by Ciara Graves
Brogan whipped around, throwing his arm up over his head at the sight of Rori and me.
I shifted back, and he pulled me into a one-armed hug.
Guilt tore through me because of the moment Rori and I had shared, but this was not the time or place to have that conversation.
Rori rushed to him next, hugging him quickly as she glanced at the priest.
“New friend?” she asked.
“Brunie. A priest. She’s our fourth,” Brogan informed us in a rush. “Good news?”
“More than we counted on,” I replied. “Where are Moran and Agnes?”
“Not sure. Our communications were cut off. Blade and the other commanders are inside working on pushing back the second wave. We’re just trying to clear out the riffraff.”
“Well then, care for some help?” Rori asked with a wicked grin as she spun her staff around, bringing to life a frozen wind filled with ice. She slammed it onto the ground and ice shot out toward the oncoming line of soldiers, freezing them in place.
Brogan and Brunie melded his lightning with her golden magic and knocked the soldiers back, through the fence.
I shifted into bear form again.
As one unit, the connection from Brunie completing our team without having to focus on reaching out for her, we attacked the soldiers.
I thought when we used to work together, just the three of us, had been impressive, but with the added push of Brunie, we took on the soldiers with ease, driving back their line, while we combined and fed off each other. Even Rori was able to control her necromancy, draining just enough life from the soldiers to make them turn and run. Ice chased after them, ensuring they kept on going and didn’t come back.
Yelling came from behind us.
Blade was leading another charge out of the outpost, pushing back the other line of soldiers who had attacked. Electrical pulses started at the far end of the courtyard.
Rori and I broke off to save the Vanguard who’d been struck powerless. I lumbered into the line, swiping my massive paw down their fronts, slashing and slicing.
Rori’s furious yelling was behind me, but in the din of the soldiers trying for one last push, I lost sight of her.
Brogan and Brunie were at my side a moment later. Together, we continue the attack, not letting them get any further, but our numbers were dwindling. More electrical pulses took down four and five of our fighters at a time, and we’d started to lose ground.
When a whistle blew, I paused long enough to catch sight of a soldier waving for the enemy to pull back.
I roared, chasing after a few as they retreated, then shifted back when I reached the fence. They were picking themselves up, grabbing their wounded, and hightailing it away. The only question was why.
“What’s going on?” Brogan asked, echoing my confusion. “Where are they going?”
“I don’t know.” I glanced behind us.
Our fighters were getting to their feet. Others were helping the wounded. There were quite a few dead.
I growled. “Something spooked them.”
“Yeah, but what? I don’t like this.”
“I don’t either, but looks like it wasn’t a total loss.” I pointed across the courtyard. “Blade has a prisoner.”
“Good. It’s about damned time we got some answers.”
“Speaking of answers, there’s a lot we need to catch you up on,” I said, then frowned, turning around and around. I looked across the courtyard, searching for a white-streaked head of hair, but couldn’t find it.
The rain was slowing, and as the clouds parted, I moved through the mass of our soldiers and the dead on the ground. She had been beside me a moment ago, I knew I saw her. I’d been fighting there with her.
“Rori,” I bellowed, chest tightening like someone was trying to crush me. “Rori! Answer me, damn it.”
Brogan frowned, yelling her name too. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.” I ran from one end of the courtyard to the other.
Had she fallen? No, no we would’ve felt her go down.
Cursing and growling, I covered the entire area then landed back where I started my search with Brogan.
“She’s gone,” I whispered, horrified, looking into the crack in the barricade. “Rori’s gone.”
Chapter 14
Brogan
I should’ve been ecstatic. We saved the outpost. We found our fourth member, and it sounded as if Chas and Rori had a successful trip into the void. Instead, I was furious, lightning crackling into the mud around me as Chas growled at my side.
Rori was gone.
In the midst of the fighting, we’d been so wrapped up in pushing the soldiers back we hadn’t even noticed she was gone. Taken. Just like that.
And we’d let them get away with her.
I’d taken a brief moment to introduce Chas to Brunie, but he barely managed a nod, he was so caught up in his anger. Not that I was much better. Blade managed to capture one of the Cleansers, true, but at what cost?
“Moran’s back,” Chas growled and finally stopped stalking back and forth, making a rut in the mud.
The truck pulled in and came to a jerking halt as Moran and Agnes jumped out, both looking confused and furious at the ruined outpost.
Chas crossed his arms over his chest. “About damned time.”
“What the hell happened here?” Moran demanded.
“A lot, that’s what,” I said.
Chas stepped forward with a furious snarl. “They took Rori. They came here, and they took her from us.”
“What?” Moran snapped. “Both of you inside now.”
Chas looked ready to kill, but he pivoted and marched inside, with Brunie and I behind him. I caught Moran’s curious glance, but there would be time for us to celebrate Brunie joining us, if and only if, we got Rori back. With each step, my stomach dropped more. We had no known intel on any locations for the Cleansers. How the hell were we going to find her?
