by Ciara Graves
As the kids laughed in delight. I couldn’t help but smile. We’d grieve, then we’d move on. The world was ours again. We had ideas for a new order to ensure this never happened again. With Lela ruling the Heavens, I didn’t think we’d have any issues.
Lela kissed my cheek then said she was going to check in with Nathaniel and Remiel. They’d been working on a way to combine the Heavenly realms into one. Divided hadn’t worked out too well. Ilran and I were in the same boat. Taking down the barriers between them would take enormous power. Now we had it. I glanced once more at the spheres of hellfire and holy light, watching them intermingle and be together as they were meant to do. Then Kexan called for me, and I stepped away.
Hours later, as the sun was setting, filling the sky with shades of reds, oranges, then fading into blue and violet, I searched our camp for Lela. Dakota was a burned-out shell. Bryan and the others would build it again. Many humans would have a chance to go back to their farms and start over. I smiled and talked briefly with those I passed, but Lela wasn’t among them.
A familiar worry tugged at my gut until I glanced skyward.
Lela soared through the wispy clouds, her wings carrying her easily. Her hair streamed out behind her as she dove and spun. I smiled softly, unable to look away. She was beautiful. I’d never get enough of her. Keeping my eyes on her, I walked toward the wreckage of Dakota and climbed to the roof of the last remaining watchtower. When she spotted me, she shifted direction and gracefully landed.
“Gorgeous sunset. Can’t believe I’m witnessing one.”
“Me, either,” I said, but I was looking at her.
Someone shouted my name. I grunted, annoyed.
Lela laughed as I waved at Bobby to go away.
“You want to get out of here for a bit? Disappear?”
“Sounds like a plan. What did you have in mind?”
She shrugged as her wings spread then closed in behind me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered, “Care to see what the Heavens look like? Aside from the forges you broke into,” she added with a wink.
“Sounds peaceful. And quiet.”
“Oh, it is.” Her wings fluttered, and we were lifted into the sky.
Chapter 14
Mech
Six Months Later
Dakota was finally back on the map, and tonight we were having a party to celebrate.
Bryan had been elected its new mayor, which didn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Hell was on a slow path to recovery, but I was alright with that.
We’d spent the last few months tracking down the last living humans, demons, and angels who had gone into hiding. They were all returning home.
What did surprise me was the number of our races that decided to remain on the surface. There was no more division between demons and angels, not even humans.
Whatever force had brought Lela back seemed to know what it was doing. This was all because of her.
Lela had told me one night what she went through after her death. Neither of us was completely certain who she spoke with, nor did we care.
Life was just about perfect. I had Lela, and the world was alive and thriving.
I’d been in Hell for most of the day, overseeing the restructuring of a new home for us, as Lela had in the Heavens.
I opened a portal, left my realm behind and stepped out into the green field that stretched on for miles around Dakota. The portal sealed behind me, and I glanced around.
Lela was supposed to meet me here. As the minutes ticked by, I wondered if she’d been distracted. It happened lately. I was worried she was hiding something from me.
Ilran had acted funny the last few days, too.
I was about to go get her when a circle of white light appeared overhead.
A moment later, Lela appeared, soaring to the surface. She wore a dark blue dress for the occasion. One that clung to her curves. Since the war had ended, she was able to stop wearing armor. Seeing her in normal clothes made my day, just as hearing her laugh or seeing her smile. It was the little things I’d never have enough of.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said, not meeting my gaze.
“Lela, what’s going on?”
“Huh? Nothing, why?” Now she was grinning.
I crossed my arms and waited.
“We’re going to be late.”
“Then we’re late. You’re hiding something.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Can we save the ten-minute back and forth of me asking and you denying until you finally give in? Just tell me, already. Please? Is it your power? Is something wrong?”
“No, uh, no. That’s fine,” she said slowly, and I stilled. “It’s something else I wasn’t expecting. But, well, now I am.”
She wasn’t making any sense. I wondered if she’d been spending too much time working and was about to ask her when the last time she slept was. There were no bags under her eyes or any sign of exhaustion. When I continued to study her intently, she mumbled something about oblivious demons, grabbed my hand, and placed it on her stomach.
“Get it?”
I flattened my hand against her stomach, looked to her, then looked back down. “Are you… are we… you’re… holy shit.”
She laughed as she covered her hand with mine. “Going to take that as you’re excited?”
I nodded, grinning like an idiot. She was pregnant, which meant we were going to be bringing the first of a new race into this world. “How could I not be excited?”
“I don’t know. There’s a lot going on, and we’ve been so busy and—”
I cut her rambling off with a kiss, pulling her into my arms. Suddenly going to the festivities tonight did not sound like fun.
I opened a portal behind me.
Lela laughed. “Mech,” she said, but I walked backward, bringing her with me.
“What? This calls for a celebration. We’ll make it to the party. Eventually.”
