Savagery & Skills: Books 1-4

by Ciara Graves

  “We should just join him,” Petra said suddenly, and we all looked at her confused. “If we go to him now, perhaps he will spare us.”

  “No one’s joining him.” Lysa approached and held out her hand for the stake, brow arched.

  I growled but handed it over and let Carson up. He tugged down his black, suit jacket, too focused on Petra and her strange twitchy behavior to be pissed at me. Her guard even seemed confused and shrugged when I gave him a questioning look.

  “Petra, you feeling alright?”

  Her face scrunched as if she was in pain. “You are pathetic. You know that? All of you are, in fact. I don’t know why I bothered to come here.” She turned as if to storm out of the room but gagged and clawed at her throat as if someone held her there. “No,” she spat, “no, please, I did what you asked. I did.”

  “Who are you talking to?” I reached for the sword at my hip, already knowing the answer.

  It wasn’t possible, though. Rudarius was trapped in Otherworld. No one had been able to sense the veil, Lysa made certain of it. She posted several vampires at the nearest one so we’d have some warning—

  “Lysa! We’re under attack,” a vampire warned as he blurred into the room. “They’ve breached the tunnels.”

  “What, how?” she demanded.

  Petra’s choking pleas cut off abruptly, and she fell to the floor. Lysa started to go to her, but I yelled at her to wait. Then Petra screamed, and her body was engulfed in flames, burning her to nothing but ash. As alarms wailed around the fortress, calling Lysa’s warriors to fight, the air in the throne room turned thicker and heavier.

  “What is this?” Carson uttered, drawing his own set of daggers.

  “Rudarius,” I seethed, gripping the hilt of my sword and waiting. “He’s here, he as to be.”

  “You said the veil was sealed,” Wendall argued, armed with two short swords.

  Red lightning crackled around the chamber, striking the balconies and sending vampires scurrying for cover as they yelled in panic.

  “I was wrong,” I whispered just as a crack appeared overhead.

  Vince dragged Lysa behind him, the rest of her guard forming a protective circle around her.

  “You should leave,” I told her and the others. “Go. I can hold him off.”

  “We’re not leaving,” Lysa snapped.

  Vince’s lips thinned, but she’d given her orders.

  “We can’t get out anyway,” the vampire who’d run in earlier said. “Vampires have swarmed the peak. We’re cut off.”

  The crack grew and a cackling I’d never wanted to hear again echoed harshly in the room, making us wince and flinch.

  A figure broke through the rift between the worlds, landing on the table. We took him in as he straightened, slowly, in a truly dramatic fashion. Damned bastard. When he stood upright and tall, and his red eyes focused on all of us, he offered a smile that said quite plainly he didn’t plan on letting any of us live.

  “Ah, Draven, how predictable of you to seek out aid from the covens,” Rudarius mused, hands clasped behind his back. “Tell me, did you truly believe they would all follow you after what you’ve done?”

  I said nothing. There was no point in talking to him anymore.

  He sighed as if disappointed in my lack of banter. “Seneca’s more talkative than you are.”

  “Seneca? What did you do to her?”

  His lips twitched. “Nothing, yet. But we have had some interesting conversations of late. Very interesting indeed.”

  “If you’ve come to kill us all, you won’t succeed,” Lysa warned.

  His gaze flickered to her for a heartbeat than was back to me. “As I said, Draven, how dreadfully predictable you are. Gathering the coven leaders here in one place. So convenient, I suppose I should thank you for making this easy.”

  Nolan pushed past me, and for the first time I could ever remember, Rudarius appeared uncertain. “Hello, Rudarius,” Nolan said quietly. “Long time no see.”

  “Can you still see, old man?” Rudarius asked, but the bravado was gone from his voice.

  “I can see well enough to take care of you.”

  “Come now. I don’t want to drag this out. I have much to do. Many people to see,” he added, throwing a glance my way.

  Seneca, he meant her. She hadn’t been captured by him, had she? I started to charge forward to demand answers, but more shouts came from behind us, and the inner fortress was flooded with Rudarius’s forces.

