Dark King Rising

by Alledria Hurt

  Connect with Me Online

  [Blog] http://alledriaehurt.blogspot.com

  [Twitter] @ourladyofashes

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  ~Alledria Hurt

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Dear Reader

  WEARING HIS RING

  WEARING HIS RING

  Chapter One

  School

  Science class was not Melina's favorite by any means. What did science really mean to someone who could bend the so-called laws of nature to suit herself with little more than a few words and a wave of her hand? Not much. Except she had to go to school. The law said so. The Coven adhered to the law the same as everyone else. They didn't want to stand out. There was no need for such a thing, at least not in the Mother's mind and what the Mother said went.

  Melina looked out the window, past the other students sitting between her and it. The winter sun was pale in the sky, casting little warmth. With a sigh, Melina leaned forward onto her desk and pillowed her head on her arms. The blackboard was covered with notes regarding the plant growing project the class was doing. Each student had a small green plant they were growing from a single bean. Melina's sat at the end of the row of 20, looking as if the hand of plague had touched it. While those beside it stood tall, for their short height, and vibrant green, hers bent in the middle, its single leaf black. Melina had touched it by accident while watering it.

  Just a simple brush of her fingers and the plant, its whole life (however short) ahead of it, had begun to shrivel. One of its two leaves dropped down into the Styrofoam cup she was using as a planter. The other clung to the stalk like a destroyed limb on a misshapen body. Then it bent double. Melina had put her head against the chill glass of a nearby window and started to cry. When asked, the Mother had simply refused to bring the plant back to life, even if it meant Melina's grades for the project would suffer. Her only response one of silent head shaking. She did that a lot when Melina cried in her presence. Something about the tears simply didn't sit well with the old woman who was, by all accounts, Melina's mother. She would stroke her daughter' hair, but she wouldn't interfere with the simple things, like school or friendships.

  "Melina Camp."

  Mr. Shooter, the Science Teacher, was looking at her with hard blue eyes. His mouth had turned into that inevitable frown as he got to the end of the row and looked at Melina's project.

  "Is this your idea of a joke?"

  "No, sir. I guess I killed it."

  "Did you now?" He raised an eyebrow at her explanation, that frown remaining his lips' companion. "And your documentation?"

  "Typed and prepared as requested." Her eyes drifted to the desk top until he said,

  "Please bring it up to the front."

  "Sir?"

  "Bring it to the front. I want you to read it to the class, so that they can understand how you managed to completely destroy a plant within three weeks."

  "Mr. Shooter, I really shouldn't."

  Despite her protest, Melina did get up for her seat and pick up the single typed sheet she had prepared to turn in along with her forlorn plant. The experiment log was done, but the conclusions drawn were certainly not going to make a science teacher happy.

  "Is there a problem?"

  He shifted his clipboard, which he was using to check off the experiment criteria for each student, to his hip and held out his hand for her paper. She placed it in his grip and he looked down at it. His eyes slid from side to side as he read the first few lines.

  "This what you planned to turn in?" he asked.

  "Yes, sir." The other students began to snicker as Melina looked at the floor. Mr. Shooter's tone was enough to tell them exactly what he had read. Melina had used the dreaded 'M' word on her science paper. Everyone knew Mr. Shooter hated the 'M' word with a passion. Probably because it was something new and it shoved a pickaxe through the head of science.

  "Day Seven," Mr. Shooter read. "Plant begins to decay. Accidental skin contact has had a detrimental effect on the subject. Will attempt to keep alive." He put the paper down. "Accidental skin contact caused this?" He gestured to the crippled flora in front of him.

  "Yes, sir."

  "Miss Camp," he addressed her so sharply she looked up at him. "I believe you intentionally failed this project."

  "No, sir, I didn't--" He cut her off with a wave of his hand.

  "Furthermore, I believe you find it amusing to thumb your nose at the scientific process, you and all your kind."

  The snickers of her classmates had turned into suppressed laughter. Melina caught one pair passing notes out of the corner of her eye. Her cheeks began to get hot. She clenched her fists, feeling the gloves given to her by the Mother creak against her skin. The lecture continued.

  "You will do this project over."

  "No, sir, I will not." Melina lifted her chin and looked Mr. Shooter in the eye. Then swept her eyes across her classmates, relishing the effect it had on all of them. They silenced nearly immediately. "I DID the project. I turned in everything you asked for. I will not do it over just because YOU are biased against people who can do things that you can't."

  "Miss Camp."

  "NO, Mr. Shooter. I will not do it over. Fail me for the project if you want to, but I'm not going to do it over when I did it the first time."

  "You will not raise your voice to me in my classroom." His own had dropped to a decibel above deathly. "Get your things; you're going to the Principal's office. I feel I need to have a discussion with your mother."

  Melina swallowed hard but did as she was told. Now they were going to call Mother. Great.

