Scars of Silver (6 page)

Whatever he did, it got their attention. The woman
leaned closer. The light glittered even more, like she’d upped the
wattage. “Rest. They nearly killed you.”

Maybe…

Maybe they had killed him.

Malcolm struggled to speak. His throat closed over
the horror as the blood taste still lingered in his mouth. Vampire
blood. His fingers weakly wiped at his lips. A guttural, whimpering
moan the only sound he uttered. If he could vomit he would, to rid
himself of the blood he knew he swallowed. Might already be too
late.

“Fey cannot become vampires,” the dark man said,
deciphering Malcolm’s distress.

Malcolm slumped with relief, the panic uncoiling from
his chest and dissipating.

The woman smiled with amusement, then she brushed her
palm across his forehead. “Back to sleep with you. Healing first.
Questions later.”

Malcolm’s eyes closed again. His lids were just so
heavy. And the water so… floaty. He was drifting… drifting
away…

“Do you think they will come for him again?” Her
voice was so far away.

Though distant, Malcolm still heard the reply
clearly. “Not just him. They are coming for us all.”

###

~Read on for a sample of the Unseelie’s first
episode~

The Glossary and Name Pronunciation Guide is after
the sample chapter.

All fifteen episodes of
Season One of The
Sidhe
are now available in collections!

One Dangerous World… Three Intense Storylines…

Season One of The Sidhe consists of 3 mini-series.
Each of these mini-series follows different characters in the same
world.
Rise of the
Unseelie
contains all 5 stories from the Unseelie’s
perspective. However the three series have major crossovers, so if
you want to get the full picture then you’ll want to read the
entire season in the suggested reading order, as presented in
Scattered
Magic
(80,000 words) and
Remnants of
Magic
(over 102,000 words).

Join the Fan Club Mailing List and get a free
ebook!

Risk the magic at...

http://www.sidhetouch.com

~Enjoy a sample chapter of~

Aftershock

Jhaer dodged through the local fey crowding the
market street of the village built up around the Seelie castle,
thankful that his plain, loose-fitting clothing disguised him.
Brightly colored streamers from the celebration draped from tree
limbs and windows to flutter festively about the revelry. The ale
flowed and the music played. Seelie fey of every race danced and
sang ancient victory songs, obliviously ignorant that in conquering
the Unseelie, they ensured the downfall of all fey.

Stealth carried Jhaer as far as the courtyard wall
and then he unsheathed his fury and magic. With a rage that rent a
boulder from the ground, Jhaer’s magic burst forth. His power over
the element of earth belonged to him alone, so the boulder that
splintered the teak courtyard gate with the explosion of cannon
fire announced with certainty the Unseelie Elite who wielded
it.

Anticipating a final assault while the captive
Unseelie monarchs imprisoned within succumbed to the pressure to
surrender their authority, the Seelie forces lined the top of the
inner castle wall beyond the courtyard. Archers drew back at the
sight of him, even as the Seelie Champion on the parapet called out
to Jhaer. The corona of sun magic flared around Lugh, as if
determined to prove his nickname as the Shining One. The golden boy
of the Seelie Court in his sculpted armor vaulted down into the
courtyard with a dramatic flair. If the demonstration of grace and
courage aimed to impress, it missed the mark with Jhaer.

“Lugh! Have you been staring at your own magic so
long you’ve blinded yourself?” Jhaer rushed into the courtyard. As
the archers launched their first volley, Jhaer summoned a shield of
stone from the very ground before him. The rock wall preceded him,
the last couple feet at the top tilted back over his head, in case
any clever archers aimed with a high trajectory. After the arrows
in the initial strike splintered on his shield, Jhaer jerked up his
hands, his magic heaving skyward the ground in front of the castle
wall to block off the archers. His personal rock shield fragmented
into dust that defused to the ground he’d drawn it from. He snarled
at Lugh, the sole obstacle between Jhaer and the castle proper.
“This must stop! Before it’s too late!”

“One Court, Sidhe!” Lugh proclaimed. “We can be
brothers, you know. This feud can end. It should end!” Yet the
Seelie ignited a barrier of fire, disproving his claim of brotherly
love.

Jhaer shielded his face against the fire between
them, an all too familiar tactic from the Sidhe with the magical
aspect of the sun. “Light and dark cannot merge. One will always
consume the other. You know this! Yet the arrogant Seelie’s hunger
for power would rather destroy everything than have balance!” With
that, Jhaer sank into the ground, closing it up over him.

Moving swiftly through the earth in a self-contained
cavern like an air bubble rising through a viscous liquid that
parted the ground before him and resealed it behind him, Jhaer
detoured beneath the flames. He felt the vibration from the
footsteps of the Seelie above, rushing to pursue him.

An unexpected tremor charged though the earth and
slammed into him, lancing a dread dead into his heart. The Unseelie
warrior gripped his chest, breath stolen from him by a horrendous
shift in the magic surrounding him. Stunned to the point of panic,
Jhaer surfaced once more, the Seelie not but a few quick strides
from him. Before a cry of dismay could escape his lips, a shockwave
of magic knocked him off balance. A crack climbed up the outer wall
like a growing vine, reaching ever higher.

“Trying to bring down the entire castle?” The Seelie
snarled. “Danu is in there!”

Jhaer stumbled backward before catching himself, his
eyes wide as he stared at the fractures creeping up the courtyard
walls. “Would I knock myself off balance? Open your eyes, Lugh!
Something is wrong!”

Thunder rumbled like a landslide and then the sky
flickered. Or rather the magic that gave the ceiling of the Mounds
the appearance of a sky. Both Sidhe warriors relinquished their
aggression to witness the cascade of destruction rupturing the
fabric of their world. Cracks like a spider’s web shattered the
illusion until the great bowl of rock overhead became visible for
the first time in as long as any Sidhe could remember.

