The Wizard's Broken Angel

Chapter-4

"What? What did you say…"

"Miley! Where are you? Miley!" Miley was about to ask Zach about what he called her when she looked towards the woods. Her parents were calling her. When she looked back again in Zach's direction, he was gone. Tragon was still unconscious.

"M-Mom! Dad! I am near the cliff!" Delan and Suzan came out of the woods and rushed to Miley and Tragon.

"What happened to him?" Delan crouched down to check on Tragon.

"I will tell you everything later, let's go back home. This place is not good, let's go back home, dad. Please," Miley broke into tears.

Suzan looked at Delan, "we'll sweety. Let's head back to the villa and see what can be done. I asked your dad not to love here, but still, he insisted, I don't know why."

Delan picked up Tragon in his arms and Miley and Suzan followed him to the villa. Delan treated Tragon in the van while Suzan with help of Miley had cleaned two bedrooms in the villa. Meanwhile, Delan had cleaned the library that was in his villa and set up a bonfire. Miley brought Tragon with her and sat on the wooden sofa near the fireplace. Suzan and Delan were already present there.

"So tell us what happened, Miley," Delan looked at her.

"Dad, it's quite abnormal but you need to trust me ok?"

"Yes, we will."

Miley told them everything that happened during her encounter with Zach.

"You mean to say, Tragon emerged out of your shadow and attacked that man who is stalking you?" Suzan reiterated.

"Yes."

"Sweety, are you…"

"I trust her," Delan interrupted Suzan. "There is mention of this form of magic in our family traditional books."

"What?" Miley and Suzan asked together.

Delan nodded looking at both of them, "Boris' family had been associating with wizards from another world since ages. Being the only human family to have entered a world called the Strong Earth, my ancestors have recorded all their experiences in that world and in one of the books that I read, the art of using shadows as a magic weapon is a speciality of the beings of the dark world called Nigrack."

"Wait, what! Dad, you aren't joking, right?"

"Of course not, I thought I would never disclose this secret to anyone and take it to my grave, but for Miley's safety I think it's important you know that the blood running inside you is mixed," Delan contemplated at Miley.

"Mixed blood?" Suzan chuckled nervously, "honey, what do you mean? Is this even making any sense? I mean… I can't believe this!"

"Suzan, please trust me. Whatever I say today is nothing but the truth. We are mixed blood. My grandfather was a wizard from the Strong Earth and my grandmother was a normal human. My dad had magical abilities because he was a mixed blood and his abilities remained recessive in me, but my genes contain his genes from that world. So I am sure, Miley has mixed blood too."

"You mean, I have magic in my veins?" Miley widened her eyes.

Delan nodded, "and about Tragon, I knew it from the time he came into our house that he was from the Strong Earth and he is trying to protect you, Miley."

"Protect me? From whom?"

"We don't know yet why he is after you, but all I know is I need to protect my daughter and so does Tragon. Miley, your dad will do whatever he can to keep you safe, promise me one thing…"

"What, dad?"

"You will not step out of the boundaries of this villa from today on. Tonight I will use the little knowledge I have from reading all these books by my ancestors and create a heavy protection around this villa. So stay here with your mom and don't go out, no matter what, don't go out!"

"Honey, what are you saying? What do you plan to do? Is it some kind of black magic needing your soul or blood?" Suzan looked worried.

"No. It's just normal protection magic. Even though I have my father's magic genes in me, I still don't know to what level this magic might hamper my body."

"No, dad! Don't do it!" Miley snapped.

"Suzan, take Miley to bed and don't go out of your room or this villa," Delan looked at Suzan.

"No dad!" Suzan lifted Miley while Tragon saw everything while he laid down. Although he recovered fast, the slam by Zach had broken his bones.

"Miley, dear, dad will be alright. Don't worry. This is a light magic of creating barriers, that's it! Won't you help dad by keeping yourself safe? Hm?" Delan caresses Miley's hair and kisses her forehead.

Suzan partially dragged Miley to their bedroom.

"Can you get up?" Delan asked Tragon.

Tragon transformed into his human form, "yes." Wincing he got up.

"Help me."

