The Kingdom Journals Complete Series Box Set

by Tricia Copeland

  Pulling my laptop from my backpack, I began typing. If I couldn’t talk to someone, perhaps writing everything down would help me understand. The story before I had audio had holes, though, like when I saw Alena and Hunter attend a funeral for a boy I didn’t recognize. Alena seemed very upset, but I couldn’t hear their words, and there was no background for me to draw from. Still, in an hour when Mom called me for dinner, I had a month’s worth of the tale in a document.

  “So, do you really have a boyfriend?” Mom asked when we’d loaded our plates.

  “No. I was doing research. I was just trying to get Tyler off my back.”

  “Dang. Just when I thought things may get interesting around here,” Tyler commented.

  After dinner, I traipsed back to my bedroom. My actual schoolwork needed finishing. Working on calculus, physiology, German, and History, I dressed for bed. With my European literature book in hand, I snuggled under the covers. My phone dinged, and I picked it up. Eva, my only real friend, was always away on weekends, and her habit included texting me late Sunday with some question about homework.

  Hi. How was your weekend? she asked.

  Good? You?

  She rattled on about a boy she’d met.

  Cool. I’ve got to finish my reading.

  Oh, I was stuck on a calculus problem.

  I worked through the equation with her, and she started to talk about the guy again. As she told me the story, the familiar humming sound began to intensify in my ears, and a vision of Alena and Hunter materialized before my eyes. They were seated at a dining table with Orm and the female witch from the forest. I listened for her name. And noted it on my character sheet. Chalondra.

  My pinging phone filtered through the hallucination. Are you still there?

  Sorry. Falling asleep. It’s late. I’ll see you tomorrow.

  Storing my phone, I huddled under my blankets, excited to hear more about the characters. While they ate, Chalondra and Orm reminisced about their time together in Salem. Chalondra described how her mother was charged with being a witch and escaped by using her magic to dig a tunnel from their cellar to the outskirts of town. Orm then told them how his mother was taken and he met Anne and Elizabeth not long after.

  “I was in the woods one day, and they found me. At first I thought she might kill me on sight. I wouldn’t have been strong enough to take on two of them.” Orm pointed at Alena. “Did I ever tell you this story?”

  Alena shook her head, and he continued. “Anne and Elizabeth were making their way south. You know vampires always want to live where it’s warm. My mother had just been taken. I’d been posing as her bachelor son, but once they hanged her, I was seen as the bastard child of a witch. Anne’s passion for achieving peace impressed me, and I agreed to aid her in her quest for keeping special creatures safe.”

  “I’m sure you were lured by her passion for peace.” Chalondra rolled her eyes. “Female vampires can be very alluring. It usually ends much like the mating of black widow spiders though.”

  “Double stop,” Alena demanded, her face blushing.

  “Look at us old people with no filter.” Chalondra laughed. “Best get down to the business of finding Ivy.”

  “But how do we find her?” Alena asked. “You said you could sense she was weak? How?”

  “Because I am”—she chuckled—“or was, a child of light. I was born on June twenty-first in the year nine hundred ninety-nine.”

  “You’re over a thousand years old?” Hunter inquired.

  “Yes,” Chalondra nodded.

  “Why do need all three of us? How do we use the sword? Who exactly does it free?” Hunter shot off the questions in rapid succession.

  “The completion of the trinity will enable you to use the sword.”

  “Why weren’t you able to complete the prophecy? What does the sword even do?” Alena asked.

  Chalondra rose from her chair. “We never found the third member of the trinity and we didn’t have the sword. Knowing the prophecy is a heavy burden. I wonder if Thanatos knows he doesn’t have the correct components. Sonia does though.”

  “What does Sonia want?” Alena asked.

  “To live forever.” Chalondra shrugged.

  Orm gasped. “You are right, woman.”

  “Of course I am.”

  “It cannot be allowed.” Orm placed his fists on the tabletop.

  “So, do we get to know about Sonia?” Alena asked.

