The Challenge

by Kallysten

  FATED & FORBIDDEN

  11 authors. One PNR series.

  After lifetimes of watching her creations perpetuate misery and destruction, the creator Allendra has had enough. She’s given them a month to prove themselves capable of love… and to prove they should keep their supernatural powers. Some will fight, and some will fall, but all will feel the power of the Blood Moon… even Allendra herself…

  THE CHALLENGE

  Prologue to the Fated & Forbidden series

  Kallysten

  Centuries ago, Allendra and Zaan, wielding the Source together, created supernatural beings they hoped would bring peace and harmony to the world. Instead, strife, feuds, and wars took their toll.

  After lifetimes of watching her creations perpetuate misery and destruction, Allendra has had enough. She has been harnessing the power of the upcoming Blood Moon, and plans to strip every one of these beings of their supernatural powers.

  Zaan, long estranged from her, returns to ask her to reconsider, but the Challenge she issues might be more than he bargained for...

  Copyright © 2016 Kallysten

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written consent of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  The right of Kallysten to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  First Published 2016

  All characters in this publication are purely fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  The characters from the rest of the Fated & Forbidden series are used with permission of their respective owners.

  Edited by Mary S.

  Although this eBook is offered free of charge as an introduction to the Fated & Forbidden series, Kallysten retains full copyright over this work. Please do not distribute, transform or sell this ebook.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  The Challenge

  Teasers

  About the author

  THE CHALLENGE

  “And how exactly do you intend to stop me, child?”

  The words echoed in Allendra’s mind even though they’d not been meant for her, disturbing the calm of her meditation like a jolt of electricity. She hadn’t exactly heard them; she was on the second floor of her mansion, too far to hear words spoken at the front door where her handmaiden, Ondine, dealt with a visitor. Even after all this time, however, her mind was attuned to Zaan’s presence, enough so that she’d picked up on his words from the depth of her meditation.

  How long had it been since she’d heard his voice in person? She barely even remembered. Long enough, at least, that Ondine had never met him and so would have no idea who he might be. As a fae, Ondine would feel his power and she might recognize it as being the same as Allendra’s, but she would still try to stop him from entering the house.

  Let him in, Allendra sent directly into Ondine’s mind. Bring him upstairs. Stay close but do not interfere.

  Ondine’s mental reply was one of obedience, as always, but a sliver of wariness colored the thought.

  Allendra neither opened her eyes nor moved a muscle, keeping the pose she’d adopted only minutes ago for her meditation. Her legs folded beneath her and her arms extended on either side of her, palms up, she invited the Source, the magical power that fueled the universe, that burned at the core of stars and in the heart of every creature alike, to envelop her and give her strength.

  She heard them come into the room, but long seconds passed before Zaan spoke; was he watching her? No doubt he’d know what she was doing; the flecks of light swirling through the large chamber, like a dance centered around her and following the heartbeat of the world, would give it away. How often had they sat like this next to each other, drawing in on the Source while preparing to accomplish great things together?

  She could feel each tiny bit of power as it touched her, as her body and soul absorbed it, and each one was like the most fleeting of caresses. Once upon another life, every meditation had ended with real caresses—and much more than caresses, too.

  “You’re making a mistake,” he finally said.

  She was loath to break her concentration, and would have liked to ignore Zaan a little longer, but it had been so long since they’d met that she couldn’t resist the temptation of talking to him. She’d never been able to resist it, not from the very first time, when she was so scared of his foreign appearance and couldn’t understand a word of the strange language he spoke but still didn’t run from him.

  “And what mistake would that be?” she asked him in a calm voice.

  She could hear his footsteps on the stone floor, coming closer to her, could feel the air displaced by his movements caress her face and bare arms. She shivered at the sensation, and banished the stray thought that it had been far too long since he’d touched her. When he spoke next, his words were quieter, but came from much closer.

  “I know what you plan to do. You can’t, Allendra. The Source shouldn’t be used in that fashion. It’s for creation, not destruction.”

  They’d had this argument dozens, hundreds of times across the millennia, and neither had ever swayed the other in any way. Rather than starting them on the same worn paths again, she asked, “How could you possibly know what I intend to do?”

  “How could I not?” Zaan countered. “I know how you think. I’ve seen the same things you have. I know a Blood Moon is coming. I’ve felt you gathering power for weeks. It’s not so difficult to figure it out. And I’m asking you. Please don’t.”

  She could have ignored his words, but she gave a start at the brush of his fingers on her knee. Her concentration broken, she dropped her arms and opened her eyes to glare at him. He sat cross-legged across from her, on the edge of the wide, moon-like sigil carved in the floor. The fine cloak he wore fanned out behind him like a cape; unbuttoned in the front, it revealed Zaan’s bare chest, smooth except for an old, faded scar beneath his collarbone. The cloak’s gleaming white seemed even brighter against his dark skin.

