YA fantasy unknown title

This is one of my first attempts at actually starting a book, i would really appreciate some feedback, and maybe even a title? I just really want to know what other people think, and how i could make it better.
Thanks, :Ditto

Chapter 1

It’s been one week since my parents were killed.
One week since I heard my mother singing in the kitchen, one week since I’ve smelled my dad’s cologne, and told them to get a room when they start making out in the kitchen.
I’ve never felt so alone.
I miss all the little things, the things I took for granted, but when they were taken away, I wanted back more than anything else. How could they leave me, when there is still so much I don’t know about my powers?
You see, here’s the thing, I’m a mage, and before you say it, I’m not like a witch with a wand a broom. I don’t need those things, I have my own magic. I guess you could say it’s a genetic thing, and my ancestors have had magic in their blood since before anyone can remember, it’s who we are, and who we will always be.
My kind’s greatest legend is that the first mage, Kelgar, saved the dragon Jarnuk’s life when he was attacked by dragon hunters. In return the dragon gave Kelgar some of his blood, and when he drank it, he was instantly given the magic and powers of a dragon.
Of course, this stuff is just myth, and any dragons that may have existed died out a long time ago, not a single one has been sighted in many centuries.
With our magic comes the ability to cast any spell you can think of, as long as you have enough power, otherwise you’ll die. And raising the dead is strictly forbidden, you can’t bring back life without giving life, and the life given is always yours, so no one tries that anymore.
There aren’t very many of us left, only about six in the world, now that my parents are dead. During the dark ages, my kind was hunted down and those stupid enough not to take them seriously were killed.  Thank god that’s stopped now, but even if it was still going on, I’m pretty handy with a sword and bow; I bet I totally could’ve kicked their arses.
My parents thought it an important skill that I learn to fight and be able to defend myself. The first time I picked up a sword was when I was five; I had my dad on the ground in ten minutes. I don’t think they expected that I would have such a gift with weapons, nor that I would enjoy it so much. It’s just one of these things that gives you a rush you can’t top when you beat someone, and keeps you fit at the same time. It’s genius.
I guess you could also say I’m pretty special for my kind, and I’m not talking about my fascination with weapons.
Because most mages only have one mage as a parent, they get an average amount of magic. But both of my parents were mages, so I’m practically super charged with power. When I was six, a demon who could see power auras stopped by, and he said the glow around me was blinding, and that he couldn’t look at me without wincing.
Usually I’m pretty proud of that fact, but right now, I don’t think I can feel anything except grief.
I just can’t believe they’re gone. The two people I trusted and loved most in the whole world.
Everything seemed fine the day it happened, I went to school, got a detention, they got annoyed at me, and then they went out to hunt for bad guys.
I suppose I should mention that that was their second job, whilst most kid’s parents are doctors or lawyers, mine hunt down those beings who have disobeyed the laws and kill them or capture them. They’re kind of like supernatural bounty hunters. Or at least they’re proper name is guardians, as they are the magical protectors of our city, protecting the humans from things they don’t know exist.
I’m not blaming them or anything, my best friends are humans, I guess I just have always believed that they should know what is out there, so they can protect themselves better.
So, anyway, they’d gone out on ‘guardian duty’, and next thing I know I’m hearing the sirens and the police are at our door, telling me my parents bodies have been found, dead.
I was shattered, literally, I swear to god I could hear my heart breaking. I don’t even know how I ended up at my aunt Xandra’s, I don’t even care. I just want my old life back, and know everything I have every known has changed. It SUCKS.
Of course everyone was more preoccupied with how they had died to even care about me, there were no physical signs indicating their death, and they were both in perfect health. But as soon as I was asked to identify they’re bodies I knew what had happened, because they’re souls were gone.
One of the least favourable parts of my powers is that I can see people’s soul colours. When I touch them, I see a flash of their aura’s and it reveals to me stuff about their personality.
For example, my mother was blue, meaning that she was strong, loyal, stubborn, and she is also very slow to trust and form relationships with people.
My best friend Kasey is a deep red, so she is mischevious, has terrible mood swings, loves people way to much and is very passionate about the things she believes in.
The worst colour to see someone flash is black, but it’s incredibly rare. I’ve only seen it once, when I had to go to the police station for a school trip. I accidentally brushed against a man being escorted by the police as I passed him.
I was so scared by the flash of black that I was sick right in the hallway, embarrassing to say the least. After my little panic attack, I was told that the man was a murderer, convicted of murdering ten young girls. Talk about a reality check.
