Black Orchid
black orchid
Book # 4 of the Svatura Series
by Abigail Owen
Copyright
© 2014 by Abigail Owen
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or
used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN 978-0-9882272-3-1
DEDICATION
To
Jason.
Thank
you, my friend, for an entire series of gorgeous book covers and putting up
with my down-to-the-pixel requests. You’re the best!
All
flowers have a meaning. In the Victorian era, people used flowers as symbols to
express their feelings.
black
orchid:
magnificence,
love, beauty, refinement, reflection,
great
power and absolute authority
“Lila!”
Adelaide Jenner
screamed the one panicked word into her sister’s mind.
Lila
was in the middle of explaining to the High Council her part in the most recent
battle with their enemies. The debriefing had been going on for the past week. Technically,
Adelaide wasn’t supposed to interrupt. The purpose of the meeting was to figure
out how to defeat Maddox, an incredibly powerful dragon metamorph whose main
goal in life seemed to be the annihilation of any Svatura who didn’t follow
him. They’d fought him more times than Adelaide cared to remember and still
they’d yet to defeat him, despite all the extraordinary powers on their side.
Maddox always managed to stay one step ahead.
But
right now Adelaide needed Lila. To hell with the debriefing.
“What?”
Lila’s
telepathic response was immediate.
“Nate’s
leaving. Something’s wrong. I know it,”
Adelaide replied frantically. At the
same time, Adelaide sprinted through the halls of the Vyusher castle to where
she could feel Nate’s presence. He was trying to keep his mind closed to her
but wasn’t entirely successful. And what she found in his thoughts made her
sick.
“I’m
coming, Delia. Where?”
Lila answered after a few tense moments.
Adelaide
flashed her sister images of where she was headed – a cell in the lower levels
of the castle. Muscles burning, all she could hear was her harsh breathing and
the slap of her shoes against the stone flooring as she sped around the final
corner. There, in front of the room, were two guards unconscious on the floor.
The sharp scent of blood filled the air.
She
skidded to a halt in the open doorway, and what she saw almost brought her to
her knees. Nate Pierce was her best friend, her only love, her
te’sorthene
.
The word literally meant a friend bonded by heart or sprit. For Svatura it
represented a predestined bond between two people that was elemental, almost
physical. But Nate stood beside three other women, all known associates of
Maddox. She barely acknowledged their presence.
Adelaide
focused solely on the man who was being pulled away from her, like a wave being
sucked back into the ocean by the tide. But
she
was the one drowning.
“Nate?”
She
heard the pathetic quiver in her voice, but pride was something she’d gladly
sacrifice if it meant saving him.
Adelaide
didn’t move any closer. Some sixth sense warned her that he could be dangerous
if she did. She searched his face - his usually laughing, warm brown eyes – for
any trace of the man she’d known for so long. But all she saw was a wall of
hard, dark indifference. He said nothing. She felt the blood drain from her face
as a rush of despair rode in on a surge of dizziness, swamping her vision.
Just
then Lila flew around the corner, followed closely by her own
te’sorthene
,
Ramsey. They hurried to her side, and Adelaide vaguely registered Lila’s shocked
gasp. With effort she struggled to keep from passing out, pushing her way
through the darkness that threatened to consume her sight. She had to concentrate
on doing something… anything… to keep from losing the best man she’d ever
known.
“Don’t
do this, Nate,” Adelaide begged in a broken whisper. “Don’t go.” She held her
hand out to him imploringly. She touched nothing but air.
“Talia’s
my
te’sorthene
,” Nate said as he took a step back. “I have to go.”
Adelaide
felt shaking start deep inside her. “
I’m
your
te’sorthene
.”
“Are
you?” A cruel sneer curled his lip.
Oh,
God. Please no
.
Adelaide quickly engaged her ability to see relationships. The glittering red
line that had always represented their connection as
te’sorthene
was
still in place. But just barely. It was faded and slightly frayed, but it was
still there.
Adelaide
shuddered with relief, desperately holding onto this one remaining shred of hope.
“Goodbye,
Adelaide,” Nate said. And he was gone.
With
no warning the barely-there thread of the
te’sorthene
line connecting herself
and Nate snapped in half. At the same time, Adelaide felt as if a wall of
terror and heartbreak had smashed through and splintered her soul. Her mouth
opened in a silent scream, the sound welling up from deep within.
“No!”
she choked as she fell to her knees, sobbing. “No! No! No!”
