Guardian: Darkness Rising (7 page)

As soon as she saw the massive
crowd that was attending the ball, she discovered that it would be
difficult to find her father and Luke; she had no idea what Luke
looked like now he was seventeen, and the fact that everyone was
wearing a mask wasn’t going to make things easier.

Mari walked through the castle’s
main hall, where people were meeting and catching up with each
other; there were two grand stairs that each led into a different
direction and were separated by the grand door that led to the
Ritual Chamber.

From what Mari heard people say as she passed
them, the Ritual Chamber would be the place-to-be that night;
apparently, there were ten so-called ‘Guardians’, and their leader
would be giving a speech later that night to open the
dance.

As soon as Mari heard the name of
the leader, she knew for sure that her father and his friends were
there. She knew only one James Riverdale, and she knew for sure
that it was
the
James she knew. And Mari implemented that in such a way that
she instantly knew that her father’s other friends were the other
Guardians. Her father’s closest friends would make five
Guardians.

If Luke was one of them, too, he’d be number
six. But who were the other four?

Mari was quickly distracted from her questions
when she saw a young man standing near the opened doors of the
Ritual Chamber. His hair had a familiar shade of red, and had
apparently noticed that Mari was staring at him, as he quickly
approached her.

As soon as he opened his mouth and said his
name, he revealed his identity to Mari. It was him, without a
doubt.

“
Mari,” Luke said.

“
Luke,” Mari replied, blinking as
if the boy standing in front of her was merely a vision of her own
imagination and would go away if she just kept blinking her eyes at
him.

“
It’s been an awfully long time,
Mari,” Luke said, his blue eyes twinkling behind the blue mask he
was wearing, making them nearly undistinguishable – but Mari
managed. “Where have you been?”

“
Everywhere and nowhere,” Mari
replied quickly. “How did you know it was me?”

Luke chuckled. “Well, I must admit that I had
to come up close to know for sure,” he said. “But I’d recognize
those pretty eyes of yours anywhere.”

Mari instantly knew what Luke
meant. Her eyes had always been the thing Mari liked the most about
herself; it made her feel somewhat special. They were different,
but a good kind of different.

Mari let out a sigh of both happiness and
relief. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you again, Luke,”
she said.

The left corner of Luke’s mouth pulled upward
into a crooked smile. “So am I, Mari,” he said. “I waited for you.
For four years.”

“
Thank you,” Mari said slowly.
“You know you didn’t have to do that. But thank you for waiting
anyway.”

The right corner of Luke’s mouth was pulled up
into a smile now, too. “Of course I’d wait for you,” he said. “What
else would I have to wait for?”

Luke slowly pulled Mari into a
hug; for a moment, by the position of Luke’s head and the way he
moved, Mari believed that he wanted to kiss her, but somehow felt
relieved – yet, for some reason slightly disappointed – that he
didn’t do so. It was weird for the two of them to kiss without
having any reason to.

After all, Mari hadn’t seen Luke in four
years, and he’d probably found someone else. They’d always viewed
each other as friends, and Mari didn’t want to change that point of
view.

“
Now look at the
ridiculous place I found you in,” Luke chuckled. “Out of all the
places in
our
universe you could’ve chosen, I had to come find you
in
another
.”

“
Yeah,” Mari chuckled, her mind
still vaguely hanging on to the strange, kind of gross thought of
her lips on Luke’s.

...Sadly, whether Mari and Luke would kiss or
just keep hugging, there had to be someone to get in their
way.

What are you doing!?
The Master’s voice boomed through Mari’s
head.
This is not part of our agreement,
Marilyn. First, you’d do your job for me, and then you’d get to
spend as much time with your family as you want. Don’t make me
change my mind.

Mari, startled by the sudden threat that had
come her way, quickly pulled away from Luke’s hug, who grabbed her
wrist as she tried to run off.

“
What’s the matter, Mari?” Luke
said. “Why are you running away?”

“
I- I can’t explain,” Mari said
heatedly. “I’ll be right back, okay? I just need to take care of
something! I’ll come right back to you when I’m done!”

“
Can’t I help you?” Luke said.
“Mari, you know you can tell me anything!

“
You don’t have to keep secrets
anymore!”

Mari stopped struggling as her
eyes darkened. “No,” she said, her words shaking, yet certain. “I
can’t tell you everything. Not this.”

Luke didn’t blink; his eyes and voice seemed
to freeze over as he said, “Mari. We know why you’re here. I’m not
going to let the Master use you like this.”

Mari’s eyes widened; the party went on
normally around them, but to her, it was as if time had stopped.
Did they know? How? Had the Spirits told them?

...Who was
really
the villain here?

The Master had lied to her – there
was no other option. Luke didn’t seem as if he was under some kind
of spell – this was Luke, and he was offering her help. It wasn’t
that Mari hadn’t already discovered that the Master was bad news –
she just didn’t really
believe
he was. She’d just rather stayed out of his
business – until he’d told her about the Spirits keeping her family
captive.

Mari peeked inside the purse she was carrying
to have a look at the glowing red stone, and sighed. “I need to
talk to my dad.”

Luke placed a hand on Mari’s
shoulder. “Of course you do,” he said. “Don’t worry. Together with
you, it’ll be sixteen against one; this ‘Master’ fellow won’t stand
a chance.”

Mari smiled as she and Luke
entered the Ritual Chamber; people were coming after them, as the
dance was probably about to start. If Luke had confidence that they
could win it from the Master, then why would she worry?

The Master was powerful. That’s why she was
worried. Well... at least he couldn’t enter the Land of Light,
right? As long as they were here, they’d be safe, and that was more
or less a reassuring thing to know.

