no one of
our race has. Not even Warlocks. We may not know your exact powers, but we know
you are definitely nothing like anyone has ever seen before,’ Leo explained.
  Laura didn’t know what to feel. Part of her wanted to believe their words but
another part of her wanted to turn and run and keep moving forever. Everything
she had heard seemed absurd. Silly. Unrealistic. She was human. Magical powers
and creatures didn’t exist. That was stupid. How could any of it really be
true?
  She shook her head, ‘I just.. it’s all so.. I don’t know if I can believe
it.’
  Leo gave Stella a look and she closed her eyes for a moment before giving him
a short, sharp nod. Leo clasped his hands together, rubbing them as if to warm
them from the cold. Then, he turned them outwards, palms up.
  For a moment, nothing happened. Then, unexpectedly, something started to appear
in his hands. Something glowing blue like a light bulb. It was the size of a
nut, then a golf ball, then a tennis ball. It continued to grow bigger, the
light filling the room. The whole library glowed a brilliant blue and Leo’s
face was full of concentration.
  Then, as quickly as the glistening ball had appeared, it began to dissipate,
growing smaller until suddenly his hands were empty. The two of them looked up
at Laura with hopeful eyes.
  Her jaw dropped open, and for the second time that week, she fainted.

Chapter Four
Dreams That Haunt Us
    Laura was
drifting through a deep sea of blackness. Panic flared in her stomach,
travelling up her spine, wrapping around her neck with its sharp claws. She lay
on her back in foggy water, unable to move. Faces slowly drifted across the
dark sky above, and the panic held her head still, forcing her to watch. Her father,
her mother, Estella, Leo, the three kidnappers, the people from the paintings,
the other occupants of the manor, they all blurred together above her. And then
she could hear someone calling her name. Fear struck her like lightening as she
thrashed around, thick black liquid spraying up around her. Still, she was
forced to watch the faces above.
  ‘They are coming for you Laura,’ her dad whispered, and it was as if the
words had engulfed her.
  ‘You are different. You are special,’ her mother sang, her voice echoing
across the sea