by Raven Dark
Solace
Saving Setora Book 5
Raven Dark
Petra J. Knox
Praise for Saving Setora
"The softest woman requires the hardest men to survive. Dark, gritty, and perfectly filthy--modern MC meets Mad Max in this amazing RH tale. You will lust, you will crave, and you will scream for more!"
~Addison Cain, USA Today bestselling author
"So incredibly well-written. Compelling. Suspenseful. I was holding my breath as I was reading. But be warned, the authors aren't joking. This is definitely a DARK romance. If you like sweet, this is not the book. But if you like dark romance, you won't be able to put this one down."
~ Nia Mars, author
“…leaves you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. The characters are so detailed and the plot is so mysterious that you’ll be dying for more by the end of it.”
~Christina, Amazon Customer
Solace (Saving Setora: Book Five)
Copyright © 2018 Raven Dark and Petra J. Knox, all rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Please purchase only authorized editions of this book, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials.
Cover by Raven Dark
Cover images courtesy of DepositPhotos
Editing by Jenifer Knox
Created with Vellum
Contents
Note to Readers
1. Double-crossed
2. A Way Out
3. A Dance with Death
4. Busting Them Up
5. On the Battlements
6. No Mercy
7. Captain Braul
8. The Legion in Chains
9. In the Shadow of Grief
10. Meeting the Brothers
11. Tan An’dar
12. Savage Masters
13. Julian
14. Revelations
15. Never Helpless
16. Requests
17. Breaking Down
18. Leaving Again
19. At the Hold on Hollow Hill
20. Brother Against Brother
21. Mayhem and Dalathine
Acknowledgments
Connect with Raven Dark
Connect with Petra J. Knox
Dedication
For our family who love us, for our friends who were there for us, and of course, for our readers, without whom this series wouldn’t have been possible.
Love to you all.
Always,
Raven and Petra
Note to Readers
This book has dark elements and scenes that may be triggering for some readers. The world and the characters about whom you read herein are not sweet, friendly people. The hell in which they live is a dark, desolate place, lawless and without mercy. It will either build them up or kill them.
Welcome to Setora’s world.
Enter at your own risk.
Chapter 1
Double-crossed
I’d never seen a clusterfuck unfold as quickly as the one that grabbed us by the balls the moment we walked into Lord Falnar’s damned garage.
The second the garage door opened, it seemed the fucking Maker had seen fit to throw everything at us he could. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been trapped in a room with more than a dozen of Matais Abernel’s guards, with the pompous little chickenshit holding us hostage. And he wouldn’t have had one of his guards aiming a bolt right at Lord Falnar’s head.
Nor would T-Man’s bike have broken down before we could leave, and he and Crash, unaware of the shitstorm happening in here, wouldn’t have come out of the adjacent garage, right into the hands of those guards. We wouldn’t have had to watch while one of the guards shot Lord Falnar dead.
And we wouldn’t have been sitting there, disarmed and frozen like statues, while one of the guards put a sword to our woman’s throat.
With Setora behind me, I couldn’t see what the guard had done, not when I didn’t dare move to look. But by the way he’d held the sword out as he approached her, and by the way she’d tensed, I knew he had the weapon on her.
I’d heard him take off his helmet, then I’d heard him speak.
“Hello, Setora.”
Those two words hit me like a shock to the system, dripping with knowing and smugness and a poisonous possession that made my teeth clench.
I’d heard that voice only once, the day Steel and I had stolen Setora from that auction months ago, but a hundred years could have passed since then and I’d still have recognized that voice.
Damien. Damien fucking Vale.
The pieces fit together swiftly in my head. Lord Falnar had been set up. We all had.
Matais, the little fuck, stood behind Lord Falnar’s corpse, looking at his uncle with a chilling casualness.
The guard who’d shot Falnar reloaded his crossbow and held it up, at the ready.
When Matais turned his attention to us, that aristocratic face of his wore a twist of a smile, sly as a fox.
It was almost hard to believe this was the same squirrelly fuck we’d met at a summit a while back.
Straddling my bike, palms raised, my hands twitched, itching to grab the sword on my back, but I didn’t dare.
“Wise move, young man, keeping still,” Damien said from behind me. “You and that mountain over there are the ones who stole her from me, aren’t you?”
I knew he was talking about Steel. I said nothing.
“My guards told me about you two.”
“Damien Vale, you—” Sheriff started.
“What? By all means, continue,” Damien said.
Sheriff didn’t finish.
“That’s what I thought. You’re the one they call Sheriff, aren’t you? The General of the Dark Legion?” He said the name in the same cool, unruffled voice. “One move from any of you and she’ll bleed.”
Setora’s breath hitched. I had the feeling he’d pressed his blade harder to her throat in warning.
