Sacred Light (Armor of Magic Book 1)

by Simone Pond

  “Do they have Stone?” I asked.

  “You’re not following the news?”

  “Not really.”

  “He’s missing.”

  Of course he was missing. Because he had the entire Shadow Order backing him up.

  Even with the Armor, I suddenly didn’t feel entirely protected roaming about the city streets of San Francisco. Not with Stone on the loose. Not with angry supernatural peddlers who’d be looking for vengeance. I really needed Ezra. I had called for him at least ten times, but radio silence.

  “You there?” Asher asked.

  “Sorry. I’m just thinking. I probably shouldn’t be out in public with Stone and his minions undoubtedly hunting for me.”

  “Why don’t you get back to the guest house? Nobody knows you’re there except me and Charlotte.”

  “Okay. I’ll do that. Thanks, Asher.”

  “For what?”

  “For not running in the other direction.”

  twenty-eight

  Back at the guest house, I barricaded the door with the couch that I had ruined the night before. I’m not sure why I thought that would keep out any supernatural bad guys, but it did make me feel a little better. I took a selfie with my new phone and sent it to Charlotte who immediately texted back that it was nice to see I had joined the rest of society, finally. Ha! I found that slightly ironic. I had never felt more like an outsider than I did in that moment, caught between two worlds: the natural one I wanted to be a part of and the supernatural one that I had no interest in pursuing. But if I had to be member of the supernatural society, at least Charlotte would be with me.

  After a short nap, I received a text from Somer making sure I was okay, since I hadn’t come back from lunch. I told her I was working on my historical homes piece and needed a quiet place to write. To occupy my mind, I decided to actually finish my original assignment; to my surprise, it was fun to write. I compiled all of the information I had garnered from the microfiche at the library and spent the rest of the afternoon writing an enjoyable piece. Sure, it was fluff, but couldn’t we all use a break from the heavy weight and burdens of our messed up world? It was a nice reprieve from the gruesome underworld I had experienced firsthand. Maybe it was time to stop taking myself so seriously.

  A knock at the front door jarred me out of my sappy musings.

  “Who is it?” I yelled, since I couldn’t see who was standing out there.

  “Asher.”

  “Hold on a sec!”

  I shoved the couch out of the way and pulled open the door to see a very relieved Asher. Twilight had settled over the city, and he looked like some sort of dark-haired ravishing god standing in my doorway. Before he could say a single word of protest, I pulled him inside and smothered his lips with mine as I dragged him into the bedroom. We toppled onto the bed and kissed with the passion of a tornado churning through everything in its path. The weight of the week vanished with that breathtaking, mind-blowing kiss.

  Shoes were kicked to the floor. Clothes came off. I tugged at my ponytail until my long, dark hair spilled over the pillows. The only thing standing between Asher and me was the pesky suit of Armor that illuminated like a pale white glow stick. I knew Asher couldn’t see it, but it was a bit distracting, and I didn’t want to get blasted into another dimension as Ezra had mentioned. He might’ve been joking, but who wanted to take that risk? Ezra wasn’t really the joking type. Besides, I wanted my first time to be completely untouched by magic or supernatural anything. I wanted to lose my virginity sans drama.

  “Hold that thought,” I whispered into Asher’s ear.

  I ran to the bathroom and removed my boots, breastplate and helmet and tucked them under the sink for safekeeping. A momentary concern flickered across my mind, like maybe it wasn’t the best time to remove my only protection from all things evil, especially since Stone had probably sent out his henchmen. But I brushed away the thought and ran back to the bedroom, pouncing onto the bed and embracing Asher in my arms. It was time to say farewell to my virginity once and for all.

  twenty-nine

  Asher’s strong hands caressed me as I folded into him. Every breath, every swallow, every single heartbeat was measured with intense velocity, pulling the two of us closer into one another. He wasn’t holding back or running away. I was ready to end my virginity status right then and there.

  “Enjoyed your story,” a voice came from the shadows, causing both Asher and me to shoot upright.

