House of Gods, page 1
House of Gods
Royal Houses
Book 4
K.A. Linde
Contents
Also By K.A. Linde
Pronunciation Guide
Tribes
1. The New Land
2. The Cart
3. The Port City
4. The Gilded Cage
5. The Escape
6. The Negotiation
7. The Estate
8. The Two Worlds
9. The Conquerors
10. The Training Yard
11. The Demand
12. The Capital
13. The Doma
14. The Coliseum
15. The Party
16. The Fae
17. The Challenge
18. The Red Masks
19. The Amulet
20. The Princess
21. The Training
22. The Lower Fights
23. The Weakness
24. The Ambush
25. The Audience
26. The First Fight
27. The Competitor
28. The Complication
29. The Victors
30. The Plan
31. The Tournament
32. The Warning
33. The Final Fight
34. The Gift
35. The Secret
36. The Escape
37. The Light
38. The Assassin
39. The Throne Room
40. The Journey
41. The Aftermath
42. The Book
43. The Ritual
44. The Release
45. The Restoration
46. The Bond
47. The Jailbreak
48. The Clockmaker’s Daughter
49. The Dragons
50. The Bangle
51. The Fears
52. The Portal
53. The Contact
54. The Father
55. The Betrayal
ROMANTIC FANTASY
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
About the Author
House of Gods
Copyright © 2023 by K.A. Linde
All rights reserved.
* * *
Visit my website at
www.kalinde.com
* * *
Cover Designer: Okay Creations.,
www.okaycreations.com
Editor: Unforeseen Editing
www.unforeseenediting.com
Photography: Zharinova Marina
* * *
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
* * *
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
* * *
This work was not created with any use of AI and is all the original work of the author.
* * *
ISBN-13: 978-1948427845
A L S O B Y K. A. L I N D E
ROYAL HOUSES
House of Dragons
House of Shadows
House of Curses
House of Gods
House of Embers
* * *
ASCENSION
The Affiliate
The Bound
The Consort
The Society
The Domina
* * *
BLOOD TYPE
Blood Type
Blood Match
Blood Cure
* * *
THE OAK AND HOLLY CYCLE
The Wren in the Holly Library
Pronunciation Guide
CHARACTERS
Alura—Uh-lure-uh
Amond—Uh-mond
Arbor—Ar-bur
Ashby March—Ash-bee March
Bastian—Bast-yun
Bayton—Bay-ton
Benton—Ben-ton
Cleora—Klee-or-uh
Clover—Clove-er
Constantine Pallas—Con-stan-teen Puh-lass
Danae Pallas—Duh-nay Puh-lass
Darby—Dar-bee
Dozan Rook—Doe-zen Rook
Evander—Eh-van-der
Felix—Fee-licks
Flavia—Flah-vee-uh
Fordham Ollivier—Ford-um Ah-liv-ee-aye
Hadrian—Hay-dree-en
Hellina “Helly”—Hell-ee-nuh
Iris—Eye-ris
Isa—Ee-suh
Keres Andromadix—Kerr-is An-drah-mah-dicks
Kerrigan Argon—Care-ih-gen Arh-gone
Kivrin Argon—Kiv-rin Arh-gone
Lorian—Lor-ee-uhn
Lyam—Lee-um
Madrina—Muh-dreen-uh
Myron—My-run
Nella—Nell-uh
Parris—Pear-is
Prescott—Press-cot
Tarcus Valerii—Tar-cuss Vuh-lehr-ee
Thea—Thee-uh
Theo—Thee-oh
Titania—Tai-tay-nee-uh
Quintus Octallia—Quinn-tus Oc-tall-ee-uh
Valia—Val-ee-uh
Vesra Octallia—Ves-ruh Oc-tall-ee-uh
Vulsan Andromadix—Vuhl-sun An-drah-mah-dicks
Wynter—Win-ter
DRAGONS
Evien—Ev-ee-en
Ferrinix—Fair-ih-nix
Gelryn—Gehl-rin
Netta—Net-uh
Tavry—Tahv-ree
Tieran—Teer-en
Tribes
The twelve tribes of Alandria were split into four groups based on how they perceived the use of magic: Woodloch to the wooded west, Viland to the hills of the east, Tosin to the mountains of the north, and Moran to the rocky south. Though the twelve tribes are autonomous, the Society rules over all.
