The Discovered

by Maggie Sunseri

  Her face merely showed annoyance. “Right,” she said slowly, breaking the tense silence. “I’m Taryn. I’ve been tasked with… babysitting you, basically.” She rolled her eyes, and I could pick up on a slight accent similar to Irish in her rich, low-pitched voice. “I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me here, so we can just stay out of each other’s way, all right?”

  I prickled at the word babysitter, my nostrils flaring.

  “I won’t be staying,” I muttered.

  She laughed. “Okay. Good luck with that. I’m going to let the King know you’re awake.”

  And with that, she tossed a book onto the table next to her haphazardly, got up, and walked to another set of doors on the right. I got a glimpse of a dim hallway as she slipped out, light flickering and bouncing off a golden wall.

  As soon as she left, I gathered up as much power as was available to me, thinking of the first place to come to mind—the place with the Aurora Borealis. I didn’t know how I would be able to outrun Lucius, but I had to try. I wouldn’t be waiting around to find out what his plans were for me, and surely someone in Aradia could help me. I couldn’t imagine Lucius was popular with the masses.

  I closed my eyes and conjured up a strong vision, and the room began to spin. With a whoosh I transported, but when I opened my eyes, I let out a frustrated gasp.

  I was back in the bedroom I’d awoken in.

  I tried it a few more times with the same outcome, growing more and more enraged. I couldn’t stay here. Not when I’d been lied to and betrayed so deeply, not when the only person I knew here in my mothers’ realm was a completely different person than I’d fallen in love with, not when all of my instincts and intuition had been wrong. Was I even as special as I’d let myself believe if none of the forces of the Universe could have warned me of Daelon’s treachery?

  Maybe Daelon and Lucius were right. Maybe I wasn’t a threat. Maybe I was just as naïve and weak as they made me feel.

  “Are you quite finished?”

  I spun around to see Lucius in the doorway to my bedroom, his arms crossed.

  “You can’t leave, obviously.”

  I glared at him, the helplessness of my predicament finally setting in. If I wanted out, it looked like I was going to have to play a long game. There was nothing I could do right now but stay alive.

  He tapped his fingers along his arm, watching me silently. I blocked out his unnerving energy, unable to stand the reminder that I’d been kidnapped by a mass murderer.

  He killed my mothers.

  “Just be grateful I didn’t stick you in the dungeons,” he said with a small grin. “See? Despite what your little sixth sense may have led you to believe, I am a benevolent and fair ruler.”

  I clenched my fist at my side. “You’re a fucking murderer. I can feel how unnatural your power is—like it never even belonged to you in the first place,” I spat, remembering how Daelon had struck a chord earlier.

  Lucius stepped forward, the look in his eyes as sharp as daggers. He stopped inches from me, his hand raised in the air like he was going to hit me. I just stared up at him, refusing to back down.

  “I could strike you down right now, but I won’t,” he said, lowering his hand. “Because I know that you’re probably having emotions. I’ve heard they can be difficult.”

  I drew my brows together, my breathing shallow as I held his gaze. Usually, sociopaths didn’t brag about being sociopaths.

  “Talk to Taryn about it,” he said with faux concern in his eyes. “She’s a wholly unpleasant woman, but she knows all about Daelon—so you have that in common.” He smiled. “But the next time you disrespect your king, I will not hesitate.”

  He reached out a hand toward my face, and I slapped it away out of instinct. My act of insolence was met with my airway constricting, leaving me gasping for air.

  He grasped my chin and narrowed his gaze. “Is that understood?”

  Spots formed in my vision as I ran out of oxygen. He released me just before I succumbed to the blackness. With a flick of the wrist, he sent me stumbling backward, catching myself on my forearms as I gulped in air.

  He sighed. “Lovely. I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t hate Daelon too much. He was merely following orders.”

