Toy Soldier

By Jaden Sinclair

His kingdom stolen, banished to another world, prince Cleto of Eltora is trapped in the casing of a toy soldier for five years. Unable to use his magic to free himself he is lost, but not forgotten.

Clair Meloni is what some might call hopeless. She's been battling illness for the last several years and her only family member is gone, so what is a girl to really do when she's alone in the world? Going home seems like a good idea. She arrives at her home and enters a room she'd been forbidden to ever enter. Never did she think that by lighting a fire would she free a prince from another world.

Is it a dream or is it real? Only time will tell. But will time be on her side to see how her dream ends?

This title is published by Melange Books LLC and is distributed worldwide by Untreed Reads.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Untreed Reads
• Release date: Nov 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781612357652

Book preview

Toy Soldier

by Jaden Sinclair

Published by

Melange Books, LLC

White Bear Lake, MN 55110

www.melange-books.com

Toy Soldier, Copyright 2013 by Jaden Sinclair

This ebook is licensed 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 book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should go to melange-books.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-61235-765-2

Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States of America.

Cover Design by Caroline Andrus

TOY SOLDIER

JADEN SINCLAIR

His kingdom stolen, banished to another world, prince Cleto of Eltora is trapped in the casing of a toy soldier for several years. Unable to use his magic to free himself he is lost, but not forgotten.

Clair Meloni is what some might call hopeless. She’s been battling illness for the last several years and all of her family members are gone, so what is a girl to do when she’s alone in the world? Going home seems like a good idea. She arrives at her home and enters a room she’d been forbidden to ever enter. Never did she think that by lighting a fire would she free a prince from another world.

Is it a dream or is it real? Only time will tell. But will time be on her side to see how her dream ends?

Table of Contents

Toy Soldier

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilogue

About the Author

Previews

Chapter One

December Twenty-one

I can’t do this anymore, Clair.

Clair Meloni sat on the side of the bed while her boyfriend, Justin, of three years packed up his clothing. I’m sorry.

She couldn’t look at him nor could she cry. For the past few months she knew this break up was coming. How could she not? She was sick again and had known, deep down, once Justin found out, he would leave her. He wasn’t the kind of man able to be with a sick woman.

Take care of yourself, he said as he left, closing the bedroom door behind him.

Clair sat there staring at the wall. She didn’t even flinch when she heard the apartment door slam shut. She’d finally told him about the return of the cancer and, after being in love and living together for three years he’d made his choice.

Closing her eyes the tears finally fell, but it had nothing to do with him. Sadly, she felt a bit relieved that he’d left. The tears she shed were due to the news she’d received earlier that day of her grandfather’s death, her last living family member. As she sat reading the letter from her grandfather’s attorney, informing her that all his assets had been left to her, including the house where she had grown up, she reminisced about the fond memories she had growing up there.

She looked around knowing Justin would be back for the rest of his things—eventually. Hell, everything in the apartment was his. She finally stood up feeling numb as she went to her closet and took out her large duffle bag. She packed only what she’d brought to the relationship. As she was leaving, she placed the keys on the table next to the door. The one thing they hadn’t shared was a bank account. Justin sure as hell had wanted to share one, but she’d refused, which was the smartest thing she’d ever done for herself she now realized. Walking down the steps instead of taking the elevator, she smiled softly as to what he would have said if he knew she’d lost her job.

Outside, the city buzzed with people shopping. Snow started to fall, or, more like spit on everyone. Turning to her left, Clair began to walk away from the life she thought she wanted, and the city she had loved at one time. She stopped at an ATM and withdrew every dollar, she had, than hailed a cab and went to the bus station.

The trip took all day, and into the night, before the bus pulled into the depot in a small town called Roseland. Cold wind slapped Clair in the face, but she didn’t mind. She welcomed the cold and took in the crisp air.

Roseland was a small farming community with a population of nine-hundred. Her family had owned a farm as well as most of her neighbors. Every street, every corner, she knew by heart. She started the long walk to her grandfather’s house on the outskirts of town, but the walk didn’t bother her one bit.

Unlike the city, Roseland had a nice thick sheet of snow and more was falling. Every year they were blessed with a white Christmas. In town the streets and sidewalks were kept clear, but once you started moving toward the outskirts, snow covered the roads, obscuring them. Clair found herself walking through snow up to her knees.

Walking without snow, Clair could make it to the house in less than an hour, but with the snow it would take an hour or more. Her toes, legs, and fingers were numb by the time she saw the house—an old, two-story farmhouse surrounded by trees, and fields no longer harvested.

The first time she stepped foot on the porch, Clair had been five. A plane crash had killed her parents. At the time, she didn’t even know she had a grandfather. Something had happened to make her father and his stop speaking to each other before her birth. For the first couple of weeks after she came here to live, he didn’t know how to talk to her.

Years later, as an adult, her grandfather, Ken Meloni, told her the story about how he didn’t know what to do with the five-year-old girl who sat staring at nothing, eating very little, and crying herself to sleep each night. The week she’d arrived on his doorstep was around Christmas time.

Clair learned that her grandfather never celebrated Christmas—until she came into his life. That Christmas, he bought a tree, which he hadn’t done in over twenty years. Clair remembered as she put the key into the lock, how he even put lights up outside the house, roasted a turkey the night before, and had placed presents under the pine tree.

She stopped crying on Christmas, started talking again, and he starting smiling more often. Her grandfather opened his heart and his home to her, making sure from then on that every Christmas was special.

Clair smiled when she finally arrived on her grandfather’s stoop, unlocked, and opened the front door. When no warmth or food cooking greeted her, the smile disappeared as she remembered her grandfather had died.

The house was cold, and lifeless. The hallway was dark, leading back to the kitchen, the stair rails white with dust. The living room had sheets over every piece of furniture, and wood piled high next to the fireplace, which waited for life once more.

Kicking the door closed, Clair went over to the fireplace. She dropped her bag next to one of the sheet-covered chairs, knelt down, and began to work at starting a fire. Her hands shook from the cold. After a few tries she finally had the fire she needed to warm herself—and remembered...

Hurry up, Grandpa!

I’m hurrying angel, he replied as he hurried to make a fire.

The living room lights were on, a fire burning brightly and in the corner, the pine tree sparkled with lights and decorations. Over the fireplace, two large stockings hung, as did garland and other decorations.

Where you want it? Ken Meloni smiled down at her. In his steady, old, wrinkled hands, he held a cup of milk in one and a plate of cookies in the other.

Right here! Clair pointed to a table in front of the fireplace. As Ken put the plate and milk down, she curled up on the sofa with a warm blanket. You think he’ll eat it all?

He did last year and—

He will again, Clair said aloud. Oh, Grandpa, why’d you have to leave me when I need you the most? She sighed, stood up, and went back into the kitchen.

Everything was just as it had been the day she left. She could even recall the smile on his face, the wave as she headed off for college. Man, she didn’t want to leave him, but Ken had made her go. He pretty much pushed her out the door. Now here she came back, tail between the legs with no family.

She found a few eatable things, like one sausage and some wine, and brought it back to the fire and roasted it. As it cooked, Clair pulled out the family album, flipping through photos, remembering things. When she got to the last page, an old skeleton key fell onto her lap.

With a frown, she picked it up, looking closely at it.

Never go to the top floor, her