Forged from Flame

by Kasey Mackenzie

  I turned with a fierce smile, waving to Ju Hai to signal the liegebond was complete. She nodded in return, and they banished the second-level firewall more smoothly than I’d managed the first time I cast it. Keith stepped up to my side when I beckoned, and I placed my hand on his wrist to experiment with whether tactile contact might make drawing magic through a newly-bonded liegesworn a little easier. We didn’t yet have the emotional connection I’d established with my siblings and, to a lesser extent, Bianca. Not after Keith’s earlier betrayal. Hopefully, we could rebuild that deep trust we’d once shared, but that would take time if it were even possible.

  ((To me, liegesworn! Jake!)) I sent through the bonds. They must have been waiting, because they appeared instantly. Jake gave my hand on Keith’s wrist a sour expression, but he didn’t bother commenting. I twisted my lips and grabbed Jake’s wrist, pulling him to my other side where he belonged. The sooner we got over this awkwardness, the better.

  Bianca and my siblings chose to stand on Keith’s other side, more to keep an eye on him than anything. I got that sensation through the bond, which was confirmed when Jake nodded at them in approval. I couldn’t fault them for being prepared.

  Drew still hadn’t popped out of his magical camouflage, making me tense as I quickly glanced around the chaos. My family and Si Si clashed with several Stalkers not too far away, bolstered by Clanmates who were turning that tide in my family’s favor. Isaac and his Freeholders were wiping the floor with another group of Elemental enemies near the ceremonial circle. The Selkie Steward was using the lake water to devastating effect, and Rhianne had joined his group so she could do the same. She caught sight of me and waved, a Valkyrie’s grin on her face.

  Yeah, she definitely needed this battle experience. It was balm for her confidence and avenging angel streak alike. And Keith was no doubt going to get an earful from her when this was over. Assuming Jake didn’t kill him first.

  My gaze swept across the yard, taking pride in the fact our Clan seemed to be winning—even if at the expense of fallen Clanmates throughout the yard—everywhere I looked. But the fact I still didn’t see Drew anywhere had familiar icy dread coating my stomach thicker than any antacid.

  ((Where’s Drew?)) Dia asked, panic threading her mental voice; a panic echoed by Nic and—if less urgently—Keith and Jake.

  Instinct had me glance toward my family and Si Si. The Stalkers had all been defeated or forced into retreat, with most of the enemy Elementals dead at their feet, felled by the Clanmates who had leaped to their defense. If Drew had held to our father’s usual mode of operation, he would have tried to use the most vulnerable humans we valued as hostages, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

  But then he suddenly popped back into view within the ring of his personal bodyguards, and I realized he’d done exactly what I expected. Only not using my family as the hostages.

  “Mom! Dad!” Nic screamed as if his heart had been pierced. Which it had, just not by metal.

  The middle-aged Thai couple who had adopted Nic in childhood, and whose first names he’d not yet gotten the chance to share, knelt at Drew’s feet with wooden expressions on their faces. They weren’t bound with rope, handcuffs, or plastic ties. Drew didn’t need something so mundane when he’d already made automatons out of them.

  My evil baby brother had eyes only for me, and the huge smirk on his face showed that he relished the horror crossing my expression. I heard Dia comforting Nic on the other side of Keith, but the panic pouring through our bond was intense. They feared for Nic’s parents, it was true, but I realized with humbled awe that they also feared for me. We’d made up as much lost time as we could over the past few months, and they knew I would do everything in my power to save the Willapanas. Even if that meant sacrificing my own life.

  Which was just what they feared.

  ((Have a little faith,)) I sent to the two of them. ((I’ll only go kamikaze if it looks like nobody will make it out alive. And only if Drew makes me. I may have bluffed a little earlier, but believe you me, I do have a plan.))

  Sheer panic faded to more bearable fear instead. Now to nurse that plan of mine into fruition…

  “My, little brother, but you’ve been busy. Had the poor Willapanas just waiting in the wings, did you?”

  His smirk shifted to a sardonic smile; not really much better but hey. Maybe his arrogance would get him monologuing while I finished preparing everything in the magical background.

  “Well, dear sister, I may have feigned otherwise, but I really do take you seriously. And you should know that neither Father nor I truly underestimate you. We’ve just been testing you.”

  That had a sliver of panic worming its way into my heart, but I shoved it down. He wanted me to worry; wanted me to make a desperate mistake. He also wanted to save face in front of his minions who’d just gotten their asses handed to them. But I would not panic. I didn’t give a damn how messy his face looked to his minions. All I cared about was winning: not for victory’s sake, but because these were the lives of people I cared about—and he could not have them.

  “How gratifying to hear. I suppose this is the tedious part where you threaten to kill Nic’s parents if we don’t give in to your demands.”

  His lips curved again. “In a manner of speaking. But first, I wanted to finish the chat I tried to start. Why fight the inevitable, sister? With you by our side, Father and I will be unstoppable. We will finish our takeover of the Stalkers here in America and then move on to Europe.”

