James

Chapter 20: Sarah

I woke up in a small room, in a soft bed, with an arm draped over me and a warm body behind me. It was the best morning I had ever had, until I realized it had to be a dream, James and I don't get mornings like this, it's always 'Wake up, Sarah!' or 'Sarah, we need to move again', to be honest ordinary life is too easy and boring for our skills. 

"Good morning, Sarah." James whispered into my ear, with a yawn to follow it. 

"Too bad its only a dream" I said, turning to face him. 

James let out a light chuckle and said, "Don't you remember last night?". 

And all at once the memories flooded back and I remembered everything. 

"Oh, yeah, now I remember, so we're actually safe for once?" I asked. 

"Yes, and we will be again, I promise." James said. 

"I hope that it will be sooner rather than later." I said. 

"Come on, get dressed, I've got something I want to show you." James said. 

When he said this I got slightly fluttery and hurried to get dressed as James did the same in the small bathroom in the room. Once we were dressed James grabbed my hand and led me down to the building's entrance and we stepped through together ending up in the center of Versailles's market. We walked around for a while looking at different shops and finding things that seemed weird. However the day was approaching mid-hour and we had to begin looking for our enemies so we took to the skies and started our search. I picked up on Leon's trail shortly after 2:00 in the afternoon and, upon following it, found a large warehouse in southern France that hadn't been there three days ago. We set down in front of the warehouse and decided to surprise him. James charged up a force spell to blast down the doors while I charged a force field spell to protect us, just in case we were expected. We released both of our spells at the same time and almost immediately the snap of released arrows was sounded, however, every arrow shattered on the force field that I had raised. James started to fire bolts of light in to the room blindly, for the dust had yet to clear, and the screams of dying men and women rang out. When the dust had finally cleared out, all that could be seen in the entryway were dead bodies, blood, and scorch marks. 

"And you're supposed to be the good guy, I'm shocked at your brutality. I assume that you have come to kill me, then, your own father?" Leon asked in a sarcastic voice. 

"Two things, Leon. One, you're not my father. And two, you will die this day." James said, with acid dripping from his words. 

"I'm hurt, but you are wrong." Leon said with a slight step back. James and Leon drew their swords and James prepared himself to use protection magic as well. Leon rushed James, making his first mistake, James quickly sidestepped and and jabbed the hilt of his sword into Leon's back. 

Leon stumbled forward and turned around, "You're better than I had thought, but still not good enough." 

Leon then charged again, but this time jumped and swung his sword downward, attempting to deliver a slice on James's sword-arm. James sidestepped a second time and this time James made his first attack by slicing down on Leon's right leg. Leon screamed out in agony from the blade's burning touch and the skin around the wound turned black, like an infection. Leon turned towards me with rage in his eyes and charged at me. James's eyes widened to the size of soccer balls and he rushed at Leon in an attempt to protect but he never made it.

I had raised my hands and Leon flew backwards, like he had been hit by a car that stopped the instant it hit him. 

"Sarah, I don't know how you did that, but we can figure out in a minute. Keep protecting yourself while I take care of Leon." James said. 

James ran over to Leon, who was still lying on the ground from where he had collapsed from what I had done. Once James was there, however, Leon sprang up and swung his sword upwards in an arc that would've cut James clean in half, had he not jumped, using his wings to propel him further into the air. Leon screamed in outrage for the reason that James was unreachable and I had a shield spell all the way around me. James swooped down and landed behind Leon, and when Leon turned around, James brought up his sword, spun, and cut Leon's head clean from his shoulders. 

"Well, Leon is taken care of." James said. 

"Why did his wound become black?" I asked. 

"Remember, my sword is pure and can't stand darkness or evil, I think Leon was dead that day that you stabbed him, but Dakota brought him back. And if Dakota can raise the dead, then we are in trouble." James said. 

"Ok, well then, we definitely need to find Dakota and fast before he becomes completely taken by necromancy, that would cause some very bad issues." I said. 

"What do you mean?" James asked in return. 

"Necromancers are very in-tune with death and hatred, and they love it more when they are succumbed to the magic. Dakota already loves death and hatred a lot more than any current necromancers, he'll pretty much want to kill the entire world once he is a necromancer." I explained. 

"Wow, where did you learn that?" James asked. 

"A book I was reading at George's while you were passed out." I said. 

"Ah, we need to get going now, though." James said. 

We left the, very out of place, warehouse and took to the skies, strangely Blaze had come to help us out and I climbed on his back while James flew with his wings not too far from us, just far enough so that Blaze's and his wings weren't colliding every flap.James shook his head as if to clear something and started falling his wings pulling in. 

"Blaze! Dive, dive! James wake up!" I screamed. 

James continued to fall as if he didn't even want to live anymore, like he gave up. Blaze dove even faster speeding up to get to James in time. With seconds to spare,  Blaze got to him and I pulled him onto Blaze's back and Blaze's wings were already spread, slowing his speed immensely. I, then, saw the reason for James's fall, Dakota stood there using a mind control spell. Sages are naturally protected from mind spells, as are pegusi, but crafters are not. I extended a shield spell to James's mind and Dakota's face contorted with exertion trying to control James again, but James sat up, gave me a light kiss on the cheek, and drew his sword. When Dakota saw this he drew his sword as well, James jumped down from Blaze's back and faced his brother in battle for the first and last time, one of them would not and did not walk away from this battle.