The Toren: Blood Of Shadows (The Toren Series, Book 3): The Toren

Copyright © 2018 by Lola StVil

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.

Formatting by Dallas Hodge, Everything But The Book

This book is dedicated to my readers:

Thank you for waiting: )

Quick reader’s reference guide:

PARENTS: Pry & Silver

CHILDREN: Summit & Dylan

PARENTS: Diana & Bex

CHILDREN: NIX & LUCAS (Nix is Malakaro’s son but raised by Bex.)

PARENTS: Easton & Mel

CHILDREN: Parker & Ryder

PARENT: Swoop

CHILD: RJ (Raised by Jay & Miku)

"Maybe I hope too much.

Maybe I dream too much or maybe

I love too much to just give up on you."

― Robert M. Drake

I’m going to be famous! My name will go down in history and up in lights!

I stand, bent slightly at the waist, peering through a microscope. I’ve been waiting forever to be able to examine these scales. They come from a Bronze Dragon, a creature who up until now was believed to be extinct.

But not anymore. Not since I discovered a baby bronze in the Alps. No one knows yet. I want to do my own research before I’m ready to share my findings. I adjust the lens slightly, bringing the scales into even sharper focus. I’m vaguely aware of footsteps behind me, but I don’t look up.

The steps stop right behind me and I feel warm hands on my hips, their heat touching me through my lab coat and the skirt I wear beneath it.

I inhale sharply as I feel Nix push himself up against me. I stay in place, looking through the lens of the microscope although I hardly see the cells anymore.

Did I ever tell you how much I love a girl in a lab coat?

I can smell Nix’s scent, a primal smell like damp leaves and musk.

My blood runs fast under my skin, my body begins to shake, and my hair is standing on end. I stand straight up and record my latest observations.

Hey, Nix, I say lamely.

Hey, Parker. Can I help you wash your beakers? I know how busy you are, making big breakthroughs in science.

That would be great, thank you.

He spins me to face him and I find myself looking into his gorgeous eyes. I can see the desire in them. I can almost taste it in the air. He pushes one hand into my hair, pulling me tightly against him with the other.

Do you know what else I like about you? he asks with a perfect smile.

Hmmmm? is all I manage to get out.

How organized you are. Maybe sometime you can come over and help me organize my closet.

You mean like in your bedroom? I ask unsteadily.

Yeah, if that’s okay with you. I don’t know anyone smarter or more put together than you are.

His words are burning through me.

His hand leaves my hair and he grabs the beakers, beginning to wash them. The water splatters up on his white formfitting T-shirt, allowing his abs to show through.

I reach behind me and use my worktable to keep my balance.

I love that you know everything.

Well, I don’t know everything, I say, blushing.

Don’t be so modest. You are the smartest person I know, and you’re so resourceful. I don’t know where the team would be without you.

My stomach starts doing flips. I think I need a healer—my head is spinning and the room is going dim. Nix walks back over to me after drying the last of the beakers.

Oh Nix, your shirt is soaked, I say matter-of-factly, running my finger down his chest. I’m sorry, I say, looking at the floor.

It’s okay. As long as I can steal a few minutes with you, it was worth it, he says, putting his finger under my chin and lifting my face.

I take a small step back, pinning myself between Nix and my worktable.

Why on earth would you want that?

He looks back at me, puzzled.

What do you mean?

What I mean is I’m just the smart girl no one understands and everyone makes fun of.

Parker, you are so much more. I love how smart you are. You’re organized, resourceful, and did I mention you know everything? he says, leaning in closer.

I push my head forward to meet his lips and accidentally bump heads with him. He smiles at my mistake, picks me up, and sets me on the table, almost knocking my microscope over.

Dare to try again? he says, gripping my chin between his thumb and forefinger.

I dunno. Concussions are—

His lips softly touch mine and we kiss passionately and wildly. He scoops me up, and I wrap my legs around his waist and then—

A loud bang wakes me up from my unscheduled nap. Someone inadvertently dropped a book on the floor. Thankfully, no one at the library pays me any attention, and I seem to have gotten away with my fantasy. I don’t know where it came from, but I didn’t want it to end.

Now don’t get me wrong, the part about scales blew my mind. But holy shit, me and Nix! I allow myself to fall back into that part of the fantasy. I smile at myself and shake my head again. If only.

