by Jaye Shields
Secrets of the Fog
Jaye Shields
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2012 by Jaye Shields
Previously published by F+W Media
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by AmazonEncore, Seattle
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eISBN: 9781503951570
This title was previously published by F+W Media; this version has been reproduced from F+W Media archive files.
Dedication
Family is the most precious gift one can have, and I am very blessed to be surrounded by unconditional love and support. I am the luckiest girl in the world.
To my mom, who taught me how beautiful a strong, independent woman can be, and also that a mother’s love can truly make a girl fly. You always find a way to make me smile, whether it’s texting me a pic of a hot half-naked mullet man on a book cover or talking smack about the people that passed on me. You’ve been my champion.
To my grandma, who reminds me a great deal of Artemis — in a slightly less deadly, reads lots of books kind of way. You may be tiny, but you’re a force to be reckoned with. Thank you for teaching me to be brave. Even if I never developed the spine to read true crime and ended up a romance novelist instead.
To my aunts, I have the coolest, most awe-worthy collection of them. I love you.
You too, Dad. I love ya.
Acknowledgments
Secrets of the Fog has been through a lot since I wrote it a year ago. I need to thank my critique partners for not only reading the entire thing, but numerous prologue and chapter one rewrites. To Angie Derek and Virginia Serpico, my fabulous crit partners, and Chris Ross, the first man to let me know what he thought of the Knights of the Fog.
And of course, Lisa Posillico-Filipe, my unpaid agent and the crit partner who read this book a bazillion times, including many of the scenes that didn’t make it into the final draft. I love you, Lisa. I don’t know what I’d do without you.
I bow down to Jennifer Lawler and Crimson Romance for taking a chance on Secrets of the Fog and its friends, Secrets of the Sky and Secrets of the Jaguar, the first books I ever wrote. And to my fabulous editor, Julie Sturgeon, for whipping it into shape.
Dreams do come true.
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
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Epilogue
About the Author
Preview: Secrets of the Sky
Chapter One
“Tera!” A voice echoed through the crowded coffee shop. “We’re running out of flour and the delivery guy hasn’t arrived yet.” Sparrow Reed shouted her name again, an edge of panic laced in the complaint. “Tera! We’re almost out of scones, for cryin’ out loud.”
Agrotera — Tera to her friends — gracefully navigated between the new coffee grinder and the break table, making her way from her office to the petite barista’s side. She beamed with pride as she glanced around her busy café on Park Street in the charming island town of Alameda, California.
At nearly six feet, Tera towered over the frazzled barista. “You know what they say, darling Sparrow, here today, scone tomorrow!”
Sparrow laughed. “I’m pretty sure that is not what they say, and scone is nowhere near a close enough pun for that to work.”
Tera tightened her ponytail of long, auburn hair. “So are you singing tonight or what?”
“Yeah, I’m going to sing a swan song for our disappearing scone supply.”
Tera winked at Sparrow. “Swan song. Is that supposed to be a bird pun or something?”
“No, Tera,” her barista said impatiently.
“C’mon, I know it is!” Tera giggled like a twenty-seven-year-old trapped in a teen’s body. Make that a 270-year-old — after all, she was nearly three centuries old. “I love shape shifter puns.”
“How many times do I have to tell you? It’s called mystically gifted.” Sparrow reached out to swat Tera on the bum since she couldn’t reach anywhere else on the tall body. Tera filled with warmth as she evaded her best friend. Sparrow had been the one to encourage her to make this coffee shop happen. After all, the friends knew each other’s secrets. For she was really Agrotera, a Dryad of the Muir Woods. And Sparrow was a mortal-born Wiccan.
Sparrow was an angelic-looking girl with long, lightning-blond hair and fair skin. She also had a wicked knack for baking scones. Although she looked like the girl next door, most of the twenty-seven-year-old’s back was artfully inked with a variety of birds. When she was born, her coven of Wiccan-born aunts gifted her with an enchantment, the first of her tattoos. The magic left the marking of a sparrow inscribed into her skin, a marking that now glowed on the occasions that she desired to fly.
With help from an enchanted birthday lotto ticket from “Anonymous,” — a.k.a. Sparrow’s aunts — Tera had found the down payment necessary to secure her spot on Park Street for the coffee shop venture. She still taught at the martial arts studio, but offered her hour of Goddess Style martial arts for free. After all, that was how Artemis would have wanted it.
“Hey, girls! Come down here.” One of Sparrow’s aunts peeked from below the hatch leading into the coffee shop basement. “It’s important.”
Sparrow glimpsed at the customers, met Tera’s gaze, and then shrugged. Her aunts were an unpredictable lot. Tera called out to the kitchen. “Keep an eye on the counter for a minute. Sparrow and I are going on a five-minute break.”