  Her messenger bag was light as she swung it over her shoulder and picked up her Literature book off the desk. Head up too high to see those who snickered and stared around her, she marched out of the class two steps ahead of Mr. Shooter. He shut the door behind them and they walked the fluorescent flooded halls together to Principal Murphey's office.

  Principal Murphey was a stout man with faded gray eyes and a short hair cut. No one was absolutely sure what color his hair was, but most assumed it was probably gray. He'd been the Principal of Sun City High since the days of the parents of those who went there now and he was the man who knew everyone down to the newest freshman by name. Granted, he knew Melina Camp's name for an entirely different set of reasons, not all of them having to do with Mr. Shooter. Mrs. Rawn had a minor problem with Melina as well, mostly when literature discussing magic, witches, or ancient rituals was concerned. Despite consistent warnings to simply let those things pass, Melina felt it necessary to argue portrayals.

  Murphey looked up when the pair entered, M
r. Shooter staying by the door while Melina dropped into one of the overstuffed arm chairs used for the Principal's visitors. There was no secretary at Sun City High. No gate keeper to screen access to the Principal. Instead, it was just him and his impeccable sense of what was and was not important.

  He simply raised an eyebrow at their entry and sat back in his chair. After 30 seconds of staring at Mr. Shooter, the science teacher slipped out of the office leaving the old man with the young lady.

  "Got under his skin again, did you?" Murphey picked up the phone and dialed the home number for Arabella Camp, Melina's legal guardian, the Mother. As he waited for her to pick up, he gestured for Melina to tell him the story.

  "We had a plant project. I did the project. I accidentally killed the plant. I put in the lab report how I killed the plant, which is what upset him." Melina grimaced as she thought about it. "He started it."

  "The last defense of those who know they are wrong," Murphey commented and then said, "Ara na, Mother Camp." The next thirty seconds were spent on simple pleasantries, Mother Camp asking about Murphey's cat, the only one who gained from his most recent divorce, and Murphey inquiring after the prize winning garden the Mother grew on the back of the enormous property the Coven owned outside of the city.

  "I apologize that this isn't a social call, Bella. Your ward is once again in my office. She and Mr. Shooter had another one of their disagreements and you know that tends to affect the other students. Perhaps a half-day holiday would be best?"

  He listened a moment before saying his goodbyes.

  "Your Mother says she will be here within the hour. You are to pick up your homework and work for tomorrow, she's going to keep you home tomorrow as well, and report back here to my office for her to pick you up."

  "I'm sorry, Uncle Murphey." Melina rose for her seat to go do what she was told.

  "Don't be sorry, Melina." He shook his head and put his hands on his desk. "Just learn when to keep your mouth shut, dear. Including calling me Uncle in public." He waved her out of his office just as the phone rang again.

  Forty-five minutes later, Arabella Camp swept into Sun City High School with her usual easy walk. Her cane clicked on the tiles, a third step following her first two. It was possible to believe Arabella and Melina were related, each with commanding profiles and eyes the color of summer storms, fully capable of moving from the storm sweeping in to the full blown thunderheads. Melina was already sitting outside of the Principal's office, her Algebra II textbook open in her lap. Her thoughts were so absorbed it took the actual tap of the cane against the edge of her book to make her look up.

  "Hi, Mother," she said.

  The woman leaned down and kissed her hair.

  "Lina. You have all your things?"

  "Yes, ma'am."

  The bell to change classes clanged and students began to filter into the hallways, the speeders with their backpacks already thrown over their shoulders mostly wearing the colors of the various sports teams the school had. Those who straggled along behind were the more studious, those who had to ask one more question before moving along to another class. They flowed around the Mother; a few even noticed her, looking up into her face, before moving on. Only one or two even glanced at Lina and of those that did, only one acknowledged her.

  Dustin Rainey stopped in the middle of the hall, looked her straight in the eye, and pantomimed belly laughter. He had been in Mr. Shooter's science class and seen the whole thing. When the Mother turned to look at what had Melina's attention, he hurriedly continued on his way.

  "I see you have an admirer." Arabella flicked her fingers at the departing youngster.

  "Is that what that word means?" Melina closed her book with a thump.

  "No. I'm going to talk to Murphey." The woman dropped a set of keys on a Cheshire Cat key chain on the textbook. "Go get in the car."

  Outside in the school parking lot was a bright blue four door sedan. The interior was done in butterscotch leather. It reacted with a beep to pressing down on the Cat's head on the key chain. Melina climbed into the passenger seat and thrust her backpack, now with the Algebra II book inside, down into the foot well. Putting the key in the ignition, she turned it on and tuned the radio to her favorite Classical station. The sound of piano drifting through the radio was enough to help to unknot the anger settled in her shoulders from dealing with Mr. Shooter.

