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  The sun slowly sank towards the horizon, looking like it might extinguish itself by dropping into the vast ocean surrounding the small island on the edge of the new atoll.

  Yellow and orange light spread over the sky, creating a beautiful panorama that could make an Artist weep.

  The small island had only been formed for a day. It was small and unassuming and only one of many that made up the ring of small islands that encircled the new lagoon created by the Nuclear Blast that morning.

  Devoid of any indigenous life, for the time being, nothing should have moved, but as the orange light that filled the sky turned slowly red while the sun sank down, the earth on the island shifted, and a form rose from the ground.

  It sat up at first, looking about it and seeing something half buried next to it, reached down and picked up what it had seen.

  The huge thing stood, raising itself up to stand on its two huge legs and looked out to sea, and then down at the figure it held in its arms.

  ‘Echo,’ it said in a deep rumbling voice, addressing the unmoving, but still alive girl it held in its arms. Echo didn’t move, but it knew she was alive. The thing looked about itself once more.

  ‘Roxanne?’ is said, its voice a little louder this time.

  ‘Yes sir?’ came the reply. It sounded odd, and reverberated about its ribs, the thing looked down to see a face on the left side of its chest, just below its collar bone. Its whole body had been transformed, mutated. No longer was he an aged old man, now he had been changed, enhanced. He felt like he maybe stood about double the height he had before, but his skin looked terrible. Like some kind of infected mutant. He could feel Roxanne’s thoughts as part of his own, and knew he’d somehow been fused with her. She’d been melted into him to become part of him, but something else caught his attention when he looked down. Right there in the center of his chest, buried in his flesh and ribs, glowed the green Orb. It throbbed and pulsated with his heartbeat and breathing and filled his body with power. He could feel the energy that flowed into him, the strength that it gave him and knew he had been reborn.

  Emotions churned about him. He felt elated that he had somehow survived the Nuclear explosion, but he also felt rage and injustice at his failure to destroy the Archons. He thought of the reason for his failure, he thought of Amanda, his daughter, and then looked down at Echo.

  She was more of a daughter to him than Amanda was. He could feel the rage inside him. He’d always had that drive, that anger, but it had grown along with his body and become something strong and powerful that he could not ignore. Thinking of Amanda now, at how she had failed to understand his mission, at how she had stood against him, fought his men and defeated him only made that rage grow in strength and power.

  He tried to keep it under control, to moderate it, but he was past that now, and the anger washed through him like a torrent of energy as he breathed harder and harder before he just had to let it out and he roared to the heavens.

  His inhuman voice carried over the sea and could be heard on all parts of the atoll. As he pulled in his emotions and thought only of how he could hurt those who had wronged him, he heard voices from the small island behind him in the center of the lagoon. Turning to look behind him, he noticed a smallish ship that had probably been there for a while.

  With his enhanced sight, he could make out movement on the ship and beach. It looked like a military boat, and as he moved about the island to get a better look, he noticed another, much larger military frigate that had been hidden behind the rocks of his small island. The soldiers were being picked up. Maybe they had a boat he could use to get back to the mainland?

  Epilogue 2

  Taking stock

  New York

  Dec 5th

  Amanda sat on her sofa, her bare feet up on the seat and leaning back into Maria who sat behind her with her right arm around Amanda’s body, her left tracing gentle lines over her skin, following the lines of the tattoo.

  After the chaos of the last few days, sitting here, relaxing with someone she loved and not having to answer questions or deal with people felt amazing. She leant her head to her right, enjoying the softness of the sofa against her head and the gentle touch of Maria’s fingers over her back.

  Back on the Island, after the energy had hit her and burnt the tattoo onto her back, the pain had soon subsided to a dull ache, and then just some tightness of her skin before that went too.

  They knew they had a lot to do, but they also knew their time would be limited and that there would almost certainly be military aircraft on their way here very shortly. Working quickly they made sure they had cleaned up the radiation from the bomb, cleaning the land, sea and air of the lethal contamination before releasing the shield they had created to protect themselves.

