Chaotic (Arcane Mage Series Book 1), page 1
Chaotic
Book 1 of the Arcane Mage Series
T.S. Snow
Contents
Dedication
Author’s Note
1. Charisma
2. Charisma
3. Charisma
4. Charisma
5. Logan
6. Charisma
7. Logan
8. Charisma
9. Charisma
10. Charisma
11. Charisma
12. Blaze
13. Charisma
14. Charisma
15. Blaze
16. Charisma
17. Charisma
18. Logan
19. Charisma
20. Logan
21. Charisma
22. Charisma
23. Andres
24. Charisma
25. Charisma
26. Charisma
27. Blaze
28. Charisma
29. Blaze
30. Charisma
31. Charisma
32. Charisma
33. Charisma
34. Blaze
35. Charisma
36. Charisma
37. Logan
38. Charisma
39. Charisma
40. Blaze
41. Charisma
42. Bastille
43. Theo
Also by T.S. Snow
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Chaotic by T. S. Snow
Copyright © 2020 by T. S. Snow. All rights reserved.
No portion 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.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. They are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover Design: CJ Romano @CoversbyCJRomano
Proofreading: Lorie Collins
Formatting: AC Wilds
Created with Vellum
Dedication
To Candice,
I’d give up kebabs for you.
But please don’t make me.
Author’s Note
Disclaimer: This book is a Reverse Harem romance. That means the heroine doesn’t have to choose between the male interests. Which means mom, I love you, but please skip this one out too.
1
Charisma
The silence was deafening as I ran out of the gothic building; its dark, imposing archways gave way to an open, deserted field filled with wooden crates and forgotten wooden stalls. A market during the day, this place was nothing more than a battleground at night, the shadows looming in every corner making it the perfect creepy murder scene.
My breathing picked up, and I knew he was here somewhere. Call it a sixth sense, intuition, or just knowing my enemy better than I knew myself. Maybe it was the stilled tension in the air, the way the shadows seemed to dance as if listening to their own tune. Or the cold sweat trickling down my back. I was so close. I knew it with every fiber of my being. If only I could…
There!
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to face it. Backtracking deeper into the shadows, making myself less of a target, I waited for him to move again. I didn’t have to wait long.
The enemy’s head popped out from behind the crate. Adrenaline coursed through my veins, its rhythm electrifying. My heart rate sped up, my pulse pounded in my ears, and my focus became laser-sharp.
Before he could draw his own weapon, I raised mine and aimed right between his eyes.
“Gotcha!”
I pulled the trigger and fired.
Boom!
Head Shot.
Blood flew everywhere, splattering everything in all its crimson, gory glory. The words Game Over flashed on the high definition screen and I released the breath I’d been holding while I did a mental dance in celebration.
I heard a groan in my earpiece. “Dammit, Char. That’s the fourth time today.”
Bastille’s gravelly voice made me shiver in the best of ways. How could one man have such a sexy voice? I’d once mentioned that he should record his gameplays with him speaking and make a channel on YouTube, that he would become rich if he did it. He’d thought I was joking. Oh well, humanity’s loss was my gain. I got to listen to him as much as I wanted, as frequently as I wanted. Not a bad deal, if you asked me.
I squirmed on the couch and tried to focus on the smack talk, instead of on how his voice made me all tingly inside.
“Not my fault you suck, Bast.”
It must’ve been my imagination, but I could’ve sworn I heard him say “I can show you just how good I suck.” But, unfortunately, it was probably just wishful thinking on my part.
I zoned out whatever else he said after that, focusing only on the cadence of his voice rather than the actual words, and raised my hands above my head, stretching out. Aah, that feels good. The tension from the last few hours left my body on a sigh, and I cranked my neck from side to side. Damn, I’m so stiff.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something orange stuck in my hair. I lowered my arms and grabbed my black and pink strands. Wrapped in it like some kind of radioactive worm was a cheese puff. I frowned, considering it. When was the last time I’d eaten cheese puffs? One, no… two days ago. I winced. Maybe I needed a shower.
I looked down at my clothes, seeing a multitude of weird stains on them that I had no memory of. Raising my shirt to my nose, I inhaled deeply. Urgh. Definitely in need of a shower. I smelled like the inside of a dirty laundry basket.
“Listen, Bast, I’m logging off for the night,” I said over the mic.
“It’s noon, Char.” Bast’s amused voice filled my ears.
The fuck? Noon?
