Young Guardian Trilogy by Lady Adellandra Dratianos (read aloud .txt) 📕

own little magic from the necklace, but she anticipated it.”
Shannon looked at Nick. “Necklace?”
“When I was in the System, I sent Mark a necklace, using my powers.” Ariana replied. Mark showed the trio the necklace. “He and Damian fought, with Damian catching him in a red-magic cage. Mark thought of me, used the necklace’s own power, and turned the tables on the Merchant!”
Shannon nodded, smiling. “I am impressed, Agent Grey Wolf.”
Mark reddened. “Thanks, Shannon, but I keep thinking we’re in this mess because of me.”
“Why do you think that?” Luna asked him.
“If it hadn’t been for me falling for Ariana, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
“All that matters now Mark is that we’re all together.” Ariana supplied.
“I know, but I can’t help feeling it, you know?” Mark was depressed now.
Ariana stood up and sat next to him. She could sense something else was on his mind. “You miss Bonnie Marie, don’t you?”
Mark looked at her, nodding.
“Who’s that?” Nick asked.
“Bonnie Marie is the Parker’s real long-lost daughter.” Ariana Woods replied. “She’d run away three years ago, never to be seen again. Right?”
Mark nodded, eyes to his lap.
They heard a stomach growl, and turned to a beet-red Ariana. “Sorry. I guess in all the excitement and horror, I forgot to eat.”
Mark smiled, lightening up.
“That is okay.” Katherine replied. “I have tasted some Mortallan food, and am not really into it. I would like if you would make your famous “Something Else Stew.’”
Ariana smiled and blushed. Aaron laughed.
“Something Else Stew?” Shannon asked with a grin. “What’s that?”
“I was on kitchen duty one night at the orphanage.” Ariana began. “I didn’t know what to cook, so I put everything I could think of into a big pot and cooked it. Soon, I had perfected it. It has a variety of spices, vegetables, meats, broth, and so on.”
“When we tasted it the first time, Aimee and I told her it was something else.” Aaron replied, almost laughing.
“I can’t believe you still remember that, Katherine.” Ariana said as she stood up and went to the kitchen.
Katherine, Mark, and Wolf followed.
The other Crusaders sat staring at each other.
They had gotten a lot off their chests, but could tell the worst was yet to come. 
Chapter Fifty-Three:
Contest of Agility

Sabrina, alone at the Parkers, stared into the mirror in Bonnie Marie’s bedroom. She had transformed everything from the pretty pastels to grungy browns and black. Sabrina’s image in the mirror was just what she expected. Long, raven-hair to her elbows, bright, red eyes, and pasty complexion. To make sure she didn’t look like a zombie from the great beyond, Sabrina decided to make her whole face up in black – eye-shadow, eyeliner, and lipstick. She wore everything black – from her eighteenth-century dress that was mixed with the new millennium fashion to the high-tops that came back from the nineteen-sixties. With her black nails to match, she looked like a punk-rocker. Especially with the spiked-collar and the Dominionite Crystal segment around her neck.
Sabrina’s eyes spied the Crystal, and she smiled a malicious smile.
“All this power and am unable to use it . . .” Sabrina muttered to herself. She looked at her reflection and grinned. “Daddy never said I could not use Dominionite Mirror Magic!”
She held her arms up to the mirror and called to it.
“Dominionite Mirror Magic, come unto me!” She watched as the Crystal around her neck, resting in between her breasts, glowed deep red. It was working, and she loved it. She called the command with fierce words and a terrible voice:

“Show me what I wish to see,
“From the depths of the Dominion,
“To the blackened sun that halts,
“Show me all Young Guardian’s faults!”

In moments, she saw images of Aaron, Derrick, Mark, and a newcomer to the Crusade, Nick McNathaniels.
She remembered him from the Wars.
Sabrina cackled, thinking of the perfect way to rid herself of all of them.
She dropped her hands, rubbing them together.
“First things first,” She muttered to herself. “Let me see just how much power my opponent has. Alone.”
With that, and a slam to the door, Sabrina was gone.

II

Ariana’s head began to hurt after dinner, but she didn’t want to let the other Crusaders know it. She could tell Luna and Shannon knew, but they didn’t say anything.
They were talking casually, not exactly about the Crusade, but of each other. Ariana closed her eyes, seeing something she didn’t want to see.

Sabrina, the Dominionite Maiden, was about to strike her.
Ariana saw Sabrina in front of the mirror in Bonnie Marie’s old bedroom at the Parker’s. She also saw the image: her friends, especially Derrick, Aaron, and Mark.
That’s when Ariana watched her cackle at another, less familiar image. It was Nick McNathaniels.

Ariana gasped softly, being sure not to let the others know her images. For some reason, this vision had to be kept to herself.
She felt something compelling her away from her friends. Looking at her hands, Ariana could faintly see them.
Am I becoming invisible? She thought. No, I’m disappearing!
As Ariana did whatever Sabrina had wanted, she heard the cries of her friends.
From right in front of their eyes, Ariana Moon Sister-Woods disappeared from sight.

