Prologue Abraxas Moore stared one more time at the unforgiving clouds forming above him. The weather would soon become perilous, and he knew he had very little time until they caught him. Even the Green Hills, the place that had sheltered him and his kind for centuries—their home—was no longer safe. The rain he was sure would start at any moment would not be life renewing. It was not a sign of rebirth, and he knew with a near perfect certainty it was it was not even natural in its origins. Rather, it had been conjured by those who sought to kill him as a means to draw him out into the open. They hoped he would make a mistake and fail at his task. Then they would be able to trap and kill him. Most disturbing, however, was he knew they would succeed in their task. His role as leader of his people, not one he ever truly sought, weighed heavily on him that night, and he knew not even the love of his wife, Niki, would sustain him through what was to come. The prophecy was no longer something that would eventually happen, but was actually occurring in front of his eyes. Time had finally caught up with them. After centuries of very little change, his people were facing almost immediate destruction, and it had fallen to him to somehow find a way to help them survive what would be certain annihilation. Ironically, the storm that had come out of nowhere this evening had been the final sign he needed to indicate their impending doom. When an Outsider stopped being able to predict the weather then it really was the end of the world. How would humanity last even another decade without them around to silently keep the balance of lightness and darkness in order? His people had thrived, for centuries, by walking the lines of grey that fell between the two extremes of Good and Evil. They kept order and balance in their little space in the universe. They always had and he had hoped they always would. Oh sure, they may have slightly pushed things towards the side of Good whenever possible. They were, after all, not Gods or Deities who could see the fabric of time and know the outcome of decisions they made before they made them. They were humans—of a sort—with another power, another layer, to their minds that allowed them to see what most humans could not: all things were connected. Time, energy, life, and even death all flowed on the same strings of current, like a sound wave or an electrical wire, and they had been used or manipulated by his people since the dawn of time to keep things in order. This had been their sacred duty since creation, and it was the obligation they would all be forfeiting with their deaths in no short amount of time. Without them, it was likely there would be chaos. Humanity would fall in this dimension. Chaos. Enslavement. Famine. Death. Evil would finally win its battle to control all things. Good would stand no chance of prevailing because they wouldn't see the "bad guys" coming until it was too late to stop them. His people had forgotten they were not Gods. He was to blame for this, as he was to blame for so many other mistakes over his short reign. If there was a way to fix things, he would gladly do whatever it took to complete the task. But alas, the chanting had stopped for him, and he knew he was out of the precious currency known as time.
Even transporting backwards into the past seemed to be out of the question. It was as if a wall had been erected to keep his kind from reaching back to the moment when all things had gone awry. He should have been paying better attention. Clenching his fists at his side, Abraxas stomped across the grass from his small cottage home towards the top of Windfelt Hill. What would the local population think when the barriers fell and they suddenly realized they had been living side by side with unknown people for generations? The wind blew, pushing his blond hair into his face and since he couldn't see, it made it exceptionally hard to proceed to his destination. It was absolutely essential he get up the hill before the sun went down and he was plunged into darkness. He needed to place his ritual staff upon the hill and call to the heavens for help. That is if they hadn't abandoned him and could still hear his pleas for his people. Was anyone up there still listening to the Outsiders or was it too late? It was still winter, and spring hadn't made its first pushes to thaw out his part of the world. Ice sat atop the grass, changing its color from its natural green to a more transparent blue, and as he walked along, it crunched under his well-worn boots. Niki had started mending them, begging him to actually acquire a new pair, before she had taken off with their daughter to hide with the others. Perhaps he should have stopped her, but it had seemed futile. Let them go. Let them all go and see if we can hide the children was what he had ultimately decided. Finally reaching his destination, Abraxas stopped to look around him. He had known the top of this hill intimately since he was a child. Windfelt Hill was the outer ring of their boundary. To cross over the top of the barrier and to the other side was to cross into the land of humanity. No amount of power, his or anyone else's, could shield his people for