by Melle Amade
“Did you decide this with Murtagh?”
She shook her head. “No. But I figured it would happen. It’s for the best. Being married into his family will make you safer and you will provide a true House Cavanagh heir to reclaim the Ravensgaard castle. But you need more. You need the magic.”
“Do they know you’re here?” I asked, avoiding her last statement. There was no way in hell I would know what to do with magic. I was a warrior. A streetfighter at worst. Not a sorceress.
She shrugged. “They know I am somewhere. But they do not hold me here. I created the portal in the prison so Walsh could easily come to me when you returned. I stay here to keep Castle Brannach hidden and our magic alive. All they know is that I disappeared, and they are too afraid to find me.”
“Why did you abandon me?” The words choked in my throat and I tried to make them as gentle as possible, but they still came out harsh.
“I never did,” she said. “I sent you to live with the Murphy’s, a loyal family, and learn to fight. You need to know the Ravensgaard ways and become strong. You would gain nothing living on this mountain top alone with an old woman.”
“You’re wrong.” I state it clearly, my pain sharp in my tone. “I would have gained a grandmother. My mathair mhor.”
She concedes with a soft shrug. “Yes. It was lonely here without you, but you needed strength I could not give you and I needed to keep the magic alive. The only way to do that was to keep it hidden.”
“So, we will go back together,” I said, staring into her dark brown eyes and already knowing the answer.
Siobhan jumps on my line of thinking “You have to. She is married into the Murtagh family now. Your families are one. She has made an alliance.”
“Now is not the time,” she said gravely. “There is trouble brewing in the Order.”
“The Order?” I was confused. “I care nothing for the Order.”
“You should. They were formed to protect shifters, but now they are set to destroy us all to rise their clan to the top.” Her voice was steeped in sadness
“The Hunters are killing our people,” I said with a frown.
“This is true,” she nodded. “But there is even a greater danger from within. The Berzerken are rising.”
“The bear shifters of the north?” I asked.
“Indeed. I have seen in the runestones that you must join with other clans. If you do not, they will desicrate sacred objects to filter all shifter clan power to the bears alone. If they take all shifters’ magic, we will lose everything. All of shifter kind will be overrun by humans. We will be unable to hide behind our wards and magic.”
“What the –” I stop myself before saying ‘fuck’ in front of the queen. “I’m not joining with other clans. I need to rid Dublin of the Alliance once and for all so the Ravensgaard can live in the north again.”
“Abandon the north,” the queen said.
“Abandon the – What? No. It is my home.” I stood up, agitation coursing through my body.
“Castle Brannach is your home.” Her brown eyes were fierce on me, but I could tell she was pleased I spoke my mind.
“I was raised in Dublin,” I said. “I will not give it up. They cannot win.”
“Davin.” The queen took a deep breath, letting it escape slowly. “A smart leader will give up one battle for a short time to face off a greater danger. I see that you have a strong mind and desire to make your own decisions. So, I will leave it up to you, which battle you will choose to fight.”
The world suddenly felt like it was laid across my shoulders. I chewed on my lip. I had stood my ground and she would hold me accountable. But suddenly I wasn’t sure. The threat of the Berzerken who could destroy all of shifter kind suddenly seemed to outweigh my desire to win back Dublin for the Ravensgaard.
“Just remember, we were usurped by those closest to us,” the queen said. “It was not the Alliance that cost us our castle or upset the Ravensgaard, it came from within our ranks.”
“But you said you saw me joining with other clans.” I stared thoughtfully at the fire, my mind trying to discern a pattern and lock the pieces into place. “And I’m married to our greatest enemy.”
The queen stood up clasping my hand and drawing me to my feet. “Riordan is not your enemy,” she said. “He is as innocent as you are, my dear. There is no reason why the two of you can not have a blessed marriage. The fight between Murtagh and I is over. We have won. You are there now. You own the castle.”
And suddenly I realized that maybe my marriage to Riordan wasn’t just a machination of Master Murtagh.
“Did you orchestrate this?” I asked, holding up my hand with the silver wedding band on it.
She smiled, shaking her head. “No. The world is much more complex than I can control. I simply sent out the intention that there be peace between our families and the rightful heir was back in the castle. Now this has happened.”
“You cast a spell.” I squinted at her.
“I called you to me with this.” She reached up into her piles of hair and drew out the crown. “You must have thought I was crazy to sit up here on the mountain with this crown on my head.”
No. I thought it was majestic. But I don’t say anything.
“I wore it to show you your heritage and the strength of your bloodline,” she said. “And also, because it is what you came for.”
“I best be getting them back, your highness,” Walsh said, bowing to the queen as he interrupted us.
