by Alicia Fabel
Siphon Magic
Unraveled World - Book 1
Alicia Fabel
Alicia Fabel
Siphon Magic
Unraveled World Series
Copyright © 2018 by Alicia Fabel
All rights reserved
First published in 2018
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 prior written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
This is a work of fiction. All characters are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Stay in Touch
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
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Also by Alicia
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Tempest Song
Stay in Touch
Facebook - AliciaFabel.Author
Instagram - @AliciaFabel
Website - AliciaFabel.com
For Aaron, who believed in me before I believed in myself. My biggest cheerleader and best friend.
1
Vera stared wide-eyed up at the mountain lion, the ultimate screw you from Lady Luck. She hadn’t seen the beast perched above her as she scrambled up the tree in the darkness. Bloodied fingers latched onto the branch so she didn’t end up a nasty splatter of girl-bits on the ground below. Tremors rocked her body while she tried to look like a fierce adversary rather than a juicy flesh-bag of cat chow. The animal could probably see right through to her squishy, terrified core, but this was the only play Vera had. Running away was not an option. A different monster, one that should not exist, hunted in the forest down below. Mountain lions were pee-your-pants-worthy but a deranged centaur? Yeah, nope. Not happening.
Even if there hadn’t been a centaur, Vera couldn’t have run from the cat. Turn your back on a mountain lion and it attacked. That fun fact was courtesy of Suzie, Vera’s old foster-mom. Suzie had taught Vera how to survive a mountain lion encounter after one of the big cats was found napping in a guy’s garage down the street. Still, if there hadn’t been a mythical monster to worry about, Vera probably would’ve run. She was not the kind of person who faced down mountain lions, no matter what the experts said. Lady Luck must be rolling on the floor somewhere. The old biddy had plagued Vera with a lifetime of misfortune for kicks and giggles. Someday, Vera was going to punch her in the throat. For now, she drew on the anger twisting in her gut, letting it fuel her bravado. No way would she give up on her alive-and-kicking status the night before her nineteenth birthday. Lady Luck is screwing with the wrong girl.
It almost worked too.
Who am I kidding?
Vera had no idea how far away town was or which direction it was for that matter. If she managed to escape dismemberment by teeth and claws, and mutilation by hands and hooves, a wolf would probably eat her. Or she’d starve to death, and a pack of wolves would share her. It’s not like they were picky about freshness. A manic giggle bubbled up her throat at the thought. The centaur’s croon echoing through the trees obliterated it.
“Come out, sweetness,” called the monster. “You can't hide from me. I can smell you.”
A bead of sweat rolled down Vera’s brow and threatened to flood her eye. She ignored it. She couldn't have pried her fingers from the branch if she’d wanted to. Vera strained to hear a snapped twig or a trampled leaf or anything to tell her how close he was. But everything was drowned out by the pulsing in her ears and the frantic whoosh of her breaths.
“I wonder if you taste as sweet as you smell.” His voice surrounded Vera. The hairs on her arms rose. “I hope you're a screamer.”
It all fell silent, all the pounding and whooshing. Vera's vision blurred around the edges. The inky silhouettes of trees shrank farther away. She swayed like a raft anchored to shore by a fraying rope. Only the whisper of fur scraping against bark cut through the hypnotizing stillness. Vera sucked in a quiet breath and locked eyes with the mountain lion.
Stay away from me, cat.
The mountain lion's haunches quivered. It had inched closer while Vera had spaced out. Vera could see the moonlit meadow just beyond their tree reflected in its eyes. A wide-open meadow with all sorts of nowhere to hide from a half-man-half-horse-thing. That’s why Vera had climbed the tree in the first place. She wasn’t about to run out into the open. The cat whipped its head around to peer down into the darkness, teeth bared. Fur rose on the back of its neck. Vera’s stomach clenched. For a wild set of heartbeats, she did not move. Eventually, Vera’s gaze inched down toward the shadows.
Vera never got a chance to see if the monster was there. The mountain lion took advantage of her distraction and lunged. The furry mass of hard muscles slammed into her. Crying out, Vera broke her hard-won silence, not that it mattered anymore. Together, they fell from their sanctuary in the trees. Branches tore at Vera's flailing arms. A sharp pain ripped through one leg, and then Vera hit the ground beneath the mountain lion. Air rushed from her lungs with a grunt. Blood pooled beneath Vera’s head where it had struck a rock embedded in the soil of the meadow. To be fair, the fall afforded one lucky mercy: It knocked Vera unconscious for her imminent discovery.
Kale’s bare toes grew cold as he stood eyeing the crumpled body of a girl at the edge of his meadow. It was not improving his current mood at all. Mimi’s frantic arrival through the barrier had ripped Kale from sleep. Something he chronically lacked as it was. He hadn’t slowed to pull on boots, just charged to his friend’s aid. An exceptionally pain-in-the-neck feline friend who now crouched over the broken human. Mimi was protecting the girl from him.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Kale was ready to strangle the mountain lion.
