The Wizard's War Read online

  The Wizard’s War

  By Rain Oxford

  The Wizard’s War © 2015 Rain Oxford

  All Rights Reserved

  The Guardian Series Book 5

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  It was cold and dark, and the horrifying sight before me was only barely visible. Normally, Hail’s visions were clear and he was detached from his senses. I tried to stop it; there was nothing that could have prepared me for this. Seeing my uncle with blood across his chest and dragon claws exposed was not too shocking, since he protected my father from monsters on a monthly basis. It was the way he faced his brother. I couldn’t see his face, but I could see the acceptance on my father’s.

  “Hail, wake up. Please stop.”

  No answer. He was too lost, which hasn’t happened in years. I couldn’t even close my eyes.

  Mordon’s black blade glittered in the scarce light as he aimed… and slid it into my father’s chest. It wasn’t the absolute impossibility of what I was seeing, nor the look in my dad’s eyes, that startled me so much. Heat blossomed across my chest, starting small before spreading. It first took my breath, then my vision, until all I could feel was dark emptiness and white-hot pain. Where is Hail? Why can’t I feel him?

  * * *

  I woke in the dark, panting, and peered across the room to see my brother gasping from his own bed. He was white as his bed sheets while his black T-shirt clung to him with sweat. He looked at me as if I had all the answers. He always did.

  “That wasn’t normal. I couldn’t sense you there.” He got up, ran across the room, and pushed me aside. He took up most the bed, but I was small for my age, so I had a little room to breathe between him and the wall. For my brother, there was nothing worse than being alone in his visions, so he was trying to reassure himself that if he suddenly fell back into it, I would be there this time. I wanted to push him out of bed; I didn’t want to see that again. Unfortunately, I couldn’t leave him alone to suffer… and I wasn’t strong enough to push him off the bed.

  “I think it was far in the future,” I said, focusing on the blurriness of the vision instead of the odd isolation.

  “It wasn’t real.”

  “Your visions are always real.”

  He gaped at me like I was insane. “Mordon is Dad’s brother. There is nothing that could make Mordon kill him.”

  That I couldn’t argue with. “We can’t tell anyone. Nobody would believe us. Actually, Dad would probably sigh and say that if Mordon ever killed him, he had it coming. Maybe you’re right; maybe it wasn’t a vision.” I was lying, of course, and he knew it.

  “It was a nightmare,” Hail agreed stubbornly. As a fifteen-year-old boy, half dile and half human, with Iadnah power, my brother had an invincibility complex. Or maybe a bull complex. If he didn’t like something, he would demand it wasn’t true and god help anyone who tried to say otherwise. “I’m hungry.”

  “It’s the middle of the night,” I said. His purple eyes turned pouty and his hair was still wet from sweat, which gave him a “recently drowned” appearance. I sighed, rolled my eyes, and tossed the covers to the floor as angrily as I could before getting up and stomping to the kitchen.

  I flipped on the kitchen light to see the room already occupied. I froze. “Bad dreams?” Dad asked me. He looked exhausted.

  “Um… yeah. You okay?” He looked at me and I realized he was worse than exhausted. He put his face back in his hands.

  “I’ve been better,” he mumbled.

  The only one who could get answers out of him that he wasn’t ready to give was Mordon, who wasn’t here, so I headed to the cabinets and started pulling out pans. I got the flour, milk, and half a dozen other ingredients. Making pancakes was routine by now. Mom preferred to use the kitchen to cook up potions than actual food, but Hail and Dad liked food. I learned early in life to cook because Hail and I disliked meat and fruit and bread could only go so far. Thank god Dad was a better Guardian than he was a chef, because his idea of home-made food was buttered noodles.

  I learned a lot of my cooking from Earth, where we lived for nearly two years so my dad could be a doctor. He was amazing at it and saved hundreds of lives, but his fallback was always magic. When he was able to miraculously save a truly hopeless patient, only to blow out every electronic in the hospital, there was little alternative for him but to return to Duran.

