Shatttered, p.1
Shatttered, page 1
Copyright 2023 by Cassie Swindon
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be produced 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.
ISBN for Shattered ebook: 978-1-7373469-8-2
Cover Design by Christian Bentulan
Interior Formatting by Jennifer Laslie
This work is fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, cities, or events are entirely fictional.
Contents
Also by Cassie Swindon
Acknowledgments
Trigger Warnings
1. Kyra
2. Jadox
3. Kyra
4. Kyra
5. Kyra
6. Isaac
7. Kyra
8. Kyra
9. Jadox
10. Jadox
11. Kyra
12. Kyra
13. Jadox
14. Kyra
15. Kyra
16. Jadox
17. Isaac
18. Kyra
19. Kyra
20. Jadox
21. Kyra
22. Kyra
23. Kyra
24. Jadox
25. Kyra
26. Kyra
27. Jadox
28. Kyra
29. Jadox
30. Kyra
Epilogue
About Cassie Swindon
Break the Stone
Cassie Swindon
Chapter One
Shattered
Kyra Kozelski
Darkness is gnawing at my soul. The shadows swallow me a little more each day. But someone needs to destroy Elana Elidi. And I may be the only one who can. There’s a spell to stop this whole mess. But it requires a sacrifice from my true love. The problem is—who does my heart belong to—Jay or Isaac?
Also by Cassie Swindon
LINKED TRILOGY
Scorched
Severed
Shattered
GOLDEN CHAINS TRILOGY
Break the Stone
Hunt the Storm
Stop the Clock
Dedicated to:
Anna Cackler and her froughtin’ bunnies.
Acknowledgments
Developmental editor: Kirsty McQuarrie at Let’s Get Proofed
Copy line editors: Kirsty McQuarrie at Let’s Get Proofed and Kelly George at Polished Proofreading
Proofreading: Kelly George at Polished Proofreading
Trilogy Covers: Christian Bentulan at Covers by Christian
Interior Design: Jennifer Leslie
Beta Readers: Aubree Anderson, Ana Maria Tufescu, Paula Lloyd, Michelle Richardson, Arceli Friage, Aimee Harrison
Map Designer: Adriana Pausenwein
Character Illustration Artist: Claudia Hopkins
Short Story Covers: Anna Cackler
This shout-out goes to all the first responders, health care workers, therapists, and you-name-it professionals all battling against Covid. I was fortunate enough to only have a mild case while drafting this book (but of course, symptoms started on my birthday of all days.) After struggling through the symptoms, I was grateful for the opportunity to receive medicine and have virtual appointments with doctors. Many of my family members are in the healthcare field, and they all deserve a standing ovation for their dedication and hard work during the pandemic.
Trigger Warnings
Recommended for age 18+ due to profanity, violence, sexual content, and other sensitive topics that could potentially trigger the reader.
Read at your own discretion.
Chapter 1
Kyra
Dark desire danced in the shadows between us, teasing me to the point of insanity. From across the crowded room, his eyes pinned me flat against the wall. I dropped my gaze and allowed the intoxicating music to take control as I swayed toward him. I forgot about the responsibilities weighing on my shoulders and the devious gray tattoo hiding under my skirt.
The bass thumped sensually, and I rocked my hips back and forth to the beat. Dim lights cast a faded beam onto Jay’s dark, thick hair, then over his stern face, and finally over his sculpted arms that would soon claim me. He wrapped me into his chest, holding me close, and our hearts rammed together as one. Some days, his devotion felt like a dream, but this was as real as the Magik coursing through me.
Unable to hold back for a second longer, my hands found the hem of Jay’s shirt, and I slid my hands up his firm, sweaty abdomen. In one quick peek, I savored the view of the upper curve of his green Möbius circle arching out from the top of his jeans. If only I could kiss it again.
Jay’s sweet smile turned wicked, testing the limits. I’d been stuck in this safe house for weeks, but I hadn’t even kissed him. Weeks of torture. I breathed Jay in and relished his woody scent, full of life. My heeled boots gifted me a few extra inches, almost allowing me to reach his plump, full lips. What I’d give to feel his mouth on mine once more. Just once. Maybe I’d tie his shoelaces together.
“Enjoying yourself, Petal?” Jay’s smirk made everyone else in the room vanish. He rolled up his sleeves, the white fabric contrasting against his darker skin.
I licked my lips while staring at his. “Well, it is my birthday, after all.”
Suddenly, a second, firm body pressed against my back, and a large hand grabbed my waist from behind.
“What birthday gift would you like, love?” Isaac whispered in my ear, devilish venom oozing from each word like a luxurious promise.
My breath hitched. I knew what I wanted for my birthday, but that didn’t mean I could ask for it. Neither man would agree, even if it were for only one night. My chest churned with the craving taking hold of me.
Isaac’s chin brushed the top of my head, and I turned around to face him while Jay caressed up and down my spine. All three of us swayed to the beat. Craning my neck to meet Isaac’s radiant blue eyes, I studied the devious look plastered on his face.
