Witches – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Witches – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.ilovenovels.com Sun, 01 Feb 2026 09:24:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2 http://www.ilovenovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Witches – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.ilovenovels.com 32 32 Claim Me at Nightfall – Doomsday Brethren Read Online Shayla Black http://www.ilovenovels.com/claim-me-at-nightfall-doomsday-brethren-read-online-shayla-black Sun, 01 Feb 2026 09:24:11 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/claim-me-at-nightfall-doomsday-brethren-read-online-shayla-black Genre: Alpha Male, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Witches Authors: Shayla Black Advertisement

Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 29381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >31

I’ll protect her with my last breath…even if it means breaking my own heart.

Raiden
My family is cursed, so I swore I’d never take a mate…
Especially while the war decimating magickind grows bloodier every day.
But my heart refuses to let go of Tabitha Lowery—soft, stubborn, brave…
And carrying my youngling.
I have a target on my back. I should keep my distance.
But when the unthinkable happens, I’ll burn the world down to protect her.
And the secret her father died to keep.
Even if it means handing her over to the man her parents chose to keep her safe.

Tabitha
Raiden’s abandonment was the worst pain in my life—
Until my family was murdered before my eyes.
Then the wizard who broke my heart comes roaring back.
Ready to sacrifice everything to save my life…even at the cost of his own.
I should walk away.
I should honor the safe mate waiting for me.
But when Raiden risks everything to protect our unborn child and claim what’s his…

There’s one truth left: love like ours isn’t chosen.
It’s fate

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter

One

Ice Rykard’s Caves

Wales

December 29

* * *

Raiden

* * *

“Mathias attacked the Lowery estate last night,” Bram Rion announces behind me. “He burned it to the ground.”

At the news, I whirl to him. Instant terror grips me as I fixate on one question. “The family?”

Solemnly, he shakes his head. “Dead.”

My heart plummets. The cave tilts around me. I stagger, slamming my palm against the nearby wall to stay upright as his terrible words ricochet in my skull.

The entire family dead? Including Tabitha...and the unborn youngling she carried?

My youngling.

Fuck, I never said good-bye to her, never had the chance to hold her one last time.

Pain detonates in my chest, an inferno torching every nerve. My knees buckle as my thoughts rebel against Bram’s news. Maybe he’s wrong. Maybe, somehow, she was magically spared.

As soon as the hope flares, I force myself to snuff it. I’ve seen the aftermath of other such Anarki attacks. My head knows the odds of her still living and breathing—still growing my son in her womb—is zero.

But my stubborn heart refuses to believe she’s gone until I see her body myself.

After recently returning from exile to wreak havoc on magickind, the evil wizard, Mathias d’Arc, has been quiet for weeks, his indiscriminate raping and killing of his enemies among magickind’s elite paused. He claims he commits his crimes against the wizarding upper class, the Privileged, in the name of uplifting the lower class, the Deprived, to power.

Liberation based on blood, pain, and torture? I shake my head. That’s not liberation, but terror.

“I know what you’re thinking, and I won’t let you go alone.” Bram blocks the doorway, his voice flat. Even in the dim light, a darkness simmers under his surface—something coiled and volatile that sends a chill up my spine. It wasn’t there a few weeks ago.

He leads the Doomsday Brethren, a ragtag band of warriors devoted to stopping Mathias. We’ve taken to hiding in a fellow warrior’s caves like damn underground rodents scurrying for shelter. While others above us die.

Like my beloved Tabitha.

Her fiery hair, her laughter, her hazel eyes, her sweetness…all gone?

Anguish and fury assail me at once. It’s all I can do not to charge across the room and rip Bram’s blond head off his wide shoulders. “I have to go. I must know if there’s any way…”

I rake a hand through my hair. I can’t even speak about Tabitha’s death. I tore out my heart and left her behind so she would be safe. Off Mathias’s radar. Hopefully immune from the violence.

Instead, I left her to die.

“The neighbors reported fires. When Caden and Ice”—Bram references two of the Doomsday Brethren’s other wizards—“teleported there to investigate, they found no survivors. You won’t solve anything by going.”

“If someone had attacked Emma’s house, wouldn’t you investigate personally?” I snarl about Bram’s mysterious mate who bonded with him one night, then disappeared the very next dawn.

Bram raises a brow. “It’s not the same. Tabitha wasn’t your mate. In fact, didn’t you spend last night with another woman?”

I did, and his reminder is a gut punch. She was human. I don’t even recall her name. And don’t I regret that choice now? While trying to avoid Tabitha so she could live a safer life, I’d left her and her family to face Mathias’s murderous wrath alone.

Self-loathing eats my stomach like acid.

I shoot Bram a glare. “I’m going. I don’t care if you come with me or not.”

Forcing myself to tamp down the turbulence roiling inside me and concentrate, I take a deep breath, struggle to center my magic, and teleport to the Lowery estate.

The grand home lies in ruins, a skeleton against the rising sun, charred and ransacked, as if someone has searched it high and low. The devastation is absolute. It guts me. Bodies are strewn on the lawn, eyes still open wide in terror. One by one, I find them. First, her mother’s twisted body near the door. Next, her father face down in ash. Finally, her brothers, Javen first, then Russum. Each corpse another nail in my chest.

But no sign of Tabitha.

Hope—and dread—grip my throat. I can hardly fucking breathe.

I prowl through the charred remains of the house—foyer, sitting room, bedrooms, servants’ quarters. Smoke chokes me. Debris crunches under my boots as I call her name until my throat turns raw. Every wall, floor, and surface still smolders, black and twisted, with the aftereffects of the fire. Every room lies empty.

Ash coats my hands. Fear squeezes my heart. And with every step, my dread burns hotter. My hands shake. Sweat—or is it tears?—burns my eyes. She has to be here. She has to.

But she’s not. Panic balloons until it feels like an elephant sitting on my chest, threatening to crush me.