  There were aspects of Earth I loved, like the cultures, the animals, and the millions of people I could conquer, but Duran always felt more like my home. Besides, I hated public school, and mosquitoes were something straight out of Hell. There were bugs and people everywhere on Earth, in every nook and cranny. It was like having a little privacy was a sin or something.

  Despite my troubles with bugs and dumb kids at school, it was Mordon who suffered more than any of us. Mom had to hide her magic, Hail had to hide his visions, and Dad had to hide who he was to all of his coworkers, but Mordon had to hide his dragon. There were several times when it became too much and he would actually snap at us and start to shift, so Dad started flashing him once a week to Duran to fly for a night.

  Although there was a group of dragons in our old town, he couldn’t get over the love of his life, who was killed. Because the field that the dragons liked to shift in belonged to Sydney, Mordon couldn’t stand to shift there any more.

  I believe it was ultimately more because of Mordon than anything else that Dad decided to move us home. It was sad that they would each sacrifice what they really wanted for each other’s happiness.

  I made vanilla and walnut pancakes for Hail in one pan and blueberry, sugar-free pancakes for Dad in the other. Hail walked in just as I was dishing up his breakfast and I held it out to him without looking. He took it and hugged me thanks before he disappeared and I finished Dad’s. I handed my dad his smaller breakfast, then sat next to Hail and grabbed a fork.

  I always gave Hail more than he needed because he would share with me whether he had enough or not. Uncle Nila once told me that it was a dile thing; it was instinct for siblings to share. I found that sort of at odds with nature, but Dios was very different from most places. They were still recovering from near extinction.

  The three of us ate in silence for most of the meal. “Where is Mordon?” Hail asked. Dad looked a little ill as he shrugged. “What do you mean you don’t know?” Hail’s voice became outraged and my dad winced. He had a headache. I reached out to try to help, but Hail intercepted. “Where is he?”

  “He and Emiko went on vacation a week ago.”

  Hail made a snarling sound, much like the dragon we they were discussing. “I hate that woman.”

  “Honey, you don’t hate anyone,” Dad chastised gently.

  My brother glared at me, expecting me to agree with him. I sighed. Mordon’s girlfriend got under Hail’s skin, but she would never risk Mordon’s wrath to attack Dad. The dragoness knew very well whose side Mordon would be on if push came to shove. I took Hail’s hand to give him my support without actually agreeing with him, and he looked back at our father with triumph.

  “Mordon deserves a break. We’ve been preparing for war for four years.”

  Dad was very serious about protecting us and everyone from the demons. Since the guardians of the void were attacked and the demons declared their
intention to conquer all of the worlds, Dad has been using our time wisely. The Guardians have finally banded together to defeat their greatest threat. They spread the word every day about the upcoming war.

  All of our “good” demons that agreed to help Dad were sent out to find any surviving guardians of the void. Fortunately, they were successful in finding two dozen survivors. Of course, they were reluctant to be rescued by demons, but they were eventually relocated to Dios, where Nila and Nano could protect them. Unfortunately, Janus was still missing.

  With Rasik dead, it became a race for Azenoth to get another Guardian in the traitor’s place before the war started. Although Dad refused to let Hail and I work for Azenoth, he did agree to keep the irritable god’s book safe. In the meantime, Edward and Nano were assisting the monks with training the new Guardian; a twenty-year-old wizard.

  Xul took on a much more useful role in our lives by helping Dad form alliances, getting vital information where it needed to go, and doing research on the weapons from the Iadnah war.

  Dad got up to wash his plate and ruffled my hair as he passed. “Thanks for the pancakes.”

  I gave him my best scoff. “Dad!” I screeched, trying to fix my hair. My perfect spikes were loose without hair-jell, but I still had to put up a fight. Hail laughed at me, since he wore his shaggy hair without any style. His dark auburn hair had a naturally glossy sheen with vibrant dynamite-red highlights in the sun, but his hair never tangled. He never had to do a thing to it.

