by Lia Davis
Marked by Darkness
Dark Fat Hollows: Hollow 8
Lia Davis
After Glows Publishing
Marked by Darkness
© Copyright 2017 Lia Davis
Published by After Glows
PO Box 224
Middleburg, FL 32050
AfterGlowsPublishing.com
Cover by Rebecca Frank
Formatting by AG Formatting
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Introduction
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
Also by Lia Davis
About the Author
Marked by Darkness
Crystal Hollow used to be a magical winter wonderland.
Now it’s a wasteland of frozen death ruled by an evil Ice Princess.
As the last ice fae, Roshia’s the only one with the power to save her world. When her family is destroyed by the queen’s undead guard, she flees to the North Mountains, hoping to join the rebels rumored to live there.
But she discovers more than just the rebel camp.
She finds three men determined to help her learn to love again—and in them, the key both to her heart and to reversing the evil spell that poisons the Hollow.
If only they can convince her she can do it.
Author Note: Marked by Darkness is a stand-alone novel, as are all the Dark Fae Hollow books. You do not need to read the series in order to enjoy each book.
1
“Do it again!”
The squeal of delight from my five-year-old sister, Ameria, made the frozen hell we lived in bearable. My whole family made it bearable. They were my world, my rock. The hope was that one day things would return to the way they were before Princess Crystal rose from the dead and turned our beautiful wintery Hollow into a wasteland of ice. The only snow was when I created it or a snowstorm blew in.
I watched Ameria dance around like she didn’t have a care in the world. Which was just how Mom and Dad liked it, so I kept her busy with play and making happy memories. Her white-blonde curls bounced around her shoulders as she ran around me.
A cold, knife-like breeze whipped by. With it was a scent I was familiar with. We’d have to move on soon. I could feel it. The eerie dark magic I associated with the princess and her guards we called her familiars started to settle in the crisp air around me.
Yeah, we’d have to move tonight.
“Roshia!” Ameria yelled, her hands propped on her little hips and her foot tapping on the frozen ground. Her blue eyes narrowed, making me laugh. She was a miniature image of our mother. And just as fierce.
“All right, all right.” The fake pout on her tiny face was too much for me. She knew I’d cave. “Ready?”
Ameria let out another squeak and clapped her hands. My heart swelled. I wiggled my fingers while calling my ice magic, forming frozen snowflakes. I suspended them in the air for a few moments just to watch her jump up and down. Then with a wave of my hand, they twirled and pranced around Ameria’s head. While she was busy dancing with the snowflakes, I conjured a small snow cloud overhead large enough to cover the small clearing we stopped to rest in. Perfect, fat, white snow drifted down, joining in the dance.
My mom came over and hugged me. “Your magic is growing stronger. I’m pleased with how you have learned to control it with such ease.”
I beamed and my heart filled with love. My mom was one half of a whole—a fated pair to love each other for all their days. While she had long white hair, my father’s was short and dark. Side by side, they appeared to be polar opposites. But I could see how their love bound them like they were meant to be.
“Of course, she has. She is my daughter, after all.” My dad ruffled my hair before leaning in for his own hug and kiss on my temple. I hugged him back, inhaling his rosemary scent.
Just then a snowball hit me in the back of the head while my brother, Taegan yelled, “Show off!”
Narrowing my gaze at him, I formed my own snowball with my magic and let it grow to be about half the size of Taegan. He chuckled and backed up, shaking his head. “Ro, don’t do it. You know I love you. Right, little sis?”
I laughed, making it sound as evil as I could before tossing the large ball of snow at him. His eyes went round before narrowing into slits of mischief. He lifted his hands and sent a blast of air like a spear. Snow exploded around us.
We laughed while Ameria squealed and clapped behind us.
Taegan’s magic allowed him to manipulate air. We were quite the team when fending off Princess Crystal’s malum—blood thirsty, insane changelings. I shivered at the thought. I hated the malum. We always had to be on alert for the creatures.
A snowball hit me in the chest, followed by a giggle from behind Taegan. Ameria stuck her head out from behind our brother’s legs. Guilty little she-devil.
I wiggled my fingers at her and she squealed, dashing around to Taegan’s other side. Her white-blond curls bounced as she ran. Like he would save her. Tae was always on my side.
Suddenly, she jumped out and waved her hands in the air. Her excitement made it hard to pretend to be mad. “Freeze the air!”
This was going to be fun. Tae and I locked gazes, the corners of his lips curled up. Then he lifted his hands and swooped them to the side. A gust of air burst to life and as soon as it did, I threw out my own hands, freezing the streams of wind. Lines of ice curved in midair. A few spiraled in different directions. It sparkled in the sunlight.
