Warrior Innocent

by Wendy Knight

  Warrior Innocent

  Riders of Paradesos Book Three

  Wendy Knight

  Contents

  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

  About the Author

  Untitled

  Warrior Innocent

  Riders of Paradesos Book Three

  by Wendy Knight

  Published by Clean Reads

  www.cleanreads.com

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.

  WARRIOR INNOCENT

  Copyright © 2017 WENDY KNIGHT

  ISBN 978-1-62135-632-5

  Cover Art Designed by AM DESIGNS STUDIO

  To Crystal.

  You are the reason this book was written.

  1

  Ten thousand black and armored unicorns stood silently under the blue, blue sky of Paradesos. "Are they ready, Lil Bit?" Iros asked.

  "Yes." Lil Bit seemed small next to their stoic commander, but the ancient wisdom in her eyes made her seem so much older.

  "We could wait. Train them more."

  Most of these new riders were going into battle for the first time. A battle few would return from. The demons they fought outnumbered them one hundred to one, and yet there was no fear in the faces waiting for war.

  Lil Bit smiled up at Iros. “They are ready.”

  Iros nodded. It had been hundreds of years since he’d led an army this big, at least an army with riders. Unicorns had been fighting alone for centuries. Now, they had help, and Lil Bit brought in more help every day; those eager to save the world from the monsters who had taken it from them, one soul at a time.

  "Then let's go find your sister before she gets herself killed, huh?" He raised his scepter to the sky. "Paradesos, ride!"

  The mighty Havik reared up, his front legs pawing the air. Strength rippled underneath his gleaming black coat, mane, and tail. Black smoke caught in the wind. With a shriek, lightning shot from his glowing horn and split the sky, giving them an opening to the outside world. As one, ten thousand black and armored unicorns leapt into the air and raced for the tear, escaping before the air crashed back together in a roar of thunder that shook the valley.

  It was raining like the sky itself wanted to drown them, and Scout halfheartedly wondered if Ariston, the soul stealer’s master and Iros’s brother, had powers of nature now, too.

  The man could hold quite a grudge. She wouldn't be surprised if he had somehow bent nature to his will just to get even.

  "Scout!" Trey's yell jerked Scout out of her reverie, and she threw herself backward just as a soul stealer's claws swiped at her throat.

  She sent her most grateful smile toward Trey. He winked at her as his unicorn, Torz, dipped sideways and they swung away.

  “So…how tough are we feeling today?”

  Scout swallowed. "I hate it when you ask me that."

  Ashra snickered and tossed her head. With no warning, she dove forward, tucking her wings so they tumbled through the sky. Scout screamed; Ashra's horn lit, the sparks setting fire to everything they crashed into on their fall through the rain.

  Belatedly, Scout realized that Ashra was not, in fact, trying to kill them, and she swung her scepter up so she could lend the strength of her attack to Ashra’s. Their fire wove together and exploded, like a torch instead of a sparkler. The soul stealers around them shrieked as they burned, and flakes of ash polluted the torrential rain.

  All the while, the ground rose up to meet them, closer and closer.

  "Ashra! Pull up!" Trey bellowed.

  Ashra snorted in resignation, and her wings snapped out, catching them just before her hooves hit the ground.

  Scout, gasping, lowered her scepter. "That was close, you big bird."

  Ashra snickered, and Scout honestly had no idea whether Ashra had done it on purpose or not.

  “One of the great mysteries of the world.”

  "One of these days, I'm going to wear spurs. See how much fun that is."

  Ashra's wing flicked up, nearly knocking Scout off her back.

  Trey and Torz landed next to them. "That was a daring little trick," Trey said. He raised an eyebrow, and by the look Torz gave them, Scout imagined he was also raising an eyebrow. If unicorns had eyebrows, of course.

  “But look how many demons we killed.” Ashra raised her head, and Scout followed suit. The number of soul stealers had been greatly diminished.

  "That doesn't make it okay," Scout muttered.

  Shadows passed over them, blocking out the sun. Horror clenching her chest, Scout looked up, expecting to see hundreds more soul stealers coming after them. Thankfully, it was just her little sister.

  And thousands of unicorns, all ready for war.

  "It's about time," Trey said. Torz raised his wings and pumped down hard, and they rose up and away, to join the herd.

  "There must be another attack," Scout murmured. That would be the only reason Iros would send out the entire force of his army. Chills spiraled up Scout's spine, and she closed her eyes. “Why, Ariston? Why?”

  He didn't answer—he never did, but sometimes she wondered if he heard her. It didn't matter… this time. She knew why. There had been pain in his eyes when he'd left that day at the hospital. After he and Iros had nearly killed each other, and Ariston had nearly killed her.

  On accident, of course.

  But it didn't matter. She'd seen the pain then, and every night since, when he visited her dreams, begging her to come back to him. Begging for just one dance. She couldn't tell anymore if he was just a nightmare or if he was actually there.

  All she could do was try to stop the force of his wrath, day after day after day.

