Kingdom of War (Kingdom Journals Book 4) Read online

“You might want to use magic for that. But I’ll leave you to let some steam off.” Orm hobbled to the exit.

  After fifteen minutes of working my physical muscles, I switched to stretching my magical powers. Jude came in, and we sparred for the rest of the morning. After lunch, I walked the halls with Orm, testing my ability to sense moods, and pushed myself to conjure more concrete thoughts of those around me. Next, he had me practice the skill I hated least, persuasion. We started with mice, moved to cats and then dogs, and then found Alena who always volunteered to be my guinea pig. Her mind resisted compulsion like no other, so it gave me a good workout.

  In the following days, I trained with Chalondra on messenger skills, transporting objects, and moving air, earth, and information to others telepathically. Then, I worked on healing skills with Grady and studied witch history with Alena.

  “You’re ready,” Orm announced at the end of the fourth day. “The Spring Equinox is tomorrow and we will begin at sunup.”

  My stomach tightened with apprehension as I left the gym. I could feel power pulsing through every cell. I was ready. Orm wouldn’t let me take the trial unless he thought so. There was too much at risk. But I worried for Tyler. We needed him. Grady wouldn’t let his son go through the test if he weren’t ready, right? Why did I even question it? The thought popped into my head, and it wouldn’t go away.

  Grady never wanted his children to be witches. He kept their heritage a secret and never intended to tell Camille or Tyler. It was only because Alena, Chalondra, Orm, and I reached out to Camille that her powers were awakened. What if Grady meant to sabotage Tyler’s ability to become a full witch?

  “I’ll be glad when this is all over. I’ve barely seen you all week.” Alena kissed my cheek as she reached me. “I miss you.”

  “I miss you too.” I squeezed her hand.

  “Are you nervous?”

  “A little. Worried for Tyler too,” I admitted as we walked to the cafeteria for dinner.

  “You’ll be together. You can help each other.”

  “I thought that was forbidden.”

  “You can’t help him with your powers, but you can talk to him, help him through a situation. Camille said she and Jude did.”

  “That makes me feel better.”

  “Why are you worried about Tyler? Grady has been training him non-stop.”

  “I don’t know, just a feeling.” I squeezed her hand as we approached the food line, knowing I couldn’t ignore the feeling in my gut. I needed to talk to Grady.

  Training drained me, and I piled a big chicken breast on my plate. The chatter around me became background noise as my thoughts churned. Glancing at Tyler, I saw it in his face too, the focus. Nothing else mattered right then but the trial.

  “Hey, how are you?” I asked Tyler as we filed out of the cafeteria.

  “Good, you know, just tired and ready to get this over with.”

  “You worried?”

  “No, just anxious.”

  “We’ll be together. All for one, one for all. We’ve got to finish this.” I held out my hand.

  “That’s right.” He clenched my hand and bumped his arm to mine.

  I told Alena I was turning in and wound around to Grady’s quarters. He opened the door after my second knock.

  “Hi, what’s up?”

  “I wanted to talk to you. Can I come in?”

  He motioned me inside. “What’s on your mind?”

  “This sounds bad.” Nervous, I rubbed my hands down my pants. “But I have to say it. Tyler is ready, right? Tomorrow is going to go well?”

  “Why would you ask? Jude did fine after only a couple of months training.”

  “Yeah, but Jude is also half vampire and has a photographic memory.” I reached out with my magic, trying to read him.

  “Obviously, I can’t know for certain he will pass. The trials are meant to be challenging. Why are you asking? Don’t you want Tyler to be the strongest he can be?”

  I still couldn’t get a sense of whether he wanted Tyler to be a witch. “I do. Sorry for even mentioning this, but do you want this for Tyler?”

  “No, I don’t. I never have, for either of them.” He wiped his brow. “But Camille made her choice, and it’s what Tyler wants too.”

  “So, he’s ready. He’ll pass the trial?”

  “Well.” He chuckled. “I’m not a seer, but I believe he will. I wouldn’t put my son in a position to fail when he seems to want this so much.”

  I held Grady’s stare for a full moment. He wasn’t lying. He wanted his son to be happy. “Okay, good.”

