Guardian: Darkness Rising (4 page)

The last touch required was Marco’s, who took
the book on his lap to inspect it more closely. ”What if
there’s some kind of invisible ink on this page, or maybe something
else?” 

But Marco never got the chance to
find out if there were any secrets. As soon as his hand made
contact with the page, the black, inked letters
glowed bright white, sending an energy blast around the room
powerful enough to knock everyone back against the
wall. 

Ian and Theo, who’d just walked back into the
room, were sent flying into the hallway, slamming against their
parents’ bedroom with a loud thud. 

And the only reason James didn’t
wake up from the loud thuds that were heard just outside his
room, was because something – or some
one 
– kept him asleep. While
Anna rushed outside to see what was going on, James was
having an important conversation with an old
friend. 

*

“
James? James. I need
to speak with you.”

James found himself
in a familiar place, except for the fact that the last time he’d
been there, the place had been broken into ruins. The Castle of the
Spirits.

“
Akilah?” James said.
“What’s the matter?”

They hadn’t spoken
for twenty-five years, and the only reason was because Lunaria had
been at peace for all that time. The fact that Akilah contacted
James now, through the small piece of Lunaria’s Light he carried
inside his soul, meant that something bad had happened. Or was
about to happen. Or both.

Either way, it
involved James and his friends and family in some sort of way – why
else would Akilah contact James?

“
I am sorry for
contacting you this sudden, after never having done so for
twenty-five years,” Akilah said. Her face looked serious and in
peril. “But we require your assistance once again, Guardian. The
Master will rise again, and without your help, we won’t be able to
stop him from taking over Lunaria again.”

“
What do you mean,
‘he will rise again’?” James said confusedly. “I thought Sabrina
killed him!”

“
She released his
soul from his mortal body, yes,” Akilah said. Her eyes were closed.
“We secured his body in a safe environment. But if his wretched
spirit somehow regains access to it... we’re all lost.”

James looked at
Akilah with unbelieving eyes. He didn’t know what to say. The
Spirits of Light, who were known to be almighty, were
requiring
his
assistance? What about his friends?
What was he going to tell them?

James was certain his
friends were just as reluctant to return to Lunaria as he
was.

But, if Akilah and
the other Spirits truly needed them... then that meant they’d have
to go back.

One last
time.

“
With what do you
exactly require our assistance?” James said. “Can’t you just burn
the body, so you’ll know for sure that the Master won’t be able to
repossess it?”

Akilah glared at
James; he knew the Spirits had probably already tried something
similar. But apparently, it hadn’t worked. “His body is protected
by a powerful spell,” Akilah said. “Only a Spirit is able to
destroy another Spirit. Whether a demi-spirit or not.”

James rubbed his
chin; he hadn’t noticed he was wearing his Guardian’s attire until
then. “So... that’s where we come in, huh?” he said. As expected,
Akilah nodded at him.

“
Yes,” she said,
sounding slightly disappointed and angry, “but it’s not just you
and your friends this time. Someone has released the Book’s magic,
James.”

James’s eyes widened.
He instantly knew who was responsible for releasing Lunaria’s
magic; his sons were in big trouble when he woke up. But, because
he was also worried for their safety, he asked Akilah, “What will
happen to them?”

Akilah briefly closed
her eyes. “They will join you on your quest to save Lunaria,” she
said. “And... I believe you know the young teenagers that released
the magic, don’t you, James?”

James closed his eyes
and scratched his neck. This was something he couldn’t deny.
“...Yes. They’re my sons.”

Akilah shook her
head. “I don’t believe it’s just your sons,” Akilah said. “There
were five hands required to release the magic. There were two girls
and three boys, James. Your friends’ children will be involved in
this too, I am afraid.”

James stared at
Akilah; his mouth was open, and he couldn’t bother to close it.
“...Can’t you protect them?” he said slowly. “Like – can’t you
grand them clemency? They’re just kids!”

“
I’m sorry, James,”
Akilah said. “I can’t. They released Lunarian Magic, and now they
will have to fight for their freedom, just like you and your
friends once had to. I can’t change anything about
that.”

James bit his lip.
“Alright then...” he said. “How much time have we got?”

“
Twenty-four hours,”
Akilah said. “You have twenty-four hours until the magic brings you
to Lunaria.” She paused and nodded. “Good luck, James. Until we
meet again.”

James bowed down in
front of Akilah. “Until we meet again, Akilah,” he said – the last
thing he could say before waking up.

*

When James opened his
eyes, he instantly heard the tantrum going on in the other room. Of
course Anna had found the teenagers messing with the book, and she
wasn’t very happy about it.

James quickly made
his way to his sons’ bedroom, and found Anna scolding the seven
teenagers – Emma and Mia were wise enough to stay out of this one.
Ian and Theo were pleading innocent, but obviously, their mother
didn’t believe them. Her main target appeared to be Luke,
however.

“
Your father put that
book away for a reason! We don’t want you to get hurt, Lucas!” Anna
scolded her son, who was sitting on the bed in front of
her.

The guilt in Luke’s eyes was
clearly visible – he didn’t know the full story behind the book, of
course – but it didn’t matter anymore now anyway. The magic had
been released, and they were in this together. Whether they wanted
to or not. “I’m sorry, Mum. I didn’t know.”

James, however, didn’t react as
angrily as his wife had. When he walked into the room, instead of
scolding Luke, James stood in front of his son, and grabbed his
shoulders.

“
Luke,” he said, “I’m
sorry. We should’ve told you about the book, and the mysteries
around it. I thought I was doing the right thing by not telling
you, but...” he sighed. “Maybe telling you would’ve been a better
idea.”

