Copyright
The Guardians’ Daughter
* * *
Copyright © A.M. McPherson 2021
* * *
All rights reserved
* * *
First edition: September 2021
* * *
This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or purely fictitious. Any resemblance to a living or dead persons, events or locales are purely coincidental.
* * *
This book is protected under copyright laws and may not be reproduced in any manner, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the copyright owner, except where permitted by law.
* * *
Published by A.M. McPherson
www.ammcpherson.com
* * *
ISBN: 978-1-7364934-0-3 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-7364934-1-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-7364934-2-7 (hardback)
* * *
Edited by Brian Paone
Cover design by Maria Spada
Printed in the United States of America
Dedicated to my husband & son.
* * *
To my husband, this book is as much yours as it is mine. Your love & devotion continues to make me a better person.
* * *
To my son, may you read this and know to always work on your dreams.
Trigger Warnings
Violence, strong language and themes of mental health (i.e. anxiety, depression and mentions of suicide).
Reader discretion is advised.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Review
Sneak Peak
The Guardians’ Secret
The Adventures of Lime
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Prologue
The Day Everything Changed
Ember
In an instant, the perfect view of the city becomes absolutely terrifying as fire falls from the sky.
My eyes grow wide with fear. “Mom,” I whisper.
Today is my parents’ day to patrol the city. Something terrible must be happening if my mom is using her abilities like this. Normally, she wouldn’t in fear of hurting civilians, but the fire looks to be falling over the emptied part of the city. It must be just her and whomever she is fighting. Right now, I’m so grateful our house was built on one of the hills outside the city. It lets me keep an eye out for my parents when they are working.
I stand too quickly from the dining room table, knocking my chair backward and my schoolwork falls to the floor. It occurs to me I need to let Eliza know something is happening! Maybe Mom told her about something going on today, since they talk about everything.
“Eliza!” I trip over the chair but quickly regain my footing and run into the living room. I look for the remote to turn on the TV. The news must be reporting it! Eliza has not responded to me yet, and my annoyance grows. “Eliza! Something is going on with Mom! Do you know anything about it?”
“What did you say?” Eliza shouts from the kitchen. “You better not be trying to get out of doing your homework again! If you think sixth grade math is hard, just wait until next year!”
“Mom, Dad … they may be in trouble!” I throw pillows off the couch in search of the remote.
“What’s going on?” Eliza enters the living room.
“I don’t know!”
Eliza looks toward the dining room window, and I follow her gaze. The fire has stopped, but smoke is now rising into the sky. I turn quickly to see the remote sitting on the white ottoman in the middle of the room. I lunge for it and land half on the ottoman, half on the floor, knocking the air from me. In the middle of trying to breathe, I grab the remote to turn on the TV. As soon as I do, I hear the newscaster say my mom’s Guardian name, Emerald Blaze. The live footage shows a side view of an empty road in front of brick apartment buildings. The newscaster continues to talk, but I do not hear a word she says. My attention is solely on my mom, trapped in the middle of the road.
Mom is suspended in the air by two metal beams that have been smashed straight into the street. Someone wrapped the ends of them around her like a rope. Yet, more terrifying, her body is submerged in a sphere of water continuously swirling around her. My chest suddenly feels as if a building has just collapsed on me. Her abilities are useless in this state. While surveying the rest of the scene, I see piles of mud covering the ground near my mom. That can mean only one thing.
“Dad,” I whisper. I have no clue what is currently going on with my dad, and hysteria sets in. I snap my head toward Eliza with panic in my eyes. “Where’s Dad?”
Eliza seems to be in shock. Her eyes stare unblinking at the TV with her mouth slightly open. “I don’t know, Ember. I don’t know.”
My focus returns to the TV, and I see the villain responsible enter the screen in front of my mom. Black Mold—I recognize him from my lessons on notable villains in the area. He’s a tall, skinny man with long, greasy black hair. He looks sickly because of his gray-greenish skin. The sphere of water suddenly makes complete sense, since he can control water, and rumor is he can also emit some kind of toxin. He disappeared a while ago, and no one knew what happened to him. Seeing him angers me. Why? Why is this happening? Why is he back now and trying to kill my mom?
Black Mold and my mom look to be talking to one another, but I can’t hear what they’re saying. It seems the footage is coming from a street camera, and those do not have sound. And, of course, no one from the station would actually go down there—that would be suicide. A lump forms in my throat. Where are the rest of the Guardians? Why is no one helping her? Where’s Dad? My sole focus is on Black Mold, watching his every movement, since he currently holds my mom’s fate in his hands. He closes his eyes while lowering his head toward the side. He raises his hand with his palm toward my mom while moving it in circular motion. The water covers her face.