  I offered my hand and Grady squeezed my palm.

  My alarm woke me at five the next morning, and I met Tyler in the cafeteria. Orm and Chalondra escorted us to the vehicle bay.

  “Why are we traveling?”

  Orm lifted a bag to his shoulder. “We can’t simulate the trial here without some major repercussions.”

  Tyler shook his head. “Camille and Jude had their tests in Michael’s compound in Italy.”

  “You want to injure someone or something just so we can see if you know how to fix them?” Chalondra raised her eyebrows.

  “I guess not.” Tyler climbed inside the waiting SUV.

  “Wait, this is risky. What if we’re discovered?”

  “We wouldn’t put you at risk.” Orm motioned to the vehicle.

  I took a seat beside Tyler in one of Anne’s windowless SUVs, and we drove to an airport. When the doors opened, we were inside a hangar with a small jet.

  Boarding the plane, I tried to lift the shade to my window, but it wouldn’t budge. Dazed from being up so early, I napped and then ate breakfast. The meal energized me, and I paced the aisle, stretching my muscles.

  As the plane descended for landing, the shade beside me clicked. I lifted it to see a large sprawling city.

  “Mexico City?” Tyler asked.

  “It’s the last place Michael’s coven will look for you.” Orm tightened his seatbelt.

  I shook my head. “We’re going to walk around the city without the lodestone bracelets?”

  “Not the whole time. But you can’t use magic with them on.” Orm reclined his head on the seat.

  “Isn’t this a decision we should make? It’s a huge risk.”

  “It’s one day, and there are nearly nine million people in the city.” Chalondra shrugged. “Michael’s coven hates squalor.”

  It wouldn’t have been my first choice or even my last choice for how this day would have gone, but we were landing. The decision had been made for us. Orm seemed to be a level-headed guy. He wanted the curse lifted and would spare nothing to protect Alena and Anne. They trust him, I reminded myself.

  The plane touched down, and we exited into the terminal. Nervous, I wound my lodestone bracelet around my wrist. Outside, cool moist air greeted us, and the temperate climate surprised me.

  “I thought it was always hot in Mexico,” I said to Tyler.

  “We’re at about twenty-two-hundred feet. It’s actually mild in this region.”

  “Lucky us. What now?” I motioned to Orm.

  “We walk.”

  My anxiety grew as we left the airport. Buildings rose around us, and the streets teemed with activity.

  “Okay, bracelets off.” Orm held out his palm.

  “So, what, we find situations where we’re needed?” I inquired.

  “That’s pretty much the sum of it.”

  “We’re superheroes for a day?” Tyler asked.

  Something slammed into my back, and a guy blew past me. Looking back, I saw a shop owner raise his fist into the air, his head swiveling left then right. Looking back to the guy who’d hit me, I noted a bag under his arm. I homed in on his form and froze the air around him. He slammed into an invisible wall.

  “Using the elements. Nice.” Orm nodded.

  As we reached the guy, I realized he couldn’t be much older than fifteen. With a slight build, it didn’t take much effort for Tyler and me to summon the
air and guide the guy into an alley.

  “What do you have in the bag?” I asked him. “That shopkeeper seemed upset.” I warmed the air around him a couple of degrees.

  He sized up Tyler and me. “What? You some kind of Americano hero or something? I got people to feed. My mom’s sick, and my brothers and sisters need food. See, man.” He opened the bag to show us a loaf of bread.

  Reaching out with my mind, I read his thoughts. His brainwaves bounced about. I sensed fear, but no tinge of deceit. “Here.” I held out several pesos from the stash Orm supplied us with. “Take the shop owner this.”

  He shook his head. “Policia, no good.”

  I slid ten pesos from my pocket. “I’ll make you a deal. You go back and pay the shop owner, and you can have this to buy whatever food you want. We’ll go with you to make sure the shopkeeper doesn’t call the police.”

  His eyes cut from me to Tyler. “Ten pesos. No trick?”

  “No trick.” I raised my palms.

  We walked in a pack back to the grocery store. As we entered, the shop owner started yelling and picked up the phone.

