The Iron Sword

by J. M. Briggs

  The Iron Sword

  Book Three of the Iron Soul Series

  J.M. Briggs

  © 2015 by J. M. Briggs

  © 2015 by J. M. Briggs

  All rights reserved. No unauthorized reproductions permitted except for review purposes.

  Published by J.M. Briggs

  www.authorjmbriggs.com

  Printed in the United State of America

  Second Printing 2017

  ISBN 978-0-9967826-7-8

  To Aunt Charlotte who loved to laugh and was a friend as well as family. I miss you very much and wish you could have seen these books.

  1: Returning to Magic

  2: Date at the Diner

  3: The New Warrior

  4: Lunch with an Old Friend

  5: Lunch at the Boscos

  6: War Council

  7: Training in the Hills

  8: Living Shadow

  9: The Plain of the Circle

  10: Life and Love

  11: Best Friends

  12: Fire Burning

  13: Homecoming Events

  14: Catching Jenny Up

  15: View from a Hillside

  16: Darkness Rising

  17: Spears

  18: Homecoming Fears

  19: Slice of Life

  20: Jack-o-Lanterns

  21: In the Shadow of the Mound

  22: Halloween Anniversary

  23: Home Again

  24: Future Draws Near

  25: Warnings

  26: Finals

  27: Broken Heart

  28: Visions of Darkness

  29: Against Shadow

  30: A Final Gate

  31: Guardian Cyrridven

  32: Revelation

  33: End of an Era

  34: Helpless

  35: Worth the Sacrifice

  Returning to Magic

  Magic was waiting for her in Ravenslake. When the Welcome to Ravenslake sign appeared in front of her after the long drive from Spokane, Alex Adams hadn’t been sure how she felt. On one hand she was excited to see her friends again, but on the other hand, life was so much easier in Spokane. There were no magic lessons, no battles at night with dangerous warriors from other worlds and no confusing reincarnations running around. During the summer her biggest concern had merely been showing up to work on time and living according to the rules and schedule of her parents.

  Despite her doubts and worries, Alex hadn’t stopped or turned around. She drove carefully through the streets of Ravenslake, keeping her eyes open for people out on their bikes and jaywalking pedestrians. The entire town was busy with new students arriving, parents running out to shop and campus staff trying to direct the traffic. Thankfully as a sophomore, Alex knew her way around and had managed to get a decent parking spot and check into her new room at Gallagher Hall without too much fuss.

  Gallagher Hall was a four-story building right next to Alex’s old freshman dormitory Hatfield Hall. While a little further from the arboretum, all the rooms on the northwest facing side had nice views of the South Santiam River. It was a newer building made of pale brick and greenish colored steel. Thus far Alex liked it; all the doors were opened by her key card, even the door of the suite. A large common area and kitchen downstairs were available to all residents and made cooking much more viable than the old tiny kitchen on her floor at Hatfield ever had.

  The sound of boxes dropping in the living room made Alex sigh and grimace slightly. It made no sense that moving into a larger suite of rooms would be harder than moving into a small one room dorm. Yet somehow they’d managed it. Maybe, she considered thoughtfully, it was the illusion of having a lot of room. After all, she and Nicki both had stacks of boxes in the small square living room around the small blue sofa and ugly dark blue armchair that came with the place. Not to mention the ‘hallway’ which included a small alcove where the fridge, a sink with a counter and a mounted microwave stood as their kitchenette was very narrow. There were three doors in the hallway, one leading to a bathroom with absolutely no storage, one leading to Nicki’s bedroom and one leading to Alex’s.

  Her bedroom was smaller than the dorm room she used to share with Jenny last year, but it was private. A key card lock on the door ensured that even Nicki couldn’t enter the room without permission. Looking around the room, there was: a large wardrobe stood against one wall, a twin bed with a bad mattress, a desk that was more like a table, a small set small of drawers that she’d already shoved under the left side of the desk to give her some storage space and a short set of shelves set on top of a larger set of drawers. The result meant that she didn’t have much free space to move, but she had a lot more storage than her old room. That right there was worth something.

  “How the hell did I get roped into being your pack mule?” An aggravated voice called from the living room. “And why the hell are you guys on the fourth floor?!”

  Another thunk from the living room made Alex stop organizing her new desk and head out into the hallway. The ‘pack mule’ Aiden Bosco looked over at her with a grin, his brown eyes glinting with amusement even as he brushed some sweating strands of dark brown hair out of his face.

  “You volunteered to be the pack mule,” Alex reminded him with a soft smile. “It was very gentlemanly of you and I’m sure your father will be proud. And as for the fourth floor, well that’s on the university housing department, not us.”

  Aiden snorted at her remark and Alex barely held in a grin, glancing into Nicki’s room. It had the same furniture as hers, but the room was more of a rectangle than the squarer shape of her own room. Nicki was already putting up curtains over the single window and humming along with her music player which was set to shuffle based on the odd mix of techno, hip-hop, and country that Alex had already heard coming out of the room. Her roommate’s long auburn hair was styled in an elaborate braid that folded over her head, crisscrossing with another braid. Maybe once they were settled she could get Nicki to teach her how she managed to do that by herself.