  He turned to leave, stopping in the doorway. “If you stop and think about it, I was the only one telling you the truth this whole time. If only you’d listened.” He clucked his tongue. “Your time with the humans has made you stupid and naïve.”

  I vaguely heard him speak to Taryn, followed by his booming laughter before the slamming of a door. The atmosphere was quiet for a moment, and I was relieved to feel Lucius’s suffocating energy leave along with him.

  “You all right, love?” Taryn asked as she appeared in the doorway, her smugness softening at my no doubt pitiful appearance on the floor. “You look like shite.”

  I laughed in surprise, the act unleashing all manner of pent-up emotion. The laughter quickly turned into sobs as I buried my head in my hands. I tried in vain to reel myself in as I lost it in front of this stranger, but the more I fought the more hysterical I became.

  Wind whistled and bore down upon the windows next to us, and I was vaguely aware of what sounded like hail beginning to pour down outside.

  “Whoa.”

  “Can you just leave me alone, please? I want to be alone.”

  I lifted my head to see Taryn pulling open the blinds to stare out the window, her dark brows drawn together as she turned back to me. “So, you were the one who cursed the castle with all of that end of days business,” she said, crossing her arms and throwing me an accusatory look. “I was interrogated rather intrusively over that.”

  I shook my head, sniffling. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

  She pressed her lips together then shrugged. “Well, all right then. If you don’t want my company I sure as hell am not going to beg ya. Tomorrow we can steal some of Daelon’s wine and get drunk in the gardens, yeah? That always makes me feel better.”

  Still trying to stop my hysterical sobs, I looked up at her in an incredulous confusion.

  “Right, sorry. Reading the room.” She raised her eyebrows and backed away. “Daelon wanted me to sleep on the couch until tomorrow, but you seem to be a lot more powerful than him, so I think I’ll listen to you instead. I’m in the quarters to your left. Have a good night. Or just a night, I guess.”

  I stared at her blankly. Somehow her incoherent rambling had actually seemed to calm me down.

  “Oh, and don’t try anything stupid. There are guards everywhere, obviously.”

  Not to mention I was bound from using teleportation magick. I clenched my fists, watching her leave as my power stirred.

  I shoved it away. I didn’t trust it anymore.

  Chapter 24

  I had no idea how long it had been since Daelon betrayed me. I couldn’t be sure of anything other than that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep tonight. In the dark and quiet, I could think only of him. I had never felt so alone, not even as a newly orphaned child in a strange city in a foreign country.

  My mind ran through all of our time together, and I simply couldn’t reconcile the Daelon that told me I belonged to him with the Daelon that dismissed me with such coldness in his eyes.

  I’d managed to drag myself into the bathroom for a much-needed shower, relieved that despite the unexplainable archaicity of the castle, it still had modern amenities. I’d found some kind of nightgown in the dresser and called it a night.

  I tossed and turned, the intensity of my rapidly shifting emotions spinning my magick out of control. I knew I was the reason it was raining down huge balls of ice outside right now.

  I shot up with a start at the sound of a door opening and closing in the distance. Quiet footsteps sounded from the living area, and I considered if it was morning already and Taryn was sneaking back in. I wondered idly if her job as my babysitter was a permanent position.

  At least it
wasn’t Daelon’s job anymore.

  I was seething again at the thought of him as my bedroom door eased open slowly. I pulled the sheets over myself, and my heart raced when I recognized the intruder as Daelon himself.

  “Get the fuck out,” I hissed.

  He held a finger to his lips. “Áine, listen.”

  “No,” I choked. “I never want to hear another word out of your mouth. You fulfilled your mission. You managed to gaslight me, break my heart, and gather your intel. Now leave me the hell alone.”

  “Please keep your voice down.” He moved closer tentatively, his eyes pleading.

  “As if I would ever follow another of your commands. You’ll have to find another way to get off,” I spat, fury giving a mean edge to my voice that I’d rarely heard before.

