Solace
Bethany Adams
Copyright © 2021 by Bethany Adams
All rights reserved.
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.
Edited by Jody Wallace (www.jodywallace.com)
eBook design/illustration by The Illustrated Author Design Services (www.theillustratedauthor.net)
Created with Vellum
To the doctors, nurses, healthcare
professionals, and medical researchers
around the world.
‘Thanks’ can never be enough.
Contents
Notes and Acknowledgements
About Previous Books
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
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
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Epilogue
Other Books in Series
Character List and Dictionary
Notes and Acknowledgements
Before I get into thanks, I have a bit of an author’s note. You see, when I first started pondering what Lial’s and Lynia’s book might entail, I knew there would be some form of illness involved. There are threads of that potential starting several books—and years—back. What I didn’t anticipate was writing this book in the middle of a global pandemic.
It would be incorrect to say that the last year hasn’t colored Solace in some ways, but I do want to make clear that I didn’t base the illness in this book on the coronavirus. I did my best to leave out current events and focus entirely on what was needed for my own story in my own fictional universe. I would never want to capitalize on others’ pain, so know that if I have done so, it is accidental. Also, please forgive any inaccuracies. I did my best to research a complex subject.
* * *
Now, for my thanks. As always, I owe much gratitude to my husband and children. I appreciate your support more than I can say.
* * *
Thank you to my critique partners, Shiloh and Catherine. Your advice is invaluable, and this book wouldn’t be nearly as awesome without you. Poor Catherine was answering texts at all hours, too. Many thanks!
* * *
Of course, I owe much gratitude to my editor, Jody Wallace, my cover artist, Melissa Stevens at The Illustrated Author Design Services, and my formatter, Gaynor Smith. Thank you for sticking with me despite my disordered ways.
* * *
Though they might not see this version, many thanks to Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir, and everyone at Skyboat and Blackstone who works so hard on my audiobooks. I appreciate it!
* * *
Thank you to Roxana for compiling so much about Moranaia for me. It was (and will be) such a great help. I hope you love Lial’s and Lynia’s story. I know you’ve been waiting a while. :)
* * *
No “thanks” section is complete without sending my love to my wonderful readers. I treasure every kind message and email. It makes me happy to make you happy!
About Previous Books
I’ve done my very best to make each book in my series capable of being read alone, but now that we’re on the eighth book, I thought I’d give a brief summary of the previous books. I’ll also include a character list and short dictionary in the back. If you’re new to the series, only read the rest of this section if you’re okay with spoilers!
* * *
In SOULBOUND, half-blood Arlyn confronts her elven father, Lyr, after traveling to his world. He’s surprised to find that the woman he left on Earth bore him a child, but he welcomes his daughter. But things are far from easy. Not only is Arlyn drawn into a soulbond with her father’s friend, Kai, but her arrival prompts Kai’s father, Allafon, to hasten his plot against Lyr. Arlyn only has time for a little training with new magic teacher, Selia, before she, Lyr, and Kai are taken captive. In the end, Allafon is defeated, but Lyr is injured, and Arlyn’s grandmother almost dies.
* * *
SUNDERED continues the story from Lyr’s point of view. Though Allafon was defeated, the person behind his actions was not. Banished Prince Kien is creating havoc amongst the fae with poisoned energy, and the Neorans, vassals of the Seelie Sidhe, petition Lyr for aid when their city is overrun by disease and madness. As Lyr struggles to help them, another faction of fae, the Ljósálfar, arrive from Alfheim—brought by Meli, his potential soulbonded. Lyr sends Kai to help evacuate the Neorans, but when he arrives, the inhabitants have been massacred. Eventually, Arlyn and Kai manage to destroy the spell causing the poison, but they are captured by a Seelie lord, Naomh, who turns out to be Kai’s true father.
* * *
The novella EXILED features Delbin, a young elf who was sent from Moranaia to Earth when he was a teenager in order to escape Allafon. The scout Inona is sent to check on Delbin. Soon after her arrival, Prince Kien tries to recruit Delbin to join his group of half-bloods. Delbin refuses, and he and Inona eventually track down and capture Kien. Kien escapes, but Delbin is allowed to return to Moranaia and becomes the student of Prince Ralan, a powerful seer.
