by G. Bailey
Dark Soul
From The Stars:Book One.
G. Bailey
Contents
Description
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
Afterword
Also by G. Bailey
Keep in touch…
Excerpt of Wings of Ice-
Ice
Excerpt from Winter’s Guardian
Winter
Dark Soul Copyright © 2018 by G. Bailey
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
The author acknowledges the trademark owners of various products, brands, and/or stores referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Cover design by Jennifer Munswami.
Edit by Helayna Trask.
Created with Vellum
Description
If your soul is born into darkness, can light save you?
While trying to get used to the new world Aura has found herself thrown into, protecting those she cares about seems impossible. With the threat of losing her mother, Aura has no choice but to do as she is told and hope that Maxx will help her.
The clans are at war, and it is said only the True Light can stop it before it destroys another planet...and nothing will be left.
The prophecy is awakening...and only one connected soul can stop it.
Prologue
“The truth,” he tells me, taking a step forward, and I have to follow. I try not to trip on the dress and the high heels Aliana told me I needed to wear. Austin will be lucky if I don’t fall flat on the floor instead of actually standing at his side. I know I only have to pretend for a bit longer and pray my plan works. I’ve spent hours, no days, going over the plan. It will be the only time Austin is off guard and there will be no way to stop me.
“Oh?” I ask, actually surprised by that.
“See, I’ve always known exactly who you are Aura Scott. It’s only you that has never known the truth. It is rather sad that you haven’t figured it out or took time to learn our history. The answer is right in front of your face,” he says.
“If this is about me being the true light, I get it, and I don’t want to speak about it with you anymore,” I say, shaking my head. Whatever this power is, I know I need to be with Maxx to access it. I’m not telling the psychopath next to me that though. Not until I’ve had a chance to see if my plan can work.
“No, it is not about that. It is about secrets. I will tell you everything you need to know as long as you mate with my son without hassle or force,” he says. “I do not want to argue with you and make a scene in front of all the clans.”
“What secrets could you possibly know that would make it worth mating with Austin without ‘hassle’?” I counter as we get to the double doors.
“Secrets like who your mother really is and where to find her,” he tells me and knocks on the door like he didn’t tell me something important.
“My mum is the crazy woman you look after, and of course I know where she is,” I reply. If this is his way of blackmailing me, he sucks at it.
“No, she isn’t. Your life is a lie, and I can relate to that. I wish for you to know the truth, only when you are part of my family that is,” he says as the doors swing open. I stare at him for a second, running it over and over in my mind. Could my mum not really be my mother? How would that make any sense?
When I finally pull my gaze away, I see the hundreds of people in the room on either side of an aisle. The room is a dome, covered in pink roses and pink decorations. Candles light up either side of the aisle in the middle, where at the end is an arch with a star in the middle of it. There are symbols all over the arch that light up, and roses swirl around them. It’s beautiful, but it only makes me feel like running in the other direction. I close my sweaty hands into fists and breathe in deep as I try to ignore all the people staring at me. Whispering under their breath.
Right at the end are Austin in a suit and a man hidden in a white cloak with the hood up so I can’t see his face at all. The man holds an ancient looking book in his hands which, as I stare, seems to glow purple ever so slightly. To the side is Landon and Aliana, holding hands, and the person that shocks me the most is standing on the other side. My mum. She is dressed in a tight white dress, her hair is perfectly pulled back into a tight bun, and when she meets my eyes, she smiles.
“She was never crazy…was she?” I ask Okeken, my voice cracking, and he laughs.
“No. I hoped her playing a game with you would make you trust us more. But Andrea is my partner and co-leader of this clan,” he says, and a tear falls down my cheek before I can hide my shock and pain. My mum left me on purpose, and dad must have hid me from her and not just this clan.
“This is a big game to you, isn’t it?” I ask as wedding music starts playing loudly, and all the air seems to be sucked out of my body and replaced with pure fear.
“A game I will win, Aura. I have lost too much to lose. Now smile, it is your mating ceremony after all.”
Chapter 1
Aura
“Aura. You need to call for him. The light will come to you and save your life. Aura…call for him,” a woman begs me as I open my eyes, seeing nothing but pink and blue stars spread across the night sky above me. They are so beautiful, so magical that I forget the voice that woke me up for a moment as I stare. The last dream was just pink stars, so what has changed? I spread my hands out on the very soft cloud I’m floating in. The cloud should be impossible to hold my weight, but hey, here we are again in a dream where I suppose anything is possible. I search around until I can see the pink outline of a woman again, her hair flows all around her, and I just stare for a moment at how beautiful she is. Even as a shadow, she is stunning and very familiar to me somehow. I try to sit up, but I can’t as a rush of pain spreads all up my back, burning intensely like someone is holding an iron to my back. The shadow woman tilts her head as I try to focus on her instead of the pain. It doesn’t work exactly, but thankfully she keeps talking which distracts me slightly from it.
