Eternal Flames (A Novel of the Amagarians Book 2) Read online

  Eternal

  Flames

  a novel of the Amagarians

  Stacy Reid

  ETERNAL FLAMES is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without written permission.

  ETERNAL FLAMES

  First Edition January 2016

  Copy edited by AuthorsDesigns

  Cover design and formatted by AuthorsDesigns

  Copyright © 2016 by Stacy Reid

  For my number one fan Dusean, and all the readers who loved Eternal Darkness.

  Table of Content

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Glossary

  Acknowledgement

  About Stacy

  Other books by Stacy

  Amagarian series

  Scandalous House of Calydon Series

  Single Titles

  Prologue

  Amagarie

  102 years After the Second Great War

  Nuria outskirts—Town of Hoadecia

  “My vision holds true,” the Serangite rasped. The cascading folds of the king’s seer’s elaborate blood-red robe trembled. “I see lands ravaged by war and death. Without access to the mountains of Boreas and their elixir, your kingdom will fall under the might of Mevia and Avindar.”

  “Are you still unaware of the time this should occur?” King Ajali strode to stand in front of Ruxia, staring intently in her diamond-hard eyes as they darkened with power. Her abilities lay in the psychic plane, and it was a testament to his ruthless plotting that he had a much coveted Serangite in his army. The tent swayed under the sudden onslaught of wind that battered outside, despite it being high noon and summertide.

  “Yes,” she said, then shuddered from being trapped in her deathly vision. “I foresee your death at the hands of a black-haired temptress. She tears your throat out and drinks your blood in rage.”

  Fire stirred in Ajali, but he suppressed his rage.

  The silence in the tent became tense as he acknowledged her predictions. He strode to a great chair and slowly sank into its plush depths, gazing into the ashen face of his High Chancellor Bastien. The tent was starkly furnished with only an oak table in the center, three arm chairs and a pallet for sleep. The only comforts required for their temporary camp on their journey home from the kingdom of Boreas.

  Ruxia heaved as the vision released her. As a foreseer, her designation was that of a nyth—the third ring of power. She was not even close to being an imperial—the highest ring of power, yet he did not doubt her. Serangites were rarely wrong, if ever. Their method of warfare was with their minds, and they were incredibly powerful. What they lacked in physical capabilities they made up for with their mental dexterity. Besides, too many of Ruxia’s visions had come to pass. Ajali waited for her to compose herself before he spoke, “Dismissed.”

  She curtsied then walked through the opening of the tent.

  Ajali met the eyes of his high chancellor who leaned against the oak table. “I need to find another way to have unlimited access to the Borean mountains, to their elixir.” Tension climbed higher as the leashed violence in his voice vibrated through the tent.

  Bastien grimaced. “Who would have thought the Princess of Boreas would be the mate of a Darkan? You can no longer claim her as your blood oath queen to gain access to their elixir.”

  Ajali scrubbed a hand over his face. All of his plotting had been for nothing. “It was unexpected. I thought her lover would have been from Caelum, and then I would have had leverage over them that I could manipulate to my whim. The Darkans are always solitary, hidden in the darkness and shadows. It was indeed surprising.” And disastrous for his kingdom.

  “The princess took the Darkan as her lover in the days she hid in the Darkage.”

  “Indeed she did, Bastien,” Ajali said, icy anger burning through his veins. He could not fail his people.

  “Will you still attempt to take her as your own?”

  Ajali chuckled, the sound hollow, menacing. “I have studied what little I could find on Darkan laws. If we took their mate, they would descend on us like the plagues of death and incite the next Great War to retrieve their mates.” The avoidance of war for his people was the reason he plotted to gain access to Boreas’ elixirs. Regret sliced through him, he had been so close to overcoming the prophecy. His realm would not fall. There must be another way to access those mountains and he would find it.

  Bastien strode to Ajali and clasped his shoulders. “How do we prevent the Serangite’s predictions without having control of the Borean Mountains, sire?”

  How would he prevent the fall of his kingdom? “We plot and we watch, Bastien. We plot and watch.”

  ***

  Tehdra perched high in a tree on the cliffs of the Fyran Mountains, cocooned in the darkness she had summoned. Below her, a convoy moved with great speed. Some flew astride wraiths while others travelled on the ground on Kuns—massive four legged beasts. The wraiths flared their wings in powerful arches, their sleek predatory grace mesmerizing. She had never seen the creatures this close before as she’d never been inside the Nurian’s royal palace where they were said to reside. She had been spying on the kingdom for days now. She sought to infiltrate, hide herself amongst the Nurians, and stop all threats against her kingdom—the Darkage, the realm of shadows. She also had to protect the Nurian king from any Darkan that shadowed his kingdom intending to kill him.

  Tehdra’s lips flattened. Let him fall under any other blade except that of a Darkan’s.

