This is a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.
In the ashes of her past, she will rise up, and her death will save us all.
Lizzie ran from her past for ten years, zigzagging across the United States every few months, trying to outlast the prophesy that an oracle gave to her when she was just sixteen years old.
But nobody can run from their destiny forever.
After watching her friend brutally gunned down by a group of ruthless demons, she had no choice but to protect the woman’s child, and there was only one place where Lizzie knew the girl would be safe.
Bronard, Missouri.
Home.
She stayed away to protect her parents, but the girl needed mystical protection.
Her parents had taken in magical strays their whole lives, including Lizzie. If anyone could save the poor child’s life, it would be her mother and father.
But will returning to her home doom Lizzie even as she works to save the child she has vowed to defend?
Exhaustion didn’t begin to describe how tired I was. When Dad and I returned to the house that night, not only were we physically drained from standing on our feet all day, but we were emotionally shattered from repeatedly rubbing the rawness of our loss.
“I’m going to bed,” I said, trudging up the stairs.
“Can you take your old room, kiddo? I’d like to sleep in the guest room.” Dad asked. “I can’t be in my room right now.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
The bed in my old room was more comfortable than most of the motels I’d stayed in over the past few years, but it was hard as a rock compared to the guest room’s. Still, how could I complain? We would probably have to change mom’s mattress, if not the whole bed, before he could get on with sleeping in there again, but we would cross that bridge tomorrow, maybe later. Mom’s death was too fresh to imagine doing anything functional except close my eyes.
Tomorrow, I thought to myself as I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. Or, I would have liked to drift off, except that as I did, a bright blue light filled the room. I opened my eyes to see a glowing blue man, unbound from his body, projecting something like the aura of himself at the edge of the bed.
“Elizabeth, you have been chosen by the great powers beyond and have turned from your quest. It is now the time to turn back toward it, for fate had finally aligned fo—”
“Shut up,” I growled, throwing the blanket over my head.
“Excuse me?” the voice said, indignant. “I am Saint Nari, herald of the archangel Gabriel, and you will—”
“I said shut up,” I grumbled, turning from him. “Can’t you hear? I am not interested.”
“Wha—in all my years I have neve—” The angel stammered. “I have a message to deliver, and I will have you listen to it.”
I rolled back to him and sat up in bed. “If I listen, will you go away and leave me alone?”
“That is the nature of a messenger. Now, if you will allow me to herald for a moment, it would be preferable to the alternative.”
A chorus of angels chimed behind him in song, making Nari’s appearance even more insufferable.
“Which is?”
He held up a finger. “Me boring the message into your skull with my index finger.”
“That doesn’t sound pleasant.”
“It is not.”
“And there is no scenario where you just…go away? I don’t want any of what you’re selling.”
“I hear that a lot, actually.”
“That’s not surprising. I have never heard of anybody that was visited by an angel and had a good time afterward.”
“How—how did you know I was an angel?”
“Do you not hear the choir behind you?” I shook my head, exasperated. “Seriously, I need you to take about 40 percent off whatever is going on right now.”
The angel tried to hide his irritation, but it was written all over his face. “I come from a long tradition of—”
“Just get on with it then. I’m trying to sleep.”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t need your life story. The longer you are here, the more annoying you get. Since I can’t get rid of you until you make your speech, get on with it.”
“Well—uuhh—” He scratched his head. “I forget what I was supposed to say.”
I sighed again. “Let me help. I have a great destiny. I’m supposed to save the world. It’s almost time to get started, for the fate of the universe is at stake. Or something like that, right?”
“Uhh—yeah—that’s kind of exactly—how did you know that?”
“I got my prophecy when I was twelve. I’ve known all this for a long time, but now that you’re here, it means that I was right to stay away from this place.”
“Are you thinking of foregoing your destiny? That would be disastrous to the world. I can’t even begin to th—”
“Let me stop you right there,” I growled. “Why do I care what happens to the world? I’ll be dead. I won’t even be able to enjoy this world I’m saving. So, I’ll ask again, why should I give a care?”
Nari floated toward me. “You are part of this world. Those you love are part of this world. Would you not want to save it for them?”