Now, normally when a person dies, their soul hangs around the body for a few days, trying to get back in, so when I went into that room, dreading seeing my parents souls, you have no idea how much more it terrified me when I realised that they were well and truly gone. Trust me; I looked everywhere in that room, the policewoman who had escorted me probably thought I was nosy.
But it finally hit me, sending my breath whooshing out of my lungs. Stolen.
My parent’s souls had been stolen.
And the only things that can steal souls are shades, who take them and give them to their master. Because if you absorb a soul, it adds on about…oh, a hundred years to your life. With enough souls, you can live for all eternity.
And if you had my parent’s souls, well, you would live about another thousand years and your power would increase substantially. So, I guess it’s safe to say mages souls are in pretty high demand.
The worst is that I can’t bear the thought of my parent’s, their souls, being tortured in some evil, twisted beings body for thousands of years. I would prefer them to die rather than for them to face that. Although ideally I’d like them to be alive and for nothing to have happened in the first place.
I’ve been in this same room in Xandra’s for a week now, eating nothing, not sleeping, and drinking only what she forces down my throat.
I know I’m scaring her, I know she’s wondering if I’m committing suicide right now. But I don’t want to scare her, I just don’t think she can understand that I need time alone, to sort out my twisted mind and try to piece together my broken heart.
Xandra’s one of these people that likes routine, she wants everything to be exactly the same and she hates change. She’s a mind reader, a psychic, I suppose. Whilst mum got the mage gene, Xandra got what she calls ‘the curse’, the ability to enter anyone’s mind at free will and explore anything within it.
The only exception is me.
She has never been able to access my mind, and believe me, she’s tried hard. She and my parents wanted to know why her psychic abilities didn’t work on me, it was like my mind was locked, and I was the only one with the password.
And I don’t even know what that password is.
It scared my parents when I was really young, they didn’t know whether the magic had corrupted me, made me go insane or if it had affected my mind. Their faces when I made my first accidental fire and when I had first started talking were full of relief, a sight I will never forget.
Xandra just took it that I had immunity to her powers, a gift I have never been ungrateful for; I just can’t imagine her poking around in my mind, looking at my deepest secrets. Its plain creepy.
The room she gave me in my house would have been beautiful if I’d actually thought to appreciate it, in fact, her whole house was beautiful due to the vast amount of money she had in the bank. Her job as a detective in the police paid her very well, I suppose it helps that she could read people’s minds to see who the culprit was.
The only furniture is a bed by one of the cream walls, a built-in wardrobe, and a chest of drawers by the other wall. In the remaining wall, there is a massive window which takes up pretty much all of it, so I look over city even when I’m in bed. It really was quite incredible; unfortunately, I couldn’t be bothered even trying to look at the spectacular view that awaited me.
The ceiling is intricately decorated with traditional designs, swirls and animals, probably from way back when this house was built. I know each pattern like my own palm, having stared up at them since I arrived here; looking at them seems to be the only thing distracting me from my emotions, but it never really works and I get caught up in grief and sadness all over again.
But that’s how Xandra finds me as she walks into my room, holding a muffin and a glass of orange juice, obviously hoping that today might be the day I will give in to my physical needs.
As always she is wrong, and I don’t even feel the slightest twinge of desire for either, the only thing I want now is my parents, and she will never be able to give them to me.
Seemingly giving up, she puts the muffin and the glass on top of the chest of drawers, and then walks back and sits on the bed, sighing as the bed creaks beneath both our weight.
Although it’s not like we’re heavy or anything, my body has always been slim and toned from all the fighting, and my aunt has always had looks to die for, a curvy body, long legs, ink black glossy hair and a gorgeous heart shaped face, she has never lacked for attention from men.
Although I always thought it was a cold beauty, she never shows any emotion on that perfect face, it’s like she’s unfeeling, it’s not like showing your feelings is harmful or anything.
My mum was beautiful too, but in a warmer way, with a willowy, graceful body, long honey coloured hair and a delicate face. It was always my greatest wish that I grow up to look like her, but everybody says I got my father’s looks. With his slightly darker shade of golden brown hair, a slim and yet incredibly strong body, what I see as clumsiness and average looks but what everyone else calls beauty and grace, and haunting silvery blue eyes compared to her brown ones, I think it’s pretty certain I won’t be getting my wish unless I have plastic surgery. Which so isn’t going to happen.
Although it was her idea to call me ‘Aislinn’, I mean, what type of a name is that? It totally sucks; it makes me sound like some posh snob. That’s why I have to drill it into everyone’s minds to call me Ash instead, which is much more appropriate, but my parents never gave in. I was always their ‘Aislinn’.
