Trinity Found: The Lost Daughter Of Angor Series - Book 1

by Settle Myer

  We stand in silence as Reed grieves the loss of his love, Rosie. We all are grieving. We had grown into a little family over the past few days. Rosie had been there for me since the beginning. She always offered a shoulder for me to lean on. And while I never took her up on that offer, she constantly let me know she had my back, either with a simple pat on the shoulder or nod of approval at my decisions.

  Reed stands, wiping a single tear from his eye. His face contorts with anger and pain. He'd just lost the love of his life. I want to hug him and assure him everything will be all right. But before I can do anything, he stands and sets aside his grief to begin his plan of vengeance.

  "Soldiers are standing by near the entrance of the Pyramid for Hyde’s arrival,” Reed begins, quietly yet stern.

  Five white vans pull into the parking lot, and a team of medics piles out of each one, running towards the blast area with medical bags and pushing stretchers. Right behind them, a caravan of SWAT-type trucks.

  “Julian, Trinity, and I will head to the entrance. Chanel, Chad, you must have your wounds attended to before joining us,” Reed continues.

  Before Chad and Chanel could protest, two medics pull them away to examine their injuries. I dodge a medic trying to inspect the cut on my head so I can get an update on Shiloh. The young man who ran over with Reed earlier is now sewing up the final stitch as I crouch down next to him.

  “Is he going to be okay?” I ask.

  He nods but doesn’t look my way. “We’ll need to take him in for tests, make sure there isn’t any internal damage. But yes, he will be just fine.”

  “And your name?”

  “Karson.”

  Karson is an adorable Hispanic man. He can’t be more than a year or two older than me. His caramel skin glistens with sweat. His light brown hair matted to his forehead. If he’s stressed, he doesn’t show it. His calm and collective energy soothes my nerves, which have been standing on end since the moment that bomb went off.

  “Thank you, Karson.”

  I turn to Skyler, who has his arms wrapped around his knees, rocking by Shiloh’s side. He appears to have shut down emotionally. I'm getting nothing from the young man. No sadness, no fear. It's as if I'm in a dark room, insulated with noise-canceling materials. His first battle as a Royal Guard, and he’s nearly blown up. I don’t blame him for going into shock.

  I gently touch his knee, and he stops, regarding me with tear-filled eyes.

  “I did this,” he sobs.

  “No, Skyler. You didn’t.”

  Another medic with a stretcher arrives and helps Karson load Shiloh to whisk him away to a hospital. I hold out my hand to Skyler. “Come on. We need you out there with us. Shiloh is going to be fine. I promise you.”

  Skyler stares at my hand like I just offered him a bag of dog poop. He shakes his head.

  “Don’t make me mind-alter your ass,” I say. The corner of his mouth twitches, and suddenly, I'm flooded with a storm of relief, hope, and appreciation. He takes my hand.

  The medics lift the stretcher off the ground, and I stop them. Shiloh, who is now awake, smiles at me groggily. “How did I ever doubt that you were a badass?” he says, quiet and weak.

  “I tried telling you. Kitty Harvey and her black eye knew!” I laugh, but tears catch in my throat.

  Shiloh puts his hand over mine. “Go kill that asshole.”

  I laugh and nod, wiping away a tear. The medics roll Shiloh away. Skyler and I stand shoulder to shoulder and watch until he’s loaded up and the ambulance takes off.

  “You will be an amazing Queen someday,” Skyler says, gently placing his hand on my shoulder before walking off.

  Julian appears next to me and wraps his arm around my waist. I lean my head on his shoulder and close my eyes. He lets me stand there in peace for nearly a minute. “Are you ready?” he whispers.

  I lift my head and turn to him. “No.”

  Julian smiles and holds out his hand. We walk back to Reed, who is speaking to a woman decked out in black tactical gear.

  “The transport van carrying Hyde is nearly here.” Reed reaches out to me, setting his hand on my shoulder. “Trinity, are you sure you’re up for this? We have soldiers who can fight.”

  My entire body sighs. “He spent eighteen years searching for me. Well, here I am. Even if his plans have changed and he no longer has a use for me, I have to stop him from destroying this world I grew up in.”

