Hey readers!
If you've read the Bridger series, you'll know about Memaw, my kick-arse ninja granny. :) This novella is tentatively titled Assassin Rising, and if you guys like this, I might have to release the novella. Let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading,
Megan
PROLOGUE of ASSASSIN RISING
The blood in my
veins went cold. Air hitched in my throat. My stomach felt as though it was
filled with lead. Panic sunk in. “This isn’t MaKenna!”
My husband ran
into the room. “What to do you mean that isn’t MaKenna?”
“Paul, I know my
daughter, and this isn’t MaKenna! Her eyes, look at them!”
The child I held
in my arms was withering before our very eyes. I looked up to see the terror-filled
eyes of Paul. He looked as though he had seen a ghost. He raised a hand
shakily. “A-A-Ank…”
He didn’t have to
finish his sentence. The air around us grew cold. The water that was in the cup
on the nightstand froze over on top. Ankou was here.
“I have her,
Emily. She’s safe. She’s better off now.”
I didn’t look
behind me to see him. Instead, I gazed down into the coal black eyes of the
Changeling that manifested in my arms. I dropped the filthy thing on the floor,
disgusted by what I thought was my child for the past two months. How could I
have missed the signs? Was I that blind, or had I just denied the fact that I
knew? What kind of mother was I?
Paul’s face
contorted in rage. “You bastard! You told us we were safe if we followed you!”
Ankou chuckled. “I
said you were safe. Not your child,
stupid human. She will be used to strengthen our bloodlines. We’ll be better
with her. Thank you for your generous contribution.”
That was it. Ankou
may have shown me his power multiple times, but he was also half my size. He’d
taken my only child – my reason for breathing – and it was more than I could
bear.
I grabbed him by
his hair and held him in the air. Before he could disappear or say an
incantation, I snatched up the iron chain on the nightstand by MaKenna’s crib. We
had always kept iron in the house to defend ourselves against the Fae; how
could one have infiltrated and we not notice? In one swift movement I wrapped the
chain around Ankou’s neck and ran into the living room.
The only chance I
had was to use the incantation I’d watched Ankou use to bring Morgan, or as we
called her, The Fates. “Arcessere quas!”
There was no
reason to think she’d side with me. We both worked for Ankou. I could only pray
she had some sense of a soul within her. Her sister, The Morrigan, certainly
didn’t.
Paul was wide-eyed
in the doorway. He sobbed, but the betrayal he felt shone through his eyes.
“Emily, what have you done?”
“I’m getting our
daughter back!”
Ankou cackled as
he struggled against his bonds. “You’ll never find her, and I don’t know why
you’d want to. You should be honored to have her strengthening the Changeling
bloodlines. That’s what you wanted, right?”
Morgan’s silvery
grey wisps began to appear, then her jet-black sheet of hair, and finally her
body. The grey mist hovered around her feet until she stepped out of it.
“Ankou? What is this?”
“I called you
here, Morgan,” I said as I clamped a hand over Ankou’s mouth. “He kidnapped
MaKenna and won’t tell me where she is. He needs to pay.”
Morgan stood
there, silent. Panic was taking over again. I shook Ankou wildly. “Look at him!
Look at what he’s done! Do you think he’ll keep any promises he’s given you?”
I threw Ankou to
the ground, the iron still in place, which rendered him helpless. He grabbed at
the iron, but it singed his hands when he gripped it. He writhed on the ground
as smoke rose from around his neck. “You treacherous human! Do you really think
I’ll let you get away with this?”
“You won’t have a
choice. You’re done here.”
Morgan’s
proclamation shocked me. I looked up to see the resignation etched in her face.
She was forming a red sphere in her hands. “I don’t like doing this, Emily, but
you summoned me. I’m bound to do what you want. I don’t appreciate this.”
She irritated me.
I needed my daughter back and she was talking about whether or not she liked the
situation.
I’d reached the
end of my rope. “Fine. Fine. I’ll do it myself.”
Without another
second passing by, I picked Ankou up and threw him in the fireplace. The fire
was nearly dead, but when Ankou hit the embers, flames licked up around him. He
screamed in agony.
“Now will you tell
me where MaKenna is?” I yelled over his shrieks.
He writhed in pain
and tried to escape the flames. “You’ll pay for this!!”
“No, because
you’ll be dead,” I spat.
Morgan stepped
between us and looked back at me. “If you kill him, what really have you
accomplished? There are worse things than death.”
She turned and
slathered her whole right arm with the red smoke ball she’d created. With her
arm covered, she pulled Ankou out of the fire. “Ankou, you will be unable to
die, yet unable to heal from these wounds. You will always be mutilated. You
will never find the peace of passing over, but you will be in charge of making
sure everyone finds peace in their deaths.”