  My God, I really did get him monologuing. Apparently he’s never watched The Incredibles.

  “And then you’ll move on to the Elementals in earnest, I imagine.”

  He inclined his head regally. “Of course. Imagine the new world order we can create. Humans will tremble. Governments will fall. The world will kneel at our feet. No longer shall we of true power need to hide in the shadows. Instead, we shall rule as it should be.”

  Nic, Dia, and I shared disbelieving glances. Good lord. Our father and brother were far more ambitious—and bigger James Bond villain rip-offs—than we’d imagined. They didn’t just want to rule over the Elemental realm, they wanted to rule the entire world.

  All the while he’d been talking, I’d been working magic in the background. This didn’t seem immediately suspicious because I’d never released my grip on Elemental magic, maintaining a low-level shielding spell just to distract attention from the much more demanding and important spell I’d also been channeling. For it to succeed, however, I was going to have to stall for time and get a little closer to Nic’s parents.

  Drew must have accurately interpreted the skepticism that his delusions of grandeur had inspired among his siblings. He shook his head. “I can tell this isn’t going to happen the easy way.”

  I gestured to the fallen bodies littering the ground. “I’d sure hate to see your hard way.”

  He ignored the attempt at levity and glanced at Nic. That had a tremor of concern pinging inside, but I reminded myself I’d prepared backup plans for a reason.

  Drew nodded at Nic. “We’ve arrived at the tedious part where I threaten to kill your parents if you don’t give in to my demands. It’s time you do what you agreed to do, big brother. Die so they may live.”

  Nic’s desperate expression met mine, but I smiled reassuringly. “Do what he wants, Nic. Trust me the way I trust you.”

  Drew frowned when I failed to react as expected. Nic began drawing in huge amounts of Water energy—the precursor to going kamikaze, which was one thing our liegebond couldn’t prevent him from doing since it was intended to hurt him and not me—I’d just be collateral damage. Or would have been if I hadn’t seen this coming a mile away.

  Drawing upon the vast reserves offered by my three other liegesworn and bondmate, I reached out to commandeer Nic’s Elemental hands at the precise moment before he drew in enough to explode in a blast of Elemental magic. In the same instant I threw up a second-level firewall around myself and dashed across
the twelve feet separating me from Drew and the Willapanas. Maintaining the camouflage spell while starting to channel Nic’s overwhelming flows of Water into a less deadly form had me panting for air and sweating buckets before I made it halfway toward my goal.

  Drew reached down to clamp one hand on each of the Willapanas, only to find a pillar of water arrowing from the nearby lake to separate him from them. I grunted with effort and formed the pillar into a stream that washed the Willapanas off their knees and into the general direction of my liegesworn, trusting that they would save the couple from drowning. I used the rest of the seething bands of Water energy to knock every one of Drew’s bodyguards onto their asses and toward the lake in the opposite direction of Nic’s parents. And then I dropped my camouflage to leap onto Drew and have our first real knockdown, drag-out fight—only to discover he had taken yet another page from our father’s book when he once again vanished and ran like the cowardly snake he was.

  Leaving behind those of his minions who couldn’t retreat to pay the piper, and those of us loyal to Clan Zi to pick up the pieces.

  Epilogue

  Drew’s claim that he and Garrett had been mostly testing me so far actually seemed substantiated by the fact we had no permanent deaths among our allies. Over a dozen Clanmates and Freeholders—including Avani—needed to be revived in the wake of our battle, but that was a ridiculously small price to pay.

  My baby brother left a trail of ten dead Stalkers, beyond resurrection of course, who were given respectful cremations in our ceremonial circle’s fire. The bodies of our Elemental foes posed a deeper moral quandary. How many of them—like Keith, Bianca, and my siblings—had been psychically manipulated into following commands to strike against us? Could we afford the potential cost of reviving them only to find out they’d served him willingly and they struck at us again? Should we just dump their bodies somewhere they could regenerate and risk they would just run right back to Garrett? Or was it better to methodically sever any hope they had for resurrection and make us all just a little bit safer?

  These were the bitter questions I was left to ponder, since the Clan Firsts had appointed me as our official general in the war against my father and brother. Riku also declared that I’d passed the test from Hikaru’s Own when we saw Bianca bonded to Keith just moments after we finished cremating our enemies. Theirs was no love match, but they at least knew each other from their time among my father’s minions and could understand each other in a way few others could. Theirs was not the only Quatrain of convenience by any means. Hopefully they could make peace with their new bond and complete the circle by finding the right Gryphon and Selkie.

  I would still do everything in my power to find a way to use Spirit to help protect my siblings when they were born, just in case. Several ideas were already percolating in my brain.

