A Famine of Crows
Page 17
She’d heard Sekhmet say that this was her fault. That by stealing the book, she’d created an easy path for the goddess to find her again. They had known that Sekhmet would hunt them for attempting to steal the fifth seal. But Felicity had had no idea that her revenge could manifest itself in this way. That she wouldn’t be hunting them physically, but mentally. In her very soul.
Which meant that the destruction of the world, the deaths of so many people, it was all on her. Her alone. She’d been the one who insisted on taking the book. She’d invited Sekhmet right in. Not knowingly, but through her sheer foolishness. And now everything was falling apart, quite literally.
But she didn’t know how to fight. How to get out of here. Where was here, exactly? It was just somewhere dark, and comfortable. It felt like she was lying in soft, warm blankets, though she couldn’t actually see blankets. She couldn’t see anything. Was this part of her mind? Her soul? And how did one escape such a place?
As she tried to come up with a plan, Sekhmet began to perform the spell. And when she did, Felicity noticed that the space around her grew a bit lighter. Instead of complete darkness, there was a hint of gray. It must have been because Sekhmet had all her attention on the spell, and she’d let up just a bit on the prison she’d shoved Felicity into.
That’s when the pain came. Felicity could feel it lashing through the other three Riders as the magic grew and grew to its terrible crescendo. She could feel it as the spell began to undo each of her friends. Unraveling them bit by bit like tugging threads from a piece of cloth. And she could feel something else. Something dark and ancient moving toward them.
And then Dynah screamed.
Screamed her name.
“Felicity! Fight her! I know you can!”
Felicity wanted to fight, but she didn’t know how. How could she kick the goddess out of her body? How did she even begin to do something like that? She felt Sekhmet’s magic, and the energy of her friends flowing out of them, into… what?
“You’re my only friend!” Dynah screamed again. “Come back to me.”
Felicity felt the dark magic shift, and suddenly the connection with her fellow Riders faltered. “More than a friend,” she heard Dynah say, merely a whisper.
And then nothing. They were gone.
It wasn’t the only shift she felt. Sekhmet’s own magic faltered for a moment, and Felicity realized that the spell had taken a toll from her as well. In that brief shift, the space around Felicity lightened again, and she realized she could feel her body. Just the tiniest bit. It felt more like looking at someone else’s body from above, through a looking glass. And through that glass she caught a flash of where they were, physically. The tunnels. The circle. The crystals. The slumped bodies of Dynah, Penelope, and Willow.
In that brief moment, several things became apparent at once.
First, that the life force of the Riders had moved into the quartz crystals.
Second, that the crystals were of the earth, and thus, controlled by her elemental power.
And third, that Sekhmet had realized she was awake.
The goddess sent a lash of black magic against her. This was no soft lulling into sleep as she had done before, to keep Felicity unaware of what was happening. The time for trickery had passed. Sekhmet attacked her with everything she had, a wave of darkness that hit with brutal force.
Felicity moved faster. She rushed up and out of her prison, focusing on the crystals, focusing on Dynah’s words. And as she exploded outward, shattering the walls around her, she shattered the stones themselves. Quartz and obsidian both, breaking into a million tiny shards, blasting out across the tunnel. As they broke, so did the spell. Everything moved in reverse: the life force of the Riders rocketed back into them, and the dark energy of the obsidian moved away.
Sekhmet bucked against her, swirling inside like a tornado, assaulting every particle of her being. Felicity dropped to her knees, the last of her strength gone. She was stuck somewhere between the prison and her body, and she felt everything begin to go black.
As if from a great distance, she heard Penelope yell something.
And then a jolt of energy, a white light. Dynah, clasping one of her hands. Another jolt as Penelope grabbed the other. A flash of warmth as Willow’s hand rested on her shoulder.
Her mind filled with memories, and they weren’t hers. They were the memories of her friends. Penelope and Willow racing their horses across the desert near Hawk’s Hollow. The smell of sage and wildflowers as Dynah filled baskets alongside her mother. Atsa, sitting across a fire, his dark skin radiant in the light of the moon. Zane, sitting on a boulder next to a river, his blue eyes the color of a stormy sky. Dynah scratching Moon under his mane, resting her cheek against his neck. And Dynah again, but looking at her, Felicity, in the alleyway in Hawk’s Hollow, magic arcing between their palms. Dynah and Felicity talking in the tent all night at Sassafras’s encampment. Dynah and Felicity walking down the coastline after escaping Sekhmet’s temple. Dynah and Felicity kissing in the candlelight in the realm of the Fallen.
Come back to me.
You’re my only friend.
More than friends.
Felicity felt a dark rush like the wings of a murder of crows, and then Sekhmet was gone.
A feeling like falling, and she dropped into her body. Her legs buckled, but she had three strong pairs of hands holding her up. She blinked, and the tunnels materialized around her. And Willow’s white-blonde hair. And Penelope’s serious jawline. And Dynah’s turquoise irises.
“It’s you,” Dynah breathed, squeezing her hand.
“It’s me,” Felicity said. Her voice sounded strange, felt strange. Because she hadn’t used it in quite some time.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Willow said. “I don’t want to see this tunnel ever again.”
Felicity felt a searing pain in her hand and looked down to see that one of her fingers was missing. She felt a wave of dizziness. Dynah tore a piece of cloth from her cloak and bound the bloody stump. Then, Dynah and Penelope supported her, arms wrapped around her back, as they moved toward the entrance of the mines. It was slow going, but within a few minutes the tunnel brightened, and they could see a spot of daylight up ahead. Bullet and Domino stood near the entrance. As they approached, Willow broke into a jog, and when she reached the horses, her head whipped back and forth as if looking for something.
“He’s gone,” she called.
“Who?” Felicity asked.
