Roar of the Lion : Celestra Forever After 7 Read online

  Roar of the Lion

  Celestra Forever After 7

  Addison Moore

  Hollis Thatcher Press, LTD.

  Contents

  Connect with Addison Moore

  Prologue

  1. A New Beginning

  Candace

  2. Skyla

  Possession

  3. Gage

  4. Logan

  5. Wesley

  6. A Web of Deceit

  Candace

  7. Skyla

  8. Gage

  9. Logan

  10. Wesley

  11. Wedding Spells Are Ringing

  Candace

  12. Skyla

  13. Gage

  14. Logan

  15. Wesley

  16. The Grand Delusion

  Candace

  17. Skyla

  18. Gage

  19. Logan

  20. Wesley

  21. Hell on Earth

  Candace

  22. Skyla

  23. Gage

  24. Logan

  25. Wesley

  26. A Glorious Ending

  Candace

  27. Skyla

  28. Gage

  29. Logan

  30. Wesley

  September 1st

  31. Skyla

  September 13th

  Books by Addison Moore

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Edited by Paige Maroney Smith

  Cover Design: Gaffey Media

  Copyright © 2020 by Addison Moore

  This novel is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to peoples either living or deceased is purely coincidental. Names, places, and characters are figments of the author’s imagination. The author holds all rights to this work. It is illegal to reproduce this novel without written expressed consent from the author herself.

  All Rights Reserved.

  This eBook is for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please purchase any additional copies for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Copyright © 2020 by Addison Moore

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  This one is for the sinners and the saints.

  He died for all.

  Last call.

  A king’s wrath is like the roar of a lion;

  he who angers him forfeits his life. —Proverbs 20:2-3 (NIV)

  Prologue

  Skyla

  To every story there is a beginning, and to every story there is an end.

  One theme remains the same—no matter which story, no matter who the author may be, everything is working toward its conclusion. Nothing remains the same.

  The law of entropy is alive and well, right there in the nexus of your existence, in the heart of everyone you love. It never leaves, never disappoints in its vigor to erode.

  From the moment you were brought into this world, you were well on your way to your demise—a trajectory to whatever fate awaits you on the other side of the veil. You are the orchestrator of your own eternity.

  Did you believe Him?

  Did you deny?

  Did you cast yourself into Heaven or into Hell?

  You have always held the keys to your eternal standing.

  What happened in the interim, between your first breath and your last?

  What did you live for?

  Did you fight for what you believed in?

  Did you believe what’s good and right?

  Or did wickedness lure you in by way of promises of riches and fame?

  Did it whisper deep into your ear that you, in fact, could be your own god?

  That you already were?

  Did you fall under the spell of a liar, a thief, a killer?

  Did they consume you?

  Did you become them?

  The enemy knows his time is short. His leash is constricting, his oxygen diminished. He needs your strength. He needs your very breath to carry out his devilish schemes.

  But those who love the Son never give in. They look to the sky and listen for the sound of the shofar. He is so very near. Their departure from this planet, less than a breath away.

  There is a war in Heaven. A war for your soul. For mine.

  Death and destruction lie uncovered to the One who sits on the throne. He sees His children weathering the storm, and He sings over them with a mighty roar.

  He calls out to the dry bones of my people and commands them to rise up and come alive.

  Together we are lifted by the breath of his nostrils. Together we rise. Our bodies restored to life, fully clothed in glory.

  My people will rise again—stronger than ever, fully clothed in glory, in defiance of the enemy.

  Life isn’t lived in reverse. The beginning of the day never holds the knowledge that waits for you when night falls.

  I once believed that falling in love was a lot like death. I thought it chose you, that it decided the chain of events that would lead to an unavoidable collision of the heart.

  I believed that it used you, treated you as though you were malleable in its warm hands. It would never ask if you wanted it, or needed it, just filled the gaping hole of destiny’s design.

  But I can see now that falling in love has a lot more in common with living than it ever does death. You may certainly choose whom you fall in love with. Destiny may point you in the trajectory, but it is ultimately your will, your strong desire that allows someone to graft themselves onto your heart.

