Darkness of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 2)

ONE

Kyra closed her eyes as the breeze blew gently across her face, trying to sense anything and everything around her.

"Do you feel something?" Lucian asked beside her.

"I don't, and probably won't if you keep pestering me with that incessant question of yours," she replied, shooting him a stern glare that more than conveyed her displeasure.

"Alright, Kyra," he replied, putting up his hands in surrender as he moved to give her the needed space, "No need to get cranky about it."

Kyra and Lucian were crouching behind a thick bush as they watched a lone house in the woods with the sun beating down heavily against their backs.

So many times, Kyra had found it hard to believe all that she had gone through to become who she was. Months earlier, she ran away from home; from her foster parents who had taken care of her since she could remember. Her runaway had been because of a disagreement she had with them over her supposed suitor whom they had wanted to force on her. But in actuality, the beautiful, black-haired and sunset brown-eyed, seventeen-year old young woman’s decision was warranted as a result of her secret. Thing is, she was a witch and witches weren't exactly welcomed in the society. And so, she had to leave home and never return.

Unfortunately, as Kyra herself soon learnt, her running away from home wasn't the solution to her problem; in fact, it escalated it. After a mishap by her power, which happened very often to her growing up, she found herself in the clutches of a very dangerous man and it was only through Lucian's help that she scaled through the ordeal unscathed. The blonde-haired warrior took her to a man; a seer who had sent him specifically to find her. He told her who she really was; the Soul of magic, Saviour of the wizards from the persecution and death dealt to them by the hands of the humans. And she did save the wizards eventually. In fact, she saved the whole of the realm by defeating Valatu, a very dark force of evil.

However, that hadn’t brought about peace like the Soul of magic had envisioned. Sure, the wizards were no longer persecuted; her new-found friend and ally Richard, king of the great kingdom of Cyrian and the most influential man in the realm, had made sure of that. But some wizards had emerged about two months after the alliance with the humans who for some unfathomable reasons were doing everything in their power to tarnish the good standing that magic had gained in the eyes of the realm as a result of her help in defeating Valatu. And as the Soul of magic, it was her responsibility to seek and stop them before they did any real damage. Which was why she and Lucian had journeyed to the lone house in the woods that hot afternoon; they had received news that some of those unruly wizards might be camped in the area.

"I can't sense any magic in the vicinity," Kyra said after a while. "I think it's possible that’s our wizards have moved on.” Deep in her heart, the Soul of magic really wished that wasn’t true. It had taken the whole two weeks to get the information that led them to the house. Losing the wizards there would mean that they would probably have to wait for another two weeks before another tangible information reached them again; and the anti-alliance wizards’ activities had begun to pick up pace at an alarming rate over the past days. Time was a luxury Kyra didn’t have.

However, since their quarries were seemly no longer around, she and Lucian decided to take a walk round the house; at least in the hopes that they might have left a clue as to where their next settlement would be. The people who had lived in the house turned out to be a neat and tidy bunch, the well-organised environment spoke volumes about that. They hadn’t even left a leaf out of place.

"Well, we can confirm that the wizards we’re looking for are definitely one of the trouble makers,” Lucian said as he walked towards a tree.

Kyra came to stand beside him and saw what he had been looking at. Carved into the tree was a heart enclosed by a pentagram surrounded by thorny vines. It was the symbol of the Dark Hearts Coven.

"Not the Dark Hearts Coven again," Kyra groaned in frustration, rubbing her head as it began to ache. "The spirits know I've had it with them."

Thing is, the Dark Hearts Coven had become a major thorn in the Soul of magic's side since her quest to put an end to the troublesome wizards began. They had claimed responsibility for the chaos which was plaguing the realm and had organised attacks on humans in the realm. They were the true face of the anti-alliance.

