The Crystal by Jones M (ready to read books .TXT) 📖

Erick running towards her. They were all crying. Her heart clenched with worry and regret for not getting them before the war started. In fact, she hated herself at the moment for not having them speak to their fathers before they went to war.

"Mum, what's going on?" Emery asked in tears. Her mother hugged her and the two boys.

"It is nothing," her mother lied. "There is a problem that adults have to take care of. You and all the children in Crystalia will be underneath the castle with some other people where you will be safe."

"Will you and Daddy be okay?" Emery asked. Susan was rendered speechless for a moment, trying to think of what to tell her.

"Get the kids in here!" one of the guards shouted, saving Susan from making possibly-unattainable promises.

Susan hugged the three children.

"Go!" she told them. The three nodded, following the guard who was leading the children to the lowest room in the castle.

Susan rushed to the throne where she thought Elizabeth was. The Queen's presence confirmed her thoughts.

"Have you seen my children?" she asked with a concerned look.

"Yes," Susan replied. "They're with the other kids underneath the castle."

The Queen released a sigh of relief.

"We need to join the others," Erick's mother said despite her husband's request. Susan nodded, following her out of the throne. However, before they could get any further, Eva busted into the castle, dragging the bodies of their husbands with two glowing magical ropes.

Time seemed to have stopped for a moment. Susan and Elizabeth seemed to not digest what they were seeing. When it dawned on their heads, they looked horrified. Once Eva reached the center of the room, she diffused the rope into stardust. The two rushed to their husbands. 

Elizabeth rushed to her husband. The King's eyes stared into the distance. He was still, unmoving.

"Honey? Honey?" the Queen said, tapping the King's face in a manner of trying to wake him up. He did not respond. Elizabeth's eyes widened in shock. The awful conclusion was in her mind, just waiting to be confirmed. She refused to accept it.

She tried feeling for his pulse. She felt nothing. She shook her head, not wanting to accept the possibility of her husband being... she couldn't even say it. Then she placed her head on his chest, hoping to hear a heartbeat.

Nothing.

On the other side of the room, Susan was paralyzed with shock. It did not take her long to realize hHer husband was dead.

She couldn't believe it. She found it hard to believe it! It was about a minute ago when they were talking. What? How? Why?

It seemed unreal. Susan hoped it was a freaking nightmare. She wanted to wake up and be back at her home in Massachusettes with her loving husband and their beautiful daughter. 

Why wasn't she waking up?

"It was quite easy if you ask me," Eva said, answering the silent questions the widows had of their husbands' deaths. "They came out of your castle, ordering me to get out. Idiots. They thought they could kill me."

Eva released a chuckle, angering the others in the room.

"I just flicked my wrists, and they were dead. Just. Like. That."

The words and the sight of her dead husband fully sunk into Susan's head. Anger like no other coursed through her veins.

"NO!" she screamed, throwing fireballs towards Eva. The enemy evaded them as she flew in the air. It angered Susan even more, making her throw more fireballs towards Eva. She missed again with the fireballs hitting the wall behind Eva.

Eva contacted her powers of telekinesis. In an instant, Susan was brought up midair with a strong force on her neck.

"I told you what I wanted, Susan," she said as she flew closer to her. "You could have given me your child, and you could have avoided all this mess that we made."

"NO!" Elizabeth, who was still in shock that her husband was dead, screamed, slapping her husband in an effort to prove her wrong.

"Please, wake up! Please!" she said as tears flowed from her eyes, clouding her vision.

Susan's eyes welled up with tears, grieving for the Queen's loss and her own. At the moment, her sadness numbed her from the pain of Eva holding her midair with her powers.

"He's dead you idiot," Eva said calmly with a smirk. Elizabeth stood still before turning to face her. Her eyes widened when she saw the predicament Susan was in.

"You monster!" Elizabeth shouted with a tear-streaked face. "You killed him! You killed my husband!"

The Queen summoned a sword onto the palm of her right hand. Before she could reach Eva, she was sent flying backwards. She hit a wall, instantly getting knocked out.

"I wonder why she was Queen when you weren't," Eva told Susan with a bored expression. "Now it's just you and me left to talk," Eva said with a fake surprised look.

"I will not ask again, Susan. You know what I want. Give me your daughter."

When the demand was made, Susan's mind diverted from mourning her husband's death to doing anything to protect Emery.

"You already know the answer to that, Eva," she said.

Eva gave her a look of disbelief before laughing.

"Do you understand your position right now? Every witch who is outside is captured. My minions are waiting for my order to kill all of them. I suggest you pick wisely, Susan. Give me your daughter, or else I kill every witch in Crystalia!"

During the conversation that was going on, Susan silently summoned the sword that Elizabeth planned to use. In an instant, she sent it flying towards Eva's arms with brutal force. The villain did not see it coming.

It took a second, and Eva screamed as her arms were both cut off. The hold that was on Susan disappeared, sending her falling to the ground. Susan groaned as she collided with the ground. It was not time to tend to wounds. She had bigger problems than that.

"You bitch!" Eva screamed. The hands that were still on Susan momentarily spooked her. However, they disintegrated into dust that was floating towards Eva.