* * *
WOODLOCH
Magic should be used for might.
(warriors, weapons, armor)
* * *
Galanthea
Herasi
Venatrix
* * *
VILAND
Magic should be used for good.
(healing, medicine, art)
* * *
Bryonica
Concha
Ibarra
* * *
TOSIN
Magic should be used for efficiency.
(everyday tasks, mining, travel)
* * *
Erewa
Sayair
Zavala
* * *
MORAN
Magic should be used for nothing.
(magical artifacts)
* * *
Aude
Elsiande
Genoa
1
The New Land
The grass under Kerrigan’s cheek was soft and springy. As if she were waking up back in her mountain home with the feather down mattress beneath her. Any second now, Benton and Bayton would sweep in and busy her out of the comfort of her Society accommodations and off to work. Her eyes would flutter open, and everything would be well.
But that wasn’t right at all.
Her head buzzed. Bees zipped in and out of her skull, and the noise was only getting louder as she drew closer to consciousness.
* * *
“Do you think she’s alive?”
* * *
Kerrigan shuddered at the sound of the voice. Her whole body trying, yet failing, to break out of whatever web she was snagged in.
* * *
“She looks a trifle dead to me, Matron.”
“She’s still breathing.”
“Barely.”
* * *
She needed to wake up. She needed to face what was on the other side of this mossy grass. There was something out there she needed to do.
But all of it felt so … distant.
It would be easier if she just lay here and did nothing. She had lost. That much bypassed the buzzing in her ears. She had lost, and she had traveled here—wherever here was—and giving up felt so much easier than fighting.
Surrender.
A voice like honey soothed her, silencing the bees and letting her know that it would be all right. Everything would work out. If she lay here and slept and forgot what she was after, then she could go on. And on sounded so much nicer than the alternative.
* * *
“Should I run for a healer?”
“Can’t afford one, can we? It’d be more than she’s worth.”
* * *
No.
She pushed the honey tongue away from her. Memories floated past it as Kerrigan forced her way through the viscous substance coating her memories and dragging her to the deep beyond. Her mission was important. It was the only way to save her friends and family back home. A home she might never return to if she didn’t push forward.
What was she supposed to be doing?
* * *
“I don’t know. That pink skin and red hair …”
* * *
Gentle like a lullaby, the answer returned to her.
Her mother.
Her mother was alive.
For eighteen years, she’d believed that her mother had died in childbirth. Most human women didn’t survive birthing a Fae child. Even a half-Fae, like Kerrigan, who had too much magic by most people’s standards, the mother rarely survived. It was something in the amount of magic that was incompatible with the human.
Except her mother had survived.
In fact, she’d left the land of the gods to drop Kerrigan off with her father to keep her safe. As scandalous as it was, her mother had already been married, and her husband would stop at nothing to remove an illegitimate child.
Now, she was Kerrigan’s only hope.
Alandria needed her. The city of Kinkadia needed her. The Society and all the dragons and all the people it had sworn to protect needed her.
And Kerrigan had to find her.
* * *
“Her eyes are moving. I think she’s waking up!”
* * *
Kerrigan coughed, spitting up blood onto the mossy blanket. She hacked until there was nothing left in her stomach.
The sun shone like a beacon overhead. She dug her fingers into the mossy grass, and it was not half as soft as she’d imagined. The blades scratched against her fingers, her eyes felt like she had sand in them, and there was an empty pit at the bottom of her stomach.
Her magic.
Oh, right.
Her magic was gone.
She retched again. Retched until she was dry-heaving and thought she might bring up her insides.
The rest of the problem came back to her in a hurry. The Red Masks, a terrorist group set on eradicating half-Fae and humans alike, had taken control of the Society at the induction of the new council. Kerrigan’s mentor, Bastian, revealed himself as the leader and slaughtered her surrogate mother, Helly. A circle of thirteen drained the magic from Kerrigan’s body. She and Fordham had escaped only to fall through a portal to Domara, the land of the gods. Her mother’s homeland.
One of those things was too much to handle.
