Redemption: A Realm of Flame and Shadow Novel Read online

  Redemption

  A Realm of Flame and Shadow Novel

  Christina Phillips

  Phoenix 18 Publishing

  Redemption

  A Realm of Flame and Shadow novel

  Book One

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  Copyright © 2019. Christina Phillips

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  All rights reserved. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  * * *

  This book was previously published by Penguin US under another title and penname, but the current book has been completely re-imagined, rewritten and edited.

  Christinaphillips.com

  Edited by Amanda Ashby

  Proofread by Amy Hart

  Cover Design by Covers by Christian

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Gabe

  The last thing the Archangel Gabriel wanted was to mingle with a bunch of mortals, but it couldn’t be helped. Whenever he finished one of his covert missions, he made a point of returning to the place where his client had first approached him. A symbolic gesture for anyone who might be tempted to solicit him for a favor.

  A warning to stay away.

  Five minutes was all it would take. He was meeting his fellow archangel, Mephisto, in ten.

  He teleported to Zega, an exclusive club on one of the pleasure planets in the Andromeda Galaxy. It was a frequent hang out among half-blood immortals and excessively wealthy mortals looking for expensive thrills and interspecies sex.

  As soon as he materialized, the effect of his archangelic radiance was instantaneous. The crowd pulled back, mesmerized, and a couple of mortals fainted. The music thundered, the floor vibrated, and he strode through the club, raking his gaze across the myriad faces focused on him.

  A few would recall his previous visit and, combined with the alleged disappearance of his client, the whispers would spread, reinforcing his reputation as a mercenary who demanded a fee only the desperate would pay.

  “My Lord Gabriel.”

  The voice came from behind him, and Gabe swallowed a groan as he swung around. He was too damn tired to interact with presumptuous mortals. All he really wanted was to get blind drunk and crash for a week. Unfortunately, the likelihood of doing either was remote.

  He gave the tall male who had accosted him a withering glance, but the man didn’t back away or apologize for his impudence.

  “A moment of your time, my lord. That’s all I ask.”

  “No.” He turned away, but the man grasped his arm, and Gabe stopped dead. What the hell? Mortals didn’t grab at him like this. Ever. Especially when they were obviously hoping for a favor.

  “I’ve been searching for you for the last three Medan moon cycles.”

  Gabe slowly turned, and after a couple of seconds of eye-contact, the man finally appeared to realize his error and released him.

  “Forgive me.” He bowed his head in respect and kept his eyes trained on the floor. “Lord Gabriel, you’re the only one who can help me. I beg you to consider my request.”

  Gabe made a cursory scan of the man’s aura. A faint trace of immortal heritage glinted, which wasn’t a surprise, considering the man’s attitude. But there was something else entwined with those faded threads. An elusive glimmer that he’d never before encountered.

  Reluctant interest stirred. It wouldn’t take long to hear his request.

  He gave a brief nod.

  “You have two minutes.” He strode to a darkened alcove where a couple was entwined. “Move.” His voice was low, and the couple instantly leaped to their feet and sidled past him, clearly eager not to raise the wrath of an archangel.

  He sprawled on the seat and propped one booted foot on the table. Without waiting to be invited, the man sat opposite.

  “My name is Jaylar. I come from the planet Medana, in a solar system in the Beta Spiral of Andromeda,” he said, although Gabe didn’t know why he felt it necessary to give his address. “My daughter, Evalyne, is missing. We believe she’s been taken off the planet.”

  Damn. He’d hoped for something far more complex.

  “Maybe she took off by herself.”

  “You misunderstand, Lord Gabriel.” Jaylar swallowed, clearly struggling to compose himself. “Although the blood of the gods flows in my veins, my lineage is diluted and Evalyne’s mother is a pureblood mortal. Evalyne didn’t inherit my ability to teleport. She’s never left Medana in her life.”

  This is a waste of time.

  “So, she found herself a lover who gave her something she lacked. I don’t track runaway lovers.”

  Jaylar leaned across the table. His eyes glowed with a hint of madness. “She’s four years old, Lord Gabriel.”

  Fuck.

  The jagged rip in his heart, that would never fully heal, burned like acid, as long buried memories clawed for release.

