Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2) by B.T. Narro (chapter books to read to 5 year olds .txt) 📕

news. This wasn’t your fault. You did not kill Mathew.”

It was his mention of my father that gave me strength. I thought of him watching over me, seeing what I would do now. The news of Mathew’s death hurt, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I was retrieving my sword from the chest in my room when I heard someone enter. Charlie’s face was pale white.

“I have no training,” he said. “The king can’t really expect me to fight.”

“You’re not going to be fighting,” I reassured him.

“So I can stay here?”

“You’re going to be behind us where you’ll be safe, but you’ll be there with us.”

“No.” He said shaking his head. “No, no.”

“Come here, Charlie.” I turned my desk chair away from the desk. “Sit.”

He sat on the edge of the seat. I crouched down in front of him.

“Let me explain something,” I said. “I know you didn’t necessarily come to the castle expecting you would have to do anything dangerous.”

“No, no.” He closed his eyes as he shook his head.

“Charlie, just listen to my voice. You can keep your eyes closed, but listen to me. Are you listening?”

He finally stopped shaking his head and nodded.

“We aren’t rushing into battle. We are arresting a man who doesn’t suspect that we are coming. There will be many more of us than those who might stand in our way. You will be fine, and Charlie, this is very important.”

“What?” he asked, his rapid breaths slowing a bit.

“We’re friends, right?”

“Of course.”

“As my friend, don’t you want to make sure I’m safe?”

“Of course,” he repeated.

“So that’s what you should focus on right now. We need your support. No one else can melt metal like you can.”

“But—”

“There’s a hundred excuses you could think of right now. But I promise I’m going to protect you just like I’m going to protect the others. I want to be there. You want to be there as well. There is so much you can do to help, even if you don’t pick up a sword. Don’t think about your fear. Just tell yourself that you want to be there, because I know you do. Focus on that feeling. If you start to lose it, don’t panic. Just breathe. Breathe slow and deep, and focus on that. If you must act, you will do so heroically. I saw you save Grufaeragar’s life. You were not scared when it was time to act. You are uncomfortable with fear, but you are not a coward. You want to be there.”

“I want to be there,” he repeated.

“Now breathe slow and deep. Focus on doing that every time you start to get scared, or every time you think of worries or excuses.”

He breathed slowly as I instructed, his eyes closed.

I waited with him for a while, not moving. Eventually he opened his eyes again.

“Now what?” he asked calmly.

“That’s it. You don’t need to bring anything. Just focus on your breathing until the rest of us are ready to go.”

“Can I do it here?”

“Sure.”

It was a technique I had developed in the year after my father passed, a way to deal with the panic that I would be alone forever. The more I used to think about it, the worse it got. I came to realize that there were some things for which planning and obsessing were healthy to a degree, but there were many other things—things we couldn’t help—that became worse the more we obsessed over them. It’s best to disconnect completely from dark thoughts about these things.

It was going to take Charlie some time to overcome his fear of battle, as his mind needed to be retrained like mine did, but it would work so long as he kept at it. I was certain.

I noticed Kataleya in the doorway of my room. Charlie had his eyes closed, breathing slow, seemingly unaware. She showed me a smile and opened her mouth to say something, but the councilman entered the room around her.

“Jon, I have an order from his majesty. You are to stay here and defend the castle.”

“What?”

Charlie opened his eyes and stood up sharply. “Can I stay as well?”

“Jon is staying because the castle might come under attack.”

“I thought finding Aliana’s mother created an opportunity for us,” I said. “Why would the castle come under attack if that’s the case?”

“Because we might be wrong.”

I was skeptical. “Are you saying Aliana’s mother was put in the cellar by Cason and he expected us to find her?”

“That could be the case.”

“Just so we would leave the castle to arrest Luther?”

“There is a chance of that, as well as other explanations that would make us want to prepare for an attack.”

What other explanations? But then I realized. Perhaps Aliana’s mother was in on it. Perhaps even Aliana was. I found this incredibly hard to believe, though. Aliana had been cursed, along with Eden. They had lost their inhibitions. Why would a traitor risk divulging information that could lead to their hanging? It wasn’t as if the curse benefited Cason or his people in any way. I had been thinking about the curse here and there, and it seemed clear that it was some sort of experiment or perhaps a way to turn us against each other.

It was also hard to believe that Aliana’s mother would allow herself to go through what she did, and for what? To help Cason? What could he possibly be doing for her and her daughter? No, it didn’t make sense.

“If you think this all could’ve been set up by Cason, then you must think even Luther could’ve been set up,” I said. “Cason merely took Gwen captive for us to suspect him.”

Kataleya gestured at me angrily. “And so what, Jon? So it is my family after all who are the traitors?”

My stupid mouth. “No, I was—”

Kataleya went on. “It’s Luther. I have said so from the start. I don’t think Aliana or her mother are involved, but Luther has been running around impregnating impressionable young women