by Aurelia Skye
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
Fire & Ice
True North #2
Kit Tunstall Writing As
Aurelia Skye
Amourisa Press
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Author Bio
Title Page
Fire & Ice (True North #2)
Copyright
Amourisa Press and Kit Tunstall, writing as Aurelia Skye, reserve all rights to TRUE NORTH #2: FIRE & ICE. This work may not be shared or reproduced in any fashion without permission of the publisher and/or author. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
© Kit Tunstall, 2017
Cover Image: Depositphotos.com
Cover design by Amourisa Designs
Edited by T.K. and D.J.
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Blurb
Everything North Campbell believes about her life is a lie. She doesn’t discover that until the night her father dies, when she learns he wasn’t her father, and that she’s a Trueblood, with all the magic of the Mythic races, if she can unlock it. Fleeing from her birth parents, and their nefarious allies, she travels with her six guards to Fire & Ice, a realm split by war and magic. Two of her potential loves live there, but on opposite sides of the issues. As she starts to think about keeping all six, while learning fire and water magic, she ends up an inadvertent matchmaker for a relationship even more taboo than her own. Things are changing in the realm, but will it bring unity, or completely destroy any chance for peace? And will North have the courage to seize what—who—she wants without fearing the consequences?
This is the second in a multi-book series that requires reading in order to understand the plot arc. “Fire & Ice” has an incomplete ending. The story will continue in the next book and so on. It is a PNR reverse harem story, and the heat factor is high.
Chapter One
North hadn’t slept well, which wasn’t that surprising. She’d spent most of the night tossing and turning, and she dreaded her first trip through the portal as much as her destination of Fire & Ice. Someone had thoughtfully left a binder of information for her on the bed she was using, and she’d spent an hour combing through all the data. It was enough to make her head spin, but she hoped she’d gleaned enough to have a basic understanding of their world, and the beings who shared it.
The six of them came for her early in the morning, and she was ready to go. North carried the shopping bag of clothing from the mall, but wore the fae fabric. She’d envisioned carefree and comfortable, and that’s what it had given her as leggings and an oversized T-shirt. She paired them with the sneakers Carol bought her the day before—had it really been just yesterday that everything happened, that she discovered she was a Trueblood and wanted by her parents’ group, so they could control her powers?
She almost snorted aloud at the thought. She had no powers and had difficulty believing she was suddenly going to manifest anything like they were looking for. After seeing each of the men around her reveal part of their powers, she couldn’t deny they existed. North couldn’t imagine she actually had any though. It seemed like a waste of time to be venturing through the portal to play diplomat—or princess—while training to learn magic she didn’t possess. It all sounded fantastical and far-fetched.
She shrugged off those thoughts as they led her into a room she hadn’t visited yet. Even before the doors parted, she could feel a low hum, but it seemed to be more vibration than sound. The pulse reverberated through her, making her teeth ache slightly, sending nausea churning through her stomach, and filling her ears with a weird buzzing sound. She shook her head a few times before catching Orin’s sympathetic gaze.
He smiled at her, his dark face made impossibly more handsome by his grin. “You’ll get used to it, but it emits a form of ultralow frequency that humans can’t handle easily. Most of the races have issues with it, actually.”
She managed to nod as she got her first glance at the portal, robbed of words for the moment. It stood on a tall stone platform with stairs leading up to it. The stone archway itself looked like something ancient and mythological, and it was carved with symbols she didn’t recognize. The inside was nothing more than an empty hole, allowing her to see completely through to the other side of the room, but she could sense there was something more to what stood in front of her. That undefinable spark of power thrummed through her, cluing her in to being in the presence of something unfamiliar, and which she couldn’t explain away.
“Good morning.”
She jumped and turned in the direction Caius had spoken from as he glided into the room. Not even his robes made a rustling sound in there, though that was probably the sound in her ears making it impossible to hear anything as subtle as his robes swishing on the floor.
“Are you ready to travel, North?”
She nodded, though it was the farthest thing from the truth. She dreaded the whole thing, but knowing her parents’ group couldn’t reach her in Fire & Ice, because they wouldn’t be allowed to pass through the portal that served as a nexus point to all the other realms, was one positive reason to visit.
He stepped up first, before gesturing them forward.
North fell in line with the others, ending up roughly in the middle, with Ryland ahead of her, and Eamon behind her. Eli stood behind him, while Kriss and Marek stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the front of the line. She wondered how they would both fit through the portal, but they seemed determined not to yield an inch to the other.