  Iros could have locked them all in Ariston’s haven. Without access to their master, the soul stealers would have died. Ariston used the demons to steal human souls so he could build an army to overthrow Paradesos –a problem for the humans and a battle the unicorns had been fighting for centuries. Iros could have ended it. But Scout had ruined that plan when she’d raced through the gate at the last minute to save her sister.

  Iros had to rip the seam open to save them, and they’d also been able to save all the trapped souls there, along with Iros’s beloved, who had been trapped for three hundred years. All in all, a win for the team, in Scout’s opinion. It had taken a while for Iros and Havik to see it that way, though.

  Ashra caught up to the front lines, settling between Havik and Torz as second in command. Lil Bit, Scout's teeny-tiny twelve-year-old sister, rode on Torz's other side.

  This did not please Scout.

  She leaned around Havik to glare at her sister. "I thought you were going on a recruitment mission!" she yelled, because the wind
howled and rain drowned her words as they shot through the night. Demons appeared and disappeared through the shadows, and the bright light of the unicorns’ attacks chased the soul stealers through the clouds.

  Lil Bit just smiled. She didn't smile like a normal twelve-year-old. She smiled like a person who had lived a lifetime of horrors and seen too much in her young life.

  Lil Bit was special. She always had been. She'd seen the unicorns when no one else believed. But she'd also seen the monsters, and lived a life being told she was crazy.

  Scout snorted in derision. Look who's crazy now.

  Ashra tossed her head in agreement.

  If not for Lil Bit, Scout would never have survived. She wouldn’t have healed. And she wouldn’t have had the courage to become what she was now—something that felt so natural and so right she sometimes entertained the idea of never going back to her regular old life in Montana. She could be an immortal rider forever.

  Or until the soul stealers killed her. Whichever.

  They were flying over New York. The city that never slept, slept now. There weren't enough people to run the gigantic metropolis, and most buildings sat dark and silent. The people who were left all seemed to be congregated in the middle of the city. Scout could tell because of the massive cloud of soul stealers flying and diving above them.

  "Dodging skyscrapers. This should be fun," Trey called. He winked when Scout looked over, and her knees turned to jelly.

  Ashra was smaller than most Irwarros, but she was also faster than any of them. When Havik stretched his neck and lengthened his stride, Ashra followed, and shot ahead.

  "Lucky me," Scout called as she bent low over Ashra's neck to avoid being knocked off by the wind. "I get stuck with our first line of offense."

  “Yes. Lucky you,” Ashra shot back.

  Scout smiled because she knew Ashra really believed that. Her unicorn didn't have the knots of fear in her stomach. Scout wasn't sure, actually, if Ashra knew what fear was, as she gleefully plunged into the wave of soul stealers. Her horn blazed, and Scout instinctively raised her scepter, knowing Ashra's attack without being told. The cloud enveloped a good portion of the demons, locking them in darkness. As Ashra surged above it, Havik, Torz, and several others dove in, their horns sparking in the darkness.

  The soul stealers couldn't see, but the Irwarros could.

  Ash rained down on the New Yorkers below, soaking them with the charred demon remains.

  Keeping the cloud in place was hard, and it took a lot of magic. Scout could feel it draining her and Ashra both, and as one, they pulled back, letting the cloud fall. Ashra paused for just a second to catch her breath, wings slowly flapping up and down, before tucking them tight against her body and diving into the midst of the soul stealers again. Anything they could do to drive the monsters back to Aptavaras and protect the few people still living below.

  At such close range, Scout preferred using her scepter like a bat, with flames leaping from the orb at the end. She swung it hard, smashing in the head of the demon closest to her, turning on to the next one as the head of the first demon caught fire, and its screams nearly shattered her eardrums.

  And the smell. The smell, even after all this time and all these battles, nearly killed her. Like flesh, rotting in the sun. The faster they could kill these things and get out of here, the happier Scout would be.

  Around them, unicorns fell. They were more powerful than the soul stealers, because the demons didn't have any magic, just long claws and sharp teeth. But the sheer number of soul stealers overwhelmed the unicorn forces, and for those who didn't have riders, their magic alone wasn't enough. Unicorns with riders were ten times more powerful than ones without, and for those who had been lucky enough to bond with their riders—and there were a few, now—they were more powerful still.

  Scout and Ashra had that bond. So did Trey and Torz. But Lil Bit and Trey's brothers were both fighting with no bond, and it terrified Scout to no end.

  Luckily, Ariston chose to keep his souled demons close to him. They were hard to make—it took ten-thousand innocent souls that were shredded and then melded back together, to make one souled demon—but they were nearly unstoppable.

  “We have to move faster. Too many are dying, Scout.”

  Scout nodded and raised her scepter as Ashra fought their way to freedom. Claws mangled Scout's armor, leaving long gashes in the metal. They attacked Ashra with a frenzy, finding weakness in her armor and tearing at it, drawing blood in several places. Shrieking, Ashra pumped her wings hard, and the demons exploded into flames.

