I close my eyes and call to Jacobi, knowing he’ll hear me and come for me. He always will.
Within seconds, he arrives. His hands move over my body, checking for any damage and I stifle a giggle as his eyes land on my face.
“This is not funny,” he growls.
“I know,” I reply, still smiling. “But, I knew you’d come.”
“You did?” he responds, relief in his eyes.
I nod. “Yeah, I knew all I had to do was call.”
He kisses my lips, and a thrill chases through me.
“What’s been going on?” I ask before he whisks me away.
“War,” he answers.
“War?”
“The last five days have been a battle between Ambrose’s soldiers and those on the other side, on Caspian’s side.”
“Five…five days?” I breathe out, sliding down onto my bum.
Jacobi crouches in front of me, “Juni, Juni, what’s wrong, baby?” he asks, cupping my cheeks.
“I thought I was gone for only a few hours.”
He shakes his head. “No, he brought you to Valheld. Time moves differently here. You’ve been gone for days.”
“My mum…”
“Is okay, I saved her. James, Emmie, Lucas, Mrs Donovan, and your mum are all waiting for you at home.”
“Home?”
He frowns. “You remember the hideaway home I took you to?” I nod. “I moved them all there.”
“But what about Caspian Academy?” I question, my hands gripping his biceps.
“Someone is always there,” he reassures me. He looks down at the ground for a second before meeting my eyes again. “I tried to search for you, but I couldn’t find you.” His words are whispered, and I can feel the raw pain in them, it’s haunting.
“There’s a powerful witch in there,” I say pointing back to the castle. “They have it cloaked, I think.”
Jacobi’s eyes close in pain, and I kiss his lips softly. His shoulders relax as his whole body releases tension, and he moves our kiss from soft to intense.
“I missed you, Juni, I missed this. I was scared, so scared that I was too late, and I’d lost you.”
I watch as he swallows down hard, trying to control his emotions. It causes my eyes to well with tears, and I bury my face in his shoulder as his hands slide to my hips.
“Can we just run away?” he asks, his tone is light, but I think if I agreed he would whisk me away forever.
“Cobi, there’s more,” I tell him. His eyes meet mine again, and he waits patiently. “The person who helped me escape told me I’m the real heir to the throne. Apparently the real King and Queen were my parents, and that’s why I’m so powerful… and I’m the only one who can defeat King Ambrose.” Jacobi curses under his breath, his hands tighten on my hips, but I don’t complain. I know he needs to work through his feelings. “Jacobi, can you take me away from here now before they realise I’ve escaped.”
He nods as his eyes roam my face again. He kisses me one last time, and the next thing I know, I’m in his living room. Emmie is on the floor bleeding, and my mum is crouched beside her trying to help her while James and Lucas are fighting a small group of Kingdom soldiers.
I rush over to Emmie, my body changing instantly into that of a Guardian as I use my powers of healing to give her life again. I know I shouldn’t be able to choose, and somewhere along the line, the spell placed on me has screwed up my true embodiment of a Guardian, but with King Ambrose on the attack, I’m thankful I can.
“Come on, Emmie,” I urge.
Juniper’s mum sits beside me with her hands held in a prayer, and out of the corner of my eye, I can see that Juniper is helping James and Lucas.
“Please, please,” Juniper’s mum whispers next to me.
It seems to take forever as the battle rages around us, but eventually, Emmie sits up with gasping breaths. Her eyes are wide, and she stares at me with fear in them. Something happened when she was unconscious. Something bad, but I don’t know what. All I can do is heal her wounds. The soul will be hers to fix.
Juniper’s mother pulls me aside. “Go and help the others.”
I nod, and using my wings, I fly up into the air of my high ceilinged living room before swooping down on the Kingdom soldiers. They wave their swords in the air, trying to attack me, but I’m too quick. A bolt of energy blasts past me and into one of the guards; it rips right through his body, and he falls to the floor, dead. I look behind me to locate where the bolt came from and see Juniper. Her eyes are black, and she’s focused only on stopping the Kingdom guards.
I land next to her, and as she fires off several other powerful blasts of energy, Lucas and James stop fighting, and we all stand and watch, in part awe and part fear, the display of her incredible strength. She wasn’t this powerful before, and I know what she said about her being the daughter of the real King and Queen of magic is true.
She forms a ball of energy, ready to throw it at the last guard, but I stop her.
“No, I want to ask him some questions.”
“He hurt Emmie,” Juniper growls, lost in her anger.
“And she’s safe now. I healed her.” I press my lips to Juniper’s, and she shakes her head to bring herself out of the fit of fury she’s in.
“If he doesn’t give you answers, he suffers the same fate as the others. This is our place of safety, and I won’t have anyone attacking us here. I’m sick of always being behind what the King is doing.”
The King, not my father. Her words are telling.
“He’ll talk to me.” I motion for James and Lucas to help me, and we lead the guard into my spare room. Lucas ties him to a chair while I bring another chair to sit in front of him.
“We’re young adults, and we’re not in the habit of killing or being attacked. We should be enjoying the last few months of our studies before we graduate and go out into the wide world. But someone is preventing that.” I lean forwards on my chair, a stern look on my face. “I want you to tell me everything you know. Who sent you? What are his or her plans?”
The guard turns his head away from me, and I sigh heavily. I’m eighteen, I don’t want to torture this man, but I will if I have to.
“Lucas, you remember the spell we were taught to push pain into someone when they’re about to attack us. A last form of defence to prevent us getting hurt.”
“I do,” Lucas replies. He holds his hands up.
“For a few moments only,” I tell my friend.
Lucas recites the spell as James and I watch on. The man in the chair starts to scream in pain. I hold my hand up and Lucas stops the magic.
“Who sent you?”
Nothing. He keeps his mouth tightly shut.
“James, your turn-”
“I’m not torturing him,” James interrupts before I can give him a spell to perform. His face is a little pale. “I’m sorry, Cobi, I didn’t sign up for anything like this. Fighting those soldiers was about my limit.”
“You don’t have to apologise, it’s all right. Let me see if I can find another way.”
I hold my hand up and use my magic to read the guards’s mind. He blocks me from most of the knowledge I seek, but I’m able to find one piece of information which I can use.