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Chapter 83: Freedom is Just Three Blocks Away

Chapter 83: Freedom is Just Three Blocks Away

Vincent still hadn’t stopped shaking from their encounter with Kazuma. He was going to have nightmares for the rest of his life because of this. And between watching Kazuma kill the ruri yosei and the gruesome discovery of what a spinal column looks like, he was not sleeping again for the next two weeks at least. They were back in his father’s room now, safe and far from the horror that would…

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Chapter 82: The Breeders

Chapter 82: The Breeders

Call Penny crazy, but she had been very curious about the okara breeding program since being brought to Naraku, and now it seemed that it was part of the plan for her to go there. That and it was time for her daily reading lesson with her uncle, and she did notenjoy being forced to spend time with him, even if she was making progress and would move on to a chapter book soon. And if it also was…

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Chapter 81: Preach

Vincent flourished with a rush of excitement that felt like pixies tickling his insides. He and Penny were about to sneak out of Building 5 and into Building 4. After being separated into the five programs at age thirteen, Vincent hadn’t seen or heard from any of his old friends. Henry was the only one who had come with him to Building 5, and that was only because he was a ruri spy. His real…

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Chapter 80: Read Between the Lines

Chapter 80: Read Between the Lines

“Can you read?”

Ellie stared at her uncle for a moment, trying to decide if Kazuma was serious or not. Had he really invaded her room just to ask if she knew how to read? She decided that he was serious when her silence irritated him. “Not so much.”

“And why not?” he demanded. [I visited Penny today.]

His tone grated at her, and she replied as deeply sarcastic as she could, really trying to…

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Chapter 79: Toss the Bath Water

Chapter 79: Toss the Bath Water

“Give me your hand.”

Vincent held his hand out to Hector. He placed his palm over the back of Vincent’s hand and kept their arms held out straight in front of him. Then he cast a circle through their joined hands. A jolt of power unlike anything Vincent had ever felt shot through him. His fingers and toes tingled with energy. Even his hair seemed to sizzle with its own pulse. The sparks on his…

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Chapter 78: The Plan

Chapter 78: The Plan

Penny lay awake most nights. Well, her body slept, but she reminded awake in her cage in the back of her mind. It had been nearly six weeks now since she’d been held prisoner. No one had a clue what had happened to her. Why should they? They were all strangers here and hadn’t known her long enough before her uncle’s little visit to notice she was not herself. His cage had rendered Penny too nice,…

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Beatrice, Part 3

By the time her daughter was due to be born, Beatrice had her plan and was ready to put it into action. Just as soon as the child was born and she could get off bed rest. It had been a pregnancy from the darkest pits of the Makai, and she had been sick from the first bout of morning sickness straight until the end. Just mention of the word “apples” sent her running for the toilet to vomit. Bless…

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Chapter 77: The Master

Chapter 77: The Master

“Master!”

Ejaz watched from the edge of the shadows as Izefia threw her arms wide in greeting. A Koliskian man stepped forward from the doorway of the sandstone cottage. His hair was a silvery pewter color, save for a web of black that spiraled out from his cowlick at the back of his head, exactly where Izefia had her black patch. Young, but Ejaz could never really tell with yokai. There was…

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Chapter 76: Compass

Kanya turned it over in her hands. It was a curious contraption. An octagon in shape with a little needle that spun around whenever the thing was moved. Beneath the arrow-like needle was a sun symbol of some kind. The four larger rays of light were labeled with letters, and the needle itself was labeled with a letter on the pointed side of the arrow but not on the feathered side. It was the…

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Chapter 75: Return of the King

Chapter 75: Return of the King

“I’m not leaving.”

Beatrice threw her hands up. Dylan shook his head and squeezed the bridge of his nose. They had come to tell Ellie that it was time to go. Beatrice was ready to fly her to meet up with Bernie. But Ellie had made up her mind already. She wasn’t leaving the palace.

“This isn’t really up for debate.” Dylan gestured towards the rest of the castle beyond Ellie’s room, “You can’t…

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Chapter 74: Healing

Chiaki spent most of his time in his tiny room, staring at the wall. He preferred to avoid the rest of the crew, especially Bernadine, and the “cargo” as much as possible. He hated the awful stone in his stomach that grew to a boulder whenever he was around them. Bernie irritated the boulder the most with her special brand of crazy. Who knows what she would have been like, if it hadn’t been for…

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Chapter 73: Never Say Her Name

Chapter 73: Never Say Her Name

Vincent went to see his father every chance he could get. Having a father was the best feeling in the world! It was like having an instant best friend and a mentor just handed to him. They would sit and talk for hours, or practice magicks together. Hector was even teaching him about maths and science. The best part was that his professors letVincent skip his lessons to spend time with his father…

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Chapter 72: Temptation

Near the end of the month, food became scarce in Barisii. The store shelves sat empty. Restaurants closed their doors. The people grew listless. Ejaz forced himself to stagger through the streets like the rest of them. He didn’t need to stagger, but he didn’t want to stand out. He had barely eaten anything since the day Izefia… since she did whatever she had done. But it didn’t matter that he…

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Chapter 71: Out to Sea

Chapter 71: Out to Sea

Bernie loved being at sea. They were ten days into the voyage. The sea, her constant companion, gently rocked her to sleep at night and revealed constant marvels during the day. Today they would be casting their nets for fish. The rest of the crew didn’t know it yet, but Bernie had a good feeling that they should do it today around noon if they wanted a large catch. The voice was very faint out…

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Chapter 70: Silent Scream

Chapter 70: Silent Scream

Where was that little butt muncher? Penny shot out the door and surged into the streets. She shot up over the buildings, releasing the controls and self-imposed limits placed on her magicks in order to cast her senses as far and wide as possible. That little Henry creep wasn’t going to stay hidden from her for long. There. She felt him shutter as the weight of her tama crushed over him.

Penny…

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Chapter 69: Eleanor the Spy

Chapter 69: Eleanor the Spy

The yokai who had flown Bernie and Chiaki to safety returned well after nightfall. Ellie demanded to be taken to join her sister, but the yokai brushed her off, stating that she was too tired to make the journey again tonight. The yokai literally disappeared after that without even giving her name. It was Dylan who informed Ellie that she was called Beatrice. He made a comment about Beatrice…

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Beatrice, part 2

Beatrice did everything in her power to keep her distance from Kazuma, or Cameron, as he insisted on being called now. It wasn’t easy. Since he was supposedly dead, he was living in the palace, and he and her father were always in meetings together. Sometimes Richard was invited, but most times he wasn’t. For Beatrice the count was zero. She knew they were planning Koliska’s future, and as the…

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