“Then you will die great one!” The boy laughed.
The boy’s power hit our group with devastating force. His power was sucking the energy out of every single member of the Circle, but Luke’s power held us all in place, unable to do anything to stop the boy.
NOW JADE! Luke thundered.
In that very second, Jade began to cry aloud. It was more than a normal baby s cry. She was making an earsplitting wail that was more powerful that the scream of a banshee. It was a mirror of my scream and it held more power and devastation than mine could ever possess.
The boy hit his knees and screamed. He was holding onto his head as if that was the only thing that was going to keep it from exploding. His scream turned into a chant. He was calling on the highest of high powers, as I had done only a moment earlier.
Jade’s cry grew louder and so did the prayers of the evil boy. Suddenly, the boy rose from the ground with a renewed strength. Jade’s cry was not causing him pain anymore and I was immediately panicked. I was about to lose both of my children to evil.
No Mommy, he’s not going to hurt us. You‘ll see. Luke said happily.
Everyone stood in silence as the boy walked closer to Luke in his father’s arms. The terror that the other members of our Circle were feeling drowned out my panic.
Jade, on three! Luke called to his sister.
One.
The boy was only a few steps away from him now.
Two.
He was now in front of Eric, knowing that we were held in place by Luke’s power. He extended his hand out to touch Luke. That was when everything went black.
Three.
Luke had took our sight and hearing from us, causing us to be lost in a swirl of silent darkness. I couldn’t tell what was happening. The only thing I could do was feel. A mixture of fire and ice wrapped around us, enclosing power around everyone. It was both disturbing and soothing at the same time, but the fact that I wasn’t aware of the goings on of my children was more than terrifying. Are they alright? Did the boy succeed in taking my son’s life?
The fact that I could feel Jade’s power again gave me hope that this was all going to turn out right. She had not completely left the Circle and I was curious as to the reasons behind what was going on. However, my precious baby girl was still connected to us and that was the most important thing right now.
I felt a vibration in the ground that stopped abruptly. A smell that I was not sure of moved through the air around us. The wind quickly carried it away and cleansed the air. Wet droplets fell on my skin and I prayed that it was water and not something else. I wanted it to be anything but blood. I don’t want my children to see so much blood, but I knew it was too late to do anything about that now.
A powerful, peaceful feeling came over us. Slowly everyone’s senses that had been taken away, was returned to them. Everything looked normal. There were no sign that anything had happened here. Nothing at all.
As I looked around, I noticed the blonde girl still standing there with Jade in her arms.
It’s okay Mommy. She is our friend. Luke said to me.
I ran to her without caring if she was friendly to us or not. Jade was all that I could think about. I wanted to touch her, to hold her in my arms again. The fear that I wasn’t ever going to be able to do that went out of my mind.
I took her out of the arms of the girl, checking over her to see if there were any spot on her that had been harmed. Thankfully, she was happy and unscathed.
I had my babies, both of my wonderful, powerful, amazing babies. Alive and well. “The Dark Union is no more!” I heard Silas yell out to everyone and the cheers of the Circle of Light rang out.
Eric came to me and kissed me like he had never done before.
“I thought that this was going to be the end for us,” he said as the tears filled his eyes.
“Yeah, me too.”
We used the moment to show our love for each other. Luke and Jade had gone to sleep soon after the battle was over. I understood the drain of using that amount of power.
“Who was the girl holding Jade?” I asked Eric as I looked around to find the blonde girl.
Eric told me that she was one of the more powerful witches that had joined us. She was the only one that could fit in on the other side with them. Her nature was dark, but not evil. She had to do a tremendous amount of acting just to gain the Dark Union’s trust. Thank goodness, they believed her and trusted her enough to let her hold Jade.
“Did you know about her?” I asked him.
“Yes, my love. I did. And so did you, but not to the extent that we did.”
I remembered where it was that I had seen her before. She was the girl in the kitchen that day talking to Eric. I had felt that something was off with her then, but I did not want to pressure the matter any further at the time. Everyone was a little strange to me then.
Eric saying that made me so angry that I had actually thought about strangling him to death with my own bare hands. “How could you Eric!”
Silas was at my side in a flash. He put his hands on my shoulders, trying to hold me back from rushing at Eric.
“I couldn’t tell you! If they hadn't seen the true reaction from you over losing one of them and then about to lose the other, our plan wouldn’t have worked.” Eric said trying to comfort me at the same time.
