by G. Bailey
Runes of Royalty
A Demon’s Fall Series: Book Four
G. Bailey
Contents
Join Bailey’s Pack
Description
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Author Note
Stay in Touch
About the Author
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Runes of Royalty Copyright © 2019 by G. Bailey
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.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.
Cover Design by Daqri Combs.
Edited by Helayna Trask.
Created with Vellum
Protector. Angel. Assassin…and now Queen.
Evie is now queen of the Protectors, and rumoured queen of the demons as well, but dealing with the black magic she can’t control is far more dangerous than either of those titles.The Protectors have fallen, demons along with them, and Earth is not far behind.
Can Nix, Trex, Connor and Azi help Evie survive a power no one understands? Or knows how to stop…
There is a war to be won, and Cex is tracking her every move, can the assassin—now queen—win the war?
Demons will rule.
18+ RH
Prologue
Seth, Cheri and Hali come through the portal just after us, and the moment the portal disappears, it is like time just stops. Every person on the street is frozen, the cars on the road behind us are paused, and there is just silence in New York City. I wave my hand in front of a random woman’s face, and she doesn’t flinch or move at all. What is going on?
"Seems like Lamia knows we are here," Azi mutters, looking at the house right in front of us. It is completely out of place here in the middle of all these high rises. It's an old fashioned house, made with dark wood timbers, and there is an odd white picket fence around the front garden of weeds and grass. A small gate is right in front of us, and I step forward to open the gate when Azi catches my arm and stops me. "Wait."
"Salvatore...I have been looking forward to your visit," a voice speaks into my mind, the sheer pressure of her voice making me grab the sides of my head and mentally beg her to stop talking. "Come inside with only the death-marked witch at your side."
The voice stops, and I gasp, sucking in air as Azi holds me, trying to ask me what is wrong, but everything is silent for a second before sound just seems to return like a smack to the face.
“Vi, what the hell is wrong?” Azi demands, holding my face with his hands and looking into my eyes like he can see the problem and wants to destroy it with his gaze alone.
"A woman, I’m assuming Lamia, said to come inside with Hali only," I explain to him, and he grits his teeth in anger, but the mere fact he doesn’t immediately say no means Azi really does trust this woman. I’m a tiny bit jealous, but I know Azi well enough to understand this isn’t a woman he loves. Just knows and trusts, I assume. "I can keep myself and Hali safe. Just wait for us."
"You don't understand who she is," Azi bites out as Hali comes to my side, clearly not needing a pep talk to follow me into a creepy haunted house because a voice in my head told me to. That's my girl.
"Well, I'm about to find out, aren't I?"
Chapter 1
I don’t know how long I crawl through the red, dusty storm almost endlessly, never having a clue where I am meant to be heading. I don't remember when I started crawling, where the dust storm came from, or why I am so terrified of stopping. I cannot stop, I know something bad will happen if I do. I crawl and crawl through the endless dust. The red dust does nothing but fight me, punish me, but I can't stop. I never can stop because I finally realize he is right behind me, wanting the power—and my death alongside it.
"When do you think she will wake up?" Azi asks, though his voice sounds nothing like my Azi, as I become aware of the real world and not the dream of dust that never seems to end. The demon I'm in love with has never sounded so panicked, lost and angry all at the same time. "Will my Vi wake up?"
"I'm no doctor, but black magic doesn't kill the host. Not from what I read about it," I hear a slightly familiar voice reply. "Father never spoke of the magic, and his books were never clear on anything, let alone this."
"Leave us alone and watch the girls just in case he finds us sooner this time," Azi instructs.
"I will," the man replies, "though Evie darling is much stronger than this magic. She will wake, she is too stubborn not to."
I try to pull my eyes open as I hear a door open and close in the distance not much later as the warm sun shines onto my face for only a second before disappearing. Spreading my fingers out, I notice I am nestled in satin sheets that are rather comfy. There is a lavender smell in the warm room, but I can hear nothing more than Azi's breathing and muttering close by. When my eyes finally listen to me, I blink them open and look up at the glass ceiling that shows off the deeply moody and grey clouds hanging in the sky above. I am lying on a large bed in a square room with one window to the side. There are big white double doors on the other side of the cream painted room, and there is little else in here that I can see as I glance around.
"Looks like it might rain," I manage to say, but my voice is cracked and not much more than a whisper.