very long from the humans if they crossed this hill, which was why in the past only a select few were chosen to make the trek. Last month, all of his people, with the exception of him, had opted to cross. His job wasn't done. He didn't have the luxury of leaving. Not until he had exhausted every option. If the Darkness knew where they were, then it was time to be somewhere else. They had decided their strength no longer held in numbers but in small hidden groups of families that were far from each other, far from the hills and woods that had hidden them and nourished them. It was their last desperate attempt to keep this annihilation of their people at bay and it made him crazier than he cared to dwell on that the whole of their society had opted to run away than stay and fight. Why was he the only one who could see it was better to stay and fight than turn and run? He wondered how they were all faring out there in the world and once again he felt the pull to Niki and the unrelenting desire to throw away all of his responsibilities and join her in her hiding place. So maybe he wasn't that different from the others when it came down to it. He wanted the family life too. Their daughter was a month older and she aged without him there to watch her do it. A lump formed in his throat and he swallowed it away. He had thought they would never have children. They should have been too old. One lone tear slipped from his left eye and he brushed it away. She was growing up without him and it truly made his insides burn. The trees around him danced from the wind of the coming storm. Their emptiness, as they swayed in their death-like dance, matched the rhythms of his heart. He wanted to undulate like that, back and forth just floating in the breeze. He didn't want to fight anymore, to stand straight and rigid; it would be so much
easier to just give in. Shaking his head, he pushed away those thoughts. At this moment, they would help nothing. Thank you, old friends, he thought quietly, directing his thoughts to the trees and the hill itself, for your years of service to our people. You shaded us well. You kept our boundaries hidden. Don't think that I will ever forget. Lightning crackled in the sky, but still no rain fell, and he could feel the threat of it in his every bone. He knew he needed to hurry. It wouldn't be long before it was too late to lend his people his final aid and help shield them from harm. He would take the protective wards off of this land and send them out into the universe to the Outsiders wherever they hid. They could use that energy to protect themselves for as long as it lasted. Maybe it would only be a few months' worth of power but it would be better than nothing. He slammed his staff, which to the uninformed looked like a giant walking stick, into the ground next to him. The Staff of Aknala had been handed down from one leader to the next for as long as his people had existed. It would cease to matter this day, and once again, he questioned himself. Had he done enough to try to save them? Now his efforts had become useless. His burden had been tremendous, and though he had shouldered it, he had not been powerful enough to stop what had been prophesized. It was all coming true. There would be no stopping the destruction now. His people had counted on him, counted on his powers being infinite. He had tried to tell them it wasn't the case, that he was as flawed as they were, and only a joint effort could undo what was about to strike them. But they had rejected that plan and instead chosen to go into hiding. Separated from each other, they were like lambs to the slaughter. In their efforts to guard their children, they would doom the prophesized infants to death and there wasn't a thing he could do to stop it. Unless‌ The thought hit Abraxas so powerfully that for a moment he could barely breathe or move from the shock of it. His temples pounded with excitement as his blood pulsed heavily in his veins. Were the heavens finally speaking to him again? Was he being given intervention when he needed it the most? With no other choice left to him, he had to believe it was a message from the moon and the sun. He could keep the children alive and ensure at least one more generation would live to see adulthood. It was too late to help the entire clan. It would take too much power and he did not have the strength left in him to handle it all on his own. But he could send the children away. He could hide them; direct all of his power to keeping them hidden. They had been the children who had been foretold would defeat the growing Darkness. The clan was right. There was nothing more important than saving the children. But it wasn't in small groups, which would quickly deplete his power source. No, the safety would last longer if they were all together and only needed to be guarded in one location. Eighteen children had been born three months earlier, some too early and some strikingly late, but all of them at the same exact time—ten past twelve, to shocked and terrified parents. It had been the beginning of the Great One's prophecy. On his death bed he had told them and they had not believed. Some of them had called it the last ravings of a dying man.
