Years ago, a unique group of people walked upon the Earth. They were an immortal race, most of which held extreme power and strength. Adurians used that strength and power for good and tried to help the mortals of this world, however, the Creperians were dark and used their strengths and powers to manipulate, hurt, and create destruction in the mortal lives around them. The struggle for control between the two groups threatened to destroy them all. That is, until the new generation of Adurain and Creperian kinds appeared. For along with the new generation, a common enemy was reborn as well. Faced with this old evil, the dark and the light are forced together in ways they never dreamed.
Can the two groups ban together to destroy this new force? Or will the darkest of all evil consume them all?
Spellbound
Let their will be done...
Part One
Rise from the Ashes
She was chosen to keep the peace,
but the price she was to pay was far too great.
Could she be saved from her dark fate?
Prologue
From the personal journal of
Aurora Hart
June 29th
They say the past always has a way of repeating itself. I can’t help but fear this to be true. I have seen the signs. I have heard the warnings. Just when I thought the war was over, I can see now that it was just one small victorious battle. The real challenge has yet to play out. Maybe not now, but it will. I can feel it, and it scares me.
I see everyone moving on with their lives and having fun for a change. I hear their laughter and see their joy. I try to be happy for them. I smile with them, but my smile is false. Have they forgotten what we’ve been through? Are they blind to the signs of his return?
Or am I just seeing things? Is my mind really just playing tricks on me, making me see what isn’t really there? Have I let my fear take control? It has happened before, so why not now?
Everyone has always told me how strong I am. Yet, I feel so weak. They seem to have forgotten that I am the reason we no longer allowed have a home. The home we once felt so safe in. I always said they had reason to fear me. They didn’t want to listen. Now…
Now, we live on the other side of the world. Our friends and family…left behind, buried in a field of stone. I keep wishing my mother were here. I want to hear her voice giving me some kind of clue to the direction I need to take. I know now that I should have listened to her more when she was with me. I am lost. I am grown, yet I feel like a wandering child. They look to me for guidance, and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and wish it all away. As if wishing could change our fate.
No… This isn’t something I can change with a small chanted spell and a prayer. If I could, trust me, I would have done so a long time ago and we could be in our homes, instead of trying to find our way in this new life; if you can call it a life.
They can live. They can learn the new ways and blend in with the people around them. They sleep in peace at night. But I… I spend every night tossing and turning. I constantly hear the screams and the pleas for help. I see myself running through the darkness, and just when I reach those begging to be released… they disappear. Then I hear him... A laughter that makes chills run down my spine and the hairs on my arms stand on end.
These dreams, these… visions… For many years, I was able to sleep at night like the others. I was able to curl up beside my husband and think everything would be all right. I was able to fool myself into believing that it was over. Just like them. It has been so long since I have been plagued by these nightmares. Why have they returned? Are they warnings of the future? Or fears from the past? Has the evil I once fought so hard against really returned? If it has, then it is truly something to be feared. This evil… This darkness is such a powerful force; I doubt we have the strength to even take it down alone. The last time we faced it…
The bloodshed... I wish I could erase the memories of my family and friends as they fell one by one at the hands of our enemy, Lord Theron. Has Theron really returned? I thought for sure that he was gone this last time. I hoped we were rid of him anyway. We maxed out everything we had when we faced him. It was foolish of me to actually think he would not have found a way to save himself. He was almost as good a sorcerer as the rest of us. A deadly match to take on. Still, that attack should have sent him to the Underworld. I shudder to think we could be forced to face him again.
Even more now, with the return of the nightmares, I am forced to relive more of the past. Memories of a time hundreds of years ago before I began roaming, seeking… Back when the Earth was different, before there was a great deal of civilizations and technology. Memories of the clan I was to lead and memories of the time I stood beside the king. All long before anyone knew much about the differences between my immortal kind and their human kind. Memories of life and memories of death… Memories of my home in Eudora… Eudora…
I will always miss my country, so beautiful on one side and a place of darkness and shadow on the other. It was the one place in all of Earth that my immortal kind could be completely accepted amongst each other. No one feared us there. No one tried to harm us. None of us were ever forced into a position that would allow us to hurt a mortal. We were all the same there. Well, most of us were.
