Enviro scapes exiled ele.., p.1
Enviro-Scapes: Exiled Elementals Series (Book Two), page 1
ENVIRO-SCAPES
EXILED ELEMENTALS SERIES (BOOK 2)
T. L. PRICE
CONTENTS
Epigraph
Prologue
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
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Afterword
Acknowledgments
About the Author
FOR MY AMAZING FAMILY – WHO LOVED MY CHARACTERS JUST AS MUCH AS THEY LOVED ME. THEY BECAME MY BIGGEST FANS! THEIR SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT GAVE ME THE ENERGY TO CREATE THIS MAGICAL SERIES.
DISCLAIMER and TERMS OF USE
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and events in this book are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published by Suncorea Ventures LLC
Copyright © 2022 by T.L. Price
Map copyright © 2022 by T.L. Price
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing.
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Paperback ISBN: 979-8-9854646-5-8
Hardback ISBN: 979-8-9854646-6-5
Audiobook ISBN: 979-8-9854646-7-2
ALSO BY T. L. PRICE
EXILED ELEMENTALS SERIES
Exiled No More (Book 1)
Enviro-Scapes (Book 2)
EXILED ELEMENTALS SERIES
T. L. Price’s sexy, action-packed Exiled Elementals Series continues with magical elementals, demigods, bioengineered humans, and shifters facing powerful enemies and dangerous lovers.
Enviro-Scapes is the richly imagined sequel to Exiled No More, the highly acclaimed first book in the Exiled Elementals Series, an epic urban fantasy and paranormal romance in a dystopian magical world full of metaphysical mystery and steamy romance.
T. L. Price’s masterful worldbuilding with portals is fast-paced with strong-willed characters that fans will cheer for survival as they face love and danger at every turn. Grab a copy of the Exiled Elementals Series and hang on!
SEE ALL T. L. PRICE’S BOOKS AND FIND WHERE TO GET THEM ON HER WEBSITE AT:
https://www.TLPriceBooks.com
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EPIGRAPH
Crawling across the barren ground, life was hard for the tiny colorless caterpillar. But today, she shimmied in delight like a ballerina twirling before a great audience. She transformed into an iridescent butterfly full of mystery and wonder. As she took flight on a magical adventure, she was caught in a spider’s web. Her story was just beginning.
T. L. Price
PROLOGUE
My fifteen-year-old body was never meant for fighting. I spent my entire life trying to do everything to please my father and stepmother. I bent to their wishes no matter how evil. I prayed for help, but no one came. I hungered for love but was served hatred. Over time, my best friend was my own mind. In my mind, I hid from their cruelty and planned my escape. But that escape came with a price. The price was exile.
I murdered the ridiculously so-called savior of the ruling Guardian Clans–my father. What did they really know about my father, the great scientist, and his experiments on humans? Did they care he had a daughter that no one was allowed to see in public? No, they did not! I never got a chance to defend myself at the sham of a trial. I was shackled and rushed into a jump portal to the most dangerous place on Earth. A place that no child was ever meant to reside. The realm of the exiled.
Angela, my vicious stepmother, was the one they allowed to push me into the jump portal as it swirled to take me to my death. "Get ready to run, little girl!” She laughed wickedly as she pushed me inside. The jump portal was enormous, casting eerie energy all around me as I was teleported to Arabia, the far-off land that no one could reach except for the jump portal.
It was a one-way trip.
Nhari Evans shivered as soon as her shackles were removed. She was surrounded by the most beautiful beings she had ever seen. They looked human in most respects, but their beauty was enchanting and had a slight glow. They were demigods! Demigods who ruled the realm of the exiled with an iron fist. They were waiting for her. They knew all about her crime and the punishment she would now face.
“Remove her clothing!” one of the demigods commanded a few demigoddesses who had items in their hands. He wore a uniform with advanced weaponry that Nhari had never seen before. They removed her traditional ruling Guardian Clan clothing that royal children were known to wear. They gave her a raggedy set of clothes, sandals, and gloves.
“You’ll thank me later,” one of the demigoddesses whispered to Nhari as she was forced to undress in front of them. She didn’t have much to show with her skinny body and thin arms. The demigoddess handed her a backpack filled with food items, toiletries, and a knife.
“Take her to the Great Hall of Deliverance and announce her arrival,” the demigod commanded as she was hauled through what she later learned was the Overlord’s fortress. They moved her so quickly that her legs could barely keep up. The sandals were very uncomfortable, and the backpack heavy on her back. Her shoulders sagged beneath the weight, and the heat was already immense.
“Put on your gloves. You’ll need them outside. If you touch anything metal, given the heat, it’s likely to burn your hands,” the demigoddess whispered before another demigod told her to stop talking and keep up.
