When Worlds Collide: Solarian Chronicles I Read online

  Her mother owned a large Thoroughbred stable which she and her husband, Daniel, had started up before a drunk driver killed him. Their top colt, a palomino named Sepherino, was the top two-year-old in the country, and there was serious talk about him making a run for the Triple Crown the upcoming year. He also was Angel’s own personal horse. His sire, Donay, was Selene’s horse, and he was just a few stalls down. He’d been their very first Triple Crown champion two years before and had helped make Solarian Stables a household name in the racing world. Every morning, Angel helped her mother feed and water all the horses before the stable hands came in and she went to school. Along with the Thoroughbreds, Selene also bred Arabians, Andalusians, and Friesians for showing. Altogether, they owned over under sixty horses, and four of their mares were getting ready to foal.

  They laughed and talked as they worked. The mother and daughter had always been extremely close, able to talk about anything with each other. Angel couldn’t think of a single thing she wouldn’t be able to tell her. When they finished with the horses, Angel went to take a shower, then raced to get dressed for school.

  She pulled into the parking lot, ran to her locker before racing through the halls, and she slid into her seat just as the bell rang. Advanced English was her first class, and her best friend, April, leaned forward, laughing. “Wow. You’re cutting it close this morning, huh?” Angel just grinned as the teacher stepped up and started class. The two girls began passing notes along with taking their teacher’s notes down.

  * * *

  About halfway through the class, there was a knock on the door, and their principal came in with a new student. The guy was tall, well over six feet, and he looked like he was about eighteen. He had shaggy black hair and intense green eyes, and he looked like he could easily have a dangerous side, but his mouth looked like he smiled much more than he frowned.

  Angel sat up, feeling something like dizziness wash through her, and her heart began racing. April looked up. “Damn, he’s fine,” she said in a low whisper.

  Angel nodded. “You can say that again. Okay, this might sound a little strange, but would you believe me if I said I felt like I’ve seen him before? I just don’t know from where.”

  “There’s no telling,” April replied.

  After a few minutes, the principal left, and the teacher introduced the student as Garin Sands. He told him to take the empty desk in front of Angel. After he sat down, he turned around with a smile. “‘Ello. I’m Garin.”

  “I’m Angelina Storm, but Angel works,” she replied, then gestured to April. “And this is my best friend, April Townsend. Where in the world are you from? You sound British.”

  He smiled. “I am. I was born and raised in London, actually.”

  Angel’s eyes widened. “Wow. Really? Have you ever been to the US before?”

  “No, but I’ve always wanted to visit. I just never imagined I would live here,” he said with a quiet laugh.

  April raised an eyebrow. “So, you were just thrown into this whole other world? Did you at least have any warning?”

  “Again, that would be a no. When I went to school on Friday, I came home to find my father packing. He said he had a new great job offer, but we had to leave immediately. My little brother, Ari, stayed over in England with some friends, and we moved over the weekend. Ari’ll be coming over once he finishes the year.”

  The girls both laughed. “Wow. Talk about your sink or swim,” Angel said, tucking her light blonde hair behind her ear. “What’s your class schedule look like?”

  He handed Angel a piece of paper, and she gave a fake groan. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his eyebrows raised.

  “I can’t seem to get away from you,” she said with a grin. He asked what she meant. “You’re in all my classes.”

  He gave a slow smile. “That might not be such a bad thing.”

  Angel felt her face heat up. “You say that now, but you haven’t met these teachers yet, either.”

  He laughed. “That’s true.” April asked where his locker was at. “Um, 1274?” Angel rolled her eyes, and he smiled. “Let me guess,” he said. “It’s close to yours?”

  “We’re next-door neighbors.”

  “What about where you live?” Garin asked.

  April laughed. “Oh, I highly doubt that.” He asked why. “Because, she and her mom own about three or four hundred acres of the best horse land in New York.”

  His curiosity was immediately piqued. “Oh, you raise horses?”

  Angel nodded. “Mainly thoroughbreds, but we also have some Arabians, Andalusians and Friesians,” she said.

