Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) Read Free Page B

of the Dark Realms, alongside other guerrilla Guardian colonies around the world. But here,
home,
was supposed to be safe. It was.
It was.
It really, really
was
.
    An uneasiness crept through Sarah as her brother turned away to continue listening. Her parents weren’t just regular Guardians of the Light—they were Neterus, the highest level of warrior, chosen as the leaders by all other Guardians. And their children’s destiny training was supposed to begin at the Academy, the secret, exclusive school set up to train the best warriors of the Light. How could the place that housed kids from all the Guardian teams all over the world not be safe?
    But from her parents’ argument, it was clear that trouble was brewing at the Academy. Bodies. They had mentioned bodies. If that was true, then maybe she and Al weren’t going to get the chance to learn slowly or to get a little older before taking on the Dark Realm, or even get to meet other Guardian kids their own age. Maybe it meant they would get thrown right into combat or something equally bad. All her life she’d dreamt of just having a chance to be normal, not to have to live in hiding… maybe be around other people besides her relatives. Now it seemed like maybe none of that would happen.
    That sucked.
    Sarah glanced at her brother. Al would jump at a chance to carry weapons and blast demons. She could feel the excitement coursing through him, and it made her sad. Even if they didn’t like each other very much, she still loved him and didn’t want to see him dead. Resigned, Sarah closed her eyes again and touched the wall.
    “Okay,” her father was saying when she tuned back into her parents’ conversation. “We do a sweep tonight, then. My main concern is that the Morrigan could be involved. If that’s true, we’re screwed.”
    “If we’ve gone up against the Unnamed One and the entire Vampire Council,” her mother argued, “then I’m not afraid of the Morrigan.”
    Sarah gasped, and Al cut her a sharp look to be quiet. But didn’t he get it? The legends they’d always heard about, the history they had been taught over and over, was coming to life!
    The Morrigan might be involved in this…fallen Guardians who used their talents for the dark side. They were as bad as Vampires, as far as she was concerned. From everything she’d ever been told, the Morrigan would do anything for favors, extra human comforts, and for power to lord it over people who were stuck in controlled colonies. Sarah jerked her attention back to her parents, both hearing them and seeing them in her mind’s eye. Now she really had to know what was going on.
    “I never said anything about fearing the Morrigan,” her father snarled, his fangs cresting in anger. “I said we’re screwed because they know our ways, knew our defenses before they fell…know about the Academy. They can hurt our children, Damali.”
    Her father paced away from the munitions tables and raked his fingers through his hair. “Now kids are missing, Guardians are being picked off one-by-one. If we don’t find this bastard now or find out who’s actually doing his dirty work and how…”
    History and legend were coming to life right before her eyes as their parents prepared for a night raid. Al and Sarah glanced at each other again, knowing that their dad was now talking about Zaphon, although nobody used that name for him anymore. All Guardians knew that Zaphon was still a threat, but they were always told he wouldn’t surface until they were at least twenty-one years old. Her parents had breeched Hell to drive him back where he belonged and had badly injured him, which was what kicked off the Armageddon early when his dad found out.
    But what if the Dark Realm had discovered a way to heal him early? What if, because her parents had forced the Armageddon early, this was the real time when it had been meant to happen—well before she and Al were ready to deal with their so-called destiny to fight in