Age of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

queen, a real one. She was not having any of this walking, Natalee Ward did not walk to her destination. She barely put up with her family, and only when forced to by her mom.
    “The car just stopped up the road.” Beth began, “It was the strangest thing, the power brakes didn’t work. I thought we were going to die and then it just rolled to a stop. And when we tried to call you to pick us up, we found out none of our cell phones work.”
    Kayla looked back at Ted, “Yeah, ours either. The power is out at the house, it looks like it is up at the bar and the store also, is it?”
    Her mother wiped the sweat from her neck with a handkerchief, “Yes, and the light. Kate, what are you doing? Pitbulls are dangerous.”
    Kate just looked back over her shoulder while rubbing the pit under the chin, “Her name is Princess, isn’t she beautiful?” Kayla saw the big smile on Max’s face and was again about as thankful for her sister as one is capable of being. Kate had a way of making everyone feel special and okay. She was a bright ray of sunshine, regardless of the storm of other people’s day.
    Ted walked up to Beth and kissed her on the cheek, “Hi, Mom. Strange events, huh?” He led her to a bench, where she could sit in the shade and they talked for a bit. Ted always knew how to distract Kayla’s mother so the complaints were less and she was very grateful.
    Kate looked up at Kayla and asked, “Can I use your land line? I want to call Cal and make sure he is okay, and at some point touch base with Kyle also.”
    Kayla just shook her head. “It doesn’t work. Nothing does. Do you want to walk to the corner and see if we have any better luck with their phones…if they will let us use them?”
    Kate nodded, “Sure,” she said, “Natalee, do you want to walk to…”
    Natalee gave her mom a look that only a parent of a teenager knows. It was a look that simultaneously dismissed the question and called Kate’s sanity into question. “Seriously” is all she said as the prom queen walked to the shade and sat down, still trying to get her smartphone to power up. The difficulty of being a teen today, who is suddenly without access to information, is that they don’t know what to do with themselves. They have always had access to everything at their fingertips. Natalee was in a huge state of confusion, like she had suddenly gone blind.
    The sisters gave each other a knowing look. They knew that they had both been that same girl. They were popular in high school but it is very hard to explain to a teenager how little that means in the rest of your life. Teens have to become adults and figure that part out for themselves, then try to convey that to their own children. It is a vicious cycle. They shouted back to Ted and their mom and told them where they were headed. Max just hung out at the edge of the woods and that dog was never more than five or six feet from her side.
    Ted looked in the opposite direction, up across the street to where a small chapel sat. He didn’t know them, but wanted to check on his neighbor and he let the ladies know he was going. Max chose to come along, and to no one’s surprise the dog came also.
    As they walked, Ted reached out for his daughter’s hand. He had known that the time when she would let him hold her hand was soon to end, with her coming within a few years of puberty and the hatred of parents that comes with the age, so he took every chance to still be with his little girl as a little girl. He cherished this time, and so far, Max didn’t seem to mind.
    “Where do you know that dog from?” He asked.
    “Princess? From now. She walked up a few minutes before, while I was looking for pine cones in the woods.”
    Ted smiled, “You have a good rapport with her. Does her collar say her name is Princess?”
    Max looked over at the pit and pet her on top of the head. “No, she told me her name was Princess.”
    Ted laughed. That was another thing that would most likely not