by Rachel Jonas
Table of Contents
—Chapter One—
—Chapter Two—
—Chapter Three—
—Chapter Four—
—Chapter Five—
—Chapter Six—
—Chapter Seven—
—Chapter Eight—
—Chapter Nine—
—Chapter Ten—
—Chapter Eleven—
—Chapter Twelve—
—Chapter Thirteen—
—Chapter Fourteen—
—Chapter Fifteen—
—Chapter Sixteen—
—Chapter Seventeen—
—Chapter Eighteen—
—Chapter Nineteen—
—Chapter Twenty—
—Chapter Twenty-One—
—Chapter Twenty-Two—
—Chapter Twenty-Three—
—Chapter Twenty-Four—
—Chapter Twenty-Five—
—Chapter Twenty-Six—
—Chapter Twenty-Seven—
—Chapter Twenty-Eight—
Dark Side of the Moon
book two in THE LOST ROYALS saga
a series written by
Rachel Jonas
Dark Side of the Moon
Copyright © 2017, Rachel Jonas
Cover design by Rachel Jonas
This work is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including, but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Rachel Jonas (R.C. Jonas).
This e-book is licensed for personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Table of Contents
—Chapter One—
—Chapter Two—
—Chapter Three—
—Chapter Four—
—Chapter Five—
—Chapter Six—
—Chapter Seven—
—Chapter Eight—
—Chapter Nine—
—Chapter Ten—
—Chapter Eleven—
—Chapter Twelve—
—Chapter Thirteen—
—Chapter Fourteen—
—Chapter Fifteen—
—Chapter Sixteen—
—Chapter Seventeen—
—Chapter Eighteen—
—Chapter Nineteen—
—Chapter Twenty—
—Chapter Twenty-One—
—Chapter Twenty-Two—
—Chapter Twenty-Three—
—Chapter Twenty-Four—
—Chapter Twenty-Five—
—Chapter Twenty-Six—
—Chapter Twenty-Seven—
—Chapter Twenty-Eight—
HEART OF THE DRAGON
Description
A supernatural war fast approaching. A young queen who may not live to take the throne.
Evie can't recall her past life, but her quest for answers revealed the truth behind local lore: wolves and dragon shifters do exist ... and she's a hybrid descendant of both. Keeping her identity as the returned queen hidden is no small feat. Especially when it's unclear who's friend or foe, who risked it all to bring her back, and why?
It's with Liam's help that she learns to embrace and control her new abilities. Their shared past dates back centuries, an era when Liam was much more to her than just a warrior. She has no memory of their time together, but traces of a powerful bond linger even now.
But she's torn.
Can the choices she makes in the present override supernatural ties and legends of old? Or is her future already written in stone?
Including signs pointing toward her untimely death at the hands of Nick, the boy who stole her heart the moment she set foot in Seaton Falls?
Evie refuses to be ruled by her past.
Nick's determined to rewrite the future that marks him as her killer.
And as for Liam, her warrior ... he looks forward to stopping him when he fails.
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“Dark Side of the Moon”
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The Lost Royals Saga
The Genesis of Evangeline, Book 1 (Available Now)
Dark Side of the Moon, Book 2 (Available Now)
Heart of the Dragon, Book 3 (Tentative Release February/March 2018)
(Future installment release dates to be announced)
—Chapter One—
Liam
Every large clan kept a few witches around. They were pets, mostly, but every now and then they were let loose to torture someone if an Elder deemed them a threat.
Today, I was that someone.
If the three holding me hostage in my own home were any indication, the coven allied with the lycans of Seaton Falls were a nasty bunch.
A small fist slammed the right side of my face, proving my point. I spat blood to the floor and she loved it—the one who looked to be about twelve, although I suspected all three were at least a few hundred years old. Most were. Some were far older.
Their magic paralyzed me, binding me to the chair they dragged in from the kitchen. No rope or chains necessary. The only thing I could do was speak, but that didn’t matter much because they weren’t here to reason. Their master gave a command and they followed that command blindly.
Like pets.
I first spotted them at this afternoon’s meeting—three deceivingly frail figures cloaked in dark garbs, posted beside the Elders. The moment they entered the crowded chamber hidden beneath the library, I knew what purpose they served. They were sort of a supernatural version of the secret service, a failsafe should the assembly between the clan and Council get out of hand. After it was announced that the young shifters of Seaton Falls were being taken against their parents’ will, it wasn’t hard to understand why the witches’ presence was necessary.
Fortunately for the clan, they avoided tasting the wrath these three were capable of raining down.
