Relics and Runes Anthology

by Heather Marie Adkins

  Chloe kissed him. Her tongue danced out and demonstrated how she wanted to be touched. His fingers mirrored the movements of her tongue, tugging, teasing, and pulling all at the same tempo. It was glorious and maddening. Chloe arched her back at an almost inhuman angle and trembled. Bram's hand cupped her breast, tugging and teasing her nipple, not letting her fall backwards to the ground as she came. His other hand grabbed her ass, holding her in place, grinding himself deeper into her. With several long hard thrusts, he followed her over the edge of euphoria.

  Chloe and Bram held each other's’ gaze, neither wanting the moment to end as their breathing slowed in unison. They didn’t need words to fill the silence. The void of sound only seemed to strengthen the bond between them, as if nothing else in the universe existed.

  The sweat on Chloe’s skin began to cool as unfortunate sounds and smells from outside began to assault her again. It was a chilling reminder of what awaited them on the other side of their purely blissful encounter. Chloe bent forward and clung to Bram’s neck, hugging him tight.

  Bram covered them in her coat as they embraced. She focused on just their breathing and tried to tune out the rest of the decaying and rotting world outside. Bram squeezed her even tighter, as if he sensed what she needed, and never intended to let go.

  Chloe woke, and for the first time in days, she felt at peace, if only for a moment. Not wanting the moment to end, she refused to open her eyes and savored the feeling instead. She could feel the reassuring warmth coming off Bram and heard him breathing beside her. The moment was so serene; she could almost imagine the sun shining in, filling the room with a warm glow and birds chirping outside. Almost. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes and looked up at Bram, dimly lit by the candle burning in the corner. The dark sky outside still had its eerie amber glow. At least that let her know it was daytime. Bram was propped up against a pillow staring down at her, greeting her with a soft smile and an unexpected tear which fell onto his cheek.

  “Good morning,” he whispered. “I’ve seen many beautiful things in my life, but they all pale in comparison to you. Seeing you wake up so peacefully in the midst of such devastation. Humans are resilient creatures, and they never cease to amaze me. You’re amazing, and you’re beautiful, Chloe.” The tear glistened in the candle’s light.

  Chloe sat up and wiped it away, replacing it with a kiss. He shuddered in reaction, and his breath left him, like an infinite weight had been lifted from him with her pure gesture of kindness and love.

  Just then, a thunderous boom echoed forth. It seemed to have emanated from between them, radiating out into the room and dissipating just as quickly. She couldn’t explain it, but it felt like something in the universe had shifted.

  10

  Dead Men Do Tell Tales

  “What was that?” Chloe asked. Confused but not alarmed, she wiped his wet cheek as they looked at each other.

  “Corda aeternum.” His voice was raspy, but he still seemed content.

  Chloe instinctively reached out and touched Bram’s chest, but that time, she could only feel one distinctive heartbeat. The echo of the second heartbeat was gone.

  Bram looked down at the pendant clinging to Chloe’s skin and smiled. “The heart-stone, it belongs to you now.” He leaned in, his single pulse thrumming louder and faster in anticipation of their kiss.

  Chloe’s eyes started to close. She felt his heartbeat quicken even more under her fingertips. But the faint pulse resonating inside the heart-stone remained slow and steady –it too reduced to only a single heartbeat.

  She bolted upright suddenly. “Wait, what did you just say?” She felt like she was going to go into shock from the revelation. “Corda aeternum, not cor aeternum? You said ‘hearts eternal,’ plural, but then you said ‘heart-stone,’ singular? Holy shit!” She untangled herself from Bram’s embrace and got dressed, not waiting for him to answer. “It didn’t say two parts divided; it said two hearts divided. Holy shit!”

  “What did?” Bram asked, following her lead and quickly getting dressed.

  “Hadley’s note! It fell out of his favorite book when it hit the wall. I couldn’t decipher his shorthand from across the room last night. And in his notes upstairs, he kept interchanging the singular and plural Latin meanings for heart. It was driving me crazy. I thought it was just a mistake, but it wasn’t!”

  “So what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that I think I just figured out how to end the scorch!”

  “Holy shit!” he said, sharing in her jubilation.

  Suddenly, they were jolted from their joy by a cry for help. It had come from outside. “Help!” came the man’s plea again.

  Chloe and Bram rushed to the window and searched the shrouded cemetery. It was morning, barely, and the darkness caused by the scorch made it nearly impossible for Chloe to see anything with her human eyes. “Please, don’t say we can’t save them all,” she pleaded.

  “It’s Laszlo; come on!” Bram ripped nails and boards barricading the front door away and rushed outside.

  Chloe’s heart swelled with pride. She smiled and followed, hot on his heels. As they entered the cemetery, she pulled the sword from its holster and made quick work of two scabs before the sword even had time to catch fire, Bram constantly looking back to check on her. His eyes had a glow of pride to them.

  “Laszlo!” she called, holding up the sword like a beacon for her friend to find.

  Laszlo ran towards Chloe with an injured man in tow as they both tried to fend off the pack of scabs surrounding them. Bram rushed the pack and cleared a path for the men. Chloe watched Bram in awe. He was in his element, and Chloe had to admit it was magnificent, almost elegant, to watch.