  She clutched the dagger sheathed in her knee-high boot and looked into the sky at the fiery redness of the sun, so powerful it suppressed the malevolence of the demon embedded deep inside her. Tehdra tried to find its essence and frowned. The void was utterly fascinating.

  Until this mission, she had never been exposed to the sun, always having access to her beast’s powers. It lay beneath her surface like an elusive glimmer of heat.

  She peered into the convoy searching the shadows for the presence of Darkans, but there were none. Her body frozen on the tree limb, only her eyes followed the convoy on the ground as their Kuns crawled past on the narrow, cobblestoned cliff ledge. Each rider was dressed in battle armor boasting the royal sigil with a hand comfortably resting on the hilt of their sword. The wraiths screech
ed, dipped and circled above the warriors, providing protection from the air.

  A snarl hummed low beneath her skin as her beast stretched. A smile curved her lips. A deep red splashed the sky as the sun sank. Rage uncurled inside her, and she shivered as the savagery of her darkness lifted its head.

  As the last wraith flew by, her heart lurched. Raw power and magnetism rolled off the man in fierce undulating waves. King Ajali Haddin. He rode one of the wraiths with lethal grace.

  His warriors preceded him, probably confident in the knowledge that he did not need their protection. They returned from Boreas without Princess Saieke Shyokara. Tehdra had felt through the connection with her brother Drac that he had somehow claimed Saieke as his mate. Something Tehdra never thought he would have done after their older brother Vlad had betrayed everything they stood for, because he lost his mate, but Drac felt more at peace, and adored his princess with a visceral intensity. Tehdra had once hoped to find her mate, but had suppressed the desire, wanting no weakness, until her clan had atoned for Vald’s merciless slaughters.

  Tehdra flared out her darkness towards King Ajali, deeply sinking into his essence, seeking and ferreting. Strangely, no negativity leaked from him. The royal, who had travelled to Boreas to claim the princess as his blood oath queen, did not seem perturbed at his loss after pursing Saieke so aggressively. Perhaps they had misconstrued his interest in her.

  Rage howled beneath the surface of Tehdra’s skin as the sky darkened, effectively distracting her. She inhaled deeply, her breath hitched at a scent that teased her, making her demon beast stir hungrily. Tehdra held her breath when, with a flex of his thighs, the king stopped the wraith midair. He tipped his head and stared directly into the tree where she perched.

  Tehdra held herself absolutely still. Shadows cloaked her form—it was her Shenkiri to wield, to control; it was impossible that he could see her. Heat rushed through her at the startling green of his eyes. The olive darkness of his skin shined like hammered gold against the glittering emerald; it was the most appealing combination.

  Her beast shifted and lunged. In the dark mire of shadows, a most tantalizing fragrance rode the air, enrapturing her. Her chakra pulsed, fangs burst from her mouth as she scrutinized the King of Nuria in sheer fascination. Her heart pounded with hard, driving beats within her chest.

  Mine.

  Fear tightened in her gut. Impossible. She sighed when he whipped the wraith around, and they soared towards his kingdom with exquisitely graceful power. Her demon roared with desire, bloodlust, and a long, sibilant hiss scraped against her mind.

  Mate.

  Chapter One

  Nuria—the kingdom of eternal Fire

  Adara—the main city

  A harem…I will need to be in his harem.

  Taunting laughter echoed from her demon. With ruthless will, Tehdra closed off the miniscule psychic connection she allowed. The beast was pleased it would be near the Nurian King. She was not. She had to join King Ajali’s harem to enjoy the freedom of movement needed for her mission. His haris, the concubines, possessed that which Tehdra desired—free reign of the castle.

  She had spent days trying to infiltrate the castle Shelah. Several times she’d come close to being detected after slipping past the king’s warriors—a feat she had thought impossible given her skill of being one with darkness. She had breached the inner walls several times, and tried to enter the castle to no avail.

  Somehow the warriors sensed her presence in the shadows, sometimes murmuring and asking each other if they sensed a witch—powerful beings who used spell incantations—or a Serangite, at work. She had assessed those who had detected her presence. Their chakra level had been stronger, and something else had buzzed within them.

  With each ripple she’d created in the shadows, they’d grown more anxious, until several guards had sent out an alert to be vigilant against attack from the mind and of the spirit. She wanted no alert; the order she had been given by her brother Drac, the Archduke of the northern keep of the Darkage, was to remain undetected from the Nurians—a difficult situation with soldiers vigilant for attack.

  Tehdra snarled in frustration. She was a warrior, decisive and brutal, not a spy. She had needed a simple way to infiltrate King Ajali’s castle, and now it seemed she had to transform herself into a hari pleasing to the King. And this was the opposite of keeping her distance.

  “Are you sure there is no other way?” she asked the man huddled beside her. Please let there be another way. The last thing she desired was to be so close to a man for whom her beast roared. Nothing must distract her from uncovering the traitors hiding in Nuria.

