The Guardians Chronicles

“Chloe has been probing for a week, and she still can’t See what Daemon is doing. She says it’s as if he’s pulled a hood over his headquarters in New York; as if it has slipped off the map,” Victoria said.

Leonardo Savelli sat opposite her, fingers idly smoothing his silver moustache as he thought. “Hmm. I can’t see how he could have managed a shield of that magnitude alone. It took the full Council days to raise the one around this castle, remember?”

“Yes.” Victoria’s frown deepened. “But we’ve underestimated him before. We can’t afford that again. I’ll propose a joint Seeing to Council, with Chloe as binder. We have to know what he’s planning.”

“That is true.” Leo tilted his head. “And our spies in New York? No word from them?”

“No,” Victoria said quietly. “Marco’s heard nothing. That worries me more than the lack of visions.”

“Hmm. It is not like them to miss their check-in.”

Victoria sighed and leaned back. “I am getting too old for this, Leo. It’s time to hand over to the next generation.”

“I agree. But making Keira the next High Priestess?” He shook his head slowly. “I don’t know, Victoria. She is so young. She’s had no training. Our world is as foreign to her as life on Mars. What makes you think she’ll even want this?”

“I know she will,” Victoria said, steel under the calm. “It’s in her blood. Her destiny will not be denied.”

Leo’s moustache twitched as he considered this. “Hmm. Destiny alone will not convince the Council she is The One.”

“Leave them to me,” Victoria replied. “I will convince them.”

A discreet throat-clearing broke the moment. Amber’s mother entered the library with a tray piled high with sandwiches and coffee.

“Ah! Just what I needed,” Leo declared, springing to his feet to take the tray from her.

“Thank you, sir” Maria smiled and turned to leave.

“Wait, Maria,” Victoria called.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Your daughter, her name is Amber, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am. I hope she didn’t—”

“No, no, everything is perfectly fine,” Victoria smiled. “In fact, I may have some good news, if you’re open to it… your daughter has magick in her.”

Maria’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh, that is wonderful news. We are so proud—thank you, thank you!”

Victoria laughed. “I saw her this morning, on her way to Keira’s room, and picked up a flicker of potential from her. Please ask her to come and see me after the Council meeting.”

“Oh, she will be so happy. I’m… we’re so honoured.” Maria gripped her apron, eyes shining with unshed tears.

“You’re very welcome,” Victoria said warmly. “Now, do you know where Keira is?”

“Yes, ma’am. She’s having lunch in the dining room.”

“Good. Please ask her to come see me here when she’s finished.”

“Yes, ma’am. Right away.” Maria turned and practically ran out of the room.

“Hmm,” Leo said, watching the door close behind her. “It is days like this that make all the rest worthwhile.”

“Yes.” Victoria’s smile faded into something more determined. “And it makes me even more resolved that Keira will not lose any more of her birthright than she already has.”

“Hmm.”

*****

Victoria was still in the same chair in front of the tall windows when Keira arrived. Leo was gone, and the lunch tray had disappeared.

“Hi, Aunt Vic. You wanted to see me?” Keira asked, hovering in the doorway.

“Yes. Come in, dear.” Victoria gestured to the chair Leo had vacated.

Keira sat, giving her aunt a hesitant smile. They hadn’t really had a real conversation since arriving, and she still wasn’t sure how to say what she’d decided while walking the stone corridors that morning.

“So.” Victoria steepled her fingers. “What do you think of the castle?”

“It’s incredible,” Keira said honestly. “You can feel the history in the walls. I’d love to know all its stories.”

“You could,” Victoria said. “And I’d like you to become a part of that history.”

“Aunt Vic—” Keira started.

“Keira,” Victoria cut in gently but firmly. “I know this is overwhelming, and I know you’re angry with me for keeping you from all of this. I deserve that. But let me start making it right. Stay here. Train with the Draaken. Learn what it means to be a Guardian of the Akasha. Take your place as Leader of the Wilde Family and, in time, as High Priestess.”