I can think of only two reasons Tabitha’s body isn’t among the dead. First, she miraculously escaped. Or second, Mathias took her with him. And if that’s the case, the evil bastard will torture my beloved and unborn son unmercifully before ending their lives in a cataclysm of humiliation and pain.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >31

Advertisement
The Unencumbered Warrior (Highland Wishes Trilogy #1) Read Online Donna Fletcher http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-unencumbered-warrior-highland-wishes-trilogy-1-read-online-donna-fletcher Sun, 12 Oct 2025 20:52:22 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-unencumbered-warrior-highland-wishes-trilogy-1-read-online-donna-fletcher Genre: Alpha Male, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Virgin, Witches Authors: Donna Fletcher Series: Highland Wishes Trilogy Series by Donna Fletcher
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >44

Three warriors. Three wishes. One mysterious woman who never mentioned the cost…

After years of battle and burdens he never asked for, Raff made a simple wish—to be free. Free from war, from duty, and from the complications of love.

The wish is granted… but with a cruel twist.

Now, people look through him as if he doesn’t exist. What begins as a welcome escape quickly becomes a quiet torment. Until one woman looks him in the eye—and sees him.

Ingrid is respected in her village, known for her skill with wool and her sharp wit. She doesn’t believe in curses or nonsense until a stranger stumbles into her life, oddly unnoticed by others, yet impossible for her to ignore. There's something about him that draws her in, something that stirs questions she isn’t sure she wants answered.

Their connection deepens with each shared glance, each lingering moment. But when whispers of witchcraft stir, and a noble’s demands grow dangerous, Ingrid’s world threatens to unravel, and Raff realizes that his so-called freedom may cost him everything he didn’t know he wanted.

Because in the Highlands, even a wish can become a curse, and love may be the only thing strong enough to break it

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

PROLOGUE

The crackling campfire cast flickering shadows upon the towering pines, their dark silhouettes stretching toward the starlit sky. The scent of burning wood mingled with the lingering metallic tang of blood and sweat, remnants of the battle waged earlier that day. Victory had been theirs, hard-fought and well-earned, and now, beneath the vast Highland sky, three warriors sat in the hush of the night, the weight of their deeds pressing upon them even as they drank to their triumph.

A chill threaded through the air, the kind that seeped into weary bones after a day spent beneath steel and fury. The ground was damp, autumn’s creeping breath curling mist through the underbrush, where unseen creatures scurried. Owls hooted in the distance, and now and again, the faint rustle of leaves hinted at movement beyond the fire’s glow. The woods held secrets, as they always did, but on this night, they merely listened, bearing witness to the idle musings of men who had danced too often with death.

Declan stretched out his long legs, his boots scuffing against the packed earth, and took a hearty swig from his flask. The firelight caught on the fresh cut along his cheek, a trophy from the day’s battle. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and exhaled, his breath a faint ghost in the crisp air.

“Tell me this,” he said, his voice rough but rich with the satisfaction of survival. “If you could have one wish—one thing, granted without question—what would it be?”

Raff, broader than the other two and with a devil’s glint in his eye, let out a low chuckle. He poked at the fire with a stick, sending a shower of embers spiraling upward. “A wish, aye? Well, that’s easy. I’d wish for a life of complete freedom. No battles, no wife clucking over me, no responsibilities. Just me and the wind, coming and going as I please.” He grinned. “A man ought to answer to no one but himself.”

“A selfish wish,” Declan noted, though there was no judgment in his tone.

Raff shrugged. “Mayhap. But I’ve seen too many men shackled by duty, by love, by burdens they do not ask for. Not for me.”

Declan leaned back against a fallen log, rolling his flask between his hands. His dark gaze lingered on the fire, the flames reflecting in his eyes. “I’d wish to never have to search for a woman,” he mused. “I tire of the chase, of the endless games. Let them come to me instead—fall at my feet, even.” A slow smile curved his lips. “And only the bonniest ones at that.”

Raff snorted. “That’s a dangerous wish. Women have ways of tangling a man up whether he seeks them or not.”

Declan laughed, lifting his flask in a mock toast. “Then let me be tangled, so long as they come willing.”

“What about you, Rhodes?” Raff asked. “What would you wish?”

Rhodes, the quietest of the three, tilted his head back, considering the stars peeking through the canopy of autumn leaves that had yet to fall. The firelight played over the sharp angles of his face, deepening the shadows beneath his eyes. He did not answer immediately, and when he did, his voice held a weight the others had not. “Power,” he said at last. “I would wish for the power to dominate, so much so that no one would ever dare to confront me. Unbeatable in battle, feared by all, and always victorious.”

Delcan gave a low whistle. “A grand wish, that one.”

“Aye,” Raff agreed. “But what happens when there is no one left to defeat?”

“That’s the sad part,” Rhodes said. “There’s always someone who wants to fight.”

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >44

Advertisement
Claimed (Savage Alpha Shifters #4) Read Online D.D. Prince http://www.ilovenovels.com/claimed-savage-alpha-shifters-4-read-online-d-d-prince Thu, 12 Jun 2025 17:28:43 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/claimed-savage-alpha-shifters-4-read-online-d-d-prince Genre: Alpha Male, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Witches Authors: D.D. Prince Series: Savage Alpha Shifters Series by D.D. Prince
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 202
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >202

Wolves hunt for what they want, what they need. Wolf shifters also hunt when they need to.
But what no one can get through your skull is that it’s fruitless to hunt for your fated mate.
No matter how much you want to find her.
I now know it’s because your mate’s scent doesn’t trickle in.
It slams into you. A sledgehammer strikes, the scent assaulting you, and it changes everything.
This is what’s happening to me now.
The woman who attempted to murder Tyson Savage? The one poisoning us?
She’s mine.

Come back to Arcana Falls for another wild story with Claimed, Savage Alpha Shifters #4.
Reading these paranormal, fated mates possessive alpha wolf shifter books in order is essential.

Planned series order:
Tyson – Wild
Mason – Twisted
Riley – Wicked
Greyson – Claimed
And then stories for Jase, Lincoln, and Joel will follow.
Which one will be your ultimate alpha wolf shifter book boyfriend?

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”

-The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling

Prologue

Stacy Meadows

I tuck away the Lily nametag and lift the gun out of the bag while hauling in as much air as my lungs can hold. As if oxygen will help me with what I have to do.

This is it.

After this, I won’t need to be Lily anymore. I won’t have to disguise my scent. Not for my job and not in order to hide my true nature from the Arcana Falls wolf shifter pack. I don’t even have to go back to that job tomorrow.

It all feels bittersweet.

The sweet: it’ll be over.

I’ll have accomplished the mission I’ve been tasked with – eliminating the alpha who killed Father.

