Reaper's Destiny

By Sebastian Porta

Stella Reaper is an orphan with tan skin, a neck covered by green scales, and rainbow-colored hair. While living in a fantasy world, she reluctantly attends the Swamlin Goll School for Magical Creatures where she must face the girl who has made it her ultimate mission to ensure Stella is always suffering. Although her magical abilities need refining and she doesn’t always get along with others, thankfully Stella has a few good friends.

Far from the Swamlin School is a cottage high above a mountain that houses demons who are ruled by Mekredawn, a ruthless and cruel king who goes against anyone who isn’t on his side. The school the demons attend teach them how to kill without empathy or remorse. When Stella learns that Mekredawn, who had a not-so-friendly relationship with her deceased parents, wants to kill her by stealing her beloved pet basilisk, a chain of events unfolds that leave Stella battling to survive his wrath. Now only time will tell if her friends will stick by her side or leave her to fight him alone.

In this fantasy tale, a girl with magical abilities must battle a demon ruler on a vengeful journey to end her life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Feb 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669889700

Sebastian Porta

Sebastian Porta is the pen name for a teenage trans-male. When he is not writing, he enjoys singing, dancing, acting, playing video games, and spending time with animals. Reaper’s Destiny is his first book.

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Copyright © 2023 by Sebastian Porta.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and

such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 02/23/2023

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Contents

Acknowledgements

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

Acknowledgements

I ’d like to thank the illustrators and editors for their hard work and dedication to this book. I thank my mum for always being there and supporting me. I’d like to thank my best friend, Kuzion Wilson, for helping me edit and giving me advice; being there for me and helping me throughout my story; and always giving me feedback. I’d like to also thank my auntie for reading the book and always giving me feedback, and my friends for supporting me. I’d also like to thank my English teacher for always helping me with writing and tips. Lastly, I’d like to thank my grandma for constantly pushing me to achieve my goals and never giving up on me.

Prologue

W inter was finally here, and the snow was coming down hard. Stella had been waiting for winter for a long time. Now that it was here, she dreaded it. It was supposed to be a beautiful Halloween day with her friends and family, but instead Stella was in the middle of the mountain being dragged through the snow by something. She didn’t quite know who it was, but she was sure about one thing: the person dragging her was a demon.

Stella had a wound beginning above her knee and reaching to her ankle. She had been stabbed in the shoulder. Blood trailed behind her. Stella tried to wriggle free but saw red. Falling back, weakened, she prayed that her friends would follow the blood. Stella was freezing, and she was fading. She felt her eyes shut, and she fell into an uneasy sleep.

Bonk!

Stella opened her eyes and looked for the source of the dull headache beginning above her right eyebrow. The thing that dragged her seemed to be slowing down a little. Stella had to use all her might to open her eyes again and check her surroundings. There was a black cottage up ahead. It looked like the roof would break down at any second. It looked old and dusty.

The thing stopped in front of the cottage. It turned to face Stella, who was half awake. She could finally see that thing from up close. It was a teenage demon girl with red skin.

Get up! the demon growled in a shrill tone.

I must look at her face to see who I am dealing with, Stella thought.

Stella tried to look at the demon’s face, but it was covered by a mask and what looked like Willy Wonka sunglasses. Stella checked out the girl’s purple jacket with a Goth-like T-shirt underneath.

Isn’t she cold? Stella wondered.

The demon kicked her elbow. I said, get up!

Stella stumbled to her feet. Her whole body was trembling. She tried to look cool and brave by standing still.

Who … who are you? Stella asked as she tried to break the growing tension. The demon didn’t answer. She grabbed Stella by the arm and shoved her into the cottage. Was this how Stella was going to die?

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Chapter 1

T he alarm started ringing like the doors to hell had just opened. It was a grey circular alarm that read 7:15 a.m. Stella mumbled and turned to the other side of her bed so she wasn’t facing the alarm.

The alarm kept beeping loudly, but Stella slept right through it. That’s when her grandma barged into her room without knocking.

Turn that thing off—I can’t sleep! And you know what happens when I don’t sleep? Grandma asked.

Stella kept her eyes closed and faced the other side. She’d heard this speech before. Every morning. It was always the same conversation.

I lose my brain cells and give up on life, Stella and her grandma said simultaneously.