All of them was a punch to the gut.
She couldn’t survive without magic. People went insane from a temporary loss. But this emptiness felt endless. If she thought about it for more than a second, her world went black at the edges.
No.
She pushed that thought away. She hadn’t died from it yet, and she wouldn’t die before she saved her people. There was no other option.
She needed Fordham.
She needed to find her mother.
And she needed to get home.
“Girl, are you well?” a female voice asked urgently.
It was one of the voices that Kerrigan had thought was lost in her mind. She finally peeled her eyes open long enough to discover there were in fact two people huddled over her. A pale, freckled older woman in a brown dress robe with her blonde hair up in curls and a much younger man who was shirtless, in nothing but dark brown pants. His skin was tan in comparison to the woman’s, and he had dark hair and eyes and a muscular torso and arms.
“I don’t think she can speak,” the man said.
Their accents were slightly different from each other. And they were definitely different from hers.
Kerrigan’s gaze roamed past them. Fordham. Where was Fordham?
They’d fallen together through the portal. He should be at her side. He still had his magic, and he was … he was injured. A stab wound to his side.
Scales. She didn’t see him anywhere. She’d never entered a portal and not come out on the other side with the person she was with. Had he even made it through?
“Girl?” the woman said more strongly.
Kerrigan’s gaze snapped up to her. “Help,” she croaked.
The woman jumped backward a whole foot, her hand rushing to her chest. “My gracious, she is alive, Felix.”
“I see that,” he said with wide eyes. He hadn’t moved at all. The woman cleared her throat, and he bowed by inches. “Matron Flavia.”
She nodded her head once and then took a few steps forward. “Who are you, girl? Where did you come from? Who are your people?”
Kerrigan pushed herself up onto her elbows and then promptly flopped back down again. Her limbs barely functioned. She had never felt this weak in her life. Especially not after the last year of dragon training. Her stomach twisted at the thought. She’d left her dragon, Tieran, back in Alandria. She had no idea what was to become of him. It was enough to make her want to vomit all over again.
“Shall I help her?” Felix offered.
“Find out who she is,” Flavia said. She tilted her head. “Did you run away from your family?”
She sniffed as she assessed Kerrigan’s strange attire. She’d been in her dragon robes for the ceremony on her ascension to the Society council before all hell broke loose. She had no clue what she looked like now.
“I don’t know.” Her eyes focused, and she looked around. “Where are we?”
“Dear me,” Flavia said. “How far have you traveled that you know not where you are?”
Kerrigan couldn’t explain. Well, she could, but she’d sound insane. Dropping through a portal and landing in the middle of nowhere.
“I’m looking for my mother.”
Flavia blinked, a hungry expression crossing her face for a moment. “And who is your mother? Would I know her?”
Kerrigan recoiled from that look. Maybe she shouldn’t tell this woman anything. Her father, Kivrin Argon, had told her that the name Andromadix was a powerful one. That her mother’s husband, Vulsan, had been trying to find and kill her. Giving that name sounded like a death sentence. And she didn’t know if her mother’s name, Keres, was any better.
“I don’t know,” Kerrigan repeated instead.
Flavia huffed. As if she’d just lost a prize. “Well, help her up, Felix. Don’t dally. We’ll take her into the tavern and get her cleaned up. A hot meal and a bath will make a world of difference.”
Felix bent down and gently lifted Kerrigan to her feet. She wavered unsteadily, but he kept a respectful hand on her back to keep her up.
“What happened to you?” he asked low as Flavia traipsed toward the town that Kerrigan could now see in the distance.
“I … I don’t know,” she lied.
“Well, I hope you remember soon,” he said with a kind smile. “So we can return you to where you belong.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded. “Come now. It won’t do to make the matron wait.”
With Felix’s help, Kerrigan shuffled forward awkwardly until she got the hang of her legs again.
The town was only a handful of buildings, and people openly stared at her as she passed. They watched Felix with nearly as much disdain as they did with curiosity about her.
“Why … why are they looking at you like that?”
Felix pursed his lips. “They’re not used to seeing an Andine around these parts.”
Kerrigan understood the undertones of his comment, but she had no idea what an Andine was.
