Darkness Falls
Page 1
Praise for Keri Arthur
Winner of the Romantic Times 2008 Reviewers’ Choice Awards for Career Achievement in Urban Fantasy
“One of the best urban fantasy authors in print today.”
—Darque Reviews
“You’ll be hooked.”
—USA Today
Darkness Splintered
“Readers will be swept up in a whirlwind of action that doesn’t let up.”
—RT Book Reviews
“There is plenty of action, suspense, danger, and romance at every turn of the page. . . . I have enjoyed watching Risa grow and adapt to her situation. I really can’t wait to see how everything ends.”
—Urban Fantasy Investigations
“This story has a way of [getting] into your mind to the extent where you are trying to sleep and then find yourself picking up the book again even though it’s already four a.m.”
—Night Owl Reviews
“The pace doesn’t seem to let up even for a second. . . . Each time I pick up a [Dark Angels] book, Risa’s grown a little more, become a little stronger, and is in deeper shit.”
—The Book Swarm
“Urban fantasy at its best! Arthur captures readers and catapults them into a world that is both authentic and explosive. . . . This book is a must read.”
—Readaholics Anonymous
“The biggest indicator of [being] a phenomenal author is . . . writ[ing] book after book that keeps the reader coming back for more, and this surely fits Keri Arthur. . . . [She] should be on every urban fantasy lover’s autobuy list, which she proves yet again with this fabulous showing in Darkness Splintered. An absolute must read!”
—A Book Obsession
“So much is going on, but it never feels rushed. . . . Arthur really knows what she’s doing and Darkness Splintered just might be the best in the series!”
—Under the Covers
“Captivating and hard to put down.”
—Happily Ever After-Reads
Darkness Unmasked
“Another compelling web of action, intrigue, mystery, and suspense! . . . The outside world simply disappears when I have a Dark Angels book in hand. . . . While a lot of series start to lag at the five-book mark, somehow I feel like this thrill ride is just getting started. . . . These books have everything you want in a perfectly written urban fantasy.”
—Literal Addiction
“Awesome. . . . A lot of series start to go stale after multiple installments, but that just isn’t the case here.”
—A Book Obsession
“This is another gripping read in a series that I can’t get enough of.”
—Happily Ever After-Reads
“A well-written, thrilling urban fantasy.”
—All Things Urban Fantasy
Darkness Hunts
“[A] kick-ass heroine. . . . I’m enjoying this series more and more with each book.”
—Happily Ever After-Reads
“Another thrilling installment in the Dark Angels series. . . . I am definitely looking forward to the next book.”
—All Things Urban Fantasy
“An absolute thrilling ride from start to finish!”
—A Book Obsession
“I am a huge fan of this Dark Angels series . . . a must read for urban fantasy readers.”
—Book Savvy Babe
“This series is awesome. . . . I absolutely cannot wait to read the next in the series.”
—AwesomeSauce Book Club
“I cannot imagine anyone not loving this series!”
—Urban Fantasy Investigations
“Chock-full of revelations, nonstop action, and a true MUST read for fans . . . a page-turner that will have readers on the edge of their seats.”
—Nocturne Romance Reads
Darkness Devours
“Prepare for intense action and sexual attraction to take center stage. . . . Arthur writes stellar action scenes. . . . I absolutely cannot wait to read what happens next in this indomitable story. Darkness Devours is bloody good with its provocative heroine and killer plotline.”
—Joyfully Reviewed
“An intricate and thrilling urban fantasy filled with sensuality, violence, and imagination . . . mesmerizing.”
—Night Owl Reviews
Darkness Rising
“You will fall hard for [Keri Arthur’s] Dark Angels series.”
—Coffee Time Romance & More
“A highly imaginative world with memorable characters . . . everything a fan of romance and urban fantasy would enjoy. There is a cosmopolitan mix of supernatural creatures: werewolves, vampires, and witches . . . an exciting new series!”
—Night Owl Reviews
Darkness Unbound
“Keri Arthur has blown me away again. Her worlds are so complex and ‘real.’ . . . Risa makes readers fall in love with her. . . . I highly recommend Arthur’s books.”
—USA Today
“Must read! I love, love, love it! Arthur’s . . . kick-ass action and indelible heroine left me enraptured. Risa Jones is . . . one of a kind; she is the next generation’s paranormal superheroine!”
—Joyfully Reviewed
Full Moon Rising
“Keri Arthur skillfully mixes her suspenseful plot with heady romance. . . . Sexy vampires, randy werewolves, and unabashed, unapologetic, joyful sex—you’ve gotta love it. Smart, sexy, and well conceived.”
