There’s something about launch week that feels a little unreal.

In just eight days, The Gatekeeper’s Portal will officially be out in the world. And before we step fully through the portal together, I wanted to share The Gatekeeper’s Portal Chapter 1 right here on my blog.

If you’ve been curious about what’s waiting on the other side… this is your invitation.

Have You Seen the Preorder Bonuses?

If you preorder The Gatekeeper’s Portal and send proof of purchase through the form on my preorder campaign page, you’ll receive some magical extras as a thank-you!

Everyone who preorders and submits proof will receive:

✨ A signed bookplate
✨ An Elemental Companion digital booklet, packed with fun facts and info about each elemental

And the more preorders we reach, the more goodies unlock:

🔓 10 preorders
Signed bookplate + digital booklet plus a bookmark and a sticker of the book cover
🔓 25 preorders
Everything above plus an alternate POV digital bonus scene from The Gatekeeper’s Portal
🔓 50 preorders
Everything above plus a digitally annotated copy of the first 3 chapters of The Gatekeeper’s Portal
🔓 100 preorders
Everything above plus a free entry into a future giveaway hosted after release day

Preorder bonuses are available until 11:59 p.m. on December 29, 2025.

You can view the full preorder campaign and submit your proof here:
https://swraine.com/preordercampaign/

A Quick Spoiler Note Before You Begin

This post contains the full first chapter of The Gatekeeper’s Portal. It may reveal major twists from The Elemental’s Guardian, so consider this your friendly spoiler lantern before stepping through the portal.

Ready?

