Lightness Falling, Copyright © 2017 Stacey Marie Brown
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and her crazy friends. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It cannot be re-sold, reproduced, scanned or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Cover by Dane at Ebook Launch
Developmental Editor Jordan Rosenfeld
Edited by Hollie
Layout by www.formatting4U.com
ALSO BY STACEY MARIE BROWN
Darkness of Light
(Darkness Series #1)
Fire in the Darkness
(Darkness Series #2)
Beast in the Darkness
(An Elighan Dragen Novelette)
Dwellers of Darkness
(Darkness Series #3)
Blood Beyond Darkness
(Darkness Series #4)
West
(A Darkness Series Novel)
City in Embers
(Collector Series #1)
The Barrier Between
(Collector Series #2)
Across the Divide
(Collector Series #3)
From Burning Ashes
(Collector Series #4)
The Crown of Light
(Lightness Saga #1)
To my readers:
Meet me around the corner in the back for the next one.
Love,
Your dealer
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
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
The Fall of The King
Acknowledgments
About The Author
ONE
Red eyes glowed through the darkness. Patchwork faces opened their mouths, displaying bloodied daggered teeth. Shrill roars cried out into the icy night while mist billowed from their lips. Hundreds of monsters lined up at the edge of the forest, growling and shrieking with war cries and stomping their feet in a terrifying beat.
Fear sat on my chest like barbells, pressing my feet into the earth. Strighoul.
Two stood in front of me, one whose broken front teeth gave his ghoulish appearance an even more alarming cast. He settled a step behind the other and bounced on his toes like he wanted to inch forward and take the lead. I knew the man in charge. He had been close to tasting my flesh once before.
Hovek.
Still dressed in a faux fur vest with a worn long-sleeved shirt, Bermuda shorts, and cowboy boots, he took the role of leader with a smug grin.
“Come out, come out,” Hovek taunted, his red irises burning right through me. He snapped his fingers at the toothless strighoul. “This one may not give us much power, but we will enjoy her just the same.”
It took me a moment to see Toothless was gripping a person. Her stout but short frame stumbled forward as he yanked her in front of him. A gasp caught in my throat.
“Marguerite!” I screamed and lurched toward the woman. Her silvering hair was neatly styled, and her normal smock was replaced with a flowery dress, long coat, and small-heeled shoes. Her Sunday outfit.
Stuck deep in the mud, I couldn’t budge to move near the woman we had all grown to love like a grandmother.
Her face was set in an angry line, and her eyes glared up defiantly at the strighoul.
“If you harm her in any way.” A deep voice rang out behind me, and I twisted to look. “I will personally see every one of you gutted, drawn, and burned alive.”
Tall, broad, and sexy, with jet-black hair, olive skin, and eyes black as night, Lars took a step toward the border of his property. Rimmon and Goran were right behind him. Normally his irises were an intense yellow-green color, which could pierce you with a glance, and have you on your knees groveling. The dark pits meant we were well past that. Fury pumped off the Unseelie King, choking the air with his magic. Lars was protective of his own, and we all knew how special Marguerite was to him, the one human he truly let get to know his heart. She had been with him since her childhood and had become the foundation of his home.
“You shouldn’t let your things run free then.” Hovek took her from Toothless, pulling her into him. “All alone on the bus. Poor lamb.”
“¡Pinche idiota!” Marguerite barked at Hovek, wiggling in his grip, looking more pissed than scared.
“Don’t we have a feisty señorita here?” Hovek’s lips split in an unnatural smile. “She will be like a fiesta in my mouth. Crack her open like a piñata.” Hovek leaned over, his gray slimy tongue trailed up the side of her face, his gaze still on Lars. Marguerite fought against him, but it only put a bigger smile on Hovek’s face.
“I warned you…” Lars growled, his eyes creasing, and the skin of his face paled as his toes bumped against the property line. Goran and Rimmon stepped forward ready to protect their King if he crossed the boundary. I knew all of Lars’s men were there, hidden somewhere in the darkness, getting ready to protect their ruler.
“No,” Hovek growled. “I’m here to warn you!” He pulled Marguerite into him. His long nails dug into her throat, and his hand squeezed down. Lars froze, seeing pain flinch across Marguerite’s face. “Our current benefactor has a message. You back off, call home that dark dweller, or we…” Hovek eyed down the line of strighoul, waiting on his word. “You will get a fight, one even the almighty king can’t stop.”
“There isn’t anything I cannot fight,” Lars growled. “No one challenges my power.”
“Oh, really?” Hovek let out a chuckle, the other strighoul joining him in a sinister chorus that chilled my bones. “We almost breached your walls last time. This time, now that I am leader, we have the magic to do it. We walk away if you agree to the terms, if not…you will be on the menu too. And how I have dreamed about tasting you.”
