The Dreamer And The Deceiver (Book 1) Read Free

shuffling it between the three of them as she treaded backwards.
    “Move any closer a-and I’ll kill you!”
    The bandits exchanged glances as they laughed, creeping closer still.
    “Yeah right , lady. Now give us the goods and we’ll be on our way.”
    From the cover of the foliage , Emil drew his dagger from his right side and slowly placed his hood back on top of his head. Soon after, the dagger began to faintly glow light-blue. Crackling sparks danced along the blade as the ignited metal dully hummed.
    A flash of lightning. A thunderous roar. Their bodies fell with the thunderclap. Emil stood between the three of them, his dagger bloody, his face unmoved.
    “Are you okay?” he calmly asked as the blood dripped from his blade and pooled together on the forest floor. Serenity’s mother gazed upon the corpses before Emil’s feet in disbelief as the ground turned crimson, drunk off the blood of her fallen attackers.
    Her pale face became even paler as she slowly nodded her head, still in shock from what she had just witnessed.
    “Good,” he said as he tucked his dagger away and began to move back into the cover of the forest.
    “Hey , wait! Where are you going? It’s raining outside!”
    He turned around and looked at her. His pure eyes pierced her soul. No longer was she afraid nor was she shocked; only concerned. What she saw in front of her was no killer but a young man who was tired, hungry, and out in the elements. 
    “Oh my God.  You’re not much older than my daughter.  Please stay with us; at least for tonight. You look tired. It’s the least I can do to thank you.”
    Taken aback by her kind gesture, an unfamiliar emotion ran across his face. An expression that he had long since forgotten; a smile. He had been with them ever since.
    Emil’s stream of thought was severed, returning him to the waking world, carried back from Taeo’s words.
    “Mo m, if Emil is such a good person, then why do they call him a monster?”
    The words cut deep into him. After the initial pain, Emil’s breath escaped from his contracted lungs. The sigh was brief and sharp but strong enough for everyone to momentarily feel his pain. In his younger days, Emil had asked himself that very same question. He looked like everyone else. He bled like everyone else. Aside from his abilities, there was no distinction that he was unlike anyone else. Still they labeled him.
    “Taeo!” Serenity shouted angrily from across the table. Her scorn flushed across all of her face. The question was an innocent one, asked only from a young boy with little understanding. At his age, he was naïve of the cruelties that often fell upon the inhabitants of this world.
    The room fell silent as all eyes shifted to Emil. His gaze never met theirs. Instead, his eyes drifted downward, hovering over his plate.
    “Sometimes people fear what they don’t understand. Emil is no monster… he’s family.” Taeo and Serenity’s mother broke the silence that hovered over the table, parting the fog that separated the four of them. The frown that had emerged on Emil’s face inverted slightly.
    Family.
    For a moment, he was happy.  But it was only that; a moment. The smile he found across his face slowly reverted back to its depressing demeanor as memories of old came to surface. The love of his father, the quiet strength of his mother. The memories came like flashes of white lightning, uncaring as to which point it struck. The good, the bad, it remained unbiased as it struck, leaving him emotionally drained. And while it was beautiful it pained him to know that it had been so long he could no longer remember their voices.
    Brother, where are you?
    “So is Beth coming over?” Serenity interjected, noticing the drawn expression on Emil’s face.
    There were two seats empty at a table for six. The one at the head of the table was for the late husband of Grace. The other alongside Taeo was reserved for Elizabeth, one of Grace’s girlfriends.
    Serenity’s