Starblood, Earthheart, young adult from The Sagittarius Prince Chronicles

✨ A lonely Prince from the stars. A little god who makes friends. An ancient mystery of Olympus.In Book 1, Starborn, Earthbound, a Prince from the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy dreams of one thing: a friend. A passing comet carries him to Earth, into the Olympian gods’ secret summer world, hidden from mortals in the Valley of the Temples. When a wounded little god trusts him with an enchanted bow and one rule, no one must ever know, he must save a frozen Earth and keep a secret that could cost him his first friend. In Book 2, Starblood, Earthheart, he comes back for friends. Would you trust him? Here are some snippets from Book 2. In the coming weeks, the chapters will follow. ✨

ARRIVAL ✨ As they crossed the park, the raindrops shifted mid-air into snowflakes. It caught everyone off guard. It seemed as if seafoam touched their clothes and hair. The sudden change in the early summer weather sparked an uproar among the lightly dressed youngsters. It hurried their approach to the hotel-castle. The end of their long ride had come. Somewhere inside those walls were renovated rooms, soft beds, and hot food. A beach was waiting just beyond for the rest of the week. On the horizon, the sun made one last appearance before vanishing. None of them noticed it go. They left their motorbikes in the parking lot. The soaked backpacks stayed strapped to the bikes along with the helmets. Too soaked. Too irritatingly heavy for their freezing hands to carry. They would carry them later. Or ask the hotel staff for assistance. At least, the hotel was supposed to have the essentials. Soap. Dry towels. Warm water. Toothbrushes and toothpaste. Anything. It was in a castle. It meant luxury. The friends walked up to the front door together as the tiredness they had been outrunning finally caught up with them. No one came to greet the newcomers. No guests waited in the entrance, no servant moved behind the windows. The owner was nowhere to be seen. They called out. Sevar, the tallest boy, tried the handle. Their stunned young voices echoed back from somewhere high above them, thin and strange, as if the castle had swallowed the sounds and given back only a shadow of them. The door was locked.

THE DANCE ✨The frames on the wall were empty now. Whatever had lived inside them had descended to claim the floor. The figures from the portraits formed a circle in the center. Just in time, an unseen force coaxed a divine melody from a grand piano in a nearby room. The men bowed to the ladies. They answered with elegant curtsies. The first dance began. Intricate steps unfolded before their young audience and the stunned hidden observer behind the curtains. Despite his worries about the shadow, where it was going, and whether it would enter where the girls and boys stood, he felt himself consumed by the extraordinary scene before him. For a boy who had traveled the galaxies and had crossed stars and planets, nothing had prepared him for this. He had never seen festivities like these, so planned and practiced, yet so spontaneous at the same time. With each new melody, the dancers’ gowns and costumes magically changed into ever more ornate and glamorous attire. The dancers cast no shadows on the walls. When the dance shifted to modern styles, the ladies and gentlemen moved nearer to the revived young people, inviting each to join them. Maybe the teens deserved to dance and relax after what they had experienced. But the Prince felt as if he were on pins and needles. The dancers’ overly friendly smiles felt like carnival masks worn by frozen faces. The only one undetected, thanks to his cosmic mantle and without a glass of strong wine to lull him, he stayed alert. Guided by his intuition and with eleven lives depending on him, he could not let the beautiful scene distract him. The celestial visitor felt an urge to run and shake the exhausted group awake, even at the risk of revealing himself to all. Just as he was about to act, the door opened, and the music stopped.

SEVAR ✨ When they had all crowded into the corridor, the door slammed shut. There was no key in the keyhole, yet they heard the unmistakable sound of it locking. By magic. No other signs of life. They tried the handles of the nearby rooms. Tightly locked. All of them. Only the empty corridor stretched in semi-darkness toward the vestibule. No reception desk there. The massive front door. The outer world. Maria and Sunlight ran toward it. But before they could reach the threshold, a commanding voice came from somewhere inside. “Girls, boys, the owner of the castle is speaking from my study.” Being a shadow, the Master did not want to show himself. “I apologize for the poor welcome. I hope you will have a pleasant vacation this summer. Sevar, take your pack and nothing else. Today. Now. Otherwise, you can never leave. Lead your friends straight to the town, and be careful not to leave anyone behind.” “What? What is this place? Show yourself! We did nothing wrong,” Sevar demanded as he tried to locate the source. Beside him, Antares turned deathly pale, ready to scream at any second. Why were his warnings coming true? He had been right in the argument; of course he had, though nobody had believed him. But more than anything, he wished he had not been... They felt as if the unknown man stood right between them, whispering into their ears. “Sevar, you have courage, so one day I will give you the chance to see me. You have my word.”

