Resist

by Shawn Knightley

  Resist

  Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book 3

  Shawn Knightley

  Copyright © 2019 by Shawn Knightley

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  About the Author

  Also by Shawn Knightley

  1

  “I’m dreaming,” I muttered to myself over and over again until it stuck. “I’m dreaming. This isn’t happening. Don’t panic!”

  That didn’t stop the myriad of thoughts from tormenting my brain.

  ‘What if this is another vision? Will I get trapped here? I can’t go through that again.’

  I was surrounded by the same ruins that towered over me when Dirk linked our lives together in some weird magic ritual. The stones curved up toward the sky as the clouds drifted through the air like an ominous fog. Trees swayed outside the ritual circle. Bristles from the branches fell in the light wind and rolled over the stones beneath my feet.

  I shuffled about, trying to make sense of things. It was dark. I could feel the moon’s light giving my body strength. Which was a nice change of pace considering the last time I was here my limbs had been poisoned with silver vapor. I could walk freely. Locksin didn’t restrain my body as it did before. The area was completely abandoned. I was the only one there.

  I took cautious steps around the circle, quietly attempting to make sense of the dream. It was definitely the same area. It wasn’t just the ruins that I recognized. It was the chaos that died down and lay before me in the aftermath. The charred remains of Devon’s skeleton were lying on the stone surface of the ritual area, blackened from the magical flames that ravaged his body. I approached his bones and looked down on them. It was my turn to kneel to him with a broad smile on my face.

  ‘Looks like I gained the upper hand in the end,’ I thought. ‘Or rather…Adeline did. But I helped. Somehow.’

  I peered down at his bones. His furs and cloak had been completely burned away. Along with his leather trousers that covered his legs. I looked over what was left of his lifeless form only to see a sliver of light over one of his ribs. I squinted and took a closer look. Part of his bone was shining under the pale moonlight.

  I hesitantly touched his rib and found the blackened ashy material from the magical fire that consumed him rubbed away with a simple stroke of my thumb. His bones weren’t normal. They weren’t off white and they weren’t entirely burned away. I rubbed a little harder to see more light shining down on his skeleton under the moon through a lock of my long black hair.

  “What in the world?” I muttered.

  His bones were silver.

  I rubbed harder against his remains to see if the entire skeleton was the same. I dusted away the blackened ash from his skull, his pelvic bone, his leg, and his forearm.

  Devon got what he wanted. He managed to find my brother without me and sell his soul over to him and the Dolch Erbe. But I didn’t think dying was a part of his plan. Even so, he managed to do something with his body that was a mystery to me. His skeleton was made of silver.

  An edge flickered to his side buried under what was left of his left arm. I gently lifted it to see a straight edge that wasn’t part of his skeleton. It was the box he used back in Lothar’s bedchamber. The intricately carved box that shot bolts of silver lightning through the air and paralyzed everyone in the room as they tried to take him down and protect me. I reached down for it and gave it a solid yank when it refused to budge, making sure my fingers didn’t let the lid slide off. I wasn’t sure how it worked but I knew better than to let the lid fall away after Devon displayed the power it possessed.

  I stood up and examined the box. It was no bigger than my hands and seemed like nothing more than a silver jewelry box. I knew better. And apparently, so did whatever else lived in this area.

  The faint sound of whispering touched my ears as I turned the box over and tried examining it more closely.

  “Who’s there?” I shouted.

  The whispering grew louder. Voices spoke in an old language I didn’t recognize. It sounded like children. Then women. And eventually deeper, like the voice of a commander in an army.

  I backed up from Devon’s body, wondering if I had disturbed some sort of natural harmony that existed in this area. If it was even capable of having harmony. I sensed the first time I came here that it was old. Many lycan had died here. And I wasn’t sure what evil lived within the surrounding forest. But whatever it was, it didn’t like that I had the box in my hands.

  ‘It’s a dream. Remember that. Whatever it is can’t harm me.’

  Fog rolled in over my feet. The wind howled and blew the dirt and leaves about the circle. I stumbled backward as the feeling of being watched started causing the skin on my back to get warmer. As if someone I couldn’t see was staring daggers right into my backside. I bumped into the empty remains of the cauldron. I remembered the way it hissed as Devon and Dirk spilled the wolf’s blood into its contents. The way magic flowed over the top and danced before me as the luxra commanded. The fog smashed right into me only to unveil what was under the woodpile that heated the cauldron. Burned logs and twigs brushed away from the center. That was when I saw it. The stones underneath me formed a design in the ground. The symbol of the Dolch Erbe was right under my feet. Only there was something different about it. The broken triangle was wider at the center. Right in the middle lay a small rectangular shape. I went in for a closer look only to have my suspicion confirmed. It was the shape of the silver box in my hands.

