The Princes of the Abyss Excerpt

Doomed Souls (Lin)

Lin was surrounded by blinding white snow and jagged ice, high in the mountains of northwestern Canada, near Alaska.

She had grown up in warm tropical waters with her adopted mom, Ma Ma, and had always dreamed of snow. But this wasn’t how she’d imagined it. Her eyes locked on Cleo, who’d been struck by tar-like tentacles that seemed to be made of living blackness.

“In time, you’ll be fine,” she told Cleo and closed a small vial. Not much was left from her homemade herbal medicine. “No lasting damage.”

Cleo nodded.

For weeks, Lin, Cleo, Alex, and Whiz had battled to find the legendary Shaman sword, the Night Slayer. They’d faced soulless headhunters; the terrifying beasts Rardok Sheer; black ghosts made of pure evil known as the Doomed Souls; and finally, the master of these wicked forces—Moloch—the Man with No Face, who’d killed Ma Ma and all their birth parents.

Lin turned to see Alex. A spirit had emerged from him—the White Tiger—amplifying his powers immensely. When Alex united his mind and soul with those of Lin, Cleo, and Whiz, he was able to defeat Moloch, at least for now.

Alex had even destroyed the Night Slayer’s evil twin—the Blood Stealer. But he was crouched, holding his stomach and chest. What was happening to him?

BAAM!

The mountain they were on—which had been shaking since the twin swords had slammed into each other—shuddered even more violently. And then it split open.

Lin dropped to the ground.

The crack between the two halves of the mountain grew quickly. The entire ledge Alex was on broke off with a roar and tumbled into a gorge so far below, it was hard to even see its bottom.

Alex fell with the ledge.

“Alex!” Lin shouted.

His body spun without control. Had he lost consciousness? Without a thought, Lin dove after him.

She sent her heartsong to the spirit of air. Air’s own song was like the whistling of the wind—powerful and unstoppable. They connected heartsongs via Aether—the dimension of pure energy that connected the souls of all living creatures and the spirits of the elements.

Their spirits united, Lin commanded Air to create an upward twist to control her descent. But all at once, gusty winds seemed to come at her from everywhere. She wobbled while gaining downward speed.

Even when she was ten, she could sense and bind with the spirits of elements such as Air, Water, Stone, Fire, Metal, and Wood. But she’d only recently learned that the four of them, and their enemy Moloch, weren’t human. They were the only surviving members of an ancient species, the Velas. They looked like regular people but had power over elemental forces and could talk telepathically and breathe underwater.

Something zoomed past her.

Cleo, her twin sister.

“I’ll catch him, sis,” she said telepathically. Her face was scrunched up from pain. Yet, her body was perfectly streamlined, with legs together and hands at her sides. Her cat’s eyes were locked on Alex.

Like a spear, Cleo pierced the sky. Not even the pack on her back, two thin swords, and a battle axe slowed her down. Not even the wounds could stop her.

They had grown up apart, not even knowing the other existed, until Cleo had captured Lin, Alex, and Whiz. Besides Cleo’s body being like a fine-tuned weapon and her black hair cut short—while Lin’s was straight and long—they looked the same.

Yet, they were so different in every other way. Cleo, an insanely brave warrior queen, had been the captain of the infamous crew of fighters and treasure hunters, the Vanquishers. She’d been in so many battles she seemed older than her tween age. Lin, on the other hand, like most kids in her village, had dived for pearls every day.

Several yards from Alex, Cleo spread her arms and legs wide to slow down her flight. She grabbed him with one hand while her other arm remained extended. He stayed motionless.

Bound to Air, she generated a soft breeze below them—like an air mattress—buttressing them both.

Cleo was wild sometimes and cocky all the time—rough, especially with Whiz, and blind, especially about Whiz. Still, behind all that was a person who cared deeply for her Vanquisher crewmates, who had all been killed over the last week.

Lin had sensed Whiz’s spirit behind her since he’d also jumped.

She tilted her head to look at him and make sure he was all right. At fourteen, he was two years older than Cleo and her, and just a year older than Alex. But he was already in college and by far the smartest person Lin had ever met. The most fearful too.