I wonder what Nix would think if he knew about my thoughts. I feel myself blush even thinking about it, but I can’t help but laugh quietly at the thought of his face if he found out his charms are now as important to me as some dragon scales.

It’s strange when I think about it. I’ve always been happiest when I’m researching a new theory or learning about an older one. I crave knowledge and I just have to know the ins and outs of everything. It’s not enough for me to know that something will work—I have to know how and why it will work.

I mean, I love the team of course. They’re like family to me and I really do like being with them, but I really come into my own when I can use my knowledge to help us out of a tight spot. I was never one of those uber nerds that don’t have any sort of social life. I’m more than happy to drink shots of Coy and dance until dawn, but that doesn’t mean I have to be stupid.

I was so happy with my life—the team, my research, and the success we’ve been having with our quest to find the pendant pieces. I was satisfied and I didn’t need anything else in my life. But that didn’t stop something else from coming along. It didn’t stop me from falling in love. It was as much of a surprise to me as to anyone else.

I can remember the moment as clearly as if it happened only yesterday. As usual, Nix had put Runner Ball over literally everything else he should have been doing at school. It had suddenly hit him that he was going to flunk his exam in Healing and Remedies and that his father was not going to be pleased at all.

I offered to help him out with some tutoring, and he came over to my house. We sat at my desk and I went over the basics. Like the total basics. I showed him how to use Felly Leaf to make a basic cooling pack for burns. I remember how happy he looked when I said he’d done it correctly. His face transformed into a huge smile. Then he stood up and walked over to my bed and flopped down on his back.

He gave me grin and said, Well, I’ve got healing nailed. How about we do something more fun?

I don’t think he meant that. I think the bed was just coincidence. But I blushed anyway. My blush made him laugh harder.

I meant let’s go get a drink or something, he explained. But if you had something else in mind… He winked and trailed off.

Suddenly, I got this swirling sensation in my stomach. It felt like my insides were rolling and I felt as though some little creatures were flying around in there. My head started to spin and I couldn’t stop grinning.

I felt my temperature rise slightly. Not enough to alarm me, but enough to make me wonder what was happening. I started making observations and recording the data.

I swallowed hard and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Nix sat up, his face suddenly concerned.

Hey, I was just messing around, he said.

I waved his words away. I know, I said. I just feel… I don’t know... strange. I shrugged. I’ll be fine. Let’s go get that drink.

We went out and met up with the rest of the team. I thought whatever had overcome me was a reaction to the fumes from the Felly Leaf and I would be okay once we got away from it, but it didn’t work that way at all.

I had a couple glasses of Coy, and the more I drank, the more I seemed to experience the weird symptoms. By the end of the night, I was more than a little worried. I had never felt anything like it before and I didn’t know of anyone else who had—and as the team’s healer, I usually heard about everyone’s strange symptoms.

I went to the clinic to get checked over, wondering if someone had spiked my drink or if maybe I had some rare disease. If so, what would it mean for my research? I was almost disappointed when I was given a full physical and told I was in perfect health. After the healer told me I was more than fine, she gave me a knowing smile.

You’re fine, Parker, but I can put a name to your symptoms if you want me to.

I nodded, excited to learn about a condition that gave such strange symptoms but had no ill effect on my health.

You have a crush. She smiled.

Crush? I repeated, confused. I know all of the diseases and syndromes in the Angel world, and crush was not one of them.

She nodded, laughing. "Yes. A crush. You know, you like someone. Like really like them as more than a friend."

I felt myself blush again. I shook my head slightly.

No. It’s definitely not that. I was with Nix. He’s one of my best friends.

She shrugged.

Well it seems like now you want him to be a bit more than that.

I left the clinic still not entirely convinced, but even I had to admit that my symptoms grew when I thought of Nix—his warm eyes, his toned physique, and that smile. Then they were off the chart when I thought of what he might look like underneath his clothes and what his skin would feel like pressed against mine.

It didn’t take me long to realize I agreed with the healer’s diagnosis. I had a crush. On Nix.

The more time I spent with Nix, the more my crush grew. It wasn’t long before I admitted to myself that I was completely, head over heels, in love with him. For his part, he didn’t seem to notice that everything had changed.

There are no decent books about how to tell your best friend that you’ve fallen for him. Someone really should write one, because the last few months of being rejected, my feelings ignored, and knowing that Nix doesn’t even really know how I feel has been hard. Damn hard.

