Aevilen Awaits!
Kingdom of Aevilen Series
Book 1: The Lost Princess of Aevilen
After her family’s California home is destroyed by a wildfire, seventeen-year-old Julia moves in with her grandmother, a foreign-born woman with a heavy accent and hidden past. When by chance she comes across an enchanted necklace in the bottom of an old trunk, the magical artifact transports Julia to Aevilen, a war-torn land from which her grandmother had escaped a half-century prior.
Aevilen is far different from California, with sweeping landscapes and exotic creatures. As Julia searches for a way home, she discovers an ancient family legacy that if fulfilled could bring an end to the troubles gripping this mystical land. With a chance to make things right, Julia must choose between the home she loves and her ancestors' promise to the people of Aevilen - a promise she has yet to understand.
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The Monastery Library
Julia stood and shimmied through the opening. She stopped, stunned, as the room came into view.
It was a cavernous, multi-level library filled with colored light. Above her was the largest stained-glass object she’d ever seen, a 100-foot diameter, domed ceiling formed from crystal panes arranged in floral and ivy-like patterns. Vibrant streams of green, red, and yellow illuminated row after row of ornamented bookcases below. It would have been a sight to behold in a prior era, but most of the cases were now empty, their contents spilled across the floor or missing entirely. Julia felt a deep unease welling inside her as she walked between the empty shelves and over the piles of books.
Something terrible happened here.
The Lost Princess of Aevilen, Ch. 7
The Forest
Julia cautiously glanced from left to right and back again as she passed through a stand of hundred-foot trees at the boundary of the forest. The dense underbrush and subtle changes in topography across the forest floor limited her visibility. By the time she had walked only a few hundred yards in, she felt as though she’d been swallowed. Julia felt insignificant next to the ancient pines looming overhead. The rustling branches and ever-shifting patches of light played tricks on her eyes. The smell of decomposition and pine sap hung heavily in the air. The forest was at once a grand and claustrophobic space.
The Lost Princess of Aevilen, Ch. 8
The Bridge
Ahead of them was a stone bridge over a wide river, a vast stretch of open grassland beyond. The bridge was very old and so narrow that a man could not have lain down across its width. There were no handrails, ropes, or walls, and the guardrail stones, like those of the mountainside road, came up only just high enough to keep a wagon wheel from slipping over the side. Beneath the bridge ran the angriest river Julia had ever seen. The roaring, yellow waters in the canyon raised the hairs on the back of her neck.
“That doesn’t look safe at all,” Julia said.
“Safe?” said Thezdan. “The bridge has stood for a thousand years. Surely that makes it among the safest in Aevilen.”
Julia glowered at him. “That’s not what I meant.”
Thezdan looked back askance for a moment, then he turned and waved her forward. “It’s only walking. Let’s go.”
Julia followed, but her will gave out once her feet met the first stones.
The Lost Princess of Aevilen, Ch. 11
Balyssa
“Who are you, Spirit?” Thezdan asked, his body tense.
“I am Balyssa, Eodan. Your grandfather and I helped Princess Elleina escape many years ago.”
Thezdan shook his head. “You could not have known him. You would be an old woman if you had!”
“I knew him well, Eodan. He was strong. But not as strong as you might become.”
Thezdan took a step forward and squinted, trying to get a better view of their visitor. “Who are you that you do not age?”
Balyssa raised her head slightly, revealing her eyes for the first time. They were a stunning purple color. “I am not a mortal woman,” she said. “I am a servant of the high and most beautiful Dancer. I straddle the world of the living and the world of spirits. My efforts to summon Princess Elleina have left me drained, which is why you see me as I am now. I am struggling to maintain my tether to this living form, and so I slip farther and farther into the spirit realm.”
The Lost Princess of Aevilen, Ch. 16