He thrashed his long, slim arms and legs and whimpered, “Uhhhhhhhhhh.”

Velas could sense in Aether when nearby spirits were connected to each other. And Whiz was bound to Air on and off, gaining and losing his focus.

“Calm your mind,” she reminded him telepathically. “And don’t look down.”

She tried not to as well but had to. The rocky ground was closing in fast. And the storm starting to rage around them was just too strong and too wild to control.

Lin’s eyes were full of tears, the freezing wind whipping her face. She shut them and used her soul’s eye to see in Aether. All spirits had energy auras, and they appeared like silvery shadows in the pure whiteness of Aether.

She detected many birds nearby. Her mind hopped from one to the other, inspecting them. None were of sufficient size or strength to carry Alex. There were no airplanes in this wilderness either. There was no help.

A burst of wind—probably at well over a hundred miles an hour—pushed her down toward the big, icy rocks below.

Images from her life flashed in Lin’s head: cooking with Ma Ma, diving for pearls, riding her dolphins—scenes from carefree days, before she’d left her village to join her friends—and of the four of them together, walking, laughing, fighting their foes.

“No!” she cried out. She couldn’t die. They couldn’t die. They needed to get stronger to control the storm. “Let’s merge our powers.”

“Quickly!” Whiz shouted, twisting and turning in the gust.

Lin opened her heart and connected it to his via Aether. Souls bound, they fused their minds too. Together, they made a big air pillow, holding them from below. But it still seemed insufficient.

“Join us, Cleo!” Whiz exclaimed.

When Cleo united her soul with theirs, it was as if their powers doubled or tripled, so strong was her connection with Air.

Lin glanced at Whiz next to her, and he nodded. The two of them sent their souls’ energies into Cleo.

Cleo bent Air to her will and . . . the storm simply ended. As if it never existed.

But they were just feet away from slamming into the rocks.

Cleo waved her hands, and the storm awakened again—as powerful as ever—but controlled, tamed by Cleo. It pulled the four of them upward, away from certain death.

Cleo had Air carry them to a grassy plateau. They landed, and she lowered Alex’s unmoving body gently. Lin and Whiz ran to him.

“Alex,” Lin called.

There was no reaction, and his breathing was too quiet.

Lin touched his wrist and counted.

His pulse was no more than thirty beats per minute. Way too slow, even for an old person. Almost like his heart was about to stop. And Alex’s aura in Aether—usually as bright as the moon, reflecting his soul’s strength—was now light gray.

No, no, that couldn’t be Alex—the boy she’d seen in her visions since she was nine. Bullies, like the nasty Bull, would hurt him, yet he would always find cool new ways to pay them back. A gecko in Bull’s underwear? Who else could come up with that?

“Keep fighting, Alex. You know we need you,” she told him telepathically. You know I need you, right?

She shook him gently, and his head bobbed.

“If they pop, he’ll die instantly,” Whiz said, pointing to the veins on Alex’s hands and wrists. They were so swollen they looked ready to jump out of his skin. “What condition is this?”

“I’m not sure,” Lin said.

What could she do? She pulled a vial from her backpack. It was the most potent herbal medicine she’d ever made. Ingredients from thirty-four herbs had gone into it, including the poison of a king cobra, the skin of a Siamese fighting fish, and the hair of a wild boar. She’d simmered them in a cauldron—all to produce just a few drops of the greenish liquid.

She connected a dropper to it, but should she give him just one drop or two? One may not be enough. Two, on the other hand, might be too much for his weak body to take.

She clutched her head. You can’t make a mistake now, Lin. She had to think through the whys before the hows.

What was the cause of his illness? Had he been harmed because the Night Slayer had mysteriously disappeared at the end of the battle, and the sword’s and Alex’s spirits were united as one? Would that be like one half of your heart dying?

There was another possibility, perhaps equally terrible. She’d sensed Alex pouring the energy of his soul into the white sword. Had that drained him too much? She’d been concerned Alex might do anything to save his friends, to save her. And Moloch had provoked him to do just that.

Could both of these possibilities be the reason?

She’d spent a few years healing her villagers with herbal medicines—under the guidance of an experienced teacher—and then by herself after he’d died. But she’d never treated anyone whose soul had weakened so much that his whole body was breaking down.