  Asher covered me with a sheet, then shielded me. At first, I thought it was Stone, but once my eyes adjusted and my heart stopped hammering, I realized the man standing at the end of the bed wasn’t Stone.

  “What are you doing here?” Asher asked.

  I thought maybe the man was a friend of Asher’s, until I noticed the red glow glinting from his eyes. Yep. Supernatural. And I’d be willing to bet my last dollar it was evil. The eyes kind of gave it away. But why was Asher addressing it?

  “I can’t begin to tell you the trouble I’ve been through getting here. You’re good, Asher. Fortunately, my other resources came through.”

  The man smiled wickedly, brushing his long fingers through his black wavy hair. He was strikingly handsome in a terrifying and mystical way.

  “Um. We were kinda in the middle of something—sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” I said, losing patience.

  “Pardon me. I’m Cagliostro Crowl.” He stepped forward to shake my hand, but Asher stood up, blocking him.

  Asher’s bare ass was incredibly distracting, but then the name sunk into my hormone-riddled mind. Cagliostro—the head honcho of the Shadow Order. The demon mage I was supposed to be hunting down. The bastard who had stolen two of the Sacred Scrolls, one of them from my parents, who I assumed were now being held prisoner in some obscure dimension. Every cell in my body froze and my heart stopped beating.

  “By the look on your face, I take it you’ve heard of me?” he mused.

  “Where are my parents, you asshole?” I yelled.

  Cagliostro laughed like one of those sinister villains from the old black and white films, and I rolled my eyes. It was entirely too cliché. My head spun trying to figure out why he was there, and why Asher knew him.

  “Dear girl, no sense getting riled up. There are far more important things to concern yourself with.” Cagliostro snickered. He was a real fucking son-of-a-bitch.

  I jumped off the bed, sheets tangled all around me, and lunged at the demon mage.

  Asher pulled me back. “Don’t,” he said. “You’re not wearing your Armor.”

  Quickly pulling myself away from Asher, I pressed up against the wall. “How’d you know about my Armor? I’ve never mentioned it to you.”

  The cackle coming from Cagliostro was incredibly annoying. “You really are good, Asher. You had the Protector fooled. I’m impressed.”

  I glared at Asher, wishing he’d cover himself. “What are you? A demon? Shifter? Oh, let me guess, a warlock?”

  “It’s not like that, Fiona.” He reached out for my arm, but I jerked back.

  “What’s it like, then?”

  “He’s a bounty hunter, dear girl,” Cagliostro answered for him, chuckling. “And he was supposed to turn you over to the highest bidder, which I was, but he seems to have changed his mind. And the fool was about to take your virginity, nonetheless. Tsk, tsk. That would’ve decreased her value.”

  “You’re a fucking bounty hunter demon?” I yelled at Asher.

  “Not exactly. I’m more like a rogue angel.”

  “And were you planning on telling me?” Both of my worlds were unraveling. I should’ve listened to Ezra when he warned me about not trusting anyone. And where the hell was he anyway?

  “I was going to tell you, but I didn’t want to freak you out. Things have gotten incredibly complicated. Yes, I originally planned to turn you into the highest bidder, but that was before we actually met. That was before we kissed. Something changed for me and I wasn’t sure what to do. So I hid
you here until I could figure things out.”

  “How very noble of you,” Cagliostro chimed in.

  We both looked at him and shouted, “Shut it!”

  “I’m sorry to say, but a deal’s a deal. I’ve come to collect. And not a minute too soon. Virgin Protectors are hard to come by.” Cagliostro tossed a sack of coins onto the bed and started walking toward me.

  “I didn’t make a deal with you. I’m a bounty hunter; you don’t have jurisdiction over me. And you can’t have her,” Asher protested.

  “I can have whatever I want.” Cagliostro lifted his hand, stretching open his long fingers and began to send some sort of electromagnetic charge toward me. I was being sucked into a whirlpool of icky dark magic and I couldn’t stop it.