Ameria clapped and jumped up and down. Tae came over and leaned into me with his shoulder. I sighed. It was easy to forget the dangers of Crystal and her familiars at times like these. But we had to be on alert, always.
Laying my head on Tae’s shoulder, I watched our little sister play, running in between the frozen swirls of air.
“I heard rumors of a rebel group of fae, human, and custos in the North Mountains. I think we should head there next.” Taegan spoke softly like he didn’t want Mom and Dad to hear him. He was always checking with me before he made a suggestion to our parents. It wasn’t like asking for my permission.
He was two years older at twenty-one and had the authority to speak for Ameria and me. However, he respected my opinion and alwa
ys liked to bring me into family brainstorming and planning.
I lifted my head and studied his profile. “I’m assuming you believe the rumors?”
He shrugged. “More than one source had said it. Though, it’s mostly whispers between people as I pass by. I overheard a woman in the last village we stopped at talk about moving her family in that direction.”
“It’s a possibility. The North Mountains are tough to make a home out of, though.” Or tougher than it used to be, before Crystal’s reawakening. The lower mountains were covered in ice and snow but the caverns might be livable. However, they could also become a trap when the familiars came around. “The high mountains would be safer, but how are the conditions? Could we make it a temporary home?”
“Not sure. I’m going to check it out. But you need to help Mom and Dad with finding a safe place to lie low. I’ll meet up with you in a week or so.”
Panic seized me and I grabbed his arm before he could walk away. “You can’t leave us. We’ll all go. We have to stay together.”
I didn’t realize I’d clutched his shirt in my fist until he pried my hands open. “It’s safer if I go alone.”
“No–” I froze as the hairs on the back of my neck rose and the inky residue of dark magic settled around us. My eyes widened as I met Tae’s. His expression mirrored my own. Fear burned my insides. “Run!”
My scream echoed around us. Ameria ran to our parents while Tae and I formed an ice barrier between the familiars and us. Tae called to the wind to blow a thick dusting of snow from the ground to eight feet into the air as he ran north. I followed on his heels, freezing the mix of wind and snow, forming a wall at least a foot thick.
It wouldn’t hold them off long, but enough for us to escape. I hoped.
A quick glance over my shoulder and relief eased some of my tension. Mom and Dad had Ameria and were running for the South Mountains. Unlike the North Mountains, the South were slightly warmer. I didn’t like it much, but the familiars liked it even less.
When the ice wall stretched on for about a quarter mile, Tae and I ran in the direction our family went. I fixed my gaze on my parents and sister, then movement ahead of them to the left sent a stab of panic through my heart. Familiars waited for them. We were surrounded.
“Mom! Dad!” I pushed my legs faster, ignoring the burning in my muscles. My focus was getting to my family, desperate to reach them, to protect them.
Tae saw them, too, and cursed. His legs were longer than mine, so he sprinted ahead. Suddenly, something hit me full force, knocking me out of the running and to the ground. I slid several yards before stopping. Pain shot up my spine and my lungs burned from whatever magic they hit me with. Focus, Ro. Pushing up on my hands and knees, I locked gazes with a familiar and snarled.
The pain and need to protect my family fueled my power and rage.
His crimson eyes clashed with his pale skin and white hair. Evil and dark magic oozed from him and he stalked closer. I waited because my power didn’t have a long range. I had to be within about ten feet to freeze someone in place.
He apparently knew my limitations because he stopped about a foot shy of the required distance. Bastard. Standing straight, I lifted my hands and took a large step forward while thrusting my power toward him. It hit him in the chest and ice covered his body. His eyes enlarged at his own miscalculation. Never underestimate a desperate fae protecting her family.
I took off, knowing the ice wouldn’t hold him forever. Familiars shared Crystal’s power, which was much stronger than mine and Tae’s together. They could pull from her power, meaning breaking through mine.
A scream sounded several yards ahead of me. My heart stopped for several long moments. Dread stole my ability to breathe. No! Ameria. My parents were each fighting off familiars, leaving my sister at the animals’ mercy.
Tae rushed by me at a dead run, heading straight for the princess’s guard that held our sister. Alarm ran thick and cold in my veins. He wasn’t going to make it. We weren’t going to win this. But I wouldn’t go without taking a few of the bastards down.
When I was within range, I blasted the familiars with as much power as I could build in a short time. They froze into human-shaped popsicles. I moved in and conjured a sword made of ice and swung at the closest frozen guard. He shattered into pieces. Tae used his air magic to thrust the pieces of frozen body parts into the others, hitting them in the mid-section. The frozen familiars shattered like the first.
