Chronicles of Arcana (The complete collection books 1-4)

by Debbie Cassidy

Azren sat forward and the muscles across his abdomen flexed under his shirt. “If that’s the case, then we’ll need proof. We’ll need to find out exactly how she did it the first time to understand how she could do it again.”

  “We’ll need someone who was there, someone who can tell The Collective what happened.”

  “We need a rogue Shedim,” Azren said softly.

  And just like that, we were back at square one, but it was a plan. A fucking good one.

  We were on the same wavelength, and it was surreal. “She’ll come for us not just because we know the truth but also because of you. She wants you, Azren. She’s obsessed.”

  He went still, his breath hitching. “I’m no longer bound to her will or her lies. If she comes, she’ll have a fight on her hands.”

  My gaze fell to the V of his T-shirt, catching sight of the inky tendrils of the tattoo that had materialized when Elora had been beating him.

  I ran a finger over the exposed inked skin. “What does this mean?”

  He glanced down at his chest with a frown. “I don’t know, but maybe the rogue Shedim will be able to help us understand it. Maybe they can help us understand why our Kindred is different and how it is we have one in the first place.”

  Elora had thrown me to Balen just because she thought we were lovers. What would she have done if she’d realized we were Kindred? She’d claimed him, made him her slave in every way. She’d begrudged him happiness. She needed to pay for all the pain she’d caused, not only to Azren but to Valance too. But there was more I needed to understand.

  “Azren. Why you? Why did she pick you?”

  He shifted, tucking me against him securely. “I was chosen after a series of trials. If I’d known then what being her chosen would mean, I’d have never entered. But I was young, boisterous, and ambitious. I won and she claimed me as her own in every way.” He was silent for a long beat. “I told myself it was an honor. That she was my liege, and that I was her servant. I tried to love her.” His voice cracked. “But Elora’s love is like a venomous viper that strikes repeatedly. It’s insanity and darkness, and yet I believed her to be our savior. She’d cut away a part of her soul by killing Ivan in order to save us. I told myself that I owed her mine.”

  “I get it. You were loyal. What I don’t get is why she needed you, and why she made you hurt Valance?”

  He squeezed my hand slightly. “I’ve asked myself the same question a hundred times and come to no solid conclusion. As for her abuse of Valance ... That is Valance’s story to tell, and I wouldn’t disrespect him by stealing that right.”

  A sleepy memory bloomed in my mind—Valance’s voice telling me goodbye. Had that been a dream? My heart sped up. “Where is Valance?”

  Azren looked down at me. “I don’t know. He left without saying goodbye.”

  Goodbye.

  “Azren, why do I have this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach?”

  Azren’s grip on my hand tightened again. “Wila ...Valance will explain it all when he returns.”

  His tone was assured, acting like a comforting blanket, but there was another layer to it, one that needed to be peeled back to expose what he was hiding.

  A yawn cracked my jaw.

  Azren shifted on the bed. “Let me get you some food.”

  But the hunger was gone, washed away by weariness. “No. I just want to sleep. Will you stay? Will you wake me when the others get back?”

  In answer, he shuffled down to lie with me. I rolled onto my side, and he pushed up behind me so my back was to his front. I drifted away, coasting on the fringes of sleep, aware of his body behind me, taut, powerful, and mine.

  “Azren ...”

  He answered me with his lips on the nape of my neck, with his tongue licking at the top of my spine, and with his hands skimming over my hips, fingers tracing patterns over the exposed skin where my top had ridden up.

  “Sleep.” His voice was like distant thunder.

  But sleep was suddenly the last thing I wanted. Instead, I pushed my hips back into him, desperate to feel the length and girth of him. His arousal pressed against the base of my spine, hot and hard.

  “Wila, dammit, woman.”

  My skin sang his name, calling to him to soothe the chill fever that had taken hold. He answered with a growl, slipping his arm around me and sliding his hand into the waistband of my PJs. He cupped me, his breath hot on the nape of my neck, forehead pressed to the back of my skull.

  “I’m going to touch you, Wila. I’m going to make you feel good.”