  Reed smiles with pride and nods. He takes a weapon from the woman standing next to him. She hands one to Julian and offers one to me. I shake my head.

  “Your Grace, it’s for your protection,” Reed begs.

  “I don’t know how to use it.”

  “We can show you?”

  “You can show me all you want, but I’m afraid I'll forget once we get out there, mess up and shoot my toe off.”

  Reed shakes his head at the soldier, and she walks away.

  Reed, Julian, Skyler, and I march off towards the entrance of the Pyramid. It's about half a mile away. The cloudy sky fills the air with static electricity. Rain threatens to fall down at any moment. Silence surrounds us. Birds have gone into hiding, bugs buried deep into the ground. Wild animals nowhere to be found. The swooshing sounds of traffic from the Hernando-DeSoto bridge off in the distance fade away. It's as if we’ve entered an entire new realm. Perhaps it’s the protection shield put up to deter any humans from discovering this war between Angorians. Or maybe it’s just me focusing on the task before us.

  We pass through a line of trees, and I can now see the entrance of the tomb of doom. I glance towards the road where Hyde’s transport will arrive. Not a single soul in sight. Anxiety begins to pool at the bottom of my stomach. A barrage of questions loom. What virtues does Hyde have? What if Julian is injured, or worse, killed?

  I stop in my tracks and turn to Julian. I take his weapon away and set it on the ground.

  “What are you doing?” he asks.

  “Your Grace, we must get to the entrance now,” Reed barks.

  “Just give me one minute!” I take both of Julian’s hands in mine. “I want to try something.”

  Julian nods, and I continue. “Close your eyes and think about the time we met. The first time we kissed and all the ones since.”

  “Trinity,” Julian warns.

  “Just do it!”

  Julian sighs and closes his eyes. I replay my memories of Julian. The instant connection we felt when he held my hand in the hospital, and I saw the world of Angor. Our kiss at the table on our birthday. The beautiful moment at the waterfall. A charge that begins in my heart spreads across my skin, down my arms and fingertips. It pours onto Julian. It tingles, like when my foot falls asleep after sitting on it too long.

  I peak at Julian to make sure he’s focusing, but my eyes pop wide open after noticing a bright bubble of light surrounding us. Between our bodies, rows of electricity crackle. I close my eyes again and squeeze Julian’s hand. The light encompassing us erupts and pushes a gust of wind between us. We fall to the ground.

  Reed rushes over and helps me up first, then Julian.

  “What the hell was that?” Reed asks.

  “She just gave me her virtues,” Julian says, examining his hands. He slowly looks up at me. “How?”

  “Anima mates can share virtues. I’ve only read about it. Never witnessed it in my life,” Reed explains.

  Julian examines his hands, possibly in awe of the gifts I just gave him. Or furious that I gave them to him without his permission. I'll have to apologize for that later. We have work to do. I take one of his awe-stricken hands and pull him behind me. Reed and Skyler follow, and we arrive at the Pyramid’s entrance.

  We stand in a row, side by side, with Julian and me in between. Within minutes, the van with Hyde inside pulls in. It stops about fifty feet away with the side of the unmarked van facing towards us. The driver gets out. He's an average-sized man, slightly taller than myself, I'd guess, with a head full of light brown hair. He wears a b
ullet-proof vest and gloves.

  “What’s going on? Why aren’t you alone? Did the plan change?” he asks.

  The back doors to the van open, and a soldier jumps out. He holds up a gun, and before I could warn the clueless driver, the gunman pulls the trigger. A bullet flies through the young man’s head, and he collapses to the ground. I yelp and cover my mouth, trying to hold back the terror of the execution right before my eyes.

  The shooter returns to the back of the van and opens both doors. Hyde emerges, stretching his arms wide like he just got off a long-haul plane ride. He swivels his head our way and bursts into laughter. He slow claps, walking towards us. The lone rebel follows behind, a large weapon now in his hands.

  My uncle’s bearded face could use a trim and perhaps a day in the sun. His t-shirt and jeans are tattered like he’s been a prisoner of war for years and the enemies are handing him over to freedom. He stops clapping like a madman, and a swarm of rebel soldiers move in from all directions to join him. The faces blur together. Except one. Commander Myers.

