AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Prologue
Amagarie
102 years After the Second Great War
Nuria outskirts—Town of Hoadecia
“My vision holds true,” the Serangite rasped. The cascading folds of the king’s seer’s elaborate blood-red robe trembled. “I see lands ravaged by war and death. Without access to the mountains of Boreas and their elixir, your kingdom will fall under the might of Mevia and Avindar.”
“Are you still unaware of the time this should occur?” King Ajali strode to stand in front of Ruxia, staring intently in her diamond-hard eyes as they darkened with power. Her abilities lay in the psychic plane, and it was a testament to his ruthless plotting that he had a much coveted Serangite in his army. The tent swayed under the sudden onslaught of wind that battered outside, despite it being high noon and summertide.
“Yes,” she said, then shuddered from being trapped in her deathly vision. “I foresee your death at the hands of a black-haired temptress. She tears your throat out and drinks your blood in rage.”
Fire stirred in Ajali, but he suppressed his rage.
The silence in the tent became tense as he acknowledged her predictions. He strode to a great chair and slowly sank into its plush depths, gazing into the ashen face of his High Chancellor Bastien. The tent was starkly furnished with only an oak table in the center, three arm chairs and a pallet for sleep. The only comforts required for their temporary camp on their journey home from the kingdom of Boreas.
Ruxia heaved as the vision released her. As a foreseer, her designation was that of a nyth—the third ring of power. She was not even close to being an imperial—the highest ring of power, yet he did not doubt her. Serangites were rarely wrong, if ever. Their method of warfare was with their minds, and they were incredibly powerful. What they lacked in physical capabilities they made up for with their mental dexterity. Besides, too many of Ruxia’s visions had come to pass. Ajali waited for her to compose herself before he spoke, “Dismissed.”
She curtsied then walked through the opening of the tent.
Ajali met the eyes of his high chancellor who leaned against the oak table. “I need to find another way to have unlimited access to the Borean mountains, to their elixir.” Tension climbed higher as the leashed violence in his voice vibrated through the tent.
Bastien grimaced. “Who would have thought the Princess of Boreas would be the mate of a Darkan? You can no longer claim her as your blood oath queen to gain access to their elixir.”
Ajali scrubbed a hand over his face. All of his plotting had been for nothing. “It was unexpected. I thought her lover would have been from Caelum, and then I would have had leverage over them that I could manipulate to my whim. The Darkans are always solitary, hidden in the darkness and shadows. It was indeed surprising.” And disastrous for his kingdom.
“The princess took the Darkan as her lover in the days she hid in the Darkage.”
“Indeed she did, Bastien,” Ajali said, icy anger burning through his veins. He could not fail his people.
“Will you still attempt to take her as your own?”
Ajali chuckled, the sound hollow, menacing. “I have studied what little I could find on Darkan laws. If we took their mate, they would descend on us like the plagues of death and incite the next Great War to retrieve their mates.” The avoidance of war for his people was the reason he plotted to gain access to Boreas’ elixirs. Regret sliced through him, he had been so close to overcoming the prophecy. His realm would not fall. There must be another way to access those mountains and he would find it.
Bastien strode to Ajali and clasped his shoulders. “How do we prevent the Serangite’s predictions without having control of the Borean Mountains, sire?”
How would he prevent the fall of his kingdom? “We plot and we watch, Bastien. We plot and watch.”
***
Tehdra perched high in a tree on the cliffs of the Fyran Mountains, cocooned in the darkness she had summoned. Below her, a convoy moved with great speed. Some flew astride wraiths while others travelled on the ground on Kuns—massive four legged beasts. The wraiths flared their wings in powerful arches, their sleek predatory grace mesmerizing. She had never seen the creatures this close before as she’d never been inside the Nurian’s royal palace where they were said to reside. She had been spying on the kingdom for days now. She sought to infiltrate, hide herself amongst the Nurians, and stop all threats against her kingdom—the Darkage, the realm of shadows. She also had to protect the Nurian king from any Darkan that shadowed his kingdom intending to kill him.
Tehdra’s lips flattened. Let him fall under any other blade except that of a Darkan’s.