Lin sighed and carefully put two drops of the liquid into Alex’s mouth.

“What’s the medicine?” Whiz asked.

“Better question,” Cleo muttered, “how long till it starts working?”

“It needs about a minute,” Lin said. “If there’s no effect after another minute, max, he’ll—”

She counted seconds in her head. One, two, three . . .

Was she counting too quickly? Her heart was beating at one million times per second after all. Or was she counting too slowly, secretly hoping that would give him a better chance to recover?

“One minute already,” Whiz announced, eyes on his watch.

Alex didn’t look any better.

After another minute or so, his body jolted off the rocky ground. The three of them jumped on him and held him down. Foam came out of his mouth faster than Lin could remove it. The veins carrying his Vela blood pulsated violently.

He convulsed again, and then his body stiffened.

“Lin, is this how this is supposed to work?” Whiz asked.

“No,” Lin yelped and shook him hard. “Come on, Alex!”

There was no reaction.

What was going on? She touched his forehead. It was chilly.

Lin stopped breathing and felt no movement of the mountain air around them, heard nothing, saw nothing but his face. She begged for help in her thoughts, but she was the only person here who could do anything for him.

There was only one other thing to try. Her herbal medicine teacher had heard of a Nepalese healer who’d transferred a part of his soul—and therefore his life’s energy—into another person. It was like an incredible shot of power to help restore the body. And wasn’t the cause of Alex’s suffering his weary soul?

Lin had never used this method and wasn’t sure if it would even work. Maybe it had just been a story, a legend. But she understood the trade-off well, because nothing came for free. Giving part of your soul to somebody meant losing years, or even decades, of your own life. In the story, the Nepalese healer had died only days after the transfer of his soul’s energy. Maybe he’d given too much, but who could guess the right amount?

One thing Lin knew—while the loss of years in her life was certain, Alex’s recovery wasn’t.

And it might be too late already. Or his body might not accept another soul into it, like a sick person’s immune system rejecting transplanted tissue after surgery.

But if she didn’t do it, Alex would die any second. How could she let that happen? Moloch had vaporized her mom, her neighbors, her entire village. Lin had left home for one reason only—to save Alex. To stop her prophecy of his death from being fulfilled.

She had to try. “I’m going to give him some of my energy.”

“How does that work?” Whiz asked.

“Now’s not the time for a scientific lecture,” Cleo said. “Sis, just tell me if you’re sure about it.”

“That’s where I was going,” Whiz said. “Even if you could do such a thing, Lin, wouldn’t that weaken you?”

“Let’s hope for the best,” Lin said. Was hope enough? Her chest quivered.

She lowered her face toward Alex and opened his mouth. Sparkling smoke exited her mouth and drifted into his. With the smoke, she felt strength leaving her body too.

She felt dizzy.

“Alex,” she called him. There was no change in his physical appearance or his spirit’s aura.

Lin hunched over and poured more of her soul into him. Her muscles became like goo. She collapsed over him.

“Sis!” Cleo cried out, swiftly pulling Lin up.

“I’m all right,” Lin said. “Just a brief weakness.”

She gazed at Alex’s unconscious face. She needed to see that mischievous flicker in his eyes again and to hear his laughter.

Suddenly, she heard a sound. It was faint, but it sliced through the air like a blade.

What was it? Was it the sound of the wind?

Another joined it.

It wasn’t like wind, though. It was more like . . . screams.

Within seconds, two screams multiplied into a dozen, a dozen into a hundred.

“What’s going on?!” Lin shouted at them.

“Nothing,” Cleo said, letting go of Lin. “But I should’ve told you to be more careful.”

Maybe she should’ve been, but Alex—

It was also icy cold—inside her. Seemed like the same unnatural chill, as in the Caves of Rardok, just before they’d been attacked by the black ghosts. The ghosts whose appearance was preceded by screams.

“Doomed Souls!” Lin cried out. She’d barely survived their attack back then. They’d buried their teeth into her mind and scratched her soul with their long fingernails.

“Where?” Whiz said, startled.

Cleo spun around her, swords already in her hands. “Really? There are no signs of them.” She sheathed the swords. Not that they would help against the Doomed Souls anyway.