* * *
In SEARED, Ralan leaves his daughter Eri on Moranaia and returns to Earth to track down his brother Kien. Plagued by visions foretelling his death, Ralan is nevertheless determined to stop Kien for good. In the process, he meets his soulbonded, Cora, who owns a shop where fae can trade gold or jewels for human clothes. Her friend and employee, Maddy, is kidnapped by Kien’s minions, leading Cora to join Ralan in the quest to defeat Kien. With the help of Vek of the Unseelie and his nephew, Fen, Kien is found, although he ultimately escapes to Moranaia. Ralan and Cora confront Kien at the palace. Kien nearly kills Ralan, but Cora manages to save him. The king beheads Kien, but in the process, a mysterious surge of power is released.
* * *
Though Kien was defeated, he used his death to release poison into a barrier that withheld magic from Earth. In ABYSS, the dragon Kezari senses that poison through her link to Earth and goes to retrieve her rider, Aris, only to find him being tortured by his potential soulbonded. After she saves him, Aris agrees to accompany the dragon to Braelyn, the estate of Lord Lyr. Aris doesn’t know that his wife Selia, who believes him to be dead, accepted a position there a few months before. He struggles to deal with his trauma as he longs to reunite with his wife. Although a mind healer helps, Aris must overcome his darkness in time to prevent the barrier from shattering, releasing a catastrophic amount of energy at once. He, Kezari, Selia, and Kai manage to prevent disaster, but in the process, a direct portal is created between Moranaia and Earth, one that will need guarding in the fut
ure.
* * *
In AWAKENING, Ralan appoints his sister Dria to be in charge of the new outpost on Earth guarding the portal to Moranaia. In the meantime, the Unseelie prince Vek is tasked by his father to kill the leader of the outpost and claim the power stored there. Beholden to the Moranaians, Vek seeks to find a way out of this order, and while researching, he discovers that the new leader of the outpost is his mate. When the outpost comes under attack, Dria and Vek work together to find the person responsible. They eventually uncover a plot that involves the Unseelie king and the Seelie lord Meren. Dria challenges the king to combat, but Vek’s sister Ara ultimately defeats him, becoming the new Unseelie queen. Meren later attempts to kill Vek but is thwarted.
* * *
Meren continues to cause trouble in ASCENT. This time, he attempts to manipulate Fen and claim the Seelie throne. However, Fen and his potential mates, Maddy and Anna, stumble into one of Meren’s plans to spread poisoned energy and act to diffuse the situation. Eventually, Fen, Maddy, and Anna complete the mate bond and confront Meren. This leads to a fight in the Seelie court, though Meren escapes. Maddy, Fen, and Anna help the Seelie queen by removing a mysterious poison from her blood before returning to the outpost.
Chapter 1
Though the cold seeped through the cloak beneath him, Lial remained seated on the smooth grass, his focus on the small hole at the base of the healing tower. It was a rare sunny day for early winter, and the next ice storm wasn’t likely to hit until at least the morrow. No one was in imminent need of treatment. What better time to see if any of the camahr would emerge without the draw of food?
It wasn’t likely. The camahr mother had raised three litters here already, and none of those had shown him more than passing favor. The current litter appeared to like him no better. Although a snout peeked out now and then, none emerged into the dim afternoon light. Perhaps they had already scanned him and identified him as a loner, too accustomed to living by himself to deserve a bond with one of their kind.
They, too, were lone creatures. By late winter, the mother and kits would be gone, parting from each other to wander the forest individually. After that, his chance at a camahr companion would disappear for the season. But what was the hurry? If none from this litter chose him, there was always another year, and if the camahr mother didn’t come back, well…he was accustomed to living alone.
No matter how much he’d begun to long for a partner. A family.
A rustle of cloth and the soft sound of footfalls caught his ear, and Lial scowled at the interruption. However, as soon as he caught sight of the source, his blood froze from a chill deeper than the frigid ground beneath him. Eri. Never before had he met a six-year-old who could bring terror to a person, but she managed it.
Without a word, she plopped down beside him. Her neutral expression brought him no comfort. Nor did the serious glint in her golden eyes, a near replica of her father’s. Had she come to share some terrible prophecy? Visions of some catastrophe? No one could ever guess what the child-seer would say.
“I hope you aren’t planning on giving up,” Eri said.
Lial considered her and her words for a moment. There were multiple things she could be speaking of, and her face gave no indication of her thoughts. “To what are you referring?”
Eri smiled. “The camahr, of course.”
“Have you foreseen my success?”
Just like that, her smile dropped. “No. I…I didn’t mean anything like that. I’ve seen you over here a few times, but this time, you looked sad. That’s all.”