Mimi’s defiant expression wavered, but she held her ground. Kale looked past her toward the boundary forest where the gates to all the realms of the world circled the meadow, constantly moving and rearranging. He couldn’t see them, but he could sense them. Like drafty chinks in his cabin walls. Each realm had a unique combination of scents, which floated on the air when its gate opened. Sienna soil, ash, lotus oil, farmland, salty sea, dung, jasmine, and wood-smoke lingered in the air, but the metallic odor of the human realm, called Earth, overpowered the rest since that was the last world-gate opened. With his mind, Kale felt along the magic that made up the meadow until he found the tendrils which joined the Earth gate to the meadow. Layers of magic threads wrapped securely around the gate, binding it closed. The seals had fallen firmly back into place as soon as Mimi had slammed the gate behind her. Earth’s world-gate was the only one sealed shut. Not even a hint of a breeze came from the human realm now. All those humans were safely locked away. Except for this girl.
“Why in the name of the Infernal Ones, did you bring one back with you?” Kale’s voice was scary-calm.
Mimi blanched.
Kale sighed and ran a hand through his hair. This was partly his fault. While Mimi was able to hold the gate open from the other side, just enough t
o slip back through it when she was ready to return, Kale had to unseal it for her. Stars blast it. He knew the risks, but he did it anyway. For Mimi, he would do it again. The magic-less human realm was the only place where Mimi found some relief from the swirling magics that existed in every other corner of the world and which battered her mind endlessly.
“She didn’t come willingly, did she?” Kale asked Mimi, knowing it was the only explanation for why his friend would stand against him for a human.
Mimi nudged the girl gently with her nose then looked back at Kale, her slitted eyes pleading for mercy for the human whose presence in the meadow was forbidden. The moment the girl passed through the gate, her life was forfeit. Mimi knew it. And yet, here they were, Mimi silently begging Kale to spare the girl’s life, and Kale not doing any killing. The whole situation was preposterous, and Kale was about to make it worse.
“Maybe we can put her back where she belongs before she comes to,” he said.
Mimi narrowed her eyes suspiciously. It was understandable. Kale was not known for his mercy. In fact, if it weren’t for Mimi worming her way into his affections, along with her over-sized heart, Kale never would have considered anything other than a quick execution. Mimi was probably wondering if it was a trick. In the end, though, Mimi had no choice but to trust Kale or let the girl die. She moved aside to give him access. Kale squatted and brushed blood-matted hair away from the girl’s face and neck.
“At least now we know the meadow doesn’t discriminate when it comes to healing a human—she’s not dying,” Kale observed.
Kale wasn’t sure that was a good thing, but he was glad to see some of the tension melt from Mimi’s face. He considered the girl’s awkward position, tilting his head to mimic the unnatural angle of her nearly healed neck.
“You probably should’ve tipped it back in place before it healed like that.” Kale chuckled darkly. “Think the other humans will notice?”
Mimi yowled and head-butted him.
“I can fix it, but you’re not going to like it,” Kale warned.
Kale wrapped one scarred hand around the girl’s throat, placed the other on the crown of her head, and with a quick twist, snapped the girl’s neck for the second time that night. Her head flopped to the side. The mountain lion screamed like a woman possessed.
“Enough, Mimi! I told you I was going fix her. See?” Kale indicated the girl’s neck. “Still attached, which means she’ll live unless someone hears you and comes to see what’s going on. If they do, I will toss her out of here and let her live or die at the mercy of her own realm. Like I should have done already.”
Want me to do it for you? offered Ferrox, returning home from wherever he'd been all night.
No, you bloodthirsty beast, Kale snapped.
The horse’s sudden intrusion into Kale’s thoughts had startled the Guardian. Being caught off guard, even by Ferrox whose travel through the gates was as undetectable as his own, was galling. Ferrox threw Kale the horse-equivalent of a one-finger salute through their connection before severing the link. The moody horse sulked off to his barn at the center of the meadow near Kale’s cabin. Kale clenched his teeth and pretended not to notice the delighted glint in Mimi’s eyes. Mimi couldn’t hear the conversations between Kale and Ferrox, but she’d have noticed Kale’s jump when the horse arrived. Anytime Kale was not the thoroughly unshakable man the world believed he was, Mimi was annoyingly pleased.
Kale arranged the girl’s head so it sat straight on her shoulders and pressed an index finger to her forehead to keep it in place while the meadow repaired the muscles he’d just re-torn. Bone fused beneath the skin while Kale watched. The nerve fractures would take more time to heal, though. If Ferrox was home, the sun would be coming up soon, chasing away the darkness. Shadows were the only thing shielding their treason from anyone who might pop by.
“As soon as this human can survive on the other side, she’s out of here. The rest of her injuries will have to heal human-speed.”
Kale held up a hand to silence Mimi’s protests. Amusement gone, Mimi paced back and forth, throwing him dirty looks. Kale willed the meadow’s healing magic to work faster. The first human to land in the meadow was going to give him his first ulcer. He should’ve just killed her.
