Zarrod stood staring at me and waved to quiet down his people, thinking he had control. After all, what could one Plaguer do to him? And he was right. Maybe nothing. But I had to try. And I needed to turn his people against him.
I stepped forward and addressed the Dark Walkers. “You’re in pain. I’ve seen what you look like underneath those skins you borrow.” I nearly choked on the word borrow but I knew there would have to be some concessions. “Are you willing to give up a cure for one man?”
“He’s our leader. You’re nothing,” the female said.
“So you are willing to rot away for the next century or however long it takes because I will die before I help him?”
The Dark Walkers were speaking to each other, saying they should just attack now. I could hear the beasts growling behind me, wanting to sink their fangs into them.
I took a deep breath as I realized I was going to have to prove Tiffy wrong. A few steps toward Dax had Zarrod even more relaxed as I fed on Dax’s energy to build my own.
One look at his face and I could see it in his eyes: he’d go down with me. He had my back. It had taken me a while to realize he always had.
My magic built up higher than I’d ever managed to crank it in the past. The burn in the center of my chest had reached a point where I either needed to focus it on a target or it felt like it would blast from me on its own. This was it. My do-or-die moment.
I locked on and let my magic loose. I leapt toward Zarrod and saw the flicker of shock as my blade sliced across his neck. His head tumbled off his shoulders before the rest of his body collapsed.
I landed feet from him to stunned silence.
He was dead. Their leader was gone.
Tiffy stepped forward, putting herself in front of me. “I guess you could do it. Who knew?” She grinned at me before turning on the Dark Walkers.
“You’ll accept his death as payment for how you’ve wronged the humans, or we will rescind our offer of healing. Choose a new leader.” By time she was done speaking, her voice was shooting through me, and from the looks of it, the Dark Walkers as well.
They nodded, and the female stepped forward almost instantly.
As I walked away, I wasn’t sure if I’d won or not. The vast majority of the Dark Walkers still lived. Maybe that was the sign of a good compromise, one that might last for a while.
I was exhausted. I looked down at my exposed arms and saw bruises littering my skin from what had happened over the last several days.
Dax stood there, waiting for me, my lifeline in more ways than one. I ran to him, leaping into his arms in the last second and knowing he’d catch me, because he always did. That was a part of love I’d never realized before. Knowing he’d always be there to catch me.
Epilogue
One Month Later
The small band was playing off to the side as loud as they could. People were dancing around the bonfire, while others were drinking and eating. It reminded me of one of my first nights here on the farm, but so much better, because I was no longer hiding in the shadows.
I strolled over to a chair, getting hesitant smiles here and there as I passed. It wasn’t the embrace I’d gotten at the Rock, but this time it would last. I was building a life with these people. I’d fought beside them. And things were changing. Even the beasts were being accepted.
I caught sight of Lucy over in the corner, lifting a bottle of whiskey toward me. I was about to walk over, and then Bart must’ve said something she disliked, and I paused, knowing what was coming next. Lucy turned and started screaming at Bart. Then Bart started screaming back.
I sat down on a nearby chair and waited.
Three, two, one…
They were all over each other, Bart grabbing her as she had clumps of his hair in her hands. They nearly tripped on the way to their new cabin, but I was grateful they didn’t stop and do it in the bushes like they had last week.
“Dal,” someone said. I looked to see a younger woman walk over. I’d spotted her the other day talking to Fudge, who told me she was working the trading route up and down the east coast. Fudge must’ve liked her to have invited her tonight.
“I’m Maggie,” she said as she sat down beside me.
“Hi,” I replied.
“How have you been?” she asked, as if she knew me.
“Good, thanks.”
“I’m so glad,” she said as she reached out and patted my hand.
I was frozen by the gesture, so similar to what Tiffy would’ve done. I looked up at the girl’s face, and there was something in the lopsided smile that warmed my heart with memories.
“Tiffy?” I said, imagining I must’ve lost my mind.
She held a finger up in front of her lips and said, “Shhhh! Don’t use my name. They still remember what happened last time.”
“Tiffy, I thought you would want to go live with your people now that you’re healed?”
“I am with my people.”
“But, you know…”
“I know. I’m not really human. But I’d miss you guys. Plus, my other people are just over there.” She waved her hand toward the woods.
“So, you really feeling good?” she asked with a curious little smile.
“I’m fine. Why? What do you know?”
“I didn’t want to be the one to tell you, but I have a feeling I’m going to have to be.”
“What?”
“You’re going to have a baby.”
My hand immediately went to my stomach as joy filled me, followed by disbelief and then panic. “Wait, that can’t be. Dax told me he was avoiding having sex with me those times.”