Keira shook her head. “I can’t.”

Victoria didn’t argue. She simply waited.

“I’m sorry,” Keira said again, forcing the words out. “All of this—” she gestured around them, at shelves of ancient books, the stone, the weight of it all, “—this isn’t me. It’s not who I am.”

“But you are mistaken, child. It is exactly who you are. It is your destiny.”

“No.” Keira’s voice sharpened. “My destiny is in London. I’ve decided I’ll tell my parents I want to be a professional photographer. Travel for a while. Build a portfolio. I have spent my whole life trying to push all of this—” she groped for the right word “—this weirdness down. I refuse to let it take over my life now.”

“You don’t realise what you’re saying.” Victoria leaned forward. “Stay here. You will be accepted for who you really are.”

“But I don’t know who that is,” Keira said, frustration cracking through her control. “This thing you call a gift has felt like a curse my entire life. It made me hide. Lie. It cost me any chance at being normal. All I’ve wanted for years was to finish school so I could finally leave it all behind.”

“Keira, please—”

“I’m sorry. I can’t do what you’re asking.” Her hands were shaking now, so she clenched them together. “An hour ago I watched two men—brothers—fling each other around a stone box with fire and force like it was some kind of… sparring game. It’s not normal.”

Silence stretched between them.

“I can’t be part of some underground war machine,” Keira continued, voice quieter but no less firm. “Killing people, even if they ‘deserve’ it. I know at some point that’ll be expected of me.” Her throat tightened. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. And I refuse to have people look to me for leadership when I know I’ll only fail them.”

“But your magick—”

“I’ve managed to keep it under control for years,” Keira cut in. “I don’t need it to be happy. And this Daemon person might know who I am, but once he realises I want no part of this, he’ll move on. He has bigger targets than a girl who refuses to play.”

Victoria said nothing. Her lined face was unreadable as she studied Keira, eyes searching her as if seeing her truly for the first time.

“I’m sorry,” Keira said again, more softly this time. “You’ll have to find someone else. Someone who grew up in this world. Someone who actually wants it.”

Victoria took a slow, audible breath. “I understand,” she said. “But at least promise me one thing.”

“Yes?”

“Promise you won’t leave until after the Council meeting,” she said. “Give me these few days. We’ll spend time together, just us. We can talk about renovating this old heap of stone,” she added with a faint, wry smile.

Guilt stabbed through Keira. “I promise,” she whispered. It took everything in her not to cry as she rose.

“Thank you,” Victoria said quietly, lifting a tired hand in farewell.

Keira closed the library door behind her and walked away, heart pounding and heavy. The conversation replayed in a relentless loop.

I am not cut out for this. I am not a fighter. I hate getting hurt. I freeze on staircases, for heaven’s sake. How can she think I can lead warriors into battle?

London. Cameras. Trains. Crowded streets. That was a life she understood. People who didn’t expect her to pull thunderstorms out of the sky.

Things can be the same again, she argued with herself. I just need space. Time. Normality.

“I am not some kind of Amazon,” Keira muttered under her breath.

Neither is Chloe, a small voice whispered in her mind.

“Oh, shut up,” Keira snapped aloud.

Lost in her maelstrom of thoughts, she nearly walked straight into Justin, who was pacing anxiously in front of her bedroom door.

“Keira! Finally. I thought you’d never get away. You promised you’d come see the pups, remember?”

“Oh, Justin…” Keira scrubbed a hand over her face. “Can we do it tomorrow? I’m really tired.”

“No!” His face fell. “We have to go now, before it gets dark. She hides them at night and then it’s really hard to find them. Please, Keira, you promised. Amber’s mum said she can’t come, she has to help in the kitchens, so it’s just us.”

Keira looked at his hopeful face.

She’d already said no once today. That one had nearly broken her aunt’s heart. She didn’t have it in her to crush Justin too.

It’s just puppies, she told herself. Not the fate of the world.

“All right,” she sighed. “Let me grab a jacket. Wait for me at the front door, okay?”

