by J. L. Weil
Celestial Shift
Nine Tails Book Nine
J.L. Weil
Dark Magick Publishing, LLC
Published by J. L. Weil
Copyright 2021 by J. L. Weil
http://www.jlweil.com
All rights reserved.
First Edition 2021
* * *
Edited by Stephany Wallace
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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.
Contents
Also by J. L. Weil
Prologue
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
Epilogue
Also by J. L. Weil
About the Author
Also by J. L. Weil
ELITE OF ELMWOOD ACADEMY
(New Adult Dark High School Romance)
Turmoil
Disorder
Revenge
* * *
DIVISA HUNTRESS
(New Adult Paranormal Romance)
Crown of Darkness
Inferno of Darkness
* * *
DRAGON DESCENDANTS SERIES
(Upper Teen Reverse Harem Fantasy)
Stealing Tranquility
Absorbing Poison
Taming Fire
Thawing Frost
* * *
THE DIVISA SERIES
(Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)
Losing Emma: A Divisa novella
Saving Angel
Hunting Angel
Breaking Emma: A Divisa novella
Chasing Angel
Loving Angel
Redeeming Angel
* * *
LUMINESCENCE TRILOGY
(Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)
Luminescence
Amethyst Tears
Moondust
Darkmist – A Luminescence novella
* * *
RAVEN SERIES
(Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)
White Raven
Black Crow
Soul Symmetry
* * *
BEAUTY NEVER DIES CHRONICLES
(Teen Dystopian Romance)
Slumber
Entangled
Forsaken
* * *
NINE TAILS SERIES
(Teen Paranormal Romance)
First Shift
Storm Shift
Flame Shift
Time Shift
Void Shift
Spirit Shift
Tide Shift
Wind Shift
Celestial Shift
* * *
HAVENWOOD FALLS HIGH
(Teen Paranormal Romance)
Falling Deep
Ascending Darkness
* * *
SINGLE NOVELS
Starbound
(Teen Paranormal Romance)
Casting Dreams
(New Adult Paranormal Romance)
Ancient Tides
(New Adult Paranormal Romance)
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Prologue
KARINA
It was strange how a journey could change you, particularly when the adventure wasn’t planned. My journey started with a tail, and ironically, it ended with one too—nine, to be precise.
Nine freaking tails.
As a Kitsune, nine was the max amount of tails I would be able to obtain, but it was also a feat that most Kitsune never accomplished.
And I had less than a year.
During that time, I discovered that those nine tails came with great power, and having that much power came with consequences. The magic in my veins often frightened me, but it also thrilled me. At times, I didn’t know which emotion was stronger, the fear or the fascination.
I always thought Devyn was the hero of my story—my fearless, protective, badass Shaman. He had been there through it all, protecting me, loving me, educating me, saving me, sheltering me.
I was wrong.
Turns out... I was the hero. I just hoped that I’d be enough. That I wouldn’t fail.
Talk about pressure.
Chapter One
KARINA
The world was nothing but ash and destruction before me. Utter shit.
I had no words for my first sight of Katsura—my kingdom. It was as if a thief had come through the sprawling darkness and stolen my ability to speak.
Beyond the expansive ancient darkness, something paced in the shadows. Breath-sucking coldness compressed down onto my chest, a primordial cold that made me want to curl up into a ball and summon a sphere of flames. It made me want to turn around and seek shelter in Willowland.
But I couldn’t run. Not now.
Shifting into my human skin, I stepped further into my kingdom, charred earth crunching under my boots as my eyes attempted to track the presence watching us.
Not fae.
Not human.
No, it was something else entirely, something that didn't belong in this world.
It had invaded my lands, sucked the very life and soul from everything that dwelled within these borders, and destroyed them.
How was I supposed to save this place? I wasn't sure if all the magic or power in the world could restore what was taken from the land.
Misery and sorrow hung in the air, so thick that I could almost choke on it. And yet, with Devyn and Kai at my side, we traveled further into Katsura, blackness enveloping us. It felt eternal.
Despite the cold that penetrated my bones, the air wasn't cold. It was warm actually. What a strange and eerie sensation to be both warm and freezing, like I suffered from the flu. Doing the only thing I could think of, I called forth my Kitsune flames, conjuring a ball of flicking light that hovered in the air in front of us. Not for heat, but to cut through the cloud of blackness that seemed to get darker and darker with each step we took, pressing against us like a moving cage.