“I think he’s a little more virile than he realizes,” she said.
I looked over to where he was standing beside Dodger with the bottle he’d promised, and his eyes caught mine. Would he be happy? Would the baby be like him or the other beasts that were learning to change back?
Tiffy took my hand before she said, “No, don’t panic. It’s going to be okay. He’s going to be like Dax.”
“He?”
“Yes. You’re going to have a little boy.”
“How do you know?”
“I can feel his energy already growing inside of you. You’re going to have a family, Dal. Everything is going to be okay.”
Dax was still staring over, as if he wasn’t sure if I needed him or not. I smiled, putting him at ease.
Tiffy smiled and faded into the crowd Dax walked over anyway. He grabbed my hand, and pulled me into the middle of the crowd. “Do you remember our first dance?”
“Of course I do.” I’d never forget it.
“I wasn’t sure. You were pretty drunk,” he said as his eyebrows rose.
“I’ll remember until I’m dead.”
He spun me around, and I laughed as he said, “I didn’t know what to do with you back then.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, shifting my hands from his shoulders to around his neck.
“You looked near starved and scrawny, like a good wind would take you out, but you fought like a bear. And when I’d look at you, you churned up something raw in me I’d never felt.”
“Maybe you should’ve embraced the feeling?”
“You can’t say it was only me doing the pushing.”
“No, I can’t.”
I looked over and watched Bookie walk Amelia onto the dance floor. “She’s a good match for him,” I said.
“But you’re a better match for me.”
“Why was it so easy for them?”
“They’re easier people.”
He leaned down, and his lips grazed mine in a tease of what would be coming soon then leaned back, a question in his eyes. “Are you all right?”
“I’m…something.” My hands gripped his shoulders. I had to tell him but when? Would he be happy?
“You want to talk about it?” he asked, when I rested my forehead on his chest.
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head without lifting it from
him.
“We probably should before too much time passes,” he said.
I lifted my head and leaned it back. Did he already know? When I saw his face, there was no doubt. All the love in the world was shining through his eyes. “It’s going to be okay,” he said, his hands running over my back. “You’ve given me more than I ever imagined and now you’re going to give me a child. How could it not be okay?”
Everything was going to be okay. No, more than okay. It was going to be perfect.
Watch for Shadow Magic, my new series, coming the end of 2016.
If you would like to find out more about Donna Augustine, you can visit her on the web at Donnaaugustine.com.
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Excerpt of Broken Compass by USA Today Bestselling Author Jaymin Eve
Chapter 1
Maximus Compass
Each night the emptiness claims me and each morning I force myself to awake. Aimlessly, I wander the streets of the human world, feeding to survive. At times I briefly contemplate ending it all, but I refuse to leave my brothers or Jessa.
Speaking of my number one girl, a buzzing illumination indicated I had another text. She was relentless, never letting me wallow in my misery.
Jessa babe: Maximus Compass, where the fuck are you? Seriously, dude, I’m as fat as a house and my eyes are literally falling from my head I’m that tired. Mainly because two babies are kicking the shit out of me every night. I need you to come home. Braxton won’t stop feeding me. I’m starting to waddle. WADDLE.
An actual smile forced its way across my face. She was the one light in my darkness, the reason I was heading in the direction of Stratford. Though I wasn’t sure I could step into the community again. That was the place my mate had … died. I was able to say the word now, but it still burned like the hottest fires of hell. I needed to start accepting what had happened. Truth was, the guilt was killing me. Guilt and pain. I hadn’t protected Cardia. I was too busy trying to save everyone else. My duty should have been to her first, and yet it never was.
I didn’t deserve a true mate, and so the fates, those evil bitches, had taken her from me. I wanted to kill them. But, unfortunately, that was impossible.
My phone buzzed again.
Jessa babe: I’m serious, Max. You need to come home. There’s stuff happening, the shifter bears are planning some sort of coup against Braxton. We need you. The council needs you.
She was pulling out the big guns now, reminding me of my responsibility, of my brothers. I missed those assholes. We had barely been apart since birth, and it was our birthday soon. Twenty-three. And yet I felt like I was a thousand years old. Old and completely done.
I hit her back with a brief text.
On my way.
That was all she needed to know.
Chapter 2
Mischa Lebron
Curses were ringing out as I stepped through the front door of the Compass home.
“Are you goddamn kidding me? For shit’s sake! Purple … who needs ten different shades of purple? And what the hell is magenta?”
