Free Guardian: Darkness Rising by Melanie Houtman Page B

the others were
feeling as well.
    “ Your father was capable of
communicating with Grandma through dreams,” Anna said, as if she
suddenly remembered. “When he told me about it after he’d returned,
it seemed as if he found comfort in hearing his mother’s voice and
seeing her face.”
    “ Do you think Dad will be doing
that this time, too, Mum?” Emma asked out of sheer curiosity. “Talk
to Grandma in his dreams?”
    Anna sighed. She proceeded to face
away from her children as she lowered her eyes. “He didn’t have the
heart to tell her,” she said. “And... I believe that that decision
was up to your Dad to make – I just hope he contacts her when he’s
not sure what to do.”
    *
    The plan had backfired. In a
terrible way – the most disastrous way possible. And James was
responsible. Not that anyone blamed him, though – even the Spirits
were too astonished to say anything. How had he escaped the chains
they’d made? That was impossible. Or – at least, it should have
been.
    James felt as if he was at the
brink of having a mental breakdown – what had he done ? This was his
fault, and he wouldn’t let anyone tell him otherwise – simply
because it was the truth.
    He’d caused this, he’d come up
with the plan – he hadn’t even thought it through. James knew how high the risks
of his plan backfiring were, and yet, he’d made the foolish
decision to just simply ignore every
single reason why and every way how the plan could’ve
backfired.
    James menacingly pulled at his hair while
pacing around in circles. He didn’t know what to do anymore; they
didn’t know where the Master had gone or how to stop it. “The
Ritual?” he blurted in desperation. “Could that work
again?”
    Akilah shook her head. “That’s
only meant to restore the balance between Light and Dark,” she
said. “It won’t destroy the Master.”
    James grunted in despair.
    “ Aside from that, James,” Antonio
said, “who would perform the Ritual? There are two Generations
here!”
    “ I would,” James said decisively.
“My soul became part of the Light when Akilah saved me back then –
I believe that that means that I can control it without a problem
now.”
    Akilah moved uncomfortably,
feeling slightly at unease by what James had said. There was
something about the fact that James was now basically part of
Lunaria’s light - the problem was that the Spirit hadn’t told
anyone – and she wasn’t planning on doing so now that the Master
had returned – it was impossible to tell whether he was listening
to the Guardians’ and Spirits’ conversations.
    And that was the reason why Akilah decided to
keep her mouth shut for now, hoping that the Master didn’t know -
and wouldn’t find out, either.
    “ You know we wouldn’t let you,
even if you’re right about what you’re saying,” Thomas said.
“James, this is insane.”
    James looked at his friends. “We have to try
something,” he said, the desperation almost literally dripping from
his voice. “It’s my fault. I have to fix this.”
    “ James,” Samira
said, “do you really think we blame you? We knew this was going to
happen.”
    James turned around. “Sorry?”
    “ Well - we knew he’d eventually
break free, although we didn’t know exactly when,” Aharnish said,
“so we placed a magical barrier around the Land of Light, in order
to prevent any Dark Magic spreading to the other
Realms.”
    “ He won’t be going anywhere
anytime soon,” Aoife smiled. “Don’t worry, James. We’ll catch
him.”
    James looked his friends, who offered him
encouraging smiles. “We just know that when you’ve got an idea,
there’s no way in stopping you,” Bella said. “And honestly – it
would’ve been a good plan if he hadn’t escaped.”
    “ But how did he escape?” Thomas
said, inspecting the coffin the Master had lay in. “I thought you
said this chamber and coffin would leave him unable to use his
powers.”
    Ince blinked, and swallowed