Vitrian Secrets - Onslaught 1

Chapter 1

Late snow continued to fall on the cold Norwegian night in early March. Tranquility reigned in Celina's winter home. The house stood alone at the top of the mountain, a reasonable distance from the next inhabited house.

Voices woke Celina around three in the morning. She got up and walked out of her room.

Some distance away, at the end of the hallway, she could hear faint voices. No one should be here. She'd been told to leave the Vitrian fortress and self-isolate in the mountains while her husband was away. She tip-toed to the end of the hallway and placed her head against the door, careful not to make a sound. A familiar man's voice echoed inside the room, a voice she had known from childhood, someone she had trusted and confided in. Her mouth fell open as she heard the words being discussed. For years she'd been plagued by visions of children being captured or killed. It was one reason the Vitrians banished her.

It seemed those visions had just become real. What a traitor! What a traitor! Celina thought.

"Now is the time to do it," the traitor said.

"Are you sure, sir?" a woman's voice asked. It sounded like one of the daughters of Odd, but it was hard to tell in her exhausted state. Odd was a known sorcerer, and fear gripped Celina.

"There will be no going back," the woman continued. "She will be distraught when she wakes and can't find her son."

"Vent, you and your sisters said it's the only way to get what I want. I need to get rid of The Chosen." The traitor's voice tilted upward as if seeking affirmation. Vent? Shock went through Celina's body. Nothing good came out of Vent or her family. Celina needed to act fast.

"But you don't know who The Chosen child is," Vent said. "We can wait a few more years, can't we?"

"No!" he shouted. "I will get rid of all the children with similar traits now. Get it done. By the time Celina wakes up, I want it done—" His voice broke off.

Celina backed away from the door. Her heart palpitated faster than she thought possible. She understood what they were planning. She knew if she did not act fast, she would wake in the morning without her little boy next to her. She moved quickly to the room where Adrian was sleeping. She picked her son up and ran. Pandemonium took over Celina's existence as she hurried down a flight of steps in her pajamas, sweating profusely and panting with Adrian in her arms. The cold weather didn't keep her from sweating.

"What is it, Mama?"

Adrian, still half asleep, stared as Celina placed him down on the floor at the entrance to the house. She picked up her winter jacket by the door. She placed her Praying Méndez into the jacket and tried to open the door. Her hand shook as if she had an intense fever.

Fear crept over Adrian's face. "Why are we going out? We should go back," he said.

Celina ignored her son, knowing he couldn't understand what was about to befall him. She closed her eyes and murmured, "Help, God, help!" She opened her eyes and turned the doorknob again, but it didn't move.

"Oh, God!" She tried using her slim body to force it open.

Her son screamed. She spun around to see a woman had snatched him up.

"No! No!" Celina screeched like a wild animal and rushed toward the steps.

A man stepped in front of her, preventing her from reaching Adrian.

"Can't you see that even your prayers are not being answered?" the traitor scorned in the dark. His face and upper body were hidden by the shadows, but the dim lighting revealed he had on a pair of long, light brown trousers. "If they were, you would never have come. I had this planned long before now, and you cannot stop it."

"No, no," Celina said. "You are crazy, you're a traitor. I trusted you with all I had . . ." She hit him with her hands, but her fists had no impact on his broad chest. "I beg you, don't do this." The words gasped out amid uncontrollable tears.

"Yes, I am a traitor. You are lucky, Celina. I won't burn you along with Adrian."

Celina raised her head in horror. Before she could react, the traitor pushed her aside; she staggered backward and hit the wall.

"Adrian is only a little boy. He knows nothing of the Vitrian prophecy." Celina pleaded for her child's life.

"Celina, you'll have other children."

He looked back, his lips curving like he was going to smile. Celina could read between the smiles. She wondered how she could have missed this and loved, trusted the menacing face her whole life.

"I won't give the other parents this option. I will kill them before I have their children."

"You can't prove Adrian is The Chosen one, can you?" Celina said.

"Adrian has the traits of The Chosen in his blood, and that's enough for me. The Chosen and those with traits of The Chosen must die."

The venom in his voice shocked Celina. How had he become so cold? She had loved him as a teenager. He had always been her supporter and confidant. She could not believe this was happening.

She suddenly remembered Claudios, the former spiritual leader of the Vitrian fortress. He had warned her, but she hadn't believed this time would come. The traitor stepped into the room he'd come from.

"Don't do this!" Celina rushed behind him, and the instant she stepped into the room, her heart fluttered in desperation.

Adrian floated in mid-air, still dressed in his pajamas. A big circle was drawn on the floor beneath him, and in the center of the circle was a pentagon with several other symbols within it. A bluish light radiated from the circle to the roof of the room, the only light in the room.

"Sorcery." Celina's eyes widened in disbelief. "She has poisoned your mind; this is not you! You cannot trust her or her family!" Celina pointed at Vent, dressed in a long red cloak.