Realms of Light (The Colliding Line Book 2) Read online

  Acclaim for

  REALMS OF LIGHT

  “In Realms of Light, Sandra Fernandez Rhoads uses the best of fantasy fiction to cleverly blend in Paradise Lost as a backstory. The result is a fast-paced story driven by intimate portrayals of characters who display a realistic range of human strengths and faults, rich settings that draw in readers, and a vibrant plot that leads to a conclusion that surprises yet satisfyingly ties together narrative threads from the first volume of this duology, Mortal Sight.”

  —Angelica Duran,

  President of the Milton Society of America (2020–2021) and Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Religious Studies at Purdue University

  “An epic conclusion to The Colliding Line, Realms of Light is a beautiful, clever ending to this duology. New friends, new enemies, and new mysteries await in this bewitching tale!”

  —Gabriella Graves,

  Disney Channel actor

  “The dark, fantastic adventure that began in Mortal Sight yields new and surprising revelations in this thrilling sequel. Allusions to classic art, Milton's poetry, and Machiavellian philosophy give the book's lore a fresh and fascinating twist as Realms of Light twists toward an apocalyptic, pulse-racing climax. Sandra Fernandez Rhoads is a YA fantasy author to watch!”

  —R.J. Anderson,

  award-winning author of Knife, Ultraviolet and The Flight and the Flame Trilogy

  “Realms of Light propels The Colliding Line duology to a breathless, dazzling conclusion. What Sandra Fernandez Rhoads began in Mortal Sight is expanded, enriched, and deepened in Realms. I loved it.”

  —Lindsay A. Franklin,

  award-winning author of The Story Peddler

  “With nonstop intrigue, new characters who stole my heart, and, of course, the poetic quality of Rhoads' storytelling, I completely devoured this book and all of its mysteries! It is truly a thoughtful and heart-pounding conclusion to Cera's journey in finding a place in the world and ultimately learning acceptance of herself.”

  —Krissi Dallas,

  author of the Phantom Island series

  Realms of Light

  Copyright © 2021 by Sandra Fernandez Rhoads

  Published by Enclave Publishing, an imprint of Third Day Books, LLC

  Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

  www.enclavepublishing.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, digitally stored, or transmitted in any form without written permission from Third Day Books, LLC.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-1-62184-164-7 (printed hardback)

  ISBN: 978-1-62184-166-1 (printed softcover)

  ISBN: 978-1-62184-165-4 (ebook)

  Cover design by Kirk DouPonce, www.DogEaredDesign.com

  Typesetting by Jamie Foley, www.JamieFoley.com

  For my mother & my late father

  Who taught me to persevere

  &

  For Donna

  Who guided me through the storms

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Cover

  Acclaim for Realms of Light

  Half-Title

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  1. Uriel’s Sunbeam

  2. The Arbor

  3. Mad Martin

  4. Out of the Shadows

  5. Extraordinary Advantage

  6. Until Now

  7. Broken Goblet

  8. Empyrean Well

  9. Training Game

  10. A Blight Like Me

  11. Destroyer

  12. The Nightmare

  13. Winter

  14. Wilderness

  15. The Answer

  16. Scars

  17. Planning for War

  18. Captured

  19. Into My Hands

  20. Enemy Grounds

  21. Sage Marrock Lasalle

  22. The Gallery

  23. About My Father

  24. The Fall

  25. Reentry

  26. The Threat

  27. Worlds Collide

  28. Haunting and Beautiful

  29. Ghost Army

  30. The Transfer

  31. The Fox and the Lion

  32. Rise

  33. Breaking Through

  34. Wrath Awakened

  35. A Place Foretold

  36. Battles and Realms

  37. Dying

  38. One Realm

  39. A Spark Lights

  40. After the Storm

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  I bounce my foot as Devon drives us deeper into the forest at a crawling pace. Maddox sits beside me, tapping a restless beat on his knee as the rumbling engine fills the growing silence. Autumn leaves blanket our path, and the bleak horizon blocks out the rising sun, but I know it’s there, hiding behind the clouds, waiting to break through.

