Prologue

Everyone says high school goes by fast, but no one believes it until it’s over.  For Julie Ayers, those four years felt like a blink of an eye. She met the school’s new English teacher, Marcus Campbell, as a freshman. From the moment she and her best friends, Claire Bennett and Jimmy Warner, witnessed Mr. Campbell breaking up a fight between two senior football players, Julie knew there was something different about him. It turned out to be more accurate than she could have imagined.

Marcus Campbell was a warrior from another dimension, Seras. He had been sent from Seras to find Seras’ prophesied savior, not knowing it was Julie. Once he discovered she was the one, Marcus reluctantly took the young girl to Seras to prepare her for the fight to come. To help in her training, Marcus introduced her to Callista, the warrioress of the Hemoor tribe, and her two companions, Otta and Seren.

Julie Renee Ayers’s birth resulted from the Elder Tolth’s need to protect the world of Seras. He brought four of the five Elders together to create the Gifts. Tolth took it upon himself to visit Earth and plant seeds in two parts of the world, knowing they would combine to produce a champion, the Heart, who would be powerful enough to stop the Elderess Eryx from ruling all of Seras and beyond.

While it was an inconvenience to juggle life traveling between Earth and Seras by way of the strange design drawn in Mr. Campbell’s basement, Julie learned the powers of the Gifts of the Elders from the immortal Redderick Bobo: the Bones of Azahleah, three rocks which allowed the travel from one dimension to another; the Breath of Ostram, using this potion would give a person the ability to influence people’s minds; the Blood of Vestus, an oil which, when set free and warmed by fire, could slow time; the Body of Eryx, personified in secret by the Elders in the form of the Solia Custor, Marcus; and the Heart of Tolth, which Julie discovered to be herself.

Her adventure turned deadly during the Battle of Yellow Fields when a giant killed Callista right in front of Julie. Since then, Julie lost many others to fight the evil desires of Queen Pallanex and her right-hand man, William.

Pallanex had been a wandering follower of the Elderess Eryx, displaced by her temple leaders as being dangerous and unholy. Little did they know that was exactly the type of follower Eryx preferred. In her youth, Pallanex was beautiful and flirty. She seduced the aging Canis, King of the Skorei tribe, who was also Marcus’s father. Pallanex became his queen…and his downfall. Pallanex convinced Canis and his men to attack a tribe of Corven women devoted to the Elder Tolth. In doing so, Canis, his two sons, Marcus and Darius, and the men who were involved in the attack were cursed, turning them into demons. She murdered Marcus’s mother, Raewin, poisoned his father, which eventually led to the old man’s death, and tried to assassinate Marcus, Freya, and their brother, Darius. Marcus killed Pallanex, only to have her revived by the Elderess, Eryx. Marcus, William, Darius, and the surviving Skorei ruled Seras through blood and fire. They separated to rule over more land, not knowing William was loyal to Pallanex. Marcus was betrayed by his best friend, who plotted against him and turned his brother, Darius, against him. They fought in the Battle of the Betrayer, where all the remaining Skorei except Marcus, William, Darius, and the brothers Angus and Malcolm were killed.

Once he was back to full strength, he met Callista, who brought him to Allon, a small fortress where the immortal Bhjuda Heilshorn gathered refugees from the wars raged by Queen Pallanex, and even Marcus himself, where he learned his role in the fate of Seras from the immortal Bjhuda Heilshorn.

There, he was to be assisted by the leaders of Allon, most notably his sister, Freya; Commander Argos, his wife, Gwendolyn, and their three sons, Julius, Jakob, and Edwin; Commander Griffus and his wife, Laila; Commander Pertheus; the Hemoor warrioresses, Callista, Otta, and Seren; and Jayna the Tarrack, the last of her kind, who can change into a bear, hawk, and cougar, to find the Heart of Tolth in a place called Earth.

Unbeknownst to Marcus, he was the only person from Seras who could move through the portal. Once on Earth, he assumed the role of a teacher to find the Heart. Much to his chagrin, he discovered it was a young student named Julie Ayers.

