by D. N. Leo
Spectrum of Magic Complete Series - Spell Breaker - Fate Shifter - Cursed Stone - Magic Unborn - Libra
D.N. Leo
Contents
Spell Breaker - Spectrum of Magic - Book 1
Exclusive Invitation
Part I
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
Part II
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
WHAT’S NEXT
Also by D.N. Leo
Afterword
Fate Shifter - Spectrum of Magic - Book 2
Part I
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
Part II
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
WHAT’S NEXT
Also by D.N. Leo
Afterword
Cursed Stone - Spectrum of Magic - Book 3
Part I
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
Part II
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Also by D.N. Leo
Afterword
Magic Unborn - Spectrum of Magic - Book 4
Part I
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
Part II
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
WHAT’S NEXT
LIBRA - SPECTRUM OF MAGIC - EPILOGUE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
PISCES - SPECTRUM OF MAGIC - LORCAN’S STORY
Prologue
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
EXCLUSIVE INVITATION
Also by D.N. Leo
Afterword
Libra - Spectrum of Magic - Epilogue
Synopsis
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
ASH OF SCORPIO
BLOODSTONE TRILOGY
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
EXCLUSIVE INVITATION
About the Author
Also by D.N. Leo
Afterword
Spell Breaker - Spectrum of Magic - Book 1
Exclusive Invitation
For a limited time, D.N. Leo gives away
Several e-books and audiobooks in the Multiverse Collection
CLICK THE LINK AND CLAIM YOUR BOOKS
http://dnleo.com
Part I
Chapter 1
There is only one happiness in life -- to love and to be loved.
George Sand (1804-1876)
She lay on the cold floor of a dungeon flooded with water. A bunch of tangled weeds tied her hands, and a pair of bony hands grabbed at her legs, pinning them to the dungeon floor.
She thrashed her legs, pulled her arms, and tried to roll her body around—nothing seemed to work.
She couldn’t scream, and she couldn’t cry for help—she wasn’t really the crying type anyway. “How long can I hold my breath?” she wondered.
She was twenty-nine now. She was full of life and had been on the path to a better future. At least, that was what she’d thought.
The water was everywhere.
Ten minutes earlier, Orla had held tightly to a rusty steel pipe running across the ceiling o
f a dark and cold dungeon. Although she was flexible and as agile as a leopard, hanging in the same position with her feet braced against a small ledge halfway through a wall for an hour had pushed her muscle strength to the limit.
The Thames River was not as patient as she, and the tides raised by the minute, flooding the drains and leaking water into the dungeon. She couldn’t see the floor anymore. She wagered that she would quickly have to get out and find another way to break into the building.
Orla had done a countless number of jobs of this nature. She was a high-profile, experienced antique transporter. She disagreed with those who referred to her profession as thievery.
She wasn’t a thief. She didn’t steal and resell for profit. Instead, she provided a service to her clients who wanted to claim ownership of antique items. She removed items of interest from the current owners and transferred them to her clients.
She didn’t care about the person who had original ownership or what the new owner would do with the item. Most of the merchandise had ambiguous origins to begin with and had been dealt with by underground collectors—she doubted anyone could prove genuine ownership anyway.
Orla looked at the barred lid of a small door leading to the compartment above, the dim light coming from it shedding a bit of blue down to the dungeon.
“What’s taking you so long, Lorcan?” she mumbled to herself.
All she needed was a signal from Lorcan that he had jammed all the securities in the above compartment, and then she could climb up to that barred door, on which she had loosened all the screws.
She heard the painful shriek of a cat from the above compartment, a thud, footsteps, and another shriek. A tiny kitten dropped through the bars of the door lid. It clawed at the bars, trying to hang on. Orla heard the sound of door closing from the above compartment. The kitten was losing its grasp of the bar. It meowed and shrieked at the same time.
She heard a bang from the far end of the dungeon.
“Damn it.”
The floodgate had been broken - the water from the river gushed into the dungeon. In minutes, it would be completely under water. She had to leave right now.
Orla jumped down to the floor of the dungeon. She was five foot seven, and the water had risen to her waist in only a few minutes. She treaded ahead toward the exit.