  Ondine stood a few steps behind him, her gray eyes fixed on the back of Zaan’s head, her hand close to the dagger at her waist, although she wasn’t quite touching it yet. Ready, as always, to defend Allendra should it be needed, and keep repaying a debt that had been settled ten times over.

  For all of the power they wielded when tapping into the Source, for all that they’d lived millennia without ever aging, Allendra and Zaan had started their lives as humans, and they could die like humans if a weapon pierced their hearts or slashed their throats. Ondine had vowed never to let anything happen to Allendra, but if she attacked Zaan now she was more likely to get hurt than he was.

  “They’re mine,” Allendra said as she stood, retreating just far enough to be out of Zaan’s reach so Ondine would relax. Her skin still tingled from the feel of the Source, and while once she’d have craved his hands, she couldn’t bear his touch now. “My creations. The blame for each of their mistakes falls on me—”

  “On us,” Zaan interrupted, looking up at her from the floor. “They’re my creations too. I ache as much as you do when they—”

  She forced out a laugh at that, cold and mirthless.

  “You thrive on chaos! Why would you care if they cause more pain, more strife? It’s what you want!”

  With slow, graceful movements, he pushed himself off the floor and to his feet, so that she now was the one looking up at him. Behind him, Ondine tensed, her body le
aning forward ever so slightly. She stilled again without taking a step closer, but sent out a quiet, You need only say the word, my lady, into Allendra’s mind.

  It won’t be needed, Allendra replied, focusing once more on Zaan.

  The slight curve of his lips—not wide enough to be called a smile—made her fists curl and her heart jump in her chest, the power she’d been gathering begging to be let out and used.

  “You know better,” he said, mildly chastising. “I can enjoy the surprises that free spirits offer me with each of their choices and still deplore every act of destruction that causes a voice to die out.”

  The earnestness in his dark eyes dared her to call him a liar and made her regret her outburst. Why was it that he always managed to make her forget reason and orderly thoughts?

  She turned her back on him and took a few steps away toward the altar at the back of the room, gathering her calm about her like putting armor on before a battle. She couldn’t allow him to delay her preparations. The Blood Moon was only four weeks away, and it would be centuries before moons, planets, and stars were aligned in such a pattern again—centuries before the strength of the Source was sufficient again for Allendra to do this on her own. Ondine had power of her own, but nowhere near enough to help now.

  “They’re my creations too,” Zaan said again. “If you intend to wipe them out, I should have a say in it.”

  Feeling collected now that she wasn’t so close to him anymore, Allendra faced him again, holding her head high as she considered him. He was still the same as ever, both in the way he looked and in the way he held himself. He’d never worn a crown—neither of them had ever cared to rule over humans or the beings they’d created in such a way—but his features held a regal elegance, from his strong chin and cheekbones to his straight nose to his generous lips. His cloak didn’t begin to disguise his wide shoulders, and she knew the strength of his arms, how tightly, how gently they could hold—

  Grinding her teeth, she shook the thought away. That was then and there; here and now was different.

  “There is nothing you can say that will cause me to change my mind. Unless you want us to fight?”

  She raised an eyebrow at that, letting him know how ludicrous she found the mere idea of a fight. They had the same power, the same strength, the same will; they both knew that a fight could only have two outcomes: a perfect draw, or mutual annihilation. Allendra had been gathering power for weeks, true enough, but even after all this time, they were still linked; if he’d found her, it was because he’d felt her gather power, and she’d felt him do the same in reply.

  The simple truth of it was that the last time they’d argued, Earth had shaken and cities had been leveled to the ground. Should they ever fight, a true fight and not just a spat, the whole world would burn.

  Unless one of them slipped a knife between the other’s ribs, but that kind of betrayal was utterly unthinkable.

  “I don’t want to fight, and neither do you, Allendra.”

  Slow steps brought Zaan back within arm’s reach again. Power gleamed in his eyes, like stars in a summer sky. Allendra crossed her arms over her chest and caught herself wishing she was dressed in something other than the plain tunic she always wore when she meditated. She almost used her power to change her clothes to something nicer—a gown from the last century, maybe, simple but elegant—but caught herself just in time. What did it matter what she wore? What did it matter what Zaan thought of her? She shook her head, trying to impose order in her mind as Zaan spoke.

  “And while I can’t change your decision, I would ask you for one favor, from co-creator to co-creator.”

  Allendra knew she should ignore him. She knew it. Too often in the past she’d granted him ‘favors’ that had taken things in a direction she did not approve of. This whole mess had started with such a favor, when he asked for her help with a project. It had seemed so exciting at the time... Everything about him had seemed exciting, then.

  “You’ll give them a reasoned, orderly side,” he’d pleaded that time, “to balance out the wildness I instill in them. They’ll be more stable than if I create them on my own.”

  So much for that...

  But despite her knowledge of how treacherous this path could be, her curiosity won out.

  “And what favor would that be?” she asked, wary.