  “Please.” I lifted my hand, sending calming vibes his way. “He wants to pay you and buy more groceries.”

  I gave the boy the pesos. He approached the shopkeeper and held out the money.

  “Gracias.” The shopkeeper’s eyes landed on me.

  The boy cut up one aisle and down the next, picking up another loaf of bread, cheese, milk, and fruits, a grin plastered on his face.

  “You come with me, meet my family.” He pointed up the street as we exited the market.

  Tyler nodded. “Sure. You lead.”

  We weaved through the crowds on the streets about five blocks, and I wondered if Orm and Chalondra would make it walking around the city all day. They didn’t show any signs of wear, so I refocused on our surroundings. We entered a high rise and climbed to the fifth floor. Children lined the halls, tossing balls and chasing each other. Ducking around them, the boy led us to his apartment.

  Inside, a woman lay on a mattress with a small girl beside her. The boy pointed at them. “This is my mother and sister.”

  The woman tried to push up on one arm but cried out in pain.

  “Mama, rest. I have food.”

  The little girl grabbed the bag, and as she produced an apple, her eyes grew large. I squatted down beside the woman and asked how she got hurt. From the Spanish I could interpret, she’d lifted something too heavy and hurt her back. She couldn’t sit up or stand, much less walk to work.

  “Probably just a strained or pulled muscle.” Tyler kneeled beside me.

  He held out his hands. I gripped his arm. “Maybe you shouldn’t do anything before we know what’s really wrong. You might make something worse.”

  “How do we know what the problem is? We aren’t doctors and don’t have diagnostic equipment.”

  “We can’t fix everything.” I glanced at Orm, whose expression had remained stoic throughout the whole experience with the boy and his family. Leaning over, I whispered to Tyler, “If we only had vampire blood.”

  “What if we boost her own healing capabilities?” Tyler spoke into my ear.

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  As the girl and boy enjoyed their meat and cheese, we focused on sending healing powers into the woman’s body. By the time the children had finished their sandwiches, their mother’s color improved to a healthy rose tone.

  “I might take a sandwich now.” She reached out to her son.

  “We should go.” I stood and took a step back.

  Before I knew it, the boy wrapped his arms around my middle, hugging me tight. “Gracias muchachas, gracias.”

  He hugged Tyler, Chalondra, and Orm. “Gracias.”

  Saying goodbye and wishing them well, we walked out the door and down the stairs to the street.

  “That felt good. I feel like a superhero,” Tyler commented.

  “I thought we weren’t supposed to use our magic because people might find out that witches are real.”

  Orm nodded. “But you found a way to help them with some magic and common sense. They’ll never know you were witches. Good work and good team work. It was smart to let the boy make a choice to do the right thing.”

  “So, we’re done? We passed?” Tyler rubbed his hands together.

  “Hardly, our day has just begun.” Chalondra hobbled away.

  We weaved through the streets finding wrongs to right, disabling a man’s gun so he couldn’t shoot a policeman, coaxing a cat from an awning, and blowing a tire on a moped to avoid hitting a pedestrian. Our reward at the end consisted of a huge plate of tortillas and meat.

  “So, superhero stuff, that’s what we’re supposed to do all the time once we finish this breaking-the-curse thing?” Tyler stuffed a bite in his mouth.

  Orm set his fork on his plate. “Yes and no. You can choose how you live your life. With power comes responsibility, but it doesn’t mean you need to be a servant to the masses. Most witches live as normal people. They have interests, hobbies, jobs, families.”

  “Unlike our messed-up parents.” I pointed between Tyler and me.

  “Grady did the best he could for his children. Some have extraordinary gifts that can’t be ignored. Some are called to lead.” His stare pierced my skull. “Some are called to pave the way.” He swiveled towards Tyler. “Some are not called at all.”

  “I’m not sure whether we got the short end or the long end of the stick.” Tyler laid his fork on the plate.

  “You’re quiet, Hunter.” Chalondra offered me another tortilla.

