by A. K. Koonce
He clutches his broken nose that’s unfortunately already healing.
Damn hybrid healing!
He stares at me, not with anger but understanding like he knows he deserved that and more. I release another long breath that shakes my chest, just wanting to be able to breathe again. I won’t breathe with ease until she’s in my arms again.
I turn from him, not feeling threatened in the slightest with my back to the hybrid. The three of us trail up the mountain side in silence.
When we’re close to Pike’s Peak my feet begin to falter. What if they took her? What if we’re too late? What if she’s dead?
I swallow hard and pull the Crimson Sword from my belt, holding it tightly in my hand as I walk cautiously toward the vampire’s lair.
I’m prepared to fight them. I’m prepared to die. I’m not prepared for the sight that greets me.
Blood coats the already dusty red mountains. My heart thrashes, trying to release the fear and anxiety building within me. I don’t want to see what’s around the bend, where the vampires reside, starving and wasting away for the last several decades—just dying for fresh blood.
The sword clatters to the ground, greeting the cursed earth that it was wielded from. It’s forgotten the moment I drop it, the moment my eyes land on her. I step over it, taking hesitant but eager steps toward the woman I love.
Within the shadows of the mountain she sits, shaded from the sun, her arms hanging at her sides with slouching and defeated posture. She’s alone here. The heavy spellbound boulders that sealed the vampires within Pike’s Peak have been pushed away. Because Fallon freed them…
Shifting crimson eyes meet mine, a feeling of fire passes through my stinging heart. It stutters in my chest as I take in her altered appearance.
“I… I… I’m sorry,” she says to us, her ruby like eyes sparkling with confusion and something similar to shame in the scorching sunlight.
With cautious steps I walk to her, my boots make no sound against the crumbling remains of the boulders that once shielded the world from the last remaining monsters. Blood smears her palms, like she fought to keep her mortality within her.
Kneeling before her, simple understanding lays heavily within me as I hold her gaze, my fingers cautiously trailing up the black lines that ink her cold wrist.
In this moment I am reminded of what I’ve always known: I know from too much experience that life can change in an instant, from one pounding heartbeat to the next… your life can crumble all around you. I know that there isn’t a whole lot that an Infinity witch’s dangerous magic can’t fix. I know that my heart beats for Fallon Fiercely… I’ll always love her.
Even if she is a vampire.
The End
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Chapter One
Meet Her Maker
Asher
The witch waits for my request. I came to her with a sense of desperation clinging to my every breath. The person staring back at me physically makes me sick; the feeling twists and turns until vomit burns up my throat with a vengeance. I’ve avoided the Infinity witch all this time because of its appearance.
It looks just like me. They appear as our darkest hopes and dreams … my hope is to one day see my brother again. My twin, my mirrored opposite. He assesses me, unaware of how he looks.
He isn’t real, though. He’s dead. Because of me.
“Say what you came here to say, hybrid.”
Dark eyes glisten in the moonlight, sparking to life. I woke the witch the moment we returned from the Red Hills. After hours of hiding in the shadows of the cursed land, Fallon was finally able to walk away from the vampire’s lair once nightfall came. They made her one of their own, and it hurt me to watch her cower where they once cowered. And although I didn’t say it, it pains me to see her in her newly changed form.
As a vampire.
She said she wouldn’t be accepted in the Wanderer’s community anymore; that she’d be better off alone. Honestly, she might be right, but I’ll never let that happen. I’ll always accept her, and she’ll always have me.
“Change her back,” I say through gritted teeth, but the witch already knows why I am here. This is the mystic who cast the curse on the last remaining vampires, and I know she feels it. The witch had to have felt it the moment it was broken.
The unnatural glare in the witch’s eyes makes my skin crawl, but I can’t back down. A shine glints through my brother’s dark brown irises changing from gold to silver to white.
“Careful. I am not someone you make demands of, hybrid. Who do you think created the Crimson Sword that gives you so much courage? Do you think you stumbled upon a second one in the Red Hills by mere accident?” The image of my brother leans closer to me, his lips tensing into a thin line as forced composure pushes through his lean body. With a confidence I’ve never seen a mystic possess, he runs his finger along the blade of the Crimson Sword at my waist. “I like Fallon, but you and I both know I can’t change her back.”
