Paralysis (Dark Light Series, Book 2): Sample Chapter

Jan 27

Chapter 1: Desert Adversary

—Melissa—

“The Paragon is in one of those?” Akane asked. The hood of her billowing red robe flapped in the desert’s arid wind like a flag against her slender frame. Sand buffeted the dunes a hundred feet below. Beside her floated a bald black-cloaked man, whose milky white gaze followed a string of automated cars escorted by a large military convoy as closely as her own.

“The hell-spawn is in the transport of the cars,” the man said coolly. “Eliminate her retinue and send her spirit to Vitate for judgment.” He looked at Akane with blind eyes. “She shouldn’t be alive.”

The woman bowed her head. “Understood.” Crossing her arms over her body, Akane unsheathed her katanas—long curved swords from their scabbards at her sides and brandished them before her. A blood-red glow flared along her hands and stretched onto the blades. “What a shame,” she said. Her titus burst into flames along the polar-steel. “Vargas, they brought a convoy of bodies.”

“Such is the fate of those who worship Paragons,” the man said. Closing his eyes, he placed his hands together and like a ghost, vanished into the wind. Akane fixed her gaze onto the plasma copter heading towards her and crossed her swords.

“May you return to the Vitate and the source,” she said. “Your ashes will not make it to a funeral.” She swept the swords behind her and, using their flames, shot through the air like a rocket.

* * *

Staring out the dark window of the automated car, Melissa fidgeted with the issued ear protection in her hands. In the distance, beyond the sound-proof glass, a plasma-copter flew, drifting along the sky’s clear blue as lazily as a whale did the sea. It was, however, much smaller than the marine beasts of the ocean. In comparison, it was more the size of a seal with the white flares of its turbines trailing it in a hazy streak, not unlike underwater bubbles.

Below it stretched the sandy wasteland of the Narfobi Desert. Relatively flat and pockmarked by weeds, the land had a stark beauty with its rolling copper sands and vast emptiness. Seemingly devoid of life, it was a place without shelter, the merest drop of water, or food of any kind. It was a harsh environment, renown for its fast winds, unpredictable sandstorms, and years between rainfall, it was the hottest place in the kingdom with temperatures escalating beyond the mid-hundreds.

However, contrary to its appearance beneath the blazing sun, it was Kaiga’s treasure and strongest asset. More productive than the largest factories and more coveted than the deepest gold mines, it was a precious resource closely guarded. A farm of thousands of solar panels glittered over the horizon as well as the hundreds of cyper-tanks in a military installation for its security. Absorbing the light titus of the sun, the panels converted the overabundance of solar power into a splurge of condensed, endless energy.

Two cyper-tanks rolled along Melissa’s side of the military convoy, their transparent tracks turning over the terrain as smoothly as a boat sailed through water. On the opposite side, two other tanks matched them in speed and formation. Five of the ten soldiers of the elite squad were mounted across each set of the dual tanks. The elites rode atop the vehicles standing up as normally as one did the ground. Locked in place by the gravity function of their lift boots, they were protected from the blazing heat and sun’s adverse glare by solar gear.

Melissa turned from the window in a huff. She gave Principal Leptin a pointed look beside her. “Is all of this really necessary?”

“It is.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“But, are you really, sure?” Melissa asked. She gestured at the overkill of a convoy. “Because this…is ridiculous.”

“Your safety is paramount, Melissa,” Kevin said. He looked up from the seat across her. “Stop asking.”

“It’s not like we’re going to war,” she muttered.

“The Victashia would beg to differ,” Leptin said. He scrolled through virtual reports with a bored expression.

“Why couldn’t we have just flown?” she complained. “Nothing is happening.”

“Nothing is supposed to happen,” Kevin countered.

“It’s cramped.”

“It’s a land-car,” he said.

“It’s stuffy.”

“Then roll down your window.”

“You’re not helping Kevin. My butt hurts.”

He gave her a dour look. “Then go to sleep.”

She crossed her arms and turned her gaze out of the window. “We’ve already been on the road for an hour.”

“And you’ve already started complaining.”

Melissa rolled her eyes. “Because if we’d flown, we would’ve been at Corpus by now.”

