A Kingdom of Iron & Wine : New Adult Fantasy Romance (The Ironworld Series Book 1)

by Candace Osmond

  In a flash, the tip of the dagger flicked across my palm. Blood oozed to the surface as I stifled a wince, but those bony fingers curled over my entire hand as he squeezed at the sides. His free hand grabbed a vial, one filled with white dust, and popped the cork with his sharp teeth.

  “What is that?” Julie tensed at my side.

  “Sands from the land of Summer, blessed in the Temple of Dreams,” The Reader replied. “Very hard to obtain. But I just need a single grain,” he added and tapped the vial gently over my wound.

  A single grain of glittering sand fell into the blood that covered my palm, and immediately a blinding light filled the tent, pulsing from my hand in a blanket of gold. I shielded my eyes, as did Julie, but The Reader stared unblinking in wonder.

  And with a vicious lick of his tongue–too quick for me to even cringe–darkness fell on us again. No, not darkness. The regular dim of the tent from before. So stark in the wake of the light that had just burned our eyes.

  “What was that?” I asked. My voice didn’t sound like my own.

  “Sunlight,” the Reader replied.

  “What?” Julie breathed, relaxing her arms.

  “Summer sunlight, to be exact,” he added with half a sneer. “You’ve got Summer blood. So slight, I couldn’t pick it up before. But I see it now. The crumb.” He slicked his lips. “It’s stronger.”

  I swallowed nervously. “Would using magic make it stronger?”

  The muscles around his pitless eyes moved as if he could actually see me. “That would do it.”

  “So, are you saying that the more I use it, the stronger it will get?” I asked.

  He sat stiffly as I glanced up at Julie, who wore a look of concern.

  “It’s very likely.” His tone had a playful hint. “Aren’t you going to ask me what else I saw?”

  I whipped my head in his direction. “What do you mean?”

  “Sometimes other images come to me during readings. Things I never sought.” A devilish sneer.

  Julie moved so close she brushed my arm. “Get to the point, Reader. What did you see?”

  Those dark holes widened in delight, and he cast his arms out dramatically as if putting on a show. “Darkness.”

  “Darkness?” My stomach clenched, and I leaned closer. “What’s that supposed to mean? Like… death?”

  “No, not death.” His expression turned distant. “Something else entirely. The darkness, it’s a living thing. And it calls to you.” He snapped out of the trance that seemed to take him away and faced me directly, the corners of his blood-stained mouth reaching his eyes. “Avery Quinn.”

  “How did you–” The word died on my lips as I exchanged a panicked look with Julie. I’d never told The Reader my name. But I supposed he could see just about everything. I clenched my jaw. “Tell me more about the darkness. Is it Evaine? Is it the mad queen? The Dark Lord?” I slammed my fist on the table. “Something else?”

  “Av’, let’s just go,” Julie said uneasily.

  The Blood Reader knew my name. It was only a matter of time before word got back to Faerie, and I’d have more than just Evaine to contend with.

  “No,” I said firmly and twisted in my seat. “I came here for answers. I’m tired of spinning with questions about my own damn life.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Tell. Me.”

  The Reader, unfazed by my determination, leaned back in his chair that moved with a life of its own as the spires grew and curled behind him until it became a small throne of sorts. He flipped my coins over the backs of his fingers. “Your time is up.”

  “I’ve got more money,” I said desperately and shot a hopeful look at Julie, who gave a quick nod.

  “Oh, I don’t think you possess the fortune I require for those answers,” he taunted with an eerie coo.

  Shadows moved outside and shifted across the floor where the tent’s fabric didn’t touch the floor. “Come on, Av’,” Julie said nervously, eyeing the shadows. “Let’s get out of here.”

  I stood and slammed both hands on the table. “No! I came here for answers, and you didn’t give me a single one!”

  The Reader’s bloodied lips pulled back over its teeth. Challenging. I’d pushed too far. “Don’t be throwing demands around my home, girl. Did I not tell you what’s in your blood? The power you possess?”

  “This power. Will it help me? Can I use it against the darkness?”

