by C. A. Sabol
To Get Awakening (A Special Christmas Episode of The Starlight Chronicles) as a bonus for picking up this book,
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
C. S. Johnson, formerly C. A. Sabol, is the author of several young adult novels, including The Starlight Chronicles series and the Once Upon a Princess saga. With a gift of sarcasm and an apologetic heart, she currently lives in Atlanta with her family, cats, and caffeine addiction. Check out her site at storyhelix.com or find her on Twitter @C_S_Johnson13.
Please read on for a sample chapter of her next work, Slumbering, Book 1 of The Starlight Chronicles, an epic fantasy adventure of Hamilton Dinger, a fallen star who, until a meteorite comes crashing into his city, lives a typical, charmed teenage life.
☼Prologue☼
Wingdinger
THE WINTER WINDS WERE cold and harsh, laced with particles of hail and snow. The air was dry, the sun was hidden, and just from looking at it, I could tell Lake Erie was in the freezing temperatures. Apollo City, along with the rest of northern Ohio, was covered in a blanket of gray-white snow/slush, but city inhabitants were still trying to go about their humdrum lives with as little interruption as possible.
I had to say, the eela–shadow monster–rampaging all around the city wasn’t helping. Not in the least, if you can imagine it.
As he hovered in midair, today’s choice of monster giggled as he began attacking another crowd of people. He’d shown up a few times this past week, but this was the first time I’d gotten close to killing him without breaking curfew or skipping class.
Not that I minded those things, of course; I just minded getting in trouble for them.
This sinister-ling is Daikan. He “specializes” in cruel humor, but not the kind I liked or agreed with; some of his material was really lame. He’d been nicknamed “The Jester” by the local press–anything to get sales up without infringing on Batman’s legal rights.
While he certainly reminded me of some kind of ex-con carny, there was a villainous twinkle in his eye all too reminiscent of his many demon predecessors and his fearless Sinister leaders. Not to mention there was the same cringe-worthy delusion laced in his laughter.
“Ha-ha, I told you I would have you rolling with delight sooner or later,” he cried out mockingly, as indeed, the crowds rolled over, though in pain. “Daikan always has a trick up his sleeve!”
Who knew who he thought he was talking to? Some people were snapping photos, while others were running away screaming. All of this chaos was happening, of course, while I was attempting to destroy him.
Unfortunately, this was nothing out of the ordinary. It was just a typical day in the life of the superhero known as “Wingdinger.” Me.
My fingers gave an icy snap as I clenched my fists. “No one's laughing down here,” I retorted angrily.
Just so you know, I had a right to be angry. Daikan had largely ignored me that day, and only paid attention long enough to laugh at me. And the third-person referencing was getting old.
“Watch your back, kid,” Elysian, my 'pet' changeling dragon, thundered at me. He swooped down and curled protectively around me just as Daikan slashed out his attack.
Spindles of power trickled through the sky, swiping over us as Elysian ducked and I dodged. There was a sudden break as a nearby tree fell and I heard something—probably one of the old city park buildings—crumbling behind us.
“Let's go,” Elysian muttered, ignoring the glare I gave him as he leaned down to let me up on his back. But I, reluctantly, climbed on.
I wanted nothing more than to fly on my own two, irritatingly useless, wings.
As Elysian took flight, the wind bit at my face, matching the bite in my tone. “Look who's laughing now!” I taunted, tackling the laughing trickster right out of the air. Something puffy and squishy gooped through my gloves as I no doubt punched through a lung, knocking the wind (along with other substances) out of his body.
“Ugh . . . Gross.” If only this were some kind of video game, I thought ruefully. Me and the guys would be all over it.
A split second later, I was thrust back into the fight. Several events blurred through my mind as the end of the battle became eminent.
Flinging the pus off of my fist . . .
Elysian’s brief approving sneer . . .
Falling from the sky, tangled up with the demon body . . .
Ah, the welcoming rush of adrenaline. I’d become quite the junkie since this started.
I grinned to myself; I liked this trick. After several months of fighting off these monsters, I no longer had any fear of falling.
Instead of freaking out like I used to, I clawed my way on top of the evil eela, forcing my enemy down even more as we slammed into the ground.
Jolted but still standing, I victoriously wiped a spray of dirt off my face. “Ha. Got you!”
Elysian scuttled over. “Good work, kid. I think we did great today.”
We? I rolled my eyes.
Elysian had spoken too soon. Or maybe he jinxed me, because the next moment, Daikan propelled himself upright with more power than I’d thought possible, sending me flying back through the air as he roared angrily.
“Ugh.” Of all the places to land, it had to be in a pile of frozen dog poo. “Gross.” Why did I always have to land in something completely revolting!?
