When people ask me about the Elysian Chronicles series, I generally talk about the fantasy and military elements: special ops, guardian angel warfare, JRR Tolkien meets Tom Clancy, dragons, etc. I forget to talk about the paranormal elements of the novels. After all, when angels and demons in one dimension collide with humans in another, paranormal happens. Over the next week, I’m going to highlight some of the paranormal elements in the series.

Today’s excerpt comes from The Elysian Chronicles: A Prophecy Forgotten — Chapter 23: A Night to Remember. The character, Gabriella, has amnesia and does not remember she is actually an angel (or a cherubian as I call them in the novels):

On Thursday morning, Gabriella sat alone on the den sofa counting the minutes until Tommy came home from school. She replayed her conversation with the major over and over again, trying to jump start more memories. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers and jumped off the couch. Of course! Her memories started returning when she shot arrows at the archery booth at the fair. She ran into Tommy’s room and searched through his toy box.

Gabriella ran back to the den with a toy bow and a bunch of arrows with suction cups for tips and looked for something to use as a target. Her eyes fell on a fist-sized dent in the wall near the phone. She called it Jim’s Dent because he sent his fist through it one night during a particularly lively conversation with Lorraine. Gabriella dragged a chair out of the way to give her a clear shot at the dent from across the room. She stood in position and began shooting the toy arrows, trying to put herself “in the zone,” as Tommy often called it. Surely if she shot long enough, more memories would resurface.

Soon, more and more scenes of that unknown world again flashed through her mind. She saw meadows and mountains and a huge forest surrounded by a wall with a tree palace made of crystal in its center, and unicorns, and tiny fairies that chatted incessantly, and other animals that humans believed only existed in myths. She saw people who looked just like her, except with wings, and little snippets of what looked like some kind of military training. Then she envisioned a decrepit creature more hideous and more evil than anything she ever imagined flying at her with its sword drawn.

“That’s why the major doesn’t like to become human,” she whispered to herself.

As Gabriella continued shooting at the dent, in her mind’s eye she found herself in the center of an arena built into a circle of massive trees. The ground shook as everyone in the stadium cheered. She reached for her quiver, and the arena fell immediately silent. Gabriella could feel her heart beating as she pulled an arrow from her quiver—a long, slim arrow with a crystal tip—and mounted it in her bow, a longer, more majestic bow than Tommy’s. She spun around and shot five arrows at the target in front of her. Each hit the target’s center, and the crowd erupted in cheers. She heard someone yell, “And Cadet Gabriella beats the two time defending archery champion, Corporal Snead!”

Gabriella scanned the crowd and her eyes fell on the Seraphs’ Box where Davian was applauding and elbowing the seraph from her dream. For a brief second, her eyes met Davian’s. Gabriella looked down quickly and felt her face grow hot and her heart beat faster—the same way it did when Jim almost kissed her on the Ferris Wheel. She peeked back at Davian and saw him smiling at her. She smiled back and looked down at the ground. When she discovered that she had run out of toy darts, the scene vanished. She ran to the wall to replenish her supply and wondered about the strange exchange between her and the major.

Gabriella shot again, but her dart, instead of hitting the target, fell to the floor as though an invisible hand batted it away. She dropped her bow and looked around.

“Major Davian?” she asked. “Are you here?” Nothing moved. She picked up her bow and shot another dart at the target. Again, it fell. “You’re supposed to be at school watching Tommy. What about all that, ‘I can’t leave Tommy’ talk you gave me the other night?”

No answer.

Something was wrong. The major, who was nervous about becoming human to talk to her lest he leave his charge, would never leave Tommy at school to bat toy darts away from dents. This was someone or something different. Gabriella remembered Davian’s story about the mornachts that had tried to attack Tommy, and she shivered.

“Who are you?” she asked.

Soot shot out of the fireplace and covered Gabriella and the rest of the den. She rubbed her eyes and tried to keep from sneezing when a lamp fell off the table and shattered on the floor next to her. Pictures, lamps, and other knickknacks began falling off the shelves and the walls.

Get out! she told herself. Just get out!

She rushed toward the French doors that opened into the hallway. The doors slammed shut, knocked her down, and locked themselves. She jumped up and tried to unlock them, but a stronger unseen force kept them locked.

She punched the doors and yelled, “What do you want?”

Words appeared in the soot on the wood floor, written by an invisible finger in letters Gabriella had never seen before. Despite their strange look, she knew what they said: TO KILL YOU.

Do you have M. B. Weston’s Elysian Chronicles on your Kindle yet? Get them now for only $2.99–less than the cost of a Starbucks Latte! (Click here for A Prophecy Forgotten on Kindle and Out of the Shadows on Kindle.)

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Fantasy, steampunk, and paranormal novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston is also the hose of The Final Cut In Movies radio show that airs on TMV Cafe Monday nights at 8:00 EST. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. To receive notification of M. B. Weston’s book releases click here to subscribe to Dark Oak Press & Media’s e-newsletter.