We disappeared through the fiery portal, our laughter echoing across the field behind us.
Keep reading for an excerpt from another Ciara Graves series!
Excerpt: Hexing
Magic & Alchemy Book One
Necromancers. Druids. Shamans. Priests. Familiars. Experiments. Attackers of magic. Magic and Alchemy will suck you in.
Rori’s dream to bake in her mother’s shop went up in smoke when she was pulled into a supernatural school for magic types.
On her first day there, she meets two guys. Chas and Brogan. One’s mysterious and brooding. The other one’s sweet and hunky.
And Rori’s in the middle of a rock and a hard place when she can’t figure out what type of supernatural she is and what path she should follow.
And what does her missing father have to do with any of this?
Warning: Unputdownable action-packed fantasy, with necromancers, druids, shamans, and priests.
Chapter 1
Chas
Glass shattered. My mother screamed, reaching for me. That was always what came first in the nightmare where I watched my life ripped to shreds. Metal crunched, followed by a resounding boom. Then everything went silent. What came next was the gentle pattering of raindrops falling, until hands finally reached into the wreckage and pulled me free—
I jerked upright in my bed, drenched in a cold sweat, and cursing as my head throbbed. “Every damned time,” I whispered harshly to the night. “Every time.”
I flung the sheet off my body and stalked around my room, curling and uncurling my fists as I waited for the adrenaline from the nightmare to fade away. I could go all year without having it, but as soon as I neared the anniversary of the accident, the few details I could remember rushed back, and it was like I was there all over again. Hearing my parents yelling as the car was struck, as it rolled, and then the utter silence that came afterward.
I laced my fingers at the back of my neck and breathed in deeply, willing myself to calm down.
My parents had been dead for seventee
n years. That was not about to change.
I glanced at the clock on my nightstand and grunted. Not even worth trying to go back to sleep at this rate. If it was any other day, I’d consider it, but this was the first day for new recruits to arrive at Four Point Training Facility. Horrible name, but it stated the truth. Four classes of magic-users came here to be registered, trained, and in three years sent off to carry out their duty to the magic community.
We weren’t exactly separated from the rest of the population, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say we could do what we wanted with our lives. As soon as an individual came into his or her magic, if it ran in their veins, they had to register with the federal government and the Office of Law and Tracking Magic. Every magic-user was known, and if you tried to hide, well, you were tracked down and found anyway. They had their ways.
After my body stopped tensing every few seconds, I grabbed a fresh change of clothes and stepped out of my dorm into the quiet and empty corridor, headed for the showers.
In a few hours, those who were already residents here would start waking, ready to greet the new recruits. I was expected to be there, but I had better things to do with my time than greet newbies who would be too excited about the notion that this was going to be the start of some great adventure. Or the ones who let their nerves get the best of them.
It was no secret most magic-users were sent to the Vanguard, the main fighting force of our magic communities. The force that kept other magic-users in line, as well as protected us from those who were not as accepting of magic types. I lifted my lip in disgust at the thought of those unaccepting idiots. Just a few weeks ago, an entire bus of the dumbasses had shown up outside our gates with posters and chants, screaming about how we were a nuisance and a danger to the world. What did they know? Magic had been around since the beginning of time, and it wasn’t about to go anywhere.
After a quick shower, I headed to the main building. The lights were just coming on, and the cooks were setting out the first round of eggs, bacon, sausages, biscuits, essentially anything a person could want. All I cared about this morning was coffee. I filled my mug and took a seat at a table in the far corner. I was more than content being by myself.
So much for that.
A shadow fell over me.
I sighed. “Really? Can’t we skip this shit just one year?” I muttered, not bothering to look up.
“No,” the man said as he joined me. “That would break tradition, and I’m not one for breaking anything. You look like shit, by the way.”
This time I did glance up, giving Commander Moran a blank expression. “Thanks. Your wrinkles are showing, old man.” I sipped my coffee.
He shrugged.
“I’m fine.”
He sneered. “Sure you are. Those bags under your eyes say you’re just peachy.”
“I didn’t ask you for your opinion.”
“And when has that ever stopped me?” he asked with a wry smirk. “You have the nightmare again?”
I ran my finger around the edge of my mug as I nodded. “Every year.”
“One day it’ll stop.”
“And you say that every year, too,” I muttered. “Everything about this moment seems quite familiar. Give it ten seconds. Wait for it…” I watched the door to the hall that led in here, counting off the seconds quietly under my breath.
A head of silver hair appeared, framing the face of an older woman who was at least a hundred if not more years old. priests. No one could ever tell how old they were. Then again, we all lived quite a bit longer thanks to the power flowing through our veins.
“Bingo. Right on time.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed as if she’d heard me, and for all I knew, she had. She hurried over and sat down beside Moran. “You look like crap.”
I threw my hands up in the air. “Wow. Thank you for that. Twice this morning.”
