Free The Emerald Staff by Alison Pensy

She couldn’t get the amulet
from around her neck and, even if she could, it would be her life
in exchange for her father’s. Not that she wouldn’t give her life
for his in a heartbeat, she would, but it would only delay the
inevitable; he would still die, along with millions of others if
Vivianna was intent on destroying the world’s food source.
    She couldn’t think straight. The thoughts
swirling through her head were not making any sense, so she allowed
the tears to flow down her cheeks. She didn’t have the energy to
try and hold them back anymore.
    She drew her knees up to her chest and
dropped her forehead on them. A sob escaped, then another and
another until her shoulders shook with the emotion now wracking her
body. She felt more alone than she had ever felt in her life
before. There was no life in the house, all she could hear was the
sound of her own crying.
     
    Faen sat in an upper limb of one of the trees
that lined the Bennett’s driveway. He had followed her home from
the city, of course. He was her Guardian. He didn’t need his little
sister to tell him that he needed to go after her. Spurned or not,
he would make sure she was safe until such time that he got
reassigned away from her. A thought he didn’t dare contemplate. He
was relieved when he watched his charge hail a taxi, and then he
followed it back here to her home. At least in the grounds she
could not be harmed by any of his kind.
    After finding a good vantage point to keep an
eye on the cottage, he settled down on one of the branches. He
could see her inside through the windows of the living room. He had
never known the Bennett’s to close the curtains in that room and
sometimes wondered why they even had them.
    A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he watched
the person he cared so much for slide down the door to sit on the
floor. He could see the pain on her face even from this distance.
His heart ached as he watched her wrap her arms around her knees
and sob. Eventually, she curled up in a ball where she sat, and
cried herself to sleep. He wanted so much to go to her and scoop
her off the cold hard floor, carry her upstairs and tuck her into a
warm bed. He knew that was not an option right now. She hated him,
he had seen it in her eyes outside the pub. Maybe if he could find
her father, she would forgive him, maybe even learn to love him
back.
    He leaned his head back against the tree
trunk and closed his eyes for a moment. He was trying to think of a
way to get her father back, but a solution to that problem was
eluding him. How could he possibly find him when Vivianna could
have taken him anywhere in any realm? A moment later he opened his
eyes with a start and sat up straight. Of course, why hadn’t he
thought of that before? His gaze focused back to the cottage and
Faedra, she was still asleep on the living room floor. He should be
able to get back before she awoke, and the wards around her home
would keep her safe until he returned.
    He launched himself out of the tree and
headed for the church, and the portal to the Land of Azran. He
needed to talk to his father.
     
     
     

CHAPTER NINE
    Faedra felt stiff as her consciousness forced
her to face the world again. With a groan, she pushed herself up to
a sitting position. An obnoxious pounding hammered at her brain and
she brought the heel of her hand to her forehead, keeping her eyes
squeezed shut.
    She was still sitting beside the door of her
living room. How long had she been there? Cracking one eye open,
she peeked out to look at the clock on the mantel over the
fireplace. It was 4:00 a.m. With another groan, she scrubbed at her
face with her hands and then raked her fingers through her unruly
hair pushing it back out of her eyes.
    For a split second, she couldn’t recall why
she was sitting on the floor of her living room at four in the
morning, still dressed in her Halloween costume. For that split
second, she was blissfully unaware of the turmoil she was about to
feel. Then