Prae Lium: Swirling Secrets, #3

By Rosie Zayne

Fate is stitching two sides of a vicious war together, using love.

Magnhild, is no longer a freak. Blossomed from an awkward duckling, into a radiant swan, she finds her place. The only question now is, can she survive it?

Everything changes, a brutal war explodes, and loved ones are lost.

Who will survive to lead the world? It's the Desi Pere vs. the Sospi Tare, and the fight will shake the fabric of reality.

No matter the outcome, one thing is certain: our fragile world, will never be the same.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rosie Zayne
• Release date: Oct 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393660552

Book preview

Prae Lium

Swirling Secrets, #3

By Rosie Zayne

Text Copyright © by Rosie Zayne

2nd Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

All materials belong to the author. By reading this book, you agree not to steal, sell or copy this story, idea, or characters in any way.

This is a work of fiction, and any resemblances between the characters and persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Edited by: Ken Wallin

Cover art: Created by Desert Rose Designs.

For permission requests, questions or comments to Rosie Zayne at [e-mail].

Dedication

To my amazing hubby and best friend, Ken. I couldn’t do anything without you. You make life fun, always pushing me to grow, and help me be a better woman every day. I love you.

To Ethan and all my friends & family, for always supporting me.

To anyone who reads my creations - you make it all worth it.

Most of all, to God - my inspiration, my rock, and my closest friend.

Table of Contents

Prologue

~ Chapter 1 ~

~ Chapter 2 ~

~ Chapter 3 ~

~ Chapter 4 ~

~ Chapter 5 ~

~ Chapter 6 ~

~ Chapter 7 ~

~ Chapter 8 ~

~ Chapter 9 ~

~ Chapter 10 ~

~ Chapter 11 ~

~ Chapter 12 ~

~ Chapter 13 ~

~ Chapter 14 ~

~ Intermission ~

~ Chapter 15 ~

~ Chapter 16 ~

~ Chapter 17 ~

~ Chapter 18 ~

~ Chapter 19 ~

~ Chapter 20 ~

~ Chapter 21 ~

~ Chapter 22 ~

~ Note From the Author ~

~ About the Author ~

Prologue

Dear Breasal,

I hope you guys are doing well. Where are you going next?

Gedeon is having nightmares still. Being away from Lesley isn’t helping any, either. I’m not sure how well he will adjust to the truth, but I have faith in him. He’s kept us away from several D.P. Scouting teams. Forrester is definitely looking for us, hard.

Any news on Phil yet? We haven’t found anything. I know he said I’d know how to find him, but I still haven’t come up with any ideas.

We need to find something soon, otherwise David and I may kill each other. That is, if Gedeon doesn’t kill him first.

How is Sar?

I miss you.

M.

~ Chapter 1 ~

New Group, Same Story

It seems like we just did this, the whole searching for Phil and the Sospi Tare. Running from the Desi Pere. Living in crappy, stinky places. Skimping on food, toothpaste or anything fun, and basically trying our best not to hate our lives.

Oh right! That’s because we did. We just did this. Breasal, my mother and myself all spent a year in dirty hell, desperately trying to find the S.T. Once we finally found them, we had a couple of grand weeks where we felt safe.

Accepted.

Happy.

Then I had that stupid vision, and all hell broke loose. Again.

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t regret my decision to go find the D.P and rescue The Phantom. I never would have been able to forgive myself for letting him die.

I’m also glad Phil moved the complex. Otherwise there would be no more S.T., and Forrester would have the world on it’s knees, begging for mercy that would never come. I just don’t see why Phil couldn’t have told someone where in the world he moved to!

At least one of his kids - doesn’t he care about their safety?

Now we’re back at it, again. Running, searching, and hiding out from an even angrier D.P. The only difference is, we have more people this time. That is both a blessing, and a curse.

The blessing: there are more ideas, more eyes, and more fists.

The curse: two of those eyes and fists, belong to David.

Phil led David, Lesley, Breasal and Sar to believe that I’d know how to find them again, and moving the complex wouldn’t be a big deal. I don’t know what he was thinking, but he was wrong. I have no idea where they are, and most of our group blames me for our current predicament.

