The helm of darkness (The Horizon Chronicles Book 2) - Ebook

Alexa has a very big problem. She’s dead.

Worse, instead of meeting her maker, she’s pulled into the world of the Guardian Angel
Legion—a secret band of angels dedicated to protect mortal souls from demons.

 But Alexa’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she’s sent back to the mortal world to investigate a series of murders and missing souls and is attacked
by a demon. But are demons responsible for the killings? Or is it something else?

To make matters even worse,
an ancient, evil shadow grows over the world, and with it a force more terrible and destructive than the world has ever seen. Can Alexa find a way to stop it
or will it doom the mortal world forever?

ALEXA KNEW SHE WAS DEAD when she saw the bright light.

It was just like those near-death experiences she’d read about: the tunnel, the white light, the feeling of peace. She felt her physical body detach like the shedding of skin. Floating in total serenity, secure and warm, she soared
towards the overwhelming light. She was drawn up into a beam of sunlight like a speck of dust.

The
air was cool and thick, humid and salty, like a sea breeze. The pain of the
accident had melted away, and the light welcomed her.

Deep
down, Alexa knew she should be afraid. She should be terrified. But for the first
time in her life, she wasn’t afraid.

She saw
a pinpoint of dark shadow in the distance. As she drifted towards it, she could
see it was the entrance to a tunnel. No. Not a tunnel, but an elevator.
Suddenly she was riding in an elevator.

She
did not speak to the ape-like creature that operated the elevator. She spread
her arms and looked down at her hands. She could see the floor through her
hands. She wasn’t solid.

Still,
she wasn’t afraid.

The
elevator rocked, and the doors slid open. As she stepped out, the creature
muttered something that sounded a lot like, Orientation,
level one.

She
knew that animals couldn’t speak. She wouldn’t have been surprised if she were delusional.
It would have been acceptable under the circumstances. She was dead.

Maybe
her brain didn’t function the same way anymore. Maybe nothing did.

The
elevator seemed to have disappeared, and Alexa stood in an infinitely long
white corridor. She could hear thousands of voices murmuring, and she began to
feel anxious.

Alexa
had never seen so many people all at once. It looked as if every ethnic group from
the human race was milling around busily in a maze of offices and corridors.
And for the first time since she’d died, she felt frightened again.

She tried
to hide the terror that shook her as she followed the crowds.

Within
a few minutes, she arrived at an ancient building with a mammoth oak door. A
neon sign zapped and crackled above it.

Oracle Division # 998-4589. Orientation.

Orientation. It was the same word she
thought she’d heard on the elevator. Perhaps the creature had spoken. Where was
she?

Alexa
wished she were back in the elevator with the light and that feeling of protective
warmth. She had felt safe there. Dread gripped her now.

She
braced herself, pulled open the door, and stepped inside.

She
stood in a large library-like room with corridors and passageways that led to
smaller offices. Books and filing cabinets were stacked precariously to the
ceiling. The air was thick with the same salty ocean fragrance she had smelled
earlier, and she could hear what sounded like pebbles rolling on a smooth
marble floor.

A
door touched her behind as it opened, and she froze.

Huge
glass spheres with tiny bare-foot old men balancing on top of them like circus
acrobats rolled into the library. The tiny men wore silver gowns, and their long
white beards flowed behind them as they maneuvered the balls between the piles
of books and files. It was the most incredible sight.

She
was transfixed.

They
were so preoccupied with their work that they didn’t appear to notice her at
all. If she wasn’t important to them, she knew wherever she was couldn’t be so
bad. It certainly wasn’t as bad as dying.

Alexa
could see what appeared to be another smaller office to her right. Cabinets were
stacked on top of each other in there as well, and what looked like a five-foot
round pool was mounted in the back corner. Another one of those tiny men sat on
a large crystal ball behind a semi-circular wooden desk.

“Come
in, come in, Alexa Dawson,” he said in a strange, high-pitched voice, a voice
that sounded like he had inhaled helium from a balloon.

Alexa
tried to ignore the creepy fact that this stranger knew her name. But her
apprehension faded as soon as she saw the man’s cheerful face. Still, she
approached him carefully, and as she did she noticed a soft, silver light
radiating all around him.

Finally,
she found her voice. “Is this—” She cleared her throat and felt relieved that
her voice sounded the same. It was her
voice. “Is this heaven?”

