Night Tremors (Midnight Magic Book 4), page 22
I growled in frustration, angered by the unnerving lack of vanilla. Regardless of everything else, I should be able to find him, even a tiny trace of him.
He wasn’t anywhere.
“Let’s move closer to the palace,” I said, losing hope.
I should have never let him go.
If I lost him, I couldn’t stand it. Not him, not the one who’d made everything so different.
I… I needed him.
I…
I…
I would find him. He had to be here.
Archie jumped onto my back, a lot more eager this time. “We’ll find him, mate. We will.”
His reassurance slid off me as water on glass.
It all came at once.
First, the cries of Victoria.
“Tae! Archie! They’re attacking the airport!”
And then a woman in a tweed suit with wild blonde hair and copper skin sprang from the shadows of a house.
A fairy.
She smashed an orange glass flower at my feet, orange beams forming around us, creating an orange bubble that swallowed us. I tried to move, my limbs cutting through heavy mass, trapped like I’d been trapped when Grindle had protected me at the shopping center with the same thing.
Only this time, I doubted this was for protection.
“What the fuck?” Archie roared. “Fucking fairy!”
The fairy stood before me, holding a pair of secateurs over her left little finger. She smiled and cut her finger off, baring her teeth from the pain. Blood sprayed, and we were sucked out of Seoul as Grindle called my name from somewhere behind me.
Trapped with Archie in the orange bubble, teleported to a clearing in a dark forest, stars twinkling in the circle of night sky above.
The fairy stood before us, applying a bandage to her wound.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Gretchen. Grindle’s sister. Thank goodness I reacted before he did.” She chuckled.
I bared my teeth. “Release us. Now.”
She chuffed, shaking her head. “Don’t be ridiculous. I lost my finger getting you here, so I’m not about to send you back. Wastefulness is a bad trait, vampire.”
“The Fairy Wilds,” I said.
“Absolutely.” She finished bandaging her wound. “Anyway, better go. Things to do. Don’t worry, I’m not planning on killing you. You’re a good warrior to have around. Possibly. I may change my mind. Let’s see.”
“Why are we here?”
She wriggled her other fingers in a wave and walked away toward the trees.
“Answer me!”
But she left, vanishing into the dark.
“What now?” Archie said, struggling against the jelly. “Victoria… Fuck!”
Helplessness wrapped in hopelessness cloistered itself around everything.
The plane…
The prince was dead.
Victoria was dead.
Fizz…
No. This wasn’t happening.
This couldn’t be happening.
Twenty-Eight
Clay
I barely managed to sit up, body humming inside and out. A sickly sensation roiled in my stomach, my temples throbbing.
Every spell was burned out, leaving me weak and clammy.
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
“Oh… Oh, gosh.”
Smoke curled up from the churned-up ground, patches of the wet grass burning despite the rain. Arcana flames crackled along the edges of gouges across the park, stretching away into the night. Trees burned in orange-gold flames, spreading outward and away from me.
There was so much damage everywhere, so many trenches ripped into the ground as if there’d been an earthquake. So much Arcana fire.
“Shit…”
Buttons lay flat on his back beside me, his head angled to face me. “You… You were magnificent.”
“What happened?” I winced as my voice hurt my head.
Man, did I need ten gallons of water to drink. My throat was sand and thorns.
“You ripped through everything, brother.” He smiled. “I have never felt such power, such chaos.”
I did this damage. “But why?”
“Because… Because you burn bright.”
Unable to keep sitting up, I returned to my back, so exhausted.
“I did this,” I said. “I did this.”
“Rest for a moment, brother.”
“I did this.”
Consumed by the magic, losing my mind like I’d done in the demon realm. Only, this was worse. The fire was spreading through the park. How much damage had I caused?
“I did this,” I said again.
Who had I killed? What had I destroyed?
“Bright One,” Buttons whispered.
We did this, the brothers of Arcana. Dangerous twins playing with a power that shouldn’t be here. It sank in as heavy as iron, crushing my spirit.
I was nothing more than a mistake, a walking bomb. Those tremors were a warning, telling me to stop, to keep away from James. But I’d ignored them, clinging onto some crap about destiny.
“I did this…”
“Stop, brother. Stop.”
He was right, even if he didn’t mean it as I took it.
We had to stop. What if this happened in the center of a city? How would that help the world? How was that anything other than chaos and death?
Control it…
“I don’t know what to do.”
Control it…
Footsteps, someone approaching.
Demon… Arcana informed me from my depths.
“I have a suggestion.” Quentin loomed into view, standing above me with a sword in his hands.
“No!” Buttons cried, breaking into a coughing fit.
Quentin Dawn lifted the sword above his head. “Death would be my suggestion. You’re much too dangerous to live.”
He brought the sword down.
He’d won.
He’d bloody won.
That circle of witches was broken.
It was over.
Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes. I tried to fight back, to call up my magic. It sat as useful as a wet match.
The sword shot out of Quentin’s hand before it skewered me. He went next, whipped out of view.
“Kindly leave my son alone.”
Queen Imelda’s voice set my blood to ice.
“Mother…” Buttons said.
Oh. Bollocks.
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Also by Richard Amos
Coldharbour Chronicles
Winter Rising
Winter Shadows
Winter Fire
Winter Blood
Winter Twilight
Dylan Rivers Chronicles
Siren’s Debt
Siren’s Call
Siren’s Heart
Siren’s Destiny
Jake and Dean Investigations
The Christmas Bones
The Charms of Death
The Divine Roses
Four Moons
First Moon
Chaos Moon
Dead Moon
Silver Moon
Fallen Fire
Reborn
Requiem
Revenant
Reckoning
Hellhound Shifters
Hellspawn
Hellstorm
Hellfire
Hellbound
Dark Caress
The Cursed Prince
The Cursed Court
The Cursed King (March 3rd, 2023)
Midnight Magic
Night Tricks
Night Troubles
Night Trials
Night Tremors
Night Treasures (November 18th, 2022)
Necromancer Rising
Death Eternal (January 27th, 2023)
Standalone Urban Fantasy Fairy Tale Novel
Spirit of Snow
About the Author
Richard Amos is an author from England who is constantly lost in the worlds he writes about, and the ones in the queue yet to be written. He also has more books in his house than anything else and is never without a book (and chocolate) in his hands when he's not writing. He's a proud nerd who loves to dance. Hard.
In a former life, he was definitely a merman.
Richard writes kick-ass MM Fantasy and Urban Fantasy, all with good doses of action, adventure, and romance.
Richard Amos, Night Tremors (Midnight Magic Book 4)