But what infuriated Kyra was that in spite of the infamy of the coven, she had never been able to garner any real information as to who exactly was in charge of the coven or how they worked. It was as if the magic community, whom she was trying her hardest to protect, was protecting them; and that sort of disloyalty angered the Soul of magic even as she had never given any voice or thought to it. The symbol of the coven, which they left after every of their escapade, was the only thing that had been found to attest to their existence.

Just then, a man suddenly ran out of the woods, heading straight for Kyra and Lucian as a blue energy began to collect in his palms. Before he could direct it though, Lucian quickly bent down, removed his dagger from his boots and sent it flying at him. The dagger found home in the man’s shoulder and he screamed in pain as the energy dissipated and he fell to the ground.

But reprieve wasn’t for the duo as almost immediately, three more men followed suit.

"Nulls," Lucian said when he saw them charge with nothing but swords in their hands. “One wizard and three nulls, we’re most definitely in the right location.”

Without wasting any time, the blonde-haired warrior removed his own sword Lionclaw; a magical sword which granted him the ability to fight with the strength of ten men. He ran to meet the charging men head-on and the heavy sounds of metal rang through the air as the weapons clashed.

Kyra stood back to survey the situation, suddenly realising something. The information they received hadn’t said the g**g comprised of one wizard and three nulls; Lucian had gotten it wrong. The information said there were two wizards and three nulls.

"They're one wizard short," she called to Lucian before she was suddenly sent flying as a gust of wind hit her from behind. She fell, fortunately having enough control over her body to roll just as a white ball of energy hit the ground beside her and made a very big hole in it.

She quickly got back to her feet and turned to see her attacker, a man of about thirty years old. He looked ready to conjure up another energy ball when Kyra's eyes suddenly went all-white and a thick long root shot out of the ground, wrapping itself around the wizard’s arm and destroying his spell. He tried again with his other arm but another root shot out to envelope it again; this time extending to wrap around all his body. It forced him down on the knees and just as he created a flame in his hands, a powerful energy surged through the roots and hit him in full force; effectively knocking the fight out of him.

Lucian, on the other hand, had better luck with his opponents as he quickly hit their weapons out of their hands, gave them all a brutal leg sweep and knocked them unconscious with strong kicks to their heads. He had a satisfied grin on his face as he joined Kyra who was walking towards the restrained man, her eyes already returned back to their original sunset brown colour at that time.

"The Soul of magic," the man snickered to her face, giving her a once-over as if she was nothing more than a flea. "I must say I've heard so much about you and your “great” powers. But then again, it's all rumour until you experience it firsthand, isn't it?"

Not letting his tone or obvious disrespect for her derail the mission, Kyra got down to business. "From what I observed, you're the one giving the command here," she said in the intimidating no-nonsense tone which had become a norm for her when she was dealing with men of his kind over the course of the past months. "Tell me, are you a member of the Dark Hearts Coven?"

"No, I'm not," he replied. “I’m just a sympathizer, a believer in their cause. As are many whom you’ve already met, I presume.” The man laughed when he saw the disappointed look in Kyra’s eyes although she tried very hard for it not to be obvious. She really had met and subdued a lot of wizards like him before; all of them sympathizers of the Dark Hearts Coven, all of them ungrateful of all that she had done to give them back their lives.

But the Soul of magic didn’t allow the anger that welled up inside her in the face of the betrayal that was the wizard tied in the roots. Instead, she continued her line of questioning. “What can you tell about the coven?”

"Well, it’s exclusively for dark wizards,” the wizard replied. “Unfortunately, I'm not one. But even though I may never be one of them, I still believe in their goals. That’s a lot less than I can say about you."

“The Dark Hearts Coven will send us all back to a time when we’re still running and cowering for our lives!” Kyra couldn’t contain herself anymore and her eyes went all-white again and the roots began to choke the wizard in their hold.

But the latter only laughed even as his face began to lose colour. "You are no leader of ours, Soul of magic," he said, using the very words that Kyra had heard spoken so many times before that it had become ingrained in her mind. "You're nothing but a rescue plan that the High wizards put in place to ensure our survival. And it's about time you left."