  “Yes and no.”

  “What kind of answer is that?” My eyes bulged. “Tell me something useful!”

  Julie tugged at my arm, hauling me closer to the exit. “Av’, come on–”

  “You’ll find your answers in the Temple of Dreams.”

  Everything came to a halt, and I exchanged a quick glance with Julie before eyeing The Reader. “In Faerie?”

  “Your time has expired.”

  And he was gone. Table and all. We stood in an empty, dark tent, and I followed Julie out into the bustling crowd of The Black Market. But it was all a muffled noise in my ears, competing with the hot thumping of my pulse. I hugged myself tightly, brimming with emotions.

  “Are you okay?” Julie asked calmly. My eyes stung as they glossed over. “Oh, Av’, it’s okay, don’t cry–”

  “I’m not crying,” I said curtly. “I’m pissed. I’m overwhelmed. The more I seek answers, the more questions pile up.” My gaze wandered to the dark booth at the end of the aisle where I’d once seen Cillian buying blood. “And the less I know about myself.” The angry tears spilled over and ran down my cheeks. “How did you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “When you realized you weren’t normal,” I replied. “How did you cope? How did you… go about figuring out who you were?”

  She gave me a comforting smile and tilted her head to the side as she stepped closer, lowering her voice. “I’ve always been the same… me. I’m Julie. Yeah, finding out I wasn’t human was a bit of a surprise, but deep down, I kinda always felt it. That I was different. I think it’s why I jumped from foster home to foster home so much and always ended up back at the orphanage. People were naturally uneased around me. Until I met the Ryans. And I’m still discovering who I am, what I am. What I can do. It’s not something you figure out all at once.” She rubbed my upper arm with care. “But one thing I can promise you is that you won’t go through it alone. Not like I did.”

  I cupped my hand over hers on my arm and returned her smile, immediately feeling better. “Thanks.” Then I remembered Moya’s suggestion to go to the Territory of Dreams. “Have you ever been to Faerie?”

  “No,” she replied and shook her head. “I’m Solitary. I belong to no Court or Territory. I have no place there.” She waited a beat before continuing. “Plus, I’m willing to bet you can’t get a decent cup of coffee there.”

  I laughed as I wiped at the wetness on my face with the back of my sleeve and blew out a cleansing breath.

  “So, what next?” Julie asked.

  “I have no idea,” I said. “Wait for Moya to arrange that trip to the Temple of Dreams for me?”

  “Well, until then,” she grinned, “Shall we go shopping?”

  “Shopping?”

  She held up a small, light brown leather pouch and jingled it. The sounds of coins came from within. “Where do you think I got those paints I gave you?”

  “I meant to ask about those coins, actually.”

  “They’re made from precious metals mined in the mountains of Faerie,” Julie began. “The raw material is pressed into coins in the Territory of Dreams and then circulated throughout the lands. The ones found here in Ironworld are worth a lot more than they are in Faerie, though. As you can imagine, they’re hard to smuggle over.”

  I peered around at the market in a whole new light. The endless booths and merchant tents, packed together in haphazard lines, all boasting a range of goods. An old, withered Fae female, her hunched back covered in a knitted shawl, hovered over another smaller Fae as she mended her shredded wings with a glowing thread. The
booth next to her displayed shelves of trinkets I didn’t recognize. Strange things that looked like otherworldly versions of candles and kitchenware.

  “So, how did you get them?” I asked.

  She shrugged as we began walking past tables. “Odd jobs, various magical services.”

  “I thought your magic was limited to twirling coffee and an awesome glamor?”

  She threw me a sidelong smirk. “I may have a few other tricks up my sleeve.”

  Indeed. I took in the booths with greater detail as we walked. Fae poured magic into bottles and passed it over the counter in exchange for those same coins. Food merchants with black cauldrons boiling with skinned legs of weird creatures sticking out. Animals unlike any I’d ever seen before hung from hooks and ropes, drying and curing. A healer of some sort mended an arm bent at an unnatural angle. I cringed at the sound of bones crunching back in place. But the person didn’t flinch. Magic. It was everywhere here.

