Axel Light Trilogy: Wands and Shield

Prologue

Natasha Wyndham and Edward Light stood back-to-back.

Each holding a wand that they had not held for the past sixteen years. And for the last time.

'Nat, don't care about me...' muttered Edward, 'I will create an opening and you just get out of here. He will be home soon! We cannot let them meet! One of us must stop him!'

'It's too late, Ed... too late...' said Natasha, shaking her head sadly.

'It's not! We must not give up! Not after everything!'

'I broke the charm,' said Natasha softly.

'You... what?!' muttered Edward in disbelief.

'He will be alright. I know he will,' said Natasha confidently, 'We had raised him well, Ed. Both of us did.'

'But there's two years... less than two years! After sixteen years! We must resist...'

Silence fell as they watched a shadow walked through the front doors and towards them. Natasha's heart clenched tightly, she could not breathe. All those years. Sixteen years seemed like a long time and yet, it went by in a flash.

The shadow stood in front of them like it did sixteen years ago. It felt just like yesterday.

'Edward. It's time,' whispered Natasha, 'This is all we can do.'

Edward looked grim. And resigned. He too, knew that was the end.

'Really?' sneered a deep and menacing voice, drawlingly, 'Is that all you can do?'

'You will not get what you want, Cyrus,' said Natasha bitterly, 'You will not!'

'Just because you thought you had trained him well?' seethed Cyrus, 'He will not be thankful after he knows what you had done to him. Well, at least, I am not!'

Without any warning, Cyrus slashed his wand at Edward ruthlessly until he fell to the ground, unconscious. Their wands would not work, not after sixteen years in dormant. At least not immediately.

'Edward!' cried Natasha.

She dropped to her knees next to Edward. She stared at Edward's lifeless face in disbelief. Even though she knew there was nothing else she could do, she still could not accept that their plan – their extensive and meticulous planning had finally failed.

'Where is he?!' snarled Cyrus.

Natasha did not reply. The only thing left for her to do now – or the only thing she could do now, was not to let Cyrus into the plan. Her final act to protect her son.

Everything that she had done and did not do, was for her son. However absurd or incredulous it might seem – was necessary, to keep her son safe. Nothing else mattered in the world, whichever world they were in, except the life of her son. Not only was she protecting her son or Edward or herself. She was protecting the Magical community and Non-Magical community, in the world that they were living in – and beyond.

But nobody knew. Nobody knew they existed. It was all part of the plan – to cease to exist. Because nobody would look for something that they did not know exist.

It had now failed.

It would, eventually. Natasha and Edward had never thought that their plan would work in the first place. But it did work, for sixteen years. Every year was a blessing. Every year, the goal became easier to reach, their dream easier to achieve.

They had been anticipating something like this every day, but when things had worked out for so long, the plans were relaxed, minds tend to take a backseat. Complacent. They should not have slacked. They should always be on high alert.

But it was difficult to do so for sixteen years. Every day.

They were only human.

I'm sorry, Axel, whispered Natasha in her heart.

She looked into Cyrus' eyes defiantly.

'Over my dead body, Cyrus,' seethed Natasha firmly.

She lunged at Cyrus but before she could even reach him, Cyrus had casted a spell at her with a flick of his wand. She crashed to the floor, next to Edward.

Her last attempt to protect her son.

Her son – Axel Light.