From heaven and hell, a new world will come, On the fated day when two become one, The angel without wings will have no fear, For she will be saving all those she holds dear. Aziel's family are born of angels, bound to protect their realm and everything within it. A millennia of war between the angels and the demons is close to boiling point, and soon the heirs to the realms will need to decide their course of action. The only issue being, they're destined to be bound to each other, heaven and hell as one.
From heaven and hell, a new world will come,
On the fated day when two become one,
The angel without wings will have no fear,
For she will be saving all those she holds dear.
Five years, that's how long the prophecy had taunted me every night at the end of my dreams. In a world that was so filled with light, my mind had always been plagued by corners of darkness.
Looking out of the window, the sun was just starting to rise, its golden hues lighting up the hills and rivers of Deltora. I watched as every home in the city began waking up, slowly lights turned on and the cogs of another day started to turn. Every second of life here was designed to be perfect - almost as if the Goddess herself had designed it. He hadn't though, my father had. King of the Angels, and every bit the man you'd think him to be.
My door began to creep open "Is my little angel awake?" my mother called, sailing through the room gracefully in her floor length, gold trimmed dress. She was always the picture of grace and beauty, I just hoped I'd look half as good as she did when I finally turned of age and took my true angel form in a few days time. "We have much to discuss, Princess." She continued to coo "Like about the ball, where we'll find out who your true fated soulmate will be."
The ball of anxiety that choked my throat every time she mentioned me finding my soulmate, I had never told her about the prophecy. My grandmother was the only one who knew, and everyone already thought she was too crazy to believe her if she did tell anyone.
"Mum, we don't know that I will find my soulmate straight away yet, I haven't even seen my true angel form yet..." I sighed. In our realm, as soon as an angel turned of age, they would undergo a form of a transformation. In our day to day forms we still appeared like humans, but we would gain the ability to shift into our angels. The purer the angel, the purer their angel would appear.
Everyone in my family had golden angels, their skin shone like armour and they acted every bit as heavenly. Non royal angels could appear as any colour they liked, there was only one forbidden colour. Red. Red angels were seen as having the devil entwined with their souls, and so they were cast out as demons, walking the path to the fallen realm alone.
The war between the fallen realm and ours had gone on for longer than a millennium. Dark angels, or "demons" as my father called them, only wanted to be known as equal to us. They didn't want to do harm, but when you force an entire race of our species underground... it doesn't take a magician to tell you it was never going to end well.
"Shanara, stop terrorising our poor daughter, she has her dress fitting for the ceremony in an hour." My father bellowed down the marbled hallway of our home.
"The man lives in a castle and I still can't find a way to escape him." Mother grumbled beneath her breath. My parents had always loved each other dearly, but marrying the King of the Angels certainly had its drawbacks. She was never alone, and never allowed to do as she pleased. There was always some kind of an agenda for the day, and always someone that needed her help, normally more than me. "Get washed and put on a clean dressing gown Aziel darling, meet me in the dressing room in half an hour." With that, my mother kissed my forehead and left the room. No doubt to chase her manic husband down for her list of tasks for the day.
Slipping out of my silk sheets, I walked into the en-suite and stepped into the cold shower that definitely needed a few more minutes to warm up. The cold blast was welcome, finally bringing me to understand the reality of what was planned for the day.
A dress fitting for an angel ceremony didn't happen very often. Girls were seldom born to the angel royal families anymore. The last female that had been born into my family turned out to be a dark angel. My aunt, Naeth. I was only six when her ceremony took place.
She stood at the angel's altar, looking as equally royal as my grandmother. Twenty five suited her, and we all knew her looks would carry her for the hundreds of years that angels could live. But then, without warning, she began to scream as she shifted. Her skin grew dark and tight, bursting into flames of scales and her hair turning black as night.
"RED ANGEL!" the crowd shouted angrily, and I hid behind my fathers hand. His other hand covered his face, and I felt him tremble. He knew what was coming next. Naeth shifted back into her human form, blackened tears running down her cheeks. Without a word, she took off the family crest ring, down the aisle, and onto the road that connected our realm to the one below it.
Nobody spoke a word about the day after, my grandfather had to abdicate and pass the throne onto my father. Siring a demon was frowned upon, and he knew he would no longer be seen as fit to sit on the Deltora throne. Days later he passed, and everyone blamed the grief of losing his only daughter to the realm of demons.
Shower finished, I pulled on the fluffy white dressing gown that hung from my door. This is the most comfortable I would be all day, I knew that the pulling, prodding, poking and squeezing was still ahead of me. We might be angels, but vanity still consumed us, even on the most important of days.
The walk along the hallway was surprisingly quiet. Normally you would find hordes of servants milling around, catering to my fathers every whim. Today there were none.
What on earth were they all doing?