Ankou let out a
furious scream, but then the power of Morgan’s proclamation took effect. His
body went rigid, and he hovered in the air in a trance. Morgan reached out to
grab him, but without warning, he opened his eyes and smiled an evil smile.
“You think you can defeat me? I’ve taken precautions against traitors like you!
You can’t invoke my own spells on me!”
“Oh yes I can,”
Morgan countered. “You gave me more powers than you know. I will make sure you
are taken out, one way or another.”
Morgan filled her
hands with white light and shoved it into Ankou’s face. With a sudden crash,
his body hit the floor and exploded into dust.
“You killed him,
Morgan!” I accused. “You killed him when you said you wouldn’t!”
“I didn’t kill
him, you fool,” she countered, “Didn’t you listen to what I said? He’s not able
to die. For now.”
“What do you mean,
for now?”
Morgan shrugged,
seemingly not worried at all. “That spell will a few months at best. I don’t
know enough to really cause much damage.”
“Are you kidding me?”
She put her hands
in the air. “I didn’t want to be part of this. You summoned me. I had to obey,
so I did enough to get by.”
“I need my
daughter back!”
“Not my problem.
You sided with faeries. You, of all people, should know we faeries are not to
be trusted.”
Without saying
another word, she disappeared into the grey wisps of smoke that signaled her
arrival not ten minutes before. I stood there numb, covered in dust, and
nowhere nearer to my daughter than I had before it all began.
Before I sided
with the wrong people.
I’d forgotten Paul
was even here. He reminded me of it in a cold, cruel tone that I’d never heard
from him before. “I hate you, Emily.”
My skirt swirled around
me as I whipped my body in his direction. “What… what did you say?”
“I hate you. You
did this. You caused all of this. We’ve lost our daughter because of you.”
Tears began to
fill my eyes. “No, no, no, Paul. You know why I agreed to work for Ankou. I was
trying to protect you. Protect MaKenna. Protect us.”
“And a fat lot of
good it did, didn’t it?” He spat, “You’ve lost my daughter, Emily! You know
spells and people I never dreamed of. You said you didn’t know any spells, but
how did that Morgan woman get here without you calling on her? You’ve lied to
me from the beginning!”
“Paul, I didn’t
mean for it to be this way. You’ve got to understand – “
He held up his
hands to stop me. “No, you’ve got to understand me, Emily. I’m done. I’m done
with this. The lies, the trickery, the deceit that comes with associating with
faeries. I want none of it. You’re on your own.”
I fell to my
knees, unable to move. “Paul, no, if you go – if you leave – I’ll have no one.”
He didn’t even
turn to look around as he walked away. “Which is what you deserve.”
Silence filled the
now empty room.
Tears spilled
over. I was alone. I’d caused this. My intentions had been pure: protect my
family. But now, because of me, I was alone.
I needed help. I
needed to fix this.
Without thinking
it through, I stood weakly and stumbled my way to the door.
Desire for revenge
and hatred of what I’d become fueled my steps. Ankou talked of another faerie
race – one he loathed for their benevolent interest in humans – and I thought I
knew where one could be found.
I tripped over
tree roots blindly and waved my arms in front of me to feel my way through the
pitch black forest. Desperation filled every ounce of my being. I would do
anything to save MaKenna. Anything.
Movement. I heard
movement ahead. There was a crunch of underbrush, and I ran toward it. “Help,
please! Please stop! I need help!”
I tripped over a
tree root. Mud filled my mouth. Still, I gurgled out pleas of help while trying
to spit out the goo. “Please, I know you’re a Glaistig. I’m willing to do
anything. I can help you defeat Ankou. Please, let me help you in your battle.”
The crunching
stopped, then began again. It came closer, and for a split second I wondered if
I’d made the right decision.
A woman’s sweet
voice filled the air. “You can help us stop Ankou, you say?”
“I can,” I
sputtered. “I know him personally. Where he’ll be, what he does. You need me.”
The woman laughed.
“I don’t know if we need you, but if you can provide that kind of information,
it’d certainly be helpful.”
She cracked her
knuckles. “I really hope the Committee doesn’t get upset about me creating
another member without it going to a vote. They’ll be disgruntled if you have
no outstanding abilities. Please don’t be a waste.”
The woman’s face
illuminated by the orange light she created in her hands. Her bright red hair
fell in waves around her beautiful face. She smiled, and her perfectly aligned,
pure white teeth gleamed in the moonlight. “This may hurt a bit when it fills
your nostrils, but don’t try to hold your breath. It just prolongs the pain.
Good luck.”
The orange light
covered me. I didn’t even have time to argue. I opened my mouth to scream, but
the orange light was thick and filled my mouth. The words she said rang in my
ears.
Don’t try to hold your breath.
I didn’t have
anything to live for anyway, so I listened to her advice. The orange substance
danced around my nose, so I took in a deep breath.
Everything went
black.
