Shadows fall, p.1
Shadow's Fall, page 1
All rights reserved. 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 permission in writing from the publisher.
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or events, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2022 by Jami Gray
All rights reserved.
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Shadow’s Fall - Kyn Kronicles - Book 6
Celtic Moon Press
ISBN: 978-1-948884-62-4 (ebook)
ISBN-13: 978-1-948884-63-1 (paperback)
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Cover Art: Deranged Doctor Design
www.derangeddoctordesign.com
Contents
Acknowledgments
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Arcane Transporter Books
The Collapse: Fate’s Vultures
PSY - IV Teams Books
Kyn Kronicles Series
Also by Jami Gray
Appendix
About the Author
“What is madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance.”
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~ Theodore Roethke
Acknowledgments
While this is the end (for now) for Raine and Gavin, I want to thank you all for sticking around for the ride. This series wouldn’t have be written without your continued support and gentle nudges to get back to it. So thank you (hugs).
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Don’t worry, this is not the last of the Kyn. I have many other stories with some of our favorite characters. So long as I can get time at the keyboard, I’ll be sure to share.
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To my eternal support team (Camille, Dave, Nana, Mona, DeAnna, Kim, and Angie), my personal cheer squad (my beloved Prankster Duo, my Knight and my mom and dad) thank you for believing from the first word. Endless love to you all.
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Chapter 1
Raine stood in the spill of late-afternoon light, untouched by its faint warmth as it dusted over the gold threads that crisscrossed the medallion design in the thick rug. A tapestry of magic rode the air around her, and she carefully worked a thread of blue-tinted silver power into the existing weave of the subdued earth-tone colors that clung like ivy to the library walls. Her late uncle’s warding spell was holding strong, but the time had come for her to claim it as her own. She raised her hands to direct a thread around a particularly dense knot of magic, only to be brought up short by Gavin’s tightening grip on her hips.
“Wait!”
She stilled, both on the magical and physical plane. It wasn’t easy, holding her place as she straddled the mortal and magical realm, but to rework the wards, it was necessary. “What?”
His hands left her hips, and his arms rose around either side of her. “Hang on,” the whiskey-haired man muttered. He curled his fingers around her wrists and gently shifted the position of her hands and the magic she held.
In the colorful tapestry, the undulating lines hovering between her raised palms thrummed but held steady. Normally, the pretty light show would be visible only to her, but to reset her uncle’s wards, she needed Gavin’s help. That meant utilizing the soul-deep bond that tied them together so he could see what she saw, and that required dropping her mental barriers and being exposed on all levels. It wasn’t just a mental and magical drain; it was emotional too. So, when he said nothing more, she warned, “I can’t hold this forever, Gavin.”
“Well,” he said distractedly, “if you don’t want to end up a Rorschach painting, give me a second.”
He leaned in, and the heat of him pressed along her spine as his chin brushed against her hair. He traced a pattern in the air above her hands, his movements smooth and precise. The hovering magic gained weight and another black-flecked steel-blue thread appeared. It coiled around the existing silvery-blue line and darkened it to a lightning-streaked indigo. “Okay, now, bring it in slowly.”
She heeded his advice, and the magical hum in her skull hit a bone-jarring, lower note. She held her breath and carefully nudged the shimmering thread closer to the bronze-streaked earth-tone knot of the existing wards. Inch by inch, she mimicked the knot’s pattern until the two colors were a hair apart. On a barely there breath, she said, “Ready.”
Behind her, Gavin’s murmur rose and fell in a soft cadence as they tightened the threads that bound the warding spell and their magic together. A small, bright burst erupted as soon as the two powers touched.
Blinded by the unexpected reaction, Raine jerked, her head hitting Gavin’s chest as she almost lost her hold on the magical threads and blinked rapidly to clear her vision. “What the hell was that?”
She didn’t catch his answer as she suddenly came face-to-face with her dead uncle. Dark hair, dark eyes, and built like a long-distance runner, he could be any other successful forty-something professional, if not for the aura of lethal intensity that hovered around him. Her heart thudded painfully.
“Mulcahy?” His name emerged on an undignified squeak, and she reached out.
The image in front of her didn’t react.
Gavin caught her arm and pressed it down. “Don’t, Raine.”
