Shadows and Sorcery: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Adkins, Heather Marie

  She kissed the squirrel on the top of his tiny head, watching as the squirrel took off to the air, and flied away. Elora smiled and then noticed something else. Her watch.

  It had been five days since she had been in Tariforma, but back home, it had only been...five hours. One hour passed in her home was a day passed here, that was peculiar, very, very peculiar. Perhaps she wasn’t in some unknown past of herself but an actual different world?

  “Come, we need to pack,” Chaiya said once the squirrel was long gone. “We will need to move soon.”

  Elora nodded, going towards her tent. Neither of them noticed a man watching them from the distance, his face not visible as they were leaving. His eyes though were fixated on only one person.

  “Elora...” He whispered under his breath, as he continued to watch her.

  4

  They had quickly left after sending Wizard off. To get Elora home, they were going to have to get something really powerful from really powerful opponents, and they needed to be fast about it. Till now, they were all alone, the three of them at the moment. They were walking down the road, in the front, but the party and the other solders weren’t far behind. Elora knew that there was always trouble with travelling in such big groups, especially because she was enjoying all the sights and everything that went around her too much.

  Kieran had his eyes on Elora, not knowing what to think of her even after knowing so much about her. That ‘cell phone’ had really changed his views about the woman. He couldn’t believe that such a world existed and would have loved to live there, like Elora had. But then Elora would be...no, there was no point in discussing that. The point was, Elora was strong willed and incredibly stubborn. She had an attitude of a person that could always find a way, and that is what surprised him the most.

  And Chaiya noticed all these emotions flicking through her brother’s face as he shakily looked at Elora and looked away quickly. Chaiya sighed and rubbed her head. She knew that one day it was bound to happen, but she had hoped it would be to someone that would be able to help them in protecting Feather Grove against Claw Worth, not a woman from another world, which would be good for a night of passion, but not as a long term project for she would have to go home, and her brother would be broken hearted if he gave his heart to her when she left.

  ‘That man is too proud to even admit that he’s fascinated with her.’ Rolling her eyes at the supposed masculinity of her brother, she instead focused on the road. They needed to get to the main road, where they would get their first ever destination. They would need supplies to get Elora home, and the first of the supplies was armor. And it wasn’t going to be an easy task, at all. Simply because they needed to get into a place which was, in the sense, so very dangerous that not anyone could complete this quest just by walking inside of the castle and coming back out.

  No, this was one of the ancient castles that had been abandoned, and it was such a dangerous place that it was rumored to be alive. Elora didn’t know that, but she could feel the danger and the fear of the group in the air and was nervously looking at Chaiya and Kieran, and how alert they seemed. The one thing she noticed was, Chaiya had a weapon, and so did Kieran, and both of them were alert and ready, their eyes moving about the side-lines of the forest and the undergrowth like ping-pong balls. For a moment she was mesmerized by how Kieran’s eyes would stay at a spot for no less than one second and then move back, scouting the entire way till they stopped as far as they could go on the right. He would turn slightly to see the sides as well, and Chaiya was pretty much the same, only she would also turn around, to look at the group.

  I don’t know which one of them is the leader, Elora thought, as she also noticed stranger things, like the road slowly starting to get more visible, and crumbly, and a large path in the distance. She also noticed the group getting closer behind and realized she, Kieran and Chaiya were slowing down for the group to catch up behind her. But both of them are really good, I think they complement each other, and if they were not brother and sister, I would say they make a good couple.

  For some reason that also gave a much needed relief to her stomach when she realized Kieran didn’t have anyone that he was ‘loyal’ to, but it confused the hell out of her whenever she got that feeling. She honestly didn’t know what he meant and what was happening.

  “Stop,” Kieran softly said and Elora stood right in his face. They were still near the undergrowth and standing behind some trees with a really thick trunk. Elora could also see that the leaves looked unlike anything she had seen, they were small, and were clumped together like a bush, basically the tree looked like what a tree would look like in a drawing, no partitions between leaves or anything, just a bunch of green clumped together. It was the strangest tree he had ever seen. “This tree is only unique to this forest. We don’t know why it is like this so we simply call it the ‘fake tree’ because it looks fake and not real.”

  “I can see that,” Elora agreed, looking strangely at the trees. “You know what drawings are don’t you? It looks like what a kid would draw a tree as.”

  “While I don’t understand what you mean, I think I get the picture.” Kieran agreed, as he made some gestures to the team. “Now, listen.”

  Elora looked at Kieran, as their eyes met again. But this time there was no spark, no endless staring and no soul searching. This time there was simple seriousness between the two of them.

  “We will help you get to your world, but the journey will be long and dangerous, extending way beyond anything that has ever been done before by either you or me,” Kieran said. Elora nodded, slightly fearful, slightly amused by the language. There was the difference between the English they spoke, no one would speak in a confusing way like that, but it could be still understandable. At least he wasn’t speaking elder English. “And for that, we will need certain things, and we will need your help as well. One of the things we need is a mythical armor in the abandoned castle of the Kingdom of the Tarith. It is an armor that will protect the wearer from all elements, let it be the hottest of the fires or the sharpest of the rocks. It is, in fact, so powerful that we will need it, a war between the Kingdom of Claw Worth and the Camp of survivors is inevitable.”

