by Sadie Moss
Kissed by Shadows
A Magic Awakened Prequel
Sadie Moss
Copyright © 2018 by Sadie Moss
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All rights reserved.
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No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or had, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Message to the Reader
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1
The ward around the tent glowed with a faint purple light.
It stood out starkly in the dark desert landscape, repelling the law-abiding citizens of the camp who spent their lives with their heads down, desperate to avoid trouble, but calling like a beacon to those brave and clever enough to risk breaking in.
With wards like that, there was something worth having inside that tent.
And I wanted it.
“What do you think, Lana?” Corin murmured, his voice so low it blended with the whispering of the wind. We were crouched behind a small scraggly shrub—the best cover the barren landscape afforded. His clear blue eyes gleamed in the dim light of the moon, and he pulled a dark cap over his shaggy blond hair. He was nineteen, but sometimes his eyes looked twice as old. I was only a year younger than him, and I wondered if my green eyes ever had the same look.
I grinned. “I think it’s a good thing we saved that ward stripper for a special occasion.”
We’d travelled two days to a tiny encampment set in the foothills of Devils Tower to trade with a black market magic dealer. It cost us an arm and a leg—or more precisely, the bulk of our previous three scores—but I’d promised Corin it would be worth it. With a ward stripper, we’d be able to get our hands on much better protected items. Just one big score could be all we needed to turn our lives around.
Corin eyed the small metal cylinder I held. “You sure it’ll work on that?” He jerked his head toward the black canvas of the tent and the purple glow that pulsed around it.
“It should. That ward looks powerful, but Markus promised us this would work on all but the highest-level protections. He’s a creepy fucker, but he’s never sold us a piece of junk before.”
The ward stripper was a two-time use spell, meant to break through a ward once on the way in and once on the way out. Higher-level wards could repair breaches, although how fast that repair happened depended on the type of spell. Unfortunately, that meant no testing it out ahead of time. We’d have to make our move quick and keep our fingers crossed that the ward stripper worked.
I eyed the tent again, wishing I had the power to see through its walls. We’d been casing it ever since the Gifted man and his lackeys arrived at our settlement two days ago. From gossip around the camp, I’d gathered the guy’s name was Edgar. He was a low-level mage, and he’d come to do business with Father Elias.
Business. Ha.
I would bet every single finger and toe I had that their ‘business’ wasn’t the legal kind. Father Elias, the Gifted official tasked with running this settlement, was a cheater and a liar. He had no interest in improving relations between the Blighted—what magic users called non-magical people—and the Gifted. He doled out enough rations to keep most people in the camp alive and healthy, but he wasn’t doing any of this out of the kindness of his heart. It was an open secret he skimmed money and food off the top and had a lucrative little side business trading with other camp leaders in the Central Plains.
Anybody who was here to do business with Father Elias deserved to be robbed blind.
Keeping my eyes glued to the tent, I went back through what we knew one more time. My body was jittery with a mixture of nerves and excitement, and laying everything out in an orderly way helped me focus the energy so it didn’t get the better of me.
“Two bodyguards inside the tent. Both Touched—so they can’t cast spells, but they’ll still be dangerous. Shifters of some kind, probably. Hopefully asleep by now, especially since Ola was mixing her drinks extra strong tonight.”
Corin nodded, excitement burning in his eyes. He loved this shit as much as I did.
“The whole tent is warded,” I continued, then lifted the ward stripper. “This should take care of that, unless Markus is a two-faced, lying dirtbag.”
Corin chuckled. “Well, he is. But his spells work.”
I rolled my eyes, wrapping my wavy red hair into a loose twist and pinning to the top of my head under a dark cap. Our black clothes actually stood out a bit in the pale, dusty landscape, but inside the tent, where it mattered most, they’d help us blend with the shadows.
“We don’t know if there are any other protection spells inside the tent, so we’ll just have to play it by ear once we get in.”
Corin pulled his cap on then leaned forward and pressed a hard kiss to my lips. “I’ve got your back.”
He started to stand up, but I pulled him back down and kissed him again. My heart was racing, making my fingertips tingle and my skin flush.
“And I’ve got yours,” I whispered against his lips, then let him pull me to my feet.
We darted across the empty space toward the tent. No one was awake to see our movement, but we crouched low anyway. The camp wasn’t known for its revelry, and most people were in their tents and asleep not long after the sun went down. The exception to that was Father Elias and his crew, but they were out for the night by now too. Edgar’s larger, private tent was set up on the other side of the smaller one where his two goons slept. Of course he wouldn’t deign to sleep in the same tent as his hired help. My lip curled in a sneer as I raised the ward stripper. These fucking Gifted were all the same.
