Galaxies Lost Episode Two

By Odette C. Bell

There’s a point no one can come back from. Jodi White just reached it.
Adam might’ve wiped her mind. It means nothing. For Jodi has a destiny reaching far beyond him and this universe.
The shadows amass again, punching into the heart of the Coalition. Adam can try to fight, but he can’t do it alone. It’s time to call on the most maligned cadet in history. First, she must call on herself and put her checkered past behind once and for all.
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Galaxies Lost follows a traitor and a shadowy soldier fighting a hidden war for the universe. If you crave space opera with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Galaxies Lost Episode Two today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.
Galaxies Lost is the 17th Galactic Coalition Academy series. A sprawling, epic, and exciting sci-fi world where cadets become heroes and hearts are always won, each series can be read separately, so plunge in today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Apr 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005172435

Book preview

Chapter 1

Adam Ridges

I couldn’t tell you how many hosts I’d been in over the past 10 extended years. But I could conclude one thing.

No one.

Absolutely no one.

No one was like Jodi White.

It wasn’t her mind so much as her body, so much as everything, so much as something I couldn’t begin to put my finger on. But fortunately, I didn’t need to because the whole point of this exercise was that I fought remotely.

I used another surge of her unique power to grab hold of another chunk of the floor. There was no point doing it. The shadow was already gone. For now.

Jodi was still there, still somehow aware of me even though she should have shut down by now.

Very, very occasionally with very powerful psychics, they became aware of your presence. Usually for a few seconds or so, then a Shadow Hunter’s greater force would push them into the recesses of their mind. But for whatever reason, that wasn’t happening with Jodi. So I heard every single gasp. Is Harlow okay? Go check on him now. Go check on him now, or I’m gonna rip you right out of my body, she snarled.

I just laughed right back. Good luck with that.

Who the hell are you, anyway? And what were those shadows? Wait, you’re a Shadow Hunter – and your kind have been to this planet before. Whatever you are doing here, I demand you get rid of the doom virus.

She said so much with such a damn haughty tone. I could now appreciate why so many people hated this woman.

While you might hate the attitude, you could not hate the force.

Though it might’ve been churlish, though I definitely had other things to do, I ignored her completely, controlled her hand, grabbed up another piece of floor plating, and forced it to fly around the room.

Wow. I could crush it. Just like that, with nothing more than a thought.

And with nothing more than another thought, I could return it to its original position, pushing it back into the floor and returning it to its once pristine state.

With power like this… I could fight off more than 10 shadows at once. I could fight off an entire army.

Go check on Harlow now—

He’s fine. Why would you care, anyway? By the sounds of it, he was going to take you back to the correctional facility where you—

I heard this twitch. How do you possibly hear a twitch? Especially when somebody is in their own mind and can’t move their body to make any noises? Well, talk to me in 10 extended years, and by that time, you probably would’ve figured it out.

Let’s just say Jodi’s twitch was strong, and it could only mean one thing.

What, where I belong? You think I belong in jail? Are you going to take me back there? I really doubt that, considering how much fun you are having with my body. Never seen power quite like mine, have you?

I would’ve smiled. But I was far too busy trying her telekinetic power out. Opening my hand wider, I sliced it to the side. Damn, I could do virtually anything with this body. But she hardened her tone again as she repeated her words. I know who you are, Jodi White. I can’t imagine there’s anyone from the Coalition who doesn’t—

So you are from the Coalition, then? she concluded, whiplash quick.

I snarled. Or at least Jodi’s own lips puckered and pulled thin over her teeth. You caught me on that one, didn’t you? But no. I don’t work for the Coalition anymore, and before you try to extract information from me, it’s pointless. You will not remember a thing here, I promised, voice somewhat edgy.

It was a pity, really.

I’d just found the perfect host.

And while I might’ve promised that if she stuck with me, I’d offer her redemption, she wasn’t a suitable soldier and never would be.

So it was time to leave, return to the planet, and hunt down the remaining shadows.

I would inform the other Shadow Hunters to keep an eye on Jodi, and then… who cared?

You know, I know what you’re thinking, she suddenly snapped.

Is it that you are most definitely living up to your reputation as being arrogant, hotheaded, and irritating?

How exactly would you know my reputation? You’re not just from the Coalition, are you? You used to be a cadet, didn’t you? It’s in your tone. You think I’m arrogant? Go check on the unconscious man half a meter away, idiot. You might think he’s fine, but you won’t know for sure until you check.

She almost had a point. Or maybe she’d have one if she were speaking to anyone else and I wasn’t possessed of the kind of senses I had.

Harlow would be fine. He’d be out of it for a bit, and even though Jodi couldn’t appreciate it right now, that would be very good for her, considering Harlow wanted to take her back to some correctional facility.

The unkind part of my mind said Jodi deserved it. Lock her away, and while you were there, gag her. It would be the best thing for the Milky Way. The rest of me just picked up her hands and stared at them again. Then I let this somewhat mischievous grin spread my lips as I gazed at everything I’d done to the floor.