  “Just listening and observing.” Truth be told, I hated thinking about my future. Not that I’d had everything figured out before, but at least I had a path, college, some type of engineering thing in my head. After learning about my heritage and position as a Child of Light, it just seemed like one big blur of questions and potential chaos, battles, destruction, and death. Still, every cell of my body spurred me towards finding the lance, figuring out the riddle to the curse, seeing the mission through.

  “It’s getting late. We should head back.” Orm waved the waiter over.

  We meandered through the streets to the airport. As we passed through a festival area, a man bumped my shoulder, and it felt like a bolt of lightning shot through my arm. I grabbed my bicep and sized him up. The next second, another bolt shot through my back. I locked eyes on the guy beside me. His eyes narrowed, and I reached into his mind, gauging his intent.

  “You look familiar. Do I know you?” he asked in a thick Spanish accent.

  Child of Light was all I registered from his thoughts before I blasted his brain with a bolt of electricity that would have brought down a horse.

  Spinning, I searched for the other assailant.

  “What happened?” Tyler squatted beside my victim.

  “He shocked me and not with a taser. Another guy got me from behind. See if you can find him. Be careful, I think they may know who I am. Bind your lodestone bracelet to him so he can’t get any communication out.”

  I snatched a lodestone bracelet from my backpack pocket and slid it on the guy I’d blasted. Gripping the bracelet, I performed a binding spell that would make sure the guy couldn’t take it off once he came to.

  Ducking into an alley, I lowered the guy to the ground, resting his back on a wall.

  “Chalondra, can you read him? Figure out where he’s from? Orm, If he wakes up, blast him again. I’m going to help Tyler.”

  I didn’t know how strong the guy might be, but I figured the two of them could keep him down since he wasn’t doing any magic with that bracelet on. Back on the street, I searched for Tyler. Not seeing him, I reached out with my mind. I wished we’d thought to have more bracelets. Who knew how many others there were. It would be nice to go incognito. Of course, I never would have been able to read his thoughts with the bracelet on. It was safer to have my magic than not.

  Sensing Tyler’s hum signature, I weaved through th
e crowd to him. “Anything?”

  “No, it’s like he vanished.”

  “He could be cloaking. I think that’d be a good idea right about now.”

  “I’m with you on that.” Tyler’s form disappeared, and I invoked a cloaking spell to hide mine.

  “Let’s get back to Chalondra and Orm. Find out what they know.”

  Back in the alley, I dropped my cloaking spell. Chalondra sat on the ground beside we found my attacker, holding his hand.

  “I’m not getting anything. I think you’ll have to unbind the bracelet.”

  I kneeled beside her. “Okay, but be fast. I don’t know how long he’s going to be out.”

  “With that blast I felt, a while.” Orm shook his head.

  “What? You wanted him to be able to relay to every witch in a fifty-mile radius that he found a Child of Light? The other guy got away already.”

  I lifted my hand and signaled to the bracelet. It slid from the man’s wrist and flew to my fingers. Chalondra took his palm again and closed her eyes. Within seconds, they popped open. Dropping his hand, she stood.

  “He’s from Michael’s coven. That’s not a good sign.”

  Leaning over, I started to fix my bracelet on his arm again. As I did, a blast of air picked me up. Thinking fast, I gripped the guy’s hand, and we sailed through the air and hit a brick wall. My whole body tingled from the blast of magic, and my bones ached as I crashed on the ground face down. I cloaked myself, finished the binding spell, and jumped to my feet.

  Scanning the area, I saw Chalondra and Orm splayed out on the dirt and sensed Tyler above me. Hoping he’d escaped the blast, I refocused on our attackers. Two guys dressed in black stood in the center of the alley, surveying the area.

  I wondered if it was better to try and take them out and bring them with us or to figure out what they knew here. Having witches from Michael’s coven in our compound didn’t seem like a good option, so I pushed my thoughts to Tyler. Let’s find out what they know. Then we can erase the whole incident from their memories.

  Good plan, came his reply. I’ll take the smaller one.

  Of course you will. I swore the guy could be funny even if he were dying.

  Chalondra and Orm started to rouse, and I communicated to them to lie still. I knew they had bracelets and wondered if I could get them without being discovered.