“What?” Sister Agnes—as she was known here at the Facility and at the Vanguard outpost—said with a shrug. “It’s true. Did you not meditate before you went to sleep last night?”
“I did, but meditating isn’t really my thing. I’m a druid, not a priest, remember?”
“Watch your tone, Chas,” Moran warned me quietly. “We are just trying to help.”
I breathed out deeply through my nose. “I know, and I’m sorry, but can’t you both just let me deal with this burden my way for once?”
“No,” they said together.
I frowned.
“Your way,” Agnes went on, “would you have running around in the woods all night long as a bear, scaring whatever poor creatures you found out there. Not to mention any recruits you’d petrify with fear. And you would force yourself to stay awake. Your mind and body do not need that much torment.”
“But you’re fine with my having these nightmares for the rest of my life?”
She sighed and patted my hand. “You are only having these dreams because you have not moved on yet.”
I scowled. “Because it’s so easy to move on.”
Moran and Agnes exchanged a look.
“You are in your second year of training,” he said, as if I needed reminding. “And things change. If you are not mentally prepared for what comes next—”
“We are not discussing that yet,” Agnes cut him off sharply.
“Discussing what?” I eyed them both. “Am I missing something?”
Moran’s lips thinned.
Agnes’s eyes flared bright yellow as she stared him down.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Nothing, but this year is going to be more challenging for you.”
“It was last year, too.”
“Because you grew up here at this outpost. You were raised by us. Did you really think we would let you slide in your training just because you turned old enough to officially become a recruit?” Agnes barked a laugh, one I’d heard plenty of times since I came here at such a young age. “I expect great things from you, Chas Bryce. Great things indeed.”
“Not sure why,” I whispered. “I’m not my parents.”
Moran made a disgruntled sound. “No, but you can be. Now, I expect to see you out there greeting first-years with everyone else. And be nice.”
“I’m always nice,” I insisted.
They both raised their brows at that.
I leaned back. “What? I try.”
Moran stood.
“Try harder,” Agnes suggested as she rose. “Perhaps this year you will make friends. Yes?”
“Friends are overrated.”
“Not if you wish to be an Elite they aren’t,” Moran said sternly. “You know this.”
“Not friends. Just teammates.”
“Your issue is you think there’s a difference.” He rapped his knuckles on the table. “We are all family here. One of these days, you will understand what that means. Fighting for more than yourself or to impress those who train you.”
My turn to raise a brow. “Teams don’t need to be friends, Moran, just compatible. Everyone knows this.”
“Perhaps,” he said, his head falling to the side as he studied me. “Or is it being compatible is what makes a friendship last? Makes the bond stronger? Have that be your lesson for the day.”
“Commander Moran!”
The three of us turned as a soldier clad in black rushed into the hall and handed Moran a missive.
“Just came in. They’re back,” the soldier said in a rush, his eyes darting to me.
That look made me wonder. It’s not like he didn’t recognize me. Everyone here knew who I was. I waited for him to give the report. To expand on who was back, but he clamped his mouth shut.
Moran opened the missive, and his eyes darkened as the shaman tattoo on his hand shimmered with the rise of his emotions. The tattoo consisted of three feathers braided around horns. The symbol was unique to him and his power. “Chas, think about what I told you,” he said.
The three of them started to walk away.
“What’s going on?�
�� I asked.
Moran paused.
I pushed on. “Is it the team?”
“Nothing you need to worry about today. Take care of yourself, go for a run in the woods, just don’t scare the crap out of any first-year recruits, alright?”
Then they were gone, just like that.
Over the last few months, I’d noticed Moran told me less and less about the five elite teams he was in charge of. Used to be, any time a report came in, he called me to his office, said he wanted me to be as much a part of this world as I could. After all, my parents had been part of the Elite Guard, too, before they were killed in a car wreck, of all things. I thought of tracking down the soldier who brought the report, and seeing what I could get out of him, but every soldier and commander here was loyal to Commander Moran. For a good reason, too. He was a legend amongst not just shamans, but all magic-users. I had been lucky to be trained by him and Agnes. She had a reputation of her own and was not to be crossed. Ever.
After seventeen years of having her watching over my shoulder, always catching me when I got myself in trouble, you’d think I would’ve learned my lesson.
“Screw it,” I mumbled, draining my coffee. I decided I was going to try and catch up with Moran, see if I could get anything out of that soldier anyway. Or sneak into the commander’s office.
I was barely two steps out the front doors when a staff crossed my path, and I grunted as it hit my chest, forcing me to a stop. I hung my head, waiting for the lecture as the staff hit the stones beneath with a resonating clang.
“Going somewhere?” Agnes asked.
“No, not at all.”
“Right. Go for your morning run and leave Moran to his business.”
“He’s been acting strange for months now.” I lowered my voice as several other recruits passed us.
Agnes motioned me off the path, and we stepped into the grass.
