by A. K. Koonce
Darkness Rising
Copyright 2018 A.K. Koonce
All Rights Reserved
Cover design by Killer Book Covers
Editing by Varankor Editing
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without express written permission from the author. Any unauthorized use of this material is prohibited.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A soul is a powerful thing. It’s filled with emotion and pain and strength. And yet, it is so easily broken.
.
Table of Contents
Chapter One – The Wild Hunt
Chapter Two – Death is in the Air
Chapter Three – The Princess
Chapter Four – The Lap Dog
Chapter Five – To Love a Huntress
Chapter Six – Trust
Chapter Seven – Quiet Rage
Chapter Eight – The Warlock
Chapter Nine — Severed Souls
Chapter Ten – Cock Blocking
Chapter Eleven – Unseen Trespassers
Chapter Twelve –Death
Chapter Thirteen – A Distraction
Chapter Fourteen – Confessions
Chapter Fifteen – Place of Peace
Chapter Sixteen – It Doesn’t Mean Anything
Chapter Seventeen – Illusions of Alliances
About A.K. Koonce
Chapter One
The Wild Hunt
Do you know what it’s like to be no one? A shadow among a world of darkness?
Because I do.
His teeth sink into the crisp apple and the manic way he wipes the juices away with the back of his hand makes the magic within me scurry through my veins. The animalistic behavior distracts my quiet thoughts. The simple things about him make me even more wary of my place among these three men.
If Jeriko had the opportunity to kill me, I know he would.
But what the Fae doesn’t realize is that my father will tear the life out of my soul long before anyone else gets the chance to.
I’m surrounded by death as I wait for my own.
“You gonna stare daggers at Jeriko all night, every night, Vi?” Link lowers himself to the ground, taking a seat at my side.
I pull my gaze away from Jeriko, pretending to clean the dark edge of my blade with rapt attention. A dark and glinting scar lines my knuckles. It’s the mark of the Wild Hunt.
For the last few years, I’ve just kept to myself here. I didn’t intend to, but I’ve sunken into my thoughts entirely. So much so that I’m barely a person at all anymore. Sometimes I’m so isolated in my own thoughts, I just feel empty. I wish I could I reach out to Link the way he does me, but I … don’t.
I don’t have the will to put effort into this bizarre life I live here.
My father, King Melic, sentenced me to the Wild Hunt at the age of eighteen. It’s a lonely life. And on the off chance I do get to meet new people, I kill them.
Yeah, not too many people are lining up to be my friend.
Except for Link, who can’t seem to take a hint to save his forgotten soul. He reaches out to me every night. He tries to engage me. But I just can’t find the energy to force small talk.
What’s the point?
I had a real life once; a good life. I was torn from it and hidden away. Perhaps it was because I’m too powerful, perhaps because I am hated by my father, perhaps because it was easy.
It’s astounding how easy it was for them to shut me away.
“You don’t have to ignore me. I’m one of three people who can actually see you. Would it be so bad to pass the time with a little conversation?” Link’s lavender eyes meet mine, and for a second, I consider breaking my silence. His pretty eyes are soft and kind, opposite to the hard-glaring eyes of Jeriko and Nollix. He’s wild though. Just as wild as the magic that flows through the four of us.
Magic is a dangerous thing; a deadly thing. Especially wild magic. And so, I’ll keep my silence. I’ll keep the space I’ve carefully set up between these three men and myself.
A scar that tries to consume us all slices through his lower lip. It’s black and shines with magic. It’s identical to the scar that etches across the back of my hand.
It’s just a small token of the rampant magic of the Wild Hunt.
Our fire blazes embers into the dark night sky. It warms me and makes me remember the nights I was really alive. The nights I danced in celebration at the Court of Darkness. That freeing feeling of those nights threatens to fill my chest, but I shove the memories back down and focus on the mundane task of cleaning my sword.
My fingertips begin to shimmer. A black, metallic color starts to sparkle across my hand. It looks like the scar there is breaking down my skin, flaking away like glittering dust.
My chest grows tight with a knowing sense of dread. The magic begins to eat up my flesh. My fingertips dissolve into the wind. It’s a tingling feeling like numbness is trying to settle into my veins.
“Shit, another one?” Nollix groans as he watches his hands disappear as well. His body starts to blow away like sand drifting through the breeze. Our gazes meet. My attention trails over the thin, black scar that creeps up his neck and kisses his jaw line. I have to force myself to look quickly away from him.
“Stop complaining. The chase is the best part.” Jeriko’s depthless eyes shine with gleaming excitement.
The constant maliciousness in his gaze terrifies me but I’ll never let him know that. Fear is a weakness. It’s something I’ll never show these men.
My chin rises, my jaw strung tight. Magic tears at my arms, pulling my existence away in glittering dark granules. The cool summer breeze sweeps up the sparkling particles of my life, and I watch as it dances across the full moon. The ends of my blonde hair whip across my face and I stand unflinching for what’s about to come.
