by Jasmine Walt
“Shhh,” I soothed, sliding my arms beneath him so I could lift him onto the couch. His dark cotton shirt was soaked in sweat. “Don’t speak. You need to conserve your energy.”
“No… point…” he said with a weak chuckle. My leg muscles flexed as I rose to my feet with Roanas cradled in my arms. I carefully deposited him atop the couch, then sat down next to him and pulled his head into my lap again. “I’m dying.”
“No,” I said firmly. I ran my hand through his braids, pushing them back from his clammy forehead. “You just feel like you’re dying. Which is perfectly understandable since you just experienced silver poisoning, but –”
“The antidote… wasn’t enough.” He wrapped his long fingers around mine, and a tremor went through me – his grip, normally so strong, was as weak as a newborn babe’s. “Too much silver… too fast. Not… going to… make it.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I snarled, tightening my grip on his hand. This wasn’t real. This wasn’t happening. Roanas was only eighty years old – not even close to middle-aged for a shifter. He had a long, full life ahead of him, at least another two hundred years or so. Fuck, he was supposed to meet me tomorrow afternoon for a sparring match. Dying was not on the agenda.
“How could this happen to you?” I choked out as the tears spilled down my cheeks. “You... I… you’d never be so stupid as to accidentally poison yourself with silver!”
Shifters are hypersensitive to silver, so if it’s within fifty yards of us we’ll catch a whiff of it. The only reason I’d been burned by the coin earlier was because I’d been distracted. There was no way Roanas, who could hit a moving target with a chakram a hundred yards away – thirty more than my personal best – would miss such a thing.
But the empty glass lying on its side on the carpet told me that Roanas had done exactly that, and I couldn’t understand why. Leaning over, I picked up the glass and sniffed it, certain I would catch the scent of silver.
But I scented absolutely nothing except the burning stench of liquor and a hint of saliva.
“What… how?” I gaped down at the glass as if it were a foreign species clutched in my palm, and to me, it might as well have been. “Why don’t I smell anything?”
“The silver was mixed… with some kind of chemical… that masked the taste and scent.” Roanas panted the last word, his voice edged with pain. My heart ached at the sight of his pale skin and strained expression. “That’s why none of the others… detected it either.”
“There are others?” My throat tightened. “As if it isn’t bad enough you’re dying.” My voice broke on the last word.
“Please, Sunaya.” Roanas’s fingers curled around my jacket collar, pulling me closer. Even though he was sinking fast, his tawny eyes burned with a ferocious intensity. They cut through the fog of tears and pain in my brain, demanding my attention. “You must find out… who did this. There are other shifters… being targeted. Not just… about me.”
“Targeted?” My eyes narrowed as my brain tried to catch up with the implications of that. “Targeted how? And why?”
“The facts… are in my case file…” Blood spilled over Roanas’s lower lip, and I blinked back tears. “The Enforcers have been slow… to put the different cases together… but they are related.” His voice strengthened. “I was investigating… and so they’ve taken me out. You must connect the dots, Sunaya. Find out who did this. Stop the killings, avenge me, and… and…”
“And what?” Shards of ice scraped along the walls of my insides, the fear inside me painfully sharp. I gripped Roanas’s hand hard enough to grind the bones against each other, holding on for dear life. I never wanted to let him go.
“And… be careful.”
His face went slack then, the life gone from his eyes. And as he slid from this world to the next as silently as the hot tears rolling down my cheeks, I vowed not to rest until I caught the bastard who did this.
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Glossary
Annia: see under Melcott, Annia.
Baine, Sunaya: a young half-panther shifter, half-mage with a passion for justice. Because magic is forbidden to all but the mage families, Sunaya is forced to keep her erratic power a secret and faces the threat of execution if she is found out.
Baine, Mafiela: Chieftain of the Jaguar Clan and Sunaya’s aunt.
Baro: capital of Inara, one of the fifty states of the Federation.
Big Leo: a gangster boss and owner of brothels in the seamy part of Maintown.
Blackhorne, Elin: a human enforcer.
Black Market: an area in Solantha where illegal items can be purchased, by night, at the buyer’s risk.
Brennan, Galia: a ten-year-old schoolgirl who lives in Rowanville with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Brennan.
Canalo: one of the fifty states making up the Northia Federation, located on the West Coast of the Northia Continent.
Canalo Council, usually just the Council: a governmental body composed of eight senior mages, supposed to advise the Chief Mage.
Central Continent: the largest of the continents on Recca.
Madam Charming: former owner of a shop for magic items in Witches’ End.
Chief Mage: each of the fifty states of the Federation is ruled by a Chief Mage. Together, they form the Convention that meets every other year in the capital, Dara.
Comenius Genhard: a hedgewitch from Pernia, owner of the shop Over the Hedge in Witches’ End.
Creator: the ultimate deity, worshipped by all three races under different names.
Crowley: human enforcer, Foreman of the Main Crew.