"Vi," Azi all but shouts. His loud voice in the quiet room makes me jump as he comes to me on the bed and helps me sit up only to pull me to his chest. I hold him close, keeping my head on his wrinkled top as I just relax in the fact he is alive and alright, though he smells like he hasn't showered in days, and he has a thin line of black dust, old blood, on his arms like he quickly washed down and didn't bother much. Azi's black hair is messy, pushed to the one side, which furthers my idea that he hasn't been showering. So does the partial beard he has grown out, but it somewhat suits him. The last time I saw Azi like this was when he thought I was dead, but even then, he wasn't this bad.
"What happened?" I ask, thinking back to the events before I was here, knowing it was all so important. They all rush back to me in a flood of memories. Becoming queen and beating Erica, but Star was hurt. Cex forcing me to make him my knight and getting to the black magic tree. I look down at my hands in my lap, remembering the moment I
put my hands on that tree and absorbed half the black magic, with Cex taking the other. I was lucky to escape, only to find the Protectors’ city was under attack.
"I don't know where to start, Vi," he gently says, placing his hand on my face, and I look into his tired eyes. "It's been three days since you passed out in the city."
"Tell me everything," I demand. "I need to know what happened, Azi."
"The Protectors’ city is destroyed, overtaken by those yellow demons that I'm sure my dead brother helped create for Cex," he explains to me, and I feel nothing but guilt. This is my fault. I’m the god damn queen, and I let everything be destroyed because I fell in love. Do I regret that choice to save Connor? No, and I never could regret it, but it doesn’t stop the overwhelming feeling of guilt. I push the feeling to the back of mind, the place where it can gather dust with the rest of my supressed emotions I can’t deal with.
"Are Connor, Nix and Trex okay?" I ask, barely able to say the words and getting angrier by the moment as worry builds up. Why wouldn’t they be here with me? Where the hell are we? "Star? Just tell me if they are alive, and if they aren’t…tell me where to find Cex."
"They are alive, don't worry," he tells me, and the air I was holding in whooshes out. Thank gods. Though the more I wake up, the more I feel through our bond that Star is fine. I sense nothing but a longing to be near me again. After the test and nearly losing her, I feel the same way. "They can't be near you when you are like this, and your surviving people needed leaders while you recover."
"What do you mean they can't be near me?" I ask. “I don’t understand.”
"The black magic...you sent out a shock wave which luckily they all just avoided, but only I and other overlord demons can withstand the power. You have destroyed three homes we have taken you to, but so far you seem okay today," he tells me. "But you did kill a lot of those yellow demons and gave your people a real chance to escape, so the power isn’t all bad."
"Small bonuses then, huh?" I aimlessly state, pulling away from Azi and getting off the bed.
“I’m sorry about your houses, and thank you for helping me…again. I feel like I’m a long way past the person I used to be who never needed help.” I wrap my arms around myself as I walk to the window, seeing Big Ben and other familiar London buildings all around us from the high position we are in. The busy city keeps going on like the world isn't close to ending, because they don't know what evils go on around them. They live their lives quietly without any clue of the massive battles we all face to save them. If Cex wins, they will know without a doubt and suffer with no one to save them. I never wanted to be the hero, the one the humans, demons and, hell, even Protectors are no doubt looking at to save them. I was a damn assassin, clueless of who my parents were and living a relatively normal life. I know I will never be able to go back to that life because it is gone. The sun shines out of the grey looming clouds for a second, shining against me and feeling like even the sun is telling me I have to fix the darkness in this world.
“You never have to thank me,” he replies. “And you are different, but not in a bad way. Your old life built you up for this moment. Now you just have to deal with the new storm on the horizon.”
“It seems like the storm has never ended from the moment I met my real family. It’s almost ironically sad how I met my sisters in death, never truly getting to know them. Now there is nothing but death, and I don’t know where to run anymore,” I say to him, not sure why my sisters are who I am thinking of right now. I wonder how different everything could have been if I were brought up as my aunt’s child, a cousin to the throne until the test came up and my mother admitted who I was. I could have known my family rather than the cruelty of the streets. Then I wouldn’t have met Rita, or had a chance to look after Hali for her. I would never have met Azi, for that matter. As much as I wish my past was kinder, that it prepared me in a different way for this life now, I know it was the past I needed. I hope my sisters are somewhat happy in death with my mother and their father.
"What are you thinking of, Vi?" Azi asks, coming to my side as the sun is hidden once again in the clouds, and I'm left once more watching the city pass by.
