Page 1 of The Void

Prologue

Six-year-old Mia Li stood next to her one-hundred-and-two-year-old great-uncle Bai, who was lying on a large slab of stone in the middle of the cavern. Her uncle’s small body—almost as small as hers—was covered in soft blue silk. She wore a dress made of matching silk.

The dress was far too long for her short legs, and the arms covered her fingertips. Her mother and aunt had made the dress specifically for tonight, so why had they made it so big?

She’d worn traditional clothing before. After all, for each New Year celebration, her entire family dressed up and enjoyed the fun.

This dress was different, though. Something her family had called Hanfu.

Mia’s long jet-black hair was tied up in a tight bun on the top of her head. Beads lined her face. Her mother had even let her wear a pearl necklace and earrings for the occasion.

Mia felt pretty, but she was annoyed that she couldn’t play in the dress, or even walk without almost falling over, for that matter.

Every single member of her family surrounded her and her uncle. All forty-some of them. Of course, she knew them all by name. She’d grown up seeing them often.

She knew that it should have been Lei standing in the circle instead of her. Her older brother had died four years before in a tragic accident when he’d been five. She and her parents never talked about him or what had happened to him. Honestly, she had been too young back then to really remember him much. What she did remember was how kind he’d been to her, how good he’d been. He’d been her very first best friend.

Lei had been the one born for this burden. He’d been the one preparing to take on this task when needed. Now, that responsibility fell to her.

Since that day when Lei left her life, she’d been schooled on what would one day happen. The day she was to receive the great gift of her family. Today was that day, yet she still felt unprepared.

Her family was singing softly in unison in their native tongue, a dialect of old Mandarin. Their chants were so hypnotic that she lost herself in the music. She’d known the words to the ancient song her entire life. She wanted to join in the chorus, but suddenly, her little body was frozen in place.

She wanted to scream, to call out to her Ma and Ba, but nothing on her seemed to work anymore. Her body simply refused to obey her.

Then she was lifted high up in the air as everyone around her watched. No one seemed surprised or scared, and she relaxed slightly.

After she was lifted almost twenty feet off the ground, a bright blue light slowly drifted from her uncle’s chest. When it started moving towards her, she felt tears sting her eyes. What did it want with her? Was it her uncle’s soul? Was he going to take over her body?

When the sphere slid effortlessly into her own chest, a burst of knowledge flooded her young mind.

Every fiber of her being was melted together with every member of her family who had ever carried the same gift over the centuries. Hundreds of centuries. Thousands and thousands of family member’s voices flooded her young mind in those precious seconds.

Images, sharp and vivid, flashed behind her eyes. In mere seconds, she lived a thousand different lives. Loved a thousand different lovers. Died a thousand different ways.

When she did finally scream, her body jerked in the air. Her fingers and toes reached out for something to hold onto as pain, red hot, seared through every fiber of her being.

The voice of every Li family member who had possessed the gift screamed in her mind all at once. Moments past and suddenly the sounds subsided until they were nothing more than whispers.

When her feet finally landed softly on the ground, Mia was no longer just a six-year-old girl. She was djinn.

Glancing over, she looked at the shell of her great-uncle, who had willingly passed on his gift to her. She walked over and touched his frail cheek while he looked up at her through unseeing eyes. As the first tear slid down her cheek, she whispered, “Rest.” Then she watched as every atom in his body shattered and separated, floated up into the air, and disappeared into the darkness.

Her parents rushed to hug her. To comfort her. Only she didn’t need consoling. She had thousands of voices in her head. Countless memories of the past to relive in her mind. The knowledge of thousands of her ancestors, other djinns, would keep her company now.

She no longer needed anyone else.

Chapter One

Twenty years later…

She was in deep shit. There was no way she was going to get out of this new situation alone.

Where was Selene? Lucas? Scott? Any of her new friends.

One minute they’d been standing at the base of the gates of hell, talking to the three fates: Clotho, Spinner of life, Lachesis, dispenser of life, and Atropos, ender of life.

She, Lucas, Selene, and Scott had gone to the Beyond, as Selene had called it, which was basically hell, to find a way to bind Moros, the god of doom. He, apparently, was on the verge of destroying everything. All worlds. All realms.