Full Blood (Wyrd Blood Book 2)

by Donna Augustine

  Ruck sat beside me as Ryker looked about the diagram of questions. “At least we know we’ve got more than one enemy coming for us.”

  Ryker lifted his head, his magic changing.

  “What’s happening?”

  He turned to me. “Something strong just crossed our first ward.”

  35

  We made our way down the path to chaos. People gathered up things while others herded them away from the boundary of the Valley. Several people were calling to go wait in the Grove of Souls until the danger passed.

  Ruck helped me keep up when I knew Ryker would’ve rather left me behind.

  Burn was running toward us. “He’s here. Bones is here.”

  Ryker turned toward his place, and I knew exactly what he was doing. He was getting the stones.

  While Burn waited for Ryker, I detached myself from Ruck to wait with him.

  “You need to stay here,” I said.

  “No way. Last time I stayed behind, you nearly died.” Ruck moved closer to me, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to lose him.

  Ryker came out of the house and rejoined Burn. Sneak was waiting up ahead as others ran past him.

  Ryker turned to me. “Go to the Grove of Souls with everyone else. I’ll tell you as soon as he’s gone.”

  “Absolutely not. This is my life on the line.”

  “Me neither,” Ruck said from beside me.

  Ryker looked over at Sneak.

  “He’s out there waiting now,” Sneak said, making it clear there wasn’t any time for this fight.

  Ryker turned back to me. “You stay close enough you can touch me.” He turned to Ruck. “You, follow Burn and Sneak’s lead and keep an eye out for an ambush. If I have to try and take him out now, I don’t know if we have enough stones that he’s going to stay dead. If things don’t go the way we hope, I need you to take off.”

  “Leave?” I asked. I’d never run from a battle in my life, and now he wanted me to leave him?

  “Yes.”

  I glanced at Ruck, who was giving me a look I knew well. Placate him, his eyes said.

  I turned back to Ryker. “Sure. We’ll both run.” If Ryker believed me, that was his fault for not knowing me well enough.

  He shook his head. Maybe he knew me better than I thought. Still, he turned. As a group, we marched out to meet the Debt Collector.

  The Debt Collector stood in the field, alone and calm. The better he appeared, the worse I felt. What did he know that we didn’t? I ran fingers over my chest, feeling for an ache that wasn’t there.

  Ryker and I stopped ten feet away from him, affecting the same calm even if I wasn’t feeling it. I glanced over my shoulder to see Burn, Sneak, and Ruck were fifteen feet away from us.

  “Why are you here? You said three months,” Ryker asked.

  Bones glanced at Ryker’s pockets. “I know what you carry, but you won’t need them today. I’m here to say goodbye.” He turned his full attention on me. “I no longer own your life. It’s been purchased by someone else.”

  “Why would you do that?” I was having a hard time believing he would sell my soul. What about all the magical power he would gain with my soul?

  “Let’s just say I was offered a large number of Wyrd Blood souls in exchange for your one, without the tedious task of fighting for it.”

  Maybe he was telling the truth and the two stones wouldn’t kill him, but I had a feeling it was close. Maybe three was the number?

  “By who?” I demanded, afraid the purchaser was going to be a lot harder than him to eradicate.

  “That I cannot answer.” He held a hand up to his chest, and I saw a flare of magic spark from between his fingers. “I’m bound by an oath.”

  “Why bother telling us anything, then?” I asked.

  “I know what you’re collecting. While you don’t have enough to harm me now, I thought it prudent to let you to know that your quarrel is no longer with me. I’d save the fight for what’s coming for you. I’m not the only creature you call evil that walks the world. There is worse to fear…even for me.”

  I wanted to yell and scream that he couldn’t walk away from what he’d already done to my parents, but I didn’t. Right now, he could, and would, unless we gathered more stones.

  I held my tongue. There’d be time to get my vengeance on him when I was stronger, when we had all the stones.

  He turned and walked away, giving us his back. Slowly, his form began to break apart until there was nothing but mist, and then that was gone. The creature that walked in here alone, and walked out, was afraid to tell me who held my debt. I had a feeling I already knew.

  “I still want him dead,” I said, not caring if he was somehow hovering nearby invisible to us.

  “We don’t know who’s coming next, but I think we both have an idea.” Ryker stared at the spot where Bones had disappeared. I could feel his magic rolling outward in that direction.

  “Why would the Queen of Cacoy want me when she already has an island filled with Wyrd Blood?”

  “Not Full Blood, and not with a vulnerability that would let them be controlled.” He turned, and his eyes met mine.

  “We need more stones,” Ryker and I said at the same time.

  Ryker had gone to do a sweep of the perimeter as the people came back from the grove. I walked back to my room, not Ruck’s, knowing deep down at this point I’d never leave this place willingly. I settled onto the bed, letting the exhaustion from earlier finally settle in.

