Hide and Seek: The Final Chapter Part One

By Carmen Fox

Feeling undervalued in her new role as Royal Champion of Elonia, Lea leaves her magical surroundings and accepts her former professor’s invitation to rejoin the world of science. However, it doesn’t take her long to suspect that not all is sparkles and rainbows at the Think Tank he runs.

With her former protégé gone, light warrior Nieve must come out of retirement. Luckily, she hasn’t lost her magic touch. But when she catches up with Lea, an old enemy is already waiting to spring a trap.

*All great adventures must come to an end, and Hide and Seek is part one of the final chapter.*

• Language: English
• Publisher: Smart Heart Publishing
• Release date: Feb 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781911573111

Carmen Fox

USA Today Bestselling Author Carmen Fox lives in the south of England with her beloved tea maker and a stuffed sheep called Fergus. She writes about smart women with sassitude and will chase that plot twist, no matter how elusive.Expect to be kept guessing.

Book preview

One

Holding a sword doesn’t make me a warrior any more than standing in the snow makes me a snowman.

Lea

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Fifteen feet up from the ground, the urge for freedom from my hated duty blazed the brightest. I satisfied an itch on my arm and winced. The Valley of Devron, where I’d received my first combat lesson a mere six months ago, had struck me as a fitting place to bond and train with the men and women under my command.

Fat chance.

Its sweeping landscape still stole my breath, and its tall trees were perfect for what I’d planned, but confronted by the lackluster bunch of warriors, even the pink and yellow flowers beneath me lost their sparkle.

Stopwatch before my eyes, I bunched my mouth. Go on, guys. Put your backs into it.

Fifteen bodies soared through the air, staggered at twenty second intervals. One by one, they followed the path I’d laid out. Procedurally, I couldn’t fault them.

Move, move, move. I clapped encouragement.

If I’d asked them to leisurely slalom down a piste, I’d have patted their backs and handed out well-dones like candy, but ‘leisurely’ hadn’t been the word I’d used. My brief had been more than clear. They were to charge across the course like Satan was after them.

Or whatever their equivalent of Satan was.

One by one, they filed back into their places, forming a neat line of black leather uniforms. Not a hair out of place. Not a sweat pearl on their brows.

I shook my head repeatedly and gave a suffering sigh. Is this the fastest you can go?

Stoic faces.

To keep my cool, I tightened my hands into fists. Listen. Upright flying has served you for years. Good. My voice was firm and authoritative.

Centuries, a deep voice said.

I shot Justeron a warning glare. His cherubic hair had never fooled me. "Fine. For centuries. But the wind lets you do so much more. You’ve seen me fizz, right?"

Justeron raised his eyebrows and pressed his lips together.

Whatever.

I’d invented this particular brand of flying, so I got to name it. And fizz perfectly summed up the way my insides felt when I bulleted through the sky. Now, before you worry about breaking Elonian law, I’m not asking you to misuse the wind. When I fizz, I’m using the same spells, the same technique, that you use in your daily routines.

Their faces remained static.

Chrissakes. Okay, I’ll show you one more time.

After six months of living and breathing magic among my fellow Elonians, my flying spell—which had initially begun as individual words spoken out loud—now required only a mental picture. Once I had a firm image in mind of what I wanted to achieve, my power well, this undefinable spot in my body that held my magic, flexed.

For one brief second, my senses withdrew. Only I existed in this universe.

Then the universe came crashing into me. All colors, flavors, and scents in existence filled every fiber of me with almost painful clarity. Invisible feelers reached out, tasted the wind, soaked in the warmth, and finally hooked into the atmosphere.

Molecule by molecule, the wind formed a near-solid block around my ankles.

Turning the atmosphere into a structure as hard as iron never got old.

Despite its apparent sturdiness, the block of air remained feather-light. Relying on its grip, I commanded it to fly me toward the crown of a tall pine tree.

See this? I raised a hand to get the warriors’ attention. At this point, I’m still upright, pressing my shoulders against the wind. It does the job, but it’s not fast.

It would not have been possible for me to fly any slower. If Justeron and his merry bunch of haters watched carefully, they’d learn how to fizz like a pro.

Look at this, I shouted.

Before my head could smack into a branch, I flipped around to let my boots strike the gnarly trunk instead. As soon as my body’s orientation was practically horizontal, my thigh muscles contracted, and I pushed myself into a new direction.

Let’s put some attitude into it. I beckoned with my fingers. Join me if you want.

The second part of my routine had a lot more speed to it. The wind whooshed in my ears and blew the hair from my face as I shot toward a second tree. Another flip, and I was on my way back, zigzagging between the Torren Mountains and the Elonian castle like the love child of Spiderman and Superwoman.

My ponytail bobbed against my shoulders, my pulse skittered in my veins. The warriors, meanwhile, stood scattered across the ground, barely lifting their heads enough to watch. How could they not be impressed? My method beat theirs not only for reasons of style, but it was also miles faster than the traditional way of gracefully gliding through the air as if they were puppets with sticks up their asses.

Yet not one of them seemed eager to follow my lead.

In all fairness, every man and woman here was a better warrior than me, but it was me who King Tristan had declared his new Royal Champion. Me! And I’d earned the title, even if the faces watching my efforts couldn’t recall the events that had led to my promotion.

Six months ago, Elonia had ceased to exist, and its people had fallen under the thrall of a type of magic that had messed with their memories. Suddenly, warriors thought they were merchants; delivery men and women had become kindergarten teachers. And amid that chaos, somehow, I’d become a hero. Together with King Tristan, his sister Nieve and her boyfriend Kieran, a gargoyle named Kirk, and Markus, a man of unknown agenda, I’d undone the magic. Broken the spell. Returned the realm to its former glory.

I put on the brakes and slid to a stop before the line of warriors. Riding the air during battle gives you a height advantage, but this is about thinking bigger. Be daring. The wind allows you flexibility. Fly vertically, horizontally or, for all I care, obliquely.

Zachariah’s not-so-subtle cough drew my attention. Even the breaths this bear of a warrior took bugged me.

Did you have something to add? My pleasant tone held an edge.

The long Harry-Potter-type scar on his forehead took cover among a multitude of frown lines. No. Not at all.

I put on the fake smile that, like my leather pants and jacket, had become part of my uniform. I’m going to teach you to fizz, if it’s the last thing I do.

One can hope. His head tilted in my direction.

Byron chuckled.

Me, a hero. I grimaced. Not to them.

Never mind the fact that I’d been ripped from obscurity and forced into this life against my will, only to rise to the challenge. None of that hero-stuff mattered, because to Byron, I didn’t matter. To Zachariah, I didn’t matter. Sometimes it mattered so little, I doubted it ever happened.

My heart recoiled inside my chest, but my smile didn’t drop. For now, let’s call it a day.

Zachariah was the first to wheel around and stalk off. Justeron and Byron followed at his heels. Good doggies. One by one, the remaining men and women wandered off, too.

Why did every day have to end this way? With them annoyed and me down in the dumps. Just once it would be nice to laugh with them, to gain even a grain of acceptance.

The excited cry of a child spilled into the Valley. Perhaps an offering by the wind to say I wasn’t alone. Yet the sound was too insubstantial to fill the hollow in my chest. I closed my eyes. What the hell was I doing here?

Once the last of the warriors had disappeared from view, I picked up my water bottle and headed toward the castle myself. Its impressive towers and its three outbuildings lay deserted, bathed in the sun’s bright yellow glow. It was technically still morning, but my body was leaden as if after