  My mouth was suddenly dry as my body coiled, ready for the invasion. And then his fingers dipped into me, rough yet gentle, deftly sliding across my secret place, alternating between slick strokes and maddening circles until there was nothing but the sound of my whimpers and gasps, nothing but the blood roaring in my ears and the jerk of my hips as he played me to my ultimate conclusion. My cries were swallowed by his mouth and soothed by his tongue as I rode the wave.

  We lay side by side, wrapped in silence, while blood pounded in my ears and my thighs trembled. He ran his thumb over the back of my hand, his breath as ragged as mine. He’d sent me freefalling into an abyss of pleasure, every sense was heightened, and yet he was still unfulfilled.

  I reached for him.

  “No.” He gripped my wrist. “It will be worth the wait.”

  He rose above me, his harsh features highlighted lovingly by moonlight. “I think I know where Trevor hid the mint choc chip ice cream ...”

  Joy was a real, potent, living thing doing backflips in my chest. “You do?”

  “Behind the box of waffles.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead and then swung his legs off the bed. “I will feed you.”

  “Okay, caveman.”

  He paused at the door to look back at me, his lips twisted in an emotion I failed to catch before the door closed softly behind him.

  This was real. Him and me and this connection I’d had no control over. I’d run from this very thing for so long, and yet now that it had happened unwittingly, there was no fear, no anxiety, it was what it was and it felt right. Was this what Tay would feel like when he mated? Thorns buried themselves in my chest.

  What was that? Jealousy? Should that even be there now that I’d found my Kindred? Azren was right, we needed to find the rogue Shedim and get some answers, and as soon as I was healed, we’d start scouting the undercity for them. Not for Elora, but for ourselves, because, fuck that bitch.

  A loud crash and then a series of growls had me leaping from the bed and then falling to the floor as daggers pierced my belly.

  Fuck, fuck, what was that?

  I made it to the door, vision clearing.

  “Azren?”

  Another crash. I sucked in a breath as a sharp pain slashed my side.

  Shit. Blocking out the pain and riding the adrenaline, I broke into a run.

  ***

  The kitchen was carnage. Hound was on the table, his teeth bared, ready to pounce. Azren was on the ground nursing a wound to his side, and two Shedim I’d never seen hovered by the fridge.

  “Azren!” I made to step into the room.

  “No! Wila, get back.”

  Gilbert materialized inside the room and a kettle flew across the kitchen, hitting one of the Shedim in the shoulder.

  “What the hell is going on?” Trevor yelled from the foyer.

  Hound leapt in front of the door, blocking my entrance.

  “No! Get out of the way, dammit.” I shoved at his bulk as further crashes and thuds emanated from inside. My chest burned with fiery impotence. “Move or I swear I’ll never forgive you.”

  “Wila, no.” Gilbert’s presence wrapped around me, holding me back.

  “I swear, Gil, if you don’t let go of me ...”

  Hound’s body tensed and then he shifted out of the way. Gilbert held on for a moment longer before letting me go. Heart in my mouth, rage churning in my chest, I rushed into the room in time to see one of the Shedim grab Azren i
n a headlock and slip a silver robe over his head. Azren went completely still, his eyes wide with shock. Our gazes locked and there was no mistaking the sorrow in his eyes.

  This was goodbye.

  This was defeat.

  “No!” I made a grab for Azren.

  I never made it. The second Shedim knocked me to the ground. My shoulder jarred, sending electrical shocks through my arm. I flipped onto my back to see a dagger glinting in an arc headed for my heart. No time to scream, no time to block, but Hound’s jaws clamped around the arm wielding the weapon. He yanked and then propelled the Shedim across the room. The demon slammed into the cooker, shook his head to clear it, and then flew over our heads toward Azren and his captor. The Shedim linked hands, Azren held immobile between them, and then the one that had attacked held up a flat blue disc. His lips stretched in a smug smile.

  No. “No!” I pushed off the ground, biting back the agony. “Hound, stop them.” My voice came out as a strained rasp.

  Hound leapt over me and barreled toward the Shedim but met thin air.

