Dead End

by Debbie Cassidy

  Red lasers cut my way, and I didn’t dodge. I didn’t block. The pain split me, and the arcana rallied.

  No. Do not heal me. Do not.

  It trembled inside, fighting my will, wanting to do what it was designed to do. Protect. But right now, I needed it to back off. I needed to—

  Pain cut through my leg and seared my abdomen, and then I hit the ground as the monsters closed in on me. Somewhere, far away, wings beat the air.

  Yells, bellows, and screams were background noise as the eater hovered over me. Its mouth opened, and then I was flying.

  Silver streaks that glowed in the dark whizzed past me. There was nothing to weigh me down—no limbs, no form—just a consciousness powered by green. I was headed to the core. To the heart of the beast.

  “Echo, can you hear me?”

  “Dad?”

  “Yes, baby. It’s me. I’m here. I’m with you.”

  “I’m scared.”

  “I know, baby. But I’ll be with you. I’ll stay with you. We’re almost there.”

  What is this? What are you doing?

  The world turned red, and then my vision bloomed green.

  “Baby, it’s time to shine.”

  No. No, stop this. This isn’t right. I deserve to live. I deserve—

  I summoned all the faces I loved. Bry, Verona, Micha, Emory, Lyrian, Gideon, and Deacon. This was for them.

  The world exploded in green.

  Chapter 22

  Emory

  The new metal monsters fall, one by one. Unseeing, unmoving. She’s done it. She’s ended it. She lies broken and pale, eyes closed. So beautiful, even in death. There is a roar inside me as Gideon surges to the surface to look through my eyes, his accusations battering my ears. How could I have let this happen? Why hadn’t I saved her?

  Why?

  Because … She was born to save us all.

  “No,” Lyrian says. “I can feel her. She’s here. Still here.” He falls to his knees beside her and gathers her bloody form into his arms. “Come on, Echo, Come back to me.” He turned to Micha. “Help me. She’s bound to us. Can’t you feel it? She’s close, still here, still … Micha?”

  Hope flutters in my heart. Could it be?

  Micha joined Lyrian on the ground, and then Rhydian crouches beside them. They reach out wordlessly and touch her. Before I can question it, I am on the floor with them; Deacon joins me, and our hands touch as we place them on her body. She’s warm. She can’t be dead. There’s time to bring her back. Time for the arcana to knit her. But the arcana is in her soul, the soul which exploded, taking Genesis with it.

  Lyrian’s eyes are squeezed shut. “Echo. Echo, come back. You have to come back.”

  “Echo, come back.”

  I pause in my flight, halted by that voice. I know that voice. I love that voice. But the light is so bright, so beautiful, and the voices are welcoming me. There’s music, too, and one word fills my mind.

  Haven.

  The mausoleum rises before me, and the door begins to open, shedding more light into the brightness.

  “What do you want to do?” my father asks. He is beside me, unseen but felt. “My journey is over, but you have a choice.”

  A silhouette appears before us, and then his face is clear. Death smiles at me, and beside him is another form.

  Harker.

  She made it. She found her way home.

  “Tell them I love them,” Harker says. “Tell them I’ll see them when it’s their time.”

  I have made my choice.

  Death puts his arm around Harker, and they melt back into the light.

  “Goodbye, baby girl,” Dad says.

  And then I am falling into darkness and pain.

  Deacon

  This can’t be happening, but it is. This can’t be possible, but it is. Her body is healing, green arcana hovering over each wound as it knits. She takes a shuddering breath and opens her eyes.

  She’s alive. She’s back. She looks up at us one by one and then screams in pain.

  Epilogue

  Three months later

  The sun streamed in through the window and bathed me in buttercup yellow. I sat on the edge of the mattress and allowed it to do its thing. The warmth slowly seeped into my limbs, and my body fully awakened. This was my new ritual. My everyday wake-up routine.

  I tuned in to the sounds around me: the clink of dishes, the bubble of the coffee pot, and the unmistakable smell of bacon. My lips quirked in a smile. Even after all these weeks, it still felt new. It was still exciting to wake up to these everyday sounds and smells. It was still a glorious surprise to feel the sun on my face at dawn.