You said I’m not gonna remember a thing. But the shadows are gonna come back, aren’t they? They were after me, weren’t they? They want my power, don’t they? Jodi shot rapidfire questions at me so quickly, it was a surprise the whole universe didn’t split in two from the effort. You offered me redemption. You told me if I stuck with you, I would get it. Why have you changed your mind? Scared that if I become a Shadow Hunter, I’ll be better than you?

I flinched internally at that insult. Nothing could be further from the truth. Only those with perfect personalities can become Shadow Hunters.

Perfect personalities? she spat. Two things. Nobody has a perfect personality. Everybody can break under certain circumstances, and you— she began.

I didn’t need to listen to her opinions. That’s enough, Jodi White. You’ll be monitored. I’ll deal with the rest of the shadows with my people. And—

There was a moment of silence, and it spread, and though it shouldn’t, it was splitting, almost as if it were some great crack slicing through the ship from heaven itself. We will never see each other again. And you will never remember a thing.

Fine. But you must promise me one thing.

You are not in a position to ask me anything.

You used my body, Buster. And right now, you’re choosing to hang around in my head, controlling my form, not because you have to, but because you’re getting a kick out of it. Is that what you do when you have a so-called perfect personality? You might think I’m a monster, but I understand this. Everybody, she spat slowly, under certain circumstances will break. Nobody’s perfect.

Lucky for you, you’re wrong because the Shadow Hunters exist to— I stopped. Why tell her? I really would wipe her mind. It was irrelevant that she’d been conscious for most of this. It would be better for Jodi – and everyone else involved – if she never knew what happened here.

Harlow could take her back to the correctional facility and….

Maybe it wouldn’t be the best thing for Jodi to be stuck in one place. It would be easier for the shadows to find her.

I calculated something quickly and walked over to Harlow. I felt the presence of Jodi’s mind kind of relax – but only for a little. Is he okay?

Of course he’s okay. He might be a little worse for wear, but when he wakes, he’ll just think he got into a fist fight.

I assumed she’d recoil at that, but she didn’t. Fine, she said, voice strangely strong for someone who should be cowering right now.

It was damn clear that Harlow had her future in his hands. If he concluded she’d gotten into a fist fight with him – and worse, that she’d knocked him unconscious – Jodi’s future would end.

But did she cower? Apparently not.

People who are brave like that aren’t incredible. They are even more irritating. It suggests they can’t see what’s really going on around them.

Getting down on my knee – Jodi’s knee, however you wanted to describe it – I locked my hand over Harlow’s face. It meant I had to push my fingers through his shield. No matter. Easy as pie with abilities like mine.

Jodi became silent – for half a damn second. Then she spluttered. What kind of power do you have? How many more of your kind are there? More importantly than that, you made a promise, and you will keep it.

I did not remember making a promise with you ever. Jodi, you will not remember a thing that happened here.

But you will. You took that alien’s body down on that world, she said, voice slowing down. You wouldn’t think having a reprimand from a criminal like her would have any force whatsoever, but here’s the thing, it had more force than being reprimanded by a nun or some perfectly moral admiral.

It had weight because she’d obviously been there and done that, making the kind of heinous mistakes others only ever had nightmares of.

The alien I infected was about to die. If I hadn’t used him, you and Harlow would’ve died, too. You—

Before you spread the blame over to me, stop. I don’t want to drag you through the coals for this. All I want is your promise that you will figure out what’s happening on that planet. Stop the doom virus before it spreads.

I don’t work for you, Jodi. My entire job is to stop the shadows and nothing more.

Aren’t you even going to ask what’s going on? There is a virus going through the Coalition, destroying whole planets. It takes seven days. As soon as they’re infected, everyone on a world is all but dead. Any unlucky soul who stays on the world past the first day starts to die. There’s nothing anyone can do about it, no technology whatsoever that can save them. But you could do something, couldn’t you?

Doom… virus?

I’d never heard of anything like what she was describing, then reminded myself I probably had, but I’d forgotten it. There was a lot of stuff that happened in this complicated galaxy. You couldn’t hope to keep track of it all. And yes, a lot of it involved destruction. That was more of a statistical thing than a certainty.

Because I hunted down shadows, I frequented worlds with problems – for that’s where the shadows usually hunted.

I stared at the universe, not through a rosy lens of positivity, but through a lens tinged with the blood of a permanent war.

And it was one that had strengthened my stomach against doom long ago.

This is the Coalition’s problem. My problem is simple. I stop the shadows from infiltrating governments and worlds across the universe, stop them from hurting people. Actually saving your own people – that’s up to you. I wiped Harlow’s mind.

And yeah, I got rid of the incident in the cave.

Both of them wouldn’t remember how they’d gotten aboard the ship, but it wouldn’t seem too suspicious. I put blocks in their minds, and they wouldn’t bother to go digging past them much. It meant Jodi here wouldn’t go back to her correctional facility, even though she really ought.

Stop. Please. Just listen to me. You could be these people’s only hope.

I shifted to my feet and sighed.

I had moved beyond the petty considerations of the Coalition long ago. And while it sounded pretty cruel to talk about people’s lives as