Free The Journey: A Custodes Noctis Story by Muffy Morrigan

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Rob Emrys was thirteen when he killed his brother.
    As Custodes Noctis it was his right and duty to send his brother to the Other World when mortally wounded . Rob knew that he would die shortly after, it was the way of the Custodes Noctis: the psychic b ond they shared could not bear the break for long and the survivin g brother would die— sometimes living long enough to avenge their brother’s death , but no more . The hereditary swords would be passed to the next generation and the line would continue. Rob hadn’t lived long enough to have been given car e of one of the family’s swords— that came after he was fully trained. The fact he wasn’t old enough to have finished his training didn’t change the fact he was still Custodes Noctis and Tradition dictated his r ights. He had the Gift of Sight as all younger brothers of the Custodes Noctis , in fact it was that Sight that had let him know when he was six that he and his brother would never serve together as Keepers. When the moment came for Galen to die, Rob had been prepared. He gently stopped Galen’ s heart and then followed his brother into the glittering lake filled with song , the gateway to the Other World .
    When Rob had been revived a few moments later, pulled from the gentle lake to the harsh light of the hospital room, his brother’s body had been removed and the hum of the bond that had been there with him since he was born was gone. His father was there, tears on his face, the dark purple aura of grief surrounding him. He had explained that Rob had been able to survive be cause he hadn ’t started the formal training which usually finalized the bond his brother . Even though Rob had stayed in the hospital until his foster parents arrived from California, he was never left alone. When the time came, he was sent home with his foster parents. His father and uncle were still the Emrys Custodes Noctis , but they felt it would be better for Rob to make his home elsewhere . He was sure it was a mistake when he was thir teen—and the feeling would grow stronger as time passed .
    Rob turned his back on his heritage at first. He was never sure if it was just grief or grief combined with anger, but he’d turne d away from what he was supposed to be , trying to pretend he was a n ormal teenager. That didn’t last for long. Two things haunted him. First, Rob could still feel the phantom pulse of Galen’s heart against his hands —the sensation had followed him since that day in the hospital when he was thirteen. Th e second part was worse. His Gift of Sight wa s out of control. He remembered listening outside the door one day when he was fifteen while his foster mother spoke with his father and uncle. Even though Uncle Bobby had the Sight too, it was nothing like Rob’s and from what he could hear, they were worried about him—worried enough to start making trips every three months to se e if they could help him. His uncle tried to show him how to control his Sight. It failed miserably, so his father—Gifted with the healing of the elder brother—had tried to help control it that way. The healing helped a little, enough so he could function most of the time. Rob wondered why they didn’t just take him home to Tacoma, but the thought was so fleeting he never asked to go back with them.
    Fifteen was the decisive year.
    He’d taken a job in a local used bookstor e that he loved . Since he was there almost every day the owner made a deal: he could help and she would “pay” him in books. H e got to spend hours wit h volumes he could never afford but was allowed to look through before they went into the locked rare books case. It was there he had finally let himself become, in his own heart, Custodes Noctis again. He fell in love with the Sagas of Northern Europe .
    He’d bought a volume of the Saga of the Winter King , and realized it was actually a Custodes Noctis Saga. With that knowledge, he