That pivotal moment when Nix jokingly invited me into bed with him was the beginning of the end for me. It was a moment that changed everything. A moment there was no going back from.

It seems I fall in love the same way I do everything else. I go all in.

I think about the last time I saw Nix; the darkness ravaging him, eating him alive from the inside out. Everyone says he’s gone. Maybe he is, but I can’t allow myself to believe that. I can’t allow myself to believe that the man I love is gone. I know he’s in there somewhere, and I imagine the mental torture he must be enduring as the darkness takes over him, hurting those he loves and pushing them away one by one.

Not me. I’m all in, and I won’t give up on him.

That’s why I have to do what I’m going to do. I have to go the extra mile for love—because ultimately, that’s what love is. It’s fighting for the person you love and always wanting to be with them, even when it’s killing you.

It’s like watching Summit die inside a little when Lucas is with Nikki and she thinks no one is looking. It’s like the loaded glances Lucas gives Summit when he forgets himself. It’s the way Nikki looks at Lucas like he’s her savior.

It’s such a mess and the tension in the house is almost at its breaking point. Even RJ and Ryder have stopped making jokes about our live-in threesome.

Love hurts. It’s as simple as that.

But Lucas wasn’t the only one to hurt Summit. Nix hurt her too. But the hurt Nix caused? That was easily remedied. She was in the right place to have her chest penetrated—at the clinic. I mean there’s no right place to get sliced open, but if it has to happen, you want to be in a healer’s clinic. A team of healers worked quickly and efficiently and she was back to her old self by the end of the day, as much as she could be.

I think it hurt her more to see Nix so twisted—like a dark caricature of himself—but I know she forgives him and will welcome him back with open arms. We all will, because none of this is on him. It’s on his father.

Summit is hardly ever home. It hurts to hear her say she’s searching for something, anything, to cure Nix. We know better. She is avoiding Nikki and Lucas. I overheard her tell Milo that she stays away because she feels like she doesn’t have a home anymore. Even she and Dylann are on the outs after she forbade Dylann from being around Davis and then dragged Rage into it.

And then there’s Bex, Nix and Lucas’s father, who has spent years suppressing Nix’s emotions, terrified he would turn out like his biological father. It was that suppression, which was supposed to save him, that turned Nix into his father.

It kills me to say that. I know how much Nix despises his biological father, and the thought of being anything like him tortures him. But that’s what he has become.

The whole Angel world is talking about it of course. Having a new Malakaro, one without the tiniest bit of compassion, has thrown the world into anger and fear.

Of course, the usual do-gooder crowd is out in force, shouting to anyone that will listen that Nix should have been locked away years ago.

I am so thankful that his dad (the man who raised him, not his biological father) is the king of the Paras. It means that as much as anyone cries for Nix’s blood, it won’t come to that. His father’s word is final. He has Nix locked away somewhere in the castle where he can’t do any damage. He is guarded twenty-four hours a day by the Omari.

The Omari are warrior angels, the most highly trained and skilled angels there are. They are basically like the Navy SEALs of the Angel world.

I hate that he’s a prisoner, but I keep reminding myself that if he had known this was going to happen, it’s what he would have wanted. He wouldn’t have wanted to hurt people, especially us. And his family is always searching for a way to bring him back. I hoped Sorten would have the answers, but it seems this is beyond even him. I want to be mad at Sorten. He should never have agreed to give someone a potion without telling them. If only Nix had known what he was taking, this never would have happened.

But I can’t hate him too much. It was his quick thinking and knowledge of potions that meant he knew what to administer to Nix in the clinic to sedate him long enough to get him back to the castle. Without that, I dread to think what would have happened.

So yeah. It’s fair to say that the team is a bit of a mess with love triangles, a missing member, and the pressure of trying to prepare for the mission to find the third pendant piece. We don’t even know where it is yet, but it never hurts to be ready for anything. We went into the last mission unprepared and we were lucky to all get out alive. The only reason we did was because Fish recognized Lucas’s pendant as being a gateway between the worlds.

She probably only knew that because it was valuable enough that she would have wanted to steal it. She’s a thief, a con artist, and an all-around shifty character. You can imagine my delight that she has now pretty much moved into the house.

