Divine Illusions Read online

  Divine Illusions

  Spells of Surrender Book One

  Alix Sharpe

  Copyright © 2018 Alix Sharpe

  All Rights Reserved

  For Denise, Tess, & Andrea,

  Your words of encouragement have a magic all their own, no fancy amulet required.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 2 – HALE

  CHAPTER 3 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 4 – HALE

  CHAPTER 5 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 6 – HALE

  CHAPTER 7 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 8 – HALE

  CHAPTER 9 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 10 – HALE

  CHAPTER 11 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 12 – HALE

  CHAPTER 13 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 14 – HALE

  CHAPTER 15 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 16 – HALE

  CHAPTER 17 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 18 – HALE

  CHAPTER 19 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 20 – HALE

  CHAPTER 21 – KEIRA

  CHAPTER 22 – HALE

  Epilogue: Sneak Peek

  CHAPTER 1 – KEIRA

  Keira Clearwater was just about to step around the corner, when a blinding vision of red flashed in her mind’s eye. She froze, shock bolting her in place. Not a half second later, a freaking fireball sailed past the bridge of her nose, singeing the very tips of her eyelashes.

  She leapt backward and dove between two tents, heart rate spiking up through the stratosphere. Her thick, black hair whipped her cheeks as she jerked left, locking in on a tall blonde, flames dancing across her fists, predatory glint in her eye. And she was bolting straight towards Keira.

  A male voice rang out to Keira’s right. “What the hell?”

  Wait. That sounded more like irritation than anything else.

  Keira snapped out of her panic and turned to see a very flustered looking young man patting hot embers off the singed shoulder of his shirt. Oh, the blonde wasn’t attempting murder, she was just playing, with fire. Duh.

  “Got you,” the blonde grinned, extinguishing the tiny fires in each palm as she approached her friend. “You’re dead.”

  The boy’s demeanor shifted, a devilish smirk tugging at his lips. “Oh, I’d hear one of them coming. You, on the other hand…” he inhaled sharply, sliding a salacious gaze up and down the blonde’s toned, curvaceous figure. “You’re just so sneaky over there with that slinky body—“

  Barf. “Excuse me,” Keira piped up uncomfortably, popping out of her hiding place.

  Both of them casually cast a glance in her direction.

  “I just need to…” Keira said, pointing between the two. An awkward smile split across her lips as neither of them moved. Ugh. She was too tired for this. Whatever. She stepped forward and squeezed between the pyro-happy blonde and her lust-dazzled friend.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” the girl said, raising an eyebrow as Keira reached out and wrapped her fingers around the tent’s canvas door.

  “This is my assigned quarters,” Keira shrugged, half-heartedly waving her on-boarding packet.

  “Shit,” the blonde huffed, placing her hands on her hips. “You’re the new Diviner, aren’t you? I heard rumors they were finally getting one here. You cannot be my new roommate.”

  Crap. Keira winced and looked up at the girl.

  “I’ll come back later,” the guy said, backing away.

  Neither woman acknowledged him as he slunk off.

  Keira stared at the angry blonde a moment longer debating her options. It’s not like she had requested to room up with a reckless pyromaniac, especially not one with an attitude like that. In fact, this partnership looked just as awful from her perspective, but she’d be too polite to ever say so. Unlike her new ‘friend’. How the hell was she even supposed to respond to such a rude greeting?

  Keira bit her lip. Uhhh… Well, she could just pretend she didn’t hear her. Maybe. If there wasn’t a better solution. The seconds ticked by under the intensity of the blonde’s narrowed stare. Nothing came. Okay then. Fine. She turned and disappeared into the tent without an answer.

  What a great start, her new roommate hated her already. She’d been warned that some of the other soldiers might react unfavorably. Field Diviners were rare, most outposts didn’t even have one stationed. In the past hour since Keira had arrived, every single whisper she’d overheard carried the general tune of ‘she shouldn’t even be here’:

  ‘Field Diviners are useless, they don’t even have any real battle-magic.’