CHAPTER 1
Ferenc

Ferenc never thought he’d be captivated by anyone else after Amy. Yet there he sat beneath the shade of a wide oak in the park, unable to look away from Dormouse.
     He took a drag from his cigarette—the only reprieve his aching cheeks received from smiling so much—as she launched a frisbee toward Max, his golden retriever. His beloved dog startled a laugh out of him when she leaped higher than he’d ever seen her leap before just to catch the disk.
     Dormouse appeared to be thoroughly enjoying herself too. After spending so much of her life shaped by her natural shyness, she’d finally opened up to him over the last few weeks, and he’d fallen for her hard. As a guardian, he didn’t know if he could have a relationship with the elemental he’d sworn to protect, but as he couldn’t recall whatever past life they’d lived, well . . . he’d deal with any potential consequences later.
     After a few more rounds of fetch, Dormouse and Max returned to Ferenc just as he finished up his cigarette.
     “Did all that running make enough room for dessert?” he asked.
     She grinned, dark blue eyes sparkling. “More food?” She plopped down next to him on his blue quilt while Max lay down nearby, panting through her own grin. “Just how much of it did you bring? What else is in there?”
     “I’ll never tell.”
     She crawled over him to get to the basket, but he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist and pulled her back with a chuckle.
     “Hey, now. That’s my secret. Close your eyes.”
     Dormouse tilted her head, thick eyebrow quirked. He couldn’t blame her for hesitating; though her distrust had faded enough for her to confide in him, even share a home with him, years of past trauma couldn’t be undone overnight.
     “Come on.” Ferenc gently placed a hand over her eyes until her lashes brushed against his palm, notifying him she’d given in.
     He pulled his hand away and rummaged through the picnic basket until his fingers touched hard plastic. He opened the container, and the familiar toasted and nutty aroma wafted from the chocolate truffles to his nose. Even with her eyes closed, Dormouse gasped in delight.
     A grin came easily to his face as he opened another container with quartered strawberries. Butterflies and knots of nerves fought for dominance in his stomach as he set them on the blanket. “Okay. You can open them now.”
     Dormouse opened her eyes, a squeak worthy of her namesake escaping as she reached for the containers, fingers hovering indecisively over which to start with. She made her choice after a few stalled seconds, snatching up a truffle and biting into it. The moan that followed set his mind at ease, and he plopped two strawberry slices into his mouth with a smile.
     “Oh my God, these are so good,” she said, lying on her back.
     Ferenc grinned and leaned on his elbow next to her. “I’m glad you approve.”
     “Where did you get them?”
     “Remember when Betty said she was trying some new recipes?” Dormouse nodded. “I snuck down to the diner to get some while you were napping yesterday.”
     She raised a brow. “Was that before or after you went grocery shopping?”
     “Before, actually. She mentioned they’d be perfect for a picnic, and I just ran with it.”
     “Well, she was right.” She finished off her truffle with a satisfied sigh. “I’m glad she gave you the idea.”
     He chuckled, tucking a loose strand of black hair that’d escaped her ponytail behind her ear. “Me too.”
     Her cheeks flushed, and the butterflies won the battle in his stomach, fluttering like mad as his heart pounded. He had to swallow hard before he could get his question out. “Can I kiss you?”
     Her breath caught in her throat for a second before she nodded ever so faintly. “I’d like that,” she replied, barely above a whisper.
     He slowly leaned in, ignoring Max’s sudden barking, too caught up in the moment.
     He should have known better.
     “Max is right, you know,” came a woman’s voice. “That’s total gag material right there.”
     Ferenc’s heart skipped a beat. He instantly jumped to his feet, ready to protect Dormouse, but he found himself face to face with Olivia.
     “Jesus Chr—put some bells on, for crying out loud!” He grasped his chest, where his heart threatened to escape the confines of his ribcage. He then pulled her into a hug.
     Over the brief time they’d gotten to know one another, Olivia had become a great friend. She kept him in check, had taught him how to use his abilities, and had saved him on more than one occasion. She’d spent months searching high and low for the elemental, and he’d been worried for her every day.
     “Did I scare you?” She giggled, seemingly content with herself.
     “If not him, then definitely me,” Dormouse chimed in as she sat up.
     Ferenc pulled away from Olivia and helped Dormouse to her feet.
     “So, when did you two become a thing?” Olivia asked, wagging her index finger back and forth between him and Dormouse.
     Dormouse blushed and shoved a hand in the front pouch of her oversized hoodie while bringing the other to her mouth, chewing on her fingernails.
     Ferenc crossed his arms over his chest. “Actually, we haven’t become anything because someone interrupted the moment.”
     Olivia brought a hand up to cover an embarrassed laugh. “I’m so sorry.”
     “It’s all right,” he reassured her, despite the heavy sigh. “I’m happy to see you again. How have you been? Any luck finding the fire elemental?”
     Olivia shook her head, her straight platinum-blonde hair dancing from the movement, then inhaled deeply. “No, but I had the pleasure of meeting the lunar princess, the lunar prince’s adviser . . . and the solar king’s adviser.”
     “Wait, there’s a kingdom on the sun too?” Dormouse asked as she pulled her fingers away.
     Olivia nodded. “Despite everything that happened earlier this year, you’re both never going to believe this.”
     He hadn’t believed in the elementals and his own abilities for the longest time, no matter how much proof Olivia had shown him. He’d been stubborn, analytical, insisting on researching the hell out of anything he could. Never in his wildest dreams would he have ever imagined he’d face off against a lunar high priest by using air magic.
     He couldn’t imagine anything less believable than that.
     Olivia lowered herself to the blanket, helping herself to the picnic basket and pulling out the container of raw vegetables. He and Dormouse exchanged confused looks before joining her.
     “The fire elemental isn’t the only one who was taken; the lunar prince has apparently vanished as well,” she reported between bites of a bell pepper stick.
     “Richard’s doing?” Dormouse asked.
     Olivia shrugged. “They don’t know, but they seemed pretty alarmed by what he’d done.”
     The dislike Ferenc felt for Richard as his ex’s lawyer—and boyfriend—had been one thing, but when he’d kidnapped Dormouse, hurt her, and revealed himself as some kind of power-hungry being from the moon, that dislike had shifted to pure loathing. And Ferenc hated that they didn’t know if Richard had survived or not after their battle inside the Lunar Temple.
     “His moon name is Alican. Oh, and get this—the lunar princess is actually human. And she needs our help to get the prince and the fire elemental back.”
     Ferenc stroked his chin in thought. Olivia had searched that temple high and low without finding anyone. “How do we do that? We don’t even know where they are.”
     Olivia dug into the basket again, retrieving a box of crackers. “I know. But I think I have an idea. The solar king’s adviser suggested we find someone named Anya—she’s something called a Gatekeeper, and she can take us to someone called the Keeper of the Realms. This Keeper can not only answer all my questions, including why everyone kept calling me General—”
     “General?” Ferenc and Dormouse repeated in unison.
     Olivia shrugged, then continued, “This Keeper can also, apparently, fully reawaken all the elementals and guardians. That would cause big problems for whoever took them. They might also know where the prince is.”
     Ferenc slowly nodded. His mind immediately began reeling over every problem they could potentially encounter while searching for this Anya person, but Olivia jabbed a cracker at him.
     “Hold on. I see the smoke coming from your brain. Before you get too far in that plan you’re making up, just know Anya doesn’t want to be found. According to the advisers, her last known location was ‘somewhere in Russia.'” She formed air quotes with her fingers for emphasis before shoving another cracker in her mouth.
     Ferenc sighed. Good thing he knew how to research better than anyone. “I need another cigarette.” He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a slim silver case.
     “I’m sorry.” Her emerald eyes dropped to the truffle container, and she nabbed one before adding, “I didn’t want to drag you into this, but I didn’t know what else to do. Doing it alone is hard.”
     Ferenc lit his cigarette. “You’re not dragging us into anything. This whole elemental-and-guardian thing became a part of our lives the moment I hit you with the jet.” She smiled sheepishly, and he flashed a smirk in return. “But I’m glad you came to us. We’ll help any way we can . . . within reason. Right?” He shifted his attention to Dormouse. “That’s what friends are for.”
     She didn’t reply, but the faint nod of her head told him she agreed.
     Dormouse had wanted nothing to do with being an elemental from the start. She’d been running from all the unwanted attention from Richard’s masked goons and unearthly creatures—lunanites. Ever silent and reticent, the thought of being an elemental scared her, and he couldn’t blame her. He never forced her to do anything she didn’t want, and he’d done his best to prevent Olivia from pushing her to that point.
     When Richard had kidnapped Dormouse, forced her into her sylph form, and drained her energy to use against him, Ferenc had vowed to himself to double down on never forcing her to do anything involving being an elemental or using powers. He’d continued practicing, mastering his own air abilities, and in the meantime, he’d kept his word. He planned to continue to do so.
     “Come on,” he said, putting the lids back on the containers. “Help me pack this up, then we can go home and figure this out together.”

Did You Enjoy the First Chapter?

If Chapter 1 pulled you in and left you wanting more, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to share in the comments!

And if you’re new to this world, or want to revisit where it all began, you can start with The Elemental’s Guardian, the first book in the Elementals trilogy. Ebooks are currently on sale for $1.99 USD (or your currency’s equivalent) until 11:59 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.

Want to stay in the loop? When you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll receive:

 – Chapters 1–3 of The Elemental’s Guardian
 – Updates, bonus content, deleted scenes, and first looks

And don’t forget: preorder bonuses for The Gatekeeper’s Portal are available until December 29 at 11:59 p.m.

Thank you for reading and for being part of this journey. I can’t wait to officially open the portal with you.

Raine