by J. E. Taylor
STAR CROSSED
J.E. Taylor
OTHALA WITCH COLLECTION
Sector Eleven
Star Crossed © November 2016 J.E. Taylor
Othala Witch Collection Sector Eleven
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About Othala
Many years ago, the Original Sixteen witches were able to contain an outbreak of demon-like creatures from overtaking the earth. But doing so came at a cost. For the human race to survive, the world had to be divided into sixteen sectors, trapping the ravagers to the outer lands beyond, and trapping the humans in.
The Original Sixteen served as regents over each of these sectors, and when they died, the strongest of witches took their place, using their own personal enchantment abilities to protect their sector. In the process, communication was lost. The only solace that remains is the knowledge that if another sector fails, their own may still survive.
But what happens when your sector is the one to fail? What happens when the world inside your walls is just as bad as the one outside them? In this collection of sixteen dystopian paranormal romance tales, each and every one of the sixteen sectors is about to find out.
View the entire collection at
http://fallensorcery.com
Star Crossed
No matter which side of the coin she’s on, Star is destined to lose everything she loves.
To keep Sector Eleven in his bloodline, Jaden has to marry a pure witch. Born into the Regency, his challenge is to find a wife who satisfies his mother’s criteria while also managing to love him. Easier said than done when ambition supersedes the connection of hearts in a love mandate.
When Jaden asks Star to help him find a suitable mate, she agrees, but her heart doesn’t want any part of it. Forced to serve the Regency since she was born, Star has been raised to hide her magical ability from Jaden and his mother, for fear the Regent would carry out her promise to destroy Star if she ever showed a propensity for magic.
Star is not sure which is worse, exposing her secrets to the man she loves which will have her exiled to the ravagers, and certain death, or playing matchmaker and losing Jaden to someone else. No matter which side of the coin she’s on, she’s destined to lose everything she cares about.
Chapter 1
The cold metal and concrete beneath us allowed a clear viewing of the constellations surrounded by the arc of northern lights. I shivered as the wind whipped through the broken structures, howling like a mad spirit. In the center of the city, this building remained, stretching towards the heavens, and if I reached my hand out, I swear I could almost touch the sky.
“You really think there’s anything out there?” Jaden asked, interrupting my study of the vastness of the cosmos.
“I have no idea.” I blew on my gloved hands, glancing at his strong profile before I sat up. “We should be heading back. Your mother would have a fit if she knew we climbed up here.”
Jaden laughed with such a rich bass tone that it echoed over the decayed cityscape and stirred a warmth in the center of my being. Even through the thick coat, his muscles contoured against the dark fabric as his hands tucked under the back of his head. His bright green gaze moved from the star scape above us to mine.
“My mother would have a conniption, especially since she thinks I’m interviewing suitable mates.” He rolled his eyes and his lips toyed with a smile, but he didn’t budge from his stretched out position.
Just the mention of his obligations snuffed the heat right out of my bones. Jaden Mallory, the son of Regent High Witch, Samantha Mallory, had to get married before he turned twenty-five in order for the Regent torch to pass within his family, as it had over the last century.
His mate had to be of pure witch lineage, and not one of the hybrids most were these days. And his mate couldn’t be just anyone. Those indebted in servitude were not allowed for consideration, which left me off the list of anything approaching an appropriate suitor.
Not that Jaden had a clue how I felt about him, never mind his lack of knowledge of the breadth of my powers, which I’d hidden all my life. I think if he knew, he wouldn’t be caught dead on this dilapidated building with me.
“She’s going to blame me,” I whispered.
“Chill, Star. I won’t let her. I’ll tell her the truth. That I dragged you up here just to get away from looking at one dingy profile after another. I couldn’t deal with it anymore, and I needed inspiration.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “Inspiration? Don’t you mean some sick adrenaline rush?”
His dimples deepened. “Scared of a ravager attack?” he teased and poked me in the side.
I squealed and swatted him. “Jaden!”
“Star,” he said, mimicking my exasperation.
I narrowed my eyes at him and sighed. “You know the magic is not as strong as it once was, right?”
“It will hold.” He sat up, and we both looked to the west, to the edge of our sector where the protection of the invisible wall ended. From this side, there was no consequence in crossing through the barrier. But once on the other side, there was no way back. If the ravagers didn’t get you, the electrified wall would.
Every now and again when the wind shifted, I caught the shimmer of the barrier. It was much closer to the buildings than I remembered from the last time we played hideaway from the adults.
I glanced at Jaden. “Are you sure?”
His gaze was locked where mine had been, and the small crease between his eyes deepened. When he climbed to his feet and offered me his gloved hand, I took it.