  The nice thing about soul stealers? They were incredibly flammable.

  Scout swung her scepter, trying to hit anything Ashra's wings missed, and through a haze of smoke and blood and ash, they broke free of the cloud of demons, with only a few still trying to catch them. Immediately, Scout scanned the battle for Lil Bit, and once she found her sister safe near Iros's side, she searched for Trey and his brothers. So far, all of them held their own.

  “Yes. For now. Let's end this battle before they get hurt.”

  When Ashra made such vague statements, Scout knew to brace herself. Something deadly and terrifying was probably coming. The flames died on Ashra's wings, leading Scout to believe she was gathering her magic for something else.

  She was right.

  Again, Ashra tucked her wings close, and they plunged through the sky and back into the fray, fighting through until they were within yelling range of Torz and Trey. Trey met Scout's eyes and nodded, no words being said. Jerking his scepter from the chest of a dying soul stealer, he swung it toward Scout. She did the same, throwing out a fiery rope that caught several demons at once, like a lasso. Trey's rope settled next to Scout's, and both unicorns danced backward. The many soul stealers in their trap were split in two, and their halved bodies tumbled through the sky.

  Again and again, they attacked together, fighting their way through the demons. That, combined with the forces of their army, finally sent the soul stealers racing through the sky, back to Aptavaras and Ariston.

  Ashra gave chase, of course, because she was Ashra. They caught a few more before they escaped, and freed a few human souls the soul stealers had managed to take.

  That was when Lil Bit showed up, as always. Scout's little sister was bloody and bruised, like everyone else, but her smile put the lost souls at ease, and she led them to find their way back to their bodies before it was too late. Without Lil Bit, that part was hard. The souls were terrified, and the giant black unicorns in battle armor didn't help, even if they were the good guys.

  Lil Bit's pure goodness shone through her eyes. Scout had watched in awe many times as Lil Bit led the souls home after the entire army of unicorns had failed to catch them.

  Often, Lil Bit led them home and returned with them, reunited with their bodies and whole again, as recruits for their army.

  "Is that the last of them?" Scout asked when her sister joined her and Ashra in the sky.

  Lil Bit nodded. "Let's go home."

  Home for them used to be in Montana. But for the last four or five months, it had been in Paradesos, the unicorns' home somewhere above Greece. And since their parents were still trapped in Aptavarus, there was no point in going back to Montana. Not until Scout could figure out how to get back inside Ariston's lair to save her mom and dad, and Trey's parents, too.

  Unfortunately, there were too many soul stealers at the entrance. There was no way in, as far as Scout could tell.

  Across the night sky, Havik's shriek tore through the darkness, and lightning broke through the shadows. The darkness ripped, and the flood of remaining unicorns escaped to safety.

  2

  Scout came out of her hut, helmet tucked under her arm. Everything in Paradesos was beautiful. The sun was bright in the sky, but it was never hot. Everything was more vivid here—the flowers were brighter, the grass was greener, the sky bluer. The best part, of course, was that there were no bugs. Unicorns didn’t like them.


  Yep, just another day in paradise. And another battle. Iros met her as he ducked through his own doorway, and they walked silently together to where Ashra and Havik waited. "I don't like this," he muttered finally.

  Scout bumped Iros playfully, or at least tried to. He was so sturdy he barely moved, and she stumbled away, rubbing her shoulder. "Are you worried about the humans or the unicorns, Iros? Because I think—"

  Iros cut her off with a rueful grin. "I know what you think. Get on your unicorn, woman."

  Ashra snorted, and Scout bowed elaborately. "Yes, O Mighty Leader." She swung up onto Ashra's back and waited for her next orders. It was the first time out with these new human recruits. They'd been rescued from Ariston's cell, and they were hungry for blood. Iros called the Ariston’s demons Taraxippus, their ancient Greek name. Lil Bit didn’t like that. She’d changed it to soul stealer, which was much more fitting, given they literally stole the souls right out of the body.

  Sighing and throwing one last, worried glance out at the army below them, Iros walked to Havik. "Ready your troops."

  As always, the words tied knots in Scout's stomach. It didn't matter how many battles she'd ridden into. Terror always threatened to overwhelm her.

  The mighty Havik stomped his foot and shook his head. Every one of the ten thousand unicorns snapped to attention.

  "You're staying here, right?" Scout asked Lil Bit when she appeared next to her. Her little sister was twelve now, but still so very small.

  Lil Bit patted Scout's foot. "Yes. You can stop worrying." She rolled her eyes playfully.

  Okay, so maybe she wasn't so very small.

  Lil Bit laughed and waved, jogging backward. "I'll be gathering new recruits!"

  "You convinced Lil Bit to stay here this time? Do you think you could convince my brothers, too?" Trey asked.

  Butterflies danced over the knots in Scout's stomach. After all this time, Trey still made her knees weak. She turned, her eyes devouring him. She never knew if she'd live to see the next day, so she had to drool over him while she still had the chance.