The silence in the room was like a fucking death knell.
“Get off the bike, Setora.” Boots shuffled as Damien moved away to give her room to dismount.
My woman’s harsh breathing filled my ears. The bike shifted as she swung slowly off.
The need to protect her roared in my blood like fire. Damn it, I’d never felt as helpless as I did right now. I’d have given my right nut to have the Brothers of Brimstone somewhere in the castle. I’d have found some way to alert them. But they were gone, likely having arrived in Devil’s Breath hours ago.
Setora suddenly cried out; Damien had grabbed her, because the next moment he backed away from the bike and into my line of vision with her pinned against him, his sword under her chin. Her beautiful face was ghost-white. The drops that had turned her eyes black didn’t hide the fear in their depths.
She was terrified.
Crash swore somewhere behind me, near the back of the room.
Damien continued to back away with Setora, toward the front of the room where Matais stood. Setora’s eyes flicked around the room, her gaze begging us all not to move.
No one did.
We were screwed; there was no way to get to her now without endangering her.
Son of a fucking bitch!
Damien slipped the scrap of curtain we’d used as a scarf from her head, revealing her pale, purple hair. “There’s my Little Dove. Why these savages would want to conceal your perfection is beyond me.” He tossed the cloth aside with a look of disgust.
“Damien, I won’t fight you.” Setora’s voice trembled. “Please just let them go.”
“Not a chance,” Matais grunted. “You’ll return to your master’s roost, but the Le
gion is Captain Vale’s now. Except Sheriff. He’s coming with me.”
“So he can be framed for the murder of a fucking lord?” Steel growled. “I don’t think so.”
“But he is.” Matais’ eyes danced with glee, focused on Sheriff. “Before this night is through, the whole world will know the General of the Dark Legion is a murderer. And the rest of you will rot in Captain Vale’s cells.”
Rage nearly had me lunging off my bike at him. “You son of a bitch!”
“Matais, you pathetic little fuck,” Sheriff bit out. “When I get my hands on you, I’ll rip out your fucking spine and feed it to my gappas.”
“You won’t get the chance.” Damien jerked his chin at the guards surrounding my Brothers. “Round them all up and put them in the carriages.”
He put his mouth to Setora’s ear as the guards swarmed in.
“These pirates took you from me, Little Dove. I will have you at my feet and calling me Master while my men draw and quarter them in my square for the crows to pick at, and that includes their general.”
Setora’s eyes closed in horror. Her body shuddered against him. A single tear rolled down her cheek. A piece of my heart died for her as she went slack against him.
“That wasn’t the deal, Damien,” Matais snarled.
“It is now.” Damien watched with satisfaction while the guards ordered Steel and me off our bikes, kicked mine and Hawk’s swords away, and patted us all down.
It hit me then. The guards wore Matais’ crest, but they weren’t his men. Or most of them weren’t. They were J’nai. Otherwise, there was no way they would have been acting like Damien’s puppets instead of Matais’.
“You didn’t think I was going to let a little pissant like you walk away with these thieves, did you?” Damien cast a glance back at Matais. “No, I have plans for them. And for her. Plans your little peon minds can’t imagine.” He glanced around, letting us know his words included all of us.
As the guards checked us over for weapons and cuffed us all with metal shackles, I took the few seconds to glance around, to really look around me for the first time since this whole mess started.
The guards on Steel had taken his helmet off and shackled his hands behind his back. Another two had secured Sheriff the same way.
Doc was being led toward the front of the room, hands cuffed at his back, his helmet discarded. More guards had Diamond and Emmy, separating them from Doc. One of the J’nai said something about the women being whores. Doc said nothing, but I saw the pure rage in his eyes.
“Club doctor, right?” the same guard growled at him.
“That’s right. Why, you have an erectile issue you need fixed?”
Diamond and Emmy both held back snickers.
The guard on the other side of Doc smacked him in the head.
“If you’re a doctor, then when we damage your women, you can patch them up so we can fuck them again.”
“How did you know she was here, Matais?” Sheriff glared at Damien while the guards led him toward the garage door. “How did you know to bring him here?”
Good question. No one but attendees at the summit and the Legion members in the Grotto knew we were here, much less that Setora was with us. How had Damien known?
Matias shrugged. “When my uncle contacted me about the glass, he mentioned the Dark Legion was here. I put the pieces together. The rumors about her.” He inclined his head at Setora in Damien’s grip. “It just so happens that Damien was visiting me at the time. I knew you had her with you. I figured there was far less chance of you and your pirates getting away if I had a handful of J’nai here.”
Shit, this dickless jackass was making me sick.
Sheriff said nothing, but by the anger simmering in him, I knew all he needed was one moment of distraction, and blood would flow.