“Call him to you, Aura.” Her statement is clear, firm, and I want to do exactly as she asks, but I shake my head instead.
“Call who exactly?” I mutter back, wondering what the hell is going on.
“Maxx. Only he can save you. Only you can save him. Call your soulmate to your dreams.” I frown at the woman figure, wondering how she knows Maxx but knowing I want him here anyway. Even if he is an asshole, I always want him here. Just as I go to whisper his name, everything blurs, and the cloud under me just seems to disappear. I suddenly start falling until I have to close my eyes to let the darkness take me.
I wake up with a scream which I cover with my hand and hold in the tears that try to fall down my cheeks. They fall anyway as I think about everything that I last remember. I look past the burning pain in my back and feel that someone has left me on a rough mattress on my stomach. I blink my crusty and now tear-filled eyes open to see a white wall in front of me, and when I look to the side, the room i
s all white with a small shower and toilet pressed against the other wall. One wall has a full length mirror on the wall, showing me how bad I look. My pink hair is messy, my skin pale, and my back is a mixture of black and red burnt skin. I stare at my own eyes in my reflection for a long time, not having a clue how to process any of this.
Every memory of what happened before races through my mind as I’m forced to lie still from the pain. Austin killing Abby. Austin hurting me like this. Maxx trying to fight to save me. My mother coming back from god knows where and glowing freakin’ yellow. The more I think about the events of the last few weeks, the more it just freaks me out, and I start feeling like I can’t breathe through my tears. I’ve learnt my mother is an alien, and I have an alien soulmate who I kill by touching. My best friend is also an alien, and I have no clue where he is now. I can only hope Landon escaped before Austin and his new friends captured me.
I also hope my father ran or doesn’t attempt to look for me now. Though I doubt he will find me in here anyways. Even thinking of anything happening to my father makes me want to cry more and never get up. The pain makes me not want to move and the past doesn’t help. I try to think about what my dad would say if he were here. He would tell me to get up. To fight for myself and my friends.
“You have to get up, Aura Scott,” I tell myself, knowing that I can’t just let the incredible pain make me lie here when I have no idea what is going on with the people I love. I close my eyes before attempting to sit up. I grit my teeth as every slight movement is so painful that I feel dizzy, and I know I need to get this over with quickly before I pass out. I let out a scream as I push that final bit and get myself sitting up, feeling the burnt bits of my top sticking to my back, which can’t be good. There are going to be so many scars from this, if I even recover from it at all. I’m sure the only reason I haven’t died from an infection or anything else yet is because of my half alien side. I look down at my dirt covered hands on my messy dress. At least the front half of the burnt dress is covering me up, more looking like a top now. Though my shoes are missing, oddly. I do have jeans on under the dress which I don’t remember wearing yesterday. Freaky.
“Freckles?” I hear Maxx shout from the wall behind me, and I instinctively turn to look at the wall, crying out from the pain it causes my back. “Freckles talk to me. Are you hurt? What is going on in there?”
“I’m okay,” I shout back, though my voice betrays me by cracking and sounding anything but okay.
“I know you’re not. I can hear it in your voice even if I didn’t hear the screams before,” Maxx counters, and I sigh, knowing there is no point lying to him now.
“My back is burnt. I can’t see how bad it really is, but it doesn’t feel good. I only saw the sides from the mirror. I will try and get up to see more in a bit. You know, when the room stops spinning,” I reply, shaking off the dizziness as much as I can. My dry lips remind me how much I’m desperate for a glass of water, but there is no way I will make it over to the sink. Not yet anyway.
“What happened?” Maxx practically growls, though somehow his protectiveness makes me feel a tiny bit better. It’s good to know that he is here, even if I can’t see him. Maxx might be a dickhead at times, but he is a good guy under it all, and there is this thing between us. We are soulmates, and I know he thinks he has to protect me because of that. I think back to the kiss between Maxx and me, and the heartbreaking moment where he told me we couldn’t be together because of the whole draining problem. Though if I learnt how to control my powers, we could be together. Or that might just be wishful thinking on my part.
“Austin the asshole,” I reply, shivering from the memory of being thrown in the air and Austin’s hand on my arm, making me cry out from the incredible pain he caused.
“I’m going to kill him. I was trying to get to you, I knew he slammed a ball of dark light into your back and sent you flying, but I couldn’t see you after that,” he admits to me. “I fought them as long as I could, but then they shot me with these darts. I couldn’t fight that.”
