Magics: Escape (Book 2)

Chapter One

Five years ago today, Kai thought to himself as he stared out the window beside him. He smiled a little to himself, sighing as everything he had once endured flashed through his head. He tried to push past the death of his mother, who had died by Thorn's men, and the death of a good friend named Luke, who died by Moon's hand. Kai shivered at the thought of Moon. He hated her from the beginning, and he was angry at her for killing Luke, who had been Shintaro's best friend. He may have been Thorn before, but he was still Luke. And he was still missed.

"Kai, are you going to eat?" Falte, his father, asked from the other side of the table. "You haven't touched your food." He eyed his son warily with a concerned look.

"I'm not very hungry," Kai replied, shrugging his shoulders and mentally flinching at the memory of Thorn damaging his left arm forever. The doctor that had checked Kai had hesitantly told them that his shoulder would be a bother to him for the rest of his life. Treating it like a normal arm would probably cause more damage, so Kai was very careful to use it gently; though sometimes he didn't think about it, and his father had to remind him.

"You used to say that all the time when you were little," Falte sighed with a small smile. "You need to eat something, at least. You're a growing boy." He nodded down at Kai's plate with raised eyebrows.

Abby giggled from beside Kai. "What, Kai, do you not like peas?" She poked one of the green circles on her plate, popped it into her mouth, and playfully punched Kai's arm. "You've got to eat your greens!"

Chase chuckled as he watched his younger sister mess with Kai. He had already finished his food and was politely waiting until everyone else finished. He hadn't changed much in the past five years, only that he had cut his hair a little past his ears (which Kai didn't agree with. He had personally liked Chase's hair longer, like Shintaro's.).

"I'm absolutely fine with peas, thank you very much," Kai teased Abby, waving his fork in front of her face. "Aren't you the one who doesn't like green beans?" He grinned at his girlfriend as she pouted.

"Fine, you've got me there," she finally huffed, tossing her blond hair. "I'll find something you don't like."

"Sweets," Falte said at the same time as Kai. "He hates things that are too sweet. Sometimes I don't understand my own kid," he added while shaking his head. He chuckled as Kai rolled his eyes at his father.

"You have... a not-sweet tooth?" Linda said, sounding slightly insulted. "That's nuts. I didn't know anyone had a thing against sweets." She smiled as Kai rolled his eyes again.

"What's wrong with that?" he asked his friends. "At least I like the things that kids usually don't." He threw a look at his father.

"True," Falte said. "That did make it easier to make you eat healthy things instead of junk food. Anytime we went to McDonalds, all he got was fries." He laughed again as Kai protested huffily, "Well, you always got that freakishly big bacon king!"

Soon, everyone around the table was laughing heartily, including Shintaro, who hadn't even said anything during the whole conversation, just tried desperately not to chuckle while he was drinking his water.

After everyone finished their food, Kai realized that he was happy that everything in the past five years had happened. He had already established that in his mind, but every time he went through the past events, he found himself smiling gratefully. Sure, he missed his mother and Luke, but life had its consequences. And there were many more to come, Kai knew.

~

It was late at night when Kai felt the same unsettling thoughts resurface in his head. He wasn't able to sleep, and his mind wandered around to the fact that ever since Moon had seemed to vanish into thin air after she killed Luke, there was absolutely no sign of her whatsoever. Kai often wondered if she was out there, somewhere, calculating precisely what she would do if she ever came across them again. Or maybe Luke had done something to her before he had died. Kai doubted that, and a million possibilities flooded into his head.