Infinity Unleashed

by Sedona Venez

  “You’re wasting time. You must enter.” The woman’s voice hissed.

  Biting my bottom lip nervously, my head snapped around, looking for the disembodied voice that echoed around me, but the mystery woman had shrouded herself in the shadows. This was not a good sign.

  “There is no way in hell I’m stepping one foot there,” I snapped.

  “You will enter,” the woman demanded.

  I jammed my hands on my hips. “Uh, nope, that’s most definitely not going to happen.” I tried not to fidget anxiously, but the utter silence was unnerving. “Who are you? And why are you hiding from me?”

  My gaze panned around, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever was hiding. I tried to picture what she would look like. Old? Young? Menacing? Deceivingly sweet? The ominous spirits that haunted my dreams for as long as I could remember took whatever form they thought would either intimidate or cajole me, showing me that the human shell was an optical illusion like a Halloween costume.

  “Do you think you are worthy of seeing my true form?” the woman asked sharply.

  Arrogant much?

  “Worthy?” My eyes narrowed. “You summoned me here.”

  A menacing growl pierced the air. Shit! This was definitely not good. Locking my knees, I ignored the urge to release the contents of my bladder from fear. Swallowing hard, I continued. “If you think I’m going to cower, you have another thing coming. If you don’t have the balls to come out of hiding, then leave me alone.”

  God, what was wrong with me? Goading an invisible entity wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but somehow, I knew running away with my tail between my legs would be a thousand times worse.

  Surprisingly, the female laughed, a loud husky warm sound that lessened my fear… a little.

  “I can say one thing about you. You’re very brave… but not very smart though. Didn’t Kara teach you to never challenge an enemy that you can’t see?”

  Automatically, I assumed a warrior stance. “Is that what you are? My enemy?”

  The woman clucked her tongue. “Infinity, haven’t you learned by now that everyone is your enemy? Even those you consider friends?”

  Tilting my head, I tried to detect the origin of her accent, but it sounded like a mixture of multiple dialects merged into one. “I’ve never misjudged a person in my life.”

  “Never?” She laughed mockingly. “What about Mason?”

  My jaw tightened. “I stopped trusting him months ago, when I realized he was scum.”

  Suddenly, a soft wisp of air brushed my ear before the mysterious woman’s voice whispered into it. “Months ago? It should’ve been evident from the moment he opened his mouth.” She paused. “This proves there are major flaws in your judgement. Friends are enemies. Enemies are friends.” Her laughter buzzed my ear like an annoying fly. “But one thing will remain true for as long as I live. I am your ally, not your enemy.”

  “You want me to trust you?” I scoffed. “I can’t trust someone that refuses to reveal herself.”

  “And I can’t trust someone who’s too weak to take a leap of faith.”

  Huffing angrily, I threw my hands up. “We’re getting nowhere with this.” I jabbed my finger toward the door. “And I’m not opening that damn door.”

  She laughed mockingly. “Why don’t you pull up your big girl panties and take a little peak behind door number one.”

  I gritted my teeth, not liking her condescending tone. “Like I asked, who are you? What the hell do you want?”

  “You may call me Azura,” she responded with a regal air. “And as far as what I want.” The pause was pregnant. “I want you to get the hell in that room so that we can see what you need to survive, Valkyrie seer.”

  I arched a brow. “Valkyrie seer?” Great, another useless title.

  Azura clucked her tongue. “I see Kara chose to keep you ignorant.” She sighed loudly. “Do you think it’s a coincidence that you see the future? It’s a gift granted by the Immortals to keep you alive, a gift that my enemies on the High Council have been abusing for years.”

  “Wait. Is this the same Council that Mason works for?”

  “Yes, but I’m surprised he revealed the truth.”

  My mouth dropped open with shock. All my life I had dreams and visions of the future and the unexplainable in between. Now, I was more than a little pissed to find out the spirits that plagued my dreams all my life were using me for information.

  “Why?” I bit out.