  “For fun or racing?”

  “Both,” she said with a shrug. He asked what the name of the stable was, thinking he might have heard it before. “It depends on how closely do you follow American racing? I ask, because I know most Americans are awful at following racing anywhere but here.”

  “Pretty close, actually,” he said, nodding.

  “Um, Solarian Stables?”

  His eyes widened. “You and your mom own Sepherino?”

  Angel nodded, then April chimed in from behind her. “Actually, Angel owns Sepherino. He’s her horse.”

  “Shut up,” he said, and they laughed as he shook his head. “Well, all I can say is, I really hope your new trainer works out. He came a long way from home for the opportunity, dragging his oldest son across the world with him.”

  It was Angel’s turn to be surprised. “No way. Your dad? That’s beyond crazy. Mom told me this morning we’d have a new trainer starting tomorrow, but it’s crazy that it’s your dad.”

  They talked through the rest of the class about horses and England, and April sat back, watching with a sad smile. As the bell rang, Angel turned to her when Garin went to speak to the teacher. “Remember how I said I felt like I’ve seen him before?” April nodded, and Angel sighed. “I could swear I’ve known him before. He just seems so familiar to me.” April didn’t respond, and she laughed self-consciously. “I know, I know. I’m totally crazy.”

  April smiled as all three of them headed to their lockers, but she still didn’t say anything. Angel, if you only knew how not crazy you really were.

  * * *

  April had separate classes, but they would meet back up for lunch. Angel and Garin had Spanish 2, then they went over to the gym. As they stretched and warmed up, they were still talking. It was almost scary how well they seemed to click. Angel hadn’t found anyone besides April she could talk to freely to. She still couldn’t shake the feel she’d known him from somewhere, despite him saying he’d never been to the US before.

  They eventually started playing basketball, and she got him one on one, and by the time they finished, they were both covered in sweat and struggling to catch their breath. He bent over, his hands on his knees, struggling to catch his breath. “You have to play on a team or something.” She just laughed and nodded as their coach blew the whistle.

  They all went to dress in, and the girls in the locker room were all talking about how fine Garin and his accent were. One of them wondered where he was from, and Angel said he was from England.

  A girl named Ciera sneered. “How would you know?”

  “It’s simple,” Angel said, folding her arms across her chest. “It’s a little thing called conversation. You know, where two or more people move their lips and tongues and sounds come out as words, and those words allow said people to exchange thoughts and ideas? It’s really easy, C. You should try it sometime.” She rolled her eyes. “You might actually learn something.”

  She felt a small pang of guilt as she left the locker room to everyone’s laughing at Ciera’s bright red, embarrassed face. After all, the two girls used to be friends, but everything suddenly changed over the previous summer, and Ciera couldn’t stand her now. Angel had tried everything she could to fix their friendship, but eventually, she’d grown tired of wasting her breath.

  She saw Garin standing beside the double doors, waiting for the coach to g
ive them the okay to go to lunch. He looked up as Angel came to stand beside him. “Why do you wait so long to eat?” he asked

  “Well, would you rather dress out, play, dress in, eat, dress back out, play, probably get sick, then dress back in?” she asked, an eyebrow raising.

  He grimaced, rubbing his stomach. “You know what? When you put it like that, the late lunch doesn’t sound so bad.”

  She laughed. “I didn’t think it would.”

  They could finally go to the lunchroom, and headed through the line, then joined April and three other guys at the table. She introduced them as Ace, TJ, and Jessie, who was April’s on-again, off-again boyfriend. April asked Garin how his classes were going. “They aren’t as bad as I thought they would be,” he said. “Of course, it helps to have someone in all of those classes, too.”

  Ace grinned hugely, flinging an arm around Angel’s shoulder. “Especially when that someone is Angel. You won’t find another girl like her or April.”