“Okay!” Justin brightened instantly. “Wear comfy shoes. We have to walk a bit!”

“Oh, great,” Keira muttered, heading into her room.

By the time she reached the front doors, jacket zipped and boots laced, she’d forced her thoughts into some semblance of order.

So of course a tall shadow stepped away from the stone to derail them.

“Mind if I join you?” Marco asked.

Keira jumped. “I thought you were inspecting the guards. Or… doing Commander stuff.”

“All done,” he said easily. “Besides, it gets dark quickly in these woods. I’ll go with you. It’s not a good idea to be outside the walls at night.”

“Outside the walls?” Keira echoed, one eyebrow lifting. “Why are your puppies outside the walls?”

“Come on, you guys!” Justin yelled, already halfway across the courtyard.

Marco didn’t answer. He just started walking. Keira shot him an annoyed look and followed.

They stopped at a small wooden postern door set into the outer wall, beside the raised drawbridge. A guard stepped out of the shadows.

“Out again, Justin?” he asked with a faint smile.

“Hi, Frank. Yeah. I’m taking Keira to see the pups. Don’t worry, Marco’s coming too.”

That seemed to satisfy him. Frank stepped aside and let them pass. Keira heard the door close behind them, then a heavy bar thud into place.

“Comforting,” she muttered.

They descended a short flight of stone steps to the moat. A small wooden boat rocked gently against the bank. Marco helped Justin in, then offered his hand to Keira.

His palm was warm and calloused.

Stop it, she told herself, ignoring the fizz of heat racing up her arm as she stepped in.

Marco took the oars and rowed them across. Justin hopped out first, tied the boat to a post, and vanished up the bank and down the darkening road without a backward look.

“Slow down!” Keira called.

Marco gave her his hand again to help her out of the boat. The touch vibrated through her, leaving the ghost of tingling warmth behind when she let go.

Ridiculous, she scolded herself. Get a grip.

They followed the road for a few minutes before Marco turned off, pushing aside undergrowth to reveal a barely-there path. The trees thickened, branches leaning in until it felt like they were slowly submerging into an underwater world filled with whispers and the faint scent of earth and wild things.

The deeper they went, the more the forest felt… aware. Watching. Not quite hostile, but not particularly welcoming either. Keira could feel it prickling at the edges of her senses, an old, patient intelligence that had no particular use for humans.

She’d grown up in her own woods; they’d always felt like a refuge. These trees felt like strangers trying to decide if she was worth tolerating.

Just as she began to wonder if this had been the worst idea of the week, Justin appeared ahead on the path.

“Where are the—”

“Ssshhh!” he hissed, finger to his lips. “Follow me, Keira. I have to warn them you’re coming. Though they probably know already.”

And he disappeared deeper into the trees.

“Oh, bloody hell,” Keira muttered.

A low chuckle sounded beside her. She glared at Marco, promptly caught her toe on a rock, and pitched forward.

She gasped, arms flying out—but never hit the ground. Strong hands caught her and swung her up into his arms and for a second she was crushed against his chest.

Her breath locked. Instinctively, she looped her arms around his neck.

He lowered her slowly, carefully, until her boots found earth again. Time stretched thin and strange between one heartbeat and the next.

Marco gave a soft, involuntary groan as his hands tightened fractionally at her waist.

Keira didn’t move. For a few seconds, she didn’t want to.

“Hey, you two, come on!” Justin’s voice rang through the trees.

Marco exhaled sharply and eased back. Keira’s lips curled into a tiny, private smile. She let him take her hand when he offered his, their fingers fitting together as if they’d been made for that purpose.

So it’s not just me, she thought. Whatever this is… he feels it too.

It should be absurd, they barely knew each other. But something in her bones, in the place that recognised the tug of the Akasha, insisted it was true.

Keira suddenly missed her friends with a painful fierceness and wished they were there to ask for advice. She could just see Sammy shrieking with enthusiasm and Alison making her breathe into a paper bag and telling her to slow down.

