by Trevor Darby
“We’ve been pretty busy...It just always seemed like the wrong time,” I said, feeling guilty for what felt like the hundredth time today. “I guess I thought you might be mad at me if you knew I was talking to him about Professor Uwyn and the golem and all because I wasn’t supposed to talk about it. But when Pop told me what he was, I thought it would be okay. Then all this started happening, and you got taken and...” I shrugged helplessly, realizing how thin my excuses sounded. “I should’ve told you. I was just afraid you would...I dunno, walk away from me or something.”
Her blue eyes blazed fiercely as she took my hand. “I’d have been mad if you told someone who wasn’t Magic because it could be dangerous, Chace. But we’re together, like peanut butter and chocolate. Like Phineas and Ferb. Like mashed potatoes and gravy. Nothing can tear us apart. Get it?”
I nodded, a lump forming in my throat. Raven clearly noted my emotional state and took the lead, filling Pops in on everything that had happened. His fists clenched during the part about Seth. Something told me Seth should be glad he'd never run into my grandfather in his prime. By the time Raven finished our tale, though, Pop's anger had faded, and he looked nothing but proud if a little sad.
"You both did a fine job." He said, reaching out to ruffle my hair. "That's how it should be. Together for one another through thick and thin. I hope that, as this life throws more and more in your path, you only grow closer and more in tune and can protect each other no matter what."
His eyes filled with grief. He cleared his throat.
“Not a day passes that I don’t wish I’d been able to do the same.”
Raven’s face went cloudy as she reached out and patted Pop’s wrinkly hand. “Did something happen to your Protector?” she asked softly.
"Yes. I lost my Protector years ago. It should've been me," he whispered, shooting a glance over Raven's shoulder.
We both turned to see a copy of the image of Pops and another, younger, handsome man. The same photo I'd seen in the attic now sitting in a frame. My new life must've triggered those memories in him, and he'd decided to bring those memories out in the light again.
“Th-that...that man in the photo is the one who died in your place. He was your Protector?” Raven asked, her cheeks going bone white as she stared, wide-eyed at the photo.
“Yes,” Pop said with a frown. “Why? Did you know him?”
Raven turned her stricken face toward mine. I knew before she even said it.
But the knowing didn’t make her words any less devastating.
She swallowed hard, her eyes growing cold, like glittering chips of ice. “That’s my dad.”
EXTRAS
Sneak peek at MYTH SQUAD Book Three,
Chapter 1
It had been nearly a month. Four whole weeks since we’d defeated Klugg the Troll and had rescued Raven from the Magical Realm...Four whole weeks since I lost a piece of myself.
I dragged my gaze away from her as she slipped into the cafeteria line and managed to wipe the misery off my face right as Taz walked over to join me at our lunch table. There was a skip in his step and he was practically beaming as he took his seat.
Taco day could do that to a person. Especially if that person was Taz.
“So delicious. I love Taco Day, bro. And it’s doubly good this time, because our watch has almost ended. Tomorrow it’s sweet release,” he said through a mouthful of slightly soggy shell filled with meat and cheese, “I wonder if this is how prisoners feel when they get out?”
I couldn’t help but return his smile in spite of my mood. The last month had been a long haul and I was starting to wonder if being grounded that long qualified as cruel and unusual punishment.
“I know, right? I’ve actually been looking forward to the walk to my bus stop every morning because it’s the only chance I get to actually feel the sun on my face,” I said, laughing.
“My mom doesn’t even give me the luxury of walking to the bus stop,” he said, shaking his head. “She also thinks going to the grocery store with her is ‘too much fun’, so I wasn’t even allowed to do that.” He continued his griping but I was focused on Raven again, who was now walking from the lunch line to a table across the room. “She still blowing you off, bro?” Taz said, stopping whatever he’d been saying as he caught my gaze.
“Yep,” I said. No use in complaining about it. he’d talk to me when she was ready.
“She’ll come around. I know finding out your pop and her dad were Hunter and Protector was a lot for her to handle. Especially considering the way things had turned out, but I still think she’s being kind of a jerk to you,” he said sympathetically, shoving the remaining half of his first taco into his mouth. “It’s not like it was your fault or something,” he mumbled through the mouthful. “Or even your great-grandfather’s. I mean, it’s a dangerous job, right?”
I nodded, taking a bite of my own meal and giving silent thanks as Mikey and Aaron sat down at our table. I’d already explained a million times that this situation went beyond someone being in the right and the other in the wrong. Sometimes things just hurt too much to process right away, and it didn’t mean it was someone else’s fault. But he was too good a friend to accept that as an excuse. If someone was making me feel bad, you could guarantee Taz would have an issue with them. Even though it wasn’t very helpful right now, I was lucky to have someone like him in my corner.
