The Lily Harper 8 Book Boxed Set

by HP Mallory

  “No one knows Metra is here,” Annice supplied in a low and soft voice. “That’s how we wish to keep it.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  Annice shrugged. “Metra’s power is invaluable, and I don’t wish to see her killed.” Annice reached over and laced her fingers with Metra’s in a show of affection I hadn’t expected.

  “I’m not all Druid, either,” Metra said as she turned her gaze from Annice back to me.

  “She’s unique, Lily,” Annice continued. “Part Druid and part Nephilim. The blood of the heavens flows in her veins. Can you imagine what would happen to her if she were to be captured here? Or by Alaire?”

  Metra released Annice’s hand with a sad smile and disappeared through a beaded curtain. Annice stood up and approached me. In this light, I noticed how much I resembled her. Not the Lily I’d been before death, but the Lily I was currently, in this new body that seemed continually changing. Actually, Annice resembled Sorcha as well. Loose, auburn curls brushed her waist as she closed the distance between us. Flawless alabaster skin held a youthful glow that belied her advanced years—years that well exceeded the forty or so she appeared.

  “You have questions,” she started.

  “Of course I do.”

  She led me to two chairs beside the fire, and we settled in for a conversation. “Let me tell you my story, and perhaps it will put to bed some of your questions,” she suggested. I nodded and watched as she crossed her legs and held her hand out to a small table across the room. Without getting up to retrieve them, she used her power to float two teacups to the table just beside us. My jaw dropped, and I held my hand out to accept the tea. Lemongrass and honey wafted towards my nose as the steam coiled from my cup.

  “Will I ever be able to do that?”

  “Perhaps. All of us are different in our abilities as well as the level of our abilities.” She sipped the aromatic liquid and met my stare unblinkingly. “Some of us possess abilities and some of us don’t.”

  I had a feeling I fit into the latter category.

  “The story of our bloodline starts with my great grandmother, Adissa, who was nothing more than a maid in a jarl’s keep,” Annice continued. “She scrubbed chamber pots and dressed royalty, but there was never any bitterness in her heart. Even when she was treated with unkindness, she smiled and went about her duties without judgement to those who belittled her status. There was nothing but purity in her spirit. Adissa possessed the heavenly virtues of a saint.”

  I set my tea aside, nervous to spill it. “That sounds like a difficult way to live.”

  “It was. Adissa drew the attention of the jarl himself, but heavenly virtue couldn’t save her from being attacked. The jarl forced himself on her and she became pregnant and was forced to leave the keep forever,” Annice explained. “But when she left the jarl’s keep, war and famine struck his land. He knew it was punishment for his actions, and he begged her to return. She refused him but he came for her, all the same. And when he found her, he was as enthralled with her as he was the first time he met her. When the jarl attempted to attack her again, Adissa was touched by divine light, and great power flowed through her.”

  “What happened to the jarl?”

  Annice smirked. “He ran in fear, claiming the virtuous maid he had wronged was, in fact, a witch.” She shook her head. “She was no such thing.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “Adissa had the babe, a daughter, and she raised her daughter to uphold the same virtues she had shown in her own life, but Iris was different to her mother. Iris was led astray by a man. Together, Iris and this man would run away, and they had a child, Petra. My mother. When my mother showed no signs of having the gift, Iris feared her rebellious actions had somehow cursed our family.”

  “Your mother, my grandmother?” I asked as Annice nodded. “She didn’t have the gift?”

  “You must know that our abilities don’t simply manifest at a given time or age,” Annice replied. “Your grandmother, Petra, didn’t unlock her power until she faced certain death.”

  “Then her power was triggered?”

  Annice nodded. “All of our abilities are triggered somehow, but that trigger is all about instinct. When we’re ready, the powers present themselves... or they don’t.” Annice finished her tea and stared into the smoldering embers.

  “So that means some of us won’t ever have powers?”

  “Right.”

  “I think I fall into that category.”

  Annice lifted her eyes and stared into mine. “I suppose we will see in time.” Then she glanced back into her cup of tea. “My mother aged very slowly, and she hid her power from the world. She feared the wrath of men more than anything in the world. And she was right to.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She looked up at me and smiled sadly. “Our family’s uniqueness goes beyond just a few psychic abilities, Lily. When one of us dies, our soul is reborn into another daughter. Adissa’s death passed her soul down to my mother. Iris’s death passed her soul onto me.”

  “Then my mother isn’t magical?”

  “I don’t believe so, but while she might not possess the magic of our bloodline, there could be other gifts she does possess.”

  “Other gifts?”

  She nodded. “She could be psychic, for example, or she could receive visions of the future, such as you do.”

  “You knew that?” I asked, surprised.

  “That’s something all the women in our bloodline share. We know things we shouldn’t necessarily know—things from the past as well as things that are still yet to come.”

  “I thought my visions came from my sword,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Your sword?”

  “Yeah, Tallis forged it for me and it has this strange… bond to me.” A bond that might have never been coming from the sword in the first place? Maybe I’d been fooling myself all along in thinking my visions were tied to the sword. Maybe they were always inside me? I didn’t have an answer for myself, so I decided to change the subject. “So did my mother know all of this?”

