Prologue

It hadn’t rained like this for more than 50 years. The rain came down in sheets, and the streets were flooded to the point where they began to look like small rivers. Thunder boomed and lightning crashed, almost like they were signaling that something was about to start. But none of the troubles of the outside world could reach inside a certain large house on the side of the main street.

The woman in the house sighed in relief. It was hard enough to put 11 young girls into bed, but with the roaring thunderstorm it was just plain terrible. She shook her head in exasperation, but smiled. She loved all of the girls that lived with her at the orphanage, even if taking care of them could be a hassle.

The woman cocked her head. It sounded like the storm was letting up. She no longer heard the whirling wind, the pounding rain. She walked across the girls’ bedroom to check the window. Sure enough, the storm had become calmer, but just a quick look up at the cloud, she knew it was sure to start up again, perhaps even worse than before.

Just then, something caught her eye in the flooded, run-down streets. Something that looked a lot like a little girl.

“Is that a little girl?” she thought out loud. “She can’t be more than two!” The little girl looked like she came from a well-off family, with her expensive looking dress and her large hat covered with lace. However, she was sopping wet and looked bedraggled. Yet there was no one else in sight, no mother or father. The woman turned away from the window and ran down the stairs to the first floor. After quickly grabbing her umbrella and putting on her coat, she opened the front door and ran outside. Now that she was closer, she could also see that the girl was carrying a large package wrapped in brown paper.

Under her breath, the woman could hear the girl mumbling “Momma? No, Momma...”
“Honey, are you lost?” asked the woman as she walked toward the young girl. But the girl just kept muttering the same exact thing. When she was only about a foot away, she decided to try to speak to her again. “Little girl, are you lost? Where’s your mom?” As soon as the woman said the word ‘mom,’ the child abruptly focused.

“No Momma!” she shrieked. “Momma, don’t leave!” Startled, the woman stumbled back.

“It’s okay, sweetie, we’ll find your mom!” She said, trying to calm the now sobbing girl. “Now come inside before you catch a cold!”

Suddenly, the small child was tranquil again. “Yes, Momma,” she smiled.

○○○

The man looked down at the woman’s limp body in disgust. It was sad how breakable mortals were. You just had to simply stab them in the stomach, or hit them hard on the head, and bam! They would collapse, their pitifully short lives at an end. He sheathed his sword, then bent down over the woman to get what the Superior had sent him for. He was shaking from excitement. When he had it, they would be taking the first big step to their goal. But his excitement slowly turned to anger as he noticed the absence of the brown, paper-wrapped package. Where is it? He thought frantically as he searched her unmoving body. She had it a second ago! He shouted in anger, and kicked the dead body away. Flames surrounded the man’s hands, but before he got to shoot them at the body, something stopped him. Walking up the road was a lone figure, in a long, sweeping, black cloak, identical to his own. Immediately, the man dosed his flames.

“A bit angry, are we Aduro?” the newcomer said in a mocking tone.

“Greetings, Superior,” said Aduro worshipfully, while bowing his head.

The newcomer smirked, then looked down at the dead woman, turning completely serious as he addressed the man. “I trust you have finished the job and found the book.”

Aduro gulped. “Not exactly, Superior. The woman didn’t have what we were looking for. But we have eliminated the last of the Ailith line, which will make finding the book easy!” Aduro said hastily, making sure not to anger his leader in the process.

“Hm....are you sure of that?”

“Well, yes, as long as you eliminated her husband,” stuttered Aduro.

“Mmm, yes, he is dead. But I thought that they had a child. Did you dispose of the child, Aduro? No, I didn’t think so. And I bet the little brat has what we are looking for, too.”

“Well, the child wasn’t supposed to be more than two years old. It can’t have gotten far!” Aduro said desperately. He was running out of excuses.

“Ah, but how will we find it? It could be any two year old in the world! She wasn’t stupid,” Superior said while gesturing at the now dead woman. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she used her magic to transport the child and the book miles away from here! How will we find it now? Search out and kill every two year old child in the country?”

“Well, I have information saying that the child was a girl...”

“Oh, I apologize, Aduro. The fact that the child is a girl makes everything better!” the man sarcastically announced. “Sometimes I wonder why I keep you around...”

“Wait! I have a plan, Superior!” Aduro fervently exclaimed. “I know how to find the girl. She is powerful in magic, right?”

The Superior rolled his eyes. “She is heiress of one of the most ancient and powerful families in the world. Yes, she is powerful in magic!”

“Well then, when she is old enough, won’t Candlewick send an invitation to her to join the school?”

“Yes, yes, once she is 14, she will go attend Candlewick Academy. But I don’t see what that has to do with this, Aduro. If anything, she will be harder to get to!”

“But she will be easier to find, and didn’t we need to attack the school for the remaining books?”

Superior slowly nodded. “I see...and chances are, the child will have her mother’s book with her.”

Aduro smiled. It looked like he was going to get out of this. But then something occurred to him. “Sir, what about the rest of the heirs? It can be debated that the Havenstone or the Kingman families are even more powerful the the Ailith line. They may be even more important to get rid of.”

“All in due time, Aduro. We just have to be patient.”

○○○

Now that the young girl was safely in bed, the woman walked back downstairs to make herself some tea. While the water was boiling, a flash of purple caught her eye. She walked over to the kitchen table to the package that the girl on the streets was carrying around. Some of the bottom right hand corner had been ripped off, revealing a lavender edge. The woman started to rip off the paper covering the object. After the soggy paper was pulled away, the woman could now see what had been wrapped inside. It looked like some kind of journal, with the word Ailith written on the cover. The woman thought about opening it, but recalled that many types of books and journals had protective spells placed on them, so if anyone other than the owner tried to open the book, it could not be opened. So instead of opening the book, which was strangely dry, the woman walked back up stairs into her room and placed the book into a secret compartment in her chest, locked it, and then promised herself that, when the girl was old enough, she would return the book to her. But until that day arrived, she would keep the book hidden.

She is special, that girl, thought the woman. And since fate has brought us together, I will do my best to keep her safe until she leaves my care.

Sneak Peek!

Okay, this is pretty much an excerpt from the book, enjoy!

I looked around desperately for something that could help us, but the only thing I could see were our enemies closing in. I cast a quick glance at Jack. His face was void of feeling, but when we made eye contact, he flashed me a quick smile. Then he clasped his hands together and closed his eyes. I could hear a whirring sound coming from his hands, but for some reason, I didn’t recognize the spell. Just then, the whirring stopped. There were a few seconds of heart-pounding silence until a huge boom suddenly erupted from his clasped hands, ripping apart every bit of sound around it. There was a sucking sound for a couple of seconds, and then a huge explosion picked me up off of the ground and sent me hurtling backwards.

The last thing I could remember was Catherine screaming Jack’s name. Then everything went black.

The Purpose of This Blog

So Michala and I are writing a book. We've gotten a lot of reviews, and we've been told that it's really good. So I thought it would be cool to make a blog about it and get a whole bunch of people to read it bit by bit. Anyways, we're at chapter 7 right now and continuing. Enjoy! I'll probably post bits of the book little by little.