“Zane.” Willow’s jaw rolled, her eyes swirling with emotion.
“That means he didn’t bleed out,” Penelope said, clapping Willow on the back. “That’s a good thing.”
Willow just nodded, and they walked side by side the last few yards toward the entrance.
“Wait, where are the other horses?” Felicity asked, her heart spiking in panic.
“They’re okay,” Dynah said quickly. “We left them in the realm of the Fallen. When Sekhmet transported us to Sahkyo.”
“Sahkyo…” Felicity’s chest tightened. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”
Dynah and Penelope just nodded, eyes averted.
“So now we have no one to teach us how to use our magic,” Felicity said. Her voice sounded dead, flat. “The world is torn asunder. We still can’t control our powers. And it’s all my fault.”
“It’s not your fault,” Dynah said. “Sekhmet is the most powerful being we’ve met. More powerful than the angels, the demons, the Fallen. And you beat her. That’s what’s important.”
“I couldn’t have done it without your help,” Felicity said.
“Yes, but you overthrew her to begin with. You broke the crystals,” Penelope added.
Felicity’s steps faltered. Exhaustion sang in her bones, she felt like she couldn’t walk a step further. “But what good is that, if the world is ending anyways?”
Willow turned and looked at them. At her. “I was sure that today, in these mines, I would go down fighting with my friends. I
was certain that this was the end.” She paused. “But it wasn’t. And that’s got to mean something.”
Felicity worried her lower lip between her teeth but nodded. “If we’re still standing, then we can keep trying.”
They walked the last few feet of the tunnel and stepped out into the daylight. Felicity stopped, aghast, at the sight before her. Thousands of dead locusts covered the ground. But that wasn’t the only thing.
Four riders stood fanned out before them. Felicity’s heart skipped a beat. Had their copies caught up to them? But a moment later, she realized these weren’t the assassins sent by Heaven. These were different beings altogether.
They rode four black horses with silver manes and tails. Two men and two women. Pale skin, hair of flame, eyes like the first tendrils of green in the springtime. They wore brown tunics inlaid with strange runic patterns at the sleeves and collar, a pattern also echoed in the hilts of their swords, the sheaths for their arrows, and the thin silver diadems at their brows.
“Who the hell are you?” Willow asked.
Next to her, Penelope placed a hand on her bow, and Dynah stepped into a wide stance, hands raised to summon her bone army.
“We come in peace,” one of the women said in a soft, lyrical voice. “There is no need for alarm.”
“No need for alarm?” Dynah echoed. “The sixth seal has been broken, and reality with it.”
“And then you four show up, right on its heels,” Penelope added.
The woman cocked her head to the side, an amused smile on her lips. “It is you who are the Riders of the Apocalypse, not us.”
“State your purpose,” Felicity said. “And do it quickly.”
“We may be able to help each other with this predicament. The end of the world and all,” the woman said. “Our Lady has a proposition for you.”
Felicity exchanged glances with her fellow Riders, then looked back to the woman. “And who exactly is your Lady?”
The woman smiled. “The Morrigan. You will need her help if you wish to find the seventh seal. But before you can find the seventh seal, you must first defeat the anti-Christ.”
THE END
Click here to get A Pestilence of Pride (Book 4) today!

Books by A.A. Chamberlynn
The Four Horsewomen Series
A War of Daisies (Book 1)
A Death of Music (Book 2)
A Famine of Crows (Book 3)
A Pestilence of Pride (Book 4)
A Bargain with Angels (Book 5)
A Dance with Demons (Book 6)
A Song for the Devil (Book 7)
The Zyan Star Series
Martinis with the Devil (Book 1)
Whiskey and Angelfire (Book 2)
Vengeance and Vermouth (Book 3)
Black Magic and Mojitos (Prequel Novelette)
Sorcery and Sidecars (Origin Story Novella)
The Quinn Chronicles (A Zyan Star Spin-off Series)
Death and Dating (Book 1)
Death and Promises (Book 2)
Death and Eternity (Book 3)
The Timekeeper’s War Series
Huntress Found (Book 1)
Huntress Lost (Book 2)
Huntress at War (Book 3)
Other Books by A.A. Chamberlynn
Of Blood, Earth, and Magic
www.AlexiaChamberlynn.com
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A land ravished by magic, a circus of rebels, a girl with a deadly secret.
There was a time when the Tribes lived in harmony. Sun, Moon, even the fabled Shadow Tribe. That time is no longer. Now the land has become a wicked wasteland, plagued by strange creatures, enchanted storms, and bubbles of trapped time, remnants of the Shaman Wars. Magic has been outlawed by the Sun, the Moon have gone into seclusion, and the Shadow are all but annihilated.
For Elea, the idea of peace between the tribes is a nothing more than a legend from the history books. She works for a circus of outcasts who travel between the Sun cities. All she wants is freedom: from the circus, to perform her magic, to be herself. But she possesses a deadly secret that makes any chance of liberty impossible.
Ashe is heir to one of the seven Sun cities. He rebels against his overprotective father by competing in illegal fight dens. Like most Sun, he believes that science is the future, and he's never traveled outside the walls of his city due to the dangers that lie beyond.
When a new kind of evil begins to terrorize the land, Elea and Ashe find themselves thrown into the center of a coup that could destroy Iamar. To fight the enemy, the Sun and Moon must unite, something that hasn't been done in three hundred years. But first they must find the Moon Tribe, and that means crossing Iamar, which grows more and more unstable as the dark magic spreads. Dark magic which has everything to do with Elea and her terrible secret.
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About the Author

Alexia Chamberlynn lives in Florida with her son and a menagerie of animals. When she's not writing or reading, she can be found playing with horses, drinking wine, traveling to the next place on her global wish list, or maybe doing yoga. Dr. Who, unicorns, and katanas make her very happy.
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