My fingers flex, but nowhere near the trigger. The thing feels cold, heavy – like it’s a chunk of death.

When my cousin Jimmy brought it and told me what my brother wants me to do, I couldn’t wrap my mind around doing it. There was no way I could pull the mission off and do what he wanted. But by the look in Jimmy’s eyes, the threats of violence that were made, I knew I had no choice. My brother is our pack’s alpha and Jimmy is his henchman.

Jimmy meant it when he said there would be suffering if I didn’t do what I was told. And a small, desperate voice inside me urged that despite how horrific the task was to me, maybe this was the way forward.

We’ve been in agonizing limbo for too long. Wyatt’s plans aren’t ever good ones, but something has got to change. Something drastic has to happen and this would be that. Could it be the start of something?

If I do what I’m told, as horrible as it is, maybe it can be a catalyst for change.

The witch my brother held hostage before I was sent here whispered in my ear that she occasionally saw things from the future. She saw that I’m the key to things changing for my pack. She told me it would all happen soon.

Maybe this is what I need to do.

After this, not only will I no longer need to be Lily, I might not even be me anymore. Because how could this not permanently change me? It’s a bitter pill to swallow.

I need to fire this weapon because of my brother, for what’s left of my pack. For the girls and our elderly and for the greater good. Because Wyatt is ruining us.

Yeah, bittersweet. Because life could change for the better after this. Change, finally, after I do this thing – which will be the hardest thing I’ve done in my life. A thing I would never have thought myself capable of. But I have to. If I don’t do this, Wyatt will deliver on his threats. If I do this, he says he’ll pair me with Malachi, which would likely make him part of the inner sanctum and then Mal can work like we talked about to find a way to go for that jugular and remove the barrier to the health and happiness of our pack - Wyatt.

After this, I’ll walk away from this town and this job that I’ve enjoyed. I’ll walk away from the nice people I’ve worked with the last several weeks and the many regular customers who have been so kind. I’ll go back to my old life and hope my actions, as awful as they’ll be, can spark the right kind of change.

I shouldn’t have gotten attached to my newfound freedom, but it happened anyway. I like working there. Bringing people food. Hearing about their day. I’ve helped out in the kitchen a couple times, too, and the owner of the diner wants to try me out for a half-day to see if I can handle the kitchen when his cook goes on vacation next month. I would have liked that.

But I won’t be here for it. I’ve already called in and left a message that not only can I not make it in, but also that I don’t think I can come back. I apologized for doing it without giving notice, said I needed to leave town immediately due to a family emergency, but that I truly appreciated the opportunity he gave me.

I like my coworkers. My boss. The regulars. I enjoy counting my tips at the end of each shift, buying little treats for the girls back home. I’ve enjoyed having enough food to eat, not to mention clean water to drink and shower in.

Life before this wasn’t just hard. It was also lonely – in so many ways. Lonely for what we used to be. Hungry for so many things, including happiness. Longing for our pack not to be what it’s become. Hoping for light at the end of the tunnel that isn’t a train.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >202

Advertisement
The Monsters We Are (Devil’s Cradle #3) Read Online Suzanne Wright http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-monsters-we-are-devils-cradle-3-read-online-suzanne-wright Sun, 02 Feb 2025 19:15:27 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-monsters-we-are-devils-cradle-3-read-online-suzanne-wright Genre: Alpha Male, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Witches Authors: Suzanne Wright Series: Devil's Cradle Series by Suzanne Wright
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >134

The Ancients and the Aeons. Two groups of powerful immortals on the brink of destruction, and at the heart of it all stands Wynter Dellavale.

Wynter is a witch who once sought sanctuary for herself and her coven in Devil's Cradle. Better known as 'the Home of Monsters', it was a place for outcasts and fugitives. She now wears the brand of Cain, the infamous Ancient, who has claimed her soul for all of eternity and doesn't plan on ever letting go.

Together, Wynter and Cain have prevailed over many powerful enemies, but now they face their final - and most terrifying - battle. As the last Aeon left standing, the all-powerful Adam is out for revenge. His terms: Cain and Wynter in exchange for peace. If Devil's Cradle won't deliver them, the full force of Adam's devastating rage will fall upon them all. As the stakes are raised, Cain and Wynter will do whatever it takes to defeat Adam and keep each other safe, even if it means unleashing the monsters that live within them .

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter One

“Ew, I just licked at the cotton candy sticking to my upper lip and got a taste of my face paint.” Anabel shuddered, sticking out her tongue. “Tastes like chalk.”

“Why did you choose to have your face painted in that stereotypical green witch style anyway?” Wynter Dellavale asked, eyeing her coven member curiously.

“Well, this is an ‘It’s almost Halloween’ party.”

“And you’re dressed in a blood-stained cheerleader’s outfit. The face paint doesn’t go with the look.”

“Yes, but everyone will now assume that the boils and hairy warts on my face are fake.”

Wynter felt her brow crease. “No, they still look real.” They wouldn’t be there at all if the blonde didn’t use herself as a trial subject when she created new potions. Some caused all kinds of aftereffects. Rashes. Hallucinations. Bad guts. Perhaps even the belief that you were the reincarnation of Bloody Mary . . . unless Anabel’s claim to be exactly that was in fact true. Her soul did have the ability to retain all her memories from her past lives, to be fair.

Wynter sighed. “If you’d just stop experimenting—”

“I know, I know,” said Anabel with a flap of her hand.

“And yet, you keep doing it.”

The blonde’s back straightened. “Excuse me, I’m not the only person here who has bad habits.”

Xavier’s brow knitted. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Anabel sniffed at him. “It means you lie all the time for no real reason. Hattie is always asking random people embarrassing questions about sex. Delilah keeps cooking up self-proclaimed karma potions that will one day get her shanked. And Wynter keeps coming back to life every time she dies—part of being a revenant, yeah, but it’s still freaky. So, you know, I don’t think any of you should be throwing stones at my glass house.”

“I’m sensing you’re expecting us to be fair,” said Xavier. “Why?”

Anabel plucked at her skirt. “I guess I thought it would be a nice change.”

“You reached too high,” he told her, scratching at his head with a grimace. “Christ, could no one have warned me that the hair chalk makes your scalp itch like a mother?” His usual tousled brown hair had been slicked back and colored lime green to go with his outfit.

