"I write. When I look up names for my characters their meaning comes along with them. Mackay McAllister is one of my favorite characters. He was put into a Russian adoption center for boys at age five with his name tattooed onto his back in fancy script, adopted by a rich family and gains a detective as his adoptive older brother. Together those two try to find out who Mackay's parents are, but they only find his mother, who was apparantly a virgin nun for her entire life. I'm working on Mackay's second book now, when they figure out who the mom is, is the end of the first book." I explain, smiling as I remember the eighth grade boy with crimson curls and golden cat eyes.
                          
"Is it published?" Pheonix asks. I shake my head.
                          
"It's written down in this leather book I got for my birthday. I filled up every page like a journal in messy cursive. At first the name of the book was only scraped out of the leather, but then Nova and I filled it in with red mercury, because we broke this thermometer and didn't know what to do with what was inside. It looks really cool, actually." Mackay smiles at me.
                          
"So you're my half-sister, huh? I have to say I can believe it. Except for the eyes, you look a lot like Pheonix and I. Except girlish." I smile brightly at Mackay. "So what's your name, Sweetpea.?" I blank out.
                          
"Her name is Dominic, but she doesn't like her name so just call her Dom." Pheonix answers for me. Mackay smiles.
                          
"I can come up with something better than that. For now she's Sweetpea." He states, leaving.
                          
"So why is there someone from Red Royalty in the Blue Castle?" I ask, turning to my "half-brother".
                          
"My Dad is just checking up on me. By the way, he's our full father, but don't call him Father or Dad or Papi or Papa or King. He insists on Daddy, for all of us. We've got a little sister who's fourteen named Mackenna. You are your age because it lines up with the dates of the affair. My mom is dead so there's no problem there, you're staying with Gale for a couple of weeks because of secret reasons. Then you're going to come over to my castle and live with me, and you're going to circulate around the castles, except for Violet and Shadowed. Green and Silver-Ringed are fine. The people who know about the secret reasons are Gale, Thunder and April, Mackay and me, Juniper, Forrest, and Wolfe, Melody and Dorian, Shade and Rinji, and Holt, Lucas, Ebony, Sylvia, and Silver. Melody, Dorian, Shade, and Rinji you will not be staying with. Gale will explain Royalties more later. And you are not to say anything about the secret reasons to anyone I did not just name. Understood?" Pheonix stands up to tower over me. I nod stupidly. "Good. Now I'm going to change in my walk-in closet, and will be back in a couple of minutes with some clothes for you. By the way, I've erased your foster parents' minds so that they never adopted you. I've burned the papers and erased you from all databases. So no one will worry about you except your friends because I have no idea who all your friends are. And what were you dreaming about last night?" Pheonix asks, peeking his head out of the door he had disappeared behind.
                          
"Um, I had a nightmare." I mumble.
                          
"You tasted metallic, really metallic. Guess metallic stands for fear. Tell Gale I'll send Brennan, our eldest known brother, to beat him up if he dares to harm you. And don't let him intimidate you because if he threatens you I'll guard your pretty little human frame until the day you die." I grin at Pheonix.
                          
"Kay! Thanks Pheonix!" He closes the door and I get up, wandering around the room, keeping on eye on the bed to make sure no dolls climb out from underneath. I spot a picture of slightly younger Pheonix and Mackay, and another guy who looks a bit older than Mackay, with those same eyes and thick, dark brown hair grown out a little longer than Mackay's. He has less of a mustache than Mackay, and a jawline clean of hair and acne. This man is holding a girl princess style, her arms draped around his neck. The girl looks younger than me, her eyes more asian and a deeper hue of scarlet than the boys, with longer eyelashes. She's grinning in the picture, showing off her toothpaste-commercial teeth. She has hair that matches the boys', but longer, straighter, with slight waves instead of the prominent locks Mackay and the man sport. The boys don't have shirts on, and are wearing basketball shorts, their freakishly not-hairy legs showing. The girl has on a sports bra and short shorts. All of them are wearing sneakers, and a picture of a volcano is the background.
                          
"That's Brennen, and that's Mackenna. This was last year, when we found out we got another sibling in Red. We're lucky. A lot fo families are broken apart because their children don't get put into the same Royalties as them." Pheonix murmurs, his voice next to my ear. I jump and turn to look at him.
                          
"What do you mean?" I ask. He shakes his head.
                          
"Not my story to tell. Gale will explain. Our system is sort of messed up. Anyway, it's a good thing you fit in with us for the most part. You look a lot like Mackenna, except older, with blue eyes, and a less...carnivorous look to you. Predatory yes, carnvivorous no. Thin line between the two most definitely." He states.
                          
"It's weird that I look so much like you guys."
                          
"Not really. Everyone's got their double somewhere. You're Mackenna's, and Mackenna happens to share her looks with her family." Pheonix shrugs, and grabs my hand, pulling me out of the room and down the hall. I stumble after him, trying to keep up with his brisk pace. "Galey, wake up! You're stuck with my half-sister while I go get her clothes!" He sings. Gale turns over in his bed but sits straight up when Pheonix slams the door with me trapped inside the room.
                          
"Good Morning." Gale mumbles.
                          
"Yeah. Really great morning." I mutter, staring at the door.