  “So how are we doing?” Alex asked Aiden, turning her attention back to him.

  “That was the last of it actually,” Aiden huffed, wiping some sweat off his forehead. “I notice your boyfriend managed to miss this part.”

  “He’s not…” Alex trailed off uncomfortably, feeling a little better when Aiden shifted. “We haven’t really discussed what we are,” Alex informed him. “He asked me to go out with him when school resumed, that’s all.”

  “Didn’t you guys talk at all this summer?” Nicki asked, stepping out of her room behind Alex. It gave her the odd impression of being surrounded with Aiden in front, Nicki behind and no real room to maneuver in the tiny hallway.

  “A bit, but it was kind of strange, to be honest,” Alex admitted with a shrug. “Talking on the phone has never been my thing and you don’t text about magic.”

  “I can see that,” Aiden agreed with a small nod and pursed lips. “Didn’t you video call?”

  “That was the couple of times we talked, but our schedules didn’t really work for that often. Lifeguarding kept me busy during the day and Arthur’s job was mostly evenings.”

  “Behold the moments why I’m glad my summer job is working for my grandma,” Nicki announced with a grin. “Scheduling time off just requires wide eyes and quivering the lip.”

  Aiden laughed and Alex couldn’t contain her giggles; it was just too easy to see Nicki making that kind of expression to get her way. Shaking his head, Aiden pushed a stack of boxes out of the way with his foot.

  “Not so easy for me, I was working at the bookstore, but in my case, a family operation means lots of hours with the benefits being mostly Mom’s cooking.”

  A knock on the door interrupted the conversation and Aiden hopped around
the scattered boxes to the front door. Alex couldn’t see the doorway from the hallway and quickly moved down to look around the corner. She grinned as Bran stepped around Aiden and began to maneuver his way into the room. Bran’s brown hair was a bit shorter than it had been in June and he’d gotten a bit more sun. His green eyes lit up when he spotted Alex and Nicki. His leg brace was still securely attached to his right leg, but he didn’t seem to be leaning as heavily on his cane.

  “Look who I found,” Aiden called, grinning widely and throwing an arm around Bran’s shoulders in a quick one armed hug.

  Stepping forward, Alex waited until Aiden had finished his hug and Bran turned his attention to them. When he opened his left arm, Alex grinned and hugged him tightly for a moment before stepping to the side to let Nicki have her turn.

  “Welcome back,” Nicki greeted Bran warmly when she stepped back. “How was the drive?”

  “Good and yes I already called my mother to let her know I got here safely.”

  “She’s your mom, she worries,” Nicki offered with a shrug and a smile.

  “Yeah well,” Bran sighed, “I doubt your parents are as bad.”

  “Actually I had to call when I got here,” Alex informed him. “Mom and Dad were really upset they couldn’t make it this time.”

  “Everything okay with them?” Nicki asked, leaning against the plain white wall of their living room.

  “Oh yeah, just a scheduling conflict and Ed had his first football game this weekend for high school. I told them I’d be fine.” Alex gestured around to the living room. “With this new suite, it’s not like I needed to bring much besides clothes and books. We’ve got a fridge, a microwave, and even a sofa.”

  “Ours is pretty much the same,” Aiden agreed as he glanced around. “Just on the first floor and a bit bigger.”

  “That’s my fault,” Bran remarked with a shrug.

  “Hey our suite has much bigger hallways and more maneuver room, I’m not complaining about that,” Aiden assured him as he nodded towards the small hallway that led off the living room. “The girls’ place feels like a little rat maze.”

  “Thank you so much for that comparison,” Nicki replied with a dramatic roll of her blue eyes. “Still the privacy will be nice,” Nicki remarked calmly as she picked up a box and set it on top of a stack of boxes to clear the floor. “It’s not like we don’t come and go at odd hours some nights. Plus the living room does provide enough room to practice magic.” Nicki gave Aiden a pointed look and added, “At least for those of us who don’t throw fireballs.”

  “Hey, I’m getting better at other stuff,” Aiden defended, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m moving thing more easily and last week I even managed to fix a scorch mark that I made in my room.”

  Alex couldn’t help but feel impressed and saw Nicki give a small nod out of the corner of her eye.

  “I practiced a lot this summer too,” Bran informed them with a small smile. “I’m able to lift and move much heavier things than before.” Bran toyed with the top of his cane as he spoke. “I even did this weird thing where I saw into the next room in the house. I watched my mother baking, it was pretty cool.”

  “You saw something at a distance?” Nicki asked, her voice becoming higher in her excitement. “That is so cool.”

  “Yeah, teamed with your visions that definitely makes you the clairvoyant of this team,” Aiden agreed with a grin before his features became more serious. “Speaking of which, any new visions or dreams?”

  “Nothing clear,” Bran told them with a shake of his head. “Sometimes I see the Sídhe tunnels and an Iron Gate, I think the one we made with Arthur in June, but I’m not sure. I can see their violet eyes down in the darkness and hear them laughing.” Bran shivered slightly. “But I’ve only seen that big dark shape once since the summer solstice. I think Morgana and Merlin are right about it being an Old One, but I have no idea which of the old pagan deities that it could be.”

