Shadeland (The Ethereal Crossings, 1)

by D.L. Miles

  Chapter 1

  “What do you think it’s like?” Anna flicked her wavy red locks behind her, drawing the eyes of the crowd that shuffled past us. I pulled at the edges of my shirt, feeling as if the people were watching me; they weren’t. Anna was what they couldn’t look away from.

  Standing at 5’10” with long, shining hair and legs that seemed to go on forever Anna was incredibly popular with the guys and oddly enough with girls as well. I, on the other hand, lived in her shadow. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t care less if I lived there, she was my best friend. I just wished people would stop saying that to me, since nothing in this world could make me resent her. But still, everyone asked if I was jealous of her. I wasn’t.

  “Des?” Anna asked, taking her eyes from the colourful baubles on the tablecloth before us. The Solar Festival was always filled with the best baubles that seemed like a good idea when bought but were absolutely pointless when taken home. Still, I had a tradition of buying one every year, keeping them together since I was about three years old. This year I was hoping to find a nice set of wind chimes, preferably ones that had birds on them.

  “What?” I picked up a small dragonfly necklace and inspected it under the midday sun. It glinted in the rays, reflecting a rainbow onto the cloth beneath it. I had a hint as to what Anna was talking about but I wasn’t absolutely sure.

  “EA!” she exclaimed. “Remember? The school that we’re going to, in, like, less than a month?” My eyes widened, as did the woman’s behind the table. She began to wave someone over, bracelets jingling against her skin, but I didn’t stay to find out who.

  “Shut up Anna!” I threw the necklace down and yanked her away from the booth, dragging her to a quiet spot on the sidewalk. Hunched over to avoid any eavesdroppers her red hair mixed with my own blonde strands in the air. “Do you want to get expelled before we’re even placed?”

  “Oh, come on.” Anna rolled her eyes. “Nobody here cares.”

  “Well obviously you didn’t see how that woman reacted back there,” I said, thrusting my thumb behind me. “She looked like she was about to—”

  “Call her son over to get him to ask one of us out? Yeah, that happens all the time to EA students. We might as well get used to it while we can!” Anna shoved me off of her, walking back to look at more jewellery. Roasting in the heat of the sun, I followed after her, not wanting to lose her like I had every other year. I was not going to lose her to Eli again.

  Anna and I had both turned sixteen this year, which meant we were being given acceptance into Eclipse Academy, one of the most prestigious academies in the…well in most of the world. Yes, it had sister schools on other continents but we were still considered better. Oh, look at that, I was already thinking “we”. And like Anna, I was just as excited to get in; this was the moment I had been waiting for all my life.

  I thought most teenagers would hate having to transfer schools at sixteen, but since everyone that went into EA was previously homeschooled nobody cared. Anyone that went to EA lived in the Eclipse gated community, sitting on the edge of the actual town, Eclipse. Well, I guess you could say that the town Eclipse was on the edge of the gated community. Or even both sat on the outskirts of the academy. Nobody really knew how it worked so most assumed the town came first; they were wrong.

  This whole town was built in the middle of a forest, around the school a little over a century ago, with the founding families living within the gated community. Anyone living outside the gate we labelled as commoners; a nickname that made us sound mean, but when compared to us, they really were common. Not that they knew the real reason we called them common, though.

  “Hey, over here,” Anna called as she waved me over to view a sidewalk artist drawing an immense scene on the concrete. It appeared he was starting some sort of waterfall there, using the chalk in ways I couldn’t even imagine; it looked like we were about to fall into the water. We stood on the side so as to not get in the artists way and to allow some other people to watch too.

  “You really shouldn’t advertise about that,” I scolded, “not everyone in town is super accepting to it. Besides, if you brag too much they’ll kick you and you won’t get Placed.” I tried to stress the seriousness of not getting Placed, or being taken out of Eclipse Academy; something that brought immense shame to your family. I had never heard of anyone not getting Placed, but Anna tended to be the first person to do…well, anything really. She had been first to join a commoners soccer team, date a commoner (only two dates but it was unheard of), and she had been the first person to get a job (something which lasted as long as the commoner boy).