Too bad I couldn’t say the same for myself.
Heavy steps approached from behind and the wood slats creaked with each. So far, all the Elder had done was watch his minions beat me bloody, but now, it appeared he was ready to talk.
A dark shadow blocked light from the window to my left and I peered up, unable to lift my head. I swear, if it hadn’t been for the witches holding me hostage in my seat, I would’ve snapped this guy’s neck on sight. He wouldn’t be the first Elder I killed. Probably wouldn’t be the last. They had a tendency to think they were invincible.
I kinda liked showing them they weren’t.
His face was hidden in the shadow of his hood, but I could feel
him staring as he came into view. He stopped at my feet. I breathed hard and heavy. I didn’t trust him. It seemed he couldn’t have cared less about his own clan, so what was to stop him from taking advantage of the paralysis and ending me right now?
“Speak, dragon.” The Elder’s voice was slow and deep, trembling with the same unearthly vibrato as every other. “What business do you have here in Seaton Falls?”
Before I could answer, another spray of blood left my mouth when the small one took a second jab. My eyes cut toward her as I panted. I wanted her throat beneath my boot so badly it was almost unbearable.
“Settle down, Scarlet. Let him speak,” the Elder commanded.
She, the one I’d let the life out of first chance I got, backed away with a grin.
My eyes went to the Elder again. “Wouldn’t it have been more efficient to ask questions first?”
Scarlet wound her finger in a slow circle from a few feet away and another jolt of pain ricocheted off my skull. It seemed to irritate her that she couldn’t get a reaction out of me other than gritting my teeth.
“Lilith? Marin? Take your sister outside until she learns to behave herself.”
The witches responded to the Elder’s harshly spoken words without question. The screen door slammed when they were gone, and it was just the two of us now.
“Answer the question, dragon. Why are you here?”
I didn’t speak right away. It was important to weigh my words carefully to protect the only person on this planet who mattered to me—Evangeline. Not responding at all would have made him end me right here and now. While death had never been something I feared, dying would mean she’d be alone and defenseless. Seeing as how today revealed who and what she needed protection from, I had to stay alive.
For her.
“I’ve only got so much patience,” he grumbled, strolling around my chair in a slow circle.
There was only one answer I was willing to give. “I’m here to protect a common interest.”
He didn’t speak right away and the only sound in the room was his steady ambling behind my seat. I didn’t like not having a visual on him.
“A common interest.” The phrase seemed to amuse him. “You must mean the girl.”
I had to tread lightly. There was a possibility he was unaware of Evangeline’s true identity, the reason she was so important to their race and mine. So, the only confirmation I gave was my silence.
“Hm.” Linking his hands behind his back, he paced again. “We were told she wouldn’t be any trouble.” He stopped in front of me, adding, “But you, dragon… you certainly look like trouble.”
I didn’t reply, only watched the sway of the dark-burgundy robe he hid beneath.
“She was supposed to be the only one,” he went on. “And had it not been for her also being half lycan, there would have been no convincing the others to allow it.” His steps continued to echo. “The only thing that proved to be a more difficult challenge, was convincing them she even was a lycan. It’s nearly impossible to trace our scent beneath that god-awful smoke.”
That’d always been true about her. Yes, she was both—lycan and dragon—but even in the past, her dragon was stronger than her wolf. I believe because she favored the gifts of one over the other.
“Who sent you and what’s your mission?” Apparently, he had no plans to let the vague answer I gave slide.
“I have no mission, because no one sent me.”
At the sound of my voice, he stopped in his tracks and, while I couldn’t see his expression beneath the shadow, I was sure he was furious now.
“I’m supposed to believe it’s a coincidence that not one, but two bloodthirsty dragons—a species most are fortunate to go centuries without ever crossing one’s path—just so happened to waltz through Seaton Falls amid such a monumental… rough patch… for our people?” He nodded slowly. “Interesting.”
This was going nowhere, and I didn’t like being stuck here while Evangeline was God-knows-where. Who’s to say he hadn’t sent someone to interrogate her as well? Yes, she was, technically, a member of his clan, but only by default. Only because she lived here.
But she wasn’t like the others who’d been born and raised under their leadership, wasn’t regarded as ‘one of them’. I knew this because she spoke many times of feeling like an outsider. There was only one she seemed to connect with, but that, like everything else, wasn’t quite what it seemed.
“If you tell me who sent her here, I may be able to explain things better,” I reasoned.
If I understood how Evangeline ended up in Seaton Falls, alive after dying centuries ago, if I knew whether her regeneration somehow put her in danger, I could better gage who to trust. But until that happened, I wouldn’t risk saying too much.
