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

the walls near the empty ceiling. The afternoon sky was in view, illuminating the items in the room.

 Erick watched in disbelief and horror at what he saw.  

"Put it back! There are people up there!" Erick screamed.

"Like I said, will you listen to my conditions?" Emery asked again.

Erick thought that Emery was putting on a show. She couldn't possibly do something as awful as killing the people on the floors above him... could she?

"No," Erick said, but more hesitantly. Emery quickly made the top of the castle disappear.

"Emery!" Selena called out her cousin's name, clutching her fingers tightly on Justin's right arm. Her boyfriend was too stunned by what was happening to even move.

"Just say yes. I could do a lot much worse," Emery said, summoning a blue fireball from her hands before throwing it upwards. It went high in the sky, hitting the invisible magic barrier above them with a thunderous noise.

In an instant, the dome was broken. It showed a bright flicker of yellow stardust before dematerializing in the form of huge glass shards.

"Aw, did I just destroy the dome?" Emery said with a fake pouty expression.

"What did you do?" Erick asked, trying to be calm, but fear seeped through his voice. It was as if some parts of his dream had been made into a reality.

The shards had been slowed down, approaching in a way that every witch in Crystalia had time to see what was happening and react to it. There were loud screams from every corner of the city.

Emery smirked.

"My conditions. Will you listen to them now?"

Erick hated not being in power. He looked up again, noticing that the floor above him was missing and that there were huge glass shards slowly falling over Crystalia.

"Tick tock. You know what?" Emery placed a hand over her ear as she pretended to listen intently. "I think I hear the erboons coming. But will they make it in time to kill the witches before the glass shards do the job?"

"Alright! I'll do what you want!" Erick relented.

Emery smiled. With a snap of a finger, the glass shards moved in a rewinding motion, fitting in place to reform the invisible magical dome. A yellow flicker of stardust reappeared, signaling the shards were fitted in place. Then the floor above her reappeared.

"See? Was that so hard?" asked Emery. Erick stared at her in fear.

"Now, here is what I want. I want a house in Crystalia with a great view of the mountains, far away from this castle."

"D-done," Erick answered, his voice shaking.

"I would also want to visit my mother's grave."

"Done as well," Erick replied again without hesitation.

"One last thing," Emery said, turning to face Selena.

"Why did you rent out the apartment in New York?"

There was a moment of silence. Erick went to answer, but then he remembered the question was not directed to him.

"I don't know what--"

"Bullcrap, Selena," Emery cut her cousin off, using her powers to swiftly bring Selena towards her. Her cousin widened her eyes in shock when she was brought closer to Emery.

Justin went towards his girlfriend.

"No, Justin," Emery warned. "Don't do anything stupid or I will snap her in two." 

Erick's brother reluctantly stopped his approach.

"Don't waste my time, Selena," Emery yelled at her cousin. "I have better things to do than to see your asshat faces. Do I need to turn you into a freaking toad to get my answers?"

Selena's heart thudded in fear.

"You wouldn't dare--" she was cut off when Emery turned her into a toad with a flick of a wrist.

"Selena!" Justin and Erick called out with shocked voices.

With a roll of her eyes, Emery revived her cousin to her human form.

"Why are you so hesitant in answering such a simple question? Do you want me to turn you into a toad again and dissect you? You saw what I did with the castle and the dome. Trust me, I am not to be played with right now."

"I sold them!" Selena replied in a shout. The hold on her immediately vanished.

"That's better," Emery said with a fake sweet smile. "I would say I am very disappointed that you did that. Note that I will never forgive you for this, Selena."

Selena's heart was beating so fast as she stared at her cousin in shock.

"Also," Emery said before swiftly delivering a slap on her cousin's cheek. Selena's head turned to the side, giving Emery the other cheek so that she could slap it too. 

Selena's head turned again. Emery then delivered two punches on her face before kicking her. The force of the kick was so strong that it sent Selena flying backward. Justin went to catch her. He broke her fall when her back hit her front and they were sent to the ground.

"Erick," Emery called out, having the king face her with a frightened expression. "My terms. If you fail to meet them, dome goes bye-bye."

With that, Emery turned to leave the castle. She left with Ashley and Josh, and they looked just as shocked as everyone else in the room. Once the castle doors closed, the hold on the guards also disappeared.

Selena coughed out blood before saying "What. The. Fuck?"

"OMG. What did we do?" Justin asked, bringing his hands to his hair.

"We did nothing," Erick tried to reassure them.

"Nothing? Erick, you do realize that the way Emery is behaving right now is bad for us," Selena commented as she continued to cough out blood. Erick still did not get it.

"Do you want me to spell it out for you, bro?" Justin asked with raised eyebrows. "Your nightmare? Now a reality."

