Broken Magic Read online

  Table of Contents

  BROKEN MAGIC (WORLDS OF MAGIC BOOK 1)

  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

  EPILOGUE

  BROKEN MAGIC (WORLDS OF MAGIC BOOK 1)

  Catherine Vale

  ¶

  PRONOUN

  Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review.

  All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

  Copyright © 2017 by Catherine Vale

  Interior design by Pronoun

  Distribution by Pronoun

  ISBN: 9781537875712

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Broken Magic

  Broken Magic

  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

  Epilogue

  Thanks for Reading!

  About the Author

  BROKEN MAGIC

  ~

  Worlds of Magic: Book 1

  Catherine Vale

  Copyright © 2017 Catherine Vale

  Wildfire Press

  Website: http://www.CatherineVale.com

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  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, brands, incidents, and places are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction. The publication/use of these trademarks is not associated with or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Inquiries may be sent directly to: [email protected]

  Edited by Charlotte Stanley

  BROKEN MAGIC

  ~

  Worlds of Magic: Book 1

  Meet Alicia Stark: Portal traveler, skilled white witch, kick-ass woman on a mission.

  After Alicia’s parents disappeared unexpectedly, she made it her life’s mission to find them. Her search has taken her into dangerous worlds filled with mythical beasts, dark magic creatures and otherworldly monsters. But nothing could prepare her for the world she is about to enter.

  When Alicia finds herself stuck in an unusual world called Wonderland, she knows that it’ll take more than spell-work to survive. She will have to risk everything if she wishes to defeat the ruthless Queen who is determined to have her head.

  What begins as a curious journey into an unusual realm where nothing is quite what it seems, quickly turns into a battle for survival with the most unexpected partner by her side: a mysterious dragon shifter who works for the realm.

  Alicia will need to unlock the closely guarded secrets of a world filled with murder and mayhem in order to outrun the darkness that will stop at nothing to destroy her.

  Broken Magic is the gripping first story in the Worlds of Magic Series. If you enjoy stories filled with enchanting creatures, otherworldly monsters, inhuman allies, and a dash of romance in a fantasy setting, this is the series for you.

  Table of Contents

  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

  Epilogue

  Thank You Note

  About the Author

  Other Books by Catherine Vale

  CHAPTER 1

  ~

  Dammit!

  I slammed into a boulder that stood in my path, nearly losing my footing in the process. The last thing I needed right now was to find myself face-down on the ground, especially with a pack of hellhounds just a few feet behind me. Cold fear gripped my heart, and my throat was dry and raspy as I gasped for air. It felt like I had been running for hours from these creatures, but I knew it had only been a few minutes.

  The hellhound closest to me snapped at my heels, narrowly missing my leg. Its breath was so hot I could feel it through my jeans. I pumped my arms, sprinting at top speed to keep ahead of the pack of slobbering, hungry hell beasts who’d like nothing better than to tear the limbs from my body.

  I dodged the next boulder in my path, only to run right into the middle of their fiery, foul smelling den. That was just my luck. I should’ve known this world was trouble from the moment I arrived. Now I was running for my life from the most terrifying creatures I’d ever seen. I had to get to the portal and get the hell out of this crazy realm.

  My muscles screamed in pain, but I couldn’t stop—there was no time for rest. One of the hellhounds leapt for me again, its sharp claws slashing at the knapsack that beat wildly against my back.

  Another beast let loose a bloodcurdling howl. I zigzagged around the massive fragments of smooth rock, hoping to confuse the stupid animals, but they kept pace. They roared after me with their enormous paws shaking the ground beneath my feet.

  I drew from the well of magic inside me, strengthened by the desperate need to get away from these monsters. With a deep breath, I ran the tips of my fingers over the next boulder I passed—the rock much bigger than all the others I’d seen. As soon as my fingers touched it, the boulder exploded, showering the hellhounds with chunks of scorching, heavy rock. Their thunderous growls of pain sliced through the air, stinging my ears. My magic bought me some time, but not much.

  A crude arch was up ahead—formed by one large, flat rock resting on two upright ones. I made a run for it, pumping my arms harder as the fiends snapped at the air behind me, picking up speed. I lifted my hands, my arms trembling, as I grunted behind clenched teeth, and brought the entire arch down as I passed through it. I didn’t hear any howls that time. Somehow, I’d missed the bastards.

  I ran on, letting my eyes scan the barren landscape for anything I could use to stop the rabid pack behind me. But there were only boulders. I dragged my fingers over them once again, showering sheets of rock behind me. Others I lifted from the ground to drop suddenly as I passed, hoping to catch a hellhound off guard. I could hear them maneuvering behind me, dodging around falling boulders, and powering through the chunks of falling stone.

