by C. J. Anaya
I didn’t have any answers for the troubling issues that beset us, but I knew where to find them. We had to uncover the original prophecy and figure out a way to translate it correctly, and we had to do it as soon as possible. It held answers to so many of these important questions, but I feared that time was not on our side.
Angie glanced between Tie and Victor, swallowing down her anxiety as she took a few steps back. Their hungry stares and desperate desires to pepper her with a million questions weighed heavily between themselves and my best friend. Her deer-in-the-headlights expression was not one I was accustomed to seeing her wear, but I couldn’t blame her. Tie and Victor were fairly vibrating with emotion.
“Wow,” she said, inching herself closer to me. “Tough to be popular.”
Yeah.
As The Healer, I could most definitely relate.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed this third installment in The Healer Series. Plenty of love, blood, sweat, and tears went into its creation. Not to mention an enormous amount of chocolate consumption. Inevitable, am I right?
This series wouldn’t be the success that it has become without supportive readers like you who share the love by leaving reviews. Whether short or long, positive or filled with constructive criticism, I am happy to receive them. Please make my day by leaving a review for The Grass Cutter Sword here.
Be sure to grab your free copy of My Fair Assassin if you haven’t already. You can find the romance novella here for free at http://authorcjanaya.com
Thanks again for your continued love and support.
Other Books by CJ Anaya
The Healer Series
The Healer: Book 1
The Grass Cutter Sword: Book 3
***
Double Booked
My Fair Assassin
Marry Your Billionaire
Hope’s journey continues in the last installment of The Healer Series: The Prophecy, due to be released in December 2016. Turn the page for a sneak peak.
Prologue
Darkness.
A void so all-encompassing as to be completely without hope, without light, without that vibrant ray of luminescence that signifies the glory of another human being’s soul. A blackness so dense as to dull the senses and strip one of their desire to press forward, to fight, to live.
It felt easier to simply give into the oppressive atmosphere that weighed so heavily upon me and not bother to search out the answers to where I currently stood or how I’d arrived here in the first place.
I took one shallow breath and then another while panic threatened to choke-hold me into submission. I lifted my hand in front of me and saw nothing, but continued to move it forward in search of something solid and sturdy. I gingerly took a step, sliding my foot along what felt like rocky terrain, afraid that if I lifted my foot too high, I might miss a dip in the floor or the eventual absence of it and tumble to my death.
A few precarious steps later brought me to a wall, my hand gently absorbing the shock of its presence. A stone wall then, with grooves and ridges that felt sharp and somewhat cool. I aligned myself perpendicular to the wall with my left hand lightly gliding against it while my right hand reached out to the empty space beyond. Then I took another step forward, continuing to perform my stilted glide across the uneven ground, waiting for another wall to impede my progress or for a possible turn in the path to present itself.
I kept my eyes closed—they were doing me little good either way—and strained my senses to pick up the slightest hint of sound within the stillness of this prison. For several minutes I heard nothing but the sound of my own clumsy movements and the choked gasps of my labored breathing; panic having won the battle at this point.
Just as I became convinced that I’d never find a way out of the darkness, a familiar presence tugged on my spirit, beckoning me forward with greater haste. The connection was unmistakable, a heavy yearning that pulled me onward, causing me to move with less caution and more urgency than I had before demonstrated. I may have been blind to my surroundings, but I could never feel alone or afraid when Tie’s soul called to mine, especially within the cavernous emptiness of this place.
As I continued my hurried movements, a pinprick of light appeared in the distance, growing eerily brighter with every step. The light wasn’t perfect in its luminescence. It held an icy blue tint to it that caused me to wonder if I headed toward something potentially lethal. I shook myself from such musings. Tie wasn’t someone to fear. He was my soul mate, my other half, my greatest ally in this quest to heal the veil. As the light grew in intensity, I noticed a bend in my path. I hurriedly followed the light around the corner and then stood in absolute shock as it opened up into a large cave.
No. Not a cave. The word was far too crude for the splendor that met my eyes. The stone walls were a shiny ebony hue that glinted against the lamplight of several torches strategically placed along the cavern’s walls. The furnishings were all made from the stone surrounding us, intricately carved and shaped with spiked accents meant to intimidate as well as impress. I might have continued my thorough perusal of every inch of this place if that familiar pull hadn’t drawn my eyes to the center of the room where a figure dressed in white robes stood in front of a massive black throne with his back turned to me.
“Tie?” I asked. It appeared to be him, but his hair and clothing were so different from what I was used to.
His shoulder’s tensed at the sound of my voice and then the figure slowly turned himself to face me.
I took in a sharp breath as I beheld the man who looked to be just as surprised by my presence I was with his. He may not have been Tie, but my soul communicated to me otherwise, urging me to rush forward and throw myself into this stranger’s arms; this beautiful stranger who continued to study me with a mixture of utter disbelief and wonder. He took a quick step forward and I nearly fell to the floor as my body and my brain warred against one another for supremacy.
It isn’t Tie, I scolded myself. What is happening?