“You think chalk is bad, try wearing a veil,” grumbled Hattie. “I forgot how uncomfortable they are.”

“One would think, after the amount of times you’ve been a bride, that you would have remembered,” Delilah said to her. “But then, one would also think that you’d have chosen divorce over murder, even if you do insist on the first being a sin while the latter is somehow excusable.”

Hattie shrugged. “Divorce is too lengthy a process. It was quicker to just . . . help them pass on.”

Snorting, Wynter shook her head. The woman spoke like she’d arranged for her ex-husbands to die peacefully in their sleep but, yeah, it hadn’t quite played out that way. Which was why it was weirding Wynter and the others out that Hattie was dressed like a bride right now.

Wynter and her group hadn’t been a coven for very long, having only met for the first time when they’d been kidnapped by bounty hunters who she later killed. Well, to be more exact, it was the monster that lived inside her who was responsible for the deaths.

The position of Priestess hadn’t been something Wynter ever coveted. She’d resisted for a while, just as she’d resisted officially proclaiming them a coven—one that Delilah had named the Bloodrose Coven. But it had been a pointless resistance. Still, they were more of a family. A family with rather dysfunctional dynamics and a streak of crazy that couldn’t be tamed.

Hearing squeals, Wynter looked to see a mechanical hand zooming across the floor, scaring the dancers. She fingered her renaissance-style gothic gown as she glanced around. She had no idea whose idea it was to temporarily convert the warehouse into a cemetery-themed bar, but she saluted them. The dim lighting and dry ice machine made the place feel dark, chilly, and unwelcoming. Fake tombstones, dead flowers, hanging cobwebs, and open standing caskets revealing rubber skeletons added to the creepy factor.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >134

Advertisement
Seduce Me in Shadow – Doomsday Brethren Read Online Shayla Black http://www.ilovenovels.com/seduce-me-in-shadow-doomsday-brethren-read-online-shayla-black Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:02:55 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/seduce-me-in-shadow-doomsday-brethren-read-online-shayla-black Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Magic, Paranormal, Suspense, Witches Authors: Shayla Black Advertisement

Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 115860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >119

Caden is determined to deny his coming magic—and the nosy human reporter threatening to expose them all. Too bad she just happens to be his mate…

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter

One

Caden

“We’re fucked.”

Bram Rion’s words echo through his palatial study as he slams the door, the sound as final as a coffin lid.

I snort. No shit, Sherlock. Merlin’s golden-boy grandson is two weeks late to that particular party.

Perched on the edge of a bottle-green armchair, I watch him lock us in. Gone is the Hollywood smile, replaced by a mask of grim determination that matches the rest of the Doomsday Brethren. The air crackles with tension, thick enough to choke on.

Lucan’s absence is a raw wound. My brother should be here, standing tall with this ragtag band of magical misfits. Instead, he’s chained to a bed, wrestling with death itself.

Please let his torment end soon.

A loud crash upstairs thumps the ceiling and shakes the walls, putting the rest of the Doomsday Brethren on edge.

In the distance, a woman screams, terror bleeding in every note. Upstairs, a door crashes open. Her shrieks grow louder. Footsteps pound above me. She’s running down the stairs.

Damn it. She’s fleeing.

Tearing out of the library, I race to intercept the shrieking witch, ignoring Bram’s shout calling me back. I grab the frantic blonde. Her wide, green eyes are frightened, as if she’s been playing a game of chicken with a barreling freight train. Despite the fact she’s probably over two hundred years old, she looks deceptively young.

“Wait. Please,” I beg. “My brother⁠—”

“I’m sorry. I can’t help him.” Her voice breaks. “He’s a beast, big and feral, and…and he snarled that I smell of another wizard before he ripped free from his ch-chains and lunged for my throat.”

Bloody hell. No wonder she’s quaking. But she’s the fifth energy surrogate Lucan has sent fleeing in a fortnight—and supposedly the toughest. What the fuck am I supposed to do now?

Bram’s sister, Sabelle, appears at the top of the stairs, her lace shirt torn, golden hair a wild tangle. Yet she’s surprisingly steady. “I’ve contained Lucan. You can release her.”

Shaking my head, I clasp the witch tighter. “Lucan needs her. Without the energy she generates…”

The words die in my throat, choking me with their implications.

“He’ll die. I know.” Sabelle’s calm facade cracks, revealing the anguish beneath. “Anka's absence has driven him mad with grief. Aunt Millie says she’s never seen mate mourning this severe. It’s like his soul is being ripped apart.”

More terrible news. Where’s the bloody light at the end of the tunnel? Sabelle, at Bram’s behest, dragged me away from my peaceful life in Dallas two weeks ago; the hell hasn’t let up since. Frustration eats at my gut like acid. I can’t fail Lucan. Years ago, I was unable to save my younger brother from magic gone horribly wrong. I’ll be damned if I let my older one die, too.

“Since Lucan refuses to take the energy from these witches to survive, how does he have enough strength to fight them?”

“Primal rage,” Sabelle supplies. “When the surrogates come, they unwittingly bring traces of their other clients. Because all of Lucan’s senses have shut down except smell, he’s convinced other wizards are attacking him. Of course it’s a delusion, but he’ll defend himself—to the death. He’s not coherent enough to explain otherwise.”

“Maybe…it’s time to consider that, with Anka gone, he wants death,” Bram murmurs behind me.

I whirl in fury. What sort of friend even thinks that? I held the hands of fallen comrades in far-flung deserts around the world and prayed for their recovery, even as some rattled their last breath.

“My brother cannot die like this. He will not! I intend to find Anka and bring her back.”

“It may be too late, and the witch can’t help.” Bram bobs his chin toward the scared surrogate in my grip. “Let her go.”

“Please,” the blonde pleads with a sniffle.

The urge to destroy something, to punch through walls, to curse magic for decimating my life again, burns through me. But the witch in my grasp shrinks back, terror in her eyes. She sees me as another monster.

For the millionth fucking time since setting foot back in England, I damn magic to hell.

To a human, losing a beloved wife would be devastating. For Lucan, it’s reduced a brilliant wizard to a feral beast. The thing chained to Bram’s guest bed is no longer the older brother I once idolized.

