by J. L. Weil
Luminescence Trilogy
Complete Collection
J. L. Weil
Dark Magick Publishing, LLC
Contents
Also by J. L. Weil
I. Luminescence
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
II. Amethyst Tears
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
III. Moondust
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
IV. Darkmist
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Read more by J. L. Weil
About the Author
Also by J. L. Weil
THE DIVISA SERIES
(Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)
Losing Emma: A Divisa novella
Saving Angel
Hunting Angel
Breaking Emma: A Divisa novella
Chasing Angel
Loving Angel
Redeeming Angel
LUMINESCENCE TRILOGY
(Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)
Luminescence
Amethyst Tears
Moondust
Darkmist – A Luminescence novella
RAVEN SERIES
(Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)
White Raven
Black Crow
Soul Symmetry
BEAUTY NEVER DIES CHRONICLES
(Teen Dystopian Romance)
Slumber
Entangled
Forsaken
NINE TAILS SERIES
(Teen Paranormal Romance)
First Shift
Storm Shift
Flame Shift
Time Shift
SINGLE NOVELS
Starbound
(Teen Paranormal Romance)
Dark Souls
(Runes KindleWorld Novella)
Casting Dreams
(New Adult Paranormal Romance
Ancient Tides
(New Adult Paranormal Romance
For an updated list of my books, please visit my website: www.jlweil.com
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Luminescence Trilogy © copyright 2018 J. L. Weil
http://www.jlweil.com
All rights reserved.
First Edition 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Part I
Luminescence
Chapter 1
I was pissed—body shaking, steam-coming-out-of-my-ears kind of pissed.
And that only meant one thing: extreme trouble. Even in my heightened anger, I was frightened—scared not for myself, but for anyone who got in the path of the fury just past my control.
A ripple of heat flowed through my veins, bubbling and sparking. It scorched my skin, causing a haze of crimson to swirl in front of my eyes. So hot, it felt like a dragon’s flames licked at the back of my throat, threatening to lash from my mouth if I dared speak. Clamping my teeth together, I avoided my lips in the process. The thought of tasting blood, even my own, didn’t bode well at this very moment. Not with the intense tingle radiating everywhere within me.
“Let it go, Brianna.” I faintly heard Austin’s nervous voice. He might have touched a hand to my arm, but I was too far in depths for reasoning.
Early on, I learned my temper was something to avoid at all costs—all costs. I went to serious lengths to keep it under wrap. Deep breathing and the whole find your center of balance thing. Yoga. Meditation classes. I learned to control my breath, but my emotions were another story. But it didn’t stop me from trying to protect others from myself. It had been ages since I’d been hit with such intensity, and I’d forgotten what it was like; I had forgotten it was wrong.
Experimenting with my odd, peculiar, and volatile temper was something I never did. Trying to pick it apart and find out the particulars to why it initiated such bizarre and often harmful results wasn’t a good idea. The sensations it induced made me uncontrollable, wild, and reckless. Like there was nothing and no one that could stand in my way. I felt invincible. Then after I’d seen the results of what I’d done, I was consumed with guilt and shame. A freak. What normal person inflicts the impossible with just a flare of anger?
Most of the time, it wasn’t an issue. I made sure of it. I kept mostly to myself, with a small handful of close friends. Even they didn’t know the violence that lived within—no one knew. Not my friends, not my parents —when they were alive—not even the one person I trusted and loved most in this world—my aunt.
Part of it was shame, and part of it was fear. What if someone found out? I’d no doubt be branded a freak. The nuthouse would surely be my new home.
None of it made sense. No doctor or meds could help me.
Regardless, I tried not to reflect about my freakish attributes, and how different they made me. What I wouldn’t give to be free of whatever curse or hex I’d been born with. That was how I thought of it: a curse. Nothing like this could be good. I refused to allow myself to get mad or e
ven on the verge of angry. I walked away.
Until today.
I would have walked away today if only Rianne had let it go. If she hadn’t pushed me further and further, until there was no other response but to react. If only she hadn’t chosen this day to harass and bully one of my best friends. And maybe if I hadn’t already been in a shitty mood. There was an underlying headache, hammering at my skull, that wouldn’t quit gnawing away. Or if Tori, Austin and I had stayed another minute at our lockers, fooling around, we wouldn’t have passed Rianne in the pit.
Today was turning out to be the day from hell.
But as it turned out, we did pass Rianne, and she had bumped intentionally into Austin, knocking him down and spewing vile words at him in her skanky cheerleader voice. A voice which begged me to tear her into shreds and rip out her wicked tongue. She had no regard for the hurt she caused others.
Austin wasn’t a big guy. He might be a few inches over my five-foot, two-inch frame, putting him almost at equal level with Rianne. His weight wasn’t much more than her either. If only I had his metabolism. He ate like a starving horse and still looked like a stick figure. Today he had on skinny jeans, which emphasized his scrawny legs. Hair, product styled, was still perfectly in place, framed by his bottle glass green eyes, now bright with humiliation. He had the whole GQ thing going for him.
Regardless, it wasn’t how Austin looked or how he dressed that had Rianne yelling those choice words out over the pit. It wasn’t enough that she’d purposely rammed into him while we were making our way through the crowd. If it had been anything else, I would have been able to maintain the thread holding my anger in check.
“Get out of the way, faggot.” She shrieked over the bustle and commotion of the circular room deemed “the pit”. The crowd was making their way to final period. With both palms spread, she took advantage of his unsteadiness and shoved, sprawling him over the mascot in the center of the pit, where practically the entire school congregated between classes.
Yep, Austin was gay.
