She turned around to see a plump girl with reddish brown hair regarding her with mirth in her also brown eyes. She was wearing a very snug pair of ripped jeans and a blue tee shirt with a picture of a popsicle at it's center that read, “Melt this!”, in a speech bubble.
“Easy there.” The newcomer said with a British accent that was similar to Brittany's. She extended her arms to steady her.
“I'm fine.” Kennedy took a self-conscious step back and straightened the ridiculous dress that Brittany had lent her.
“Okay, whatever you say, Flower Child. I was just trying to help you out.” Kennedy felt bad instantly, she hadn't meant to be rude.
“I know, I'm sorry. It's just that I'm not feeling too comfortable right now.” She pulled at the hems of the floral dress that insisted on riding up on her thighs.
“Brittany's?” The girl asked, looking at her dress with obvious dislike.
“What gave me away?”
“You look like you just fell out of a clown's bag of tricks.” She choked on some laughter. “No offense, but only my colorblind sister could pull something like that off.”
“Get out, you two are actually related?” Kennedy asked in astonishment.
“Well, I've always fantasized about her being adopted but I've never been able to find the proof to back it up. It's not completely her fault though. We don't get out much. I blame the fashion network.” The girl joked as she took two metal trays from the cart besides the table and handed one to her.
“So, you're Marina?” Kennedy took the tray and stepped in line behind the girl.
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“I'm Kennedy. Your mom is my aunt.”
“That means we're cousins then.” She seemed to be rolling the idea over in her mind. “Brilliant!” Her face lit up.
“Wow, this place must really be boring if you're that excited over meeting me.”
“Well, you do look ridiculously hilarious in that outfit.”
“Thanks.”
“But, I was thinking more along the lines of, no more long tedious days spent in solitude, floating in this sea of dull creatures.” She said theatrically while holding up the back of her hand to her forehead and letting out a sigh at the end.
James had been right about one thing, she could see a chance of hitting it off with her youngest cousin. Kennedy found herself laughing at the girl's antics as they went along the bar putting food into their trays.
It turns out that what Marina had called congrí was just rice stewed with black beans. It was supposed to be an original Cuban dish. So said the cooking lady.
The grayish color that it acquired after it was fully cooked made it look somewhat disgusting, but being as hungry as she was, she would have eaten rocks if they'd thrown some salt on them and go figure, the rice and beans mixture was kind of delicious.
They were talking animatedly about Planet Sailors, a Japanese anime show that they both loved when they'd been growing up, when Brittany sat besides them with a tray of her own.
“Hey – she greeted Kennedy – I see that you're making friends already.” She made it sound like it wasn't such a good thing for her to befriend Marina.
“Hullo there, Brit.” Marina greeted her lively sister with a wave of her hand and a spiteful tone.
“You're about done there, right?” She asked turning to Kennedy. She nodded, speechless.
There was obviously some kind of love-hate sister thing going on there and she wasn't about to get caught in the middle of it. She'd had enough drama to last her two lifetimes already. Marina picked up both trays and walked over to the waste bin without another word to either of them.
“Never mind my uncouth sister. Uncle Jim wanted me to tell you that he's moving you into your mum's old room. The one Uncle Steven has been staying at, Kennedy.” Kennedy had the decency to look ashamed at being made.
“Yeah, I was going to tell you when I next saw you.” But, she had beaten her to the point.
“No worries, I get it. Let me finish this and I'll show you were it is.” Brittany said nonchalantly.
“I'll take her.” Marina arrived back behind her and stared at her older sister with both hands on her waist.
Brittany looked at her. Kennedy looked back and forth between the quarreling siblings. How did she always end up being pulled into these kinds of messes?
16. Point of Know Return
“We got here when I was six.” Marina said as she showed Kennedy to her new room.
“Why did you come here of all places?” She had been practically raised within the confines of the compound. It was hard to believe that someone would choose to be locked there over any other place in the world.