I sighed when he ignored my first inquiry, but didn’t let that stop me from making another.
“If this is about me crashing your Council meeting today, I only wanted answers. If I was gonna hurt somebody, I would’ve done it already. I’ve been living here for months.”
He seemed to only hear one part of my explanation and repeated it as a question. “Answers?”
I was able to nod, which meant the witch’s spell was beginning to wear off. “In case you hadn’t noticed, a gang of mutts showed up on my property earlier. Seeing as how there’s been a problem with them lately, I knew your meeting was where I’d find more information, like why they were sent.”
My clothes were still caked with those things’ black blood and dark fur. The result of a human bitten by a lycan was a complete and total abomination. No, all didn’t turn into these disgusting beasts, but for the majority who did? Ugliest thing you’ve ever seen.
“And… did you fend off these mutts alone?”
I wasn’t sure why that mattered, but shared anyway. Whatever it took to get him to call off his pets so I could check in with Evangeline. “No. There were others here.”
I envisioned the four lycans who fought at our side.
“Like whom?” he asked next.
It didn’t take long to figure out where his line of questioning was headed or why he was here. It had nothing to do with the Council meeting. Those lycans snitched, the ones who helped with the mutts. I ran their brother, Nick, off my property after discovering he was no ordinary, run-of-the-mill wolf.
His true nature was terrible and sinister regardless of his outer appearance, regardless of whether he realized his purpose. His destiny was to become the Liberator… a living, breathing weapon with one mission: to liberate Evangeline’s soul from her body.
His ability to hear her heartbeat across a crowded room, his excessive strength, his speed… it all increased his chances of ending her life. It all made him the ultimate predator.
So, why did I let him get away? Why was he still breathing, you ask?
Because the one girl capable of changing my mind insisted on it. As fate would have it, with neither having initial knowledge of how one’s future impacted the other’s … they were friends.
Or … more than friends.
He loved her. For all I knew, she felt the same to some degree. Neither spoke of it, but I wasn’t blind. And, as someone who’s loved her his entire life, I knew the look of a man who’d fallen. It nearly broke him to hear me explain that his assignment was to take her life, but he’d never get the chance on my watch.
One day, his feelings for her wouldn’t matter. Eventually, he’d forget all the fond memories and his nature would overtake him. And, because of the handy parlor trick that enabled him to hear her heart, there would be no place she could hide from him. He would seek to carry out the task he was born to fulfill at all costs.
But I’d be there to kill him before he succeeded.
I should have seen this coming—the mess, the fallout. The lycans here had no concept of the big picture, of their past, their legacy. They knew so little of their own history it was almost laughable. Clearly, the Elders didn’t trust them with much information, but did t
hey not realize the lack of knowledge would cripple them?
Make them vulnerable?
The oldest wolf I’d sensed in passing, aside from the Elders, couldn’t have been more than a hundred. That was still no excuse for the lack of preparation I’d seen here. Most of the kids who turned didn’t even have a clue what was happening. In recent years, it wasn’t uncommon to hear of clans living in blissful ignorance, pretending to be only human because, sometimes, that was easier. But I couldn’t begin to express the negligence of such an oversight. Unfortunately, the residents of this scenic, Michigan town in the hills learned that the hard way a couple days ago. Right before the mutts showed up, many of the teens shifted years before the typical age of transition—twenty.
The end result? A rash of injuries and homes in desperate need of repair after the newly-turned lycans raged out of control. The fiasco had the clan scrambling for a solution. They settled on sending their young shifters to a facility where they’d be trained to defend themselves, their packs, their clan.
Like I said, ignorance is bliss until it isn’t.
And it was that same ignorance that brought the three witches and an Elder to my doorstep today.
Evangeline being equal parts dragon and lycan meant they had as much stake in protecting her as I did. Their prejudice for my race—a species they’ve always revered as unpredictable, dangerous—was apparent. And Evangeline’s tendency to present more as a dragon than a lycan didn’t help. It made her seem like an outsider to them, but they couldn’t have been more wrong about that.
Yes, her mother, a native of a small village in France, was the original dragon. However, Evangeline’s father, who ruled a kingdom in the heart of Ethiopia, was one of two original lycans. So, with the death of both her parents… that made her queen.
To their race.
To mine.
A once fallen descendant of two original shifters. And, somehow, she’d shown up right here in this town, and all I wanted to know was:
How?
But I couldn’t make it known why I was so curious. Keeping Evangeline’s identity secret for now was, perhaps, the only way to keep her safe.