  “What are you doing out here?” she quizzed Laszlo as her blade turned one of the last scabs to cinders.

  “Tryin’ to give Sam’s wife a proper burial. Sam, are you…” Laszlo had to catch his breath.

  “I’m alright, just twisted my ankle climbing out of the hole. I’m so sorry, Laszlo. This is all my fault. I could’ve gotten you killed. I just… I couldn’t bear to see her like that any...” Sam’s voice trailed off as he grieved in breathless silence.

  “How did you get here?” Chloe asked.

  “Navy girls and boys’ve been patrolling Bremerton on foot, what’s left of them anyway, trying to drive out these things. They’ve been gathering people as they go, pooling skills and resources, asking for volunteers for essential jobs and the like. There’s even talk of starting a field of crops with the hopes of harnessing the sun’s light in some way from what I keep hearing.” Laszlo had to take another heavy breath. “Anyway, they were gonna circle round the cemetery doing reconnaissance, giving us time to lay Karen to rest, but I guess these ones got through.”

  “We’re, we’re fighting back?” Chloe couldn’t believe it. Her heart swelled again with hope and pride.

  Laszlo nodded. “Yep.”

  “And your wife, is she…” Chloe was almost afraid to ask.

  “She’s good; she’s good. Stayed behind to help Sam’s son with his kids.”

  Chloe couldn’t put her finger on it, but Laszlo seemed different somehow. He wasn’t the confident bosun she’d met on the ship. Her suspicions were almost confirmed when Bram walked up and put a friendly hand on the man’s shoulder. He would barely go near Laszlo on the ferry.

  “You two alright?” Bram asked.

  “Guess my guardian angel is still looking out for me,” Laszlo stated.

  “Guess so,” Bram agreed.

  Chloe smiled at Bram. “What happened to Mr. Help-one-or-save-them-all?”

  “You showed him another way. A better way.” He smiled back at her before turning his attention to the opposite end of the cemetery.

  A large group of humans had entered the cemetery and were walking towards them. There were civilians; men, women, and children, mixed in with men and women wearing military fatigues. Some were holding guns and makeshift weapons, and others were holding bodies.
A mixture of emotions hit Chloe all at once. Pride in her fellow man, sadness for their losses, and a love for Bram, no matter who or what he used to be.

  A bird’s loud caw drew Chloe’s attention up into the amber sky right before a sudden loud boom rumbled through the ground under their feet. Seconds later, she saw the orange glow of the explosion as it erupted up into the air. “Shit!” She yelled out. It had originated right where the ferry was docked. Chloe’s heart sank into her stomach.

  Bram started laughing. It was an unconstrained, deep-in-the-belly laugh that would have been contagious if it weren’t for the fact that the ferry had just been blown up.

  “What is so funny? Unless you saw something else even remotely seaworthy, we are pretty much stuck here now!” Chloe shouted as a bird cawed above them again. What the hell is that? she wondered. Come to think of it, she hadn’t heard bird calls of any kind since the scorch had begun. No, that wasn’t quite right. There had been one time she could recall hearing birds chirping happily. The Spree!

  Bram looked into the sky and shook his head in disbelief.

  “Bram, did you hear me? How are we going to stop the scorch? We just lost our ride.”

  He gave her a sly wink. “We’ve got a ride.” Bram looked back up into the sky and whistled, calling out, “Tenebris, is that you, old friend? Reveal yourself. We need you.”

  Tenebris cawed again, but Chloe still couldn’t see anything.

  Dust and wind began to swirl behind them as what Chloe could only guess to be the invisible raven landed. As he shook his feathers, his form slowly appeared as if it were melting back into existence. He gave Bram one more loud caw for good measure.

  Several of the naval officers in the approaching group stopped, taking aim at the massive raven with their weapons drawn.

  “He’s with us!” Bram’s booming voice lashed out at the group. His drill-sergeant tone had even startled Chloe. There was a fierceness to it she’d never heard before. In three simple words, he had demanded the group’s obedience. They complied. They had even started walking casually towards them, once again. Bram turned back to Chloe, confident that, for the time being, they were safe from attacks on any front, human or fae. He smiled at her and pulled the human element from his glamour, exposing his armor-tipped ears. “I’m done hiding.”

  Tenebris purred his approval. Runes that seemed to be carved in intricate patterns under the giant raven’s feathers began to glow a deep, dark red. Chloe hadn’t noticed them when she’d first seen Tenebris in Mary’s shop.

  “What do you say?” Bram asked, flashing her with his same warm smile he always saved for her. “Today, we help friends bury their loved ones? Tomorrow, we take the battle to them.” He spat the last word and nodded towards the burning ferry.

  “No,” she stated coolly.

  Bram gave her a momentary look of confusion.

  “We’re not going to just take the battle to them,” she said.

  Just then, Bram gave her a sinister smirk, reminiscent of the smile she had given him at the start of their journey. It was almost as if he anticipated what she was about to say next and realized that, maybe, she even accepted him for what he truly was.

