Oblivion Gate Episode Four

By Odette C. Bell

Grace must come to terms with what it means to face the end as, around her, Xandia crumbles. The separatists take on the humans with everything they have. They won't just use bows and arrows this time; they’ll use Mark’s body.
As this world crumbles and threatens to take Earth with it, Grace must dig deep to find what has always lain within.
....
Oblivion Gate follows a soldier and a prophesied weapon fighting for the truth in a far-distant realm. If you love your fantasies with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Oblivion Gate Episode Four today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Oct 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463269145

Book preview

Chapter 1

Grace

I wasn’t in full control of my body, not yet, but I had enough attention to watch as a gate opened around me. No, as a gate opened through me.

After coming to Xandia, I had experienced so much – too much to put into words. From having my horrifying dreams turn real, to having my body given over to a god’s – I couldn’t begin to understand what had happened to me. My every single nightmare had come true. All of that fear that had haunted me my whole life had been justified. But it hadn’t been my whole life, had it? Because I – Grace – had never been anything more than a veneer over Pandora’s personality. An image that had been allowed to exist as Pandora had lain dormant on Earth.

These thoughts and more tumbled through my mind as my body tumbled through something else. I’d traveled through a gate before when I’d come to Xandia, but it hadn’t been like this. This felt like being sucked into myself as I was pulled backward through my own history. There were no forms, no shapes, and the sensations that raced through my body were so chaotic and confusing I couldn’t begin to describe them. What there was instead was this dark pit of selflessness. It felt as if I’d been drawn back into a realm where I’d never existed, and all Grace had been was nothing more than a whispered lie.

Just as I tried to convince myself I was nothing, just as I lost hold of all perspective and hope, I pushed back.

I wasn’t as powerful as Pandora. I wasn’t a goddess. In many ways, the only thing Grace’s life had taught me was to fear.

But I knew one thing. If I gave up and I allowed Pandora to take over my body, there would be no stopping the goddess.

As Grace, I might have felt as if I was useless – nothing more than a pathetic individual who’d never been able to take control of her life. But at least I understood what was happening here. At least I had the perspective to appreciate what Pandora was doing.

Pandora might technically have all of the power, but she had no mind. Her will was completely consumed by that of the gods – or at least, by her broken interpretation of them.

As Grace, maybe all I had was my mind, but I would still use it. For if I did not fight, there would be no one to stop Pandora.

In another snapped moment I would never forget, I finally reemerged from the gate. Or the gate reemerged from me. It felt as if someone reached a hand in, grabbed hold of my heart, pulled it from my chest, and smeared it over reality. It was as if the matter of existence had been resting in my chest and all someone had to do to reawaken it was to light my heart on fire.

I fell down to my knees, gasping as light broke over my body like lightning over a dry plane.

It took several shuddering seconds for the energy of the gate to disperse around me, then I saw where I’d transported.

I was in some kind of compound, and there was a building in front of me. It didn’t belong to Xandia – I could tell that much. It was made from concrete.

As I shifted back, almost losing control of my stomach muscles and falling to the side, I saw a large reinforced gate running around the side of the compound, and beyond that, guards.

They were rushing toward me, no doubt brought on by the sudden plume of energy my gate had created. Light was still blasting into the air, dissipating from my transport. As I tilted my head back, still gasping and reorienting my body, I appreciated it would look as if someone had just blasted a concentrated laser into the sky.

There was a gasp from behind me, and I jerked my head to the side to see Jarrak. He was beside the babook, one arm crumpled around its thick mane as his bloodied fingers held on for support.

His other hand was clutched around his injured neck. If I thought it had taken me a long time to readjust after being thrust through that gate, Jarrak looked as if he would never get his mind back. His eyes were so pressed wide, it seemed as if someone had taped the lids to his forehead. He was rocking back and forth on his knees, his fingers clutching harder around the babook’s mane. What— he said in a tortured gasp.

I transported us, I managed. My voice was weak. I couldn’t make it strong. Right now, I was too busy holding onto my body to bother forcing much-needed strength into my words. If I didn’t use all of my power to keep Pandora back, she would rush in and claim me for good.

Despite the fact Jarrak looked as if he was about to collapse, his eyes somehow opened wider. Is… is that you, Grace?

I tilted my head in the direction of the fence line. Soldiers were now headed our way, guns held stiffly in their grips.

I brought up a hand, staring down at my skin. It was still pulsing with the light of Pandora. I would look exactly like a goddess of Xandia. Enough of my human mind was functioning to appreciate that by transporting in here, the soldiers would interpret this as an attack.

I reached around, skidded down to my knees, and placed a hand on Jarrak’s shoulder. You have to get up. Stay behind me.

Grace? he asked again, staring right into my eyes. There was something so pure about his look, so innocent, too. It was the stare of somebody who had no power to make their desires true, but was hoping with all of their heart for them to become real.

In the few seconds I had left, I crumpled my lips into a smile. Yes, it’s me, Grace.

