The Jade Throne

Look for other books by Christa Yelich-Koth

www.ChristaYelichKoth.com

The Land of Iyah trilogy

THE JADE CASTLE

THE JADE ARCH

THE JADE THRONE

Eomix Galaxy Novels

ILLUSION (Book 1 of 2)

IDENTITY (Book 2 of 2)

COILED VENGEANCE

The Detective Trann series

SPIDER’S TRUTH

SPIDER’S RING

SPIDER’S QUEEN

SPIDER’S RIFT

SPIDER’S LIE

Graphic Novels

HOLLOW

Comic Books

HOLLOW’S PRSIM SERIES

(6 issues total)

Issue #1: Aftermath

Issue #2: Reunion

Issue #3: Alliance

Issue #4: Trigger

Issue #5: Revelations

Issue #6: Fusion

Special Thanks

Mom: For your incredible edits and ability to help me get this done!

Dad: For your speedy beta reading when I really needed it and your great feedback.

Conrad Teves: For helping me create a stunning and beautiful cover.

And to you, the reader: Your interest and love of my books allows me to keep writing more stories. Thank you! I hope you enjoy the conclusion to this trilogy!

CHAPTER 1

Mania swept over Shon. With quick but soft steps, he paced next to his bed in the psych ward of the Marvin Looshe Medical Facility. Only the hum of the heater nearby and the soft snoring of the other person in the room could be heard.

What did this mean? Why had he heard his brother’s voice when he’d been on the brink of sleep?

The young man in the nearby bed groaned and rolled over. Shon halted in his steps, holding his breath, until he heard his roommate’s slow and steady breathing resume.

Shon sunk onto the edge of his bed, the once foreign sheets now familiar. He’d been in this facility for nearly five months, arriving after his brother’s death at the beginning of the summer.

He remembered the horrible day with crystal clarity. After confronting Bekk in Iyah, his younger brother had given up his life in the real world to keep Shon out of the dream world. When he awoke, Shon discovered the truth of what had happened in that other land: his brother’s body lay unmoving and lifeless.

Without any parents and no nearby family, Shon had panicked. First, he called his girlfriend, Treena. She told him to stay calm, that she would call the police, and he should start CPR on Bekk.

Shon returned to Bekk’s room, blindly following Treena’s advice, but once there, he knew any resuscitative measures would be futile. Bekk had chosen this path. He couldn’t return to his body. He wouldn’t.

After that, the memories blurred together. Shon recalled Treena arriving, her face tear-streaked and red, and shortly after, the police. They’d removed Bekk’s body and took Shon downtown for questioning.

Shon didn’t even remember exactly what he’d said. He’d babbled incoherently, talking about Iyah and saving his parents and that Bekk wouldn’t understand about how things worked there, what the arch really was, and the dangers of that world.

It didn’t take long for the police to recommend hospitalization at Marvin Looshe. They thought finding his younger brother dead had broken him. The State, who’d been watching Shon’s living situation closely since his and Bekk’s parents had died and Shon had been instated as his brother’s guardian, determined he’d become unstable. They issued an order that Shon must attend three months of mandatory in-patient hospitalization at Marvin Looshe, with a standing order that he not be released until deemed functional by a physician.

Shon spent the first few days in the hospital mostly talking to himself. No one believed the truth.

And why should they? Why would anyone believe his brother had died to stop Shon from killing fairies in a dream world?

During the first few weeks, Shon had resisted everything in the hospital. He hated the place. He’d been Bekk’s guardian for nearly two years since their parents’ death. Because of this, he’d become fiercely independent. He’d learned how to handle a budget, how to earn a living for them both, keep Bekk on task with chores and homework, have a girlfriend, and manage a household. The restrictions imposed on him—when to sleep and wake up, when and what to eat, a structured day filled with therapy and programmed events—grated against him. But in a place like this, resistance was met with medication modification. Sedatives were a doctor’s best friend for dealing with unruly patients.

The weeks stretched into a month. The pills kept him quieter. He didn’t mind that. He went through his day, kept to himself. He never volunteered information during the therapy sessions. Social interactions were minimal at best.

Visitors then became allowed. Treena showed up. At first, Shon had been thrilled, not only that she still loved him, but because he had some contact with the outside world. Their meetings, though brief, filled him with joy.

Her visits, however, also brought on a new feeling he hadn’t expected: guilt. She reminded him of the life he used to have, and how he’d ruined it all.

Including leading his own brother to his death.

Every time she left, the pain of not having access to anyone outside these walls ate at him. By the time another month rolled through and summer came to an end, he could feel the strain emanating from her as well. Her visits seemed more like someone who felt obligated, like she’d feel guilty if she didn’t come to see him. Their talks became haphazard at best. He didn’t have new news, and she stopped telling him about her life.

Because she was moving forward. Something he couldn’t do.

Before Bekk’s passing, she had planned to live with the brothers. Now? She’d left home and moved into a dorm room at the college she attended. She’d made new friends. Shon had a feeling she only came to see him now out of a sense of responsibility.