“Forgive me, Eri,” Lial said, wincing at his blunder. Had he fallen so low that he would question a child? She was far too young to be treated as an official seer, strong gift or no. “I didn’t intend to pressure you.”
She shrugged. “You didn’t. I guess I should get used to people asking. Onaial tried to warn me about telling too much, and I didn’t listen. I think everyone is afraid of me except him and Cora and Iren.”
Regret sliced through Lial like the winter wind as he studied the forlorn little girl. He was as guilty as anyone else. Hadn’t he tensed in dread at her arrival? She must have noticed, but she’d sat beside him anyway.
It wasn’t pleasant to bear such a strong ability as a child. His healing gift had weighed him down so heavily in his youth that he’d almost squandered it out of rebellion, especially when Aralee… No. Lial cut that memory off before it could form. He could use his own experiences to help the girl without revisiting the worst of those events.
Eri needed to feel that she belonged, and not because of her gift.
The people of this estate were kinder than those in the royal court where he’d been raised, so she stood a greater chance of finding friends here who liked her for herself. But Eri had only lived at Braelyn for a few months after her father had brought her across the Veil from Earth. Since the only other child living at the main estate was Iren, she would have to travel down into the valley to the village of Telerdai to meet others near her age, and that hadn’t been safe until fairly recently.
He would have to remind Ralan of the possibility now that things had calmed.
“You are lonely,” Lial finally said.
Eri sighed. “Not as much as you are, but yeah.”
Did she think the same about him, then? He frowned. She wasn’t wrong, but he hadn’t believed anyone noticed. “Do I truly seem so?”
“It’s sort of obvious,” she answered with a chuckle. “That’s why I hope you don’t give up on the camahr. I would Look to find out if one picks you, but Lady Megelien told me not to examine your futures for a while.”
What? Lial’s hands clenched in his lap as he fought the urge to ask questions. Such as why the goddess of time and seers was warning the child away from visions of his future. What could be worse than the things Lady Megelien had allowed Eri to See already? Just in the last few months, she’d foreseen assassination attempts and her father’s possible death. Though those attempts had been foiled and her father saved, none of those events could have been easy for a child to handle.
But the goddess told Eri not to Look at his futures? This couldn’t be good.
Abruptly, Eri stood, the lack of worry on her face in sharp contrast to the dread her casual statement had brought Lial. She merely smiled at him and then shifted back and forth on her feet as though preparing to run off. “I think Iren’s lessons are almost over,” she said, “So I’ll leave you alone now. You won’t give up, though, right?”
“I will endeavor not to,” Lial answered, praying the child didn’t catch the tightness in his voice. It wasn’t her fault that her innocent words had caused him such turmoil. “Go enjoy your play time with Iren.”
It could be nothing. It had to be nothing. Perhaps Lady Megelien was giving Eri time to rest after Seeing so much over the last few months. Lial took a deep breath and tried to focus on the hole in the tower wall instead of Eri’s words. But it was no use. The twisting in his gut told him the child’s words were definitely something.
Maybe part of him had been waiting for this. Ever since he’d detected that strange illness that had infected Fen, Lial had been uneasy, haunted by a nagging whisper of a task unfinished. Could that task be coming due now? If there was some poison that would kill half-bloods, thousands could die. Horribly. He would certainly be called to help treat that.
There could also be a war, of course. Meren, a former Sidhe lord, had all but declared himself an enemy of the Seelie court by claiming the throne should be his, and he was an enemy of Moranaia, too. If he managed to find enough support to attack the Seelie queen, Moranaia would give aid. Yet again, many would die, and Lial would be right there trying to save them.
Lady Megelien might give Eri glimpses of dire events, but She wasn’t known to be a cruel goddess. Lial couldn’t imagine that she would allow any child to See horrific, mass death on this world or any other. And while his fears might prove wrong, he could not dismiss the chance that Eri had bee
n warned away from his futures for just such a reason.
If his fears proved right, he would need to prepare.
Lial had to find Ralan, who was a seer like his daughter. Lial couldn’t presume to second guess the actions of a goddess, but She seemed more likely to hide such possibilities from Eri than to inhibit Ralan’s Sight. If the prince did know, he might not tell Lial anything, of course, but he had to try.
His ability to plan depended on it.
Lynia skimmed her gaze up the long spiral staircase that circled its way to the top of the library. At each floor, a small landing led to the walkway and bookshelves lining the walls. There should be ample room there for the lift Selia hoped to install, especially if the landings were widened. But the tables on the lowest level of the tower could be a problem.
“We’ll have to shift things around at the bottom,” Lynia said.
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