The Ocean Diamond (Dawnbringer, Books 3 - Part 2), page 1
THE OCEAN DIAMOND
DAWNBRINGER
Book 3 (PART 2)
ELON VIDAL
This book is a work of fiction.
All characters, organizations, and events portrayed
in the novel are either products of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2021 Elon Vidal
Cover copyright © Light Age Media
A Light Age Media Production
All Rights Reserved
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s
Intellectual property. If you would like permission to use the material
from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact
info@lightagemedia.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Light Age Media
Barcelona
First Worldwide Edition: October 2021
Version: 1. October 2021
MORE BY ELON
Eclipse (Dawnbringer, Book 1)
(Before you read The Ocean Diamond, be sure to begin the Dawnbringer saga with Eclipse. Get Your FREE Copy here on Amazon!)
The East Gate (Dawnbringer, Book 2)
(Read it now here!)
Witchlight, Book 1 in Lightkey: The Intrepid Lucy Duceaul
(Get this book for FREE when you click here and sign up to Elon’s newsletter!
Also, available on paperback here.)
The Attraction Wielder – Juro’s Backstory (The Indomitable Ella Larisse)
(Get this book for FREE when you click here and sign up to Elon’s newsletter!)
The Time Wielder (The Indomitable Ella Larisse, Book 1)
(Read it now here!)
The Sword of Varen (Daring Alina Luxera, Book 1)
(Read it now here!)
The Dragon Signet (Valiant Eva Stellara, Book 1)
(Read it now here!)
CONTENTS
FREE GIFT
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
ELON’S AUTHOR NOTES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
OTHER BOOKS BY ELON
THE SWORD OF VAREN
THE TIME WIELDER
THE ATTRACTION WIELDER
THE DRAGON SIGNET
DRAGONLIGHT
CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR
REVIEW THE BOOK
If you haven’t yet read the first book in the Dawnbringer series, be sure to get your FREE copy on Amazon by following this link. Or just search for “Eclipse (Dawnbringer, Book 1) to get it.
It’s FREE, simply download it here and start reading.
“THE OCEAN DIAMOND (DAWNBRINGER, BOOK 3)” will make much more sense. ;)
Eclipse (Dawnbringer, Book 1) SYNOPSIS
Dawn's destiny is about to change.
She is a Halfling (half-Fae, half-human) who would much rather lead a normal life in botany helping plants flourish.
A strange eclipse and a recurring dream of a light-harnessing Pixie in a castle signal a threat that can end the magical balance and the mortal world.
The Council of The Enlightened and the gods themselves would much rather she perish.
Can she harness the light source within?
Get your copy of Eclipse on Amazon for FREE. Then, continue reading Dawn’s adventures in “The East Gate (Dawnbringer, Book 2)” so that you’re all caught up for “The Ocean Diamond”.
FREE GIFT
Dear Light Rider!
Thank you for reading my book!
Before you continue, be sure that you have read the first book in the Lightkey series. Else, this one won’t make as much sense.
You can get the first book in the series, “Witchlight (Lightkey: The Intrepid Lucy Duceaul, Book1)” in eBook format, when you join my newsletter here: https://bf.elonvidal.com/1vifjyxtne. Absolutely FREE, of course!
Just click below to sign up and download the book. Start reading it immediately.
Click Here To Get Witchlight
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Happy Reading Light Rider!
FIFTEEN
“Dawn, do something,” Elijah said out the corner of his mouth. Anna-Maria sniffed the air and growled as he spoke.
Standing at the mouth of the cave, Anna-Maria’s eyes glowed red with each step she took forward, pushing the trio further from its entrance. She was possessed alright, but she seemed different from the others Dawn had seen. It was as if she were hungry for blood, the way a snake would be if it hadn’t fed in months.
“Are you afraid, mortal scum?” her ever-deepening voice asked.
Dawn frowned. “Mortal scum? Are we supposed to believe you’re immortal, Anna-Maria?”
By the deep, ominous pitch of her laughter, Dawn had a feeling something was off about Anna-Maria. Dawn scratched her head. “Does she seem… Oh, I don't know, different to you, Elijah?”
“Apart from the blood red eyes and bloody thirsty demeanor?” he asked. He and Dawn shared a hesitant glance, as if the shred of possibility that they were in front of someone else besides Anna-Maria. Someone they weren’t exactly eager to see. The Dark One, for example.
“What’s that look you’re giving each other? I don’t like that look!” Damon squeaked.
Anna-Maria cackled. “You still don’t get it, do you? I suppose I should have suspected as much from a grubby halfling such as yourself. But the warlocks… the warlocks blindly followed you to their doom. How must it feel? To know that you will be responsible for the end of their lives? Along with the light of your precious Eos that will soon come to an end?”
“H— Hades?” Dawn spat out. She slowly took a step back, careful not to trip on any rocks as she inched towards the shore. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be racing to the West Gate before I beat you to it?” She smirked. Hades having Anna-Maria’s face sure made it easier for her to mock him. Although she hoped she wasn’t shaking as uncontrollably as she felt she was.
