A Battle of Souls Read online

  “I’m proud of you, darling,” I whispered in his ear.

  He smiled, then dropped a kiss on my temple.

  “I’d be nothing without you, Sofia,” he said.

  We looked at our Nerakian allies one more time, waving them goodbye, as the bright spell light swallowed us. The giant orb lifted us off the ground, humming softly.

  “I can’t wait to get home,” Caia said. “Don’t get me wrong, Neraka’s cool and all, but dammit, I miss my Shade.”

  “Here, here, Cuz!” Dmitri chuckled.

  “You’re all aware we’re having a massive dinner tonight, right?” Serena asked. “Aida will kill us if we don’t attend. She’s been preparing it for a week. And given her, um, condition, I don’t think it would be wise to poke the… wolf.”

  Jovi burst into laughter. “I absolutely agree. I mean, cravings are one thing, but having her set up a dinner for nothing? Nah, that would be suicide.”

  “I don’t know why you’re laughing, though. I’m the one who looks after her cravings, anyway,” Field muttered behind him.

  We all chuckled, relieved to be united again.

  The light orb shot through the sky and pierced Neraka’s atmosphere.

  Within seconds, we were all at the heart of a shooting star, traveling through the vast vacuum of the In-Between, fluttering past thousands of other galaxies and wandering asteroids. There was life out there.

  There were more species thriving in this universe. Creatures I looked forward to discovering. We’d definitely come a long way, from expanding our Shade to restoring peace across the In-Between. And there was still room for much more.

  Harper

  Three months.

  Time did fly after we went back to Calliope.

  Heron and Avril moved in together. They had their own place in White City. Caspian and I had our little penthouse there, too, on one of the higher levels. But we spent our time equally between Calliope and The Shade, where I’d been given my own treehouse.

  Patrik and Scarlett settled on Calliope, as well. Serena insisted that they take one of the private suites in Luceria, complete with all the amenities. Jax and Hansa were also together—she was the first succubus to settle in White City. It took the other Maras some time to adjust, but they all came to adore her spunk and straightforward nature. Soon enough, they all agreed that the Lord of Maras had certainly found his match.

  Fiona and Zane came to visit us on Calliope once every couple of weeks. Caia and Blaze were dating—though I had to admit, there was a lot of fire between those two! Quite literally! They were deeply in love with each other, and it showed. I was relieved to hear that Heath was cool with their relationship, too, and that he didn’t care about the celibacy oath as much as we’d thought. Time had a way of changing views, I guessed…

  Vesta and her parents were brought back, along with Ryker, Laughlan, Rush, and Amina. They were all resettled in new homes. The Mara couple stayed in White City, while the others accepted Draven’s invitation to live in Luceria. That castle was huge, and there were still plenty of unoccupied rooms. Vesta was adjusting to her new life, though she went back to Neraka once in a while to check on her Imen village. In a way, she had two homes.

  Caspian started training with Jax’s wards as part of his GASP induction. On top of that, his sentry abilities were truly coming out—his ability to mind-bend other Maras would come in handy. It scared some of them, but, at the end of the day, Jax was pleased to know it was possible. He was even considering wards for Caspian. Lumi had already indicated that she would mark some for him, if they agreed on it. Wards would allow Caspian to perform mass mind-bending on Maras, too. If ever they needed to regain control of a large group, Caspian’s ward-amplified sentry skill would sure come in handy.

  Mom and Dad got their own suite in Luceria in the end. With all three of their kids living here, we’d figured it was only a matter of time before they joined us. The Shade was just one portal away.

  Good news was coming out of Neraka, too. The Imen were on their way to repopulating the planet. The peace treaties worked smoothly. And Zane and Fiona ruled over the daemon kingdom with firm hands—the daemons had come to both fear and respect our petite vampire, whose strength had put many of their Legions to shame.

  The Exiled Mara rebels were successfully resettled, too. In fact, they were welcomed with arms wide open. Sienna and Tobiah were well-adjusted and thriving, and they’d also joined GASP.

