The Hero and the Hidden Royal - Renae Kaye

Chapter One

DEREK CARSON’S PROBLEMS STARTED NOT long before his birth.

His mother, having been in labor for sixteen hours, had been rushed to the Municipal’s private hospital by Derek’s father, claiming she was about to give birth. The admitting midwife had seen many hysterical new mothers in her day, and had calmly asked to have a “quick peek” at the situation down below. The midwife declared that she could see nothing untoward, but would admit Peggy Carson to the birthing ward.

Peggy had reached out with her hand and zapped the midwife with every volt her laboring body could muster, and the midwife promptly collapsed on the floor. Rushing to her aid, a second midwife, unwilling to share the fate of her shaken colleague, had said she would examine Peggy. She hurriedly put on a pair of gloves, reached between Peggy’s legs… and encountered a baby’s head, fully crowned.

And that’s when they all realized that not-even-born Derek Carson could turn invisible.

Frederick Carson acknowledged that his son’s birth was rather traumatic after that. Without any visual assistance, an eight-pound Derek was born onto bloody sheets. It was only by feel that the midwife ascertained that the baby had two legs, two arms, and a penis. They cleaned him off the best they could under the circumstances, wrapped him in a blanket, and placed him into the dazed but loving arms of his mother.

Ten minutes later, Peggy and Frederick got their first look at their newborn son. One moment there was nothing wrapped in a blanket, and the next, there was a slightly chubby, black-haired babe.

Over the next three days, Frederick and Peggy watched as their child disappeared and appeared at random, until Frederick, through trial and error, declared he’d worked it out. Derek turned invisible if he was scared. Birth was a scary event for a newborn, and thus Derek had been born invisible. When he was asleep, or wrapped up safe in his mother’s arms, Derek calmed down and became visible.

It meant that the newborn’s parents were nearly always roused by a crying baby and a seemingly empty cot. Four months after his birth, Derek’s powers increased and he could make the clothes he was wearing invisible. Frederick invested in several pairs of night-vision goggles.

At seven months old, Derek started to crawl. Frederick diligently recorded this progress in Derek’s baby book and promptly upgraded his bedroom and the living areas with heat-sensing monitors.

At nine months old, during a fierce thunderstorm, a sleepy Peggy entered her screaming son’s room to find his cot had also disappeared. Derek could now extend his powers to include items he was touching.

Invisibility was a painful superpower to deal with, but the Carsons counted themselves lucky. Their friends the Morrisons had lost their entire house in a fire when their three-year-old son, Markos, had found he could create flames in his palms. Peggy’s brother had a daughter who regularly and accidentally levitated above their house if she wasn’t watched, and poor Roger Marine had become an expert at catching a falling child before she hit the ground until little Celeste Marine learned to safely descend.

It seemed fortunate that Derek only disappeared when he was scared.

But unfortunately for Derek and his parents, Derek had many fears. He didn’t like spiders. Or snakes. Or cockroaches. Or anything that scuttled, scurried, or slithered. Large dogs made him disappear, as did his Aunt Grace and their neighbor, Mr. Munday. Derek was afraid of heights, afraid of storms, and afraid of needles. And strangers. And especially of kids who thought it was funny to run up behind him and yell, “Boo!”

In fact, Derek’s first grade teacher didn’t see him for nearly eight months, and the sports teacher never saw him again after that unfortunate incident with the basketball.

Life didn’t get easier as he grew up. He couldn’t order a coffee at the local café, because people are usually spooked when thin air talks to them. He could don a mask or hat and sunglasses in order to get by, but people get nervous about masks in cafés. If he meditated in the morning, Derek could usually control himself so that he didn’t turn his clothes invisible when his fears started to rise. But most of the time Derek went about his life unobserved.

Literally.

Determined to stand on his own two feet and live as an adult, Derek found an apartment and moved in. He told his parents it was because he wanted to be independent, but in truth he was a little tired of the