  The door opened, and Deacon’s familiar, sweet aroma tickled my senses, and then there was the smell of bacon. Divine.

  He set a tray on the bedside table. “I thought you might like a lay-in today.”

  I grinned up at him. “Are you kidding me? I want to get up and about. Emory promised to show me how to milk Claribel.”

  He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Fine, eat up, and we can go.”

  He sat beside me and snatched a piece of bacon off my plate. “Lyrian and Micha will be back tonight. I’m thinking family dinner?”

  “Ooo, what are you cooking?”

  He winked. “You’ll see, something to give you enough energy for tonight.”

  Heat pooled in my belly, and his eyes darkened. He leaned in, his intentions clear in his eyes, when the door burst open and Bry came running in.

  “Echo, come on. Emory’s going to milk the cow. He was going to do it without you, but I made him wait. I said, Echo will be pissed.”

  “Bry!” I bit back a laugh. “Don’t say pissed.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Fine, angry. Come on.” He headed back out the door, expecting me to jump up and follow, and then paused in the hallway. He turned, his face apologetic. “I’ll meet you down there?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  Deacon reached for the crutches leaned up against the bedside table and handed them to me.

  “Thanks.”

  That was something that I had hoped would get old fast. I stared down at the place where my left leg would be, at where it went missing just below the knee. The arcana had healed me, it had brought me back to life and given me a second chance, but the laser shots had severed my limb, and there had been no fixing that.

  But I was learning to get about fine with the crutches, and Emory was in the process of building me a cool bionic leg. So, yeah, I’d be on my feet in no time. In the meantime, I made to stand, but Deacon made a guttural sound in his throat and then scooped me up in his arms, crutches and all.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck. “You know I can manage, right?”

  “Yes. I know you can. But this gives me an excuse to hold you.”

  “You don’t need an excuse.”

  He kissed me lightly on the lips and carried me down the stairs. His golden hair brushed my cheek, and his scent wrapped around me. I loved the feel of his silken tresses trailing over my skin, I loved his kisses, heated and hard one moment and soft and questing the next. The farmhouse was perfect for us. Our base, our home.

  A glow filtered through the kitchen door as Deacon carried me through.

  I had a cow to milk.

  The pots on the huge stove were bubbling, and the kitchen was filled with delicious aromas. Deacon stirred and chopped and added garnish to the dishes he was preparing. He’d put his hair up in a knot and was dressed in his yoga pants and a T-shirt that molded to his body in all the right places. Bry sat in the lounge doing a jigsaw puzzle, and Emory was at the kitchen table with me, his face etched in concentration as he sketched over the plans for my new limb. He’d already made two prototypes and scrapped them both; I was beginning to think he’d never be satisfied with anything he created to replace my flesh and blood leg.

  I sipped my tea. “I liked the first one you made.”

  He snorted. “Too bulky.”

  “What was
wrong with the second one?”

  “It has to be water resistant,” Emory said finally. “You need to be able to swim with it.”

  “Oh.” I blinked at him, and then my heart flooded with love for him. I was due to visit my king in the sea realm in a few weeks. I’d want to swim if possible, and Emory … Emory had thought of that. “I love you, you know that?”

  He smiled softly. “I know, but I love it when you tell me.”

  His eyes flared gold a moment, giving me a peek of Gideon. He’d had his time with me last night, and my body still ached pleasantly from his attentions. Whereas Micha and Lyrian were super gentle with me now that I’d lost a leg, Gideon didn’t make any allowances. He made love to me with the same passion, the same intensity. Rough and gruff was his way, but I’d come to know him well enough to see the softness in his eyes and hear the unspoken words in his moans when we made love. He hadn’t told me he loved me yet, but he showed me with his hands and his mouth.

  Emory and Deacon and I had settled into a nice routine there, while Lyrian and Micha flitted back and forth between the Keep, the farm, the Hive, and the town that was being renovated for the humans. Hunter had opted to remain in the sea realm with Rhydian. I’d be seeing him soon too. I missed them both. Hunter had been a part of my life for so long, that voice that had annoyed me but tethered me at the same time, and Rhydian… my heart fluttered at the thought of seeing him again. He was a well as deep as the ocean, waiting to be explored. The thought of spending time with him was a warm glow in the pit of my stomach. The only downside was leaving the guys for a short time.