I leaped off the couch, grabbed my phone, and tried to turn it on, only to curse when I realized it’d run out of battery. Shit. I jumped over a few cushions that had fallen from the couch at some point, a water bottle, and a chair. Except, I miscalculated the distance and fell right on top of it. Snap. Ouch. My eyes watered. I broke the goddamn chair! How the hell did I do that?
“Char? You okay over there?”
“Who put this fucking chair in the way?” I rubbed at my knee where I’d scraped it. The skin was red and raw, with white marks that had little droplets of blood in them. At least it hadn’t been a deep cut. Thank the Goddess for small mercies. Taking a deep breath, I tried to focus beyond the stinging pain. I looked deep into myself, finding the source of my magic.
Most Elemental Magic was whiteish due to the mixture of the different elements; the stronger a person’s control over all four was, the closer to white it became. But not mine. Mine was a beautiful fiery orange. Not that fire was the only element I had access to, but it was the easiest for me to control. I kept my breathing steady as I tried to channel it. I knew my magic wasn’t as big or strong as that of most mages, but it was mine, and I was happy just to have it. Even if, in times like this, I got a little frustrated at how small my little orb of magic seemed to be, compared to others.
Please, let it work. I mentally pleaded, almost as if talking to it, trying to coach it into manifesting. I centered all my thoughts around it while at the same time focusing on my intent. I wanted to heal my knee. I visualized a small line of water going through the wound to clean it, eliminating any bacteria or dirt that could potentially lead to an infection, then I would need fire, or at least its heat, to help cauterize the cut, closing it off. I pictured the earth magic doing its work in my blood, grateful that the cell components had bits and pieces of chemical elements such as iron, which the earth allowed me to control. I was thrilled when the activation circle of my magic shone dimly as the process started to work.
Yes! In my excitement, my focus broke, and the activation circle vanished, making me huff. I looked down at my knee and saw that it had mostly healed, even if the skin was a purple yellow instead of unblemished. Well, that was close enough. My stomach growled in hunger and I rubbed it. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten, but I refused to give in to the stale cheese puff.
I got up on my hands and knees and crawled my way to the window. As I stood, I winced at the last vestiges of pain, cursing myself for having broken my own damn spell. This was stupid.
I brushed myself off, only then realizing I wasn’t even wearing pants. I vaguely remembered taking them off when the jean fabric had become too uncomfortable during my gaming marathon. Shrugging, I pulled the blinds the tiniest bit apart and, sure enough, light filtered through the window, making my vision blacken at the sudden brightness.
Only then did I realize that Bast was still speaking through the mic, though I was too shocked over the blinding sun to pretend to focus on his words.
“Fuck! Bast, what day is it?” I screeched, dropping the blinds and covering my eyes with one hand. Urgh.
“Are you for real? You don’t even know the date?” Bastille’s shocked amusement would’ve made me roll my eyes if I wasn’t so freaked out.
“Just tell me!” I whined.
“It’s Monday.”
Fucking shit on a magical stick! I was so fucking screwed!
I rushed out of the living roo
But between doing it myself and having someone else do it… I was totally paying someone else. As soon as I charged my phone. And showered.
Cursing, I remembered I’d dropped my phone when I fell and went back to get it, barely managing not to trip over the damn chair again. With a silent cheer, I grabbed the sleek phone from the floor and stood up, heading back into my room. I quickly rummaged through the mess on my nightstand until I found the right cable, plugged it in, and left to shower.
The bathroom was one of the cleanest and tidiest places in my house; the white tiled floors and walls almost sparkled under the fluorescent lights. The white marble on the sink counter had an assortment of products, most of which I never remembered to use. The glass shower was big enough for four people to stand inside, with dual shower heads that had been the selling point of the apartment. That, and the ivory tub that filled the space in the furthest corner of the bathroom, near the window, allowing me a view of the outside if I felt like gazing down on the people on the streets twenty floors down. That was the closest to social interactions I had most of the time, and it was the way I liked it.
I caught my reflection out of the corner of my eye and winced. I looked like a fucking mess. My black and pink hair was in complete disarray, and it was so oily I could probably fry a fucking egg on it. My silver eyes had purple bags beneath them the size of chocolate chip cookies, and the T-Rex wearing the cone of shame on my shirt was the only part of it without stains. In fact, the stains kind of made the shirt seem like the T-Rex was facing a weird, colorful meteor shower on his way to extinction. It wasn’t pretty. I really really needed that shower, and probably a shit ton of makeup. If only I had Illusion Magic instead of Elemental, I could probably get rid of the bags without actually having to try my luck with the beauty products.