  I allowed the enemy to graft himself onto my heart so very securely until he shattered it, stopped it from beating altogether.

  Perhaps I should have yielded to destiny; perhaps the one who wove my fate together knew best after all. Had I never strayed from the path designed for me, my people, my very life would still be mine. But I strayed. I looked the enemy in his cobalt eyes and nodded with approval while he burned down the planet under the guise of our love. And in turn, my people and I have paid the ultimate price.

  Love. As soon as I arrived on Paragon, my world bloomed with its beautiful never-ending ache. I would have given all of my blood to my enemies. They could have had it completely—if I knew it would satisfy them—if I could live without it. But I knew the end of the story before it ever began. I had to choose love. And for this, I would surely die.

  And I did.

  It is that time in my existence—a time for love and a time for death. Fate had intertwined the two, bereaved of any mercy. But it is not the architecture of my being as I once believed, nor does it rule the infrastructure. The pillars of my life may have been established long ago—the blueprint written in my bloodlines, but my destiny, and that of my people, is in my hands and I will find a way to heal them both.

  Fate had set a trio of hearts before me, and I greedily took them all.

  And now the entire world must pay for my foolishness.

  But He calls to me.

  They hung Him on a cross at Calvary, stripped Him of his life just the way they
stripped me of mine. But He calls to me, sings over me, commands I come alive. He is resurrecting, restoring all that I am, all that my people are.

  Not entropy, nor death, nor a single wicked heart can prevail over what He proclaims.

  The true King has spoken.

  The true King is alive.

  He bursts forth from victory.

  And so will I.

  A New Beginning

  Candace

  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

  The earth was waste and void—and darkness was in the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said let there be light and there was light. God was pleased with the light and divided light from the darkness. God called the light, day, and the darkness, night. Then God divided firmament from the waters and called the expanse above the water heaven. Evening passed and morning came, marking the second day. Then God sprouted vegetation on dry ground, every kind of seed-bearing plant and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Evening passed and morning came, marking the third day. Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night.” He made a larger one to rule the day and a smaller one to govern the night. God saw that it was good and evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day. Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with every kind of sea creature, and the sky with every kind of bird—each producing after its own kind.” God saw that it was good, and evening passed and morning came, marking the fifth day. Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” And God saw that it was good.

  Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on earth, and the small animals that scurry, along the ground.”

  So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and multiply. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

  Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened. Then God looked over everything He had made, and He saw that it was very good. And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

  So the creation of the heavens and earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished His creation, so He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and He declared it holy, because it was the day He rested from all his work of creation. This is the account of the heavens and the earth as it will forever be recorded in the book of Genesis.

  And preceding all of this, in the very beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

  And together the Word, God the Father, and the Spirit united the kingdom in the heavenlies and there was a feast as we pondered this new creation, what it could mean, what it could become—how beautiful it was, perfectly created with love by the master Himself.

  There is a precipice in Ahava, past the crystal lake, just beyond the Falls of Virtue that affords a magnified view of the jewel called Earth. And all the created beings in the heavenlies—the angelic messengers, the seraphim, the cherubs, the Sectors, the Fems, the Caelestis, along with the beasts that rest at the throne—gathered as we gaze upon its beauty.

  “Attention!” my voice chimes out over the expanse. “I, Your Grace, Candace, would like to announce that all magnificence was created by, and for, the Master,” I say to the created beings gathered nearby. “It is for His great pleasure that those creatures called humans are in existence. He alone is worthy to receive glory and honor and power, for He created all things, and by His will they were created and have their being. They will have the ability to intimately know the Master, to love, honor, and worship Him. He will take man and crown him with glory and honor. They will have free will, and those that taste and see that their heavenly Father is good shall call him friend.”

  There was Adam and there was Eve. Naked in the garden in all perfection, in perfect union with God. And then there was the serpent—a lying spirit whom they called Demetri. The serpent enticed the woman to partake of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil from which they were forbidden to eat. The man also partook, and they knew sin. They were ashamed of their nakedness, and they hid from their heavenly Father.

