Maelstrom, p.1
Maelstrom, page 1
Maelstrom
Bethany Adams
Copyright © 2022 by Bethany Adams
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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eBook design/illustration by The Illustrated Author Design Services (www.theillustratedauthor.net)
Created with Vellum
Contents
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Other Books in Series
Character List and Dictionary
To the “odd” ones out there,
those who feel out of step.
You’re perfect
just the way you are.
Acknowledgments
I have so many thanks to give that it’s always tough to remember. But first, I owe so much to my husband and children, who put up with all my deadlines and grumpiness. I couldn’t do it without you!
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Many thanks to my critique partners, Catherine and Shiloh. Seriously, there aren’t ample words. Without you two, this book wouldn’t be out today, so thank you.
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Thanks also to my cover artist, Melissa Stevens at The Illustrated Author Design Services for my lovely new cover. The last year has been wild, but we’ve made it through!
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Thank you to Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir, and everyone at Skyboat for your amazing work on my audiobooks. I hope you enjoy recording this one.
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And a special thanks Charlotte, Laura, and Stephanie for answering my questions about the Tube in my Facebook group. If I got anything wrong, just consider it an alternate dimension. Hehe.
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Of course, many blessings and thanks go to all my readers. You have no idea how much I treasure your support and kindness. Thank you!
Author’s Note
I’ve done my very best to make each book in my series capable of being read alone, but now that we’re on the ninth book, I thought I’d give a brief summary of the previous books. I’ll also include a character list and short dictionary in the back. If you’re new to the series, only read the rest of this section if you’re okay with spoilers!
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In SOULBOUND, half-blood Arlyn confronts her elven father, Lyr, after traveling to his world. He’s surprised to find that the woman he left on Earth bore him a child, but he welcomes his daughter. But things are far from easy. Not only is Arlyn drawn into a soulbond with her father’s friend, Kai, but her arrival prompts Kai’s father, Allafon, to hasten his plot against Lyr. Arlyn only has time for a little training with new magic teacher, Selia, before she, Lyr, and Kai are taken captive. In the end, Allafon is defeated, but Lyr is injured, and Arlyn’s grandmother almost dies.
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SUNDERED continues the story from Lyr’s point of view. Though Allafon was defeated, the person behind his actions was not. Banished Prince Kien is creating havoc amongst the fae with poisoned energy, and the Neorans, vassals of the Seelie Sidhe, petition Lyr for aid when their city is overrun by disease and madness. As Lyr struggles to help them, another faction of fae, the Ljósálfar, arrive from Alfheim—brought by Meli, his potential soulbonded. Lyr sends Kai to help evacuate the Neorans, but when he arrives, the inhabitants have been massacred. Eventually, Arlyn and Kai manage to destroy the spell causing the poison, but they are captured by a Seelie lord, Naomh, who turns out to be Kai’s true father.
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The novella EXILED features Delbin, a young elf who was sent from Moranaia to Earth when he was a teenager in order to escape Allafon. The scout Inona is sent to check on Delbin. Soon after her arrival, Prince Kien tries to recruit Delbin to join his group of half-bloods. Delbin refuses, and he and Inona eventually track down and capture Kien. Kien escapes, but Delbin is allowed to return to Moranaia and becomes the student of Prince Ralan, a powerful seer.
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In SEARED, Ralan leaves his daughter Eri on Moranaia and returns to Earth to track down his brother Kien. Plagued by visions foretelling his death, Ralan is nevertheless determined to stop Kien for good. In the process, he meets his soulbonded, Cora, who owns a shop where fae can trade gold or jewels for human clothes. Her friend and employee, Maddy, is kidnapped by Kien’s minions, leading Cora to join Ralan in the quest to defeat Kien. With the help of Vek of the Unseelie and his nephew, Fen, Kien is found, although he ultimately escapes to Moranaia. Ralan and Cora confront Kien at the palace. Kien nearly kills Ralan, but Cora manages to save him. The king beheads Kien, but in the process, a mysterious surge of power is released.
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Though Kien was defeated, he used his death to release poison into a barrier that withheld magic from Earth. In ABYSS, the dragon Kezari senses that poison through her link to Earth and goes to retrieve her rider, Aris, only to find him being tortured by his potential soulbonded. After she saves him, Aris agrees to accompany the dragon to Braelyn, the estate of Lord Lyr. Aris doesn’t know that his wife Selia, who believes him to be dead, accepted a position there a few months before. He struggles to deal with his trauma as he longs to reunite with his wife. Although a mind healer helps, Aris must overcome his darkness in time to prevent the barrier from shattering, releasing a catastrophic amount of energy at once. He, Kezari, Selia, and Kai manage to prevent disaster, but in the process, a direct portal is created between Moranaia and Earth, one that will need guarding in the future.