Back
in life, she had never given any real thought to heaven, or even the possibility
of an afterlife. She had just never imagined she’d be dead at seventeen.

The
man’s face lit up, and his blue eyes sparkled. “Horizon has many names. Heaven
is one, yes, just like Utopia, or Shangri-La, or Zion. Ultimately, it doesn’t
matter what name you choose. They all mean the same thing. It’s where
everything originated, and the place to which mortals return in the afterlife.”

“The
afterlife,” repeated Alexa, testing the words on her mouth. “I’m dead. Truly
dead.”

“Yes.”

“I
knew it, you know, that I was dead.
It’s just strange to hear it. To say it out loud.” Alexa reached up and touched
her face, her neck, checking to make sure she was there. Her face was just as solid
as the rest of her. But something was missing. And when it came to her, she
thought she must have been stupid not to have noticed before.

The
rhythmic beating in her chest that had accompanied her throughout her life was
silent. She had no heart.

When
she looked up, she found the man’s eyes showed his concern for her.

“You’ll
be fine,” he said. His gentle tone was strangely comforting. “Mind you, it takes
a bit of adjusting in the beginning. But sooner or later, every soul adjusts,
and you’ll be as right as rain in no time. I promise you.”

Alexa
focused on his smiling face and did her best to keep her fears from showing. She
would keep her cool. She would not freak out. Not yet.

The
tiny man clapped his hands together. “A mortal death is never the end…just the
beginning of something more exciting.” He spoke as if her mortal death was the
best news ever, a great revelation.

While
Alexa’s anxiety subsided a bit, her curiosity increased. She couldn’t help it.
It was her nature to want to know about things, especially when they concerned
the great mysteries of life.

“Are
you an angel?”

The
man chuckled at that. “Yes and no. I’ll keep it simple for you. I’m an oracle.
Archangels, guardian angels, oracles, and other ethereal beings dwell here in
Horizon. It is home and headquarters for the immortals who govern and protect
the mortal world from evil.”

While
this revelation should have energized her, Alexa mourned the loss of her mortal
life. All the what-ifs and dreams she’d hoped one day to accomplish had been
for nothing. She could see that the oracle sensed her discomfort.

“Tell
me, Alexa,” he asked her gently, “what’s the last thing you remember?”

Images
flashed in her mind’s eye. “I was at school,” replied Alexa. Her mind began to
clear, and images began moving and coming together of their own volition,
forming solid, real memories. “I remember falling. That’s right. I remember
now. I was carrying my laptop with a stack of books and must have missed a
step… I fell down the stairs, and I heard something snap. Then nothing. And
then I woke up here.”

The
fall had killed her. She’d died at school during lunch. It had been the worst
possible time because everyone would have been out of class. Her entire high
school would have witnessed her death.

She
felt a rush of humiliation pass through her. It was a cold, prickly sensation. What must she have looked like! …on the
floor, with the entire school looking at her dead body, her neck bent at an
unnatural angle. She was horrified.

But her
embarrassment was nothing compared to the sadness she now felt. 

Her
best friend Emma Middletown had moved away last summer, and she had made no other
friends. No one would remember her. No one cared that she was dead. Not her
deadbeat father, who liked his new family better. Nor her mother, who would probably
have been too drunk to notice she was missing.

The
fact of the matter was, not a single soul would miss her…

“It’ll
be all right, Alicia,” said the oracle. His high-pitched voice was reassuring,
and his whole face beamed.

Alexa
opened her mouth to correct his mistake about her name but then thought better
of it. She had the unnerving feeling that somehow the oracle had read her mind.

The
oracle leaned forward on his desk. “Every single thing that happened in your
life was to prepare you for what’s to come. Remember that.” He raised his
hands. “For this.”

Alexa
shrugged. “But I’m only seventeen. It’s not like I’ve had lots of life
experiences. Apart from having had a textbook case of a dysfunctional family, which
I have loads of experience with, by
the way, and which would have made me an excellent guidance counselor, I
haven’t achieved anything. I’m not even out of my teens, and sometimes I
secretly wish I were twelve again. I can’t even cook an omelet without burning
the eggs.” She paused when she realized that she was prattling on. “Prepare me
for what exactly?”

The
oracle’s brilliant teeth shone like stars when he smiled. “Because today, young
lady, you’ll begin your training as a guardian angel.”