  I caught my toe on a jutting rock and almost lost my footing. Struggl
ing to regain my tottering balance, I was slowed down enough to allow the hellhound closest to me to move in, striking with razor sharp claws that sliced through my jeans and opened the skin underneath. Pain bloomed in my calf, so hot it felt like I’d been burned instead of cut. I fell hard, tumbling onto the rocky ground as I screamed. I spun through the dirt and rock, then landed flat on my back causing the knapsack to dig into my spine.

  The hellhounds—there were three of them, each one bigger than the last—closed in quickly, licking their dripping chops, their dead eyes glowing a hot grayish-white. The alpha sprang into action, its inch-long teeth bared and a deep growl rumbling in its throat.

  I lifted my hands, and felt the crackling of magic in my palms. Steadying myself, I released a firestorm of blinding white energy, pointed directly at the beast’s matted chest.

  Bullseye.

  It yelped like an injured puppy, as it flew back a few feet and fell to the rocky ground next to one of the large boulders. The reek of burning hair filled my nostrils. My stomach turned over at the smell, threatening to upend itself. I swallowed hard, not looking away from the remaining hellhounds. I hadn’t killed the leader—I really didn’t like killing at all—but that well of energy, that natural power, quivered beneath my skin, ready to be let loose again.

  The other two hounds stood frozen in place, their fiery eyes on their fallen leader, as they snarled and bared their jagged teeth. I leapt to my feet again, taking full advantage of the diversion. I had no idea how resilient these creatures were. That was the biggest problem with world jumping—I never knew what was waiting for me on the other side of the portal, or how well my magic would respond to the shifting atmosphere.

  Spinning on the balls of my feet, I took off again, trusting the surge of adrenaline to get my sore, beat-to-shit body moving. The burning ache in my calf was brutal, but I pushed through the pain—gritting my teeth and drawing from my inner strength. The distraction of the now unconscious alpha gave me the precious lead time I needed. The fuckers came after me eventually, but the hulking beasts, with the sharp, cunning features of a wolf, were the size of grizzly bears. It took time for them to get from zero-to-sixty. I tossed another boulder into their path. The ground was unstable beneath my feet. Despite their size, they were agile beasts—leaping around the obstacles, desperate to catch up to me.

  The beasts bayed at me, the sound grating on my nerves. They traveled in a blazing cloud, their malevolent energy buzzing and insistent. My head throbbed, and I was drenched with sweat inside my leather jacket, but I couldn’t even risk the second or two it would take to unzip it. I swiped at the perspiration dripping from my forehead to keep it out of my eyes, and then, without hesitation, I sent another boulder cascading to the ground behind me in the hopes of hitting one of the hateful creatures.

  I ran up a steep incline—my legs straining with the effort and my breath tearing in and out of my lungs as I burst out into the open, leaving the field of standing boulders far behind me.

  The black mountain range rose up in front of me, shimmering in the low light. Only a few feet above the gleaming base of it, was the jutting shelf of rock I’d stood on not more than a few hours earlier, overlooking the most desolate world I’d seen so far.

  Somehow, the hellhounds were still on my tail. Their footsteps thundered right behind me. I looked up at the pointed peak of the mountain and tapped into my power, sending a pulse of pure, sizzling energy straight toward it. The top of the mountain exploded in a spray of flying gray boulders that picked up speed as they raced toward us. The ground gave a deep, dangerous rumble beneath my feet. The beasts howled at each other as they skidded to a stop in the dirt behind me. I kept moving as the avalanche of rocks picked up speed. If I timed it just right, I just might survive this crazy world.

  I darted around falling rocks, while batting others away with waves of throbbing energy launched from my palms. The sound of boulders smashing to the ground around me rang in my ears. I made it through the barrage, collapsing against the side of the mountain and panting for breath.

  The hellhounds’ glimmering eyes tracked me, unwilling to give up their chase. They waited through the storm of rocks, their snarling mouths dripping frothy drivel. I turned and crawled into a hole in the mountain at waist height. Whoever had been here before me had thought to create this convenient chute from the portal on a high cliff to ground level. Hopefully it worked the opposite way as well, like climbing up a slide. The chute was only big enough for me to fit inside. There was no way a hellhound could run in after me. The air inside was almost too heavy to breathe. I climbed steadily, my chest heaved, my body slicked with sweat. The beasts snarled into the bottom of the tube, their growls echoing up to sting my ears.