Corinne devoted three years of her life to her boyfriend, only for it to all go to waste. He saw her as nothing more than a country bumpkin and left her at the altar to be with his true love. After getting jilted, Corinne reclaimed her identity as the granddaughter of the town’s richest man, inherited a billion-dollar fortune, and ultimately rose to the top. But her success attracted the envy of others, and people constantly tried to bring her down. As she dealt with these troublemakers one by one, Mr. Hopkins, notorious for his ruthlessness, stood by and cheered her on. “Way to go, honey!”
My name is Katia, and I am just trying to survive until my fated mate arrives. Which may be easier said than done. Rejectection is the last straw. Whispering my acceptance of his rejection. I run through the pack house, out across the manicured lawn into the forest. "I'm sorry, my sweet girl," I say to my wolf. I'm sorry you have been stuck with me and have had to suffer everything I have. She whispers," it's not your fault, Katia. We came to a cliff with a waterfall. The hurt keeps pounding at me. I need it to stop. My sweet girl, and I just want peace, I keep running and leap off the cliff. Spreading my arms wide, with tears streaming down my face, I fall, not making a sound, waiting for sweet oblivion where we feel nothing ever again. "I love you, my sweet girl! Until we meet again, "My wolf replied just before we hit the water, "I love you too, Katia. I have never regretted a moment with you." The Snow Moon pack is having their last barbecue of the summer next to the waterfall on their land. The adults are laughing and joking while watching the pups play. The alpha, beta, and gamma are swimming with some of the older children and playing a game of Marco Polo. Someone yells, "Oh my goddess, someone just jumped over the waterfall!" Everyone is frozen as they watch what looks to be a child falling arms spread wide, no one makes a sound. The small body hits the water like a plane crashing into the side of a mountain. The alpha, beta, and gamma, spring into action, swimming towards the area the person went under. The alpha is screaming his wolf is going crazy repeating, "Find her. Find her...find her!" They dive and the beta surfaces with a small person in his arms. Alpha takes the girl from his beta, laying her on the ground. The men are shocked by what they see. She is covered in scars and injuries. Her body is twisted and broken. The Beta asks, "Who could have done this to someone so defenseless?" Alpha drops to his knees, repeating, "MATE...MATE...MATE!"
Madison had always believed that she would marry Colten. She spent her youth admiring him from afar, dreaming of their future life together. But Colten was always indifferent to her, and when he abandoned her at a time when she needed him most, she finally realized that he never loved her. With renewed resolve and a thirst for revenge, Madison left. Endless possibilities lay ahead, but Colten was no longer part of her plans. Colten rushed to her place in a panic. "Madison, please come back to me. I’ll give you everything!" It was his powerful uncle who answered the door. "She's my woman now."
"I've warned you from the beginning. Don't marry him, but you won't listen." She stood close to me and smiled with concern. "You are not a woman worthy of a man as handsome, rich, smart, and virile as Blaze." My whole body trembled at her words. "Have you no shame?" I asked in a quivering voice. "Take a good look at yourself, Heather." She looked at me in the mirror. "You can't even look at your ugly face. Do you think Blaze can endure a lifetime of looking at that face?" Heather Bailey had a surprise from her husband that night: a divorce agreement. After a year of marriage and facing ups and downs, she couldn't believe Blaze intended to divorce her. But she was devastated when she saw him gazing lovingly at another woman because that person was closest to her. Shortly after she put her signature on their divorce papers, shock waves caught her up. Her flower shop was severely burnt, beyond repair. Her father's company collapsed, and her parents blamed her. She struggled to rebuild her life from the ground up and became more successful than ever. Having many customers who came from influential families, she started her action against Blaze. She won the very thing he wanted. But that was just the beginning.
Natalie used to think she could melt Connor’s icy heart, but she was sorely mistaken. When at last she decided to leave, she discovered that she was pregnant. Even so, she chose to quietly leave his world, prompting Connor to mobilize all of his resources and expand his business to a global scale—all in a bid to find her. But there was no trace of Natalie. Connor slowly spiraled into madness, turning the city upside down and leaving chaos in his wake. Natalie finally surfaced years later, with wealth and power of her own, only to find herself entangled with Connor once again.
She was a diamond covered by ashes.... King Dakota was known as the most Powerful Alpha King of all times - more powerful than any other King that had ruled from his lineage. He was cold hearted, introverted and dangerous in anger. Cursed by the Moon goddess, King Dakota had to get married to three wives all in search of a male child that would become his heir, but it was impossible as the curse would only let his wives bear she -wolves. But on a different day, the King meets a lady who offends him and as a punishment, he took her home as his fourth wife. Her name was Shilah. Shilah was a powerless wolf and as a result, was disregarded and intimidated by all. But, when she begins to do things that the King had never felt for years, he began to wonder who she really was. Slowly, she crawled her way into his icy heart and turned out to be something nobody ever expected - a storm.