They Who from the Heavens Came (The Wisdom, #1)

They window-shopped for the next hour before getting back on the bus. They got off at the fourth stop and walked up the road. As they neared the house, Itzy’s eyes widened in horror.

‘Seth?’ she said.

He leaned casually against her front door as if he lived there himself. He wore navy blue track bottoms and a fitted blue top that showed off the contours of his chest. He was looking at something on his phone, but his lifted his head when he heard his name. When he saw Itzy, he gave her a wide smile.

‘You’re back!’ he said. ‘I only just got here, myself. Can you believe the timing?’

There was a lot she couldn’t believe.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked as she fished her key out of her pocket.

‘Waiting for you.’

She glared at him. ‘Don’t be facetious.’ At least her mother was still at work and couldn’t embarrass Itzy in front of this strange boy who insisted on forcing himself into her life. ‘Come in,’ she called over her shoulder to the others.

They followed her inside and up the stairs to her room, where Itzy sat on her bed with her friends on either side of her. They watched Seth like it was an inquisition, as he sat at Itzy’s desk.

Remembering her manners, Itzy indicated her friends and said, ‘This is Devon and Ash. Devon, Ash, this is Seth.’

They murmured greetings.

‘Are they the ones who know?’ Seth asked Itzy.

She nodded.

He grinned. His strong hands flashed through the air and Parson Brown dropped into his lap. Devon and Ash gave a little gasp, and he chuckled. ‘Bit different actually seeing it, isn’t it?’ he said, obviously enjoying the impression he was making. He tossed the bear from hand to hand, like a juggling ball, before suddenly throwing it at Itzy. She jumped and caught it and he looked pleased.

‘Nice reflexes,’ he commended. He pointed to her t-shirt, the one that read Heartbreaker. ‘Is that supposed to be a warning?’

Itzy chose to move things along. ‘Why were you waiting for me?’

‘Training.’

‘You said we should only do it at night?’

‘I think the neighbours can handle it, if we keep the curtains closed.’ He winked suggestively at her.

She groaned and fell backward. The top of her ponytail dug into her head as she hit the bed.

Ash took that as his opportunity to reiterate his earlier question: ‘So what are you training for?’

Seth raised one of his golden eyebrows. ‘You’re quicker than your friend,’ he noted.

On the bed, Itzy threw her hands over her eyes and groaned again.

‘The fact is,’ Seth said to Ash, ‘if I told you, Oz would kill me.’

Itzy sat up. ‘My brother? Why does he care?’

‘More importantly,’ Ash broke in, ‘what’s he hiding?’

Seth raised a blond eyebrow at Itzy. ‘I’m guessing you didn’t tell them everything?’

‘I thought maybe I’d leave out all the crazy stuff,’ Itzy told him in a dry voice.

He grinned in that maddening way of his. ‘The crazy stuff,’ he repeated.

Devon turned to her friend. ‘Itz. What’s he mean?’

‘Hrmph,’ said Itzy. She flopped back on the bed. Why oh why couldn’t she rewrite this scene? More precisely, why couldn’t she take herself out of it?

‘We’re descended from aliens,’ Seth announced easily.

‘Uh-huh,’ said Devon, ‘and I’m from the future.’

Itzy looked at her friends. ‘He actually thinks he’s being serious.’

Ash jumped in. ‘So, aliens, huh?’ Despite his disbelief, he sounded excited. His love of science-fiction was coming through.

‘Not ET,’ Seth said. ‘Ever heard of Atlantis?’

‘You mean the Disney film?’ asked Devon.

Ash smiled at his girlfriend. ‘I think he means the actual lost city of Atlantis.’

Devon’s eyes lit up. She looked down at Itzy, who had grown quiet and still. ‘Hey, didn’t your dad used to talk about that?’

‘Yes,’ Itzy said, not moving.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Devon said. ‘I remember, now. He had a book on it. He left it here and we found it once and looked through it. It was all about some myth that aliens had come down to Earth and mated with humans and founded some city called Atlantis. But it sank under the ocean and the aliens went back to their home planet and lots of people have been trying to find the city, since then. Isn’t there even a theory that Christopher Columbus was searching for it?’

Seth gave her an approving look. ‘There is. Anyway, Atlantis was very real. It’s where my ancestors first landed, thousands of years ago. Though we weren’t the first to come here. There were others here before them, all over the world.’

Ash smiled. ‘Right. And then they went back home, yeah?’

‘That’s right.’

‘So Itzy’s dad wasn’t reading about it because he was an archaeologist. He just wanted to learn about his family history.’

Seth grinned. ‘You catch on quickly.’

Ash and Devon shared a look. Then they each took one of Itzy’s hands and pulled at her.

‘Itzy, get up,’ Ash instructed. She did, and they stared at each other. ‘How much of this do you believe?’

Itzy shrugged. ‘Dunno. I mean, you’ve seen what he can do. I’ve told you what I can do. That’s strange enough. Who knows about the rest?’