  Farrah and Rowan had been sentenced to life in prison. That was an eternity behind bars. Farrah had tried to persuade the judges and jury that she was willing to mend her ways, but it didn’t do her any good. Rowan stood her ground until the gavel came down. Upon hearing the sentence, she broke down in tears. I didn’t feel sorry for either of them. The other Exiled Maras were also subjected to their individual trials. Sienna, Tobiah, Cadmus, Peyton, and Caspian had done a marvelous job of gathering evidence against those who had aided the Lords in their genocide.

  In the end, fifty life sentences were handed out. The rest each got between one hundred and five thousand years. In some cases, the judge was lenient and sentenced a handful of younger Maras to hard labor and service to Luceria, as servants.

  Vita was pregnant, though it was Bijarki who was positively glowing—literally, his silvery skin shimmered all the time. His emotional state was far too powerful to contain. We’d organized a double baby shower, for both Vita and Aida, whose baby bump was starting to show. Corrine kept a watchful eye on both of them, given that their babies were going to be hybrids.

  We were all dying to see what they would turn out like. Would Aida and Field’s kid grow wings or turn werewolf? Would Vita and Bijarki’s little one take on his father’s silvery blood and complexion, or become full fae? There were lots of unknowns in our cross-couplings, but they all filled us with hope and wonder.

  As I looked back on my Nerakian stint, I found myself fully energized and eager to tackle the future. There were some important celebrations and anniversaries coming our way over the next few months, so I figured I’d do my part and get something organized. I wanted to make sure that Derek, Sofia, Lucas, Marion, Xavier, Vivienne, and all the “old guys and gals’ club” knew how much we loved and admired them.

  So, one late night, I left Caspian to discuss the possibility of wards with Lumi, while I snuck into our base on Mount Zur and called a secret meeting for all the Shadian kids. Serena had been kind enough to drag Phoenix out of bed and bring him over, too. We’d agreed to leave our better halves behind. Not that they weren’t family, but we were trying to keep a low profile and organize a surprise for the elders. It would’ve been suspicious if all of us were missing at the same time, over the next six months or so.

  Serena, Phoenix, and I sat in the grand meeting room on Mount Zur, next to one of the fire training halls. We stared at the touchscreen that had been incorporated into the long table surface, with a satellite connection and some magic amplifiers mounted underneath to increase its reach. It gave us the ability to connect to Corrine’s wicked telescope and get real-time glimpses into neighboring galaxies.

  “I can’t believe we’ve already got satellites in Calliope’s orbit,” Phoenix muttered, swiping across a galaxy and randomly zooming in and out on different planets.

  “You can thank Viola for that,” Serena replied. “She loves our tech.”

  “Okay, so…” I said, checking the meeting list I’d hastily put together. “The others should be here soon.”

  “Who did we bring into this, again? Did we tell Rose and Ben?” Serena asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah, but they said we should go ahead and plan whatever. They’ll do their part when the time comes. They trust us to pick the right place.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful,” Serena replied, beaming with excitement.

  “Do you think they’ll agree, though?” Phoenix sighed, his brow slightly furrowed. “Derek’s a workaholic. What are the odds he’ll say yes?”

  “Well, that’s where
River and Ben come in,” I said, grinning like a devious little devil.

  The double doors opened wide, prompting the three of us to stand and welcome the rest of our organizing crew—Caia, Vita, Fiona, Avril, Field, Scarlett, Dmitri, Jovi and Aida; Elonora, Ruby and Ash’s daughter; Kailani, Arwen and Brock’s daughter; and Blaze.

  “How did you all get here at the same time?” I asked, surprised to see everyone at once.

  Elonora, one of the few vampire sentries in The Shade and one of my closest friends, pointed at Caia. “Little Miss Fiery Fae here made sure we all met outside first,” she said, giving Caia a brief smirk. “Her organizational skills will serve her well in the future.”

