The Three Thorns (30 page)

Authors: Michael Gibney

Tags: #MG, #fantasy, #siblings, #social issues, #magic

BOOK: The Three Thorns

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He felt led to touch it when he noticed no title on its spine. It didn’t even have a description on its front cover…just a familiar symbol. Benjamin’s eyes lit up as his fingertips moved across the inner curves of the two-headed snake and crown emblem, embossed in the middle of the front cover in pure white gold.

The sporadic fly crawled inside the spine a split second before Benjamin pulled the book from the shelf. He felt a powerful urge to open the book and peer inside when he noticed a glowing from inside its pages. A magical beam of bright purple light shone out at his face and kept him from shutting the book. Benjamin started to read the spell on the first page when a hand tried to snatch it from his tight grip.

“What are you doing?” Iris snapped as the book slammed shut by itself and dropped to Benjamin’s feet. “I mean…what are you doing up at this hour?” she added, tittering nervously.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Benjamin mumbled, kneeling gently to lift the spell book.

“Why don’t you put it back, child, it’s very late,” Iris said calmly, giving him a half smile. But Benjamin’s mind went blank, and without fibbing, he took a deep breath and bellowed, “
I don’t want to!
”

An unsettling apprehension gripped Iris while she struggled to respond to the boy’s sudden outburst. Benjamin felt ashamed and embarrassed at his disrespectful answer to his caretaker and felt obligated to explain. “I’m sorry. I can’t remember where I found it,” he mumbled.

“Perhaps it found you, my dear,” she suggested with warning, holding out her hand to take the book from him.

Benjamin was slightly reluctant to hand the book back to her, which made the old lady keen to take it from him. Once the book had left his grip, Benjamin slowly stepped back from it.

“This is not a book for you…not now, anyway. In the meantime, we can just forget this ever happened.”

She smiled. “Don’t let it trouble you. Go back to bed, dear,” she whispered, motioning the boy back upstairs to his room.

Benjamin felt an instant cold rush trickle across the back of his neck when he walked out of the living room. It made him pause and look behind his shoulder. To his horror, the fireplace hadn’t been lit at all and the fly that buzzed around the book had vanished.

That night’s introduction to magic wouldn’t leave Benjamin’s thoughts. The buzzing of the fly in his dreams grew louder and multiplied as time passed. Something or someone was trying to communicate with him, and Benjamin knew it as he patiently waited for the voice that spoke in his dreams to reveal itself.

The clear mornings upon the Pomperton Island greeted him with refreshing, bright blue skies. Every day in the new world seemed to wait for him as much as it depended on him. Benjamin’s Brotherhood didn’t know what struggles lay ahead, but the prophecy of their return to Abasin had finally given them a new sense of purpose.

Now that Sebastian and Tommy were reunited in his life, Benjamin was already halfway there…

…for, at last, he had a real family to call his own.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special cheers to:

Liza Fleissig and Ginger Harris-Dontzin at Liza Royce Agency, I never thought it was possible to find my
Brian Epstein
. You put so much committed passion, faith, energy and love behind your authors. I am extremely privileged and proud to be part of the LRA family.

Jennifer Rees for working your magic. I am overwhelmed at the work and dedication you’ve shown to this book.

Clarissa Hutton, thank you for all your time and hard work.

Last but not least, to Georgia McBride and everyone at Month9Books and Tantrum – I am in awe of your love and fierce devotion to the art of storytelling. Thank you for the valor to believe in big visions.

MICHAEL GIBNEY

Born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1982, Michael Gibney is a writer whose interests in world politics, literature and the love of film encouraged him to do his studies at the early age of sixteen within the media and journalism field. Through his studies at college and the BBC, he developed an instant passion for creative writing that exceeded his love for media, art and music. Taking his influences from Irish writers W. B. Yeats and Belfast Born author C.S. Lewis, Gibney’s somewhat emotionally-charged storytelling is derived from his personal heroes and experiences in his own childhood having grown up in Belfast during the country’s dark history. Combining these influences with recent testing times of the world we live in today has helped create the world of Abasin that is introduced in
The Three Thorns,
his debut novel and first story in the epic The Brotherhood and the Shield Series.

He spends most of his time writing and painting within the United States and the United Kingdom.

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