The Big Game Read online

  THE BIG GAME

  CHILDREN OF THE GUARD BOOK 3

  SARAH JAUNE

  COPYRIGHT 2016 SARAH JAUNE

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WE ARE THE APEX

  DEDICATION

  Dedicated to my smallest minion. You will never know how much I appreciated all of the things you brought to me while I was writing (maybe trying to focus), but it turns out that yes, I did need that pipe wrench at my desk. Your three-ness is the best and I adore you, especially because you delayed me finishing the book by at least three weeks all by yourself.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you for all of the help, advice, and input! There are a couple of kid editors who give me feedback and cheer me on. It's very appreciated. Thanks also to D, T, and everyone else for all of your encouragement and advice.

  Next, to my amazing editors, A, S, and C! You help shape my work.

  James, for the beautiful covers, and for the fights we've had over fonts.

  Last, thank you to my husband for keeping up with the laundry when I lost my mind in that last week of writing.

  Thank you again and I'll see you for book four coming in July of 2016!

  http://twitter.com/sarahjaune

  http://facebook.com/sarahjaune

  http://twitter.com/wearetheapex

  http://facebook.com/wearetheapexpublishing

  CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  EPILOGUE

  PROLOGUE

  ELIZABETH

  November, Year: BTE222

  “Why are you scared?” Claire asked from the seat next to him in the truck.

  Thane glanced at his little sister briefly as the light from a house shone on her dark braids and skin that was the same warm brown as his. “I’m not scared,” he lied. It was more like half a lie. He was more nervous than scared. This was part of a code Thane Chaplain lived by as an elder brother. If he couldn’t reassure his nine-year-old sister, then he was going to keep his mouth shut. Her simple clothes, just jeans and a t-shirt, were practically ruined from what they’d been through. Thane knew that he didn’t look much better.

  He was eight years older than she was. It wasn’t Claire’s job to make him feel better or to take care of him. Thane ran a hand over his short, bristly hair and watched the miles fly by. They would be at Beth’s house in mere minutes, and he had to find a way to break it to her that he’d seen her twin brother, Elijah. Not only had he seen Eli, but he’d been given the chance to get to know him.

  What Thane had learned was that Eli wasn’t the person that Naomi thought he was. Naomi had her reasons for being afraid of Eli, although Thane didn’t know the whole story. She’d been only fifteen when she’d smuggled her ten-year-old siblings out of their house in the Chicago Zone. They’d been driven to safety by a Pursuer for the Guard by the name of Cole. Cole Sullivan was a big man, tall and muscled just like Thane was himself. They were fairly close in size, but that was where the resemblance ended. Cole had dirty blond hair and skin that was only given any color when he was out in the sun for too long.

  It had been six years since Naomi, Beth, and Eli had run away from their abusive parents to find a new life away from the pressures of the ruling classes.

  Thane pulled into the driveway of the small house and parked the car. He stared at the front door for a long moment. “Okay,” he finally said to his sister, “let’s go.”

  He had barely made it around the front of the beat up, tan colored truck when the door flew open, and a blonde teenager was throwing herself at him. Beth had moved so fast that Thane had barely time to brace himself to catch her. He laughed in stunned relief as he held her slight frame against him, her feet nowhere near the ground.

  Beth’s shoulders shook as he held her and Thane’s heart constricted when he felt the damp tears on his neck.

  The first time he’d met Beth had been after Cole had found him and taken Thane to his home. He’d taken one look at Beth and his entire world had shifted until his orientation, his true north, was towards her. For someone with the power of a magnet, able to manipulate most metals, it was incredibly unsettling, but still absolutely perfect. He hadn’t realized until she’d explained it to him that they were attached, and that the attachment meant that the person best suited for Thane was the one he currently held in his arms.

  Only magical people formed attachments. It was one of the few blessings of being magical in their world. The downside was that the magic seemed to come with having power-hungry, crazy parents.

  “I was so worried,” Beth sobbed as she tightened her arms, just a bit too tight.

  Thane ran his hand up into her hair and was shocked to find it a good bit shorter than it had been the last time he’d seen her. He pressed his lips to her brow, but didn’t let go, even as he set her on her feet. She wasn’t ready for him to let go. “I’m sorry,” he said honestly. “I ended up in a sticky situation.”

  That was a mild understatement.

  Thane flashed back to Ivy, who was Eli’s partner in being a Pursuer. The three of them, Thane, Ivy, and Eli were the only active Pursuers that the Guard currently had. Thane would have loved to have taken Beth with him to investigate if a child of an Overseer needed to be saved, but she wasn’t interested in the job at all.

