Trial by Light Episode Two: Trial by Light, #2

By Odette C. Bell

There's no going back. Annie chose to fight. But the war has barely begun.
She can't hide from the army now. She's thrown into a desperate chase to keep herself safe and hidden, but it's one that takes her further into the heart of the Specters and their terrible promise and closer to Mark, the only man who can help her now.

….

Trial by Light follows a mysterious woman and a soldier destined to meet her fighting an ancient curse. If you love your dark fantasies with action, drive, and a splash of romance, grab Trial by Light Episode Two today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Jan 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393004257

Book preview

1

Annie

I was shutting down. But I was still moving. And that right there was the most important thing. I couldn’t process the pain, the surprise, the fact that the Specters were still after me. But I could still take one step after another. And that’s what I focused on. One step after another. Over and over again.

The more I did it, the more my senses came back to me. And slowly, my energy did, too.

Reason was hot on their heels.

It told me that I couldn’t afford to run into Mark – or any of the other people out looking for this kid. The Specters were one thing, but humans would be just as bad.

I managed to tilt my head and glance down at my arm. It was still bleeding, and every now and then, I caught glimmers of sparks.

If anyone ordinary saw me, they would take one look at my injuries and conclude I wasn’t human.

I might still have no idea what I was, but I understood fully that I had to minimize the damage I’d done tonight. The Specters might know what I was, but I couldn’t let anyone else find out. Especially not Mark. He might be a nice guy – but he still worked for the Army.

As my reason returned to me, it told me I couldn’t face anyone. Not until I saw to my injuries and ensured that all of my light had subsided.

But I couldn’t just abandon this kid – not here.

If there was one thing I had going for me, it was that she had not roused. Not once. She was still completely unconscious. If she woke, it would immediately reduce my options.

If it came to a question of revealing myself or abandoning her, I would have to reveal myself.

I might go after those Specters with little remorse, but I still understood the sanctity of life.

… Which meant what, exactly?

That whatever Specters are, they’re not alive, I said with the kind of determined tone you would only get if you had been learning a fact your whole life and knew it incontrovertibly.

My mouth had filled with the taste of blood. My body was shaking with adrenaline. Or at least, I thought it was. Who knew? I was clearly only a semblance of a human. It was just an assumption that anything close to adrenaline pumped in my veins. Because it was clear that it wasn’t just blood circulating in there.

I could still hear the Specters. But as I ran, roughly back in the direction of my house, they stopped following. Everything I knew about them – which was preciously little – told me there was no reason for them to do that. I’d seen the greedy glint in that Specter’s eyes. He’d wanted to capture me. That’s why he called his friends. But they appeared reluctant to venture too close to my home.

… Which was my only opportunity.

I’d kept an ear out for Mark. I knew roughly where he was. Don’t ask me how I could track somebody kilometers away, but I could. As I thrust forward, using my little energy to still move relatively quickly, I focused on him.

He was my only way out of here. If I strategically left the kid in his path, he’d find her.

Then… I’d keep him safe until the threat of the Specters was long gone.

I’d head back to my house, I’d deal with my injuries, and I’d… figure out what to do next after that.

Who knew what next would look like? My life from this day forth could never be the same again.

It had been one thing following through with my responsibility to save the people I’d seen in my dreams. But my responsibility had just become 100 times larger. Specters… whatever they were – I had to do something about them. It was in my bones, in my blood, and in my light.

It was a need I would never be able to ignore. Because if I turned away from it again, it would consume me.

No, I whispered under my breath. It will burn you.

I had to be so careful as I said the word burn. Say it too loudly – let it shake through my belly too violently – and it felt like I would set the air around me alight once more. I might not be clutching hold of my daggers, but I appreciated they were nothing more than a medium for my power – a means by which to translate it and funnel it, and nothing more. In other words, I’d been the one who’d burned the air and dispatched the Specter – the daggers had just focused me.

All these thoughts and more ran wild through my mind. They filled my head, making my psyche feel like a balloon that was about to pop in my skull.

But I pushed on, and finally I got close enough to Mark that I felt comfortable in putting the kid down.

I arranged her comfortably, ensuring her neck wasn’t stretched and she was sufficiently huddled that she wouldn’t get cold. With a fleeting touch of her shoulder, I patted her, stood, and forced myself back into the dark forest.

The Specters were now keeping their distance. They were still out there – trust me on that. But they were not nearing my house.

My grandmother had always told me it was my sanctuary. I’d never believed that. Now there had to be some reason why these seemingly unbeatable beasts wouldn’t stray too close to it. I doubted they cared that it was creepy and people thought it was haunted.

When I got back to my house – after I dealt with my injuries – I would pull it apart, looking for what that reason was.

For now, I shrunk back into the bushes.

I found a good enough vantage. I remained there waiting.

When it seemed as if Mark would take another path, I made noises to ensure he strayed back on course.

I watched from the bushes as he finally stumbled over the kid.

I was a fair distance away, but that didn’t stop me from seeing how relieved his expression was.

… Mark felt things deeply, didn’t he? He wasn’t your average Army grunt – not that I ever believed in averages, and not that I bought into the myth that people in service were emotionless tools.

It was just that there’d always been something different about Mark. I’d heard from someone that his father had had a stutter. Perhaps that accounted for the fact he treated me differently. I doubted it, though. He just….

I let that thought trail off as I pressed closer to the tree trunk beside me. I wasn’t making a sound. Even if I had stupidly cracked a twig or something, I knew full well that I would have been able to get myself out of trouble quickly.

I could run faster than Mark any day of the week.

Thank God, he stammered again as he gently touched the back of his hand to the kid’s mouth and checked her pulse.

I already knew full well that she was alive.

He relaxed back onto his haunches for several seconds, then winced in full-on pain. He jerked his left leg to the side. He clutched at his patella. I could hear how hard he secured his fingers around it from here. The squeak of his short nails dragging over the fabric of his pants filled the air.

I’d forgotten about the fact he was injured.

My gut churned, making me reevaluate my plan. Maybe I shouldn’t leave this to Mark, after all.

But he thought nothing of reaching down, grabbing the kid, and pushing off.

He grunted, and his cheeks were scrunched in pain, but he didn’t once drop her.

I kept close, but by now it was abundantly clear that the Specters were not going to come near me again. So it was time to head back to my house. I needed to get there, deal with my injuries, and figure out an excuse before anyone came knocking. Worse – what if Mark brought the kid back to my house? I had to be cleaned up before that happened.

It took me a long time to pry myself away from Mark’s side, though, despite the fact he had no clue I was there.

I walked slowly, 50 meters away from him, further up into the forest. My gaze was locked on my hands, but my ears were trained on him. Every grunt, every hard breath, and every mutter at himself to keep going.

Finally, however, I parted ways. I shunted off toward my house, and I ran as fast as I could.

When I finally reached it,