Hello,
everyone! I’m Ella Summers, and I’m a fantasy and paranormal author. I have a FREE
NOVEL for you today. It’s called Magic Eclipse, and it’s the latest book
set in the world of my bestselling Dragon Born series.
They
were lovers. Now they’re enemies.
A
magic shock wave cuts across the world—fracturing reality, leaving only a dark
Shadow World in its place.
Former
monster-hunting mercenary mage Sera Dering is fighting for her right to exist.
Labeled as an abomination, she’s caught in a
supernatural war that has been raging for centuries between her kind and the
Magic Council’s Crusaders. But when people from both sides
begin to go missing, Sera has to team up with Kai Drachenburg, the Crusaders’ commander.
She soon discovers that the mysterious fog rolling across San Francisco is only
half as dangerous as the sexy, powerful dragon-shifting mage who brings out
memories in her of a forgotten world.
As
the commander of the Crusaders’ North American army
and a member of one of the world’s oldest magic
dynasties, it is Kai’s sworn duty to hate Sera. But as they work
together to fight the magic fog plaguing the city, he finds himself drawn to
her in ways he cannot understand. Their new alliance is tested, however, when
they begin to realize that someone close to them is behind the dark spell—and
that the fog is more than it seems.
AND
HERE’S THE BOOK…
The Fairy Queen was
packed that Saturday afternoon, not surprising considering it was the best
dress shop in all of San Francisco. The bundle of tiny silver bells over the
door jingled, signaling new arrivals: a pair of combat mages, dressed in
leather and denim and armed to the teeth with enough steel to make even a
former monster-hunting mercenary like Sera gawk at the ostentatiousness of it
all. As they stepped inside, she reached automatically for her sword—but she
dropped her hand the moment they turned toward the rack of dresses on summer
clearance. It appeared they were just regular shoppers after all.
“I’ll
take the one on the left,” Lara told Sera, her head peeking over the rack of
white wedding dresses she’d been browsing. “You
go for the one on the right. She’s giving those
sundresses a shifty look.”
“Sorry,” Sera said. “I
thought they might be assassins.”
“I
don’t
think anyone is crazy enough to come after the mage who defeated the Grim
Reaper.”
Maybe Lara was right.
In the past few weeks, no one had made a move against Sera, even though the
whole world knew by now precisely what she was. Whether they were afraid of her
or simply afraid of Kai she didn’t know. But she couldn’t
just let her guard down. The supernatural world considered her an abomination.
Sooner or later, someone crazy enough would come along and try to grant her an
early grave. There were more than a few members of the Magic Council who were
still sour about the fact that they weren’t allowed to kill her—at
least not if they didn’t want her dragon-shifting fiancé to step on
them.
“I’ll
watch the door,” Lara said. “You concentrate on your assigned mission.” She
held up the only scarlet wedding dress amongst a sea of white fabric.
“I
don’t
know. It’s a bit ostentatious, don’t you think?” Sera
fingered the stitching on the dress’s high thigh slits.
Well, at least she could kick in that skirt.
“My brother shifts
into a twenty ton dragon. He loves ostentatious.” Lara waved the dress
in front of Sera. “Try it on. You know you want to.”
“I think I stand out
enough already.”
“Well, you won’t be
wearing that big sword on your wedding day.”
“No sword? I was
thinking it would make a great accessory.” Sera
smirked at her.
“It’s a
good thing you’re not planning the wedding.”
“Afraid I’d
scandalize your parents?”
Kai and Lara hailed
from one of the supernatural community’s oldest and most
powerful magic dynasties. The Drachenburgs owned the world’s largest magical
research company and had a seat on the Magic Council, the organization that
ruled the supernatural world. And along with all that power and prestige came a
generous helping of age-old traditions. That was just part of being one of the
magical elite. If someone had told Sera just a year ago that she would be
marrying into one of these dynasties, she’d have laughed in
their face.
And yet here she was.
“You’re
the woman who finally got my brother to settle down, the one who tamed the
dragon. The perfect son.” Lara rolled her eyes with sisterly affection.
Sera snorted.
“Of course our parents
adore you,” Lara continued. “They never thought Kai would marry. Like ever.”
Luckily, the
Drachenburgs didn’t have a problem with her unusual magic. And
they were refusing to let anyone else have a problem with it either. Sera had
never had anyone except her own family look out for her like that, but Kai’s
family was. That meant a lot. There weren’t many people who
would stick out their neck for a Dragon Born mage.
Long ago, the Dragon
Born had been respected, worshipped even. But the supernatural community had
turned against them the day they’d learned that the
Dragon Born weren’t dragons but instead people with a split
persona: a mage side and a dragon side. Sera’s dragon was a part of
her, but during battle she could break away from her, taking corporeal form to
fight alongside her.