“I’m sure,” he said, but he certainly didn’t sound all that convincing. He glanced back at the barrier and sighed. “Sometimes I think I’d have a better chance out there than finding a wife my mother approves of within these walls.”
His hand still gripped mine, and the slow rub of his thumb across the back of my knuckles gave my heart a start. I pulled out of his grip, feigning disinterest in his plight.
“Yeah, like getting married is so much worse than facing a pack of ravagers.” I headed towards the crumbling stairwell and our safety lines.
“It is, especially if I don’t love her,” he mumbled behind me. “And all the ones my mother deems suitable are only stepping up because they want the position. It has nothing to do with me.”
I glanced over my shoulder at him. “Are you sure about that?”
He sent a hard stare in my direction. “They are the worst type of vultures.” He didn’t wait, just clipped onto th
e rope and dropped the four stories to the beginning of the stable stairwell, bypassing the crumbling mass.
I clipped onto my rope and zipped just as quickly, giving him my more sardonic smile and a challenge in my raised eyebrow. I was probably the only woman in this entire sector that could match him pace-for-pace on an agility course without using magic.
Before he could unclip, I was off and bounding down the stairs at a speed that made my heart slam in my chest. Jaden’s footsteps were only a fraction behind me, and his breath huffed in time with mine. I let out a laugh and chanced a glance over my shoulder.
His amused gaze met mine, and the race was on. Instead of bounding down the rest of the steps, I planted my ass on the rail and slid down the flight of stairs, jumping onto the landing and bolting towards the next one before Jaden could reach the same spot. Our laughter echoed against the concrete walls.
“That’s not fair!” Jaden huffed as he came into view on the ground floor.
“Nothing in life is fair,” I said and turned to continue the race, but my foot caught one of the fallen beams and I tripped.
The ground raced towards my wide eyes, and while I moved my hands to try to catch myself, I refrained from using magic to stop the fall. Twenty-two years of warnings from my mother were enough to stop me from easily halting my progress. If I revealed the extent of the powers infused in my blood, Samantha Mallory would have me fed to the ravagers out of spite.
It was no secret that the Regent barely tolerated my existence, especially since she blamed me for my father’s refusal of her advances. She became obsessed with my dad after Jaden’s father died, but he had no interest in the Regent or anything she had to offer. He loved my mother with every fiber of his being. His rejection had nothing to do with my mother being pregnant. It had everything to do with what a bitch the Regent really was.
With Samantha’s fury sparked by scorn, my mother’s magic was no match for the High Regent, and while it protected me, it could not protect my father from her wrath. Samantha Mallory exiled my father for exhibiting magical tendencies and cursed my mother into eternal servitude to the house of Mallory. She even went as far as threatening to exile me if I ever exhibited any magical abilities.
Every day of my life, my mother warned me of the consequences of displaying my talents. She taught me how to hide in plain sight, and how to fake the tests so I would appear normal.
So, I let the ground rush towards me even though I knew the impact was going to hurt like a bitch.
Jaden’s soft command to stop halted my fall. I stared at the ground less than a half inch from collision and recovered enough to get my hands in place to stop a potential broken nose. His magic disappeared as fast as it came, and gravity pushed down on me, allowing me to catch myself before impact.
I pushed onto my knees and stared at him as he stumbled back and caught the stair rail to steady himself. Jaden had never shown the potential for magic. Samantha Mallory had made her stance clear to the kingdom when my father was exiled. Male witches were an abomination. A stain worse than a slave witch, and they had to be eradicated at all costs.
I didn’t think he’d meant to let his secret out of the bag.
I wiped the gravel off my hands and knees. “Does your mother know?”
Jaden glanced out what remained of the glass doors and then back at me, and for the first time in our lives, I realized he was keeping secrets, too. The slow shake of his head along with the fear in his eyes relayed his discomfort. He wiped the back of his hand across his nose, and it came away bloody.
“After what happened with your father and every other male witch that ever showed their talents? Are you kidding?” He took a seat on the step and pinched the bridge of his nose, leaning forward. Bright red drops dripped, splattering in small circles on the concrete.
His mother’s damnation of male witches had not stopped with my father, and this would clearly endanger her reign. He may be her firstborn son, but that wouldn’t matter if this got out. She would exile him just like she had recently done to her own nephew.
He pulled out a pack of tissues to stop the flow, and after a moment, he glanced up at me, still holding the tissues to his bloody nose. The pallor of his skin whitened, and he took a couple long slow breaths before he wiped the last of the blood away and stood.
“You okay?” I asked and he nodded.
“That’s a side effect of...whatever,” he said and offered me an awkward smile.