From the door above, the cat clung to the bar with its claws. It cried out a meow. Orla looked up. Soon the cat would let go and drop into the rising water. The door was at the far end of the room, and she was already at the exit, but Orla shrugged and came back inside. She stood right underneath the door and reached her hands out. “Come on, let go of the bar. I’ll catch you.”
The cat clawed and scratched and few more times, then it let go and jumped into Orla’s hands. As soon as it landed on her hand, it climbed up her arm and sat on her shoulder. Orla giggled. “You’re as quick as a full-grown cat, aren’t you? Now you’re comfortable, safe and sound, and we have to get out of here quickly . . .”
Her legs were pulled from under the water. Orla was thrown off balance and fell on the floor. She gasped for air and tried to see in the dark. In the water, a rotten body with bony hands clawed at her legs and held them underneath the water. Its eye sockets sparkled in blue, and where the teeth and mouth were supposed to be, Orla saw something resembling a grin.
She shook her head to ensure that she was conscious. Still under the water, she reached toward her legs to free them from the bony hands. A pile of tangled weeds grabbed at her both arms, preventing her from freeing her legs. Orla gasped, kicked her legs, and wiggled her body as much as she could, but she didn’t make any progress. She was running out of air.
She looked down again at the blue eye sockets and found the mouth of death still grinning at her—the sign she had not seen for a long time, and didn’t wish to see again in her life—the sign of the black curse.
She heard Lorcan’s voice calling out for her. He was entering the dungeon. He would save her. He had a knack for coming for her at the just right time. Her life was full of uncertainties, but Lorcan was her constant, the one thing that would never change. She’d never told him how she felt about him for various reasons—and most importantly, for his own sake.
The dungeon was a long way underground. She wasn’t sure he would get to her in time. Maybe this time, he’d be too late. She struggled more, but the weeds and the dead arms wouldn’t release her.
She felt a tug at the weeds. Orla looked up to see the kitten clawing at them. It clawed and bit at the weeds until Orla’s right arm was loosened. She yanked her right arm free, untied her left arm, and sitting up, she reached to the bony arms and broke them both at once. The bony arms felt soft like jelly and mud now. They were not as hard as when they grabbed at her legs. She saw a flash of the dead body dissolving into the dark water. She had beaten the curse this time—or at least the cat had.
She surged up to the surface and drew in air. She stood up and saw the tiny kitten trying to paddle with its miniature paws, its bright green cat eyes frantic and pleading with her. She scooped the cat up and stared into its eyes. “You saved my life. You’re no ordinary cat, are you?” The cat responded with a meow. Orla rolled her eyes and mumbled, “Naturally.” She swished through the water, heading toward the exit.
Lorcan bolted at Orla when she was halfway up the stairs. “You didn’t respond! Jesus Christ, Orla, the floodgate broke! You could have just let me know you were okay!”
Orla pulled out her phone and looked at it. It was dead in the water now, but it had never signaled her. She waved the phone at Lorcan. “I dropped it in the water. It’s dead.”
Lorcan looked at her up and down. “Why are you soaking wet? What’s with the cat?”
Orla sneezed. Lorcan wrapped his coat over her shoulders. “Let’s get back to the van,” he said.
Chapter 2
Inside the van, Orla pulled out a set of spare clothes and got changed. Lorcan chuckled. “We can literary live in this van.” Orla glared at him.
“What took you so long?”
“My device was jammed.”
Orla stared at him for a second and then she rolled over laughing. “Your jammer was jammed!”
Lorcan threw this arms up. “It’s not that funny. It jammed, and then it started working again without me even fixing it. Damn it. And why are you wet from top to bottom?”
Orla dried her long black hair with a towel. “It flash-flooded in the dungeon, and I slipped.”
Lorcan cocked an eyebrow. “You slipped?”
“Yeah. You think I went for a swim in the Thames?”
Lorcan said nothing, his striking blue eyes leveled at hers for brief moment. He ruffled his thick black hair, making its ends spike up, then he pulled out his pack of cigarettes.
“We’re not done with the job yet, Lorcan.”
“You’re not going back in there.”
“The hell I’m not.” Orla pulled up the zipper of her jacket and tied up her hair. Then she snatched his cigarette before he had a chance to light it. “This will kill you.”
Lorcan shrugged. “If you want to go back in there, I want my cigarette.”