Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

Lucenna’s heart raced wildly as she ran through the dark woods. The faint moonlight formed sinister shadows in the barren trees. Her panting breaths shot white clouds in the frosty air. Curse her damn luck! A gust whooshed through the branches, causing them to rattle loudly. Fear prickled all over her body like needles. She felt his impending presence getting closer, and it terrified her to her core. She was invisible, but her footprints were left in the mud.

“Lucenna…” a voice hissed.

She shrieked and threw a sphere of raw power behind her. The fiery glow briefly illuminated the laughing face of her pursuer as it flew past him, and he slipped into the shadows again.

“You cannot run from me, daughter.”

Lucenna stumbled backwards and tripped over a thick tree root. Landing hard on her side, her sharply on rocks and broken branches stabbed her palms. She ignored the stinging pain and scrambled to her feet. She had to escape him.

His cackle echoed in the woods as she spun in a circle, searching for him. A red light shone like a beacon in the night. The light grew brighter to reveal it came from a crystal resting within the weaving of a white staff. Holding it was Galvaston Astron, Head of the Lunar Guild.

Dark purple robes flared at his feet as he came forward. His white hair was kept short and he had the same lilac eyes, his face sharp and severe. He hadn’t changed since she’d seen him last. The same day she lost her mother.

Lucenna squeezed her trembling hands into fists. The brisk wind pressed against the sleek layer of sweat on her face and neck.

“At last, I have found you.” Her father’s mouth curled in a cold smile. “Or was it that you wanted to be found? Your bounty led me to Azure, then you were foolish enough to get caught.”

Lucenna glared at him. For all of her efforts to find Dyna, he caught up with her first. She should have known he would be able to track her down even if she was cloaked.

His potent Essence hung like a heavy blanket in air, making it hard to breathe. “You have caused a lot of trouble for the family.”

“You mean for you,” she hissed.

Galvaston’s jaw clenched tightly. “Don’t make this difficult. It’s time to return.”

“No.”

His eyes flickered with magic. “Mind how you speak to me, Lucenna. It’s time you fulfill your duty to the Magos Empire. It’s a great honor. Your power and womb will bear the heirs to come.”

Her magic crackled on her skin at his words. That’s all they saw her as. Some broodmare to make little princelings, then they would drain her of her ability to Transcend. What honor was there in that?

“If I’m not mistaken, I thought you were fond of your betrothed.”

Lucenna’s expression softened at the mention of Prince Everest. She glanced down at her engagement ring. The pink diamond gleamed, even in the dim moonlight.

A satisfied smile rose to her father’s face when he saw it. “Prince Everest is waiting for you, Lucenna. Once you’re at his side, he will ascend to the throne.”

She intended to return to Everest but not at the expense of her liberty and magic. She had a mission to complete first. Only then could she be with him.

“Yes, and you would become Grand Magus on the Archmage’s council, filling your coffers with the gold you sold me for.” Electricity sparked at Lucenna’s fingertips and coursed up her arms. “Unfortunately, I refuse to be your pedestal to power.”

She flung out her hands and streaks of lightning blasted through the air towards him. Galvaston snarled in shocked anger. He waved his staff, and her magic dissipated to nothing. She stilled at how easily he blocked the spell.

“How dare you use magic against a mage,” he bellowed as his eyes glowed brighter. “You have broken our most sacred law.”

Damn their laws.

Galvaston struck the ground with his staff and red lightning raced across the forest floor for her. She conjured a dome and the spell clashed against the surface, flickering gold on impact. His expression wavered with surprise for only a second, but it was enough to remind her of one thing. She was an Astron. Rebelling was in her blood. And she would fight him with all she had.

Lucenna filled her hands with magic. “The day I return is the day I break the Mage Code. Everything you stand for will be crushed under my heel.”

He bared his teeth.

“I will finish what Azeran started,” Lucenna promised. “We will free all those oppressed in the Magos Empire, and any who should oppose us will fall. I have lived my life at the mercy of men. Never again.”

His mouth curled and they circled each other. “You’re an imprudent girl with sacrilege ideals. Those zealots that call themselves the Liberation has poisoned your mind.”

“They freed it with the truth.” Lucenna willed her Essence to fill her. The surge of power charged through her veins and her silhouette radiated vivid purple. “My magic is my own. And neither you or the Archmage will take it from me.

Lucenna hurled a surge of power. It hit his shield with a might that pushed him back, his feet sliding across the mud until he caught himself with his staff.

“I see now, you’re too far gone,” Galvaston said coolly. “You leave me no choice. I will cleanse you, but you will still be useful to the prince.”

Lucenna knew what spell he planned to use.

Lightning coiled around her body and hair as she circled him. “I would rather die than to ever allow myself to be desolate.”

Her magic tore through the air with every spell she could conjure. He effortlessly deflected her attacks with a wave of his staff, knocking them into the night sky where they exploded in the clouds with a thunderous boom. A surge of purple crashed through the trees at her command right for her father. It hit and exploded, shaking the earth. Lucenna slumped back, panting through a breath as smoke filtered her vision. Did she get him?

A laugh answered. “If you think this is power, you don’t know the meaning of it.”