  “Wait, are you being sarcastic?” Caia replied, somewhat confused.

  The thing with Elonora was that sometimes it was difficult to tell whether she was joking, or she was serious. In hindsight, I might’ve rubbed off on her a little.

  “No, I’m giving you a compliment,” Elonora said. “I wish I had my crap together as well as you do. Honestly.”

  “Yeah, but then again, you’re a freaking monster under pressure,” Kailani interjected, chuckling softly. The young witch had recently been approved into GASP’s Eritopian base, and she’d been getting along surprisingly well with Lumi. I hadn’t said it out loud yet, but I was willing to bet that Lumi would offer her a disciple role. After all, Kailani already had the magic gift. Amplifying it with swamp witch magic would be the icing on the cake.

  “She meant that in a good way,” Vita said to Elonora.

  “Let’s get down to business,” Field said. “Our future mommies need their beauty sleep.”

  Aida shot him a cold glance, raising an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Uh-oh.” Jovi chuckled. Aida playfully smacked him over the back of his head. “Ouch!”

  “Wait till Anjani gets pregnant,” Aida replied, grinning.

  “I will feed her well, I promise!” Jovi shot back.

  We all laughed, as Vita took a deep breath. She wasn’t showing yet, but she was definitely dealing with pregnancy symptoms already. Spiced rosewater helped her and Aida a lot, as it soothed their bouts of morning sickness. Their cravings were hilarious, though—mainly because we got to watch both Field and Bijarki scramble to get their soulmates everything they needed, even if it meant going across the entire continent in a heartbeat for a sweet fruit.

  “Well, thank you all for coming,” I said, starting the meeting. “As we all know, we’ve got some important milestones coming up! We’ve just completed the new extension to The Shade; we’ve got peace missions fully accomplished in Eritopia and on Neraka, with new GASP bases on both… and, most importantly, The Shade itself is entering its six hundredth year of existence!”

  They all cheered and clapped, while I pulled up a satellite image of a foreign galaxy. It was a beautiful sight to behold—an ample spiral in glowing shades of blue, white, and pink, riddled with millions of stars and mysterious planets.

  “This, in my humble opinion, calls for a serious celebration,” I added, “which is why you’re all here tonight. Now, I’m not able to get this done all by myself, obviously, and frankly, I think we all have a part to play in this, because it’s about rewarding our parents, our grandparents, and our wonderful founding great-grandparents for everything they’ve achieved so far.”

  “So, Harper and I have been thinking,” Serena chimed in, pointing at the colorful galaxy. “Our elders deserve a big, beautiful, and relaxing vacation somewhere to celebrate all this. Somewhere new and amazing, somewhere they’ve never been before. We need to wow them.”

  “We found this place, with Jovi’s help,” I said, then zoomed deeper into the galaxy. I pulled up a solar system. “It’s in the Meahiri galaxy. It’s a remote solar system with a single massive star, called Aylara. Mind you, this is what we’ve managed to confirm with Draven from his Druid astrology archives.”

  Jovi smirked. “Glad to hear we’re doing Strava, then!” he quipped, then touched the table surface and zoomed in on the planet in question. It was a blue gem, the perfect paradise with turquoise waters, white sand-beds, and clusters of small islands and archipelagos. “It’s a tropical haven,” he added. “There are only two seasons, one hot and dry, the other warm and wet. In about six months, it’ll be perfect for this vacation thing.”

  “We’ve been monitoring the planet,” I said, pulling up some geographical and astronomical details on the table screen for everyone to see. “We’ll need to scope it out first, but it looks uninhabited. There’s an atoll I think will be the perfect place for us to set up a temporary vacation resort. I’m talking the full-service works. The beach is perfect, the flora is lush and abundant, and from what I can tell, there are plenty of wild animals to hunt.”

