by Jeff Altabef
My head starts to pound, my heart races, and I’m losing control.
“This is pointless. You will kill yourself.”
He’s right, but I can’t back down now. I won’t live in the future he wants. I glance at the Husky, who’s staring at me. She knows I’ve made my choice. She saved me once. Now I need her again.
She bites him on the leg.
The distraction, the moment of pain, is all I need. I grab the Heart Stone, and the power and energy floods through me.
Coyote is with me, and he howls at me one last time.
He’s still tempting me, but I am stronger than him; I am the Alpha. “I can’t let you rule Earth.”
Aaric looks sad. “I am the superior one. I should decide our future. I am most capable.”
“Life is more than order and logic. We need freedom and love and the ability to choose our own destiny. Everyone is most capable. We need the Wind Spirit to breath life into all of us.”
“But we are meant to change the universe together. That is our destiny.”
“We have, just not in the way you thought.”
The power grows, and this time I don’t try to control it. I feed into it, making it stronger, more powerful. My body melts away and is replaced by pure energy and spirit.
Aaric whispers, “Juliet, I am scared. I do not want to die.”
“This life is only a short one. You will find another, longer one on the other side of the light.”
He glances at me, tears welling in his eyes. “I gave up everything for you. We could have been amazing together.”
All I can do is shake my head at him. Words mean nothing now.
He looks over my shoulder and beyond me, his voice hopeful. “I see a light and a crystal palace. It is... it is beautiful.”
“Go. It’s where you belong.”
He looks at me one last time, and actually grins before disappearing into the light.
I think of my friends and family, and they’re with me. Their spirits circle me: Akari, Blake, Troy, Mom, Dad, and Connor.
I focus on Connor and send him one last message.
I thought it would hurt, but there’s no pain. All I see is light, and then Sicheii, Frankie, and the Husky are beside me
Sicheii takes my hand in his.
Holding his hand always makes me feel better, stronger.
Frankie grins and his eyes twinkle. “You didn’t think I would leave you alone, did you? Welcome home, sister.”
I smile and walk into the light.
Connor
A scorching blast of air rips from the cave from which Aaric and Juliet’s image had come. It burns against my skin and disappears as fast as it came.
My knees buckle. I’m left with a picture of Juliet’s face, and a deep sadness fills me. My heart’s been torn from my chest. I’m gutted.
She’s gone.
Juliet’s mom screams into the darkness, anguish filling her voice. “Juliet!”
Blake is on his knees, and Akari stabs her sword into the ground.
Troy bends his head back, arms loose at his sides, and closes his eyes.
They all felt it too. Whatever happened, she reached out and touched us all.
I trudge back to the others. “I’m going into the cave to find out what the bloody hell is going on.”
Troy steps next to me, the cut on his leg healed. “I’ll go with you. Juliet would want us to go together.”
I glance at the others and notice that all their injuries have been healed. The other Chosen, Barrett, and Landon nod at me.
Juliet’s mom and dad are lost in so much grief they don’t look up.
Troy and I march to the cave in silence. The climb is easy and we find the entrance without effort. The rock feels warm to the touch, holding on to some residual heat from the strange blast.
We head down the tunnel with the only sounds those of our trainers and our breathing. The tunnel is deep with branching paths, but we are drawn down particular tunnels as if someone or something is guiding us. More than a mile later we find ourselves in a small, familiar cave.
I use my sword like a torch and swing it in an arc, until spotting a smaller, hidden chamber.
Aaric’s body lies on the floor. He dead.
There’s no Juliet.
“She must have been here,” I say.
Troy shines the light from his phone on a stone pedestal, where a crimson-colored crystal sits. It’s cracked down the center and blackened, as if scorched by an incredible heat.
“She was here,” says Troy. “Now she’s in the spirit world. If you close your eyes and listen with your heart, you can feel her. The separation between the two worlds is thin here.”
I do as he says, and he’s right: she’s gone. She’s traveled to another realm.
When I open my eyes, Troy lifts his hand toward me palm up. He’s holding a paper swan and a vial with a potion inside. “Juliet wanted you to have this.”
I clench my fists. This isn’t fair. She was supposed to live a long life.
I turn my frustration on Troy. “You knew she was going to die and you didn’t stop her!”
He shakes his head, and when I look closely, I see tears glisten in his eyes. I’m a real wanker. He loved Juliet too.
“I’m sorry, Troy. I just don’t understand... why.”
“Her responsibility was a heavy one. She decided our fate.” He gestures his hand towards me. “We will see her again. Her spirit is too strong to perish. You will be with her again—maybe not in this life, but in the next. That is more important.”
I stare at the swan and the glass vial, frozen. Part of me wants to rip up the note and smash the glass, but I have questions, and maybe, just maybe, they contain some answers.
I take both from Troy.
“She made the note when you were in the sweat lodge together?” I ask.
Troy nods. “I’ll wait for you outside the cave.”
He leaves and I unfold the swan.
Dear Connor,
I’m happy you didn’t rip up the note. I know you’re angry, but don’t be. My fate was always a short one.