I guess I can forgive them though, I have never once in my sixteen years met another Aislinn, unlike if I was called Alexandra or something like that.
I turned my head towards Xandra, meeting her clear blue eyes and trying to tell her with mine that I just need time alone. But when she didn’t react, I forced myself to speak, my voice raspy from not being used.
“Xandra, please, I’m not going to starve myself, contrary to your beliefs, I do have a will to live. Just, please, I can’t face the world yet.” At the end my voice got quiet, breaking halfway through.
Xandra sighed again, her face actually showing signs of worry as she swept by hair out of my eyes. She moved her hand so she could grasp by hand, hers warm compared to mine which were freezing.
“ Aislinn, I can never expect to understand what you’re feeling, my parents died after living long and happy lives,” She stopped as tears filled my eyes, tears for all the years that had been stolen from mum and dad. “
I’m so sorry sweetie, but I can’t bring them back, I’m just a useless mind reader,” I opened my mouth to tell her that she wasn’t at all useless, but she cut me off with a wave of her hand.
“ I will never force you to do something you really don’t want to do, but please, please, come downstairs, watch T.V, pig out, go and see Keefu, I don’t care, but please do something instead of wasting away, alone, on this bed. It’s breaking the only heart I have left.”
I was preparing myself to shake my head, when I saw pain in her eyes, identical to my own. She had lost a sister, and a brother-in-law who really was a brother to her. We only had each other left, and I could see it was killing her to see me just lying here, doing nothing. I couldn’t let anyone else hurt like I was right now, so I sat up and got of the bed, grabbing her arm for support as a wave of dizziness came over me.
But it was worth it to see the look of joy and relief in my aunt’s eyes, I gave a small laugh as I continued to wobble, my legs had turned to jelly.
“Maybe I should eat something before I do anything else.”
I sat back down as she enthusiastically agreed, relief shining on her face as she watched me devour the muffin. It turned out that I was actually very hungry, my stomach agreeing with the food very much.
I drained the juice in one gulp, and, with Xandra’s help I got up and made the slow journey out of my room, down the cream carpeted stairs and into the shiny, modern, kitchen. It felt odd thinking that this was my new home, Xandra had offered to keep my old one until I was eighteen, but I didn’t think I could cope with that decision just yet.
I settled in one of the black barstools one the opposite side of the work top, and Xandra went to sit at the dining table, a still steaming mug of coffee set on the table next to Who! Magazine, which she had obviously been reading before she came to plead with me to get up.
She looked at me expectantly, but I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I stumbled out,
“Um…I just wanted to um…say thanks for er…taking me in and all that” The last bit I rushed out, as if I couldn’t get it out quick enough.
For a couple of seconds my aunt looked shocked, and then she smiled at me and replied kindly,
“It was nothing, it’s not like I’m going to let them take you to an orphanage.”
As soon as she said that last word it brought back all the pain, and Xandra gasped as she realised what she’d just said.
“Oh Ash, I’m so sorry.”
She hugged me, a weird gesture which felt kind of awkward, I realised she had never really hugged me before. She just wasn’t that type of relative.
“It’s okay, I guess I’m going to have to get used to being called an orphan, I may as well start now.”
She sniffed audibly against my hair, whether because she was crying or because my hair was getting up her nose I don’t know. She dropped her arms from around me, but instead she sat in the stool next to me and grabbed my hands. As if she was trying to reassure herself I was definitely alright.
Xandra regained her composure and her next question was businesslike, as if she was at work and she was interrogating me about a crime. But this time, the crime was me. Doesn’t make sense, does it?
“So, I know you may not feel up to it yet, and I understand. But what do you want to do about school? I could hire a private tutor for a while, if you like.”
I shook my head, wiping the moisture from my eyes with my sleeve. I had to get back to school, my parents would turn in their graves if they knew I was flunking my studies.
Plus I had to see my friends, I was aware of the amount of times they had rung asking for me, only to hear the same thing, ‘she doesn’t feel up to it right now, but I’ll make sure to ask her to ring you when she is’. I could imagine Kasey and Becca on the other end of the line, stamping their feet like spoilt kids as they had been refused to talk to me, again.
“I need to go back to school, get back into my normal life, and see my friends. The new school years only just started and I can’t afford to spend too much time away, it’ll affect my grades. I’ll go back tomorrow, I just need to borrow one of your cars, and mine’s still at…the other house.”
I mentally winced as I said that, and I could tell my aunt did too, but she hid it well.
“Alright, I’ll leave the Toyota’s keys on the table; I trust you to drive safely and all that. But if you get up tomorrow, or you’re at school, and you want to come back, just give me a call, or tell the office you have my permission and go home.”
