Breaking the Nexus (Mythrian Realm)

by Avalon, Lindsay

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  About the Author

  Breaking the Nexus

  Copyright © 2012 Lindsay Avalon

  Cover image by Miranda Stork, Copyright 2012

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  For my husband, the love of my life,

  who pushed me, encouraged me, reassured me, and always believed in me.

  Special thank you goes first to my amazing husband for loving me, supporting me, and always believing in me. Thank you will never be enough. Love you forever!

  This book would not be possible if not for the help of many people. Every person who has shared my journey on Facebook, my blog and Twitter helped make this amazing dream come true. I’d name you all if I could, but that would take up an entire book itself.

  Thank you to Meghan for pushing me to do NaNoWriMo, and to Andrea and Phoebe for being the bestest friends I could ever ask for. Love to the rest of my family for always encouraging my love of reading!

  Thank you to Tara and Miranda for your critiques that pushed me to better my writing. Kristie, you rock and always have my back. Trish, you make me smile no matter what may be happening in your life. Caroline, you are one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. You’ve been invaluable as a beta reader *hugs* All of my beta readers are phenomenal and I love you all. Milly, you are a blast and I hope one day we can meet in Disney World!! Catherine, you are such a wealth of encouragement and friendship. Mary Sue, I love you sweetie. You never fail to cheer me up, even if you didn’t know I needed it. Cinta, you are so much fun and almost as crazy as me :)

  Every one of my beta readers, thank you for reading quickly every time I’d send it to you. Jo, Caroline, Jennifer, Shadow, Teracia, and Carrie, you guys are awesome!

  Thank you Vickie, Regan, and Kallypso, you guys were my inspiration to even take on this journey.

  Miranda and Joni, words don’t exist for how awesome your artistic abilities are and your patience with me hitting you up for things. Love you both to pieces!!

  A very special thank you to Carrie. You’ve been my personal cheerleader, butt kicker, and assistant. Chica, you have no idea how amazing it was to have you as I pushed the last few weeks to finish this book. Michaela, I know it’ll be a while before you can read my book, but I hope it lives up to your expectations. Thank you for your enthusiasm and ideas!

  To all the rest of my lovelies, I’m sorry I couldn’t name each of you. I’m in awe of your support and friendship and without you, I’d have no reason to try to publish my work.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Fire leapt toward the sky as a massive explosion rocked the earth. For a few minutes chaos reigned while animals raced from the blast zone and the night air was filled with a cacophony of panicked cries.

  “What the hell was that?” Luca looked more than a little shaken as he picked himself off the ground.

  “If I had to guess, I’d say something went ‘BOOM!’ What’s the matter, Luca? You’re looking pretty pale there. Tsk, tsk, not the best look for a fearless bad ass.” Sha didn’t bother to hide her grin. To be fair, since he was Elven hailing from the southern regions, his olive complexion showed only the barest hint of pallor. But she’d just keep that to herself. No, it was much more fun to get a rise out of him while his moss green eyes were still wild with shock.

  “Very funny. I saw you dive for cover just like me. Don’t try to deny you were just muttering a prayer for forgiveness to the Seven Founders,” Luca snapped. “You do realize that you have leaves stuck in your hair, right?”

  “Crap.” She’d never admit it, but there might have been a moment when she considered making amends for past sins. And while she might have ducked down quickly during the explosion, she wouldn’t call it diving for cover. Cursing, she struggled to untangle the leaves from her thick, golden hair. The streaks of ocean blue signifying her status as an Aquarum Sorceri were imperceptible beneath the crushed foliage. Wonderful. Just her luck, there’d be some sort of creepy bugs crawling around in there.

  “Is that a spider I see?”

  “What, where?” Her hands raced around her head, desperate to locate and eliminate the hideous creature. It took her a moment to realize the asshole was now doubled over in laughter. “I hate you, you know that?”

  “Sorry, couldn’t resist. Everyone knows how much you hate spiders so I—oomph” Breath whooshed out as she elbowed him in the stomach.

  “Sorry, couldn’t resist. I think the blast originated in that clearing.” Glancing back, she was satisfied to see he still hadn’t regained his breath. Served him right.

  “There’s a Gate…in that direction…isn’t there? Could it have come…from the Human Realm?”

  Unlike Sha, Luca couldn’t sense the subtle vibrations emitted by the portals that connected the two realms, but he’d studied their locations during training so he could patrol the Nexus looking for weak spots. Lucky bastard, she thought as her head began to throb. Instead of steady pulsations, the energy was erratic, overwhelming her shields and driving into her brain like a knife. “Doubt it’s from the humans; it was too loud and bright. Mother Night, my head. I don’t know what’s going on with that Gateway, but we’d better go look.”

  “We need to let the commander know what happened.”