  ‘She’s only going to use her powers to spy on the rest of us.’

  ‘Don’t worry, the Elves will pick her off real quick.’

  ‘She should go back to her Tower, where she’s safe.’

  So far only the Captain seemed to grasp the potential advantages of having a Diviner around. Potential advantages. In the 2 minutes the Captain had talked with Keira she had basically told her that 1) her survival was critical to the success of this campaign against the Elves, 2) she didn’t look like she had what it takes to survive out here.

  So basically: you better not fail, but you’re going to fail. How’s that for motivation?

  “Well,” the blonde said, popping into the tent behind her. She crossed her toned, athletic arms, “Are you the Diviner?”

  Keira threw her bag onto her cot and plastered on a fake smile. “Guilty,” she said, pulling her amulet out from under her shirt. The black pendant shone dark in the low light of the tent. “I’m Keira. The rumors are true, I’m a Diviner.”

  “Figured,” the girl said, “when I saw your scrawny ass at registration I knew it had to be you. You don't have the build of a Salamander or the confidence of a Mage. Just my luck I’d get stuck with the one Diviner in camp. If Elves attack our tent, I’ll basically be on my own.”

  The girl puffed her chest displaying her own fiery red amulet nestled atop her ample cleavage. Red. Of course. Even if Keira hadn’t witnessed her ridiculous fireworks show, she would have guessed that was her specialty. “Lucky for you, I’m a Salamander.”

  Keira was so tempted to mock her. Oh good. If Elves invade camp, you can just summon your untrained fire and burn down the tent. Save the Elves the trouble.

  Every single Salamander Keira had met so far projected the same stereotypical massive ego. Salamanders made up 90% of the front line, yet every last one of them seemed to believe they alone were the greatest flame-wielder the world had ever seen.

  “Hopefully,” Keira said, trying her best to keep a level tone, “if Elves attack, I’ll See them first and warn everyone. Isn’t that the whole point of me being here?”

  “You’re fresh-meat, just like me. You expect me to believe you’ve already mastered your Sight?”

  “Well…” Keira said, “not exactly.” So far, she’d only learned how to see glimpses of the present and the immediate future, and it usually only worked when she was actively tapping into her magic (well, unless fireballs were flying at her head, apparently). But dammit Master Pallas had said picking up even that ability so quickly was unprecedented. “That’s what training is for, right? They wouldn’t have sent me out here if they didn’t think I’d excel.”

  “Or they were just trying to get rid of you.”

  Keira bit the inside of her cheek. Yes. That was it. It’s not like they could just discharge her and send her back to Earth if they really wanted to get rid of her. No, it made much more sense to go through the trouble of relocating her in the hopes that something would just kill her for them.

  Keira knew better than to try to convince her new roommate of that logic.

  “Well you’re stuck with me until the Elves get me then,” Keira said, extend
ing her hand stiffly. “So, since that appears to be my inevitable fate, I should probably learn your name. That way I can call you for help when they start to rip my flesh from my bones.”

  “Jessa,” the girl said leaning across the rickety cot, shaking Keira’s hand as briefly as possible. “You better hope you get assigned a good trainer, I don’t think you know what you’re getting yourself into out here. I saw 16 Elves during basic training. It’s supposed to be a hundred times worse out here.”

  Keira grimaced and turned back to her bag. “Wow. That’s a lot,” she said, rolling her eyes secretively. A hundred times worse than 16? They’d all be dead if they ran into 1,600 Elves a month. Either this girl was exaggerating their situation, or she completely lacked the ability to comprehend orders of magnitude. Okay, stop. Keira forced herself to take a deep breath. She was taking the comment too seriously. No wonder she didn’t have many friends. “Thanks for the warning.”

  Jessa turned, apparently satisfied, and sauntered out of the tent.