Had they not heard them, felt the chill? Was she going mad? “I . . . just thought . . .”

Mad or not, she had to keep her calm and focus on Alex. Too much time had passed. His heartbeat had risen to thirty-seven beats per minute. That was still way too low, but it did mean that giving him her own energy had worked. At least somewhat.

She neared him, and another piece of her soul snaked into his open mouth.

Weakness overtook her whole body.

A shriek followed it.

And another.

And many, many more, louder and louder.

Lin raised her head and glanced at Cleo and Whiz. How could they not hear the Doomed Souls?

Lin inspected the skies, expecting to see robed black ghosts with ashen eyes. She could never forget they had no mouths, no eyes, no faces of any kind—only darkness.

No Doomed Souls appeared.

“Can Cleo and I help?” Whiz asked.

“Good idea,” Cleo said. “You’re done with this, sis.”

Lin’s muscles were numb with cold. The chill penetrated her soul.

“No,” she said, shaking her head.

Their shrieks echoed within her skull—dozens of them—as if the Doomed Souls were actually flying inside her mind.

Had they remained in her? That would explain why Cleo and Whiz heard nothing, felt nothing.

“I don’t know how several souls would mix,” Lin went on.

Plus, she certainly wouldn’t let Cleo and Whiz go through whatever was happening to her. The shrieks had started right after she’d transferred energy into Alex. It seemed that the rapid weakening of her body had awakened the black ghosts who’d hidden in her.

What would they do to her? Would they destroy her mind and leave her an empty shell? Or would they make her one of them?

Lin focused on the light of her soul, her energy. It had helped fight the Doomed Souls before. She sent it to her mind, to her weary muscles.

The shrieks just intensified.

She had to concentrate on Alex, not on herself. She looked at him—still motionless—and a tear ran down her cheek.

And then everything around him became dim, and instead of lying on the icy ground, he was standing near a wide tree-lined street.

Was this . . . was it her old prophecy?

A long dagger flew. It was darker than midnight.

Wide-open jaws with reptilian teeth appeared at the tip of the blade. In place of a hilt was the upper half of the head of an old woman with bulging eyes and a terribly wrinkled face, like crumpled paper. Each strand of her hair rebelled against gravity, reaching out in all directions as if they were a storm of darkness.

Another person—completely blurred—stood in front of the blade.

The old woman in the dagger screeched with pleasure.

The blade pierced the person’s chest—and kept going.

It slammed into Alex.

Black tentacles erupted from the dagger and penetrated Alex’s body. Tar-like living blackness smothered him. His blood evaporated, body withered, bones turned to dust.

Lin cried out.

Cleo grabbed her. “Sis, what’s up?”

“I just had a vision . . .” Lin looked for Alex and found him still lying on the ground. “Of Alex’s death by—”

She quickly put a hand on her mouth. How could she blurt that out?

She’d never told anyone about it, certainly not Alex. But the burden of knowing had become too heavy. Maybe she should tell Cleo and Whiz. Alex wouldn’t be able to hear it anyway.

It was an expanded version of her original prophecy. In the past, she’d only seen Alex struck by a dagger. And the tar-like darkness—similar to what Moloch had used against Whiz’s uncle and Cleo—had emerged out of it.

Now she’d also seen a wicked old woman being part of the dagger.

And they’d killed another person first—someone standing in front of Alex.

Ever since Lin was a little girl, she’d foreseen the future. Mostly, it was just different images flashing in her head. Rarely, it was like watching a movie. And sometimes, it was nothing more than a feeling, a premonition.

Her visions weren’t always easy to decode. But they’d never been wrong. Not about meeting Alex in the Alamon’s city, Falnis. Not about Moloch destroying Edge City, leaving only dead bodies in his wake. Not about there being a traitor among Cleo’s Vanquishers.

She took Cleo’s hand and squeezed it.

Lin ignored the shrieks in her mind. She had to tell her sister and friend all about her prophecy. Could they help prevent Alex’s death? Could anyone?

End of Chapter 1

RELEASE DATE for all formats (paperback, hardcover, e-book): November 10, 2025. Click here to preorder the e-book right now.