Harbor Springs; where we live now… The area isn’t so bad, but it just isn’t the same. The trees don’t seem as green, nor do the waters look as blue as what we lost. There were times I wondered if Eudora had been created by some great source of magic. I would not have been too surprised considering some of the people living within the country’s walls. Some of us were blessed with a few mystical gifts. Those gifts were a blessing for some, and a curse for others. Either way, we used them to the best of our ability to keep the beauty alive in Eudora. Still, with every light, there has to be a dark and Eudora most certainly had that aspect covered. Those of us who belonged to the lighter half of Eudora, the Audurian immortal kind, knew to steer clear of the darkness in Oscuro Wood, where the Creperian kind dwelled. I shudder when I think of how close I came to having to remain trapped within that realm of shadow and night. To think my father wanted me to marry the son of Lord Theron… It still makes me sick.
Theron, the Lord and Master over Darkness and Shadow. If there was ever a man I could find within myself to hate, he was that man. Some called him a Lord; I called him a tyrant and a fool, among other names. He was cold and cruel, evil to the core. He could have been a good king if he had the heart for it. Unfortunately, he was a man with a soul as dark as the night. He promised riches and power to any who would join him, including my father. Any who opposed him, found themselves on the wrong end of a rapier’s point. Those are the screams I can still hear; the villagers as one by one they were slaughtered by Theron’s army. He wanted to control all of Eudora… and eventually the world if such a thing could be done. It is said to never deny someone their dreams, but his were over the top. I was not surprised when King Sidel, came to my people for help.
King Sidel, Theron’s younger, fraternal twin, ruled the light half of Eudora. He was a kind man with a gentle heart. He did everything he could despite the hardships he faced. He remained true and loyal to his people. I remember him doing much good for the land. Any of the Adurians would have gladly given their lives for him. Over time, many of them did.
I never regretted my decision to help the King and his family. I would do so again if I had the chance to do it over, too. I just wish I could have done more with fewer casualties. My people were different from the others. We had Power and Magic the others had only heard rumors of. We should have been able to protect them. Maybe I just wasn’t the leader I should have been. Ra knows my father certainly wasn’t. For all I know, I just followed in his footsteps; only when the clan was under my lead, I did more damage then he ever did. All the Power and Magic we had access to use… The fate of the country depended on us for survival. In the end, we destroyed our only home.
Now, I am faced with the possibility that it could happen all over again…
Aurora Hart looked up from her writing and stared out her window. Her younger days were a part of her she would never forget. Not that she would want to. The events of the present depended too much on the events of the past. With a sigh, she lowered the top of her laptop and stood to stretch. Her head pounded from the returning flash of memories. Reaching for a glass of ice water, she hoped the pounding would go away. She still had so much to write. She had only touched the tip of the iceberg. She was not normally the writer of her group, but the urge to write out her story had grown too great to be contained. The fear of her enemy’s return had her hoping that the answer to the problem could lay in her memories of the past. Those memories, she felt, were her last resort.
Laughter sounded outside her window and she went to her balcony. There beneath a large Oak tree, she saw a girl with red-gold hair and crystal blue eyes smiling brightly up at a man who wrapped his arms lovingly around her. Aurora reflected on his hair a moment. It was short. The top layer was purple with a slightly longer layer of blue beneath it. His ice blue eyes sparkled in wonder as he held the girl tight. She could tell the man had immortal blood within him. She was glad that the girl seemed to accept him. It was hard for an immortal to find acceptance since they were forced into the mortal world. Still, Aurora could not help but worry.
The girl was Angel Hope, her ward ever since the murder of her parents. Angel understood that Aurora was not like the other people she knew. She also understood that she was unlike other immortals. As much as she accepted, Aurora knew there were still many things her charge did not understand.
“Theron, why couldn’t you have just remained gone?” She muttered as she flopped upon her bed and rested a hand over her eyes. “She deserves the love she has with that man.” She stopped whispering as she realized the words were very similar to what had once been said about herself. She closed her eyes and prayed for rest. Instead, she found herself lost in the memories of her past.
