Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) Read Free Page A

used to hearing about their “destiny” and the war they would inherit as their parents’ children.
    It was common compound knowledge that, sixteen years ago, just before she and Al had been born, the world as everyone knew it had come to an end. To hear their parents tell it, everything had changed big time. It was hard to imagine a world different from the one they now lived in, but within all their lessons and as a regular part of the conversations around the compound, everybody referred to the secret war that had gone on for centuries between The Light and the Dark Realms. Then all of a sudden the battle had come to a head because their parents chased the darkness into the depths of hell, and the Armageddon—the last battle—hit the streets, where normal humans finally saw what had gone unseen for eons. Governments fell, economies crashed…. She could feel Al’s question forming in his head just like it was forming in hers—was it happening all over again, but this time earlier than the prophecies foretold?
    Back then, pockets of humanity had eventually returned. But if another huge war like that broke out, what would people do? Food was already scarce, disease was rampant, people fought like animals for clean water and anything that would make life bearable. Her family said that living in the world as it was now was like living in a nightmare. For months now, leading up to her planned departure for the Academy, she’d been having horrible nightmares…the kind her mother and Nana said would pass, but their eyes told her differently. They knew something was wrong, too.
    Just like she’d always been able to feel things a little deeper than the others could, right now the hairs were standing up on her arms. What if their destiny was here now? What if evil wasn’t going to wait until they were twenty-one? That was what nobody else in the compound seemed to get. Sarah covered her heart with one palm and squeezed her eyes shut tighter. Her heart felt like it was slamming a path out of her chest. This whole destiny concept wasn’t going to be fun—it would be bloody and terrifying, as far as she could tell. Besides, what if the evil that missed them the first time was now on a rampage, snatching kids from school in search of the Neteru compound brood? They were
so
not ready to go to war, to be any kind of heroes, much less to save the world.
    But then again, what was she going to do, stay home alone while her parents were off fighting demons and the other kids were at school? At least at the Academy there’d be safety in numbers. Sarah said a silent prayer. Please, please, God, don’t let the Armageddon be happening again.
    Most of the survivors of the Armageddon lived in colonies established by the new world leader, who her parents said was an agent of the Antichrist. It was forbidden to mention his name, because according to Nana Marlene, words and names had power, especially when spoken by those with supernatural strength. Regardless, those colonies were strictly governed and fiercely protected. But not everyone chose to live there. Not everyone trusted that new leadership. Her parents clearly didn’t.
    But what could be going on outside their little oasis, if her parents and aunts and uncles had driven evil back to the Dark Realms years ago? Where had the students and staff gone missing from—in the little-town colonies around the compound? At the Academy itself? It was all too bizarre.
    It didn’t seem likely they could be attacked here. Sarah repeated the facts to calm herself now, the same way she would when she had bad dreams. She had to relax; she was just freaking herself out.
    Her dad had used his powers to relocate them to the Greenbrier Hotel deep in the Appalachian Mountains. It was well-hidden and inaccessible except by air or by energy transport. All the roads leading to it had been destroyed in the war. It was from here that all the adults in the family continued to fight against any remnants