Star's Guardian Book One

By Odette C. Bell

To protect, is to change the course of history. Fail, though, and you’ll fall.
Grace Smith is about to fall, and there’s nothing that can stop her. She was destined to lose the sacred energy pumping in her veins since birth. The multiverse has always had a plan for her, and now that dark plan unfolds, one dead body at a time.
Grace is used to running from the dark forces hell-bent on murdering her, and she’s good at it. Then she runs into the one man she can’t escape. Alex Round, Supreme Outer Guardian. When he picks her up on a backwater planet by accident, he thinks she’s a pointless distraction. Then hell unravels, and the fabric of reality fractures with it. At its heart sits the one woman he must now protect, no matter what.
Can someone who has run her whole life stop still long enough to accept the help of the only man who can save her? Or will she tumble into the arms or danger and take the rest of the multiverse with her?
...
Star’s Guardian follows a runaway and a lieutenant fighting through secrets to save a lost universe. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Star’s Guardian Book One today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.
Star’s Guardian is the 1st Supreme Outer Guardian series. A massive, exciting, and heroic sci-fi world where the day is always saved and hearts are always won, each series can be read separately, so plunge in today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Sep 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005554347

Book preview

Prologue

Run. Run and don’t look back.

My grandfather’s throaty roar split through the air just as a wooden beam split above me. The aching groan of it succumbing to the weight of the collapsing roof was like a bone snapping under the pounding of a hammer. Relentless. Unstoppable and deadly.

The glass strewn over the cracked floor cut my small, bare feet. I fell, tumbling down to my side. I shredded my knee open, and right in front of me, droplets of my shimmering special blood splattered over the cracking hospital floor.

Run, Grace, run, grandfather roared again. His voice hit a pitch I didn’t think I’d ever heard before. His tone practically spasmed through the air, chasing around every single particle of debris that surrounded me as the hospital collapsed under the weight of the attack.

I twisted my head around, short hair flaring over my face. I stared back at him.

I shouldn’t have. A waste of time. And in his books, that was criminal.

In some way, my grandfather had been teaching me about this moment since the day I was born. And now it was here.

But I was too young to carry through with my lessons yet. Everyone must make mistakes. But mine would be fatal. That beam above cracked. I’d never forget the sound of it as it ripped through the air, as it pounded into my sternum, as it shook into my jaw. For it was the sound of impending death, like a clock attached to Doom’s scythe as it shot for your throat. It never reached me. Out of nowhere, my grandfather ran to my side. He somehow sprinted through the debris, around a section of breaking wall, and over cracked holes in the floor. Then he was there, sweeping me up, his strong arms pinning my small form against his chest.

There, looking down at my face one last time. I watched light – the forbidden glow – chase around his irises. It outlined them, stark and defiant against the drab, chaotic brown and gray background of the hospital cracking under its own weight. The way he could look at me – how he carved me out of reality until it was just us, until the chase was far, far behind – always took my breath away. And it did so now – one last time.

You know the rules, Grace. The time is here. They found us, he said, voice cracking again.

I didn’t care about the hospital anymore. It, in many ways, had been made to break. All things crafted in the material world are ultimately there to fail. But not grandfather. He was my rock, the strongest point around which the rest of my universe spun. That universe was about to blink out one last time. He closed his eyes. The second I could no longer see his illuminated pupils was the second my fragile young form shook with the certainty of this horror.

Everything was about to end. Everything—

Somehow, as the floor beneath him cracked, he found the time to lift me up in his forever-strong arms and press his forehead against mine. "Whatever happens, remember the rules. The rules," he hissed.

His breath broke against my cheek, pushing the dust circling around me away until once more, I could look up into his face. His eyes were closed, likely never to open again. The brilliant and unique illumination of his eyes had been extinguished, and no one would be able to bring it back. Not even me with my so-called unique powers.

Granddad. No. I’m not ready. Don’t leave me alone, I screamed.