Ash considered this carefully. Then he let his eyes rest on Seth again, who was spinning around in the desk chair. There was something too confident about him. Itzy had caught glimpses of something more beneath his cool exterior, but they hadn’t lasted long.

‘So why are you telling us all this?’ Ash wondered.

Seth stopped spinning and shrugged. ‘Itzy trusts you. That’s enough for me.’

Itzy had no idea what to do with that, so she stood up with new determination and said, ‘Okay. Let’s start training, then.’

Seth’s eyes twitched and he stood too. ‘Fantastic.’

In three swift steps, he was standing face to face with her, while her friends sat on the bed and watched them like the latest film craze.

‘Alright,’ he said, ‘now think of something you want to happen. But not anything likely to get us attacked by cuddly toys,’ he warned with a reprimanding shake of his forefinger. He turned to their audience to explain. ‘Last night, she made her bear try to kill me.’ He shook his head as if to say, What’s our Itzy like, eh?

Itzy tried to ignore the astonishment on her friends’ faces. ‘I’m not sure what to do.’

‘It doesn’t have to be big,’ Seth urged her along. ‘Start small. Something like….’

‘Ooh, I know!’ Devon cried. She raised her hand like they were in school. ‘Turn the lights on and off. Just by blinking. That would be so cool. You’d be like Bewitched.’

Seth nodded at Devon. ‘Excellent,’ he said. ‘Would you shut the curtains, please?’

Devon kneeled on the bed and drew the curtains closed, plunging them into heavy shade. Then she resituated herself next to her boyfriend and waited for the magic show to begin.

Seth returned his gaze to Itzy. He had an expectant look on his face. ‘You’ve had your first request.’

Itzy swallowed. She felt very on the spot. ‘Remember,’ she warned, ‘I might not be able to do this.’

Seth shook his head with impatience. ‘Stop it.’ He drew his arms together in an X and then swept them apart. ‘Stop being so negative about yourself. You know, I once read a story about a man who fell in love with a planet, and he decided he would never be happy unless he was with it. So he went to the top of a cliff and jumped off, thinking he could fly to the planet. But in the last second, he thought, This is impossible, and he fell to his death.’

Itzy blinked at him in bewilderment. ‘Is that meant to be inspirational?’

Seth laughed. ‘The moral of the story is: there’s no such thing as impossible; there’s only the belief that something is impossible. Aim for the stars and you might reach them – as long as you never doubt yourself.’

Itzy thought that was easy for him to say. He was handsome and strong and had an easy way about him. She realised that despite how annoying he could be, she was coming to like his company.

‘Okay,’ she said. She took a deep breath. ‘Aim for the stars.’

‘Start with the light bulb,’ Seth joked.

‘Right.’ Itzy looked up at the lamp shade that hung from her ceiling. It was cream-coloured and painted with Chinese lettering. She wasn’t certain, but she believed it read, Peace. She had bought it to inspire her toward a more stable mental and emotional state, but it hadn’t done more than protect her from the glare of the light bulb.

She closed her eyes and thought of the bulb. Fiery illumination heated her inside. She could see the shadows of scarlet letters dancing against the backdrop of space, waiting for her to drag them out and be seen.

She reached out in her mind – yes, it was as if her mind had arms – and tried to grab hold of them, but she couldn’t touch them. Every time she moved toward them, they stepped aside, tricking her and sneaking away.

She tried again, but they just kept leaping out of the way. It was frustrating, because they were right there, and yet they slipped away from her like eels. Her head swam with thoughts – distracted thoughts, not about light, but about Seth, and the shadowy figure from her dreams, and her brother – the relationship they might have had, had things been different with their father – how good it would have been to have had an ally, growing up.

She felt herself grow angry, until it was full-blown rage and the space in her head shifted from black to red. The stars disappeared and the letters glowed hotly, asking to be held. She thrust her mental hand around them before they could escape her again and she forced them violently into words, words into sentences. When she thought she was done, she added the full stop.

Then she opened her eyes and noticed Seth looked nervous.

‘What –’ Itzy began, but she was interrupted by the sound of exploding glass.

She looked up, just in time to see the light bulb drop down over her head. She wanted to protect herself in some way, but she couldn’t get her body to work. It felt like everything was moving in slow-motion.

She heard Devon shriek, and suddenly she was torn aside. Time sped up to its normal rate and she watched as the glass fell to the carpet, bouncing in all directions. A piece landed in Parson Brown’s ear. He was having a very bad time of it.

Then Itzy became aware that Seth was standing just behind her. His hands gripped her arms. She could feel his chest against her back, and the way his elevated heart rate made it rise and fall too quickly.

‘That was close,’ he breathed. He released her and knelt on the floor, picking up a bit of glass and examining it from every angle. He whistled. ‘That’s some power you have.’

‘You did that?’ Ash cried in amazement. ‘You actually did that?’

Itzy stood stunned, unable to answer. So Seth said, ‘Yes, she actually did that.’

‘But I didn’t see her write anything,’ Devon noted.