  I pulled my magic to tip his chair back in retaliation, but Dad caught it before my brother hit the floor. “No fighting in the kitchen; you’ll wake your mother,” he said.

  “Are you kidding? I think he woke everyone on Shomodii with that screech.” Mom walked in wearing one of Dad’s dark blue T-shirts and short white shorts. She ran her hand through her hair, trying to get the black strands under control. Dad moved to kiss her and in her sleepy state, she just held still for him. When he moved back, she blinked at me against the bright light. “Ron, if you promise to never make that sound again, you can change your hair color.”

  I jumped up with excitement, about to express it verbally, when Hail’s hand closed over my mouth and he pulled me back down. “He says thank you, that’s awesome, and he loves you,” my brother said calmly. I was busy thinking of all the colors I could make my hair.

  My mother turned her attention to Dad and winced. “You look like hell. How long have you been having trouble sleeping?”

  “A few days. I have no energy and I’m achy. I feel like I have a cold.”

  “But you can’t get sick. I think it’s because of Mordon.”

  Panic crossed my dad’s eyes. “Do you think he’s sick?”

  “Dad,” I said in my best “you’re an idiot” tone, which I learned from Mom. “Mordon is your balance. He keeps you at peace with the universe. Your soul is used to his. When you’re apart for a long time, your body tries to compensate.” I rolled my eyes. Obviously, he should have known that, being my mother’s mate.

  He looked at Mom with an expression of loss and worry. “Baby, where did our little angel go? I don’t think I like this teenage-shit. I’m leaving you and the kids. Mordon and I will go back to Earth, and I’ll have the divorce papers to you by the end of the week. We can remarry when Ron is twenty-two.”

  Mom’s expression was of outrage. “How dare you?! I was going to say that in, like, three seconds! Now you had to go and ruin it! I’ll take you to court. I give you full custody! You can’t leave me with two teenagers!”

  He glared at her and they were fully squaring off at this point. “You can’t have Mordon, he’s mine, and he will side with me.”

  “Boys need their father.”

  “I never had one, and look how I turned out!” He blinked and looked down. “Oh, wait… scratch that. I’m not a good example.”

  “Daddy…” Hail whimpered. “I can’t take another dad walking out on me.” He was faking it, of course, but Dad could never deny him anything. Hail was as tall as Mom and way bigger than the average fifteen-year-old in solid muscle. He was coddled. But despite being small and thin for my age, I was given no mercy for my actions.

  “I’m sorry, honey, we’re just kidding. We could never leave either of you.” Dad folded, predictably, when it came to the subject of abandonment.

  Mom rolled her eyes behind his head. He wondered where I got it from. I looked from Mom to Hail behind me, but something red caught my eye. Quickly looking back at my dad’s chest, I blinked. I could have sworn his green shirt was covered in blood, but it was clean.

  “What’s wrong?” Hail asked.

  I looked at him. “I thought I saw something. I was wrong.” I looked back at my dad and it suddenly became difficult to breathe. Something was pushing on my chest… from the inside. For the first time in months, the darkness stirred, but it wasn’t sluggish like normal.

  Before I could say anything to Hail, everything around Dad dimmed and he burst with white, blinding light. It was the void, the enemy of the universe; my enemy. I could never let the void free. He was pulling apart everything that was right and good and I could see it. He was even more damaging to the universe than the gods; he had torn open the walls to the void before. He would do it again. There were no rules for him, no stopping him. I had to destroy the imbalance. The strongest force against the balance against to universe was right in front of me and I could destroy it. Something intercepted me, but it was almost as strong an energy as the thing I had to extinguish. Two enemies of the balance demolished was even better than one.

  Power formed in this vessel, barely durable enough to contain me, but my world tipped just as my power was released and my head burst with pain.

