Free SEARCH FOR THE LOST SOUL by Kattie McKinsey

no idea. with Loren’s
transporting skills he could have retrieved the man from anywhere in the world.
    “Are you
comfortable?” Loren asked after a moment.
    Chris
shifted his attention to the wizard. “Yes. I’m glad that you wanted to talk to
me because I have something to say to you.”
    Loren smiled
slightly. “Is that so? What can I do for you?”
    Chris
glanced at the silent man before returning his gaze to Loren. “I’m assuming
that this is Dominic.” He waited for Loren to nod his head slightly before
continuing. “What I want to know is what gives you the right to send your
lapdog to question Kelly about her most painful memories? She’s terribly
upset.”
    Loren
steepled his fingers together, holding them against his chin as he gazed at
Chris. Several minutes passed before he spoke. “It was not our intention of
upsetting Kelly.” He fell silent, gazing at Chris thoughtfully. Finally he
leaned forward, “Tell me Christopher, how traumatic do you think the loss of
her parents was?”
    “It was the
worst thing that could have happened to her. Not only did it deprive her of a
loving family but it uprooted her from her community and placed her into a
totally unfamiliar situation, she was sent to a school where there were more
people than she had ever seen at one time in her entire life. How would you
have felt?”
    Loren
grunted and sat back. There was a long silence before he spoke again. “How well
do you know her?”
    Chris
paused; this could prove to be dangerous ground. His mind raced as he tried to
figure out why the wizard was asking him such questions. In the end he decided
that he didn’t know enough to come up with an answer. He shrugged. “Well
enough, I guess. Why?”
    Loren rose
and paced around the room for several minutes before sitting down again. He
leaned forward. “Chris, what I am about to tell you does not leave this room.
It is very important that you agree to this.”
    Chris
frowned. “I’ll make no such promise until I know what we’re talking about. You
could be talking about something criminal and I would have a moral duty to
report you to the police.”
    Loren shook
his head. “We are not involved in criminal activity. What I am about to tell
you is not something that would go against your moral fabric. You can trust me
on this.”
    Chris
frowned at him but decided not to say anything.
    After a
moment Loren leaned back and laughed gently. “Ah yes. I forgot, you do not
trust me at all, do you?”
    Chris
remained silent.
    “Believe me,
my boy. You have no reason not to trust me. Someday you will realize this.”
There was another long silence before he sighed. “Very well, since one of us
must extend trust I will be the one to do so. I have confidence that after we
speak you will agree with us that no one else should know of this.”
    Loren and
Dominic exchanged a long look before Loren returned his attention to Chris. “As
you are aware, Kelly was to start her training this morning. We had not gotten
far when I realized that there was a problem. Even the simplest of spells were
proving to be beyond her capability. I found this puzzling, as I know that she
has great power.
    “I thought
that maybe I was moving too fast for her so I slowed down and tried the most
basic of spells, which she was unable to perform. I did not know what to do.
After much consideration, I asked her permission to perform a spell on her to
determine what the problem was; I thought that perhaps she had somehow
developed an aversion to magic that we would need to overcome before we could
begin training. I was totally shocked at the results.” He fell silent.
    Chris waited
for several minutes for the wizard to continue. Finally he could stand it no
longer. “So, what was the problem?”
    Loren
sighed. “She has not made a choice between good and evil. Until she does so she
can not learn any actual spells.”
    Chris
frowned. “That shouldn’t be a problem. Kelly is a good person. It