A vaguely familiar stylistic rune hung in the air near Mulcahy, the lines of which appeared to be shaped out of bronzed fire. Now that her shock was ebbing, she could see whatever spell had called the apparition of Ryan Mulcahy into being was tenuous at best. The rune’s brightness fluctuated and dimmed. As unusual as that was, it wasn’t enough to hold her attention because that was firmly caught by the achingly familiar features of the former leader of the Northwest Kyn, who now stood next to the library shelves. Mulcahy’s image wasn’t doing much of anything except hanging there like a mirage.
She swallowed against her tight throat and asked the man at her back, “What is this?”
“It’s an engrammatic casting.” He adjusted his hand until his fingers were tangled with hers, giving her something physical to hold on to. “It’s old, old magic based on family lines.”
Since her uncle had been around for a couple of centuries, that made sense. “Okay, and what exactly does it do?”
Gavin’s tone was dry. “Think of it like a Kyn’s version of the original voice memo.”
She shifted her weight to the side and turned her head enough to see Gavin’s face. “Seriously?”
He glanced down at her, and humor lit his jade eyes. “Seriously.”
“Huh.” She straightened, stayed in Gavin’s hold, and studied the wavering image in front of them. Vague details behind her uncle’s image made her think it had been recorded in the exact spot it was replaying. Weird, but cool. “So where do we press play?”
“Good question,” he said. “Since it triggered when we reset the wards and you were the last of Mulcahy’s family, let’s try this.”
He raised his free hand and made a motion that tugged on their shared magic. In an instinctive response, she loosened her hold on the silvery-blue threads as his voice swept along their telepathic bond and into her mind like a cool, clear breeze. “I need you to weave this with me.”
“Casting isn’t my thing,” she warned.
“I know.” His humor seeped through their bond. “But this should be fairly straightforward.”
“You sure about that?” She wouldn’t put it past her uncle to have left a few booby traps behind because, well, that was his world, and it was one she was becoming intimately familiar with. Lately, every time she turned around, she got slapped with another one of her uncle’s well-kept secrets, like leaving a magical voicemail behind in his library.
“As sure I can be.” Then Gavin’s attention shifted.
The tapestry rippled, then the silvery-blue threads twisted and turned to mirror the stylized rune. It wasn’t easy wielding both her and Gavin’s intertwined magic, not even after months of trial and error to discover what they could and couldn’t do. However, it didn’t take her long to catch on to his plan. She let him lead since thanks to his witch heritage, he was the stronger caster.
“When I say,” he warned, “you’ll have to work fast and braid the two casts together.” He began to murmur a spell aloud, and the black-flecked indigo wove between the rune and its reflection, knitting them closer and closer together. When the last line fell into place, his voice echoed on both mortal an d magical planes. “Now.”
Raine stretched the newly evolved piece of herself that lent her an edge over other Kyn by allowing her to actually see and manipulate magic, and she bound Gavin’s cast to the bronze lines powering the rune. It was like forcing two magnets together. After an initial resistance, she made a minute tweak, and the mirrored magics slid together, the lines tightening until the threads appeared to meld. The magic fueling the rune gained strength and depth until it reverberated in her bones and teeth. The bronze lines shifted to a burnished copper streaked with blue.
“Cincinno clavem,” Gavin commanded.
Deep inside Raine, where her magic lived, something shifted into place, and the image of her uncle sharpened into crystal clarity. Gavin’s strengthening illusion ability turned it so real, she swore if she’d reached out, she would have been able to feel flesh and blood. Staring into her uncle’s coffee-dark eyes lit with keen intelligence, she clutched Gavin’s hand.
With a breath, the static image came to life then spoke. “Hello, Raine.”
Hearing her name in the deep voice she’d thought she would never hear again hurt.
“I could start this with the typical ‘If you’re watching this…’ but since I’ve yet to see something that hasn’t come true, I’ll skip the unnecessary parts and move forward on the premise that I didn’t escape the assassination attempt.” Ryan Mulcahy’s smile was as wry as his tone and carried a depth of knowledge gained from dealing with the pesky visions that plagued a seer of his caliber. He tucked his hands in the pockets of his tailored black slacks. “And I’m sure you have an opinion you’d like to share, but luckily, this is a one-way message, so you’ll just have to bite your tongue. I assure you, I did everything I could to avoid this particular outcome, but Fate is not one to be denied.”
His brief glint of humor faded, and the normally harsh lines of his face softened. “It also makes it easier for me to tell you how proud I am of the woman you’ve chosen to be without us getting into an argument.” He waved a hand as if she had spoken. “I know we’ve had our differences…”
That was one way of putting it.
“… but from the moment Catriona brought you into this world until I took my last breath, I have loved you.”