The only other visitor had been his grandmother, on his mother’s side. She hadn’t seen him often, merely twice in the past two months, but she’d seemed genuinely concerned for Shon’s wellbeing. Tension sat between the two of them, due to the fact his grandmother had cut ties with the family a long time ago. Besides that, though, seeing her reminded Shon that his mother was no longer around, and shame once again infiltrated his thoughts.

At that point, depression and anxiety took over. The panic of being trapped in this facility for the rest of his life plagued him and yet the fear of returning to the real world overwhelmed him. A sense of where he belonged eluded him. He sought out the prescribed drugs. Anything to make him not miss his old life.

He let the medication nibble away at his soul, allowing the hollowness to consume him from the inside out.

Then a few weeks ago, three teenagers accompanied Treena on her weekend visit. They’d been Bekk’s friends. He hadn’t even paid attention to them at first until one of them, Ashlee, told him they knew about Iyah and that she’d been instructed to help Bekk.

Adrenaline spiked through the medicated haze. They knew about Iyah? How?

After that conversation, Shon spent the entire week not taking his medication in order to keep a clear head, eagerly awaiting a chance to talk to the three of them the following weekend. He couldn’t believe someone else knew about Iyah. And, perhaps, there could be a way to save his brother.

During their next visit they’d asked Shon questions, which he diligently answered, but his time limit with visitors at the hospital made it difficult to fill them in on all he wanted them to know. After this second visit, in which they updated him about Bekk and the stone world’s king who was trying to reopen the arch inside Iyah, Shon crafted a letter, detailing everything he knew or could remember about the dream land, so he could give them the pages at their next meeting. He’d found a loose tile in the bathroom and had hidden the papers there. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to find out he not only still believed in Iyah, but that he was comprising notes about the place.

Now, it was the following weekend. Bekk’s three friends planned to try that very night to fall asleep and visit the world of Iyah. Then, tomorrow, they would return to the hospital for the third time and tell Shon about it. At that point, he’d give them the letter.

Shon had laid in bed that night, thinking about his brother, hoping the information he’d given so far to Bekk’s friends would be of some help. He’d drifted in and out of sleep, until words sounded in his mind, as if on the wrong end of a funnel. They sounded tinny and scratchy, but he couldn’t mistake the voice.

It was Bekk.

He said, Okay, let’s see what we know.

Shon had bolted awake, searching the room frantically, but only dimness and the smell of a sterile room hit his senses.

Now, too awake to fall back asleep, Shon paced. He knew he wasn’t allowed to enter Iyah again while Bekk existed there, but if he could hear his brother...

Had something changed?

And if so, could Shon use this to his advantage to send a message?

Could he help undo the damage he’d done and bring Bekk home?

CHAPTER 2

Bekk felt like a coward. A lonely, frustrated, shameful coward.

Two days ago, he’d been ruler of the land of Iyah, king of Yar Castle. Now, he sat on a beach, alone, too scared to return to the palace because a huge man made out of jade stone had come from another world with dozens of soldiers and seized the place and its throne.

Bekk knew he shouldn’t feel shame or cowardice. He was only a seventeen-year-old guy, after all. What could he do against an army made of rock?

And yet, guilt chewed at his insides. A month ago he’d given up his life on Earth to stop his brother’s reign here and take over the throne. Except now, he didn’t have another life to relinquish in order to banish this stone king from Iyah, too. And even if he did, he couldn’t get rid of all the soldiers on his own.

Instead, he’d run. Calling all the fairies who lived inside the castle, he’d dashed away from the terrifying black arch that sprouted in his bedroom, which produced jade body after jade body as the soldiers marched through the void from their own world into Iyah.

The only thing that made him feel a little better had been the addition of his two friends, Belle and Vic. They’d arrived just as Bekk had fled the castle and made the journey with him west to the Eclipse Sea.

When they came to the beach, Belle and Vic assured him they’d help to reclaim the palace, saying that maybe the information they’d learned about the stone world from his brother, Shon, would help.

Unfortunately, right at that moment, the two of them disappeared from Bekk’s side, which meant they’d woken up in their own world.

Time worked differently in Iyah than on Earth, so Bekk had no idea how long it would be until his friends returned. If they returned. There were no guarantees they even could. After all, his girlfriend, Ashlee...well, he hoped she thought of herself as his girlfriend...hadn’t come with Belle and Vic this last time, even though they’d all planned to return together.

Bekk thought of Ashlee and let out a big sigh. He hoped she was okay. Worry crept through him. What if he never saw her again? What if, for some reason, she couldn’t return to Iyah? A sinking feeling of ominous despair trickled through him. Something inside felt almost certain he’d never see her in this place again...

With a shake of his head, Bekk got rid of that dark thought. It wouldn’t help him in his current situation. Except...what could help him?

The fairies he’d amassed outside the castle—around two hundred or so—had all abandoned him on the beach. They weren’t restricted by legs to carry them around. Besides, they had charges to attend to: children who entered into Iyah through their dreams and needed their help.

