The Legends of Regia Box Set: The Complete Series. Books 1-7

by Tenaya Jayne

  As she looked at the flames, her mind cleared, and the memories that had gone missing came back. Some of it she wished she still didn't remember, but she would never complain. Her mind was whole, and it was hers alone. She could trust her thoughts were her own.

  Netriet felt Shi come up behind her, she turned to face her.

  "I'm sorry," Shi said.

  "Don't." Netriet was firm. "I've spent a long time hating you…I knew you saved my life, but I didn't really understand."

  "I didn't mean you any harm. I thought it was a gift."

  Netriet smiled a little and looked over her shoulder at Merick, waiting for her in the distance. "I'm glad I'm alive. So, thank you for that."

  Shi followed Netriet's gaze. "He's a good man, a lot like you, with a painful past. He loves you."

  "I know. I love him, too…but…"

  "But?" Shi pressed.

  "He's not my mate. He's already had his mate, she died. But what about me? I don't want anyone but him, but I'm terrified to hurt him. He asked me to share his life. How can I do that when I might have a life mate pop up sometime and take me away from him?"

  "I see."

  "Do you have the power to see into my future? Is there someone else for me?"

  "I don't have that kind of power. I'm sorry. But I can reassure you… You really did die here after killing Philippe. You were not the same person when you woke up, and you're not the same person now. The Netriet of the past may have had a life mate, I don't know. But you're not her. I think it's safe for you to follow your heart. I truly don't believe there will be anyone else for you but Merick."

  Netriet gave Shi a hard stare. "Truly?"

  "Truly."

  ****

  Baal came out from his hiding place when Forest, Merick, and Netriet left the Wood. He'd watched the whole thing from the shelter of Maxcarion's ruined home. The cloaking enchantment still worked and kept the place hidden from most eyes. Netriet's exorcism had been illuminating. Now he finally had the answer he needed.

  Shi materialized in front of him as he made his way to the Heart.

  He stopped and crossed his arms over his chest. "Are you finally going to acknowledge me? I've seen you before, from a far, but you've never shown yourself to me. You're not going to stop me. I will have the power of the Heart."

  "Go ahead and try. I don't care."

  Her flippant response irritated him more than anything else she could have said or done.

  "So high and mighty. Free to do as you please. No one to answer to… That's about to change. When I come out of the fire, you'll bow to me."

  Shi scoffed and moved away from him. "Yeah, I guess we'll see about that, won't we? I don't think you have the stomach for it. You, who are so afraid of scars marring your flawless skin."

  He pushed ahead, but her words did stick. The very idea of scars made his stomach turn. Scars meant imperfection. He didn't want to be imperfect. The loss of his finger to the collar was heartbreaking enough. But with this kind of power, who knew what he could do? Perhaps he could grow a new finger, or erase scars. He wouldn't fight the power the way Netriet had.

  He needed to move his mind away from thoughts of Netriet. She meant more to him now than she ever had. Now she was top of the list of people he'd kill once his power was realized. She'd signed her own death warrant the second she’d dared collar him. He'd teach her the meaning of pain slowly. So, so slowly.

  He took a deep breath as he entered the ring of crystal trees around the flames. He took off his clothes and folded them in a pile. His hand sweat with apprehension around the handle of his surgical scalpel. No half measures. This was his moment of rebirth.

  Gritting his teeth, he sliced his forearm, then his chest, and his palm. His heart broke at the sight of his own blood, but he had to do more. He cut his bicep, his shoulder, and his neck. Reaching around awkwardly, he cut a line from his shoulder blade to the base of his spine. Dropping the scalpel, he stepped into the fire. The flames alighted on his wounds and slipped inside. His screaming echoed through the whole wood.

  Shi watched, noting everything happening merely for posterity reasons. She knew this wasn't going to go well for him before he did it. Even when she had been alive, a Verdant, blessed by the Heart, never would she have been foolish enough to enter the flames covered in wounds. Maybe she should have told him the method she used on Netriet was nothing like this, or that she had controlled the amount of fire placed inside her. Maybe…

  Nah. He wasn't worth saving. So she watched. Maybe the Heart would bless him after all.

  The flames continued to pour into him. Blackness spread through his whole body until he looked like a silhouette. He fell forward out of the manifestation and broke apart like a burned up log falling to ashes. Smoke rose off of his dead body and re-entered the flames.

  Shi gazed placidly at his remains. Well, so much for a blessing. Good riddance to the wannabe god.

  ****

  Netriet sat among the people of the Fair and enjoyed the evening party easily. She wasn't afraid anymore. Everyone was curious about what had happened to her. She discussed it with those who asked, keeping it vague where Baal came into the story. She would have left him out completely, but there had to be an explanation of how she acquired a robotic, alien arm.

  Martia stayed by her side like a mother hen the whole evening and shooed people away when she thought they were getting too nosy.

  "You look exhausted, dear," Martia said, patting her hand.

  "I'm afraid I am. I think I'll turn in."

  Martia's eyes filled with tears.

  "What's wrong?"

  "I'm sad you and Merick are leaving. I'll miss you both. Promise you'll come back and visit us?"