Guilt sears through me. I abandoned this world—disavowed magic and everyone in it—a dozen years ago. Now I might lose my only remaining family to this nightmare. The thought of never speaking to Lucan again guts me.

I have to find Anka, to return her to Lucan’s arms. Nothing else matters. Nothing else will cure him.

Swallowing my snarl, I release the terrified surrogate. “Go.”

The witch bolts, leaving a deafening silence in her wake.

“My office. Now.” Bram’s voice brooks no argument.

I whirl on him. “I won’t give up on Lucan!”

With a twitch of his finger, Bram magically drags me back into the study, slamming the door. I’m about to unleash hell when he cuts me off.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >119

Advertisement
Primal Kill – The Order of Vampires Read Online Lydia Michaels http://www.ilovenovels.com/primal-kill-the-order-of-vampires-read-online-lydia-michaels Sat, 05 Oct 2024 02:30:38 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/primal-kill-the-order-of-vampires-read-online-lydia-michaels Genre: Alpha Male, Dark, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Suspense, Vampires, Witches Authors: Lydia Michaels Advertisement

Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 137871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 689(@200wpm)___ 551(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >144

Three hundred years ago, Adriel Schrock escaped her brutal mate after burying him alive. She found sanctuary on an immortal Amish farm, but her peaceful stay has come to an end.

Cerberus is free after centuries entombed and plans to show his traitorous mate just how ruthless he can be. His vengeful black heart knows no mercy. He intends to punish Adriel with an eternity of torture.

There is only one way to ensure that doesn’t happen—one of them must die.

Running for her life in a lethal hunt, Adriel’s path collides with a vexing witch who surprises her by offering protection—but there’s a catch that could alter her destiny forever.

Primal Kill is a life-or-death, high fantasy, dark paranormal romance with multiple points of view and LGBTQ themes from award-winning and bestselling author Lydia Michaels.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

SOUNDTRACK

Enjoy the Music that Inspired Primal Kill

Click here to listen to the series playlist on Spotify.

Black Magic Woman by VCTRYS

It’s My Life by Bon Jovi

Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac

Songbird by Eva Cassidy

Zombie by The Cranberries

Wings by Birdie

Kill of the Night by Gin Wigmore

Three Little Birds by Kacey Musgraves

Wolves Without Teeth by Of Monsters and Men

Love, Reign o’er Me by Pearl Jam

Can You See Me In The Dark by Halestorm & I Prevail

No Light, No Light by Florence + The Machine

As It Was by Harry Styles

Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran

PROLOGUE

Long After 1730…

Time has lost all meaning…

Life is only pain…

Death is the only relief…

Cerberus Maddox XI growled, choking on dust and rubble, entombed by the crushing weight of clay-hardened earth that slowly compacted with time. Roots and gravel bound his mutilated body—enough to trap, paralyze, suffocate, and kill him again and again.

Unsure how long he’d been suffering or how many times he’d died only to return to this eternal torture, Cerberus clung to what was left of his decaying sanity, though his mind fragmented long ago. Immortality had no power here, and longevity had become a curse. With no blood to alleviate the endless pain or speed his recovery, existence was insufferable.

Sensory deprivation left Cerberus deaf, blind, and incapable of movement. He sometimes suffered the sweet relief of hallucinations where the fixed memories of his past also tortured him.

Those agonizing memories became his mirrored reality, his escape from the physical suffering that was his endless existence until he died once more.

Again.

And again.

And again, only to be brought back to this living hell.

Awareness came like baptism through fire. Sharp pain pulsed and surged through every wasted shred of him. The cycle never ended. It couldn’t. And by the thousandth time he died, he was certain immortality was a curse and his desire for vengeance would live forever inside of him.

His body hummed in agony. Each throbbing beat of his heart radiated awareness as tortured nerves buzzed and burned.

Echoes of muscle memory faded. Wounds deliberately healed and the dead cells withered away. Rotting. He was rotting.

Gone were his arms. Gone were his legs. Torn flesh and muscle left him a fraction of the warrior he once was. All he had was breath and pain, but there was no air left to breathe, so the pain inevitably won.

Dampness chilled his bones, stiffening every torn joint and shredded muscle into a tough, ossified husk. His decaying body became a raw nerve with time, exposed and infected, tingling with haunting twitches as he decomposed into a living corpse—buried alive for a long, possibly eternal, restless repose.

The stench of his rotting arms and legs reached his nose. His tormentors left his severed limbs with him so he could suffer the slow decay of his own muscle and flesh.

This deep in the earth, sand dampened to mud and slowly solidified into cold clay. Fossilized in time, encased in agony with no limbs left to claw his way out, nothing existed beyond his tortured mind.

The odd sensation of wrigglers and beetles nibbling the decay became a constant torment and comfort. So long as the worms were with him, composting his body's organic matter, he was never truly alone.

Trapped in the nothing.

No space.

No time.

Only pain.

His agonizing existence repeated on a steady loop of suffering and death.

Suffering and death.

The ricochet of time was lost in the darkness.

His disoriented mind forgot what it was to walk and breathe without agony. After years of this relentless imprisonment, he struggled to recall the wholeness he celebrated before his limbs had been torn clean—amputated by force with the excruciating purpose of punishing him.

Punishing him for her. He inwardly snarled.

She was nothing! A whore, like her mother…

He should have let her die when he killed her the last time. He could have prevented her from coming back. She was immortal but utterly fragile compared to him. How dare they do this on her account?

Once again, he vowed to make her suffer tenfold. He relished the day he would finally escape this living tomb and show her the agony he’d survived. How long had it been since he looked up at the sky and breathed fresh air? Years? Decades? Centuries?

Too long.

She knew nothing of real pain. He ached to show her how truly dreadful he could be. His craving to repay her for the crime of quartering and entombing him alive obliterated all other desires.

I’m coming for you girl…

The debt she owed him would cost her dearly. One day, she would pay for leaving him this way, just as he made her mother pay in the blood of those she loved.

Vicious bitch.

It was no wonder Lilias’s descendants were equally venomous. Wiping out her line would do the world a service.