  Azren was gone.

  ***

  “Valance. I need Valance.”

  “Wila, slow down. You need to slow down,” Gilbert instructed.

  Anger bubbled up and exploded from my lips. “Why didn’t you help him instead of trying to stop me? We could have saved him. We could have ...” My lungs constricted, and I slumped onto the step, hand on the banister, pain in my heart. “She has him, she has him. Oh, God. You don’t understand.” Too much, it was too much. My Azren. Elora had my Azren.

  “He made me swear,” Gilbert said. “He made me swear that if they came for him, I was to protect you.”

  My head jerked up. “He knew she’d come for him?”

  “He suspected.”

  I bit the insides of my cheeks hard enough to draw blood, hard enough to hurt, to clear my mind. “Valance will know what to do.” I pulled myself up. “Help me get to my room. I need to summon him.”

  Gilbert and Hound propelled me up the steps and onto the third floor. There was no time to dwell on the stabbing pain in my abdomen, no time to sit and breathe. The ring was in my bedside drawer. I slipped it on, pushing hard to get it onto my pinky, and then twisted it, biting back a yelp as it scraped against my skin—way too tight.

  He’d be here. He’d be here in a moment.

  Long seconds ticked by and nothing happened.

  I tried again and again, but nothing.

  “Wila ...” Gilbert patted my back.

  I shrugged him off. “No. This has to work. It ...” The word was swallowed by a sob. “Fuck this. Fuck this shit.” I grabbed my phone and speed dialed Noir. It went straight to voicemail. “Argh!” My shoulders shook with frustrated sobs.

  “Wila!” Taylem’s bellow carried up the stairs and then the thud of his boots followed as he took the stairs two at a time. He burst into my room, blinking at the overload of pink, and then zeroed in on me. “What the fuck happened?” He fell to his knees beside me. His large, warm hands wiped at the tears on my cheeks. “Wila, talk to me. Are you hurt?”

  “They took him, Tay. Elora sent them to take him. They took Azren.”

  Tay’s tawny gaze darkened. “Fuck! I knew I should have stuck around. He was worried they’d find a way to get into the city.”

  “They had transponders.”

  A storm cloud passed across Tay’s face. “They broke the Treaty.”

  “But who the fuck is gonna believe us? Who is going to care?”

  With the contract destroyed, Azren shouldn’t even have been here. I was planning on speaking to Loraine, offering to work for The Collective to get him an exemption allowing him to live here. We were going to find the rogues. We were going to make Elora pay for the lies, and now ... now he was gone. The tears were back, stinging my eyes, choking me as a tide of sorrow swelled in my chest, because she’d make him pay. She’d hurt him because she could.

  My nails dug into the duvet, and then Tay made a strangled sound. He gently gripped my wrist and lifted it up. The duvet rose with it, attached to my hand by the talons that had punctured it.

  I stared at them now—stupid fucking things. Where had they been when I needed them?

  “Wila, what the fuck?” Tay asked.

  A wave of nausea assaulted me as the adrenaline that had been coursing through me dissipated. I slipped to the floor, knees hitting the rug, and wrapped my arms around him. He hugged me back, stroking my hair, his chest rumbling with soothing sounds. We remained like that for long minutes and then slowly, carefully, he pulled away, pushing me back so he could look down into my face. His eyes were brimming with compassion, but his mouth was a harsh line.

  “I want to help, but you need to tell me everything.” His head whipped up at the sound of more footsteps coming up the stairs.

  Noir entered the room, bringing the scent of fresh rain with him. His golden hair was plastered to his scalp, his fancy clothes dripping wet.

  “Wila ...”

  The tight knot in my chest loosened a fraction.

  I held out my hand to him. “We need to help him. We need to get Azren back.”

  ***

  “Valance is gone.” I sipped my tea, stretched out a jogger-clad leg, and stared at the metal door. “Noir said his ambassadorship was revoked. They shipped him back over the border. The bitch has got them both.” My tone was unemotional and measured. No point wasting the fire now. Best to store it up, best to let it burn deep inside until it was time to roar.

