Free Mortal by Kim Richardson

and disappeared. Kara blinked. Sweat
dripped down her back, and her heart raced like she had run a
marathon. She rolled the crystal ball gently in her clammy
hands.
    She remembered. She remembered it
all!
    Kara looked up—she recognized his
face. He had been telling the truth all along.
    "David, I’m so sorry."
    David beamed. "Welcome
back."

Chapter
6
Boscastle village, Cornwall
     
     
     
    K ara hated airplanes.
    It wasn’t so much the actual plane,
but rather the feeling of not being in control. What was worse was
the constant throbbing pain in her head that had begun at Mr.
Patterson’s shop. The jump-start on her brain had worked all right,
but she couldn’t stop feeling that something had gone terribly
wrong.
    As the captain announced their
descent, she grabbed her chair’s armrests, her heart in her throat.
They would be landing shortly—the death-ride would soon be
over.
    She could make out the outline of
Cornwall through the white puffy clouds. Villages glittered in the
sun along a long strip of land surrounded by a blue ocean. Boats
and cottages lined the shore. Vast fields and mountains spread out
into the distance, and tiny homes speckled the snow-covered
land.
    Kara and her team had not been
separated for such a long period of time before. She had had to fly
alone—she couldn’t do any of the supernatural GA things to which
she had been accustomed. She felt more alienated from the legion
than ever.
    She pulled at the leather bracelet
that David had given her. For something so small, it somehow made
her feel safe, and she took comfort from it.
    Kara hadn’t slept. While rest of the
group would have used the pools to Vega themselves to Cornwall, she
had endured eight hours of moldy cheese, BO and the screaming of
children who kept kicking the back of her seat. The adrenaline from
being chased by demons and then getting her memory jump-started was
yet to subside. She couldn’t stop replaying the events from the day
before over and over in her head.
    She thought of her mom, and her
insides twisted. The only chance her mother and the others had of
fighting the warlock’s virus was if Kara could kill him. And she
swore that she would—no matter what.
    Kara wiped her sweaty palms on her
jeans and tried to breathe normally. She needed a dark witch, who
despised angels, to help her defeat a dark warlock—and she needed
to fight him as a mortal. The only thing going for her was that she
remembered how to use her blade.
    The archangel Ariel had told her that
every minute the dark warlock killed another hundred souls. They
had about two and a half days before the winter solstice, so they
would need to find the dark witch quickly. No pressure.
    Kara was thrown gently forward as the
airplane made contact with the runway. The seatbelt light went off
and with her backpack secured comfortably on her shoulders she
followed the horde out of the plane and made her way through the
airport.
    "Kara! Over here!"
    Kara spotted David, Peter, and Jenny
standing near the main exit. David looked hotter than ever. And to
top it off, he was freaking glowing. With his blond hair and
brilliant golden skin, he looked like a glowing god. It wasn’t
fair.
    Jenny welcomed her with her usual bear
hug and Peter just smiled awkwardly, looking for something to do
with his hands. Much to Kara’s horror, Ashley and her team came
strolling towards them. She met Ashley’s glare and didn’t look
away.
    "What are you doing here?" said
Kara, with a little more malice than she intended.
    Ashley flipped her long blond braid
off her shoulder and smiled. Her sharp features twisted in mock
humor. "What? You’re not pleased to see me?" She laughed and turned
to her team who grunted in approval.
    For the first time, Kara really looked
at Ashley’s team. They were all about the same age as her group,
between sixteen or seventeen years old. Sasha was a mousy girl. She
was short with shoulder length straw-like hair and blinked her eyes
like she was