Somehow, his voice could be heard above the incessant shrieks of my wailing. Steady, calm, the kind of thing you could attach any sinking ship to, and it would drag it up from even the stormiest depths. The rules, he said, voice even deeper, louder than the destruction, greater and more forceful than every crack that ran through the walls and broke the floor beneath our feet. You stay on this planet as long as you can. You stay unless and until they arrive.

Fear – fear which had no business being in such a strong man’s tone – rippled through his voice. It sounded like a noose around his throat, and with every syllable, it tightened its crushing grip.

My whole body reacted to the word they, my shoulders collapsing in, my stomach sucking into a ball like somebody rolling with their hands over their head. I could only just keep my eyes open, the horror of what he described enough to send me into the deepest reaches of my mind. But even there, I could not find solace from them. Because they would chase. They had been born to chase, and I had been born to be chased.

Tears, which already marked my dusty cheeks, now drove channels through the muck. They reached my chin, trembled, and fell against my grandfather’s rumpled sleeves. With a grunt, he threw us over another cracked section of the hospital floor. He flung us around into another room. This was the physiotherapy area – or it had been once. There was a pool right in the middle. Now I watched as the glass ceiling above fell into it. It cracked then hailed down. It could’ve almost been beautiful, were it not for the high-pitched shrieking that accompanied it one second later.

My back pulsed with nerves. My spine stretched. My teeth clenched. Horror, horror the likes of which no entity in the universe should ever experience – beset me all at once. It crunched into the pit of my stomach in a wave and climbed my back. It reached my mouth, clenched my teeth shut, then finally got to my eyes. They spasmed even wider open as my grandfather looked down. He still managed to seem calm, calm even as the world around him cracked and my future shattered with it. You stay on this planet for as long as you can unless they hunt you. If they hunt you—

I will find any means to get away.

That’s it, he said, even managing a proud smile. It barely touched his lips. It was only a suggestion, this fleeting glimpse. And when it was done, so was he.

That shriek from before became louder. It bounced off the walls, knowing exactly how to use matter to amplify itself. It seemed to create a vortex all around me. I went to close my eyes, to shut down, but grandfather would not let me. He had not sacrificed everything to keep me safe only to lose me now.

But he had more to give, didn’t he? He’d give it right in front of my eyes. As that realization struck me, my finger spasmed out. I tried to grab his gnarled, wrinkle-lined face one last time, tried to look into his eyes and accept what he’d been to me and what I was about to lose. It didn’t matter.

The end was here.

I thought all of the glass above the pool had broken already. I was wrong. There was another almighty crack. It sounded like lightning – a thousand bolts all stringing together, all appearing right by your ear, half a second before they would lance into your chest in the most lethal of blows. A black shape, small and fleeting at first, fell into the pool. Water splashed up everywhere, high enough that it looked as if a tank had fallen from the sky. My grandfather spun.

With one last look down into my eyes, with one last longing smile that told me he wished this could’ve been different, he threw me to the side. Rubble had collected around the doorway. Half of it had collapsed, but I could crawl through.

I could crawl through and save myself. Because my grandfather was about to offer himself as the last sacrifice.

Run, Grace, run, he bellowed. Do not look back. Remember your mark. Show no one. And trust even fewer.

Fewer than no one might not sound like a logical statement. It was to my grandfather. It was a testament to the fact we had no one to trust and never had in this wide universe. We were the hunted. They were the hunters. And I was about to lose the only other person who’d ever been at my side. From now on, I’d be alone. Alone with a target on my head. Or should I say my hand?

It twitched up just as more dust hailed down from above. It already coated my face. There was no point in tilting my chin up and staring at the ceiling, no point in doing anything other than giving my right palm a brief glance. And there I saw the mark, hidden to all but those who knew what to look for. A circle with a square in the middle.

Unless you had a keen interest in palmistry, you’d never note it. Even then, you might think it was just a curious collection of wrinkles but nothing more. To me, it was the reason for all of this. And critically, the reason for the loss I would incur seconds from now.