  “No,” Annice answered and shook her head. “Women of power have been hunted for a long time.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means we decided your mother would be safer if she wasn’t associated with us.”

  “Um?”

  “Your grandmother and I traveled all around the world in fear of being discovered. Our bloodline was dwindling. We were the last of us for many years, but then Petra fell in love. And she had another baby, my sister, your mother. When your mother was born, we decided it would be best not to raise her because we were worried for her. She was given to a wonderful family, and your grandmother and I disappeared. That’s why you never knew I existed.”

  I nodded as it all sunk in. Then I looked up at her again. “You said something about you and I having the same mission but that I would succeed where you failed?”

  She glanced around the room and then sighed. “I was sent here to change things.” Her eyes grew sad once more. “I made mistakes, Lily, and I never succeeded in my mission. I’m not proud of the mistakes I made, but I did what I had to do to survive. Metra helped me hide for a long time.” She paused. “And now I realize that the mission I thought I had was never mine to begin with.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It was yours.”

  “What was mine?”

  “You will understand in time, it’s not my place to explain it to you now.”

  For the first time since I arrived in the Underground City, I was finally getting some answers. But now I felt as if I had nothing but more questions.

  “But I still have questions.”

  “I will answer them to the best of my abilities.”

  I nodded and wondered where to even start. My mother was adopted? I was born from a bloodline of magical women? Yet I wasn’t even sure I was magical? Yes, that subject was frustrating and I didn’t even know where to star
t with it. And, yet, there was a question that continued to burn the brightest in my mind.

  So I decided to ask it.

  “I have this... connection... to Asterion. I can’t quite explain it but both of us… it feels like we’ve known each other forever or something weird. It’s hard to explain.”

  She nodded. “You’re doing a good job.”

  “I’m in love with Tallis, but this connection to Asterion is something I can’t ignore. I feel it whenever I’m around him, and I can’t understand why.”

  “Usually when we feel deep and intense attraction to someone, there’s a reason why.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Exactly that,” she shrugged. “I can’t tell you why you feel these feelings for Asterion. But what I can tell you is that it’s likely there’s something within both of your pasts that’s tied.”

  “Our pasts?”

  “Yes. It sounds to me as if you have a soul connection to Asterion and soul connections aren’t necessarily built from just this life you’re currently living. They’re built from past lives and if they’re strong enough, they continue forth.”

  I nodded because in its own unbelievable way, the explanation made sense. “If I have a soul connection with Asterion, what does that mean for my connection with Tallis?”

  “Why does it have to mean anything?”

  “Well, could it mean I’m with the wrong man?”

  Annice laughed lightly. “Only you can answer that, Lily.”

  “That was what I was worried you’d say.”

  She smiled. “When two compatible forces are brought together, it’s only natural to feel something. Falling in love is easy. Dying for someone is easy. But sacrificing your happiness for someone else’s... that’s when it gets hard. What you need to figure out is if you love Tallis because your heart and soul loves him or if your love for him is more a matter of circumstance that has kept and continues to keep you together.”

  I didn’t want to believe my love for Tallis was merely convenient. I wanted to believe I had a choice and that I loved him because that’s what my heart wanted. But… “I have these… visions. And they feel so real, I’m almost convinced I’m actually there—within them. And then I realize I’m seeing through someone else’s eyes.”

  “Visions?”

  “Well, they come in dreams or they used to. I’ve been having them while I’m awake recently,” I said on a sigh as I shook my head. “It’s so… complicated. But the point is, the visions happen more often now, and they’re always about the same woman. Sorcha,” I confessed.

  “And what do you see in these visions of Sorcha?”

  “I see fire. I see her throwing herself out of a window of a burning castle to escape a Roman soldier named…”

  “Aulus Plauntius.”

  I frowned as I looked at her. “How did you know that?”

  Annice stood up and walked behind my chair, placing both her hands on my shoulders. Instantly, I felt the anxiety seep out of me. “Take a deep breath, Lily. Sorcha Fergus is part of our bloodline.”

  “Fergus?” I repeated. “As in Fergus Castle?”

  “Yes. The castle belonged to her family.”

  Until it belonged to Tallis. I swallowed hard. Did that mean… did that mean Sorcha had been Tallis’s wife?

  “Part of our bloodline?” I repeated as Annice released me and resumed her seat. “Who is she?” I asked. “And why do I keep seeing these visions of her and Tallis and Aulus? What does she want from me?”

  Annice smiled and shook her head. “Sorcha’s soul must have been reborn into you just like Adissa was born into my mother and Iris was born into me. We live on through each other. Sorcha must then be you and you are her.”

  “Then you believe I’m Sorcha?” I asked, feeling like my head was spinning because this was all becoming too much to understand.

  “I do.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the visions are explaining as much to you. They aren’t visions so much as they’re memories of a long ago past, memories imprinted in your subconscious. They’re memories of another life you lived before you lived this one.”

  “But I never had these visions until…”

  “After you died in the car accident?” she asked, nodding as though it all made sense to her. At least it made sense to one of us.