The area was well guarded and cloaked in strange darkness that prevented Nhari from seeing where she was going or from where she had come. The place had numerous chambers and hallways that resembled being inside a honeycomb as they seemed to turn several sharp corners. Suddenly, she was blinded by the sights, sounds, and smells of the realm of the exiled. There were people everywhere. It reminded her of the few times she was allowed to watch the holo-vision and saw parades in big cities with lots of people.
“Get out of the way!” the demigod warned a few prisoners as they started to get closer, trying to catch a glimpse of Nhari and a few other new prisoners being escorted with her.
“Look, that’s an A-Lord processional. Those prisoners must be important!” She heard one of the prisoners say, pointing at the demigod in the special uniform. She heard more prisoners refer to the guards as A-Lords, which clearly struck fear in them. Nhari was terrified as more and more prisoners began chanting, “New blood! New blood!”
She lost track of time and space as she was bumped and pulled along the corridors of the Overlord’s fortress. Once outside, the heat fell her to her knees.
“Get up!” the demigoddess hissed. “Don’t let them see your weakness. It’s like honey to bees here!”
The A-Lord approached her with a weapon in his hand. It was enough to make Nhari quickly rise to her feet, sandals nearly falling off since they were two sizes too big. The backpack shifted, sending Nhari again to her knees.
“Help me carry this to my cell, please. It’s too heavy for me,” she begged.
“Cell?” the A-Lord laughed. “There are no cells here, girl.”
“If the backpack is too heavy, leave it on the ground. The prisoners will probably take it from you anyway,” another A-Lord quipped. While the other demigods were beautiful, this one had a pitted face and looked as mean as they come. He had short stubby arms and flexed his muscles as he caught Nhari’s eye.
“Go, child, before they lash you. There is no salvation here. There are no cells. Once you are announced at the Great Hall of Deliverance as the property of the Overlord, you better run! Run someplace where it’s less crowded and stay out of sight for as long as you can!” the demigoddess whispered to Nhari as she abruptly turned and reentered the fortress, leaving Nhari to walk the rest of the way without any guidance. Nhari was hurried up a mountainous pass.
“Help! Help!” one of the newly arrived prisoners began to scream as he fell to the ground clutching his hands. He didn’t notice the heat radiating like a wave on the rails of the stairwell before he touched it. No one had given him any gloves, and he was paying the price.
Nhari cringed at the sight of his badly blistered and bleeding hands. But he didn’t get any assistance. No, he was nearly trampled as the A-Lords yelled at him to keep up. His agonizing screams continued to echo in Nhari’s ear. Her stomach lurched, but she was smart enough to swallow her bile. The mean-looking A-Lord laughed, “Gue
She nearly ran forward, understanding the implication of his warning. She had to get away from him and the screaming prisoner. The more he screamed, the more the prisoners chanted, “New blood! New blood!”
As Nhari ran forward, she noticed a young girl about her age running nearby. It was surreal because it was as if the other prisoners didn’t even see the girl. She was small and scrawny like Nhari, yet quick and nimble to weave in and out of the crowd to keep up with the processional. The girl pulled a shawl from her pack and tossed it to Nhari. Nhari’s reflexes were always faster than most humans, and she grabbed it out of the air before anyone noticed. The girl signaled Nhari to put it around her face to shield her face from the crowd, and Nhari’s instincts told her to do it. By the time she finished and looked up, the girl was nowhere to be found.
The mountainous pass led to a vast plateau with dangerously jagged rocks. Nhari heard a bell begin ringing, announcing the arrival of new prisoners. The bell sounded like a death knell, slow but steady.
As far as she could see, there were volcanic mountains of varying sizes with plateaus between them. There were structures of all sizes that the prisoners seemed to have built on their own. The mountains had passageways and cavernous places that prisoners also made into homes. It was getting dark quickly outside, but it didn’t make it any cooler.
The darkness came from the acid rain clouds on the horizon. They had less than an hour before the rains would reach the area, burning people to the bone. Despite the danger, the crowd of prisoners swarmed the Great Hall of Deliverance to hear the names of the new prisoners. The Great Hall was a huge platform area with columns on both sides that looked almost like an outdoor hall of shame. The demigods quickly calmed the crowd with a loud horn that Nhari had to cover her ears given her proximity to it.
“The Overlord commands that these prisoners are forever exiled to the realm. Here they will remain until their deaths. They are his property and have forfeited all rights as citizens of the ruling Guardian Clans. Come forth as your names are read and kneel.”
