Chapter 3 They Found Me

“I’m not ordinary? How? I asked, still staring at Gianna like she had just told me the sky was green. What am I then? None of this is making any sense?”

Gianna leaned forward a little and smiled like she had been waiting for this exact question. “It’s kinda obvious you know,” she said. “You definitely have some magic in you, and that red stripe on your hair gives you away too. When we reach sixteen, that stripe shows up, and that’s when everything starts to change. Our power wakes up, the fire starts answering, and the world stops treating you like a regular person. Are you sixteen by any chance?”

“Yes,” I said. “That was today. I turned sixteen today.”

Gianna’s eyes lit up like she had just solved a puzzle. “Perfect. That explains everything. What happened to you today wasn't really random. It was the first step. The fire that came out of your hand, even the way your cat reacted—all of it lines up. Your body is finally catching up to what you are.”

I opened my mouth to ask a dozen more questions, but voices echoed from downstairs before I could get a single word out.

“Nimona? Nimona?”

My parents were calling my name, and their footsteps were already pounding up the stairs. They burst into the room a second later and stopped dead when they saw Gianna sitting on the edge of my bed. Mum’s eyes went wide. Dad froze in the doorway.

“What’s happening here?” Mum asked, looking from me to Gianna and back again. “Who is she? Why is there a stranger in your room?”

Dad stepped closer, his voice lower but just as tense. “Nimona, are you alright? Did something happen while we were downstairs?”

I tried to find the right words, but everything felt tangled. “Mum, Dad, this is Gianna. She… she helped me earlier. Outside. There were these things and—”

Before Gianna could add anything, a loud crack echoed from the living room below. We all froze. Another crash followed, louder this time, the sound of something heavy hitting the floor and glass breaking.

“What was that?” Dad asked, already turning toward the door.

We rushed downstairs together. The scene waiting for us made my stomach drop. The same kind of creatures from the bushes had found their way inside. They were tearing through the living room, knocking over furniture and leaving deep marks across the walls. One of them had already smashed the coffee table. Another was ripping at the curtains like it was trying to climb them.

I felt completely confused, frozen in place, how did they even know where I lived? Mum and Dad looked like they had been expecting something like this. Their faces didn’t show the same shock I felt. They just moved.

Gianna didn’t hesitate. She raised her wand and started fighting them off, shouting those same strange words from before. Every hit landed hard, sending creatures stumbling back or dropping to the floor, but there were more of them this time and they seemed stronger. They kept coming even after she struck them.

“Stay behind me,” Gianna called out, her voice steady even while she swung the wand again. “These ones are harder to put down.”

Mum didn’t wait for instructions. She grabbed the nearest heavy object—a thick wooden chair leg that had broken off earlier—and swung it at one of the creatures, trying to keep it away from the rest of us. Dad moved beside her, picking up a metal poker from the fireplace and using it like a spear. For a few seconds the three of them held the line, but the fight was turning fast. One creature slipped past Gianna’s wand and nearly reached Mum before Dad shoved it back.

Gianna stepped back, breathing hard, and lifted her free hand. Magic swirled around her fingers, soft purple light that pulsed once, twice, then stretched outward like she was reaching for something far away. She spoke more of those strange words, quieter this time, almost like she was making a call through the air itself.

“Come on,” she muttered under her breath. “Answer already.”

Mum kept swinging, her face set and determined. “Gregor, left side!”

“I’ve got it,” Dad answered, driving the poker forward and forcing another creature to stagger.

I still couldn’t move properly. Everything felt too fast and too impossible at the same time. My hands tingled the way they had outside, but no fire came. I just stood there watching the people I loved fight monsters that shouldn’t exist in our living room.

Gianna’s call must have worked because two boys suddenly appeared in the middle of the room in a flash of light and displaced air. They didn’t ask questions. They just started fighting alongside Gianna, using their own powers to push the creatures back. One of them moved with sharp, precise strikes that knocked creatures off their feet. The other, taller, dark hair with a silver strand running through it, fought with a kind of controlled strength that made every hit count. He looked really handsome in a way that made my brain stutter for half a second even in the middle of all the chaos, the way he moved so sure and focused, but I snapped out of it almost immediately and forced my eyes back to the fight.

For a moment it looked like we might actually win. The creatures were being pushed toward the broken windows, some of them already vanishing the same way the first ones had. Gianna’s wand flashed again. The two boys covered the sides. Mum and Dad stayed close, still swinging whenever something got too near.

Then one of the creatures broke through the line. It was faster than the others, and it launched itself straight at Mum with something long and sharp raised high—like a spear made of the same dark material as its body. The point came down fast, aimed right at her chest, and everything seemed to

slow down right before it hit.

“Mum, look out…!”