Susan seemed worried on what to do, but then she recalled the spell. Eva was too busy writhing in pain. However, she was Eva. Her screams of pain wouldn't last long since she was reforming herself. 

Susan knew that Eva would go after her without another though, so she had to chant the spell. The light that illuminated the room dimmed as the clouds covered the sky. Lightning flashed outside, directing Eva's attention away from her healing hands. She did not understand what was happening.

"Stupid Susan," Eva said as she looked at her fully-healed hands. "You aren't powerful enough to defeat me. Now, I get the pleasure of getting rid of you," Eva went flying towards Susan, but unfortunately for her, a circular portal instantly appeared, increasing in size within seconds. The portal was white, and it looked like clouds swirling around each other.

Eva was being sucked into the portal while Susan stared. Eva tried to move away, but the force being emitted from the portal was too strong for her. She turned and gave Susan a murderous look.

"I will get you for this! Once I get out, you will pay for doing this to me!" Those were the last words Eva spoke before she fully entered the portal. The portal soon closed.

Susan collapsed onto the floor into a heap of sobs. Elizabeth, who had been knocked out, woke up to see her crying. She looked around and noticed the absence of their cause of problems. She walked towards Susan's position on the floor and sat with her. They stayed like that for forty minutes as they grieved.

In that time, some guards entered the castle to see what was happening. When they noticed that Eva was absent, they walked outside to deal with Eva's minions. They seemed to fully depend on Eva, and with her absence, it made it easier to kill them. 

They soon retreated after their population was reduced by a half.

An hour later, the children who had been kept safely underneath the castle were allowed back into the city.

"How are we going to tell our children that their fathers are dead?" Elizabeth asked as she stared into the distance. Susan remained silent, not knowing what to do.

Emery, Justin and Erick came into the throne room, expecting to see happy faces. They met the exact opposite. They saw their mothers crying next to each other, and they saw the bodies of their fathers on the floor.

"Mom?" Emery asked, startling the crying parents. Susan and Elizabeth had not seen them, and they worried about their children seeing their dead fathers. They soon rushed the children out of the room, but they had already discovered that their fathers were dead.

Two weeks later, Crystalia held the funeral ceremonies for those who had passed away. Michael and Andrew were not the only ones killed by Eva. 

Elizabeth, Susan and their children were a crying mess. The Queen had to give power to the officials to take care of Crystalia's duties as she grieved.

There was no attack from Eva's minions during the time it took the Queen to get her bearings right. She knew she had to do something to prevent something like Eva's previous attack from ever happening again in the future, and soon, she delved into the grimoires. 

Elizabeth soon discovered spells that she could alter to make the invisible protective dome. She at first did some tests on a small piece of land, and it worked. Elizabeth had the spell recorded in the grimoires after she cast it around Crystalia to prevent anything evil from entering it.

She had lost her husband, and she would be damned if she also lost her children.

CHAPTER 12

A/N It was hard to write the other chapter. This chapter mostly contains song lyrics, just to fill this up. They will have this mark (♫) and this writing style (song lyric). Feel free to skip them if you want. Enjoy!

Emery's P.O.V

"We're fired?" I shouted through the phone. Shocked was the least that I was feeling. 

How could we be fired?

"I'm sorry, Emery," Rachel replied. "Ever since you and Selena missed two weeks of work, the boss felt like you were inadequate for the job, especially since summer is ending. Then you left work again; then the manager informed me to tell you that your services are no longer needed."

I sighed, rubbing my forehead as I began thinking about what to do.

"I can't believe this is happening," I said as I looked around my surroundings. "Is there anything we can do to get our jobs back?" I asked with a hopeful tone.

"No, I don't think so," Rachel replied. My shoulders slumped as I frowned.

"Okay. Fine. I'll talk to you later."

"Sure, Emery. Talk to you later." Then the call ended.

I walked around the room. It was still the same room I woke up in after I was chosen the crystal, and so it was made to be my bedroom in Crystalia. The day was going to be a busy day, and I already had a lot of stress planning my journey to Eva's castle and what to do from there.

The Queen said that some guards would go with me. It was bad enough that no one knew the design of Eva's castle. It was worse because everyone didn't know what to expect. Nobody knew the chambers and the gates around the castle, and so it would seem like the moment we step foot there, we would be captured. 

It highly looked like a suicide mission.

I landed on the bed, staring at the ceiling above me as I thought again of my current situation. Selena and I lost our jobs. We had three weeks before summer ended, and we just had to be fired. I could not believe my luck.

It was not like we needed the money for college fees. Our scholarships covered those. We just needed the cash for emergencies and spending.

I had a feeling my cousin had not heard the news. I got up from the bed, dreading to have to tell her of our current work status. I walked into the hallway only to see her approaching me. Once she was near me, she hugged me and started heaving with sobs.

Okay?

"Rachel told me that we were fired," she said as she retracted the hug. She was taking the news worse than I was.

"Why are you crying?" I asked with a furrow of my eyebrows. "It's not the end of the world. We can get another job."

"I know that. It's just that it reflects us and our behavior. It was our first job, Emery. Our first job and we