  Gnawing pain woke me sometime later, like someone had shoved a hand inside my chest and was peeling away layers of my heart, tiny piece by tiny piece. My skin was flushed; a burning heat built inside me as I lay in a growing puddle of sweat. I knew if I looked at my chest, the bruise would be there. The Debt Collector had said he sold my life. The new owner was coming to collect.

  I struggled to my feet, knowing that my time was limited. I stumbled down the roads, wondering if I’d make it or if my legs would finally crumble. If I’d have to scream for help first or I’d be able to crawl there.

  Ryker’s place came in view, and I dug down to the last of my reserves until I crashed through his door.

  I fell, a heap of tangled arms and legs, sprawled on his floor. I’d barely crossed the threshold when he was at my side, grabbing my arms and cushioning my head in his palm.

  He didn’t say anything, but took in my form, the lines of pain carved in my face. The tears in my eyes.

  I reached up and pulled down the neckline of my shirt, revealing what I knew would be there. It was dark and mottled, black and red lines spreading out from its center. Viscous in its coloring and deadly in its intent.

  “I’m out of time,” I said, grabbing the front of his shirt.

  Ryker launched into action, lifting me in his arms and running out of his place and directly to Burn’s. He shifted me to free a hand and banged on the door.

  “Burn’s been preparing,” Ryker said to me. Burn swung open his door. “It’s time,” Ryker said, his eyes going to me.

  “Go to the grove,” Burn said. “The fairies said they’d help. I’ll round up everyone else. They’ve been waiting.”

  That little manipulative shit. I was going to give him a kiss and hug if I made it through this.

  I shuddered as another surge of pain shot into my chest and seemed to swallow the rest of me whole.

  Ryker held me close. “Hang on. Don’t you fucking die on me now, or I swear I’ll beat your dead body and then go and kill Ruck.”

  A huff escaped my lips that had started as a laugh. Ryker had just traded unknown years to keep Ruck alive for me, so the threat didn’t hit home. We were going to have to work on his motivational speeches. He could’ve saved them anyway. I hadn’t made it this far to quit now.

  He ran toward the grove, with me in his arms. I could feel the eyes on us as we went.

  The grove was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen. Old trees made a canopy above a mossy ground. I could see twinkling lights
in the trees and realized they were fairy nests.

  Ryker settled us on the ground, my back resting against his chest, his arms wrapped around me, holding me up. Tiny sparks of light flew toward us, more and more coming as the fairies flew above our heads.

  Then Burn was there, a trail of people behind him. I could feel the collective magic heading our way as they started to form circles around us.

  I’d had no idea how many Wyrd Blood lived here. It had to be nearly a hundred. How had they all avoided me? The first ring had maybe twenty Wyrd Blood, and then there were two outer rings, each progressively bigger.

  They held hands and began to circle. Burn made a motion with his hands and chanting began. I watched through a haze of pain as their combined magic filled the area with a haze of light. Sparks started flaring in the air, born of nothing but magic.

  “Hang on,” Ryker said, his hand wrapping around mine. “It’s going to work.”

  I believed him. He’d tolerate no other outcome.

  Burn came and knelt beside us. “I need to get out of the ring. I can’t be inside when it finishes.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  He smiled and then moved to the first circle of Wyrd Blood and joined them. There were more sparks until the entire area around us seemed permanently lit. The circle warmed, and I felt I was sitting with Ryker in a cocoon of warmth.

  Golden trails of mist began winding their way around us slowly, and the pain in my chest began to subside. The more trails that appeared, the better I felt, until the pain was gone and exhaustion replaced it.

  The light dimmed as I lay, remaining slumped against him, fairies still overhead and Wyrd Blood watching on.

  Burn stepped forward cautiously, looking us over for some sign. “Did it work?” he asked.

  “It worked,” Ryker said.

  That was how I knew he felt it too. Where I’d once only felt my magic surrounding me, there was now a link so strong it seemed as if it had always been there. Attached to me was magic so vast it was startling in its immensity, and I knew it was Ryker. It hovered nearby and felt like it could swallow mine whole.

  This was what I’d feared.

  “Don’t betray me,” I said softly, fear lacing my words.

  “I won’t.”

  I didn’t ask Ryker what came next. Neither of us knew.

  Look for the continuation of Bugs’ story, in 2019.

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  Also by Donna Augustine

  Ollie wit

  A Step into the Dark

  Walking in the Dark

  Kissed by the Dark

  The Keepers

  The Keepers

  Keepers and Killers

  Shattered

  Redemption

  Karma

  Karma

  Jinxed

  Fated

  Dead Ink

  The Wilds

  The Wilds

  The Hunt

  The Dead

  The Magic

  Born Wild (Wilds Spinoff)

  Wild One

  Wyrd Blood

  Wyrd Blood

  Acknowledgments

  It’s kind of hard to believe that this book is number eighteen and I’ve had mostly the same people by my side this entire journey. Donna Z., Camilla J., Lori H. and Lisa A., you four have been my rock through this bumpy ride. Christine J. And Ashleigh M., I might not have known you as long but I hope you stick around for the long haul. Soobee D., I have no words for how great you are!