  Keira let out a long exhale. She really hoped she could find someone, anyone, who would be a little more welcoming than her new roommate and the terrifying Captain, but based on all the whispers she’d heard, she wasn’t optimistic. It was so silly. She had just as much right to be there as the other trainees. Yes, it was rare to send a Diviner into the field, but a good one could save an entire fleet if they Saw the right vision at the right time. She just had to believe in herself, like Master Pallas did.

  The Sight was in her blood, even if she didn’t realize it until she came through The Veil. Before she had ever even touched an amulet, she’d always had those dreams. Well, premonitions, really. Okay, prophetic nightmares, actually.

  Keira shuddered and closed her eyes. She spent the last several years reveling in delusions of someday becoming a Mage, but if she had spent even 2 seconds critically thinking about it, she would have recognized her inherent Diviner nature before they ever even handed her that black amulet.

  Keira sighed and tucked her necklace back into her shirt. Things would be so much easier if her amulet were Mage’s blue instead of Diviner’s black. Battle Mages, though also somewhat rare, were actually celebrated, not scorned. Hell, she might even take Salamander’s red after everything so far.

  When Keira first came across The Veil, all she could think about was how excited she was to finally be there. She’d dreamed her whole life of coming through and fighting the Elven menace. She even dropped out of college a year early when she got the call. It’s not like she ever really wanted to be an accountant anyway.

  When she passed through that shimmering doorway from Earth, they presented her with her precious amulet, the gift of magic. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the type of amulet she’d always envisioned hanging around her neck. She would never animate swords or cast illusions like a Mage. She wouldn’t even be able to throw fireballs like her meathead roommate and the other Salamanders.

  No, she was a Diviner, she’d sit in a Tower and grasp for visions. All tactics and no action. Or so she thought, until a month into her training when Master Pallas saw her potential as a Field Diviner. She hadn’t even known that was an option.

  Keira took a deep breath and rose from the edge of her cot. No point in brooding over her situation, it was still better than crunching numbers in a cubicle for the rest of her life. At least she was given some sort of magic, even if she wouldn’t be able to levitate weapons or conjure flames. She had a whole fleet surrounding her to take care of that. Her job, was to keep her eyes and her mind sharp. That, she could do.

  She’d show them all. One step at a time. First, she just had to get to orientation. A swell of determination fluttered in her chest as she stepped out of the tent… and barreled straight into a solid mass. Or, it barreled into her, rather. She hit the ground, hard.

  So much for reliable warning premonitions.

  “Shit. Are you okay? I’m so sorry.”

  Keira blinked, disoriented. Strong hands lifted her from her knees and flipped her over. Oh, hello. Finally, something good. A goofy, dazed smile spread across her lips as she stared at up the ridiculously handsome wizard cradling her in his arms.

  “That was… ‘good’?” he questioned, peering down at her like he might have knocked her brain loose.

  Wait. Had she said that out loud? Keira’s eyes went wide, mortified. Craptastic.

  “No,” she winced, sitting up, “I was… talking to myself… about something else.” Smooth. Oh well. She shrugged it off. She learned to embrace her awkwardness a while back, she wasn’t going to let some boy embarrass her. Er. Some man. Man, oh, man.

  Everything about him was man. He had maybe 5 years on her tops, but those few years apparently made all the difference. He was nothing like the boys from her dorm. His bright white, wicked smirk exuded a seductive, bold confidence. It practically glowed against his flawless, deep-amber skin. Then there was that delicious, thick, dark brown hair falling over those intense, yellow-green eyes, his gaze burning into her, wild and powerful. Like a tiger ready to pounce. And, judging by the rock-hard arms wrapped around her and the broad, firm chest beneath her cheek, he had the sinewy, lean, feline muscles to match. Rowr. Okay, what the hell?

  He was a damn fine specimen and all, but why in the world was she comparing him to a cat?

  “I might have hit my head,” she said, cutting off her bizarre, lascivious analysis. She wobbled, trying to stand.