  “I have been living in Nuria, Tehdra El Kyn, for twenty years. The castle Shelah is impenetrable,” Bylan said flatly, his dark eyes serious.

  She had spent more than a week in Nuria, seeking her people in the shadows, and had discovered Bylan. He had established himself as a Nurian citizen, a respectable high merchant of Hoadecia, one of wealth who had sufficient influence to help her maneuver and infiltrate Shelah.

  “Have you not been living in the town of Hoadecia?”

  He shifted as if on edge. “I may have resided out of Adara, but many times I moved with the darkness arming myself with knowledge in the event it was revealed to the Nurians that a Darkan lived in their midst. I have learnt much from the shadows.”

  Tehdra considered his words. They were perched high in a massive tree buried in Nuria’s mountains gazing at the castle from a bird’s eye view, scanning all its entrances, traps and weak points. She smiled in admiration. No weak points existed. She had never seen anything as impressive as King’s Ajali castle in all her three hundred years. The castle Shelah boasted a thousand rooms with several wings—one alone housed all of the king’s concubines. Rumor had it that several hundred women—exotic beauties from the six kingdoms—existed in his harem to please his every whim. Now she found that hard to believe. What would one king do with hundreds of women? It was surely impossible that he could bed them all as stories whispered.

  Her beast stirred, and a hiss slipped from her throat. She ignored Bylan’s curious glance. “I cannot slip in and out of the shadows. Somehow several of the warriors sense me in the darkness.”

  “No you cannot,” he murmured almost soothingly. “It is the power of the witch buried inside of them.” He twisted sitting on the high branch, his leg dangling, the flowing blue robe he wore swishing. “Will you reveal to me your agenda? Mayhap then I could be of more help?”

  He froze in the act of removing his headband under her stare. She welcomed the viciousness that peeked from her eyes, and did not subdue her savagery.

  “I see.” He swallowed and smiled tightly. “Is it safe for me to assume that our relationship now terminates?”

  She threw a bag of gold and his hand darted out to catch its heavy weight.

  “You gave me all the information you have gleaned from living in this land?”

  “I have.”

  Tehdra held his gaze until he twitched. She frowned. Darkans did not fidget. “Will I have to kill you, Bylan?” She murmured her tone smooth and toneless.

  He smiled at her gently. “Nay, you will not, Tehdra El Kyn. I escaped the Darkage to live away from the brutality of our kind. I have a tsari, to whom I am happily wed, who bore me three fine children. I do not know enough to betray you, and I have only aided you because you found me in the shadows. I urge you to consider…If you attack, you may not win.”

  Tehdra’s laugh pulsed from her throat, low and dangerous. “Living in these lands has changed you, Sir Bylan. I can taste your fear. Our relationship has concluded. Depart.”

  The shadows surged, swallowing him, and leaving her alone.

  Tehdra slammed her hand into the tree, shattering the bark. She had to be in the light to complete her mission. Her directives were simple, yet dangerous. Infiltrate the Nurian castle, and rem
ove all traces of her people. Assassins from Mevia, the kingdom of sound, worked with traitors from her kingdom to kill the Nurian King, and also to unseat her Darkan king from his throne. To what end, they had yet to discover. Above all else, the death of the Nurian king must not be laid at the feet of Darkans.

  Or war would visit her home further obscuring the beauty and rich culture they wanted to share with their world. Because her people would retaliate with the cruelty and brutality they were known and feared for, unfolding a third Great War of Amagarie and undoing all that her king worked for—prosperity for the Darkage.

  Tehdra launched from the tree, landing with predatory grace, and moved with the shadows into Adara, the City of Fire and Nuria’s hub of activity, ferreting information and plotting her next move. She entered a grand tavern unseen. Tehdra slid into a booth and slouched deep into a chair, and several moments later, a server placed a goblet in front of her. She sipped the famed Nurian wine as she surveyed the crowd, ensuring no one thought her presence suspicious. She drew the shadows to her, so that if anyone glanced in her direction, they would be unable to provide a description.

  Bylan had gleaned that King Ajali’s realm of alliance, Aria, the kingdom of earth and sands, sought beauties to gift the king for his harem. She unrolled the parchment Bylan had provided. It held the name and location of another Darkan posturing as an Arian, hoping to live a normal life away from the viciousness of their realm. She assessed the information, accepting the inevitability of becoming one of King Ajali’s concubines. Taking such a step…it would be inevitable for him to take her to his bed. She fought the ripple of response between her thighs; she would have to be ruthless in preventing herself from falling for the king.

  With three unladylike gulps Tehdra emptied the goblet and shiktred—used the shadows to travel—from the grand tavern to the inn, her temporary abode. Within a few minutes she had her minuscule belongings packed, the room cleared of all evidence she had ever been present and her tab was discreetly paid.