Tera opened a trap door in the hall and descended into the basement. Only Sparrow and the aunts had the spare key to enter her hidden arsenal. Flipping on the light, she inhaled the scent of dust and metal. Guns, swords, stakes, and boxes of bullets filled the room. Ah the sweet smell of self-defense.
“So, what’s up with the mid-day hidden meeting?” Tera raised a brow at the ritual set up on the ground.
Between their big, curly gray-blond hair and ample curves, Sparrow’s aunts, Morgana and Melissandra, took up the majority of the floor space. The younger of the two pointed to the entranced sister, her eyes rolled back and closed to half-mast so they looked like tiny white crescents. “Bad news. Sit down, sugar.”
“Why does this feel like an intervention?”
Melissandra chuckled. “The only one that’d ever need an intervention i
s Sparrow and her addiction to karaoke.”
“You weren’t complaining last night when I did some Stevie Nicks,” her friend shot back good-naturedly.
“When the planets align once more, there will be a new cycle.” Morgana’s feminine voice whispered ominously in the dimly lit room. Candles flickered, and the scent of smoking anise hung in the basement arsenal.
“Well, duh.” Sparrow smiled through the gloom. Leave it to her best friend to make light of ill news.
She heard Melissandra deliver a shark slap to the back of the Sparrow’s head. “Don’t interrupt your aunt when she’s having a vision. Besides, this rarely happens. It’s important.”
“The portal is buzzing with an arrival. I didn’t see who it was, but I felt the desire. The entity wants to destroy all of Artemis’ children.”
“Great. Someone wants to wipe out all the Dryads?” Tera was shushed by Melissandra only a second later, so she dragged her fingers over her lips to focus on the foreboding message.
Morgana Reed’s eyes were a stark white contrast against the dark space of the room as she embraced the vision. Warmth surrounded Tera as magickal electricity emanated off Morgana.
“There will be a new cycle, when High Gods and Goddesses can visit the Human Realm once more.”
“High Gods?” Sparrow’s raised an eyebrow, and even in the dark, her blue eyes smiled with mischief. “Like, under the influence?”
It was Tera’s turn to smack her best friend.
Morgana’s voice interrupted them, the eerie, distant tone demanding attention. “There is more. Your mom is concerned for you, Tera. An ancient Goddess will be coming for you.”
Silence. Not even comedic relief from Sparrow.
Finally, Morgana’s eyes became focused, the whites giving away to gray-blue irises. “Is there something you haven’t told us, Tera?”
In her nearly three-hundred years of life, Tera had never known family like the Reed Coven. With her own mother MIA, Sparrow and her family had given Tera a new outlook on life. She never would have been able to brave the modern world without them.
She hated to admit that she had a secret that could endanger their household.
“C’mon,” Sparrow put a hand on her shoulder. “We already know you’re not human. We’ll be with you no matter what your bad news is.”
Tera sucked in a breath, and looked at her dear friends around the table. “Before my mother left me, she warned that she wouldn’t be able to visit the woods for some time.”
“The Goddess of the Hunt was taking a vacay?”
Tera smiled a little at Sparrow’s reference to her mother. The family knew about her origins as a Dryad, born from a tree with the blood of Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt. What they didn’t know was that another Goddess was looking forward to seeing Tera as well.
“Artemis warned me that someone else would be coming for me: Eris, the Goddess of Chaos.”
Silence.
“I’m pretty sure that chick must be responsible for the state of my closet.” Of course, Sparrow would be the one to break the ice.
Morgana chuckled, color returning to her round cheeks as the effects of the ritual passed. “I don’t think chaos is the right word to describe your closet.”
“Destruction would be more like it.” Melissandra pinched her niece’s cheek adoringly.
“Anyway,” Tera continued, realizing her adoptive family didn’t grasp the severity of the situation. “I’ve never met any Goddess besides my mother, but apparently this Eris is strife incarnate.”
“And she’s got your number?”
“I don’t know exactly what she has. Besides centuries of wreaking havoc under her belt, I mean. She caused the Trojan War for crying out loud. Imagine what she could do in the twenty-first century.”
“Could she find you here?” Morgana didn’t hide the worry in her tone.
“I don’t know.”
In fact, all her mother had told her was that Eris had been dying for centuries for a chance to get back at Artemis, and hurting one of the Hunt’s children was the best way to do it.
“I guess Eris has always hated Artemis,” Tera added.
“I get that,” Sparrow nodded. “I read about Eris in my Greek mythology class.”
“That you failed?” Morgana snuck in the playful jab at her niece.
“It was a D-.” She wasn’t fazed. “Anywho, Eris was responsible for starting most of the wars back in those days. Her name is notorious for death. But your mom, the Goddess of the Hunt, receives praise when she takes a life.”