  Our new lives would take some maneuvering and getting used to, but the world was ours once more, and we just needed to learn to live in it.

  Deacon placed plates on the table.

  The door in my mind opened a fraction, and my tummy fluttered. “They’re here.”

  As if summoned by my words, the door to the cozy kitchen burst open, letting in a gust of cold air and bringing Micha and Lyrian with it.

  Micha rushed over and scooped me out of my chair and into a huge hug. “Damn, I missed your face.” He proceeded to plant kisses all over said face. “You taste yummy.”

  Lyrian hung back with a smile and shook his head, waiting his turn. Micha gave me a mischievous grin and then sat on my seat with me on his lap.

  Lyrian’s jaw tightened. “Micha.”

  “Oh,” Micha said. “Did you want a cuddle too?” He rose and put me on my seat then lunged at his brother, arms outstretched.

  Lyrian sidestepped him easily and then leaned down to kiss my temple. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. How did it go at the Keep and the town?”

  “The Keep is good. The town is coming on nicely. They have power up and running now. Verona is in her element. She’s been given charge of the textiles factory.”

  I took Lyrian’s hand in mine and used him to stand and grab my crutches. “I need to change for dinner. Want to help me?”

  His eyes heated, and his throat bobbed.

  “So not fair,” Micha said.

  “You can scrub my back in the bath later.” I winked at him.

  He took a seat with a smug smile.

  Lyrian still struggled with the sharing, and when it came to our relationship, while the others were happy to share their time with me, he needed one on one. It was the nature of the scalemate bond, and we’d fallen into a neat rhythm.

  I wanted to say a proper hello, and once we were in the privacy of my bedroom, I did just that.

  “How does it feel?” Emory asked. I stood on the leg, my new leg. It fit snuggly, and it moved with me. One crutch now until I got used to it, but I was standing.

  “I want to try without the crutch.”

  “One step at a time,” Deacon warned.

  “I want to try.”

  “Let her try,” Gideon said, taking the driver’s seat.

  Micha stood on one side of me and Lyrian on the other; they each gripped my elbow as Deacon took the crutch away.

  I could do this. I’d faced death and lived. This … This was just a minor thing, an artificial leg that needed to become a part of me. One that I could take with me to the sea realm, one that would allow me to walk and swim and be … normal.

  I could do this because there was no pressure, because even if I failed, I’d have my guys to pick me up and help me try again. I could do this because I fucking wanted to.

  Bry stood in the kitchen doorway, his eyes wide and expectant. “You can do it,” he said.

  With a deep breath, I took my first steps.

  The End

  I hope you enjoyed the Chronicles of Deadworld. Now it’s time to jump into a new adventure.

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  Other books by Debbie Cassidy

  The Gatekeeper Chronicles

  Coauthored with Jasmine Walt

  Marked by Sin

  Hunted by Sin

  Claimed by Sin

  The Witch Blood Chronicles

  (Spin-off to the Gatekeeper Chronicles)

  Binding Magick

  Defying Magick

  Embracing Magick

  Unleashing Magick

  The Fearless Destiny Series

  Beyond Everlight

  Into Evernight

  Under Twilight

  The Chronicles of Midnight

  Protector of Midnight

  Champion of Midnight

  Secrets of Midnight

  Shades of Midnight

  Savior of Midnight

  Chronicles of Arcana

  City of Demons

  City of the Lost

  City of the Everdark

  City of War

  For the Blood

  For the Blood

  For the Power

  For the Reign

  For the Hunt - Novella

  Heart of Darkness

  Captive of Darkness

  Bane of Winter

  The Oblivion Heart

  Deadworld

  Deadworld

  Dead City

  Dead Sea

  Dead End

  Planet Athion

  Rogue

  Rebel

  Survivor

  Novellas

  Blood Blade

  Grotesque – A Vampire Diary Kindle World book

  About the Author

  Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes High Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Fantasy, and Reverse Harem. Connect with Debbie via her website at debbiecassidyauthor.com or twitter @authordcassidy. Or sign up to her Newsletter to stay in the know.