Read Online The Emerald Staff by Alison Pensy - Free Book Online Page A

at
Vivianna’s firm grip on him.
    “You have one week, Custodian.” She rapped
the staff three times on the ground.
    Faedra saw Henry’s expression change again,
to one of fear, as the tiny red laser lights encircled them and
they disappeared.
    “NO!” Faedra lunged forward but it was too
late, they were gone.
     
     
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Faedra stared for the longest moment at the
empty space where her father had just stood. The fear and confusion
on his face now etched into her mind. Her body went numb. It felt
like her brain had shut down, she couldn’t think of anything to do,
anything to say. No, this couldn’t be happening, not her father,
too. Where had Vivianna taken him? With the ruby staff they could
be anywhere, in any realm.
    “Hey, you two, what are you doing out here?”
Jocelyn’s sing song voice cut through the silence in the darkened
courtyard. She looked from Faedra’s shocked face to her brother’s
dumbstruck expression, and her smile fell from her cheerful face.
The young fairy took a step closer to her friend when she realized
something was very wrong.
    “Faedra? What happened?”
    Faedra looked right through her, still
fixated on the space her father had occupied just a moment
before.
    Jocelyn turned her attention to her brother
and questioned him with an expression. He didn’t need her to speak
the words to understand she was now directing the same question to
him.
    “Vivianna took Henry.” Faen’s voice was
blunt, expressionless.
    His younger sister responded with a sharp
intake of breath.
    “With the ruby staff?”
    Faen nodded.
    Faedra’s consciousness started to creep back
with the sound of Faen’s words.
    Vivianna took my father. She looked at
Faen and Jocelyn as if seeing them for the first time.
    Faen moved to rest a reassuring hand on her
shoulder, but the young Custodian looked down at it then up at him
with a dazed expression, and shrugged her shoulder away with a
vicious jerk. Her stunned gaze turning to a glare of hatred.
    Confusion crept over Faen’s features, as cold
angry eyes stared up at him.
    “Faedra?” he asked with a hesitant catch in
his voice.
    “Get away from me!” She didn’t even recognize
her own voice it was so full of malice. “I need to get out of
here,” she mumbled to herself as she turned on her heel and headed
back into the pub. There was no exit through the back courtyard so
she had to go through the pub to escape this nightmare. She threw
the door open with such a force that it banged against the outside
wall, and started pacing down the corridor towards the front door
of the pub. Her steps quickened with every stride until she was
running down the hall, trying to escape the demons in her head.
    Lights flickered as she passed them and she
could feel her body drawing from the energy there. Anger was
surging through her again. She had to get outside before she hurt
someone; she couldn’t concentrate enough to control her power this
time around. She reached the front door and flung it open, too,
which earned her a disgruntled remark from the landlord standing
behind the bar. She didn’t care, she couldn’t think right now, she
had to go somewhere she could think.
    She burst through the door and exited into
the lane outside, looking in both directions for a split second
wondering which way to flee. It was a pedestrian walkway, but there
was not another soul to be seen in either direction. She took off
running up the lane but only got a few feet before her Guardian
burst through the front door after her, followed by his little
sister.
    “Faedra, stop!” he implored.
    She stopped and spun around to face him, fury
flowing through her veins.
    “Stay away from me!”
    He took a pensive step forward but was
stopped in his tracks by a bolt of lightning that struck the ground
inches from his feet, shattering the brick-weave and sending chunks
of cement flying in all directions. Thunder rumbled above them.
    Faen pinched his brows together and