  “Oh, you know where I’m gonna get Placed.” Anna laughed. “Everyone in my family has been in…they’ve all been in the same section so I will totally get in there too.” I grimaced, knowing that there was more to it than that.

  EA had seven defined sections, which usually went down into four because they were all called something different in other places; everyone still stayed with their original section members, from what I heard and when you graduated you just stuck with the seven still. The school halls were divided among the four, ensuring less contact with the others. All of Anna’s family had been put in the Vale section, also known as the “easy section”. I had a feeling Anna would be put somewhere else, but I wasn’t about to tell her that, to get her hopes up and be wrong.

  “Still, you can’t talk around the commoners,” I said. A group of people next to me shot me a glare, not liking their nickname. “It’s against the school rules.”

  “We haven’t even gone to orientation,” Anna mentioned with a roll of her eyes. “What am I going to say that won’t get me Placed?”

  “You’ll say something, I’m sure,” came a voice from behind us. We turned to see Elijah strutting towards us, hands in his jean pockets. A few common girls watched him come towards us until somebody elbowed one of them in the ribs, telling her we were soon to be EA students; they immediately walked off, not even making eye contact. They were always like that, as soon as they realized you lived within the gates. Their parents or even grandparents wanted their kids involved with the gated community, but the actual teenagers didn’t think so.

  “You’re not funny, Eli,” I said, “this isn’t something to joke about!”

  Eli held his hands up. “Sorry, sorry. But Des is right, Anne. Let’s stop talking about it before a senior comes and beat us up EA style.”

  All of us knew what “EA style” was, thankfully nobody around us would.

  “Agreed,” I breathed. I didn’t want to risk not getting Placed, not when there were only two and a half weeks till Placement. “Did you guys want to go on the Ferris wheel?”

  “That’s for two people only,” Elijah told me. He feigned a pout, probably already knowing how this would end.

  “That’s the point.” I arched my eyebrows, telling him I wanted to hang out with Anna alone today. He didn’t take the hint and followed us over to the line.

  It took less than thirty seconds to reach the front, and I had assumed that Anna and I would ride together and Elijah would ride with someone else. I assumed wrong.

  Sitting on the plastic chair I crossed my arms with a huff. Some best friend she was, leaving me to sit with a commoner. Waiting in line was a group of them, each one whispering with small glances at me. Perfect, now I was becoming a spectacle because nobody wanted to sit with me. Once I started classes I would never leave the safety of the gates, I was certain.

  “Pick someone already,” the gruff ride operated ordered and the group shoved one forward. A tall boy slid his feet on the ground before reluctantly approaching me. He took a seat next to me, grimacing the whole time; I tried not to care, since I was doing the same.

  “Let’s get this over with,” he grumbled, “you aren’t exactly who I wanted to be at the top with.” I laughed as the ride operator secured the bar in front of us.

  “
Hey, I don’t want to be here with you either.” The car behind us erupted with “oohs”.

  “Yo Des!” Elijah cheered. “Better be careful, he looks frisky.” The boy groaned and covered his eyes, leaning on the side. I did the same.

  While we made our rotation I noticed that my unwanted companion was watching in front of us, gripping the silver bar with his left hand too tightly. I followed his line of vision to see a couple that he had been with in line, inching closer and closer together.

  “You wanted to be with her, then?” I asked, hoping a bit of conversation would make the ride go faster. Though I did tend to look down on anyone that I didn’t grow up with, I wasn’t opposed to conversing with them about more normal things. Talking with them allowed me to get a better perspective of their lives, basically teaching me how to blend in easier. It was a valuable learning experience for when I graduated.

  “What do you care?” he demanded. “You’re an EA-er.”

  “Guess not,” I mumbled to myself, diminishing any hope of making the ride go by faster. Turning to see what Anna and Eli were doing I found they were talking and much to my disappointment, looking like the perfect couple.

  Eli was tall, with that rugged, quarterback look I always saw in movies. Anna had the matching head cheerleader thing going on, though both of them had never actually done those sports before. Nobody within the gates did, it was looked down on by our parents; besides, there weren’t enough of us for any kind of team.