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In AWAKENING, Ralan appoints his sister Dria to be in charge of the new outpost on Earth guarding the portal to Moranaia. In the meantime, the Unseelie prince Vek is tasked by his father to kill the leader of the outpost and claim the power stored there. Beholden to the Moranaians, Vek seeks to find a way out of this order, and while researching, he discovers that the new leader of the outpost is his mate. When the outpost comes under attack, Dria and Vek work together to find the person responsible. They eventually uncover a plot that involves the Unseelie king and the Seelie lord Meren. Dria challenges the king to combat, but Vek’s sister Ara ultimately defeats him, becoming the new Unseelie queen. Meren later attempts to kill Vek but is thwarted.
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Meren continues to cause trouble in ASCENT. This time, he attempts to manipulate Fen and claim the Seelie throne. However, Fen and his potential mates, Maddy and Anna, stumble into one of Meren’s plans to spread poisoned energy and act to diffuse the situation. Eventually, Fen, Maddy, and Anna complete the mate bond and confront Meren. This leads to a fight in the Seelie court, though Meren escapes. Maddy, Fen, and Anna help the Seelie queen by removing a mysterious poison from her blood before returning to the outpost.
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In SOLACE, Meren injects Korel, a former guard at Braelyn, with a virus capable of infecting elves. Korel attacks and infects a mage working at the estate, and while Lial heals the mage, the others search for the perpetrator. In the meantime, Lynia begins research on diseases at the request of Ralan, which throws her together with Lial. As they struggle with their feelings, the search for their new enemy intensifies. Kezari nearly kills Korel in order to help Aris, unleashing the virus and putting everyone in danger. Lial is eventually infected, and Lynia must use her research to save him. Tynan arrives to help settle Aris and to heal Lial, who recovers thanks to a potion of Lynia’s creation.
Chapter 1
Kezari’s wings itched—or perhaps it was her heart.
She snorted, a puff of air streaming from her nose like an errant cloud. If she kept having foolish thoughts, there would no doubt be a trail of her breath across the sky above Braelyn. An itchy heart? A patch of scales she couldn’t shed or a bit of sand caught around her talon—those things were itchy.
Hearts merely beat.
Though as she pitched to the left to make yet another circle around the sprawl of Braelyn’s outer lands, she couldn’t deny the sudden urge to take off for…somewhere. And that was the problem, wasn’t it? That sensation scratching at her insides until she wanted to gnash her teeth. Instinct called her to go, but she didn’t know where.
Not to mention that she didn’t want to leave Aris behind. He was still her skizik, her partner in magic. Not mate, as she’d had to expla
And for whatever reason, Aris was still comfortable with being her skizik despite her recent errors.
Another cloud streamed from her nostrils, and she beat her wings until they ached. Ancestors’ teeth, she muttered to herself. Recent errors? She had crushed the man they sought as though he’d been a stray daeri and had set loose a plague hidden in his blood in the process. One could hardly call unleashing a disease capable of wiping out the elves an error. Disaster. Calamity. Ruin. Those things, yes. A simple mistake? Hardly.
No one held it against her, of course, but that didn’t stop the shame. She should have learned by now that her first instincts were always the wrong ones. This was not the Isle of Dragons, and she couldn’t act as though it were. Perhaps that was the cause of her desire to leave? Yet she didn’t feel the urge to head north and east to her former home.
The itchy feeling might be connected to Earth. Though the energy there had been calmer since she, Aris, and their allies had converted the wall holding back Earth’s magic into a gate linking that world to this one, she had learned that her ancient dragon brethren still existed. The ones who had remained behind when the rest of the dragons journeyed to Moranaia—they were believed to be in hibernation on Earth. But she’d sensed one of them the last time they’d journeyed to the outpost the Moranaians kept hidden in one of Earth’s mountains.
An ancient one.
Active. Waking.
Still, her body didn’t angle toward the territory beyond Braelyn where Prince Ralan was building a new palace to protect the very gate she and Aris had helped to create. Nor did she feel the urge to descend upon the older portal that led to the Veil connecting all worlds. It was something else, and she might go mad if she didn’t determine what.
“Kezari,” Aris said, a worried tone to his mental voice. “Are you not finished hunting? If you didn’t find success, there’s plenty of food here. It’s almost the midday meal.”
