Guardian: Darkness Rising by Melanie Houtman

head in surprise.
“What?” he said, obviously caught off-guard.
    “ I said, what’s the holdup ?”
James repeated. “Why haven’t you attacked them
yet?”
    The Master laughed.
“At tack them?” he
laughed. “And take away their opportunity to watch you waste
away?”
    “ Ex cuse me?”
James demanded.
    The Master looked down at James, smirking
creepily. This was the moment he’d been waiting for. “Don’t you
know, my dear James?” he asked innocently, as he began to ascend
the stairs once again. “In that case, you happen to be in luck; I’m
in the mood for a story.”
    James gloated silently at the Master, waiting
for more.
    “ You see, James,” the Master said,
“Lunaria’s light lives inside you... and thus... so does the
darkness.” The Master suddenly put the orb of his staff to James’s
throat, who couldn’t help but feel his heartbeat speeding
up.
    “ That’s right,” the Master
breathed. “You clever boy. You know exactly what I’m getting at,
don’t you? I’m going to bring your family here now... because I
want them all to see.” I want them to see you, and to watch as the
world crumbles around them – taking you with it.”
    “ It’s never going to work,” James
said. “there’s no chance I’d ever join you. Especially not since
your theory has no proof to be backed up with.”
    The Master withdrew his staff and
glared at James. “Oh, but I do have proof,” he whispered sinisterly. “Just have
a look at the stones on your Golden Wing. They’re
cracking.”
    James could tell his hands were
shaking, despite being tied up. What if the Master’s theory was correct? If it was,
then James and his friends would be big trouble. Reconsidering
everything, there was a fair chance that the Master would turn out
to be right – after all, the Master’s knowledge of Magic was
significantly larger than James’s.
    In the meantime, James had
disappeared into his own thoughts and worry to miss out on the
Master summoning Samira, Thomas, Luke, Ince, and Akilah, who’d been
outside searching for James.
    “ JAMES!” Samira yelled as soon as
she realised where she was. The siblings ran toward each other, but
the Master interfered by freezing James in place and raising a wall
of black flames between Samira and her brother.
    “ James?” Samira demanded. “What’s
going on?”
    James’s voice trembled as he replied. “I don’t
know, Sam.”
    “ Asura!” Ince’s voice bellowed; he
extinguished the black flames with a single wave of his hand while
angrily walking forward. “What do you think you’re
doing!?”
    Asura didn’t seem too impressed by his two
angry older siblings. “You know exactly what I’m doing, my beloved
brother,” he hissed. “And, just like last time, I’m starting with
you.”
    The Master raised his staff, but Ince was
faster. With a single move, the Master was thrown back against a
wall.
    “ I see,” the Master growled as he
got back on all fours. “Brother didn’t come for a friendly chat.
But what about sister?” He lashed out at Akilah; the spell arrived
before Ince could stop it, but Akilah didn’t defend herself or
strike back; she simply kept dodging over and over, until she’d
ultimately fail to do so.
    Knowing that moment would arrive soon, Akilah
tried to reason with her brother.
    “ Asura, please,” Akilah pleaded.
“You still have a chance to turn this all around. Give the good in
you a chance!”
    “ The good in me?” her brother
sneered. “Please, Akilah, You and I both know that there’s no good
in me left. And...” he paused for a moment. “Maybe there never
was.”
    While the three Spirits were battling, James
was being freed by his family. Thomas used his enchanted sword to
cut the dark ropes, allowing James to hug his sister and
son.
    “ Dad,” Luke said, “where were you?
We were worried sick.”
    James’s eyes flashed from his son
to his sister and his brother-in-law – he felt utter embarrassment
for the