Tera narrowed her eyes at her best friend, and smacked a curled fist into her palm jokingly. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“Of course I am, Woods.”
Tera cringed at the nickname Sparrow had given her. “This is a serious concern, Birdie, and I told you, I loathe that moniker.”
“You’re born from a tree, and you’re so hot you give guys instant wood. How is that not perfect?” A smack from one of the aunts connected with the back of Sparrow’s blond head. “Ouch!”
“Anyways, since you guys are obviously so concerned with the imminent danger … ” Tera heaved a sigh.
“Go ahead, darling.” Morgana smiled fondly.
“Artemis told me that Eris spends a great deal of time looking for Artemis’ other children, other Dryads. But I guess they’re very elusive. I’m the only one that has left her tree to come out in the open.” Thanks to an ability to sink into a hollowed tree, it was easy for the race of women born from the Goddess to hide.
“So you’re an easy target.” Morgana’s voice was gentle, but laden with worry.
“Auntie, nothing about Tera is easy.”
“It’s true, Morgana, we all know Tera can kick some serious butt. Our fair Dryad does it on a daily basis.” Melissandra pinched Tera’s cheek.
Tera couldn’t help but beam with pride — nothing beat family raving over her abilities. Being born and trained by the Goddess of the Hunt had its perks. Kicking-butt abilities and a green thumb were her natural gifts.
But even so, she didn’t think either of those talents would be good enough to go against Strife herself.
Chapter Two
Eris, the Goddess of Chaos, ran her fingers down one of her long, dark dreadlocks. Her fingernails were pointed and painted with gold. The same precious metal graced the top of her ratted mane. The Goddess’ crown was soaked perpetually in blood, flowing from the many bodies upon which she had brought death and chaos. The Goddess’s eyes were deep amber, and the bloody crown framed her wild eyes so that they looked akin to flame. Layers of sheer black and crimson fabric were held in place by thick golden ropes.
After waking up from a century-long sleep, Eris woke with a thirst for revenge. Not that she wasn’t usually bitter anyway. Gazing into her black onyx mirror, her eyes penetrated all planes of existence as she looked down upon the Human Realm. Her favorite place to wreak havoc, the human plane brought her much joy — in the form of tyranny and discord, of course. But now it wasn’t a human that she desired to seek revenge upon. It was a Dryad.
The onyx mirror on the wall was her personal portal. Sliding her long fingers through the mirror, her fingers magically traced through realms until finally she found the Asuras plane. A realm filled with miscreants and various demons, this was her favorite place to find turmoil.
Chaos was personified by strife, and she was good at it. Spying a Nunanish demon, she chuckled with excitement. Just what she needed. A gangly sort of creature that could take the form of thick, black smoke, the monster could infect beings with violence and hate. She possessed the body of the Nunanish just long enough for the demon to escape the Asuras plane and travel through the Portal Realm past the Knights of the Fog. Then she sat back and began to watch chaos enfold.
• • •
In the Portal Realm, the fog was thick with travelers, and Sabin was on edge. Gypsies, jinn, and shape shifters were frequent travelers between planes. On the other hand, demons, dragons and other, more conspicuous, mischievous creatures were forbidden by the highest order to travel across many realms. Sabin’s ears twitched in awareness, and he predicted that a demon would try to get past him this day.
A Knight of the Fog, Sabin Grey’s job was to keep the peace between the different realms that converged at the site of the portal. Throughout his career, he’d killed a thousand creatures who foolishly tried to slip past him. No matter what their portal, he saw through the thickest fogs and into every world. There were no escapes … not live ones anyway.
A jinn slithered around him, its voluptuous body both erotic and disgusting, its skin a murky purple hue, its body knotted and disjointed. Bodies often broke when confined within various lamps and vases. The jinn were a variety of genie, and although they were allowed to travel between planes, they had a reputation as very mischievous creatures and were forbidden in the Human Realm. It eyed him as it walked past.
The jinn were asexual, embodying whatever gender they felt as the moment struck them. And it appeared to him that this jinn was feeling highly female.
Finally the creature gave up on him, and Sabin was left in peace to do his job. No wishes for him. He was mildly agitated by the jinn, but more disturbed by the foreboding chill he felt in his bones. A dangerous demon was trying to get to the Fog plane.
Knights! Do you feel this?
Sabin communicated to his colleagues in the region via telepathy. All Knights of the Fog were blessed with the ability to speak all known languages of every realm, but in the Fog Realm, they always spoke within their minds.
I feel it, brother. I am guarding the Asuras Realm. Come quickly, the portal is vibrating.
The Asuras Realm held disgusting demons whose only desires were conflict and violence. Legend held that long ago a demon leech escaped the realm and traveled to the human plane where it began infecting and creating vampires.