  “You wanna be with him?” The boy next to me smirked, as if we were even. There was something else in his tone though, that said differently. As if he wanted me to say “no”.

  “Not even.” I laughed again. It was the truth, as nice as Eli was, he wasn’t my kind of person.

  “Her then?” His eyebrows raised. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms with a shake of the head. He was nowhere near the mark.

  “Wrong again,” I sighed, “I just didn’t want to be with a co—other person.” Nice save. The sun beat down on my scalp and made me wish I had brought a hat as we rounded the top of the wheel. I was beginning to sweat under the heat but my companion seemed fine, almost enjoying the rays like a cat would during a nap. I was a little jealous, since I had never taken the heat well.

  Sitting at the top allowed a small breeze to help cool me down. And seeing the entire festival wasn’t so bad either. The tops of the booths weren’t decorated much, but sitting so far above them I saw they were certainly colourful. All along the main road people ran around, like ants under a magnifying glass; except they weren’t burning alive or anything. I was the only one doing that, it seemed.

  I tried to spot anyone I knew down below, preparing to find a friend for when Anna ditched me. There was nobody in the crowd though and I accepted my loner fate. It had happened just about every other year, so why should this one be different?

  “Well sorry for bringing your rep down, sweetheart,” he scoffed, “didn’t mean to taint your aura or anything.”

  Oh yes, the glorious stereotype of EA. Anyone not in the school thought that we were these snot-nosed, privileged vampires that dealt with the occult and magicks. Well, it was a little close, but we weren’t vampires. And we didn’t deal with the occult, our specialty lay in rune stones and technically we were descendants of druids.

  “Taint my aura?” I mocked. “You can’t actually think that’s what we do. I’ll have you know I’m not even a student yet! And we aren’t at all like you people think we are.”

  “Listen to yourself.” He turned his body towards me and I had to force myself not to notice how muscular he was. He was probably a sports player. “‘You people’. What’s your name, huh?”

  “What do you care?”

  “Just tell me your name.”

  “Don’t do it Des!” Anna called over, craning her neck to see us. She was not covering her giggling well at all. “It’s a trap!”

  “Shut up!” I called back to her, shaking the chair as I forced by body around too quickly to point at her. “This is your fault.” I turned back towards the boy. “My name is Desdemona, if you really want to know.”

  “Of course it is,” he covered his eyes as he laughed more, “all you people have weird names.”

  “No we don’t!” I ripped my body towards him. “My name is perfectly normal, it’s from Shakespeare, look it up you uneducated plebeian!”

  The boys crush and her companion turned to look down at us while Anna and Eli went quiet in front. I hadn’t realized I had just yelled my insult at him. He stared at me, mouth moving up and down, trying to find the words.

  “I’m not some plebeian,” he declared rather calmly, “my name is Rayne and just because I’m not some freak who lives in a cage that doesn’t mean I’m uneducated.”

  “I don’t live in a cage,” I gasped, “it’s a gated community and you…Rayne is not a normal name!” Oh yeah, had him there.

  “Uh…Des,” Anna said, approaching our car with Eli, “you can get off now.”

  I looked over at her, face red with anger as my heart tried to run a marathon. The stocky ride operator had lifted our bar and we were free to leave; he didn’t even seem to care that we had started a yelling match. Okay, I had started yelling. I shot off the seat and walked away, not waiting for her or Eli.

  “Thank God,” Rayne mumbled, walking away to wait for his friends; getting a look at them now as I walked by they seemed older. Either way, my day had officially been ruined by a commoner.

  Two hours later I was still fuming over what I was referring to as the Ferris wheel incident. Anna had sent Eli away and we had gotten cotton candy to help ease my mood. The sugar helped, but just barely.

  “I can’t believe him,” I said, shoving a pink piece of fluff into my mouth. “’Sorry, didn’t mean to taint your aura’.” I mimicked, making my voice deeper.

  “Well you did call him a plebeian,” Anna said, picking at her own candy. “Let’s just forget about it, okay? Look on the bright side; it’s the Solar Festival and we’re finally going to Eclipse Academy this fall.” She shoved my shoulder, making me smile.