The queen held out the crown to me.
“I can’t take that,” I said, staring at the glittering diamonds. The center gem shone brilliant even in the gray light.
“You will not take all of it,” the queen agreed. Her hand waved over the crown and a glow of blue light shone bright. Then the brilliant gem was out of the crown and lying in her outstretched palm. “Take it.”
I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t stop myself. It called to me. “What does it do?”
“It holds the magic of the Ravensgaard. You will need it on your quest. It calls people towards you or keeps them away. It will tell you how to work with it,” she explained.
My hand hovered over the stone and a blue light shone. It pulsed through my arm and I had a vision of Riordan pacing his room. I pulled back from the gem.
“We have to get back.” I urged Walsh towards the door. “Riordan is going to our chambers to get me.”
The queen smiled. “The magic works swiftly in you. Take the stone.” She grabbed my hand and clenched it around the diamond. “Let it guide you.”
I nodded as I let her pull me into one last hug. My heart was pounding. If Riordan arrived at his wife’s room and found we were out in the middle of the night, it would be impossible to explain. “I’ll see you soon.” I smiled, missing her already as I grabbed Siobhan’s hand and pulled her towards the door.
The queen glowed with radiance, the dark crown in her hand dim without its centerpiece.
We were racing past the prison cells when Siobhan pulled back and stopped me.
“We have to go!” I insisted.
“Wait,” she said. Her hand was warm and firm in mine as she leaned in. “We may have lost everything. But we have found the truth. And that is something worth having.”
“We may have just found more questions.”
“I have no family left other than you,” Siobhan said, and before I could stop her, she stepped in front of me, bowed her head and grabbed my hand that clutched the diamond. She brushed a kiss across my fingers, kneeling before me.
“I swear on my oath and on my life, that I shall follow you in whatever direction you bid me go. All of my life, all of my family, all of my wealth I commit to you, Davin Cavanagh, descendent of the one true Ravensgaard Queen.”
She raised her head and looked me in the eye. Mine stung with tears, but hers were clear and true. I stood there a descendent of a family I did not know, the holder of a power I couldn’t wield, the creator of a future impossible to s
ee.
“You will come with me?” I asked.
“Anywhere,” she insisted.
I took a deep breath, the diamond pulsed blue in my hand, a cold ice moved up my arm. A windmill and red brick castle walls flashed before me.
“The Netherlands,” I said.
“To the Eagle lords?” Siobhan asked as she stood up and we began moving past the empty prison cells again.
“Yes.” I nodded. “It seems the diamond agrees with my grandmother. The greatest threat comes from within the Order. That is where we will seek out the clans who will help us.”
If the Berzerken were worse than the Alliance of Righteous Humanity who had wiped out my cabal in Dublin, we were in for one hell of a fight. We were going to need all the help we could get from every friendly clan in the shifter world.
We do whatever it takes to beat the enemy.
Even if the enemy is within our own kind.
The End
* * *
Continue the Quest for Shifter Magic series in book 2
IRON CAGE
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* * *
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Dutch born, Matilde, the estranged niece of Lord Van Arend, barters with her scheming mother to spend the summer with the only friend she’s ever had, Iona Murtagh, Ravensgaard heir to Castle Brannach. The only problem is what she has offered her mother is information; information that will break her friends’ trust and begin the downfall of the regime that governs them all.
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MELLE AMADE BOOKS
THE SHIFTER CHRONICLES SERIES
1 – RAVENSGAARD QUEEN
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2 - IRON CAGE
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3 – JAGGED SWORD
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4. GILDED CHAIN
September 2020
5. BROKEN CHALICE
October 2020
6 - SANCTUARY
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7 - REMNANTS
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8 - HARVEST
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9 – DELUGE
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KNIGHTS OF VALLIERE SERIES
1 – ORDER OF THE REGENT
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Since I was eight, I have been writing stories that capture the adventures in my head and the characters strong enough and flawed enough to have them. When I look at an empty field, I see a formidable citadel. When I meet a vulnerable old man, I greet an emeritus warrior. When I walk through city streets, I feel dimensions hiding around every turn. It has been my lifelong passion to explore these worlds that reveal the pain of loneliness, the joy or self-actualization, and the hope of magic.
I grew up in a place called Potter Valley where the Milky Way is held aloft by a circle of mountains and the central business district consists of a bait store and a saloon. At 19 I moved alone to London and spent the next ten years exploring the world, even becoming an Australian citizen, before I returned to California and found a new home in Los Angeles. My world revolves around my two wee children, storytelling, and my love of travel.
www.melleamade.com
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twitter: @melleamade