“No! Mom!” The feeling of utmost dread drenches my body, and my lungs burn for air. My mom will drown, and I can’t do anything about it. The water bubbles and seeing that lets me breathe in relief. She’s going to boil the water away! She’ll be okay.
Black Mold carefully watches my mom as the scene plays out. His mouth is set in a straight line, and his eyes are scrunched as though lost in thought. He reaches to the side with his right hand, like he’s going to grab something, but closes it into a fist and swings it forward. A massive stream of water erupts from a nearby storm drain rushing into the sphere. My stomach turns sour. He is going to ensure her demise.
Utter hopelessness seeps into every corner of my body as I sway and face Eliza.
“We have to do something!” I turn to run for the door.
She grabs my arm to stop me. Tears streak her face. “Honey, there’s nothing we can do. We would never get there in time.”
“No! You’re wrong, Eliza!” I try to pull my arm from her. “You’re wrong!”
Eliza holds onto me while I struggle.
My strength soon fails, and I drop to the floor.
Eliza falls with me.
Both of us watch the TV in horror as my mom fights against her restraints. Her red hair thrashes wildly around her as she struggles. Each second passes slowly, and, as my mom’s movements lessen, the boiling does as well.
I’m watching my mom die, and I can’t do anything about it.
Then, just like that, the boiling stops. I don’t want to watch, but I can’t move. Her movements become jerky, almost violent. She goes limp.
My breath escapes me as I hyperventilate. Darkness threatens my view, and my head spins. I blink like crazy to focus on anything.
Eliza says something to me, but I can’t respond. I look at the TV; my sight is blurry, but I can still manage to decipher my lifeless mom.
I let the darkness take me.
Aiden
I sneak the remote from my unconscious dad. It seems the half bottle of whiskey he drank during the last couple hours finally did the trick. He shifts for a moment, the red recliner squeaking under his weight. A loud snore escapes him while a drip of drool falls from his mouth.
“How pathetic,” I mumble.
Finally, I have control over the TV. The news has been blaring all morning, and I just want to watch my cartoons. Who gives a crap about the news? Since Mom got called into work this morning, that means I can have complete control now.
The anchor on the TV looks troubled while staring at me through the screen. “Trouble downtown while two—”
I change the channel. “Don’t care.”
I sit on the floor too close to the TV since my mom isn’t here to yell at me. I guess Dad’s drinking isn’t such a bad thing sometimes. A commercial for a car wax plays. “Great,” I say with a groan. This would be my luck. The moment I finally get to watch what I want, I get stuck watching ten minutes of more nonsense.
From nowhere, I hear some shuffling noises and eye the hallway.
My mom appears, smiling, until she notices my dad. Her smile vanishes, and she puts her hands on her hips, staring back at me. “Seriously? You guys have done nothing all morning? I asked for one thing from you, Aiden, to clean up the kitchen, and you couldn’t even do that?”
My show comes on, and I give it my attention. “Mom, I just want to watch TV, so leave me alone.”
“What did you just say to me?” My mother’s tone causes goosebumps to travel down my back.
I slowly look back at her to see her levitating about a foot off the floor. One of her eyes twitches, and her face matches the red recliner. No way I’m sticking around to find out what will happen next. I sprint off the floor, grab my shoes and run toward the back door through the kitchen—the closest door for my escape.
“Aiden! Young man! Get back here right now!”
No way! I open the door and take off, not wasting time to close it behind me. The other condos flash by me as I run to the business district. I dart between people on the crowded sidewalks, not caring where I’m going. I only stop running once I get away from the crowds, putting quite a few blocks between me and my house. It’s hard to control my breathing. I’m terrified my mom will show up at any second, plucking me off the ground any moment like a bird of prey needing their dinner. I nervously look skyward but see no sign of her, only the sky and clouds staring back at me. She probably decided to go off on Dad instead.
This is not how I want to start my weekend.
In my rush to flee, I went in the opposite direction of the arcade where my friends would be hanging out on a Saturday. This part of the business district feels like a ghost town. Some windows are broken out of the brick buildings. Weeds pop from almost every sidewalk crack. As I feel a bit uneasy being here, I remember why this area is like this. The city bought most of these buildings to demolish for a new arena, and it’s about time! The older one is not up to par anymore since famous Guardians have participated in the battles.
