Trees In The Storm: Tales of Terrara Vikos #2 Read online

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  We took Kimberly back home with us to clean her up from the cuts and dirt she’d acquired during the incident. I finally realized I was missing my shirt when we got there and blushed as Kimberly sat across from me during our examination.

  The doctor dabbed an alcohol wipe all over my chest. The stinging seared all over. My fingers splintered the wood under the stool I was sitting on. I’d never experienced pain like this, but then again, I’d never gotten this beat up before.

  I desperately wanted to see my father. I needed to ask him about what Mom had said before she’d died. She’d called me “Young Protektor.” I knew the Protektor was another player in the Profecia, but I couldn’t be him! I was just the Realm Leader’s son. While I may have powers that surpass most kids my age, that was just from the Gallager bloodline. A Gallager in the second round of the Profecia as well as the first?

  Impossible.

  My mother could have just been delirious. She had lost a lot of blood, so it was entirely possible.

  After the doctor wound my torso completely with bandages, I walked out into the living space to find Kimberly waiting there.

  “Hey Luke…” she murmured, refusing to look at me, “Or, should I say, Lord Lucian?”

  “Kimberly, I wanted to tell you!” I exclaimed, “I really did! I don’t like keeping secrets, but it was for me and my family’s safety. Surely a girl as smart as you could understand that?” When I flashed her a playful smile, she started giggling. Then, she looked at her watch, and the smile on her face disappeared.

  “Luke, the dance…”

  I looked at my own watch. 5:34 PM. The dance started in less than thirty minutes. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to talk to my father about the Profecia, much less the school dance! Looking back up at a depressed Kimberly, I decided we would make that dance, whatever it took.

  “Lucero!” I shouted. In an instant, a teenage servant girl ran in.

  “Yes, sir?”

  With a cocky smile, I gestured toward Kimberly, “Take our guest and dress her up fancy and nice. We’ve got a dance to get to.”

  The servant girl nodded, taking Kimberly’s hand and leading her to the hallway. Kimberly glanced back at me with a wide eyed, deer-in-the-headlights look, and it made me laugh to myself. I ran up the stairs to my own room to find Halden sitting on my bed.

  “You still plan on going to that dance?” he asked, smirk across his face.

  Nodding fiercely, I told him, “Yes. I do.”

  After a moment of staring each other down, Halden closed his eyes and stood up. “Then we should get you ready, Luke.” At first I was surprised. Halden was always so loyal to my father, but instead he was helping me go out behind his back. Smiling happily, I walked over to my closet.

  Within minutes, I was dressed up in a red dress shirt and white tuxedo. Looking in the mirror, I yanked down on the sides of my jacket, turning from side to side. “It’s missing something…” Snapping my fingers, I summoned some of my magic to my hand. A small gust of wind spiraled over top. Once it stopped, two red corsages sat in my hand. I pinned one to my jacket.

  “There. That’s perfect.”

  “How’d you do that?” I spun around to Kimberly standing excitedly in the doorframe. The question didn’t even register in my mind as I looked at her. She looked spectacular in her frilly, lacy, blue dress. The lights almost danced off her glimmering skin and definitely sparkled in her eyes.

  “Um… I…” I couldn’t form the words. I know what you’re thinking though. ‘A seven-year-old doesn’t have those types of feelings yet.’ And, on that basis, you are entirely correct. However, with my strict, proper upbringing and lack of a normal life, my maturity was eons above my actual age. Plus, even normal seven-year-old boys would have to be blind to not see her beauty.

  Kimberly repeated her question, “How did you do magic without a spell?”

  “I… I don’t know?” I honestly didn’t at the time. Every Ascential can do magic, but only with spells or charm words.

  Sliding the spare pair of glasses on my face, Halden grabbed my wrist and yanked me to the door. “It doesn’t matter. You guys have to go before Lord Morgan gets out. Hurry!”

  I held out a hand to Kimberly, now able to see the small smile and blush on her face more clearly thanks to my glasses. Kimberly took my hand and squeezed it. I wasn’t sure if it was for comfort or happiness or both, but it made my heart beat faster.

  With a shove from Halden, we bolted for the mansion’s front door. Skidding to a stop close by, I peeked around to corner to find two of my father’s sentries guarding the door. With a growl, I dragged Kimberly back down the hallway and around some more corners to the side entrance. After checking to make sure the coast was clear, we ran through the sunset to the school. It took us all of fifteen minutes to get there even with stopping for momentary breaks for breath, which is good time for two seven-year-olds.

  As I was bent over catching my breath, her fingers interlocked with mine. When I looked up, her emerald gaze soothed me. For a moment, I was calm.

  Until we entered the gymnasium.

  “Luke!”

  “Look everyone, Luke’s here!”

  Soon, my vision of the decorations for the dance was obscured by the mass of my peers crowding around me. I held up a hand for them to be quiet, but thought they wouldn’t care. After all, who listens to a bookworm anyway?

  Surprisingly though, they went silent and stood there around me, waiting for me to say something. I glanced around wide-eyed.

  “What?” I asked harshly. It came out meaner than I intended—I’d been through a lot that day, after all—but no one seemed to care about my tone.

  One of Kimberly’s close friends, Rebecca, was the first to break the silence, “You were really brave chasing after Fredrick, Luke.”

  “Fredrick?”

  A boy off to my right scoffed, “See, he doesn’t even know the name of one of the most dangerous Ascentials in the world. He can’t be the Realm Leader’s son!”

  Oh, so that was what this was all about. Now I had a dilemma. I either needed to tell them all the truth and put them in danger, or come up with a crafty lie.

  Rebecca asked timidly, “Luke… Are you really Lord Morgan’s son?”

  I came up with the best excuse. I could say that I was a guardian-in-training, and that my mentor had told me to never back down from a fight, and that I wanted to prove myself and-

  “Lucian Merrick Gallager!”

  … Well, there goes any excuse I had.

  I winced at my father’s harsh tone. Within milliseconds, all my peers had started whispering amongst themselves. I stayed frozen to where I stood, not wanting to face my father’s wrath.

  “Look at me,” he growled. I felt the immense amount of magic he was emitting, fueled by anger, and knew I was in big trouble. He could have held it back if he wanted to, but he wasn’t.

  “Look at me, Lucian!”

  I winced again, as my super-sensitive hearing suddenly kicked in. Luckily, the whole gym had gone deathly silent at my father’s arrival, so I wasn’t being bombarded by sharp, painful headaches. Slowly, I spun around to face him and discovered why the place was silent. I was surprised that I didn’t hear the distraught tone in his growled orders. Looking on my father’s tear-stained face, I knew that it wasn’t anger fueling his magic. It was concern.

  “Lucian,” he said slowly, “Do you know how worried I was? A mere three hours after your mother was taken from me?” All it took was two long strides for him to reach me. Then, he knelt down and pulled me into a tight embrace. His fingers intertwined in my thick, blonde hair.

  In my ear, he whispered, “I thought I’d lost you too…”

  I wrapped my arms around him, holding back tears at the anguish in my father’s voice. “I’m sorry, Daddy… I won’t do that again…”