Ayraldia

By Luna Harkin

Ayraldia. A land of magic. A land of turmoil.

Ainsley Porter has been dealt a lot of big blows in her life. Her mother was murdered, her father is the primary suspect, her grandmother passed away, and her cousin, Cora-the only person who knew exactly what it was like to go through what she was going through-disappeared in the middle of the night.

Not one to trust people easily, Ainsley keeps to herself and does her best to get through each day without getting noticed. Until one day, Cora shows up unexpectedly and tells Ainsley she discovered a secret land that may hold the answers they've been seeking. Ainsley doesn't believe her this place is real until the evidence piles up.

Now Ainsley finds herself in a role of power that she didn't ask for and isn't sure she wants.

Travel to Ayraldia with Ainsley and Cora in this fast-paced, magic-filled adventure!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Creek Bound Books
• Release date: Sep 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781959387008

Book preview

Ayraldia

a land of magic, a land of turmoil

Luna Harkin

Creek Bound Books

Copyright © 2022 by Luna Harkin

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

ISBN: 978-1-959387-00-8

Contents

Prologue

1. Chapter 1

2. Chapter 2

3. Chapter 3

4. Chapter 4

5. Chapter 5

6. Chapter 6

7. Chapter 7

8. Chapter 8

9. Chapter 9

10. Chapter 10

11. Chapter 11

12. Chapter 12

13. Chapter 13

14. Chapter 14

15. Chapter 15

16. Chapter 16

17. Chapter 17

18. Chapter 18

19. Chapter 19

20. Chapter 20

21. Chapter 21

22. Chapter 22

23. Chapter 23

24. Chapter 24

25. Chapter 25

26. Chapter 26

27. Chapter 27

28. Chapter 28

29. Chapter 29

30. Chapter 30

31. Chapter 31

32. Chapter 32

33. Chapter 33

34. Chapter 34

35. Chapter 35

36. Chapter 36

37. Chapter 37

About Author

Prologue

W hich of you has children? the queen shrieked as she paced back and forth between the two women tied up in front of her.

Both women shook their heads and cleared their minds the best they could.

One woman looked around desperately, trying to find where their husbands had been taken.

So it ends here, then? The queen’s laugh chilled them to the bone.

Reginald! Time to be done with these rodents, she commanded.

As the guards advanced on them, the women thought they saw regret in their eyes behind their metal masks. Reginald winced as he brought his sword down, instantly killing the first woman and leaving her twin sister gasping in horror for the quiet second before his comrade’s sword struck her down as well.

Looking satisfied, the queen turned around to head back to her chambers, but not before smiling sweetly at Reginald and thanking him for a job well done.

He was thankful she couldn’t see the grimace under his helmet and hoped his eyes didn’t betray too much.

Once the queen was out of sight, Reginald bent down and swirled his hand over the two women, removing their wounds and making it look as if they were simply asleep, about to wake at any moment.

He couldn’t bring them back to life, but he could give their family the closure of finding their bodies.

With both women nestled into a wooden cart, curled up against each other, he retraced their footsteps to where they entered this world and sent their bodies back to Earth.

Chapter one

The wind rustled Ainsley Porter’s lilac bushes, leaving a trail of fragrance through her garden. She stopped harvesting herbs long enough to close her eyes and inhale the aroma. The heavily perfumed air filled her senses with beauty, but a feeling of something amiss made her stomach drop. Instinctively, she gripped onto the garden shears and began inching her way to the backdoor.

Ainsley! a familiar voice rang out.

Ainsley cringed as her hand grasped the door handle behind her.

Cora, what brings you here? She tried to force a polite tone as she saw auburn hair poking out above the fence before Cora entered the yard. 

The two years it had been since the cousins had seen each other had been two of the worst years of Ainsley’s life. Cora had left their family home, along with all the bills and repairs, in the middle of the night without warning, a year after their grandmother died. Showing up as unannounced as she had left reopened the wounds that Ainsley had tried so hard to hide. 

She had no idea that Cora had taken six weeks to build up the courage to face her again and hadn’t been able to sleep for the past week. 

To Ainsley, Cora’s exit had felt like losing a sister. A deep betrayal that left her feeling raw and exposed. The pain had been as bad as their grandmother, Vera Porter’s, death. 

Vera raised both of them after her own two daughters had gone away on a trip together almost 20 years prior and never made it back home. 

Ainsley had the now-faded newspaper clippings her grandmother had saved of her mother and aunt’s disappearance, death, and the search for their husbands, who were the prime suspects and still hadn’t been found. She also had all the articles filled with speculation that followed for the five years after their death until the public’s interest wore off.

In school, some kids brazenly asked the girls about their mothers, but most whispered behind their backs. In Docksville, most of their neighbors thought the Porters were witches or dabblers in the occult. They knew, without a doubt, the family was strange - the entire town agreed upon that, and Vera did nothing in her lifetime to dispel those myths.