The trees opened into a small clearing and they found Justin sitting cross-legged in the grass, laughing as three grey pups tumbled over him. They mock-stalked, pounced, and rolled in an explosion of paws and teeth and ears too big for their heads.

On either side of him sat two huge adult wolves, one male, one female. Both stared directly at Keira. Low growls rumbled in their throats.

“Oh,” Keira breathed, going still.

“Move very slowly,” Marco murmured. He shifted slightly closer to her, his body angled between her and the wolves.

“Cool it,” Justin told the animals, giving the female a gentle jab with his elbow. She shot him a look that was dangerously close to embarrassed and the growling cut off.

Keira realised her mouth was hanging open and snapped it shut, which made Justin snort with laughter.

“It’s okay, Keira,” he said. “Come closer, I’ll introduce you. This is Ylva.” He pointed to the female. “And that’s Varg.”

Keira stepped forward slowly, palms damp. She held one hand out, open, to Ylva.

Those amber eyes locked onto hers. For a heartbeat nothing happened.

Then warmth flowed through Keira’s chest, a familiar deep thrum that had nothing to do with human speech and everything to do with recognition. Old memory stirred—foxes, deer, ravens. The woods of home. Nagwa’s weight on her arm.

Oh, she thought, relief loosening her shoulders. You’re not so different from them at all, are you?

An offended spark rippled through the connection. Ylva most definitely did not appreciate being compared to foxes.

Keira laughed aloud. “Sorry. You’re right. You’re much more impressive.”

“She likes you,” Justin said with satisfaction.

That seemed to be the signal. The rest of the pack drifted out of the shadows—eight more adults, moving with wary curiosity until they were close enough to catch Keira’s scent.

She lowered herself to the ground and the pups swarmed her lap, chubby paws and cold noses everywhere. The adults crowded in around them, nudging her hands until she gave up any pretence of dignity and simply surrendered to all the fur.

When she glanced up again, Marco was leaning against a tree at the edge of the clearing, arms folded across his chest. His expression was almost unreadable, but his eyes—darkened now to stormy blue—burned into her.

Heat climbed up her neck. She ducked her head back down, hiding behind a curtain of hair and the convenient excuse of puppy adoration.

It felt like only minutes later when Marco spoke.

“We need to get back to the castle,” he said.

“Aaaw, Marco, just a little longer!” Justin pleaded.

“Sorry, Justin. It’s nearly dusk. We have a formal dinner with all the Council members tonight. Victoria won’t want us late.”

“I can’t believe it’s that late already,” Keira said, pushing herself up and brushing grass off her jeans.

The wolves rose with them. At first she thought the sudden movement had startled them.

Then the snarling started.

They ringed the three humans in an instant, hackles raised, teeth bared, eyes fixed on the direction of the castle.

“What’s wrong?” Keira whispered.

Marco lifted a hand. “Listen.”

Everyone went still. Even the pups froze.

Distant booms rolled through the trees, followed by the sharp crack of explosions. Faint shouts carried on the air. Dim blue flashes flickered above the canopy, like lightning trapped inside a storm no one else could see.

Marco’s and Justin’s eyes met. Something unspoken passed between them.

“Excuse me,” Keira snapped, fear shredding her patience. “Someone want to tell me what’s happening?”

“The castle is under attack,” Marco said. “You stay with Justin. He knows what to do.”

“My aunt is in there.” Keira’s vision narrowed, pulse roaring in her ears. “I’m going with you.”

“No.” The word cracked like a whip. “You’re staying here. I’ll come back for you as soon as I can. Justin, wait here with her.”

Keira stared at him. Her answer was written in every line of her body.

“I’m coming with you,” she said.

Marco swore under his breath. “Fine. But only to the edge of the woods. Stay away from the walls. Do you understand?”

Justin’s young face was drawn tight, trying—and failing—to hide his fear. “It’s okay, Keira,” he said bravely, taking her hand. “I’ll look after you.”

