Ashley Beach-Author and Storyteller

Erick reached out and grabbed her horse’s reins so she could dismount. Christiana swung her leg over the back of the horse and jumped down. Once she was on the ground, Erick took her horse and tied it up by the others.

“It looks like all the servants or guards that were here left after my father died,” he said as he came to stand beside Christiana.

The mention of his father reminded Christiana of who this man was. She had deciphered enough to know that this man was the son of Lord Ragnar, and so she knew that he and Aiden weren’t truly related by blood, but she supposed growing up with someone your whole life created a bond that stretched beyond blood. Even though his father had been responsible for ending her parents’ lives, Christiana couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him. He had been a victim of his father’s cruelties too. She knew how strange it was to come back to a place she hadn’t been to in twenty years, but what must he feel like coming back after knowing what evil his father had enacted on the realm? She wondered if he had parted on good terms with his father before he died.

Erick felt her eyes on him and he turned his attention to her. “I’m sorry my father was the cause of what sent you away from here. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to grow up so far from home.” A sad smile filled his lips. “A year ago, I wouldn’t have even felt sorry for you. I certainly never felt sorry for Aiden. Even though my father took over the throne, I would have never been allowed to take over some day, so Aiden was always the known heir. I liked him enough when we were kids, because I just looked at him as a little brother I could go on adventures with, but as we grew older, the differences between us created more and more distance and animosity between us.”

Erick looked back up at the palace that stood before them like a faded memory of things that used to be. “I know I don’t deserve to be back here. My father wasn’t the only one that brought heartache to this realm. I enacted his heartless plans as captain of the guard for many years, always waiting for that job well done from him.”

His eyes filled with tears as he continued. “For whatever reason, that young Princess from the Summer realm took pity on me last year, even after I had taken the crystal that restored her sight the first time, and after I had tried to capture her and take her back to my father because of the great power she possessed as a trophy to make my father proud of me. She healed me when I was dying, and gave me a second chance. And even after all I put Aiden through, he still found some way to extend mercy to me too. When I left the Fall realm with Aiden because I no longer wanted to become like my father – cruel and uncaring towards those I had hurt – my father was beyond angry. He captured me and enacted all his rage on me. But, Aiden kept coming back here to find me, even though my father had threatened his life on more than one occasion.”

Tears pricked Christiana’s eyes as she listened to Erick’s story. She quit studying him and cast her eyes to the stone path that led up to the stairs in front of them.“I don’t deserve to be here either,” she said quietly as she continued to look at the ground beneath her.

Erick returned his gaze to Christiana. Leaning closer, he whispered, “You of all people deserve to be here.” He paused and let out a short breath before continuing. “If my father hadn’t killed your father, you would have been in line for the throne.”

Christiana lifted damp eyes to the man who stood beside her. “Can you really be given a second chance in life?” she asked. The consequences of her mistake were still fresh in her mind, and she knew how much danger she had put not just her realm, but all of the realms.

Erick smiled. “If I can be given a second chance, I think anyone can. Second chances require change to be sure, and it can be hard to live a different life, but when you’ve been given that second chance and shown mercy when you are far from deserving it, it makes you want to work harder to make that second chance worth it.”

Christiana held Erick’s gaze for a few moments. Her mind whirled with a million thoughts as she thought back to what the Mage’s Son had shared with her, and even what Aiden and Amber had said to her in the short time she had known them.

Erick held out a large hand to her. “We can take this second chance together,” he said.

A small smile crested Christiana’s lips at his kind offer. She had few occasions to smile in her life. Perhaps this second chance would mean a fresh start for that too. She placed her hand in his and allowed him to escort her up the stairs.

The thought of second chances can be a hard concept to grasp. A second chance usually comes after a mistake has been made. It is rarely something we earn ourselves. Instead, it is something given to us when we least deserve it. All of the characters in my books have been given second chances in one way or another, and those second chances really come to light in my 4th book, Beauty Revealed, which is releasing very soon.

The first three books in The Solstice Chronicles all center around one main character and story. The stories are mostly about individual battles and struggles the characters face. One of the cool things that I’ve come to really love in this fourth book as I’ve been writing it and editing it in the last few months, is the deeper look into the character’s stories that you might not have gotten in the other three books. A lot of the characters are past their big major individual hurdles that they faced in the first three books, so you get a look at their lives after their original stories have ended. Now, this doesn’t mean that the characters have it easy in this fourth book. Unfortunately for them, as so often happens in real life, the happy stories don’t seem to last long before they are faced with yet another trial or hard circumstance. The things they face are still individual for some, but the scale of what they are facing encompasses all of the realms as a whole in Beauty Revealed and so you get to see how all of the characters interact as they face thing on a world scale instead of just their stories as a person or in their particular realm. As I mentioned, this story puts a lot of emphasis on the second chances all the characters have been given.