They had grown too complacent, too used to their modern existence. Little by little, they had adapted their ways to fit the ever-changing world. It had seemed the smart thing to do. Asking a Warrior who returned from battle to go back to living in a house with no air conditioning in the summer seemed akin to asking him to return to the dark ages when he'd visited the Renaissance. Certainly their enemies had used all of their modern technologies to try to locate and destroy them. But the new "toys", as he liked to think of them, left them dependent and had done something to the group's feeling of self-sufficiency. Instead of being separate from the humans, they had become part of them, at least when it came to their modern conveniences and, as a society they hadn't handled the change well. There never ceased to be creatures born of both the light and the dark that would prefer not to be monitored or held accountable for their actions. It was imperative they know how to use the technologies as well, but only recently had his people started to count on the human technologies to aid them, instead of using their gifts handed down from the Spirits of their ancestors to aid them in their lives. They had discounted the Great One and they had dismissed Abraxas's warnings of the prophecies coming true. The Great One had seen it all before it had happened. Eighteen children would be born to their group and a nineteenth child born far away. The last one would be the Darkness, born to destroy the Outsiders and spread evil to the world, unless the Eighteen could stop him. For lack of a better description, this child would be the worst of all demons brought to humanity through a stupid mistake. It seemed ridiculously easy; eighteen powerful beings could certainly stop one. Except this one was more powerful than any before him and could almost, upon birth, control his unknowing minions and begin the destruction. The Great One had feared it was already too late. This Darkness had been here before. In the past, it had been in the shape of a monster, a wolf, and a dragon, but now Abraxas feared it had found its most terrifying incarnation—a human baby boy. Somewhere, perhaps close by or perhaps thousands of miles away, it was suckling at its mother's breast as she was painfully unaware she had carried in her womb a vessel for the destruction of all things pure and good. His people were human, he always told them, human but with a twist of magic. They could manipulate the weather, move things with their minds, bring on great forces of energy, and even change the course of fate should they decide to, but only in the effort to save the greater good. They brought balance to the universe and kept things in order. Human beings without their powers often wrote of them in children's stories calling them witches or wizards, frequently making them the antagonist of the story. Amongst themselves they simply were called the Outsiders. It was a term he was fond of and wished they'd thought more about the day they decided to install the first refrigerator in one of their homes. It amused Abraxas how quickly people vilify things they don't understand. With the death and destruction of his people, all things would become horrific, an endless array of death and destruction. It couldn't be allowed to happen.
Without the Outsiders to help balance the inherent power struggle of humanity, chaos would surely occur. Evil beings, thought only to exist in myths, would feel free to come back to Earth to start destroying things again. Free societies would fall apart, and men and women, whose intentions were initially positive, would find themselves becoming almost demigod-like in their absolute beliefs that they knew the best ways to live, worship, work, and even love on the planet. It was possible humanity would destroy itself within a decade of the destruction of the Outsiders. Humanity's desires for wealth and absolute power were growing stronger and so were the evil beings that were joining them to help fulfill these needs. The Outsiders had lost many friends and family members in the effort to set things right and bring them back into balance once again. But this current threat, this latest evil being who was now just a baby, was a bigger problem altogether. He could not be beaten by the current generation, and he was already taking control. Even in infancy the Evil One was growing stronger. Telepathically ordering his willing minions to seek and destroy Abraxas's people, especially the children—the only ones he knew who could stop his plan of destruction. If only there had been more time to prepare, to figure out what the children were supposed to do. But, alas, it was too late and it was up to Abraxas to do what he could now. As if reading his intent, the clouds above him swirled in response. "Thank you my old friends," he silently uttered to the Spirits who controlled the skies. Try as they might, they could not stop the weather for him but they were trying to give him every advantage in power. The swirling moved clockwise, the natural rhythms pulsating through him as he sent a message to his people that he he prayed would reach them in time. He opened his mind to reach his people, to communicate