Caius put his palm against the portal, and it hummed even sharper for a moment before settling into a low, less-unpleasant sound instead of the more obnoxious pitch it held moments before. Immediately, a violet-tinged light filled the hole, blocking the other side of the room from view.
It was bright enough to hurt her eyes, and she blinked before shielding them. She wasn’t the only one with the problem, she noted, as Eli and Ryland both slipped on sunglasses. After that, Kriss and Marek stepped through first, both somehow managing to squeeze through the portal without giving up an inch of deference to the other.
Orin and Ryland moved through without any hesitation, but she wasn’t feeling quite so confident. As she neared Caius, she met his gaze. North was hoping for a hint of reassurance, but what she got was a frown of censure.
“You disappointed a lot of people last night when you fled, North. I hope you’ll overcome that selfish impulse when you’re in Haedra and Celestina.”
She didn’t answer, deliberately averting her gaze as annoyance and embarrassment warred for supremacy inside her. His admonishment was proba
bly well-deserved, which explained the guilt accompanying his words. Her annoyance was that he had pointed it out and hadn’t bothered to factor in why she might’ve freaked out and run away. She doubted he’d ever been thrust into such a position.
Stewing over his words, it took a moment to realize she’d reached the portal. She froze, standing in front of it as power washed over her. It was clearly radiating from the portal and felt like static electricity. Every hair on her body was charged, and those on her arms and the back of her neck stood up. She wondered if her hair was doing the same thing, but had no time to check as Eamon placed a hand against her back and gently urged her forward. She wanted to dig in her heels and refuse, but before she could, her foot was already lifting to cross the last step that was part of the portal.
She was through before she could overthink it, and then Eamon was out a second later. Eli brought up the rear, and the portal closed behind them. “How does he do that? Is he a Trueblood?”
“The Council pools its power, and Caius calls on that when there’s need to open the portal.” Marek provided the explanation, but he didn’t look at her. Instead, his gaze remained focused ahead.
North finally mustered her courage and turned from the portal to face Fire & Ice. She gasped at the first sight, never having seen anything like it. “I thought it would all be combined together.” She had pictured something like Iceland, or one of the places where it was cold, yet active volcanoes managed to produce lava that flowed into the icy regions.
Instead, it was like someone had drawn a line directly down the realm, creating the walkway in front of her. Everything to her right side was icy cold, and a few snow flurries blew at them despite the portal feeling separated from the rest of the world. Standing on the platform, she couldn’t feel the temperature of the ice side, but it made her shiver just staring at it.
She switched her gaze to the left side and could feel the heat, though her body temperature remained unchanged. It was lush and thick with vegetation, but she could see several volcanoes in the distance. They appeared active, with lava flowing down the sides of the mountains. She shuddered at the thought of being caught in a lava flow. Her feet wanted to turn around and head right back to the portal, but it was closed. There was probably a way to communicate with Earth from this realm, but she doubted anyone would help her do so if it was just to return without trying to meet their expectations.
Kriss and Marek came to stand beside her, with Marek on the right side, facing Ice, and Kriss on the left, facing Fire. When they started walking forward, she had little choice but to follow them.
The pleasant neutrality of the temperate zone around the portal faded as soon as they stepped off the last stair. “Welcome to CenterPoint,” said Kriss.
“What’s that?”
“The exact center of the planet, located in the middle of the line of demarcation,” said Marek.
“This is neutral ground,” added Kriss.
She stood between the two of them while the other four flanked her. Staring at what was clearly meant to be her welcoming party, she could see the resemblance between the fire beings and Kriss, though the older man had long brown hair rather than flaming red. The older woman had the same shade as Kriss, as did the younger woman, who shared many of his features, though feminized.
She swung her gaze to the Ice side, finding the ice beings uniformly similar. It was a little bit unsettling that their skin tones were almost exactly the same, and all had that silvery blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. All three of them had their wings visible, but folded back in a relaxed state—except for the younger one, whose plumage was fuller and more fully on display.
At first, she thought it was a threatening gesture, but following his gaze led hers to settle on the young fire woman across from him. She was making every effort not to look his way, but that only underscored when she stole the occasional peek at him. Interesting.
They stopped directly in front of both groups, still standing on the line of demarcation that split their world. She was too hot on one side and too cold on the other.
Kriss was the first to speak as he turned her to the group of fire beings. He inclined his head first to the man, and then the older woman before finally nodding at the younger one. “King Thorne, Queen Risa, and Princess Lyssa, allow me to present North Campbell.”