The creature pulled itself out of the pool with a wet splash. Fragments of glass covered it, and water dripped off its strong form in rivers. It slid around its clawed feet as it took one prominent step forward. It didn’t say anything and didn’t have to. It looked like an extended, strong version of the aliens I’d grown up watching on TV for most of my life – accentuated, barbaric versions of wild animals. But even they could not capture the true intelligence in this creature’s eyes. As its yellow pinprick pupils sliced off my grandfather and locked onto me, my back froze, my lungs stopped, and my heart tried to ram out of my mouth.

The hunt is over, it said in a voice entirely calm and entirely opposite from the grotesque form it possessed. It was like having dinner with a fine gentleman from hundreds of years ago. One who wished to run his claws over your throat and end it once and for all.

The alien blinked once then returned its attention back to my grandfather. He grunted, threw himself forward, and twisted his head around one last time. I saw that illumination blazing in his gaze, saw the need and desire to keep me safe no matter what. But then, something else. This grain of knowing. This dot of pure understanding. He’d always told me I acted so much older than my years, always told me that I had the unique ability to look after myself.

And now I’d have to use it.

Grandfather, I screamed until my throat felt as if the lining would be stripped, burnt, and crushed.

Run. This is it. This was always going to be it. Run and buy yourself one last chance. He grunted and threw himself at the alien. It was just as it extended its claws toward his throat.

I turned. Turned as my heart withered. Turned as the last drop of love and trust I’d ever had died in my chest. Turned and ran.

Grandfather was about to give his life up for me. Because this was my destiny. Because running… running would be the only thing I would ever know.

Chapter 1

Grace, years later

Yes, ma’am, I said, voice calm – using that note I’d perfected over the past two years of working for this woman. A voice that said no matter what you threw at me, I’d pick it up. Because I was hired help, and that’s all I was good for.

Alessandra Large strutted around in a tiny silver dress in front of a full-length mirror set up at the back of her room. Pure, beautiful sunshine streamed in behind her. It illuminated her startling slim figure. But here and there, if you paid attention, maybe you could still see the scars and puncture wounds from all that plastic surgery and all those fillers.

Beauty, after all, is rarely natural. Not when money can buy it so easily.

Get the other one. She gestured toward me dismissively with a flick of her long, bony hand.

I walked over to one of her antique French dressers. She hadn’t told me exactly which necklace to pick, so I selected the first I saw.

Not that one, she snarled, lips moving hard over her teeth. The rubies. Pick the rubies. Why do I put up with you again?

I selected the correct necklace and brought it over to her. She snatched it up. She looked at me. So it wasn’t a rhetorical question, then? I had to fall down to the vocal equivalent of my knee and point out how superior she was in comparison to me. I’m not sure why you put up with me. But you’re very generous, I said, using that same tone. Every second of every day I used that tone. Because every second of every day, I channeled my grandfather in the hopes he could get me through just another week. Another week of hell on this planet.

A planet I didn’t come from, a place I didn’t belong, and one that only reminded me of my grandfather’s aching loss.

I almost shed a tear. Instead, I pretended to have digestive complaints. I kept a hand on my stomach and cleared my throat.

Alessandra just looked at me, her perfect nose rumpling. You’re not going to spew, are you? That’s the last thing I need to put up with from you. We must pick the right dress. I just have this feeling, she smoothed a hand down her chest, that something incredible will happen to me tonight.

I looked at her. Incredible? She would attend another expensive party funded by her father and his questionable business practices. There, she would consume God knows what. The other socialites in this city would fawn over her. And the sun of this planet would keep spinning. And meanwhile… meanwhile, far beyond, the real universe would wait. Or should I say the multiverse?

I had so much forbidden knowledge bouncing around in my head that sometimes it almost slipped out. As she spun around once more, pressing a new dress against her achingly slim form, my gaze darted off her shoulder and over to the sky.

I was safe here. Safe, but so much of me longed for the forbidden beyond—

Why do you always look at the sky like that? It’s very boring, she muttered.

I’m staring at the multi— I began. I stopped and stood up straight with a twitch.

There was a knock at the door – one that thankfully distracted Alessandra at just the right moment.

Alessandra stood closer. So close that all she had to do was twist her hand out to open it. She still looked at me pointedly.

I walked over. I had