  Following that they needed to deal with the other people on the island, and after some discussion, they felt it best to put out word to the US military that their sailors would need picking up. They were quickly in contact with Shaun who confirmed that aircraft were on their way, so they doubled their efforts.

  The men who had worked for Mr Black ended up being Ported to a Council place where the Magi Council could deal with these Initiated, Scions, and Magi. As for Mr Black himself, the brief hunt they conducted for him turned up nothing, but they were pushed for time. He had not been inside the Aegis during the Explosion, and Amanda feared the worst. At the time it had slipped her mind, but she had since remembered that Mr Black had also used the Green Orb he had found in the Antarctic dig and that she had never found that at all. Had Mr Black had it? Maybe he’d hidden it somewhere, which could, in turn, mean that the item had been destroyed in the blast as well, although Amanda had her doubts about that.

  Finally, before they left, Amanda realised she had misplaced the key to the Device and the Lazarus Scroll, even though she knew she had them a short time earlier just before the energy blast.

  They all hunted for them, but without any luck, and Amanda remembered the words of Mr Black, that the Scroll had a mind of its own and would disappear all by itself. She wondered if that had happened here. She’d kept both items in the same pocket, would that have had an influence? Did the Energy blast have anything to do with it? She had no idea.

  They left the island moments before the first Military planes were on the scene and were back in New York in no time.

  Since then, Gentle Water had spoken with her about the Prophecy, almost insisting that Amanda try to cross into the Abyss, but Amanda felt tired, and apologised to Gentle Water, saying she would speak to him soon, but she just needed some time to herself.

  Today, after a fitful night's rest, Maria called in. They hardly spoke other than a few pleasantries before getting a drink and sitting in the living room. Amanda felt no pressure from Maria, she seemed to know that Amanda needed time to herself to deal with the recent events and questioning her and fussing over her wasn’t welcome.

  They’d sat here for over an hour now as Amanda thought about what Mr Black had said about her mother Sofia, how she had been working in a manner very similar to what Amanda had done on the streets of New York a couple of years ago. She wondered why Sofia had abandoned her at that Orphanage, what reason would she have to do that? It sounded like she would have been a single mother, that Mr Black, at least at the time, had no interest in her upbringing, and who knew what other pressures she would have had.

  Could she have been a Magi as well? She didn’t have much to go on other than a name, Sofia, and a report written online by someone going by the online name of “Edge”.

  She would have to do some digging.

  She also knew she would have to spend some time with Gentle Water soon and test out if what this Prophecy says about her was true or not.

  Glancing at the table, she saw the leaflet she had placed there that she had fished out of the usual junk mail. It seemed to be an announcement about the reopening of the Pit Club. She had no idea it had come under new management, but she did now, and she felt very c
urious about who now ran that club and had already decided that she would pay the Club a Visit.

  But not right now. For now, she just wanted to enjoy the quiet and the presence of someone who cared for her. She would return to the chaos of the Magi world soon enough.

  Would you leave me a Review???

  Thank you for taking the time to read Shadows of Darkness. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a short review on Amazon. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and much appreciated.

  Thank you.

  Andrew Dobell.

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  The Magi Saga

  This is book 1 in the 9 book series, The Magi Saga.

  Book 1 – Epic Calling

  Book 2 – Shadows of Darkness

  Book 3 – Black Dawn

  Book 4 – Coming soon

  Book 5

  Book 6

  Book 7

  Book 8

  Book 9

  Andrew Dobell is a Photographer, Illustrator and Author who lives in Surrey with his wife Louise and 3 children. Black Dawn is the third book in his series, The Magi Saga, and follows on from books 1 and 2, Epic Calling.

  There are already 2 short stories written within the Magi Saga world as well that are only available through my mailing list, with more to follow.

  Andrew has started work on book 4, Future Dancing, and a spin off Series.

  You can see more of Andrew’s work at www.andrewdobellauthor.co.uk