A Kingdom of Iron & Wine : New Adult Fantasy Romance (The Ironworld Series Book 1)

by Candace Osmond

  When Julie plunked down on the edge of a large stone fountain that Tess had salvaged from an old property she’d helped restore, I sat down next to her and stretched my legs out before crossing my ankles. My hands gripped the coarse edge, keeping me from toppling backward. Too much tequila.

  “Care for one more drink?” Julie asked and pulled a bottle of red wine from somewhere. Had she been carrying that the whole time? The bottle was made of a deep red glass, and etched vines covered its surface. She waggled it cheekily. “Happy birthday.”

  “Where did you get that?”

  “I’ve been brewing a batch of wine all summer,” she replied and gnawed the cork out with her teeth. She spat it across the grass. “I think I finally got it right. This is the first good bottle, so I saved it for today.”

  She took a long glug before handing the bottle to me. I stared down at the open neck, admired the hand-blown work of it, and wondered where the hell Julie got it. But then again, my best friend was sometimes an enigma. She spent more and more time in the city the older we got. Her parents weren’t strict like Tess, and Julie had the freedom to come and go as she pleased. She’d always come home and regale me with tales of her visits, the people she’d meet, the food she’d try. Parties. Dates. Everything I missed out on for the last eighteen years.

  Never again.

  Surprised by its light weight, I took the bottle and gripped the long neck as I put the mouth to my lips. I chugged back a good mouthful and let out a satisfied groan when I finally handed it back. The wine was intense, but the aftertaste was something else entirely. Warm, spicy. Like sunshine sliding down the back of my throat.

  I stared upward and admired the stars. Neither of us spoke. It was a comfortable silence we often hung out in. I’d no idea how much time had passed while we sat there on the edge of the sleeping fountain, drinking Julie’s wine sip for sip. My veins hummed, and I relished every second.

  Finally, she let loose a long, quiet sigh. “You ever just know something–” she shrugged and set the bottle down on the grass between us. “Like, not in your mind, but with some other part of your body?” She peered up at the midnight sky with me. “I know I’m meant for something more than what this tiny town can give me. And I’m going to find it.”

  My cheeks burned with a radiant glow of wine and tequila and happiness. But, deep in my gut, something soured. Jealousy. The look in Julie’s eye, the certainty she held so close. I wanted that. I wanted so badly to be as sure of something as she was about her future.

  I picked up the bottle and set it back down when I realized it was empty. “I’m not sure if I’m cut out for the city life. I want to be, though.”

  Julie smiled and slipped her palm across my back with an assuring touch. “You’ll be just fine. I promise. We’ve got a whole new world awaiting us, Av’.”

  My eyes locked on hers and the insides of my head swarmed in circles. I took a few deep breaths to steady myself, but nothing was stopping the wave of a drunken stupor that threatened to wash over me. I blinked away the blur that filled my vision and, in the distance, saw the outline of a jagged-topped building appear over the horizon, and a strange, winged shadow flew over it. A castle? No. It couldn’t be. I shook my head and rubbed at my eyes. When I opened them and looked at my best friend, I gasped. Julie sparkled as if covered in stardust, her platinum hair gleaming like white silk in the moonlight. But it was her features that startled me. Sharp and angular, exaggerated and out of proportion. Darkness closed in from the edges of my vision.

  I was passing out.

  The black curtain closed in just as the sound of Julie’s concerned voice drifted away, and I felt the water in the fountain splashing across my back. But rather than touch the bottom… I kept falling. Backward. Downward. Spiraling through dark waters as my numb limbs drifted outward from my body.

  Mumbled voices touched my ears, and I struggled to hear what they were saying. So many of them, tiny, musical whispers. I couldn’t tell if they came from my own mind or from somewhere else. Suddenly, my lungs burned, and my eyes flew open in panic.

  I was drowning.

  But the voices became more apparent, and I could hear them now. The words they whispered to one another as if I couldn’t hear them. As if I weren’t there at all.

  That’s her!

  There she is!

  Where has she been? Are you sure it’s the one?

  Look at the hair.

  Red as blood.

  It’s the one we’ve been searching for.

