Savagery & Skills: Books 1-4

by Ciara Graves

  “Seneca, shut up,” he growled then kissed me.

  I returned the gesture, dragging the blanket around so it covered him too. I clutched at his shoulders, wishing we could have the future he dreamt about. I wanted to see it, but no matter what I did, all I saw was a dark end to this war.

  I sat upright, looking around my bedroom, confused.

  Draven was next to me, sound asleep. There was only an hour or so left until dawn. I rubbed my face, not sure what awoke me when a voice rang out in my mind.

  You’ve wasted enough time. Do it, Seneca, before it’s too late.

  I didn’t want to, but I threw the covers aside and was on my feet walking through the dark cottage. I tried to open my mouth to scream, but the voices directed me, taking me toward the rings.

  Draven said he hid them, but it didn’t matter. I sensed their power calling out to me and couldn’t resist it. In the kitchen, I found the small patch in the wall he had created and punched my fist right through it. When I pulled the sheetrock out of the way, I saw a small box sitting on the floor. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew this would be it. The second I put those on, there’d be no turning back.

  We’ll be right here with you. There’s nothing to fear.

  But if I listened to them, I’d lose Draven. One way or another, there was a chance I’d never have him back. There’d be no vacation, no happy future. No orchard, or greenhouse, or large gardens. Just bloodshed and death. My left hand reached for the box without my wanting to. Then it was in my hand, and the second I opened it, all other worries disappeared.

  Power. That was the only thing that mattered. Power and those strong enough to claim it for themselves. Too long I’d been used. No more. I slipped the rings on, sighing to have them returned to my fingers. I turned for the back door and stepped out into the cold, wet grass. I threw my head back, shook out my hair, and breathed in deep. My power rushed freely through my veins, and I grinned as I opened my eyes again.

  “Rudarius, time to come play.”

  I pictured our connection, saw where I’d collapsed that tunnel. Within a few seconds, it was repaired, and my mind rushed to find his in Otherworld. It didn’t take long when I didn’t fight the magic. Rudarius paced around his chambers, glaring at the floor as if he was going to bring it to life then kill it.

  As if it was me.

  I leaned against the far wall, not physically there, just in my mind.

  Rudarius stopped his pacing suddenly and straightened. He sniffed the air then whipped around, those red eyes latching onto mine. “You. How are you here?” he snapped.

  “What, don’t you miss me?”

  He lunged for me, but his hands passed right through me, and I laughed.

  “You and I have unfinished business. What’s taking you so long, huh? Too scared to leave Otherworld and face me? Going to hide here in your fortress until I come and hunt you down?” I pushed off the wall and walked through him. “Until I come knocking on your front door to claim your head?”

  “You will not defeat me.”

  I shrugged as I turned around. “You sure about that?” I snapped my fingers, and the fortress disappeared. The amount of power at my fingertips when I gave in was beyond incredible. And I was just getting started. Rudarius and I stood on a battlefield. A fight took place behind us. One fought between me and him.

  “Looks like I’m winning,” I whispered in his ear.

  “This is not reality. You overstep.”

  “Do I now? You’re the one who wanted me to see what I’m capable of. It’s only logical that I kill you. Take that next step. Destroy the monster who created, well, another monster. A worse monster.”

  His hands twitched at his sides as he bared his fangs. “This will not end well for you. Is that what you want—death? Why not join me? Why not come to me and fight by my side?”

  “Why? So you can continue to use me? Make me your bride? No, thanks. I have other plans.”

  “And what might those be?”

  I continued to watch the fight between our imaginary selves, mine kicking Rudarius’s ass. He flinched as he watched himself take a hard hit to the face, throwing him back.

  “I have another who will stand by my stand and then the real fun can begin. You’re nothing to me anymore. Nothing but a bug to be crushed.”

  He opened his mouth, but then his own snarl of pain had him spinning around. He watched his death. Not the first time I’d showed it to him, but there was genuine fear in his eyes this time when he turned back to face me. “Draven will never stand beside you.”