  “They seek to change their destiny and prevent their demise. Only you can help them do that.”

  My heart raced with excitement. “If I can see the future, that means I can change it and save everyone I love.”

  “The past cannot be changed.”

  Feeling utterly deflated, I stared into space. “What use is the future without them in it?”

  Azura clucked her tongue. “So bitter for someone who has the power to save the lives of so many,” she stated coolly.

  I rubbed my forehead, fighting the looming migraine. “Death, pain, and destruction, that is what my visions and dreams tell me about the future,” I spat with distaste.

  “And you can prevent it all. That is the beauty of your gift.”

  I blinked back the tears. “There is nothing beautiful or magical about it.” My chest tightened thinking about all of the evil and darkness my visions showed in the future. All orchestrated by the evil monster lurking inside me, waiting to be unleashed. “You don’t know anything about me or this… gift,” I spat bitterly.

  “I know more than you think, Infinity. I know how you struggle every day to prevent the darkness inside you from being unleashed. I know how you struggle to prevent your dark thoughts from overwhelming you. But trust me on this. All this will make more sense when you accept your balance.”

  I groaned, sliding against the wall and onto the floor. Tired, I pulled my knees close to my chest. “There is no balance. I know what I am… evil. I feel it slithering inside me, begging to be released.” So many warring emotions—fear, anxiety, confusion—stirred within me.

  “Words cannot explain the chaos of our world. There are things in the shadows that are best kept there, but if it were up to the Council, they would have no qualms about unleashing it on the world.”

  My breath caught. “You’re talking about me,” I whispered.

  “Yes, Infinity, I am talking about you, but you know this, felt it all your life.”

  My body trembled with both fear and rage.

  “All is not lost. There is a way to change your purpose and future. Let me show you my past so you understand what’s at stake.”

  I frowned. “How are you doing this without Mason’s knowledge?”

  “You’re heavily sedated from the drug in your body,” Azura replied.

  I swore, “Goddammit.” I raked my fingers through my hair in frustration.

  I knew something was different when I drifted into unconsciousness. I perceived the sensation that someone was there with me. I wasn’t sure if I was hallucinating, but for a split second, I caught a glimpse of a woman in the darkness.

  “I’ve tried numerous times to reach out to you psychically. And each time I was blocked. Your sedation allowed me connect undetected,” Azura said.

  I rubbed my head tiredly. “Exactly what are you?”

  “A pureblood Druid. One of the last descendants of the Immortals’ bloodline.”

  “Druids?” My eyes narrowed. “As in the direct descendants of the Olympians?”

  “So Kara was truthful about at least one thing,” Azura stated flatly.

  “No.” My fists clenched. “I mean yes.”

  Azura growled impatiently. “Which is it, Valkyrie?”

  “Both. I’m going to kill her.” I huffed, feeling like I was losing my damn mind. “She told me it was a damn fairytale.” I stared into space. “The Druids were a bedtime story she told me every night.” I pounded the floor. “Damn it! You�
��re the Druid princess that lost her kingdom in a day.”

  “Apparently,” Azura responded dryly.

  I dragged my fingers across my face. Mom had actually disguised the truth in the bedtime stories she religiously recited every night. “So you have the ability to dematerialize and materialize from place to place?”

  “Yes. But technically it’s bending time, like I’m doing now.”

  “And you can actually use magic?”

  Azura scoffed. “There’s no such thing as magic. That’s something that humans made up to rationalize the unexplainable. All Druids were born with the ability to manipulate the elements—air, earth, fire, water, or spirit—but purebloods have the ability to manipulate all five. This is what allows me to move through time. What you call dematerializing and materializing.”

  I shook my head with confusion. “Why didn’t she just tell me the truth?”

  Azura laughed. “Would you have believed her if she did?”

  I sighed. “Honestly? No.” I would have had her committed to the psychiatric hospital. There couldn’t be two crazies roaming around, and I was crazy enough for both of us.