  “Right.”

  “Because at the moment of your death, Sorcha’s soul became one with yours in the afterlife. Your actual death allowed her soul to implant itself within you.”

  “Why wouldn’t my birth have done that?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not privy to all the answers, Lily.”

  I took a deep breath and was quiet. “This is so hard to wrap my mind around.”

  “Take your time with it and as for Tallis… talk to him.”

  “Talk to him?” I repeated.

  She nodded. “I can feel your unrest about this subject. Are you worried he loves Sorcha, not you?”

  I felt stupid as soon as the words left her mouth. I didn’t respond other than to nod.

  “Talk to him about Sorcha,” Annice continued. “See if he felt for her even a fraction of what he feels for you. There’s a possibility that his love for her had been nothing more than a ripple through time that prepared him for loving you.” Annice brushed my cheek softly. “If Tallis is the one you are meant to be with, then fate will see that it’s so.” She took a breath. “And try to remember Sorcha isn’t your enemy, Lily. She’s nothing to be afraid of. She’s as much a part of you as you are a part of her.”

  Metra hurried into the room with glowing silver eyes. She grabbed my aunt’s arm and the concern in her face was palpable. “We have to go now! They’re here! They’ve found us.”

  “Who?” I asked as I stood up, watching Annice do the same.

  “Calm down, my love,” she said to Metra. “What are you talking about?”

  “Alaire.”

  I watched the blood drain from Annice’s face. She shook her head and reached into the deep pockets of her dress, handing Metra a strange stone. “Take this and go to the place on the map I showed you. I have to buy Lily some time, so she can escape.”

  “Annice…”

  “Go, Metra! I failed my family once; I won’t do it again.”

  “Alaire’s men are here?” I repeated as my eyes went wide.

  “It would appear they’ve found you.”

  I turned my back as Metra and Annice shared a tender moment. When Metra retreated, Annice blinked twice and changed into what appeared to be some sort of augmented battle gear within seconds. She wore black leather leggings beneath a belted tunic and a dark purple cloak with a cowl that covered the top half of her face.

  “Find your companions and get ready to flee, Lily. My men and I can buy you some time, but we won’t be able to fight Alaire’s forces off for long. We’ll be forced to flee if we’re outnumbered.”

  I pulled my aunt into a tight embrace. “Thank you, Annice.”

  She patted me gently on the back and then shoved me towards the door.

  EIGHT

  LILY

  I heard them just seconds before they came into my line of sight. These were not the men I associated with Alaire. These were hunters. Vile beings that smelled of rancid meat and spoke in a series of clicks like a bat’s sonar. I peered around the corner and saw one holding a refugee in its taloned grip. Greyish, sickly skin stretched over bony fingers. Its limbs were wrapped in tattered cloth that was stained with congealed blood. A pair of milky white eyes flickered from beneath a ragged shroud.

  Soldiers in tactical gear faced off with the refugees in the pub below me. I kept my movements slow and quiet, trying to get to my room, where I could alert Tallis and then find Bill and Asterion, as well as my sword.

  As I watched from above, four of the strange creatures moved swiftly through the pub. The one in the gallery climbed over the railing on its hands and feet like some sort of freakish spider. I dashed a
long the corridor and ducked into the shadows before the soldiers saw me.

  It was close. Too close.

  The door against my back opened, and a hand closed over my mouth as I was yanked inside the room. Thinking the soldiers must have already made it up the stairs and into our bedchambers, I threw my weight down to catch my attacker off guard. When his balance faltered, I jammed my elbow into his side. A pained groan filled my ears before I realized my attacker was actually Bill.

  “Bill, are you okay?” I asked as I turned to face him.

  “Jesus, Nips!”

  “I’m sorry… I thought you were one of them.” I took a deep breath. “Where’s Tallis?” I asked as I realized Asterion was in the room with us as well. I looked from Bill to Asterion as my stomach dropped to my toes with the realization that Tallis wasn’t with them.

  “I don’t know,” Asterion answered.

  “I ain’t seen Conan yet this mornin’,” Bill said.

  “He must still be in our room,” I answered as I turned my attention back to the attack. “What the hell are those things anyway?”

  I helped Bill barricade the door.

  “Lemures,” Asterion answered from behind us. I’d forgotten he’d bunked with Bill for the night. “They’re dark entities called forth by vengeance. Barricading the door won’t work; they can shadow walk wherever they please.”

  “Great,” I said, shaking my head. “What the hell are they exactly?”

  “No one really knows where they came from, but the Romans thought they were restless spirits,” Asterion explained. “They don’t usually have corporeal bodies, so it looks like Alaire has access to some very dark magic.”

  I moved away from the door and prodded along the wall. “Is there any way we can get to Tallis without entering the corridor? I’m sure those Lemures will soon be checking room by room. If we work quickly, we can beat them to Tallis.”

  “There’s only one way out of here, and unless your aunt can provide a distraction, we’ll have to fight,” Asterion answered and pulled me away from the wall and cracked the door open. “There are three soldiers in the hall. Let’s take one each and…”