  Elora looked saddened by that. She felt guilty, very guilty, as she realized that it was in a way her fault this has happened, but Kieran was actually quick to bust her fears before they even came in.

  “Before you go and thinking you were at fault, you weren’t the biggest reason for that. We were endangered already before you came in. Prince Italus isn’t going to let us go with or without you, in fact, if we tell you to go away, we escape, and King Italus captures us, he’ll be much harsher on us to try and find your location. You are the girl of the Legend and you mean a lot to everyone, for King Italus, it would mean that you can be either his doom because of the legend, or his reprise because of the power that you have,” Kieran said, looking at Chaiya, who was looking bitterly down once again. Elora wondered what had happened to her, but she couldn’t wait to find more about her friend once she was sure Elora could be trusted. “So we will go to the castle, and retrieve the said armor.”

  “I...can do that, yes,” Elora reluctantly said. In her mind, she could already see things going heavily wrong, but she knew she had to do it. “Because...there is nothing else I can do. Any help that can help us, help you, be safer is good enough.”

  Besides, without you guys I’ll probably be dead, Elora thought, doing her best not to shudder outwardly. Yeah, I need to do this, there is nothing else I can do and I guess I can help out a bit.

  “Good.” Kieran nodded. “Very good, I’ll gather some of our men who wish to come with us, and the others will be making camp at a safe distance from the Castle of Tarith, where we will return to in the night. We are very, very far from Claw Worth so it is not going to be trouble for us to stay hidden, the King’s men are less in number and don’t patrol much because they don’t know we are here, or hopefully don’t.”

 
Elora seemed really happy by that. She had figured out that if the king was so bad, then his men would be worse. So, Chaiya and Elora waited while Kieran got ahead to get a small team. As they waited, Elora took the moment to ask why the place had been abandoned.

  “Uh...Chaiya,” Elora called out to the only other girl that she knew in this world. Chaiya looked at Elora from rubbing the wooden part of her bow. “What exactly is this place where we are going, and why was it abandoned?”

  “I...don’t have a proper answer to that. I am not sure of the history.” Chaiya shook her head, looking back down to the bow. “But, it is said that the kingdom was one ruled by a king similar in cruelty and ruthlessness as Prince Italus was and is. He had six great warriors known as the Fearsome Six, or the Sentinel 6, who were the greatest warriors in the lands. They had all the power and knowledge that anyone would need, and were so advanced in their battle techniques and in the control of their power, they could wipe out entire armies by themselves. But after the king was destroyed, the Sentinels were turned into guardians of the mysterious enchanted armor, so no one could enter the castle no matter what. One of the key things to get the armor was a pure heart, and they were the one who tested it using their powers, and to get to the armor one would need to make it through the castle, and into the armory. Many have ventured into the castle, none have made it out with an armor. I know this sounds far-fetched, and a silly story to scare people, a way to keep people away, but it was worth checking out. A simple rumor can change the tide of the war between the two of our kingdoms.”

  Elora looked on back towards the road, somehow having an emotionless face as Kieran came back with the team. She was never going to admit it, actually, and say it out loud that she was excited. She knew that yes she was almost killed and had been hurt badly, but this was so much like an adventure, so much like a tale or a book that she would read. It felt as if her entire being was now changed by very, very interested and fascinated being that Elora was being empowered by this feeling to go on head. It reminded her of the fantasies she had when she was a wee little girl, where all she wanted to do was to go to another world, whisked away to see endless dangers, romance, and magic. It was ironic that so many years later, that she found herself in this position.

  ‘Wow, I can’t believe that a childhood fantasy brought me here. I mean, like, honestly, I don’t even know how strange this all is. I don’t know if it was science, or magic, that brought me here, and yet here I am. All I need to know is that if I am going to find true love in this world, I am done.’ She thought to herself as some of her earlier confidence in herself returned as she walked forward with a very, very strong look on her face as she got even more confident in herself. ‘I honestly don’t know what this foreboding feeling I have inside of my stomach, what this feeling is, but I do know that I need to be strong, because something isn’t going to go well, something is going to go wrong, and I don’t want to be the damsel in distress in that situation.’

  As she walked confidently alongside Chaiya, stopping right as the warrior girl told her to, she didn’t notice Kieran’s look on her.

  Kieran was surprised. Elora had not caved, she had not broken and she was still strong, much strong willed then he himself was. He would never admit it, of course, because of the fact it would seem less manly of him. He wasn’t going to bow down to a woman just like that, but Elora was strange. He was used to the damsel in distress type, where they would need to be saved and he would scoop in like a hero or something. But this...Elora was different. Elora was charming, extremely confused and yet strong willed enough to give him a challenge and he didn’t know why he felt so irritated by her. She also looked smart, much smarter than he himself was and that bothered him. It just felt...wrong for a woman to be much better than he was, and he knew that he would have to do some damage control to save his pride and masculinity. But he never, never thought that she would be so good enough.