In an age of convenience, she had insisted on making everything by hand. As children, Cora and Ainsley were the only kids wearing handmade clothes, sent to school with a nutrient-dense lunch packed in a wicker picnic basket, and treated with only natural remedies passed down from a long line of healers.

The feeling of being different from their peers drew them closer together throughout the years. But one constant source of conflict was how to handle their mothers’ deaths, which was why Cora’s next statement shook Ainsley, but didn’t surprise her.

I’ve been in Leyden. I think I’ve gotten closer to finding answers!

Seriously, Cor? Is that why you’ve been gone for two years? What could’ve even taken that long in Leyden? Ainsley closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Can’t you just let our moms rest in peace?

Cora twisted her face and puffed up with indignation. Ainsley had always wanted to avoid the subject, but to Cora, it was a mystery to be solved that relentlessly gnawed at her. Perhaps it was because Cora had wanted the approval of the girls at school, so she had indulged them with information and gotten caught up in their whispers and rumors about the murders. Perhaps it was because she had no memories of her mother. 

The girls were six when the murders happened. Just old enough for Ainsley to have a few memory fragments, like being at the park, her mom pushing the merry-go-round, her dazzling grin getting nearer and farther as she spun around in the setting sun. This memory always ended with a flash to her grandmother screaming and dropping the phone as she fell to her knees. 

Cora had been asleep when the call came. Somehow she managed to not retain a single memory of her mother and could only remember a more composed Vera filling her in on the details the next morning. Her knowledge of her mother came from dusty pictures in the attic and the odd moments when Vera had felt sentimental enough to talk. Cora felt insatiable when it came to learning about her mother, and it seemed like no one had any answers. 

I didn’t mean to leave like I did. Something pulled me to go. Cora chewed the inside of her cheek. I tried talking to you about it for weeks and you just shut me down. I knew I had to leave for my sanity.

So, am I supposed to apologize?

No, I wouldn’t expect that or even want you to. I truly come in peace, Ainsley. Cora lifted her hands in surrender. If anything, I should apologize. I can see now how I handled it wrong.

Ainsley gently snorted as she went back to the herbs she had been harvesting before Cora showed up. She didn’t want her cousin to know she was so excited to have her back she could hardly hold her composure. She was still mad and hurt, but the relief of having her home was enough to make her tear up, something she never did.

Ainsley, are you, are you crying?

What? No. Ainsley frantically wiped back the tears to no avail. The attention brought to her emotions made them even harder to contain.

Cora came in for a hug and Ainsley was surprised to find herself welcoming the hug. The two women stepped back and timidly laughed as they wiped away their tears.

I guess I missed you. It’s been a long two years. There’s always so much to do and the neighbors already think I’m weird.

Well, catch me up. I’m here now. We’ll freak the neighbors out together.

Laughing, they linked arms and walked into the house like they had as children. Ainsley filled her in on her thriving line of remedies the judgmental townspeople begged for at farmer’s markets, in quiet library corners, and sometimes even in the middle of the night.

All those things they made fun of grandma for using, they ask me for. Some of them secretly, some outright, but pretty much everyone in town has something I’ve made.

Of course they do. You’ve got a gift, Ainsley. I hope you know that. I’ve always tried to make grandma’s concoctions, and, at best, they do nothing. At worst, well, you remember that incident with the seven-days-rash?

Both grimaced.

What were you doing in Leyden?

Nice transition, cousin, Cora sighed before continuing on, I needed to find answers. I needed to know why they were left there by our fathers. My mom wrote in her journal every day and there’s nothing in it that would indicate her and my dad had any problems.

Her journal?

Yeah, I found it a few weeks before I left. That’s what I was trying to talk to you about.

Oh. Ainsley looked down at her hands, picking at the garden dirt under her nails.

It’s okay, really. I’ve had a lot of time to work through things.

Ainsley tried to let her cousin’s words comfort her, but she didn’t fully believe anyone could get over something in that time. No matter how much she tried to ignore the pain of her mother’s death, her father’s betrayal, her grandmother’s death, Cora leaving, it was all too much. Just thinking through the list exhausted her.

Did your mom keep a journal?

What? No. I haven’t really looked, though.

Then let’s go. Cora exclaimed, standing up and heading for the attic.

Ainsley groaned and fell back into a chair.

Chapter two

H onestly, Ainsley, you’re so stubborn. Quit shutting down around this. Let’s head up to the attic.

Ainsley hesitated until Cora pulled her up and dragged her along the hallway. The walls were lined with cross stitches made by generations of Porter women, mostly flowers and water scenes. The images always made Ainsley feel a longing in her gut that she wanted to ignore. When she asked her grandma about the framed pieces, Vera always puffed her chest up proudly and said the works were all done without a pattern and that the Porter women were one with the land, creative creatures who added beauty to the world. Her hand ran along the stitches of a lavender piece, enchanted by the vibrant hues that stood the test of time. The date in the corner showed Elizabeth Porter completed it 200 years prior.

The house had belonged to the Porters ever since they came to North America some 300 years ago and was filled with treasures that should probably have gone to the local history museum long ago. The details of their family history were meticulously documented