  Netriet hugged her. "You couldn't keep us away."

  She walked through the ragtag little town to Merick's tent and ducked through the door without hesitating. He was sitting on the cot, sorting through his trunk.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Getting ready to go. No one will care if I, we I mean, leave most of this stuff here. I'm just going through what we should take with us."

  Netriet sat next to him and put her head on his shoulder. "Well, I travel light. I literally only have the clothes on my back."

  "Will you be ready to go in the morning?"

  "If you are." She yawned. "Are you sure you don't want to have our marking ceremony here at the Fair?"

  "I don't want to rush."

  Netriet was suddenly more awake than she had been a second ago. "What do you mean? Are you having second thoughts?"

  "No! Not at all… Damn it, I'm sorry. I never want you to feel insecure, Netriet. I wanted to take you somewhere tomorrow, after we left here. The memorial I made to my dead family is not far… Maybe it's stupid—I just wanted to show you. I wanted to answer any questions you had about my past before you made a commitment to me."

  Netriet sat back up, looking intently into his eyes. "Do you want everything, every little detail about my past, Merick?"

  He looked thoughtful. "No… So long as it doesn't create a problem for us in the future, I don't care. I know enough…I honestly don't want to know details about your time with Baal."

  She chuckled. "You know, having my mind all back enlightened me about a few things I didn't realize at the time… Stop cringing, Merick, you'll like this one. He never touched me, sexually."

  Merick raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Really?"

  "Yup. Not once. I thought he did, but really, I was just drugged."

  Netriet snorted as Merick smiled brightly.

  "You're right. I like that much better than what my imagination had concocted."

  "Anyway, my point was that I know enough too, Merick. I doubt there's anything you could tell me to make me stop loving you… But if you think you've got something, by all means, keep it to yourself. I'm not looking for an out, so don't try to create one for me, unless you want out and are too chickenshit to admit it."

  He shook his head and then
reached under the cot and pulled out her old pack and placed it on her lap. She was shocked speechless as she gazed at the shawl she thought she'd never see again.

  "From the first time I saw you, you mattered to me. Something about you reached deep inside me. When you left and headed back into the woods by yourself, I worried about you. Intuition, I guess. I wanted to protect you, but I also just wanted to be near you again. I didn't even understand how I was feeling at the time. It made me angry…I tracked you easily, and you really didn't go that far anyway. When those werewolves came your way, I didn't hesitate, or question. I just killed them."

  He reached into the pack and pulled out one of his old wooden and metal balls and tossed it into the air and caught it again. "I killed strangers I had nothing against, to save your life. I only let you go and didn't try to follow you more because I trusted Forest would keep you safe. I hoped she would bring you back to the Fair…I waited… You didn't come back. You’ve haunted me ever since then. Every time I closed my eyes I would see your face… Trust me, about you being mine, I have no second thoughts."

  She kissed him as hard and as honestly as she could. When she pulled away, he had a mischievous glint in his eyes.

  "Well, I have no second thoughts about you. That creepy arm though, I'm not so sure about."

  Netriet laughed and touched his face, shaking her head. "Through all this darkness, you've been my light. You've made me laugh time and again, in the midst of a nightmare."

  ****

  In the morning, Netriet was surprised by the sendoff the people of the Fair gave them. She was hugged by everyone, and her almost empty pack was filled with presents. All of them, she was told, were for her new home. She watched as Merick embraced Tek and held on. The age and depth of their friendship was obvious to her as they said goodbye.

  "Come here, girl," Renee ordered gruffly.

  The old woman thrust a fabric-wrapped bundle into her arms. "Just a few things to wear. And one very special something for your marking ceremony. Come back and see us. I'll always give you a special discount."

  Netriet giggled as Renee pinched her cheek like she was a baby. By this time, she was fighting back tears. She and Merick had walked toward the gate, down the middle of two lines, and Martia was the last.

  She crushed Netriet in a tight hug. "I'll miss you. You're like the daughter I never had."

  "You haven't even known me very long."

  "As long as you've known Merick, and you're running away with him."

  Netriet smiled. "Good point."

  "The heart has a mind of its own, and it doesn't give a damn about the brain's logic or timetables. But in case you didn't know, you're very loveable, Netriet."

  Netriet held on to her, absorbing her maternal affection. "I promise to come back often."

  "I see you found your shawl," Martia said touching the bright fabric tied around Netriet's shoulders. "I have something else for you. Well, it's for both of you really."

  She picked up a sack by her feet and handed it to her. Netriet opened the drawstring and looked inside. It was more of Martia's bright patchwork.

  "For your bed."

  Netriet wiped at the tears as she and Merick turned and looked back at all the people standing behind them, waving, saying goodbye, good luck, and come back soon. And she realized she'd found what she truly wanted: love, acceptance, and family. They waved goodbye and headed out into the world, on a new path, to a new beginning.

  Netriet began to question Merick's directional abilities by midday. He tried to reassure her, more than a few times, that he knew exactly where they were going. Finally, he stopped in a thicket and laid his pack on the ground. "I know it doesn't look like much, but this is the memorial I created for my family."