“Then you don’t know about Abby…” I sadly reply, my voice cracking as I vividly remember how she died. The look in her eyes, the pain and shock. The sight of her lying on the ground, so still, so empty.
“What happened to Abby?” Maxx asks quietly, the question is so clearly tense and painful for him to ask me. I don’t want to tell him because I know how guilty he will feel. Maxx explained everything to me about clans, how he is the clan leader and responsible for the lives of his clan members. Abby’s death will hurt him and make him feel like he has failed, which in my eyes, he has not in any sense.
“Austin drained her in front of me. Abby tried to save me, but she was overpowered. It was horrible, and I couldn’t save her. I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t save her,” I say, mumbling the end of my words as I burst into tears. Maxx is silent for a long time as I cry, and I hate that I can’t see his reaction to know what to say. I hate that even if we were in the same room, I couldn’t hug him to make him feel better anyway.
“Death is second nature to us…it’s best you learn it now, Freckles. If you think humans are brutal with their wars and murders, they have nothing on our kind. Abby died a hero’s death, and I know she wouldn’t have wanted to die any other way,” he replies firmly, acting strong, though his voice cracks several times as he speaks, and I want nothing more than to hold him, tell him everything will be okay. Even if we aren’t exactly friends. But we aren’t enemies either. At this point in time, Maxx is all I have, and I am all he has too. Even if I have a burnt back and can’t actually be near him without killing him. I sharply turn towards the only door in the room, hearing a key unlocking, and the white door finally swings open.
“Aura Scott. It is lovely to finally meet you.”
Chapter 2
Aura
“Who are you?” I snap, staring at the army major looking man stood in the door way. He has white hair cut short, white eyes and his skin is so pale it is glowing white too. I’m sure he wears the all-white clothing on purpose to make him look even creepier. The man has his hands folded behind his back, and you can’t mistake his expression for anything other than pure interest in me for a reason I can’t quite figure out. There is a strange feeling about him that I can’t identify, but it doesn’t make me feel safe, it makes me want to run away from the man as fast as I can. I know he is a dark; a strange sense in my mind just tells me that he is and that he is powerful, at that. He goes to say something when Maxx bangs the wall from the other side and shouts over.
“I don’t know who is in there with Aura, but if you touch her, I will find a way to end you,” he warns, his voice downright scary even to me. The man only smiles at me, before looking at the wall with distaste in his expression. I have a feeling he doesn’t like Maxx. I don’t like that this stranger must know more about us because of the way he wasn’t shocked by Maxx’s outburst. It’s like he knew Maxx would be protective. It makes me want to know what else this man has found out. I have no doubt Austin has been whispering tales.
“No need for the dramatics, Maxx. I am a friend of Aura’s and her mother,” he replies. “I see that you are hurt due to my son’s harsh treatment. I am sorry for his behaviour, and he will be corrected,” he states, holding his head high. There is no real apology in his voice, and I’m not stupid enough to believe he even cares at all about what his son did to me. No, this is a game to a man like him, and I need to figure out how to play it before someone I love gets hurt.
“Do you think saying sorry and that you know my mother makes us friends?” I ask him, tilting my head to the side.
“No, but we will be friends, Aura. We fight for the same thing, and as a show of good will, I will let Maxx spend the night in here with you. I’m sure he will heal your wounds,” he says, smiling which turns into a frown when I don’t smile back or respond in any kind of way.
“Where is my mother?” I ask after a long pause.
“Your mother tried to
escape, but she is now back in our custody. I’m afraid she isn’t well, but we do look after her so she doesn’t hurt anyone or herself again. When you are better, I will take you to her and explain everything you have missed growing up,” he replies, making my mum sound like she is a patient of his. I highly doubt this man is a doctor, and I won’t believe a word he says about my mum.
“Or you could let us all go if you are as nice as the good guy you are pretending to be,” I reply.
“I’m not nice, Miss Aura Scott. I only wish to see you with your own people and not the light traitors who cost us our planet as well as their own. We are not the bad guys in this, Aura,” he replies, and his statement is so cold, so empty of any emotion that no one could believe he was the good guy. Seriously, I mean I’m sat here, injured due to his son, and he hasn’t offered to personally help in any kind of way. That’s not what a good guy does in my books.
“It doesn’t look that way to me,” I reply simply.
“I know that this whole situation does not look like I am helping you, and the ones you have come to care about were helping you, when they were not. I once believed the people of the light where good, pure and selfless. That is not true. I have learnt my lesson, and you will learn yours as well when the time comes,” he states before stepping back, letting someone else close the door shut.
