Inner Demon: The Dark Bloods - Book I ✓

Chapter 22 - Trials

22.

Trials

Amon had seen Reyna returning home with his Sight before she even arrived. He had felt a slight flaring of her abilities, and this time chose to investigate her situation. Usually he refrained from Seeing her, wishing to grant her privacy, but the fact that her Magika had maintained a constant flow for such a long period of time –almost a minute– gave him a cause to seek her out. He Saw her bound past her seated mother without a glance and rush up the stairs. It wasn’t until she placed a hand on his room doorknob that he broke contact and braced himself for the demand that was so evident on her face.  

“Give me my Initiation.” Reyna’s voice infiltrated the room before she even came into view. She stood by the open door, head angled up toward her taller uncle.

Amon already had his answer. “You’re not ready. You can’t handle it.” He waved her away and walked past her, out of his room, and down the stairs. Reyna followed.

“Uncle Amon! You have to!” she pleaded from the foot of the stairs as he crossed the living room, passing by an ignorant Kathy that was reading a book on the love couch.

“No, Reyna.” His stern voice now echoed from the kitchen.

Reyna sighed and also entered the kitchen through the study room’s entrance to avoid having to pass by her mother. Her state of unawareness was distant, as if living a life that no longer existed. A memory of something else.

“I know about the killings Ram did now! I know he’s controlling demons!” Reyna confronted Amon, barricading his path.

Amon ignored her as he took a step away from her and towards the cupboard. He took out the now worn out tea pot.

His actions angered her. “He showed up to me at school today, you know.”

Amon’s hand momentarily paused over the kitchen sink tap before turning it on. He shifted towards the stove and turned it on as well. He then grasped the small green metal teapot while simultaneously closing the tap and placed the kettle on the stove’s now red hot burner.  

Reyna stood glowering at her uncle as he shuffled through the motions of making his tea, each task ticking off more of her patience. “Uncle Amon, I need my Initiation! Why can’t–”

“You know the Initiation is for those who already have some mastery over their powers. The Initiation releases the entirety of their Magika which is why it is meant for someone who already has a sense of control over them. Not to mention actually having them.”

“I know! But there’s no time for–”

“Get me a cup for some of that tea.” Kathy’s soft voice suddenly filled the kitchen as she walked in. Her eyes landed on Reyna. “Honey. Why aren’t you at school?”

Reyna stood still, her mouth slightly agape, eyes narrowed and glaring at Amon. He did not acknowledge her, busy with his chore of retrieving another tea cup as if he was unaware he had broken the spell over Mrs. Felix.

“School let us come home instead of keeping us in the gym.” Reyna was quick to conjure a lie before leaving them.

Kathy watched her daughter storm away. “Is she feeling okay?” she asked Amon.

He gave her a ceramic black cup. “I think she’s going through a break up.”

“Reyna broke up with Dante?” another voice chimed in. Walter walked up to them with half his hair matted to his skull from his nap he had taken during his day off from work. His expression was anxious. It then phased into anger. “Or did he break up with her?” He glanced up at the stairs, having seen his daughter race up them only moments ago as he came down. He then switched sights back at his wife and brother-in-law, demanding an answer.