Once upon a time, it had seemed Jarrak would have done anything to make me into Pandora, but now at the news I was back, he crumpled forward, pulling a hand off his bloodied neck as he placed it on my shoulder instead, practically collapsing against me. Thank god.

Didn’t you want Pandora? I had time to ask.

No. I just wanted someone to save us all. The gods promised us Pandora would do that. The gods… he couldn’t finish his sentence.

As I pulled back from his grip, turned, and faced the oncoming soldiers, I finished his sentence in my mind.

The gods would protect no one but themselves.

Though it had been confusing being thrust back to the corners of my consciousness as Pandora had taken control, I’d held on. For a woman who’d always convinced herself that I had been the very heart of weakness, I’d managed to remain in the goddess’s mind. And I’d learned everything Pandora had revealed. Except, unlike Pandora, I had been able to see past Pandora’s fictions and lies.

The gods were not here to protect this land. They were here to control it. The gods were not here to protect the people of Xandia – they were here to use them, to control their lives, and, ultimately, if they did not behave, kill them.

I wouldn’t let that happen. For there was something I had to appreciate. I might’ve always thought I was the weakest person in the world. But that had never been more than a thought.

It had been a fiction created to keep me down, to keep me hidden, to keep me safe until the day the forefathers recalled me to Pandora. Until the day they brought me back to destroy this world so it could be fed on.

But I would not do that.

I squared off in front of the soldiers, ground my hands into fists, and watched as they brought their guns up.

I didn’t let the light of Pandora spread over my skin. Instead, I opened my arms out wide in a surrendering position, and I got down on my knees. I tilted my head up until I faced them, knowing full well the cloak Jarrak had given me would’ve fallen from my face to reveal the lines tracking over my skin.

I didn’t care. I had nothing to hide.

But I had everything to prove.

Time was running out, and I would use the power in my hands to grasp every last second I could.

Chapter 2

Sergeant Mark Sheppard

I was resurfacing. Or maybe I’d never truly fallen unconscious.

Even though the doctors had desperately tried to sedate me, there was nothing that could truly fight the fire that had been injected into my veins – the power of the gods that raged within me, ready to consume Earth and punish all those it saw unfit to exist.

But now as I felt myself being wheeled through the compound, now as I heard the clunk of the medical trolley against the smooth concrete floor, my mind became sharper, resurfacing like some deep-sea creature that hadn’t seen the sky in years.

Just before my lips parted and I let out a gasp, I stopped myself. I dug down, found some unknown strength, and used it to hold my body in place, knowing full well that if I revealed I was awake, I would only be sedated again.

I could feel straps around my hands, around my legs too. There was even a large belt around my chest, locking me hard against the metal rungs of the bed. Obviously James wasn’t going to take any chances now.

He was right by my side, only several steps back. He wasn’t speaking – but I could smell his particular brand of cologne. Though my body and its natural senses felt as if they’d been thrown in a blender, that fire was still raging through me. And though it felt as if I’d swallowed the very destructive capacity of a black hole, it was sharpening my mind. I swore I couldn’t just smell James – I could locate every single person around me, from the two doctors behind the bed, to the soldiers directing it, to the three guards behind. The guards were armed, too, and I got the distinct impression they had assault rifles on them.

There was an almost inaudible buzz, and I heard someone shove a hand into their pocket. James took a tense breath. The portal— he began.

An alarm suddenly picked up through the compound, pitching so high, it sounded as if someone intended to use the blaring noise to break down the very walls.

What the hell is that? one of the doctors demanded in a stuttering tone.

James took several quick steps back, the rubber of his boots squeaking against the concrete floor. It’s the intruder alarm. We’re being attacked. It seemed he couldn’t spit his words out fast enough. They jumbled in his throat, packing together until it sounded as if he was trying to digest every syllable.

… Intruder alarm. Those two words dug deep down into my head, feeling like some kind of parasite trying to burrow through my forebrain.

I… there was this sense building within me. It had something to do with the fire, yet I couldn’t explain it, couldn’t begin to imagine what it meant. It was telling me something was nearby. Some immeasurable threat. Something I had to run from. Something that could stop me. Stop the fire in my blood, stop the plan of the gods.

My body went to move. The fire pulsing in my veins wouldn’t allow it to stay still any longer. But just at the last moment when I almost pushed against the chest strap and alerted everyone I was once again awake, I stopped myself. Don’t ask me how. An ordinary human body shouldn’t have the kind of strength I required now to fight against the very fire of the gods. But from somewhere deep within me, I found it. It wasn’t even a place of violent rage. Instead, it was some kind of quiet core that seemed to have always existed within me. A place that went beyond my old robust personality, went beyond my training, went beyond my years of hiding under my father’s shadow.

It was this quiet reserve buried deep in my heart.

Just as the fire willed me to move, willed me to fight against the straps, free myself, and run to the portal, I held my body as still as I