‘Tween Heart’s Fire and Devil’s Delight
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Astra’s world is flipped upside down when she’s called to a demon nightclub to rescue her magic-phobic sister, Darma. Turns out the event is only a precursor of the weirdness to come. A veil of twisted magic is descending over the Earth and it’s making everybody crazy. Humans are killing humans, magic users are killing other magic users, dark worlders are attacking humans at an alarming rate and madness is rolling over everyone in waves. When the guardian angels start succumbing to a rare disease called Devil’s Plague, Astra decides a visit to the prophet is in order. But before Astra can get her arms around it all, she finds herself facing the biggest challenge she’s ever had to face—being surrogate parent to a baby dragon. No way!
It’s a whole lot of stuff for one little Tweener to manage. But Astra Q Phelps is definitely up to the challenge.
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"This is one of those series filled with all the good things I want in fiction.
I can't imagine ever getting tired of books like these where the
characters and dialogue make the action come alive for the reader!"
The Romance Studio
~*~
Darma looked up. “What?”
I reached a weary arm toward the lights which shone like a beacon on top of the opposite cliff. “Salvation is only a space shift away. Right under my nose and I couldn’t sniff it out to save our lives.”
She followed the direction of my pointing finger and I watched as realization hit. Who better to help you shake off the Prince of Darkness than an angel of the highest choir? A slow grin slid onto her pale face.
“Shall we?” I asked with an answering grin.
“We shall,” she replied.
A second later we were standing on the ground above the Angel City River, looking down at the Serpent standing on the opposite side. I knew we were backlit by the soft light from my father’s house, easily visible. But it no longer mattered. The Serpent’s red, malevolent gaze pierced the mist as it focused on us. We stared the Evil One down, gaining confidence from the dense, rhythmic sound of angel’s wings, which split the night above our heads.
He will not always be there to protect you, my children.
No, we said almost in unison, but he’s here right now.
Seraphim James Phelps landed softly behind us, bathing us in the warm glow of his white, angelic magic. We felt the uplifting warmth of his hands as he moved between us and placed a hand on each of our shoulders, frowning down at his nemesis on the rocks below. When he opened his mouth to speak the sounds of the river far below us vanished under the power of his voice. An illuminating beam of light shot from him to light the lone figure below. “Be gone from this place, purveyor of evil. This is consecrated ground and you and your minions are proscribed from entering it. You have no poisonous power here.”
The Devil raised his countenance to us and, under the angelic light surrounding him, his horrendous face was fully revealed. Three sets of fire-filled eyes viewed us with dark intent. Wide nostrils sat flat upon a face covered in scales, over a mouth that was nearly as wide as the scaly face. When he opened his mouth to speak flames erupted from it and several rows of razor sharp black teeth were visible beyond the parched lips. Horns curved from the sides of his head, the deadly looking points sitting close to the sides of his head, just above pointed ears.
His hands were claws and his feet were cloven hooves. He was every child’s nightmare in physical form. For the first time in our experience he opened his horrific mouth and spoke outside our minds. The voice was rusty with disuse and jagged enough to tear across our nerves.
“The veil drops, Seraphim James. Your world dies. Soon you will lose your hold on this world entirely. And I and mine will rule.”
Our father smiled a beatific smile. Its glow was like acid to the form below but the Devil stood firm against it. “Your kind of evil will never again rule this world, Serpent. Unfortunately for mankind, you will always dance on the fringes, tainting its goodness with your foul stench. But you’ll never be able to entirely snuff out its goodness. Not as long as we have breath in our bodies.”
Our father pulled us close, up under his softly beating wings and the warm glow of power surged from him, pulling our power with it to stab at the clogging veil around us and suffuse the monster on the ground below us.
For just a moment in time the veil flinched away from that place and the power tore through it to wrap around the suddenly writhing figure across the river. He fell to his knees in the rocky soil, the sand around him glistening red with his blood.
He turned bleeding eyes up to us at the last and fire spewed from his grimacing mouth. You cannot fight the veil, Seraphim James. It consumes all light and kills all who embrace it. Your kind will wither and die among the bones of your precious human race. And I will dance upon your fallen bodies as I enter this world for the last time. I will rule all.
He writhed one last time on the ground, looking to me like he was a heartbeat away from death. But I knew that was not possible. My father’s voice met his across the space and the Serpent flinched. Nay, Swine. Your veil falters and will die. Your conduits even now fight their fate.
We shall see, light one.
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