Seekers fate, p.1
Seeker's Fate, page 1
part #3 of Seeker's World Series
Seeker’s Fate
Seeker’s World, Book Three
K. A. Riley
Contents
Other Books in This Series
Preface
1. Darkness
2. Spotted
3. A Chance Encounter
4. The Bonfire
5. The New Boy
6. Old Friends
7. Flame
8. New Foes
9. Perks
10. Chit-chat and Checking Accounts
11. Summer’s End
12. Plymouth High
13. Old Foes
14. Awkward
15. Mini-break
16. Freedom
17. Flight
18. Assassin
19. Bedtime
20. Night
21. The Book
22. A Grisly Proposal
23. Another Clue
24. Holy. Crap.
25. Visitors
26. Truth
27. Home
28. A Visit
29. Gone Boy
30. Confrontation
31. Departure Day
32. It Begins
33. To Cornwall
34. The Inn at Pevethy
35. The Pub
36. To Penzance
37. Escape
38. The Revelation Ball
39. A Dance
40. The Unveiling
41. The Hunt Begins
42. The Eve of the Quest
43. Shadows in the Ruins
44. Into the Mouth
45. The Other Side
46. Cost
47. An Ending
Coming Soon: Seeker’s Promise
Also by K. A. Riley
K.A. Riley on Social Media
Other Books in This Series
The Seeker’s Series:
Seeker’s World
Seeker’s Quest
Seeker’s Fate
Seeker’s Promise (December 2020)
Seeker’s Hunt (Coming in 2021)
Seeker’s Prophecy (Coming in 2021)
For all the readers out there in need of an escape:
I’ve got you.
Preface
Over those first few days in Fairhaven, Callum and I spent almost every minute together.
During the daylight hours, our lives were as close to perfect as anyone’s could possibly be.
But when night fell…
Everything changed.
Darkness
Monday, August 24th
Shortly Before Dawn
* * *
Callum was lying in my bed, his features highlighted by the faintly glowing streams filtering in from the streetlight outside. His chest rose and fell with the pulse of his gentle breathing.
He was dressed in an old cotton t-shirt and a pair of shorts that had once belonged to my brother Will, and his light brown hair was mussed from an uneven sleep.
Staring down at his face, I wondered how I ever managed to resist the constant temptation to kiss his perfect lips, his neck, his jawline.
Then again, there had been plenty of times when I’d given in, my desires taking over and drawing me perilously close to further dangerous temptation.
Right now, though, I had other things on my mind.
I hardly dared to speak for fear of waking him. But I didn’t have a choice.
The lie had gone on too long already.
“Callum,” I whispered, nudging his shoulder.
I watched, guilty, as he stirred.
“Mmm?” he moaned. “What’s going on? What time is it?”
“It’s really late. And…also really early,” I said, noting the change in the sky’s color from navy to violet as dawn threatened to break. “There’s a Waerg on the street outside. Watching us.” Holding my breath, I added, “Watching me, I think.”
At that, Callum’s eyes popped open. For a second, he stared at me, his irises flickering with the defensive flame of the dragon who lived inside him—the creature who clawed away at his insides each night as he tossed and turned. I could see the enigmatic beast staring out at me as if trying to assess me. Hoping to figure out once and for all if I was friend or foe.
Since our arrival in Fairhaven, his dragon had become restless, aggressive. Late each night, when Callum finally managed to drift to sleep, his skin flared hot, as if a vicious fever was attacking him from the inside. He tossed and turned for hours, muttering words I couldn’t understand.
It was like the dragon was taking advantage of his unconscious state, trying to steal his body and mind away from him while he was at his most vulnerable. All because it was coming.
The day they called the Naming.
It was Niala, my closest friend at the Academy, who had first told me about the day when dragon shifters truly came of age. The day the beast who lived inside them turned one hundred years old and revealed its true nature, free from the constraints of a human’s control.
The change killed some dragon shifters and drove others to madness.
There was no way to know what it might do to Callum.
But now, awake and alert, he seemed to shake the powerful dragon off, his irises fading to their usual shade of exquisite blue. Suddenly energized, he jumped to his feet, stepped over to the window to look out to the street below, and said, “I’m going out there.”
“I’m coming with you.”
He spun around, and for a second, it looked like he was about to protest. But when he saw my face, he seemed to change his mind. “All right.”
I grabbed my sheathed silver dagger from my nightstand, fastened it around my waist, and, together, Callum and I raced downstairs and out the front door.
But by the time we reached the street, the Waerg had disappeared.
“He must have gone into the woods,” I said, gesturing to the edge of the forest at the end of the cul-de-sac where I’d lived all my life.
I was about to head in that direction when Callum grabbed my arm, holding me back.