  “Give them a chance to change your mind. Let them prove to you that they’re not a lost cause.”

  She snorted at that.

  “You mean, let them prove to me that I’m right. For decades I haven’t seen anything that would make me hesitate. Shifter clans fighting endlessly, vampire wars, witches and wizards using their power selfishly, fae—”

  “Fae, yes,” he interrupted. “Like this child you entrust your safety to. Is she guilty too?”

  He turned to look at Ondine, asking her, “Do you know what your lady intends to do, little fae? If she goes through with her plans, you and all of your kind will be unmade. Won’t you speak for yourself and for them?”

  Ondine considered him for a few seconds before finally shaking her head, the movement so minute that her long hair barely moved.

  “If Lady Allendra deems it necessary, who am I to speak against her wishes?”

  Zaan sighed and turned back to Allendra.

  “If she won’t speak, then I must,” he said. “Because for every fight, every bit of pain, I’ve seen plenty of signs that what you want from them is there. Not all of them show it, but too many do to condemn them all.”

  “What I want from them?” Allendra repeated, nonplussed. “And what would that be?”

  Smiling, Zaan spread out his arms on either side of him.

  “What every being wants. Us, them, your little fae, humans.” He paused briefly before breathing out in his most seductive voice, the same voice that had once whispered to her poems about the stars above, “Love.”

  Her heart jumped again—useless, treacherous organ; would it ever learn?—and she started taking a step back before getting a grip on herself. How dare he talk to her about love? How dare he even say that word at all?

  Anger flashed through her, burning brighter for all the power she had in her, gathered from her meditations. She ached to use it, to become a conduit for the Source and accomplish grand things again, the way she hadn’t in far too long.

  Grand, necessary, terrible things.

  Alarm filled Zaan’s eyes, and his mouth opened for what she supposed were more protests or honeyed words. She didn’t want to hear either; she’d only listened too much already.

  She concentrated her attention on the energy within her and pushed it outward, into her hands, cupped in front of her, until a small ball of light appeared there. She fed her strength into it, every ounce of power she had gathered from the Source, allowing the ball of light to grow larger and larger until it enveloped her hands, then her arms, her body and Zaan’s, Ondine and the rest of the room, turning everything around them a blinding white.

  She focused through that power and let her consciousness enter it. Faster than thought, her spirit coursed through the world, through the minds of the exceptional beings she and Zaan had created together, beings who owed their powers to them and to past Blood Moons, even if most weren’t aware of it. Those stories had long ago turned to legends, and even legends had faded to nothing.

  She plucked one being here and there, from different clans and species, some who lived nearby and others from across the world, until she’d gathered eleven spirits. Their bodies would be safe while she spoke to their minds, slumbering in their homes or lairs, and it would all seem like a dream to them—but it would be much more than a dream.

  Some of them wouldn’t take easily to her challenge, she could already see that, and so she spoke into Ondine’s mind again.

  I am about to bring people in here. Some of them might be dangerous. For the next few moments, pretend you don’t know me and are as clueless as the rest of them, but keep an eye on them and see who you think m
ight attack if given a chance.

  Before Ondine could express more than confusion, Allendra returned to her body, clapped once, and the all-encompassing ball of power and light exploded into a myriad of stars. They faded one by one, revealing that she, Zaan and Ondine weren’t alone anymore.

  He’d asked her to let love be the proof, and she would—but all this would prove was the same thing he’d shown her long ago: love was nothing more than a painful illusion.

  * * *

  This... was not what Zaan had expected.

  Up to this moment, everything had been as he thought it would. Allendra’s home, a stone mansion on the periphery of a megalopolis, close to millions of people yet separate, had been easy to find. All he’d needed to do was follow the power he’d felt streaming to this one place for hours at a time every day in the past weeks, so strong a signal that he’d felt it from the other side of the world.

  That was how he’d found her, the first time, so long ago.

  As he’d expected, she had a couple of people there to serve as guards, servants, and companions. In the past, it had sometimes been a shifter or a witch. Today, it was a fae and… he wasn’t sure who else. A vampire, maybe? He could feel that other presence, but whoever it was hadn’t come up to the upstairs meditation room, leaving the fae to protect Allendra. She’d done her duty and tried to prevent him from entering the mansion, but she could never have stopped him if he’d decided to hurt her.

  Allendra herself was still as she’d ever been: powerful, beautiful, strong-headed, and convinced that she was acting for the best. When he’d entered the room and seen her sitting there, her pose flawlessly elegant, her face serene as she meditated, her skin sparkling with the power she was absorbing, it had been like stepping back into the past, before she’d gone her own way, when their lives and power had been one.

  He’d spent long minutes simply watching her, taking in the sight of her the same way he might have enjoyed fresh water after long travels in the sun. But once he’d spoken, she’d reacted the way he’d thought she would. She had not denied what she intended to do, but she’d refused to listen to his arguments.