Light

by Adrienne Woods

  Dream Casters Light The Dream Caster Series 1

  Copyright © 2015 Adrienne Woods

  Illustration: Joemel Requeza

  If you purchased this e-book from anyone other than Fire Quill Publishing or a licensed FQP reseller, you should be aware this e-book is stolen property.

  This e-book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Fire Quill Publishing

  www.firequillpublishing.com

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  All graphics and text associated with Fire Quill Publishing.

  Formatting by www.firequillpublishing.com

  Manufactured in South Africa.

  First Fire Quill publishing edition May 2015

  ISBN: 978-0-9946536-7-3

  To my best friend of twenty years Vinique, her family Graig and my two beautiful Monkeys, Ashton and Leighthan. Thank you for your love and support and for the inspiration behind Dream Casters. Love you lots.

  xoxoxo

  Adrienne

  First and the most important, as always, thanks is to our Father in Heaven, for blessing me still every day, without Your guidance, I wouldn’t have done or finished with another novel if You were not involved in this every day. You are my purpose of life and I will love You till the end of time.

  Then I would like to thank my extraordinary proof readers, you know who you are, for your valuable input, patience and willingness to delve into another one of my worlds.

  For the endless support of my family; My husband Heinrich and two beautiful daughters. I would be lost without your loving support and your ability to keep me pursuing a new project each and every time.

  A special thanks to my wonderful editors, Hillery, you are still a true Paegeian, and now a true Reveran citizen as well. Your love for beautiful words has given yet another project the wings it needed to soar. Monique and Zoe, have become true citizens too, and your insight to the words on these pages made Chastity and all her friends so much more entertaining, and a big thank you for polishing my work to perfection.

  To my cover artist Joemel. You nailed this one 100 percent and I’m in awe of your talent and how better you get with time. You were able to reach once again into my imagination, capture, and re-imagine a world I thought only I would ever see. Because of your passion and skill my book will be judged by its cover for sure.

  To my publishing company, Fire Quill, for giving a home to my all my series and to the best team I ever worked with. Helen, Gerald, Sandra, Carlyle, Monique and Kelly, Hillery and Zoe, you are all stars for making my novels reach much further then I dream for.

  Last, but not the least, a big thanks to my fans. I hope you are going to love this new story, be open mind please as its completely different from the Dragonian Series. I will always, always be grateful for your love and support.

  Lots of love

  Adrienne Woods

  Acknowledgement

  PART ONE

  1. This is Me

  2. Lost

  3. The Initiation

  4. Uninvited Guests

  5. The Cabin

  6. The Truth Sucks

  7. The Art of War

  8. My Sand

  PART TWO

  9. Parting Ways

  10. The Outer

  11. The Compound

  12 Tests

  13. A Rude Avakening

  14. Guild and Stenght

  15. Dead and Alive

  16. The Truth Sucks even worse

  17. The Guile

  18. Dombeya

  19. Light and Shadow

  20. Faries are Real

  PART THREE

  21. The Institute

  22. Cats! What more can I say

  23. Silly little Pendants

  24. Dream a Little Dream of Me

  25. Just Plain Freaky

  26. Make or Break

  27. Embrace

  28. Love and Loss

  TWO SETS OF FOOTSTEPS MADE BARELY A SOUND ON the rough and weathered wood as they walked across the bridge that led from Main Pacific to the Glands. The streetlights were dimmed as dusk began to settle and last vestiges of light from the setting sun were fading to night. The lumbering clouds were moving in, blocking out any light from the two moons that shone overhead, even the stars seemed less bright dotted across their velvet backdrop. With his golden dust Graig Chen could conjure and wield anything by simply believing in its reality. If he wanted it to be real, it would be.

  The Reverse was the most painful thing either of them had ever experienced, but Liam, a healer and Graig’s only confidant, had promised him that they would be able to live in the Domain like normal Nomads, humans.

  Graig and his pregnant fiancé, were fleeing from their home world in secret, having no other choice if they desired a normal life for their unborn child.

  They knew neither of their families would ever understand, even though it had been his grandmother who had always said, the heart wants, what the heart wants. How could he have known that his heart would want a Shadow Caster, and not just any ordinary Shadow Caster. She was special, or at least her family was. She was expected to uphold the family line with her offspring, Graig knew that did not include carrying the child of a Light Caster.

  The two lovers could never live in peace, not since the balance between good and evil inside Revera was thrown into upheaval. There were only two choices for casters like them, either light or dark. The balance could not accommodate a person containing both, so for his child’s sake they had no choice but to leave Revera and live like normal humans in the Domain, or what humans would call reality. He’d found a perfect place, one he’d made sure no one would ever find, not even his two best friends.

  They knew about the relationship, they’d been there when he’d first laid eyes on her, tried to talk him out of it, to forget the blonde bombshell that would only cause him darkness and misery, but without her his life would be spent in darkness and misery.