telepathically as he had not in a month. "Much as I have tried, I cannot stop what is coming for you. I know you can feel them moving to where you have chosen to hide. You are right to suspect the howl of the wolves and the buzzing of the crickets tonight. It is evil watching you. There are too many of them and you are spread out, we are too weak while they grow too strong. I cannot save you, but I can save your children. I will hide and protect them. I ask you to give them to me now, in the hope that all will not be forever lost." He took a deep breath and heard in his head the murmurs of horror and comprehension that finally dawned on the mothers and fathers of his clan. He could feel, as if in a dream, his own wife start to sob as she held their child more tightly. His infant daughter, who already held more power than he ever could imagine, would never know his face. Behind him, a branch broke and he sighed with resignation. "They come for me now and I cannot stop it but I will send our children to where they cannot touch them and I will keep them safe, hidden until they are strong enough to fight Him and win. But I will not take them from you without your consent. They are your children to protect, yours to cherish, and if you wish them to die with you then it is not my place to prevent this." He took a deep breath, pulling out his staff. He did not need it to use his powers, but on this night, with this level of urgency, he needed to be focused and he needed every advantage he could obtain. Separately and away from the ears of his family, he sent a message to Veli, his oldest and most trusted friend. Veli would not want this job; he had lost his own wife in childbirth the year before and had taken
refuge far from his people to try to heal. It was Abraxas's deepest hope this separation had kept him off the radar of the Evil One. **** "No!" Veli shouted, jumping up from his seat by the fire he had stared at for hours. He had heard the proclamation from Abraxas, and his heart had wept at the thought of such destruction, but even before Abraxas could speak he knew what his old friend, brother really, if he was honest with himself, intended to do. He could not become responsible for all of those children, train them, or care for them. He was not equipped for such a task, such a responsibility. **** "I am sorry to leave this to you. It should be my job but I cannot shoulder it. I am going; in moments I will be no more. You will not fail, Veli. Everything now depends on you," Abraxas answered Veli, still standing on top of the hill in their homeland, although standing might be too much of an exaggeration for the distressing job he was doing maintaining his balance against the onslaught of the wind. Cutting off communication before Veli could answer, Abraxas extended his arms to the universe and began the transfer. His people needed only to send their children along the safe link he provided and they would arrive unharmed and hidden with Veli. How many? How many would his people send? Eighteen links he felt. His people had not disappointed him. They understood the magnitude of what was coming and wanted their children protected at all costs. Beneath his feet the earth shifted and moved. The Evil One was trying to stop him from below; to have the earth swallow him before the task was done. Abraxas tried desperately to hang on to the link he had created. He clenched his teeth, his whole body shaking. They moved so slowly, why couldn't he push them through the link faster? Just a few seconds more and all would be done. They could have him then. Violently, the earth sprang open and began to suck Abraxas down. As he had done many times in his youth, he leapt above the ground trying to float of his own volition and not rely on the ground to support his weight. The trees swayed and moved. With a crack of lightning a tall branch came down on top of him, pushing him into the hole in the ground. Hitting his arm, he tried to roll and fell further into the abyss. The link crashed around him. Had he done it? Had it been enough time to get the children to Veli? Silently, he begged Veli to answer him. How many had gotten to him? **** "Just three!" Veli stared in open-mouthed horror as the link closed around him. "Don't stop, Abraxas. Only three have come through. Two boys and a girl." **** Abraxas screamed at the pain Veli's words caused. Was it his daughter? Had she made it? "Find the others!" Abraxas commanded Veli. "They could be anywhere, and without them all is lost." He could feel the pain of his people as the Evil One's minions discovered each in turn. They would fight but they would not win. Ultimately, he knew they had minutes to live. He had failed them. Only Veli could succeed now. He had to find the children. With his last coherent thought, Abraxas dreamed of Niki and then there was the blackness. ****