  Jake and I didn’t crawl exhausted into our bed until dawn crested the horizon the next morning. I’d tensed when Jake muttered a few tense sentences to Keith after we escorted him, my siblings, and Bianca to their cabin next door, but Keith merely nodded and accepted whatever Jake had said without argument. Then Liam, Isaac, Avani, and several Freeholders followed them into their cabin, and I understood that scene completely. And also completely agreed with Jake’s judgment call to assign Keith a contingent of guards while we slept. Far better safe than sorry.

  I was much more surprised to find Riku, Colin, Ju Hai, and Shan sitting in our cabin’s living room. Along with a few non-Mindbending Elementals I recognized from Hikaru’s Own—no, now they refused to answer to anything except Cassidy’s Own, even though I hadn’t been officially sworn in as their leader yet.

  My inner eyeroll could have knocked me out, had it been external. How had my life come from being a completely mundane paranormal investigator and house flipper to being named general of an Elemental Clan and leader of a small army now bearing my actual name? I felt like a Chosen One hero in the Big Fat Fantasy books I loved to read. At least I wasn’t a poor shepherd who’d been smuggled away from the palace when the last royal family members except him had been slaughtered. Well, not that I knew of anyway.

  I gave an exasperated sigh when Jake confirmed that our guests were there to guard us while we slept. “I can’t even with this right now, so we’ll fight about this later.”

  Ju Hai just gave one of her serene smiles as we retreated to our bedroom. Sugar regarded us imperiously from her perch atop the pillow on the far side of the bed, waiting for us to appropriately worship her Siamese queenliness with caresses before we crawled beneath the blankets on the two-thirds of the king-sized bed she deigned to allow us.

  Jake fit the curves of my body against the planes of his own, arms cradling me so tenderly that I forgot all about wanting to fight and focused on my sheer relief that everyone had made it through the day. Of course, tomorrow was not guaranteed to any of us, but today’s victory had increased our odds just slightly. That was really was all any of us could ask for. A fighting chance to stand up for what was right and kick the ass of evil to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. I was proud to have been reborn in fire and then forged from flame with this amazing man by my side. We could withstand anything life threw at us, together. And my father was going to learn that he had definitely messed with the wrong daughter...

  THE END

  Connect with Kasey Online

  Hi there!

  I hope you enjoyed Forged from Flame; I love the magic in this series and the way the relationship between Cass and Jake is developing. Who doesn’t love a kickass heroine and a male love interest confident enough to keep up without trying to overshadow or diminish her? (Rhetorical question, because I assume the answer is YOU if you’ve read this far!)

  This quartet is the first of several in the Untamed Elements universe. I’m planning to publish the remaining books in The Phoenix on the Rise Quartet in 2019, and then Cass’s sister Dia will tell her own tale in The Gryphon Takes Flight Quartet. Other quartets will follow, including a second from Cass’s POV. Until those are released, please consider reading one of my other books listed below. All my books are available on Amazon, and my indie-published books will be available as POD books in the future.

  I love to connect with readers! You can find my current social media accounts by checking out my website at http://kaseymackenzie.com. Please sign up for my newsletter to stay up-to-date on all my red hot urban fantasy releases. It would also be completely amazing if you could leave a review online where you purchased this book or on Goodreads.com. Reviews (whether positive or negative) help writers get new readers—meaning they can continue writing the books you love. Any time you take out of your busy life to post a review is appreciated more than this wordsmith can say.

  Thanks so much for reading!

  Kasey

  Other Books by Kasey Mackenzie:

  Urban Fantasy:

  Novels from the Untamed Elements Universe:

  The Phoenix on the Rise Quartet

  (featuring Cassidy Grant)

  Reborn in Fire

  Forged from Flame

  Embraced by Embers*

  Ignited by Ashes*

  The Gryphon Takes Flight Quartet

  (featuring Amadia Patterson)

  Air Pressure*

  Wind Shear*

  Gale Force*

  Hurricane Level*

  Novels from Other Universes:

  The Psychic Storm Series

  (featuring Storm O’Malley)

  Where Angels Fear

  The Shades of Fury Series from Ace Books

  (featuring Marissa Holloway)

  Red Hot Fury

  Green-Eyed Envy

  Blackhearted Betrayal

  Young Adult Urban Fantasy:

  The Magical Ties That Bind Series

  Subtle Fire

  Steampunk:

  The Austen Sisters Series

  Plague and Pestilence*

  (*Forthcoming)

  Biography

  Kasey Mac
kenzie lives with her husband and son in St. Louis, Missouri; home of the Gateway Arch, the baseball Cardinals, and the world’s greatest thin-crust pizza. Kasey was one of those students who always had her nose in a book–so no big surprise when she was voted Teacher’s Pet in her high school yearbook. Today, she is a voracious reader of fantasy, romance, science fiction, and YA. She adores her oversize dog, mischievous cat, and shaking her groove thing as a Zumba instructor. Let’s not discuss the hours spent PC video gaming or the amounts of Dr. Pepper Ten consumed...

  Passionate about the written word, she feels extremely lucky to make a living as an editor and writer. Now, if she could just figure out how to get paid for cleaning her own house, maybe that would happen more often…