mythean arcana 06 - master of fate Read online

  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT

  DEDICATION

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  DEAR READER

  GLOSSARY

  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

  THANK YOU!

  WITCH’S FATE EXCERPT

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  ABOUT LINSEY

  MASTER OF FATE

  Linsey Hall

  This is a work of fiction. All reference to events, persons, and locale are used fictitiously, except where documented in historical record. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright 2015 by Linsey Hall

  Published by Bonnie Doon Press LLC

  Digital Edition 1.0

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form, except in instances of quotation used in critical articles or book review. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which may be applied to this work.

  [email protected]

  www.LinseyHall.com

  https://twitter.com/HiLinseyHall

  https://www.facebook.com/LinseyHallAuthor

  ISBN 978-1-942085-50-8 (eBook)

  ISBN 978-1-942085-51-5 (Paperback)

  DEDICATION

  For Emily Keane Smith, one of smartest, most beautiful, and compassionate women in the world. Thank you for always being there for me. In addition to being an awesome friend, your help with my writing is invaluable.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I owe so much to the people who help me create my books. Thank you, Emily Keane, for reading every story I’ve written, no matter how busy you are. Your insight is so helpful and improves the story. As always, thank you Ben for everything you do. And to Doug Inglis, for your wonderful story ideas. You always make a book better. Thank you to Carol Thomas for reading this story and always being there for me.

  Thank you to Barbara Ankrum, Shelley Bates, and Jena O’Connor for various forms of editing. The story is much better because of your expertise.

  Dear Reader,

  Aurora has always been one of my favorite characters, ever since she appeared in Esha’s story. I’ve been dying to write her story and I’m so glad I finally got to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

  Happy reading,

  Linsey Hall

  GLOSSARY

  Aether - The invisible substance that connects the afterworlds and earth. It is both nothing and everything.

  Aetherwalking - A method of traveling through the aether to access the afterworlds or different places on earth. Some Mytheans have this power and can bring another person with them.

  Afterworld - A heaven or hell created by mortal belief. Mortals can access them only through death. Some Mytheans can aetherwalk to them.

  Immortal University - An organization created thousands of years ago to protect Mytheans and keep them secret from mortals. It was initially founded as a true university, hence the name, but over time it morphed into an institution with greater power and responsibility. The university’s primary goal is to maintain the secrecy of Mytheans and to keep the gods from warring to obtain more followers. They do this primarily through diplomacy. The university also provides services to Mytheans that they can’t get elsewhere, lest mortals figure out that their clients never die. Things like education, health services, and banking.

  Mortals - Humans. They are unaware of the existence of Mytheans or that all heavens and hells truly exist. They are immortal in the sense that their soul will pass on to whatever afterworld they believe in.

  Mythean - Supernatural individuals created by mortal belief. They are gods and goddesses, demons and monsters, witches and other supernatural creatures. They are immortal in the sense that if they live on earth, only beheading or grievous injury from magic can kill them. If they are killed their soul will pass on to an afterworld. Secrecy from mortals is one of their highest priorities. Some Mytheans, particularly species of demons and some gods, are trapped in their afterworlds. Others have access to both earth and the afterworlds.

  Mythean Guardians - Powerful mortals made immortal, or other supernatural beings who serve at the Praesidium. They protect those mortals and Mytheans who are important to the fate of humanity.

  Otherworld - The Celtic afterworld. The Celtic gods are forbidden from traveling to earth because they believe that they are required to be in Otherworld to keep it functioning.

  Praesidium - The protection division of the Immortal University. Mythean Guardians work here. Their job is to protect those important to humanity and maintain law and order by keeping Mytheans secret from humans and keeping the gods from warring.

  Soulceresses - Mytheans who fuel their power by draining the immortal power of other Mytheans’ souls. When fueled by the power of others, they can manifest their magic with a thought. They are hated by other Mytheans because of this. They also have the ability to see the evil in a person’s soul.

  Sylph - An ancient air spirit from a religion that is lost to memory. Sylphs and their descendents have the ability to attain invisibility by becoming one with the air. They are also able to manipulate the wind.

  Timewalkers - Mytheans who can travel back in time. Too many trips will scramble a timewalker’s mind until they cannot tell which time period they are in. They are forbidden from interacting with the past, which the Timewalker Council monitors. If they break this law, they will be punished, sometimes with death.

  Wulver - Werewolves from the Shetland Islands in northern Scotland. Their souls are partially possessed by the spirit of the wolf and they are ferocious and loyal. Full-blooded wulvers can shift into wolf form. Half-blooded wulvers cannot. Instead, the shadow of the wolf bursts from their souls in battle and fights as a ghost beside them.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Immortal University

  Edinburgh, Scotland

  Present day

  Aurora shot upright in bed. The dark suffocated her, tight as a fist strangling her throat. The crushing sensation felt so real that Aurora clawed at her neck, certain she would pry away hands and that sweet air would fill her lungs.

