The Crystal 2 by Jones M (reading cloud ebooks .txt) 📕

I smiled at the Queen before walking towards her and enveloping her in a hug.

"I need your help with something," I said.

"Sure. Anything you need," Elizabeth stated as she used her powers to close the door behind us.

Third Person's P.O.V

Erick was in the castle's main study room when the two guards who had been frozen by Emery busted into the room.

"The crystal is in the castle?" the King asked after the two guards had informed him of what had happened minutes ago.

"Yes," one of them replied. "We tried to stop her, but she used her powers to force herself in."

Erick did not like that.

"Do you know where she is?" he asked.

"No, your Majesty."

The King sighed.

"You're dismissed." The guards went to walk away just as Emery's cousin made her appearance. She looked surprised as she made her way into the room.

"Erick!" Selena called out. The King's heart thudded at the sight of her. 

"We need to talk."

The excitement Erick felt about Selena's presence turned into worry.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's about Emery," she said. "Have you heard about what had happened?"

"I have," Erick replied. 

The news about Emery exposing the hacker on a celebrity interview show was the most talked-about topic at the moment. The news had even reached Crystalia. 

However, Erick was doubtful about Emery's words. He was glad that Selena was around because he needed to clear things up with someone he trusted.

"Do you believe her?" she asked. "Because I doubt the guy did it."

"Wow! Me too!" Erick exclaimed in shock, glad that his crush felt the same way as he did. "I mean, Emery had tried to kill Liam and placed the blame on Bianca. Do you think Emery would go as far as arresting an innocent person just to prove a point?"

"I don't know," Selena said, "but I think it's a sign. I think it's already happening, Erick. Just like in the dream, Emery might be turning."

"What dream?" Emery's voice sounded through the main study room. Selena and Erick tensed as they immediately turned to face the crystal. She was leaning against the door with her arms folded close to her chest and a serious expression on her face.

Erick audibly gulped.

"What dream, Erick?" Emery asked again, moving into the room and towards the king.

This is bad, Erick thought. He had not planned for Emery to hear what he was telling Selena. If Emery found out about the dream, he was afraid the dream would quickly become a reality.

"Um, Erick had dreamt--" Selena went to defend the King.

"Don't answer for him, Selena," Emery cut her cousin off. "You two are acting strange. It's a good thing I know how to read body language because I can tell you don't want me to find out something."

Selena and Erick remained silent. Emery's eyebrows furrowed as the wheels in her brain turned.

"Is this the secret that you have been hiding from me?"

Selena and the King thought of ways to deny Emery's statement. If they said no quickly, it would be too suspicious. However, they realized they had wasted seconds in their effort of coming up with a lie.

"Wow," Emery said, still maintaining her serious expression. "You could have said no and lied about something. Now I know for certain that whatever dream you had is the secret you have been keeping from me. Care to tell me?"

Everyone remained silent as Emery waited. Her patience lasted five seconds.

"What are you afraid of? Why are you not speaking? Are you afraid I may spill, the same way I will spill that Erick is in love with you, Selena?"

Erick's eyes widened in disbelief, shocked that the crystal had exposed his secret. His heart thudded as he tried to process what Emery had just done. Selena looked shocked as she turned to face Erick.

"Emery--"

"Tell me the dream," Emery cut off Erick, "or else I will tell her everything."

The king looked helpless for a moment, not knowing what to say. 

"Wow! You really don't want me to know this dream? Well, then," With a determined gaze, Emery turned to face her cousin. "He has been in love with you for the past three years, Selena. I'm surprised you and Justin didn't see it."

"Emery, that's enough!" Erick yelled in anger.

"See? He even gets defensive about it, proving that I am right. I could give you all the time to talk about it, but I just hate being in this place. It was once my home, but it now reminds me of things I would rather forget. Stop wasting my time, Erick, and just tell me the dream. That is all I want to know."

No response.

"Fine, I will find out by force."

Emery extended her arm, using her telekinesis powers to drag the king upwards from the floor. Erick did not see it coming, and he was soon dangling a couple of feet from the ground.

"Emery!" Selena exclaimed in shock. "Put him down!"

"Oh, Selena. Have you forgotten? I don't take orders from people who hate me. The dream, Erick," Emery demanded as she walked around the room. "Tell me the freaking dream!"

Erick used his powers to protect his thoughts while he shook his head in denial. Emery clenched her fist, the effect slightly bringing a crushing force around the king's form.

He gasped, letting his walls down. Emery pierced through the king's thoughts. Her eyes glowed blue as she looked into the king's mind. Erick thrashed midair, trying to get Emery out of his head, but it was useless. She was seeing everything that he had dreamt.

Seconds later, Emery had found out all that Erick had dreamt. She let go of Erick, and the King collapsed onto the clean floor. Selena ran towards him, helping him up while checking for injuries.

"That was the dream?" Emery asked, a look of anger taking over. Selena and Erick remained quiet, not knowing what to say. They were shocked that Emery had found out.