  God in all of His grand mercy slaughtered a large animal, and they ate the meat for food and used the fur for clothing. Then sin and death fell upon mankind. Because the serpent enticed the woman with the forbidden fruit, and she, in turn, gave to the man. Thus Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden.

  Angels were set up to guard the entry to that earthly paradise so that Adam and Eve would never set foot there again. And along with sin and death, a curse fell upon the whole Earth, thorns grew on the most beautiful of flowers, and the ground was hard and dry. Man would have to labor to produce food, and woman would have great pains when bringing forth a child.

  This was no heavenly realm. This was death and destruction, hardship and strife.

  To know the only living God of the universe, man would have to rely on the unseen, a heart forged with hope and faith in a creator that natural eyes would feast on no more. But He will see them. And He will surround them with His angels, His messengers of light, to protect and to serve his new creation.

  And He will love them, because God is love, and He is full of grace and mercy.

  The Sectors and Fems all look to the Earth, and to those spectacular creatures, with great interest, but some of the angels became enamored.

  Demetri nods to one of the Seraphs. “The daughters of men, they are beautiful. Are they not?”

  A flock of messenger angels draws in close as we inspect the fairer of the creatures of Earth with their flowing hair crowning their glory like exotic flowers. Their skin is smooth in appearance, soft to the touch, their bodies robust and curvaceous. They speak in warm tones, their eyes filled with love and kindness. They nourish with their hands; they love with full hearts. And they are the nexus of every human to exist outside of the garden, for through them is the portal to enter the planet and there shall be no other natural way. They are perfect in form and function, magnified with ethereal beauty that man cannot fully comprehend.

  Demetri rumbles with a soft laugh. “Why, Candace, it’s clear human women were modeled after you.”

  “Yes,” I say. “But only Eve was in my exact likeness.”

  Sector Marshall strides up, illuminated by a deep lavender glow, and his very presence causes Demetri to scatter like a mouse.

  “My love.” Sector offers a slight bow in my presence. “I take it you are in charge of their destinies. How does this appeal to your senses?”

  “I have no pride. I am honored that as a part of the Decision Council, I am charged to carry out the task. And I’m not alone in the endeavor. I was given Rothello of the Millennium to assist, as well as Aramous and Delario, two of your kind as well.”

  “The destinies of humans are in good hands,” he says.

  “It is so.”

  A burst of laughter emits from a small crowd behind us, and we turn to find Demetri regaling the masses.

  Sector Marshall lets out a deep sigh. “What do you think he’s up to?”

  “What he’s always up to,” I say. “He’s scheming. He’s not satisfied to be your subordinate.”

  “Yes, well”—Sector Marshall chortles as if this delighted him, and I have no doubt it does—“what His Majesty decrees shall be so. And it is certainly so, is it not?”

  “Now, now.” A small laugh of my own trembles from me. “You and I both know there was no such decree. He’s qui
te susceptible to usurping your authority. Worry not, Sector Marshall. The Master knows exactly what He intends on utilizing you for. Though it tarries, wait for it. And don’t grow so comfortable in your seat on high. Demetri’s people, the Fems, are as cunning as they are determined to swallow up any power you might be holding onto. Demetri does enjoy making a spectacle of others.” I nod to the angels gathered around him. “He’s goading them, as we speak, to descend upon the daughters of men. What do you propose will come of that?” The trace of a knowing smile graces my lips.

  Sector Marshall nods. “A mess, undoubtedly.”

  “One that you and I will be left to clean up.”

  He nods my way. “Let us not forget—even the instruments of wickedness can be utilized for the Master’s purpose.”

  “And He shall work all things together for the good of those who love Him. It will be beautiful.”

  He nods my way. “Here’s to a beautiful mess.”

  “Indeed it will be beautiful. I’ll make certain we both benefit supremely from whatever folly that serpent leads our way. A beautiful mess, indeed.”

  Time and chance happened to those on the Earth, and some of the angels were indeed entranced by the daughters of men. Others followed and went against the natural decree to leave them be, and they lay with them and they had children.