  Nothing. Just the sting on her neck from the bite of her nails. The darkness threatened to swallow her whole, sucking her back into the cold nothing of her prison.

  As her consciousness faded, a yellow light gleamed in the distance. She clung to it, trying to tie her soul to the light that promised escape. If she could just hold onto it long enough…

  Slowly, the lights grew larger. The gleam coalesced into two distinct points. Cat’s eyes.

  Air rushed back into her lungs, cold and life affirming. Aurora drew her own magic into her, then flung it outward in a burst of light that illumina
ted the room.

  “Mouse.” She reached out to the black cat whose golden eyes had pulled her back from the brink.

  Her familiar launched herself at her chest and she gripped the warm body close, sinking her fingers into soft fur and focusing only on her cat. Mouse had been her comfort during those long years in the aether prison and still was, now that they were free.

  “I am a badass,” she said to herself, her voice shaking only slightly. Just a nightmare.

  Mouse meowed an agreement. Aurora repeated the mantra and tried to ignore how silly it made her feel. By the time the cold sweat had dried on her skin, she felt steady enough to stop.

  Then the phone rang. She jumped so hard that Mouse leapt out of her arms and bounded across the bed, a sleek blur of black across the teal comforter.

  “Damn it.” Aurora dragged a shaking hand through her hair and sucked in a deep breath. She wasn’t used to the harsh, unnatural tones of the phone. “Get it together, idiot.”

  She leaned across the bed and grabbed the sleek little phone off the bedside table. Esha’s name flashed on the screen. It still amazed her that this little device allowed her to talk to anyone at any time. It rivaled her own magic.

  “Hey, sis.” Aurora tried to banish any shakiness from her voice.

  “Why the hell did you try to sleep with the lights off?” her sister demanded.

  Aurora scowled. Esha must have seen the magical light in Aurora’s tower window.

  An irritated meow echoed in the background on the other end of the line. Must be Chairman Meow. Her sister’s familiar would feel Esha’s irritation, as Esha felt Aurora’s own fear of the dark.

  Because that’s all it was. Pathetic fear of the dark. It spurred the nightmares. Aurora flopped back on the bed, the phone gripped tightly in her fist.

  “Did I wake you up?” Aurora asked.

  “Of course you did. Felt like you were having a heart attack.”

  “Good description.” Since she’d met her sister a year ago after escaping the aether prison, Aurora had begun to feel a hint of Esha’s strongest emotions and vice versa.

  “Don’t dodge the question,” Esha said. “Why the hell are you suddenly an idiot? Sleep with the lights on, moron.”

  At least Esha remembered she hated being handled with kid gloves. “Got a reputation to maintain. Can’t have everyone thinking I’m a wimp who leaves her lights on all the time.”

  Aurora didn’t care if the rest of the residents of her new home at the Immortal University liked her, but she sure as hell wanted them to stay afraid of her. She and her sister Esha were soulceresses, a type of witch who could manifest her every desire. The only catch? She had to steal power from other Mytheans to fuel her magic. Her own soul couldn’t absorb magic from the aether, so she had to take power from Mytheans whose souls could.

  They kind of hated that.

  For centuries, they’d hunted soulceresses. Things were different now—more civilized—but Aurora still liked to use fear to keep them from even thinking of attacking her.

  “Did you call just to see how I was?” Aurora appreciated it, but didn’t like the reminder of how different she was now from the woman she’d once been. Three hundred years alone in prison would do that to a girl. Before, Esha would never have needed to worry about her mental state.

  I’m out. I’m free. She repeated the mantra in her mind. I’m out. I’m free.

  “Yes,” Esha said. “But if you’re awake and don’t think you can sleep, there’s something I have to talk to you about. I was going to wait ’til morning, but if you want a distraction…”

  Aurora jumped at it. “Yes.”

  “You might not like it. But then, you don’t really have a choice.”

  Aurora frowned for a second. Whatever it was, it was better than where she’d been. If it didn’t take Esha or her freedom away from her, whatever her sister had to tell her was no big deal.

  “You’re not going to tell me I need therapy again, are you?” Aurora asked.

  “No. You know I think you have PTSD, just like I know you won’t do anything about it.”

  Duh. Aurora had only lived in modern time for a year. The last time she’d been a free woman, it’d been 1705. Therapists and post-traumatic stress whatever did not exist back then. She wasn’t going to start worrying about them now, no matter how a little darkness made her feel.

  “So what did you want to talk to me about?” Aurora asked.