  After what felt like an eternity of scrabbling through the tunnel, pushing with my achy legs and pulling with my hands, I finally hauled myself out of the hole. With a grunt, I wiggled free and fell, head-first into the dirt. Taking the time to catch my breath, I just laid there. I resisted the urge to kiss the ground. Better not to put my mouth on anything I found in these parallel realms.

  Standing on weak legs, I winced at the stab of pain in my injured calf. I felt like I’d just gone a few rounds in a boxing ring. I was sore from my aching head to my stubbed toes. I scanned my surroundings, reading the energy as I scrutinized every inch of this small ridge of rock. I was alone.

  A peek over the edge showed the hellhounds sniffing around on the ground hundreds of feet below, baying and snarling as stuck their long snouts into the bottom of the chute, looking for me. The alpha had rejoined them. Looking past them, I studied the grim landscape. The air was thicker here and smelled like a dumpster fire. I couldn’t get over the faded look of this place. It was a world absent of color—the mountains were ink black and shiny as obsidian, while the sky was a churning mass of slate gray, gently rotating storm clouds. Only I had a feeling it never rained here. What water I’d seen had been as black as the mountains. I steered clear of it, not wanting to chance an encounter with whatever creatures might be hiding in those opaque, bubbling depths. The air was misty too, giving everything a hazy, grayish appearance. It was like breathing in thick fog, only drier. No sun or a moon traversed the sky. The blanket of clouds was too solid. Even my clothes—light blue jeans, red high-top sneakers, and purple shirt—had faded to the same grayish hue. It was as if the atmosphere itself leeched the color out of everything. Only my leather jacket seemed abnormally lustrous, much shinier than it was on the other side of the portal, but darker too, like it had been made with jet, black shark skin.

  I wanted to get the hell out of here, but I was mesmerized by the utter lack of vibrant color. A glance down at my fingers revealed that the burgundy polish on my nails appeared shiny black. I’d seen dim worlds before, but this was the starkest by far.

  The baying of the hellhounds dragged my attention away from the landscape. They were bounding up the side of the mountain in great leaps—snarling and gnashing their teeth. Their claws dug into the rock allowing them to keep their balance. Their dead eyes blazed hot white.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I muttered, and dropped to my knees. I pressed my hands to the edge of the cliff and let the power move through me in a flash. The ground beneath me quaked as a layer of rock crumbled from the side of the mountain. The rolling rocks picked up speed as they rolled toward the hellhounds. They weren’t agile enough to dodge the avalanche this time. They went down with the rocks. Howling and spinning head over heels, until they hit the ground with a solid thud. The alpha regained its footing almost immediately and turned its glowing eyes up to me. It started to climb the side of the mountain again, slowly but steadily. The other two beasts stirred on the ground behind it.

  Fucking hellhounds. They just didn’t give up. I turned away from the cliff and hurried to the rocky side of the mountain where the portal was hidden. I couldn’t actually see it at the moment, but I felt it. Thankfully, I’d left it closed, not wanting some nightmarish cre
ature from this realm to cross back into mine and wreak havoc.

  I waved my fingers over the shiny black rocks, and the portal revealed itself. No two entrances looked the same. Some were portals. Some vortices. Some actual doorways that, when unlocked with magic, became the gate through which another realm could be reached. This portal looked like a wall of standing fog.

  I made a mental note to steer clear of the dim, colorless worlds in my travel book, the Terra Magicarum—at least for the time being. This one had been the worst by far, but they all seemed chocked full of rabid, bloodthirsty creatures that wanted to kill me. I knew I’d have to face many of the darker realms eventually. It was the only way I’d ever find my parents. I just had to be more careful about it.

  My thoughts went back to the day I was told that my parents had died while battling dark forces in some far-away realm. They loved world-hopping, but even more than that, they loved fighting alongside other supernaturals in the hopes of protecting the innocent.

  It wasn’t that I simply refused to believe they were dead. It was that I felt it deep inside my soul, they were still very much alive. I just had to find them and bring them home. That is, if I could stay alive long enough to uncover their whereabouts.

  The snarling drew closer. The hell beasts were now almost at the top of the cliff.

  I stepped through the hazy portal. The fog tickled my skin as darkness flashed over me. I tried to put my foot down on the other side—my home world, Earth—but my foot dropped into nothingness and, suddenly, I was falling. The sensation of being airborne stole my breath away and launched my stomach up into my throat. My ponytail lifted from my back as the wind beat against my body. My eyes opened to impenetrable blackness, my feet kicking the air as I continued to slowly plunge into unknown depths. I’d never experienced a crossover like this before. The portals always led right to the next world within seconds.