  Her silver blonde hair and bright blue eyes had done him in, if only he’d seen the bow that she’d aimed straight at his heart. If it hadn’t been for his love when the arrow hit, and for Liam, a healer, he wouldn’t be in his current predicament; trying to get him and her off this dimension; a world that most people would call make-believe, but Revera was far from that. It was the world of dreams, and Graig was a Level Four Caster whose mission was to retrieve others living in the Domain out for Selene, their only live Somnium. It was on one of these very missions that he had met the love of his life, the one woman he couldn’t live without, and he didn’t care if she had black dust, he didn’t care that she was a Shadow Caster, or what some would call a nightmare wielder. Yes, those horrible dreams that leave you paralyzed with fear are actually wielded by Casters, not some grave impression of one’s subconscious. They are responsible for doubts and forgotten dreams. She was his nightmare, and a nightmare he was prepared to die for.

  He knew deep down that she would never survive living in Revera and he was unable to cope with the Oblivion, wherever it was. Oblivion was the realm of the Shadow Casters, created when Selene cast out Magdelena, the very first Shadow Casters, who was the third Somnium, as a consequence for the death of her brother, Darius, the second Somnium. Magdelena had no realm to call her own, so she created Oblivion by focusing her hatred toward Selene, a world that could exist inside Revera, far from Selene’s sight. For years, Selene tried to find it, but as long as the Sodivic bloodline flowed through Shadow Caster’s veins, Oblivion would never be found by a
Light Caster.

  Sodivic blood was the key to Oblivion’s secrecy, and Magdalena’s family line. There were many Sodivic’s since the dawning of Oblivion but Magdelena reigned over them all. Graig had met many Sodivic’s on his quests, each meeting always ending up in a bloody mess, and in all the years he had encountered them, not one had ever shown any kind of mercy or remorse. They were sadistic and couldn’t be reasoned with. He had been taught from a young age, if you see a Sodivic, you kill it. That was the number one rule taught to the Level One Light Casters.

  His fiancé was the only one that proved his theory wrong. Over the past century, their bloodline had been busy dying out, leaving her one of the few powerful Shadow Casters left.

  Graig would pay dearly for loving her if her father ever found them, and he couldn’t even think about what would happen to the unborn child she carried.

  Graig squeezed the hand that was resting tightly inside his own grip as they neared the end of the bridge.

  “We’re almost there, my love. Not much longer.”

  “You’re sure nobody followed us?” Her eyes were wild, searching everywhere in the darkness.

  “I’m sure. Besides, they won’t be able to see us.” He opened his hand, just to make sure she hadn’t forgotten what he was, and threw more golden sand into the air, shielding them from anything that tried to follow them.

  Then he heard it. A crunch. He stopped abruptly and she slammed into him. One second of doubt was all it took to break the spell, and before he could realized, they were surrounded by Nimgolians, the biggest and most wicked shadow hounds imaginable. They were evil, and reminded him of a Rottweiler that had chased him one time in the Domain.

  Dogs could always see them, whereas humans couldn’t. He had always assumed the dust worked differently for animals. He used to toy with them, he’d told Zac once it was a good work out, before hitting them with a dose of dust that would kick them out for at least half a day. Against these hounds, however, his golden dust didn’t just put them to sleep, it put them to sleep forever.

  “Take my bag,” Graig spoke softly, reaching out his hand.

  “I’m not leaving you. I can fight.”

  “These are your family. It’s enough that you have to know that they will die, I’m not going to let you kill them.”

  “I don’t give a shit, Graig. You are my family now, you and bean, nobody else.”

  Graig smiled. Ever since they’d found out that she was pregnant, she’d called the fetus, bean. Spinning her in his arms, he gave her a hard kiss and handed her a Celestial—an oval shaped gel pendant that would take her and the child to their safe haven, in case he didn’t make it—and a small green bag filled with his dust. “Just in case,” he spoke, swallowing the lump in his throat.

  “There is no in case, you make it, you hear?”

  She planted a hard passionate kiss on his lips. The kind that filled him with confidence, he had no doubts, not even in that second, that would have given away their hiding place.

  “Vinicola, are you sure you want to do this?” One of the Shadow Casters mounted on the back of a hound, growled. His voice made Graig’s skin crawl. Everything about them screamed evil. How that power ran through this beautiful creature standing fiercely next to him, was beyond his knowledge.

  Graig surveyed the Caster before him. His hair was wild, hung to his shoulders, and was pure white, just like his love’s. He must be her family, but how close he didn’t know. Yet, the man didn’t look anything like her. He was big, had broad shoulders, and was dirty.

  Vinicola laughed, the laugh that Graig hated. It didn’t sound anything like her, but it was the only language she knew to speak, a sound that told them if they killed her, they would feel her father’s wrath. This was purely a retrieval mission, but it was a wipe out for him. “Sibian, you can tell him I’m done with Oblivion, and nothing you do will ever drag me back to that wretched hell-hole you love so much.”

  “Your mind seems a bit clouded, dear,” the Shadow Caster said. “Let me refresh it.” He lifted up his hands and let his dust flow freely, and four more Shadow Hounds appeared out of his dark sand.