  “Do you need to go to the medic?” he asked, brows tucked in concern. Geez, the way he was looking at her made her want to just sit there and stare back at him all day. So pretty!

  “No,” she said, breaking away from his adorable inquisitive gaze, “just help me to orientation. I’ll be okay.” She could not go to the medic. That would just prove she was too weak to be here. She couldn’t let Jessa and Captain Angeline (and everyone else really) be right about that.

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

  “Okay,” he shrugged. He paused for a moment, giving her a quick elevator glance. A little smirk tucked up in the corner of his mouth as he considered her. Then, before she could react, he dipped down, wrapped one muscly arm behind her knees and hoisted her off the ground.

  What the… “Put me down,” she said, squirming against his chest. No one could see her like this! This would definitely not help her image.

  “What?” he laughed. “You don’t like to be swept off your feet?”

  When he put it that way… it wasn’t exactly torture to be pressed against his rock-solid chest. Wait, why was she even considering this? “No,” she said, “put me down.”

  “I’m too tall to help you walk, my shoulder comes to your head.”

  “I’m okay now, I’ll be fine, promise.”

  “Okay, if you insist,” he said, easing her feet back onto the ground.

  “I do,” she said, taking a confident step forward.

  He shot her a skeptical look, clearly monitoring to ensure she was really okay. He started following behind her just in case.

  She was a little wobbly, no one would notice, she could just slip in and take a seat. Or so she’d hoped. As they passed the last row of tents and strolled into the middle of the Captain’s orientation speech, every single set of eyes turned and landed on Keira and her handsome new shadow.

  CHAPTER 2 – HALE

  “Take a seat,” the Captain said, narrowing her eyes.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Hale said, giving her a mock salute. He grabbed the arm of the mortified fresh-meat girl frozen in front of him, and guided her to the nearest bench. He stole a glance at her as they sat down.

  Between her stature, her giant, grey eyes, and her long, shiny, black hair, she appeared to be in her late teens, even though he knew she had to be at least 20. They didn’t let them across The Veil before that. Pretty as hell, but a soldier?

  He’d knocked her over so easily. God, he felt like a jackass, he should have watched where he was going. Still, she’d gone dow
n without even the slightest attempt to fight gravity. Hopefully it had been a fluke, otherwise she wouldn’t survive very long out there. She didn’t have the build of someone who should be in the field. She was maybe 5’3” with her boots on and weighed no more than a buck ten.

  He bit back a smile, thinking of how flustered she’d gotten when he’d picked her up. It was cute. Most of the women out there were the bold, strong, warrior types, and while he definitely enjoyed that brand of company on occasion, it had been a long time since he could go to bed with a woman and not have her bust out a ball gag and a riding crop. Salamanders were a breed all their own. There was no way this girl was one. She had to be a Mage.

  She didn’t seem to be in any pain anymore, though her rigid posture betrayed her newbie status. She was clearly terrified of upsetting The Great Captain Angeline, probably assumed the woman was a heartless Drill Sergeant stereotype just like from the armies back on the Earth side of The Veil.

  Common misconception with the new recruits. Calling the set up here even “quasi” military would be generous. He would know. Hale Draven had been in the US Army for 2 years when they sent him to fight the Elven scum instead. It was a strange transition going from such a rigid structure to this. At first, he too had believed Angeline required flawless obedience, but really, she just required you to stay alive.

  Yeah, they threw around titles like “Captain” here, but really that just meant she’d survived long enough to be assigned her own unit. He’d probably be there in a few short years himself. He’d been on this side of The Veil for 4 years already, longest in his fleet apart from two others: The Captain and the scourge of his existence, Soren Eriksson. Soldiers didn’t last long out here, it was a risk that came with the territory, but it was worth it. He’d rather live one day with his magic than another 10 years without it. The future wasn’t guaranteed, not for a soldier like him.

  He turned his attention back to the Captain right as she finished her speech.