The next thing she knew, she was in a darker part of Hill View’s own cemetery. She tried using Empathy to sense if anyone was there, but came up with nothing.
There wasn’t anyone around, or so she thought.
Ariana could feel her ring glow, giving her a little light to see by. When she tried to use her power to come up with a flashlight, she couldn’t.
Why can’t I...? She wondered silently. What’s going on?
She didn’t know what to think. The moon above made her shiver – it was full.
In a cemetery, a full moon was the worst thing.
With her empathy, she finally sensed someone in the shadows. She slowly walked, making sure not to disturb any graves, or ghosts.
This was getting too spooky. She shook her head and hugged herself. And chilly, too. She tried to use her Ancient Mystic Magic to warm herself up – maybe the warm glow would heat her chilled body?
As she did so, she could hear somebody again in the shadows.
“Hello?” She cried into the air. “Who’s there?”
An all-too familiar cackle rang out.
“Come out, Sabrina!” Ariana cried into the air. “Young Guardian demands it!”
“I need not your permission to appear.” Sabrina scoffed with a haughty laugh. “Now is the time, Young Guardian, to see just how much power you have.” She grinned as Ariana stepped back. “Or should I say, how much I will have once I destroy you?”
“I’ve told your father, Sabrina.” Ariana replied. “For me to die would be to rule over you as the Guardian of the entire Dream Realm.”
“I have not come to debate the matter.” Sabrina’s necklace glowed, and her arms were stretched to Ariana’s mid-section a few feet away.
Sabrina’s red-radiant power attacked at full-force, and Ariana was able to jump away.
Sabrina looked to her enemy and kept firing her power, missing with each blow.
“I think you can do better than that!” Ariana replied, taunting her. She was quickly running out of breath, but had to go on.
The fight had just begun.
With a fierce power of her own, Ariana quickly shot at Sabrina’s own mid-section.
Sabrina caught it with her hand. “Now that I am Earthbound, I am more powerful than you could ever imagine.”
She threw Ariana’s own blast back at her, missing entirely.
Ariana was tiring of Sabrina’s constant zapping her. Ariana shot again, this time at the collar around her neck.
Being steel, it bounced off the collar and to a nearby tree, charring it. The branch fell.
So did she, but from exhaustion. The war wasn’t over yet, and Ariana had a final surprise up her sleeve.
Ariana put her hands in a diamond shape to her chest. With all her might, she thrust her arms out, revealing a rainbow-colored magic she’d learned long ago from Challandra. Ancient Mystic Magic. The beam caught Sabrina’s waist, but it was too late.
Before getting away, Sabrina had fired at Ariana, hitting her arm – hard.
Ariana grasped it with her hand and her arm felt wet. Looking at her hand, Ariana could see she was bleeding; her glasses lens was out, and was unable to see but a little out of her left eye.
“We’ll meet again, Sabrina!” She screamed into the air.
Sabrina never heard her. She was long gone.
As quickly as she had come to the Hill View Cemetery, Ariana fainted, disappearing.

When Ariana came to, she saw blurs of the Crusaders around her.
“That’s a nasty cut you’ve got there, Ariana Sister-Woods.” Shannon’s voice was clear, but Ariana couldn’t see her clearly.
“Where am I?” It the only thing she could croak. “What – where –?”
“Question is – where were you?” Mark’s voice was concerned.
“You just disappeared one second, and reappeared the next.” Luna replied.
Someone was tending to her arm. She winced when it started to sting. “Ow!”
“Sorry, Ariana, but it has to be done.” It was Nick. He took her arm closer, putting antiseptic on her wound.
“What happened to you?” Ariana recognized her feline friend, Katherine Hawk right away. She purred, troubled.
“Sabrina struck me.” She explained, slowly remembering her battle with the Dominionite Maiden. “Literally.”
“You’re not kidding.” Luna joked. “What did she do – shish-kabob you?”
“In a way, yes.” Ariana told them what had happened.
“Wow, you called upon the Ancient Mystic Magic at will?” Shannon was impressed.
“I don’t know how, I just did it.” Ariana replied. She tried to sit up. “Am I home?”
“Aye, you are in your own bed.” Wolf’s husky voice filled the air.
“Where are my glasses?” She just noticed she didn’t have them on, and her eyes hurt trying to see her friends.
“Right here, Ariana. I fixed them up for you. Good as new.” Shane handed them to her, looking into her eyes casually. “I never noticed them until now, but your eyes are silver-blue.”
“How could you not notice?” Shannon teased Ariana as she slid them on her face. “It runs in the family.”
Shane turned to Luna, “You don’t have them,” he pointed out, and then looked at Shannon, whose eyes turned from brown to silver-blue.
“Sure I do. I just don’t want to show them.” Luna stared at Shane. Her blue-green eyes blinked and sure enough, she too had silver-blue. She blinked slowly again, showing him the pearly blue-green eyes he’d known.
“How did you do that?” Shane asked, amazed.
“Family secret.” Luna winked at Shannon and Ariana. “I’ll tell you later.” She turned back to her twin sister. “Are you okay now?”
“Yes, but barely.” Ariana tried to get out of bed. Her muscles ached, which was a sure sign she was still alive. Derrick helped her on one side, and Mark was quickly on the other. She winced in pain.
“Take it easy, Love.” Derrick said. “I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself anymore than you already are.”
Ariana stared at him.
“I know, I know, ‘don’t worry about it.’” Derrick gave her torn lips a kiss. “I will worry about it because I love you so much.”
Even Mark smiled at them, though secretly sad.
Once she was able to walk by herself, they headed downstairs to Kitten’s Claw and Toby, who were waiting anxiously in the dining room.
“Are you okay, Young Guardian?” Kit asked, worried.
“For now, yes.” Ariana replied. “I just had a run-in with Sabrina at the Hill