  Graig whipped his bow from his shoulder and started to shoot invisible arrows that would take shape through his golden dust.

  The hounds that were hit fell into useless heaps of black sand. Vinicola ripped off her whip that had been secured around her waist, and did the same. The other hounds exploded into the sky, but they weren’t destroyed, they would re-emerge a couple of minutes later, whole once again.

  It was useless for her to fight, she only gave him a couple of minutes as she was still one of them, even though she’d made the choice to leave in her heart.

  Graig made sure he used all the minutes she gave him and when it was time for the full on fight, they both took on two at a time.

  He conjured his sword for full-on battle and started slashing away.

  “Graig!” Vinicola’s voice yelled in panic. When he found her she was captured, with a huge Shadow Caster’s arm around her neck.

  In those few seconds he felt defeated, their plan was ruined and he knew he wouldn’t get a second chance with her.

  As he stood there, an axe hit him straight in the back, the dark sand ripping his veins inside his body apart. It hurt like hell, and he could feel his golden sand starting to seep out of him. Vinicola’s shrill scream pierced the night air around them.

  He wasn’t going to survive this, but he’d made the choice for the love of his life and their unborn child.

  He took a Celestial out of his pocket— stood up with a mother of an axe still inside of him—and mustered all the strength he had. He had only moments to act before the others would come, or worse, take her away.

  He threw the Celestial hard on the ground near her feet and yelled the word “San Francisco” as loud as he could. In an instant, a bright light blinded all the Shadow Casters and he watched her close her eyes tightly.

  Vinicola knew what to do and he watched as she, and the Shadow Caster who had his arm around her neck, disappeared.

  The Shadow Caster would die. His DNA wasn’t attached to the Celestial, and he wouldn’t make the trip. He had won. Just then another object sliced through his neck and he fell on the floor, the last images he saw was a body without a head before everything went black.

  “CRAP, CRAP, CRAP,” WHERE THE ONLY WORDS THAT left my mouth as I took each painful step. Rollins knew just how to give ballet lessons that were straight from Nick’s pit. A stabbing pain ran up my calf and I had to stop as it went into a spasm. That should teach me to be late for class.

  If it hadn’t been for Clare Bean—yep, her surname was Bean, which led to plenty of teasing when she was little—I would’ve been on time. I would’ve had that extra ten minutes to stretch.

  We had always been friends, Clare and I, since we were crawling around in diapers. Her house was a couple of houses down from mine and our moms were all too happy to bring us over for play dates. But since Ass and Abs, Taylor Winchester, had come into the picture, Clare had gone all gaga and friendship didn’t seem to mean a thing to her anymore.

  At first he hadn’t been too bad. He’d always had a thing for Clare, but a month ago at his party, we’d been sort of trapped in the basement alone for a couple of minutes and he’d declared his ‘undying love and affection’ to me. Me, Chastity Blake, or just Chas as my friends call me, let me rephrase, as my friends used to call me, as I’d rejected his affection, using finger quotes. Every girl my age knew what guys, especially the ones that looked like Ty, meant when they declared their affection to you.

  Clare was my best friend, what else was I supposed to do? I’d thought the idiot would feel like stinky feet and forget about it, but no, he thought that I should be taught a lesson, and told Clare that I’d made a move on him. She’d actually believed the dog.

  Now for the past four weeks I’d had to endure their humiliation on a daily basis. First it was the posters on every locker with guys names cros
sed out. The entire baseball team from what it looked like, and the heading was Chastity Blake’s To Do List.

  It was so lame, but coming from her, it hurt. It hurt a lot.

  I thought everyone would forget about that in a week, but they didn’t and more rumors were added on.

  Then came the exploding paint in my locker. I struggled to get the red paint out of my hair and had walked around with it for an entire week. My mom almost had a heart attack though, acting all strange and was ready to pack up and leave.

  Today, they locked me in the girl’s bathroom. I crawled out the window, which wasn’t easy, and that was why I was late today.

  Still, I tried to ignore it, even though it came from my best friend. Standing up to them would only cause more shit.

  As I kept walking, the fork in the road came nearer. One path led through the city. Five traffic lights with many twist and turns flashed though my head. The other road led past the lake. No traffic lights and it was a shorter route, but my mother disliked me taking that one. Still today was the perfect day to make an exception.

  I chose the lake and started to think about my crappy situation again and regret of telling Mom not to pick me up from ballet, really started to bite me in the ass. Literally. It was like a tiny stabbing jolts of pain on my bum that ached with every step I took.

  The next couple of years of school would probably suck if there wasn’t an end to Clare’s pranks soon and my father, sorry, step-father, Tim “the military man” Swanson, wasn’t going to move just because of the social life epidemic I was experiencing.

  I never understood why Mom had married him. There wasn’t a time that I couldn’t remember Tim not being in our lives, but she was so different from him. She was a free spirit, loved to paint and for some reason she had a thing about dreams. Since I was little, she’s always asked me what I dreamt about the night before. It was creepy to people that didn’t know my mom but it didn’t bother me much.