After the Magic
Council had made that little discovery seven centuries ago, they’d
labeled the Dragon Born abominations and had hunted them to near extinction.
The only Dragon Born mages who’d survived had done so
by hiding what they were.
The stupid thing about
all of this was the Magic Council considered the other two kinds of dragon
magic—mages who could shift into dragons like Kai, and mages who could summon
strands of brilliant magic and bind them together into the form of a dragon—as
the epitome of all magic. Dragon shifters and dragon summoners were the top of
the top, their futures forever secure in the mage hierarchy.
And yet everyone
continued to hate the Dragon Born, all because a few of Sera’s
kind had once decided it would be funny to convince the supernatural community
to worship them. It probably hadn’t taken much
convincing either, likely nothing more than landing in the middle of their
village. A full-grown dragon was an impressive sight to behold.
“Are you all right?” Lara
asked Sera, her smooth forehead crinkling with concern.
“Fine,” Sera assured
her with a smile, shaking aside the worried thoughts buzzing around inside of
her head. She couldn’t spend every waking hour worrying about what
the Council would or wouldn’t do. She had to live
life. “And I think that I will try that dress on.”
Lara’s
mouth lifted into a smile as Sera took the scarlet dress from her and headed
for the dressing rooms at the back. Maybe she really should wear red at her
wedding. The color looked good on her, and wasn’t that what the
wedding was all about: her and Kai? Not the bureaucracy. Not the hurdles.
You break down
hurdles,
her dragon Amara commented inside her head.
Sera chuckled, leaning
her sword against the wall. True. She set her boots
down beside it. But I think we have to play this song and dance for just a
little longer. We have to give the Drachenburgs the wedding they’ve
been waiting for.
Plus, you want to wear
a pretty dress, Amara said.
Pu-lease. I’ll
have you know that I’m a kick-ass
mercenary. She tossed her clothes into the corner.
Former mercenary. You
work for Kai now.
I thought you approved
of my decision.
I do. The monsters are
more interesting, and the pay doesn’t suck. Kai isn’t an insufferable
penny-pincher like your last boss. And there are other benefits.
Like my own armory
closet,
Sera said, beaming.
And nookie with the
boss.
You have the maturity
of a twelve-year-old. You know that, right?
I’m
a part of you. I’m only as mature as
you are, Amara told her.
Sera couldn’t
argue with that, so she looked at the dress. Over or under?
Under, Amara told her, projecting an impish smirk into her head. You
wouldn’t want to mess up your hair.
Before coming to the
Fairy Queen, Sera had spent three hours sitting on her rear end at a hair
salon. Lara had made the hairdresser try out a dozen different elaborate styles
before they’d finally settled on one. Sera wasn’t
sure who had suffered more, she or the hairdresser. But of one thing she was
absolutely positive: this is why so many people eloped.
She wished she could
just bolt out of here and go find Kai. Then the two of them would go back to
their apartment to eat pizza and laugh over cheesy action movies as magic
flames burned peacefully in the fireplace. From the day they’d
met, they’d had to deal with one crisis after the other.
But now they had some time to rest, to enjoy things. They should be spending it
together. Who knew how long they’d have before the
world went to hell again.
Sera had just finished
zipping up the dress when her jeans buzzed. She reached down, digging through
her pocket until she found her phone. Kai’s name shone on the
screen, as though he’d read her thoughts. As though he’d
known she was thinking about him.
She grinned and
answered the call. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
“So, what’s up?” she asked, turning to get a better look at herself in
the mirror.
The skirt of the dress
kissed the floor, the fabric folds hiding the side slits nicely—but they were
still there, just in case monsters crashed the wedding. Geez, what was wrong
with her? She shouldn’t be thinking about monsters crashing her
wedding.
“I just got out of a
meeting,” Kai said.
“On a Saturday? They
don’t give you a break.”
“The world does not
stop because it’s the weekend.”
Especially, not if you
were running a multi-billion dollar company. Or fighting evil supernatural
masterminds.
“What was it this
time?” she asked. “Researchers fighting over growing plots for their plants?
Escaped wildebeests? Kitten with a sprained ankle?”
The phone line buzzed
softly with his laughter. “One of these days, that smart mouth is going to get
you into trouble.”
“Too late. It already
attracted your attention.”
“Yes, it has,” he
replied, his words dripping with satisfaction. “I’m finished here. What
do you say we go train your magic for a few hours?”
Sera had spent years
hiding her magic—a consequence of wanting to stay alive when the punishment for
her existence was death—so she was still getting the hang of it. Kai was
helping her. Training with him was brutal because he didn’t hold back, no matter
how much he liked you. She often ended their training sessions with more than a
few scrapes and bruises—or even broken bones. But it was making her stronger.
Kai was a firm
believer of the ‘what doesn’t kill you only makes
you stronger’ philosophy.