  Shane and Nathaniel were already engaged with shifters and a witch from the looks of it. More vampires were pouring into the room.

  “Deal with the rabble,” Nolan told us over his shoulder. “I’ll handle him.”

  I had no idea how he was going to fight Rudarius. A vampire rushed me from behind, and I had no choice, but to let them have at it. I hadn’t noticed rings on Rudarius’s fingers, at least. Then again, I had no way of knowing what he’d been up to while in Otherworld. He just created a crack between realms. With our luck, he’d found a different way to absorb power.

  The throne room turned into a bloody battlefield in seconds.

  I decapitated one vampire and met blades with another, pushing him into the recesses of the room. He snarled at me, but he was young, very young. I decked him hard than ran him through his heart. He shuddered and collapsed to my feet. A quick glance over my shoulder showed Nolan was holding his own against Rudarius. They battled it out on the table, hand to hand, moving almost too fast for me to keep up with.

  A shifter howled then threw himself at me, and I was back to fighting to keep myself alive, praying wherever Seneca was, it was not in Rudarius’s dungeon.

  Chapter 13

  Seneca

  “This isn’t working.”

  “You’ve barely been at it a couple of hours,” Macron argued from behind me. “Shut your eyes and try again.”

  I refocused on clearing my mind and did as he said. Maybe ten seconds passed when the cacophony of voices, Rudarius, Draven, myself, all fought to be heard and I yelled, pushing off the ground to stalk around the forges. “This isn’t going to work. I can’t do it.”

  Macron’s staff blocked my walking path, and he looked at me with the same look he used to get when I complained during training, back in the day. “Sit your ass down, close your eyes, and focus.”

  “I’ve tried.”

  “Not hard enough. Do you want these new rings or not?”

  When I said nothing, Macron removed his staff and stood in front of me, staring into my eyes.

  “The correct answer is yes, Seneca.”

  “I know that.”

  “Do you? Because now the only reason the forge isn’t working is you. You’re holding back. Why? Help me understand.”

  “How could you possibly ever understand anything about what I’m going through?” I hadn’t meant to shout, but the words came out vicious and nothing like myself.

  The three dark fae shades looked up from the far side of the room they’d been sitting in, talking quietly.

  “Do you have any idea what’s going on up here?” I pointed to my head. “Or in here?” I pressed my hand to my chest as it ached again. “I’m losing myself, and I don’t know which way is up anymore. I don’t know who to trust. There are too many voices.”

  “You can trust me.”

  “Can I? The man who lied to me, then lied again and clearly doesn’t trust me now?”

  “We’ve been through this.”

  “Yeah and? You don’t trust me, Draven doesn’t trust me, the only person who actually seems to have any understanding of who I am is… is…” I bit back the name as it started to tumble out of my mouth. My stomach felt like it’d been flipped upside down and my head swam.

  “Seneca? Please tell me you were not about to say Rudarius,” Macron urged. “Please.”

  I shook my head, but he saw past it easily. I sank to the floor, holding my head as my world fell apart before my eyes. What had I just said? It wasn’t possible.
It shouldn’t be. Macron knelt in front of me, but I shoved him away, disgusted with myself and how far I let myself fall.

  “You can’t lose sight of who you truly are. Of who loves you. Draven and you are meant to be together. He worries for you as I do, but that is not a reason to turn from him. And I-I was wrong to say what I did earlier.”

  “No, you weren’t.” Hot tears burned in my eyes, and I swiped them away. “I can’t think straight anymore. I can’t see a happy end to this fight. It’s just gone.”

  Macron reached for me again, and this time, I let him hug me like he used to do when I was younger. But he didn’t get to comfort me for long when the ground rumbled, and a shockwave spread throughout the grey realm. It threw us backward, and the shades shimmered in and out of view. A second one hit and I was on my feet or tried to be.

  “What is that? What’s happening?”

  The shades glanced around, shaking their heads. “Rudarius is throwing the worlds out of balance even more. He created a crack between worlds.”