Moran stopped along the way to the war room to speak with Blade, telling him to take our new prisoner to a cell and ensure he was completely disarmed.
Blade handed the man over then followed us inside.
The door to the war room had been blasted away, and Moran rubbed his head looking more than ready to kill the next Cleanser soldier who walked across his path.
“Explain, now,” he said, turning to Blade.
As he launched into his explanation of the attack, I kept looking to Chas. His hands rested on the table, and he hung his head, shoulders stiff. Since he and Rori appeared, he had not met my eye. Almost like he felt guilty about something. I understood his anger at Rori being stolen away, but I sensed there was something else.
“They retreated after they took Rori?” Moran asked.
“I assume so, yes,” Blade snapped. “Didn’t even realize until it was too late.”
“Damn it,” Moran muttered. “We have no way to track her.”
“That might not be true,” Chas spoke up. “We went into the void in search of Trevor Griffith, but we found someone else. A few actually.” This time, he did look at me as he said, “Greyson, we spoke to him, and he told us exactly who the Cleansers are led by and where he thinks they’re located.”
“Wait, what?” I asked surprised. “You spoke to him?”
“We did. He was alive until three years ago, when circumstances changed and he—” Chas cleared his throat, “—uh, he took his life,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry, Brogan. He did say hello, though.”
I nodded numbly. “All those years he was alive. How did no one know?”
“The Cleansers had him trapped in a cage, and he wasn’t alone.” Chas shifted his gaze to Moran. “Trevor Griffith is alive, sir.”
Moran’s eyes widened as he sank into a chair. “What?”
“He’s alive and still being held captive by the Cleansers.”
“Who else did you speak to while in the void?” Agnes asked him softly.
“My parents. But they could o
nly tell me a small amount of information. Greyson, however, was able to learn some things before his death.” He gave a quick rundown of what my uncle told him and Rori about this Simon and Tabitha, why they started the war, but most importantly where he believed he was being held for so many years. “We have to go after her, sir,” he finally finished.
“We will,” Moran asserted. “We will get her back, and we will save her father.” He stalked toward the door, a crazed, determined look in his eye. He paused and glanced back at Brunie. “Welcome to the team, Brunhilda,” And then he was out the door.
“Brunhilda?” I asked.
Brunie shrugged. “Not my choice. Why I go by Brunie.” She sighed as she approached Chas and me. “Sorry about Rori, by the way, but I’m with you guys now. We’ll get her back.” She gave my arm an encouraging squeeze then said she was going to find Jackson and Greg. To make sure they were alright.
I stayed where I was, watching Chas, waiting for him to speak when he mumbled something about getting cleaned up and started to leave.
“Is there anything else you need to tell me?” I asked.
He stopped short.
“Chas?”
He knocked his knuckles against the doorframe then shook his head. “Nothing. Just worried about Rori.”
“We both are, but we’ll get her back.”
“I know,” he replied.
The weight of emotion in those two words told me lots.
It didn’t take much to guess what might have transpired between them in the void and my heart sank a little.
As much as I wanted to blame Rori’s second path for why she pulled away, my heart told me whatever we’d shared together hadn’t been strong enough to survive this chaos.
That we were missing whatever was needed to take our relationship to the next step. Maybe with Chas, she could have that, but those were worries best saved for after we got her back alive.
I said nothing else, and he left.
Slowly, I walked around the room, mind racing as I realized with the information Chas and Rori brought back, we’d finally be able to take the fight to the Cleansers.
“We’re coming for you, Rori,” I whispered. “Just hold on. We’ll get you out if it’s the last thing we do.”
Chapter 15
Rori
There’d been once or twice during training when I wished I was dead from the pain shooting through my body after having my ass kicked by Moran or Blade.
The agony I woke to this time was a hundred times worse.
I groaned, reaching for my head, but a force stopped my hand short.
I jerked harder, but when my arm didn’t budge, my eyes shot open to find I was trapped in a steel cage. Chains dangled from the top.
My wrists were trapped in manacles. Electrical probes stuck out.
“What the hell?” I mumbled as I glanced down. My ankles were in manacles too. My boots were gone, and when I snapped my fingers to summon my staff, nothing happened. “Come on… come on!” I focused on Merlin instead, but nothing happened.
Panic set my heart to racing faster and faster, but as I peered into the darkness surrounding my cage, I saw nothing at all.
Turning my head hurt, and I remembered being bashed in the skull with something heavy, then slipping into unconsciousness. The outpost, it was being attacked by the Cleansers when Chas and I got back. I’d been fighting them off and then… then nothing. Were they alright? Chas and Brogan…
Clearly, I wasn’t alright, but I could get out of this. I had to.
I snapped my fingers again and ice formed at my fingertips. Good. Whatever they’d done to keep my powers at bay was wearing off. Focusing on the ice, it spread, covering my hand and reaching for the manacle. Just as crystals formed along the metal and I let out a quiet cheer that I was going to get my ass out of this cage, lights popped on, blinding me.