Everyone, that is, except The Phantom, and his fiance, Hannah. The Phantom seems amused by the whole thing, most likely because he isn’t actually a member of the S.T. Hannah doesn’t blame me, because she still hasn’t regained consciousness.

Honestly, the state of her health was stressing me out more than anything. I desperately wanted to get her back to Phil, and make sure she was alright. We’d been traveling more than two months, and she hadn’t woken once. She was somehow still alive, and while I kept her body going with surges of energy, that couldn’t last forever.

I needed her to wake up, not only for the sake of The Phantom, but my own sake as well. It turns out, she is actually my childhood friend, and she lead The Phantom to me. It’s because of her, that he set out to find me in the first place. I need to know why. I need to know how she knew I was gifted.

I couldn’t figure it out, but I had burning questions, and she had the only answers.

Deep down, I was terrified that she was somehow connected to Forrester, and that The Phantom was playing me. He wouldn’t tell me anything more than he already had, which wasn’t much. Simply that she’d known me as a kid, knew I had special gifts that were incredibly important, and to find me if she ever got into trouble. He never said anything else - wouldn’t even tell me his name. It was infuriating.

Especially since Breasal’s temper had skyrocketed within a few hours, on the Australian beach we’d found refuge on. His manners disintegrated into practically nothing, and his alarming need to pick fights with anyone who made the mistake of talking to him, had my nerves on edge by the end of the first night. He was convinced there was something more than friendship between me and Mr. Secrets, even though we both insisted there wasn’t. For goodness sake, his fiance was with us!

Still, Breasal is stubborn, and wouldn’t let go of the idea that something else was there. Because of the tension, we all decided to split into two groups. Lesley would lead Breasal and Sar to Asia, hoping to find her father there. David would keep the Phantom and me with him, which meant Hannah stayed with us as well.

He also insisted Gedeon stayed with him. I could understand why - he didn’t trust the most recent D.P. Rebel to be reunited with both his old team-mates. Not to mention, they would have all three been alone with his sister. As much as he irritated me, his protectiveness over Lesley was sweet. He’d even managed to drop his attitude down a few notches with me, promising her he’d behave and be nice.

It didn’t hurt that I sided with him, when one of the biggest arguments against us all splitting up, came from Lesley and Gedeon. They had become somewhat of an item, and didn’t want to be separated in the heat of their new-found romance. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it, and didn’t quite like the idea of Gedeon and Lesley being an item. They insisted it was love at first sight though, and were determined to be together, causing several days of drama.

They finally gave up arguing with David, agreeing that finding Phil was the most important thing. Having Gedeon to help the group with the unconscious passenger made the most sense, anyway. I’d never seen Lesley so depressed - she didn’t even wear makeup the day we split.

That was six weeks ago, and we hadn’t found Phil yet. I knew it could take far longer than that, and did my best to simply keep calm. It wasn’t easy though, traveling like this again. Especially with more people to gripe and comment on the inconvenience of my lack of knowledge, and inability to find the complex. At least last time, it wasn’t on my shoulders to save us.

The weight of that responsibility was even worse than the weight of Hannah on my shoulders.

Luckily, I’d gotten used to transporting a person in an energy bubble - carrying my mother around the country for a year made that gift strong. What made it difficult to carry Hannah around, was the continuous flow of energy I kept up, to keep her alive. It was like an I.V. of life, from me to her, accompanied by various surges when I felt her weakening.

The first few weeks, I didn’t have to do quite that much - simply carry her in an energy bubble. Half way through week three, her energy dropped dangerously low, and she stopped breathing. The Phantom did CPR, but it wasn’t until I fed her body my own energy, that she started breathing again.

I had wanted to find Lesley, and have her use her healing gifts on Hannah’s dying body again. By then though, they’d already traveled to another continent, and wouldn’t come find us. I could have teleported us, but really, Lesley had already done her best to heal Hannah’s body, before the split, and while she stopped the major bleeding and internal damage, she couldn’t do any more. She was a gifted Healer, but Hannah’s injuries were severe. Phil was the only Healer alive that we know of, who had any chance of saving Hannah.

Til then, I just have to keep her alive. If I can.

WE MADE IT TO ITALY, somehow all still in tact. I was able to teleport us back to Europe, but the trip nearly killed Hannah, and knocked me out for several hours. We traveled on foot after that, looking for any clues or signs of the S.T.

