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    Let Me Fly Free: Fated Stars
    Let Me Fly Free: Fated Stars
    Let Me Fly Free: Fated Stars
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    Let Me Fly Free: Fated Stars

    By Mary Fan

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    About this ebook

    Fire fears nothing. And Elaia is about to show her world that she doesn’t, either.

    Like the rest of her kind, fire nymph Elaia is bound to her homeland, a forest whose borders were closed centuries earlier in a peace agreement between the humans and the enchanted creatures of the Terrestrial Realm.

    But her heart is as restless as the flames she casts, and she secretly yearns to defy that order.

    When a mysterious threat creeps into the forest, an invisible beast that leaves a trail of death in its wake, Elaia is determined to fight back and protect her people. But first she must learn what the beast is … and the answers lie beyond the borders of her land.

    Defeating this evil means she’ll have to go outside the rules, but she’ll do anything to find the answers she seeks—even if leaving her homeland means not only breaking the law, but risking her own life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMary Fan
    Release dateJan 5, 2018
    ISBN9781386454342
    Let Me Fly Free: Fated Stars

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      Book preview

      Let Me Fly Free - Mary Fan

      A trail of death leads to the river. Flower petals, once brilliant shades of purple, hang shriveled from brittle stems. Blades of grass, once vibrantly green, lie curled and brown and dry. Patches of exposed dirt, usually invisible beneath a lush carpet of flora, gape like open wounds.

      And though it should horrify me, I find myself oddly captivated. Nothing like this has ever happened here, within the enchanted bounds of Kristakai. Each felled piece reminds me of a person suffering under the sharpest instruments of torture—a person who has coiled herself into a little ball and wept into her knees before the bliss of death ended the pain forever.

      I make a derisive noise at my own thought. Nothing as appalling as that could ever occur in this land of peace and magic, which is guarded by the power of the unicorns. They are the keepers of this domain and ensure that it remains forever safe. Though this place might be more interesting if that weren’t so. I’ve only read of terrors like violence, beings purposely inflicting pain on other beings, in books that detailed the affairs of the human world outside. And as a nymph bound to her homeland, I’ve never so much as set foot in their realm, let alone witnessed the dangers that plague them.

      Until now.

      If a human could see me in this moment, staring in astonishment at the sight of the lifeless plants, she’d probably laugh at me. In her world, such things would be commonplace. I almost laugh as well... How tedious a land must I live in if a few dead flowers can shock me?

      But they’re a harbinger of something far darker, and knowing that frightens me more than I wish to admit.

      Nothing that draws its life from the earth ever dies here. The flowers, the grass, the bushes, the trees—they only sleep. They descend into slumber when winter falls, becoming crisp to the touch and dull in color, but then awaken each spring. They never turn to ash as the ones before me have.

      And I know in my heart that the barren sight can only mean one thing: A threat from beyond our borders has infiltrated this protected land.

      I rake my fingers through my thick hair, glimpsing flashes of its copper shades in the edges of my vision. Under the sunlight, the strands flicker like the flames I’m so used to casting. But fear trickles down my spine in icy drops, and I can almost hear the specter of danger whispering in my ears. I don’t know whether it’s a curse or a creature or some other force of evil that’s invaded Kristakai, only that it can destroy life.

      And if that’s true, what’s to stop it from trying to destroy me? 

      I clench my fists, reminding myself that should anyone—or anything—threaten me, I can transform into a column of flames and demolish them. The unicorns created each of the nymphs from the element we embody, and I was born from a blaze. In the sixteen years I’ve walked this earth, I’ve never had to face a menace that would merit a fight ... but I know I can protect myself if I must.

      I am fire, and fire fears nothing.

      Yet, I will still expire in my time, and I can still be killed. The spells around Kristakai were supposed to keep out anything that could harm me... But if something can poison the immortal land, then no one is safe anymore.