Over the course of four years, Julie and Marcus’s relationship had been tested in ways beyond comparison. None more so when Julie and Marcus fought against the Skorei brothers, Angus and Malcolm, and she discovered his secret. Marcus was not just a warrior; he was a Skorei demon—the most dangerous and feared demonic warrior in all of Seras. The secret almost destroyed them.

When Marcus ran off to face his former best friend, it was Julie who insisted the warriors of Allon go after him and save Marcus from the clutches of William and possibly himself. Words could not describe the relief she felt when they found him alive, bringing Julie and Marcus closer. Unfortunately, it cost the people of Allon several strong warriors, including Commander Pertheus. William was able to escape, even though Julie learned she had developed powers beyond her comprehension.

Through it all, with unfathomable trust, compassion, and something even deeper than either knew, Julie and Marcus’s strained friendship found a way to survive as they continued to grow closer and closer.

Part One

Into the Abyss

Chapter One

Julie—Earth

Julie’s professor scribbled excessively on the whiteboard in front of the class. Is it possible that one country has a comparative advantage in producing a good while the other country has an absolute advantage in producing that same good? The room was tiered in ten rows and angled to allow students a complete 180-degree view of Dr. Morris, a short, bald man who reminded Julie of the Muppets’ Professor Honeydew. The room was well-lit, with large windows allowing natural light to fill the space during the day. Most of the two hundred students sitting in the lecture hall jotted notes on their laptops, some with pen or pencil, and notebooks, while others left their phones on their desks to record the lesson.

Most of the students, except Julie Ayers.

“The answer is yes!” he shouted. “All it requires is the comparative advantage or…” He paused.

“The opportunity cost,” a few front-row students answered in unison.

“Good,” he continued. “The opportunity cost of making that good for, let’s call it, country A is lower than country B, regardless of absolute figures.” He marked across the board again. “So, if country A produces, oh, how about twenty laptops and forty phones, and country B produces ten laptops or thirty phones, then country A clearly has an absolute advantage in making phones, but the opportunity cost for country A in producing a phone is half a laptop while the opportunity cost for country B is only a third laptop< so it has a lower opportunity cost, and we say country B has a comparative advantage.”

Julie sat, barely keeping herself awake.

“I’m sorry, Miss Ayers, am I boring you?” Dr. Morris looked perturbed.

Julie straightened up in her seat. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just been a really long day.” She felt the eyes of her classmates staring at her.

“Miss Ayers, it’s eight twenty-seven in the morning.”

The students around the lecture hall chuckled.

“Perhaps a long night, but not a long day.”

Julie averted her eyes. Little did he know she had already spent the better part of the day working out with Marcus, training for a war that seemed never to come. “I am so sorry.” She stood and excused herself from the room. Julie’s steps clattered and echoed down the marble floor. She hopped down the stairs and raced to her car. Once inside the purple ‘Jellybean,’ she started to cry.

College was nothing like high school. At Cedar Creek, she knew most of the students in her class. She had been popular. She was a cheerleader, track star, basketball player, and even infamous for her role in the Trotter case after he attacked her in the coach’s office during her sophomore year. At McPherson College, she was just another number, a nobody. She moved aimlessly from class to class, stopping to get an iced coffee when she needed a pick-me-up, and that was it. Claire was gone. Jimmy was gone. On Earth, Julie was alone. Even her roommate, Brooklyn, was rarely there, preferring to spend her nights partying or socializing away from Julie.

Not that Julie minded. It had been four months since saving Marcus from William. Since then, Julie’s attitude had changed. She no longer viewed traveling to Seras as a chore or something she didn’t want to do. After graduation, her parents took her on vacation. It was supposed to be a relaxing getaway from the craziness the family had been through, especially the past two years. However, Julie spent most of the trip thinking about Seras, Allon, and Marcus. Even after Pertheus died, Julie felt more at home on Seras than on Earth. Was it the power she displayed in defeating William, or was it seeing Marcus in William’s prison that moved something inside her? She couldn’t explain it.

“You beat William?” Marcus had said to her in the dark dungeon. “You are an amazing young woman.”

“I’m just a girl,” she had answered him. “Nothing special.”

“No, you are much more than that.” His words surprised her and made her blush, and then they burned into her heart.

Stop, Julie! she pounded on her steering wheel. You’re just a silly girl!