Excessum itineris, Roxas Winchester [books for 7th graders TXT] 📗

right,” Phantom commented as he helped Kitzel to his feet and supported him. “go home and we’ll take care of this. Don’t argue with me or I’ll chain you to a tree.”
Kitzel took a few deep breaths then relaxed. “I’m not going to leave you two alone against him, but I’ll stay out here for you two.”
Phantom eased Kitzel down to the ground, then he and Toni disappeared inside.

Those boys! Anna was in the kitchen preparing a spell to lash Justin to his mind’s prison and John to Justin’s physical body. I can’t stand either of those two. Who’s coming now? The wards I set up should prevent unwelcome guests from coming, but it appears I need to renew it again. Anna left the kitchen to see who came in then froze. “I thought you would be gone by now. I guess that’s one more thing I need to do myself.”
Phantom and Toni came to a halt when they saw Anna. Getting into a low battle stance, Phantom asked her, “What have you done to Justin Anna?”
“You idiot, I haven’t done anything to him, yet. I haven’t been able to do anything for a while, but I have been able to brew up a lovely pot of lashing lure for him.”
A look of pure, unfiltered hatred flashed into Phantom’s eyes; causing them to turn blood red. “You can’t do that to him. It would kill him after he went insane.”
Anna let out a laugh. “Hah, you act as if I care for my son. How stupidly naïve of you.”
Toni looked up from looking at the floor by Anna’s feet; “You didn’t always hate him, did you?” her eyes were sad with the thought.
“The only thing that kept me from killing him in infancy was John. He held me back from Justin multiple times. I never liked him in the least.” Anna’s hand flashed through the air making a green and black trail where her hand passed through. The green and black twisted together then grew into a large twisting orb sitting in her hand, the colors moving all the time. ”I rather hope you have more than that you two; my powers are far greater now. I’ve been around for the past thousand years, while you’ve been in hibernation for most of those. My powers kept growing and you still have the same old tricks.”
“You may have been around here longer, but we’ve been gone even longer in the barracks back home.” With a flick of Phantom’s hand, a burst of black flame came out to his palm. “I believe we are evenly matched Anna. You see, Toni and Kitzel both trained with me in the barracks.”
Toni’s hand flashed forward and purple and black smoke prang from Toni’s hand to hover around her. “Kitzel, stay back! You can’t handle this now in your condition. Stay back.”
“What are you doing Kitzel? Don’t ignore us now, please.”
“I’m not ignoring you. I’m blocking you out now.”
“Kitzel! Kitzel!!”
Kitzel came through the door, his power whipping around him so fast it looked like a snowstorm raging around him. “Tell us where Justin is now before we use your lashing lure against you.”
“You can barely stand up and you expect me to be intimidated by you? Please, don’t make me laugh.” Anna snapped at Kitzel who looked like a destroying angel come to earth.
“There’s more to my power than this.” Kitzel closed his eyes and his powers lashed out at Anna, hitting her full in the chest; her power flared out around her to shield her fall. “Are you going to tell us where he is?” Kitzel’s power pinned Anna to the floor, then he looked at Phantom and Toni. “Phantom, Toni, go get her lure. Het’s see if she’ll talk after that.” Phantom and Toni stood there watching Kitzel fro a few moments. “Go, now!”
“I haven’t done anything to him. If you want to see him, he’s in the basement.” Anna nodded to the dark wooded door to her right. “But please, don’t lash me down, anything but that will work, but don’t use the lashing lure on me.” Anna’s pleas started sounding pathetic the more she tried, but they didn’t affect Kitzel.
“You would use it on Justin, yet you yourself are terrified of it. Does that mean it worked even after Spencer died and with him some of your powers, you still believe that this lure can hold you? That’s very interesting to know.”
Phantom and Toni ran to the door and pulled it open, revealing a very tired Justin. “It’s Justin; what happened?” Phantom helped Justin sit down on the step to catch his breath. Kitzel looked at Justin, then collapsed on the floor, his powers withdrawing into his body in a flash, releasing Anna from the floor.
Kitzel looked up fro the floor where he lay towards Justin. “I can’t have you doing my work for me Kitzel, sorry.” Phantom told Kitzel calmly. He moved over to look down upon Anna who was struggling to stand up. “I’m sorry Anna, but I can’t allow you to live any longer. If Kitzel relieves you of your time here he would break a sacred law that we abide by.” Phantom placed his foot on Anna’s chest, forcing her back down to the floor. “I am the messenger of death, therefore I and only capable of controlling and manipulating death. Toni is the messenger of life, so she can control the lives of others and make life. Kitzel is here for control and the messenger for battle, which means he can help battles for good or bad, but he can’t destroy anyone.” Phantom bent closer to Anna’s face. “I can make your death as pleasant or as painful as I want it to be. Now, are you going to cooperate with us, or do you need a little more persuasion?”
