The Cardkeeper Chronicles: Books 1-5 (Complete Collection)

by A. C. Nicholls

  After all of this, it was no wonder the card had been locked away in the Dark Room.

  Link latched onto the lace of my boot. He sat there, tugging at the leg of my pants to grab my attention. I tried to ignore it at first, but he annoyed me into acknowledging him.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “You should do it.”

  My mouth hung open in shock. Link had always been quite the coward, and morally angelic thoughts didn’t occur to him. “I thought you were afraid of all things magic and danger?”

  Link rolled his eyes. “I’m not afraid. I’m just… cautious. Look…” He held the material of my robe real tight, pulling it taught as he climbed up into my hand. “Let’s look at the facts; this evil doohickey has been nicked from your magic safe, right?”

  I glanced over at Dalton, who stood in silence. “Right…”

  “So if you don’t get it back, we’re all going to die. I don’t know about you, but I quite like being alive. I mean, your choices are quite limited anyway. You can either find the card, or sit back and enjoy a couple of films until the world implodes.”

  “It wouldn’t implode,” Dalton chimed in. “The skies would turn a terrible hue, and Mother Nature would wreak havoc on the land. The pillars of R’hen would–”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Link rested against my chest with an outstretched arm. “Terrible hue and Mother Nature. In short, the world will end unless you do this. And hey, if it doesn’t work out, you can always say that you tried.”

  I hated to admit it, but he had a point. After all, there was a reason I had become a Cardkeeper, and it wasn’t my tendency to surrender. Steeling myself, I looked to Dalton and the Elders, nodding my acceptance of the mission.

  “You have our gratitude,” Dalton said. “You can begin at Jackson Park.”

  “Why? What’s at Jackson Park?”

  “Such power was seen there last night. If you hurry, there is a chance you will find a clue before the elements sweep it away.” Without another word, Dalton turned and fled the room, his Elders following in perfect pace behind him.

  Of all the things that could have happened today, did it have to be a goddamn stolen magicard? After my earlier beating, I would have sooner made out with a vampire than chased down such a destructive power.

  I took a deep breath and looked at Link. “Come on, then.”

  “Come on?” he said, his forehead creasing up with a frown. “Where?”

  “I’m going to switch out my magicard and then we’re going to take a look at this park.”

  Link shook his head violently. “Oh, no, no, no. I meant that you could go and retrieve the card. In no way did that suggest that I wanted to be a part of it. Put me down, Keira, and I’ll make sure your apartment is nice and warm for when you return.”

  “No way,” I said, scowling. “You helped get me into this mess, so you can damn well help get me out of it. Besides, it’s your world to protect, too.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Fire had seemed like an appropriate kind of magic, considering my mood. Even after I had taken the magicard and cleaned myself up at home, I still felt ready to scorch off someone’s eyebrows. I mean, could my day have gotten any worse?

  Night had fallen by the time we arrived at Jackson Park. The pale moon illuminated a path through the maze of trees, but there was still something eerie about the place. It was as though everybody had cleared out, sensing the danger. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as bright as those people. Then again, I was far stronger.

  “How long do we have to be here?” Link asked, walking beside me. If a human saw him trotting along in his ragged clothes, they would probably freak out. And who could blame them? Faeries weren’t exactly common in the South Shore area.

  “As long as it takes.”

  Link exhaled a long-suffering sigh, a frustrating trait at the best of times. “And what are we looking for, exactly?”

  “I’ll know when I see it.”

  I really had no idea what we would find. It could be a mage, a demon, or any other creature. The ones your parents always said were only make-believe. On the other hand, it might just be a big, fat false alarm. That was the problem with this job: nothing was certain, and everything was dangerous.

  I readied myself as we walked further into the woods. The safe, Woodlawn Street was far behind us now, and we were slipping straight into a blanket of darkness. There was no sign of anything extraordinary, though I couldn’t help but notice the lingering scent of magic.

  Smells like… sulfur.

  “This way,” I told link, following my nose into a group of trees. My foot landed on hardened soil – something I hadn’t expected after padding on a carpet of fake grass for so long. It caused a slight stumble.

  “I can’t see a bloody thing,” Link complained from somewhere at my side.

  Neither could I. I hated to have to do it, but I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to bring a flashlight. I ground my teeth, closed my eyes and focused to become one with the magicard in my pocket, a process that I only had to go through once. It was a Cardkeeper’s way of getting on her knees and surrendering to the soul of the mage.

  Something inside me weakened – a dependable part of me no longer existed. I supposed it was the price to pay for using this particular card. I’d known all about the mage within; he’d been a hero during the First World War, out fighting for his country when a total stranger had stabbed his wife. The tragedy has darkened his heart and he’d fallen susceptible to revenge. The streets of Chicago became unsafe for over fifty years until someone foiled his reign of randomly selected murders. How do I know all this? Well, let’s just say that it was me who stopped him.

  Filling my mouth with an acidic taste, the power of the card finally accepted me. I felt a warmth flow through my veins. My right arm began to glow from inside, trailing from my shoulder and exiting through my palm. An open flame ignited in my hand, and I spread my fingers to accommodate it, letting it light up our surroundings.