  “Still want to go ahead huh.” Halfway through the road, Kieran tried to test her strong front. “I am surprised you haven’t broken yet. You’re not from this world and yet you’re going ahead like it is nothing. For a woman, that is really good.”

  Elora didn’t even give him the time of her day. She simply continued to look at the trees ahead, ignoring him, not giving him the satisfaction of looking at the irritation that was boiling in her because of his ‘so called masculinity’. She knew that for the men in this world it was weird looking at women like her, and Chaiya, and especially for Kieran who probably was used to women bending to his way without any sort of a hesitation. And she was right in doing so. Kieran’s irritation rose as she didn’t even react to it outwardly, and he grit his teeth. Inwardly, though, he became much more determined to make her crack. There was no way this girl could ignore his words, just like that.

  They were walking for an entire day, long and endless it seemed, for them to reach to the castle gates. The castle was eerie, that is what Elora would say about it. Regardless of the days walking, the sight of the castle destroyed any fatigue and tiredness that had risen up in Elora, and she looked on mesmerized by the architecture of the enormous and gigantic castle. Large, rock walls rose up on all sides completely surrounded with uniformly placed rocks together. There were small statues underneath every single window, and she looked as if she thought those statues were looking right at them, at her. She got out her phone, to start and take pictures, hoping that they would automatically be synced to the cloud, or at least her memory. Right, she had no net service, what was she thinking? As she was taking pictures of the long towers, the giant tops and the architecture, she saw a certain thing in the image that made her stop.

  She noticed in the image that there was something, where she could see six strange figures. Looking back where she had taken the pictures, she looked on the castle bridge high above, where she could see six gargoyles. They looked insanely real. She had seen gargoyles before, she had seen these rock monsters that could move and fight before, but they were just statues. These Gargoyles, however, looked as if they were completely real.

  ‘What are those? I’ve never seen them like those?!’ Elora exclaimed inside of her head. ‘What the hell? Is this for real?!’

  She had been to Scotland some years back to research more on the history of the United Kingdom, and she had seen Gargoyles in Scotland. They didn’t compare to anything like the ones that she was looking at. The sight of those beady emotionless rock eyes looking all over the castle, made her feel nervous, as if she was standing right in front of her doom and demise. Her breath hardened and her palms started to sweat as she got a strange look of fear on her face. She gulped and shook her head, just as Kieran saw her look.

  “Elora.” Kieran, forgetting his earlier thoughts, walked towards her. He knew he would have to deal with the irritation one way or the other, but he needed to actually talk to her about it. “Is something wrong?”

  “Y Yeah, don’t worry though. I have never seen something so beautiful in my world,” Elora said softly, looking away from the gargoyles. She didn’t know why she was feeling such about them, as if they were waiting for her to just step in and make the mistake. “It is a bit overwhelming, as my world doesn’t have castles and all that.”

  “Really? He would also need to sit down and know more about her world, but that would be later on. Right now he needed to know more about that uncomfortable look on her face. But before he could ask more, Elora started to walk ahead, slightly faster, and didn’t even respond.

  “Yes, I am alright. No need to act as in you were coming scooping me up to save me,” Elora said behind him, smiling in amusement at the suddenly shocked look on Kieran’s face. She heard Chaiya snort but Elora ignored the byplay and walked forward, never, never looking at the gargoyle, and taking a deep breath once they were covered and inside the castle.

  “This place is spooky.” One of the four campers they had with them muttered to his partner. The other two didn’t speak for some reason, or spoke less. Kieran nodd
ed in agreement, but never showed a sign of weakness. He also seemed more alert and Elora felt strangely comforted by it all. She was looking around the castle walls and found why so. There was no type of decoration or anything inside of the castle. Everything was bare, empty, as if it shouldn’t even exist in the first place.

  “We need to split up,” Chaiya said. Elora nodded instantly, as much as she didn’t want to. She didn’t even know why she nodded, but something told her that was the right thing to do. “We do not know where the armor is, and we need to search the entire castle.”

  “Yes,” Kieran said, looking at two of the campers. “Lou, Blant, with Chaiya. Naik, Vali, with me and Elora. Don’t make any noise.”

  Lou and Blant, the silent one of the two nodded, while Naik and Vali slowly came over to stand beside Kieran. Chaiya was the one to start moving first, going towards the left, while Elora and Kieran moved to the right. That is when Kieran tried to ‘test’ Elora again.

  “You are strong for a woman,” Kieran admitted and Elora rolled her eyes. “But are you strong enough to lead us in the front? Or are you going to break?”

  “You should keep your thoughts to yourself,” Elora huffed. “Fine, I’ll lead for you scared cowards.”

  And the words instantly backfired. Kieran looked slightly agitated but sighed. He walked right into that one, and nodded in his defeat. They walked the opposite way from where Chaiya’s team had gone.

  “This door...” Elora muttered softly. She could feel strange things around her. The spookiness of the castle, the way that the pressure that was around her bared down upon her and most of all the strange presence of those eight gargoyles in her head. She could feel everything and by the gods was it strange. She didn’t know why she was feeling so uncomfortable, but she just knew it that there was something wrong. She didn’t know what, she didn’t know why, she knew there was something wrong. “What is—why is this door so strange?”