Unbound: The Cursed Trilogy, Book One by Betty Legend (small books to read .txt) 📕

back, screeching as flames consume his skin. I don’t bother to watch what will happen next. It’s gruesome and gross, and I still have a problem on top of me. My hands come down, grabbing the demon’s face. I release my essence, the heat scorching his skin. As he drops off the couch onto the floor, I spin my body and unleash more magic.

The demon turns to ash in front of me, but the other is still stumbling around my living room, trying to put out a fire he’ll never be able to extinguish. Pushing my magic toward him, I release a ball of essence, and the demon’s body turns to ash.

Thank you, Emeric, thank you very much.

Looking at my living room floor, I sigh heavily. I now have a disgusting smelly mess to clean up and even more reason to visit Ancor.

An hour later, I put away the vacuum and carpet cleaner. After a second shower, I dress in clean clothes, dry my hair, then rub the charm on my necklace and say the words Cyrus taught me. A silver circle swirls in the air, and I step through it, thinking of my destination.

Here we go.

In the blink of an eye, total darkness fades to the view of Ancor’s front porch. I step out of the portal onto the floorboards of Ancor’s tree cabin.

“Come in, fairy painter.”

How does he always know? Does he have a camera outside? I look around the trunk of the tree that overhangs his porch and along the floorboards. There’s nothing, of course.

Opening the unlocked door, I enter. To my surprise, Ancor is not in a flowery shirt, but it is bright yellow. As usual, he’s wearing shorts and his usual flip flops as he adds honey to two cups of what looks like tea.

“Do you spend a lot of time at the beach?”

Ancor laughs, and it takes me by surprise.

“Your mind is filled with questions, so many questions.” Gathering the two cups, he sets them on the table. “Have a seat.”

As I do, he pushes the second teacup toward me.

“It’s tea, fairy painter. No added elixirs.”

“Thank you. Clearly, you knew I was coming.”

“In due time. I knew you would need this talk.”

I lift the teacup and sip. The flavor is divine, better than any tea I’ve tasted, a balance of sweet and spicy. I take another two sips before Ancor says anything.

“You wonder what time will ask of you.”

“Yes. Once I’m bonded with each elemental supernatural, what’s next? How do I fight demons and the Holy Accolades? How do I send the devil back to hell if he’s still walking among humans, disguised as the leader of the Holy Accolades?”

“He flies in hell and walks on earth. He’s a magician and a scoundrel.”

“You talk about the devil as if you’ve met him.”

“I have.” Ancor folds down the right side of his shirt to reveal a massive scar from shoulder to ribs. The jagged pink flesh widens my eyes.

“You fought him?”

“Yes, and many others with me. The fathers and mothers of the men you will come to love sacrificed their lives to stop him.”

The cup stops halfway to my lips.

“Emeric, Griffin, and Cyrus? Their parents are all dead?”

“Some of them are. Their magic now replenishes Mordeeves Island.”

I set my cup down as my body stiffens, my nerves bundling in my belly.

“I… how can I, a witch who barely knows her magic, fight the devil if all of you couldn’t?”

Ancor takes a drink, his dark eyes studying every detail of me, and likely reading the images flashing through my mind.

“We did not possess the magic you all will harness by bonding. It was a clever detail Cataleya constructed in her spell.”

“You learned about the prophecy after everyone died?”

“Yes.” Sorrow fills his dark eyes. “I wish I had foreseen it sooner. Their lives may have been saved.”

“Do you believe things happen for a reason? That maybe their sacrifice triggered the prophecy? It is their sons who are the key to breaking the curse.”

Ancor smiles, showing off teeth tinted yellow from years of tea. He brushes a wrinkled hand over his white hair, smoothing it off his shoulder.

“You are bright. You see answers even as you ask the questions. I believe you are what Cataleya envisioned when she cast her spell. You may come to be as gifted as she was.”

“Did she wield the magic of all five elements?”

“Yes, it’s why she was selected and tortured. Her power was unmatched, unlike others burned before her. She, too, had the love and bond of five elemental supernaturals.”

“I get it now. Cataleya cast her spell to break the curse when another druid witch from her bloodline was born with the ability to wield all five elements.”

“And you are that witch.”

That reality hits me hard. I sit there in thought, worried if I truly possess the ability to create powerful magic and combine it with five other supernaturals to stop the spread of evil.

“Believe in yourself, fairy painter.”

Drinking the rest of the tea, I set the cup down, my eyes lowering to the knots in the wood table. I went from being an independent, single artist to having the weight of the world on my shoulders, and it’s heavy, so very heavy.

“How do supernaturals come into play with good and evil?” My gaze lifts to Ancor, who’s leaving his seat with our empty teacups.

“Humans and supernaturals once lived peacefully among each other, and it was our magic that kept evil in the underworld. Over time, the human view of magic was warped by possessed humans, and they sought out supernaturals, blaming them for any disaster that fell upon them. It was the work of evil and a successful orchestration.” Collecting a deep bowl from a lower cupboard, Ancor fills it with water, then sets it on the stove.

“I imagine it’s why my parents and ancestors chose to integrate into society. They wanted to protect their children from being hunted.”

The memory of my father sitting next to my bed, his hands waving