His closest fairy friend, Ryf, had left as well. The last time Ashlee showed up here (don’t think about it!) she’d told Ryf she’d seen the fairy’s best friend, Yir. Ryf had been very worried about Yir. When Bekk used his own life energy to send away his brother, all the fairies Shon had killed returned to life—except Yir. Having learned that the little green fairy had spoken to Ashlee renewed Ryf’s determination to find her. As soon as she’d deemed everyone was a safe distance from the castle, Ryf had flittered away to search for Yir’s location.

So, Bekk once again sat by himself, having no plan, letting the stone man and his soldiers do...whatever they intended to do in the castle. Bekk had a feeling their strategy needed use of the amber throne, which he’d learned had the power to open doors to other worlds. For all Bekk knew, the Jade man had already broken into dozens of worlds, murdered or plundered whatever and wherever he wanted, and there was nothing Bekk could do about it.

Some leader he’d turned out to be...

CHAPTER 3

The Jade King was trapped.

A growl of frustration from his lips reverberated throughout the inside of the throne room of Yar Castle.

His guards, in their submissive state, didn’t even flinch.

How could he have forgotten the key ingredient? He’d been so excited to have broken through the arch’s void and claim the throne of Iyah that he’d completely overlooked the fact he would need the life energy of a fairy to break through to another world.

Not to mention the toll the process took on himself.

And, in correlation to that, the amount of resin he’d need to heal himself.

Of which he had none.

Now he had the cracks along his body to prove it. They ached and stung and he could do nothing to help repair them.

How could he have been so foolish to not have brought a supply of resin with him? Arrogance, he thought to himself. He’d been more focused on the task and not the consequences. Something he’d struggled with his whole life.

The Jade King had finally fulfilled the prophecy told to him by a Basalt oracle 3,000 years ago...and he had no one to share it with. His Love had crumbled a century ago, his son was dead by his own hand, and his daughter had run away, afraid of her own father. No one remained except the three hundred guards he’d brought with him from his homeland.

Not brought...forced. He currently controlled them. They stood before him, mindless automatons, doing nothing but waiting for his orders. The pearly substance his son retrieved from Pearl River currently subsided in his own body, triggered by grief at the loss of his son and the fleeing of his daughter. This grief, if held, could spread to another being and possess them, make them bend to his will. It was how he held control over the soldiers.

Holding onto his grief hadn’t been that hard. Even in his moment of victory, despair sloshed throughout his being, since he felt completely and utterly alone.

The Jade King tried to focus on the task at hand. He’d done what he’d been destined to do. Crossed the void. Entered Iyah. Taken control of the throne—which shone amber when he first arrived and now glowed with the greenness of jade stone—and its power to open doors to a plethora of other worlds. Worlds which he planned to invade, to obtain their resources in order to save his own land in the Jade Kingdom.

But the energy needed to do all this had cracked his stone body, leaving grooves along his arms, legs, and chest. His strength, now depleted, left him sitting on the throne feeling old and decrepit.

His guards did nothing to help. There was nothing they could do. Their intentions meant nothing because they had none.

The Jade King decided to rest before attempting to enter a new world. Ordering his soldiers to watch for intruders, he tried to sleep, to rejuvenate his body.

But sleep never came. He rested, yes, but he could not succumb to slumber.

What is this place? he’d said out loud. Why can I not sleep here?

His guards did not answer.

Still, after a day of rest, he did feel better. The cracks had not healed, but they were no longer raw to the touch.

On the second morning, he decided he had enough strength to send a guard home to retrieve some resin for his wounds. However, the soldier returned shortly. The archway, which originally materialized inside one of the bedroom quarters of the castle, had disappeared.

Impossible, he thought. He’d mustered up enough strength to stagger to the room in which the arch had last been, but instead of its vast black space, a solid barrier greeted him. He ran his hands across the wall, but to no avail.

His only way home no longer existed.

Fear crept along his stone skin like beads of trickling lava. He worked his way once again down the hall to the throne room.

If I can’t go home through the archway, I will find the door to my world instead. Concentrating, he placed a hand on the throne and felt the power flow through him, picturing his world and the resin deposits he would need.

A door appeared in the throne room, as if it had always been there, just hidden from sight. The Jade King could view through it, noting the volcanic activity before him. He couldn’t see anything living, but noted rocks piles of resin deposits just inside the doorway. A longing ached in his chest at the sight of his world. He shook the feeling away and concentrated on the task at hand.

Grab those, he’d ordered one of the guards. She’d complied by heading towards the doorway. And then...nothing. Her hand stopped at the edge of the entranceway, but she could not reach through the door.

Snarling, the Jade King pushed her out of the way and tried himself. But to no avail. He couldn’t reach through either. The barrier felt solid, like a rock wall.

Idiot! he screamed at himself. He couldn’t break through the doorway without the life force of a fairy—and they’d all fled from the castle.

The Jade King stumbled into the throne. His breath came in ragged gulps, whether out of exhaustion or fear, he did not know.

He was trapped here, in this world, with no way to return home, no way to heal, and no one else to help him determine what to do next.

The Jade King, a powerful ruler, a man who’d stopped the Gemstone Dominion War by sacrificing his own family, had no idea what to do.

I need someone to talk to.

With delicate concentration, the Jade King focused on the soldier closest to him, Guard Jayrara. He