  “Can I come over?”

  “Sure.” Aurora hung up the phone and reverently placed the little device back on her bedside table. When she’d been rotting away in prison, she’d never imagined such a device. Hell, she’d never imagined indoor plumbing.

  Now she lived amongst such amazing inventions.

  Aurora climbed out of bed and threw on a silky robe. Over the year since her escape from prison, she’d been quick to adopt every convenience and luxury she could get her hands on. Mouse had done the same.

  The cat looked at her with gleaming yellow eyes and meowed.

  Food. No question. Mouse wanted her to open a specialty can of tuna. She’d been insatiable ever since they’d left the aether prison. Mouse didn’t need to eat to survive—familiars weren’t real cats—but she sure did enjoy it.

  Her familiar’s sleek black fur glinted in the light of the magic Aurora had used to illuminate the bedroom. She flicked the light switch, then held out her hand. The ball of magic light she’d thrown toward the ceiling dispersed. She’d need to replenish her power soon, but she’d worry about that later.

  “Time for noms?” Aurora asked Mouse. Esha had shown her the cats on her computer. So obviously, Aurora had adopted lolspeak, the language of the millions of cats who ruled the Internet.

  Mouse meowed and followed Aurora out of the cluttered bedroom. Aurora strolled across the circular space of her tower home. Plush red furniture was scattered through the living room and the kitchen was an open space with an island counter.

  She was the only resident of the tower that sat at the edge of the university campus. Outcast tower, she called it, and she’d taken it from her sister when Esha had moved in with her mate about ten months ago. Though being an outcast had bothered Esha—it was the only thing a soulceress could be, really—it didn’t faze Aurora.

  She whistled a tune as she pulled open the refrigerator—another magical device she’d grown to love—and pulled out two bottles of beer, which were way better than the swill they’d brewed when she’d last been a free woman.

  Mouse meowed again.

  “Hold your horses,” she said to the cat, who danced impatiently on little paws. Aurora pulled a can of cat food from the cabinet near the sink. As she was dumping it onto a plate, there was a knock at the door.

  “Come in!” she called, knowing it was Esha. If it hadn’t been, the wards she’d placed on her tower would have fried the intruder. She called it the Crispy Chicken spell. It wouldn’t kill the trespasser, but it would knock them out and fry them like the chicken strips she’d seen on TV. They’d get over it eventually, but it wasn’t pretty.

  Only Esha was allowed through her wards without consequence. There were a few other people at the university she was growing to like—sort of—but even they hadn’t been put on the No Fry list. Whenever they came over, she temporarily dropped the wards.

  Mouse was lying on the floor playing dead by the time Aurora set the plate beside her. She popped up immediately and began scarfing down her prize.

  “Hey,” Aurora said as Esha came in. She handed her sister one of the beers she’d taken from the refrigerator.

  “Thanks.” Esha popped the top off with her thumb and took a swig. Esha was her opposite—tall and pale with raven hair and red lips. Only their eyes—a weird gold color—indicated they were sisters. Likely half-sisters, though they weren’t sure, because neither had met their father.

  “Want to sit on the roof?” Aurora asked.

  Esha nodded, then glanced at her familiar, a scruffy black tom
cat with a bruiser’s face. “You coming?”

  He meowed without looking up at her. He sat half-hidden behind the counter and gazed longingly at Mouse. That was the only way Aurora could describe the look in his citrine eyes.

  “Creeper,” Esha said. “He’s taken to lurking lately. I think he feels awkward around Mouse.”

  “That, and Mouse has swatted him a few times.” Mouse was not interested in the Chairman’s affections. The normally stoic Chairman had lost any suaveness he’d had at his first sight of Mouse a year ago. Mouse was not impressed.

  Aurora grabbed her beer and pictured the roof of her tower. The aether, that ephemeral substance connecting the earth and all the afterworlds, sucked her in and spat her out on the rooftop. The aether was like air, but full of magic. Most Mytheans, those creatures of myth and legend who kept themselves hidden from mortals, drew magical power from the aether with their souls. Though Aurora couldn’t do that, she could at least use it to travel. Esha appeared next to her a second later.

  They sat on the tiles and sipped their beers. Since Aurora had joined Esha at the university a year ago, hanging out up on the roof together had become one of her favorite things to do.

  “Why do we like it up here so much?” Aurora asked.

  Esha shrugged. “Probably something about looking down on those who look down upon us.”

  “Maybe.” Aurora sipped her beer as she gazed at the rolling hills, looming oaks, and stately stone buildings scattered across the campus of the Immortal University. Starlight sparkled down upon the scene that might have been enchanting if she hadn’t disliked the place so much. She had no idea how her sister had lived here for ten years. She was already chafing.