Free The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon by Matthew Burkey

Guardians?” Ryan asked, looking intently at the fire.
    “What do you mean?” Elise asked.
    “Think about it,” Ryan encouraged. “Just because my father or mother was a Guardian, that doesn’t mean that I will be, right?”
    “Right.” Elise nodded.
    “So, how do we choose Guardians? We choose them based on their character, on their spirit, on what they are willing to do for their fellow man. I’m telling you Gabriel has that, I know it.”
    Elise seemed to consider that for a moment. “And if you are wrong?”
    “Guess we’ll find out,” Ryan grunted.
    “How is he doing?” Elise asked.
    “Confused, about like normal I suppose, I have to remember how weird it has to sound for someone to hear that things that they thought weren’t real were actually very real.”
    Elise nodded. “I’m going to trust your judgment on this.”
    “At least someone does.”
    “Hey,” Elise said, standing and brushing the side of his face with her hand. “We all trust you, don’t forget that, ok?”
    Ryan nodded. With her standing so close he could smell her perfume, a combination of vanilla and honey, sweet but not overpowering. He tried his best not to stare directly into the firelight dancing in her dark eyes and was only partially successful.
    “Besides,” Elise continued, gently patting his face. “I’d love to see Ethan taken down a peg or two.”
    She winked at him before heading back into the house.
     
     
    Gabriel was happy that things finally calmed down at home. His parents were both completely taken aback when Ryan brought him home, which seemed to only strengthen the story that Ryan had told him. The facts were still spinning around in his head when he went upstairs and flopped down on his bed.
    Was this real?
    Gabriel walked to his bathroom and stripped off his shirt, examining not only his wound but the glowing tattoo as well. He shook his head, this all seemed to extraordinary. He put on clean shirt and then started to pace about his room, tapping the screen on his phone. He could hear the TV downstairs and could imagine that his parents were going over the events of the past few days…well their version of the last few days.
    He wasn’t sure how he got into this mess…well, no that wasn’t true. He was sure, although he couldn’t really blame Tim for dragging him to the concert. Before he could continue that train of thought there was a knock at the door, he stopped and slipped his phone back into his pocket.
    “Come in.”
    The door opened and Sean poked his head in. Gabriel had to resist the urge to run to his little brother and wrap him in a big hug. As far as Sean was concerned they had been together for the last thirty six hours. He had no idea that Gabriel had been worried sick about his safety mere hours ago. Ryan had given him the rundown of the story that had been ‘suggested’ via magic to his parents and Sean and Tim.
    “Dude, you should’ve seen the amount of girls that were all over me and Tim last night!”
    “I didn’t?” Gabriel asked.
    “Um…no,” Sean said, as his eyebrows drew together. “You spent the whole night sulking on the bench near the fire and when we came to get you to go back to Tim’s house, you said you were going to go stay at some guy’s house… someone from your school, I think that you said his name was Ryan.”
    “Oh right.”
    Not that it surprised Gabriel, both Tim and his brother were dynamite with the ladies, Tim even more so. He imagined that it was the same with Ethan.
    “You alright?” Sean asked, flopping down on Gabriel’s bed.
    “Fine,” Gabriel responded. “So, you had girls all over you? What about Kelly?”
    Sean rolled his eyes. “We broke up a few hours ago, I wasn’t mature enough for her or something but Tim got a number from some wicked cute blonde. I think that she said she had a friend.”
    “Wow, only broken up a few hours and already you’re looking for a new girl, you must be really upset about that,” Gabriel