  Not now. Ruthlessly, he pushed the haunting echoes of another life back into the abyss. It was the only way he could function.

  The only way he’d managed to survive.

  A four-year old child was missing. Of course he’d take on the mission.

  He kept his expression impassive. If word got out that he was a sucker for a missing child, he’d be inundated by frantic parents. His reputation was such that right now, only those on the verge of insanity dared to approach him.

  He would help them, and in return he demanded a client’s soul. Rumor had it he claimed their life, as well.

  Either way, it was a fair exchange for hiring the services of an archangel. Even if the rumors were little more than a smokescreen for what he really exacted as payment.

  He slung his arm over the back of the seat and rapped his fingers on the leather upholstery. “Give me the details. I’ll let you know what I decide.”

  Jaylar slid a small package across the table. “The information on this disc documents Evalyne’s life. We’ll pay anything. My life is yours. My wife wants you to know—”

  “Stop.” Gabe said. Ja
ylar had already given him all the information he needed, and he picked up the package and dropped it into his pocket. “I require access, so I can contact you.”

  Jaylar bowed his head in assent for the mind probe. It took barely a heartbeat for Gabe to gather the information he required to initiate a telepathic link in case of emergency.

  He stood. “I’ll be in touch.”

  Jaylar also stood. “How long before you decide? Is there a way I can contact you in the meantime?”

  “When I’ve had time to access the information, I’ll let you know whether the assignment appeals.”

  Jaylar’s hands fisted, but he kept his mouth shut.

  “And no. You can’t contact me. The link is strictly one way.”

  “But my lord, you must understand the urgency of—”

  “Those are my terms.” His voice was deadly, and Jaylar backed up a step, appearing to belatedly realize he was seriously pushing his luck.

  Gabe wasn’t known for his benevolence. If anyone else requesting his services had spoken to him with such disrespect, there was no way he’d even consider the assignment.

  But there had never been a choice. A child was involved.

  He already knew he was going to take on the case.

  * * *

  Aurora

  “You’re going to have a lovely time.” Aurora gave her mum an encouraging smile as they stood by the front door of their small cottage on the coast of Cornwall. The late July breeze was warm and the scent of honeysuckle filled the air. “You haven’t been to London in ages.”

  “But I want to be here, with you, before you go back to university.”

  Aurora exchanged a glance with her dad. The pain in her heart was reflected in his eyes. Although it had been years since her mum remembered the past, just lately she’d been forgetting the present, too.

  Time is running out.

  And that’s why she had to make sure her parents went on their annual weekend getaway, so she could put her plan into action.

  “Aurora’s finished Uni,” her dad said as he wrapped his arm around her mum’s shoulders. “She’s moved back home for a while. She’ll be here when we get back.”

  Her mum gave her the strangest look, and shivers raced over her arms. It was almost as though she knew about Aurora’s plans.

  But she couldn’t. It had been years since she and her mother had been able to communicate telepathically, and besides, that wasn’t the same as mind-reading.

  There was no way her parents had guessed what she was going to do.

  “That’s right.” She kissed her mum’s cheek. “It’s only for a couple of days. Go and enjoy your anniversary break.”

  “Anniversary…” There was a faraway note in her mum’s voice. And although her dad quickly recovered, she caught the stricken expression on his face. It didn’t matter how often it happened. He was always devastated with every reminder of just how much her mum had lost.

  “Tomorrow it’s twenty-five years since you arrived here, Aria,” he said softly, and there was so much love in his voice tears prickled in Aurora’s eyes. “We celebrate every year.”

  Her mum’s eyes clouded, and it was hard to keep smiling when all she wanted to do was rage to the uncaring universe. Why has mum forgotten so much?

  Agonizing didn’t help anyone. But her experiment just might.

  There was a long silence before her mum turned to her dad. Aurora held her breath. Had she remembered?

  “But I’ve always been here, Tom,” she said, and Aurora’s fragile hope shattered.

  Early the following morning, Aurora sat cross-legged on her bed as she did a final read of her checklist on her laptop. Her room, set under the eaves of the cottage, might be messy, but her data was meticulous.

  Today she was going to find, and enter, the world where her beloved mother came from.

  A world in an alternate dimension.