There are so many things I wish I had told you. You brought love into my life that I never knew existed. It was short, but it burned bright enough to last me forever. I will be the light in your darkness, the voice you follow when you only hear doubts.
And don’t smash the vial, you wanker! Drink it. Play the What If game with me one last time.
Your love now and always,
Juliet
I stare at the vial and the top disappears. I press it to my lips and tilt it upward. The cold liquid tastes like roses.
My lips and mouth tingle.
I’m sitting on a beach.
Juliet rests next to me, a smile on her lips, her hair blowing in a light breeze.
I touch her hand and my fingers wrap around hers. “How could this be? You’re gone.”
She touches her finger to my lips. “This is what would have happened if we’d run away to Fiji.”
I laugh, and she joins me. I lean toward her and our lips meet. I taste her goodness, her essence—her soul.
“How much time do we have?”
She smiles a broad grin. “You’d be surprised. I’ve gotten really good at the What If game.”
She lifts a lit candle and holds it out to me. “Did I ever tell you about the Crane dance?”
What feels like a lifetime later, I’m back in the cave with Troy standing at the entrance.
I join him. “How much time has passed?”
He shrugs. “About five minutes. Why? What happened?”
“A lifetime.”
Connor
I’m sitting underneath a soapberry tree, on a ledge carved into a cliff. Slippery River stretches below us, and Devil’s Peak is just on the other side of the river.
Blake and Akari hold hands, while Troy and I sit opposite them in the shade.
Three days have passed since we fended off the Deltites and Juliet left us.
Barrett has returned to his ship. He has a girl to find and a mess to fix at home, although he did promise to return.
Akari tosses a stone into the canyon, and we watch it plunk into the river below us. “I miss Juliet. There must have been another way.”
Blake squeezes her hand. “If there were, she would have found it.”
Troy smiles. “She is the most determined person I’ve ever met. She also has a nasty temper—almost as bad as you, Akari. I can’t tell you how many fights she got into when we were younger.”
Troy still refers to Juliet in the present tense. Everyone notices it, yet no one corrects him.
“I remember the first time we met,” says Blake. “She practically beat up both Akari and Connor at the same time.”
I wink at Akari. “Good thing she stopped us from fighting. I was about to open up a can of whoop-ass on you.”
She grins. “Right. We can try it again if you’d like.”
“I’ll pass, but you should have seen how angry Juliet got when her hair was full of sand. It took her all day to wash it out.”
The others look at me strangely. I forgot that memory was from Juliet’s What If game. I tried to explain what happened when I took the potion, but they don’t get it. Who can blame them? It’s one of those things you have to experience to understand.
“You should have seen her after she curled her hair.” Troy laughs. “What a train wreck. She refused to leave her house until she could straighten it again.”
We sit in silence for a long moment after that, until Blake sighs, an uncertain look scribbled onto his face. “Well, what do we do now? Juliet defeated the Prime Elector and destroyed the Heart Stone. If Stuart was right, the Deltites will look to one of the other targets to take over, and the Alphians will be forced to fight them. With any luck, there’s nothing more for us to do.”
“You can go back to your posh life if you want, but I’m not finished.” My face flushes with anger. “Those wankers are still on our planet. They want to enslave us. They did this to Juliet. She’d still be with us if it weren’t for them. I won’t stop until I kill every single one of them.”
Akari nods. “Connor has a point. We can’t let the Deltites take over. Juliet would have died in vain.”
I wince when she says died. I’ll never say Juliet died because she’s still with me; she’s still with all of us. I feel her in the way the wind brushes my hair or when I smell roses for no particular reason. Sometimes I taste her lips before I go to sleep.
A breeze swirls around us, and I know she’s here now.
Troy tilts his head backward and smiles. He knows it too.
Blake grins. “Badass Deltite hunters—I could get used to that.”
---THE END---
Acknowledgements
As our trilogy comes to a close, we’d like to thank all of the people who made this book, and our trilogy possible. We’d especially like to thank Evolved Publishing and Lane Diamond for believing in us. Lane Diamond has aided us in developing our trilogy and creating what we have today.
We’d like to thank the extremely talented and gifted artist Mallory Rock. Whitney Smyth has done an amazing job as our dedicated editor. Once again, Ruby Standing Deer has done an impeccable job authenticating our novel.
Finally, we would like to thank you, our incredibly amazing readers. We appreciate your dedication and support of our trilogy, and for that we thank you.
About the Authors
Jeff Altabef
Jeff Altabef lives in New York with his wife, two daughters, and Charlie the dog. He spends time volunteering at the Writing Center in the local community college as a certified writing instructor. After years of being accused of “telling stories,” he thought he would make it official. He writes in both the thriller and young adult genres. As an avid Knicks fan, he is prone to long periods of melancholy during hoops season.
Jeff has a column on The Examiner focused on writing, designed to encourage writing for those that like telling stories.