  ‘No, that can’t be possible.’

  The whispers of children and the sound of feet running about drifted through the trees and reached my ears, tempting me as if it was some sort of game. Whatever spirits resided here, they wanted me to play along.

  My knees trembled as I lowered myself to the stone ground once more, taking the box from my hands and placing it in the center of the large Dolch Erbe symbol. There was dirt inside, I reluctantly reached in to swipe it away and make room. To my shock, the box fit perfectly inside the small opening. But it wouldn’t go down all the way. I had to push it in. Only when I did, I heard something snap.

  ‘Oh jeez, did I break it?’

  The sound of something scraping reached my ears, followed by gears moving. Metal twisting and bending, iron reshaping, bolts breaking, and stones sliding against one another.

  ‘Uh oh.’

  I backed away as my legs slowly started sinking. I gasped to see that the ground underneath me was moving down. Long beams where stones once were appeared to stay in place. I shuffled my body over one of the beams and tried to steady myself as the ground began to shake as if I had caused some sort of earthquake. Trees trembled above me making twigs and bristles fall from the sky. The fog rolling in spread out around the circle and didn’t move penetrate it. The whispering grew lou
der and louder until it was a clear as daylight reaching my ears.

  Beams of light shot through the moving layers of the stone circle. I raised my hand to my eyes, trying to prevent blindness from consuming my sight. No such luck. It was overwhelming. And not just for my eyes but for my balance. I fought to stand up straight on the beam as the ground beneath me kept moving. It was no use. I fell to my hands, struggling to stay on all fours as the stones kept going lower and lower. My eyes finally adjusted enough to see the entire area lit up in a luminous glow. The circle wasn’t an ordinary witchling ritual circle. It was a tomb. Below the beams were five old stone coffins, each engraved with the symbol of the Dolch Erbe. And each sealed tightly shut. The area was sacred. A form of burial ground. I instinctively knew who the occupants of the coffins were before the light started to slowly dim. It was the remains of the original members of the Dolch Erbe. This ritual ground was strong because it was where they were buried. And it was also a place I definitely didn’t want to be. Even in my dreams.

  I stood up and slowly backed away as if I was walking backward on a balance beam in a very clumsy gymnastic display. I was never a particularly graceful person but I did my best to feel each step with my toes before placing my foot down.

  Ravens cawed above me, shaking from the trees and swooping through the circle of ruins. The light was still bright enough for me to see the area lit up for the first time once I reached the edge of the circle. I could stand on solid ground again.

  The ruins standing high around me weren’t always falling down to the earth. Nor did the trees grow all around them. It was once a cathedral. A very old one that tried standing the test of time. The whispers were those of the parishioners, praying to God and begging for everything that would make their lives easier. A strong harvest, a faithful spouse, and more rainwater to prevent drought for their crops. It was holy ground. And the Dolch Erbe had destroyed it by turning it into some sort of sacrificial area to murder lycan. Then they buried their leaders here so the area would be permanently destroyed.

  I lowered my hand from the light as it grew dimmer under the sky. I could see everything from where I stood. The center pillar was where the cauldron once sat. Five long beams made of aged white marble formed a star-like shape between each coffin, separating the resting bodies from one another. The coffins appeared older than some of the most ancient objects I had seen in the British Museum. So old that I doubted there was anything left inside of them after centuries of rot and decay.

  Imagine my surprise when the one at the far center of the star started to move. The lid of the coffin shuddered, shaking slightly and making me doubt if what I saw was really happening. It jolted to the left, forcing the old stones to shift as dust fell and rolled onto the ground beneath the coffin. My eyes widened, half-expecting to see a skeletal hand appear from the inside. Only it wasn’t a skeletal hand that I saw first. It was a normal hand, grabbing the edge of the stone lid and pushing it to the side. This was the moment when most people would run for their life. Not me. Not Riley Blackburn. I was the nut case that looked closer and nearly fell forward through the gaping hole to the coffin down below, half expecting them all to start opening and for the living dead to arise in my dream and run after me.

  But this was a dream. Nothing more. I reminded myself of that with each passing second. Especially when the lid of the coffin was shoved to the side and a familiar face sat up and rose to stand before me.

  It was Dirk. He was alive. And he was standing in the same clothes I last saw him in. His tattoos were still visible, his leather trousers were still dirty, and his expression was equally as menacing as the night he had Devon kidnap me.

  Only a single thing was different about him. There was a wand in his hand. A long wand made of ivory with a piercing red glow at the tip, shining his crowning magic from inside his skin.

  ‘Since when can you use a wand?’

  I let my magic seep through the creases of my palms, making sure he knew I was ready to defend myself if I had to. He caught me off guard once. It wouldn’t happen again.