“I do not wish to sit at a table in my elven form,” she sent back angrily. Confusion and hurt washed back along their link, and she huffed again. At this rate, she would bring another ice storm’s worth of clouds. “Forgive me, skizik. That healer was particularly unpleasant last night.”
“Lial? I thought he was rather amiable. Has been since settling things with Lynia.”
Kezari rolled over and dropped into a fall, snapping her wings out at the last moment to slow her descent. The top of the tower where Aris often slept rose toward her, and she landed on her usual spot without a sound. Cold wind rushed around her, cooling her heated body as she folded her wings against her sides.
Usually, she would take the time to bask in the frigid air, especially when it was tinged with the promise of a coming storm the way it was now. This time, there might be more snow than ice. A cushion of snow would certainly be easier to walk on when in her elven form. The lack of talons made treading on solid sheets of ice…less than ideal.
After shifting from her dragon form, she opened the hatch in the roof and climbed down into the room below. Except for a bed situated on one side and the seats built into the curve of the walls, no furniture took up space. The only thing—or rather, person—awaiting her here was Aris, who leaned against the edge of the wall at the top of the stairs. His arms were crossed, and his brows pulled down. Signs of displeasure or worry, she’d come to realize.
“Talk to me, Kezari,” he said. “I can feel for myself that something is wrong.”
The puny breath she exhaled in this form had no risk of causing atmospheric disturbances—far less satisfying. “I’m not sure. There is some task that needs to be done, but I have no direction as to what. Perhaps I simply have no direction.”
Aris studied her silently, as deliberative as an elder attempting to divine the ways of the young—not that he was that old or she particularly youthful. He’d probably been the quiet, thoughtful type even before the torture he’d suffered at the hands of his demented almost-soulbonded. Something else Kezari could have prevented if she hadn’t believed the woman and her lies.
“I’m not angry at you,” Aris finally said. “Attacking Korel wasn’t ideal, but you were only trying to protect me. The foul spell he carried truly threatened my sanity. According to Tynan, it was a close thing.”
Kezari snorted. “Tynan. That one is an annoyance. If he wasn’t so helpful to you, I would have roasted him by now.”
This time, Aris’s narrowed eyes held as much speculation as worry. “It’s him, isn’t it? He’s why you’re so restless. Last time, he was the one thrown into disorder by your presence, but this time, it’s you.”
“I see no reason for him to disturb me so,” she snapped.
But her throat clenched around further rebuttal. The denial might have been instinctive, but she wasn’t certain it was the full truth—and she didn’t lie to her skizik. Yet how could she put her feelings into words? The restless, itchy feeling didn’t happen around Tynan, but he did bother her. His presence scratched at her patience even as he drew her. She wanted to protect him and strangle him in equal measure.
Aris shoved away from the wall, but he approached with slow, measured steps. “I’m not certain that’s true.”
For a moment, she thought he’d followed the line of her thoughts, though she hadn’t intentionally shared them. Then she recalled her previous words and the conversation she’d allowed to stall in her turmoil. He’d picked up on her lie, unintended or not.
“Perhaps not entirely,” she admitted, “but I do know he isn’t to blame for this restless feeling. That is a separate aggravation.”
The shaky, nervous feeling that screamed at her to Go! Fix! felt far too akin to her distress when Earth’s energy had been poisoned—yet it wasn’t the same. When she sought her connection to Earth, she found no problems. But she didn’t want to tell Aris, not yet. He didn’t need to be burdened with more worries while he was working so hard to recover from his ordeal with Perim.
“Kezari—”
“I prefer not to speak of it anymore,” she interrupted before he could pursue either issue.
He stared at her for a moment.
“Fair enough,” Aris finally said, gesturing toward the stairs. “But are you really going to neglect the midday meal?”
Kezari edged her mouth into a smile at the awkward change in subject. At least she hoped it was a smile. Elven facial expressions were a strange thing, one a chronicler might spend decades researching. She, alas, was no chronicler, but today’s attempt must have been close enough despite her poor study. Instead of lowered or quirked eyebrows, Aris smiled in return.
“I suppose I could enjoy some daeri,” Kezari allowed.
Truth be told, she could always go for daeri.
Tynan knelt in front of the small altar he’d set up on his bedside table. The display was sparse, only a cube of incense and a few borrowed candles arranged across the smooth wood, but it didn’t have to be fancy. Of the nine gods of Arneen, Bera was the most practical. She oversaw both good health and affliction, life and death, and there was nothing orderly or simple about those. An altar cobbled together during an unexpected healing assignment might be one of the best—or at least truest—tributes to give her.