Stella’s grandma was named Shasnet, but people called her Shane for short. Stella’s parents had died in a fire when she was eight, and Grandma Shane had taken her in. Shane was old but beautiful. She was a pale mermaid with a mole on her chin and long grey hair. Her neck and eyes had a combination of light-green and light-blue scales.

Shane had beautiful blue eyes, but they were always covered with massive sunglasses because she was sensitive to the light. Most importantly, she had a golden necklace that she had never taken off because it was a family heirloom.

Shane walked up to the alarm and turned it off by slapping it with her hand.

Get up and go to school before I get another text from the principal saying you were marked absent. Honestly, doesn’t he have anything better to do than target you? Shane rambled.

Where are you going? Stella asked as Shane turned to leave.

I need my beauty sleep, dear. No one takes away my beauty sleep unless they want to get punched in the face, Shane said darkly as she stared off into space. Then, in a sweet voice, she said, Have fun at school, dear! She left without closing the door.

Stella grumbled and slowly got up. She then stared at the wall for the next fifteen minutes as she mentally tried to wake herself up. After that, she started getting dressed.

Stella had a yellow star-shaped birthmark on her face next to her eye.

Your mother had the same birthmark, Grandma Shane used to say.

Stella’s skin was tanned, and her neck was covered by green scales. She had dark-blue eyes and long rainbow-coloured hair. Her hair was neat and straight, and she always wore a baseball cap.

Lucky for Stella, her school didn’t have a specific uniform. So she put on a long-sleeved red shirt with a white leather vest and rainbow fingerless gloves. She decided to wear short red jeans with grey leggings under them.

Stella stared at her room, wishing she could skip the prison that her parents call school. The walls of her room were covered in pink paint with a poster of Star Wars and a poster of Harry Potter. Green enchanted bricks covered the ceiling, and in the corner of her room, where her window stood, she had a white closet with orange stripes. Stella grabbed her black bag with white lightning bolts and went downstairs to the front door.

The moment Stella left home, she saw Shane’s unicorn in the barnyard next to their huge house. When people turned fifteen, they had to choose an animal as their guardian. Actually, it was their soul that had to choose a guardian. When people found their animal, their souls transferred to the animal. It was done because the demons liked to steal people’s souls, but an animal’s soul was impenetrable.

Stella got on her bike and rode away to school, knowing that, once again, she was late. But she didn’t really care.

When she arrived at school, she found no one around. Everyone must have gone to class, Stella thought to herself.

The school was a giant crystal castle with a mixture of lime-green, rose-pink, sky-blue, and silver-grey colours that reflected and shined all around it. A gigantic sign stood in front of the colossal crystal doors. In big letters, it read: Swamlin Goll School for Magical Creatures.

Stella groaned as she checked her blue watch. The watch had a drawing of a mini-Stella pointing at the time. She was thirty minutes late. She parked her bronze-coloured bike nearby and slowly walked into the humongous castle. The moment she entered the building, she was blinded by the blue, purple, and orange lockers with nicknames written on them.

Most kids preferred to have their own little nickname only friends and family could call them. For example, there was a purple locker in the hallway’s far corner. Stella knew whose locker it was—it belonged to one of those cheerleaders. On the locker, the name Sapphire Squad, was written in giant pink letters so everyone could see it as they walked past.

Stella took a glowing yellow paper slip covered in red glitter out of her front pocket. The slip was blank. She pointed her finger at the paper and whispered, My class is called ‘Dragon Fires.’ I know—it’s a weird name for a class.

The tip of her finger became yellow and started glowing. In neat cursive writing, small black words appeared on the paper: Universal Studies.

She searched for her class, Universal Studies, where students learned how to control and manipulate all types of elements and things from space—earth, fire, air, water, planets, stars, metal, and much more. Stella entered the class, and all eyes turned to her. She hated it when that happened. Like, Can’t they mind their own business?

Stella’s heart started beating faster, and she felt judged. Her mind started thinking of worst-case scenarios. Is this what anxiety feels like? she wondered.

She quickly rushed to her seat and tried to cover her face so her teacher wouldn’t see her.

Luckily, the teacher was too busy yelling at a girl with long wavy blue hair, pale skin, and dark-green scales on her neck. She had a tattoo of a purple star on her right cheek. The girl had blue eyes with long eyelashes, and she wore blue eye shadow. She wore a pirate dress with a sailor hat.