  Angel just rolled her eyes with a laugh. “Have you met our fan club?” she asked, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

  * * *

  They talked and laughed throughout their lunch break, then the bell rang. She showed him where to throw their trash away, then they went to their lockers before going to the third floor for their Art 3 class. He took the seat next to her after she introduced him to their teacher. “So, what are you doing?”

  “We have to draw an imaginary place,” she replied, getting her stuff ready. He asked if he could see hers. “Of course,” she said. They went over to a large cubby box, and he saw her name under one of them, and she pulled out a large, heavy piece of paper. “Actually, you’ve got pretty good timing coming today. I’m almost finished with it.”

  They sat back down, and she unrolled the paper. Garin suddenly felt short of breath as he looked down. It was a massive palace with a four cornered star spire on top of a large, domed roof. A reflection pool stretched out in front of the palace with pillars and arches lined along the side. The palace sprawled across a large hill at night with a sleeping city stretched all around it. Two moons hung heavy in the sky, the largest directly behind the palace, with the top of the star grazing the top arch of the moon. The other, smaller moon was behind it, below and slightly to the left.

  Garin traced the star with a featherlight touch, and blinked slowly, almost lost. He didn’t understand it, but he seemed to smell smoke, and he thought he could hear faint screaming, and the clash of steel on steel. He shook his head and looked up to see Angel looking at him, and he had to tear his eyes away from hers. “Would you think I’m completely mental if I said I could almost swear I’ve seen this before?”

  An Echo of Souls

  She shook her head. “When we were first given the assignment the other day, I drew a complete blank. I had no idea what I wanted to draw, but after about ten minutes of staring at the paper, my hand moved on its own. I had no idea of what I was drawing, but this is what it ended up being.” Her voice had grown quiet and thoughtful, but she shrugged. “There’s just something about this picture that does something to me,” she said, and he agreed, thinking about the smoke and the screams.

  She showed him where the supplies were, and he started making his own sketches, both seeming to be in their own worlds. Angel sighed, her head on her hand as she made a few last touches, including a herd of horses cantering in the large field around the palace. The bell rang, and they laughed when they jumped. While they were at their lockers, she turned to him and asked if he wanted to come over and see Sepherino for himself. At first, he jumped at the opportunity, then remembered he had to finish unpacking. “That’s too bad, but it’s an open invitation.” They swapped numbers, and she said she’d see him around.

  After her basketball practice, Angel went home, not surprised to see her mother’s car gone, but there was an unfamiliar blue BMW in her spot. She sighed quietly, knowing she should get used to it. After his explosion onto the tracks of America last year, ending his year as a two-year-old undefeated, he would begin his three-year-old campaign soon, which everyone expected to result in a Triple Crown bid, and maybe a trip to the Breeder’s Cup. He would have many reporters and sports writers flocking to him.

  * * *

  Sure enough, when she went out to the barn, there was a man standing in front of the palomino colt’s stall. Angel could hear the murmur of him talking quickly to the colt, the delicate ears pitched forward as if he was listening intently. She cleared her throat as she walked toward them, her boot heels clicking on the cobblestone floor. “Excuse me, can I help you?” she asked.

  The man turned, and he had short brown hair and dark brown eyes. “My name is Damien. I just wanted to see Seph for myself,” he replied, inclining his head respectfully.

  “Damien?” she repeated. “I don’t believe I know you. What magazine are you from?”

  He gave a small smile. “None. My interest in Seph is purely personal.”

  Angel’s eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms. “I’m sorry, but he’ll never be for sale.”

  The man, Damien, sighed. “Selene was right. You really don’t remember anything, do you?”

  “Excuse me? Remember anything about what?”

  “Solaris,” he replied.

  “What’s that?” she asked, even though the word unexplainably made her heart jump.

  He sighed and closed his eyes. “Solaris was your home, your birthright. Your kingdom.” He looked and saw the skepticism in her eyes. “I know it sounds crazy, but it’s not. I’m not. Solaris was a planet in a faraway galaxy. Selene, your mother, was queen, and you were the princess, the next in line.”

  “Really?” she asked, her eyebrows raised.

