Ancient Mystic's War of the Realms Saga by Lady Adellandra Dratianos (book club suggestions txt) 📕

you to protect her anymore.
You’re only thirteen. What do you know about it?
More than you think I do. Kelly left then, leaving him to his own thoughts and the sandwich Juliet put in front of him.
He needed to get out and think. After finishing the sandwich and thanking Juliet again, he headed out into the sun.

III

“So, who lives here?” Aimee asked.
“A very powerful friend of mine.” Ariana knocked on the door. A moment later, a girl with curly red hair and bright blue eyes answered.
“Hi, Mrs. Reading!” The girl greeted. “Mom said you’d be here soon.”
“Hello to you, too, Rhiannon.” Ariana smiled. “This is my sister, Amethyst. May we come in?”
Rhiannon looked at Aimee for a moment before nodding. “She’s waiting for you.”
“Thank you, Rhiannon.” Ariana took Aimee’s hand and led her through the house to the back room. “You’re about to meet Darlene “Red Shawl” Bennington. She’s the High Priestess of the Magick of the Blue Moon coven.”
“Coven?” Aimee asked. “Is she a witch?”
“I am a Pagan, to be exact.” Came the voice from nowhere. It startled Aimee, but her almost-sister was smiling. The woman with dark red hair held out her hand for Aimee to shake. “You must be Amethyst Schmidt. You are welcome into my home.”
Aimee took it. Right away, her Unicorn Magic power of Empathy kicked in and she felt the surge of power. As her vision cleared, she looked up into the woman’s bright eyes.
Darlene “Red Shawl” Bennington was laughing at her.
“I prefer to be called Aimee, but yes, I am.” Aimee supplied.
“Relax your defenses, Amethyst.” Red Shawl smiled. “I won’t hurt you.” She turned to Ariana. “Well, Akasha, what brings you here?”
Aimee was confused. “Akasha?”
“That’s my coven-name.” Ariana supplied. “Since I am the Elemental Goddess of Spirit in our world, and Akasha means spirit, Red Shawl thought it would be appropriate.”
Aimee said softly. “Oh.”
“We have a problem we need your help in solving.” Ariana responded, shaking her head at Aimee. “Her twin, Aaron, has loved me deeply and truly since we were children. He knows I love Derrick the same way, and have since I met my husband. It’s tearing us both to pieces that he can’t get over me. It has me worried, and we want to do something about it.”
“Is there anyway you can help us?” Aimee pleaded. “It’s sad, really.”
“I know it’s sad, Amethyst.” Red Shawl nodded. “Follow me. We’ll find something in the Book of Shadows, I’m sure.”
“Oh, thank you, Red Shawl!” Ariana cried.
“Don’t thank me, yet, Akasha.” Red Shawl called behind her back. “I haven’t done anything.”
They descended the stairs until they were in the Bennington’s basement. Aimee almost fainted from the brush of power there.
Ariana caught her. “Are you okay?”
There’s so much magical energy here. Aimee supplied silently, not wanting Red Shawl to read her mind. I can feel it.
Close your empathy, as I taught you. Ariana relayed in her sister’s mind.
Red Shawl led the women to a dark corner of the basement.
I don’t like the feel of this. Aimee shook her head.
Relax. Nothing here will hurt you. Ariana made Aimee look her in the eye. I promise.
Aimee had to smile. She and Ariana watched as Red Shawl flipped through a thick antique book.
“This Book of Shadows has been in the Bennington family for generations.” Red Shawl hoped to soothe Aimee’s anxiety with conversation. “Tell me more about your brother, Amethyst. Does he have Unicorn Magic like you do?”
Aimee was surprised. “Did Akasha tell you that?”
Red Shawl shook her head. “I’m a Seer. I can read you quite clearly, just with the touch of your hand.”
“Aaron does have it, and it’s been acting up lately.” Ariana responded. She then told the story, especially about the Djinn god Omri and what he did to them. “When we were done with that adventure, all of us returned from the Dream Realm except Aaron. Aimee and I were worried after a week when he didn’t wake up. Shadow, Grand Magus, the Protector, Amethyst, and myself as the Young Guardian finally managed to wake him with combined Magic. He’s been awake for two weeks, but hasn’t said one word aloud.”
“Ariana believes something happened in the Dream Realm that kept him there.” Aimee put in. “He won’t talk to anyone, even though the doctors said his voice is fine. He takes long walks late at night without letting anyone know. He’s even keeping us out of his mind. Aaron’s not like that! Something’s wrong, and I want to know what!”
“Amethyst, calm down.” Red Shawl said softly. “What do you mean, he’s keeping you out of his mind?”
“Both Amethyst and Aaron have telepathy with the Unicorn Magic.” Ariana explained. “At first, we thought it was only because of the Blood Pact so long ago, but now we believe they’re Ancient Mystics.”
You’re telling her some very revealing things about us, Ariana Moon. Aimee warned in her mind.
I told you to relax. Ariana supplied. Stop calling me that.
You need to be reminded of who you were sometimes.
Ariana glared at her, and Aimee didn’t like the dark Empathic waves she felt. She saw Ariana’s eyes glow a different, more menacing color than her usual silver-blue. It was enough to scare her, making her step back.
“Girls!” Red Shawl warned, distracting them from their staring contest. “There will be no negativity in this house, is that understood? Akasha?”
Ariana looked up, and nodded. “Yes, Priestess.”
Aimee could feel the dark Empathic waves simply melt away, dissipating from the air.
“Good. Amethyst?”
Aimee gulped, imitating. “Yes, Priestess.”
“Now then, back to business.” Red Shawl cleared her throat and flipped through the book once more. “What else can you tell me about Aaron?”
“Why do we have to tell you anything?” Aimee asked. “Aren’t you a Seer? Don’t you already know?”
“It’s called insight, Amethyst.” Red Shawl tried to explain. “Information is far more valuable when it comes from the mouth and not forced to be read directly from the mind. Makes it more personal. Understand?”
Aimee nodded. “Yes, Priestess.”
Red Shawl laughed under her breath, but both women could hear it. She looked up at Aimee. “I’m waiting.”
Aimee told her everything about their past, from growing up in a California orphanage to reuniting and fighting demons of the Dream Realm. She also told how, when they were only twelve, they made the Blood Pact, sealing the twins to Ariana through blood forever. By that Pact, the twins were given enormous amounts of magical power of their own. They soon find out, without the help of their magical almost-sister Ariana Moon, what it was called and how to control it. Aimee and Ariana both told Red Shawl about the Dream Realm Crusades, and the menacing demons and Dominionites they had to fight to save Lord Guardian’s life. Throughout, Aaron stayed by Ariana’s side once they reunited five years after she left to have their daughter Kelly. He still believed it was his job to protect Ariana and Aimee from the evils of both the Outer Realm and the Dream Realm.
“I gather it’s not his job anymore.” Red Shawl tried to understand. Both girls nodded. “Though the Orphanage hell and the trouble of the Dream Realm Crusades, he fell deeper and deeper in love. So much, when you married the Protector, he was reluctant to let go.”
“He still hasn’t gotten over me.” Ariana said. “All I want, all we want really, is for Aaron to find someone who can care for him the way he cared for us. For him to love the way he still loves me. Someone to take him for who he is, and not hate him for who he once was.”
“Hmm.” Red Shawl muttered under her breath. “I think I know just the thing.”
Ariana and Aimee brightened. They watched as Red Shawl took a pen and a piece of paper and began writing. They waited patiently as Red Shawl wrote, erased, and wrote some more. When she was finally satisfied, she handed the folded paper to Aimee.
Aimee moved to unfold it.
“No, not here.” Red Shawl stopped her. “Wait until you get home.” She turned to Ariana. “The full moon rises in two days. That is when the magic will be most potent. Do you understand?”
Ariana nodded. “You can always count on me, Red Shawl.”
“Good.” Red Shawl supplied. “I wish you both pleasant journeys.”
The women left then, riding home in complete silence.