“How long?” he asked, his voice sounding parched with tension.
“How long what?”
“How long since you first saw the Waerg?”
I bit my lip as I contemplated a lie. But I thought better of it.
He knew me too well.
“I saw him the first night we spent in Fairhaven, and he’s come around every night since.”
“Why did you wait until tonight to tell me?”
“I’ve been worried about you, especially at night. Lately, you’ve seemed so…”
“You don’t need to worry,” he interrupted, his tone tinged with the hoarse growl of something not quite human. “I’m fine.” A brief scowl flashed across his features before he relaxed again and looked toward the woods. “And right now, I want to focus on finding the Waerg you chose not to tell me about.”
“I’m sorry for not telling you. I really should have.”
“Yes, you should have.” With a heavy sigh, his shoulders relaxed. “If something happened to you, Vega—”
Disarmed by his shift in tone, I smiled and took his hands in mine. “I’m careful. Nothing will happen to me.”
Callum narrowed his eyes and smirked. I knew that look. It was his not-so-subtle way of reminding me that over the last several weeks, I’d suffered through an ill-advised series of near-death experiences that no actual careful person would ever endure.
I’d managed to get imprisoned in the Usurper Queen’s dungeon in the Otherwhere. I’d led a contingent of Seekers into a trap that had gotten one of us killed.
And more than once, I’d stared into the eyes of giant wolves who were salivating as if they couldn’t wait to tear my head from my shoulders.
All right. So maybe he had a point.
“Fine,” I said. “I’d like to amend my statement to Nothing will happen to me as long as you’re with me.”
“Good. See to it that you keep me with you when you leave the house—at least at night. And maybe you could tell me when, oh, I don’t know, you see any stalker-like mortal enemies staring up at your bedroom window.”
“Fair enough. Now, let’s go.”
I pivoted and looked toward the forest, suddenly struck by the realization that I had no idea where to start the search for the aforementioned mortal enemy.
Multiple trails led into the woods, some more established than others. Most had been carved out over years by the neighborhood’s more adventurous kids.
“I’m sure he’s in there,” I said. “But I’m not sure where, exactly…”
Callum’s certainty was unflinching. “He’s gone down the path to the right.”
“How do you know?”
“I can smell him.”
I shot him a look of surprise. He’d never mentioned before that he could pick up the scents of Waergs like a tracking hound.
He shrugged. “What can I tell you? My sense of smell has become a little more acute lately. It’s one of the few benefits of having an overly active dragon living rent-free inside my head.”
“Cool.” I drew my dagger, sliding it out slowly enough to muffle the whisper of steel against the leather sheath. “I’m going to move into my Shadow form.”
“Good. I’ll fly overhead so I can get a look at the woods.”
“Fly? Are you sure that’s…safe? Your dragon is…” I didn’t want to say the words out loud. That his dragon was becoming more erratic, more willful. It wasn’t like he didn’t already know that the day was coming when he would change forever.
“Keeping him imprisoned inside me will only make him more restless than he already is. It’ll probably be good for me to free him for a little and let him think he’s in control.”
“But what if someone sees you?”
“No one will—at least no one we need to worry about. You, on the other hand, should worry about being seen, at least by the Waerg. Make sure you stay hidden from him, no matter what. This is a reconnaissance mission only.”
I nodded. “Don’t worry. I have zero interest in being spotted by a slobbering wolf who looks like he’s itching to devour my liver with some fava beans.”
Laughing, Callum backed away as we reached the trailhead, and with a quick, brilliant flash, he took off, his massive golden wings propelling him into the air.
A pang of wistful regret tore at my chest to watch the nameless dragon lunge skyward. He was easily the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen…aside from Callum himself.
I was fond of the dragon, which was odd, considering that he could decide any day now to char-broil me. Or worse, he could steal Callum away from me forever.
I sent a mental thought out to the majestic beast as I watched him disappear over the trees. You’re a part of Callum. Believe it or not, that’s enough to make me love you.
For now.
With a hard exhalation, I turned to focus on my own ground-level mission.
My transition into Shadow form, as always, was excruciating. But I’d grown so used to it that I almost looked forward to the brief injection of pain. It was like the searing ache of a good workout—a throb deep within my muscles and bones. Something I knew was good for me, that made me stronger, safer, all but invincible.
When the pain dissipated, I began the hunt.
The scent of damp leaves clung to the air as I glided, unseen, between the trees. It was too dark to make out much of anything, other than the scattered silhouettes of ancient oaks and maple trees. But after a time, I spotted something moving in the distance: a figure with the unmistakable gait of a wolf.
For a time, I followed my prey, my blade clenched in my right hand. After a few minutes, I was close enough to see him outlined against a bank of white-barked birch trees. His sleek coat was a dark charcoal gray over top of rippling, powerful-looking muscles.