“I’m sure I can help you with anything you need, just tell me what you want.” Panic was swimming in Anna’s voice as she lay there, shaking.
Phantom glanced over to the others before looking back to Anna. “What we want is to know what you and John are planning to do to Justin after he regained control of his body.”
“I don’t really know, to be honest with you, but I do know that John was very interested in my spell book once he discovered what had happened to it twenty three years ago. He had a glint in his eye that only appears when he has an idea to do something wicked. I wrote it off as an insane man’s delusions, didn’t even occur to me that he would be plotting something against me.”
Kitzel fought to his feet, caught when he stumbled by Toni. “Where’s the book now Anna?” he looked like he was on the verge of collapsing again into Toni’s arms.
“It’s in the basement.” Everyone’s head snapped to Justin when he spoke. Justin looked up at them from the floor. “It was racing through her mind so strongly I was almost carried away with it, like it was a powerful river pulling me under the surface into it’s black depths.”
Phantom’s and Toni’s eyes connected with Kitzel’s, fear and curiosity swimming in them. “Did you know he could do that?” Phantom’s voice was accusing when he asked Kitzel. Toni shook her head then looked at the floor when Kitzel confirmed his knowledge of Justin’s extra ability to read people’s minds.
The shame coming from Kitzel was almost choking the air from the room. “I didn’t tell you guys about that because I know you would have wanted to slaughter him once you found out. Nevertheless, you’ve seen how Justin’s not like the old legend said he would be. He may not be completely clean, but he sure isn’t a murderer. You can’t condemn the innocent because of what they might become.”
“But when you withheld this information you lied to us basically. You know what he’ll become if we allow him to live, you lost your loved ones last time this happened. How can you allow a murderer to roam free for all eternity?” Toni let out a deep sigh, then continued. “Their souls are still wandering through the underworld, unable to rest until this person dies to allow them to cross over to the other side to be at peace.”
Phantom looked from to Toni, them back to Justin. “I’m very sorry Justin, but unfortunately Kitzel is right about this. However he cannot destroy you.” Phantom’s head fell, and then he raised it to look Justin in the eye. “I must destroy you myself. Again, I’m terribly sorry about this, good- bye Justin.” Black flames sprang to life in Phantom’s palm then leapt at Justin who was still resting on the stairs watching with horror.
“Don’t just sit there on your ass, block him!” John’s voice screamed in Justin’s mind. The black flames were almost on top of him when a crimson shield exploded from him. The two powers met with a loud crash that sounded like and explosion went off in the hallway. The force of it caused both Justin and Phantom to stumble backwards, however Justin had nowhere to go but back down the stairs into the basement.
Falling down the stairs hurt worse than it always looked when you saw it on television or watched someone else fall, but it wasn’t too much pain that Justin couldn’t handle it. He hit the landing with a thud then sat up, dizzy.
The book of Anna’s spells was on a small table in the corner of the room; Justin noticed for the first time that the book itself was calling to him. The call was soft and gentle, like a woman’s loving embrace.
“What in the world?” the book’s pull was tugging at Justin to come closer to it, to open the cover and reveal it’s secrets and use them. “What is this?” the cover had writing on it, which took Justin a little while to figure out. He reached out towards it slowly, as if it might bite him if he moved too fast.
“Don’t touch it!” Phantom came running down the stairs as quickly as he possibly could manage.
“Why should I trust you? You tried to kill me not even three minutes ago and now you want me to listen to you?” Justin’s anger was so strong that his power started to create blue and black fire behind him that whipped about around him. Instead of the flames radiating unbearable heat, they sucked the heat out of the room and replaced it with icy cold winds that bit at any exposed skin and tore right through the heaviest of coats.
Once again black flames came flying at Justin. Without thinking Justin grabbed the spell book and held it up like a shield to block most of the flames. The flames hit the book then got thrown back at Phantom who had to flatten himself on the floor to avoid being hit with it.
“No!” Phantom yelled when he saw what Justin held in his hands. “I told you not to touch it!” Phantom kept yelling at Justin but he didn’t hear any of it.
The sudden flow of power that flooded through Justin was almost overwhelming for him. The power flowing from the book felt familiar but at the same time it was something foreign to him. Startled, Justin dropped the book back onto the table, but the power still swam within him like the undercurrent of the ocean after a heavy storm. ”What happened just now?” he asked Phantom with terror and panic bare in his eyes.
“You touched the spell book after I told you not to, you idiot.” Phantom told him when he stood back up again.
“No, really?” Justin said sarcastically. “I thought I blocked with a brick.