“What can I say, I like to check on my competition. As a matter of fact, our little race reminds me of that old fable— what was it called? Oh yes, the tortoise and the hare.”
“Slow and steady wins the race,” Dawn said. “The thing is, I don’t remember any dark lords blocking the heroine’s path.”
Hades smirked. “Yes, but there were some furry friends in that story, weren’t there?” He kissed towards the cave. “Come here, boy! Some little maggots want to play.” As soon as he said that, a shadow cast over the sunny patch of beach. Then the ground shook as Dawn heard thuds getting louder and louder. She took the boys’ hands and led them backwards towards the misty shore. Their breathing grew heavy and labored as the air became hot and smoky.
In a coughing fit, Elijah lost his footing over a bed of rocks and nearly fell. Hades snapped Anna-Maria’s jaw ferociously, but Dawn pulled Elijah back up before he could crash to the ground and into her midst. That was something she remembered from her defense classes in school— always appear bigger than the creature that’s planning to attack you, including possessed humans.
“Okay, so just to reiterate,” Damon said. “What do we do?”
“Well we have to defeat her, don’t we? Just look at her, she’s practically foaming at the mouth!” Elijah hissed, unable to break eye contact with Hades’ glassy stare. He flashed her jagged teeth for a smile, letting out a low, ominous laugh. With each step they took backwards, she took one forwards, hobbling along their trail.
“What do you mean? Kill her?” Dawn whispered, remaining as still as possible. Any sudden movements could set her off, after all. At least, that’s what Dawn had imagined from watching nature shows with her dad. She wasn’t sure the same rules for bears applied for teenage girls possessed by the Dark One himself, but Dawn believed it was a good rule to go by. “I can’t do that. Even if she’s evil and even more evil than usual, I can’t hurt her.”
“What if she's just a projection? You know, like that old man that attacked you earlier?” Damon asked.
“What if she isn't? What if under those creepy shark teeth and those ugly red sneakers, there’s a real girl in there?”
“Dawn, aren’t you wearing the same sneakers?”
“I am not!” Dawn said at full volume, causing Hades to shriek in the most terrible, high-pitched scream that made nails on a chalkboard sound like classical violin music. The trio covered their ears, eager to drown out the horrible sound.
A deep roar overlapped with Hades’ screeching. It got so loud Dawn could feel the low howling shaking the ground under feet and travel up her bones, making her heart rattle around in her chest.
“Um, guys, we should make a decision quick because I think Hades has got company!” Damon hollered.
She sure did have company, alright. Marching out of the cave, a mammoth-sized three-headed dog looked right at Dawn. It tensed its muscles, growling and baring its yellow teeth.
“I-is that a hydra? but...furrier?” Elijah asked.
“No, I think that’s Hades's pet. Ce-ce-cerberus,” Damon replied.
“I’ve seen him before. In my dreams. He chases me around a castle and I never seem to find a way out,” Dawn mumbled as she continued walking backwards, too terrified to look at where she was going. “There aren’t any castles around, are there? I really don’t want to relive that nightmare.”
Cerberus lowered his head and sniffed the ground. His massive paws padded toward them, shaking the loose stones beneath him. The trio, backing up into a boulder, their backs to the wall, shivered as Cerberus’s snout sniffed each of their tense bodies. Dawn held her breath. Maybe this is one of those things where if you don’t move, they don’t see you, she thought. Gods, what am I thinking? If I can’t even defeat this glorified lapdog, how could I ever defeat Hades? Dawn observed her surroundings. There has to be something I can use as a diversion. She looked down at the necklace and grinned.
Taking the siren stone in her hands, Dawn concentrated on her light. She imagined a lighthouse in the night, its beacon spinning across the dark sky. Heat poured from Dawn’s hands. When she opened her eyes she couldn’t believe the immense brightness that shot out of her palms.
Cerberus howled, jumping on two hind legs like a frightened horse. When his paws slammed back into the ground, the trio fell in separate directions. Dawn landed on her hands, ousting the beams of light as soon as she hit the ground. She looked up, only to find Cerberus’s nails clawing down to her.
Before she knew it, the delicate silver chain around her neck snapped. Dawn gasped, on one hand from the sharp pain from the bleeding gash around her neck. On the other hand, she could feel an absence of light energy leaving her. Trying to maintain her breath, she fumbled around in search of the necklace. The glowing blue stone fell among the jagged rocks, but before she could look for it, Elijah ran to her aid.
“Come on, Dawn! Run!” He shouted as he pulled her away from Cerberus’s wrath.
“Wait!” Dawn screamed, reaching for the necklace.
“Dawn, look out!” Damon shouted from Elijah’s side. She looked up. Cerberus’s dark eyes fixed on her. He galloped towards her, his glassy eyes glowing red as he growled ferociously. She screamed. Petrified with fear, she allowed Elijah to drag her into the field of boulders ahead.
“Good boy,” Hades called from the mouth of the cave. “Play fetch! Go get me my halfling!”