Her father strode out of the smoke, untouched. Not a single spell had gone past his shield. Lucenna shook her head, backing away. Her confidence was slipping away as fast as it arrived.

He waved his hand and a sphere of light came for her like a meteor. It barreled into her chest, throwing her against a boulder. She wheezed for the air knocked out of her lungs. The smell of scorched leather burned her nose. Pain throbbed through her being that threatened to pull her under.

She couldn’t fall here. Get up!

Lucenna tried to pull herself up on shaking arms, but the blow had left her stunned. Blood leaked from the back of her head and her vision swayed.

A glowing red mist snaked through the air before she could duck. It snatched her up and it yanked her to her father. She hovered above him helplessly as his magic crawled over her head. Her fingers clawed desperately at it but they went through.

“You never stood a chance against me,” he said, sounding almost disappointed. “You abandoned your home and turned your back on the empire—all for what? Where is the Liberation now, Lucenna? Look at what following them got you!”

His magic infiltrated her mind. He was stealing away her will and locking it away. Lucien’s panic flooded their link. He felt her beginning to fade. She would lose her brother, and the people she fought for, and fail to avenge those she lost.

What are we fighting for if not for the future?

“You will submit,” her father said. “Even if I have to hurt you.”

Lucenna looked down at him through her blurred vision with a trembling hatred and tears rolled down her cheeks. “You hurt me a long time ago…” she said through her clenched teeth. “…when you siphoned Mother.”

Galvaston’s eyes widened. “What?”

He was right. She was nowhere near as powerful as him, but she would make sure he felt her pain.

Her Essence had been slowly weaving its way inside of him unnoticed, waiting until it had completely invaded his skeleton. Lucenna twitched her finger. His rib audibly cracked and pierced his lung. At Galveston’s cry, his hold on her vanished and she dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.

His enraged eyes fixed on her. He easily wrenched her Essence out of his body and his own pinned her against a tree.

“Foolish girl. You shouldn’t use magic you hardly understand.”

Lucenna shrieked when his Essence shot into her body and wove through bones like steel thread. Her forefinger twisted until it snapped completely backwards. Lucenna screamed and writhed against the vice grip she couldn’t see. It slowly crushed her until she was trembling on the ground.

He sighed and approached her. “It matters not how much you resist, daughter. Out here, you are alone.” His staff waved over her face, the crystal pulsing red. “Now, it’s time to come home—”

He cut off with a bellow. It took Lucenna a second to notice the arrow in her father’s thigh. Who shot that? Another arrow whistled through the dark and hit his left leg next. He bit back a scream and staggered back as blood soaked his robes. His power on her vanished. Lucenna quickly scrambled to her feet and backed away, holding her injured hand to her chest. They wildly surveyed the trees.

Her father clenched his teeth and yanked out the arrows. “Who’s there?”

A menacing growl responded in the woods to the right Then a flutter of wings came from the left. Another arrow sliced through the air and shattered the staff’s crystal. Darkness fell over them.

“The only one alone out here is you,” said a familiar, harsh voice.

Lucenna stifled a strangled sound that was part laugh and part sob

They were here.

They came.

“Come out!” Galvaston shot out erratic streams of electricity.

They caught against bushes and trees, and the bright flames cast dancing shadows around them. He flinched at the loud howl ringing in the woods. It was followed by a chorus of wolf cries and snarls. Galvaston frantically searched the trees as he brandished his useless staff like a weapon.

Nervous laughter bubbled in Lucenna’s throat at his fear. She had never seen him afraid before. He wasn’t prepared to fight an unknown source, and mages had no combat training. There was never a need.

Across from her, an enormous black shape slipped forward into the moonlight. The wolf’s muzzle wrinkled back over its glistening teeth, and another growl rolled through its massive chest. She knew those bright yellow eyes.

A winged figure stood within the trees on the opposite end of the forest with a flaming blue sword in his hand. She glanced at the branch above her head to spot another crouched form with an armed bow.

They were draped in shadow like sentinels of the night.

And they had Galvaston surrounded.

“Who are you?” he demanded, staggering back.

Lucenna smiled. “It’s not them you should worry about.”

She gazed at the moon as it rose above the clouds. She was born of the Lunar Guild. The moon was her strength. It recharged her magic, filling her with a surge of power, and static prickled the air. She let it build as she commanded it to brew a storm. The wind wailed, shaking the trees. Dark thunder clouds began to roll and rumble overhead. Galvaston gaped up at the sky, then at her.

Her Essence channels were fully open and roaring with the Essence boiling inside of her. It was too much, too hot, and the pain was tearing her apart. She shook from the effort it took to hold.

“What are you doing?” Galvaston cried out. “Stop! You will destroy us all, including yourself!”

She gave him a cruel smile. “You took Mother from me. I don’t care if I go down, as long as you go with me.”

Lucenna thrust out her arms with a scream and purple light blazed through the forest. But he shouted a spell, and in a flash of embers and lightning, he shifted into a gray hawk. It shrieked angrily before it fled into the thunderstorm.

No… She tried to throw another spell but her legs gave out and the world was tilting. Someone called her name, then the dark swallowed her whole.