"Of the past," I admit to him, knowing I can tell Azi the deepest part of my soul, and he will never judge me for it. "The pressure of needing to fix the world when I used to live happily in the shadows."
"You were never meant for the shadows, Vi," Azi says, placing his hand on the middle of my back. "The shadows were only guardians, keeping you safe until you needed to fight in the light."
"Poetic, but you are basically saying it's not the time for hiding anymore," I say, turning my head to look at him instead of the world. He is a much better view anyway.
"Not when you have the world to fight for," he says, turning to face me and leaning down, pressing his lips ever so gently across mine. "Not when you have a future, a damn good one at that."
"With you and my Protectors. Oh, and Star," I say, smiling at him as he straightens up. Azi looks to the double doors in the room and back to me with a small smile as someone turns the handle.
"And one more person," he tells me. The double doors are pushed open, and Hali walks in, grinning widely and looking exactly like the day I had to let her go.
"Hey, Evie. Did you miss me?"
Chapter 2
"Hali!" I shout, running to her and pulling her into a hug. I'm not a big hugger, but I don't want to let go of Hali in this moment. I've missed her so damn much. She hugs me just as tightly, and until now, I didn’t realise how much I’ve missed her. It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve had Hali close to me. With everything that is going on, having Hali here now is right.
"I will take that as a yes. I've missed you too, by the way," she whispers to me as I breath in her coconut and almond scent from the hair products she has always used.
"You have no idea how proud I am of you and how much I've missed you, Hali," I say, pulling back only so I can really look at her and make sure she is okay. Hali is half braided on the one side and the other is smooth, straightened, shiny black hair that falls to her shoulders. I've never seen her with this hairstyle before, but it makes her look older than when I last saw her. Though her hair is different, her clothes are similar to what she usually wears, and overall she looks healthy and okay.
"Seems like Seth has been looking after you like I asked him to," I comment, seeing how relaxed and happy she looks.
"Seth is alright under all that grumpiness," she explains to me. I wouldn’t call him alright, but whatever.
"I'm not grumpy, Hali," Seth states, coming into the room with a girl following right after him that I recognise as his daughter even though I haven’t seen her in a long time. "Evie darling, it is good to see you awake. You can have your pain in the ass charge back."
"Dickhead," Hali mutters, and I sneak a little grin at her. She isn't wrong, so I'm not correcting her. Looks like my girl is getting all grown up.
"Why are you here?" I ask. “Not that I’m not happy to see Hali, but surely bringing her to me now isn’t the smart move I’d expect from you, Seth. Not when your life depends on keeping my Hali safe.” Seth narrows his red eyes on me as I glare right back, my hands instinctively going to my sides for weapons that aren’t there. Well, holy fire always works. Azi grabs my arm before I can do anything, and Hali steps in front of me, somewhat protecting Seth which is a little confusing. Wasn’t she just calling him a dickhead?
"Our hiding place was attacked. Dad saved Hali and me," the girl blurts out, pulling my attention to her as she stands close to Seth, looking like his female double. They both have white hair, the same length, but the girl’s is wavy and braided on one side, just like Hali's. I assume she can hide her succubus side, the pink hair and skin, now that she is older. I’m not sure if I prefer this side to her or the pink succubus side. I catch Hali smiling at her clear friend, and I'm happy they get along. I remember her as a kid, but she is older now, less childlike and somewhat the s
ame age as Hali, if I remember right. Though I struggle for her name which is still a blur.
"Cheri, you have grown up since I last saw you," Azi responds and nods once at Seth as a thank you. I suppose the demon can live for now if he doesn’t continue to piss me off, that is. How this idiot is Azi’s brother, I will never understand. They are complete opposites.
"I don't remember meeting you, uncle. After all, I was only two years old, and you have been just a story since then," Cheri replies, making it clear she isn’t happy about being ignored for so long. I don’t exactly blame her for that.
"Maybe we can change that fact in the future when it is safe," Azi suggests, and she nods once with a little smirk.
"What happened at the hiding place?" I ask, cutting into this nice catch up because we really have a lot of other things we need to focus on, but first I want to know who attacked my Hali and how they even found her.
"Yellow demons. Cheri and Seth saved my life when I was cornered," Hali explains to me, making my heart pound in my chest as I take her hand. “I was fighting them off with weapons, but there were just so many of them. My arm was bit by one of them, and I was cornered when Cheri sent a ball of fire into the demon closest to me, and then Seth helped her kill the rest so we could escape.