Night trials midnight ma.., p.1
Night Trials (Midnight Magic Book 3), page 1
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
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Contact Richard Amos
Also by Richard Amos
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Copyright © 2022 Richard Amos
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Cover by Vanesa Garkova
One
Clay
All I wanted was to cuddle Fizz, my silver tabby cat. Snuggle up with her under a duvet, listen to some Kylie Minogue, and tell the world to leave me alone.
If only.
“Be careful with him,” the demon princess demanded. “He’s precious cargo.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” the two demon males answered.
The demons scooped me off the ground, working together to carry me away from the rubble I’d made. And, man, was there loads of it in this town square on the third level of the demon realm. A place packed with shops and restaurants and demons, and even a town hall, it now resembled, well, a mess.
Because of me.
After leveling this place that looked like a town square from my realm, I was empty of energy and spells. No longer a threat. At least for now.
The demons carefully placed me into a glass box sitting on the back of an idling pickup truck at the edge of my area of destruction. Bent my limbs gently, fitting me into the box. That didn’t make it any less uncomfortable laying like a curled-up turd and feeling like one, too.
Princess Isobel and Buttons/James looked on. My family. Isobel and Buttons were my family.
Gosh!
The demons slid the glass lid in place, my positioning one to give me a view of my brother and sister. Done with their job, the demons bowed to Isobel and Buttons, backing away to stand guard or whatever.
“Sorry about this method of travel,” the princess said, her voice clearer than expected on this side of the glass. “Luxury can come later.”
Fairy… Arcana whispered. The glass box screamed with magical fairy energy.
Huh?
Though my magic required some recovery time before I could fire off spells again, it still made readings to let me know who was who. Plenty of demon readings, with the fairy registering when Quentin had shown up just before I’d gone nuclear on Level 3.
What did that mean? Fairies working with demons?
If only I could ask Grindle, my fairy friend, for advice.
Could he be involved?
“Not very princely, is it?” the princess added. “But we have to be very careful with you.”
I’d been hit with two blows regarding my demon blood. The first blow had been the revelation that Buttons was my brother. My twin brother, his real name was James.
Blow number two came when the demon princess, Isobel, revealed that the demon queen was our mum, and she wanted to meet her sons after years spent watching us. Letting me live my difficult life and whatever life Buttons lived before he became a serial killer.
Yeah. Not fun.
How the hell did that work? I’d been born to Adam and Maxine Christmas—warlock dad and human mother, both deceased. Which meant Buttons had, too. Hmmm. There’d never been any mention of me having a sibling anywhere, or two babies born together. Not even when I looked into my biological family with the help of Grindle, and later Tae. No brother or sister Christmas. Only me.
However much it didn’t make sense, one thing kept the bullshit sticking to me—my demon blood. I’d never known where it came from, why it ran through my veins. I guess now I did. Or least was about to find out the finer details.
My stomach flipped, then flipped again as the truck’s engine gunned. The moment it started moving, it’d be time to meet the demon queen.
I held onto my sanity, trying not to break down. Falling apart into tears and more rage wouldn’t be good for me or for this whole process. I wanted to hold onto control, be strong and not let this crack me—despite the fissures in my soul.
I am returning, Arcana reassured me.
As exhausted as I was, the magic spoke some proper truth. My energy and spells had burned down, but from the ashes, they were rising. Piece by piece.
Just call me a phoenix.
Erm, kind of.
Isobel strutted over in her red heels and red bikini. How was she not freezing? The air here was super bitter. Did she have some kind of built-in central heating inside that beach-ready shell?
She bent and tapped on the glass.
I blinked up at her. “Please let me go home.”
“Back to your life with the vampire killing our kind?” she replied. “Why would you want to do that?” She folded her arms, tapping her long, bronze manicured nails against her pale skin.
Buttons moved up to join her. “Only kill the opposers,” he said, his voice sounding both dead and slightly elated.
He tilted his head at me, his partly-melted white buttons gleaming in the light of the moon.
Before this horrible truth, he’d been the button-eyed demon. A serial killer terrorizing London and also triggering the downfall of Brighton. A complete arsewipe of a monster in need of killing but able to resist the killing blow of my Arcana magic.
“That’s right, brother,” Isobel responded, offering him the flicker of a scowl.
Did she not like having a new button-eyed brother?
The feeling was mutual!
“I can’t wait to see Quentin destroyed,” she added. “The arrogant fuck.”