  “It is a long story but ends with the fact that all she cares about is herself and her family. She will do anything to keep her power.”

  “We should get to work.” Orm pushed away from the table and rose to his feet. “Alena, you’re with me. Hunter, you will train with Chalondra.”

  “But I thought we needed to contact Ivy together,” Alena commented.

  “You are not strong enough. We will begin your coven training. When you join the coven, we can try to contact Ivy.”

  “Doesn’t that take six months?” Hunter asked.

  “We’re on a crash-course schedule. It will be achieved by the winter solstice. Come, boy.” Chalondra held her hand out to Hunter.

  The narrative ended, and I stared out into my dark room, wondering again if I were Ivy. Shaking off the thought, I focused on getting sleep. If the vision returned at four again, then time was precious. I padded to the kitchen for some warm milk.

  “You’re up late. Couldn’t sleep.” The lady walked like a ninja.

  “Just finished my homework. Getting to bed now.”

  “Wow, they must be pouring it on.”

  “I kind of did it to myself, wanting to get into a good college and all.”

  “Don’t push yourself too hard, sweetie.” Mom rubbed my shoulders.

  “I won’t.”

  “Okay, goodnight.” She wrapped her arms around me. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  The buzzing sound woke me. Alena and Hunter locked hands and kissed.

  “Do you ever question them?” Hunter asked Alena when he released her.

  “Sometimes. Usually to no avail. I trust Orm.”

  “Okay, well, if you do, I do.”

  “I’m sorry I dragged you into this mess.” Alena took both of his hands in hers.

  “Are you kidding? I would rather know about it than not.”

  “So how are you doing? I mean it’s sort of a lot to process.”

  “Not bad, considering. I got over the magic part. It’s just the learning curve that’s daunting.” Hunter wrapped his arms around her.

  “You think that’s why your mom didn’t fight you?”

  “Oh, she had plenty to say once we left your place. But I told her I was in whether she wanted me to be or not.”

  “I’m glad we’re together at least.” Alena kissed him on the lips.

  “Yeah.” A smile spread across Hunter’s face. “If you hadn’t found me, Theron would be a million miles away with the sword, and you would be clueless.”

  “You don’t need to prove your worth.”

  “To a beautiful hybrid that is stronger than me? I believe I do. Plus, I’d be dead if it weren’t for you.”

  “Well, you wouldn’t have been there if it weren’t for me. Is Chalondra getting you up to speed?”

  “She is.” Hunter yawned.

  “We should sleep. It’s been a long day.”

  “I’ll see you in the morning.” He bent over and kissed her.

  “Goodnight.” She squeezed his hand as the kiss ended.

  The images vanished, and I propped up on one elbow and looked at the clock, seeing the numbers six-oh-three. Wherever they lived it was nighttime, so they either lagged by six to eight hours or were ahead by eighteen. Since they’d originated in California I guessed they would stay in the western hemisphere. You thinking this is real just proves you need to be back on meds. Dreams, elaborate dreams, I told myself, reclining back to my pillow.

  Still, the urge to record the most recent information had me to
ssing my covers away and grabbing my laptop. I tapped away at the keys till my alarm sounded. Wondering if I should schedule a counseling session that afternoon, I dressed and made my way to the kitchen.

  A note sat on my place at the table. Emergency at work. Have a good day at school. Love, Mom.

  Hoping none of her animal patients were in too much peril, I fixed my breakfast and gathered my things. At school, I met Eva in our usual spot. She seemed intent on telling me the rest of the story on the latest guy.

  “So, what did you do all weekend?” she asked after finishing her tale.

  “I did a lot of research at the library. I have a big project.”

  “Any cute guys there?”

  “Absolutely none.” I rolled my eyes.

  “You need to get out with someone other than your mom and brother. Come with me next weekend.”

  “I’ll ask Mom.”

  “Your mom is way too protective.”