A fan from the corner blew his white tee up, showing his washboard stomach and the blue-ish gray tattoo. Our Link was severed weeks ago, but I could still hear some of his witty remarks in my mind.
The fan blew again, enveloping me in Isaac’s crisp scent, like laundry detergent and a spring breeze on a starry night. It was too bad I hadn’t stepped outdoors in weeks to breathe in any fresh air. Isaac had become my connection to the sky and what lay beyond this safe house.
A group of women clinked their glasses together, tipped their heads back, and swallowed their alcohol. Sandwiched between the two men, my heart rate tripled, and desire tormented my Circle, surging with raw power. I couldn’t lose control, not in front of all these society members. The outer world might have been falling apart, but we were all letting loose for one night—my birthday.
Bass thrummed violently, conquering my senses until all my rational thoughts were scattered into pieces on the floor. The sounds reminded me of my days as a drummer in a band. It felt like so much time had been stolen. Within the mass of writhing bodies, someone bumped into my side.
“I got you a gift, love,” Isaac said over the blaring music as he eased a mini drumstick hairpin, curved at the bottom, into my heap of hair. He pressed against me again. I needed his chest. Needed his arms. Needed his lips.
But whose? Jay’s or Isaac’s?
My skin tingled, and my body scorched from within. Desperate. This destructive game the three of us had been playing had built up to an unsustainable pressure, ready to erupt. My body was on the verge of exploding. My four tattoos begged me for release. I was so fucking desperate. I wasn’t strong enough to keep resisting them. I wanted them both. I loved both—no—I couldn’t love them both.
A glance around the room confirmed that no one’s eyes were on us. I grabbed Jay’s hand and guided him between my legs.
His eyebrows knit together. “I can’t, Petal. Nilson is right here.”
I gulped and nodded, wishing his hand was where my skin yearned for his touch.
“Such a tease, love,” Isaac whispered.
I arched my back and turned my neck. Isaac’s blue eyes seared a deep, passionate hole through me. I knew he didn’t need my words to know what I wanted. But I wouldn’t let his lips meet mine—not in front of Jadox. I wouldn’t taste his cotton candy and tequila drink. I wouldn’t explore Isaac with urgency.
Both men supported me as we continued dancing. Jay caressed teasingly. One of his fingers trailed up the side of each vertebra. My skin flushed, and my muscles eased into his touch. The music beat faster, faster, matching the intensity of my heartbeat. I had to stop this. I couldn’t lead them both on. But…feeling their bodies pressed against mine was so damn good.
I pulsed my hips, coaxing for more. “Please,” I begged. “Please, Jay, just kiss me.”
Isaac froze. His body turned rigid, and his hips stopped completely. The sadness on his face as I met Jay’s eyes again wiped away all ecstasy. A breeze from a nearby fan whipped between us, and, for that moment, it felt like an entire tropical storm separated Isaac and me.
The music was suddenly suffocating as both men’s eyes were trained on me. What the Flames was I doing?
I flattened my skirt and pushed them both away. Darting down the hall and further from the music, the crashing sounds from my birthday party turned into a low hum in only seconds. The safe house hallway was lined with doors leading to the conference room, the group kitchen, the weapons room, and the sleeping quarters, just to name a few. I fumbled in the darkness, hoping the two of them wouldn’t follow me. That was if they’d even want to.
Finally, when I closed a door behind me, a deep sigh parted my lips. Stealing a moment, I slowed my panting breaths and flipped the lock on the door handle. The faint, old lights winked like stars on the ceiling, so I summoned fire to my fingertips as a much-needed torch.
Light burst and illuminated the near-empty room. Bunkbeds belonging to the Aurum Orbis Society members lined one wall with backpacks draped from their corners, each fully stocked with emergency necessities. I headed to the one bed that wasn’t made; mine, of course. My boots made the floor creak, so I treaded lighter so as not to wake Chocolate, sleeping at the foot of the bed.
I slumped onto my mattress with a heavy groan. The sounds of the party still tap, tap, tapped in my ears.
Phantom feelings of Jay’s hands on me flattened me against my pillows. Ghostly sensations of Isaac’s lips on mine lured my fingers down my stomach. I grabbed a pillow. The soft cotton was glorious against my skin, but I shoved my face against the fluffiness and screamed and screamed and screamed. My life was falling apart.
For the last few weeks, something else was forming in place of my soul as if tendrils of ashes were shedding from my skin, exposing a monster that lingered deep below. As each day crept by, the gray tattoo was turning me rotten. I was becoming the darkness between branches, the shadow in the corners. These wicked truths of my identity peeled away the version of a girl trapped by fear for years. Now, infected with evil from the inside out, I wasn’t the same girl I used to be. She was gone. Something had changed deep within me.
I stopped screaming and lowered the pillow when my throat turned raw and scratchy. Two pitiful brown eyes stared at me.