If you have read my other three books, you’ll be familiar with what these characters faced in those books. Some faced years of isolation and loneliness, feeling unlovable and unworthy. Some faced many years in the eyes of the people but still struggled with their own demons and also felt unworthy to be in a kingdom of light. Some faced the hard things that come when their lust for power takes control of their lives, bringing destruction to themselves and their realm. All of the characters have redemption stories in these books, but one of the aspects I’ve loved in this 4th book are the second layer of redemption stories you see throughout. We all see the big redemption stories in the other books and the people placed in some of the character’s lives are not nice. In fact, some of them are pretty nasty and leave us wondering if even that person can be saved. One of the characters that comes back in this one was introduced in the third book, Beauty Reborn. This character is Erick, the half-brother of Prince Aiden. As you read Beauty Reborn, you get a sense of dislike for Aiden from Erick and you discover that Erick has always been seeking and searching for his father’s approval and will stop at almost nothing to gain that approval. His father is a ruthless rebel that violently took over the Fall realm and declared himself the ruler, so you can imagine the environment Erick and Aiden grew up in. Erick is struck down towards the end of the third book, and despite the differences between them and the dislike for each other, deep down, Erick and Aiden still share a brotherly bond and Aiden doesn’t want to lose his brother the way he lost every other member in his family. Princess Amber of the Summer realm extends a gracious hand to Erick even after he took a precious treasure from her and acted selfishly towards her in his endless pursuit to gain his father’s approval. When Erick was struck down, Amber heals him and gives him a second chance at life.

Beauty Revealed introduces a brand new character to the world of The Solstice Chronicles, and this character is also given a second chance in a major way. Christiana was hidden away from her home and family for most of her life to keep her safe and out of the hands of the evil lord that took over the Fall realm. After years of waiting to be rescued and returned home, she is approached by not one, but two strangers, that will change the course of her life forever. One stranger carries the bond of family lost and one carries the promise of love that she’s always longed for. Being kept hidden away for most of her life, she is tempted by the promises of love and power and restoration to rightful place on the throne in Havilah, the Fall realm’s golden ruling kingdom of the harvest. She is faced with the decision to open a mysterious box that could grant her all she’s ever wished for or to go home with the family she never knew she had. The decision she ends up making affects not just her, but the realms as a whole. Shame and regret immediately fill her heart and mind once she makes her decision, and she becomes afraid of what the people and rulers of the realms will do to her if they find out what she did. Despite being lonely and longing for friends and family her entire life, she believes the only life she can have now is one of continued isolation so the world can never find her. She has a special encounter with the Mage’s Son (my Christ character), and he tells her that it’s not the mistake that matters as much as what she chooses to do after the mistake. He gives her a chance to reconcile with the realms, and though it doesn’t erase what she did, it gives her a chance to repent and fix it. Despite her choice, the Mage’s Son tells her of a special gift she has to turn people’s heart to the beauty of the blessing their lives and she must now choose whether she will go back with the rulers of the realms to the place of her fall and help fix her mistake, or leave for the depths of the realms and live her life alone. She goes back, but she still feels unworthy to be accepted back into the circle of close friends and family that came together to save the realms.

The scene shared at the beginning of this post is taken from the end of the book when Erick and Christiana return to the Fall palace in Havilah. They both face their own struggles with feeling unworthy for returning to the palace in Havilah because of choices both of them made that brought harm to the realms and the people around them. They are both more than understanding if those they hurt turned their backs on them and never wanted to see them again. But graciously, they are both given a second chance and shown an abundance of love and mercy and brought into the family they’ve both longed to be a part of for their entire lives.

Our redemption story is one full of second chances. Our lives are condemned to death and darkness, and whether we make decisions that bring us harm our plunge our lives into darkness, or whether people around us inflict pain and heartache into our stories, we all have choices to make in our lives. Sometimes our choices affect just us, but most of the time, our choices end up affecting others as well. Too often, we are too focused on our own thoughts and feelings in the moment to think about how the decision we make will affect our loved ones and a wide net of people we may not even realize that are being affected by the choices we make. No matter how many mistakes or bad decisions we make in this life, we have been offered a second chance and it is up to us to take it before it’s too late. Some of the characters in these books realized their offer of a second chance too late and condemned themselves to an eternity spent in the realm of darkness, never to have a chance to leave and become a part of the kingdom of light. But, those who took the second chance offered to them live in humble reminiscence of how drastically their lives have been changed when extended mercy and grace, and they continue to live their lives grateful for the new life and second chances they’ve been given.

You have been offered a second chance in this life. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. What matters is how you live your life once the second chance has been offered to you. Are you living your life in the light of the second chance you’ve been given? Accept the second chance before it’s too late.