  “Ben and Rose have agreed to take over The Shade for a month,” Serena continued. “Otherwise, it would be impossible for us to get Derek to stay away from work for more than a week. I mean, sure, he was on Neraka for what, three? Four weeks?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, but it was still work-related, and he had both Ben and Rose on Telluris speed-dial at all times,” I replied. “We need to get them to fully disconnect and just… relax. Enjoy themselves. Be together, and all that good stuff!”

  Everyone was immediately on board.

  “Grandpa and Grandma will definitely welcome the idea,” Dmitri said.

  “Yeah, Vivienne and Xavier haven’t been on a long vacation for… wow, for centuries. Good grief!” Serena exclaimed.

  “Okay! Yup! We’re in!” Elonora replied. “What do you need from us?”

  Phoenix cleared his throat. “I’m going to have a talk with Viola, Lumi, and Arwen, so we can organize a brief expedition to Strava. We’ll need to check the place out, particularly that atoll, and make sure it’s safe and habitable. The last thing we want is to get our grandparents stranded in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in a galaxy far away,” he said, chuckling.

  I couldn’t help but burst into laughter, doubling over. “We have a terrible track record as a family in foreign places, huh?”

  “Hey, we’ll do our homework this time!” Jovi shot back. “Whatever you need, we’re here. We’ll give Derek, Sofia, and our grandparents the vacation they deserve.”

  “Oh, we most certainly will,” Aida replied, her lips stretching into a grin.

  I nodded slowly, looking across the table. I loved that image of all of us together, gathered around the live snapshot of a distant galaxy—all of us ready to go farther into space, ready to explore and discover new incredible places.

  For a second, I wondered if Strava’s Hermessi would be as powerful as Neraka’s. I would love to meet more of them, as I was still reeling from my experience with Ramin, the fire spirit of Neraka.

  Either way, Jovi was right. Derek, Sofia, and the other founders of The Shade deserved a break. After everything they’d been through, and after everything they’d accomplished, the least we could do was give them the perfect month in a heavenly corner of the In-Between.

  They’d come a long way.

  They’d earned it.

  IT’S THE END OF A SEASON,

  But is it the end of The Shade?

  Dear Shaddict,

  Thank you for reading the final book of Season 7, A Battle of Souls.

  I’m excited to announce that the Shade series will continue for another season!

  Book 1 of Season 8 is called ASOV 60: A Voyage of Founders, and with The Shade's sixth hundredth anniversary approaching, there will be an extra special return of your favorite original characters—along with the younger Shadian generations and some unexpected new faces… :)

  A Voyage of Founders releases May 31st, 2018.

  Check out the blurb, and pre-order your copy now for convenience, to have it delivered automatically to your reading device on release day!:

  If you’re in the USA: Tap here

  UK: Tap here

  Australia: Tap here

  Any other countr
y: Tap here

  See you soon!

  Love,

  Bella x

  P.S. Join my VIP email list and I’ll send you a reminder as soon as I have a new book out. Visit here to sign up: www.forrestbooks.com

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  Read more by Bella Forrest

  HOTBLOODS

  (New supernatural romance series!)

  Hotbloods (Book 1)

  Coldbloods (Book 2)

  Renegades (Book 3)

  Venturers (Book 4)

  Traitors (Book 5)

  Allies (Book 6)

  THE GIRL WHO DARED TO THINK

  The Girl Who Dared to Think (Book 1)

  The Girl Who Dared to Stand (Book 2)

  The Girl Who Dared to Descend (Book 3)

  The Girl Who Dared to Rise (Book 4)

  The Girl Who Dared to Lead (Book 5)

  The Girl Who Dared to Endure (Book 6)

  The Girl Who Dared to Fight (Book 7)

  THE GENDER GAME

  (Completed series)

  The Gender Game (Book 1)

  The Gender Secret (Book 2)

  The Gender Lie (Book 3)

  The Gender War (Book 4)

  The Gender Fall (Book 5)

  The Gender Plan (Book 6)

  The Gender End (Book 7)

  A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES

  Season 1: Derek & Sofia’s story