by Rory Miles
The Wanted
An Enchanted Magic Novel
Rory Miles
Contents
Unwritten Rules for Bounty Hunters
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
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Epilogue
Winter’s Unwritten Rules for Life
Author’s Note
About the Author
Excerpt from The Waters by A.K. Clark
Copyright © 2019 by Rory Miles
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
For the unwanted.
Unwritten Rules for Bounty Hunters
Rule number 1: Always be prepared.
Rule number 2: Never lose the upper hand.
Rule number 3: Never reveal your weakness.
Rule number 4: Be self-reliant.
Rule number 5: Everything can become a weapon.
Rule number 6: Always work alone.
Rule number 7: Don’t take a job without intel.
Rule number 8: The mark isn’t yours until you bag him.
Rule number 9: Never underestimate your opponent.
Rule number 10: Trust no one.
Chapter One
I hate when my marks are attractive. Seriously. What could be worse than chasing after one of the most attractive men you’ve ever seen only to have him evade you at every turn? Talk about a confidence booster. I’d been chasing after my mark for ten minutes and he showed no signs of slowing down. I jumped over a cluster of cacti.
Bounty hunter 101: Don’t let the mark get away.
“Sneaky shit-eating monkeys,” I muttered, gasping for breath. I was fit, and by that I mean I did physical conditioning, weight training, and acrobatic work. So the fact that this guy, the smoking hot dude, managed to give me the runaround was, to say the least, frustrating.
I slowed, searching for the flash of blond hair I’d been following. Boulders surrounded me on all sides. The gorgeous bastard had led me straight into the borderlands. If he crossed from Desert to Mountain territory, I’d be screwed. I had no intention of crossing through the borderlands. Not unless I wanted the Deep Magic Crew to find me and take me prisoner again.
The hairs on the nape of my neck stood to attention. I crouched, waiting for the moment when he’d strike out at me with a spell, because let’s be honest . . . they always attacked me with magic. I glanced down, checking to make sure Lumi, my magic-absorbing sapphire amulet, hung in place at the center of my chest.
The sound of crunching gravel echoed on my right. Ducking and spinning around, I pointed the wooden tube loaded with a tranquilizer dart at the blond.
“I thought I’d never see you again.” I smirked, pressing the tube to my lips.
His arms raised in surrender. A fool I was not. I braced myself just as a stream of red magic flew at me. The onslaught of power forced me to stumble back. Lumi, my beloved gemstone, gobbled up the power he slung at me, keeping me safe from the sleep spell, the faint blue glow growing to a vibrant cobalt as the magic dissipated in the atmosphere.
Thank you, Lumi. If not for her, I wouldn’t stand a chance against my marks.
Aiming the tranq shooter at his neck, I expelled a forceful breath.
“Night, night,” I whispered when the dart stuck into his skin. The red and black feathers blew in the slight breeze.
The handsome blond swayed on his feet, brows rising in surprise. I chuckled. My poisoned tranq darts tended to have that effect on people. By now, his magic would be inaccessible. The snake venom disabling his magic had the added benefit of forced unconsciousness. His knees collapsed, body falling to the ground.
Perfect.
Swiping my arm across my sweaty forehead, I let out a sigh. My white tank top and black shorts did nothing to protect me from the effects of the dry desert heat.
“What am I going to do with you?” I asked, the edges of my mouth twitching into a frown because pretty boy was huge. Hopefully the stone had enough juice to make the trek back to Desert City’s processing center.
The familiar tingle of magic worked up my arm when I gripped the stone, my body now a conduit for the power. Sparking and angry, red magic jumped from my fingertips, waiting for a command. Pointing a finger at the downed mark, I conjured a simple spell to lift and carry him. The borrowed power coiled around his middle. I turned, starting toward Desert City with blondie floating behind me.
“And another one down, another one down. Another one bites the dust,” I sang while I made the long, hot trek back. The rush of capturing wanted fugitives made me giddy (and—possibly—slightly deranged).
I opened the door to headquarters, the bells overhead tinkling with my arrival.
“Damn, woman. How’d you take him down?” Meyers whistled when his gaze fell on Josh, still floating behind me.
“They always underestimate me,” I said, smiling and using the last dregs of the magic to set blondie down on the bench. Lumi’s cobalt glow dimmed with the decrease in power.
“They’re all fools, Winter.” Meyers shook his head. He came around his desk, grabbing the magic handcuffs from his belt and placing them around Josh’s wrists. He reached over, clapping me on the shoulder hard enough to make me wince. Meyers dwarfed me by at least two feet, a giant in his own right, and often forgot his strength. I rolled my shoulder, smirking up at the man.