Her heart fluttered with fear at the thought of meeting royalty. His next words wiped that away completely, leaving her in a state of shock instead.
“North, these are my parents and little sister.”
She stared at him for half a second, unable to keep her mouth from gaping open like an idiot. “You’re a prince?”
“The prince,” he said with quite emphasis. “I’m in line for the throne, after Lyssa.”
She shook her head. “You’ll rule all this?”
He lifted his shoulder in a half-shrug. “Only if Lyssa abdicates—and I’d punish her severely if she did,” he added with a wink in his sister’s direction.
North saw the dark-haired man—King Thorne—wince at his son’s words. She managed to swallow the rest of her shock and tried to school her expression into one of pleasantness as she turned fully to face them. The ice side chilled her back as the fire side toasted her front. “Lovely to meet you.” She tried to curtsy, which was harder than it looked. Orin stifled a laugh, and she glared at him over her shoulder as she stood up again. He grinned at her without a shred of repentance.
“Allow me to introduce you to my family,” said Marek after the Drakkens had acknowledged her greeting. He put an arm around her waist and turned her toward the Ice side. “This is Arlo and Tempest Bolos, the rulers of Haedra. And this is my little brother, Milo.”
He’d only introduced the youngest one as his brother, but it stood to reason that the king and queen had to be his parents, since he had called them his family. North’s head spun at the idea of having two princes acting as her guards—and even more heady/terrifying was the idea that she might end up marrying one of them. What did she know about being a princess? What did she know about any of this?
“Don’t curtsy, or you might hurt yourself,” said the one identified as Milo. His voice was harder than Marek’s, like ragged glass.
“For shame,” said Tempest. She shot her son a repressive look before giving North a gracious smile. “We’re honored to have you visit our world, North.”
The woman was so regal it made her want to curtsy again, but she stilled the impulse.
Her husband sounded stiffer as he inclined his head slightly. “Welcome to Haedra.”
“We should get you settled at the palace,” said Kriss, his fingers sneaking around her wrist and tugging lightly to urge her toward the Fire side.
“Indeed, we should,” said Marek. His hand was still on her waist, and he pulled her more tightly against him. “North will stay with us.”
Kriss scowled. “She’s a guest of Celestina.”
“The Haedran royal family is already prepared to welcome her,” said Marek through gritted teeth.
“So are the Drakkens of Celestina,” said Kriss. He took a threatening step forward.
Marek did the same, turning to face the fire-angel. Icy crystal horns sprouted from his head, and his frosty wings started to unfurl.
“That’s enough,” said North softly. There was still a stinging rebuke in her tone. Here she was, already playing mediator, when all she wanted to do was lie down and forget this was happening. Her restless night was catching up with her, or perhaps it was just the stress of the situation.
Making an effort to soften her voice, she gave Kriss’s family a warm smile. “Perhaps since I was introduced to you first, I should stay with the Bolos for a few days first? Then I could stay with the Drakkens?” It seemed like a sensible solution, but she held her breath as she waited to see if they would agree. There was tension in the air that suggested it wasn’t just Marek and Kriss who were on the verge of coming to blows.
Except there was a different tens
ion obvious between Lyssa and Milo. She wondered if she was the only one who could see it. And she wondered if they were already involved, or if they were just interested in each other. Were they allowed to have a relationship with being parts of the royal families with opposite powers? It was a question she would ask one of the other men later—not Marek or Kriss, of course.
“That seems like a sensible solution,” said Queen Risa. “We look forward to hosting you in a few days, North.”
She managed to smile, but was more tired than relieved at finding a workable solution.
“Shall we?” asked Marek as he extended an arm to her.
She slid hers through his as her gaze locked with Eli’s for a moment. He seemed irritated, and she thought perhaps jealous, but couldn’t read his expressions that well yet.
Kriss broke away from them, and she assumed he would be staying with his family, so it was a surprise when he approached the group a moment later as they all stopped near what looked like a crystal ice train. She reached out a hand to touch it and shivered as her fingers brushed the substance. She wasn’t certain what it was. It definitely wasn’t ice, though it had the look of it, but felt strong, like some kind of steel.
“You must be freezing,” said Kriss with a small shiver of his own. “No wonder my people don’t cross the line of demarcation to come here. It’s bloody sub-zero. Don’t know how you icemen handle it.” He tossed the words carelessly in Marek’s direction.
“My people don’t venture to your side because it’s sweltering, you son of flame,” countered Marek in a low voice.