I looked up just in time to see Elysian unleash an attack of his own. My dragon’s bright celestial fire hit its mark as I stood up and hurriedly tried to clean myself up. Being a superhero is not as important as looking like one, in my opinion.
“Augh!” Daikan cried, the dragon fire slowly eating away at his colorful clothes and sizzling into his wrinkly skin. Even though I love my barbeque, it was a gruesome sight to watch him flap and burn. It probably would have been more enjoyable if he was dead. And plucked.
“Finish him!” Elysian called out.
“No one defeats me,” I murmured, letting myself smile. For once, we are going to get along all right without–
A hot, blazing arrow of light suddenly soared out of nowhere. It struck the demonic creature in the head, unleashing a small bright explosion and bombing out brain residue. I jumped back and shielded my face. When I peeked over seconds later, Daikan was gone.
I groaned. I'd thought too soon. She’s here.
Following the trajectory of the arrow, I looked up. And there she was.
Starry Knight, skillfully perched in the trees, was looking down on me, both literally and figuratively. “I told you to stay away from this business,” she called out in a disdainful greeting, as was her per usual.
“Oh, just go away,” I stomped my way over to my supposed counterpart. “I was doing just fine until you showed up. And I was here earlier than you.”
“You are just getting in the way.” She glared back, tightening her lips, obviously irritated. “It’s clear you still don’t know much about them, do you, Wingdinger?”
Since I was pretty sure she was making fun of me in addition to insulting me, I bit my bottom lip angrily, raging for blood. That was just like her, to disregard all the effort I’d espoused trying to learn more about the different demons suddenly plaguing our city. Believe me, between the eelas, the tenwaleisks, and the bakreels, I’d had more than enough outer dimensional demon instruction.
But even so, who really cared if I didn't know that much yet? All I really knew for sure was that I had to fight them. That had to count for a lot of it—over half of it, really. And the other stuff, well, I'd figure it out later, when I had the time and/or the inkling to care.
Starry Knight jumped down from the heights of the tree. “Since you appeared, I've had to save you more than I've had to defeat these monsters.”
“Hey! I got some of them, too,” I protested. At least two or three, anyway...out of ten or twenty or....Who’s really counting here anyway? “I would've had this one, too, if you hadn't stol
en my chance!”
“I’m sure you wouldn't have been able to do it,” Starry Knight replied, waving me off. “You haven't gotten any stronger in the last weeks. Just give up and leave this to me. Oh, and I'd make sure to get some stain remover on your clothes.” She flipped her long hair over her shoulder as she flew off, her stark white wings beating gracefully.
The embarrassment and anger burned, steaming hot. I thrust my fingers into my “wingdings” at the sides of my head, for which I was named, and tried not to scream. The pain of tearing at my feather-crown didn’t help.
And neither did Elysian, of course. (He never does, trust me.)
“Don't worry about it, kid,” Elysian told me. “You'll get the next one.”
“What if I don't?” I asked sharply. “What then?”
“Don't do this to yourself. She's not worth it.” Elysian transformed. As a changeling dragon, he had the ability to transform into any reptile, but he often just pushed back his wings, sucked in his big dragon belly, and shrunk down to the size of a small lizard or chameleon. It was handy for travel purposes, I had to admit, but more often than not it meant he was nearby. And I didn’t really like that.
“Maybe she’s got a point. She seems to be getting more powerful.” I doubted Elysian had noticed the increasingly intensity of Starry Knight’s arrows in the past few weeks. I also doubted he’d be able to refrain from making some irritating comment about it if I brought it up.
“Don’t forget, we don’t know much about her,” Elysian said, honestly and exasperatedly. “If you really think she's getting more powerful, it could be a problem.”
“You think?” I snorted distastefully. Of course she is a problem! She’d been a problem since day one. “How do you think she does it? How do you think I can get strong enough to beat her?”
“You're supposed to be concerned with the demons, so forget about her.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Frankly, I agree with Starry Knight; it's your own fault you're not getting more powerful.”
“What!?” My gaze blazed into Elysian's, and he (wisely) shuffled back a few feet. “How can you say that? You're the one who's supposed to be ‘mentoring me’ or however you put it.”
“I cannot teach a know-it-all!” Elysian glared at me. “Look, you've accepted the task of defending the world from the Sinisters, but you're still as arrogant and self-centered as you always were. And it's worse since you've been given the powers. You still rely mostly on your guesswork to get the job done.”
I motioned to my uniform, my transformed self. “Selfish? How can you say that? Do you know what I'd rather be doing while I'm fighting off the forces supposedly bent on destroying the world? I could be on a date!”