  Ten minutes passed as she waited, but Melina didn't care. So long as there was music, she could wait forever. When the Mother slipped into the driver's seat, Melina studied her face for signs of how she felt about what Murphey may have told her.

  "Murphey is disappointed in you and I am too, to be honest." Mother started the car and backed them out of the parking space. She said nothing until the school was out of sight. "So you told the truth and Mr. Shooter did not take it well. This much you expected, didn't you?"

  "Yes, ma'am." Melina had known a confrontation was going to happen over the project the day she accidentally killed the plant.

  "Then why tell the truth?" Mother Camp asked.

  "Because you're supposed to tell the truth." Or so she had been told on hundreds of occasions.

  "Lina," the Mother chided. "The truth does not help us. Something you have certainly figured out by now. Years in school have to have taught you that."

  "Then what am I supposed to do?"

  "Tell a pretty lie."

  Melina sat back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest.

  "Don't pout." Mother continued without looking away from the road. "I am not advocating you lie in every instance, only in those where it is absolutely necessary to avoid problems. You have to go to school; therefore, you are going to have to get along."

  To say she already knew that was an understatement. In fact, this conversation was an old one. One they had been having since grade school. She was not supposed to discuss what she was with 'normal' people. She was not supposed to use her magic at school. She wore gloves because she had almost taken the face off Bradley Red when she tried to show him what she could do. Decay was not an ability anyone really wanted, it made things difficult.

  "So why take me out today and tomorrow?"

  "Tonight is the Renewal Moon, or have you forgotten?"

  Mother guided the car onto the highway and sped up.

  The silence between them was only broken by the radio announcer telling them the name, composer, and year of the next piece.

  Then they were home.

  The Coven grounds; otherwise, known as home, was a spacious place. It was nearly a two square miles all told, though a good deal of that was Seran, the river, and Brevan, the forest. There was no fence. None was needed. The highway emptied off onto a dirt road, that dirt road T-ed into another dirt road called Gallant Way, by those who knew them. Gallant Way was the Coven's road; no one lived on it that they didn't allow.

  The dust kicked up around the car was enough to blind, but Melina didn't need to see that they were approaching a house older than most of Sun City. The main house for the Coven was a four story rambling mansion which had been added onto over time. The wings of the house didn't match the original, but no one cared. The Coven only cared that it was their home. A black truck sat in the front yard. On the back window was a grinning skull.

  "I see Patrick is home," Mother murmured as she stepped from the car. "Stay away from Patrick, Melina. Go upstairs, work on your homework until time for school to get out, and then we'll discuss what you're going to do tomorrow."

  Melina climbed from the car and headed into the house. Patrick, one of Mother's sons, was sitting in the living room when the pair entered. Mother stopped in the doorway of the living room as Melina headed up the stairs to the bedroom she shared with Christina, Patrick's daughter. Christina was in a private school, run by another member of the Coven, and wouldn't be home for another few hours. Just as well, Melina didn't really want to talk to her Coven sister.

  While no one truly made an issue of it, besides Patrick and hi
s sisters, Pauline and Patricia; everyone knew Melina was a foundling, an orphan taken in by the Coven because of her abilities. The story was the Mother had heard her screaming from her cradle, abandoned on the steps of a church. Magical children rarely fared well when dealing with the Church, so the Mother had taken her in, giving her a name and a home. What the Mother had not given her was a private school education or anything further. Melina had a mother, but she didn't have aunts, uncles, cousins, or siblings. She had house mates.

  In her bedroom, she tossed her bag down on the bed and then threw herself down next to it. Homework would wait for a moment while she cleared her thoughts of all the mess the day had brought. She was two minutes into her meditation when her phone rang. The cell phone was forbidden at the school, so it sat at home on the charger ready for her to use whenever she wasn't at school or anywhere else it wasn't allowed. The little red devil vibrated and sang for her attention. Rolling over, she picked it up off the bedside stand. The caller ID held only one letter 'D'.

  "Hi, Death," she greeted her caller.

  "Rough day at school?"

  "You felt it, huh?"

  "No, you picked up your phone during school hours, Lina; magic had nothing to do with it."

  "Why'd you call me during school hours then?"

  "Be calm. Nothing untoward, simply checking to see if I will be seeing you tomorrow."

  "Yeah-- Oh wait! Renewal Moon is tonight. I may not be going anywhere."

  She heard Death sigh on the other end of the phone.

  "Understood. So our coffee date for this week will have to be canceled. I had forgotten about the Renewal Moon." He sounded far off for a moment. "I have to go, Lina. We'll talk soon." Then he was gone without a goodbye, not unusual for Death. He was a busy creature. Lina liked that about him. Melina closed her phone and set it aside, frowning. Shaking her head, she picked up her book bag and started sorting through her homework for something to start on.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Renewal Moon