A soft glow cast forth, just enough to chase the darkness for a few feet, offering us a little bit of visibility. Wild winds whipped through my hair, not of my making. The whistling through barren trees and crumbled walls were the only sounds my fae heard.
“Do you feel that?” I murmured.
“The blight,” Devyn replied. “It knows we’re here.”
Wrath and Fury had appeared at the Shaman’s back moments before I spoke, a telling sign that trouble brewed on the horizon. The mystical snakes hissed from where they wound around the hilts of the twin swords—creatures that could eat the sins of fae.
Kai’s lapis eyes shimmered in the unusual light that shone in the dark. “All the more reason to get our asses to the capital. Quick.” The Unseelie’s voice was ominous, much like the fae himself.
Devyn’s emerald eyes carved past the light o
f my flames. “For once, I couldn’t agree more.”
A shudder crawled along my spine as I stepped over what I thought was a skull. Animal or human, I didn’t know. Yet, did it matter? “What now?” I inquired.
“This is your rodeo, little queen. We’re following your lead,” Kai replied, smirking. It was impossible to tell if he had summoned any of his Unseelie powers though. His shadows would just blend seamlessly with the blight.
“Great. So we're all doomed,” I mumbled, my fingertips tingling with magic.
“You just broke through a barrier crafted by the gods,” Devyn reminded me. “Don’t sell yourself short, Kitten.”
True, but at a cost. I’d expended a large amount of energy and power. “Do you think it will attack?” I inquired. There was no way would I survive a battle at the moment. Could the blight sense my growing tiredness? My dwindling magic?
Devyn remained close to my side, a scowl permanently etched on his handsome face. “For now, it just appears to be watching us. But that could change at any second. We need to stay alert.”
“How far is the capital from here?” I asked. The idea of having to remain blanketed in the blight's creation filled me with an unprecedented amount of dread and despair.
“Weeks by foot, even for fae standards,” Devyn informed flatly.
“Weeks,” I echoed. “We don’t have weeks.” I was whining, but I didn’t give a shit. I didn’t know any girl who had been through what I had for six-plus months, and wouldn’t be pouting like a damn princess right now.
“I know,” Devyn conceded, sympathizing. He gave me a sad smile. “Which is why we need to find a faster mode of transportation to the heart of Katsura.”
Kai raised a brow. “And that would be?”
Devyn’s dark brows furrowed, and he rubbed his temple as if he was working out the startings of a headache. “I’m not sure, yet.”
I sighed through my nose. “Devyn, the blight won’t let us get that close to the city. By the time we figure out the fastest way there, it will have made its move.” I didn’t know what I thought would happen when I got to Katsura, or what I was expecting, but it sure as fuck wasn’t this.
“I know. For now, all we can do is keep moving,” he replied.
My flames wouldn’t last forever. Keeping them burning would eventually drain my magic, bit by little bit, and I needed to be doing the exact opposite. I should be conserving as much of my power as I could because this journey ended with me pitted up against the blight.
A concept that scared the ever-loving shit out of me.
How the hell could I defeat... this? An endless sea of yawning death?
My eyes panned the bone-scattered, crumbling land and hopeless gloom gripped me, causing the fire to flicker a hair, but it was enough for Devyn to notice.
“You can’t keep using your magic,” he informed. “You’ve already taxed yourself. We can do without the light for a while. Until we figure out what comes next.”
Truth be told, I didn’t want to be submerged into the shadows again, not wholly, but Devyn’s suggestion was smart and calculating, traits I sometimes lacked.
Kai flipped the hood of his cloak up over his head, the tails billowing out behind him. His dark clothes made him blend too well with the blight’s desolation. Unfortunately, his flames would be no help, seeing as they were born from darkness.
With each step I took deeper into the kingdom, the eternal night whispered in my ear, beseeching me to turn around, to leave this place to the blackness. The thing stalking us hadn’t made its move... yet.
I pressed forward while Kai and Devyn followed—my shield and my sword.
Hours after walking in nothing but shadows, it became difficult to remember there was a world out there full of life and light. The darkness was all consuming, and I had to wonder how much of the desolation I felt was caused by the blight. Could it penetrate or manipulate emotions?
There was so much we didn’t know about this corruption, which consumed and ate away at the Second Moon like a fatal disease.
“This is absurd.” I dropped to the ground, needing a moment to… I didn’t know, collect myself, regroup, rest, scream my fucking head off? All of the above, and in no particular order.
