Son of Shadow Hero of Light
Page 4
Right after Leon stepped foot in the front door of his house, there was a whoosh of air just in front of him in the hall and Aidan appeared out of nowhere.
Leon barely raised an eyebrow. He scowled a little, but then continued past Aidan to the kitchen. Over his shoulder he said, “You should apparate to your room. What if someone was there?”
His brother laughed and grabbed at him, trying to put him in a half nelson.
“You’re just jealous, you little lantern.”
“I’m not just a lantern, dork.” Leon squirmed away into the kitchen. He heard Aidan call after him.
“Oh, that’s right. I forgot. You’re a dark lantern. You know how to not shine a light.” Aidan laughed and ran up the stairs.
Leon found Mother in the kitchen. She was not happy that Leon didn’t respond to her message and she said no to the sleepover, but finally gave in for tomorrow. Leon sent Randall a message as Father, Aidan, and Kalina came to sit down at the table.
At dinner, Father complained about a law that congress had passed that day in between bites of his food and reading on his phone. It was something about blah blah taxes are going to go up blah blah and then he mentioned the Firebolts.
Leon’s ears perked up. “The Firebolts?” he asked, still playing on his phone.
Aidan joined in, “The best shadowball team in the country?”
“Duh. They invented the sport.”
“Because Kaz Warwick invented our superpowers,” mocked Kali, their younger sister. She wiggled her head and spoke in a deep voice to imitate her older brothers.
Leon and Aidan shot her a look. She was more of mix of Mother and Father than either Aidan or Leon. She had long, straight, red hair that reached half way down her back and had about as many freckles as Aidan, but on her cheeks.
She continued in her mocking tone, “The Firebolts are known for being masters of their superpowers. Most of them even have more than one power, which is completely unnatural and means that they are freaks of nature.”
“Hey,” said Leon.
“And little girls who don’t have any powers are the biggest freaks of nature,” said Aidan.
Kali continued with her mocking voice. “Little girls who are about to develop their powers are reportedly the coolest people on the planet, because they could have any of the nine superpowers.”
Everyone burst out laughing. Mother and Father reassured Kali that she was going to love her power and that she would start noticing it soon. Aidan took the opportunity to jab Leon one more time about his lame power. Leon scowled and went back to eating.
Kali was the only one who didn’t have a phone yet, so while everyone else stared at their phone, she leaned over Leon’s shoulder to watch him play.
After minutes of silence, Father continued ranting about the new law.
“I mean, what are they thinking with this law? How could they possibly think this is a good idea? Why would people want to pay more in taxes? I’ll tell you what it is.”
Mother finished his thought before he could. She took on her own mocking voice just like Kali had. “Kaz Warwick has congress and the whole government in his pocket. They’re his puppets.”
Everyone laughed.
“Exactly,” said Father.
“Dad, how do you know it’s him? There’s no proof,” Aidan said.
“Not yet, but mark my word. It’s true. This law only benefits the Firebolts and enslaves us. I wish I had him here right now. I’d give him a piece of my mind.”
“Anyway, honey, Aidan has some exciting news he can’t wait to tell us,” Mother said. She put down her phone and touched Father’s arm so that he would do the same.
Kali asked for the salad and Mother lifted the salad with her thoughts and floated it over to Kali.
Aidan beamed with pride. “I was promoted to senior mail room clerk today.”
“So quickly? That’s great. Good job, son. How’d you get it?”
“Well you know how I said that they are trying to phase out the speeders from the mail room?”
Leon rolled his eyes. “Because they always make a mess.”
Kali giggled with Leon, but Aidan continued unfazed.
“Well, they’ve only got a few dumbledores there and since I’ve been practicing so hard lately, I’m the fastest and most accurate. So naturally, they promoted me.”
“Hard work pays off,” said Father, picking up his phone.
“And of course it comes with a pay raise I might add,” said Aidan, puffing out his chest and looking at Leon.
“Practicing? You’ve been playing games on your phone,” said Leon.
“I happen to be on the leaderboards, Leon. The state leaderboards. And what does that mean? Oh right, it means I’m basking in the purple rays like they’re going out of style. No lame green over here.”
“I don’t care about your purple rays.” Leon wanted to say something about learning to use dark energy. That would beat anything Aidan could say about being on the leaderboards or having a better power. But Leon didn’t want anyone to know yet, especially Father.
chapter 5
Sleepover