  “All right,” said Link, nodding his head. “Not your most boring trick.”

  I smiled and continued searching the woods. A plain of scorched soil crunched beneath our feet, as if a fire had spread through here. The naked trees and their fallen leaves were charcoaled, slowly being swept away by the wind.

  “Something awful happened here,” I said. “I can feel it.”

  Link scurried up my leg and nested on my shoulder. “If you insist on scaring me half to death, do me the kindness of letting me sit upon the magic mountain first, hey? I don’t want to get stomped on because of your stupid mission.”

  “Stupid?” I crooked an eyebrow. “You encouraged this.”

  “And now I’m unencouraging it.” He rolled his eyes back into his head, as if to think of something. “Is… that a word? Unencouraging… It is. It is a word.”

  I was certain that it wasn’t, but I continued into the trees regardless, my palm held out to light the area before us. Using this magic for something so trivial probably wasn’t my smartest move, but what can I say? I had to look around before it was too late.

  A sudden rumble in the bushes disturbed my thoughts. I spun on my heel and gawked toward the source of the noise. Link climbed into my hood, buried his face into the thick material, and left me to defend him. No change there.

  “Hello?” I called, hoping some delinquent teenager had just come out here to smoke some pot. Not only would he not be a threat, but if he claimed to have witnessed my powers, I could easily blame his hallucinogenic. “Is anyone there?”

  A cold silence echoed back at me, a wind whispering through the branches of the trees.

  “Must be a rabbit or something,” I told Link, who refused to come down from my shoulder.

  Together, we went deeper into the park, and finally, I found what I’d been looking for. A collection of trees scattered the ground, as though they had been trampled by something huge. Something wild.

  “What do you make of it?” Link asked, finally pulling his hands a
way from his eyes.

  “I’m not sure. The scent is stronger here, and–” The nearby trees that still stood upright caught my attention. Smoky marks replaced the bark of their trunks that had been singed away and blackened. By something. Or someone.

  Cautious, I stepped forward and kept an eye on my surroundings. I approached one of the trees and reached out to touch it. Smooth, evenly shaved wood met my fingertips, as if the bark had been blasted away in one swift move. It made perfect sense now; the fallen trees hadn’t been trampled – they’d been blown down by an incredible force. The aggressive smell of magic lent credibility to my theory, and the bare trunk solidified it.

  “Link, it was here.”

  “What?”

  “The Chaos card. Whoever stole it must have used it to create some kind of explosion.” The realization shook me. How in the hell was I supposed to stop someone capable of this kind of magic?

  Excited to find my clue, I was just about to turn around to examine the fallen trees, when something shot out from the bushes beside me. As time seemed to slow down, I saw Link get thrown from my hood. His body tumbled to the ground. The fire from my hand hissed out as I lost focus on the spell, and the violent impact of my attacker knocked me across the park. I landed on my back, winded, staring up at the starry sky while an awful pain shot up my spine in quick waves.

  Dizzy, too stunned to move, I lay there in agony, wondering just what kind of creature was capable of such incredible strength. But as the heavy footsteps stomped my way, I heard the deep, terrifying growl of the monster, and terror crawled up my nape as realization settled in my head and heart.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Six feet of muscle – check. Razor-sharp teeth – check. Legs that are hairier than my grandmother’s (God rest her soul) – check. It didn’t take a genius to see that this was a goddamn werewolf, and I was his prey.

  I had lost sight of Link. A quick glance at where he’d landed and I knew that he had moved. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that he’d found a safe place to hide. I couldn’t blame him – this thing was huge.

  The claws swiped at me, making a swishing sound as they missed by less than an inch. I did my best to ignore the pain shooting up my back, and scrambled to my feet. My power seemed to have evaporated, but I willed it back, once more feeling a stream of fire flare through my arm and out of my hand.

  “Stay back!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. I knew the werewolf could hear me. I knew they had a conscious mind behind those dog-shaped skulls of theirs. I only had to let it know that I would put up a fight, and make it re-think its challenge.

  But the wolf kept advancing.

  It took seconds for my new ability to kick in, and when it did, only small puffs of fire fell from my outstretched palm, fizzling out and falling to the floor like cheap fireworks.

  Goddamnit.

  The werewolf lunged at me, a near three-hundred-pound feral beast of fur and rage. It connected within moments, knocking me onto my ass and planting its paws into my stomach. I was pinned down, unable to move. Dog food.

  I only had one shot at survival.

  Every part of my soul focused on summoning the fire. I could feel the card warm up in my pocket. A vicious streak ran through me, altering my mentality – the downside of the magicard already playing its part. The power began to consume me.

  Until the blaze burst from my palm.

  The wolf whined and leapt back, finally letting me breathe as the wind left my lungs. But the fire continued to grow, pushing the creature back, despite its efforts to fight through and tear out my throat. I could hear the roar of the fire, feel the radical heat on my face and chest as the fire shot from me like a flamethrower.

  “Enough!”