Jhaer kept his balance better the next time the
ground shifted, although the horror that stabbed through him
threatened to drive him to his knees. The thunderous sounds of
earth ripping from earth filled the cavern that housed the magical
realm of the Mounds. As the ground above them shifted ominously,
Jhaer’s hands snapped upward, fingers curled as if gripping
something heavy. Trembling from the strain, his mastery over the
earth alone supported the bowl of rock overhead.

“Lugh!” Jhaer growled through clenched teeth, “Help
Danu! NOW! I can’t… hold it up… much longer!” All his
concentration, his strength, focused solely on preventing the
Mounds, home to hundreds of thousands of fey, from catastrophic
collapse, for as long as he could.

Differences postponed in the face of imminent demise,
the Seelie raced toward the castle as Jhaer bore the weight of the
world. With muscles trembling from the effort, Jhaer waited for the
dread to dissipate, anticipating the Creatrix to reach out and
fortify the Mounds. But what he felt was life, the connection to
Danu, fading away. The All-Mother, she who bound the Mounds
together for centuries, was disappearing. She was dying.

All hope shattered, leaving only fatalistic
determination. Through raw force of will, Jhaer held aloft the vast
cavern ceiling, allowing as many fey as possible the chance to
escape, the stronger ones via teleportation, the lesser fey
certainly crowding the portals that might whisk them to the
surface. Alone, Jhaer balanced each rock, each clump of dirt. For
miles. Sweat ran in rivulets down the strained muscles of his body.
Holding. Binding. Unyielding. And yet fissures snaked through the
cavern under the oppression of tons upon tons of earth overhead.
Fissures Jhaer could not mend. Fissures that sheared as chunks
broke free and rained from the sky. Chunks that slipped through his
shattering strength. Jhaer dropped to his knees, giving all his
power to the failing magic. The edges of the cavern crumbled,
creating a cascade as each lost rock freed those above it.
Rockslides like waterfalls poured down in a roaring that could not
completely annihilate the screams of terror. Down the ceiling fell
in ever greater pieces until the entire cavern plummeted down like
a mountain to entomb everything beneath, burying alive everyone who
had not already escaped. Including Jhaer.

###

~We hope you enjoyed the sample chapter of
Aftershock~

Jump into the first half of Season One with

Scattered
Magic

P.S. - Don’t get confused!
The three
mini-series that comprises Season One of The Sidhe are also
available as individual collections. (
Touched
,
Rise of the
Unseelie
,
Champion of
the Sidhe
) These three collections contain the same 15
episodes as
Scattered
Magic
and
Remnants of
Magic
. So why do we have the episodes released in two
different ways? Some folks want to read only one or two
mini-series, while some want to have all the episodes in the
recommended reading order. We want you to be able to have the
stories YOUR WAY!

Join the Fan Club Mailing List and get a free
ebook!

Risk the Magic at…

http://www.sidhetouch.com

Aspect of magic:
In addition to the Touch and
the common magics (Glamour and teleportation), each Sidhe possesses
a single aspect of magic, which dictated how their personal magic
will manifest. For example, Donovan’s aspect of magic is
‘earth’.

Brownies:
A type of fey known for being
secretive and shy, but very helpful domestically.

Changeling:
A type of fey that can shape
change and that has a reputation for being self-serving and
vicious.

Collapse:
Refers to the recent destruction of
the Mounds.

Earthborns:
The term for the Sidhe born on the
earth surface in the past few decades who are generally untrained
in magic and unprotected from predators.

Elite:
The assassins who worked for the
Unseelie Queen.

Exiles:
Refers to the Unseelie who left the
Mounds after the Seelie gained power.

Fey:
A general term for any creature whose
race descended from the first realm of fey.

Glamour:
One of the types of magic all fey can
perform and is used to disguise oneself or objects behind an
illusion.

Glamour Club:
Owned by Donovan, this fey-only
club is a haven for earthborn Sidhe.

‘
Is your head a Marley?’:
Irish slang for
‘have you lost your mind?’

Jhaer:
Pronounced ‘Ja-hair’. The name Donovan
went by before the Mounds collapsed.

Kieran:
Pronounced ‘Kear-an’. Earthborn whose
aspect of magic is sound.

Lesser fey:
Refers to all fey who are not
Sidhe.

Mounds:
The name of the second fey realm,
which once existed in a pocket of magic deep under ground but was
recently destroyed.

Noble elf:
Refers to the Sidhe

Scribe:
A type of fey who are usually shy and
bookish historians.

Seamus:
Pronounced ‘Shae-mus’. Unseelie exile
and Malcolm’s father.

Seelie:
Pronounced ‘C-lee’. Refers to the
Sidhe of the ‘light court’, who value culture, political intrigue,
and beauty.

Sidhe:
Pronounced ‘Shee’. Also known as the
‘noble elves’. They are the most magical race of fey and the only
race that possesses the Touch.

Tiernan:
Pronounced ‘Tear-nan’. Unseelie exile
whose aspect of magic is metal.

Touch:
The sharing of magic by the Sidhe with
others. A beautiful bonding experience among the fey, but is highly
addictive to humans.

Unseelie:
Pronounced ‘un-C-lee’. Refers to the
Sidhe aligned with the ‘dark court’, who value freedom, directness,
and honesty.

Wizards:
Humans who have learned to steal
magic from the fey to use in their own enchantments.

Wyndracer:
Pronounced ‘wind-racer’. Refers to
Jonathan Wyndracer, the Dragon Champion.