  “Is the wound bothering you?” Harper flattens the edge of the bandage wrapped around my burnt calf. “The serum will probably wear off soon.”

  “It’s fine, really.” I’m far from fine. But it’s not the wound that troubles me. With every passing minute, I get closer to the Alliance Council Estate—the one place Mom has spent the last ten years keeping me safe from. And I’m terrified.

  “Keep watch for any creatures. We’re not in the clear yet.” Devon’s weary eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror.

  I’ve been watching and listening for hours, sandwiched in the back, caught next to Harper, who keeps shooting Maddox a side-eyed stare, making him shift uncomfortably. Every now and then he glances at me, tightening his lips, holding back words his eyes are fighting to say. But words can’t erase the awkwardness between us.

  I look out the window. No violent wind signals beastly Cormorants overhead, and no misted Legions creep along the prickly underbrush, tracking our path. “We’ve set good distance. Nothing’s in sight.”

  Pop, who’s been quietly resting in the front seat, grunts and adjusts his sunglasses. “Don’t use your eyes.”

  Use my senses, I know. But smells collide in this stuffy car, making it hard to detect any ash or sulfur in the air, so I close my eyes to listen and feel for anything out of the ordinary. But as far as I can tell, “Everything’s clear.”

  Maddox tips his head against the glass to look at the treetops. “Yeah, but somewhere out there, Sage is commanding those things to kill innocent people.”

  Harper clutches the duffle bag in her lap. “Like he did with me.”

  I check the sky again. “He can be stopped.” At least I hope. If not, then there’s no telling how many others will die.

  “Our trip to Council isn’t about stopping Sage.” Devon makes a hard turn, sending me into Maddox’s shoulder.

  A swarming flutter takes flight inside my stomach as his bold scent of rain envelops me. I snuff out the feeling and hold on to Pop’s headrest, clawing into the aged-velour cushion to stay upright. “It’s about keeping a half-breed like me out of Sage’s hands, I know.”

  I’ve decided to offer up whatever I can to help Council’s cause and prove I’m on their side. And hopefully in return I’ll get training. Maybe even fight in the war.

  That is, of course, if they don’t kill me at first sight.

  Devon suddenly stops the car out in the middle of nowhere. The only thing visible deep inside the woods is a twenty-foot gate overgrown with thorny vines, once built, then forgotten. No fence sprawls out from either side of the
aged pillars. No road marks a path. It’s simply an obsolete structure abandoned in the middle of the autumn forest.

  “Something wrong?” I ask.

  Pop grips his cane and sits up. “We’re at the gate, Honey.”

  Verses from Paradise Lost race through my mind at that same moment:

  Three folds were brass,

  Three iron, three of adamantine rock

  Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire

  Yet unconsumed.

  Those lines describe the gates that keep the archfiend bound in hell—not a comforting thought when I’m about to meet the Alliance Council, Milton. But at second glance, his description is spot on. The gate isn’t one solid color or material but a twisted mesh of metal and rock, or hundreds of swords tangled together. All that’s missing is the fire along the perimeter.

  Harper smacks her lips after applying pink lip gloss. “I only see an ivy pillar.”

  Maddox sinks in the seat. “Those are statues.”

  I lean forward for a better look out the front windshield. When I do, the flower hairpin Gladys gave me, the one I lost and Maddox found, pokes at me from inside my pocket. I adjust the pin through the fabric and take a second look.

  Maddox is right. Two giant statues covered in climbing ivy flank the gate. The one on the right stands on a light ray carved in white marble. Milton nudges me with the verse, “Gliding through the ev’n / On a sunbeam, swift as a shooting star.” That’s how you described the angel of the sun, Uriel. But Uriel guarded earth, not hell.

  “Who’s waitin’ for us?” Pop asks Devon.

  “Can’t tell.” Devon parks the car. “Let me go check.”