My control snapped like a rubber band. The combination of hearing my friend being called that ugly name, and seeing him tossed ass first on the school’s dull gray carpet caused the first kindling of my temper.
Momentarily stunned, I just glared at Rianne while the assault of emotions snuck up on me. Somewhere in the smog, I remembered Tori speaking to Austin.
“You okay?” she whispered, giving Austin a hand up.
If he had given her a reply, it was lost by the bursting flood of rage consuming me.
Recklessly, I reached out in front of me and grabbed Rianne’s arm, stopping her from turning and walking away. Her sneering golden eyes pierced into mine with disgust, like little spears of hate. She couldn’t believe I had the gall to touch her. I was normally quiet and very non-confrontational. This was so out of the norm, it hit a home run off left field.
With a tug, she attempted to shake off my grasp, but my hold held like vise grips. “L-E-T go of me,” she hissed through clenched teeth, drawing out the threat. But her anger was nothing to match my own. Right then my fury spiked. Fervor raced in my blood, tumbling into my fingertips. My hand trembled under the tight clutch I had on her arm.
When I spoke, my voice sounded nothing like my own. It quivered with potency. “Like hell. You should watch what you say,” I spat.
There was a falter in her expression when she’d felt the burn, the sting radiated from my fingers. Again she tried to wiggle out of my hold. When she failed a second time, her gaze turned to mine and widened in astonishment, skepticism, and a touch of fear.
“Your eyes,” she accused, staring intently into mine. “What’s wrong with your eyes?” her voice cracked, giving away the shock she must have felt. Appalled, her feet scrambled to back up.
I stepped forward, my heart accelerating. Thumping heavily against my chest, her admission put anxiety into my stomach. I let go of her arm with a quick jerk. She stumbled once, unsteady on her feet, but never took her eyes from mine. They bore into me with fear and repulsion, branding me like the freak I felt.
My breath came in quick pants as I averted my gaze and closed my eyes tight, trying to get a handle on the rage still pumping in me. Calming the quick pants to longer slower ones, I recalled one of the meditation techniques I’d learned. I didn’t know what Rianne thought she saw in my eyes, other than extreme anger, I tried to remind myself. Even if her fear had been real, it was hardly out of Rianne’s character to make a fool out of others in front of the whole school. Hell, it was what she did on a daily basis.
I continued to mentally talk myself down, and slowly the anger receded. The warmth faded from my skin, and the overwhelming urge to punish Rianne drifted with the loss of contact.
“Brianna, are you okay?” Tori asked behind me over the retreating buzz in my skull.
Shaking my head, I tried to clear the rattled outburst, berating myself for the enormous slip in front of the entire school. If I wasn’t thought of as odd and weird before, this just put me on the front page of weirdos attending Holly Ridge High.
“What did you do to me?” Rianne screeched, her tone simultaneous contemptuous and fearful.
Saying nothing, I opened my eyes to see her clutching the arm I had grasped. Dread sunk to the soles of my converse- covered heels. Had I really done that? Was I capable of inflicting that kind of harm with just my fingers?
Swollen, cherry red marks lined Rianne’s arm in the spots my fingers had clasped. The wound looked like imprints or burn marks from a flatiron that had penetrated her flesh, except my fingers had been the branding iron.
There was no doubt of the horror now blistering Rianne’s forearm. Embarrassment, regret, and shame swarmed my gut, twisting it heavily with sour guilt. I couldn’t answer questions I didn’t have answers for, so I quickly turned to leave.
Like a gust of wind, I became acutely aware of the large audience my spectacle had created. They stood circled around Rianne, Tori, Austin and I, some chanting and jeering our names, encouraging a fight.
Without a second thought, I pushed my way through an opening in the awkward sea of people. I rushed forward before someone could stop me, and the need for escape steamrolled over me.
There were too many eyes.
Too many questions.
Too much emotion.
My mind seemed to have temporarily abandoned me. There was no explanation for my actions, or for my legs carrying me not to my last class, but to the exit doors of the school. I’d never, in three years of high school, ever ditched out on a class.
I know, unfathomable.
However, I’m among the select few who like school. Okay, maybe not so much school, but learning. Being shy and mostly socially challenged, books were more my friend than my peers—Tori and Austin the exception.
My actions today were so out of character for me, I began to doubt who I thought I was. I hated confrontation. I never caused trouble. And I don’t attack people in the hall, burning the fuse on my temper.
Never.
Right now, all I knew was, I had to get out of here, run from what I had just done. The walls of the school suffocated me in their confines.
Chapter 2
As I stepped out the front door of school, a soothing breeze whipped through my tousled dark hair, washing over my flushed face. It cooled the heat that had crept up on me during my rage. The balmy air was scented with just a taste of the ocean in the distance. It never seemed far away.
Holly Ridge, North Carolina, had been in the midst of one of those dreamy, sun-drenched days. But now gray clouds were rolling across the sky, the ground was drenched from a downpour of rain, and a crackling of lightning lit in the distance, followed by a gentle rumble of thunder. Whatever storm had passed through was on its way out. Ironic. It fit my mood—dreary and unpredictable.
I peered around at the lush landscape, a sight I often took for granted. The overhang of trees and grass met the sandy shores, and then plunged into depths of expansive,
sparkling turquoise sea. Blades of grass began to glisten as sunbeams tried to break through the storm clouds.
Inhaling a deep gush of sea-flavored misty air, I rounded the corner to the backside of the building, rushing toward the parking lot. A strange prickly sensation climbed over me, like clashing with a cactus. I brushed it off and took the corner faster than planned, speeding up my retreat. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who apparently skipped out of school early today.