Her throat tightened. She blinked hard to relieve the pressure behind her eyes and bore down on Gavin’s hand.
Her uncle’s image set his hand on a nearby shelf and shook his head. “I know you may not believe that, but love is far from simple, and sometimes, to protect those who hold your heart, you have to be heartless.” His gaze sharpened, and despite his lack of physical presence, he still managed to pin Raine in place. “That’s not an apology, girl, just a fact of life.”
He looked away, brushed his fingers along the spines that lined a shelf, then fisted his hand and dropped it to his side. When he turned back, all the messy emotions were tucked behind his normal arrogance. “I’m not sure how long it will take you to find this, so I’ll address the most important business first.”
He folded his arms over his chest and settled in, his voice all business. “You won’t want to hear this, but I need you to find your way past your issues with Natasha. She’s going to need you, and the Wraiths at her side, especially considering that with my death, she’ll have no choice but to take on the Kyn Council. Cheveyo and Warrick will both back her, and once Carys takes my place as the head of the Fey House, she’ll stand at Natasha’s side as well. Nat will need their support because she’s never been one to tread lightly.” He grimaced. “Hopefully, between the other three, they can counter her temper, but it won’t be easy.”
Nat? The nickname held an unsettling familiarity, but as Raine had learned just after Ryan’s death, there was a shared history between the Demon Queen and her uncle. Despite her curiosity, there was a part of her, albeit a juvenile part, that thought, “Ick!”
As it often was in life, her uncle wasn’t done issuing orders. “I suggest you and Gavin approach Darius Abazi, but fair warning—it won’t be an easy conversation. You can, however, trust his information.” Something dark moved across Mulcahy’s face. “Some advice—be wary. Even an ally can unintentionally betray you.”
A depth of hard-won knowledge layered his statement, and she wished he were there so she could ask for details, so much so that her chest ached. And that wasn’t the only question she desperately wished to pursue.
His voice regained its previous cool composure. “With what lies ahead, the Wraiths need to remain strong because their skills will be crucial in protecting the Northwest Kyn. My hope is that they will be wise in their choice of leader. Nat will try to manipulate her way into the captaincy, but I trust you to ensure she doesn’t succeed.”
Her uncle knew Natasha well because she had schemed and lost. The outcome didn’t surprise Raine, not considering Natasha’s target—the Wraiths, an elite group of Kyn hunters and assassins who lurked in the shadows of the Kyn world. Their existence was an urban legend to most Kyn, but they were very, very real. In an effort not to become Natasha’s pet killers, Raine and the other nine Wraiths had chosen Gavin as their captain. His ruthlessly strategic mindset would play a critical role in the Wraiths’ continued existence and hopefully turn the tide in the upcoming confrontation with the Northwest Kyn’s most dangerous threat—the biggest, baddest, and oldest of the Kyn, their Council.
In front of her, the image of her uncle appeared to struggle with whatever he was going to say next. Finally, he straightened his narrow shoulders. “There is a unique bit of clarity given when you know your end is close, and I know I’ll soon be answering to my sister for, as she would often accuse me of, playing games, but I promise, Raine, I never considered this a game. I know you have questions, about your mother, about your father, about your magic, but I have learned that sometimes providing the answers is more detrimental than allowing you the opportunity to find those answers on your own.”
Hearing that, she felt old frustrations struggle to rise, but with no real target, ignoring them didn’t take much. What good would it do her to rail against Mulcahy’s obstinacy? Even in death, he’d managed to get the last damn word.
“Once Catriona told me about you, I started to shift the pieces of the Northwest Kyn into position. I wanted to ensure when you finally found your answers, you would be able to move the new generation of Kyn forward. We are old…” His voice faded, and for the first time she could remember, his age was apparent in the shadows that drifted over his face.
“Too old.” He shook his head, and the haunting darkness broke apart and drifted away. His voice returned to its usual unforgiving hardness. “Too many of us are stuck in traditions and old beliefs, but those will not see us through the coming years. We can’t hide from the humans forever, and their curiosity and technology are pushing the curtain aside faster than expected. Not only are we racing the clock, but we are on the verge of extinction, and our survival requires an evolution, not just in attitudes, but in what makes us Kyn. Our magic is shifting, not just in you and Gavin, but whether they want to admit it or not, in others as well.”
Hearing Mulcahy voice a possibility Raine and Gavin had barely started to acknowledge, she looked over her shoulder at Gavin. His face was as grim as she felt. Together, they turned back to the magical recording that continued to speak.