What worried us most, was the increase in D.P. attacks. We’d see news articles in the paper, or on the news, in random cafes or hotels, each one sounding worse than the last. They were picking up the frequency and severity of their targets, and a lot of people were dying.

We knew it wasn’t directly related to us, but we all felt guilty none the less. It was our job to stop Forrester and his followers. At least, it was Phil’s job, and we should be there to help him. If only I could find them!

Every time we saw another news report, the tension from my traveling companions increased. They openly blamed me for not finding Phil quicker, and a lot of the time, it felt as though all the deaths were on my hands.

I slept very little, my mind filled with worry and guilt. Between the worry of Hannah dying, and the worry of future D.P. attacks on innocent civilians, the world seemed bleak and hopeless.

We didn’t stop though. We were nothing, if not stubborn.

We spent several weeks tirelessly hitchhiking through Greece, up to Austria, and down through Italy. That’s where we were now - Southern Italy - and this year, even in mid-May, the chilly nights bit.

We huddled in the living room, all sitting as close together as we could squish. The cheap, one-room apartment we were renting was freezing, and we didn’t want to spend the money to have the heat turned on. I kept a line of energy flowing into Hannah, keeping her warm, thankful it wasn’t any colder.

It was a little after two in the morning, and we were all too cold to sleep. A quiet rap on the door caused everyone conscious to jump, looking around questioningly to see if anyone was expecting a visitor.

David stood quickly, moving toward the door with the stealth of the warrior he was. Looking out the side window, his face twisted in confusion. As he opened the door slightly, I could make out a small portion of the surprise visitor.

She was short, her hair pulled into a tight bun. It was obvious she was military of some sort, and seemed as nervous as we were. As she twisted around to check behind her, I saw the patch on her arm.

A blood red scorpion, on a black background.

She’s a D.P.! I hissed to David, the rest of our group tensing immediately.

Please. The woman said quickly, glancing past David into the living room, before training her nervous eyes on the man in front of her. Major Pickles sent me. I’m on his side - on your side.

David pulled her inside quickly, checking outside for any followers before closing the door. With a tight grip on the petite woman’s arm, he asked what she was doing here.

The Major sent me. She gulped, her eyes bulging slightly. He sends a warning - they’ve received a tip on your location, and are on their way. You have to leave, now. He’s the one in charge of catching you, and couldn’t come warn you himself, so he sent me. I’m his aid, as well as a spy for the S.T.

David glanced at me, and I knew he wanted me to scan her mind for a lie. I did, not finding any. Giving him a quick nod, he let go of her arm. She straightened her jacket, and continued.

The Major is set to leave within the hour, and will be here in less than two. He’s stalled as long as he can, but he can’t hold them back any longer.

I understand. David nodded, watching as we all quickly scrambled to get our things together. Which direction are they coming from?

The East. He’s prepared to tell them you left clues, pointing to the opposite direction of wherever you’re going next.

We are headed North.

She nodded, pulling a bundle of euros from her pocket, handing it to David. From The Major. He figured you could use the help.

David pocketed the money, giving her a curt nod. Thank him for us.

With a nod and a salute, the woman left us. We were gone in less than five minutes, dropping the keys at the office door on our way out.

Thank goodness for the Major.

~ Chapter 2 ~

Heading North

I’d been sending Breasal emails since we split up, keeping track of their group that way. We had set some addresses up at a library in Australia, promising to write every couple of days with updates.

I’d kept that promise, but he hadn’t. I didn’t blame him too much though - they were searching far more remote areas than we were, only visiting towns when need be. I had heard from him twice, and was getting anxious. His last email placed them in Africa - a far jump from an island near Indonesia, where they’d been before that.

Sar had been using his skills as a manipulator to con rides and fares, and they’d traveled an impressive amount already. I just hoped they were alright.

David had lead us around Northern Europe, with no luck. We were headed toward Russia now, to a site he remembered his dad mentioning once. That was all we had to go off of at the moment - educated guesses.

Why would Phil think you’d know how to find them? The Phantom asked, warming his hands against the fire. It crackled in the Ukrainian air, keeping the chilly night’s bite at bay. Even in July, it was