With a silent prayer to whatever god or gods might be listening—I wasn’t sure any were, but I couldn’t help my superstitious streak—I ran the ward stripper in a line from as high as I could reach on the front of the tent all the way down to the ground. Like skin splitting, the purple film of the ward bowed out in a gap just wide enough to slip through.
I shot a triumphant look at Corin, whose white teeth flashed back at me in a grin.
Slipping the ward stripper in my pocket, I reached through and pushed open the tent flap. Then, with a deep breath, I maneuvered my body slowly through the hole in the ward and into the tent. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I touched the purple glow, but I wasn’t keen to find out.
As soon as I was inside, I turned back to look at Corin. He slipped in after me, his broad shoulders just barely fitting through the gap. We pressed tight to the walls on either side of the opening, letting our eyes adjust to the darkness. Edgar’s two goons were stretched out atop small cots on opposite sides of the tent. In the far corner sat a pile of trunks and boxes. And on the very top of the pile, the most promising item of all—a case I’d seen the two men carrying across the camp two days ago when Edgar met with Father Elias.
It was large, metal,
and heavy looking, and it was kept shut by a padlock. All good signs as far as I was concerned.
I was about to creep forward, eager to claim our prize, when Corin’s arm whipped out, pressing against my middle to hold me back. I shot him a quizzical look.
He raised his eyebrows and mouthed, Spells, while simultaneously making the hand gesture we’d created for the same word. In a lot of the jobs we did, silence was essential, so we’d made up signals for certain words and phrases to let us communicate across distance without making a sound.
My heart lurched, and I peered into the tent again, squinting.
Oh, shit.
There were magical trip wires crisscrossing the entire space. They were easy to miss if you weren’t looking for them, but if I let my eyes drift out of focus a bit, I could detect the silver-white lines of magic.
I let out a steadying breath.
Focus, Lana. Don’t get ahead of yourself.
Normally, I leaned toward the side of overly cautious. But the potential haul of this job had me excited, and that had made me rush.
My eyes darted back to Corin as I shook my head in chagrin. He smiled and winked at me. This was why we made a good team—one of us always caught what the other missed. I blew him a kiss, which he pretended to grab out of the air and press to his heart.
Keeping my eyes in a hazy focus, I crouched, stepping over the first tripwire and under the one immediately after it. In some places, the lines almost crossed, leaving a gap barely wide enough to slide through, or forcing me to slide sideways to find a better place to pass. As I worked my way slowly across the room, bending and twisting, my heart rate slowed and my breath evened out. This, I could do in my sleep.
I supposed I should be flattered Edgar even bothered setting up protections inside his tent. Most Gifted underestimated the Blighted, assuming that just because we didn’t have magic, we were raging morons with no other useful skills. That came in handy sometimes—as in the case of a warlock who visited the camp several months ago and warded his car doors with a basic protection spell, but forgot to ward the trunk. It was an easy enough thing to pick the lock of the trunk, push through the back seat, and steal the charms he kept in his glove box. Poor guy never did figure out how someone got in his car.
So I grudgingly gave Edgar a few points for intelligence, or at least paranoia, for not just warding the outside of the tent and leaving it at that.
My mind had wandered while I maneuvered my way across the room, as it often did during highly focused tasks. As I stepped over the last tripwire, I swiveled my head, making sure the two Touched men were still sound asleep. Neither had moved since I last looked at them. Thank you, Ola.
I was now pressed against the wall opposite the entrance, and I slid along the soft fabric toward the pile of goodies in the corner. Two tripwires crossed right in front of the large metal box, so I had to reach awkwardly between them to turn the box toward me. It was heavy, and at this angle I could barely lift it. No way was I getting this whole thing out of here undetected. I’d have to get it open and take whatever I could carry.
As I turned the box, I noticed something on the lock that I hadn’t seen from across the room—a faint blue glow.
Dammit.
Okay, I was taking back those points I’d given Edgar earlier. Forget intelligent. This guy was definitely just a paranoid bastard.
I caught Corin’s eye across the room and made the gesture for spell. His mouth moved in a silent curse, and when I held up the ward stripper, he looked behind him at the gap in the ward outside the tent, then turned back to me and nodded. If I used the ward stripper on the lock, that meant we couldn’t use it to reopen the ward around the tent if it closed while we were inside.
But we’d have to risk it. I wasn’t leaving here empty-handed.
I pulled out the ward stripper and ran it around the entire circumference of the lock. The blue glow fell off in pieces, disintegrating into thin air.
Shoving the spent stripper spell back in my pocket, I pulled out my lock-picking tools. The calm that had settled over me while I passed through the tripwires was evaporating quickly. I had to move fast now, or it wouldn’t matter what I found in this box, because we’d be trapped inside the tent with it. Oh, and two angry magical beings.