  Suddenly, Asher grabbed me and we glimmered out of the guest house, landing in a gulch deep within a forest.

  thirty

  Still wrapped in a sheet, I stood next to a giant tree in whatever dimension Asher had carried us off to. I wrapped the sheet around me a few times to make sure I was completely covered.

  “So you’re a bounty hunter? Not a contractor?”

  “Yes and no.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I’m so sorry, Fiona. It just got so convoluted. I told you, originally I went after you and planned to sell you to Cagliostro. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth. I have to make a living somehow.”

  “Oh, please. That’s a pathetic excuse. You’re no better than Stone.”

  Asher’s face furrowed with pain, his cheeks pale and sullen. He looked genuinely crushed. “I’ve never been okay with my profession, but when I fell from the Monarchy, I had no home. And I refused to join the Shadow Order.”

  “But you thought it’d be okay to do freelance work for them?”

  He shook his head, covering his face with his hands. I could tell he was deeply pained, but why should I care? He had been planning to turn me over to Cagliostro.

  “Like I said, when I met you, something changed. There’s something incredible between us that brought me back to myself. My real self. When you entered my life, I realized that I’d been going down the wrong path. I was trying to figure out how to tell you, while also hiding you from the Shadow Order. I cloaked my place because they had already tracked you down at your house. I knew it was a matter of time before one of the factions snatched you up.”

  As much as I wanted to despise him, my heart softened. I could tell he was being sincere, and he was right about the factions already hunting me down. “So you were protecting me?”

  “Yeah, but I guess I didn’t do such a good job.”

  “I don’t think anyone has enough power to protect me from Cagliostro. Maybe my Guide, Ezra—do you know about him, too?”

  “I know Ezra.”

  “Maybe he can hide me in Glimmer City for a little while. Until things cool down.”

  “Glimmer City?” Asher asked.

  “That’s what I call Ezra’s dimension.”

  “No, he can’t take you there.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “He’s here.”

  “First of all, where is here? And second of all, why the hell is Ezra here?”

  “We’re in a hidden dimension that only I know about. Nobody can track us here as long as Ezra’s in a state of stasis. He came by your house yesterday to warn me to stay away from you. That regardless of my feelings for you, the Monarchy would never approve of our being together. During our conversation, some demons tracked him to your house and ambushed him. I didn’t have a choice but to bring him here. It’s the safest place. For now.”

  “So, why can’t Cagliostro or any other demonic beings track us here?”

  “I’m a professional bounty hunter, so I know how to throw them off my scent. I’m able to conceal things to perfection. Including my identity.”

  “You got that right,” I jeered.

  “Plus, you’re not wearing your Armor, so that helps.”

  I could’ve kicked myself for leaving the Armor under the sink. Why hadn’t I learned to keep it on at all times?

  “Well, you’ll need to take me back home so I can get it. I’ll need it to go after Cagliostro.”

  Asher stared at me, his beautiful blue eyes doing their best to plead with me. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s a war zone right now. Why not stay here until we come up with a strategy?”

  “There is no ‘we’ in this scenario,” I spat.

  He stepped closer, touching my shoulder gently. The energy heated through my limbs, melting my insides. How could I still want him after all of the deception? Why was I so deeply attracted to the man—or whatever he was—after he admitted he had been planning to sell me to the highest bidder? I shouldn’t have trusted Asher, but my heart had already made up its mind. It figured my first real boyfriend would end up being a rogue angel bounty hunter. I wished the circumstances were different, but they weren’t. I chalked it up to shitty fate.

  My first week in San Francisco was turning out to be a real asshole. From the house being a complete disaster, to getting looked over at my job, to the one guy who had ever shown interest in me, my new independent city life was a gargantuan mess. At least I had been able to expose Stone and his trafficking operation. But something didn’t feel right, like exposing Stone wasn’t enough. There’d be plenty more like him. And then there was Cagliostro who had one goal: to gain control of the factions and take down the Monarchy. He hated them with a passion and wanted rid all dimensions of what he considered an out-dated relic. But the Monarchy had created the Light. Without them in control, Darkness would rule. I needed to make sure that didn’t happen.