Tragon nodded and limped behind Delan, who took over eight books and rearranged them in a specific order on the grand bookshelf completing a crow formation made by placing books together like a puzzle matching the bits made on book spines. A white glowing line appeared on the books like lightning. Delan and Tragon touched the line and were teleported behind the shelf.

Meanwhile, Zach was floating around the villa seeing everyone that happened in the library with his portal eyes that glowed white, "what are they planning to do now? I knew this Boris family would not be easy to deal with, but I am taking Iris back with me. Do whatever you can, but you can't stand a chance against me. Moreover, it's just not me after Iris. Shadows too don't want her to exist." He smirked looking at the woods around the villa. "Let's wait and watch. I should have brought some crispy berries with me, this is going to be thrilling," he chuckled, lying on the carpet of chains metres above the villa.

Indeed the shadows from the Strong Earth had appeared in the woods around the villa. "Prince Lake Shadow reformation is at its last stage. Before he is totally cured and back, we need to end her. We can't let him break the rules of the dark world again," someone whispered amidst the psithurism.

"The general incharge wants her to die fearing she might influence our Prince again, but the villa is heavily protected by old magic," a shadow jumped from one tree to the other that was closer to the villa.

"As Shadows we can't enter it, but we can lift up the buried," a laughter was heard as if the leaves whistled. The group of shadows slithered underground.

The ground shook as if something or someone was moving underneath it, a number of talons popped out, piercing the ground.

Zach kept on staring at the forest from the sky then shifted his gaze towards Boris villa. "This isn't good news, but if they kill her, the savior symbol will automatically return to me. Hmm. Great! My work became easier." His smile faded because of his own words. With an impassive face he floated near Miley's room as his chains revolved around him. Peeping through the window he looked at Miley who was sleeping hugging her mother. He turned just to look at the herd of wendigoes that approached the villa from all sides.

He knocked on the widow and flew high to the roof of the villa. Due to the knock Miley and her mother got up, "what was that, mom?"

"Stay here, I will go see your dad. Don't come out, ok?" Suzan rushed out of the room to the library that was on the ground floor. Miley curled her legs towards her chest, looking at the moon outside the window she said, "what is happening to our peaceful life suddenly? Why is all this happening to us?"

"Because you have brought this upon yourself," Miley gasped and looked in the direction of the voice.

"Y-You! It's all because of you! What the hell do you want from me?" Miley got down the bed slowly and shifted back towards the window.

"Are you planning to jump down the window? If you are then let me tell you, there are wendigos running loose down there," Zach stepped closer to Miley.

"W-Wendigo? They are fantasy creatures. They don't exist," Miley kept on shifting towards the window.

Zach sighed, "there's no point talking to you. Be it in this life or the previous one you never listen." He teleported behind Miley, wrapping his hand around her waist and hugging her from behind.

"What the hell are you…" before she could say anything else, Zach's chains surrounded the two of them as they flew through the ceilings like ghosts.

"Leave me! Let me go! Put me down right now!" Miley threw her hands and legs, closing her eyes, as Zach pulled her higher in the air.

"Stop screaming, open your eyes and see," Zach whispered in her ears, giving her goosebumps.

"What?" Miley looked at the ground and saw over twenty strange creatures crawl towards her villa. They had horns like reindeers, bodies like humans but made up of vines of plants with leaves popping out from several places and their mouth looked like a distorted skull. "What are these? You brought them here?" She turned and looked at Zach.

Zach lifted his eyebrows and left her, with a deafening screech, Miley was about to hit the ground when Zach's chains saved her. She stood amidst the wendigoes ready to tear her apart. She sobbed as she looked at her death. She wanted to run but her legs were numb and didn't allow her to take a single step.

"Die, Iris. Just die! Like last time, die and return my symbol to me. You are not needed in this world or my world, no one needs you," Zach looked at her floating in the clouds.

"M-Mom… D-Dad… T-Tragon…" Snuffling, Miley shifted back as over five wendigoes tiptoed behind her.

"Come on Iris, you might have died a more miserable death in your previous life…" Zach clenched his fist the moment he saw the wendigos lunge on Iris while she squatted covering her head with her hands.

"Aaahh!"