I sigh and look left into a dark alley. A yellow diamond sign reading, DEAD END, is posted at its entrance. Something is down there, and I squint to decipher it—a dumpster. Normally, a dumpster is nothing to get excited about, but today, this dumpster is tempting me. This dumpster would do well for target practice. My energy blasts would do a good number on this hunk of metal.
I shake with the anticipation of using my abilities again; it has been a while, thanks to my dad. Taking a deep breath, I force my muscles to relax some. The energy in the air pulsates; it’s warm and soothing to my body. This helps calm me, and I close my eyes, inhaling another deep breath. I open my arms skyward to absorb energy. The initial surge causes me to gasp as my muscles tingle with a familiar shocking sensation, and I feel an intense prickling on my fingertips. I’m ready to destroy this dumpster.
I focus on the dumpster and bring down my hands together to create a ball of energy. It looks like a cracked bluish orb with small sparks bouncing around in it. I raise my hands over my head, aim my blast at the dumpster and forcefully throw it forward. Sparks erupt from the dumpster when my blast hits it, and it flies backward, disappearing into the darkness. A loud crash, like a wrecking ball against a building, echoes in the alley.
A huge smile erupts on my face. “That felt so good.”
CRASH!
“What was that?” I snap my head to look behind me to see a car flipping through the air and crashing into a building across the street. Unsure of what to do, I freeze in place with my eyes wide open.
“Hey, kid! You need to get outta here!”
I glimpse a man running at me right before he scoops me up and throws me over his shoulder. He ducks into the alley as I see what looks like a ten-foot spear fly past us. I can’t see anything but blackness as the man runs farther into the alley, but the ground starts to incline toward the rooftops. I feel a gust of air as the dumpster from earlier flies past us—well, what remains of the dumpster anyways.
We emerge up and out of the alley, and, when the light hits my eyes, they burn with its sudden appearance. The man stops and plops me onto what seems to be the roof of another building. I want to ask him what is happening, but he’s focused on something in the alley. I follow his gaze to see a large figure running up the incline, and the sunlight bounces off his skin. Who is that? I fall back onto my hands and scuttle backward. Whoever he is, he’s terrifying. The guy is huge—easily seven feet tall. His skin is silver and shiny like metal, and all his facial features are flat. His purple hair is styled like a punk-rocker mohawk. He could probably kill someone with one blow.
Something flies by my ear, causing me to flinch. The metal giant has daggers between his fingers and is aiming them at the man I am with. The daggers fly as if the giant has a never-ending supply.
The man tries to dodge them, but one cuts his cheek. He brings his arms in front of him and moves both in a wavelike motion toward the alley. A huge gash on his arm is bleeding; blood stains his brown pants.
The incline the man created earlier moves backward like a whip, flinging the metal giant across the street. He crashes into a building across the street, creating a huge cloud of dust and smoke. The dust settles, revealing him in the middle of a huge crater, sprawled out like a splat bug on a window.
“Whoa,” I whisper.
“I need to get you somewhere safe,” the man says breathlessly, facing me.
The man is one of the most famous Guardians in the area, Digger. He can manipulate dirt, so what he has been doing makes perfect sense now.
I stand and try to brush off how scared I still feel, but my body continues to shake. “Wh-What’s going on? And … And who is that man? Where … Where were those weapons coming from?”
“I wish I could tell you what’s going on, kid, but it seems to be a random attack.” The man rips some fabric from his brown shirt and wraps it around the wound on his arm. “That’s Iron Forge.” He nods toward where the metal giant landed before using his teeth to tighten the fabric. “And the weapons are coming from him. He uses the metal in his body to make them. Black Mold is battling Emerald Blaze somewhere nearby. That’s why I need to get you out of here.”
Remembering that Digger is married to Emerald Blaze, I realize he’s probably trying to get to her to help. It’s time for me to put on a brave face and convince him I’m fine, so he can go. I try to stand a little straighter, but my teeth rattle. “I’m o-okay. Y-You can leave me here, and I-I’ll head home as fa-fast as I can.”
“No, kid. I’m sure Iron Forge will be on his feet here in a minute. I’ll get you somewhere safe,” he replies with strong authority in his voice.
Something catches my eye a few blocks away. Fire falls from the sky like the apocalypse has begun, but it has to be Emerald Blaze doing that. I know she can create fire. From the corner of my eye, I see Digger looking in the same direction.
The Guardians' Daughter Page 1