Veli Destrand looked in horror at the three small faces staring up at him from the floor, two boys and one girl. What had Abraxas commanded him? Find the others? How was he to do this? How was he to care for the three infants who now looked up at him? He did not know these children, did not even know to which parents they belonged. He had left his people a year earlier before these children were even conceived. They were so tiny and helpless and completely dependent on his care. Turning his attention to the blonde-haired girl, he almost laughed with the strange absurdity of this situation. "Who are you?" Her hair was a bright shade of yellow, short on top of her head, although it had already begun to curl. Was this Abraxas's daughter? How on earth would he ever know who these children belonged to? What were their names? The small kitchen in his little cottage seemed even smaller to him at that moment. He could hear the hum of the window-unit air conditioner that made the room cooler in the summer. He had always found it to be pleasant sounding, like a white noise to drown out the other sounds of humanity that sometimes, albeit rarely, intruded upon his quiet life. Veli had always thought he would have children one day. His wife, Anahera, had thought that, perhaps sometime in the next five years, they would begin trying to have a family. Outsiders lived so much longer than humans there was never any rush to reproduce. They had believed they had all the time in the world. Then she had died, and his whole had ended. The truth was, he would have preferred to go his entire life without ever seeing another child. Now he was staring down at three babies and he had just been instructed to find fifteen more. How the hell was he supposed to do that? He stomped his foot, thinking he would step out of the house to get some air. All at once, all three infants started to scream. The blonde girl rolled onto her side. Reaching out with remarkable control for one so young, she stroked the top of the head of the black-haired baby boy. Despite her screams she seemed to be trying to comfort the two boys. Veli knelt down to look more closely at the children. The darker of the two boys looked like he was fuming. His cries were not high pitched and sorrowful like the girl's. They were more like a wail of the furious. "That's right, kid. Rail to the gods about the unfairness of life. See if anyone listens." Veli's ears rang from the onslaught of the piercing baby shrieks. The third child, still dark but lighter haired than the other boy, immediately stopped crying. Cocking his head to the left side, he moved his hand over his head. Veli could only describe the child's gaze as analytical at best. He knew enough about children to know this was strange. Babies who were this little shouldn't be so clear eyed and focused. Quickly, the child slammed his clenched fist on the ground. As if on command, the other two babies stopped screaming. Veli desperately wanted to call out for help. Could he risk it? Could he put a message out into the general link they all shared and risk being found by someone working for the Darkness? He pulled anxiously at his now too tight shirt collar. He had no choice but to try and immediately opened his mind to send out a call. "I am Veli Destrand. You all know me. I have three children here with me. Abraxas has instructed me to find the other children, and I swear to you that I will. But I don't know who these children are or who they belong to. I believe one day that I will be able to return them to you. Please send me descriptions of your
babies and what their names are. I'm picturing in my mind the babies that I have. If they belong to you please tell me." He hoped this would be good enough. What were some other things he should ask? Should he ask about specific powers? Temperament? With a sense of dread he suddenly realized he didn't even know how to change a diaper. He was really going to be in big trouble. How did you feed a baby this small? All at once, Veli could feel answers piling into his brain. He needed to write them down because he would never remember them if he didn't. Glancing once more at the children, not that he had clue what to do with them if they actually needed something, he leapt to his feet and rushed to a drawer to pull out a blank sheet of paper. "My daughter is Charma, the first answer resounded. She is blonde-haired and small. I am Larissa Monroe and her father is Morgan. You know us quite well, Veli. Please be kind to her." Veli could hear her mother's despair even over the shared mental link. "Oh no." Momentarily, he closed his eyes. Healers. This child with him was Charma and she was from a family of healers. How did you raise a healer? They were fragile and easily overwhelmed by life's atrocities. "You have my son Leonardo." It was the voice of Nathaniel Gregan. They were powerful and mysterious. His father's power was defensive, that much they knew, and his mother was a spell-caster. That meant it was possible the boy had both offensive and defensive powers. Looking down, Veli saw Leonardo was the lighter of the two babies. He looked like his father. Veli's own powers were purely offensive. How did you teach defensive powers? Where were the third child's parents? Had they been killed already? "Veli." His name was stated simply, but he would know that voice anywhere. Holis Oberan. A sense of dread filled him up. He had the Oberan heir. There There was no love lost between Veli and Holis. It might be fair to say they hated one another. If this boy had one ounce of his father's arrogance and pride, then