IV

The Unicorn, Aaron Schmidt, could feel her pain from miles away. He was in the Dream Realm, he knew, but was it hers? What was he doing in a Dreamer’s own world?
The Unicorn Magic flared to life in his very system, and the empathic feeling was strong.
“Help me, someone, please!” He heard a woman’s voice beg. It wasn’t far, and it didn’t take long for the Unicorn to sense her position.
It was the same black-haired woman he’d seen nights ago. With her staff, she was trying to block a gruesome demon from attacking her.
The Unicorn raced to her side, summing up the situation in mere seconds. It was an old Dominionite hell-demon, with three horns upon its head and a tail the width of a tree trunk. The Dominionite’s tail swished, the spiked tips sending bursts of lightning and energy every which-a-way.
The black-haired woman was using her own kind of power to shield herself from this demon. She sensed his presence as that of the one she’d seen in her dreams weeks ago. She spoke to him only in his mind.
Help me! Kill it!
The passion in her mental tone told him something. She was special, and was his.
It was all he could do not to rescue her and take her away from here. She was right. He had to destroy the Dominionite first, then rescue her. He had to kill it.
How?
Being careful not to be caught by the bursts, the Unicorn did the only thing he could think of to do. He jumped into the air, flying and shifting his shape to his name-sake. An all-mighty unicorn with wings. With his horn, he summoned all the power in his system to build up and fire in between the Dominionite’s eyes.
The burst of Unicorn Magic from his horn surrounded the Dominionite and he called the Exiling Spell.

“Magics of the Realms unite,
“Take this lone Dominionite.
“In a cloud of dust to the Unknown,
“I Exile you all alone!”

Once he called the Spell, the demon was gone, and the two of them were alone.
He shifted his shape back to that of a mortal man, racing to catch her as she fell to the ground. He wished he could heal her, and knew those who could were too far away. He was too weak from his first shape-shifting.
The Unicorn got a good look at her then, before she could disappear. She was beautiful, gorgeous even. Her face was scratched and torn in various places from her battle. He brushed a hand across the torn cheek, amazed at what he saw when he looked again. The scratches were gone, and there were no scars. No blood raced down her cheek, either.
He smiled.
I could heal her after all! He thought to himself.
The Unicorn did something he’d never done before. He wanted to heal her inner-wounds as well, so he held her close and closed his eyes. The magic glow warmed the both of them as he worked his healing powers on the unknown woman. When he was sure she was healed, and safe, he opened his eyes.
She opened hers as well, and a small moan came