“Aw, hell. I’m sorry.” The deep scarlet blush staining his cheeks made me chuckle.
“Forget about it and pay up.” I cocked a hip, placing my hand on it, going for tough.
A deep belly laugh rumbled out of him.
I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t make me use my tranq shooter on you too.”
“Don’t you go threatening me, Winter. I have half a mind to lock you up for that sort of thing.”
“Try it, I dare you.”
“I know better than to pick a fight with you when you’re all riled up.” He walked into an office on the right, closing the door behind him.
After all this time, he still didn’t trust me. I’d worked as a bounty hunter in Desert City the past four years and I had never thought once about trying to crack his safe. Though I couldn’t blame Meyers for his caution. The business he ran was sketchy at best. A bunch of thrill-seeking, sometimes dangerous, employees chasing down criminals didn’t exactly scream safe.
The wooden door opened. “All right. Two hundred gold coins,” Meyers said, stepping back into the lobby.
Damn. I
’d forgotten how much Josh was worth. Good thing he hadn’t managed to slit my throat like he had done to all of his victims. Why were all the hot ones homicidal maniacs?
I clutched the sack of coins Meyers dropped into my waiting hand. Normally I’d count it, but the weight felt just about right, and I trusted him not to screw me over.
Meyers hoisted Josh up with his yellow magic—Plains magic—and took him to the back holding cells. Behind the wall of the lobby were multiple cells made of steel and spelled to keep even the most advanced magic user captive until the officials came to pick them up. We nabbed them, the officials grabbed them. I preferred it that way. No one, aside from Meyers and the marks, knew I played a part in bringing the wanted in.
I waited for Meyers, tapping my foot on the floor. The whole place had a very wood vibe. Floors, doors, walls, desk. They were all wooden. The Desert didn’t have much in the way of trees, so everything I saw had to have been imported from another sector.
“How much did it cost to build this place?” I asked when he returned.
His eyebrows dipped, and he looked at me with a funny smile. “I don’t know. Why?”
“No reason,” I said, glancing around one last time. “I’ll see you around.”
He lifted his hand in response to my wave and I turned to leave. Suddenly, a rush of unease filled me, urging me to run. I gritted my teeth against the sensation.
What the hell was that about?
“I’ll have a new assignment for you tomorrow,” he called after me.
“Gotcha, boss man.” I pushed through the door and into the desert heat. I could practically feel the water evaporating from my body as the sun beat down on me. I hurried home, intent on having a relaxing evening and ignoring the nagging feeling that something was about to go wrong.
Chapter Two
On the desert side of the mountains, the air remained dry and brittle, further drying out my skin which was currently covered in a sheen of dust. A small river ran through the city, providing a bit of moisture but not enough for it to be humid. Monsoon seasons overtook the city from time to time, allowing some normal vegetation to grow, though most of the terrain consisted of clay dirt, cacti, rocks, and juniper bushes.
I sneezed, glaring over at said bushes. The walk to my humble adobe home took longer than I preferred, especially after chasing Josh all day. I needed some sort of dessert, or three, to make up for all the running I’d done. After waving at my neighbor, a charming older woman who liked to talk to cats, I unlocked my door and threw the bag of coins on the table next to the door, too tired to care about finding a safer place to store them.
“Yes, come to me, my precious,” I whispered to the cookies on my counter. I grabbed three before falling onto my couch. Chewing with my eyes closed, I hummed in satisfaction as the chocolate chips melted in my mouth. Cat lady knew how to make cookies.
“I don’t remember you being so thin.”
Rule number one in the unwritten rules of bounty hunters: Always be prepared.
I was not.
Dropping my head, I glared at my brother. “I don’t remember inviting you into my house, Reid.”
“Is it your house?” He canted his head and gave me a goading smile.
“Semantics. What the hell do you want?” I said, keeping my eyes on him while slowly moving my fingers toward the tranq shooter strapped to my thigh. If I could just grab it before he tried anything, I’d be good.
He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t move another inch.”
“Scared of a latent?” I mocked, still moving my hand toward the shooter.
“Damn it, Ivory.”
I bristled when he used my real name.
“I’m here to talk, not fight,” he said. He ran his hands through his dark hair. It had grown since the last time I’d seen him. So had his beard. Why did he have to look so tired? I didn’t want to feel bad for him.
“I tried to talk before, but no one would let me.” I pulled out the shooter and loaded a dart into the wooden tube. “Why should I let you?”
He averted his eyes, shoulders slumping. “I didn’t mean for anything bad to happen.”