  I wasn’t sure who had screamed it. Was it the beast? I couldn’t tell – I was too busy enjoying myself, the mage from the First World War taking over a part of my soul, the fire feeding his angry lust for violence. Fury tore through me and I stepped closer, determined to make this son of a bitch drop to his knees in surrender.

  “I said enough!” The beast leapt forward, knocking my hand to the side and pinning me down once more. It caught my arm, pressing it into the dirt and aiming the fire at a tree.

  I had to shut it off in order to see straight – to see anything.

  The embers settled. The park fell silent. I watched with amazement as the werewolf began to shift. At first its lower half began to turn, falling from its pouncing stance onto thin, weak legs. Human legs. Its arms and chest came next, a touch less bulky than its werewolf form.

  But its face shocked me the most. The long, hairy muzzle shrank into a perfect button nose, and the black hair receded revealing a man in his twenties with tan skin and sparkling eyes. They were as shiny as they had been only moments ago.

  “No more,” he said, leaning over me, topless and well-shaped. Wheezing from the transformation, he climbed off me and stood back. The morph into a killing machine must have torn his shirt. “What the hell are you doing around here, mage?”

  Cardkeepers and werewolves had never quite seen eye-to-eye. We were two-thirds of a hate triangle with the vampires. But if you asked me, the Keepers were the only ones who didn’t mean any harm. I mean, at least we weren’t half animal.

  “It’s a free country, asshole.” I climbed to my feet and removed my coat, slinging it at him and turning around. Although curious, I didn’t want to stand and watch him slip it on. Besides, I wouldn’t want him to think good looks could turn my head that easily.

  A minute later, he stomped around to stand in front of me. The coat covered him well, and it sort of suited him. I quickly got used to the idea that I wouldn’t get it back.

  The man snorted at me, a trace of the werewolf form still lingering in the back of his throat. “What I meant was, what are you doing here? I’ve never known anyone to hang around at her own crime scene.”

  “What the hell?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me,” he spat, stepping up close.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m here to investigate a powerful use of magic. Surely that much was obvious, considering you’ve been following us all around the park. Why would I come back here if I’d committed a crime?”

  The man snarled, an echo of the beast emerging. Then he turned his back on me. “It may not have been you, but it was one of your kind. Same difference.”

  Whatever his problem was with me, it was obvious that he knew something I didn’t. I had to probe – to put a hold on the aggression and let him think I was his friend. After all, one less claw around my throat wouldn’t be the worst thing. “Tell me what happened.”

  “You really don’t know?”

  “I know a little, but humor me.”

  The man turned to face me, but his eyes stayed lowered to the ground. “A mage came by here last night. Must have known it was a gathering spot for a pack of wolves. Son of a bitch wreaked havoc throughout this whole place. Killed everything in sight, including the werewolves.” He took a deep breath, met my gaze, and sighed slowly. “My… brother was in that pack.”

  I suddenly started to feel bad for this guy, although I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t me who had made a wild assumption and attacked the first person I saw. “I’m sorry about that – I really am – but the killer wasn’t a Cardkeeper. Did you see what he looked like?”

  “No.”

  “Well then, where did he go?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “How did you even–”

  “I don’t know!” Sharp teeth ripped through his gums and his eyes began to glow, but he managed to stifle it… just. The man stepped back, shaking his head slowly. “Look, I wasn’t here when it happened, okay? I’ve been looking for my brother for a couple of weeks now, so when I found out that he’d died, I…”

  The soul of the magicard crept away, slowly replacing the rage that had fueled me with sympathy. “I’m here for the same reason you are. One of our magicards was stolen, and the last
sighting of such a power was right here in this spot. I came here to find a clue, and instead I got jumped by a werewolf. Can you see how this might be confusing for me?”

  The man opened his mouth to say something, but then settled for a simple nod.

  “If you know anything that could help me, I might be able to stop this guy before he hurts anyone else. All I need is a little cooperation, and we can bring your brother some justice.”

  A rustle sounded from the bushes, and all my hard work at calming this guy came undone. It was like pulling the wrong puzzle piece out of a Jenga game – my breath caught in my throat as I waited for it all to topple.

  The werewolf turned half-beast again, his jaw extending into a muzzle as he fell onto his hands. Only those hands were claws now – huge, fur-covered claws with three-inch nails that dug into the soil as he dashed toward the sound. This time the coat stayed on, despite his thrashing motions as his body doubled in size.

  And then it hit me. The noise.

  “Link!” I screamed, running after the werewolf. “Get out of there!”

  I saw my little faery friend sprint out of the bush, scurrying toward me at an incredible speed. I had always known him to be strong, but I don’t recall ever having seen him move that fast.

  “Bring him to me!” the wolf demanded, his voice deep and demon-like.

  I bent over to scoop Link up off the ground, and placed him on my shoulder. With the half-wolf padding toward me, I aimed my hand at him and let a threatening glow emanate from the palm. “Back off.”

  To my surprise, he stopped and began a slow transformation back into a man. This time it was easier to compare the attractive features of his human form, since he’d morphed from an animal so quickly. “He’s with you?”