Like a delicious poison, the temptation of his memories puzzled together a vision of Lilias when they first met. She’d been fresh and frightened, with supple breasts and a wet little quim just beyond flowering.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >144

Advertisement
Hunt on Dark Waters (Crimson Sails #1) Read Online Katee Robert http://www.ilovenovels.com/hunt-on-dark-waters-crimson-sails-1-read-online-katee-robert Sun, 12 Nov 2023 07:05:24 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/hunt-on-dark-waters-crimson-sails-1-read-online-katee-robert Genre: Alpha Male, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Magic, Paranormal, Witches Series: Crimson Sails Series by Katee Robert
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >103

Sail the magical high seas with this first book in a new sexy fantasy romance series from Katee Robert, the New York Times bestselling author of the TikTok smash-hit Neon Gods.

Evelyn is a witch with a perfect storm of impulses: terrible taste in bed partners, sticky fingers, and a lust for danger. After she steals from her vampire ex and falls through a portal to another realm, she’s fished out of the waters by a band of seafarers and their telekinetic captain. She’s immediately given a choice—join their group or die.

Bowen has no memory of his life before he became one of the Cŵn Annwn. He and his pirate crew are bound by vow to patrol through Threshold, the magical sea in between realms, keeping the portals to other worlds safe. When he rescues Evelyn, he doesn’t expect to be attracted to the unflappably brassy pickpocket. The longer he spends in her presence, the more he begins to question if his heart is the next thing she’ll steal.

But as tension heats up between Bowen and Evelyn, danger escalates as well. Because Evelyn has no intention of keeping her vows to the Cŵn Annwn, and if she betrays the crew, both she and Bowen will pay the ultimate price.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER 1

Evelyn

MY GRANDMOTHER TAUGHT ME EVERYTHING I KNOW. She was a withered old crone when my mother died, leaving me alone at the ripe old age of six. Bunny, as she insisted I call her, pulled up in an ancient car, took one look at me, and tsked. “Look just like her, don’t you? Get in, little bird. No point in standing around with your thumb up your ass.”

She didn’t have much respect for laws—human or otherwise—but Bunny had an endless list of rules that were nearly impossible to keep track of. Don’t do spell work during an eclipse. If you’re going to lie, make it a good one. It doesn’t matter what path you tread in life as long as it’s the right one for you.

And stay the fuck away from vampires.

Bunny is probably rolling in her grave right now. Or she would be if I’d buried her when she died, the day after I turned eighteen. Our kind don’t like graves—another thing she taught me. We prefer to be scattered with the elements, our ashes little bits of stardust going back to the earth and sea and air and fire. She held on to this life until she was no longer needed, and then she moved on to walk paths I can’t follow.

It’s just as well she’s not around anymore to see what I’ve become.

Case in point: the gorgeous vampire leaning against the bar at my side. Lizzie isn’t my girlfriend. She doesn’t do labels, and I’m too much Bunny’s child to date a vampire.

Sleeping with one, though?

I’ve always liked to play things too close to the edge. Hopefully this time won’t kick me in the ass. My track record says otherwise, but hey, I’m a slow learner when there’s fun to be had. It’s not like I spend much time with Lizzie. We met six months ago, and after spending a glorious two weeks in bed that I wasn’t sure I’d survive, we’ve been asteroids pinging into each other before flying away to commit destruction elsewhere.

I didn’t even know she was back in town until I got a text two hours ago with a time and place. Imagine my surprise when I show up to a hole-in-the-wall bar filled with an equal mix of humans and paranormal folk. Most of the time us magical people avoid regular humans. They don’t know we exist, and we prefer to keep it that way. But there are places that are exceptions to that rule, and this bar is one of them.

It doesn’t seem like Lizzie’s speed, but what do I know? It’s not like we spend our time together talking.

“What about that one?”

I follow Lizzie’s chin jerk to the pretty, petite woman sitting by herself at the end of the bar. It’s considered rude to scan other paranormals, so I don’t risk it, but she gives off a human vibe. Which means Lizzie wants to play. We’ve done it a few times, picked up a human at a bar and taken her to the nearest hotel to have a night of sex and, occasionally, magic. As a bloodline vampire, Lizzie’s bite is orgasmic, which paves the way for a whole lot of fun.

I’m not in the mood tonight. I shouldn’t have answered Lizzie’s text at all, or at least I should have begged off. It’s the twenty-third of April, which means I turned twenty-five yesterday.

It also means Bunny’s been dead for seven years as of today. A lucky number, but it doesn’t feel lucky right now. Grief is a strange thing. Most days, I get by on the warmth of doing spells Bunny taught me, or cleaning with the particular concoction of kitchen-witch magic shit that she swore warded away negative emotions.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >103

Advertisement
The Rebel Witch – Thieves Read Online Lexi Blake http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-rebel-witch-thieves-read-online-lexi-blake Sun, 12 Nov 2023 07:05:18 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-rebel-witch-thieves-read-online-lexi-blake Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Suspense, Vampires, Witches Authors: Lexi Blake Advertisement

Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >153

Kelsey Owens just wants to settle in with her gorgeous husbands, surrounding herself with her reclaimed family. Preparations should be made for the arrival of their new son. The world has other plans. War is brewing, powerful forces are lining up against everyone she loves, and her latest prisoner also happens to be her best friend in the world. Being the sheriff of the supernatural world really sucks sometimes.Olivia Carey lost everything. Stripped of the magic that gave her life color and substance, she thought it couldn’t get worse. Then Kelsey was gone. She found a light in the darkness. A path back to her magic, but claiming it somehow put her on the opposite side of a war with everyone she knew and cared for. She knows that her cause was just, but lately things are confusing. Captured by the rebels she tormented and once called friends, she is forced to question everything she knows.When someone dear to them both is struck down, Kelsey and Liv must join forces again. Only Liv can work the spell to save them, but that spell requires a unique ingredient found only on the Hell plane. Stealing it will mean risking everything—including the growing bond between Liv and her old boyfriend, Casey Lane. Hell has some tricks up its sleeve for both Liv and Kelsey. And in the midst of battle, Liv will be forced to decide between saving their world and burning it all down.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter One

Liv

I hate being in this place, but when I close my eyes it’s where I come back to again and again.

I thought this space in my head—when my subconscious takes over—was my prison, a place to pay for my sins—and there are many. No matter what I do during the waking hours, no matter the power I find and make my own, when my eyes close I am here again.