  “You’re right. At least, at first. But I’ll convince him. He’ll see reason eventually.”

  “Why bother?”

  I reached for his jaw and forced him to see his dead body lying prone on the ground. “That’s why. You’re old news. You are nothing.”

  “You are not stronger than me.”

  “You sure about that? You only have those rings because of me.”

  He wrenched away from me, and I snapped my fingers, bringing us back to his fortress.

  “I am Rudarius. I have destroyed the fae, brought the mages to their knees, wiped Valesk off the face of the Earth. I will not be stopped by a child.”

  “Really? Then why do I see fear in your eyes? Come on, admit it. You’re too scared to face me.”

  “You think it’s fear that stops me?” He smoothed his hands over his hair and squared his shoulders. “I have no fear. If you want a fight, then I shall give you a fight. Best prepare yourself, Seneca, for the end is coming for you.”

  “I’ll be waiting for it. You know exactly where to find me, don’t you?” I winked then shut my eyes.

  When I opened them again, I was back in the garden.

  My arms fell to my sides, and I let out a long, steady breath. “Now, we can begin. The time for the final battle has come. At last.”

  Chapter 7

  Draven

  I stretched my arm out to find the bed empty. “Seneca?”

  Groggy, I sat up and looked around the room. She wasn’t in the bathroom, and the bedroom door was open. I climbed out of bed, slipped on my pants, and exited the room. A heaviness settled in my stomach as I padded barefoot through the cottage. The air crackled with a sudden burst of energy and Seneca’s comforting presence I hadn’t felt in a long while was gone from my head to be replaced by a fury so raw, it clawed at my chest.

  I stumbled into the kitchen, leaning against the wall as I waited for it to stop… and froze.

  “Shit.” The wall where I hid the rings was bashed in. And the back door was open. I sprinted outside to find Seneca standing in the middle of the yard. “Where are they?”

  “Draven, I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said, ignoring my question.

  “Where are they?” I repeated then reached for her right hand. The second I took hold, I yanked my hand back with a hiss. My fingers were burned. “I want you to take those rings off right now, do you hear me? Take them off.”

  “Why would I do that? Do you want me to be weak when he comes?”

  “He’s not here yet.”

  Her lips curled into a grin I could only describe as bloodthirsty. “Not yet, but very soon.”

  I stood in front of her as I grabbed her arms. “What did you do?” When she started to cackle, I shook her. “Tell me, what did you do, damn it.”

  “See for yourself.”

  A boom had me whipping around as red lightning crackled across the sky. Thunderheads rolled in from all directions, centering over the fields and Madwich close by. The air grew thick, and as I stepped away from Seneca, I knew our time was up. Rudarius was coming. She’d brought him right to us on purpose.

  “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done to us?” I muttered, hanging my head. “Any idea at all? We aren’t ready to face him.”

  “Then we better get ready. I’m putting an end to the waiting. Now we won’t have to wonder where he is.”

  “Have you lost your mind?” I shouted, but
she didn’t even jump. Her smile remained as it was. “Seneca, there are innocents in Madwich. You’re putting them at risk.”

  “Oh, boo hoo,” she snapped. “Don’t guilt me with innocents. I don’t give a shit.”

  “Really? You don’t care for any of them? None?”

  “Why should I?”

  I had to get to her somehow, pull her back from the edge of insanity. “Not even Lexi?”

  No change. Not even a blink. “I suggest we tell our army to prepare.”

  “I can’t believe you.” I shoved past her then stopped and turned back. “I’m going to get everyone that I can out of Madwich. You can prepare the damned army and tell everyone why our chance to plan, to have the advantage is now gone.”

  I was at the back door when she said, “You’ll see this is right. That I’m right. Don’t you trust me?”

  It nearly killed me to say it, but until Rudarius was dead or I removed those rings from her hand, she was no longer my Seneca. “No, I bloody well don’t.”