  When Devon gets out of the car, so does Maddox. Harper soon follows, and I can’t help but do the same. Maybe taking a better look at the statues will bridge the connection that, without a copy of Milton’s poem, feels just out of reach. Not only that, a quick breath of fresh air might settle my nerves. I scoot across the fabric seat, careful not to aggravate my wound.

  “Everyone get back in the car,” Devon says, before my feet have touched the ground.

  “We’ve been cramped up for hours.” Harper stretches her arms over her head with a yawn. “Give us a minute.”

  “Make it quick.” Devon checks the sky and walks toward the gate.

  I know the longer I stay outside, the easier it is for the creatures to find me, but the crisp air gives me a freeing burst of energy. And with a clear view of both pillars, I might pick up a clue on what to expect from Alliance Council.

  The statues are majestic. Uriel is beautifully carved with sharp eyes and thick ivory locks swept back by the wind. The second pillar is sculpted in charcoal-gray marble. Tangled ivy climbs over his opulent armor and cradles his handsome face as he stares into the distance with a warlike glare.

  “Chief of the angelic guards, awaiting night,” Milton whispers in my head.

  Gabriel? But he guarded Eden, and this place is far from a lush garden. Everything around me, including the woods on the other side of the gate, decays and smells of fall.

  Just then, the hazy sun streaks though the treetops and lands on a blanket of leaves strewn on the dusty ground. Tingles ripple over my skin as the ground shimmers, and I’m drawn to the flittering light. It’s as if each leaf is dipped in wet gold. What is this place?

  Before Devon can scold me back in the car, an older woman with sun-weathered skin and a smooth black bun steps out from behind Uriel’s sunbeam. She stays behind the gate, holding a lantern even though it’s the middle of the day. Eager flames wrestle inside the glass as she waves the light up and down, then left and right behind the statue. As soon as she completes the last motion, a rumbling tremor pulses through the ground like the earth itself is opening to swallow me whole.

  I jump back.

  “What is that?” Harper speaks my thoughts, looking about as skittish as I feel.

  Maddox, however, is completely unfazed. “It’s the gate.”

  Sure enough, the rusted metal twists apart, opening about a car width. Crazy.

  Devon embraces the tiny woman with a hug, lifting her off the ground the way he might have done with his own mother, if she were still alive. He sets her down with a grin as she brushes out her tribal skirt and blousy, mustard-colored shirt.

  The woman pats Maddox on the cheek. His smile is warm. “Hi, Lina. It’s been a while, I know.”

  Then she sees me. When she eyes my wounded leg, I squirm. She’s bound to know I’m a Blight—an Alliance enemy. I give her a tiny wave and try to smile, regardless.

  Devon nods at the woman. “Lina will heal your burn when we get up to the Estate. But for now, get back in the car.” He scours the sky and surrounding forest. “You’re not safe until we get behind the Circuit Wall.”

  I look at the gate again. There isn’t a wall, only a flimsy wire near the pillars, doing a terrible job at holding back the woods.

  “Cera, come look at this.” Harper calls me over to the gate. “Have you ever seen a vine like this before?”

  Forget the vines, I’m fascinated by the wire border, at how the warping air dances all the way into the treetops, blending with the overcast sky.

  “Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire / Yet unconsumed,” Milton says in my head, repeating the line about the gate. Sure enough, the air warps above the marking line like heat from a fire. But there aren’t any visible flames from what I can tell, and the only pungent smell comes from the car exhaust, not smoke.

  “Is the Wall invisible?” I extend my hand toward the distorted air. Heat warms my fingertips. Tingling excitement rushes over me, catching me by surprise.

  “Stop!” Devon commands as Maddox lunges toward me, pulling me away, shouting, “Don’t touch it!”

  “That wire is the outline of the Circuit Wall,” Devon says. “But it’s more of a guideline than anything else. Don’t touch the Wall or the gate. Any contact by Awakened, Dissenter, beast or”—he looks at me—“anyone who can see the second realm will explode on contact. The only way in or out of the Estate is through the open gate. It’s the only safe way.” He is suddenly distracted by Lina.