  “Yes, but you never saw the throne. Selene had the Stone family, two brothers and two sisters, imprisoned for the destruction of Solaris’s closest ally, Elagon, killing their King and Queen. The two princes of Elagon, Sathe and Ari, were on Solaris. Sathe, the heir to Elagon’s throne, was also your betrothed.”

  Ava felt another tug in her chest at the name, but she was still in disbelief, and he continued. “The family broke out of the prison and led a massive riot, destroying everything in their path. They marched on the palace and demanded your mother abdicate the throne and turn the rule of the planet to them. Of course, Selene said no, and a fierce battle broke out. Selene and Sathe died, and you defeated them using the strongest attack of the Solarian’s bloodline, the Solarian Will. The victory came at a significant cost to us. You were going to die, and Solaris would die along with you. The planet was tied to the royal family in such a way, it would self-destruct. It used the last of your energy, but you sent every single one of our people to another planet, so we could all have another chance at a peaceful life. And we were all reborn here on Earth.”

  Angel shook her head. She didn’t fear the strange man, but only felt pity for him. Obviously, he’d played so many RPG video games, he thought he was living in one. Before she could say anything, he spoke again. “Look, I know it sounds insane, like something out of a dream or a fairy tale, but it’s all true.” She took a step back as he came toward her, but she somehow knew he wasn’t going to hurt her. “I’m sorry about this Angel, but you have to remember who and what you were, and I’m afraid we may not have the time to do this gently.” His brown eyes closed as his head lowered.

  Suddenly, Angel was bombarded by visions and smells, by memories. Her own eyes closed tightly as she saw her mother, but she didn’t look much like herself. A long, white gown draped across her, and there was a silver, diamond, and sapphire crown on her head. Huge, angel-like wings spread out behind her, and there was a dark blue four pointed star embedded in her forehead. She also saw the very same palace she’d drawn in her art class, the Palace of Angels, her newly surfacing memories supplied her, and she was stuck by an almost overwhelming sense of home. After sever seconds, she saw the entire battle Damien, she now knew exactly who he was, had described. She also recognized the man who was
by her side in many of these memories. It was Garin, Sathe, and he smiled down at her, taking her hands as he kissed her gently. A bright light seemed to glow from inside her skull, and it focused on her forehead, forming a star just like the one on the palace, identical to the one on her mother’s forehead.

  The barn filled with light, and tears fell from her eyes as Sathe fell to Kane’s dagger. The pain she felt was as strong as it had been before. She hit her knees, grabbing handfuls of her long hair. Her back arched sharply, and her mouth opened in a shrill scream. All the horses shied away, except for Sepherino and his sire, Donay. They watched everything intently, scarcely even blinking. Wind gusted through the barn as sweat poured from Damien’s brow, his eyes closed tightly. His hands were clenched into fists at his side.

  * * *

  As suddenly as it started, the wind died, and the light faded, but the star on her forehead kept up a steady, pulsating glow. Angel was on her knees, her chest heaving, and her hands fell limply from her hair into her lap. He couldn’t see her eyes, but he saw the single tear that fell and splashed onto the back of her hand. Damien called her name gently, and she slowly raised her head. Her blue eyes locked with his, and he exhaled heavily as he saw the recognition in them. “Damien?”

  “You remember?”

  “Everything,” she replied, then stood, her shoulders back and her head held high, the proud posture he knew so well.

  He took a step back, his right fist over his heart, and he bowed low, his eyes closed. “My Princess.”

  She laid a hand on his shoulder, and he heard the sadness in her voice. “You don’t have to do that anymore, Damien. We’re no longer on Solaris,” she said.

  He straightened and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter when, or where, we are. You’ll always be my princess, Angel.”

  She gave a slight smile, then her eyes widened. “Sathe! He’s Garin.”

  “Yes, but like you, he doesn’t remember. You’re the only one who can break his seal around his memories. Ciera, Kane, Yazmina, and Malik are here as well.” Damien made a face. “I wish you could have been slightly more selective about who you brought to Earth.”