Retaliation

Chapter 1

I blast the door open and run down the corridor. Where is he? I open the door at the end of the hall, just an empty room. I turn and keep running in my frantic search. I open door after door, finding only empty chambers and closets. Then I see it, my eyes latch on a large door made of diamond with a beautiful pattern engraved in it. I kick the door in, and walk inside. I spot the throne with its back turned. "This is over!" I shout, sending a ball of fire at the chair. I watch it explode, and then quiet the flames. The throne was empty! My anger boils over and fire starts to circle around my feet. "Where are you?" I yell as the fire incinerates the room.

I jolt up, gasping for air. I look around the train car, reassuring myself I was only imagining it. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. I tell myself over and over again. Just another dream either reminding me of what I was supposed to do in the past, or showing my future. I go through an exercise to help get my mind out of the dream world and more focused on now. My name is Angel Daniel Fayton. I am a warlock, well that's half true. I am a member of Retaliation, and have been since I was 9 years old. My mother died when I was about 5, and my dad disappeared before I knew him. "Morning Sunshine." Jace says, teasingly, interrupting my exercise.

"What?" I ask rudely.

"We're almost there." he tells me, his expression dropping almost instantly.

It takes me a minute to process this as I look out the window. "Almost there, huh? Well I guess I couldn't escape normal life forever, right?" I ask with a halfhearted smile. He stays silent, leaning against the doorway with his robe's hood pulled up. "But it's ok, I think most of the people there despised me any way." I say, putting on a shirt. I pack up my things, pausing only to look at my spell book that was given to me a long time ago by the very person seeing me off, Jace. I set it carefully down into my messenger bag. I look at him. A 23 year old man, short light brown hair, sturdily built, rock solid hazel eyes with little flecks of gold in them. This was Jace. He refuses to look at me, keeping his attention elsewhere. That's alright, he never was one for emotional attachment anyways.

"We're here." he says. The brakes make a loud screeching sound, and the cart gives a jolt at the stop. I sigh, put the strap of my bag over my shoulder, and follow Jace out of the cart and out into the station.

"So where exactly are we going?" I ask him, looking around the station.

"Hold on tight." he says as the circle of light starts glowing under him. I wrap my arms around him, and squeeze him tight, knowing this is a one way trip for me. In a flash we're on a street in a quiet little town. "C'mon." he says, starting to walk down the sidewalk.

I follow along as he keeps his slight lead ahead of me. "So how far away is our destination?" I ask him.

"I can't say." he says.

I look down towards the ground, "Oh, so can you tell me anything?" I ask.

"Unfortunately not." he tells me. I stop. "Is there a problem?" he asks.

"I'm 17 Jace. You don't have to treat me like a child that doesn't understand." I answer.

He gives the best smile he can, even though inside I think he's all torn up, "I know, now c'mon." I start walking again, more depressed now than before. After a few more minutes he walks through a gate, well actually he jumps over the 8 foot tall thing. I phase through it, and we walk up the steps of an enormous mansion. Jace begins banging on the door. I watch a single tear escape his rock solid appearance, just before he wipes it away so casually. "Even if you were a pain a lot of the time... I'm still going to miss you." he says as the door opens.

"What?" A man asks, standing in the doorway.

"Hello sir, my name is Jace Typha, and am an official of Retaliation." Jace says.