—Kim Harrison
“Deliciously sexy . . . [it] pulls you in and won’t let go. Keri Arthur knows how to thrill! Buckle up and get ready for a wild, cool ride!”
—Shana Abé
Also by Keri Arthur
The Dark Angels Series
Darkness Unbound
Darkness Rising
Darkness Devours
Darkness Hunts
Darkness Unmasked
Darkness Splintered
The Souls of Fire Series
Fireborn
SIGNET
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014
USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | India | South Africa | China
penguin.com
A Penguin Random House Company
First published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC
Copyright © Keri Arthur, 2014
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
ISBN 978-1-101-62194-3
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Praise
Also by Keri Arthur
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
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
Epilogue
Excerpt from Fireborn
I’d like to thank my lovely editor, Danielle Perez; copy editor Eileen Chetti for making sense of my Aussie English; publicist Nita Basu for getting the word out; and the fabulous Tony Mauro for the cover art.
A special thanks to those whose support I couldn’t survive without: my agent, Miriam Kriss; my crit buddies and best friends, Robyn, Mel, Chris, Carolyn, and Freya; and my lovely daughter, Kasey.
Chapter 1
The Raziq were coming.
The energy of their approach was very distant, but it blasted heat and thunder across my senses and sent me reeling. But even worse was the sheer and utter depth of rage that accompanied that distant wave. I’d known they would be angry that we’d deceived them, but this . . . This was murderous.
Up until now, the Raziq had used minor demons to kidnap me whenever they’d wanted to talk to me—although their version of talk generally involved some kind of torture. This time, however, there would be no talking. There would be only death and destruction.
And they would take out everyone—and everything—around us in the process.
It was a horrendous prospect given that we were still at the Brindle, a place that not only held aeons of witch knowledge but was also home to at least two dozen witches.
I reached for my sword. Even though we couldn’t fight in this place of peace, I still felt safer with Amaya’s weight in my hand. But she wasn’t there. Just for an instant, panic surged; then I realized I’d left her behind, among the ruins of our home. In the aftermath of my father’s destruction, I’d been desperate to see whether Mirri—who’d been under a death sentence, thanks to Father’s magic—had by some miracle survived, and I hadn’t given Amaya a second thought.
“We cannot stay here.” The familiar masculine tones broke through the fear that had been holding me captive.
My gaze met Azriel’s. He wasn’t only my guardian but my lover, the father of my child, and the being I was now linked to forever in both life and afterlife. When I died, I would become what he was—a Mijai, a reaper warrior tasked not only with protecting the gates to heaven and hell, but also with hunting down the demons who broke through hell’s gate to cause havoc here on Earth.
Of course, reapers weren’t actually flesh beings—although they could certainly attain that form whenever they wished—but rather beings made of energy who lived on the gray fields, the area that divided Earth from heaven and hell. While I was part werewolf and therefore flesh, I was also part Aedh. The Aedh were energy beings who at one time lived on the fields as the reapers had, and also had been the traditional guardians of the gates. My father had been one of the Raziq—a group of rebel Aedh who were responsible for both the destruction of the Aedh and the creation of the three keys to the gates—and he was also the reason the keys were currently lost.
Or rather, only one key was still lost. I’d found the first two, but both had been stolen from under my nose by the dark sorceress who’d subsequently opened two of hell’s three gates.
Things hadn’t quite gone according to plan for her when she’d opened the second one, however, because she’d been captured by demons and dragged into the pits of hell. I was keeping everything crossed that that was exactly where she’d remain, but given the way luck had been treating us of late, it was an even-money bet she wouldn’t.
“Risa,” Azriel repeated when I didn’t immediately answer him. “We must not stay here.”
“I know.”
But where the hell were we going to go that was safe from the wrath of the Raziq? There was nowhere safe. Maybe not even hell itself—not that I particularly wanted to go there.
I briefly closed my eyes and tried to control the panic surging through me. And yet that approaching wave of anger filled every recess of my mind, making thought, let alone calm, near impossible. If they got hold of me . . . My skin crawled.
It took a moment to register that my skin was actually crawling. Or at least part of it was. I glanced down. The wingless, serpentlike dragon tattoo on my left forearm was on the move, twisting around like a wild thing trapped. Anger gleamed in its dark eyes and its scales glowed a rich, vibrant lilac in the half-light of the room.
Of course, it wasn’t an ordinary tattoo. It was a Dušan, a creature of magic that had been designed to protect me when I walked the fields. It was a gift from my father, and one of the few decent things he’d actually done for me since this whole key saga had begun.
Unfortunately, the Dušan was of little use here on Earth. It shouldn’t even have been able to move on this plane, let alone partially disengage from my skin, as it had in the past.
“What’s wrong now?”