"That was the fucking dream? This is what you're afraid of?" Emery asked, her form changing swiftly between the darkened figure Erick had seen in the dream and her normal self. Erick and Selena gasped.

Then Emery teleported the three of them outside the castle. Before Erick could yell in anger about how she used her powers on him, dark clouds gathered across the Crystalian sky. The clear sunny day became night. Everything in their surroundings turned to show what Erick had dreamt.

"This is what you think I would do?" Emery asked, motioning with her hands the sight of the destruction the dream revealed to Erick that Emery might bring. Dead bodies were around the city, but unlike in the dream, they did not smell. There were also erboons flying around, but they could not cause any harm.

Meanwhile, the whole of Crystalia was in shock and a state of fear. Emery's dream had projected all over the land, and the witches did not know what to do.

Erick was livid. Emery had no right to show his dream to the rest of the witches. Did she even understand the kind of paranoia it could bring?

A couple of witches in the castle were watching the exchange between their king, Selena and the crystal. Erick felt their eyes on his back, and he did not like it. 

"Emery--" Erick went to speak.

"Shut up, Erick!" her voice thundered through the land. The swift change between her normal and dark forms stopped. "I am so mad at you right now. How could you hide this from me?"

"I am entitled to my own privacy!" Erick yelled at her.

Emery's ignored the statement as her eyes furrowed in confusion, then they widened.

"Do the boys know?" No one replied. "Does Justin know?"

The silence was an answer. Everybody she cared about knew except her. 

She felt hugely betrayed. She also couldn't believe Erick had told her ex-bullies about the dream.

Emery took deep breaths as she tried to calm her anger.

"Dear people of Crystalia," Emery's voice sounded through the city, "this is a dream your king had. He believes it is something that will happen in the future. He believes it is something that I will bring to your precious city. You see, just like you, he had failed to tell me about the dream."

Erick was shocked and angry, and he could do nothing but watch as the dream was made known to everyone.

Emery's eyebrows furrowed as she stared at Erick.

"I have let all of you have an eyeful of everything around you. So tell me: what is wrong with the dream?"

There was silence.

"Let me give you the first answer. Erboons have black eyes, not red ones."
That had Selena and Erick tense in shock. An erboon from Erick's dream flew above them, and it confirmed that she was right. The erboon that attacked the King in the dream had red eyes, and he was certain Emery did not change the dream.

"You see, your Majesty, a dream about the future must not have any wrong detail," Emery said. "Anything wrong with it will just make it a usual dream. Now tell me: Have you even checked for the authenticity of the dream?" Emery asked with her amplified voice, glaring at the king. "Are you even sure this isn't a trick made by the erwiches?"

Erick had not thought of that.

"Check for it right now," Emery said just as everything quickly reverted to the way it initially was.

"No, don't do that now. Let me leave first. Wouldn't want to be blamed for something I didn't do," Emery said with an angry expression as she teleported in front of them.

Erick's heart still kept pounding after Emery had left. He turned to face Selena, noticing that she was not looking at him.

"Selena--"

"Please tell me that you checked if the dream was sent by erwiches," she cut Erick off. The King remained silent, not knowing what to say. 

His quietness confirmed that he had not done what she had asked.

Selena walked towards the entrance of the castle, and Erick slowly followed behind her. 

On their way back to the castle, a couple of witches had begun to ask them questions about what the crystal had said. Neither did the king nor Selena answer any of the questions as they kept walking.

Emery had exposed Erick's dream to every witch in Crystalia. He was stuck between feeling angry and feeling worried that he had made a mistake.

If the dream wasn't a vision of the future...

Minutes later, Selena and Erick were in the study room, and they had everything they needed to check the authenticity of Erick's dream. A bowl that had the ingredients for checking the dream had been placed on the table. 

The procedure was composed of mixing the ingredients and pouring them over the head of the dreamer as the dreamer recalled anything from the dream. Smoke would be produced but of different colors. White would signal the dream to be a certainty of future events. Orange would signal the dream to be regular and thus held no meaning. Green proved the dream was wrong and that it had been brought on by evil forces.

Erick and Selena mixed the ingredients. They closed the doors and windows to darken the room before they chanted the spell for the dream check. Erick closed his eyes as he thought of the dream while Selena poured the contents of the bowl over his head.

They were both silent as they waited for the results. About a minute later, their answer came, and they were not surprised by the result.

A green smoke appeared.

There was silence in the room as the two stared into nothing.

Green smoke had been produced.

Erick thought that what they had witnessed was a dream. He wanted it to be a manipulation of his thoughts, but it wasn't. He couldn't blame the crystal for what he had seen because no one could alter such an incantation. 

At the moment, his thoughts ran wild. Everything he felt so certain about the crystal had changed, leaving a huge feeling of doubt.

"I was wrong?" Erick asked into the silence. He and Selena could not believe it.

He had been wrong.

"No, no, no," Selena denied, shaking her head in dismissal as tears began to form in her eyes. "This can't be happening. This can't