  Poor thing. Has no idea what’s in store for her. The queen will tear her into ribbons.

  As my lungs strained in my chest, I gave a few weak attempts to kick my way to the surface, but I was too weak. Too weighed down by wine and tequila. Tiny lights appeared around the edges of my blurred vision. Brightening and forming a moving mass. Like a swarm of fireflies. They grew and grew until the light became too much. I shielded my eyes from the blinding light and waited as the last of my breaths pushed from my chest.

  But one more voice seeped into my ears. Darker, deeper, and more sinister than all the rest.

  Death awaits her.

  Chapter Two

  The morning sun filled the living room where I slept. I cracked one eye open, watching the dust floating in the air. It almost looked like tiny fairies. Too delicate to touch. I focused on it for a while, wondering if I was dying. This was a hangover from hell.

  When the burn of mid-morning filtered in across the living room and formed a stifling layer of sweat on my face, I gave up trying to stay asleep. The confines of a hangover from hell enveloped me, refusing to let me lift my head from the sequined pillow below my face. As I attempted to roll over, I fought against the wave of nausea that sprang to life in my stomach and nearly fell off the couch. I struggled into a sitting position and strained to look over at Julie’s body slung across the round wicker chair on the other side of the room. Her green eyes were rimmed with pink as she blinked at me. She looked as bad as I felt.

  A moan scratched in my throat as I rubbed my face, sore from the sequined imprints across my cheek. The sounds of clanking pans came from the kitchen and the high-pitched chime of dishes clinking on the marble countertop.

  I cringed and curled forward on my lap. “Jesus, Tess. Could you be any louder?”

  The low chuckle that came from behind told me the noise was intentional.

  My fingers reached for a tepid glass of water that was left on the coffee table all night, and I chugged it back. I waited a moment for my stomach to settle before I set it down again.

  “I’m never drinking again,” I grumbled hoarsely to Julie.

  Her answering moan told me she agreed. She slowly adjusted into a sitting position. “I might have to adjust the recipe on the next batch.”

  “Or just drink less,” I replied.

  Behind us, the sounds of chair legs screeching over the tile floor brought my shoulders to my ears. “Breakfast is ready,” Tess announced in a cheeky tone.

  Julie and I shuffled across the living room and plunked down in chairs on opposite ends of the table. Tess sat between us and glanced back and forth with a grin as she stuffed scrambled eggs in her mouth.

  “When do you two leave for the city?” Tess asked and stirred sugar into her coffee. “Is there anything I can help with?”

  I took a few cautious sips of coffee. “The plan is to head up tomorrow, Monday. Orientations are on Wednesday, and actual classes start the following week.” I picked at a plain piece of toast. “But I have a few paintings I’d like to bring if you could take those in the Mustang. Not sure how well they’d travel strapped to the back of my Vespa.”

  “I’m leaving later today with Tom, so I’ll already be there waiting,” Julie added.

  Tess nodded thoughtfully. “I’ve got a few things to do today, but I’m all yours tomorrow.”

  “Thanks, Tess,” I said with a weak smile. I felt like death. My hair hung long and matted around my face and, when I attempted to wra
ngle it into a bun, I realized it was slightly damp at the roots. My mind stilled, and flashes of last night flickered across my vision. The tequila. The wine. The fountain. The strange nightmare that had followed well into the night. “Did I… fall in the fountain last night?”

  They both laughed, and Julie filled her plate with eggs and bacon. How could she eat? I could hardly stand to smell it. She gave me a taunting look when I stifled a gag. “Yeah, you drunken fool. I had to haul your heavy ass back up to the house.” She waved a piece of bacon in my face before stuffing it in her mouth. “Best to lay off this stuff anyway.”

  I kicked her chair. She threw another piece of bacon at me, and I gagged again.

  “That’s it,” I said and stood up. My head spun. “I’m going back to bed.”

  Their laughter followed me all the way to my room, where I shut the door and collapsed in the nest of blankets atop my comfy bed. Within minutes, I let the lure of sleep take me away, but somewhere in the back of my mind… or perhaps a dawdling lost memory… a voice whispered in my ear, but I was too far gone to let it linger. The two words barely registered before I drifted off.

  He’s coming.

