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PROLOGUE

NOVA

T he horrific noise of metal grinding against metal pierced my ears, blood leaking down my jaw as my body trembled under the force of the cosmic beings looming before me.

I had no idea what had come before this moment, but I knew that decimation would follow. The viridescent light that wrapped around me, the true magic of the Earth pulsating through me like a steady heartbeat, had called them forth. The world eaters had already been set on destroying Earth, but the release of this source of magic had been a beacon that only increased their vigor and efforts forward.

I felt as though I was looking through the eyes of the world itself, and I found myself shrinking in fear. Were we strong enough to combat this? Could we be the sole planet that would not only survive these world eaters but also be the ones to destroy them?

I wasn’t sure—I really wasn’t fucking sure.

My jaw was clenched so tight that my teeth felt as though they would shatter, and the force of the being in front of me made me feel so damn small—as if I was going to compress under the weight of their intensity.

“Daughter of Magic.” A soft feminine voice, one that I recognized but couldn’t place, drew my attention—although I didn’t look away from the enemy within my midst.

My lips opened to respond but nothing came out, my throat raw as if it’d been scorched. Each action I took revealed another source of pain, no part of my body untouched by the agony. I felt like I was crumbling into a million different pieces as my vision blurred and my knees broke.

I didn’t feel as though I was being reborn.

I didn’t even feel overloaded with power.

I felt as though I was trapped in a state of pure, infinite suffering.

Physically, it felt like every single molecule of my body was being systematically tortured. Mentally, I could hear the screams of not only the world eaters but also every single individual terrified within me— within Earth —that would suffer under their attention.

My head snapped back and the breath whooshed out of me as my spirit of determination leaked out and escaped, washed away by dread and desperation.

We couldn’t… we couldn’t do this .

A hand touched my shoulder as my eyes slowly opened, the pain stopping immediately. I realized at that moment that I wasn’t in a galactic space-scape but instead in a quiet chamber, standing in front of a green orb. Although to call it a simple orb was a gross misrepresentation. Rivers of energy in every shade of green, from emerald to aqua, intertwined across its surface, and it pulsed like a heartbeat, synchronizing with my own. There was a shadow of carved ancient symbols on the walls around me, stationed like sentient guards, but I couldn’t recognize nor read them. Everything on the edges of my reality was blurred, but the hand on my arm kept me grounded.

“Don’t let them stop you,” a young girl said, drawing my attention to her large green eyes and serious face. “The world eaters want to stop you. They don’t want you to take their prize.”

“I thought…” My voice was raspy as I tried to make sense of the world around me. “I thought I already released the magic.” That was the prize she was talking about, right?

“You did, but you have to accept it, Nova. You have to take it as your own. Only then will it be safe from them.”

Safe from them . She was right.

Ignoring every other memory and thought that tried to infiltrate my mind and tug on my attention, I reached toward the orb of magic. This magic—this raw, unfiltered power—was my responsibility. I had to be the one to give this magic to others, those who would aid us in the endeavor of protecting Earth. Protecting all the realms.

I had to become a guardian of the realms.

Thrusting my hands forward, I surged my fingers into the orb and grabbed hold of the power within. It warmed at my touch and I closed my eyes, inhaling sharply. Unlike the release of the Titans’ destructive magic, there was no explosion, no mighty shake of the earth to signal the exchange.

Instead a soft wind wrapped around us. My skin prickled and my fingers grew hot, and for a singular moment I felt absolute awe at how much magic existed at the core of the world. I hadn’t realized…I didn’t know that natural magic could be this powerful.

Somehow, I knew if I opened my eyes there would be others around me. Like the young girl’s mother—the other living guardian of the garden—and others like them. Others that had spent their existence and lost their lives protecting the magic that I was now receiving.

They trusted me. They believed in me.

I would show them that they could.

“I accept you,” I whispered to the magic, taking in a deep lungful of air. “I accept all of you.”

My words sealed the covenant, and the world around me went dark.