“What kind of magic was that?” I crossed my arms. He didn’t use the typical spell that I’d seen his mother use, or any potions to control my descent. He just uttered a single word, and my fall stopped.
He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “It’s not anything like my mother’s. I don’t have control over the spirits or the elements,” he said and finally met my gaze. “I don’t need potions or spells to control things.” He bit his lip, pleading with me silently.
I wasn’t sure how to take his confession, and I certainly wasn’t going to disclose mine. Not with the eternal warnings from my mother ringing in my ears. When he looked down at the ground, I glanced away, pondering his words.
“It’s been years since I’ve done anything like that,” he muttered, looking more like a little kid than a twenty-four-year-old man.
I gave him credit for stopping with just that explanation. I was sure he wanted to add not to tell his mother, or my mother, either, but he didn’t. He never asked me to keep secrets, but I always did.
“You could have won the race,” I said, offering my own crooked smile, changing the subject.
“You would have smashed that cute nose of yours if I hadn’t intervened,” he said, and his cheeks turned a brighter shade of pink.
I blinked in shock. I knew he cared about me, like one cared about a best friend, or even a little sister, but this was the first time he mentioned me and cute in the same sentence. It took me a couple of seconds to recover.
“You mean you could have stopped me from breaking my arm a few years ago?”
“No. I didn’t see you fall. I have to see it happening to stop it, but I’m sure if I had been there, you wouldn’t have ended up in a cast. I probably would have ended up outside the wall, though.” He let out a sarcastic chuckle. “As I said, I haven’t done this in years.”
His honesty caught me off guard, and I had a moment to wonder before I blurted, “When was the last time?”
“When you were younger and ran out in the road to get the ball I threw to you.” He shoved his hands farther into his pockets. I had a feeling if they weren’t hidden in the confines of his jeans, they would have been shaking.
I remembered that day vividly. I had indeed run after the ball he threw and had looked up in time to see a bumper bearing down on me. “The day that car nearly hit me?”
The vehicle swerved at the last moment, avoiding a hit that would have sent me on to my next life. The driver swore he had no idea how he missed me, especially since he didn’t remember turning the wheel himself. Jaden had passed out on the lawn that day, and when he came to, he’d had a bloody nose.
I stared at him and he nodded. The fact he saved my life sunk in deep, right next to my thumping heart.
“Why did you risk it for a lowly servant girl like me?” I asked.
He shrugged and scanned the empty streets outside. “We should head home,” he finally said. “My mother is probably on the war path already since I blew off the half dozen interviews she set up.”
My eyebrows rose. Jaden’s love-hate relationship with his mother wasn’t a mystery to me, but his more than blatant disobedience was. This was a new dynamic. He usually complied with her commands.
“What’s wrong?”
“You mean besides being forced to get married to a power hungry bitch who will tow my mother’s line?” he snapped.
My jaw slowly dropped, and my eyes widened. It wasn’t Jaden who would get the Regent seat; it was whoever he married. A witch was the only one who could keep the w
all holding the ravagers in place, and his mother had made damn sure that in sector eleven, only a woman could be a witch.
Jaden would be as much of a slave to his wife’s whims as we were to his mother’s.
“If I can’t find someone who loves me, then I’m sunk.”
I understood that layer of fear radiating from him. A woman following Samantha’s rules would have Jaden exiled the moment he made the mistake of displaying his powers.
Yet, Jaden didn’t know what I was capable of.
I had command over much more than just the spirit world and the elements. I could read the ancient writings in the spell books his mother had hidden away from the public’s eye. I understood the power held in those spells, as well as the consequences of damning another soul. I could make sure his potential wife was pure of heart and loved him as much as I did, and Jaden would never know.
He deserved true love and happiness, even if it wasn’t with me.
Jaden and I walked back in silence. When we reached the gates, he hesitated and looked up at the heavens.
“Star?” he asked, his voice no more than a whisper.
“Yes?”
“I’ve never asked for your silence before,” he started, and his gaze dropped to mine.
“You don’t need to ask. It’s a given,” I said.
His tense features relaxed. He reached out and pulled me into a hug, catching me off guard.
“I can always count on you,” he whispered against my ear. The heat from his breath sent a shiver through my blood.
When he pulled away, disappointment slithered through me. I rather liked his arms around me. Even though the hug was delivered as a friend, it still felt like home in his arms.
“And don’t worry. I won’t let my mother blame you for our road trip.”
“Thank you.” But I knew no matter what he said, his mother would blame me, and I would be given some horrid task as punishment. I just hoped it was on the outskirts of the palace so I could gather what I needed to protect Jaden from marrying an evil, power-hungry witch.