  ***

  I’d slept the day away. But I couldn’t feel guilty for wasting the last few hours I had at home because Tess had been absent the whole day. The sun had long dipped below the horizon, and I sat in the backyard, surrounded by twinkle lights and summer torches that lined the gardens.

  I perched on a low stool, earbuds in, paintbrush in hand, as I filled the canvas with images that busied my mind from the intense dreams that overran my mind. That was usually how my inspiration came to me. An overactive imagination mixed with vivid dreams of creatures and adventures into other worlds.

  I stopped for a moment to take in the collage of random things that spewed from my brush and covered the canvas before me. A bright horizon, sharp-pointed tips of a castle cutting the sky, a shadowed set of wings stretched in the distance. The chill of the night gently blew against my exposed arms, and I set my brush down. I wouldn’t finish the piece, but I had to get the images out of my head before leaving for the city. One last painting in the best studio in the world. Tess’s garden. It had served me well over the years. Set fire to my imagination and inspired me to paint pictures of elves, fairies, and other mythical creatures.

  I removed my earbuds, and the sound of the world around me sharpened with the silence of the garden. Something rustled in the bushes behind me, and I spun around with a gasp that stuck in my throat. I scanned the darkness, squinting to see between the shadowed lines of branches and trellises covered in vines. My heart pounded in my chest, beating a pulse all the way up to my ears.

  Nothing was there.

  But I couldn’t shake the unnerving feeling of being watched, so I began packing up my supplies, my fingers trembling. A few brushes fell to the ground. I spotted a large, strangely shaped shadow stretching and moving across the grass as I bent to pick them up. Slowly, but enough to distinguish between the sway of trees and… whatever it was moving toward me. I shot a glance upward to the skies, but they were empty. Nothing above was causing the ground to cover in shadow like this.

  A tiny blue light flickered in the bush like a single firefly. So quick, I nearly missed it. I stared and stared, trying to catch another glimpse. More rustling, louder this time, perked my ears, and I dropped everything to run for the patio door.

  A low, eerie whisper crept through the air, too quiet and muffled to make out the words. With every hasty step, I felt a coldness looming over my back, eyes watching, fingers reaching. I didn’t dare turn to look until I got to the sliding door and slipped inside. When I slammed it shut and set the latch, my heaving breath fogged the glass as I peered outside.

  Again, nothing was there.

  The shadow was gone. A sort of lightness fell over the garden once more. What the hell was that? Between the drunken hallucinations in the fountain and the vivid nightmares I’d had while sleeping off my hangover, I was beginning to think I was scaring myself out of leaving. But I couldn’t have imagined what had just happened.

  Was I losing my mind?

  ***

  Sleep came easier than I’d hoped. Only seconds after I crawled into bed later that night, I found myself deep in a dream. But it only took a few breaths to realize…it wasn’t a dream at all. It was another nightmare. Darkness surrounded me. My bare feet dug into the wet, cold earth beneath me as I ran through a thick forest of deadened, leafless trees.

  Long, wiry branches whipped at my skin as I broke through them, unbothered by the gashes on my legs and arms. Drops of blood created a path in my wake, leading my pursuer right to me. No matter where I went, no matter how fast I ran, they’d find me. The dense shadow bit at my heels, reaching for my back, grabbing for my fingers.

  My hair snagged in a bramble and tugged me to a stop. Frantically, I ripped the locks free just as the ominous presence rushed up to me like a surging wave. Invisible, but there. I knew it was there. Could feel its icy breath on my cheek. I took off running again, clumsily stumbling over tree roots and fallen debris. Fighting my way through the never-ending forest. With every step that pounded into the earth, I could hear the whisper. The voice taunting me like a pulse.

  She’s coming. She’s coming. She’s coming.

  The sound drummed in my chest, growing louder and more profound the closer it got. But I could see a hint of light in the distance, through the mess of twisted black branches. I quickened my steps and willed my legs to move faster, stretch further. Just as I broke through and emerged into the blazing sun, the voice screamed at me, she’s here!

  As I fell to the ground, my body flailed awake in my bed. In the darkness of my bedroom, I sat upright and hugged my knees close as I worked to settle my breathing and calm my frantic heart.