  “Don’t worry, we will. Besides, he’d have our heads if we didn’t ensure the entire forest didn’t go up in flames.” A sudden thought occurred to her. “Think we could make s’mores? I’ve always wanted to try them and I’ve heard they should be made over a campfire. Does that count you think?” She gestured toward the orange glow in front of them.

  “Seriously? What is up with your fascination with all things human, Sha? It’s not natural. They don’t have gifts or magic or anything that makes them remotely interesting. They’re boring.”

  She rolled her eyes. Her partner shared the opinion of most Mythrians. He was glad the Nexus had been erected millennia ago to separate the two realms. As far as he was concerned, the humans could live their quiet, little lives and continue believing their legends, myths, and fairytales had no basis in reality.

  Shrugging, she continued in the direction of the apparent epicenter of the blast. “Considering it is our responsibility to make sure no one can get through the Gateways in the Nexus, I would think it’d be advisable to study the humans.” She snuck a glance at him, wondering if he’d bought the rehearsed speech and grateful it was a moonless night as she felt her cheeks begin to burn.

  More times than she could coun
t, she’d cursed the fact that she hadn’t inherited her father’s complexion. That would have made life so much easier. But no, she had to take after her mother with skin so pale that during training she had been nicknamed The Ghost. Well, until she’d flattened the other trainees with a flame surge. Her lips quirked at the memory. Never underestimate one of the Infernum.

  “I know plenty about them. They have no magic, they have no idea there is any other realms besides their own, and they think we are nothing more than silly stories they hear as children.”

  She took a moment to concentrate and formed a soft, glowing orb of light to illuminate their path. “Don’t you think it’s interesting that we have protected them for all these years and nobody really knows why?” From the day she had joined the Sentinels she had adored the archives, which housed everything Mythrians knew about the humans and their ever evolving technologies.

  “I would say it’s more interesting that you care so much, but then I’ve always known you were a bit strange in the head.”

  Sha pinned him with a withering glare that only resulted in Luca doubling over with laughter. “You better watch it, Lucarion. Otherwise I’ll be forced to tell Soren you’ve been shirking your duties.”

  “Using my full name and vague threats? I’m scared, truly.”

  “Remind me to blast you later.”

  As they neared the clearing, Sha focused on picking up any trace magical signatures in the vicinity, leaving her partner to visually scan and communicate with nearby animals. She envied the Elves for their ability to speak to animals as well as their enhanced night vision. Not that she was afraid of the dark or anything, she just preferred being able to see everything around her. Especially things that could eat or pulverize her.

  “You’re not still afraid of the dark, are you? You’ll give yourself a migraine concentrating so hard.”

  For someone with telepathic abilities that supposedly only worked on animals, he had the most obnoxious ability to read her mind. “I am not afraid of the dark; I just happen to like seeing where I’m going. Besides, need I remind you of your fear of chickens?”

  “I’ll have you know chickens can be quite vicious when pissed off. And you have a spider on your shoulder.”

  Sha prided herself on her calm, rational reaction. Rather than slapping at her shoulder, she took a deep breath…and vaporized the offensive creature. Seeing that Luca had gone still, she frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  The instant the words left her mouth, she realized the energies emanating from the Gateway had changed, growing stronger. There was an undercurrent of dark magic that troubled her, but before she could explore it further, alarms rang in her mind. “Shit, the Gateway’s destabilizing.”

  His mouth settled into a grim line. “Call for backup.”

  Trusting Luca to watch her back, she tried to locate the mental thread that ran to their commander. An invisible fist punched her mind, driving shards of glass into her brain. Mother Night, that hurt.

  “Sha!” The sharp tone penetrated the haze of pain and gave her something to latch onto long enough to come out of her stupor.

  “Fine, I’m fine. Raging migraine to end all migraines, but it’ll pass.”

  “I take it you couldn’t reach the commander?”

  She bit back the bitchy retort that welled up. It had been a fair question after all. “Something just attacked, something strong to have gotten through my shields. I think we’re on our own for now.”

  “Do we keep going or head back for reinforcements?”

  “If that Gate falls, it will rip open part of the Nexus. Nothing like that has happened for centuries so it’s hard to predict the consequences.”

  “I’m betting nothing good. Alright, I’ll send one of the wolves to headquarters instead. It’s not the best solution, but it should bring help, especially if one of the watch happens to be Elven.”

  “Do it. I’ll see if I can shore up the Gate.”

  Sha continued into the clearing, dread weighing down on her with every step. It made no sense that the Gateway could be this unstable; daily patrols ran every area containing portals through the Nexus since they introduced vulnerabilities in the barrier. There was no way it could have degraded to the point of collapse this quickly, at least not by natural means. Someone was working very hard to compromise it, but what the hell did they hope to gain?