When Luke and Mari entered the Ritual Chamber,
James and his friends were already attending the altars they’d once
used twenty-five-years ago. Apparently, that’s from where James was
going to hold his speech – would his friends be speaking,
too?

Luke told Mari that he and his friends would
be joining their parents as soon as they were told to – which left
Mari amazed; of course she’d still been wondering about the
identity of the remaining four Guardians. Luke told her that she
had to join them, so her father wouldn’t look so lonely up there
(despite the fact that Daisy would be joining him), and it’d add a
nice element of surprise to the evening.

And Luke was convinced that if every last of
the Lunariae knew Mari, everyone would support her in her fight
against the Master, leaving him practically powerless.

...Or at least he’d be pretty weakened – for
as long as his wretched soul remained separated from his
body.

The Guardians began their speech; everyone
attending the dance fell silent as they watched the five adults
climbing the stairs to the altars.

“
Welcome, everyone, to his special
evening,” James spoke; his voice was magically amplified. Akilah or
one of the other Spirits had probably helped with that.

“
It is with great honour that we
stand before you all here tonight. And, to be honest, before we
arrived here, we didn’t even know that the Spirits had organised
this masquerade ball for us, so we were actually quite overwhelmed
by tonight’s turnout.” James let out a nervous chuckle as he
scratched his neck, and the audience laughed along with him to
reassure him a bit.

They were all old friends in some sort of way;
there was no reason for him to feel nervous or uncertain here
tonight.

“
Anyway,” James continued, “we’re
here for a reason, as you might already know. And we’re here
tonight to tell you that we’re going to do everything within our
might to keep Lunaria safe from harm.”

The audience applauded
encouragingly; of course they had full faith in these five humans
after all they’d done to save Lunaria twenty-five years ago. They’d
managed to defeat the Master once before; there was absolutely no
reason they wouldn’t be able to do it again this time.

“
Thank you,” James said, making a
small bow toward the audience, and noticed his friends did the
same. “But this time, it won’t be just us. We’ll be helped by five
very special teenagers – our children.”

This was the cue for the teenagers to join
their parents. The audience moved aside, making a straight path
toward the altars for the teenagers to walk on.

Anthony went first, shortly
followed by his sister, Marcus and Daisy. Luke stayed behind for a
few short moments to reassure Mari.

“
All you have to do is come after
me and walk up to your dad,” he said. “There’s nothing to it,
really.”

And that was exactly as she did. After Luke
had left, winking at her as he rounded the corner, ready to greet
the applauding audience, Mari slightly lifted up her skirt and
walked the same path as Luke had.

While everyone had been applauding as the five
new Guardians walked the path, they fell silent as soon as they
laid eyes on Mari.

Everyone was caught by surprise by the
unexpected yet pretty girl, who nervously walked past them. And, of
course, her father hadn’t missed out on the sudden silence
downstairs.

Antonio blinked slowly as the girl
walked, only stopping in front of the altar he was standing on.
“...Mari?” he uttered silently, fiercely hoping that this girl was
indeed his daughter.

“
...Dad,” the girl smiled, as she
ran up the stairs and threw herself into her father’s
arms.

“
Everyone,” Antonio said, as he
kept his daughter close to his chest. “I’d like you all to meet my
beautiful daughter Mari.”

The audience applauded and roared
with support. Everyone knew that Mari was something special,
something different; even though no one was sure why. The girl had
a special aura, one of the kinds that a non-magical being couldn’t
possibly possess. On the outside, she seemed human, but something
on her inside declared that she wasn’t just that.

“
Four years ago,” Antonio
continued, “Mari was taken from us by the Master; apparently, he
needs her to complete his dirty plans for him. But we’re not going
to let him, now are we, Mari?”

Mari smiled at her father. “Of course not!”
she shouted. “Whatever he’s up to, we’re going to stop him right in
his tracks!”

The audience roared with pride. The Lunariae
had so much faith in the Guardians; it was absolutely incredible –
incredible enough to stun Mari for a few moments as she watched all
the magical beings, from dwarves to giants and fairies, cheer her
on. There was absolutely no way that these people were the bad
guys, as the Master put it. He had it all wrong. This was the side
to fight for, and no other.

“
Well, that concludes it then!”
Thomas shouted. “People of Lunaria; tonight, we celebrate the
beginning of a new era! The era we hoped we could’ve started
twenty-five-years ago, but will now officially begin! And it begins
by taking down the Master once and for all!

“
Who’s with us?”

Once again, the audience responded with
roaring cheers of encouragement and excitement. They were ready to
go back to war if they had to. Help the Guardians once more, to get
rid of that pesky demon the Master was once and for all.

Soon, it’d all be over.

As the night went on, more and
more people came to see and talk to the Guardians, hoping to hear
what the plans were. Luckily for Mari, who was uncomfortable with
talking to such massive groups of people, Luke stayed at her side
all night, doing most of the talking for her.

That was, until the Lunariae screamed for the
two of them to dance.

“
Well, we can’t leave our guests
un-entertained, right?” Luke said, as he gently took one of Mari’s
hands. “I bet you’ll do great, come on.”

“
Luke, no!” Mari protested. “I’ve
never danced before. We’ll both look like idiots.”

“
Just trust me,” Luke said,
drawing Mari closer as they stepped on to the now cleared dance
floor. “I had to learn how to dance for uncle Finn’s wedding. I’ll
lead.”

In the beginning, Mari was tense and nervous,
but as she followed Luke’s every move, she slowly started to loosen
up, yet didn’t get too comfortable, as she wanted to avoid stepping
on her best friend’s feet at all costs.