The Witch's Fantasy, page 1
THE WITCH’S FANTASY
Kell City Chronicles, Adelyn & Khan Book One
M. C. CORKRAN
Fearless Inklings, LLC
Copyright © 2022 by Fearless Inklings LLC
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Edited by Katie Wismer
Cover Design by BY THE BROOKE DESIGNS
ISBN 979-8-9861999-0-0 (paperback)
ISBN 979-8-9861999-1-7 (ebook)
Created with Vellum
For my Love.
Thank you for always putting up with
supporting me.
CONTENTS
1. Khan
2. Adelyn
3. Khan
4. Adelyn
5. Khan
6. Adelyn
7. Khan
8. Adelyn
9. Khan
10. Adelyn
11. Khan
12. Adelyn
13. Khan
14. Adelyn
15. Khan
16. Adelyn
17. Khan
18. Adelyn
19. Khan
20. Adelyn
21. Khan
22. Adelyn
23. Khan
24. Adelyn
25. Khan
26. Adelyn
27. Khan
28. Adelyn
29. Khan
30. Adelyn
31. Khan
32. Adelyn
33. Khan
34. Adelyn
35. Khan
36. Adelyn
37. Khan
38. Adelyn
39. Khan
40. Adelyn
Epilogue
About the Author
Connect with Me
Books By M. C. Corkran
1
KHAN
“He’s heading out of town,” I said into the wireless earpiece connected to my phone. “He’s trying to take the mountain road out of the city.”
“Careful, Khan,” the younger man said over the phone, “those roads are popular with racers who are tryin’ to prove their courage. They’ve put lots of people in the hospital.”
I laughed drily. “Thanks for the warning, Tom, but I’ll be just fine. I’ve been drivin’ fast since before you could walk.”
“But you’re only five years—”
I cut off the call so I could concentrate on the dark road in front of me.
This far from the city center, the streetlights were few and far between. The ones that were there flickered weakly with bulbs that had never been changed.
The only light on the increasingly steep road came from my headlights and those of the car in front of me.
Matt had led me on a chase all night, thinking he could get away from me, lose me in the maze of the city, but I had been gaining on him. He was feeling cornered. No other reason would lead us on a chase up into the dangerous mountains.
My knuckles turned white on the steering wheel, my eyes glued to his fender. I eased onto the gas, pushing my Mercedes faster up the increasingly steep road. His modified Charger was quick, but I could catch him on the mountain.
He sped up, dangerous as it was, with the sharp curves approaching.
But I was never one to shy away from a challenge.
We took the first turn, sticking to the inside of the curve like glue. Easing out of the turn, I gained on him.
I zeroed in on the rear end of his car, pushing until my bumper was nearly touching his.
That is, until another light caught my attention from the corner of my eye.
Shit. Was that another car?
It blinked out of sight for a moment, just to reappear around another curve.
Fuckin’ hell.
I backed off the gas a little, hoping to not get some random driver involved in the family’s mess.
Matt couldn’t give a flying fuck.
He sped up to round a curve when he saw I backed off. There was no way he missed the oncoming car, but he only saw an opportunity to get away.
As his car approached, rapidly followed by mine, the other driver seemed to be slowing on the curves. I hoped that they could find one of the overlooks that littered the mountainside for tourists that never came.
Each heartbeat that roared in my ear, each second that passed, brought our three cars closer together. Matt kept speeding up, kicking up gravel that hit my windshield. The oncoming car was slowing down, jerking to the side at each turn for a place to get off the road that wasn’t there.
Shit.
Fuck.
Someone’s car would go flying off the mountainside to certain death, and I doubted Matt would let it be him.
The oncoming car, a red beater of a sedan, was flashing their lights at us, as if that would get us to stop.
When we were nearly a hundred yards away from each other, the beater swerved off the road and onto an overlook that finally appeared.
Unfortunately for them, they hadn’t been able to get off the road in time.
Matt nicked the side of their car, metal screeching against metal. He recovered quickly and got back on the road, but the red car spun towards the low wooden barrier that separated the overlook from a sudden drop off.
Time slowed down as I watched the distance between Matt’s car and mine increase as the stranger’s spun out closer and closer to danger.
I couldn’t let Matt get away, but also…
“Fuck.”
I downshifted, pulled the parking brake, and yanked the steering wheel. Releasing the brake and feathering the gas pedal, the rear end lost traction before I got control again. I raced back to the overlook and pulled off the road as the red car broke through the barrier.
I stepped violently on the brakes and leaped out of my car, shifting into my black scaly wings, letting them unfurl.