The wolves flowed around them as they moved, a living shield. Marco led them on a different route, skirting the main road. The booming grew louder, the earth occasionally trembling under their feet. Blue-white flares pulsed through the trees.

Marco broke into a run.

“Stay here!” he shouted as he outpaced them, disappearing around the last bend.

Keira and Justin reached the edge of the forest a few seconds later and stopped dead.

The castle lay ahead, lit by the last light of dusk and the violent brilliance of magickal fire. The drawbridge was down. The gates stood open like a wound.

Marco was already in the thick of it, swallowed by the chaos in the courtyard.

Bolts of energy criss-crossed the open space in a deadly lattice. Black-clad figures swarmed over the stone. The Draaken and Council members fought side by side, but they were badly outnumbered.

“Justin.” Keira tore her gaze from the scene. “Stay here. I’m going to help.”

She didn’t wait for his answer.

She sprinted down the slope, the wolves thundering beside her. As they hit the drawbridge, a pack of creatures that looked like dogs dragged from a nightmare erupted from the courtyard, all slavering jaws and pale, cold eyes.

Keira screamed and threw her arms over her head—but Ylva and the others were already moving. The two packs collided with bone-jarring impact. Teeth clashed. Fur and blood flew. Ylva took a beast nearly twice her size by the throat and shook it savagely until it went limp.

Then Keira’s own battle found her.

A massive fist slammed into her shoulder from nowhere. She flew forward, hit the stone hard, and skidded. Her palms tore open on the rough cobblestones. She pushed herself up in time to see her attacker looming over her, hand crackling with malicious energy.

A flare hit his chest first.

He flew backwards and hit the ground like a broken doll, eyes wide and empty, staring up at a sky that didn’t care.

Keira turned.

Zina stood a few feet away, hand still raised, face set in grim lines. She reached for Keira and hauled her upright.

“You need to get out of here,” Zina shouted over the noise. “You’re not trained for this!”

“Where is Aunt Victoria?” Keira yelled back.

“I don’t know. She was in the Great Hall when it started. Keira, get back—”

But Keira was already running.

She weaved through the chaos, ducking and twisting as bolts of energy scorched past. Some hit the walls and exploded, sending shards of stone whistling through the air. The scent of burning hair and flesh clawed at her throat.

The air was a cacophony of screams, roars, and the crackle of raw power. It was everything she’d feared and hid from and carefully kept out of her life—now made brutally real.

She didn’t stop.

A ring of black-clad figures closed around her without warning, sneering faces forming a tightening circle. They moved in unison, like wolves herding a lone deer.

Over their shoulders she saw Marco, fighting like a force of nature, carving his way toward her, but every step forward brought three more attackers in his path.

His mouth formed her name. The sound vanished under the roar of battle.

Fear clawed at her belly. One of the men laughed, his delight in her panic obvious. She felt the energy building around them, the prickling tension of a storm about to break—only this one was aimed directly at her.

Her lungs stuttered. For an instant, the hysterical girl inside her screamed that this was it; she’d never been meant for this, and now she would die in a courtyard full of strangers.

No.

Keira dragged in one shaking breath. Then another.

Help wasn’t coming. There was no one between her and annihilation but herself.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

And stepped sideways.

Into the Akasha.

The external noise dropped to a distant roar. Inside, the panic settled into something cold and sharp. The world unfolded around her in shimmering threads of connection—stone to sky, breath to wind, every living being a bright knot of energy tied into an endless web of interconnected red strings.

When she opened her eyes again, there was a heartbeat of hesitation in the circle around her. They felt it, even if they didn’t understand it.

It was all she needed.

She let go.

Power surged through her like a tidal wave, tearing out of the place she’d crammed it into for years. The air around her twisted into a whirlwind. The men began to scream even before the wind touched them.

They tried to run. Tried to push back with their own power. It didn’t matter.

An invisible vortex lifted them off their feet, flung them like rag dolls over the thirty-foot outer wall. Their screams cut off abruptly as they vanished from sight.