“Come on, Blondie,” a guard said, yanking my hands behind my back and shackling my wrists. “Let’s go.”
I glanced at Damien as he dragged Setora out into the lot and forced my arms to relax. This inaction was killing me, but one wrong move could cost my Princess her life.
When the guards brought Sheriff to the garage door beside me, he stopped and leaned toward Matais and Damien. “How far do you think you two fucks are going to get? The moment you set foot on that lot with us, Lord Falnar’s guards will see you. They’ll be on you before you can reach those carriages out there.”
“No, they won’t,” Matais said. “They’ve been told to hold off until I’ve dealt with you. And as soon as Captain Vale is gone, they’ll be told what happened here. That you killed my uncle. They’ll happily let you die.”
“You motherfucker!” I spat.
Matais only gave a smarmy smile and followed Damien out of the garage.
The little shit-faced weasel had thought of everything, hadn’t he?
As the guards began marching us across the lot, I glanced at the back of the room. Crash and T-Man were being led out last.
“As soon as we’re gone, dismantle the bikes,” Damien ordered two of the guards when we were all clear of the garage. “These pirates won’t be needing them anymore.”
Far across the lot, four of those flying carriages, big ones with solar panels covering the wide, bulky back compartments, stood waiting.
For us.
They were prisoner transports, the kind the captains of zones like Damien used to cart criminals to the gallows. Each one had two more J’nai standing guard in front of them.
Shit, we needed an advantage, and we needed it now.
This whole trip had been one giant shitstorm after another. The fucking Maker had one sick sense of humor.
Chapter 2
A Way Out
As the General of the Dark Legion, most of the time Hawk’s Yantu ways were far beyond my purview, a thing of fascination I enjoyed watching. Most days, I alternated between being amazed by it and thinking it was mystical mumbo jumbo. But tonight, seeing him being led in cuffs two steps ahead of me, for the first time in my life, I envied him his fucking warrior calm.
Here my men were, being led like criminals to Damien Vale’s headsman’s block, my woman being dragged with a sword at her throat toward a vehicle owned by the master she feared as much as I hated him. With my own hands behind my back and all of us surrounded by Damien’s J’nai, there was nothing I could do for any of them except keep my cool and remain silent, looking for any chance to gain the upper hand.
A leader led, but I didn’t feel like a damn leader now.
At the head of the group, Damien pulled Setora toward the carriage closest to us. She didn’t fight.
Because if she did, we were all dead.
Fucking hell, Damien had already taken enough from me. He wouldn’t get her, too. When I got my hands on him, I’d snap his neck and then drag her off and fuck her so hard she’d never forget who owned her.
Hawk, on the other hand, kept his head down, his arms relaxed behind him. The picture of trained discipline.
One of the guards behind me turned to another to shout something at him. With the carriages only fifty feet away, I leaned toward my Captain of the Guard.
“If you have some clever Yantu tactic to get us out of this, now would be the time, Hawk.”
Silent, he gave the smallest shake of his head.
He had nothing.
Looking around the lot, I didn’t see any of Lord Falnar’s guards. They’d disappeared, as per Matais’ orders. Fan-fucking-tastic.
I snuck another look at our woman.
Damien stopped at the carriage and handed Setora to a guard, nodding for him to put her inside.
Son of a bitch. There had to be some way to—
A bolt shot out from nowhere and hit the J’nai holding Setora right in the head.
“Setora! Drop!” a voice called out.
What the…Sinister?
Setora flattened herself to the ground.
Then I heard it. A horrendous roar rent the night, so animalistic it barely sounded human.
>
Beast.
A thrill raced through me, and relief so strong it almost brought me to my knees.
“What the fuck?” Pretty Boy shouted.
Swords clashed and bolts flew through the air. Men shouted, some of them J’nai, others, the Legion. Sinister’s twin, Savage, grabbed Setora, dragged her away from the carriage and put her behind him.
With the men who’d been holding me now distracted by the fight, I bent over at the waist, trying to break the steel cuffs off my wrists. They didn’t give. I hated that another man who wasn’t one of the Four was touching Setora, but he was saving her when we couldn’t.
I hated that, too.
A guard snuck up behind Savage. My heart went into my throat. He aimed a crossbow at Savage’s head. Instinctively, I opened my mouth to shout his name, even knowing he wouldn’t have heard anything around him.
I needn’t have worried. Savage whipped around, and without even seeing the man’s position, grabbed the weapon from him before he could fire, then slammed it across his head. The guard fell and didn’t move. Savage then shot another J’nai in the head.
As Damien shouted for his men to get Setora, two big J’nai moved in front of me, blocking my path. Before I could do anything, both of the guards’ heads flew off, spraying me with blood. The bodies dropped. Sinister smirked at me, the sword in his hand slick with blood.