The Wild Hunt has been summoned, and that can only mean one thing.
Death will fill the night soon enough.
Chapter Two
Death is in the Air
The swirling breeze carries us over my father’s kingdom. The city passes in a blur of shining lights and colors. It’s a wealthy community. Beautiful buildings and busy streets take up miles and miles of the land. I’m thankful I can never truly see it. I hate seeing it. I hate seeing people I once knew.
I do love the flight, though. I love the feel of the wind caressing me, freeing me, comforting me for just a few short seconds. The four of us hold powers gifted by the Wild Hunt. I’ve always loved the feel of it.
Until it spits me out as quickly as it pulled me in.
A tingling sensation consumes my body as the glittering particles swirl around me, making me whole once again. The last glinting granule tingles against my fingertip as it settles back into place.
A golden hue emits from a street lamp overhead. It falls across the dark alley, shining light onto the tragedy that’s sure to come.
We stand on the opposite side of the street. A train passes fast and loud directly behind us. The speed of it pulls at my hair, swirling my locks restlessly around my face.
Jeriko’s palm connects suddenly with my shoulder. My feet falter. A gasping breath leaves my lungs and I force the magic to burst through my body at the last second.
My body breaks down into millions of swirling particles. The train collides with t
he dust that is my life. It carries me swiftly into the night air. I’m aware of the panic within me. And I’m even more aware of the stinging pain of the impact.
At a rapid pace, my body shifts back into place. I glare up at the sneering Fae.
I hate him.
I hate him with every single fucking sparkling particle of my existence.
My glaring gaze trails over his features. That magic that scars us all takes more and more of us the longer we’re in this job. Jeriko’s been here for so long half of his face glistens black as if the magic of the Wild Hunt is consuming him from the inside out.
Maybe it’s eating away at his rational mind.
My fingertips press against his wide chest and Jeriko just stares down at the minor touch. My jaw clenches as the air around us starts to quiver. My magic starts to shake through me, picking up speed and turning the breeze into a sudden rapid mass of power.
Link’s palm presses to my lower back. It’s a calming touch, a warming touch that I want to sink into.
But I don’t. At the feel of his hand on my body, I push down on the rising energy within me. The small contact of Link’s warm fingers makes the aggression in me fall away.
In a weird way, he is my friend.
“Don’t fucking touch her again. We have shit to do. Obviously.” Link keeps his pretty eyes locked on Jeriko’s as he presses lightly against my back, ushering me forward.
He’s right though. We do have a job to do here.
And thinking of clever ways to murder Jeriko isn’t one of them.
For now.
The four of us make our way across the quiet street. Just ahead, a man a little older than me is backed into the corner of a brick building and a wooden fence. His dark eyes sweep across the five men before him, assessing every move they make.
He seems young. Around my age maybe. Early twenties at the most. He stands with more confidence than fear. It’s always interesting to see their will to live. Would I put up that much of a fight?
I’d like to think I would.
“You don’t want to push me,” he tells them on a steady breath.
Really? That’s your opening line? Clearly, you’re not as powerful as you think you are, or I wouldn’t fucking be here.
The four of us wait patiently. Link takes a seat on the damp cobblestone, crossing his legs like he’s a child preparing for story time. His pale eyes blaze with magic, hungry for what’s about to come. Jeriko does the opposite; he paces, his gaze eating up every detail of the night. Nollix leans against the brick building, his attention fixed on me like he might consume me with just a dark look.
On silent steps, I journey into the heart of the fight that’s about to ensue.
I hate my job. I hate the Wild Hunt. But these dark and terrible moments are the only time I’m allowed around living, breathing people.
And I won’t waste it by sitting around and waiting for death to fall.
“Don’t touch them, Vi,” Nollix warns, his deep and mocking voice echoing up the tall buildings.
“She knows. She’s quiet, not an idiot.” I both love and loathe when Link stands up for me.
“If by quiet, you mean completely mute, then yeah, she’s a little quiet.” Nollix’s tone holds the annoyance he always seems to have for me. The first day we met, he tried to speak to me. It didn’t help our friendship. He tried and failed. It only took that one time to piss him off enough to never really try again.
Their banter slips away from my thoughts the closer and closer I come to the beautiful, daring man about to lose his life.
Carefully, I slip between the gang of five who are crowding around the victim. The man’s features are set in an assured look of self-confidence that has me edging nearer to him. I’m an unseen audience in what is sure to be his bloody death.
Right now, it’s just him and me, though. His eyes are a honey color, alive with adrenaline that I can practically feel kicking through my own veins. He’s tall, a foot taller than me, with no weapons to aid him. Tonight’s chase will end quickly, it seems. Quietly, I stalk around his lithe body, measuring him up.
If this were a different world, and I were a simple princess, who would he be in my life? A welder? My gaze sweeps over his tightly held fists. He doesn’t appear to have welder hands. His skin and clothes are clean, unblemished.
My fingertips ghost over the tension held in his shoulder blades.