Blood is everywhere, the coppery scent like a nauseating wave of perfume that rolls over me and won’t quite dissipate. It saturates the ground as they drag me toward the altar. There are three of them. Altars, that is. We came to Wyoming to find a possible rogue wolf, but evil found us instead. Three torture spaces. Trent lies on one. It’s his blood staining the hem of my pants. I don’t know how long he has to live. His body is so wrecked.

The boy Kelsey found is quiet on his table. It was this kid Fenrir we found when we went looking for the wolf. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones looking for him. The whole of Lupus Solum wants the abomination dead, and they don’t care that he’s nine and so sweet it hurts my heart to look at him.

He’s still asleep.

I wish I was asleep. I wish I didn’t know what was coming for me.

“Tie her down,” one of the witches says.

I fight, but in this dream, as it was in life, I do not win. They get me on the table, banging my body against the hard rock top so harshly I swear I can feel my bones moving. My head aches from where it slapped against the rock.

Beyond the pain, what I hate is how helpless I am.

I am a witch. I have power in my body. The innate knowledge of how to bend the universe to my will lies in my brain, but I am useless against this coven. They have forced me to do things I couldn’t conceive of doing. Mere hours before I’d pulled my best friend’s soul apart. I’d felt when her she-wolf had scampered up my arms, whispering through my brain. I’d told the wolf to hide in Trent, but now I worry when he dies, she will, too.

They’d held a stake to Casey’s heart. My beautiful vampire. I couldn’t let him suffer a final death. I couldn’t. I’ve loved that idiot almost since I met him. He’s invaded my heart, and I was so afraid of loving him.

It doesn’t matter now.

All is lost.

And then I realize how much more I have to lose as the witch holds up a ceremonial knife and in an instant, drives it through my chest. I feel skin split, bones crack, but beyond that I feel something slipping from inside me. Something essential is leaking out. A trickle at first, and then the chanting begins and the speed builds.

All of my light. All of my magic. I feel it leaving my body. That unique part of me is draining away, and I can do nothing to stop it.

The coven around me hold their hands to my body, groaning in pleasure as they take my power.

They are taking the best part of me and eating it up like it’s a fucking treat.

When they are through and I am nothing more than a hollow vessel, they toss me away like garbage. They don’t even bother to pull the knife out of my chest. They simply pick me up and toss me to the side. They don’t bother tying me up now because they know I have nothing left.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >153

Advertisement
Wicked (Savage Alpha Shifters #3) Read Online D.D. Prince http://www.ilovenovels.com/wicked-savage-alpha-shifters-3-read-online-d-d-prince Mon, 02 Oct 2023 05:16:41 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/wicked-savage-alpha-shifters-3-read-online-d-d-prince Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Virgin, Witches Authors: D.D. Prince Series: Savage Alpha Shifters Series by D.D. Prince
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >173

Wolf shifter Riley Savage thought his fated mate was lost in the river almost seven years ago. But when it’s revealed that not only is she alive, but also she’s a witch who’s been hiding from him, fury doesn’t begin to describe how Riley feels. He’s determined to get answers and hits nothing but dead ends. And then she shows up in Arcana Falls.

Despite how angry he is, the desire to claim, bite, and knot her is stronger.

Warring between anger and biological urges, Riley malfunctions. It's not healthy for an alpha shifter to reject his fated mate, so the council alphas vote for a one-week lockdown for them in Tyson's cabin.
Forced proximity with an angry alpha wolf shifter who is torn between knotting you sixty-nine ways to sunday and ringing your neck?

Are you ready for the sparks to fly?

Come back to Arcana Falls and the Savage Alpha Shifters, wolf shifters who identify their fated mate and chase, claim, bite, knot, and purr for them. These stories are best experienced in order.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

“Regardless of trying to work against it, fate will always work harder than you. Fate has aces up its sleeve that you have no hope of comprehending.” – Lyrica Young

1

Erica Young

The door to my hippie bus flies open with enough force to make everything inside rattle, not the least of which is me.

Everything in me has been coiled tight since I parked. Heck, since I decided to drive here. And now the moment I’ve been both dreaming of and dreading for seven years happens, and seeing him? I’m rattled to the core.

The look on his unbelievably handsome face? The furious, accusing eyes touching me? Together they make pain radiate through every single shaking cell in my body.

Barely leashed fury crackles as his eyes give me a once over from head to toe. Urges war within me. Run toward him? Hide?

I can’t run to him. Absolutely not.

This is going to be agony. More anguish. Part of the price; it’s time to pay. Though really, it feels like I’ve already been paying for nearly seven years. My entire body is a heartbeat, thumping, aching to touch – no, aching to fuse with him.

The cozy interior of this van suddenly feels even smaller. He can only stand in here because the overhead bunk is popped up and he takes up a lot of space with his height, his muscle. His presence. His fury.

He’s pulling the door shut, towering over me as I sit on the bench seat that takes up the majority of the back of the van. I clench the patchwork quilt that covers it. Coincidentally, I’m gripping the piece of fabric from the shirt he wore the last time I saw him.

He doesn’t know how important this quilt is to me. How important he is to me. How my sisters found that shirt dangling from a tree branch days after it all went wrong and brought it to me. I slept with it for months until I put it in this quilt and have slept with it nearly every night since. He doesn’t know I’ve kept him close to me in the only ways I could for the past seven years, despite the fact that my mistakes cost us both so much.

He’s even more handsome than I remember. And I never forgot just how easy Riley Savage is on the eyes. But the handsomeness I saw back then looks hard now. And it’s down to me that there’s no light in his green eyes at this moment.

The set of his more-than stubbled squared jaw is hard. He hasn’t shaved in at least a week, maybe two. His dark hair is a mess, long enough there’s a curl to it. It looks like he’s been raking his fingers through it in frustration. And I can feel the rage shuddering inside him, as if rattling his rib cage, ready to burst out.

He's even more muscled, even more deliciously built. He’s got a few sexy crinkles around his eyes. Has he laughed much? Or have I given him those faint crow’s feet due to stress? It was a given he’d mourn the perceived loss of me, but has he held others, gotten pleasure from others? Sought comfort? Because I haven’t. I wouldn’t. I have so many questions and no right to ask any of them.