“He should bend the knee to mother. Beg for her forgiveness.” Buttons shook his head. “She is so wonderful, so special.”
Isobel threw him another dirty look. “She is.”
Yeah, she really wasn’t pleased with his presence.
To me, she said, “As you’ll see soon. She’s excited to finally meet you.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” she returned. “You’re her son.”
“Is it because of Arcana?”
The princess leaned closer to the glass, stopping shy of pressing her face against it. “She’s always been watching, Clay.”
My skin itched with the desire to kill. “I… I just want to go home.”
Isobel pulled away, the engine revving. “How many times do you need to be told you’re already home?”
“This isn’t my home.”
She rolled her eyes. “And I suppose that vampire’s fancy apartment is?”
How much did she know about my life outside of the ‘fake’ story of Tae and I dating? The one we’d sold to the rest of the world.
“It’s home to me,” I said.
“Just because a hot guy plucks you off the streets and gives you a chance at comfort, it doesn’t mean you’ve found a home.”
“It does.” Why was I arguing while in this state? “My home is with him.”
Isobel laughed, Buttons tilting his head again, behaving like the creepy arsewipe he was.
“You’re in love with that vampire,” she said. “Amazing. And there was me thinking your media crap was just that—complete crap. I wouldn’t ever put you two together.”
God, that stung. I missed Tae so much, longing to see him appear suddenly and get me out of his box because a helpless idiot like me always needed his knight to rescue him.
I’m so sorry, Tae…
Had I hurt him with my magic? I’d told him to run as my magic took hold of me, running wild through the town square. Discovering my blood truth served as one nasty trigger to tip me over the edge. And Tae finding out I was a demon, well…
He knew my secret now. He knew about my demon blood I’d been keeping from him.
A demon. The creatures he hated the most.
Oh, God.
“Is Tae alive?” I asked weakly, not ready for bad news.
“Yes. Kicked out of here,” Buttons said. “Good riddance.”
Isobel shot him a furious look. “You need to stop talking.”
“Sorry.”
“Didn’t you want me to know he was okay?” I asked.
“It’s not that,” she said, features softening. “We’re just, you know, easing into this situation with you. There’s plenty of time to go through the details.”
“That’s an important detail to me,” I countered.
“I’m sure we can get him out of your system.” She giggled. “There are so many hotties I can set you up with.”
I battled the urge to puke. Was she for real? One moment she’s having me stuffed into a box, and the next, she’s thinking about playing matchmaker? I don’t bloody think so.
This really was some fucked up nightmare. Someone kick me in the balls and wake me up!
Erm, whatever happened to a pinch or cold water to the face?
“Enough of that, though,” she said. “We’re jumping ahead of ourselves.”
Tae was alive. Not here, but safe.
Tae.
I was falling for him, that was for sure. Completely smitten. He took my breath away, worked his way inside me to take up residence beside my heart. But it was complicated. He was wrapped up in grief at the murder of his wife and son fifteen years ago. And quite rightly. I’d tried to stop myself from falling for him, for being anything but his charge and fellow demon hunter.
I think I’m falling for you, Clay.
For me. Him. That incredible man, telling me he was falling for me.
Not now. Not after knowing the real me. He’d walk away, stop his falling and forget about me. Why would he want me now? I was one of them, the enemy, part of the problem. The disease of demons on Earth, a link to the murdering scum who’d taken away his family.
Putting myself into my interpretation of Tae’s mindset might be ridiculous, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know how to spin this into sunshine. I liked to look on the bright side, even when life didn’t show me the light. It was always somewhere waiting to be found, lost in shadows. You just had to forage for it.
I was too worn out to dig. Maybe later, when I was out of this shithole demon realm.
Isobel tapped her nails on the glass again, staring down at me. “I hate this, you know.”
I really want to see you become ash. “What?”
“The look in your eyes you give me, the loss of twenty-four years of your life.” A woeful expression crossed her face. “I feel like we could’ve had a wonderful connection from the outset if we’d been allowed to grow up together.” She tapped her chest where I presumed her heart was. “I know that.”
How could she know that? Clearly, she operated in another plain of cuckoo. No way would we be bestie siblings. Demons scared me, and she was no exception, no matter the circumstances.
“I don’t blame our mother,” she continued. “She has her reasons for doing things, which you will hear about, and I understand them. You’re not the same as us—you or James.”
“Buttons,” I responded without thinking.