The red sedan teetered over the edge of the cliff, looking like some type of extreme seesaw. The driver inside was screaming and tugging violently against the locked seatbelt. Airbags hadn’t even deployed.
If the driver kept moving like that, they were going to topple themselves over the cliff before I even got to them.
Launching myself forward with my powerful wings, I reached the driver’s door in a matter of seconds. In a few more, I tore open the door so fast it came right off the hinges.
In the driver’s seat, still clutching the steering wheel like it would do any good with the front tires hanging over a cliff, sat a girl—a woman, really.
She was whispering to herself, “I must be dead. I must be dead,” over and over.
She was in shock. I wasn’t even sure she knew I existed yet.
In the moment I paused, the car lurched forward over the cliff. The woman’s mantra shifted into a wordless scream.
“Fuck me,” I said under my breath before diving headfirst after her.
If any other shifter had been there to save her, they wouldn’t have moved fast enough. Luckily for the lady, I was by her side, ripping the seatbelt from its buckle and scooping her from the seat with seconds to spare before the car hit the ground.
We hovered in the air for a while after the car hit the heavily forested area below the cliff, the shouts and cries of animals rippling away from the crash.
The woman had stopped screaming, thank God, but the blank stare at the ground below was almost worse.
I shook my head, shaking away the thoughts of what if, and flew us gently back to the overpass. The moment my feet touched the ground, the woman scrambled out of my hands before I could stop her and collapsed to the packed dirt.
Silent tears streamed down her face as she stared at the ground on hands and knees.
“Fuck, that’s not how I thought dying would be.” Her words came out softly between short breaths. “Though if I knew such a sexy angel would take me into the light, I would have happily died ages ago.”
I wasn’t sure what she was talking about until I took a step closer, and she turned to face me when I cleared my throat. Her eyes flickered up to my dark wings, which flexed beneath her gaze.
Now that she was out of the way of looming death, I had time to study the woman who caused me to lose my prey.
She was naturally pale, but she looked as if a vamp had drained of all blood. Her dark blue eyes were large in her round face. Brown hair so dark that it was nearly black hung around her cheeks in messy waves.
The woman couldn’t have reached my chin when she stood as tall as she could. Her voluptuous body was curvier than the dangerous road we stood on. It took a considerable amount of self-control to not stare at her heaving breasts as she hyperventilated.
“Why does the afterlife look just like the highway out of Kell?”
Her delirious wondering interrupted my highly inappropriate thoughts, just in time too. I cleared my throat.
“Sweetheart, this ain’t the afterlife. Ya ain’t dead. You’re just in a serious state of shock, probably with a concussion to boot. You’re not dead, but we should still get ya to the nearest hospital.”
She sat back on her heels at that, her bright eyes glazed, but wide.
“No,” she said firmly, breathing heavier now.
“No?” I asked, staring closer at the woman. “What part of that are ya sayin’ no to?”
“You can’t take me to the hospital.”
“Why the fuck not, sweetheart?” I crossed my arms and stared down at her.
“I’m not convinced I’m not dead, first of all,” she said, try to push herself to her feet unsteadily. “But even so, you can’t take me to a hospital, and don’t call me sweetheart again.”
I squatted down in front of her, grabbed her chin, and forced her face a breath away from mine. I smirked as her breath hitched and her eyes glanced down to my lips.
“I don’t know what the fuck ya have against hospitals, but unless you plan on dying, for real, I’ll take you there myself. Now, what’s your name, if ya don’t want me callin’ ya sweetheart anymore?”
I let go of her chin without waiting for her response. I stood and then swooped her up in my arms. She threw her hand against my chest as she stumbled into me from the force of picking her up.
“It-It’s Adelyn. Addy,” she cried, the tears streaming down her cheeks. “Please, you can’t take me to a hospital.”
“Nice to meet ya, Addy. Maybe if ya told me why ya can’t go, I’d consider it.” Her eyes flickered away. “Look, I can’t just leave ya to die up here, okay? Either tell me an alternative or let me put you in my damn car.”
She flinched.
Damn. I hadn’t meant to raise my voice like that. I didn’t even know why I was getting so worked up over some girl I had just met.
“Don’t take me to the hospital because I can handle it myself,” she said, placing her other hand on my chest and pushing against it, to no avail.
“You a doctor or something?”
A smile hinted at her lips, but she shook her head.
“Or something,” she said. “If you let me go and help me to the ground before I pass out, I’ll show you.”
I studied her for a moment before doing as she asked. I loosened my grip on her, letting her pull away slightly, and helped her to the ground. She leaned against my car, letting her head fall back against the cool metal.