It was a testament to the hours and hours I’d spent practicing that, even as nerves jangled through my body, my hands were rock-steady. The one upside to the stupid ward Edgar had used was that it seemed to have given him a false sense of security—the lock itself was a piece of shit. After less than a minute of fiddling, the mechanism popped open with a soft click. The tent had been so quiet that the noise seemed overly loud, and my eyes darted up to check the shadowy forms of the Touched men.
Still asleep.
I had to bend awkwardly to open the box without brushing the tripwires. I wished I could use a flashlight to see the contents better, but—
My eyes widened as the lid lifted.
Scratch that. No flashlight necessary.
Nestled in a bed of dark velvet sat the largest gem I’d ever seen. It was probably a ruby, judging by the deep red color. The tent was dark, but the gem somehow still managed to reflect flashes of light, making it gleam.
I licked my lips, almost drooling.
I hadn’t been wrong. This was worth saving the ward stripper for. Hell, this score would change our lives.
It was possible there were more treasures buried deeper inside the box, but I didn’t even care. Who needed them? This was plenty, and as a bonus, it would be really easy to carry out of here.
Stretching out a hand, I picked up the gem. It was cool and heavy, the facets of its surface smooth against my palm.
A flash of movement caught my eye, and my head snapped up. Corin was waving frantically from the front of the tent. When he saw he’d gotten my attention, he pointed behind him at the gap in the ward and gestured: hurry.
My heart raced. The ward was closing!
Shoving the ruby into my pocket, I gently closed the lid and slid sideways, stepping over the first tripwire. It was easier to see the magical wires when I kept my focus soft, but I kept glancing toward the front of the room. Corin was watching me intently, his entire body tense. Through the tent flap, I could see the ward outside healing itself, the bottom and top of the slit slowly knitting back together. They’d meet in the middle soon, and we’d be trapped inside.
Crouched over a tripwire, I paused for a second to gesture to Corin. Go.
His eyes widened, and he shook his head.
I repeated my hand movement again, more emphatically. Go! I nodded pointedly toward the tent flap, but he crossed his arms over his chest, scowling at me.
Stupid, stubborn man.
Broadening my focus again, I breathed slowly in and out as I slipped as fast as I could over, under, and through the wires. When I finally reached the front of the tent, cold sweat chilled my spine.
The gap in the ward outside was less than two feet tall.
It slid closed another inch.
Without hesitating, Corin leapt through headfirst, hitting the ground outside in a roll.
I followed on his heels, diving through the shrinking hole in the glowing purple ward. A sharp sting zipped up my leg, but then I was through. I landed in a much less graceful roll than Corin, clamping my mouth shut on my hiss of pain.
He pulled me to my feet, and we sprinted away from the tent.
Chapter 2
We ran flat out across the bare landscape, away from the encampment. I didn’t look back once. If the ward had tripped some kind of alarm, we’d find out soon enough.
But no shifters chased after us. The night remained silent, except for the soft thuds of our footfalls and the synchronized pattern of our breaths. Corin had longer legs than me, but he stayed half a pace behind me, probably hoping to protect me from an attack if any came. Normally, I’d fight him on that, but right now it was more important to keep moving.
My lungs burned by the time we crest
ed a gentle rise, and the camp disappeared from view behind us. I let the extra boost from gravity carry me down the other side of the hill then stumbled to a stop, bracing my hands on my knees and sucking in huge gasps of air. I was in good shape, but between the exertion and the adrenaline, I could barely get enough oxygen. Beside me, Corin breathed almost as hard.
“Are you okay?” he panted, his gaze catching mine. “Something hurt you.”
He had an eagle eye for the micro-expressions that crossed my face. The first time he’d guessed exactly what I was thinking, it’d scared the shit out of me. I’d wondered aloud if he had some magical ability he was hiding. He’d laughed and promised me that he wasn’t one of the Gifted; he just knew me well. That had scared me too, but in a different way that mingled with a warm, gooey feeling in my stomach.
I nodded, my heartbeat slowing from a sprint to a heavy thud in my chest. “Yeah. I think the ward nicked me, but nothing happened.”
I reached down and pulled up the leg of my black pants—an outfit I wore only for jobs like this. It was much different than the usual light linen skirts and blouses that were common for women in the camp. There was no mark on my leg, and the pain was entirely gone. It was like I’d touched a live wire, sending electricity jolting through my body. But there was no evidence of it now.
“Looks fine,” I said, pushing the fabric down and straightening. “But next time I tell you to go, go!” I shoved lightly at Corin’s chest.
He laughed, capturing my hands and pulling me toward him. “And leave you behind? Never.”
I struggled a little, just for the satisfaction of making him hold me tighter, my irritation fading as I looked up into his dancing blue irises. “Doesn’t do us much good if we both get caught, does it?”