You can find Jeff online at:
Website at www.Jeffreyaltabef.com
Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7055582.Jeff_Altabef
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeff-Altabef-Author/479282732198216
Twitter at https://twitter.com/JeffAltabef
Via Email at [email protected]
Or join his newsletter at FREE GIFT.
~~~~~
Erynn Altabef
Erynn Altabef is an avid reader, dancer, and community activist. When she’s not in High School, she loves Starbucks, performing in school musicals, baking, and watching movies with her friends.
Some of her favorite authors are Veronica Roth, Joelle Charbonneau, and her dad! (That would be Jeff Altabef.)
You can find Erynn online at:
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ErynnAltabefAuthor.
What’s Next?
For lovers of dystopian sci-fi, this young adult adventure is suitable for readers 13 and older:
RED DEATH
Book 1 of Red Death
By Jeff Altabef
This YA dystopian science fiction adventure will take you to a world fraught with excitement and danger. Watch for it to release on November 28, 2016. For more information on this book, please visit the Evolved Publishing website.
~~~
Every child of Eden fears the Red Death. All those afflicted with the plague die young, their souls stripped away as punishment for ancient sins long forgotten. For centuries, Guardians have protected Eden from the Red Death by killing outsiders who stray too close. They must keep Eden a secret if they are to survive.
Seventeen-year-old Aaliss is a highly-trained and dedicated Guardian, but when her rather odd thirteen-year-old brother discovers a cure to the plague, her world is turned upside down. The discovery is a miracle, yet miracles are dangerous in Eden.
The corrupt, all-powerful High Priest brands Aaliss and her brother Wilky as traitors, forcing them to run. They seek refuge in the last place Aaliss thought she’d ever go—beyond the boundaries of Eden, and into the land of the Soulless. Here they must navigate a medieval world filled with witches, magic, and warrior kingdoms run by Elders who are only a few years older than her.
Aaliss yearns to return home to Eden, but she must protect Wilky at all costs. And when her heart tugs her deeper into the world of the Soulless, she questions everything she once believed, everything the Priests had taught her about those who live outside Eden—they are forever cursed, savage, soulless.
Has her soul been taken? Will she and Wilky fall victim to the Red Death, or might they die sooner in the center of a battle that threatens to tear apart the Soulless world? Or... might Aaliss finally find, against all odds, what her heart has yearned for all along?
More from Jeff Altabef
For lovers of young adult fantasy, the entire Chosen series is suitable for readers 13 and up:
CHOSEN
1 – Wind Catcher
2 – Brink of Dawn
3 – Scorched Souls
4 – Second Chances (A “Chosen” Short Story)
By Jeff Altabef and Erynn Altabef
The multiple award-winning Chosen series of young adult fantasies is now available in full. For more information, please visit the Evolved Publishing website.
~~~
Wind Catcher:
Lies. Betrayal. Destiny. A choice that changes everything.
My name is Juliet Wildfire Stone, and I am special. I see visions and hear voices, and I have no idea what they mean.
When someone murders medicine men in my sleepy Arizona town, I can’t help but worry my crazy grandfather is involved. He’s a medicine man and more than a just a little eccentric. He likes to tell me stories about the Great Wind Spirit and Coyote, but none of it makes any sense. I thought I knew the truth, but in order to clear his name I dive into his alien world and uncover an ancient secret society formed over two hundred years ago to keep me safe—me!
And I can’t help but to start to wonder whether there’s some truth to those old stories my grandfather has been telling me.
I just want to be an average sixteen-year-old girl, but apparently I’ve never been average. Could never be average. I didn’t know it before, but I’m a Chosen, and those voices I’ve been hearing... well, they’re not just “voices.” I’ve started to develop abilities, but they might not be enough. A powerful entity called a Seeker is hunting me and he’s close—really close.
I thought I knew the answers but truth is, I don’t. Betrayed by those I love, I must choose to run or risk everything in order to fulfill my destiny. I hope I make the right choice. Don’t you?
~~~
Brink of Dawn:
They walk among us as if they are gods.
Only the Chosen know what they are.
Only the Chosen know to fear them.
And only the Chosen can defeat them.
My name is Juliet Wildfire Stone, and I barely escaped my sleepy Arizona town alive. A Seeker almost murdered me. Lucky for me, I killed him first. I thought that was my test—that was my destiny—but it seems as though fate isn’t done with me yet.
I’m a Chosen, a human-alien hybrid. There are three others like me, each with different abilities. I have to find them, and all I have to go on is a weird symbol, and a location—New York City. Hopefully my best friend Troy and I can figure out the rest once we get there.
An alien race is plotting to enslave the world, and only the Chosen can stop them. We’ll have to kill their leader before he kills us. We’ll all be tested, our flaws exposed. Each one of us will learn what, or who, we really care about, and we’ll have to decide whether to fulfill our destiny... or run.
Those helping us have told me I’m the Alpha and only I can lead the others, but how can I trust these people I’ve never met? I don’t know much about my powers or my potential, buy I do know one thing—I’ll do anything to stop these aliens. I will not give up. Even if I die trying.