She clutched the dagger sheathed in her knee-high boot and looked into the sky at the fiery redness of the sun, so powerful it suppressed the malevolence of the demon embedded deep inside her. Tehdra tried to find its essence and frowned. The void was utterly fascinating.
Until this mission, she had never been exposed to the sun, always having access to her beast’s powers. It lay beneath her surface like an elusive glimmer of heat.
She peered into the convoy searching the shadows for the presence of Darkans, but there were none. Her body frozen on the tree limb, only her eyes followed the convoy on the ground as their Kuns crawled past on the narrow, cobblestoned cliff ledge. Each rider was dressed in battle armor boasting the royal sigil with a hand comfortably resting on the hilt of their sword. The wraiths screech
ed, dipped and circled above the warriors, providing protection from the air.
A snarl hummed low beneath her skin as her beast stretched. A smile curved her lips. A deep red splashed the sky as the sun sank. Rage uncurled inside her, and she shivered as the savagery of her darkness lifted its head.
As the last wraith flew by, her heart lurched. Raw power and magnetism rolled off the man in fierce undulating waves. King Ajali Haddin. He rode one of the wraiths with lethal grace.
His warriors preceded him, probably confident in the knowledge that he did not need their protection. They returned from Boreas without Princess Saieke Shyokara. Tehdra had felt through the connection with her brother Drac that he had somehow claimed Saieke as his mate. Something Tehdra never thought he would have done after their older brother Vlad had betrayed everything they stood for, because he lost his mate, but Drac felt more at peace, and adored his princess with a visceral intensity. Tehdra had once hoped to find her mate, but had suppressed the desire, wanting no weakness, until her clan had atoned for Vald’s merciless slaughters.
Tehdra flared out her darkness towards King Ajali, deeply sinking into his essence, seeking and ferreting. Strangely, no negativity leaked from him. The royal, who had travelled to Boreas to claim the princess as his blood oath queen, did not seem perturbed at his loss after pursing Saieke so aggressively. Perhaps they had misconstrued his interest in her.
Rage howled beneath the surface of Tehdra’s skin as the sky darkened, effectively distracting her. She inhaled deeply, her breath hitched at a scent that teased her, making her demon beast stir hungrily. Tehdra held her breath when, with a flex of his thighs, the king stopped the wraith midair. He tipped his head and stared directly into the tree where she perched.
Tehdra held herself absolutely still. Shadows cloaked her form—it was her Shenkiri to wield, to control; it was impossible that he could see her. Heat rushed through her at the startling green of his eyes. The olive darkness of his skin shined like hammered gold against the glittering emerald; it was the most appealing combination.
Her beast shifted and lunged. In the dark mire of shadows, a most tantalizing fragrance rode the air, enrapturing her. Her chakra pulsed, fangs burst from her mouth as she scrutinized the King of Nuria in sheer fascination. Her heart pounded with hard, driving beats within her chest.
Mine.
Fear tightened in her gut. Impossible. She sighed when he whipped the wraith around, and they soared towards his kingdom with exquisitely graceful power. Her demon roared with desire, bloodlust, and a long, sibilant hiss scraped against her mind.
Mate.
Chapter One
Nuria—the kingdom of eternal Fire
Adara—the main city
A harem…I will need to be in his harem.
Taunting laughter echoed from her demon. With ruthless will, Tehdra closed off the miniscule psychic connection she allowed. The beast was pleased it would be near the Nurian King. She was not. She had to join King Ajali’s harem to enjoy the freedom of movement needed for her mission. His haris, the concubines, possessed that which Tehdra desired—free reign of the castle.
She had spent days trying to infiltrate the castle Shelah. Several times she’d come close to being detected after slipping past the king’s warriors—a feat she had thought impossible given her skill of being one with darkness. She had breached the inner walls several times, and tried to enter the castle to no avail.
Somehow the warriors sensed her presence in the shadows, sometimes murmuring and asking each other if they sensed a witch—powerful beings who used spell incantations—or a Serangite, at work. She had assessed those who had detected her presence. Their chakra level had been stronger, and something else had buzzed within them.