  “I know.” I’d lived in Reykjavik a year, but Eva was my only good friend. We’d met at a coffee shop. She was the first Icelandic person I’d talked to. She helped me learn the language, and we hung out all summer. We both had some struggles, and we worked well together. I was new, and she didn’t want to hang out with her old friends. The difference was my issues weren’t just moods or situational. I lived in fear of them returning at any moment. The ringing in my ears, an almost overwhelming buzzing sound only I could hear, had plagued me since I could remember. With the visions coinciding with the sensation, I’d almost convinced myself that the schizophrenia had re-emerged too.

  No, I told myself. I had no hard evidence that my dreams weren’t that. Wrong, the other half of me said. You had the dreams when you were awake. Thinking I’d give the delusional thinking a day or so to pan out one way or the other, I headed to class.

  Just after one in the afternoon the buzzing started, and an image of Alena entering the kitchen to join Hunter for breakfast appeared before my eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” Hunter asked as Alena entered the room.

  “I miss Elizabeth. She always drew my curtains and made me eggs.” Alena approached Hunter.

  “I’m sorry.” Hunter wrapped both arms around her.

  Orm set two plates on the table. “I hope I’m a good enough substitute. I shouldn’t be able to ruin raw eggs.”

  “I hope I get the non-raw option.” Taking a seat, Hunter peered at the plates.

  “Yes, you, I, and Chalondra have normal food.” Orm sat down across from them.

  “You guys just don’t know what you’re missing.” Alena dunked a slice of bread in a cup of scrambled raw egg.

  “Miss Thornton, are you with us?” the teacher asked, forcing me to focus on the real world.

  “Yes, sorry.” I blinked to see the instructor at the front of the room.

  “And?”

  With no clue what the question might be, I studied the teacher’s notes on the front board. Rattling off a guess for the answer, I heard grumbling from around the room.

  “Freak.” The guy beside me coughed as he said it.

  Transcend, I told myself, trying to focus on the lesson. But the apparition of Alena and Hunter still played in my head, in vivid color and with full audio, as they finished breakfast, had a yoga session, and started their schoolwork. The hallucination lasted well into my next class, but as the two sat back to back attending to their own work, it stopped.

  Wondering how long I could keep up my act and sanity, I soaked up every minute I had vision free. The next episode occurred during cross-country practice, but I decided it could be an okay place for my attention to be split. Alena and Hunter stopped their lessons, swam laps in the pool, started a splashing war, and then retired to their rooms to change. Not half an hour later they met up for lunch and then separated again for training with Orm and Chalondra.

  At home, I recorded the visions on the document I’d started, thinking it a pretty normal, boring day for them. I, on the other hand, got embarrassed in class and captured only two-thirds of my lecture material. It would be me asking Eva for help that evening. I showered and met Mom and Tyler in the kitchen for dinner. We made small chat about our days, and I retired to my room for homework. Eva and I worked through calculus via a video chat session, and as my eyes grew heavy, I readied for bed.

  At two I woke to the ringing in my ears and Alena and Hunter’s dinner scene. I noticed they dressed in formal attire for the meal again.

  Alena slid her fingers down Hunter’s necktie. “You look so handsome.”

  “It was in my closet. I would’ve chosen blue.”

  “Of course, you would.”

  “I wish I were taking you to the Homecoming dance right now.”

  “We’ll have all the time in the world for dances when this is over.” They sat opposite each other. Orm and Chalondra entered the room and sat at the tale.

  “Well, day one went well, I believe,” Orm said.

  Alena set the napkin in her lap. “We’re running out of time till the full moon. I think Hunter and I should try locating Ivy.”

  My heart rate ratcheted up, and I wondered if I would feel a tug or buzz or perhaps be able to speak with them. I reminded myself that the scenario wasn’t real, just a hallucination.

  “You’re not ready.” Chalondra contended. “But I can sense Ivy getting stronger. She will be ready soon if her powers continue to grow. Perhaps by the full moon.”