Lars’s face remained impassive. “Let her go.”
“Nope, we get one parting gift. We don’t work for free.” Hovek’s nails dug deeper, slicing Marguerite’s neck. Trickles of blood pooled on her pretty dress.
Shards of terror pushed up through my inners like nettles, their stingers embedding deep in my lungs. I needed to stop this.
“Wake. Turn light on.” A squawk came from a tree near me, whipping my head around. “Free from dream or all is lost. You can stop.”
“Grimmel!” I exclaimed, spotting the black raven sitting on a limb, his head tilted. Wake? This was a dream? It felt so real. I glanced around again, realizing no one seemed to notice or acknowledge my presence.
Wake up, Kennedy! This is not real. Wake up, now! I screamed in my head. Nothing. If anythin
g, I felt the vision cling on tighter, brushing the cool wind against my cheek.
“Help me. What do I do?”
“Told you.”
“I can’t wake up.”
“Then lost in the land of dreams forever.”
“Grimmel, please.”
“Light has the power to shine, but keeps locked in a chest.”
If I could ever figure out what the damn bird was talking about, I’m sure I’d have the answers to the great mysteries of life, but his words were as much an enigma as he was.
“Grimmel. Help Queen,” he said.
“Yes, please help.”
“Listen.” He slanted his head the opposite way, his wings flapping. “Receive.” Then he took off flying into the night, squawking loudly.
Hovek let out a wail, breaking my attention away from Grimmel. Hovek’s mouth opened like a shark’s. Hundreds of glistening needles dove down into Marguerite’s neck. She screamed as he tore into her flesh. With a waggle of his head, he ripped her throat from her neck, and her body crumbled to the ground in a heap. Her eyes went wide and vacant. This expression hit me so deep all I could feel was bile rising in my throat.
Ian’s image flashed before me first, then Jared’s face enveloped the body, his head cranking toward me, lips parting, and blood dribbling down his chin. His eyes went white with death. “You’ll always be mine...”
A scream drew up from my lungs, but Hovek’s bellow stopped it.
“Now!” Hovek turned my gaze from Jared’s grotesque expression to his. Gore slid from Hovek’s teeth as he shouted at his troops.
Like a branch snapping, the tension splintered into pieces, bringing everyone to life. The strighoul leaped forward, their teeth clanking together in anticipation. Fireballs of green and red flew in the air like fireworks and rained down on the protective shield, tearing at its surface. Lars had been attacked only months after the war, but the shields had held and were able to fight them off. This time, the magic sizzled through the armor around the compound, shredding it like paper, the power burning away the so-called unbreakable fortress.
Lars, Goran, and Rimmon barreled across the boundary while Lars’s other men leaped from the darkness with thunderous cries. The sound of bodies and weapons smashing into each other pounded my ears with a sharp tune, like a badly played cello or bagpipes.
Raindrops of magic ripped through the protected field, landing on my skin with a painful sizzle. A hiccup of fear shut my eyes briefly, and panic rose up the back of my throat. The vision touched me, breaking the third wall. I was no longer an observer; I was falling deeper and deeper in.
Kennedy, focus. You need to get out of here. Distress swirled my brain, and I fell to my knees, feeling the gush of the soft mud. A scream billowed up. Anchor. I need an anchor.
His face flashed into my head, but I quickly shoved it out. No. I needed to find a way out. I rocked back on my knees.
1.) This is not real.
2.) This is not real.
3.) This is not real.
The problem was it felt just as real as anything else. I could smell the pine-scented perfume of the forest and the musky damp dirt. I could hear the thudding of bodies in death. I could feel magic crackling over my skin.
My body shook as I gazed on Marguerite lying before me. Her eyes were open and dead, blood pooling from her mouth.
“Save me,” her mouth moved.
I scrambled back, my head hitting a tree with a crack. Pain zoomed up my spine, knocking me flat on my back, blinking through the sharp sting. I stared at the sky as it burst to life with color. Half the shield had already torn away.
A black object circled above me. It took a moment to realize it was Grimmel, circling overhead like a vulture waiting for the final breath of its next meal.
I closed my eyes, the noise reducing down to only his continuous screeching. I focused on him, which allowed my body to soar up and glide along with his wings, the squawking growing louder till it pierced my eardrum.
Flash.
TWO
I shot up as a scream tore past my lips. My bones rattled with fear, and my heart pounded in my chest. The room around me was dark with only moonlight streaming through the curtain. A black raven zoomed past the window, shrieking a few times before it flew off into the night.
Was I still in a vision? Was this real? Images slid through my mind and choked the air from my throat. Sweat trailed down my brow. My visions had come less frequently since the war, but when I did have one, the recovery was horrendous. Each time it took me longer than the last to center myself.