I let my magic disperse and my Kitsune shuddered with relief inside me. However, the girl in me wanted to call back the light. I hadn’t grown up afraid of the dark. I’d never been one of those kids who feared the monsters under the bed or in the closet. None of that was true now. As an almost adult, I was terrified of it all because I learned that the dark and the things that went bump in the night were very much real.
They were worse than I’d imagined.
My fingers sunk into the dry earth, residual tendrils of my magic still dancing on my fingertips. I didn’t think anything of it, barely noticed the fae power that had become a part of me. It was like an arm or a leg—an extension of my body. Yet, if I had consciously thought about what I did, I would have expected to feel some sort of connection with my kingdom, a sense of it welcoming me home, or a sigh of relief. Instead, I was sucked into a well of ink.
The moment my tingling hands touched the ground, something evil and cursed clutched onto me with invisible talons. Then… I was gone.
A different sort of blackness caved in around me, and the barren silence was replaced by the shrieking and shrilling of screams, most not human or fae. The cries of trees, animals, plants, and the earth itself thundered in my ears.
The blight.
For long moments, the sounds of torture assaulted my sensitive ears. I didn’t think it would ever stop, and when it finally did, the ringing continued. The world went still like black glass, a stark contrast from the shrieking that had thrown me off balance, scrambling my sense of awareness.
Something was wrong. I couldn’t think straight.
Desperately searching for something to grab onto, something for my eyes to cling to, I spun. Yet, there was nothing. No light. Only darkness. The blight had isolated me, taking away my shield and sword—the two people I depended on the most.
Bastard.
The curse vibrated deep within my soul just as a spindly hand grabbed me by the throat. My eyes bulged at the sudden loss of air, and I scoured the dire darkness to find the source. I saw nothing. Arms flailing, left, right, up, down, I fought to connect with something—anything. Yet, my hands sailed through empty air, as if my attacker wasn’t even there.
Unwilling to give up, I continued to struggle. I’d come too far to die now.
Laughter brushed my ear, foul and vile, and the sound left a rotten taste in my mouth. It wasn’t a normal laugh but irregular and off.
Bony fingers pawed at my body, while the hand around my throat eased just enough to let a small amount of air into my lungs. If the blight’s goal was to kill me, it was taking its sweet ass time doing so.
How the hell could I fight something I couldn’t see or reach?
Help! Help! Help! My mind cried out, the plea vibrating deep in my bones, and I sent it out into the nothingness that trapped me.
My lungs burned as I drew in more air. With each small breath, his invisible hand continued to roam my body, reaching places only Devyn had touched. Possessive fingers squeezed my breasts roughly, gripping my hips tightly, and roaming over my stomach in a way that made me feel like a trophy.
Mine. The word was hissed in my ear, or as close to the word as a being from another world could imitate.
A violent shudder rolled through me.
“Sorry, I already have a mate,” I whisper-rasped, my voice almost inaudible, but I knew the blight understood.
I felt his swift rage, but he was in more control than I was, and he reigned in that fury. Another twisted laugh brushed over my ear, as if to mock me, as if to remind me that I was alone and isolated, and he could do whatever he wanted with me. A reminder of the power he had by just stretching his pinky, assuming he had a humanoid shape at all.
That awful laughter also gave me a nudge,
reminding me of who the hell I was. Not a scared little girl with no way to defend herself. Not a human who lacked magic. I might not be a warrior, but I wasn’t powerless. Because of this corruption, I’d lost a friend. I’d lost time away from my family and friends. I could lose my mother, and my world.
A fire sparked in the bottom of my gut.
I have magic too, asshole!
Throwing my hands out in front of me, I let my power explode within me, all eight tails, mindless of the consequences. Every crevice of my body tingled with magic, and the combined force of my Kitsune powers caused my body to shimmer gold, lighting up the darkness. I yielded to my fae magic, giving myself up to it completely.
The spindly hands holding me instantly retreated. He made a shrilling sound, inhuman and alien, so high that it might have been audible only to the fae or creatures with intense hearing.
Suddenly, I was thrust out of the hole the blight had created.
“Kitten!”
When my sight returned, I was exactly where I had been—knees digging into the dirt, my palms pressed to the earth. The air moved in and out of my lungs effortlessly, no scorching or bruises from the fingers that had confounded me.
“Kitten!” Devyn yelled again, his hands coming to frame my face. Crouched in front of me, the panic made his emerald eyes wild.