  Her head is tilted to the sky, listening into the distant wind.

  That’s when I hear it. Over the idling engine and rustling leaves, somewhere deep in the forest comes a faint but unmistakable shriek.

  “A Cormorant.” I search the woods for the swift crow beast.

  Lina shoos us into the car. “Rápido.”

  “Go first.” I hang back to let Maddox climb in, but he hesitates. It’s only when I say, “Let me have the window to keep watch,” that he relents.

  As soon as we’re all in and Devon jumps in the front seat, Pop makes a grunting sound. “Forget to tell Honey about the Wall, did we?”

  “Yeah, a little bit.” Devon throws the car in drive.

  A stealthy shadow, no bigger than a mountain lion, glides through the autumn forest, tracking our path. As soon as we pass through the open gate, Lina holds the lantern near Gabriel and waves the light in reverse order. The vines shift back into place. But the beast is gaining on us, and Lina is out there, exposed.

  “Devon, stop the car.” My breath fogs the window as I fumble for the door handle. I can command the Cormorant to fly away and leave Lina alone if I’m close enough. “There’s a—”

  The black creature frantically beats its wings, keeping its six razor-sharp talons extended. It’s working hard to change direction as the vines lock back into place, but instead it tumbles, slamming its lion head and those dripping fangs into the thorny gate. A blast of light, brighter than a welder’s arc, sparks against the vines. Burning ashes rain down, extinguishing before they’ve hit the floor. And just like that, the beast is gone.

  “Cormorant?” Devon’s confident eyes find mine in the rearview mirror. “Like I said. Nothing gets through the Circuit Wall. When that gate is closed, we’re protected.”

  Maddox slouches with a troubled expression. “If you’re talking about L
egions and Cormorants, then sure.”

  Despite Devon’s assurance, I turn and keep an eye on the woods anyway. I do a double take. Everything on this side of the gate is . . . vibrant, budding green? How is that possible? There isn’t a single trace of a decaying fall. Even the afternoon sun, breaking through the lush treetops, glows brighter.

  “When as sacred light began to dawn / In Eden on the humid flowers.” Yes, Milton, it’s very much a world in the throes of spring. My pulse is electric.

  I’m not alone in my wonder. Harper is slack-jawed with her face against the window, staring up at the trees.

  Someone in a groundskeeping cart zooms by in the opposite direction, heading toward the gate and Lina, as we slowly drive up the hill. Every rotation of the tires brings me closer to Council. Closer to death. Or closer to defeating Sage.

  “Don’t worry, Pop and I will smooth things over with Lieutenant Foster. He’s in command until the admiral returns,” Devon says, his eyes meeting mine again.

  I try to smile. I’m not worried. I’m scared to death. But judging by the look on Maddox’s face, I’m not so sure Devon is only talking to me.

  After several winding curves, Devon turns onto a graveled path tunneled by trees raining white blossoms. Rocks crumble and pop as we inch up the drive. Maddox’s knee bounces. My foot does too.

  Maybe the Alliance will kill me at first sight. Maybe Pop can convince them otherwise. But one thing is certain.

  My fate waits at the top of that hill.

  The “Estate” is nothing but a summer getaway home plopped in the middle of a botanical garden—a squat, one-story, Spanish-style fortress with a terra-cotta roof and sunbaked stucco walls. The only thing grand about the building is how it sprawls the entire length of the circular driveway. I sit back but don’t let my guard down. I’m in enemy territory, and I can’t forget it.

  Cooperate. Stay alive. Train. Fight in the war.

  I recite these words over and over as way to calm down and keep focused as Devon pulls the car around a three-tiered water fountain.

  He cuts the engine. “Nothing’s changed.”

  “Hmph.” Pop’s fingers search the side panel for the handle. “We’ll find out soon enough.”