Keira didn’t feel her feet leave the ground. She realised only dimly that she was hovering, hair whipping around her face in a dark corona. The centre of her being was fused to the Akasha; she and the storm were the same thing.

Wind howled. Thunder crashed so hard the stones beneath them shuddered. Lightning tore down from the sky and struck two new attackers mid-charge, turning them to ash in a heartbeat.

She drifted forward through the battlefield, fixed on one point.

The front steps of the castle.

Victoria stood there, a small, defiant figure on the top stair, holding off four men at once. Her arms moved in tight, controlled arcs; heat shimmered around her hands, near-invisible waves that turned men into crumpled heaps.

“Keira, get back! Run!” Victoria screamed when she saw her.

“I am not leaving you,” Keira’s voice answered.

It echoed, amplified by the power pouring through her, as if the castle itself spoke with her mouth.

Around her, the fighting parted. Bolts that might have hit her bent aside at the last second, ricocheting off into stone. People stared at her with a mix of awe and bone-deep terror.

She passed Rafael and Chloe, fighting back-to-back. Adam had two men hanging off his arms as if they were nothing more than exercise weights. Chetan hurled firebolts with terrifying precision, pausing only long enough to shield others from return fire.

Keira saw it all, and yet saw nothing but her aunt.

I’m coming, she thought. Hold on. I’m nearly there.

Time shuddered.

A bolt of black energy lanced across the courtyard in slow motion, tracing a sick curve through the air. Keira watched it with horrible clarity, powerless to stop it as it struck Victoria full in the chest.

Victoria’s eyes widened. For a fraction of a second, she and Keira locked gazes.

A small, almost apologetic smile ghosted across Victoria’s mouth—as if she wanted to say one last thing and wouldn’t quite make it in time.

She reached her arms out toward Keira.

Then she fell.

The sound of her body hitting the stone steps snapped the world back into full speed.

Keira screamed.

The vortex collapsed. All the power she’d been holding roared out of her in a chaotic burst and then vanished, leaving her hollow and shaking. She dropped heavily onto the cobblestones beside Victoria and pulled her aunt into her lap.

“Aunt Vic—get up. Please, get up,” she gasped.

The battle noise blurred into white static. The acrid reek of smoke and blood faded until there was only the smell of dust and Victoria’s familiar perfume.

Keira picked bits of glass out of Victoria’s hair with shaking fingers, smoothing it back from her face as if that would somehow fix a hole burned through her chest.

“I’m so sorry,” Keira whispered. “Please don’t leave me. Just… hang on, okay? We’ll get help. We’ll call someone. Don’t go.”

She rocked her aunt’s still body, clutching her close, whispering promises she couldn’t possibly keep, bargaining with anyone and anything that might be listening.

Voices called her name from far away. She ignored them.

Hands grabbed at her shoulders, trying to pull her away. She dug in her heels, twisting, fighting with every bit of strength she had left.

“Let me go! She needs me!” she screamed, throat raw. “Just let me hold her—she’s going to be fine.”

She believed it. She had to believe it. If she let go, she would break.

Strong arms finally hauled her up off the stones. She was slung over a broad shoulder, the world tilting as someone carried her away. Draaken closed around them in a tight ring, forcing a path through the battle. Keira kicked and beat at the man holding her, cursing and begging in the same breath.

“Go back!” she sobbed. “We have to go back, she’s still there—”

No one answered. Or if they did, their words were swallowed by the roar.

The last thing Keira saw, upside down and half-obscured by smoke and movement, was a tall figure in a long, black cloak.

The hood had been thrown back to reveal a pale, angular face. Thin lips curved into a slow, satisfied sneer. He crouched down over Victoria’s body, examining it with clinical interest, searching for any lingering spark of life.

Satisfied, he straightened.

His eyes flicked up, finding Keira in the chaos as she was borne away.

A cold, high-pitched laugh sliced through the air, shattering what remained of her world.

Murderous hatred detonated inside Keira—hotter and more absolute than anything she’d ever felt.

Then the darkness rose up and swallowed her whole.