One by one, the prisoners were called and kneeled before a statue of the Overlord. The columns had some sort of electricity coursing through them, keeping the prisoners from approaching the platform. The prisoners roared as each name was called. Nhari was next and went to the front, pulling her shawl to shield her face from view.
Suddenly, a female prisoner cried out, “What’s a child doing exiled? Since when do the ruling Guardian Clans exile children?”
“Shut up!” several prisoners shouted back.
“Nhari Evans, you are the property of the Overlord. Your life is forfeited!” the A-Lord yelled.
“Evans?”
“Could she be the Evans child?”
Nhari didn’t wait around as the prisoners began to murmur about who she might be. She ran as fast as she could, outrunning a few of the newly arrived prisoners who had been announced before her. She looked back only once. The man whose hands were burned had suddenly stopped screaming. He was dead. Prisoners swarmed him and removed everything he had on his body, including his shoes. They tossed his naked body to the winds; he would be nothing but bones once the acid rains got to him.
Nhari didn’t make it far. She had nowhere to go. She didn’t know where in the hell she was running, and the acid clouds seemed to be coming in from every direction. The crowd dispersed, running for cover once the first few drops fell. Nhari ran into the nearest mountainous cavern, opposite the one she had come through with the A-Lords.
She slowed her pace, not wanting to bring any more attention to herself. But she saw them. They were watching her and gaining on her fast. The gang of prisoners looked like they were on drugs, with weapons hanging from their sides. They were loud, and they knew she saw them too.
Nhari did the only thing she could. She hurried into a sprint.
Why didn’t I take the knife out of the backpack? I’m so stupid!
She had no way to stop and retrieve the knife from her backpack. In fact, the pack was slowing her down.
Think, Nhari! Think!
The running brought the attention of other prisoners who joined in the chase, shouting and laughing at her apparent defeat.
I didn’t come this far in life to be taken down now.
Nhari always knew she had abilities that were beyond most humans. She had been testing them as she tried her best to hide them from her father when he repeatedly experimented on her. She was faster and stronger than most kids her age. She could remember things, and she could pick up on languages quickly. It was her speed and agility that would help her now.
Seeing what she needed, Nhari sped past a heavily armed prisoner up ahead, disarming him of one of his weapons before he knew she had even passed him. She reached another prisoner and stealthily lifted his weapon too. As she rounded a corner, she abruptly stopped and began counting.
One ... two ... three!
She timed it well. As the gang of prisoners rushed around the corner, they ran right into her line of fire. She killed most of them with the stolen laser gun. She didn’t even know she could aim that well. One tried to run away, but she ran him down and slit his throat. She looked at the nearby prisoners and laughed as she wiped his blood on her shirt. Covered in his blood, she turned and ran down a corridor and then another. She laughed the entire way.
Before long, she was so lost in the cavernous mountain that she didn’t know how to get out. She saw an older group of prisoners putting on strange coats and talking in an odd language. After listening to them for a few minutes, her language translation skills kicked in. She could make out a little of what they were saying. They were headed out in the rains to work and wouldn’t return until the morning. As they left, she broke into their humble cavernous home and went to sleep. It was the first time in her life that she slept comfortably. She knew her father and stepmother would never hurt her again.
After that first week, Nhari found a few safe spots to hide when their occupants went to work. At night, she cried so much from fear and hunger that she thought her eyes were permanently red. Every prisoner in the realm was out to get her. She was a royal brat of the very people who cast them out. But Nhari was a survivor.
Many newly arrived prisoners went crazy after the first few months if they were still alive. But not Nhari. She was in control of her actions, and she knew right from wrong. But most importantly, she watched and learned.
Ironically, once the prisoners learned of Nhari’s crime–that she tortured her famous father and removed his eyes–they treated her as they did anyone else. There was no value in torturing the brat of the royal Guardian Clan when they didn’t care anyway. The ruling Guardian Clans wanted Nhari to die, so why give them that satisfaction. So, Nhari mainly was left to her own devices, which wasn’t saying much since prisoners still loved to take advantage of the weak.
Nhari stole what she needed, hid where she could find shelter and learned to choose her friends wisely. She would catch glimpses of the young girl she saw that first day from time to time. Often, the girl was with her boyfriend. At least, Nhari thought the gorgeous teenager was her boyfriend. His body was beyond sexy. He had beautiful azure eyes that seemed to stare her down whenever she saw them. Yet, neither of them ever approached her, and she didn’t approach them. The girl seemed friendly enough, even waving to her once. But the guy would pull her away as if they didn’t want to get too close to Nhari. That was fine with Nhari. Despite having two half-brothers, Nhari had always been alone in life. She never had any friends that she could remember. Her wicked stepmother saw to that.