The two of us stand outside the witch’s home; a teetering stack of a towering house that reaches high into the dark heavens. What lies within the unnatural walls of this home? Loud and complaining creaks come from the structure with every strong wind that rolls in off the Emerald Ocean.
“Then tell me how to fix it. Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.” My heart pushes painfully against my chest, wishing to escape its prison. My lungs search in desperation for air, but every breath isn’t enough.
The witch’s eyes settle back into their warm chocolate color, sadness pulling at my brother’s solemn face.
“Have you ever thought this is what the Fates destined her to be? If I told you you’d have to trade your soul for hers, would you?”
“Yes.”
It’s that simple to me. It isn’t even a question. Rip my soul out right now and fix this injustice.
The Infinity witch’s thick brows rise high; a rarely seen look of shock crosses the witch’s face.
“Interesting …” Relaxation calms his features as he stares out into the crashing waves. “That isn’t the price, but it’s still interesting.”
All my life people have told me how utterly interesting I am, how spectacularly unique and interesting hybrids are. Right now I don’t give a damn about any of it.
“What’s the price?”
His attention drifts over every single wave, calculating each reaction of the sea. In this moment, I can see the centuries of time this witch has lived despite his youthful appearance.
“Fallon must meet her maker.” A chill shudders down my spine, dropping my heart through my stomach. “She must … destroy the one who made her.”
That doesn’t seem so bad. We can do that. Irrational optimism is all I can manage to find within my anxious mind.
“The vampire must die by her hands.”
Eagerly, I nod at the witch, understanding and realizing how easy it will be. Then, my brother stares back at me with terror in his eyes.
“Not a drop of blood can touch her hungry lips. She cannot feed, or she will be cursed in this form for the rest of her long and endless life.”
The breath forces from my lungs as my mouth falls open. Helpless fear crashes through me like bursting glass. Without another word, I’m running to her; to the young vampire who I know has only one thing on her mind.
Blood.
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> Also by A.K. Koonce
Resurrection Island
The Royal Harem Series
The Hundred Year Curse
The Curse of the Sea
The Legend of the Cursed Princess
The Hopeless Series
Hopeless Magic
Hopeless Kingdom
Hopeless Realm
Hopeless Sacrifice
The Harem of Misery Series
Pandora’s Pain
The Severed Souls Series
Darkness Rising
Darkness Consuming
Darkness Colliding
The Huntress Series
An Assassin’s Death
The To Tame a Shifter Series
Taming
About the Author
A.K. Koonce is a USA Today bestselling author. She’s mom by day and a fantasy and paranormal romance writer by night. She keeps her fantastical stories in her mind on an endless loop while she tries her best to focus on her actual life and not that of the spectacular, but demanding, fictional characters who always fill her thoughts.
Acknowledgments
I couldn’t have finished a single book without my support group: my friends; family; and, of course, my husband and daughter.
I want to emphasize how amazing my beta readers are. Thank you for always highlighting the beautiful parts of these stories and for not rioting every time a character came to their eminent death. You guys put the time into helping me really bring these books to life.
Sending all my thanks to my sister Angie, who’s always my partner in creativity and also my best friend. Thank you to my parents for supporting my weirdness, encouraging me to read at a young age, and for reminding me that I can do anything I want to do in life.
A huge shout out to my fantastic cover designer, Take Cover Designs, for creating a gorgeous image of Fallon.
A special thanks to my editor, Proofreading by the Page, for catching every incorrect thing I scribble out. Thank you for making this book as perfect as it can be and polishing it into something beautiful.
Thank you to my husband for always entertaining my eccentricity and supporting me even when I did not. A thanks to my beautiful daughter for unknowingly bringing me to this path in life and for being the most amazing kid a parent could ever ask for.
And a final thank you to you, the reader and supporter of the characters I have come to love. Thank you for taking the time to read about worlds outside of our own. You are the reason I write at all and you are the reason I love what I do.