  I considered then how I wasn’t that different from them. These wondrous creatures. I had untapped magic and an ability to see the past, present, and future. I just had to learn how to wield it. Now that I knew what lay dormant inside me, I wanted nothing more than to nourish it. Wield it. Use it. I wouldn’t be so vulnerable, so weak with control over my power. I could have a fighting chance against Evaine, against whatever darkness the Reader saw in my future.

  Cillian’s beautiful face flashed across my mind’s vision. I wanted him. That was undeniable at this point, but he was powerful. He was a vampire. A creature of the night. And I possessed the power of the sun, I reminded myself. I could kill him.

  I had to figure out how to use and control my power. I just hoped the trip to Dreams gave me the answers I sought.

  “Hey, isn’t that the Botwood guy?” Julie said and came to a stop.

  I followed where she was staring. A familiar man stood at the same booth near the edge of the market that Cillian had once stood at. I squinted through the dim lighting and steam of the area and recognized the guy from Celadine’s house.

  “Yeah, it is.”

  She hushed me and pulled me off to the side as she eyed him warily. “And he’s at a Therian merchant’s booth.”

  “How do you know that? Do you have some sort of extra sense for them, too?”

  She shook her head. Those sky-blue eyes locked on Botwood. “No, I can’t tell a Therian from the next person, but the symbol on the crates by his feet.” She pointed. “Look.”

  I narrowed my eyes at the stack of three small crates at his feet. A black wolf’s head stamped on their sides. “That’s the same symbol I saw on the truck at Club Umbra.”

  We crept closer, using tent flaps and stacks of goods as cover. The merchant opened one crate he set on the counter, and Botwood peered inside. He reached in and pulled out a bag, inspected it with a pompous sort of curiosity before placing it back inside with a single nod.

  “And how many are ready to distribute?”

  The merchant said, “Twelve hundred crates, sir.”

  Julie and I listened intently, just one booth away.

  Botwood handed the merchant a wad of cash. “Be sure this gets delivered to the council on thirty-fifth.”

  “He must be talking about the vampire council,” Avery whispered. “The one he was trying to get Cillian and Celadine to join.”

  “And I bet my life those crates aren’t filled with human blood,” Julie replied in a hiss.

  I considered it for a moment. “You think it’s Fae?”

  “Connect the dots, Av’. You saw a Therian truck at a Fae nightclub. A club where you also found all sorts of Fae in cages. And now we see a vampire ordering a shipment of blood from a Therian merchant?”

  “But why would the Fae willingly treat their kind that way?” I asked. “Don’t they hate vampires and Therians?”

  “They do,” she said and gnawed at her lip. “Come on, follow me.” Botwood was gone, and she tugged at my arm as she sneakily led us around the booth. We crept as close as we could, and Julie crouched down as she rolled her hands together, forming a white ball of static in her palms. It turned to glitter, and she blew on it with a gentle breath, causing the particles to float toward one of the unattended crates, where it melted away into the wood.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “A tracking spell,” Julie said and turned away from the booth. I hastily followed her. “Wherever that crate’s going, I’ll know.

  “And what then? You plan to barge into a vampire council and demand answers?”

  She looked at me with more confidence and determination than I’d ever seen her display. “Not alone.”

  ***

  We barely had time to contact Moya before Julie’s tracking spell was triggered. We brought her up to speed–on the vampires and my trip to the Reader–as the three of us followed whatever magical tracking signal Julie felt or heard. Right to the vampire council.

  An old stone structure with spires and arched windows of stained glass. We snuck around and peered in the windows. Nearly every room was vacant of vampires but full of wooden crates with a wolf’s head stamped on the side.

  I’ve never liked what I found peering through windows.

  We found a vantage point in the thicket of trees that surrounded the back of the building, where a loading dock hung open, lights blaring out as three guys loaded crates onto a truck. The same truck I’d seen at Umbra. Moya narrowed her eyes at two men who stood near the front of the truck, and a third man hopped out of the driver’s side.