‘She writes it in her head,’ Seth explained. He sighed heavily and pushed himself back up so he was standing. He wiped his hands through the air, and the smashed glass vanished. Parson Brown silently thanked him. Seth looked up at the now defunct lamp shade and drew a circle in the air. He popped his fingers in the direction of the shade and a new light bulb appeared within it. He flicked his fingers and the room burst into brightness.

Ash wore an incredulous expression. ‘That’s so cool,’ he said.

Seth shrugged. His attention went to Itzy, who felt miserable.

‘I’ll never be able to do what you do,’ Itzy told him. ‘I’m like the worst comic book character you’ve ever seen.’

Seth smiled at her and shook his head gently. ‘No, you’re not. If anything, it’s my fault. I’m going about this all wrong.’ He ran his fingers through his hair, considering something. ‘Alright, new plan,’ he declared.

He stepped forward so he was face to face with Itzy once more. He placed a hand on each of her shoulders and leaned forward so their foreheads touched. An involuntary shiver shot down her spine, which she desperately hoped he hadn’t noticed.

‘What are you doing?’ she whispered.

‘Shh,’ he said softly. ‘The problem is you only seem to be able to summon your power when you’re angry.’

That didn’t surprise her, though it did make her heart sink to hear it come from a near-stranger.

‘I’ve been thinking about you all day,’ he startled her. ‘I think you freed Parson Brown this morning because you were annoyed with me for not helping.’

She didn’t disagree.

‘But we can’t go making you angry every time we want you to use your power. That would be cruel – and, as we’ve learned, dangerous. You need to learn how to summon that energy from good feelings, too.’

‘I – I don’t have many good feelings,’ she said so quietly, she thought he hadn’t heard her.

He had.

‘Then we need to work on that, too,’ he said.

Seth was disarmingly un-self-conscious. Despite their audience, he slid his hands down Itzy’s arms and she felt her body loosen. It reminded her of the cool-down sessions at the end of the yoga classes she and Devon had once attended.

She felt heat emanate from Seth’s forehead and flow into her own. It made her think of something she’d read about once, called reiki. Supposedly, you could learn to heal people by holding your hands just above their bodies and directing your energy at them. She could feel Seth’s energy now. It was intense, the way she felt when she was in one of her rages. Except she felt anything but angry. It was incredible to think that same energy could be found alongside such a feeling of peace.

Peace. Had she really just thought that?

Yes, she had. She felt a richer sense of peace than she’d ever known in her life. His body heat washed over her and filled her muscles, her organs, her blood with stillness. Her mind went blank, and it was beautiful.

‘What are you doing to me?’ she asked under her breath, forgetting they had an audience, forgetting where they were, and almost forgetting who she was.

‘Shh,’ he said again. She could feel the air push away from his lips. ‘Now try to see the words.’

The words? Oh, yes. The words. The letters swam up into her vision. They weren’t dancing or spinning the way they did when she was angry. They just sort of hung there, waiting for her to do something with them. Because for once in her life, she had tamed them.

Hers was the power to narrate. As far as she knew, she couldn’t just think something like, ‘Ropes: disappear.’ She had to put it into context and form sentences in her mind, and that took consideration. The wrong wording could put them in terrible trouble – which she was convinced had just happened with the light bulb.

This time, Itzy felt a tremendous sense of control in her head. She wasn’t outside her body; she was part of the black in her head, and it was part of her. She was there to guide it, rather than let it run amok like an unruly toddler in the throes of a fit.

She could see the phantom hands of her mind arranging the letters into words, the words into a sentence. When it was finished, she added the full stop. All at once, the sentence glowed brightly, like a halogen light being switched on at night time. It burned itself into her mind’s eye, scaring her with its resolution: it would be real.

Seth kissed her. His lips brushed hers, sending another shiver down her back. Then she felt his hands leave her arms, his head leap from hers, and she heard him step backward.

Her eyes fluttered open, the room not quite looking real yet. Seth wore that same expression she’d seen on him the night before, after she’d gone into her trance. His usual charm had drained from his face and been replaced with something akin to awe. This time, she thought there was maybe a little fear mixed with it, too.

‘What happened?’ Devon broke in breathlessly. Beside her, Ash looked like an angry father, ready to take action.

Itzy couldn’t take her eyes off Seth. ‘I – I don’t know.’

‘Well,’ said Devon, ‘did it work? What were you trying to write, Itzy?’

Itzy wasn’t sure she should share. It was too private. The truth was she hadn’t intended for Seth to kiss her. She’d only wanted him to display his vulnerable side.

‘Seth,’ she said.

He shook himself like he’d just caught a chill, and seemed to recover. ‘Well done,’ he congratulated her. ‘Though if you’d wanted to kiss me, you could’ve just asked. I hate to see a girl drive herself mad with longing.’ He winked at her, destroying the perfection of the previous moment.

Itzy glowered at him.

‘Anyway,’ he said, ‘Oz will want to hear about this.’

Ash asked, ‘Why?’

Seth let out a deep breath. ‘Because what Itzy just did…is unheard of.’