Silas’s grip left me unable to move and I was considering breaking his arms in order to get to Eric, but he made sure that I wasn’t going to be allowed to do that. That was a good thing.
“We had to, my Queen, or we would have all died today.” Silas whispered in my ear from behind me.
Nevertheless, some of us had died today. Our friends had given their lives for a plan that I was not trusted to know about. That made me feel terrible. I know it was for the good of the Circle, but did they have to go about it the way they did?
“Where are the ones that we lost?” I asked.
Silas pointed in their direction. I held Jade out to Maggie so that I could go on this journey on my own.
As I looked over the slain bodies of my loyal friends, I cried, falling to my knees on the ground beside them. They had given their lives for us; given their lives to save the ultimate powers and the Circle of Light.
I counted twenty-one members on the ground before me. The idea of their deaths haunted my soul, leaving me stricken with guilt. This was my fault, I thought to myself. If I could have done something more for them, this wouldn’t have happened.
A cool breeze blew against my skin and I heard a melodious whisper in my ear. I quickly turned to see who was there, but I was alone. Everyone else was standing back in the distance, allowing me to have space to do what I felt that I needed to do.
The whisper came to me again and this time I heard the words.
Give them your energy.
How? I cried.
Give them the breath they need and the love for which they died.
I gathered all the strength inside me and blew life into them from my own lungs, forcing the power of my love for them into their hearts. I spoke to each soul, thanking them for their sacrifice and asked them to rise, once again, and live the life that they had fought for so fiercely.
“Bailey? What are you doing?” I heard Eric say from behind me.
“I’m giving them back what they lost.”
One by one, the bodies of our loyal friends stirred. I had brought them back by giving them a piece of my own soul.
When the last one of them stood on their feet, I was taken off my knees and fell to the ground in exhaustion, but the feeling that I had was indescribable.
I had accomplished what I had set out to do, but I still wondered whom the whispering voice had belonged. It didn’t matter really. All that mattered was that the Circle of Light was whole again. Happy.
Each of the members that I had brought back to life knelt before me and I was Queen to them. I was given a feeling that was beyond pride and more than being thankful. There were just no words
that could’ve described it.
“Let's go home.” Eric said.
I called for Maggie and Silas to come with us. I wasn’t about to go home without them. My home was their home and I couldn’t live without my closest friends by my side. Forever.
I opened my eyes to a bright summer day. I had fallen asleep on the platform again. The memory of my dream would be burned in my mind forever. My phone rang and I answered it confused, the number wasn’t one that I recognized.
“Hello?”
“Um, hi. This is Eric. Eric Gray. We met yesterday.”
“Eric?”
“Yeah. Look, I was wondering if you would want to go out sometime.”
The details of the dream I had had thundered in my mind. Was this for real? Was he the Eric from my dream?
The only thing I could do was answer his question with a yes. With only talking to him on the phone, I could still feel the familiar pull he had on me, even from my dream.
“Sure Eric. We can go out.”
He said goodbye and I closed my phone. I went about my usual morning activities like nothing had happened. I was in denial about Eric. There was no way that I had dreamed all this. It felt so real to me, but those kinds of things just don’t happen in the real world.
I had remembered meeting him and how I had been so mesmerized by his presence in my dream.
When I got out of the shower, I heard my phone ringing again. It was probably my mother calling me to tell me she was going to be working late again tonight. I tried to make it to the phone and answer it, but I didn’t t. I was right; it was Mom. I‘ll call her back after I get dressed, I thought.
I tied my shoes, grabbed the phone and headed downstairs. The dream still burning in my mind. Surely I had still been dreaming when I got the phone call. I had to have been. Just as I hit the last step, the doorbell rang.
I opened the door to see a boy standing there. It was Eric and he was holding a single white rose out to me.
“Hello, Princess.”
I couldn’t breathe. My head was spinning and I was going to faint. He was the same Eric from my dream.
“Did you sleep well?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
April Margeson is the International Bestselling author of the Young Adult Paranormal Fiction series, Circle of Light which includes, “Eternity” and “Ignite.”. She has also published a short story, “Demon’s Death.” Her poetry collections Random Scribbles Vol.1 and Vol. 2 are also available. The first installment of the Waking Up Dead series released from Cresco Books on November 27th, 2014.
Connect with April on her Wordpress blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
https://www.facebook.com/AUTHORAPRILMARGESON
https://twitter.com/AuthorAprilMarg
http://margesonapril.wordpress.com
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Ignite (Circle of Light Book 2) Page 16