He stopped to sniff the air, turning to look behind him as if he was vaguely aware of an encroaching threat.
When I caught the bright flash of his eyes, I gasped.
His glowing irises flickered silvery-blue in the moonlight. In a flood of horrific memories, I was reminded of a certain intolerably cruel, shape-shifting warlock I’d encountered in the Otherwhere.
But no. This Waerg wasn’t Lumus. He was tame by comparison and far less frightening than the silver-haired monster I’d had the misfortune of getting to know.
The monster who’d killed a fellow Seeker and had all but torn my soul from my chest in the process.
For whatever reason, the wolf I was looking at now seemed more mischievous than destructive. He exuded a surprising sort of gentleness—if there even was such a thing as a gentle Waerg. He didn’t feel like a killer, which I supposed explained why I hadn’t felt compelled to tell Callum about him on the first night we’d spent in town.
The Waerg was a Watcher, perhaps. Possibly a sentinel sent by the Usurper Queen to keep an eye on me and report back, in case I appeared to be on the verge of discovering the location of the next Relic of Power.
Whoever he was, I needed to keep an eye on him, so I decided to get a closer look. I needed to study him, to memorize his face, so I could describe him to Callum in detail.
But as I slid silently around the broad, rough trunk of an ancient tree, I cursed under my breath.
He was gone.
Spotted
Somewhere in the distance, the distinct, percussive snap of a dry branch echoed through the silent forest.
I ran toward the sound, careful not to slam face-first into any of the tree trunks blocking my path. I may have been little more than mist, but I was no ghost. It wasn’t like I could run through solid objects. And the last thing I needed was to knock half my teeth out in a moment of excessive confidence.
When I finally found myself emerging into a small clearing, I was surprised to find my eyes meeting Callum’s. He was breathing heavily, no doubt winded from trying to maintain control over his dragon.
I pulled out of my Shadow form, struggling to keep myself from crying out with the pain of the change. “Did you…is he…” I sputtered as soon as I was able to speak, but I stopped myself. I didn’t have the courage to ask if he’d actually killed the Waerg. Somehow, the thought of drawing blood here in my hometown was more gruesome than doing so in the Otherwhere.
To my relief, he shook his head, his fierce blue eyes dancing with red and orange flames that pierced through the darkness. His dragon, it seemed, was still very much awake inside him.
Callum tilted his head toward the sky. “I saw him from above the treetops, standing right here. It was the weirdest thing…”
“What happened?”
“He shifted into his human form.”
“Why would he do that? He had to know he was being watched. Why make himself vulnerable?”
“Honestly, I have no idea. He spun around a few times before he ran off—he even glanced upward at one point. Some part of me thinks he wanted me to see him, though I have no idea why.”
“Did you get a good enough look that you’d be able to recognize him on the street?”
“That I did,” Callum replied with an impish grin, stepping over and pulling me close even as the last vestiges of his dragon faded from his irises. “I know his face now, both in human and wolf form. Not to mention that I’m all too familiar with his scent. I’ll be able to track him to anywhere in town. Though I suspect I won’t have to look very far.”
“Why do you say that?”
“He’s young. Seventeen, maybe eighteen. Tall. Very good-looking, too. I suspect the girls at your school will go mad over him.”
“Wait—you think he might be a student at Plymouth High?”
Callum nodded. “It’s a definite possibility. Even if he hides from us for the next several days, we’re bound to run into him once school begins. He’ll stand out in a crowd, that one. He’s not exactly your average teenage boy.”
“Sounds like another not-so-average teenage boy I know,” I chuckled, relieved to be done with the Waerg for the time being. “Well, I hope you’re right about finding him. He was freaking me out, and I’d love to give him a piece of my mind. I’m not crazy about being stalked.”
“Yeah, well, I still wish you’d told me about him sooner. I don’t like the idea of someone watching you. Unless it’s me, of course.”
“I told you why I kept it to myself.” I bit my lip, unsure if I should say anything else. “But…I’ll admit part of it was pure selfishness. I didn’t want to ruin our time together. We finally get to sleep in the same bed every night, and, well, getting to spend nights with you without worrying about waking up at dawn to get my ass kicked in the sparring ring is quite a luxury, you know. It’s not something I wanted to give up. I just wanted a few days of normal.”
“I suppose that’s fair. Normal can be quite nice sometimes, though I think you or I would wither and die if we were to suffer through a lifetime of it.”
“I guess the good news,” I said, “is that this little night-time adventure wasn’t entirely unpleasant. For once, I got to stalk a Waerg, instead of the other way around. I think I could really learn to enjoy the rogue assassination game. I mean, if the thought of actually assassinating anyone didn’t make me sick to my stomach.”
