Author/Uploaded by J. M. Stephen
The Emergence of Expanding Light Book IV of the Pan Chronicles J.M. Stephen Copyright © 2023, Jessica Sticklor Published by: D. X. Varos, Ltd 7665 E. Eastman Ave. #B101 Denver, CO 80231 T...
The Emergence of Expanding Light Book IV of the Pan Chronicles J.M. Stephen Copyright © 2023, Jessica Sticklor Published by: D. X. Varos, Ltd 7665 E. Eastman Ave. #B101 Denver, CO 80231 This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author. Book cover design and layout by Ellie Bockert Augsburger of Creative Digital Studios. www.CreativeDigitalStudios.com Cover design features: Full length portrait of dark haired woman wearing black and Victorian witch costume with a flowing cloak. standing pose, with gestural hand movements, against studio background, by faestock; beautiful brunette woman with long black hair, by Valua Vitaly; wood texture background. Interior design. Texture Logs by TetianaKotova; bbstract blue light energy sphere effect on black background, by d1sk; sick young man lying asleep in a hospital bed, by marvent; dark cold blue bedroom interior with linen sheet on bed, wall mock up, 3d render, by artjafara; 3D rendering of an interior of a cozy cabin in the woods with glass roof, a bed and fireplace, by Elisabeth Cölfen; women dress shoot in studio, by enginakyurt ISBN: 978-1-955065-72-6 (paperback) ISBN: 978-1-955065-73-3 (ebook) Printed in the United States of America ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This book is dedicated to my publisher, Daniel Willis, without his unwavering support this series would not exist. Without his belief in my work, I do not know if I could so brazenly call myself a writer. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Epilogue About the Author Chapter One Pippa’s stomach dropped, her legs went weightless, and her chest swelled as the ground flew from her feet and they rose higher into the sky. The Main Street feel of Hudson, New York grew smaller until the people looked like dots and the buildings like toys as the air whooshed against her skin like it was picking her body clean. She entwined her fingers tightly with Sky’s as they rose higher into the atmosphere. Pippa had learned enough from school and TV to know that the farther you got into the stratosphere, the colder it became and while a chill graced her skin as they headed into the clouds, she wasn’t freezing, even though she knew she should be. She also knew from the same school and TV that once you reach a certain point, you lose altitude and cannot breathe, you pass out completely, but that did not happen either. Pippa took a deep breath and another and then another. She was fine here. “Zou want to go fast?” Sky asked with his thick French accent. He turned to face her with a smile on his face. “Yes!” she cried. With that the air swirled faster as they shot sideways through it. Whips of wind danced around her as the inertia of her movements fluttered inside her body and they bounded through the clouds that tasted like vapor when she breathed them in. They were so high now that she couldn’t make out the land anymore, it was all just grass and road streaming underneath her like a giant kaleidoscope. They could have been over Hudson, or New York City, California, or anywhere. They slipped through fluffy white clouds and into larger, darker clouds that felt damp and sweltering. Land rolled under them but after a while, as they kept flying, the landscape changed to the dark, choppy waters of some kind of ocean. Sky looked over at her and waved. His bright white hair shone against the darkness of the sky and ahead of them, in the distance, there were stars... and space. Sky stopped and they hovered in the air and though there was nowhere to stand, they remained still above it all. “It is beautiful, especially in the dark, no?” Sky asked as they levitated just inside a misty, white cloud. The bright lights of the cities on earth glistened below as they hovered over a black ocean and the night sky hung in a canopy of stars. “How far can we go? Can we fly to space?” The bright red light of Mars and the mists of the blue of Venus shone before her and Pippa wondered how close she could get to them. She knew that this far in the stratosphere she shouldn’t be able to breathe, not on her own, and fairy magic must have been working within Sky to allow them to stay like this. But how far did it go? Could she walk on Mars without a second thought or were they bound to this planet? “We cannot go much farther, no. We are close enough to the earth; we still have air. Even in the Fairy World, Sky has... limits, of course. We all have limits.” He smiled again and Pippa wondered why he’d been labeled antisocial. “We know of the one with no limits, the One they say, and to have no limits is…dangerous.” “So, what do you do? What can you do?” Pippa asked as they levitated. At one point, Sky let go of Pippa’s hand and she nearly cried out, worried she’d plummet to her death, but she stayed in the air, huddled in the midst of a cloud. “Do