Erick still didn't get it. It took him some seconds before his eyes widened in horror.

"No, no, no," Erick repeated. He shook his head, not wanting to believe it. All that time, he wanted to secure the witches from the crystal becoming evil. Having seen Emery after seven months made him rethink his choices. 

Could it be that he and his friends were the ones who would turn Emery evil?

Could it be that they had already turned her evil?

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In her castle away from Crystalia, Eva had watched the events unfold with a smile.

"Tevix! Our crystal is back!" she shouted, turning away from her magic mirror. "We are closer to getting what we want. Are you ready for phase two?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Tevix replied with a smirk. 

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

Third Person's P.O.V

"Your Majesty, are you certain about all this?" Tevix asked as he approached Eva on one of her castle balconies. "The crystal has been trained, and she is more powerful than ever."

"So?" Eva asked, staring at the setting sun. "The crystal would be useless to me if she didn't know how to control her powers."

The evil witch's henchman was confused.

"You do realize that she could kill you, right?" Tevix asked with a raised eyebrow.

"She wouldn't," Eva replied as she turned to face Tevix. "I did not interfere with her training for a reason. Besides, the only person she would destroy is herself."

"What?" Tevix asked with a confused glance.

"Oh, come on, Tevix! You of all people should know that there are two different endings I have planned for the crystal."

Tevix remained silent, thinking about what his queen said. It took him a short while to understand what she meant, and his expression changed into shock.

"Your Majesty..." he trailed off. "You can't possibly be thinking about--"

"Yes, I am," Eva cut him off, confirming his thoughts. "And with Emery's current behavior, it is very possible. But I need to push her for my plan to work. Have the erwiches no longer attack the rest of the witches. Have them attack those who angered the crystal."

"Yes, your Majesty. And may I say, I am very impressed with how you're thinking. Even I wouldn't have come up with a plan so devious."

"Thank you, Tevix," Eva smiled. "For now, we'll just wait and see. By the looks of things, it wouldn't take long for us to rule the world."

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Emery's P.O.V

"Wow!" Ashley exclaimed. I revealed a smile of my own, shocked but extremely happy.

Ashley, Josh and I had just come out of the castle after meeting with the new king of Crystalia. It honestly felt good to push Erick's buttons, especially after what he and the rest had done to me.

"Did you see the look on Erick's face? No, the look on all of their faces? They were shocked!"

I loved the looks I had received when I ripped off the castle. More so, I liked the ones I received when I destroyed the magical dome of Crystalia before reverting things to the way they were.

"That was what I was aiming for. And may I say, Ashley, thank you for the acting lessons."

In the past seven months, one of the things Josh said I needed to know was how to control my facial expressions. Emotions can be a hindrance for plans to be carried out, and so I signed up for free acting classes from Ashley.

"You're welcome," my friend replied with a smile. "Although I think you went too far with beating your own cousin."

I just smirked at Ashley. She had no idea how much my cousin had angered me. In fact, Selena was lucky I didn't continue beating her.

How could she just rent out the apartment when it was the last thing left of my mother? In fact, where had she taken all the stuff that was in the house?

"So," Josh spoke as he turned to face me. "It is time for me to leave."

Just like that, the mood changed. We stopped a few feet away from the castle entrance as I stared at Josh in confusion. Then it clicked.

It was time.

He had fulfilled his purpose. I was a full crystal. I knew all about my powers, and just like he told me seven months ago, he had to leave.

"No, you can't leave. I need you!" I said in a near-shout.

"But Emery, I have taught you all the things you needed to know. You have done well. But like I said before, I have to go. My time here is up."

I slouched my shoulders in sadness. In the past seven months, I had grown fond of Josh. I considered him a friend. Hearing that he had to leave brought a sense of loss in me.

"Do you have to leave now?" I asked him. He frowned as he stared at me.

"Unfortunately, yes."

I enveloped him in a hug. He seemed shocked at first, but then he wrapped his arms around my form.

I was going to miss him.

He retracted to hug Ashley. Josh then turned his attention back to me.

"Use what I have taught you in defeating the erwiches. I know you will be a good person and a good crystal, most probably the best one in our history. And Ashley," he turned to face my new friend, "You have been a good friend to me. I hope you'll maintain your personality because it brings happiness to people. I will miss the two of you. May your fates be filled with happiness."

Then Josh closed his eyes and chanted a spell.

 

Ashley and I watched as his body disintegrated into yellow stardust. Suddenly, a gust of wind revolved around us, taking Josh's stardust form up in the air until it disappeared.

"I am going to miss him," I stated.

"Me too," Ashley said.

We stayed quiet for a while.

"So, what are we going to do?" Ashley asked with raised eyebrows. I