  A small noise from behind them had Thane turning his head to see Claire standing awkwardly by the side of the truck, her stuffed, brown dog held tight in her arms.

  Beth moved towards her. “Are you Claire?”

  Claire nodded nervously as she sucked in her lower lip. Beth smiled the same smile that had won Thane’s heart. She was breathtakingly beautiful. That’s what he always thought when he saw her. She stepped towards Thane’s sister and pulled her in for a hug. “I have wanted to meet you for a long time now.”

  Claire wrapped her arms around Beth’s waist. She was shorter than Beth, but not by much. Claire was set to be tall, while Beth was petite, much like her siblings.

  “Hey,” came a call from the door of the house. Thane turned to see Cole standing in the door wearing a wide grin. “We’re glad you’re okay. Come on in.”

  Thane went through first and was immediately wrapped in Naomi’s arms. She was short, just like Beth, but with one major difference. Naomi was hugely pregnant. She glowed with happiness, and her face was rounder than the last time Thane had seen her. “Are you hungry?” Naomi asked.

  “Always,” Thane assured her as he shook Cole’s hand. “This is my sister, Claire.”

  Thane studied Naomi, who had the exact same coloring as Eli with one notable exception. Eli’s dark hair, plus his olive skin, gave his pale blue eyes a look that sent chills straight up Thane’s spine. When he was mad, which Thane had seen a few times, Eli was downright scary. Naomi’s eyes never took on the look of a predator hunting its prey, no matter how furious she was.

  The house that they currently lived in was small, well kept, but shabby in shades of brown and tan. It was a temporary house, provided by the Guard.
The Guard’s main function was to ensure that all of the magical children who were in trouble could be helped.

  It was simple, but so complex. The zones were the regions in their world, and each zone surrounded a major city, moving out in a circle. The Overseers of each zone had a single magical power, which was how they kept their rule over each of the cities. There was just one problem. They were untouchable by anyone else. The only people strong enough to take on an Overseer were the other magical, ruling families, and they had laws in place to stop that.

  If a regular person hurt their kids, the police could intervene, but the Overseer was untouchable. No one and nothing could stop them from treating their own family however they wanted to.

  Not all of the Overseers in the approximately two hundred zones were bad people. That was part of Thane’s job, though. He had to check on the Overseer’s children. That’s what he’d been doing when he’d been captured by the police in New Orleans.

  As they sat down at the round table to eat, Thane tried to explain what had happened. He didn’t want to upset Naomi, not when she was so close to having the baby, but she deserved the truth.

  Claire, however, beat him to it. “Eli rescued me.”

  It was almost comical how everyone froze to stare at her. “W-what?” Beth stuttered in alarm. “My Eli?”

  Thane’s heart squeezed tight at the pain in her words. He was also a little jealous, if he was honest. He obviously didn’t want to be Beth’s brother, but at the same time she had a bond with Eli that they both clearly missed tremendously.

  He’d seen as much when he’d spoken to Eli about Elizabeth.

  “They stopped in the town I was in,” Claire explained. She went on to tell them about how the village she’d been living in had been raided and everyone was taken away. “My foster family hid me under the floor so that I would be safe.” She turned troubled eyes to Thane. “You’re going to go find them, right?”

  “I promise,” Thane said earnestly. “I…” he hesitated because he hadn’t yet told Beth’s family what he needed from them.

  Cole and Naomi, who had been married for two years now, were part of the Guard. They could act as foster parents, but the Guard tried to move families about that appeared as though they went together. There was no getting around that Claire was black, and thus, didn’t appear to be a blood relative.

  Cole clapped Thane on the back. “We’ll make it work. We’ll come up with some story for why she’s here.”

  “Thanks,” he said as he let out a sigh of relief. Thane had been sure they’d help him out, especially since he didn’t have a home any longer. He hadn’t had a home in years, in fact, not since he’d run from his father’s. Thane’s father was the Overseer of Miami. When he’d left, it had been to save his own life. Thane’s older brother, Price, was set on killing him so that Thane couldn’t take the seat of power.

  The thing was that Thane had never wanted the seat. He’d gone back a few years later, once he’d joined the Guard, to get his sister out. He hadn’t looked back.

  They didn’t talk much more about Eli just then, not with Claire at the table. Thane could tell by the expression on Naomi’s face that they would speak about it later.

  “You’ll have to share a room with me,” Beth told her as they set up another bed in her small room. The decor was very Beth. She had pictures she’d drawn on the walls. Most of them were really good pencil sketches of nature scenes, but a few were of animals, like unicorns, and even one of a Sasquatch peeking out from behind a large tree.