  His jaw tensed, closing his eyes for a moment. “I don’t have much time. I never lied to you, I swear. I’m still protecting you. I’ve always protected you. I’m going to help you find all the answers you need.”

  I shook my head. I wanted to hurt him. I knew that I could, easily.

  “Your enemies are my enemies,” he said, his voice low like it always was when he said this to me.

  I opened my mouth then closed it. My power swelled, but it didn’t want to hurt Daelon. Not like it wanted to hurt Lucius.

  But I did.

  I allowed him to approach me, and he stopped just next to my bed. He fell to his knees.

  “Energy doesn’t lie, Áine. You know that.” He reached out his arm slowly, begging me with his eyes to read him.

  I shook my head, tears welling up in my eyes against my will. “I wish I’d never met you.”

  “I know that’s how you feel right now,” he sighed. “But you’re my home. And I’m yours. There are more of us. I know you feel it.”

  I looked ahead, refusing to meet his eyes.

  He brushed away a tear on my cheek with his thumb, and I caught his wrist in mine, finally bringing myself to glare into his soul. He swallowed, and before I could close him out, I started to read his aura. He was… terrified. It was a desperate, erratic thing. Like the scared little boy running through the streets of a ravaged village.

  I let go of his wrist quickly. I would not give him the satisfaction.

  “Áine, please.”

  “Get out.”

  “I—”

  “I could have killed him. I could have killed him, and I would have been free. I would’ve been able to finally learn about my people and my purpose out of the shadows.”

  “There’s so much I need to tell you. That I can tell you, finally. That dagger wasn’t going to do what you thought it would.”

  I raised a hand, and Daelon watched cautiously as I reached it toward his chest. Fiery energy welled up in my palm, and I didn’t stop it from breaking forth through the air. I wanted him to feel exactly what I’d felt the moment I realized he’d betrayed me. I watched as he sputtered and grasped his chest, reading this shattering emotion as if it were his own.

  I breathed in shallowly, preparing for the worst. If he was the man who agreed I needed to be put in my place, then here was his opportunity.

  Instead, he was motionless and silent, looking at me with dark eyes that were filled more with sadness and shame than any kind of spite. He took in a deep breath, recovering from the burst of my own pain I sent into his heart.

  “Get out,” I repeated, slower and firmer. I had nothing more to say.

  He blinked, nodding before he recoiled from me and stood. “I really do love you. More than anything in this world.”

  “You have a fucked-up way of showing it.”

  “Don’t lose yourself in this place. It’s easy to do. You are still our hope. You have friends where you least expect them.”

  Hope you enjoyed the The Discovered, The Lost Witches of Aradia Book 1. Keep scrolling for a free short story about life inside Lucius’s castle prior to Áine’s arrival.

  Also keep scrolling to read the first few chapters in The Coveted, The Lost Witches of Aradia Book 2.

  Note from Maggie

  Interested in a closer look at life inside Lucius’s dark, seductive court prior to Áine’s arrival? I’m offering a free bonus short story to newsletter subscribers. All you have to do is CLICK HERE and sign up for my newsletter to get your free story.

  * * *

  Also, keep scrolling to read the beginning of The Coveted, The Lost Witches of Aradia Book 2, releasing February 2022. Or purchase The Coveted by clicking here.

  * * *

  One last thing! If you enjoyed The Discovered, I would be eternally grateful if you left a review on your favorite bookseller’s site. As an indie author, my fans’ generosity is absolutely crucial for the success of my career. You’d be really helping me out, and for that I will be sure to send you good witchy vibes through the astral plane. Here’s a link that makes it easy: CLICK HERE

  Also by Maggie Sunseri

  THE LOST WITCHES OF ARADIA

  The Discovered

  The Coveted

  The Illuminated

  The Hunted

  * * *

  THE AWAKEN SERIES (Young Adult Series)

  Awaken

  Arisen

  About Maggie Sunseri

  Maggie Sunseri graduated Cum Laude from Centre College in 2021 with a degree in Anthropology/Sociology. Thanks to the virus-that-shall-not-be-named, she was forced to halt her travels abroad and study from home her senior year of college. Thus, The Lost Witches of Aradia was born, the first three novels completed soon after graduating. And the series is far from over.