After a long discussion with Mikey and Aaron on the benefits of bringing in another Ogre for our online game, Night Watch, I took a final swig off of my carton of chocolate milk and stood with Taz, who had finished his food within three minutes of getting it. We walked our trays over to the trashcan, pushing through a crowd of kids doing the same. I dumped my tray off and turned to put my tray on the counter behind the trash, which was lined with empty trays in messy stacks.
When I turned to walk back toward the table, I felt my heartbeat thumping as Raven dumped her own tray out into the trash.
Everything is so screwed up.
I did my best to look casual as we passed her, resisting the urge to take the long way around. It felt like a dagger to the chest when she walked by us without so much as a glance at us. Just a month ago we’d been best friends, but now she couldn’t even bear to look at me.
Taz put his hand on my shoulder in silent comfort as we made our way back to Mikey and Aaron.
“So who are you guys thinking of recruiting for the new Ogre?” Mikey said, turning to bring us back into their conversation.
I tried to focus on our gaming team, but the fact was, I could only focus on one thing. Getting our real-life team back on track. Sure, the rest of the Myth Squad was doing all right. I’d managed to keep low-key in touch with Maps via short, magic-assisted visits to her house a few times to keep from going crazy with boredom. I’d even gone there, grabbed her, and zapped us both into Taz’s bedroom for a very quiet night of board games once, but facts were facts. Without Raven, I felt like half of a whole. My only hope was that time would help heal her pain.
Hey, it had worked on Mom, after all. She was hardly even mad at me anymore. But as I called up an image of Raven’s icy expression, I winced.
Maybe the old saying was wrong.
Maybe there were wounds that even time couldn’t heal...
***
Five hours later, I was still mulling that over while idly practicing my magic. Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and I quickly released the magical tether I’d affixed to my math textbook that was making it spin around the room. It dropped to my desk with a light thump in the same spot my monitor would be when I was ungrounded tomorrow morning.
At least I had something to look forward to.
“How was school, sweetie?” Mom said as she stepped into my room with a gentle smile.
I forced a grin in response and shrugged. “It was fine,” I said, looking up from the textbook I’d been pretending read. “How did work go?” I said.
Her eyes narrowed and her forehead creased into a
frown, “Good. Why do you seem so down? I’d think you’d be excited for your grounding to be over. One more sleep!”
“I am, I can’t wait. I just want to get my homework out of the way so I’ll have all weekend to do whatever,” I said, mustering as much enthusiasm as I could.
She cocked her head at me, clearly smelling my little fib, but she shrugged and said, “Whatever. Dinner’ll be ready soon. It’ll be a Binner night to celebrate, pancakes and eggs.” She grinned at me.
I smiled back and this time it was more genuine. Mom, Max, Pop, and I had a tradition of eating breakfast for dinner on Friday’s when we were younger, and Mom still brought that tradition back on special occasions. It was silly, but her thoughtfulness and the promise of gooey, chocolate chip pancakes drenched in butter and maple syrup did lighten my mood a little.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said.
“I’ll call for you in a bit but come right down when I do. I can’t guarantee that Pop won’t eat yours too if you take too long,” she said with a wink before shutting my door and heading back to the kitchen.
I raised my hand, flicked my wrist, and the textbook disappeared. I pumped my fist in victory, turning around and seeing the book on the bed behind me. I’d been practicing all month, trying to recreate the feat I’d managed with Raven when we’d been in the Magical Realm fighting the Troll. Before then, I’d only been able to transport people if we were touching or holding hands. Somehow, in my panic to keep her from getting squashed by Klugg’s massive fist, I’d managed to transport her from standing on top of him to the forest floor yards away without laying a finger on her. I had no clue how I’d done it and hadn’t been able to repeat it until now.
Maybe it was one of those tricks I had to not think so hard about. Maybe it was all about the feel. Both times it worked, it had been almost second nature and without thought. But if I was going to use it, I had to make sure I could access it at will. Otherwise, counting on it and failing could prove to be deadly.
There were so many uses for a power like that. Would it eventually be possible for me to teleport things right to me from far away? There was a certain thrill in knowing that I’d only scratched the surface of what I was able to do with my powers. I put my hand out and pushed all thought from my mind, flicking my wrist again. As the book popped back into existence, as if from thin air, my only wish was that Raven was here to celebrate with me.
A rapid patter of steps came down the hall and my brother Max burst into the room a second later.
“Dinner’s ready, butthead.” He scampered back down the hall, clearly as eager as I was to eat. I followed after him into the living room. Another benefit of binner? No kitchen table! We got to eat in the living room while watching TV. I was still technically grounded for the rest of the evening, though, so I knew I’d have no say on what we watched.
“Looks great,” I said, looking at the awesome breakfast laid out on the coffee table. Mom handed me a plate stacked high with chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, and eggs and the smell had me practically drooling.