THE MASTER AND THE APPRENTICE ✨ The tall, authoritative figure turned to face his people. “No. And you must never make this proposal to these boys and girls, or to anyone else, again. Leave them to live through their youth, their maturity, and their old age. You were, and still are, exceptional sorcerers, my followers in the deepest science and its application in magic and spells. They are not. The celestial spheres do not speak to them, nor does magic. It may never find a home in them. What would they fill their time with then? Only with dances? Eternity without purpose is not an offer. It is a sentence.” “Let us put it to them and see what they think.” Rigel was unshakable. ”They are too young to decide. They have no place on the wall. All are just beginning in life. Leave them alone. You were different, much older. You were initiated. You were accomplished, and you agreed to your transition after careful consideration, at a good age. They are teens. And even if they were older, with expertise in magic and a few sciences, judging rightly what they would be given and what they would give up is no simple matter. They do not know what they do not know, what they would lose or gain. “The silence lasted barely a second. New dissatisfied voices joined in. “Every road to immortality is a victory over death, a miracle.” Albireo still remembered how his own Lord coveted eternal life. Why could he not understand the matter now? Why? “Who would refuse to be part of it? Having been mere humans, we know and believe only in your way. It should be perfect for them as it was for us, Lord.”

THE GIRL, MOONFLOWER ✨ Somewhere along the paths his horse knew, he noticed a figure struggling to hide behind the thick bushes. The pounding hooves betrayed his approach. Someone tried to vanish. It took immense effort to pull back on the reins. His burned fingers tore against the leather, forcing the charging horse to a harsh, sliding halt. The rider moved closer. His old friend, the moonlight, picked out and escorted the last guest to arrive at his home through the leaves: a woman. Twigs had scratched her, and soot, mud, and her own blood smudged her skin. Why was she alone, behind everyone else? Where were her people? He looked at her, checking that she had no serious injuries. Young. Beautiful. Panting. Sweaty. His horse shifted its massive body. The snorting bolt of her. The bundle fell from her hands. It hit the soil. Dull. Heavy. An attempt to call for help failed to leave her parched throat. No other sound. No movement from within the wrapped cloth. Nothing suggested the package contained the answers to countless questions about magical arts. The woman had no idea what they were. Nor did the sorcerer catch any power coming from within. The divine magic and ancient spells still slept, preserved on those weathered, scorched papyri. It was not simple or easy for a mortal to awaken them. The fragile guest, carrying a whole magical treasure all this way, remained where she stood, stranded on the edge of the castle fields. Setting out after her family, she had spent hours lost in the dark, trying to navigate by the distant shouts, steps, and chaos to find her people. The weight of the bundle had slowed her down and now cost her the strength to run. As if her nightmare were not enough, this grim rider had appeared. Was this a meeting with good or evil, in her worst hour? For a moment, he scared her as much as the trees had, with that stern jaw and those watchful eyes. She could not mask her panic. The fear. Desperation. Thirst.

IN THE MOST SECRET TOMB ON EARTH ✨ The Master passed through the vault’s entrance first, his guest after him, the heavy walls surrounding them. The little ruler’s golden wings spread a soft light in the darkness. It helped him to carefully pass along the stone tombs. One, belonging to the Master’s father, had a statue ready to guard the premises, even from the kingdom of death. Magical artifacts, familiar objects, and diaries lay asleep in the darkest corner of the crypt, at its far end. “Could I whisper to ensure I do not wake the shadows of your predecessors? To preserve your wife’s peaceful repose.” “Perfect. You know, a sign from a god in my home is usually unwelcome. Why did I find a golden arrow of fine workmanship on my floor? I recognized one of yours. No human power loosed it. It gives off something unknown, something foreign to our globe. What does it mean? Who is on Earth, and why?” “The Prince from the Sagittarius Galaxy is a friend of mine and a friend of humans. Like you, he loves adventures and exploring new worlds, and he landed on our planet some time ago.” “How exactly did he end up in my home?”