  When she’s not dreaming up new worlds, she’s uncovering the esoteric secrets of the Universe, practicing witchcraft, and astral projecting to visit her pals in other dimensions. Or, you know, just drinking lots of coffee and pretending to be an extrovert. If you’re dying to hear more about Maggie, you can read her blog or sign up to get each post in your inbox via Substack.

  Connect with Maggie:

  maggiesunseri.com

  The Coveted - Book Description

  Held captive by the evil, illegitimate King of Aradia, Áine is forced to conceal her true magick or face certain death.

  King Lucius shouldn’t have allowed her to live. But blinded by paranoia and arrogance, he has big plans for Áine and her coveted, ineffable power. With her life hanging in the balance, Áine finds herself making hard and fast decisions about who to trust—especially when it comes to her former trainer and fierce protector Daelon. With Daelon back at Lucius’s side as the Commander of the Guard, Áine struggles to see beyond his betrayal and to the destiny they both share.

  Lucius’s castle is a tapestry of pleasure, power, and darkness. Underneath the façade of decadence and beauty lays a dark history obscured by magickal binds, and Áine’s mission is to expose the truth before she, too, succumbs to Lucius’s dominance.

  While working in the shadows to find allies, Áine falls deeper under the spell of life inside the golden, ethereal castle walls—and all the elites that call them home. And as she gets closer to understanding her purpose, she fears she isn’t the only one plotting in secret.

  The Coveted is the addictive, fast-paced second installment in The Lost Witches of Aradia series. Grab a copy today and fall under Áine’s spell as she guides you on a compelling journey through a multidimensional reality.

  The Coveted - Excerpt

  The Coveted: The Lost Witches of Aradia Book 2

  © Copyright 2021 Maggie Sunseri

  All Rights Reserved

  Prologue

  Two decades ago on unconquered lands…

  * * *

  My home was in flames. The witches the High Priestess warned us about had finally found us.

  They broke through the force field and brought with them magick that was cold, dark, and ill. I still didn’t understand why they were doing this, but I knew I had to protect my parents and my coven. That was what my gift from the Goddess was for.

  “Dad?” I called out
, coughing. My eyes burned and my chest ached from the smoke that surrounded me. My stomach turned into knots as I remembered Mom was at ritual. We needed to find her before the Order did.

  I stumbled through the doorway into the kitchen. The stove was up in flames that were unnaturally black, and they screamed like a wailing tea kettle. When I caught sight of movement beyond the window in the backyard, I hurried through the side door and into the open air. My lungs heaved with relief at the freshness of the warm afternoon air.

  “Dad?” I yelled.

  My father stood among the grass and the wildflowers, but he was not alone. I heard screaming and blasts in all directions. I wanted to cover my ears and cry, but I knew I needed to be brave.

  There were two men in front of my father, dressed in dark clothing. Their faces were warlike as they glanced at me before setting their attention back on my dad, who was in a defensive stance, his hands glowing with energy.

  “Daelon, run. Go find your mother. Use your gift if you need to,” he said, straining to deflect blackish energy shooting his way from the bad men. “I love you. Now, run.”

  I gulped, trying to decide if I should listen to him or help him. My father was strong. He was a shield like me.

  “I said go, Daelon!” He strained as black energy snaked toward him, icy and dense. I’d never seen magick like it. Or maybe I had, in the deepest, darkest abyss of my nightmares.

  A lump formed in my throat as I hesitated to leave my father to fight the men off by himself. They barely acknowledged my existence as I stood, frozen in place. “I can’t move,” I croaked over the din of destruction. I started chanting to raise my energy. I wanted to help.