  “Sullivan,” she spit.

  “Who?” I squinted over the hedge and immediately shot back down. “Fuck. That’s the guy from the nightclub,” I whispered.

  Julie paled. “It’s also the brother of the Dark Lord.”

  My heart hammered in my chest, and I clenched my clammy palms. “Wait. So, the brother of The Lord of Nightmares is driving around with a Therian shapeshifter, delivering Fae blood to the vampire council?”

  The three of us exchanged a wide-eyed glance and then shared a long exhale.

  “It would appear so,” Moya said, shock lacing her tone.

  It was a lot to digest. The convolution of it all. So many mythical races, all despising one another, create this circle of hate and volatility. “Again, don’t they all hate one another?”

  “Aw, can’t we all learn to get along?” a deep, raspy male voice spoke.

  We spun around to find Sullivan standing there. Deep brown eyes that melted away in his brown hair and thick eyebrows. I noted his worn leather jacket had a splatter of blood dried to it. He grinned cheekily and eyed me. “Hey, don’t I know you?”

  My body froze. I’d run into this guy–Sullivan–three times now. None of them good.

  Moya tossed him a vulgar gesture. “You’re a disgrace to your kind. How do you sleep at night?”

  Sullivan stuffed his hands in his pockets and tipped his head with a knowing smirk. “Upside down in a cave. How about you, sea witch?”

  Before she could form an answer, two other vampires came out of nowhere and knocked Moya in the back of the head with a club.

  “What the hell?” Julie balked and glared daggers at Sullivan.

  He wiggled his fingers with a grin. “Now, now. The sea witch is perfectly fine. Just can’t have her bippity boppiting you three out of here, now. Can we?” A knife appeared in his hand, and he twirled it around. “I mean, not before I ask a few questions, anyway.”

  “We don’t know anything about anything.” Julie spat and sidestepped toward me.

  He stalked around us, turning us around in place. I wasn’t about to take my eyes off him. “See, why don’t I believe you?” He motioned to the truck in the distance. “Regardless, you’ve seen too much.”

  “You hunt and harvest your own kind for profit?” I said, surprised at my own voice. “You’re a disgrace to Fae.”

  He let out a bark of a laugh. “Oh, you’re spitey.” He pointed at me. “I like you.”

  He continu
ed to pace around us. More vampires appeared, closing us in, eying us like a meal, and panic fettered in my chest. Moya was out cold. She couldn’t wisp us out of here. Julie claimed her powers weren’t much better than parlor tricks. How were we going to get out of this?

  Then I remembered… I had magic. Sunlight. And we were surrounded by vampires. But how did I summon it? It had been a fluke before, driven by emotions. I searched within myself for something different, something that shouted this way! This is how you do it!

  But I was empty. As if there were nothing but a cavity in place of where I searched for it. Our only hope was to stall until Moya came to.

  “Does… does your, uh, brother know what you’re doing there in Ironworld?” I dared to ask, my lip trembling slightly.

  He examined me with a full up and down sweep. “What do you know of my brother?”

  “I know who he is. I doubt he’d approve of you selling the blood of his people to vampires.”

  Dark chuckles moved through the crowd of vampires. “You clearly don’t know my brother, then.” He motioned tersely to someone. “Take them.”

  Julie and I fought the entire way to the large open space of the front half of the building. And I realized it was clearly once a church. How ironic. It took a vampire at both our heads and feet to get us inside. A bloat of air chuffed from my lungs as they tossed the three of us on the cold stone floor before an altar where five vampires sat in a row of chairs. Each sitting stiffly with black robes pooling at their feet.

  Blood seeped from the back of Moya’s head, and we immediately scrambled to her unconscious body as we stared back at the creatures glaring down at us. Glaring as if we were nothing more than vermin, with eyes as black as night.

  “Who are you?” demanded a female vampire with a tight blonde bun atop her head, held in place with an intricate bramble of black iron.

  “People in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Julie assured her. “We’ll just leave, and you can pretend we were never here.”