by Hati Bell
Table of Contents
Title
Synopsis
Prologue
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
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Author's note
Titanium
Titanium chapter 1
Titanium chapter 2
Contents
Title
Synopsis
Prologue
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
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Author's note
Titanium
Titanium chapter 1
Titanium chapter 2
AMBER
Copyright © 2017 by Hati Bell
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
All trademarks are the property of their owners.
Editor: Cocky van Dijk
Copy editor: Melissa Hollingsworth
Cover by: Rockingbookcovers.com
When two colleges merge, supernatural worlds collide…
THE DRYAD
Amber O’Neill has always been the odd dryad out in their supernatural community. Her biggest fear was her visions driving her insane some day. Her fear rises to a whole new level when, during her first encounter with a dragon, she receives a shocking vision.
THE DRAGON
Disowned by his grandfather, Drake was born into riches but raised in poverty. An inheritance gives him the chance to reclaim what should have rightfully been his. No one will stop him from getting what he wants. Certainly not a dryad.
However, dangerous circumstances force Amber and Drake together. Can they trust each other or will they be each other’s downfall?
PROLOGUE
The guy’s hand was nailed to the middle of the table. He was slouching on a chair and his head rested on his arm. Streams of blood seeped over the tabletop onto the tiled floor of the locker room.
Drake ignored the pitiful scene and opened his locker. He wished he could ignore the smell of stale beer and fish just as easily. He’d just taken off his sport shorts when his brother sauntered into the room.
Logan sat down onto the bench near the sink. “What a pile of misery,” he noted with a look at the passed-out guy. “Guess it’s true what they say; gambling destroys lives.”
“We gamble too,” Drake said dryly as he put on his jeans.
Logan smirked. “That’s not entirely true. Technically I’m the one who plays poker. You just fight in a cage.”
“Yeah, a fight on which we put money,” he said pointedly.
Their conversation suddenly woke the guy up. He shied away when he noticed them while visibly suppressing a cry of pain.
The door opened and a familiar face belonging to someone in a designer suit entered the room.
Zacharias was accompanied by a bodyguard with gold front teeth. He greeted them with wide-spread arms. “Hello, lads!” he exclaimed. “Look at you two. One dark and ruthless, the other blond and cunning. If you only knew what my audience would give to see the two of you fighting each other in that cage. It’s a shame your old men aren’t here to see how far you’ve made it without them.” A cynical laugh followed. “Or should I say, despite them.”
With that last remark, the atmosphere in the room dropped to an icy temperature that would make Frosty the Snowman feel right at home. “Are you sure you don’t want to try your luck in the cage, Logan?” Zacharias persisted.
Logan shook his head. “Cage fighting isn’t my thing.”
Zacharias sent him a disparaging look. “No, if rumors are true, your thing mostly happens between the sheets. Are there any married women left in Somerset that you haven’t slept with?”
Logan clutched his chest and staggered backward like he was hurt. “You make it sound so cheap. I’ll have you know that the ladies I honor with my attention are very carefully selected.”
“Like the mayor’s wife?” Zacharias drawled as he walked over to his victim, his bodyguard right on his trail.
“Lies. She was his ex-wife.”
Zacharias’ laugh ricocheted against the cold, concrete walls. “One moment, lads. I just need to take care of some vermin.” He settled his gaze on the guy at the table, his smile disappearing. “So, you think you can borrow my money, gamble it away, and then just disappear for two weeks?”
Gold Teeth ominously snapped the joints in his fist.
“I’m gonna pay you back, mister Zacharias,” the guy promised.
Zacharias looked as if he was surprised by the sheer stupidity of that remark. “Of course you will, Pierce. Did you really think I doubted that? The only question is how.”
“My paper round…” Pierce whimpered.
“Ah, your paper round. You know what I found out today? A quick calculation showed me that it will take you about five years to pay me back. Problem is, I don’t do five-year-plans. At least not without a decent down payment.” Zacharias walked over to Drake, and gave him that evening’s prize money. “If only there were someone in this room who would want to help you out.”
Drake knew exactly what was going on in Zacharias’ mind. The sly snake was first and foremost a businessman. He snatched money back as fast as he gave it away. “Forget it,” he said. He grabbed his bag from his locker and started to walk away. Logan was already at the door.
“Please help me,” Pierce cried. “I’ll pay you back. I’ll do anything. Anything! Help me.”
Drake shot him a cool look. There was no way Pierce would ever be able to pay back Zacharias. They all knew it. He wasn’t going to waste his hard-earned money on a gambling addict who was doomed anyway.