I cursed at the brightness, but it was the jolt of electricity shooting through my body that made me scream.
My back arched, and the chains were the only thing holding me up. My connection to my frost and the shadow within me was severed violently.
I sagged in the chains as the electricity was cut off.
“Can’t have any of that now can we,” a woman said sharply from behind me.
I gasped.
Footsteps echoed around me in a room that only held a cage as far as I could tell. White floor, white walls, and ceiling with what had to be a damned viewing window. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. And it wasn’t just from the electric shock they’d treated me to. None of this boded well, None at all.
“Hmm, interesting. You are stronger than the other specimens, but don’t worry, we’ll break you before long.”
The woman with black hair pulled back in a tight bun wore a white lab coat, black pants, and shirt underneath. Her eyes were hard, lifeless almost, but when she leered at me through the bars, they were full of hatred.
“Do you know me?”
I was about to say no, but all I’d learned from speaking with Charlie and Mel rushed back.
This woman, I did know her, and smirked as I nodded. “You must be the bitch they call Tabitha.”
Her leer fell, and she pulled out a small, silver remote from her pocket. “Manners are lost on your generation.”
I shrugged. “Hey, I mean takes one to know one. Right?”
Her thumb pressed the button, and I shrieked as I was shocked again, longer this time.
When she stopped it, I hung limply in the chains, but managed to keep a smile on my face.
“Before long, you will not be smiling,” she warned. “I have plans for you. For all the ones we’ve captured.”
“Oh yeah? You know I’ve been told I have quite the singing voice—”
My words turned into a scream that went on until I grew too hoarse to make a sound.
When it stopped this time, I forced a laugh, reaching as deep as I could to find my well of power, but there was a wall between me and it, one I wasn’t going to get through in this weakened state.
“That mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble. But,” she sighed heavily as if she expected this, “like father, like daughter, I suspect. Terrible gene pool really.”
“What?” I attempted to lift my head, but my muscles were weakened. “My dad. He’s here?”
But she refused to answer and glanced up to the viewing window instead. “I suggest you make yourself at home in your little cage. You will be our guest for quite some time.”
I tugged harder on the chains, fighting to get free as I screamed after her. “I’ll get out of here. Just you wait. They’ll come for me.”
“My dear if they do come here, it will be because we want them to.”
I cursed and raged at her until she clicked that button again and my body gave out, then the electricity cut off, leaving me hanging in the chains, hearing her footsteps recede.
Then I was plunged back into darkness, alone in a cage with no way out.
Keep reading for an excerpt from the next book in the series!
Sorcery
Magic & Alchemy Book Three
Necromancers. Druids. Shamans. Priests. Familiars. Experiments. Attackers of magic. Magic and Alchemy will suck you in.
Rori’s dream to bake in her mother’s shop went up in smoke when she was pulled into a supernatural school for magic types.
On her first day there, she meets two guys. Chas and Brogan. One’s mysterious and brooding. The other one’s sweet and hunky.
And Rori’s in the middle of a rock and a hard place when she can’t figure out what type of supernatural she is and what path she should follow.
And what does her missing father have to do with any of this?
Warning: Unputdownable action-packed fantasy, with necromancers, druids, shamans, and priests.
Chapter 1
Brogan
Rori was missing for a week and a half.
A whole damned ten days with no leads to where she was, but
a good idea of what was happening to her, thanks to the news Chas brought back from the void. From my uncle who had decided to kill himself to end the torture, rather than fighting to live. Greyson, the uncle I grew up hearing stories about, had taken his own life. The strong shaman who showed no fear. Who was the strongest member of our family.
How was Rori supposed to hold out if he couldn’t?
And her Dad. He was alive, but it seemed he might not be of sound mind anymore. If Rori did survive long enough for us to find her, would she still be herself? Or a monster we would have to put down like Graham had to be, turned against us by what they were doing to our kind. Corrupting our magic at its simplest form. I continued to tell myself it wasn’t possible, but the proof contradicted me.
More and more reports were coming in of entire magical towns being attacked, shocked, in an attempt to destroy their magic. The government had finally stepped in, made note that they were aware it was happening, but not really done anything to help. At the end of the day, it was left to us to deal with the issue.
Brunie tapped my shoulder, and I jumped, forgetting she was so close. Her brow furrowed, but I waved her off and focused on our goal.
The soldier captured during the attack at the outpost had been quiet about where Rori was taken, but we managed to get a few answers out of him, including the location of a supply depot, where they were making all their plans to attack the magical communities. It wasn’t their main base of operations, but it was a start. And like Chas, I needed to destroy something. And soon. He’d been nothing but a growling bear for most of the last week, barely talking or eating. Hardly sleeping. And he still refused to be alone with me.
I was upset about Rori being gone, but he was taking it much harder than I expected. My gut nagged at me that something else happened in the void which he had yet to share with me. Sooner or later, it would come out.