  It was just a dream. It was just a dream.

  But, after a few minutes, my fingertips were still numb, and I struggled to take a single deep breath. I hadn’t had a nightmare like that since I was a kid. When Tess would let me crawl into bed with her in the middle of the night without question because she knew. She’d wrap me in her arms, under the warmth of her blankets, and soothe me back to sleep.

  I peeled back the comforter and swung my legs off the bed. I was a grown woman, but part of me craved that distant comfort, the one from my childhood. Maybe it was because I was leaving tomorrow, or perhaps I’d taken on Tess’s same paranoia about the world and manifested these nightmares myself.

  Whatever the case, I crept through the dim, sleepy cottage and peeked inside my aunt’s bedroom. She was sound asleep, and I immediately felt guilty for even thinking of it. But the nightmare still lingered on my skin, and I couldn’t face my own bedroom alone.

  As quietly as I could, I slipped inside Tess’s room and eased myself into the empty space near the edge of the bed. When the mattress sagged with my weight, she rolled over.

  “Avery?” she croaked.

  “Sorry,” I whispered. “I… I couldn’t sleep.”

  She lifted the blankets without a second thought, creating an opening for me. I laid down and nestled my back against her as she wrapped the blanket tightly around me. Her warmth seeped into my skin, soothing me. Reminding me of how safe I was there. In my aunt’s cozy home away from the world. I took a deep breath. It must have all been nerves.

  “What’s wrong, Avery?” Tess whispered.

  I wanted to assure her everything was fine, but Tess always knew. Could always tell. “Do…do you think I’m making a mistake?”

  “A mistake would be getting bangs,” she replied tiredly and tightened her arm around me. “You’re just growing up. It’s natural to be nervous about the unknown. Of changes, huge ones like you’re about to make tomorrow.” When I didn’t reply, she added, “Are you having second thoughts?”

  “I don’t know,” I told her honestly. “I mean, I don’t have to go to college, I guess. My Etsy shop is taking off. I could build on that. Expand. Make a caree
r of it.”

  Tess sat upright, and I half-turned to look at her behind me. “Where is this coming from? Isn’t this…I thought this was what you wanted.”

  I chewed at my lip. “Yeah, but what is it you want? I can’t just leave you out here all by yourself.”

  In the cut of moonlight that slipped in through the curtains, I saw her smile. “It doesn’t matter what I want anymore, Avery. I can’t protect you from the world forever. I know I didn’t really let you stretch those wings growing up, but it’s because I had no idea what I was doing. I was the same age you are now when….”

  I swallowed dryly. “When my parents died?”

  Tess nodded and tears formed in her eyes. “I just wanted to shield you from anything that could hurt you. I just wanted you to… be happy.”

  “And I was–I am,” I assured her.

  She smiled warmly as she moved some straggly hair from my face and cupped her hand over my cheek. “The city can be dangerous. We both know that. And what happened to your parents that night… it doesn’t mean… the city can be scary, yes. But it can also be freeing. You’ve got Julie. You’ve already impressively taken care of every single thing without my help. You’ll be fine.” I took a deep breath and nodded against her hand. “But you have to call me every night.”

  “Tess!”

  “Okay, okay.” She laughed tiredly and flung the blanket over both of us as she cuddled into my back for sleep. “Every second night.”

  Chapter Three

  The blistering summer sun was high in the sky when Tess and I headed for the city. She was in her convertible, me on my Vespa. We packed the last of my things in the backseat of her car while I trailed behind. The sounds of the radio blared from Tess’s dashboard speakers, creating a soundtrack for us to drive to.

  I hated riding in vehicles. I always got car sick. Every damn time. Tess had made a deal with a neighbor one year when I was barely fourteen. I’d worked in his little roadside corner store all summer, serving passing tourists and fleeting locals. Day in and day out. It was a glorified candy store with bins of five-cent candies and freezers of homemade ice cream sold by the scoop. It was one of the best jobs I’d ever had, and I got a bike out of it. Not only a bike… freedom. Freedom from taking the bus or driving in cars wherever I went. Salvation from swirling nausea and daily vomiting of chronic motion sickness.