  “What?” Macron shouted. “That’s not possible.”

  “It might not have been, but he’s done it.”

  Which meant I was out of time. I had to get the forges working. I shook out my hands and held them toward the lower half, where the flames needed to be. I looked until my eyes crossed, and my hands shook, but nothing was happening. Not even shadows came to my call.

  “Damn it.” I kicked the forge and regretted it immediately as my toes throbbed.

  Macron approached, and I held up my hand, stopping him short.

  “If you’re going to tell me one more time to—” A searing pain traveled down my back cutting off the rest of my words.

  I fell to the floor. A harsher pain slashed across my side. Glimpses of a fight taking place far away appeared in front of me. Vampires, shifters, it was insane. And there in the middle of it all was Draven, fighting against Rudarius.

  “No,” I whispered as Rudarius struck him again, sending him flying back across a room, or a cave? Where was he? “Draven, I have to get to him.”

  Behind me, Macron and the shades were talking, but I tuned them out and focused on the pain. Draven’s pain. He was in trouble, and I had to get back to him. The rings were the only way I could save him. My desire to be back by his side, to keep him safe overwhelmed me, drowning out everything else.

  Rudarius would not take anything else from me.

  Sweat broke out on my brow, but a third strike had me gasping from the agony.

  Draven was losing ground fast. I shook my hands out again then pointed them at the base of the forge, willing every bit of strength and power I had to start the fires once more. Draven, I just had to remember all our times together. The first time he kissed me or braided my hair. How he held me when I slept, keeping the nightmares at bay.

  How despite what Rudarius claimed, Draven accepted me for the broken woman I was, accepted the darkness inside me. We would stand against Rudarius together, that’s the future I believed in.

  Power exploded from my hands. Blue and black flames brought the forge to life.

  “I did it,” I whispered in disbelief then shouted in relief. “I did it.”

  The shades flanked me, and I waited for them to tell me what to do next. Only they didn’t have to. The flames melted the metal already in the forge. The billows worked on their own, building the flames higher and hotter. As the melted metal bubbled, the shades turned to me as one.

  “Concentrate one last time,” the woman whispered. “Concentrate on your desires, on what you need. Forge it in your mind, see the rings completed and on your hand.”

  I closed my eyes, breathing slowly and steadily. Five rings. That was what I wanted. Rings that would guide my power, help me control it and stop it from taking over. The power I could use to combat the evil Rudarius had wrought. My hand warmed, but I didn’t open my eyes just yet. Who I truly was needed to be put into these rings. I focused on the qualities Draven pointed out to me, time and again, and focused on those.

  Is that all you are?

  I cursed and tried to tune out the creeping voice, but it cackled madly inside my head, sounding like an awful mix of my voice and Rudarius’s.

  Don’t worry. We’ll all get to see who you truly are soon enough.

  My hand burned, and my eyes flew open as I jerked it against my chest. When the burning ceased, I held it out again to find five rings nothing at all like the fae ones Macron had given me all those years ago. The bands were all silver, curled around with harsh twists and turns, reaching up to my knuckle on every finger. An onyx stone was nestled in each one, but they weren’t solid. I shifted my hand, and the darkness moved with me, swirling like an abyss.

  “They’re beautiful,” I whispered in awe.

  “Yes they are, and now you must go,” the shade woman said.

  I glanced up to find all three of them slowly disappearing. The fire from the forge had gone out without my noticing. There was something I wanted to ask her, something important about the rings and the voice inside my head, but she raised her hand in farewell.

  “Take care, Seneca of the Sa’ren,” she said.

  Then they were gone. Just like that.

  A strange hollow sensation settled in my chest, but Draven’s anger reached out to me again, and I grabbed hold of Macron’s hand. “Draven needs us. They’re being attacked by Rudarius.”

  “What? How do you know this? Where?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then how are we going to find him. Seneca?”