  “No,” she stated again, giving him the same devious smile. “Tomorrow...we’re bringing War!”

  The End

  The Reign of Fae continues in Scorched Uprising available now!

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  About the Author

  Star Trek'n Jedi…yep, you heard that right!

  USA Today Bestselling author, coffee loving gamer girl, and sci-fi enthusiast. CK Dawn always loved to snuggle up with her cat Hagrid (the shadow-seer & Netherwalker inspiration) and read. But with a nudge of encouragement from her lil’ sis, she found writing fantasy stories was even better than only reading them. So, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, CK let her unique modern tale of knights and Camelot dancing in her head take form and fly with Cloak of Shadows, her Readers' Favorite award winning debut novel from the Netherwalker Series. Now, you can find CK writing in the witching hours with Hagrid by her side while being distracted, far too often, by social media.

  There's more to come from CK so, stay tuned. Seriously, the stories have only just begun!

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  Fatal Illusion

  Tameri Etherton

  Fatal Illusion, Fatal Fae Book One

  Copyright © Tameri Etherton (2018) All rights reserved.

  www.TameriEtherton.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the author’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Requests to publish work from this book should be sent to:

  Tameri@TameriEtherton.com

  Created with Vellum

  Fatal Illusion

  Don’t believe what you can see.

  Fae are disappearing at an alarming rate and Rori MacNair must find out why before civil war ignites between the Seelie and Unseelie queens. When she wakes up alone in a strange forest, she must rely solely on her wits to prevail against the dark forces rising against her people.

  Assassins are taught to trust none but themselves, but Rori rarely plays by the rules. Dare she trust the mysterious stranger Therron when illusions cloud reality and nothing is as it seems? Her life, and those of Faerie might depend upon it.

  Therron Mistwalker is hiding a secret. Having forsaken his kingdom, he lives as a thief among the fae, but when Rori enters his life he fears his days of anonymity are at an end. It’s a day he’s been dreading since he was born.

  Relations between Faerie and the human realm are about to turn from respectful to hostile, and it’s up to Rori and Therron to find the enchantress responsible. . . if they can get over their differences long enough to do so.

  1

  Death crept through the forest.

  From branch to branch, through dirt and root, across leaves, a hallowed pall clung. Rori lay on her back, listening, but heard nothing. No twittering of birds, no crunching of leaves, no breaking of twigs, nor howling of wolves. All around her was a still hush that left her vulnerable and exposed, despite being surrounded by thick timbers and sprawling vegetation.

  Above her, branches heavy with verdant foliage spread from one side of her vision to the other, choking the light and leaving her in near darkness. Whether night or day, she couldn’t tell. She dug her fingers into the soil, flinching at the strangeness of its texture. This was no forest she knew. And Rori MacNair knew every forest in Faerie.

  She rolled to her side and the woods shifted in terrifying dizziness. The churning of her stomach matched the swirl of confused thoughts that bounced through her mind. What the ever-lovin’ sharksniffers was wrong with her? Gingerly, Rori rested her head in the crook of her arm. From that angle, trunks and ferns filled her sight. Just beyond, a gravel path led between two massive trees. Warmth emanated from the sandy soil and she sniffed the ground. Dust, rock, dirt. Something was missing. She inhaled deep and closed her eyes. An acridness lay just beneath the surface. Her nostrils burned with the scent. Nothing about this place was right. Beyond the plants, t
here was no life.

  Except her. Unless, of course, she was dead and this was her own special kind of hell.

  With a grunt and a fresh wave of nausea, she scrambled to all fours and stretched her back. Every muscle and sinew of her body ached. What exactly had she done last night? She pushed to rest on her heels and surveyed her surroundings.

  More saplings, more of the silty gravel, more ferns. In the distance, she saw taller shrubs, but here, in this little patch of dust, was only Rori. She cocked her head and concentrated. Blood rushed through her veins, her heart beat too fast, and her breathing came in labored drags.

  “Hello?” she called out. The word floated on stale air. She flicked a lock of cobalt hair from her face and stood, hating the effort it took for such a simple task. Slowly, she stretched her arms above her head and leaned first left, then right, wincing at the pinch in her abs. Her body reacted to movement as if it had been beaten. Aside from a few scratches, Rori found no obvious injuries—nothing to give her a clue as to where she was and why she was alone. Her fingers brushed past the dagger secured to her left thigh and relief swept over her. A second dagger hugged her right hip. Tucked into the inner pocket of her jacket were her phone, some human cash, and two fake IDs.

  If robbery wasn’t the motive, then what? Question upon question zipped through her thoughts. She shrugged against the leather jacket, jostling it to a more comfortable fit. Pain ricocheted from forehead to toe with the effort. Rori swayed where she stood, swallowing the sickness that crept up her throat. Several swearwords, the ones Cian didn’t approve of, hissed from between clenched teeth. There was a lot Rori did that Cian didn’t approve of—like rhyming his name with “pee-in” for starters. Or elongating the name to Keeeee-innnn. Gods, but she was an annoying little sister. How many times had he asked her not to be such a pest? About as many times as he’d begged her not to follow him into the Academy.