“No touching, Violence,” Nollix warns once more.
I shoot him a look from beneath my lashes and he holds my gaze for so long my heartbeat begins to pound in my ears.
“Something’s here,” one of the attackers says in a terrified whisper.
Hmm. I oddly like when they can sense me. The Wild Hunt lives an invisible life between the living and dead. I am alive. My heart typically pounds a quiet and forgotten beat. But we do not live among the living. We may as well be dead. Some people, like this one—those more in tune with nature—they can sense me.
I turn to him, the one with the wide eyes, searching sightlessly about for the huntress right before him. Without lifting a finger, I release a breeze of wafting magic around him, caressing the hem of his dark shirt and lifting his hair in a heavy gust of wind.
“Did your mother never tell you not to play with your food?” Jeriko asks with a manic smile.
The three of them stand several yards away, watching and waiting and hoping and praying the night will bring them what they want. That it’ll end soon enough.
While I want it to go on forever.
I feel alive next to them. It’s probably because I know their soul will give me a burst of exhilaration once it’s consumed.
“Seriously, this shit’s giving me the creeps,” the nervous man says, taking a step back from the group.
“Then let’s get it over with. Teach Cameron here not to steal from the crown ever again.”
The crown?
I turn to the victim, Cameron. His eyes lower, and for an instant, I wonder what he took from my father.
But there isn’t time to dwell on those facts. Not when death will come quickly.
A burst of light fills my vision and I sidestep the assaulting magic with ease. Cameron isn’t so lucky. The attack hits him squarely in the abdomen. A brilliant, blazing fire of green drills into him.
He sinks low, his knees hitting the grimy stone hard.
Damn, that did end quickly. I lower myself, kneeling next to him, waiting for his life to leave his body.
I’m like a wide-eyed child, waiting to open a gift. Unfortunately, for Cameron, that gift is his fucking soul.
To my surprise, Cameron lifts his head to the men. A cruel smile pulls at the corner of his mouth.
My lips part as I stare at him.
That was a killing blow. A rattling last breath should be shaking his lungs, not … laughter.
“I told you not to push me,” he whispers with a quiet laugh.
The green energy that seeped into his chest is thrown out with more force than I’ve ever seen. It hits the fearful attacker in the center of his body. The man slumps to the ground with a sickening thud and Jeriko is there in an instant like a starving dog.
Life, shining and bright, leaves the man’s body. It’s an apparition of who he used to be, and Jeriko gives it a five-second head start before racing after the departed soul. The man almost gets away before Jeriko’s body dissolves into a chaotic swirling mass. The magic of the Wild Hunt turns him into an ominous mass of destruction. It grows into a smothering shadow, looming high above us before crashing down on the bright soul. His dark essence wraps around the man, blanketing his soul until he absorbs it entirely.
Euphoric energy twirls all through my body, making me sigh at the feel of it. The other two men of the Wild Hunt mirror my peaceful look. Jeriko’s bulky frame turns solid once again. He looks up to the heavens with a satisfied smile slashing across his face.
Cameron’s quick movements catch my attention. His palms slam hard into the cobblestone. T
he earth cracks beneath his power. Trembling stones shift beneath my feet. The men stumble back and begin to run. As the world shifts for one unsteady second, I’m jostled.
My boots stumble and I fall forward hard.
Warm and calming heat meets my fingertips as I crash into Cameron. He holds my weight but we both hit the ground with a jarring impact.
Silence settles in. Our breaths fan together, drifting my long hair around our faces. His fingertips dig into my hips, sending a reckless energy all through me from his simple touch. He stares up at me with eyes just as wide as my own.
“Fuck,” is the only explanation that falls from my lips.
It’s the first terrible and spectacular thing I’ve said to anyone in over three years.
Chapter Three
The Princess
Unlawful detainment of the living; that’s the crime I’ve committed. It is a crime for a hunter or huntress to capture a live soul. Not that anyone’s ever been stupid enough to do it.
No, lucky me, I am the first.
My father’s magic pulled us to the Court of Darkness so fast it took my breath away. The invisible veil that surrounds us was ripped painfully away. Now we stand in plain sight, and suddenly, all I want is to be hidden away again.
“Stop pacing. It’s not like your father would skin you alive for accidentally stealing someone’s soul,” Link says in a reassuring voice that doesn’t reassure me one fucking bit.
I continue my slow pacing just to spite him.
He acts like this was just a small blunder. Apparently, pulling a living person into the in between world of the Wild Hunt is on the same scale as spilled milk in Link’s eyes.
My father would kill me for less. The King of the Court of Darkness has approximately three hundred and four heirs, and I’m the least favorite. Not that I’m sulking about it.
“Dude was probably going to die anyway,” Link adds, his palm pushing down the inside of my arm. His touch sends a shivering feeling down my skin and I jerk away from it and him.
“Yeah, I’m right here if you could not talk about my death like that.” Cameron cocks a brow at Link and Link gives him a side-look of disinterest.