“Suits him better, doesn’t it?”
“Let me go.” I was still trying it.
“Afraid not. But you’ll come to see this isn’t kidnap. This is a reunion. And just you wait until you attend one of my pool parties. You’ll never want to leave again.”
“I don’t want pool parties. I want—”
Isobel slammed her fist on the glass. It shook under her strike, no cracks following when it sounded like there should be.
I swallowed, truly afraid of her.
“Stop this now,” she warned. “I’m sick of hearing it.” She patted at her cropped bronze hair. “It didn’t take us long to figure out your hunting games.” Okay, sudden subject change. “Mother was impressed, not alarmed or angry.”
“True,” Buttons added.
The button-eyed creep didn’t get a scowl from his sister this time.
“I agreed with the queen,” Isobel added.
“Even though I killed your kind?” I asked.
“They’re your kind, too. But I supposed it was necessary to hone your skills. Can’t say I’ll miss any of the dead ones. Maybe Jarod Woods. He was hot.”
Man, she was insane. “You’re not safe from me,” I said, wishing for a mouth zip.
That’s it, fire them up to kill you or bury you alive!
My spells reached out to me with weak fingers, stroking my soul. They were there. They were crawling out of the dark. This was still the time for Arcana—its midnight until dawn activation period linked to my warlock nature. How long did I have? Did Arcana only play by the rules of Earth time? What the hell was the time? The skies here were dark, stuck in the nighttime, it seemed.
I asked. The princess ignored me.
“Oh, we know how unsafe you are,” she said instead. “You’re the most dangerous creature in existence for demons. But we’re not worried as much as you might think.” A smirk. “We have help.”
“From fairies?”
Cue second smirk with no answer.
This arrogance would get her killed. Fairy magic somehow on the demon’s side or not, I’d break it. My recovery was coming on leaps and bounds, thank God. An unexpected turn, yes, but one I waited to be fully realized.
Then I kill you all, relatives or not.
She should be worried, and so should the queen. They were going down. Hard. The queen wanted to take over Earth, and she wasn’t getting her hands on it. Not on my watch.
The same applied to Quentin Dawn, a demon who wanted to destroy Earth. Where the queen wanted to set up another kingdom in my world, Quentin believed it was time to let go of the outdated desire for an earthly takeover and remove the temptation. Get rid of us, open The Rift to do it—a remnant from a failed war against the witches, which also gave us toxic rivers and now river monsters.
Being a warlock with the ability to channel the lost magic of Arcana, I could kill demons. Arcana was the only thing able to take down a demon. Somehow, certain demons were resisting my killing arrows—Buttons, Quentin Dawn, probably Isobel, and the queen.
What. The. Hell.
Fairy…
Kill them all…
A shudder rocked my insides.
Kill them…
Kill them…
Kill them…
Just like I’d killed Jarod Woods, movie star and demon set up to die. A move by Quentin, who wanted Jarod out of his way.
Shit. My guts twisted.
Yeah, I had the strength of a wet sponge. No killing for me right now. Later, though. For sure.
Fairy…
A light pain throbbed at my temples, sending lines of ache streaming across my forehead. A combination of stress and frustration. My magic sat so close yet so far away, teasing the hell out of me. I knew I didn’t have the right to expect it to be here, not after my crazy turn, but that was impatience for you.
And being a greedy, demanding arsewipe.
I just wanted out of here.
“The time is three in the afternoon,” the princess said.
Oh. She’d heard me.
Arcana worked on earthly time, then. Well, London time. So what was the time in London? I’d lost all track of it.
I asked.
She replied with, “You don’t need to worry about London right now.”
Great.
Isobel walked away, Buttons staring at me for a few extra seconds before following her.
The pickup truck revved once again and started to move.
From my awkward position inside the box, neck cramps definitely on their way, I watched the ruined town square roll away, carnage under a sunset sky of orange and purple smears. I took in the smoking buildings, the masses of black demon ash whipped up by the wind, all the remains of my massacre.
Wow. I really was becoming scary.
The vehicle moved through a street with tall brown brick buildings packed together, looking to be residential. Figures watched from the window. No demon on the pavement, from what I could see.
It creeped me out that this realm resembled my own in so many ways, aside from the stars twinkling in various shades of blue. This street could’ve been plucked out of the parts of London not decimated by toxic rivers. A street like those I’d walked down or slept in or run from witches down, the arsewipes wanting to pick on a weak warlock.
