The Legend of the Eight: The Twisted (Book 3)

Prologue: That Night Sixteen Years Ago

PROLOGUE: THAT NIGHT SIXTEEN YEARS AGO

HE ARRIVED WITH A VENGEANCE.

Walter Diamond, recently coronated King, saw him through the window. He watched with alert eyes as he shot curses at men standing guard outside, meant to protect everyone inside the palace. They fell the instant they were struck with the curse, never putting up much of a fight.

Walter stumbled backwards from the window and started down the hall, his pace quickening with each step. He broke into a full sprint and when he arrived in the living room, he saw his wife there with some of their closest friends.

"He's here," Walter said, holding onto the door frame while he caught his breath. "Bartemius is here."

Immediately, Clarion turned to Esteban (the only guard in the room) and grabbed at her chest when she gasped. "The children. Get the children. Bring them in here."

Esteban slipped out to do as he was told and by the window, Amelia Rogers peered out the window to the front lawn. Bartemius Thawne had cleared away all of the guards out front and was making his way to the palace doors.

"The older children are with the nanny at the playground," Marcia Bradley said, holding onto her husband's arm fearfully.

"Call her," Walter instructed. "Tell her to keep the four kids away from the palace. She is not to let them out of her sight."

Across the room, Cory Heart turned to her husband, Luca. "What do we do? What if he's here for Luke?"

Luca Jr was their oldest son and though he was only eight years old, he'd already begun to show the promise of Alchemy. It was only a matter of time before the snake would appear on his arm and when it did, his full power would begin manifesting.

"He's not," said Jessica Miller, certain. She straightened her light blonde locks in an attempt to ease her nerves though it did little. "He's here for me. He knows I've been keeping our son away and now he's come for us."

Walter turned to Lyla Hayes, a small woman whom he only met after a good friend of his knocked her up two years ago. Now, she was a regular in their circle—ironic, considering it was nearly impossible to get ahold of the father lately.

"Do you know where Al is?" Walter asked of the father. "Can we get him here quickly?"

She shook her head. "He's running with the other Hunters in the Mortal World. He'd never make it back in time."

"Eva," Clarion said to one of her oldest friends—an Alchemist who'd grown to view her gift as a curse. In her adult years, Eva had begun to isolate herself. Walter and the others often went weeks at a time without speaking to her and she probably wouldn't have been with them had they not received threats from Bartemius earlier. She was there for a fight. Not the company.

"I can hold him off," Eva assured them without needed instructions from anyone. "Tell the Council we will have Bartemius restrained and ready for Banishment."

Esteban returned to the room, bringing with him eight toddlers from across the room. There was a loud crash outside and Walter knew Bartemius was inside the palace. He looked at his friends—each of whom Bartemius had declared enemies—and then at the children. His own daughters were among them and their wide eyes sparkled with bright innocence. Wilmarie and Katarina, he would do anything to protect them—no matter the consequences.

"We could do it," said Marcel Rogers as he fidgeted with the buttons on his shirt cuff. He spoke of the wildly unpredictable plan he and Michael Bradley cooked up years ago, when Bartemius first showed how deranged and power-hungry he was.