Adelaide
wrapped her arms around her stomach, rocking back and forth, trying to hold
herself together
as
her body wracked with trembles
. But nothing eased her torment. She turned to Lila
with a look so tortured, her sister actually flinched. She felt a dreadful,
uncontrollable
something
building inside her, deep in the hole Nate’s leaving
had created inside her heart.
Adelaide’s
breathing came out in uneven pants. “I can’t… I can’t… Please help me.”
She
was barely aware that Lila had knelt and wrapped her arms around her. After a
small moment, Adelaide felt tendrils of serenity start to move through her. She
realized that Lila was doing the one thing in her power to help her sister—
using her ability to heal emotions. Gradually Adelaide’s body relaxed until her
sobs stopped and her head lolled on Lila’s shoulder. She was subdued but still
lucid.
Lila
whispered to Ramsey, “I saw what losing his family – his
te’sorthene
–
did to Maddox. It turned him into a psychopath. Adelaide’s mind…her spirit…might
not survive this.”
“Maddox
didn’t have anyone to help him. He lost his entire family. Adelaide has us.
We’ll help her,” Ramsey said.
But
I don’t want to survive this.
And
then darkness claimed her.
Six
months later…
Escaping
from the constant cold was impossible these days, even inside the walls of the
castle. But Adelaide didn’t feel the bite of the chill anymore. She was
too
numb to feel
much of anything and had been for months. Ever since Nate had left and Lila had
turned off Adelaide’s emotions completely.
It
had been a desperate attempt to save her sanity… to block out that horrible
instant Adelaide had lost her
te’sorthene.
She still relived it any time
she had even a second to herself. Logically she knew that losing Nate was the
worst moment of her entire life, the worst thing that could happen to any
Svatura.
But
emotionally, she felt…
nothing
.
“Hey,
Delia. You ready to go?” a soft female voice interrupted Adelaide’s thoughts.
She’d
been sitting in one of the common rooms of the Vyusher castle, staring,
unseeing, into the fireplace. The Vyusher were a tribe of wolf metamorphs who’d
once included Maddox among their members. Now they were the main target for his
ultimate plan to destroy all Svatura.
Adelaide
glanced up to see Ellie standing in the doorway. The pixie-like girl was Adelaide’s
sister-in-law. Sort of. Ellie had recently married Alex, Adelaide’s adopted
older brother.
“Ready,”
Adelaide said. She tucked a strand of honey-blond hair behind her ear and stood
up. Inwardly she sighed. All they did these days was train.
Ellie
must’ve caught Adelaide’s thoughts with her telepathy because she gave her a
lopsided smile as they headed out of the room, and said, “It’s necessary.”
This
time, Adelaide didn’t bother to hide her sigh. “I’m well aware. Maddox is still
very much a threat. To all of us.”
She
had more cause to hate and fear him than most. Maddox was the reason Nate had
severed their
te’sorthene
bond, But, at most, she felt a sense of
purpose to bring him down. Training and preparing to fight him, or at least being
able to defend against him, gave her something to do.
Ellie
nodded her head seriously, her long, dark ponytail swinging. “He
is
a
threat,” she said. “But more than that, the last time we fought Maddox and his
forces, we were uncoordinated and that cost us. If the four of us had done
anything to prepare ahead of time, that battle could’ve turned out much
differently, and this war could even be over.”
They
let themselves into Ellie’s bedroom, where Lila was waiting. Adelaide shivered
at the chill in the room.
“What
are you talking about?” Lila asked.
Adelaide
shrugged. “All our training.”
“Ah.”
Lila looked back out the open window she’d been facing when they’d come in. “We’ve
got to figure out how to defeat that bastard. If Ellie can’t take him on when
she’s a dragon, then the only chance we have is the four of us working
together.”
In
the last battle, Maddox had revealed that he was a dragon metamorph of
incredible power. He’d come close to killing Ellie, who was the only other
dragon morpher they knew of.
“Besides,”
Lila continued. “We’re not just fighting Maddox. We have an entire contingency
of his people to deal with. All of the Vyusher are training together. But with
our unique set of abilities, it’s important we be just as ready.”
Adelaide
held up her hands, tired of the lecture. “I get it.”
Lila
and Ellie exchanged glances just as Selene entered the room. She paused to
check that the hallway behind her was empty before she closed
the
door.
“I
wasn’t sure you’d make it,” Ellie said to Selene.
As
Queen of the Vyusher, Selene was always insanely busy. “This is too important
to skip, and my High Council
understands
that. We have to be ready,” she said.
“What’s the plan today?”
