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

"What do you want?" Erick asked with a calm voice, but he was scared. He had hardly ever left Crystalia when he was a child. Since he was the new king, his life was in danger from being attacked by erwiches. He didn't think they would dare attack him in public.

Turned out he was wrong.

"Revenge," that was all he said before throwing a fireball at him. Erick moved away from it. The ball of fire hit the woman's desk, blowing it up into pieces. A few flames appeared as the destroyed furniture began to burn.

The girl removed a whip with blades on it that resembled an animal's vertebrae. She targeted the whip towards Justin. It hit his arm, slightly digging on the skin as she dragged it back. Justin cried out, seeing blood ooze from the cut.

"That's it!" Selena screamed before throwing a fireball of her own. It hit the girl before she screamed and combusted into small flames. That left the two erwiches.

They ran towards Selena. With widened eyes, Justin used telekinesis to throw the erwiches to the wall beside them. They collided with it with a thud. Erick joined in, using his powers to hold them still.

"How dare you attack us in the presence of humans?" he asked with a furious expression. The erwiches looked at each other before laughing.

Justin tightened his telekinetic hold, making them groan in pain from the squeeze.

"We had heard about the crystal leaving poor little Crystalia," one of them mocked while the other laughed. Erick's form tensed with paranoia.

If they knew that the crystal left, then the witches would know.

"Now that she's gone, we can do whatever we want without her stopping us."

Oh no.

"No, you can't," Erick said. The two erwiches just laughed at him.

"And who is going to stop us? You three?" one of the erwiches asked. In an instant, the telekinetic hold was broken. It sent Justin, Selena and Erick flying to the back of the room. 

"You see, we couldn't do anything with the crystal being at your side. Now that she's not around, we can do this," the other erwich said as he grabbed onto Erick's hand. The erwich immediately dug out a knife and stabbed Erick on his palm.

Erick screamed in agony, kicking the erwich away from him. It groaned, releasing the hold on Erick's palm.

He ducked to the ground, swiping his foot under the erwich. The erwich lost his footing, falling on his back. Before Erick could kill it, the erwich gave him a look of defeat, promising return, before disappearing.

Erick looked at his brother and Selena, also noticing that the other remaining erwich disappeared.

"Oh no," Selena started freaking out. "They know! They know Emery left us."

"Babe, relax," Justin tried to calm Selena down.

"Relax?" she asked with a raise in her voice. "The erwiches know the crystal is not on our side anymore. For certain, they will be attacking us until we all perish. They might as well have declared war right now!"

The words Selena spoke brought a chill into Erick's form. At that moment, he regretted not arriving at the prison sooner. 

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Seven months later

Erick was stressed out. 

In the seven months that had passed, the population of Crystalia had decreased by a hundred. More erwich attacks had kept coming, some more brutal than the others. 

Many were lost; people mourned for the loss of their loved ones. As a result, the witches were angry. They asked where the crystal was, and the king told them he had no idea. 

Erick had his guards search for the crystal, but it seemed like she had disappeared off the face of the earth. Many people assumed that she was ignorant of their cries for help; they thought she didn't care. The erwich problem coupled with the reputation Emery had gained on earth made her the most hated person in Crystalia. 

Erick too was not pleased with having no idea of her location.

Where was she?

"Your Majesty," a guard appeared in Erick's room. Erick had his hands in his hair, thinking over what to do with the persistent erwich attacks. They had grown more brutal in the past seven months, and there was no way of dealing with the issue.

Unless he considered war.

"Yes," Erick stumbled from his seat to stand up.

"We found her."

Erick's eyebrows furrowed, but then they relaxed when he realized who they were talking about. He never thought he could feel relief and fear from such words.

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Emery's P.O.V

"Concentrate, Emery!" Josh yelled at me from a distance. 

I was high in the air, high enough to feel the clouds. The ground below me looked so far.

 Actually, there was no ground. 

It was just the ocean. 

I was freaking out over what Josh was telling me to do.

The last seven months were filled with lessons. Josh had been teaching me and helping me with my powers. He had also been helping me improve my fighting skills.

At the moment, it was my official last lesson as a crystal. Josh was aiding me in using something that was vital in the face of danger.

My mind.

Some days ago, Josh had chanted a spell to visualize dangerous scenarios. 

I had done four so far. It was hard on the first two, especially since they involved crowds of people and animals. The other two had to do with falling from the sky and to the ground.

I had only passed on the last falling test. Josh had to save me on the former one.

So, in the fifth scenario, we weren't on land.