I grabbed the hem of my shirt and took it off over my head, only to have it tangle on something near my ears.
“Charisma? What the hell are you doing?” Bast asked, but his reminder of the fact I was still wearing my earpiece came too late. I was already awkwardly pulling on the shirt with a little too much force, and his question was followed by a crash. Oops.
Shirt in hand, I looked down and saw, to my dismay, the shattered remains of my earpiece on the floor.
Goddammit. That was the second one this month. Maybe I could use my magic to fix it…
But even as the thought crossed my mind, I discarded it. There was no point in wasting my time trying to fix it when I had more than one backup. Besides, my magic didn’t work that way. I was all too aware of that fact. There was no amount of gentle coaching of my Elemental magic in the world that would get me to manage to “glue” the pieces together. Sighing, I crouched down, picked up the pieces, and threw them out before getting rid of the rest of my clothes—which was actually just my underwear—and stepping into the shower.
I needed to text Bast and let him know I was okay, but just the thought of going all the way to the living room and finding another earpiece was too much effort. I could text him once my phone charged. Probably. If I remembered.
I turned on the water faucets, and the minute the hot stream came down on my body, all the tension left my muscles and I became a pile of goo. I looked longingly at the tub, wishing I had time to soak in it, but if Bast had been speaking the truth, and he had no reason to lie, then I didn’t have the time for it. Today was the first day of the rest of my life, or whatever shit people always said upon graduation.
Today I would finally get my certificate as a Magical Engineer. It felt like I’d been waiting for that little piece of paper half my life.
And then…
Then I would be able to actually go legit. Sell my tech. Make a name for myself.
I just had to survive a bunch of speeches, try not to make a fool of myself in front of the heads of every single Arcane Mage family, and not fall to my demise while walking onto the stage to get the certificate.
Easy, right?
2
Charisma
A hush fell over the room and the back of my neck prickled as every single eye turned to watch me as I made my way in. The auditorium was packed full of both students and their families. It made for quite the audience. You could barely even see the red, comfy seats underneath all those people. Row upon row of mages filled the seats, most of whom had enough power in their fingertips to make me go poof on sight.
All the attention made me shake, but I tried to steady my breathing and walk inside, scurrying as fast as I could towards the first empty seat I could find. The red velvety material shone like a beacon as I zeroed my gaze in on it and moved as fast as my legs could carry me. Problem was, the first empty seat was four rows up.
Just my luck.
I headed to the stairs as fast as I could and I almost made it to the right row before the steps attacked me and I tripped. Except, before I could even register what was going on or even brace myself for an epic bout of embarrassment, a strong hand locked around my arm and then I was moving sideways. I landed sitting down on a hard surface with an oomph as all the breath left my lungs.
Confused, I looked around and realized I’d ended up one row down from my targeted chair. And the hard surface I’d ended up sitting on was very much human.
I stared down at dark, messy hair that was a little longer on top and brushed sideways in a cool, edgy bang without actually making it all the way down to his eyes, like it had its own gravity. Hazel eyes that had tiny specks of gold and green I could see from this close, almost as if they held the world in them, stared up at me. It was breathtaking. And that smirk… he was looking up at me as if he knew a secret. To add insult to injury, he had the sexiest little dimple on his left cheek that made me want to poke him there just to see if it was for real.
Andres. Freaking. Illudere. The Andres Illudere.
I couldn’t freaking believe that out of all the graduates in this damn academy, I’d fallen straight into the lap of no other than Andres Freaking Illudere. I mean, I didn’t fall so much as have him catch me mid-fall, which, if I was being honest, might be even worse. But of all the laps of all the people in this damn room, I’d have to go and get my ass rescued by one of the heirs.
This is so fucking embarrassing.
“Why can’t the floor just open up and swallow me whole already?” I didn’t realize I’d asked the question out loud until my human chair vibrated. I held on for dear life while trying to hide behind my hair. Here’s to hoping the pink strands would attract his attention enough and he’d forget about me. Maybe if I stayed really, really quiet…
“Now, where would be the fun in that?” His sexy, throaty chuckle was just too much for me.
“You did not just say that,” I answered him, poking his dimple with my finger because I’d clearly lost control of my body and mental capacity.
I had to hand it to Andres, though; even with my finger attacking his cheek, he still looked hot as all hell. He also didn’t seem fazed by me at all, as if he had girls falling on his lap and attacking his dimples all the time.
Come to think of it, he did have a tendency to have girls on his lap.