“True,” a grey-haired man said from the seat across Leptin. A full bird colonel, his solar gear was thinner, more lightweight, and of better quality than his soldiers. His pale green eyes reflected in the dark tint of his window. “It seems like it’ll go on forever, doesn’t it?”

“Don’t change the subject, Pele,” Melissa said, omitting the rank from his name.

He offered her a smile, ignoring the blatant disrespect, a humorous twinkle behind his eyes. “The probability of you being shot out of the sky is higher than traveling by—”

“Nope,” Melissa said and turned her face to her window. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“Then stop talking about it,” Leptin said.

She snapped her face to him with a stare. “I will talk about it because it’s stupid.”

“The desert isn’t endless, girl,” the headmaster retorted. “We will eventually arrive at the point of transition. You’ll see the green of Corpus Academy soon enough.”

Melissa gave him a withering look. “And how soon is that?”

“Another three or so hours according to—”

“Ugh, why?” Melissa whined and pressed her head against the window. “Screw my life.”

Harbored within the second to last car in the row of six unmanned vehicles, they raced across the open road at breakneck speeds. Inside, the inertia was mitigated, and vibration controlled to the point that it seemed they moved nowhere at all. Desert passed into more desert sand into more sand. Even with the visual of passing through the environment, Melissa felt neither here nor there.

“When we get to near Corpus, we’ll visit one of its beaches before your reception. How’s that, Melissa?” Kevin asked. “It’s on the coast of the Insie Sea in the Province of Kiko so we should—”

“And if we get there too late?” she asked, bitter, “You’ll just dump me in my new school.”

“Melissa—”

“Whatever,” she said, putting her chin on her hands. “I just wish it we were there.”

“Wishing won’t get us there any faster,” said Leptin.

Melissa rolled her eyes. “Obviously… Can’t we take a break? I’m sore.”

Paragon, Shadow said in her head. Its tone carried a strange sense of urgency. Something’s here.

Melissa sighed. Save me your jokes, Shadow. No one’s—

Something… powerful. It continued.

She looked at Leptin as he stared at her.

What do you mean? She thought back. What—

“What direction?” Leptin demanded, putting a hand on Melissa’s arm.

Kevin looked at them, alarmed. “What’s going on?”

The Colonel also watched them.

It’s already here. Shadow said darkly.

“Who?” Leptin asked, his dark gaze penetrating. “Victashia?” He gave Colonel Pele a sharp look. “Alert your units.”

Melissa felt Shadow shake a head it didn’t have. Its aura is heavy, it said and paused. We may not survive. The purple-eyed blonde plastered her face to the window as the commander wired his units.

“Code blue to convoy,” Colonel Pele called into a cabled hardline radio. “We’re in red for an adversary suspected on radar. Be on alert. I repeat—”

“There!” Melissa shouted, smudging her finger to the glass. Beyond it, in the distance, two dark figures floated in the air against the light of the blazing sun. A moment later, one vanished, while the other blasted towards a plasma-copter trailed by flames. Leptin shoved her head down as the figure disappeared behind the military craft.

“Victashia’s made their move!” He yelled and looking Colonel, he touched his nano-computer. “Put me through to central,” he said into it. “Connect me with a Keeper.” Melissa looked toward him and glanced up at the window.

The Victashia… she thought. Are they here for me?

“Code Blue to Convoy,” the Colonel shouted into the radio. “Enemy sighted, prepare to engage. I repeat—”

Skidding, the car turned. Flipping from the backlash of an explosion, glass shattered and the roof caved in as the car ramped up and careened off the road. The radio left the Colonel’s hand as shards of glass flew into his eyes. His blood splattered onto Kevin’s face, and body went down in a spasm that spelled the end of his life. The smell of smoke rose into the air as fire and metal rained from the sky. A burning shell of what was once a plasma-copter descended from the sky like a falling bird. Looking down at it from where it had flown, floated the figure.

Hello! We’re D.J. Hoskins

We are Davena and Jason Hoskins, co-authors of 30+ books and siblings who write under the pseudonym D.J. Hoskins. Three years apart and in our twenties, we have been fascinated by stories from a young age. Davena is a student attending Princeton University, and Jason attends Georgetown University.

Read our story here.