“There’s only one person I care about in this world, and he’s old as dirt.”
“And what about the girl? Do you not care about her?”
I leaped out of bed and stomped over to the angel. “You leave her out of this.”
“I’m sorry. She is very much in this, and if you wish her to stay safe, I suggest you change your attitude.”
“Is—that a threat? Is an angel threatening me?”
Nari shook his head. “No, not threatening. Just stating facts. We cannot make you choose your fate, but the sooner you accept it, the better it will be for everyone and the higher chance you have to save this world you claim to hate.” The angel floated back toward the wall. “But the choice is yours, jerk.”
The angel snapped his fingers and vanished. It might not have been a direct threat by an angel, but he confirmed there was a threat to Veronica’s life. I needed to protect her, no matter the cost. You promised to protect her, Lizzie, but what if running toward her was exactly what the stupid angels wanted in the first place? What if that put her in more danger?
Even if that might be true, I couldn’t just stand around and do nothing. I snuck out of my room and downstairs to the kitchen. Dad kept Kimberly’s number on a Post-It note in our junk drawer when I was younger, and I was happy to see he hadn’t moved it in the decade since I left.
I pounded the number into the phone and waited for her to pick up. Unfortunately, all I got was her voicemail.
“Kimberly, I need to talk to you right now. She’s in trouble. Do you hear me? Get here now. I’ll be out back so as not to wake Dad.”
I slammed the phone down, put on a coat, and made my way to the backyard, a hundred yards from the house so that I couldn’t be heard through the windows. There, I waited in the cold for Kimberly to come.
Please come, Kimberly. I can’t save the girl without you.
It was thirty minutes in the frigid cold before the flash of purple smoke popped in front of me. I waved my hands, and Kimberly trudged over, yawning and stretching her arms.
“This better be good. You roused me from a great dream about eatin—”
“An angel just came to me, said that the prophecy was about to come tru—you know what, that part doesn’t matter. He said that Veronica is in trouble, and I have to save her.”
“That sounds like angel bologna to me. Trying to manipulate you into playing their game, the one you’ve been ducking for a decade.”
“And what if it’s not?”
“Then I—”
Cars screeched in front of our house. As they came to a stop, three red flashes popped in the front yard.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Kimberly said. “This is not good.”
“Who are they?”
“Demons, I’m guessing. I was worried this would happen. The wards on your house were bound to your mother. I had made a second set bound to your father, but when Carl decided to play hero and try to save his wife—well, he doesn’t have magic anymore…I’ll bet when that angel came, it was like a beacon for demons.”
“Dad!” I screamed. It didn’t matter if I was okay. The idea of his burning in that house flashed through my brain.
I smashed through the back door just as a fireball exploded through the living room. Five demons rushed inside, each uglier and more grotesque than the last, with red horns atop their heads and faces contorted in fury.
“Crepitus glacies!” I shouted. Ice shot out of my hands and exploded in the faces of the demons, sending them flying backward. “Vento tempestas!”
A galeforce wind blew from my fingers and spun two of the demons out of the door. One of the remaining demons rushed forward, a fiery sword burning in his hand. As he raised it into the air and charged, a pink plume of smoke appeared in front of him, and Kimberly stuck two daggers into the demon’s throat. He dropped the sword, which set fire to the floor and the alcove next to the stairs.
Another demon charged just as an explosion rocked above us. The demon flew backward, and I looked up to see Dad ambling down the stairs with a shotgun.
“Get her out of here!” He fired another round as a demon rushed through the door and threw a fireball at him. Dad fired one more round before he went up in flames.
“Dad!” I went to help him, but Kimberly grabbed me and pulled me toward the back of the house. “Let go of me!”
“If we stay here, we die!” A tinge of sadness rose in her voice. She had spent almost as much time in that house during my childhood as I had. “We have to go.”
The demons were closing in on us, and I knew we had no choice. With one last look at my father as he laid limp on the landing above us, I let Kimberly drag me away. Behind us, the fire consumed the whole house, except the demons that chased after us.
My past, and everything I had ever loved, was gone in an instant.
This is a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.