  I dressed as fast as I could, sheathed my daggers at my hips along with my short sword, slung on my leather coat, then marched out the back door. Seneca was gone, but that was fine with me. I didn’t want to see her at that moment. I didn’t want to talk to her. There was nothing I could say at this point. Yelling wasn’t going to do any good. I had hoped for a moment, one moment, when those rings were controlling her. But that moment passed, and all I could do now was brace for what was to come.

  I blurred to the encampment and straight to Marlie’s tent. “Marlie, we have trouble.”

  Ash and Lark looked like they’d been pulled from their beds.

  “What?” He was already dressed. “Someone said there’s red lightning in the sky. Is he here already?”

  “Yes, and you can thank your sister for that.”

  I waited for him to say he told me so, but he kept quiet.

  “Rudarius is on his way. We’re out of time. He’s going to be on our doorstep with an army very soon. We need to get everyone ready and evacuate Madwich.” I couldn’t believe she did this, still, even as the proof was right over our heads. I saw her killing Rudarius, then saw myself coming in to finish her off, to stop her because she couldn’t stop herself. A bellow of rage erupted from my mouth, and I bashed my fist into the nearest tent pole. It splintered, and the fae under the tent glanced around, waiting for it to come down on their heads.

  “Feel better?” Marlie asked.

  “No, I don’t feel better. I can’t, when the woman I love tells me she’s being torn apart from the inside. When she tells me she’s hearing voices of the Sa’ren people,” I rambled. “When she pulls so far away from me, all I feel is rage and her need for blood.” I looked at the three of them desperately as I whispered, “We have to end this. We have to kill Rudarius and we can’t—I can’t—lose Seneca. I won’t.”

  Marlie nodded. “Then we won’t. We’ll come up with a plan.”

  “There’s no time.”

  “We’ll make time. Lark, gather the coven leaders and have them meet us here. Bring anyone you think needs to be in on the plan, actually. Ash, take a group of fae and vampires into Madwich and begin the evacuation. There’s not much time, so however you have to get them to leave, do it.”

  Both fae exited the tent leaving me alone with Marlie. I never imagined I’d be standing in a tent with a fae prince, worrying about losing his sister to darkness. A woman I could not live without, not anymore.

  “If she can’t pull back—” Marlie started.

  I held up my hand to stop him. “Whatever happens with Seneca, she’s mine to deal with, understand?”

  “Don’t put that on yourself. We’ll deal with whatever outcome together. You just have to have faith. Isn’t that what you always told all of us?”

  I laughed bitterly. “Faith, right. That is what I was telling her all this time. Have faith that we’ll find a way to defeat Rudarius. Faith that we’ll make it out the other side of this war without losing ourselves.” I glared fiercely at him as I muttered, “How can I have faith, huh? How? I’m going to have to kill her, Marlie, you get that? I’m going to have to kill her in order to stop her from turning into… I don’t know, a damned plague on this world. Because I told her she could handle this power. Just like Macron. Because I decided to use her as a weapon.”

  This was my fault and no one else’s. I was no better than anyone else. How had I let it get this far? I was supposed to be a leader, and here I was risking Seneca’s life in order to stop Rudarius.

  Marlie told me quietly he’d be back once he tracked down Macron and several other mages.

  I nodded numbly, looking out the tent flaps. The encampment was wide awake now, rushing to gather weapons and help get those not fighting to get out of harm’s way. If we failed here, all we were doing was giving them a head start. It was better than nothing I supposed.

  For now, I’d put Seneca from my mind and focus on our main problem. Rudarius was coming with an army and who knew what magic behind them. We’d be outnumbered; there was no question about that. Red lightning streaked across the sky, forming a crack.

  As I watched, it slowly stretched wider. He wasn’t just coming through the veil. He was creating his own rift right here.

  Right where Seneca was.

  I hissed, gripping the hilt of my short sword. My time to worry might soon be at an end.

