Read Online Guardian: Darkness Rising by Melanie Houtman - Free Book Online

avoid stepping
on her best friend’s feet at all costs.
    “ See?” Luke smiled at her. “You’re
doing fine.” He grinned, and decided to add a joke to reassure her
more. “It must be magic in your feet.”
    Mari could feel the colour rising
in her cheeks. Indeed. She was doing fine. And... the fact that
everyone was staring at her and Luke didn’t seem to bother her at
all. It made her wonder what was going on for a few moments, but
she quickly let those thoughts go.
    She was doing amazing, and for
once, she wanted the entire world to know.

 
    To Tame a
Demon
    The ball didn’t end until sunrise,
when all Lunariae were slowly starting to return to their own
realms and homes. The Spirits offered the Guardians that they’d go
to sleep for a while before getting down to business, and that was
exactly what they did – they were too tired to be able to discuss
serious matters now.
    After everyone had slept off their tiredness,
the Spirits called in another meeting – and this one was about
Mari.
    They wanted to know what the
Master was up to, what he’d asked her to do, and so on. They wanted
to know everything, up to the smallest details.
    Mari managed to stay surprisingly calm as she
told her story to the five quite impressive creatures in front of
her; as soon as she’d finished, they started to silently discuss
what she’d just told them.
    “ And that stone you just talked
about,” Ince said, “where’d you leave it?”
    Mari blinked slowly. “Ah,” she said, “I
believe I left it in the purse I took with me last
night.
    She slowly rubbed her arms; she’d put on a
pair of gloves she’d found in the closet of the room the Spirits
had given her to sleep in, along with a deep purple dress that had
been there, too. To her surprise, all the clothes she’d worn thus
far had fit her surprisingly well.
    The black coloured veins had spread all the
way across Mari’s left arm to her shoulder; she didn’t know how to
stop it, or what the consequences would be if she just let it run
its course.
    Maybe she could find a cure later without
having to scare her father.
    “ Well, then,” Ince said
friendlily, “would you mind to go and get it so we can see it,
Mari?”
    Mari nodded, bobbed into an
awkward curtsy and quickly left the Ritual Chamber to go find the
room she’d spent the night in. Luckily, it wasn’t long until she’d
done so. Mari quickly went through her chamber, got the purse and
went back to her family. She wasn’t sure what the big deal about
the stone was; both the Spirits and the Master seemed very eager to
have it in their possession.
    “ Ah, there we are,” Akilah said as
she noticed Mari entering the Ritual Chamber, carrying the small,
leather purse. “Come, dear. Show us what you’ve got.”
    Mari handed the purse to James, who shivered
at the touch of the purse – Mari noticed, but she wasn’t sure if
the others had noticed too.
    James carefully took the stone out of its case
and let it slide to the table, unwilling to touch it
again.
    “ What’s the
matter, James?” Samira asked her younger brother. She most
definitely  had  noticed how strangely James
responded to touching the small, tear-shaped glowing object. “Is it
something with the stone?”
    James, feeling that everyone was looking at
him, nodded. “Yes,” he said. “It contains Dark Magic. And a lot of
it.”
    Mari noticed that Akilah and Aharnish were
sharing a sideways glance. What was going on?
    “… Right,” Akilah mumbled. There
was a certain amount of uncertainty in her voice that Mari found
unsettling. “It might be worse than I thought.”
    She hovered a slender finger over the stone’s
surface, and gently touched it, only to instantly withdraw her
finger, drawing it close to her chest.
    “ What’s it, Aki?” Aoife exclaimed,
worried for her sister’s safety. “Is it what you thought it
was?”
    “ No,” Akilah said dejectedly,
“unfortunately, it’s much worse than I thought. Especially