Hearing a whole lot of swearing was not unusual when popping into the home my twin, Jessa, shared with her dragon shifter mate, Braxton. The first few times it happened I’d taken off at a run, convinced that for anyone to be shouting like that they were either being murdered or going into early labor. She was expecting twins and no one could be sure when they were going to arrive. But now I knew better. Lately, the usual culprit of her ire was when someone ate the last piece of cake.
Never touch a pregnant shifter’s cake. This mantra was now drilled into me, and I was not likely to forget. Of course, this time it was clearly something else. The color purple had her all a tizzy.
I hurried as fast as I could down the hall, but with my own impending pregnancy I wasn’t exactly in running shape. Yep, my twin and I had decided we should do everything together, including having our first babies.
“Jess,” I yelled, to let her know I was on my way, before remembering that was pretty much redundant. Bad habit from my human days. She was a wolf shifter, and would have heard me before I even made it across the front porch.
“I’m in the dining room, Misch,” she bellowed back. And then: “What the actual freaking hell? Screw this.”
There was a crash, followed by multiple clatters of small objects as they were seemingly flung across the room. I laughed then, and it was weird to hear something so light and carefree fall from my lips. Lately I had been channeling sad sack in the worst kind of way. I wanted to blame pregnancy hormones, and they definitely had something to do with it, but mostly it was … other stuff.
Trying my best to minimize the waddle, I strode along the small hall and through the living area, which was deserted, and into the next room. Jessa was at her usual spot behind the absolutely breathtaking dining table, a hand-carved masterpiece that should be in a museum or something.
Seriously, I wasn’t sure anyone else in Stratford understood how unique a design and shape it was. In the human world it would go for tens of thousands of dollars, easily. No human could have made it by hand. Only a supernatural would have the strength and fine dexterity skills to do what Braxton Compass had done. My twin’s mate was not only a scary-as-heck dragon shifter, lethal and godlike gorgeous, but he was also an artist. Deep down. You couldn’t make something so beautiful and not have artistry in your soul.
Long, inky black hair – the exact replica of my own – shot everywhere as Jessa’s head flung up. She locked eyes with me. The color was a deep blue that reminded me of a perfectly-cut sapphire. One of the few differences between us was our eyes. Mine were turquoise, closer to green than blue. I made my way around to her side of the table, noticing now that she had a poor book clutched tightly in both of her hands.
She lifted it up and waved it in my face. “This is all your fault. Seriously…” She started mimicking me in a high pitched voice: “‘You need to do something to calm yourself, Jessa.’ So I decided to try something new.”
I finally caught sight of the book cover and a torrent of laughter burst from me. Side-splitting, belly-aching laughter. I tried to catch my breath as I sank down next to her, easing my girth in behind the table. Even as the laughter died off, a huge, beaming smile never left my face. My cheeks were actually hurting.
My twin was pure comedic gold, even when she wasn’t trying to be.
“Where did you get this from?” I asked, prying it out of her iron grip. Smoothing the white cover down on the adult coloring book, I flicked through the pages. Jessa had made an attempt on half a dozen of the pictures but hadn’t gotten more than a few strokes of color into each one.
The title caught my attention again. “Of course you would buy a coloring book titled The Eff Bomb Coloring Book – For adults who need to release some anger.”
Each page contained one large curse word, with some sort of artsy or flowery design around it. I paused on an image in the middle, one which Jessa had started to outline with the now-hated color purple.
“What’s a cockswabbler?” I asked, wrinkling my brow as I tried to work out if that was a real thing or made up.
As the word left my lips, I found myself looking over my shoulder, expecting my mother to magically appear and smack me up the side of the head. Lienda Lebron did not like us ladies cursing, which made life very interesting when she was around Jessa.
My sister laughed. “Dude! I think you need this book more than me. We have to update your vocab. I don’t want to hear ‘gosh golly gee’ out of your mouth one more time.”
I swatted her with the book. “I’ve never said golly gee in my life.”
“Whatever,” Jessa said. “I’m still saying this book is your fault. The coloring m
ade you all Zen and stuff, even with a baby taking up what feels like permanent residence in your uterus and kicking the crap out of you, so I ordered one through the Guilds. I, of course, went for something more interesting than Nature’s Beauty.”
Of course she did. The eff bomb was like her favorite word ever. It was true though, I loved coloring and drawing. I found moments of peace when I was absorbed in my art, and probably wouldn’t have made it through the last few months without that creative outlet.
Jessa clearly hadn’t felt the same way.
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Books by Donna Augustine
The Alchemy Series
The Keepers
Keepers and Killers
Shattered
Redemption
Karma Series
Karma
Jinxed
Fated
Dead Ink
The Agency (Prequel Short Story)
The Wilds Series
The Wilds
The Hunt
The Dead
The Magic
The Magic Page 24