“Enough!”
The voice thundered through the air and echoed off the mountains in the distance. A large familiar dressed in black armor formed into his frame with the royal crest in the middle of his chest came into view. His white hair was pulled into a braid down his back. Crimson eyes bored into me but seemed like they were watching our surroundings at the same time.
Everything and everyone around me fell silent. Time seemed to stand still. Then he raised his hands and my heart stopped briefly as I watched him slice his arms down sharply. Fear took a hold me, squeezing heart and lungs. As soon as his arms stopped moving, a blast of cold, dark magic rolled toward us in all directions.
My parents and sister fell to the ground. I screamed and tried to run to them but my legs wouldn’t move. Tears stung my eyes as darkness dragged me under its veil.
2
I woke inside a dirty, musky cell. The damp scent of mold and earth tingled my nose and made me cough. My vision blurred in and out. The lingering effects of the spell the familiar put us under made me lightheaded. It was as if my whole system was in shock.
It was too warm for me, so I froze the cot I lay on. The feel of the cold seeping into my wool tunic and my cheek made me sigh in relief.
With a groan, I rolled to my back and scanned my surroundings, thankful for the dim light. A dull headache lingered in the back of my skull and bright light would have made it an angry, full-on migraine. The ceiling was too dark to make out, but I guessed it was the same as the walls. Stone and dirty.
A shudder passed up my spine and I sat up on the hard-as-hell cot that had one itchy thin blanket. I waited for my vision to clear and adjust to the lack of natural light.
To my right, tucked in a dark corner was a bucket. I wrinkled up my nose. If they thought I was using that thing as a toilet, they were mistaken. I wasn’t going to stay in this cell that long.
After a few moments of sitting, thinking of ways to escape, my eyes cleared and I could make out my surroundings better. While the wall at my back was stone, there were iron bars on both sides of me that blended into an iron gate of a door. I knew they were iron because I could feel it in my magic.
I released a sigh and stood. Iron kept most fae from escaping. I wasn’t most fae.
Movement in the cell next to me caught my attention. I drifted to the bars, not touching them. I wasn’t sure how weak the spell made me. “Hello.”
My heart pounded as I inched closer. An older woman appeared in the low light. She was pale, almost sickly, and her dark hair was matted, hanging around her oval face and shoulders. It was hard to tell what color it was. Her voice came out as a husky whisper. “I’m Kathleen.”
“Roshia. Where am I? Where did they take my family?”
“You were the only one brought in. If they have your family, they could be on a different level or changed already.” Kathleen came closer to the bars but not too close. She eyed the barriers like they’d attack her at any moment as she spoke. “Everyone on this floor are blood slaves for the malum the bitch princess uses as her trained monkeys.”
Blood slaves? Not going to happen. I needed to get out of there and find my family. “How often do they feed?”
Kathleen glanced around. At first, I didn’t think she heard me. Finally, she focused back on me. “Every few days, I think. They bring them in waves.”
Her answer didn’t comfort me. I wanted to know how much time I had before my first feeding. My stomach soared and I shook all over. The malum weren’t gentle when they fed. I’d seen
it before, walked up onto a group of them ripping into the throats of their victims.
Needing to think of something else, I asked, “Where do you think they took my family?”
A male voice on the other side of my cell rumbled, “If they aren’t here, then the adults would have been taken to Crystal to be changed. Children are sometimes taken to a lower level to serve as slaves to familiars.”
I rushed to the side, grabbing the bars. A low hum of a shock rippled into my palms, but I ignored it. “What do you mean sometimes?”
The man sat in the shadows, making it hard for me to see him.
“Crystal has been experimenting with changing children. Not many survive and those who do, turn into the demonic, bloodthirsty malum,” the voice replied, cool and bitter.
Tears rolled down my cheeks. I had to find my family and get the hell out of there. I moved to the front of the cell and inspected the lock. I couldn’t use my magic on the lock itself because iron weakened fae magic. Or could I? My magic was more elemental than fae. What If I could create a key of some kind or freeze the mechanism…
The click of a lock, then the creak of a door opening stilled my thoughts. Footsteps sounded from down the hall and I backed away. When I reached the cot, I crawled on it and brought my knees to my chest. The evil, dark presence of the familiars filled the space, reaching out to me. As did the rotting stench of the malum.
No, no. Please don’t come to my cell. Two familiars stopped in front of my door. Between them was a malum with chains around his ankles and wrists. The malum lifted his head and stared at me. His nostrils flared as if scenting the air.