I glanced at Ilianna—my best friend, flatmate, and a powerful witch in her own right. Her warm tones were rich with concern, and not without reason. After all, she’d only just managed to save the life of her mate, Mirri, from my father’s foul magic, and here I was again, threatening not only Mirri’s life but Ilianna’s, her mom’s, and those of everyone else who currently stood within the walls of this place. Because not even the magic of the Brindle, as powerful as it was, would stop the Raziq. It had been designed to protect the witches from the evil of this world. It was never meant to be a defense against what came from the gray fields.
“The Raziq hunt us.” Azriel’s reply was flat. Matter-of-fact. Yet his anger reverberated through every inch of my being, as fierce as anything I could feel from the Raziq. But it wasn’t just anger; it was anticipation, and that was possibly scarier. He drew his sword and met my gaze. If the ominous black-blue fire that flickered down the sides of Valdis—which was the name of the demon locked within the metal of his sword, and who imbued it with a life and power of its own—was anything to go by, she was as ready to fight as her master. As ready as Amaya would have been had she been here. “We need to leave. Now.”
Ilianna frowned. “Then go home—”
“We can’t,” I cut in. “Home’s gone.”
It had been blown to smithereens when I’d thrust Amaya’s black steel into my father’s flesh and had allowed her to consume him. It was an action I didn’t regret, not after everything the bastard had done.
“Yes,” Ilianna replied. “But the wards your father gave us should still be active. I placed a spell on them that prevents anything or anyone other than us from moving them.”
“Even from what basically resembled a bomb blast?”
She hesitated. “That I can’t guarantee.”
“A half guarantee is better than nothing.” Azriel’s gaze met mine again. “If they aren’t active, then we stand and fight. The Raziq still need you, no matter how furious they might currently be.”
Yes, but they didn’t need him. And they would destroy him if they could. Still, what other choice did we have? No matter where we went, either here or on the gray fields, others would pay the price. I hesitated. “Will the Brindle’s magic react if we transport out from within its walls?”
“Normally, yes,” Kiandra, the Brindle’s head witch, replied. She stood near Mirri and Zaira, Ilianna’s mom, her gaze bright and all too knowing in the shadowed room. “But given the events of the last few days, I have woven specific exceptions into our barriers.”
“Thanks.” We were going to need them. I swallowed, then stepped toward Azriel.
“Call me,” Ilianna said. “Let me know you’re okay.”
I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. Azriel’s energy had already ripped through us, swiftly transporting us across the fields. We reappeared in the blackened ruins of the home I’d once shared with Ilianna and Tao—although to call them ruins was something of a misnomer. “Ruins” implied there was some form of basic structure left. There was nothing here. No walls, no ceiling, not even a basement. Just a big black hole that had once held a building we’d all loved.
I stepped away from Azriel and glanced up. The sky was filled with stars, and I wondered
whether an entire day had passed us by. So much had happened over the past few days that I’d lost track.
Time appeared. The familiar, somewhat harsh tone that ran through my thoughts was heavy with displeasure. Alone should not be.
Sorry. I felt vaguely absurd for even issuing an apology. I mean, when it was all said and done, Amaya was a sword. But somewhere in the past few days, she had become more a friend than merely a means of protection.
I picked my way through the rubble and found her half-wedged into the blackened soil. I pulled her free and definitely felt a whole lot safer. Though it wasn’t as if Amaya or Azriel—or anyone else, for that damn matter—could save me if the Raziq really had decided enough was enough.
“The Raziq have split,” Azriel commented.
Confusion—and a deepening sense of dread—ran through me. “Meaning what?”
The ferocity that roiled through the connection between us gave his blue eyes an icy edge. “Half of them chase us here. The rest continue toward the Brindle.”
“Oh fuck!”
“They plan to demonstrate the cost of misdirection, and there is nothing we can do to prevent it.” His expression hardened, and I hadn’t thought that was possible. “And before you say it, I will not let you endanger yourself for them.”
“And I will not stand here and let others pay the price for decisions I’ve made!”
“We have no other choice—”
“There’s always a fucking choice, Azriel. Standing here while others die in my place is not one of them.”
“Making a stand at the Brindle will not alter the fate of the Brindle.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I thrust a hand through my hair and began to pace. There had to be an answer. Had to be some way to protect the Brindle and everyone within her without either Azriel or me having to make a stand. Damn it, if only Ilianna had had the time to create more protection stones . . . The thought stuttered to a halt. “Oh my god, the protection stones.”
Azriel frowned. “They are still active. I can feel their presence.”
“Exactly!” I swung around to face him. “You need to get them to the Brindle. It’s the only chance they have against the Raziq.”