“Ok.” I said, accepting her conditions, but she still wasn’t happy, concern showing in her eyes.
“Promise me. I don’t want to come home to a teenager who says I forced her to go to school when she didn’t want to.” She gave me ‘the look’ as she said this, and to show her my complete obedience I put a fist over my heart and promised,
“I, Aislinn Persephone Cagora do hereby swear to the conditions stated. There, now are you happy?”
The ghost of a smile appeared, a real one, one I hadn’t seen since my father had called back to me to wash the dishes as he closed the front door for the final time in his life. It was precious, and I returned the smile hoping it reached my eyes.
“Now,” my aunt continued, and I felt like I was being interrogated again. “What are you going to about you magic? I can hardly teach you and the nearest mage lives in Alaska.”
This was a serious problem, one I couldn’t avoid, my strength was building everyday until I reached full magical maturity, something I was still striving toward.
“I guess I have my magic book, and I can practise outside. If I’m having real problems I can always email Elihundu for help.” Elihundu is the Alaskan mage, nearing two hundred years old and always happy to help a young one in need, he would the perfect person to ask for help. And didn’t I tell you, we mages get the best names ever. Yipee.
If I ever have a child, I will save them the embarrassment by giving them a normal name, like Jake or Alice.
“Well that’s sorted, and I can continue teaching you your plant studies, that was the one thing I was better at than my sister. Plus, I could always read my mother’s mind when I didn’t know the answer.”
Surprisingly that inspired a choked laugh from me, even Xandra chuckled a little as she thought about it. But it made me think, if Xandra could just get the answers from someone’s mind, she could never fail anything.
“Wasn’t it just tempting to read your teacher’s mind during an exam? You could get whatever grade you wanted! I wish I could do that.” I said forlornly, but my enthusiasm dropped as her face went from amused to serious in less than a second. I could always sense a lecture a mile ahead, and I didn’t need to be psychic to tell I had one coming right now.
“I won’t lie and say it wasn’t tempting, because it was just as sure as the sun is hot. But I wanted to pass those tests through my own learning ability, not my ability to cheat through people’s minds.
“You have to understand, when you reach into someone’s mind, you know everything about them, all their deepest secrets, their fears, their desires. It’s a horrible power to hold over someone. You have no idea the amount of secrets I hold now, and how guilty I feel that I know them.
“When I was your age, I had this massive crush on this guy, a crush so big I broke my own rules and looked into his mind to see whether he liked me back. It was terrible. His cheerleader girlfriend was pregnant, and she wanted to keep the baby so they could have a family. But he couldn’t bear to tell her that he actually liked one of her friends. A guy friend.”
“Oh my god.” I said out loud, I couldn’t even imagine how horrible it would be knowing that, and resisting the urge to blurt it out to the entire school. I certainly knew if our resident head cheerleader got pregnant, I would tell everyone about it. “What happened?”
“It drove me insane, and, one day, I accidentally let it slip to who I thought was best friend. But she went behind my back and told the whole school. Chelsea, the cheerleader, had a breakdown and a miscarriage, Dan, the guy I liked, got beaten up by his friends and the guy he liked. After that he moved away and I never saw him again.”
“Jesus.” Who knew that all that would happen from one secret? Well, one huge secret, but anyway.
“From that day on I promised myself I would always try to avoid reading people’s minds, and if I found out their secrets, I never whispered it to a soul.”
“How can live like that? With all those things bottled up inside you?” I bet I would burst on the first day; I’m terrible at keeping secrets, apart from my own.
“It’s hard, but you learn to live with it, just like you have to learn to live with your powers. It’s just mine are slightly different.”
That’s definitely true, I have always been glad to have my powers instead of hers, who doesn’t want to be able to throw fireballs? Certainly not me.
“Anyway, as glad as I am to have you back, I think you should go and see Keefu, he’s driving be insane!”
I nodded, and grabbed some food for Keefu out of the fridge and headed out into Xandra’s very large garden where I yelled for him to come to me.
I guess I should explain this too. All mages have companions, certain animals they have soul connections with. Companions are very protective of their mages, and the animal that represents you often tells a lot about the person.
Like, if you have a wolf, you are very loyal, social, but you also have a very strict hierarchy, or if you have a bird, you’re constantly moving from place to place, you’re very protective of your family, and you’re also sexist towards females.
But Keefu is one of the rarest companions, but also the one I wouldn’t trade for anything.
So when I a great bug lion came running full sprint out of the bushes, naturally I ran straight towards it with my arms outstretched.