There’s something strange in my chest, something elusive. It feels like I can almost reach out and touch the soul of him with mine, but his is caged by an invisible wall. A wall I built. My aches and fears shift into need. Stark need. Vivid desire. The need to feel him. The desire to be touched by him. The pulsing ache not only in my heart and my soul, but also in that forbidden place I’ve been saving for him. To show him how much I love him, to have him understand that I never meant for any of this to happen.

I wish I could touch him. I’ll never forget the way it felt when we had that first kiss. The last one, too.

I don’t even get to make a move toward him. It’s like he senses the intent before I’ve done more than flex a muscle in my foot and his hand flies up to halt me.

“Do not take one step toward me, witch,” he shouts, his voice coming out guttural, filled with emotion so raw, so visceral, it can only be described as loathingly. The way he says witch is as if it’s the gravest insult he can hurl at me.

Danica told me when he smelled me in the Drowsy Hollow covenstead, there was significant fall-out. And I knew it was coming, knew last Fall when I dug deeper than ever to help Holden and Isabella with their problem that this could come at any moment. I knew I had no control over when it would happen. I gave it to fate. And now I guess fate is showing me that I reap what I sow. I fucked up so epically.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >173

Advertisement
Blaze – Oreylia Novel – Blood Prophecy Read Online L.H. Cosway http://www.ilovenovels.com/blaze-oreylia-novel-blood-prophecy-read-online-l-h-cosway Thu, 01 Jun 2023 11:54:29 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/blaze-oreylia-novel-blood-prophecy-read-online-l-h-cosway Genre: Alpha Male, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Vampires, Witches Authors: L.H. Cosway Advertisement

Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 108376 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >116

Darya has escaped from the Prison of Thorns, but her mission is far from over. Not only is Red Armand still on the loose, he’s dragged Vasilios and Sven back to hellish Oreylia with him. Darya might have returned to the safe and loving arms of Peter and her family but she cannot rest until she saves the two men she once considered her enemies. Now they’re her friends, perhaps even more than that in the case of Vas, and she can’t just leave them to their awful fates.

But in order to travel to Oreylia, she must once again leave the people she loves behind. And this time the decision threatens to tear her and Peter apart for good. There’s no guarantee that she’ll be able to come back, and the uncertainty leaves a gaping chasm between Darya and the first boy she ever loved. The vision of her future burns strong in her mind, and the more it penetrates, the more she comes to realise that she might live up to the prophecy of her birth, but not in the way she or anyone else could’ve possibly imagined.

Blaze: An Oreylia Novel is book #3 in L.H. Cosway’s Blood Prophecy Series. All books in the series must be read in order.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

“The path to paradise begins in hell.”

- Dante Alighieri.

1.

There was a brief period of quiet, just the sound of waves moving against the shore. Then, sirens.

In the blink of an eye the small beach we’d washed up on was surrounded by members of the Guard. My parents, Peter, Rebecca and Grace were there, too. Tears welled behind my eyes. A whack of emotion stole my breath. I’d missed them all like crazy.

Too much had happened in quick succession. Vasilios and Sven were gone. Red Armand took them back to Oreylia and the mark burned like an inferno inside me, raging to act. Now that Vas and I had bonded, the mark didn’t like that we were separated. I could feel it pulsating and rebelling as though it were a living, breathing entity.

“Are you okay?” Peter asked, picking me up and pulling me into his arms. “God, it’s so good to hold you.”

I choked up as his familiar warmth and energy surrounded me. I looked and felt like a drowned rat, and he was just so comforting and full of vitality that I latched onto him and didn’t want to let go. My emotions were being torn in different directions. I was relieved to be back in Peter’s arms, but there was another part of me that felt the urgency to rescue Vas.

Whatever route I took next, it was going to hurt.

Tears clogged my eyes but now wasn’t the time. I had to suck them back. My parents and Sergeant Davis were at my side then, eager for an explanation. Rebecca and Grace stood behind them, matching distraught expressions on their faces.

“Darya, where are the prisoners?” Sergeant Davis asked in a gentler voice than he normally used. He could obviously see that I’d been through a lot. Carrabelle still sat on the sand behind me and I recalled that she was injured. Was she able to stand? Not answering the sergeant’s question, I drew away from Peter and went to help her.

Carra was a slight woman and seemed to have some kind of leg injury that had been left untreated. What a monster Red Armand was to leave her like this. He used her for her magic and then abandoned her when he didn’t need her anymore.

Slowly, I helped her walk a few steps before introducing her to everyone. “This is Carrabelle. She’s a witch and she came here from Oreylia with the man you’ve all been chasing these past few weeks. The same man who murdered Belinda. His name is Red Armand.”

Carra nodded meekly to confirm what I said and Sergeant Davis stepped forward. “My apologies, Miss, but I’ll need to take you to the station to answer some questions.”

“You know she wasn’t an accomplice, right?” I interjected. “She was a hostage. And she can tell you all about Red Armand, but it might not be much use now that he’s portalled back to Oreylia and taken Vasilios and Sven with him.”

“Hold up a moment, Darya,” my father intervened. “He’s taken them to Oreylia?” I nodded. He sighed, running a hand down his face. “I think you’re going to have to start from the beginning and tell us everything you know.”

So, I did. I began with my entry into the prison, how I soon discovered Vas wasn’t behind Belinda’s murder and how Red Armand had come to take him and Sven back to their home dimension. I explained how he framed me because I possessed Vas’ mark, and he needed us close to make Vas stronger so that he could finally escape the wards surrounding the prison. I detailed how Red Armand didn’t have strong magic himself, which was why he’d taken Carrabelle with him so that she could be used to cast spells.

“But why did you escape with Vasilios?” Mum asked. “We were on our way to get you. All you had to do was wait—”

“There was another inmate who knew my real identity,” I explained. “Today she decided to tell the other prisoners about me. I had to leave, otherwise they were going to hurt me. Besides, this way you don’t have to pay that arsehole warden any money.”

“The money has already been transferred,” Dad said and my stomach plummeted. “But don’t worry about that. The main thing is that you’re safe.” He stepped close and drew me into his arms. “I’m afraid there’s a good chance I won’t let you out of my sight for the next century.”

“The next two centuries,” Mum corrected, relief in her voice, and my stomach plummeted even further because I was going to have to leave them again. And soon. If time really did move five times faster in Oreylia then that meant Vas and Sven had already been there for hours. A day here was the same as five days there. It made me even more anxious to get planning how to rescue them.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >116