This Is My Kingdom Come by Megan Rees (red white and royal blue hardcover txt) 📕

Atlas wiped the last of the blood from the cut on Luna’s cheek with a damp cloth, only leaving the small outline of the cut on her face. “There.”

“Thanks, Atlas,” Luna replied, leaping up off the stool she’d been sitting on. “I’ll take more care next time.”

The skinny boy went over to the sink and turned on the tap, wrangling the excess water out of the cloth and cleaning the blood off it. “You were taking care – you just need to watch where these objects come from. Knowing before they strike will save you from injury, whether it’s a minor bleed or slicing your internal organs open or something.”

Luna shuddered. “Thanks for the delightful image.” she remarked uncertainly.

“You weren’t meant to picture it in your head, stupid,” Atlas sighed, shaking his head. “Anyway, a message came from The Lodge earlier. Rosco retrieved it and I think it’s pretty important.”

“Why would they send a message to us?” Luna pondered. “If it’s truly important, they would notify the Council or the Fellowship of The Phoenix.”

Atlas thrust a folded piece of paper at her. “See for yourself.”

Nodding, the wavy haired Pureblood unfolded the letter and gazed at the contents.

Cody in London. Possibly alive but unknown whereabouts. Cece shot + wounded badly attempting to save him. Last seen him forced into back of car? Meet at Lodge ASAP.

-  L

Luna felt the blood draining out of her face as she read the note in her head. Atlas stared at her in concern. “What’s happened? Is everyone okay?”

“Cody’s been kidnapped,” Luna replied bluntly. “And Celeste has been shot.”

Atlas looked horrified as his cousin was mentioned. “Is she alive?”

“The letter states she was wounded badly. Either her Pack or the guys at The Lodge would be keeping an eye on her,” Luna pointed out. “Nonetheless, our presence is being called upon at The Lodge as soon as possible.”

“The Council have sent out search parties for Cody. We shouldn’t really leave Nighthollow, especially as Councillor Airing is still wary of you.” Atlas sighed, wiping his glasses.

“Stuff the Council, I’m going to look for my brother whether anyone likes it or not,” Luna retorted. “You can either come or not.”

“You will need my navigation skills.”

“Oh ha-ha. Who else should come?”

“Ash is stronger than both of us, plus he thinks the world of both you and Cody. He would be a valuable person to have around if this comes down to a fight.”

“I think that we should bring Oscar too. We can get some answers out of him if we get Adele to search his memories and he’s from the High Kingdom who are notorious for their ferocity in battle.”

“Sounds logical enough. I doubt Clarissa would want to come, so I think we should bring another girl along.”

“Four of us is enough if we’re not going to cause the Council to grow suspicious. If too many of us go missing suddenly, they’ll try to stop us early on.”

“We’ll need to ask Cynthia first if we can bring Oscar with us.”

“I’ll get round her. You wait and see.”

~

Oscar had been rather humbled to accompany the three Purebloods to the Normal world. As he had never ventured out of the Pureblood world, he felt a slight unease as they set off, but he was quite excited on the prospect of walking among these creatures. To his surprise, his three companions didn’t say a word as they journeyed on.

“You guys are lucky to grow up in Nighthollow,” he commented in an attempt to create conversation. “It looks and sounds like a great place: you’re all like one big family.”

“Family? Don’t make me laugh,” Ash scowled. “The only real family I have live out here.”

Oscar titled his head to the side in confusion. “Were you born in the Normal world?”

“Yes. My parents went into hiding because my mother was still training when she was pregnant with me, so when I was born they put me under the care of my aunt and uncle in Nighthollow.” the younger boy replied icily.

“Tough crowd,” Oscar remarked, flicking his honey brown hair back. “What about you two? Did you get abandoned in a shoebox or something?”

Luna’s pastel blue gaze hardened. “You son of a-”

“My mother died in childbirth,” Atlas cut in quickly, taking a slightly friendlier approach to the question. “My father has raised me alone, but he also fostered Rune. Luna’s father was killed by Alpha in a battle seven years ago and her mother was held captive in the Land Of The Lost as a prisoner of war which was where she gave birth to Cody. They both escaped, but she now takes residence at The Lodge with Ash’s parents and some of our other friends.”

“I see,” the Prince responded, ignoring the anger in Luna’s eyes. “My parents were shot by terrorists when I was six years old. My mother died protecting me and they killed my father when he was asleep.”

“The joy of terrorists.” Ash sneered.

“At least my parents loved me enough to keep me.” Oscar retorted coldly.

The brown haired Pureblood took a dagger from his belt and pointed it at him, his dark green eyes narrowed. “Is that a challenge?” he asked coolly.

Oscar opened his mouth to reply, but Atlas slapped Ash around the face so he dropped the dagger and thus wasn’t a threat anymore. “Are you insane?” the black haired boy snapped. “We’re surrounded by Normals and you just pulled a dagger out on someone! Pull yourself together and act in a civil manner, for goodness sake!”

Scowling, Ash bent down to pick up his dagger and glared at Atlas fiercely. “I’ll take up the rear.”

Wincing at the large red mark on Ash’s pale face, Oscar nimbly joined Luna at the front, not saying a word to her. After her previous reaction to his words, he decided to remain silent.

“Here we are.” Atlas announced once they’d got outside a massive black house at the end of a relatively normal looking street. Oscar could spot two teenagers sat on the top step leading up to the house who Luna yelled at. “I don’t think Nigel would approve of you both casually sitting on the steps to a safe house!”

The taller of the two – a slender girl with shiny long ink-black hair and watchful green eyes – leapt up to her feet and darted down the steps, dragging Atlas into a fierce embrace. “I’ve missed you all so much!” she exclaimed.

Luna and Ash exchanged an amused look as the other teenager made his way down the steps, a bright grin painted on his face. “Long time no see.”

“Hello, Jason,” Ash replied pleasantly, a smile creeping into his stern expression. “Have you been driven crazy by Leon yet?”

“He’s actually a really great mate,” the boy named Jason replied cheerfully. “The only one you have to watch out for around here is Adele. She walked through Flint’s memories and nearly gave the poor guy a heart attack.”

“Good to see she’s still up to her old tricks,” Luna teased. “Anyway, Leon called on us because of the incident with Celeste. Is she okay?”

“She’s alive, but Nigel’s worried about her. She was shot in the leg in wolf form – thank God it was her back leg otherwise it would have shot her arm in human form,” Jason sighed. “We’ve had a few members of her Pack stay with us while she slowly heals, but I think she’ll need to stand down for a while. Nigel thinks there will be long-term damage from this.”

“Pack?” Oscar was instantly suspicious. “This is a Pureblood safe house that looks after stray werewolves?”

Jason narrowed his brown eyes at him. “And you are?”

“This is Oscar Herring. He’s from one of the Pureblood Kingdoms and we’ll need Adele’s assistance to piece together his reason for being here,” Luna explained quickly. “Oscar, this is Jason Warner. He’s a Normal spy for the FTP and lives here too with his sister Isabelle. She’s the one molesting Atlas.”

“I guess I’d better show you all inside,” Jason commented, his gaze sweeping across the three Purebloods. “Come on in. Cassie’s preparing lunch, so we’ll feed you up and then discuss the current situation at hand.”

Luna trailed after Cassie as she went back and forth to the kitchen, bringing various plates and bowls to the hungry arrivals. Despite the fact she was starving to death after missing breakfast, she was happy to help out the curly brown haired woman bring in the insane amount of food she had prepared.

As Cassie retrieved a bowl of soup for Flint, she stared over at Luna with her soft blue gaze. “I noticed that Ash seems a bit brighter. Have Robert and Matilda left him alone now?” she asked quietly.

“I haven’t seen very much of Matilda so I can’t really say, but Robert will occasionally make a few harsh moves.” Luna responded.

“I see,” Cassie just quickly nodded. “Well, I’m glad that you’re all safe and healthy. As long as you’re happy in Nighthollow, then that’s all that matters.”

Luna blinked at her in confusion. “I’ve nearly always been happy in Nighthollow. What do you mean?”

“That wasn’t directed to you, dear,” the young woman insisted hastily, passing Luna a large packet of crisps. “We should get this moving on rather quickly now. I think everyone has slowly died of starvation waiting for us.”

The wavy haired Pureblood followed Cassie back into the living room and placed the crisps down with the various bowls and plates on the coffee table before slumping down on the floor between Adele and Ash. Adele greeted her friend with a smile, her non-blind eye bright. “It’s great to see you again, Luna.”

“And yourself,” Luna replied cheerfully. “How have things been here? I haven’t received any letters from you guys for a while now.”

Adele gave her an amused look. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you why we haven’t been replying to your messages.”

“Fair enough.”

Atlas picked up a piece of bread and started spreading jam on it, glancing up at the door as a black haired man came into the room. “Hello, Will. Good to see you again.”

Will was Cassie’s husband and also the father of Ash. They were both teenagers when Cassie had given birth, so they unwillingly gave up their son to Will’s older brother Robert and his wife Matilda. Ash had only discovered the secret when he and Luna had stumbled upon The Lodge while on the journey for the Phoenix’s Treasure and hadn’t taken it well, but now he’d come round and finally grew to appreciate his parents.

Adele blinked nervously. “Isn’t Leon supposed to be with you?” she inquired.

“Leon’s catching up,” Will assured her, wiping his brow. “We were ambushed by some masked Purebloods and we took a prisoner. I think she could help us find Cody.”

“Masked Purebloods?” Cassie echoed. “I think I heard something about a group of them. They’ve already caused havoc in Texas, Peru and Egypt.”

“I guess we’ll find out.” Will sighed.

Leon then trudged in with a small hooded figure behind him. Their wrists were bound by a fine