Veli was in deep trouble. It was also fair to say that, other than himself, Holis was probably the most talented warrior ever born to the Outsiders. His mother had unusual powers as well. Some claimed she could take and send powers at will. Their families had been huge competitors, and eventually enemies. "Veli, I trust that you are not going to let our personal problems affect how you are going to treat my son. Obviously, if I had known what Abraxas planned we would have found another way to keep Kalmari safe." "Kalmari. That's his name?" Veli answered quietly, trying to keep all emotion from his thoughts. "It is. His mother calls him Kal. Veli, I will have your word as a warrior that you will not hold our past‌ difficulties, against my son, or so help me, Veli, I will pull every ounce of power that I can through this link and I will take him back." "Go ahead and take him back." It was a stupid challenge and he knew it but he could never let anything Holis said go without remark. He shook his head. His wife had once informed him he needed to outgrow their rivalry. Veli could feel power surging through their minds and was somewhat surprised Holis was actually making good on his threat. He opened his mouth to tell Holis to conserve his energy, he wouldn't mistreat Kal, when
a spark in front of his eyes cut off his link. Just as quickly as it started, it stopped and all of the power that had been used was thrust back into the atmosphere around them. Sparks flew through the air. "Holis?" Veli didn't need to be a mind reader or possess the power of sight to know the Oberans were no more. They had been caught by the Darkness. Veli felt sick inside. What had he been thinking letting Holis use so much power out in the open? Had he led the Darkness to them? A shot of electricity, the early warning signal Veli had used countless countless times to save his own life, moved through his spine. There was no time. Abraxas would have lent them some shielding when he sent them through the link but that would be gone now that Holis's link had exposed them to the outside world. He picked each of the children off of the floor knowing he would have to acquire supplies on the road and improvise as he went along. He paused finally before lifting up Kal to place him on his arm next to Charma. Was he going to hold Kal's father's sins against this small, fragile, albeit fierce-eyed baby? He was enough aware of his own character flaws to resign himself to the fact the answer was most likely a resounding yes. **** New Orleans, Louisiana. Uptown. Lying quietly in his nursery, Sebastian, as they called him in this lifetime and in this current body, thought again that he had chosen the right parents to give him life. He was unquestionably rich. The sheer number of toys and designer clothes he had watched being purchased over the course of the last few months had been astounding, but he had known it would be this way when he had chosen these particular mortals. His mother, quite beautiful with green eyes that already knew too much pain for someone so early in her twenties, had left him in the care of the hired help as she had gone running off to attend whatever party was the most pressing to her at that moment. He hardly saw the father and when he had, the man had stunk like booze and cigarettes. The nanny they hired was efficient if a little lacking in hygiene herself. This might have been a problem for some children, the feeling of abandonment and alienation, but not for Sebastian. It was exactly the kind of family he needed to complete his real goals. It was time to eliminate the Outsiders. Even he had been surprised by how remarkably psychically strong he was. He had guessed it was going to take him years to be able to command minions and take possessions of souls, but it had taken only weeks. He was going to get stronger as time went on, but he had already managed to command humans who had lived across an ocean to accomplish his will. The parents were all dead now. He hadn't counted on Abraxas Moore being so swift in his skills, sending the children away. This was a true problem. They were, after all, much more talented than their parents had been. They were his true enemies and now they were loose somewhere on the planet. He had managed through sheer force of will, and it had cost him a lot of power that might take years to get back, to stop the flow from letting all the children through. They had scattered and were as good as lost now. He'd find them all eventually with little effort, he was sure. The mentally weak Veli Destrand was not going to be able to locate them, not with three babies to take care of. But it was of no concern to Sebastian in his current form. Eating and sleeping were enough for a while and time would help him take care of the rest. He would find them and he would kill them all. He was
nothing if not relentless. There would never be any more joining of souls by the Outsiders; the soul mate legacy spoken of in the prophecy would not come to be. The eighteen might have been born but they would not live long enough to unite and destroy his plans. There would be only one power on earth and it would belong all to him.
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