Free Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) by Rain Oxford Page B

control. I knew he wasn’t wild because he’s too
accustomed to being indoors.”
    I squatted down and studied the cat. Scott should
have run out instantly when he recognized me, but he was shaking instead. His
beast side was in full control of him. After all the experimentation done on
him, I was afraid I would just scare him worse if I tried to use my magic to
coerce him out. “Hey, buddy. Are you going to come out or stay in there all
day?” I asked.
    He inched back, already pressed against the wall.
Flagstone entered the room. “Get some color pencils and paper,” I said.
    “What?” the baker asked, confused.
    “And get Mr. Baker out of the room.”
    “No, I’m staying until I’m sure you’re not going to
hurt him,” the man argued.
    Flagstone sighed, left the room, and returned a few
minutes later with a sketch book and color pencils. When I took them, I
realized they were Scott’s. I set them down and picked up the black pencil.
“While Flagstone here takes the nice baker for a walk, I’m going to draw you,
so stay right there, okay?” I instructed gently.
    Flagstone took the baker out, despite the man’s
protests. I found a clear page and started drawing. I didn’t have an ounce of the
talent Scott or Henry had, so I made mistakes. Since that was the whole point
of my plan, I announced these mistakes out loud and showed him every few
seconds. Within ten minutes, the boy couldn’t take it anymore. Scott shifted
and climbed out of the hole.
    “No! You’re holding the pencil wrong!” he said,
exasperated.
    “You can hold a pencil wrong?”
    “Duh! Look, my eyes aren’t that far apart! You make
me look like a dog, Uncle Devon,” he whined.
    “Okay, I think you’ve spent too much time with
Darwin.” While he taught me how to draw himself, I called Kyle and told him to
pick us up and bring clothes. Then I called Henry. “He’s safe,” I said when I
heard him pick up.
    He breathed the longest sigh of relief I’d ever
heard. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, but there’s bad traffic all the way out
here.”
    “How bad?”
    “It’s a crawl and I’m on country roads.”
    Ten minutes later, Kyle and my mother arrived. They
both apologized profusely as I put Scott in the car seat of Kyle’s Sedan. I
went with them, hoping Flagstone would simply return to Quintessence. I sure as
hell didn’t want to talk to Hunt about what I did.
    Scott didn’t say a word until we got to my mother’s
house. I took him to the guest room that was set up for him, sat him on the
bed, and told him to explain what happened. He still sat there for fifteen
minutes without saying anything. Fortunately, he realized I wasn’t going away.
“I thought…” he stopped for another few minutes. “I thought I was going to lose
Daddy again. I woke up and he wasn’t here and I forgot where I was.”
    “So you thought you would just go out and find him?”
    He nodded. “Nobody cares when I leave. I just knew
Daddy was looking for me.”
    I sat down. “Your dad has a job and he hates that it
takes him away from you, but you’re going to be starting school soon and you
won’t see him for four months. He needs to know that you can be okay without
him.”
    He started crying. “I don’t want to go!”
    “I know, but think about what’s best for him. He
wants you to have everything he didn’t, and that includes friends, and love,
and choices like what you want to do with your life.”
    “Then why is he sending me away?”
    “That’s not what he’s doing. Yes, you are a little
young to be at a school like that, but you will fit in a lot better there than
at a human school. Soon, you’re going to meet other shifters and wizards your
own age. I bet if you really like it, Henry will try to get hired at the school
in January. Then he can be your teacher.”
    His eyes widened with fear. “Will he give me time out
in front of my friends?”
    “Oh yeah. At least six minutes. But guess what— the
rules are