  Thane kissed his sister’s brow as she settled in to her new bed, her dog still clutched tightly to her chest. “I love you. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Promise?” Claire asked him hopefully.

  “I’m staying at least a few days,” Thane assured her. He took Beth’s hand and left, closing the door gently.

  Beth rose on tiptoes to kiss him, but sighed as she sank back to the balls of her feet. Her troubled, blue eyes were not the same pale blue as Eli’s. Beth’s were warmer, brighter, and more the color of the sky on a cloudless day.

  “You cut your hair,” he grinned as he ran the soft locks through his fingers, enjoying the contrast between his brown skin and her golden tresses. It was down to her shoulders and slightly wavy now. When it had been really long, it had been straight as a board.

  “It was too long,” Beth told him with a tiny twitch of amusement on her lips. “Do you like it?”

  He loved everything about her. “You’re beautiful.”

  She beamed as she led him back to the living room where Naomi waited. She was sitting on the couch with her feet up on a stool. They looked swollen and painful.

  “How much longer?” Thane asked her as he sat with Beth on the opposite couch, holding her small hand in his.

  “Another few weeks,” Naomi replied as Cole came back into the room with a glass of water for her. “Thanks.”

  Cole sat with his wife and studied Thane. Cole was a brilliant man, skilled at what he’d done as a Pursuer, but Thane knew he was glad to retire and hand the mantel off to Thane. With his family growing, Cole wanted to be home.

  Beth was powerful, but unpredictable. For some reason, and no one had any idea why, Beth and Eli had both been born with three magical powers. Before that time, no one had more than one power. It was supposed to be impossible to have two magical powers. “Eli has the exact same powers as Beth.”

  Naomi’s eyes went wide with fright. “He… he does?” Something in Cole’s eyes told Thane that the older man had already suspected as much.

  “It’s not like that!” Thane assured her quickly. “I spent days with him, working with him. He’s completely in control of himself. He doesn’t have any…” he cringed when he realized what he’d been about to say. He glanced at Beth apologetically, but she seemed too stunned to notice. “The girl he works with is a diviner.”

  Cole let out a bark of a laugh. “Wow! I thought that power was dying out.”

  “She’s also water,” Thane informed them quietly. “Two powers. She moves water easily, and can tell exactly what powers a person has. Claire has two powers. Ivy, that’s the girl’s name, says that Eli’s powers are all evenly matched, which is why he can use them effectively. It’s unbelievably impressive what he can do.”

  “He doesn’t lose control of them at all?” Beth asked as she squeezed his fingers, her eyes round in surprise.

  Thane shook his head. “He can use them together, too. His magic came in late, so he’s still working on it, but he can meld the powers to boost one of them. For example, if he pushed a rock using his telekinesis, he could speed it up with the speed power. He can do the same with his strength. Ivy thinks that…” he hesitated again, but knew he needed to tell them Ivy’s theory. “Ivy thinks that if your powers are all the same intensity, then you don’t struggle with them as much. She gives them numerical values and said all of Eli’s powers are an eight. Her foster sisters each have two powers, but one dominates the other, and it makes them a little chaotic.”

  “Like me,” Beth added quietly.

  He draped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her to his side. “I didn’t mean it to be a bad thing; it just is what it is. We deal with it. He says that meditation helps him.”

  “I think it’s helping me as well,” Beth agreed. “Did he want to hear about us?”

  “Yes, but I didn’t tell him much,” Thane said as he glanced to Cole, who appeared relieved. “I know I’m supposed to keep you guys a secret. He really misses you, though, and wants you to know he loves you. He saved my life.”

  He didn’t know how to convey that the guy he’d met was worth it when Naomi seemed to be shrinking in on herself, which was a major feat for someone who had a soccer ball for a belly.

  “Was he violent?” Naomi demanded in an almost dispassionate tone. She didn’t completely pull it off.

  Thane thought about the fight he’d seen between Eli and Price on the lawn. Price had been winning, but E
li had held his own. Unfortunately, his face seemed to give him away. Thane shook his head. “It wasn’t like that. He’s really good for the Guard. He’s so powerful that he’s going to be a huge asset. I did see him lose his cool a couple of times, but most of the time he was under control. I know you sent him away to make sure that he could grow up right. I think he has.”

  “But, he was violent?” Naomi wanted to know.

  “Parts of the job involve fighting and defending ourselves,” Cole reminded her. “He couldn’t be otherwise and get the kids out to safety.”

  “What about the girl he was with?” Beth questioned, pulling his attention back to her heart-shaped face. “Ivy, right? What’s she like?”

  That was a good question. “She’s got a lot of guts. I would say that the two of them appear to be best friends. It seems like they’re really close. They work well as a team.”