  “That’s what I thought.” Azura paused. “I know that you have no reason to trust me, but I mean you no harm. If you really want to see the truth, then take a leap of faith. Open your mind to my past and let me show you how to survive your future.”

  It was illogical, but I knew that she was telling the truth. “God, I hope I don’t regret this shit. Okay.” I scowled. “What do I have to do?”

  “Just open your mind to my world. Ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  CHAPTER 3

  THE PAST

  “Azura. Are you sure about this?” Hunter mumbled against her ear while caging her legs.

  Azura wrapped her arms around her mate’s lean waist, sinking into his comforting aroma. “Yes. Sacrifices must be made.” Her voice held both a tinge of determination and sadness.

  She swallowed the bitter bile that rose up her throat, not willing to dwell on the fact that as Kyles Thorburn’s only child, her life had been a series of hard sacrifices. Sacrifices that left burning scars on her soul, but she was resigned to the fact that this was her destiny, and she would be damned if her son would die because of it.

  No. Everything she did from here on out would be for him, for the day he, the only pureblood Druid to be born in years, would take his rightful place as the leader of the High Council.

  She stepped out of his embrace, anxiously smoothing her flaming-red locks before cupping his cheek. She traced her fingers over the roughness of his beard. He was her rock. Her true-mate, and she loved him more than life, but love was not enough to provide protection against the sharks circling, enticed by the smell of blood in the water. Her blood, if she continued her refusal to submit to the will of her cousin Glen.

  Hunter scowled, his eyes transforming from human to wolf, then back again. “You ask too much of me.” He hissed, running an angry hand through his short jet-black hair. “My son…" he snarled, "given to humans to raise as if I weren’t strong enough to protect him.”

  She looked at him coldly. “Do you think I actually enjoyed hiding my pregnancy and his birth like some coward? What choice did I have? Glen would have killed him if knew I gave birth to a pureblood Druid.”

  Her heart raced at the thought of Glen finding out about her son’s birth. Glen wouldn’t hesitate to kill him. Her son was a pureblood and by legacy, the rightful heir to the throne. A throne coveted by Glen and his father for centuries. A throne they wouldn’t think twice to kill to get.

  Glen was a cocky bastard, but she knew under all that cockiness was bitter jealously. Jealously that he was born with the unfortunate blight of not being a pureblood. All attributed to his father’s non-pureblood genetics. Genetics that should have prevented him from becoming the leader of the most powerful Council on this realm.

  She continued. “We must be patient and wait until our son turns eighteen. Then he will be able to challenge Glen for the throne.”

  “We should have taken a stance and fought. We could’ve protected him. I was willing, but you were not.” His blue eyes narrowed with frustration.

  She threw her hands up in the air while pacing back and forth.

  “Fight? Are you kidding me? I’m more powerful than every member of the Council and those bitchy Valkyries combined, and still, I cannot protect our baby twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.” She stopped, her body shaking with leashed power. “Do you think it makes a mother happy to know she can’t even protect her own child?”

  She pointed at him angrily. “And what if we had chosen that route? We would have lived our lives on the run, towing around an innocent baby. We would always be looking over our shoulders, waiting for the day they’d find us. What kind of life would that be for him? For us? And what if they succeed in killing him? We would be left with absolutely nothing. No son and no throne. All our sacrifices and pain would have been for nothing, allowing them to win.”

  Her eyes flashed angrily. “Can you fucking live with that? Because I can’t. Gibbs and Glen have taken everything away from me, from us, and I refuse to roll over and submit, allowing him to take my child too.”

  She would be damned if she allowed the bloodline to die with her. The Thorburns were the last of the powerful Immortals. A bloodline whose sole purpose was to provide a pureblood heir to serve as leader of all Others: fae, vampires, and shifters.

  Hunter’s fists clenched and unclenched. “You could have asked your father to talk some sense into the Elders. Their antiquated law forbidding a woman to lead the Council is fucking ridiculous.”