“Thanks a lot, Sandy. Smells delicious,” Pop said, shoving a hefty forkful of pancake into his mouth. I followed suit and was reminded once again how good Mom’s pancake-making skills still were. Crispy on the edges, fluffy in the middle, just like they should be.
Mom walked into the kitchen with an empty glass and called back over her shoulder. “Anyone want anything while I’m up?”
“I need some milk to dunk these pancakes in,” Max called in response, taking a bite of his eggs but ignoring the pancakes for now.
I rolled my eyes, laughing, “Haven’t you grown out of that yet?”
“You dip cookies in milk so why is this so different?” he shot back as mom walked in and handed him a glass of milk.
“They just get all soggy and you end up spooning a bunch of pancake mush from the bottom of your glass when you’re done eating,” I said. “It’s gross.”
“Exactly! That’s what makes it so good. There’s a million dollar business for you. Just sell it pre-soaked like that, you could call it pancake milk,” Max said, dropping an entire folded pancake into the milk and letting it soak up the milk like a sponge while he focused back on his eggs. “You can take that to Shark Tank and make a fortune off that idea if you want. You’re welcome,” he said with a half-bow.
I wrinkled my nose at him in disgust. ”That’s a terrible idea and no one but you would buy it because it’s gross.”
“Look, at least I’m not the one that uses French fries as a spoon for his ketchup,” he said with laugh.
“Wait a second, there. What’s gross about that? Ketchup is delicious,” I said through a bite of pancake. It was nice being with the family on the eve of my ungrounding. The fund food and lighthearted conversation after so many days of misery was almost enough to take my mind off the situation with Raven.
“Mom, which one’s grosser?” Max said, turning to her as he stirred his muddy brown concoction up with his spoon.
“They’re both horrifying,” she said, not looking away from the television, “now shush, I want to hear this.” She pointed to the news anchor who was delivering some clearly disturbing information judging by the serious expression on her face.
“Just a few hours ago, all the cameras at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, mysteriously stopped working. According to reports, the footage on every camera went black for a full five minutes, confounding security professionals, before returning to normal. It was during this time that the famed Hope Diamond disappeared. The MPDC have not commented on this story except to say that they’re in the process of looking for suspects.”
Pop let out a low whistle and Mom shook her head and made a snicking sound with her tongue.
“So much crazy stuff going on in the world lately,” she said. “Did you see this past week all those weird weather patterns with the super-small but mighty storms popping up all over the world? And there was that sinkhole in New York just yesterday. The world’s really going a bit nutty lately.”
I nodded an uninterested agreement. Strange weather stuff like that happened all the time. I’d seen pictures of hail the size of baseballs just a few months back, and there were always tornados and hurricanes going on somewhere. No reason to be too worried about it all of a sudden, and I didn’t much care about some dumb diamond. Especially when we couldn’t do anything about it. I was much more focused on what Taz and I were going to be doing tomorrow.
It was going to be epic. We’d finally get to play some video games and do some biking. Maybe we’d even go to Zorby’s Shake Shack for one of their famous triple chocolate shakes. It sounded great, but it honestly couldn’t be much better than these pancakes, I thought as I cleaned my fork of the final bite with a happy sigh.
I had just put my fork down when my pocket buzzed. Mom, in her infinite mercy that Taz’s mom seemingly didn’t share, had given it back to me after just two weeks of grounding. I clicked the home button once and a message from Twee Twyla popped up.
Several mysterious and magical artifacts have gone missing, and I’ve got good intel that it’s no coincidence. Assemble the Myth Squad and meet at my house at 9:00 am tomorrow. Make sure to get everyone here...the fate of the world depends on it, boy.
The third MYTH Squad book is available.
You can find it on Amazon.
Buy it now.
Thank you for reading my story.
If you enjoyed it, I invite you to share your thoughts and reactions on Amazon. It is amazing what a few moments of your time can do to help a new author. Thanks!
Review on Amazon
Special thanks to my friend Ricky Gundawan.
He designed and created the cover for Chace Ogden and the Quest for Raven.
About the Author
Once upon a time...
Trevor's mom got a call from his third grade teacher.
Trevor had never arrived at school. His mom grew worried. She searched high and low for him. He
was nowhere to be found.
Until she opened the door to a small sewing room...
Trevor was sitting on a pile of blankets, reading his favorite book. His mother scolded him and sent him to school. He was not deterred and continued reading his book as he walked to school.
To this day...
Trevor is most often found in a comfortable niche, reading his next favorite book.
But sometimes...
He can also be found writing.
Influences include: Dave Wolverton, L.E. Modesitt, Michael Moorcock, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, George Orwell, Jim Butcher, Terry Pratchett, and Anne McCaffrey.
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