  The silver box sitting atop the marble pillar in the center started to shake. Dirk raised the ivory wand in his hand and pointed it at the lid. It shot off into the night sky releasing the power inside. Silver lightning lit up the forest as bolts erratically shot through the air in search of targets.

  It hit the trees, causing a few branches to crash to the ground and into the holes of the circle, smashing against the coffins below with a mighty crash. The bolts shot through the air again, lighting the trees on fire. By that time I was focused on my magic and creating a shield around my body in a spherical shape, envisioning it protecting me with all the strength I could gather. The lightning struck the scarlet red magic circling me once, twice, then three times. Dirk couldn’t break through it.

  I watched as he let his crowning magic drift under his feet and carry him atop the circle until he was floating. He landed on one of the beams and walked toward me with the wand pointed in my direction.

  ‘Oh no, you don’t!’

  I let the shield around me burst like an explosion sending my magic right in his direction and not caring about the consequences. I wouldn’t be his victim again. Only when the magic struck him right in his chest and sent him flying, it did the same to me. A sharp pain erupted right in my center, as though someone took a heavy hammer and thrust it right into my sternum, cracking it wide open and forcing all the air right out of my lungs. My bones rattled. My legs shook and turned into jelly. My muscles tensed as waves of electrical power pulsated throughout my body. The lightning caught me as soon as Dirk’s guard was down. He no longer had control over it. It struck everything in sight. The stone ruins, the trees, Devon’s remains, and the coffins below the circle. Nothing was at its mercy. And nothing would be spared. I froze on the ground, gasping in pain and struggling to take in a single breath as the earth quaked beneath my feet. The power inside the box was destroying the ritual circle. Dirk unleashed something he couldn’t control.

  Magical silver lightning struck my body once more. The hairs on my arms singed down to the skin and burned my flesh. I could feel my muscles tearing open as my body threatened to rip apart. That was when my eyes bolted open and I sat up in bed with a start.

  I reached for my chest, finding it moved up and down with ease and no pain whatsoever. I could finally breathe again.

  The white sheets underneath me were covered in sweat. My pajamas were soaked. I looked like I had stepped into a pool and didn’t bother to towel off before going to bed.

  My crowning magic flickered on the floor, dancing about in an array of sparkling light on the decorative rug and stopping once it reached the mixture I spread around my bed before going to sleep each night. It was the mixture Lothar said he would have Rodrick provide to me. It worked like a charm. And it prevented another fire from consuming the room and burning my roommate alive. Which fortunately was Alina now, not McKenzie. She recommended I share her bedchamber given she had an extra bed. Also, a few of the students heard about me shacking up with Lothar and the rumor mill ran wild with the possibilities of a Vontex courting a student. Alina wasn’t about to have my honor ruined. So she invited me to stay with her. I quickly accepted then spent the majority of the first few nights refusing to sleep until I mastered controlling my crowning magic so I wouldn’t set the room on fire. I didn’t want a repeat of what happened to McKenzie.

  I shut my eyes and commanded my magic to gradually dissipate, letting it seep back into my body and mold with my skin. I didn’t open my eyes again until the final trace of magic was locked deep inside of me.

  I threw the comforter off my body and set my feet on the rug, still trying to catch my breath.

  Alina was on the other side of the large bedchamber, sound asleep. Her chest slowly moved up and down with the beat of her heart. Her eyelids were moving back and forth. She was dreaming. I could only hope her dreams were far more pleasant than mine.

  I reached for an elastic
band on the end table and put my sopping wet hair back in a bun. I could feel the drip of the wet strands hitting my back and threatening to soak me even more. I tiptoed over to the dresser and reached inside for a new set of pajamas that Alina took me to London to buy. If there was one activity Alina loved, it was shopping. It gave her a sense of being human, I suppose. And it got her around normal people for a little while. Something she claimed was crucial for the Vontex given the nature of their intense work.

  I threw off the wet pajamas and pulled a white night shirt and shorts she chose for me over my head, all the while trying to revisit the dream and decipher if it was a vision or just some sick and twisted nightmare. I knew there was only one way to find out. But would the Vontex take a journey away from here to somewhere I couldn’t find again? Would they endure the risk?

  One key element to the dream was vivid in my mind. The forest wasn’t just any forest. And the church wasn’t any old church. In Alina’s lecture, she said the origins of the Dolch Erbe were in Bavaria. The area of Europe now known as the Czech Republic. Much of the dream remained a mystery to me. The location, however, wasn’t an enigma anymore.

  It was deep inside a forest in the Czech Republic. And I wouldn’t be able to find it again without the help of the Vontex.

  ‘I must be mad. I can’t go back there!’

  Even as the words ran through my mind I knew it was inevitable. I had to go back. It was the only way to know if I was right. The original members of the Dolch Erbe might be beneath the ritual ground. And if so, I needed to know what that meant.