  I held up my hand, and the five rings glimmered, ready to be used. The second I called for my power, it was like I’d shoved my whole hand in a light socket. I jumped with a yelp but shook my hand out and tried again. The rings would focus the power, guide it, and at that moment I had to get to Draven. Macron was telling me forming portals wasn’t going to be that easy, but I simply smiled. I didn’t care how hard it was. I was not going to let Draven get killed.

  The rings hummed as the shadows and darkness that swirled around inside my very soul found the way out. The stones beneath our feet churned and broke apart. Macron cursed. I held fast to his arm. Shadows reached up through the cracks and created a dome around us. I whispered Draven’s name over and over until a familiar tugging started in my gut. Our feet left the ground, and by the time they landed again, shadows swarmed around my body, creating an extra layer of armor. I opened my eyes as the din of battle shattered the dome that brought us to wherever the hell we were.

  Vampires, shifters, and witches all fought, but I couldn’t make out who was winning, or who they even were. Somewhere across the room, I spotted Shane facing off with two vampires. He caught my eye and frowned, but whatever he said was lost in the din of shouting and screaming.

  “Seneca.” I turned to find Macron’s eyes glowing white, looking completely restored. “How did you get us here?”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  A vampire charged Macron, and I lost sight of him quickly as he turned to fight, his magic restored now that we were back in the human realm.

  Rudarius’s army, that’s who they were. I had no weapons left on me after facing down the beasts, but that was an easy problem to solve. I focused on my hand, and a short sword formed out of shadow. I had half a second to admire it then summoned a second one and scanned the area for Draven. The room we stood in had a ceiling that stretched high above us surrounded by balconies. There was fighting on every level. Were we inside a mountain?

  A shifter snarled and threw himself at me. I worried the blades would disappear, and I’d get mauled, but I ducked under his arm and drove both sharp points up and under his ribs. He sagged on them, and I had to give his body a hard kick to get him off the blades.

  “Nice to know you work,” I muttered to the swords in constant shift and flow.

  “Nolan, no!”

  Draven.

  I spun around wildly and hissed when I saw Rudarius in the midst of the fighting. He held another
vampire up in the air with his hand plunged through his chest. His heart was in his palm which was jutting out of the dead vampire’s back.

  Draven was on the floor beyond them, drenched in blood, and holding a broken sword in his hand.

  “I’ll kill you,” he snarled. “I’ll kill you!”

  “You are weak. Pathetic,” Rudarius shouted.

  I fought my way through more vampires. For a second, I worried I might be killing the good guys, but when I raised my sword toward one I wasn’t sure about, the blades jerked away, and we both frowned at each other. A witch flew at us both next, and I realized what the rings were doing for me. How they knew who was on our side, I hadn’t a clue, but as long as I didn’t decapitate the wrong vampire, I didn’t care.

  “Once Seneca is rid of you, she’ll see I was right,” Rudarius went on as he and Draven circled. “She will join me and be my bride. You are merely a nuisance I must deal with on her behalf.”

  Draven snarled like a wild beast. “She’ll never join you.”

  “Oh, no? Funny, from our last few conversations, she seemed to be leaning in that direction.”

  The fury on Draven’s face was nothing compared to what roared through my veins. A bellowing battle-cry shot from my mouth without my even realizing I was the one making it.

  Warmth flowed over my back. Those near me gasped and jumped back in alarm. I didn’t have to glance back to know what was behind me. My shadow was in full display on the floor.

  Wings.

  Ones far better than those Rudarius tore from my back. He’d spun around at my shout, and the shock on his face was priceless. Draven’s jaw dropped at the sight of me. I wanted to run to him and assure myself he was alive, but Rudarius stood between us.

  “Touch him again, and I’ll chop you into pieces before I tear your heart from your chest,” I warned. The wings lifted me into the air gracefully, and I flew toward him, landing with my swords at the ready.

  “My, my, pet. Don’t you strike the hellish figure,” Rudarius mocked, but there was a hint of fear slithering through his eyes. “I must say, those wings are quite impressive. What magic are you using, hmm? A parlor trick?”