Grimacing at his words, I said, “But it did and you blamed me for it. What did you think would happen when you let the DMC take me? ’Cause it sure as shit wasn’t a vacation, Reid. Four fucking years of torture for something I didn’t even do.”
The DMC was a group of deep magic users who liked to enforce their own set of laws, separate from those of our government. Daman, the leader, took it upon himself to snatch up anyone accused of using deep magic. The palace authorities either didn’t care about the fate of those who used the vile magic or didn’t want to fight back. Whichever the reason, the DMC had gained a reputation and unfortunately, I knew first-hand what sort of nefarious things they got up to.
“You don’t understand; the deep magic, it’s got a mind of its own.”
“I don’t care about the damn magic, Reid. I care about what you did to me!” I screamed the last part at him.
His brown eyes, so similar to my own, darkened as I seethed, wanting nothing more than to throttle him. He’d been so careless, using that cursed magic and killing the girl because he couldn’t control the power. Then he blamed me for the accident, too chickenshit to admit he’d made the mistake. Looking at him now, hate roiling in my gut, it was hard to believe I once loved him unconditionally.
“I came here to talk. If you won’t do that, I’m leaving.” He stood.
I kicked my foot out, just reaching his legs and stopping him.
“Did anyone follow you?”
“No,” he said.
“Are you sure?” I pursed my lips.
“No one followed me, Ivory. Goddess, you are paranoid.” He huffed out an annoyed breath.
Of course I was fucking paranoid. The last time I’d seen him the DMC had come and arrested me for a crime he committed. Suspecting he’d been followed wasn’t an illogical conclusion. Especially where Daman was concerned. The bastard had yet to come for me, but it was only a matter of time. He had to have been pissed when he discovered I had stolen Lumi when I escaped. After all, she was the only known magic-absorbing sapphire that still worked. The rest he had destroyed with his deep magic experiments.
“Get out,” I said, steel in my voice.
“Ivory, come on. Don’t be like that.”
I lifted the shooter. “You have five seconds to get out of my house before I hit you with the tranq.” The wooden tube felt rough against my lips.
Reid’s eyes filled with hurt. I quirked an eyebrow at him, ignoring the sadness tugging at my heartstrings. I had a brother once, but this person standing in front of me wasn’t him.
“Forget it. I’m sorry I even bothered.” He rushed to the door, closing it just in time for the dart to stick into the wood and not his neck.
Lucky.
A heavy sigh escaped me as I leaned back on the couch. If Reid found me, it was only a matter of time before others did. I blew out a shaky breath, letting my hurt overcome the anger. Despite all the crap he had put me through, I still missed my brother. Goddess above, I missed my family too. I couldn’t go back to being Ivory. Ivory died the day my brother gave me up to the DMC.
The next morning, I washed up, styled my bobbed black hair, and pulled on a clean pair of black shorts and white tank. I loaded up my thigh-holster with fresh darts (my personal favorite) then strapped it to my thigh before buckling on my toolbelt. A frustrated breath escaped me as the minutes passed by. The sooner I left, the sooner I could relax. Though I couldn’t leave Meyers without an explanation. One more job and I would be gone, onto the next sector. Hopefully long before Reid or Daman came looking for me.
I checked the magicked handcuffs, ropes, and whips. With everything secure and ready, I headed toward the office, determination filling me.
I would not feel sad.
Desert City Bounty had been my salvation after I’d escaped from Daman and the Deep Magic Crew. The place had been
my home-away-from-home for the past four years. I didn’t want to leave, but the risks that came with staying were too great. I would never lose my freedom again.
“Morning, sugar,” Meyers said, wiggling his bushy gray eyebrows at me.
“Cool it on the flattery, old man.” I pointed at him. My boots thumped against the wooden floor when I stopped in front of the desk.
“I can’t be sweet on my favorite bounty hunter?” he asked with a laugh. “Be nice to a lonely old man.”
“You’re like a father to me, don’t make it weird,” I said distractedly. My gaze swept over the papers on his desk. Somewhere in that chaos was my next job. My last.
“Hey, I know that. I’m just teasing you, darling.” The hurt in his voice made me pause and glance up at him.
“Are you missing Sherry today?” Since his wife’s death three months ago, he’d been a bit more sensitive to my curt attitude.
He leaned back in his chair, the wood creaking under his weight, threatening to give out. Meyers always looked like a giant in a kid’s playhouse.
“Sure do. Every day.” He dragged a hand over his face.
How had I missed the dark circles under his eyes? Was he sleeping? Now I felt really bad for having to leave. But staying would only put him at risk and I refused to do that to Meyers.