She’d once had the line printed on one of the muscle t-shirts he
liked so much.
“Training, you say?” she
replied. “Tempting.”
“I’ll
buy you pizza afterwards.”
“Wizard
House Pizza?”
“Of course,” he said
immediately.
It was no wonder he
was such a successful businessman. He knew everyone’s weakness. And pizza
was hers.
“Now you’re
just making it impossible for me to refuse,” she told him.
“Then
don’t.”
“Kai, I wish I could,
but I’m busy for the next…” Week? Month? Who knew how much more
wedding stuff Lara had planned for her. “Busy until tonight.” If Lara wasn’t
done with her by then, Sera was abandoning ship.
“What are you doing?” He
said it perfectly casually.
“Trying on wedding
dresses with Lara at the Fairy Queen.”
At that, he laughed
out loud. “Try not to sound like you’re being tortured.”
“It is torture.
She’s making me try on everything. After awhile, the dresses all
start to look the same.”
“You’ve
defeated demons and Grim Reapers and basically every monster on this earth,
Sera,” he said. “You can handle my twenty-two-year-old sister.”
“It was only one
demon and one Grim Reaper. And your sister is freakishly stubborn.” Sera
grinned. “She must get that from you.”
“Indeed.” He chuckled. “I can
be there in ten minutes.”
“You want to try on
dresses?” she teased.
“No, I want to help
you try them on. And take them off,” he added, his words loaded with
suggestion.
“Kai,
I’m not making out with you in Nelly’s changing room. She
would kill me.”
“Who said anything
about making out?” He clicked his tongue. “You need to get your mind out of the
gutter, sweetheart.”
“Come say that to my
face, dragon,” she shot back.
“Thank you for the
invitation. I believe that I will.”
“Wait,
stop,” she
said quickly, backpedaling out of the hole she’d just dug for
herself. “Lara says the dress has to be a surprise. She doesn’t
want you to come.”
“But you do.
And you just invited me. See you soon.” Then he hung up, the devious dragon.
Sighing, Sera stepped
out of the dressing room, her skirt swaying gracefully as she crossed the
floor. Lara’s hazel eyes lit up the moment she saw her.
“Perfect,” she told
Sera, wiggling her pink-tipped fingernails. The color perfectly matched the
flowers on her yellow sundress. “That’s the one.”
Sera stood inside the
circle of mirrors, turning around. The dress was beautiful. There was no
denying that.
“So,” Sera began as
Lara walked around her, brushing down the wrinkles in the dress. “Kai is coming
here.”
Lara froze. “Damn it,
Sera. I told you not to invite him. This is top secret.”
“Come on. We’re
not infiltrating an enemy stronghold. It’s a wedding. Shouldn’t
the groom get to see the dress too?”
“He’ll
see it when you walk down the aisle,” Lara replied stubbornly.
“Well, actually, he’ll
see it in about ten minutes. Less than that if he ignores the rules of the
road.” Which he probably would. Kai believed the rules were only for people
without supernatural response times and the ability to magically nudge other
vehicles out of the way.
As instantly as she’d
stopped, Lara was moving again, shoving Sera back toward the changing room. “Not
if I can help it. Hurry. Get changed out of the dress before he gets here.”
Sera was about to
argue about the utter ridiculousness of this all when dark shadows fell over
the shop, like someone had taken out the sun. Sera slipped past Lara, hurrying
toward the shop’s large glass windows to peer outside at an
eclipsed sun.
But it wasn’t
just any eclipse. The moon in front of it looked strange, like it was doubled.
Like one was a shadow of the other.
“This isn’t
right,” Sera commented.
Weird magic was
brewing, building up to something. She could feel it in the air. In her blood.
A shrill note sang
out, piercing the cold silence. Magic erupted, a wave of unfathomable energy
tearing down the street. Buildings shattered, one after the other, the
cacophony of magic swallowing the screams of everyone caught in its wake,
silencing them.
The shock wave was
almost to the Fairy Queen. Sera didn’t stop to think. There
wasn’t time for reason, only action. She tackled Lara to the ground,
covering Kai’s sister with her body as the shop’s
windows exploded, raining glass down upon them.
Magic rippled through
her, swirling inside her mind. Images flashed through her head, images of herself
doing things she’d never done, of a world that never was. She
saw her city torn apart by strife. She saw herself and Kai on opposite sides of
a war, fighting each other—hating each other.
No!
It’s
not real,
Amara said.
It can’t
be.
Sera pushed against the wave of images flooded her mind, drowning her. One by
one, her own memories began to fade out, replaced by a life not her own. She
fought against this dark magic.
And she lost.
Kai, I will find you.
They can’t
keep us apart, she promised, her tears mixing with her fading memories as the
new, cruel world consumed her.
* * * * *
What to read the rest? You can find the
complete free book at:
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