“Ugh! You make this so hard!” Elysian sighed. “You might have accepted the truth of your destiny, but there's more to believing than just accepting the truth. There’s more to power than strength.”
I muttered out a string of curses, probably a bit too loudly for Elysian’s taste, because he chastised me a moment later. “You could get a lot more powerful if you just had some self-control.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean you can’t even control your language, or your anger, or your actions. No wonder the demons laugh at you! You’ll bring about your own destruction soon enough with that kind of attitude.”
Before I could respond, the large clock tower in the city chimed, and I had another reason to hate my life. “Aw, great! It's after my curfew! Cheryl and Mark are going to be upset. Can tonight get any worse?”
Almost as soon as the words were out of my mouth, Elysian piped up with a half-smug, “Here comes the press.”
And right on cue, a desperate-looking journalist hopped out of some nearby bushes, followed by several more of his camera-wielding posse. “Excuse me, Mr. Wingdinger, sir, can we get a couple of questions?”
I immediately ran for cover.
“Stop! We need to talk to you!”
“Come back, we want to make a deal! You'll be rich!”
“Where's Starry Knight?”
Anyone could tell you I was not usually shy in front of the camera. But the last thing I wanted was to do was to take financial responsibility for all the buildings and vehicles and other stuff that had been damaged in the previous months, and the blame for all of the people I hadn’t saved. These were the major reasons I ran away from the press and cringed at the thought of interviews.
“Come on, Elysian,” I said quietly. “Fly us away from these soul-suckers.”
Elysian cocked an eyebrow at the irony and smothered a laugh, transforming once more. Moments later, we were safe and out of reach.
*☼*
HOW DID THIS ALL HAPPEN? How did I manage to get drafted into humanity’s last defense in an interdimensional war?
Truth be told, I wasn’t exactly sure how it all began. All I really know was the day this mess exploded into my life, I’d been thinking about much more important matters. Much, much more important matters...
AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BOOK COVER ARTIST
Stephanie Adams, Agape Authors
Stephanie Adams is a book cover artist who also offers several other book formatting services. She works from home helping independent authors order quality work for reasonable prices. Check out her website, http://www.agapeauthors.com/ for more information.
THE MOONLGIHT PEGASUS
Did you love The Moonlight Pegasus? Then you should read Beauty's Curse by C. S. Johnson!
For four years, Princess Aurora of Rhone—Rose to her friends—has searched the world for a way to break the curse placed on her by Magdalina, the wicked ruler of the fairies at war with her kingdom. Under the curse, Rose is doomed to die on her eighteenth birthday after pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. And time is running out.On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Rose makes the journey home with her friends—Theo, a priest with a penchant for revenge; Mary, a young and talented fairy; and Ethan and Sophia, siblings with a troubled past–as pressure from her father, King Stefanos, leaves her with two equally unsatisfying options: Abdicate the throne, or get married.
Read more at C. S. Johnson’s site.
Also by C. A. Sabol
The Moonlight Pegasus
The Moonlight Pegasus
Also by C. S. Johnson
Birds of Fae
The Princess and the Peacock
Favan & Flew
One Flew Through the Dragon Heart
Once Upon a Princess
Beauty's Curse
Beauty's Quest
Beauty's Kiss
Beauty's Gift
The Divine Space Pirates
The Heights of Perdition
The Breadth of Creation
The Price of Paradise
The Divine Space Pirates Trilogy
The Legend of Eydis
Eydis: The Island of the Dragon Bride
The Moonlight Pegasus
The Moonlight Pegasus
One Night of Moonlight
The Realms Beyond the Rainbow
Kitsuneko
The Starlight Chronicles
Searching
Slumbering
Awakening: A Christmas Episode of the Starlight Chronicles
Calling
Falling: A Starry Knight Episode of the Starlight Chronicles
Submerging
Seeing: A Wedding Episode of the Starlight Chronicles
Remembering
Belonging: A Date Night Episode of the Starlight Chronicles
Continuing
Reflecting: A Dream Episode of the Starlight Chronicles
Outpouring
Reawakening: A Rebirth Episode of the Starlight Chronicles
Everlasting
Awakening: A Christmas Episode of the Starlight Chronicles
Till Human Voi
ces Wake Us
Across the Floors of Silent Seas
Till Human Voices Wake Us (Coming Soon)
Standalone
A Knight's Quest for the Holy Grail
Night of Blood and Beauty
The Girl of All My Memes
Should I Go to College? What About Student Loan Debt?
Good Writing is Like Good Sex: Sort of Sexy Thoughts on Writing
Watch for more at C. S. Johnson’s site.