The girl held a lit cigarette in her left hand, which was why the teacher was yelling at her. She looked at the teacher from the top of the sunglasses sitting on the edge of her nose. Then she grinned; she was not listening to the teacher’s words. She continued to smoke her cigarette.

Stella knew who that girl was. Her name was Trixie. That girl had made it her ultimate mission to make sure that Stella was always suffering.

Trixie turned around and locked eyes with Stella. She winked at her and returned to facing the front—but not before she flipped her hair to ensure that Stella’s eyes were on her. Stella rolled her eyes and put her full attention on the teacher.

The teacher was short and skinny. Magnificent light-brown fringe covered her right eye, while the rest of her hair was tied up in a messy bun. Her eyes were brown. The teacher was known as an animalia, which meant half animal and half human. She had a white rabbit tail and white rabbit ears. She wore a white dress made of silk with a white jacket made of wool.

All right, class, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted … The teacher glared at Trixie, but Trixie just shrugged as she put her cigarette in her mouth and blew out the fumes.

We have learned how to make a tree walk and talk, the teacher continued. We also learned how to turn water into a real-life jackalope, which astounded me. We shall now do a test where you turn an ancient copper coin into a gold bar and then into a metal pipe, and then into an ogre, and back to a copper coin. Is that understood, class? the teacher asked sternly, staring at everyone with a strict face.

Yes, Miss Racheal! The class buzzed in excitement, as it had been a long time since they’d put their magic to the test. Stella, on the other hand, was not excited. If anything, she felt nervous. She had gone down with a fever last week and ended up missing four sessions of Universal Studies.

The teacher gave them twenty minutes to practise before the students would present to the class. During practice, Trixie casually and calmly made her way to Stella. She looked at the guy sitting behind Stella—a wizard with dark skin and freckles. His red hair was messy from bedhead, and he had hazel eyes. He caught Trixie’s eye and started shaking nervously from her presence.

Move, fat boy! Trixie snapped, giving a patronising glare.

The boy squealed at Trixie’s tone of voice and scrambled out of her way. Trixie grabbed the now-empty chair and dragged it next to Stella, who was staring at the copper coin, having already given up on the task at hand. Trixie fell onto the chair, getting nice and comfortable, before looking at Stella with an enormous grin.

Do you even know how to turn copper into—

What do you want, Trixie? Stella asked. She tried to avoid Trixie at all costs.

I just wanted to wish you good luck. You’re gonna need it after you get owned by me in front of the entire class. Trixie chuckled and left.

Stella felt even more nervous than before, but she wanted to see her friends at recess, so she stayed quiet and tried to finish this lesson as quickly as possible.

After twenty minutes, the teacher got everyone to go back to their seats and wait to be called. Miss Racheal looked at the roll and called out the first person. Annabelle Crawler!

A tall, pale girl stood and made her way to the front of the classroom. Her blonde pixie-cut hair highlighted her blue mermaid-scaled neck and arms.

She put a copper coin on Miss Racheal’s desk. Then, Annabelle stretched out her arms and started chanting random words.

When the girl opened her eyes, she found a gold bar. She smiled, feeling satisfied. But the feeling didn’t stay for long. The gold bar slowly dissolved and ended up leaving a puddle of water on the floor. Miss Racheal hummed in thought.

That is an ultimate failure! she declared as she wrote something in her notebook.

Annabelle shoved her face in her hands as she started sobbing dramatically. Trixie wrote a note and scrunched it up. She turned around and threw it at Stella. Stella, who was busy stressing out, got startled when the paper hit her head. She unravelled the note: Can’t wait to see you make a fool of yourself xoxo.

Stella frowned in despair, but she chose to ignore Trixie’s nasty comments. Miss Racheal called out more people.

Miss, we decided to work together, one of the boys said in a deep voice after most of the students had presented their work. Can we present our work to the class?

Stella didn’t know those boys that well. All she knew about them was that they were troublemakers. Her best friend liked to hang out with those two a lot, so they must have been decent people.

Stella could not help herself but notice how alike the two boys were. Farrock and Blaze were identical twins. Both were tall with huge muscles. For the first time since Stella had met them, she realised that Farrock had grown a