  Light and color returned to my eyes and I found Hail’s face two inches from mine with his eyes scrunched closed… and the ceiling behind him. He opened his purple eyes to look at me and blood dripped from his nose onto mine. “That,” he panted, “HURT!” he yelled in my face. I shook a little with the loudness as my ears rang. Hail never yelled at me. He loved me.

  He pushed himself up, nearly kicking me as he stepped over me and stomped out of the kitchen. I heard the front door slam and wanted to go after him, but my body wouldn’t work. Hail left me on the floor, unable to move. He just left me. I couldn’t go after him, and he didn’t even look back.

  I looked over to see Mom and Dad sitting on the floor, Dad holding Mom tightly in his lap. They both looked at me like I was a rabid dog about to attack them. Mom’s look of shock was draining and giving way to anger. Nothing made sense. My brain was scrambled. “Mom?” my voice came as a whisper.

  Instead of comforting me, she stood up, pulling Dad up with her, and walked towards the door. I squeaked as she nearly kicked me, too. Dad pulled his hand from hers and crouched beside me. “Get out here,” Mom demanded of him. He sent her a look.

  “He’s hurt.”

  “He tried to kill you!” she yelled, making me wince. Mom was going to kill me. There was no one she loved more than her mate, not even her children.

  Dad waved her off as if her words were too ridiculous to even respond to. He took my hands gently as I tried to reach for him before crossing them over my chest and turning me gently onto my back. I hadn’t realized I had curled up on my side. He put one hand on my chest and one on my forehead. Mom moved quickly, but Dad was faster, and we were suddenly surrounded by a crackling force field.

  Dad’s healing energy seeped into me, soft and gentle, like his soul. I never knew a better person than my dad; he was always kind, always the first person to offer his help. He treated everyone as his friend until they proved otherwise, never held a grudge, and never said anything unkind to anyone. I tried to be like him, but I was picky, loud, and opinionated.

  At the same time I realized I was no longer hurting, I also realized tears were streaming from my eyes. My dad pulled me into a hug. I didn’t want him to think I was a wimp, but I couldn’t pull myself away. Even though Mom was gone
, I could feel her rage. Hail was outside, negative emotions spewing from him so fast I didn’t know whether he was coming or going.

  Dad let me go. “Go take care of Hell. I’ll deal with your mother.” Dad shared Hail’s inclination to rename people. Everyone called Samhail “Hail,” except for Dad, who called him “honey,” or “Hell.”

  “What happened, Dad?”

  He sighed. “Ask your brother.” He got up and left me on the floor, not even coming close to kicking me. The floor was cold, and I realized with a start that the only light in the room was from the sun rising before the window; the light fixture had exploded.

  This was the only house on Shomodii that had electricity, which we all ran using magic after Dad had insisted several years ago that the house needed a “human” touch. I used magic to gather the glass shards into the bin before going outside. I passed Mom and Dad’s room as quietly as I could and fought the urge to eavesdrop.

  Outside, it was barely dawn, and Hail was pacing furiously across the front of the house. Blood ran from his nose, his body was shaking as if with shivers, and his fists clinched and unclenched. He didn’t look at me, but I could feel his soul recognize my presence and calm just a little. He walked faster.

  “I need to heal you,” I said, stepping off the porch.

  “Back off!” he yelled, not changing his course or looking at me.

  “I don’t know what happened. Please don’t yell at me. I don’t know what happened. I can’t make it better if I don’t know what I did wrong.”

  “It was me that was wrong! I was wrong about everything! I was wrong about you, wrong about me, wrong about everything!” He stopped pacing and looked at me. “This isn’t going to work.”

  I couldn’t breathe over the pain in my chest, but this was different than before. “I don’t understand,” I said, choking on my words.

  “I thought I could control the balance in you. I was wrong. I thought you could never hurt me because I am your brother, but I was wrong about that too.”