      At least I’m better suited for survival than most others here, I tell myself. This place is so serene—infuriatingly so—that it wouldn’t occur to many to fight back should something attack them. They live in willful ignorance, believing that nothing bad could ever happen as long as they remain here. But I know better, having read much about the human world outside and the kinds of dangers that could exist.

      Though I never believed before today that I’d ever face any such threat, I always told myself that if I did, I’d strike back. And if there is truly danger in my land, I mean to do just that.

      Before me, the shriveled plants form a morbid path through the otherwise lush riverbank, and I follow it anxiously toward the water, wondering if the source of the death lies beneath the clear ripples. I do not step on the fallen blades and stems, in case some poison lingers on their surfaces. The still-healthy grass feels cool and soft against my bare feet ... which makes the cracked and broken flora all the more disconcerting.

      Whatever caused this destruction did more than just kill—it sucked the life out of its victims. And I find that both disturbing and fascinating. What must it be like to wield such deadly magic? Whatever did this must be very powerful to have breached the enchantments around Kristakai. Those spells were cast by the unicorns themselves, thousands upon thousands of years ago. And it’s not just any magic they used. Celestial beings, created by the Divinity at the dawn of time to watch over the Terrestrial Realm, the unicorns are immortal and wise—earthbound deities who safeguard the world. Their magic is not easily defeated.

      In fact, I do not think it possible for any Terrestrial being to break a spell they cast. Not a nymph like myself, or a fairy whose small stature belies great power, or a sprite whose ethereal appearance disguises mighty abilities. And certainly not a human—even one with magic.

      I pause as a dark thought enters my head. Perhaps whoever did this is not Terrestrial... I gasp as a realization hits me.

      What if a monster escaped the Infernal Realm?

      My heart beats harder at the thought—from both fear and anticipation.

      Not long after the Divinity created the world, Her wicked brother, the Fiend, sought to destroy it by unleashing hordes of beasts on the world to ravage the living. Though the Fiend and his minions were ultimately defeated, cast back into Inferno by the Divinity Herself, it’s said that the creatures sometimes manage to escape, beings of shadow and flame that wield the power of the Fiend. They come in many forms, from incorporeal spirits to beasts with sharp teeth and deadly claws. I’ve read about several, but there are too many to name... And the types described in the books are only the ones that left survivors around to write about them.

      What if such a creature somehow made it here? And which one could it be?

      I yearn to know more, and though the sun shines bright against an azure sky above, I sense an invisible shadow creeping across the world. The thought of an Infernal creature in Kristakai should fill me with horror. It could destroy everything, leeching the life from both the land and those who inhabit it. The kind of pain and suffering the unicorns enchanted our borders to keep out could strike the innocent and unsuspecting... Or maybe it already has, and I simply haven’t heard of it yet. I should be appalled.

      Instead, I find it all strangely fascinating. I’ve never encountered anything Infernal before—not in real life, anyway. All I know is what I’ve read, and I’ve only seen the beasts depicted in illustrations.

      An odd kind of excitement glitters in my chest as I continue toward the water, hoping that whatever killed the plants left some kind of footprint ... an Infernal footprint.

      Reaching the riverbank, I crouch by the water. The skirt of my green dress, which is secured by a knot at the nape of my neck and leaves much of my back exposed, pools on the ground and nearly blends into the grass. Anyone—or anything—looking at me now would think me vulnerable, with my girlish appearance and flimsy clothing. An easy target for an attacker.

      They’d be so, so wrong.

      I take a moment to summon my powers, feeling them spark to life within me, and suddenly invisible flames ripple through my torso and flow into my limbs. Until I call upon them, they will remain within me, and no one looking at me from the outside would suspect that beneath my bronze skin, a conflagration waits. If the mysterious monster is waiting in ambush beneath the water, it won’t know that I, too, am dangerous, until it’s too late. A perverse part of me hopes it is there, and that it will attack, so I can unleash my powers and defeat it.

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