Guardian: Darkness Rising by Melanie Houtman Page A

situation he’d created. “I’m sorry, Lucas,” he said. “I
thought I could handle this. I thought I could face the Master on
my own.” He sighed.
    “ All I wanted was to protect you.
And... I failed.”
    “ No, James,” Thomas insisted. “You
didn’t. We’re all still safe.”
    “ Then where are the others?” James
said incomprehensively.
    “ Antonio and Bella are with Aoife,
Aine and Aharnish,” Samira said. “The kids are with Violina – Lucas
insisted on coming.”
    “ I wanted to help find you,” Luke
said after receiving a judging glare from his father. “And I’m glad
I did, Dad.”
    James snorted and smiled at his son. “I am
too, Luke,” he said. “It’s good to see you. All three of
you.”
    Father and son shared a hug, missing out on
all that was going down behind them.
    The Master had defeated his
siblings once again. With a single tap on the floor with the bottom
of his staff, the Master turned them both into...
    “ Shadows,” James breathed. “He’s
turned them to shadows.”
    “ ASURA!” Ince bellowed. “What’s
the point of this!?”
    The Master smirked at his brother.
“You see, Ince,” he said, “now you can experience what it’s like to
be me once again .
You get to experience the punishment you designed.”
    “ Don’t do this, Asura,” Ince
warned his brother; he laughed it off, however.
    “ There’s nothing you can do to
stop me, Ince,” he laughed. “And soon, our dear siblings will be
joining you in your pitiful, helpless state.” The Master laughed
hatefully.
    “ What is he talking about?” Samira
hissed. James shrugged.
    “ I don’t know,” he lied. Well,
basically it wasn’t entirely a lie, but it wasn’t the truth,
either. “But I think we’re about to find out.”
    “ Well, I’m not waiting until
everything goes wrong,” Luke said, and sprinted forward; his father
wanted to grab him, but missed. “LUKE, DON’T!”
    Luke ignored his father; he lashed out with
his sword at the Master, who had his back turned to Luke. Just as
the blade would’ve made its impact, the Master moved his hand
upward. The blade of Luke’s sword began to glow red, and mimicked
the movements the Master made with his hand – sending the sword
back where it came from, tearing the flesh of Luke’s
temple.
    James and Thomas rushed forward to
save Luke as the boy fell unconsciously to the ground. The two
adults quickly dragged the boy away from the Master before the evil
Spirit could finish the job.
    “ Such courage,” the Master
smirked. “Too bad he lacks any actual skill.”
    James looked at Akilah and Ince. “Get him back
to the castle,” he told the Spirits, referring to his son. “Get him
out of here. We’ll take care of the Master.”
    James didn’t have to tell the Spirits twice;
despite the fact that they were shadows, they could still teleport
and hold objects – which meant that they could take Luke back to
safety.
    In the meantime, the Master attended to
executing his plan.
    Using his staff, the Master summoned the globe
of Lunaria; the red orb on the staff began to emit unsettling black
smoke as he did so.
    James began to tremble uncontrollably. As he
leaned Samira to support, she gave him a worried look.
    “ James? Are you okay?” Thomas
said.
    “ Y-yeah,” James
stammered. “We’ve got to get out of here. Now. ”
    The trio didn’t hesitate; James
grabbed his sister by the wrist and pulled her along.
Unfortunately, they were already too late by the time they’d
started running.
    The Master raised his staff and placed his
hand on the globe, exactly on the Land of Light. “Now,” he
breathed, “let’s see how fast I can change this world this
time.”
    As the Master finished his sentence, the patch
of land presenting the Land of Light on the globe began to turn
pitch black.
    ...And so did the actual Land in real
life.
    The air got an instant chill as
the dark energy began to spread from the castle through the air –
there was no