“Majesty?” A man burst through the door, his huge blue eyes lighting up where his dark skin blended with the night. He held a raised sword. “What’s wrong?”
All I saw was a weapon. Threat. With primal instinct, I scrambled out of the bed and sprinted for the glass doors leading outside.
“Majesty,” the man yelled as I tore through the doors. “Sturt, she’s heading out the back.”
Ten steps out the door a huge red-headed man stepped around, his hands held out like he was trying to corner a wild animal.
Trapped.
Panic lathered in my veins like soap, bubbling and expanding. Something deep inside tickled my throat wanting to protect me, and words I didn’t understand spoke in my ear. But in my gut I sensed their significance.
Attack. Kill.
Horror flushed through a part of my brain. I don’t hurt people.
I bit down on my lip and kicked back, turning the other way when a woman came around the corner, blocking my escape.
Terror seized me, and I whirled around seeing them approach me from all different angles. I had been here before. Surrounded. Strighoul. Warehouse. Death.
The unfamiliar terms continued to twitch at my throat, desperate to be uttered. The tangy flavor of blood slid over my taste buds as my teeth dug deeper into my lip, trying to hold the spell back. What was wrong with me? Where was this coming from? The malevolence churning in my stomach scared me as much as the people encircling me. I could no longer understand what was real or a dream. Visions no longer kept their distance. They were as real as my everyday life. They could touch me, hurt me...
“Majesty, it’s us,” the woman said. I was familiar with her dark chocolate skin, her violet eyes, and her black hair pulled back in a braid. Still, dread coursed through me, flowing out my pores in streaming sweat.
They all took another step forward, closing in on me. No. My heart fluttered against my chest, and stole more of my air. Fright clawed through my ribs, stretching out, spurring my legs to run. The person by the door had left a gap for me to get back inside, and I took it. Sprinting past him, I darted into the room, going for a door at the far wall.
I swung the door open, my brain registering it was a closet. A massive one but a dead end. I clawed through the hanging clothes, the garments shielding me from view and giving me a false sense of safety. I hit a corner and flipped around and pressed my back to it. I curled in a ball, my limbs trembling. I tucked my head down and rocked. My mouth moved, uttering, “Is it real?” over and over, needing an anchor.
The floor resonated with the sound of boots pounding into the room.
“Lea, go get Torin,” a man with a Scottish accent said.
“The one night off he’s given himself in months. He’s going to be so furious with himself,” the woman replied.
“He always is anyway.” Another guy snorted, sounding like the first one who ran into my room.
My room? Was this mine?
The woman retreated while the rest kept guard. Tiny specks of understanding nipped at my conscious, but distress kept me locked in a ball, chanting. I needed something to moor me to reality.
A few minutes later, the thumping of feet echoed from down the hall, and a man ran into the room, along with the woman they had called Lea and a tall brunette woman, her hair pulled back in a long ponytail.
“What’s going on? What’s wrong?” The moment the man spoke, I felt a
dash of calm brush my shoulders, and the blackness inside dissolved. I knew that voice. I peeked out through the clothes.
Tall, broad, with piercing blue eyes and dark hair pulled back in a tie. He was gorgeous, but they all were here. Recognition flickered through my head.
“She woke up screaming. Rowlands came running in thinking she was being attacked. She freaked out and ran. She’s been rocking in the corner, chanting his name over and over.”
“His name?” Blue Eyes asked.
“The dweller’s.”
The dark-haired man frowned, rubbing his head. “Okay, I got it from here. Get back to your posts.” The men and women nodded and headed out of the room. He clearly was the leader. Could he help me?
I knew I had to do something. Images itched at the back of my mind, wanting to tell me something. Fear and grief punctured my nerves like porcupine quills. Something horrible was going to happen.
“Georgia?” The guy grabbed the brunette’s arm, the one he ran in with. “Update Thara when she returns from her errand. I’d like to see her and Castien first thing in the morning.”
Castien. Thara. Another flood of awareness circled around those names. They both made me feel safe, warm, connected.
The girl nodded and slipped out of the room, shutting the door.
He turned to me. My eyes tracked him as he slowly moved to me.
“My lady?” His voice sounded calm and smooth. “Do you know where you are?”
I stayed quiet.
He walked up to me, squatting down. My back pressed against the wall.
“Are you all right, my lady?” he asked, his gaze rolling over me.
My lady. Yes, that felt familiar.
“Another vision?” He reached out to touch me, and I jerked back. Anchor. I needed my anchor though I couldn’t recall what that was.
“Are you real?” I whispered.
Lightness Falling (Lightness Saga Book 2) Page 1