“We’ll
spend the first half doing solo attack-and-defend,” Ellie said. “After Lila was
almost taken out by that condor morpher and then those lava bombs in the last
fight, we need to improve how we perform in the air when we’re on our own. With
no one there to watch our back.”
All
four girls nodded.
“Is
it clear out there?” Selene asked Lila.
Lila
leaned forward to make one last check and then nodded. “Let’s go.”
Without
further delay all four girls morphed into their falcon forms. They each
shimmered briefly, appearing to be shrouded by mirage-like waves of light as
their bodies silently changed shape.
They
hadn’t always all been falcon metamorphs. Originally only Ellie’d had that power.
But now, thanks to a freak accident almost two years earlier, morphing was a
shared ability.
Lila,
Ellie, and Adelaide had once joined forces to try to help Selene. Her soul had
been scarred by her experiences with Gideon, her twin brother. He’d once ruled
the Vyusher and had brainwashed them into doing unimaginable horrors.
Using
their combined abilities, all four girls had healed that scarring inside
Selene, but their powers had tangled up in the process. Since then, one by one,
each had started manifesting the others’ special traits. Now all four were falcon
metamorphs and telepaths. There were a few other skills mixed in there, but
those were the only two that all four women shared. So far, at least.
Lila
flew out of the opened window first, followed closely by the other three. Thanks
to regular practice, all four birds gained altitude, turned north, and then
split up. The idea was that during the first part of their training session,
they fought each other, working on individual skills. After they did that for
a while
, they’d move to
coordinated attacks and formations. They were careful never to fight directly
over the castle for fear of being spotted by someone who shouldn’t see them.
As
soon as Adelaide reached her desired location in the sky, she soared high, her
wings spread wide as she rode the currents of the wind. She used her sharpened
vision to search for her intended targets. For a brief moment, she appreciated
the tranquil silence that happened when she was able to just be still and
observe the world below.
When
Adelaide had first learned the falcon morph
,
she’d hated flying. She’d gained the
ability just before they’d fought Maddox’s forces that last time, so when she’d
been called upon to use it, she’d really struggled at first. When she was human,
heights gave her vertigo. But now, she’d not only gotten used to it but had come
to trust her new form and her own ability to control it. Ellie had helped her a
lot, and so had the frequent training sessions. Now, flying was the one thing
that gave her any semblance of joy.
But
that wasn’t saying much, and now was not the time to savor this sensation.
Aerial
sparring with the girls was serious business. Adelaide pulled her focus back to
the moment and swooped in ever-widening circles, riding the currents of the
wind, as she searched. The other three were somewhere in the expanse of blue sky.
Ah…
There!
A
flash of bright white.
Selene
. Finally she spied prey, and, even better,
she hadn’t been spotted yet.
Adelaide
tucked her pale yellow wings in close to her body and dove. She reached
dizzying speeds as she dropped through the air. Pulling up only at the last
second, she flared her wings and attacked with her feet first. Her sharp talons
flashed gold in the sunlight as she hacked at her intended target. Selene was
taken by surprise but managed to pull away and then plunge downward.
Damn,
Adelaide
thought as she followed.
But
no matter how streamlined she made herself, pinning her wings tightly back, she
couldn’t catch her quarry. Of the four Selene was the fastest when she moved
into a stoop. Adelaide would’ve been clenching her teeth in frustration if
she’d been in her human form. She needed to go faster.
She
had to—
WHAM!
Adelaide
felt the impact as Lila plowed into her from the side.
“Nice
try,
but a bad idea to risk wrestling with me,”
Adelaide telepathically chided
her sister before twisting in her grasp.
The
two birds twisted and thrashed as they plummeted, beating at each other with
claws and wings and snapping with their sharp beaks. Neither one could get a
good shot at the other. Finally, Adelaide saw her chance. She managed to snag
the top edge of Lila’s wing with her talon. She curled her sharp talons like a
fist
and
ripped a gash open, pulling feathers out with her vicious attack. She felt the
hollow bones of Lila’s wing snap with satisfying ease.
Lila’s
sharp cry pierced the air. Adelaide let her go, allowing her sister to fall
away into the empty space below. She took a moment to halt her own fall, splaying
her wings wide to catch the air. Then she drifted for a moment and watched with
almost dispassionate curiosity as Lila dropped away.
“Help!”
Adelaide heard
Lila’s call.
Suddenly,
Lila morphed back to her human form. She flailed through the air as she found
no way to halt her free fall.
Finally,
some small spark of regret and worry pushed through the frozen void that
surrounded Adelaide’s heart. She tucked in her wings and dove after her sister
with very little chance of catching her. And no idea what she’d do if she did.