Josh and I were levitating above a large expanse of water. We were far apart from each other, and that explains why he was shouting at me.

I thought that my fears of falling would have ended, but my emotions proved me wrong. 

It was ironic because if I would fall, I would just be landing on water.

Josh advised that I needed to be creative to defend myself in case I was attacked. I had no idea what he planned at the current time.

My eyes widened when I saw a fireball hurtling towards me. The sounds of the rustling water were drowned out by the roaring sphere of fire as it flew towards me. I levitated high in the air, trying to avoid it, but I saw it coming at me. 

I flew higher to the sky, increasing the distance between me and the ocean. I looked down, seeing the fireball still coming at me.

Crap! If I keep this up, I will end up in space.

In a panic, I swiftly turned to my left. The fireball followed.

Still not knowing what to do, I flew towards the ocean. Like a missile, the fireball still followed.

That was new. I had got to ask Josh to teach me how to do that.

"Concentrate, Emery!" I heard Josh yell once again. My gaze was fixed on the ocean, and it was then that an idea came to mind.

I didn't need to turn to know that the fireball was still following me. I took a deep breath and held it in. 

Seconds later, I felt the difference in my atmosphere. I opened my eyes, seeing a couple of fish swimming away from me after I dived in the sea. 

I soon hear a splash and fizzing sound. I turned, seeing the fireball having hit the waters and quickly extinguishing.

With a smirk, I flew out of the sea.

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"You have learned well, Emery," Josh said as we walked towards the house. 

It was a mansion on a beach that showed a wonderful view of the ocean. The mansion had been my home for the last seven months.

"Thank you, Josh. I wouldn't have done it without you," I replied, facing him with a smile. 

It was the truth. He had been more than a teacher; he had been a friend of mine. He not only helped me learn more about my powers in the past few months, but he also aided in shaping up my personality.

"Emery, as you know, that was the last part of your training," he said, and I nodded in sadness. "You have mastered all you need to know about being a crystal, and now, you are ready to face whatever dangers will be thrown your way."

We had stopped walking towards the house to have the conversation.

"You also know that I will soon be leaving."

I sighed in sadness, looking at the ground. In the months that had passed, I had grown fond of Josh, even though he was serious and emotionless in teaching me how to be a crystal.

"Why do you always ruin the moment with serious talk?" I asked with a serious expression.

He let out a laugh.

"Guys!" Ashley screamed as she ran towards us. Josh and I turned to face her.

"We have a problem."

Not the words I was expecting to hear.

Emery's P.O.V

Ashley took a couple of seconds to tell me the bad news.

"WHAT?" I boomed out in anger.

"The king told me that erwiches have been attacking witches a lot and that he needs your help in solving the problem," Ashley explained, trying to calm me down by rubbing my shoulders.

It wasn't working.

I was sad about Josh leaving soon when Ashley had told me the news. Although it was also worrisome to hear witches were being attacked, I felt glad that Erick needed me. 

I knew it hurt his ego to ask for my help.

Unfortunately for him, the events of the past nine months were still fresh in my mind.

"Well then, you can tell the King that he can kiss my ass!" I yelled, storming towards the direction of the mansion.

"Emery!" Ashley yelled after me, but I ignored her. I passed the spacious living room with brown wooden floors and climbed the stairs, heading towards my bedroom. I locked the door behind me before I sat on the floor.

My mind went back to the events that had me imprisoned for a week. The anger I had been trying not to feel returned as I also replayed the news Ashley had told me. The erwich issue did not change what I felt about Erick and the rest.

I hated them.

In fact, I never wanted to see them again. They were just a trigger for the awful memories that I wanted to forget.

No matter how hard I tried, my eyes betrayed me as my vision began to get cloudy. I silently cried, lifting my knees to my chest and placing my head on them.

Even though it had been seven months, I still recalled the awful things that happened to me when I was on tour with the Ordinary Brothers. I was still affected by them. But then, they didn't affect me as much as what had happened in Australia.

Things went downhill for me so fast and so unexpectedly.

I was arrested. My ex-bullies, Selena, Justin and Erick had me locked up for crap I didn't do. What was worse was I realized later that they planned to let me rot in jail.

They didn't even come to see me. They didn't listen to a word I said, and that made me also realize they had made up their minds about me. They stopped caring about me, and it still hurt.

It felt like a knife being repeatedly stabbed in my heart.

Also, Josh had been having private talks with the previous ruler of Crystalia. I had found out that every witch hated me because I wasn't around to help them with the erwich problem.

In my defense, I was discovering my full potential as a crystal. It