Oblivious to my internal distress, the man took another step forward, and I nearly wept in frustration as I held myself in check while my entire being longed to throw myself into his arms. One more step from him, and I lifted my hand to stop him.
“No.” My voice came out as a whisper, but it resonated within the expanse of the room.
He stopped, finally taking note of my distress, and held up a placating hand, no doubt to calm me. Then he lowered that hand and stood as still as a statue as he took all of me in, drank in his fill of me with a look of astonishment and joy so sincere I realized that my presence here, though a shock to both of us, was most welcome to him.
“I’ve waited,” he said in a voice charged with rough emotion. “I’ve waited centuries for this moment to arrive, for the blossom to do what it was meant to do and eventually bring you to me.”
It took a moment for me to respond. His words made little sense to me, and I still failed to process my response to him; a response that should have been reserved for my soul mate. For Tie.
“I don’t understand what I’m doing here. Who are you, and why—?” I broke off, afraid to ask such a disturbing question.
He took another step forward and I nearly swayed toward him. I tightened my stance and steeled my resolve.
“Why is your soul drawn to mine?” He nodded and then swallowed, clearly overcome with emotion. “I admit that when I crafted the blossom to bind your spirit to mine I had no idea…” he cleared his throat. “I underestimated the power and emotion that the bond between two soul mates produces.” He let out a shaky laugh. “I’ve never experience it before. Love. It explains quite a few human choices and traditions that have always remained a mystery to me.” His eyes zeroed in on me and nearly sucked me forward. “Nothing could have prepared me for what I’m feeling right now. For what I feel for you.”
My heart hollowed and dropped as the implications of his words solidified for me.
I stood before n
one other than Amatsu-Mikaboshi!
“I thought the black blossom was meant to sever me from my soul mate and then link me to Tie. It must have been quite a shock for you when you discovered that I belonged to Tie in the first place. He would never hand me over to you.”
“You belong to me.” His voice came out like the sharp crack of a whip. Then he gave me a serene smile; one filled with undeniable longing as his eyes continued to take me in, roaming over the whole of me in awe and wonder. “It’s true that a few errors were made in regards to the identity of your soul mate, but I’ve been alive for a very long time my dear. I always have a plan B. Of course, I would have preferred you never discover Tie was your true soul mate due to how much trickier it is to separate you from him. And it has been. So many centuries wasted waiting for you to be reborn again and for the blossom to finally take effect.”
He took another step forward, but this time my knowledge of his true identity gave me the strength to fight against the intensity of my soul’s reaction to him. I took several steps back before he finally came to a halt. His frustration at the distance separating our bodies was palpable, but his look softened his frustration.
“It infuriated me when I discovered you had sacrificed yourself to save Musubi from Katsu’s arrow. I couldn’t understand it and hated you for it.” His level gaze nearly swallowed me whole as he uttered these next words. “Now that the blossom has finally connected me to you, I find it much easier to understand the love that compelled you to save your soul mate’s life.”
“You made certain the blossom eventually connected my soul to yours,” I stated.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Of course. Once I help you ascend as a kami and we combine our powers, there will be nothing powerful enough to prevent our breaching of the veil.”
“You’re wrong. You may have somehow managed to link our souls together, but you’re not my soul mate and you certainly can’t force my hand and join my power to yours. I’ll never do what you ask, and I’ll never ever love you.” I meant the words I spoke, but they caused my soul pain nonetheless. I winced at the sharp stab I felt, but recovered quickly and took another step backward.
“You already love me, my dear.”
I shook my head. “You have no idea what real love is. It isn’t some synthetic replication brought on by powerful magic. Love is given freely and without reserve. It is the kind of emotion that grows gradually and must be earned. What I feel for you right now is completely against my will. It isn’t what I want.”
He frowned and raised a fist to his chin, folding his arm underneath it as he pondered me in confusion.
“Your resistance to this pull we feel for one another is impressive. I can barely stand to be in the same room with you and not touch you. You shouldn’t be able to refuse me like this. It isn’t how the bond I created is supposed to function.”
“Excuse me?” I felt a drop of sweat make its way down the back of my neck. It was as if talking about the bond made it awaken and respond with renewed vigor.
“You are supposed to be my willing companion. That is, your will should have been stripped from you, though your resistance is actually quite compelling. I have to wonder at how you still manage to maintain a will of your own.”
“That’s simple. I think of the love I feel for Musubi, and it trumps your pathetic attempt at binding me to your will.”
His eyes flashed in anger. “That’s impossible. The blossom was supposed to relinquish his claim to you the minute my bond took effect. That’s why his handing you over to me would have been easy for him to do. With his heart deadened and his connection revoked there would be nothing preventing him from handing you over.”
“Musubi’s capacity to love and care for others is far greater than you ever anticipated. Even at his lowest moments, he still took in Akane and taught her to defend herself. You bet your money on the wrong horse.”
“Impossible,” he barked. “You are supposed to be bonded to me and me alone.”