  She blinked back the tears, calming the whirling emotions that threatened to break her. It hurt to think about her once-vibrant and strong father, Kyles Thorburn, now withering away from a mysterious illness. Just weeks ago, he was the most feared and revered Immortal in this realm. He carried the Thorburn bloodline like a battle-axe as the leader of the Council, reigning supreme for centuries, and his word was absolute law. And anyone who broke it faced his wrath by way of his warriors, the Valkyries, eliminating them swiftly. Now, he was nothing but a mere shadow of himself, too sick to protect her and his grandson.

  “There’s nothing he can do now. The Elders have chosen. Glen will lead the Council when my father dies.”

  His jaw tightened. “Council? It’s not a Council. It’s a dictatorship. Glen makes all of the decisions, and his gofers Stephan and Gorge simultaneously implement them.” He snorted. “What do you think would happen to Supreme King Stephan if the vampires discover he’s Glen’s puppet?”

  Her upper lip curled. She despised Stephan. Stephan, the Supreme King of all vampires, was a slimy prick, whose idea of ruling was to delegate all of his shit tasks to his top minions called vampire kings. Kings who controlled regional vampire clans on his behalf.

  “They would slaughter him like a pig.”

  “Exactly.” He snapped.

  Her brows slightly narrowed. “He’s not the only puppet. Gorge is a sniveling idiot. He’s all brawn and no brains.”

  Hunter’s jaw tensed. He detested Gorge. Gorge, the Supreme King of all wolf-shifters, crawled his way to the top with a reign of blood, terror, and carnage that garnered him more enemies than allies. His top lieutenants, the wolf kings, controlled regions that were divided into Covenants. Membership into the Covenants was highly demanded by the strongest and wealthiest of the Alpha wolf-shifters, but membership came at a price, by means of pledging their lives to Gorge for a chance at getting one of the highly coveted pureblood she-wolves as a mate. And wolf-shifters that refused to kowtow to Gorge were labeled rogues and outcasts from Other society.

  “On the bright side of this clusterfuck, Glen will only be acting leader. He still must pass his probationary period to assume permanent power.”

  The thought sickened her. For months she watched with fear as the twelve Elders—her
ancestors, the Immortal Druids—argued over who should lead when her father died. The Elders, whose souls were bound to the earth, to balance to the Others, were the ultimate in power. The choice should have been clear. According to Immortal law, only a pureblood Thorburn could rule the High Council and Others. But the Elders were split on who should lead. Half wanted her, despite their reservation about allowing the first woman ever to rule. The other half refused to allow a woman to lead.

  So they debated needlessly, as chaos of the Fire and Ash war rained over the Others without a strong leader in place. The Others grew darker as sanity leeched out of them. Balance disappeared and the Others splintered into warring factions that barely held themselves together. In a stunning move that rocked her world, the Elders decided to break their stalemate by issuing a challenge to Glen… Resolve the chaos without their intervention and the Council would be given to him to lead.

  Glen immediately ordered the Valkyries to kill all Others. His attempt at killing two birds with one stone… eliminating the Others he despised and gaining his dream position. But in puzzling move, the Valkyries disobeyed his direct order. This set off a chain of shocking events, including the Elders decision to give Glen leadership of the Council upon her father’s death.

  He glowered. “Glen’s not stupid. He knows the Elders are watching closely. He won’t violate his probation.”

  She pursed her lips. “And I’m betting that he will. He’s greedy, cocky, and impatient. He’ll violate his probation. We just have to wait.”

  “I can’t do this Azura. I can’t wait around while the Elders toy with our fate.” She stepped forward, reaching up to cup Hunter’s face between her hands. He rubbed his cheek against her fingers, languishing in her touch.

  “Hunter, please understand. There is no other path. We must wait.”

  He kissed her hard on the lips before letting out a soft sigh. “As always, I trust your judgment and stand by your side.”

  She placed a finger under his chin, staring at him. “Thank you, my love.” She smiled sadly before looking over at the clock. “It’s show time.”