Zacharias turned a chair around and took a seat across from Pierce. “It looks like our reigning champion refuses to act as your champion,” he said. “There are several things I can do now. One of those things is to show mercy by giving you a second chance. But I think I’ll go for door number two and use you to set an example. Can’t have anyone think I’ve gone soft, now can I?”
Snap.
Pierce screamed when Gold Teeth grabbed his pinned wrist and snapped his little finger up. “Please, please, give me another chance,” he begged, mucus dripping down his chin.
A sour smell filled the room and Drake realized Pierce had peed his pants. Feeling sorry for someone he hardly k
new wasn’t in his DNA, though. You made a bad choice, you had to pay for it. Just like Drake was still paying for the choices his deadbeat father had made.
Snap.
Another scream followed. Pierce’s bloody hand started to look like failed origami.
“That nail must hurt,” Zacharias said, shaking his head. “It’s a technique that was widely used during the Dark Ages. I always thought that was a rather dubious name, by the way. Dark implies it was a time without any light, which is incorrect. On the contrary, back then it was clear as day how a thief would get punished. It’s my pleasure to reintroduce that tradition to you.”
Snap.
Drake left the room when Pierce started screaming again. He rushed to the parking lot behind the building where Logan had already started the engine.
He passed the same people he saw every week, drenched in the smell of alcohol and with pieces of paper with numbers on them in their hands. He hated that this was his only way to make money fast. But one day his time would come, even if he had to claw his way there. In the meantime, he wouldn’t let himself get distracted. He was no hero. The age of heroes was long gone.
ONE
A jolt of pain tore through Amber’s head as she opened her eyes. She moaned and reached into the drawer of the bedside table, where she kept her painkillers. It was empty. The red numbers of her digital clock hurt her eyes. Her father had stuck a sticky note next to it.
I informed the school you’re sick.
She was glad he didn’t wake her up. She’d rather have her visions reveal themselves as nightmares than get an attack while at school or some other public place. She sat on the edge of the bed, resting her head in her hands. According to her grandmother Meg, she should be happy that she inherited “the gift.”
She remembered how she’d been standing at the top of the stairs of her grandmother’s cottage, while the guests of one of Meg’s extravagant parties trickled in.
“Your father told me that you had your first vision last night,” Meg said. “He wants me to teach you how to handle your unique gift. You should be thankful to have me. My great-grandmother Gertrude wasn’t clear-headed anymore when my gift manifested, but despite all of that I found a way to embrace my gift. You will do the same.”
Amber shivered at the inevitability that spoke from those words. “It’s not a gift, Grandmother,” she said softly, while she nervously plucked the stiff collar of her dress.
“Don’t call me that,” Meg snapped. “We talked about this remember? I’m far too young to be called that.”
She nodded. “I’m afraid to touch anybody, because I’ll see what will happen to them… Meg. Sometimes it’s good, but sometimes it’s really bad.”
Meg snorted. “That’s because people are more concerned with their fears than with their joys.”
“I don’t understand,” Amber said hesitantly.
“That’s okay. You will once you start seeing a pattern.”
“It’s more than just seeing. I feel everything they feel. Everything,” she whispered.
“Look at that herd standing around in the entrance,” Meg pointed out. “Humans who don’t have the special blood of supernatural creatures, like we do. Each of them would pay a fortune to possess even a fraction of your gift. Since that’s impossible, they will pay you a fortune to tell them what their future will hold. Not that it will do them any good, because they won’t be able to change the future anyway. A lesson your mother had to pay for with her life.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. She felt a rare gesture of compassion on her back and heard Meg sigh. “You are looking at a bright and rich future, my child. The only thing you have to do is use your gift.”
“But I don’t want to touch people. I don’t want to see and feel what I see. It hurts.”
Meg waved her protest away and walked down the stairs in a way that Amber had seen the queen do on the telly. “You’ll learn to appreciate your gift, especially when your first customers start waving with their credit cards. There’s only one thing you have to keep in mind, and that’s to never trust a dragon, no matter how much money you are offered,” she whispered. “Especially not if the dragon in question is a Kincaid.”
Her eyes pointed to a tall man in a tuxedo with pitch-black hair that almost seemed blue under the light of the chandelier. He had a goatee and venom-green eyes that scared Amber. The woman on his arm was his opposite in every way-honey-blonde, petite, and with a friendly smile. She whispered something in his ear and for a second his features softened. Their skin were surrounded by a golden glow that she knew humans couldn’t see.
“Who is that man?” Amber asked.