Nix deserves so much better than her. He deserves someone with morals that are higher than those of a sewer rat and someone who is doing more to help him than just shrugging her shoulders and saying she’ll know what to do when the time comes. It’s a bit harder to hate her after she saved us all on our last mission, but it’s not so hard that I can’t still manage it. How can she be so laid back amongst everything that’s going on?

I don’t know, but I sure wish I could learn her secret.

Nothing fazes her, and considering I don’t think she’s ever read a book in her life (although she’s probably stolen and traded some particularly valuable ones), she just seems to know what to do when the time arises.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be Fish—especially for the next couple of hours. Her free-spirited attitude and complete disregard for the rules would be a real asset for me for what I am about to do. But it’s not going to happen. Not for me. I’ve prepared for this the same way I prepare for everything. Research. I’ve read everything I could find about it. I’ve spoken to people who’ve experienced it firsthand, telling them I’m researching for a school project.

Actually, that’s a lie. I have yet to ask the one person who wouldn’t lie to me and make it out to be more dangerous than it actually is either to make themselves look good, or to try and discourage a sweet innocent schoolgirl from visiting.

I’m talking about Lucas of course. But I can’t ask Lucas. He’d know immediately that I’m planning something. Something dangerous.

He’d try to talk me out of it, which would only lead to a fight. Or he’d demand to come with me. But I can’t drag him into this. It’s dangerous. Practically a suicide mission, and I won’t be responsible for anyone else’s life, especially not Lucas’s. Not after what happened the last time he did this.

All of my research confirmed what I already knew. It’s going to be more dangerous than anything I’ve ever faced, and the price will be high—higher than I can imagine.

But that’s okay. Because I’m doing this for love, and I would do anything to get the real Nix back. Anything.

I leave the library, satisfied I’ve learned everything I can, and almost certain that no book can prepare you for the reality of this place. I’m happy to be leaving from the library rather than the house. No one will think it’s strange that I’m gone a long time if they think I’m at the library, and aside from a bit of last-minute research, I started out here because I didn’t want to have to lie to anyone about where I’m going, and I’m certainly not willing to tell them the truth.

I walk silently to the bottom of the grounds until I know I’m out of sight of the library and then I launch myself into the air. I fly across land and sea. I can feel the nerves kicking in as I fly, but I can feel something else… Something bigger. Hope.

I land on a deserted side street and fold my wings away. I pull the scarf I’m wearing up over my mouth and nose and step onto the busy Parisian street. I make my way through the throngs of tourists bustling around wanting to see the Arc De Triomphe up close. Normally, I would marvel at its beauty, the delicate architecture and the gentle lighting, but not tonight. Tonight, I have no interest in tourist attractions. I slip through the crowd, making my way closer and closer until eventually I see what I’m looking for.

A door marked La Porte de L’enfer. The Gateway to Hell. It must be someone’s idea of a joke calling a bar such a thing, but right now, it doesn’t seem so funny. Not to someone who knows what lies beyond it.

I push the door open and make my way through the busy bar, trying to ignore the smell of stale wine and the noise of the music throbbing through the place. I find the corridor that leads to the back door and exit. I walk down the alley and stand before a large gate. Two huge Quos stand there, one on either side of the gate.

Evenin’, ma’am, one greets me as he pulls the gate open.

I nod to him and take a moment to steady myself. I remind myself why I’m doing this, and that thought alone brings me into a sense of heightened focus.

I step through the gate and enter Hun’s Market.

I haven’t even had a chance to take in what’s in front of me when my cell phone rings in my pocket. My ringtone seems loud. Hun’s Market is no place to draw attention to yourself. Especially when you shouldn’t be here.

I notice the name on the screen. Dylann. I shrug. Whatever it is, it can wait. I swipe to decline the call and look up to face the crowd before me.

I’m in a long, narrow street that is lined by stalls. Figures move everywhere, some brazen, some shifty looking. I wonder if the shifty ones are dangerous demons intent on destruction and evil or if they are people like me; People so desperate that they will come here in search of answers.

Powers float on the air, and the place has a sense of danger but also excitement that comes off it in waves, reaching me even as I stand just inside of the gate. Shouts and hollers ring out, the stall holders announcing their wares mixed with excited cries from the buyers as they find what they are looking for. Angry shouts permeate the general noise from disgruntled buyers, and somewhere, a woman screams. I shudder at the sound, pleased that