  My breath caught in my lungs. Did Ivy, or rather me, have powers? The notion was nonsense. Had I started believing in witches and vampires because of some dream? As insane as it seemed, and for as much I feared the outcome of their trial, I had to let it play out. I had to know.

  I kept quiet about the hallucinations and honed my skills at looking alert during the daytime ones. They became predicable as I saw Alena and Hunter have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and time in the evening together. What happened in the sessions with Orm and Chalondra became more and more intriguing. They were building their strength to contact Ivy, but I had no clue what that training consisted of.

  To keep up appearances and prove to Mom nothing was amiss, I talked her into letting me spend the weekend with Eva.

  “I’m so happy you came,” she said as we entered the cabin. “Let’s stow our stuff and get on the trail. It’d be great to make the lake by lunch. The water feels amazing. I can’t believe you haven’t been yet.”

  “We haven’t strayed far from Reykjavik. Mom is usually on call.”

  “Be home well before dark, girls,” Eva’s mom called from the kitchen as we walked out the front door.

  Connecting with nature made me painfully aware of just how lost I was getting in my pretend world. By the time we made it to the hot springs, I’d convinced myself to tell the therapist and go back on the meds. There were tons of kids from school at the swimming spot, and I focused on being present and social. Being a true introvert, it felt awkward and taxing. As I studied everyone’s faces, I recommitted to my plan to try to be part of this world. I couldn’t let some voices and visions drive me to reclusive insanity. How would I function? Graduate from high school, college, become a vet?

  It felt like my addiction knew I was about to let it go. After a week of boring meals between Alena and Hunter, the after-dinner conversation took an interesting turn when the ringing in my ears woke me at three in the morning.

  “We only have seven more days till the full moon. I think we should start trying to contact Ivy,” Alena insisted.

  “The moon is most powerful for three days before and three days after it is full. We will work then,” Chalondra told them. “The next task is to write down everything you can remember about Ivy.”

  Alena and Hunter started making notes. Alena remembered every day in detail, and her fingers sped over the keys, recording all the data. Still, in the end, they didn’t have more than a green-eyed, blond girl.

  “Her mother and father. They fought, remember?”

  “Maybe.” Hunter squinted his ey
es.

  “They argued over how to deal with her imaginary friends. The mother won. That’s when the connection was severed.”

  Alena zipped down the hall to Chalondra. “Ivy left when her mother put her on medication.”

  “So, we search medical records for every three-year-old that got a new prescription?” Hunter asked.

  “For schizophrenia. Would a mood-altering drug turn off magic?”

  “Maybe,” Chalondra said. “It would be good to have as much information before the full moon. Theron will likely join his coven then. He will be much more powerful after that.”

  “Is that when they’ll use the sword?” Hunter asked Chalondra.

  “They won’t take any chances. They’ll wait for the solstice.”

  “We can have Mom’s minions plug into medical records. There can’t be that many three-year-olds treated for schizophrenia in 2002. Who puts a three-year-old on anti-psychotic drugs anyway?”

  “Mom said she talked to a doctor when I became so attached to you and Ivy,” Hunter told them.

  “Maybe they knew she was special, that her magic played a part, and wanted to make sure no one found her.” Alena jumped up and sped down the hall. Retrieving a phone, she briefed her mother on the new information.

  “You guys should get some sleep. We have a busy week coming up.” Orm got up from the chair he’d been resting in.

  “We get tomorrow off, right?” Alena asked.

  “With seven days till the full moon? No, dear, you do not.” Chalondra corralled them to the door.

  Alena and Hunter walked hand in hand down the hall. They stopped in front of two doors. Hunter’s eyes scanned the space, and he stepped towards her.

  “At least I get to be with you every day.” He planted a kiss on her lips.

  “I’m glad too. I just hope we can find Ivy before Theron does.”

  “We’re assuming they want Ivy.”

  “They want Ivy so we can’t complete the trinity.”

  “And Thanatos wants you to create some master race with Theron.”