  Just because her parents had never tried to cross dimensions again, didn’t mean she had to accept their word that it had been a once-only, never to be repeated miracle.

  For eight years, since she’d turned sixteen, it had been her driving focus. And not just because she was desperate to find answers to so many questions she had about her own unique heritage, and to finally meet her mum’s beloved sister, Aurora. Her namesake.

  Or the deep, secret fear that had haunted her for as long as she could remember that she was a freak who shouldn’t exist.

  It was because she realized how tenuous her mum’s grasp on reality really was.

  With every passing year her memories became more faded and confused. And on the rare occasions she did speak of her old life, it was as though it was nothing more than a childhood dream. But the more she denied her past, the more fragile her health became.

  If Aurora could bring back proof of the parallel world, she was convinced that everything would go back to the way it used to be. All her mum needed was a rock-solid reminder of her own world.

  And Aurora knew exactly what she needed to find.

  She picked up a silver photo frame that usually took pride of place in the living room. The delicate, ethereal flower that had been lovingly pressed and preserved so many years ago never failed to send trickles of awe along her spine.

  Her mother had worn this exotic bloom in her hair the day she and her father had finally met for real, instead of in their shared dreams. She’d been in a meadow and had picked the flower just moments before walking into her dad’s arms. It was the only link they had to her mum’s world.

  And it was this link that would open the gateway.

  The sun was still low on the horizon as Aurora made her way through the village to the woodlands on the far side. The scientific part of her, that had got her through four years of university, didn’t see what difference it made where she was when she put her theories into practice.

  But in her heart, she knew being in the exact spot where her mother had stepped into this world was her only chance of success.

  She sat on the ground, facing the woods. The summer sun warmed her shoulders, and the faint rustling of the countryside sank into the beat of her heart.

  Everything revolved around the strength of her psychic grip on the flower in the frame and the image she had in her mind of the meadow where the flower had once grown. There was no logical reason why she needed to enter the astral planes before conducting her experiment. It was a spiritual realm, and in theory could be accessed by anyone who went into trance or deep meditation.

  Except she’d loved the astral planes since the first time she had ascended as a child. And, just as importantly, it was the place where the idea to link to her mum’s world had come to her.

  I can do this.

  It would work. It had to.

  With practiced ease, she slipped into trance, and within seconds the vibrant landscape of the astral planes shimmered, as though a gossamer veil had fallen across the realm. She focused her psychic energy on the flower and her own trans-dimensional heritage.

  Her instincts were right. It would be enough to allow her to open a gateway from the dimension of her birth into the dimension where her mother had been born.

  A spiderweb of glittering raindrops materialized in front of her. It pulsed like a living entity and gently cocooned her in a breathtaking, ethereal sphere.

  Yes …

  From nowhere, a silent roar thundered, an anomaly that shouldn’t even exist here. Waves of discordant energy vibrated through her and terror spiked as countless levels within the astral planes tumbled into chaos around her.

  And then she slammed back into her body with such force she couldn’t breathe, and an imprint of distorted, violet lightning flashed through her reeling mind.

  What just happened?

  Chapter 2

  Gabe

  Gabe tossed back his fourth whiskey in as many minutes, but it might as well have been water for all the effect it had. That was the trouble with Earth. Even in the worst dives on the planet, the alco
hol was never potent enough to numb his brain.

  Not that this exclusive club in the heart of London was a dive, with its celebrity and wannabe-famous clientele. But Mephisto, the oldest archangel of them all, had contacted him just before he’d visited Zega. And since it had been at least a couple of decades since they’d last seen each other, he’d agreed to meet him here.

  Even though he’d been late, Meph still hadn’t arrived. Any other time Gabe would have left already, but after his meeting with Jaylar, the prospect of hanging out with another immortal and getting blind drunk seemed like a good idea.

  Not going to happen here. It didn’t stop him ordering a fifth whiskey.

  He leaned his back against the bar and eyed the humans as they drank and flirted with each other, oblivious to his presence. His glamour was barely a level one, but it was more than enough to blur their perceptions if they glanced in his direction. He’d had enough of mortal adoration for one day.

  Mephisto obviously didn’t care who saw his mesmeric glory. Like a cursed god, he strolled across the club toward Gabe, and the humans parted before him like a subservient wave.