  “And being stabbed with the sword?” Nicki asked carefully.

  Bran shook his head, a pensive expression on his face and slowly answered, “I hate to say it…but symbolically me being stabbed in the back just… makes me think about a traitor.”

  The room went silent and Alex swallowed down a rush of bile from her stomach. Her gut churned uncomfortably as the very idea of someone betraying them settled over her like a cold fog.

  “But we already resolved the Jenny, Lance and Arthur love triangle,” Aiden pressed almost desperately. “Jenny and Lance know now that they used to be Guinevere and Lancelot and Arthur is dating Alex now. He survived finding out that they were cheating last year, Alex saved him.”

  “That was a betrayal,” Bran agreed, “But I didn’t have the vision until that was over.” Bran gave them all a forced smile. “But I might be wrong, it may mean something totally different or it might refer to something in the past or someone that we have yet to meet.” Bran’s shoulder relaxed slightly and he straightened up. “I trust everyone in this room and I trust Merlin and Morgana.”

  “So do I,” Nicki declared with a raised chin and small smile. “We survived freshman year: learning about magic, attacks by vicious magical dogs, the Sídhe Riders invading to get slaves and discovering that the King Arthur mythos has real roots in events. We can handle whatever sophomore year brings.”

  “And now you’ve jinxed it,” Aiden remarked with an easy going smile, earning him a glare from Nicki.

  Alex shook her head and exchanged a look with Bran; there were moments that Nicki and Aiden fought worse than elementary school age brothers and sisters. Half the time if Alex hadn’t known that Nicki considered Aiden her brother and was homosexual she would have teased her about protesting too much. But Aiden certainly had a point, last year had been a blur of magic lessons, dangerous discoveries and battling the Sídhe. It was their responsibility as mages to protect their world which was one part of a massive cosmos and multiverse spanning series of connected worlds known as the Tree of Reality. Unfortunately one of their closest neighbors were the Sídhe who’d already conquered seven worlds and had their eyes on Earth.

  “So who is looking forward to hearing Merlin lecture about the legend of King Arthur?” Bran asked to break up the argument between Aiden and Nicki.

  When they had stopped fighting, Bran raised his hand and stared at the heaviest of the blue plastic bins. There was a shimmer of yellow magic around Bran’s hand before the box rose into the air and began to float down the hallway. Bran stayed where he was and a small triumphant smile took over his features. They all heard a soft thump as the box hit the ground and Bran exhaled loudly. Alex began to clap with a wide grin and Nicki and Aiden quickly joined in. Bran grinned and made a small bow, gesturing dramatically with his hands.

  “Well I can’t say that I’m looking forward to starting my Mondays off with a class like that,” Alex admitted, turning her attention back to Aiden’s question. “Still, Merlin said that it will give us a chance to put all our research to work and learn more about the Iron Soul.”

  “That’s true,” Nicki agreed thoughtfully. “He and Morgana haven’t confirmed it yet, but in my research, I found a couple of other heroes that inspired the King Arthur legend and might be other incarnations of the Iron Soul.”

  “Such as?” Bran asked as he looked over at Nicki who was lifting a box onto the sofa to sort through.

  “Well like I said I’m not sure yet, but for instance, in some Arthurian mythology King Arthur has a dagger called Carnwennan, which is from Welsh mythology and it shrouded the user in shadow. To me, that sounds a lot like a potentially real magical object.”

  “Maybe,” Aiden agreed with a considering nod. “I just like how somehow we all managed to get into the class despite the wait list. Merlin was pretty serious about wanting us to take the class.”

  “Well we already know that he can use magic on people’s memories,” Alex pointed out, barely hiding a slight shiver. “He used it on the witnesses who came out of
the Sídhe tunnel last year to mislead the police.”

  “True,” Nicki agreed and the group was quiet for a moment. Nicki giggled and shook her head turning her attention back to the box. “You guys are taking Morgana’s Enlightenment class right?” Nicki asked, pulling a rolled out wall hanging out of the box with a grin.

  “Yeah, I’m using it as my upper-level social sciences class,” Bran replied with a nod. “But you know we won’t be able to share classes much longer. History and English classes aren’t exactly related fields for my physics degree or Aiden’s electrical engineering.”

  “Not unless you guys switch to the social sciences,” Nicki answered with a grin as she tossed the wall hanging to Alex. “Come on, join us on the social science side,” she said dramatically, holding a hand out towards Aiden.

  “You don’t know the power of the hard sciences,” Aiden countered, deepening his voice. Nicki giggled and Alex shared a look with Bran as they both kept in their laughter.

  “I think we left them alone too long this summer,” Bran told Alex in a completely monotone voice that made Alex nearly crack up before he looked back at Nicki and Aiden. “We’ve all been focusing on the general education requirements so a switch wouldn’t be too bad for any of us,” Bran suggested before adding, “And you two are geeks.”