  “I need you to wake up Ezra,” I told Asher.

  Reluctantly, he agreed, walking me to a clearing in the woods where he had Ezra stored for safekeeping. Resting against an enormous tree, you would’ve thought Ezra was merely an incredibly handsome man just taking an afternoon nap in the woods—but he was my Guide and I was his charge; his Protector of Light. I had pretty much failed him my first week out, but it was time to get serious and take responsibility for my calling. As annoying as that sounded, it was true.

  Asher rested his hands on Ezra’s shoulders and said some words I couldn’t understand. Slowly, Ezra began to open his eyes; the violet glow was a bit dim. I ran over to him and hugged him.

  “I’m sorry I’m the worst Protector ever. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. I hope you’ll forgive me,” I cried into his shoulder.

  He laughed, patting my back. “Oh, I knew what I was in for. Like I said, your mother and your grandmother were the same way. Apples don’t fall far from the trees.”

  Asher and I helped Ezra to his feet, and once he had all of his faculties, his violet eyes returned to their glorious glimmering state.

  “I can see that you have the same listening skills as this one,” he said, glaring at Asher.

  “Please, Ezra. Let’s not talk about that right now. It’s pretty much a non-issue at this point,” I said, pretending like Asher wasn’t standing two feet away.

  “He finally told you what he is?” Ezra asked, smirking.

  “I told her,” Asher jumped into the conversation.

  “Actually … Cagliostro dropped that bomb,” I reminded him.

  Ezra perked up. “You found Cagliostro?”

  “Not exactly. He found me somehow.”

  Ezra stared off toward the trees. “His powers are growing. He’s learning how to decode the Sacred Scrolls. He must be getting help.”

  And that’s when it hit me why Stone was so pissed at Franklin. He had sold a Protector of Light to Cagliostro for pennies on the dollar—the other Protector, the one who was supposed to be my partner to get the Scrolls back from Cagliostro. The one I had totally forgotten about because I was so gung-ho to take down Stone.

  “Cagliostro has Protector what’s-his-name I was supposed to partner with,” I said.

  “Julian,” Ezra s
aid.

  “Yes! Julian. One of Stone’s men sold him to Cagliostro. He must be using him to decode the Scrolls.”

  “Well, it looks like you have your work cut out for you,” Ezra gave me a crooked smile, almost like he was enjoying himself.

  Now I had to track down Julian, who was most likely heavily guarded, somehow get the Scrolls, and vanquish the head of the Shadow Order. Yeah, I had my work cut out for me.

  “Any tips?” I asked.

  “You’re resourceful,” Ezra snickered.

  “You might be the worst Guide ever!”

  “Vice versa,” he said as he glimmered out of Asher’s secret fortress in the woods.

  The air grew still between Asher and me. Awkward is not a strong enough word to describe the energy. We both opened our mouths to say something, but we never got to finish; a blink of black smoke filled the clearing and out came a pack of demons.

  thirty-one

  The demons must’ve tracked either Ezra or me to Asher’s hidden dimension, or it was true about the Scrolls and Cagliostro was getting more powerful by the minute.

  “Guess your cloaking devices didn’t hold up,” I yelled.

  “Get behind me!” Asher swooped across the clearing so fast he was a blur, then stood between me and the three hulking demons snarling before us.

  Their skin was red with black runes painted over every surface, including their faces. Their intent was to slaughter Asher and capture me. I couldn’t let that happen; I went to pull out my sword. Whoops. It was still back at the guest house under the sink. I refused to let Asher play the hero, so I decided to run interference. Screw him.

  I slipped out from behind Asher and ducked behind another tree. Tossing a rock at one of the demons, I hollered, “Hey, big guy. Over here!”

  The grotesque demon turned to me; his eyes reminded me of two black beetles and grossed me out big time. As the beast ran toward me, the other two demons lunged at Asher, but he jetted away and was suddenly standing next to me again. Damn, he was fast. Maybe even faster than my magical boots.