  Metal overpowered her senses, filling her mouth with the bitter tang, the scent of it enough to make her eyes water. Mother Night, blood magic! Seconds later, the world exploded.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Sha floated, surrounded by a cold, dark abyss. This must be death. It was rather peaceful in a way and at least she didn’t hurt. The thought hadn’t finished forming when jagged shards of pain radiated through her body. By the flame; this was almost as bad as mage fire. She clenched her teeth, pride the only thing keeping her scream of agony locked in her throat. She wasn’t dead, though whether that was a blessing or a curse remained to be seen.

  Forcing herself to steady her breathing, the deafening roar in her ears subsided to a low howl as she worked to push aside the pain. Backlash was brutal; the Gate must have collapsed, sending out a wave of raw energy that her mind had attempted to absorb. Talk about sensory overload, it was a minor miracle she still had her wits about her.

  Gradually she grew aware of her surroundings, the surface beneath her body cold, hard, and…sticky? What the hell? Maybe she’d been hasty in assuming she’d kept her wits. The last thing she remembered was walking into the forest clearing. Trepidation welled up inside her body. Inhaling, she barely stopped herself from expelling what little she’d had for breakfast that morning. The stench of blood and Goddess only knew what else sent her stomach roiling. She had a sneaking suspicion she wasn’t in Mythria anymore.

  “Right, let’s just state the obvious, shall we? And now I’m talking to myself. I’m going insane, that’s it.” Since Luca hadn’t teased her for muttering to herself, nor had he asked if she was alright, she surmised he was either missing or unconscious. “Stop being a baby and just open your eyes. What’s there to be afraid of?”

  Steeling herself, she pried open one lid. The dawning sun lanced into her brain, triggering a resurgence of her headache. Could this day get much worse? As her vision cleared, she wanted to kick her own ass for taunting the fates.

  “Hey miss, you alright? Cops are on their way. Do you know what happened?” The voice was unfamiliar, the accent not quite like anything she’d ever heard before. Her eyes narrowed, trying to bring her surroundings into focus. Holy hell. She was in the Human Realm. Lying in an alley. In a pool of blood; a lot of blood, though not hers since she’d notice losing important limbs or acquiring new holes. A commotion nearby drew her gaze to a crowd of strangers growing larger by the minute, all eyes fixated on her. Yup, she’d been an idiot to tempt fate.

  Struggling to pull herself upright, she waved off the hands outstretched to help. “Fine, I’m fine. Just dazed, I think.”

  A shrill scream amplified the pounding in her head. Why did some women have to sound like the infernal banshees that roamed the Enigma Forest?

  “Oh my God! There’s a body over here! Oh my God, that woman’s covered in blood! She had to have done it! She could be armed!”

  Rough hands grabbed her arms, fingers digging into them as a man jerked her to her feet. She glared up at the mountain of a man who held her in place. What a tough guy, restraining a woman half his size. “Can you lighten up a bit? I’m not exactly resisting here.”

  “Cops will be here any minute and they’ll sort things out. In the meantime, you just stay put.”

  Under normal circumstances, she’d have just blasted the guy and made her escape; just her luck, the backlash had left her magic tapped out. Resigned, she turned her attention to trying to piece together what the hell had happened and how she’d ended up across the Nexus among the humans.

  It didn’t take long for the morning air to fill with sirens and lights, neit
her of which did anything to help the killer headache. The woman Sha had dubbed ‘Miss Squealer’ raced over to the men exiting the vehicles, still wailing and making enough noise to wake the dead. Couldn’t that woman shut up for two seconds?

  Another car pulled up to the scene, drawing Sha’s gaze to the newcomer, the chaos around her fading into the background as she studied him. He was tall with dark hair buzzed short and a lean, muscular body that had unbidden desire curling low in her belly. Sitting in the middle of a crime scene wasn’t the best place to be lusting after someone, let alone a man she presumed was an investigator of some sort. But could she help it if she had a weak spot for rugged men?

  Judging by the speed which Miss Squealer abandoned the cop she’d been talking to, she wasn’t the only one who’d noticed his appearance. Annoyance flashed across his steel gray eyes as the inane woman vied for his attention. Satisfaction had Sha fighting to hold back her grin; good to see he was smart as well as handsome.

  Brushing past Miss Squealer, the tall man began issuing orders. “Officers secure the perimeter and any witnesses. Nobody is to leave the scene until their statements have been logged and contact information taken.”

  “Officer, it’s so terrible! That poor young man was killed by that horrid little bitch! I saw it all!” Persistent as well as yappy, Sha concluded. Fool hadn’t taken the hint when the man had ignored her. Miss Squealer looked to be in her late fifties at least, her face beginning to show lines and her hair more than half gray, the skin tight dress she wore ridiculous on her pudgy body. Hopefully he was as intelligent as she suspected because there was no way in hell that woman witnessed anything.