  “But she won’t get to keep them for long, will she, Wila?” the voice said.

  “No. She won’t.”

  “Because you’re going to find a way to get them back.” He said it with confidence, his smooth, dulcet tones soothing the rage that wanted to burst from beneath my skin. “If anyone can pull this off, it’s you.”

  “Damn straight, I can.”

  “Be careful, because she’s not done with you. She wants you dead, and she’ll try again.”

  Yes, the bitch wouldn’t be able to handle the fact that Azren was connected to me. She’d want to hurt him, and what better way to do that but to kill me. But dying was not part of my plan. Killing the dragon liege was. I just needed a way to do it, and the rogue Shedim were my only hope. With Tay and Noir on my side, I’d find a way to get Valance and Azren back, and then together, we’d bring the dragon bitch to her knees.

  The voice made a sound of exasperation. “Are you running an inner monologue?”

  I cleared my throat. “No.”

  “You so are.”

  “Am not.”

  “I could help, you know ...”

  “Help?”

  “With getting your Kindred back.”

  I snorted. “Nice try.” It was time to take my leave. Slowly pushing out of the chair, I began my totally unbadass hobble toward the stairs.

  “You wonder why I’m locked away ...”

  I paused. “Yeah, and you refuse to tell me.”

  He laughed. “I’d have thought it was obvious.”

  “You’re dangerous.”

  “Maybe, but only to those that deserve it. I’m locked away because I have power, a shit-ton of it, and my captor is afraid of that power, but Wila, there is no need for you to fear me. Let me out, and I promise we’ll be the best of friends. I’ll get your Kindred back ... I’ll get you everything you’ve ever fucking wanted.”

  It was the first time he’d used a curse word, and it sent a delicious shiver up my spine. There was something new in his tone tonight. He’d been asking me to let him out for as long as I could recall, but always as an afterthought, as if he didn’t really believe I’d comply. It had become our thing, a joke, the way to end our little conversational trysts, but tonight, he was different. His tone was saturated with concern, and his demand to be set free was brimming with intent and fire.

  My feet had already taken several steps toward the metal door before I came to my senses and ground to a halt.

  “Wila, ju
st open the door.” There was a magnetic quality to his tone that resonated deep inside me.

  I took another step toward the door.

  “You need me, Wila. I need you.” His voice cracked.

  I reached out and placed my palm flat against the cool metal.

  His sigh penetrated my bones, turning my knees weak. I needed to open the door. Needed to let him out. I needed to see.

  A loud clatter and thud from above sliced through the tension that had gripped my mind. Shit. I dropped my hand to my side and backed up. What the heck had I been thinking?

  A low groan emanated from behind me—despair, pain, imploration—and my feet faltered before I forced them to turn away, walk to the steps, and begin to climb. I reached the top and pulled open the door.

  “Stop fighting your instincts, just open the door.” His voice was a seductive purr that tugged at every part of me. It was as if he’d reached out and gripped the back of my neck in a desperate lover’s caress.

  My spine stiffened. “Not happening. Not today, not ev—”

  “Never say never, Wila.”

  The door slammed behind me, and it was only then I realized he’d had the last word.

  To be continued...

  CITY OF EVERDARK

  Chapter 1

  Being stuck in a disused sewer pipe, surrounded by the stench of shit, with Noir’s hand on my boob, wasn’t my idea of fun.

  “What is ... Argh!” He pulled his hand back as if my tit had just caught fire. “Sorry. I—”

  “It’s fine. Not the first time I’ve been groped in a dark tunnel, although the last time had been intentional and much less stinky.”

  He cleared his throat. “Just let me get some light going.”

  “While you’re at it, maybe get us some gas masks. Ooo, can you make it smell like daisies down here?”

  The tunnel lit up with weak light. “This is the best I can do if I’m going to sustain it.”

  His golden hair was brushed back off his forehead today, and his lean face was all planes and angles. He had a hard face, intelligent and inquisitive, but the thick, dark lashes framing his baby blues softened it a little.

  He glanced down at me. “Lead the way, map lady.”