Meg lowered her head while she dismissed a servant who walked their way with a serving tray. “That’s the supreme dragon, Sir Alec Kincaid, and his wife, Lady Ariana. He’s a banker with a family tree that leads all the way back to William the Conqueror. He lives at the Dome Estate, where he imagines he’s a god at Mount Olympus.”
The memory promptly took Amber’s thoughts back to the present. At the shopping centre, she’d bumped into a man who smelled of turpentine. A vision had immediately appeared in which he was sitting under dome-shaped glass, bleeding. She read the rest of her father’s note while she tried to massage the pain from her head.
I’m sorry you have to miss your first day of school, but maybe it’s for the best. I will take a train back from London on Friday night.
She’d spent half the night in a fetal position and her cramped muscles finally relaxed when she stepped under the shower. She got out of the shower and quickly changed, because Trinity college was the nearest place where she could get painkillers. She put on a pair of jeans and a colorful top in the hopes that it would mask her paleness. When she sent her dad a message that she’d go to school after all, she immediately got a response.
Watch out for the dragons!
Anybody else would have laughed at those words, or maybe thought that he referred to a local gang, but not Amber. No, her dad was dead serious; there were dragons in the sleepy town of Somerset.
She picked up her bag and hurried down the stairs. Bryan sat at the kitchen table.
“Another rough night?” her brother asked her from behind his coffee mug.
She grimaced. “You heard me too?”
“The bags under your eyes speak more than a thousand words,” he said dramatically.
Of course. No concealer in the world would be able to hide the signs of sleep deprivation. She grabbed a bowl and some cereal from the cupboard and walked over to the fridge for some milk. She put her breakfast on the table and sat down across Bryan.
“Your nightmares seem to be increasing,” he said.
Amber refused to consider the implications of his words. “I ran out of pills,” she said, quickly changing the subject.
Bryan’s blue eyes now had a pensive look in them. “I’ll go to the pharmacy before I head out to camp.”
“The pharmacy doesn’t open until the afternoon. I’ll go to school in a minute. The nurse always has a stash.”
“Maybe you should stay home today,” he said. “It’d be safer.”
“I know you’re worried about the merger with Meadow College, but it’ll be fine.”
“No it won’t,” Bryan huffed. “Bringing two archenemies under the same roof is like holding a light next to a barrel of gunpowder.”
On any other day, she might have worried about that, but not today. Not after the nightmare in which she’d seen that someone would get murdered in the gym. Her nightmare was something she would discuss with her dad, though. She didn’t want to bother Bryan, because he already had enough on his plate. “I’ll have to go back to school at some point and face the dragons,” she noted.
“Just be careful. You know their kind is wild, greedy, and dangerous,” he warned her.
“I’ll stay away from the dragons,” she solemnly promised.
“And don’t forget: no matter what you do…”
“Never make a
dragon a promise,” she finished the well-known sentence. “By the way, why are you still here? I would’ve thought the secretary of the Introduction Week Committee would have left for camp a long time ago.”
“I stayed because I wanted to talk to Ian. He just left and my ride will arrive any minute now.”
Bryan was the older of the twins–even if it was only by two minutes. Those minutes had burdened Bryan with an uncommon seriousness for his age. Her younger brother, Ian, on the other hand was blessed with a joie de vivre that she envied. “Cheer up. It’ll be okay. Maybe this merge won’t turn into the nuclear disaster everyone seems to think it will.”
Judging by Bryan’s look, he strongly doubted that. “The cold war between dryads and dragons has been going on for centuries. There’s a reason why Somerset is divided into the Fire Mountain and the Woods.”
Someone honked a horn outside their window and Bryan rose to his feet. “My ride’s here. See you tomorrow, at the camp. Please try to keep the Dynamic Duo out of trouble until I get back.”
She laughed at his metaphor. Ian was the captain of the football team, but he was also impulsive and short-fused. Their neighbor Dave Addison was his sidekick and was even more short-fused, if such thing was even possible. “You know that’s impossible.”
“I hope Ian doesn’t do anything stupid,” Bryan said. “You know he hates dragons. Especially because of Mum.”
Amber’s smile disappeared. Even though it was never proven, the dryads suspected that the fire that suffocated Emily O’Neill was lit by dragons.
Bryan left and she soon followed him out the door. She could have ridden her bike, but her headache had started to play up again, which meant she frequently had to squint her eyes shut.
Walking it is.
About half an hour later, Amber finally arrived at the iron gates of the school entrance. According to Ian, the building would be ruined the moment hoofed and horned dragons would stomp inside. But Trinity College looked to be the same red-bricked square building as always.