  “My dear niece, we finally meet,” Hyde purrs.

  “Unfortunately, for you.”

  Hyde belts out a laugh. “Clearly, that warning blast at the staging tent didn’t scare you away. This is only going to end badly.”

  I find Commander Myers in the crowd and shake my head. Guilt fills her face for a mere second before she replaces it with the same brainwashed expression like the rest of the rebels.

  “This was never a fair fight,” I say. “She spied on our plans.”

  “Just like Shiloh? Spying on my rebels?”

  My face drops.

  “What? You think I didn’t know? He buried his loyalties to King Elijah deep. All it took was threatening YOU for his real agenda to reveal itself.” Hyde and his army stop, now just a few feet away. “And what about you, Trinity? You can read minds. You couldn’t find Commander Myers’ betrayal?”

  I clench my teeth and ball up my fist. I’m angry at myself for not dipping into Commander Myers’ mind. I gave that whole damn speech, too. Yet, my dumb trusting self didn’t anticipate a commander would betray her world. I didn’t sweep Commander Dyson’s mind either. Now he’s dead. And Rosie, too. This is all my fault.

  “You’re so naïve, Trinity!” Hyde barks, throwing his head back like he’s telling the world of my ignorance. “By the way, the teams ambushing my rebels right at this very moment... they’ll soon be dead.”

  “You’re sick,” I spit.

  Hyde’s face turns to stone. “You really shouldn’t have come. It’ll be a shame to kill my only niece.”

  “Cute that you thought we didn’t come ready,” I say, and, at that moment, a team twice as big as Hyde’s rebel army files in behind us, decked out in armor and carrying other-worldly weapons. Half a dozen men and women with the shield virtue join the line with me, Julian, Skyler, and Reed.

  Hyde smirks. “Impressive. And you have shields. Six of them. Shields are a rare virtue on Angor.”

  “Give up now, Hyde!” Reed snarls.

  “Ah! The invincible man,” Hyde says, now pacing slowly like he’s a comedian on stage entertaining an audience. “I remember the first time we battled. You just wouldn’t die. So, I put my researchers to work. Turns out, Angorians with the self-healing virtue can be killed. All it takes is a jolt to the heart followed by a knife. Your body can’t heal if the blood isn’t pumping.” Hyde stops and holds out his arms. “Today’s your day, my man!”

  “You need help,” I growl through clenched teeth. "Why are you doing this? Is it because you lost your anima mate?”

  Hyde drops his arms, his eyes narrow at me, and his jaw tightens. “You shut the fuck up, little girl!”

  "Would Bella want this?”

  “Don’t you say her name.”

  "Would she want you killing people to avenge her death? You're going to take away the life of men and women who have families.”

  “Trinity, stop,” Julian urges.

  “It doesn’t matter how many people you kill. How many worlds you conquer. She’s not coming back.”

  Hyde clenches his fists next to his sides. A low rumble roars to life underneath our feet. The ground starts shaking. And with a torturous scream, he lifts his hand as if drawing a line from his army to ours. A crack rips apart the cement shortly after. Hyde’s attempt to take us down, stopped only by the shields around us.

  I’ve poked at the beast, and he’s ready to bite down. The time for attack is now.

  Chapter 13

  The line of shield soldiers stand their guard, letting bullet after bullet hit and fall to the ground. With every clink of the copper plating encasing on the cement, Hyde’s face turns a deeper shade of red. We’re untouchable, and it's infuriating him. His plan to kill every last Royal Guard is crumbling. However, I remain alert and wait for him to unleash more of his virtues.

  “We have to start taking down rebels,” Julian offers. “The shields will protect against their attacks for now, but every hit weakens their energy force. Any help to lower the assaults on them will keep us safe for longer.”

  “We have our strongest soldiers out front,” Reed adds. “Telekinetics first, then elemental manipulators behind them.”

  “Okay, then what are we waiting for,” I say.

