Fearless Magic Read Free Page A

electricity igniting in my blood.
    The path was well worn, and difficult to walk. The ancient stones were slippery in the relentless rain and the air thin with the altitude. But I was moved by the beauty of the Andes.
    I had never seen a place so vividly and distinctly green. The deep tones of the trees blanketed the distant mountain sides in dark, flowing monochromatic colors that stood drastically against the stone of the towering mountains. And the lighter, softer greens of the mountain grass stood out starkly in the landscape as if the two greens were not the same color at all. God's brush strokes painted these mountains and valleys with the blessedness of variety, and I could feel my soul swell in awe of the creation surrounding me.
    The sky had never felt so vast from this vantage point, even under the thick canopy that housed the trail I walked. The rivers and streams tumbled down the mountain side in blue ribbons of moving water, weaving in and out of the thick forests. The raw beauty of such an organic environment reminded me that I was only a small piece to the elegant and divine puzzle that was this life. As small as I was in the middle of this magnanimous mountainside, so was my life in the scope of eternity. Yet, somehow, I found that comforting.
    I walked for hours, deep into the wilderness that paved the way to a once sacred escape for kings of old. Not long ago, I would have been terrified to take this journey alone. But now, there was no fear, and no anxiety, just purpose.
    I was beyond childish fears of the dark or being alone. I had reached beyond the naive immaturity that keeps one afraid of the unknown. When my grandfather died, something broke inside of me. When they took my brother, the innocent part of my soul was murdered. When I watched my friends, my loved ones, even innocent people I didn't know, be loaded into armored cars as prisoners, all of my fears stood before me. And when my heart was ripped in two by the cruelty of betrayal, I gave up on emotions and feelings all together.
    Alone on the trail, I tried to stay focused on revenge, on those loved ones I would vindicate, but my thoughts wondered unforgivably. I thought of him, that name I would not let myself speak aloud or even think. I thought of the man that had made me so blissfully happy and then betrayed those that I loved in the name of a selfish conquest.
    The tears fell from my eyes, hot with the stabbing pain of the memory of his betrayal. He took everything from me, everything, and then left me a shattered, and broken ghost of myself.
    I stopped to catch my breath at the top of a slippery, steep, stone stairway and grasped at the necklace I kept tucked underneath my rain jacket. The large, emerald stone of the engagement ring dug into my chest, a painful reminder of its existence, but one that I had come to treasure. As long as that ring stabbed at the place where my heart used to beat with desire for its giver, I would always be reminded of what he had done.
    Now, alone on this trail, this journey to redemption, I would find others that were wronged by him and his bloodline. I would rebuild the army of the rebellion and we would fight against him and what he stood for. And we would not stop until there was nothing left of the Kendrick bloodline, until every last one of them was dead and buried, and until this people felt their blood thicken with vindication and their magic pulse with true immortality.

    ----
     
    I was soaked to the bone when the ancient city for Incan kings appeared in the distance. The rain did not let up for even a moment, but even through the fog and haze of the downfall, the ruins, nestled against the steep cliffs, stood as a beacon for my weary legs. I hiked the trail for days, fighting against the mud, the slippery stone and the overwhelming fatigue.
    A few times, I set up the small pop-up tent that fit easily into my backpack and slipped into the exhausted, dreamless sleep of the well worn. I hadn't truly