“I haven’t been severed from Musubi’s soul, and I promise you I will do everything in my power to sever myself form yours.”
“You’ll never get the chance,” he said, rushing forward and throwing his arms around me. At least he tried to do so, but his momentum propelled him right through me, his arms finding zero purchase. The joy my soul felt as his body swept through mine was short-lived. I nearly cried out in pain at the separation but bit my lip and quelled the impulse to reach for him.
“No,” he cried, turning around and staring at me in astonishment. “This cannot be. You are supposed to be here in your corporal form. The bond transports you to the underworld to dwell with me. How is it that only your spirit is here now?”
Sweat poured down my temples and my body shook against the powerful desire to wrap my arms around him.
“Because,” I ground out. “I still belong to Musubi, and no matter what you think you’ve accomplished, my love for him will never be canceled out by this mockery of a bond you’ve created.”
Amatsu stepped forward until mere inches separated the solidity of his body and my spirit. I clenched my fists at my sides as waves of longing and desire rushed through me.
“No,” he choked out. “I don’t understand what went wrong, but I will find it out, and once I do, you will be mine, mind, body, and spirit.”
I shook my head and shut my eyes, picturing Musubi in my mind and the way the softness of his embrace always alleviated my fears and left me feeling safe, secure, and comforted.
“No, Hope. You are mine. You cannot leave me now. Not after I’ve finally had the chance to see you. To speak with you.”
Amatsu’s voice was frantic, but also sounded far away. I felt myself drifting from Amatsu’s realm and back into the world I was meant to be in. Just before my spirit collided with my body, I heard Amatsu’s voice surround me with the softness of a lover’s embrace.
“It’s merely a matter of time, my love. I shall see you again.”
Marry Your Billionaire
Chapter One
Unbelievable!
Madelyn Knightly—Midge to her friends—took one look at the handsome stranger who'd had the audacity, the outrageous nerve, to steal her usual seat at Café Canapé and felt an irrational pang of anger surge to the surface.
He looked vaguely familiar, but she knew she’d never met him before. He was clearly a man of importance, but she failed to place him as she glared at him from the corner of her eye. He was probably a player in Hollywood. Maybe an associate of her father’s, though she wouldn’t know who her father was hobnobbing with since she hadn’t had much to do with Corbin Knightly for awhile now.
Annoyed beyond what most might consider reasonable, she stood in the cafe’s entrance and surveyed her other options while the man sat at her table engrossed in some heated discussion. She tromped past him and huffily planted herself at the table furthest away from the arrogant seat stealer and the man’s associate, a self-important looking gentleman with a large tablet held at the ready, possibly dictating the man’s schedule to him as if anyone out of high school wasn’t capable of something as idiotic as that.
Midge couldn’t muster a single ounce of goodwill as she opened her laptop, flipped to her Scrivener program, and then chanced an open glare at the two miscreants.
She sighed at her illogical anger, an obvious sign that after six years of working through her personal issues she wasn’t any closer to actually working through her personal issues.
The loss of the table bugged her. She loved sitting in that particular spot since it gave her such a spectacular view of a small portion of Huntington Beach. But what disturbed her even more was this nagging familiarity the handsome stranger’s presence produced; this blatant reminder of a life she’d purposely turned her back on, a life she’d avoided like she would a cracked out actress or the paparazzi.
Thinking about the paparazzi, her troubled musings turned to the scheduled visit with her father, which filled her stomach with s
tone-cold dread. She had no idea why he had summoned her or what he could possibly have to say after several years of sporadic phone calls and little else.
She was just a semester away from graduating with a Masters in English. Nothing in the world was going to mess up her well-laid plans, not even the abrupt loss of her scholarship due to budget cuts, information her counselor had bombed her with just moments before her father’s secretary called to schedule an appointment for that very afternoon.
The scholarship had been a godsend, something that came to her a few days after her falling out with her father. To have her scholarship dry up now was a serious problem she didn’t, as yet, have a solution for. Student loans were an obvious option, but the idea of debt didn’t sit well with her even though it was generally considered acceptable debt. She didn’t like owing anyone anything.
A few quiet moments at her favorite café writing her romance novel, one which was sure to get her foot in the publishing world, should be giving her the opportunity to step away from her current problems. Instead, fate threw in a ridiculously good-looking guy and favored him with the most amazing beach front view, which was completely lost on him.
She glanced out a near-by window and had to admit her view wasn’t all that bad either. Café Canapé was located in the downtown district area where fun shops and restaurants catered to tourists. Midge loved the freedom she felt whenever she walked along the streets, enjoying the surf and turf atmosphere and inhaling that salty sea air.
Midge dropped her eyes from the tempting view and adjusted her non-prescription glasses on her nose. She always felt more confident when hiding behind them, something she’d never vocally admit to anyone. She reached into her bag, pulled out her laptop, and dove into her story. Midge managed only one paragraph before a sense of someone critically studying her flooded her concentration. Instinct made her peek above her laptop, straight into the eyes of the very man who had stolen her table, her concentration, and her peace of mind.