“We had to leave Spain and this was the safest place for us.”
“But, why?”
“Our house was burned down by some witch hunters.” There was nothing that Kennedy could say to that.
“We're alive. That's all that matters.” It looked like her cousin was one of those glass half full people.
“Yeah.”
“We're allowed to leave the grounds, you know.”
“Not me.”
“You will be, on the condition that you stay close. You'll see. Uncle Jim will warm up to the idea soon enough.” Still, that left her with nothing but one shopping mall – with one small movie theater in it – and a whole lot of woods as options.
“I never thought I'd say this, but I think I miss Villa Chica.”
“I don't know, this place kind of grows on you after a while.”
“Maybe I won't be here long enough for that.”
“We were homeschooled, so we mostly kept to helping around here after our daily lessons.” Marina steered the conversation. No gloomy talks with her cousin, check. The girl kept talking about their lives in the compound.
“Brittany, selfless and unambitious as she is, has decided to make a career out of it. She stayed after she turned eighteen four years ago and assumed the role of helper, full time.”
“Meaning, that she lives off the family's money.” Kennedy supplied.
“Ha! I couldn't have said it any better.” They laughed.
Marina, on the other hand, was itching to go away to college as soon as she reached the majority of age and at seventeen, she made it very clear that she couldn't wait to get out of that place.
The youngest of her newfound cousins had a brilliant mind. She had a witty answer for every single question or comment Kennedy threw at her and she was like a walking encyclopedia when it came to the matter of her family's history and the secrets behind the founding of the Archer house back when her first ancestor's had arrived from England in the early nineteen hundreds.
The rest of the family joined them after the German bombing of their homeland during World War Two. Going by what she had told her, the Golden Archer had over one hundred rooms, all situated in and around the main grounds.
The main house – also known as Dover Hall – had twenty, in addition to the Keeper's quarters and all of them were reserved for the permanent residents and staff members. Also there, were situated the infirmary and eating facilities.
Nearby, the Sierra Palm, Oak-leaf and Cypress Hall Annexes – the last one previously being a farm outbuilding set in a country style garden – were set on a level three hundred yards away from the main building and housed the rest of the rooms for long term guests and refugees.
The Converted Barn that stood behind the main house was now the training center with sparring grounds that stood before it and the old Farmhouse was used as a storage facility for all of the place's needs.
The halls that led to her new room were not long enough for everything that Marina had to tell her about the place. From what she had gathered, the members of the Archer house had been mostly hunters drawn to the large amount of supernatural activity that took place on that small island.
The family's view of things changed throughout their years of liv
ing in that mystical place and they ended up limiting themselves to hunting only the truly evil things and helping out everyone else.
Their acceptance reached such levels that they had even allowed one of their sons to take a witch – her aunt Veronica – for a wife.
Kennedy was shocked to find that the Martín family – her own mother's family, original to Spain – was part of one of the largest covens of witches that hailed from the motherland. It branched out into hundreds of different surnames throughout the old continent and the Americas.
It was all so fantastic that Kennedy had trouble believing any of it was real. But, what she really couldn't believe was the fact that she had made it all the way to the resident's wing of the house while being able to ignore the tacky works of art that hung from the walls.
Marina insisted that they stopped by her room. Kennedy waited at the door while she went in to get something.
When she came out of the room, she gave her a leather wrapped book of some sort that had obviously been bound by hand. The letter T had been marked by heat in an elegant font on the lower right portion of the front.
“It's your mum's grimoire.” She said as Kennedy studied its worn out cover.
“It's something like a journal. It contains her innermost thoughts and a few spells that she created along the way.” Her cousin explained. “Mother gave it to me when I turned thirteen. The day that I came into my powers.”
“So why are you giving it to me then?” She was holding her mother's diary in her hands. Her mother's diary that now belonged to her youngest cousin. She tried not to be angry at the girl, it wasn't her