“You can stop looking at me like that,” Kale finally told Mimi. “I didn’t make this mess.”
Mimi’s glare heated. Stars help him if Mimi learned that—without magic— there was no way human healers could reverse all the damage done to this girl. Even after what the meadow had already accomplished. Mimi would never forgive herself. Or him, since he was knowingly sentencing the girl to her fate. Kale’s stomach churned with regret for what the girl would endure in the coming weeks and months.
The girl’s eyelids twitched—a good sign. Kale absently wondered what color her eyes were. In the moonlight, the girl’s dark hair was such a contradiction to her fair complexion that he couldn’t begin to guess. Ever so gently, he ran a thumb across one lid and decided any color would suit her. She seemed so small and fragile. But humans were not helpless. And Kale had nothing to regret. The girl would live, which was more than she was entitled to at this point. Out of time and patience, Kale rose to his feet, gathering the girl into his arms.
“All right, that’s good enough. I’ll be back. Stay here.” Kale silently called for the Earth gate. The meadow provided a narrow trail that would lead him to it.
Mimi, of course, ignored Kale. She spun around and bee-lined out of the meadow. His friend could not see the meadow’s trail, but she didn’t need it to find the Earth gate. From what Kale knew, Mimi was the only being in all the world able to see the world-gates. It’s how Mimi had first ended up in his life. Sighing, Kale cradled his burden as far from his chest as he could manage and carried her into the boundary forest. As expected, Mimi had already found the gate to the human realm before Kale got there. She walked alongside the moving gate until it settled in front of Kale. Her eyes tracing an arched outline was the only visible sign that the gate was actually there. The shifting gates ensured no one could easily skip out on their own realm and hop into another of their choosing. Although some tried. A pixie once hopped realms to escape his debts, only to end up back in the meadow a few days later with a missing wing, begging Kale to send him back home. Other realm jumpers hadn’t been as fortunate as the pixie. Most who tried didn’t make it past the Guardian to begin with. They never tried a second time.
Kale pulled at the thread bindings until the Earth gate opened. Mimi darted through. Kale didn’t bother trying to stop her. Once through the gate, Kale ignored the pull of the meadow calling him back. It was unpleasant, but centuries of practice had made it bearable. Mimi stopped immediately. Lifting her nose to sniff the chilled air, a growl vibrated in her chest. Pressing close to Kale, Mimi’s body warmed his leg all the way to his hip where she stood level. Kale frowned, and then smelled it too, lacing faintly through the moldering leaves and spicy butterscotch pine. Even after a millennium, there was no mistaking the scent—an unnatural was in the human realm.
“Is he tracking the girl?” Kale asked on a breath for only Mimi to hear.
Mimi nodded once, keen eyes scanning the forest around them. The abomination was not nearby, but he would be back. He would not stop hunting until he caught his prey. The girl stood no chance. Stars help me. Kale had no idea what to do. On the one hand, being Guardian meant keeping the realms safe from outside threats—like a human exposed to magic. If ever someone became a threat to a sibling realm, Kale was their executioner. Obviously, he wasn’t doing a very good job with that responsibility at the moment. On the other hand, Kale was also tasked with protecting the world’s innocents against perverse magic. An unnatural was the worst sort of perversion.
Damn the Infernals.
Once again, the girl was proving to be a contradiction. She was both human and an innocent. It was a scenario Kale had never considered. Now, he had to decide whether to risk the safety of the entire world
to keep her safe or walk away and guarantee her death. The girl flinched in his arms, her dreams plaguing her unconsciousness. Knowing he would regret it, Kale turned back to the meadow, carrying the girl with him. He nudged open the link that tied his mind to Ferrox’s and let the scent of the unnatural flow through it.
Old friend, I'm going to need your help to wipe out the infestation before it is unstoppable.
“Keep her quiet and hidden,” Kale instructed Mimi, who bounced along beside him like she’d earned a special prize. “I mean it, Mimi. If anyone discovers the girl, I will still kill her.” In this, he would be as helpless as the girl.
Mimi sobered while Kale’s long strides ate up the distance to the cabin. Ferrox waited for them, eyes smoldering red.
“Maybe we'll get lucky and get the human back to her realm before she even knows she left,” Kale said, more to reassure himself than anyone else. Mimi stretched out her neck and licked Kale’s elbow. “You really have to get control of yourself. Or go get some help.”
Mimi hissed at the suggestion as Kale had known she would. Kale smirked.
Vera woke in a small whitewashed room. Blinding sunlight streamed through sheer lace curtains to warm her face. She didn't have a chance to wonder where she was because staring at her, only a swipe away, was the mountain lion. Naturally, Vera intended to scramble away. All she managed was a single violent jolt, like someone whose dream-self just toppled down a staircase. Then her body was still, unable to answer her mind’s call to run, unable to move at all. Vera squeezed her eyes closed, breathing in a lung-full of whatever floral scent clung to the white sheets tucked around her and hoping it would be over quickly.