  On my word, the telekinetics begin mentally throwing any and all large items at the rebel army. Light poles, cars left unattended. Some even pick up the insurgents and throw them yards away. The elemental manipulators join in, uprooting trees planted around the Pyramid and tossing them at a line of rebels, knocking them to the ground. Skyler takes the flames on a burning piece of wood and balls it up, catapulting it into about half a dozen men and women on the frontlines.

  Hyde’s rebels fight back with their own fire benders, shooting a stream of flames at our shields in an attempt to break down the molecules. Other environmental manipulators on Team Hyde send mini-tornadoes that dissipate the moment they hit the invisible bubble. After the tornadoes, energy benders pull the electricity from surrounding powerlines to assault the shield like a lightning bolt.

  Sweat drips from the foreheads of the line of soldiers, emanating the invisible barriers. Their faces turn bright red, and a few shake, obviously becoming weak as they struggle to keep the shields intact.

  The environmental manipulators and telekinetics on Team Trinity are slowly taking rebels down one-by-one, but it’s not fast enough. It’s as if a new rebel pops up the moment another falls. Does Hyde have a second army ready to move at the moment we kill the first batch?

  I glance over my shoulder at Julian, who stands off to my side. He’s tense, fists clenched. His jaw is tight, and his face contorted with anger as he watches the battle unfold. Then, he starts raising his arms until it’s like he’s holding a large invisible boulder in front of him. A light, small at first, manifests in the middle of this invisible boulder. The light grows, firing off tiny bolts of currents throughout until the illuminated ball is as bright as the sun above.

  Julian is using a virtue I gave him.

  “I need an opening!” he yells. And a few seconds later, a gust of wind blows through a hole in the shield.

  With a wicked smile plastered on his face, Julian catapults that bright sphere through the shield’s gap and into the front row of Hyde’s army. He takes out at least five of them, two of who were standing right next to Hyde.

  “You missed!” Hyde chuckles, raising his voice over the explosive combat.

  Julian flips the bird at Hyde, who ignores the insult and walks off. He disappears behind a line of soldiers holding guns and decked out in armor.

  Julian has already moved on, targeting more insurgents on the frontlines. He’s throwing trees at them, sending them up in tiny twisters or unearthing the ground below, so they fall into the cracks. I smile at how much he seems to be enjoying the extra virtues. He went from only being able to manipulate minds to creating the perfect storm with the snap of his fingers.

  Chanel manifests b
y my side, and I jump back, throwing up my fists.

  The gorgeous warrior holds up her hands. “Whoa, there, your Grace! You have a lot of power behind those deadly weapons.”

  I drop my ‘death mitts’ and grab my chest. “I forget you can transport. I didn’t expect you to suddenly appear out of nowhere.”

  “Sorry, your Grace.”

  Chad runs up, his arm bandaged up and in a sling. He leans over, putting his free hand on his knee to catch his breath.

  “Your Grace,” he says in between breaths. “Sorry, I got here as fast as I could. Some of us can’t teleport.”

  Chad scowls at Chanel, who rolls her eyes. “All you had to do was sympathize my virtue,” She says, then turns her attention back to me. She looks to my side. Reed is there. That silent bastard could have been a snake.

  “Chanel, Chad,” Reed says in his robot military voice. “The shields are getting weaker by the minute. It won’t be long before Hyde’s army will get through. We’ve been trying to take out his rebels before that happens, but Hyde replaces them just as fast.”

  “I can start taking them out. I’ll teleport, snap a neck, then move on,” Chanel suggests.

  “I’ll help,” Chad adds, which gets a look of daggers from Chanel. “What? You just said to sympathize your virtue! We’ll get through more rebels this way.”

  “Will you be able to do that with one arm?” I ask.

  Chad looks at the sling then rips it off. “I don’t need this. The wound from the blast is bandaged up.”

  “Good. Then, you two head out there when you’re ready,” Reed barks before I'm able to protest Chad going out in the battle with an injury.

  Chanel and Chad vanish before my eyes. Reed slaps my shoulder and walks off.

  I find Julian a few feet away using his telekinesis virtue to pick up cars and drop them on rebels. I leave him to his vices and join Reed, who stands with his muscular arms crossed, monitoring the battle.