  Merick laid his hand on the trunk of a large, beautiful tree. Netriet came closer and looked at the deep gashes in the trunk: a date, names, and a message of undying love.

  "I told you, I have no questions, Merick," she said quietly.

  "This is for me. Something I have to do that I haven't been able to before. It's time." He reached into his pack and pulled out a rough piece of metal. "This is what remains of my armor. The armor I was wearing the night they died. The rest of it lies buried here, under this tree. I carved this with the edge of this scrap of metal."

  Netriet watched as he took the edge to the trunk once more and added a name to the list: Mycale. Then he dug a small hole with the metal and buried it among the roots of the tree.

  ****

  Merick bathed and put on his best clothes as the day began to end. At sunset, the sky came alive with deep jewel colors and moved in long lazy streamers through the clouds as the pale sun sank over the rose-colored water of the sea. He looked at it from the cliffs, listening to the waves and waiting for Netriet to meet him.

  He heard her light footfalls and turned around. He was breathless and transfixed. Her pale blonde hair hung soft around her shoulders, and the sea breeze teased the ends in a slow dance. Her dress was the same quilted, amber velvet of the shirt he'd bought for her. It hugged her body and flowed to her ankles. The creamy mesh sleeves hung off her shoulders. But it was her eyes, her wide, clear amber eyes, full of love, which slew him completely.

  She looked so serene while his pulse trembled. He was terrified he'd mess this up for her, say the wrong thing, or move too fast. This was a first for him. He and Geanna didn't do this. It wasn't necessary for life mates.

  "I…I don't have the words," he managed, cursing himself as he said it. "You look so beautiful. You make me nervous. I can't think with you looking like that."

  She smiled easily. "Promise me you'll always remember me the way I look right now."

  "I promise," he whispered. The words were redundant to him. He could never forget the way she looked. "I don't know what to say to you," he confessed again.

  "You can say what you want to. As much or as little." She took his hands, her face serious. "I am with you…and nothing is going to change that."

  That was all she said. It was enough. It was everything.

  He pulled her to him, slicing his tongue on his incisor, and sank his blood-coated teeth into her neck. That small amount of his blood sealed itself inside the bite mark, creating a crescent scar on her neck. He kissed the lover’s mark and whispered, "Mine, forever."

  She copied him, marking the side of his neck. And that was all. Simple, binding, and committed.

  They made love under the stars. The roll of the waves lulled them to sleep and chased away the nightmares, as Merick said it would. They slept dreamlessly in each other's arms. The first night of the rest of their lives. And after so much hell, finally, they had peace.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Copernicus awoke before the dawn and went outside. Shreve followed a minute later, rubbing his eyes, and yawning.

  "Rahaxeris is back."

  "How do you know?" Shreve asked.

  "I can feel him. His blood calls to mine. It's time. Time for our family to unite… Prepare everyone. The strike happens today."

  ****

  Forest decided to sleep in. Her week had been long, hard, and odd. She mumbled affection to Syrus as he kissed her goodbye and rolled back into her pillow when he left for work and went back to sleep.

  Midmorning sunlight fell on her face through a gap in the curtains. Still only half-lucid, she had the nagging sensation something was wrong. The smell of smoke registered in her sluggish brain. She sat up in bed and sniffed. Then she heard the distant screams. Immediately on her feet, she threw on her clothes at record speed and strapped on her sword as she ran out the front door.

  The sounds of fighting, death, and black smoke in the air, slammed into Forest in her garden. The Fair! It would take her too long to run there. She pushed through her garden gate outside of the boundary of her dome of security, turning her ring around in her palm, about to open a portal to the Fair when a stabbing pain in her abdomen buckled her over. She gasped, holding on to her stomach. She could hardly m
ove her body. Her heart thundered in her ears, eclipsing the sounds of her friends dying. Tears ran from her eyes. She had to save her friends. She couldn't move.

  What's happening to me?

  A rushing sensation ran through her lower abdomen, under her clutching hands. The sound of her pulse in her ears was joined by another pulse, faint and faster. It was the quickening. And she knew, beyond any doubt, she was pregnant.

  A voice she recognized came from behind her, barely audible. "I'm sorry, Forest."

  "Redge?"

  A fabric bag came down over her head. A terrible crack exploded in the back of her skull, and all went black.

  The End

  Burning Bridges

  The Legends of Regia

  Book Five

  By

  Tenaya Jayne

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by Tenaya Jayne

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations used in reviews. Copying, file sharing, and piracy in general is forbidden by the publisher and is in direct violation of the author's rights.

  Cover Art created by Erika Doucesse

  Edited by Amanda Fiske & Valerie Hatfield

  Proofread by Ally Robertson

  COLD FIRE PUBLISHING, LLC

  All Rights Reserved

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  Prologue

  For thousands of years, the Storytellers came to Regia. An enigmatic people most Regians considered on the edge of Divinity. The Storytellers traveled not through portals from their homeland, but on channels made of golden light. They never explained why they came, and they never stayed long. They brought with them the ability to reach inside individuals, pull out the cords of their deepest longings, and give it to them, if only for a few moments.