  “Come on, you bastard, let’s finish this.”

  “The mages should be along the rear of our lines,” I said, tracing my fingers over the map of the fields. “Here. We’ll set up a guard around them. Owen, you have some demons ready to fight?”

  He stepped closer. “They’ll keep them alive as long as possible.”

  “Macron, you’re sure they’re ready for this?”

  The old mage glowered at the map as he replied, “Not like they have a choice.”

  The moment I’d found him and told him what Seneca did, he’d taken off. I spotted him arguing with her heatedly in the garden later. He’d been yelling. She’d simply stood there and let him, her face carefully blank like she was doing him a favor by not reacting. Frankly, I was amazed he’d walked away without her killing him. Even Owen had been glaring at her when she passed by. He hadn’t said a word. I understood how hard it was for him, probably almost as hard as for me to see her changed into this cold-hearted being out for blood without care for the consequences of her actions.

  “What support can they give?” I asked, trying to keep us on track.

  “We’ll shield the front line the best we can and try to counteract whatever magic he’s bringing with him, but if that totem isn’t destroyed, our efforts won’t matter.”

  That damned totem. I straightened, crossing my arms as I ran through our plan over and over in my head. Between the fae, the vampires, the demons, and the mages, we had a significant fighting force. If the Feds would’ve listened to us, we could’ve had actual government support. But they assumed Rudarius wouldn’t dare bring his war from Otherworld here. They assumed they’d be able to negotiate with him, stop him by shit I don’t know, sheer will. The fools. It was too late now. The rift grew wider with every hour that passed. Any minute now he could arrive. We talked about traps, but those seemed like a waste of energy. Or they had.

  “The traps, I want to talk about them again,” I said, and Macron nodded. “What can we do?”

  “We can scatter them throughout the field. They’ll go off like mines.”

  “So there’s a chance they could trap our own people?”

  “Yes and no. If we have enough time, we can ensure they won’t, but as I said, they take time.”

  “Take who you can and start on them. Get as much done as you can, but only complete them if they won’t harm our own forces.”

  Macron hurried out of the central command tent, two mages following close behind.

  “His army is vast,” Marlie said as if I needed reminding. “He’s been in Otherworld gathering more to his cause. We have n
o way to know what he’s going to throw at us.”

  “Unless you have a point, I’d appreciate it if you stopped telling me how screwed we are.”

  “Rudarius might not know how many we have either.”

  I shook my head. “Before Seneca cut off the connection with him, he saw the encampment.”

  “Yes, but did he see our numbers? Did he see who was here?”

  That I wasn’t sure of. “Alright, what’s your plan?”

  “We don’t show the fae up front. We all know what he thinks of us, sees us as cowards. I doubt he believes we would stay and fight.” He spun the map around and pointed to the clusters of trees along the fields. “We put the archers in here with fire arrows. We wait until his main force shows itself, then you draw them back here where we can flank them.”

  “If his army is too large, it won’t work for long,” I admitted.

  “No, but it could give us a chance.”

  “All in agreement?” There were nods and murmurs around the table. “Marlie, see it done.”

  He exited the tent next.

  “That leaves the rest of our army,” Shane sighed. “Draven, if he’s bringing the totem with him, you realize what that means, right?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Then fill it in for the rest of us,” Wendall said, picking at his nails with his knife. “Well?”

  “Wendall, you want a mission that might get you killed, though you’ll be able to take down quite a few of Rudarius’s vampires with you?”

  He tucked the knife away, and in a blur was at the table. “I’m all ears. Do tell.”

  “If Rudarius brings the totem, then he’s bringing his entire fortress.” I flipped the map over, and Shane handed me a quill and ink. “Seriously? Marlie doesn’t have a pen lying around?”

  Shane shrugged.

  I let it go and sketched out Rudarius’s fortress from memory. “The main entrance is here, but there’s a separate entrance far to the right. Shane can tell you how to get through it since he’s done it before.”