She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath.
I had no clue what the fuck the woman was doing, but I stood over her in case she decided to actually pass out—or worse—on me.
Before I could open my mouth to demand she tell me when she was planning on doing whatever she wanted to do, she lifted her hands in front of her chest.
She pressed her fingertips together, her fingers splayed and slightly curved. She steadied her breathing, pushing out air forcefully through her nose.
My eyes widened as a purple spark flickered to life in the open space between her palms. It steadily grew with each breath the woman took, until it was about the size of a heart, and it pulsed like one too.
When it filled her hands entirely, the woman opened her eyes, which glittered in the purple light. She smiled, to herself more than anything else, and pulled her hands sharply against her chest, the ball of light disappearing inside.
She gasped for air as the magic entered her chest violently, her back arching from the pain.
I hadn’t realized that I rushed forward until she looked up at me, a dazed look in her eye, and down at my hand on her shoulder, though I didn’t remember putting it there.
As I looked at her, the external scrapes and bruises were already mending themselves, fading into light pink scars and small yellow circles. I didn’t know how much had healed on the inside though.
“How are you feeling after… that?” I asked, gesturing at her.
“I’m feeling much better, thank you,” she said with a smug smile. “I told you that I wouldn’t need a hospital.”
“I’m still not convinced.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Well, I’m not about to change my mind based on what a stranger says. Now, would you mind helping me up so that I can find some way off the damn mountain?”
I pursed my lips. She was right. It wasn’t my business whether or not she went to the hospital.
So instead of saying another word, I stood up straight and offered her a hand. She happily took it and let me pull her to her feet.
The moment she was standing though, all the blood ran from her face, her eyes rolled back, and she fell into my open arms.
I didn’t even have to look at her face to know she was truly unconscious.
“Well, fuck.”
Now it really was my business.
2
ADELYN
My head felt like it was under water. Sound was far away, and light fractured and blurred around me.
The world moved, but I couldn’t grasp onto consciousness long enough to figure out where the fuck I was.
Even when the moving stopped and large, rough hands touched me, lifted me into the air, I couldn’t pull myself back to the world.
Eventually, a low buzzing above me and a steady beeping beside me, startled me awake and my eyes flew open, only to be blinded by the noisy florescent lights.
“Welcome back to the land of the livin’, Addy,” a low, gruff voice said.
I squinted at the room around me, searching for the person who belonged to such a voice, if such a person existed.
I finally spotted the man in the dark corner of the room. The hospital room. I bolted up in the bed, the wires and needles attached to me pulling at my skin.
The steady beeping from the machine turned into a long, monotone scream as I tore the monitor from my finger. I swung my bare legs over the hospital bed, only to find a large body blocking my way.
I looked up at the man, glared up, really, and he returned the look with a stern, but amused, one of his own.
“If you step one foot out of this bed, I’ll have no choice but to force your sorry ass back into it,” he said, crossing his arms over his considerably muscular pectorals. His wings flexed, like some shadow looming over us.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Are you in the habit of forcing women into your bed?” I demanded, crossing my own arms over my chest.
The corner of his lips twitched up into a half-smile, and he leaned closer, invading my space even more.
“Sweetheart, I’m most certainly not in the habit of forcin’ people into bed,” he said, his grin showing off his sharp teeth. “Though I have tied many of them up, it’s always been by request. Push your luck though, I’ll have no choice but to restrain ya.”
The glint in his eye challenged me, dared me to force his hand. My skin burned at the thought, my body betraying me, wanting him to tie me up and throw away the key. But my stubborn mind wouldn’t let him have the satisfaction.
I huffed and scooted myself back into bed, lifting my legs onto the uncomfortable mattress.
“You could at least apologize for forcing me to come here and then calling my ass ‘sorry.’ And I don’t even know your fucking name,” I muttered under my breath, not really intending for him to hear it. So it was shocking when he laughed.
He put a hand next to my head and leaned on it, his face hardly an inch away from mine.
“That was an expression, sweetheart, about how ya look overall, not a reflection on how nice your ass is or not,” he whispered in my ear. “And for future reference, the name’s Khan.”
He lingered there for a second before pulling away as the door to the hospital room creaked open.
He put space between us impossibly fast. He was all the way across the room again, where he’d first been when I’d woken up, by the time the doctor had crossed the room’s threshold.
“Alright, Ms.… Adelyn. I’m Dr. Howard,” the doctor said, looking down at the chart before turning to look up at her patient. “What seems to be the—Phaedra?”
My mouth dropped open at the sight of her. It’d been years since we’d seen each other.