Downtown: the seamy area of Maintown, especially at night, when the Black Market is operating there. Full of brothels and gaming dens.
Enforcer: a bounty hunter employed by the government to seek out and capture wanted criminals. They operate under strict rules and are paid bounties for each head.
Enforcer’s Guild: the administrative organization in charge of the enforcers. Also, the building from which the various enforcer crews work under their respective foremen.
Firegate Bridge: Solantha’s best-known structure, a large red bridge spanning the length of Solantha Bay. It is accessible via Firegate Road.
Garai: a powerful and populous country in the east of the Central Continent, ruled by a Mage-Emperor.
Captain Galling: the human captain of the Enforcer’s Guild in Solantha City, appointed by the Chief Mage.
Drombus, Melan: human, brother to Mrs. Coralia Thotting and uncle to Cerlina Thotting.
Hedgewitch: a variety of mage specialized in earth-based magic.
Inara: a state of the Northia Federation.
Larina: a runaway girl.
Kan Zao: a mental and physical martial art tradition from Garai.
Mages Guild: the governmental organization that rules the mages in Canalo, and supervises the other races. The headquarters are in Solantha Palace. They are subordinate to the Chief Mage.
Magorah: the god of the shifters, associated with the moon.
Main Crew: the largest group of Enforcers in the Guild. They are generally favored over the other crews and get the most lucrative dockets.
Maintown: the largest part of Solantha, inhabited almost exclusively by humans.
Mara: Cerlina Thotting’s school friend.
Melcott, Annia: a young human enforcer.
Melcott, Noria: Annia Melcott’s precocious younger sister.
Mrs. Melcott: Annia and Noria Melcott’s widowed mother.
Naraka: a country off the Eastern Continent, consisting of several large islands.
Nebara: one of the fifty states making up the Northia Federation.
Noria: see under Melcott, Noria.
Northia Federation: a federation consisting of fifty states that cover the entire northern half and middle of the Western Continent (which, in turn, is made up of Northia and Southia). Canalo is part of this federation.
Over the Hedg
e: a shop at Witches’ End which sells magical charms and herbal remedies, belonging to Comenius Genhard.
Pernia: a country on the Central Continent.
Prison Isle: an island in the middle of Solantha Bay that serves as a prison for Canalo’s worst criminals.
Ralla: a human enforcer, member of the Main Crew.
Roanas see under Tillmore, Roanas.
Rowanville: the only neighborhood of Solantha where all three races mix.
Shifter: a human who can change into animal form and back by magic; they originally resulted from illegal experiments by mages on ordinary humans.
Shiftertown: the part of Solantha where the official shifter clans live.
Shiftertown Inspector: a shifter chosen by the Shiftertown Council to police shifter-related crime.
Solantha: the capital of Canalo State, a port city on the west coast of the Northia continent, home of Sunaya Baine.
Solantha Bay: spanned by the Firegate Bridge, the bay gave its name to the city and port that became the capital of Canalo.
Solantha Palace: the seat of power in Canalo, where both the Chief Mage and the Mages Guild reside. It is located near the coast of Solantha Bay.
Testing: schoolchildren in Canalo are tested for magic at least twice during their schoolyears, and a positive result will lead to the magic wipe (often with permanent mental damage).
Thotting, Marlin and Coralia: a human couple living in Maintown.
Thotting, Cerlina: a young human schoolgirl, daughter of Marlin and Coralia Thotting.
Tillmore, Roanas: lion shifter, the Shiftertown Inspector and father figure/mentor to Sunaya, whom he rescued from the streets when she was homeless.
Ur-God: the name the humans call the Creator by.
Lord Vengar: Chief Mage of Canalo and ruler of the state.
Mrs. Weaver’s School for Girls: a private school in Maintown, attended by Cerlina Thotting.
Witches’ End: a pier in Solantha City, part of the Port, where immigrant magic users sell their wares and services.
About the Author
Jasmine Walt is obsessed with books, chocolate, and sharp objects. Somehow, those three things melded together in her head and transformed into a desire to write, usually fantastical stuff with a healthy dose of action and romance. Her characters are a little (okay, a lot) on the snarky side, and they swear, but they mean well. Even the villains sometimes.
When Jasmine isn’t chained to her keyboard, you can find her practicing her triangle choke on the jujitsu mat, spending time with her family, or binge-watching superhero shows on Netflix.
Want to connect with Jasmine? You can find her on Twitter at @jasmine_writes, on Instagram @jasmine.walt, on Facebook, or at www.jasminewalt.com. You can also shoot her an email at [email protected].
Also by Jasmine Walt
The Baine Chronicles Series
Burned by Magic
Bound by Magic
Hunted by Magic
Marked by Magic
Betrayed by Magic
Deceived by Magic
Exposed by Magic—Coming Soon!
The Baine Chronicles Novellas
Tested by Magic
Future titles to be announced!
The Shadows of Salem Series
Shadow Born
Shadow Marked
Shadow Hunted—Coming Soon!