No matter how I look at it, I can't take any risk. Ronan said that if the new chosen one dies, we might lose the symbol, Zach thought, holding trembling Miley in his arms far above the sky. The wendigoes looked confused from the sudden disappearance of the human.

Miley was hugging Zach tightly with tightly shut eyes. Dropping his eyelids Zach looked at Miley, "do you plan to choke me again?" Zach's harsh tone made Miley look at him. Tears fell from her eyes, incessantly. Both of them kept on looking at one another until Zach lifted his hand.

He didn't know what he was trying to do, perhaps he wanted to wipe her tears when a loud scream came from Boris villa. Miley looked at her house from the sky, "MOM!" She was about to fall again when Zach held her firmer.

"You stupid girl…"

"Please, please help my mother. Stop them, I beg you. I will do whatever you want me to. You want me, right? I will give you whatever you want, but please help my family," Miley said impatiently.

"Listen, I didn't call them out," Zach snapped.

"Please help my family," Miley held the front portion of Zach's shirt. Her desperate request made him chuckle.

"You never keep your promise," Zach looked at Miley with bleary eyes.

"I will," she sobbed, "I will. Please help me."

"Aah! Just shut up! I am not going to trust you again!" Zach swayed his hand and his half of the chains revolving around him sprinted towards the villa. Miley saw those chains pierce straight into the wendigos' heart and turn them into ashes. Her hands automatically wrapped around Zach as her eyes were fixed at the ground.

Zach drunk in Miley's look as the proximity between the two slowly decreased, averting his eyes he concentrated on his chains. Soon all the wendigos outside the villa turned into ashes. Miley saw her mother come out of the villa but it was as if she kept on looking at someone and stepped away from.

"Mom!" Miley reached her hand towards Suzan and Zach unwillingly descended from the sky. Just when they were about to reach the ground near Suzan who had come out of the villa a number of shadows crept out of the ground, engulfed her mother and disappeared in the darkness.

"MOM!" Miley jumped from Zach's embrace hitting her knees in the ground.This happened so fast that even Zach couldn't do anything. Sitting on the ground Miley touched the ground, looking for Suzan, calling for her.

Zach landed on the ground and looked around with tensed brows, "those shadows, they were… Lake is alive?" Zach murmured. "If so…" he widened his eyes and looked at Miley, he held her hand and pulled her towards him. Miley's head collided with Zach's chest and she was in the air again.

"They are after you… your mother became a prey for no reason," Zach said.

"What? Prey? What's going on? Why did they take my mom? Where did they take her?" Miley snapped.

"I don't know. Shadows don't come under my control…" Zach stopped, it's better Iris doesn't know about Lake Shadow in this life, he has always been a pain.

"Dad… dad is still inside and Tragon. I need to go inside," she looked at Zach.

"Who do you think I am, huh! Your servant? I am not taking you inside," said Zach, sharply.

"Please."

"I can't take you where your father is."

"Why? He must be in danger."

"As long as he is inside that library, no danger can touch him."

"How do you know?"

"Why do you want to know? Look! I need you and I have you, I don't care about your family or anyone else," Zach said, crisply.

Miley felt as if she had heard those words before too, but she couldn't remember where or by whom.

Meanwhile, Delan and Tragon (in his wolf form) came out of the library. "Why is the main gate open?" Delan looked at Tragon and both of them rushed out.

"DAD!" Miley shouted and Delan looked towards the sky.

"Miley!" Delan's eyes went on Zach holding her daughter in his arms. "Who are you? Let my daughter go!"

"Stupid, you shouldn't have come out from that library. What was the need of turning on the supreme protector shield over the house when you can't keep your family inside," Zach said with an impassive face.

Delan's eyes widened, "how do you know?"

"Huh! That magic was given to your family as a gift from my ancestors, Delan Boris," Zach smirked.

Tragon groaned, showing his sharp teeth looking towards the woods.

"Oh I forgot, Tragon, your kind is here to devour the people you are trying to protect. Yes, the one who created you to protect Iris has sent his dogs to kill her. Seems like you are the only part of him left who is loyal to Iris, enjoy your time here until death. I am taking back what's mine," Zach pulled Miley closer to his body and disappeared in thin air.