“Hi, Chocolate. Sorry I woke you.” I sighed, with all the weight of the world sagging down on my shoulders.
Her floppy tongue, hanging out the side of her mouth, gave my knee a quick lick before she circled and lay by my feet again.
Defeated, I sunk back into the mattress, staring at the wooden slats above me. I touched the mini hairpin Isaac had stuck in my ponytail. He was sweet to think of me, but the gift reminded me that I only had two weeks left until his deadline to decide who I wanted. Isaac or Jay? My fists curled into balls. The pressure was killing me. How was I supposed to know which man I truly loved?
“Enjoying your birthday? You look like absolute sunshine, sis.” Caspian walked in through the outside door that I’d forgotten to lock.
“Why are we wasting resources on this party, Cas?” I got to my feet and connected Chocolate’s leash to her collar. “We should’ve used this booze money for weapons.”
Caspian sauntered through the room, drenched in shadows from the moonlight. “It may be our last celebration for a while, Kyra. Might as well enjoy one more night. I know I’ve been busy. Why do you look like Lady Death?”
I sighed again, letting all the weight on my chest fall away. “How do I know who is right for me?”
He nodded and sat on one of the empty bunks. “Well, they both could be chosen to pose on the front of a men’s fitness magazine, so they have that in common.”
I snorted and laughed at the same time. “Yeah, that’s about the only thing.”
Jay was as stubborn as me, protective, nurturing, and sacrificial, yet Isaac was cunning, dedicated, hilarious, and so charming.
“It wasn’t fair that Isaac gave me an ultimatum.”
“Or maybe he’s the smart one.” Caspian traced his long scar. “You’ve been stringing them both along for weeks.”
“I know.” I dropped my head in my hands. “Goddess, I know.”
He rose and placed a hand on my back. “Ky, the world is literally at war.”
“Don’t make fun of me. Not right now.”
He wrapped me in a hug. “Well, if you’d just let me finish for once, you’d know that I was going to say the world is literally at war, but I know what it feels like to have your heart in pieces. Your struggle is just as real as the battle between the society and Elana’s army. I’ll be here no matter what, no matter who you decide.”
I eased into my brother’s chest, letting him hold my weight.
“And if you want my opinion, just choose the guy I can beat at surfing.”
I laughed again and wiped away the free-falling tears. “Thanks, Cas.”
“No problem. But I do need to make a call.” Slowly, he moved toward the door.
“At midnight?”
“Well, it may or may not be about Narelle’s choice of pajamas or lack of them.”
I threw a pillow at him. “Ew, gross. Get out of here. I don’t want to hear that about my little brother.”
Chocolate whined and pulled me toward the door. According to the society’s rules, I wasn’t allowed outside the Aurella Fortress. But no one else was around to take care of our pup. There was no chance I was going back to ask for Jay or Isaac to help. Plus, surely, there was no way that Elana’s forces knew that the crumbling castle at the edge of Vayu’s border was a massive safe house.
“You need to go out, girl?” I asked.
Her feet pranced in that little happy-puppy way. Each time she stepped toward the door, one of the joints in her knees clicked. I should take the time to ask Jay Chocolate’s age. How had I never asked before? Probably because I was too wrapped up in learning who I belonged to in this life that any topic not completely about my fate was completely off-limits to my stupid brain. Chocolate dragged me to the back door.
I unlatched the seven locks and punched in the code. The metal door slowly nudged open, and I heaved against it with my shoulders to inch it further, then squeezed through the opening. Leaving it a sliver open, I stepped into the night fog.
I hadn’t known how much I longed to leave those concrete walls until now. Relief washed over me as the sounds of nature sang. Crickets chirped, owls hooted, and ventus shrieked, harmonizing in a melody that blessed my soul.
I craned my neck to the ancient arrow-slit holes at the top of the castle. The stark contrast to the skyscrapers across the courtyard was breathtaking.
Despite the soothing ballad of Vayu’s forest, the silent moon loomed over us as a steady reminder of Gemm’s last prophecy. Her words rang in my head again and again.
“On the full Teal Moon, one man will lay down his life for love.”
I gulped and squeezed my eyes shut, praying to the goddess above that she was wrong. I only had two weeks left to find a way to prevent that fate. It wasn’t fair. I had worked too hard to keep them both alive, and we had all sacrificed so much. Maybe if I had never picked either of them, then neither man would be doomed to this fate.
Tears pooled behind my eyes. “You won’t win,” I whispered up at the moon, but she only smiled down in return.
Following Chocolate’s tug, I lumbered through the tall grass toward the abandoned skyscrapers of Vayu. Trying to claw myself out of the fog, I contemplated Gemm’s other words for the hundredth time.
One of them became cursed and was trudging toward death.
I shook my head in frustration and shot a random burst of fire at one of the buildings. “No! I won’t let them die. I won’t.” Flames shot through a window, and glass shattered, cascading over the sidewalk.