“Guys, I lost the necklace! I have to go back and get it!” Dawn yelled. She looked back and watched as Cerberus dodged the massive boulders. This must be like a day in the park for him, Dawn imagined.
“You what?” Damon cried. “How are we supposed to get it now?”
“I don’t know, but we have to get it before it gets into the wrong hands!” Dawn said.
“We have to go back, then” Elijah said. Dawn felt his grip around her knuckles. “Let’s go.” He lurched to the left, circling back to recover the necklace. Dawn shut her eyes. She yearned for her home, to lay in her bathtub and forget about the world. She could almost picture it— Nathan would knock on the door and tell her she’d been in there for over an hour, and Dawn would just respond: get your own bathtub, dweeb!
But no, she was running from a hellhound with not just one, but three starving, flesh-eating mouths. With her biggest enemy cackling in the background no less! Her thighs burned as she sprinted forward. She wished she could just disappear, melt into the stones beneath her feet and hide until it was all over. But she knew she couldn’t. She couldn’t just leave Elijah and Damon all on their own to fend for themselves. They wouldn’t have done that to her, so who was she to even think of doing that to them?
They darted out of the field of boulders, looping around to where they were before. Cerberus’s feet pounded against the earth. Dawn could hear him panting and whining, just like any dog looking for its toy. She turned around, finding Cerberus’s yellow teeth nipping at her heels. Her heart beat so fast it was practically jumping out of her chest. She made out the glowing blue light in the shadowy darkness, among the plains of slate gray rocks. Warmth built in her palms and up to her wrists as they got closer to it. My light, Dawn thought. I can feel my light!
“Run, Dawn! Hurry!” Elijah shouted. She let go of his hand and jumped towards the necklace. She wrapped her body around it as she scooped it up. A hot gust of wind rushed past her shoulder. A glob of slobber oozed from Cerberus’s jowls. It crashed right in front of Dawn’s feet, soaking her clothes in the process.
“Dawn, get out of there!” Damon hollered.
The trio split up, sprawling about the boulders to find places to hide. Dawn scattered under a boulder, wrapping the siren stone around her neck once again. Once she had properly fastened the chain, she took the stone in her hands and summoned the forces of light to her aid.
Dawn peered over the boulder, the force of Eos’s light pumping through her veins. She beheld the scene, watching as Cerberus howled into the dark, cloudy sky. His gaze locked on Damon, vulnerable and out in the open. He galloped towards Damon, who struggled to find a place to take cover from the demonic beast. Elijah, on the other hand, was nowhere in sight. Dawn could hear Hades cackling in the distance, howling along with Cerberus and chasing after him.
Dawn gulped. If I distract Cerberus, Damon could have some time to escape him. She climbed up on the boulder, putting her hands on top of each other to create a strong stream of light. Alright, Dawn, time to be a heroine. “Hey you three-headed dummy! Come and get me!” Dawn yelled.
Cerberus turned around. Rays of blinding white light shot from Dawn’s hands, slicing the blanket of darkness in two. Cerberus stopped in his tracks, howling in agony until the light faded away. Out of breath, Dawn fell to her knees. She looked at her palms. Only a little white light remained. It was certainly better than fainting like before, but as Cerberus lurched in her direction, Dawn realized she was as vulnerable as a fish in a barrel without full control of her light.
Dawn smiled awkwardly at the horrific hellhound that galloped towards her. “Uh, good boy.” What do I do now? Dawn raised her hands up and tried to shoot out more light, but as soon as she tried, it made her weak in the knees.
“How pathetic, Dawn. Always wanting the attention!” Hades snarled. “But if you insist on being Cerberus’s meal, I suppose I can’t tell you no!” She whistled, stopping Cerberus right when he was just about snatch Damon and eat him up. Damon scurried away and took shelter under a flat rock near the shore where Elijah had also been hiding. Hades laughed as she watched him squeeze himself below.
“Foolish warlock, you only live because I have allowed you to live thus far. Perhaps it is finally time for you to meet your maker in the underworld,” Hades’ deep, groaning voice said. “But I’ll kill your little friend first. It’ll be like a show!”
She jumped from the rock where she stood, crawling up Cerberus’s legs. As she climbed to his back, Dawn watched in horror as Anna-Maria’s body grew and mutated into an even more demonic beast than before. Her skin turned gray and her hair thickened and whipped about on its own, and before Dawn knew it, snake heads hissed and snapped at the ends of Hades’ long, dark locks.
“Dawn, don’t look her in the eyes! She’s doing a Medusa thing!” Damon shouted from the rock.
Dawn’s ears perked up as soon as she heard Damon’s warning. It was as if the mermaid’s warning not to look possessed people in the eyes had echoed, not in her mind, but through her friend and companion in battle.
“That won’t be a problem,” Dawn yelled. “She’s too ugly to look at anyway.” She smirked as she blocked Hades from her sight. She made a mental note later to write that line down for her memoirs, in case she made it out alive, of course.
“That’s funny halfling, but we all know between the two of us, Elijah thinks I’m cuter,” Hades jeered, her voice even deeper and more demonic than before.
“Well, I’ve got news for you, Anna—”
