The Diadem of Azar
THE DIADEM OF AZAR A contemporary fantasy that begins in our world and leads somewhere far older Ian has no memory of his past, the one that matters. No records. No photographs. No....
THE DIADEM OF AZAR A contemporary fantasy that begins in our world and leads somewhere far older Ian has no memory of his past, the one that matters. No records. No photographs. No family who came looking. Just a woman named Brenda, who took him in, raised him as her own, and never told him where he came from. For twenty years, he has been content not to ask. He has a mother who loves him. A foster family who gave him a home. A best friend. A school. A future. He is a gifted student, a celebrated football captain, and a quiet young man who keeps his distance from everyone except the girl he grew up beside. Then Brenda gets sick. And the nightmares begin. They come every night. A crushing darkness with no shape and no sound. Ian wakes from them gasping, drenched in sweat, with the unshakeable feeling that something terrible has already happened in the past. Something he cannot remember. At the same time, strangers start to appear. A woman in a leather jacket who watches him from across the street and never speaks. A new girl at school who seems to know more about him than she should. A man in a position of power who smiles too easily and asks too many questions about the family that raised him. And somewhere in the city, an old enemy is closing in on him. A man who has been hunting a prince for twenty years. A man who saw a pillar of light tear open the sky twelve years ago, and who has been watching the family who took the boy ever since. Ian does not know that he is a prince. He does not know that the kingdom of Azar fell the night he was born. He does not know that Azar's crown has been broken into three pieces and hidden across time. He does not know that the girl beside him has loved him for years. Or that she is hiding a secret that will not be revealed until long after this story ends. All he knows is that he cannot sleep. That the darkness is getting closer. And that every question he asks about his past leads him somewhere he is not ready to go. The Diadem of Azar is a story about a boy who was never supposed to survive, a kingdom that was never supposed to fall, and a crown that was never supposed to be broken. It is a story about two worlds, and the boy who belongs to both. And it begins with a nightmare.