“
It’s okay, Dad,”
Luke said. “We were being little pricks for getting the book from
your study, anyway. Aside – if it hadn’t been for that ‘explosion’
just now -” he made quotation marks in the air with his fingers as
he said the word – “we probably wouldn’t have believed
you.”

James nodded at Luke, and then
looked at his wife.

“
...I think I still
don’t believe you, honestly,” Luke mumbled quietly, but James
wasn’t listening.

.“We’re going back to Lunaria,”
he said. “Akilah needs our assistance.”

“
You’re going back?”
Anna said, her voice filled with surprise and worry. “What about
the kids? Samira? Your friends?”

“
I’ll have to discuss
it with them today,” James said slowly, while thinking out loud.
“I’m not happy with it either. But Akilah believes the Master is at
large, and we’ve got to help the Spirits to destroy him once and
for all.”

“
Alright then,” Anna
said, “but... please bring the news to them with care,” she said.
“It’s still dangerous there, especially if the Master is hiding
somewhere. He’s probably out for revenge.”

“
...Dad?” Luke said.
“What are you talking about?”

There were similar looks coming
from the others. No one knew about Lunaria, so no one knew what
Anna and James were talking about, either.

James and Anna exchanged worried
and insecure looks, before James finally decided to tell the five
teenagers in front of them what they’d got themselves
into.

“
Well... this might
sound weird,” James said, “but twenty-five years ago, my friends
and I were taken to a magical world because we read that same book
as you.”

Looks were exchanged
on the teenagers’ side. Were they believing James’s story, or were
they thinking he was crazy? The book
had
blasted them
against the wall, after all. Not sure how they’d explain that other
than ‘magic’.

“
We defeated the evil
forces that controlled that world,” James said, “although don’t ask
me how we did it, because I still don’t know. But... that evil
force is back, and we’ve got to fix it.”

“
What about us?”
Felicity said, nervously running her fingers through her dark
blonde hair.

“
Yeah,” Tony said, rubbing the puffy skin underneath his
eyes. “Do we need to come along, or are we safe? I mean – we
did
touch the book...”

James swallowed
loudly. “About that,” he said. “Yes. You will have to come along
with us. But... we’re your parents, so you don’t have to worry.
We’ll keep you safe.”

He gave the teenagers an
encouraging smile. “Now, go to sleep you guys. We’ll discuss this
tomorrow – if Akilah is right, then we’ll be in Lunaria within
twenty-four hours.”

James and Anna left the teenagers
alone; as soon as they were gone, Luke looked at his friends. “You
don’t believe this, right, guys?” he said.

“
Why not?” Tony said.
“It seemed all quite real.” Luke responded with a dismayed
snort.

“
Magic?” he said,
flailing his arms around. “ ‘
My friends and I were taken to a magical world because we
read a stupid book and we defeated an evil force without knowing
what we were doing
’.” He
mocked the sound of his father’s voice, adding a nasal quality to
it. “I mean – come on! Dad’s just messing with us because we found
the book, and he’s pissed about it. He probably installed something
inside the book because he knew we’d get to it.”

“
If
I were you, I’d wait and see before making any a
ssumptions,” Theo told his brother. “I mean –
both Mum and Dad seemed very upset. I don’t think this is fake,
dude.”

Luke grunted. “You two don’t have
anything to do with it,” he said, pointing at his two brothers.
“You didn’t ‘touch the book’.”

The two boys exchanged a shrug.
“Do we?” Ian said.

“
I don’t know,” Marco
said. “We’ll just have to wait and see...”

“
We’ll just have to
go to sleep, you mean,” Luke said, clearly starting to get tired of
the conversation as he crawled across his bed, reaching for his
pillow. “This will all blow over tomorrow.”

“
I hope you’re
right...” Daisy mumbled, as the other teens found their sleeping
bags and beds to go to sleep. “I really do.”

*

The next day, James organised a
meeting with his friends at his sister’s house.

This was a serious
matter requiring discussion, and better within twelve hours. And,
since Daisy was involved with the matter, James had decided to
invite Lucy, too. She wouldn’t be coming along to Lunaria, as she
had no connection to Lunaria, but she did deserve the right to know
where her youngest daughter would be taken. James had advised her
to bring her husband Aton along too, but that was up to the two of
them to decide.

James had made sure to bring the
book to explain the situation.

As the group of adults sat down
in the living room and James put the book on the coffee table,
surprised gasps came from his friends.

“
What’s this about,
James?” Bella said. “Did something happen to the book?”

“
Well...” James
scratched his neck. How was he going to bring this carefully? “Yes.
They released Lunaria’s magic upon themselves, and now they’ll be
joining us on our journey to Lunaria.” He looked at his friends; as
much as they’d changed over the thirty years the five adults had
known each other, one thing that had never changed, were their
expressions.

There was Samira,
James’s sister, curvy and short, her hair short and blonde, her
blue eyes questioning. Thomas, her husband, still had a British
accent, but now also strong shoulders. His hair was the same brown
mess as always. Antonio was still the broad-shouldered, muscular
blond guy he’d always been, his green eyes peering unbelievingly
from behind his glasses. And then there was Bella, who had hardly
changed; her body was petite, her eyes blue, and her hair dark.
Lucy, despite being his cousin, somewhat resembled James; her red
hair was up in a messy ponytail, and her dark blue eyes were
worried.

“
Wait,” Samira said, while leaning forward toward her
brother, as if she couldn’t believe her ears – which was probably
true, “
What
? We’re
going
back
to Lunaria?”

“
You’re
kidding
, right?”
Thomas said, scratching his brown beard. “There’s no reason for us
to go back there. The Master’s dead, the light is back, the Spirits
rule again. We can’t do anything more than that.”