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  She was right, I should be happy right now. Soon enough, I would get to find out what section I was in, which was a huge rite of passage in our families. Soon, I would get to run home and tell my parents where I had been placed, and get to tell my little sister about how great EA was in person.

  In just a couple of weeks the moment we had been preparing for our whole lives was about to happen, the very reason we had been home schooled since birth and the reason we lived within the confine of the gates.

  “So do you wanna go shopping some more?” Anna pulled her hair back from the heat, it swished back and forth a few times once let go. I stuck another piece of cotton candy into my mouth.

  “Sure.” I still needed to find my wind chimes, after all.

  Wandering around the festival had proved to help my mood. I had finally found the perfect set of yellow finch wind chimes to hang out my window, with silver tubes hanging down creating a beautiful noise. I really liked these birds, since you couldn’t find them anywhere near Eclipse. Hopefully the other birds that lived in the area wouldn’t run into them though, somehow mistaking the tubes as a feeder of some kind.

  Lost in the glow and sound of the chimes I mindlessly followed Anna towards another booth and bumped into someone on the way.

  “Sorry,” I said, checking to make sure my chimes were all right. They were fine, but now a little tangled from the collision.

  “I didn’t think you could say that to a plebeian.” I looked up to find Rayne standing there, a grin on his face as if he had just won the battle against me. I made a disgusted sound, thinking about how this was just my luck. Although, I didn’t see any of his friends with him this time, but did that make it better?

  “Whatever, commoner,” I mocked and started walking away again.

  “See you
later, sweetheart.” I ignored the nickname he had given me, considering it could be worse. Well, maybe it couldn’t.

  Of Noble Chains: A Ventori Fable

  A YA fantasy detective novel…

  Kehzia Noble had gone her whole life wanting to become a Ventori, a kind of bounty hunter that tracks down STRAY Specters, the supernatural creatures that have gone back to their base nature. But to be one you must be descended from one of the five clans; good thing her father is Medean, making her a half-blooded clan member. And now that she’s graduated a year early from the prestigious Academy of Light, she planned on entering college to get a degree in Tracking. But her life plan didn’t go off as easily as she had hoped when the review board decides she needs to spend the summer being mentored by an experienced Ventori.

  Enter Aeryn Rinehart. He’s older, one of the best Ventori in the business, and Kehzia thinks he’s an absolute hottie! Not only that, he volunteers to be her mentor for the summer, and she thinks she’s officially beaten her childhood competition Hayden Rider. All he did was get into college, he doesn’t get to actually Track down STRAYs, and get an official Ventori rank!

  But as Kehzia goes through cases with Aeryn, Ventori seem to be committing suicide; and the latest deaths are connected to her own brother’s murder from two years ago. Not only that, Aeryn seems to have his own agenda, with strange connections all over the city, and a powerful Specter has taken an interest in Kehzia and begun to follow her around. Working with people she doesn’t like, and finding that her own feelings are starting to affect her work, Kehzia tries to solve the supposed suicides in hopes of finding her brother’s killer. More secrets are revealed along the way, and Kehzia is forced to face her own buried feelings she had tried so hard to avoid, feelings that she wasn’t even aware of.

  Threads of Chaos

  A YA paranormal mystery…

  “When the fate of one is changed, everything changes. One person changes everything.”

  Mercy Singer died five months ago, but the doctor’s managed to bring her back. And she was told by her new therapist that it was normal to think there was danger around every corner, and that seeing things was part of the healing process. What Mercy hasn’t told anyone is how vivid her dreams are, how it’s not actually her dying in them, and she also hasn’t mentioned the conversations she’s had with people that vanish.

  And when the new boy in town, Tristan Holmes, finds her freaking out in the street, claiming to see a man that isn’t there, she thinks her return to school might have been too soon. Until his sister approaches her, claiming to know what’s going on, and that she wants to help Mercy.

  Now numbers keep floating around Mercy’s head, and she knows it’s a countdown to something big. There’s a darkness coming to Balefire Bay High, and she thinks she’s the only one that can stop it.

  END

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