Oath of Betrayal (The Broken Bonds: Slavic Fantasy #1)

Prologue

I woke slowly to the gentle caress of Talmund’s fingers tracing patterns on my back. I cherished these lazy mornings, waking up sprawled across his chest, even if we were in a cramped tent with rough bedding and a pungent smell on this particular morning, the result of our long and arduous journey.

From where he lay on my other side, Arno’s whispers interrupted my examination of Tal’s chest and I frowned. ‘We shouldn’t be here, Tal. If my calculations are correct, the number of demon attacks here is abnormal, even for the Lost Ridge. Sending a rookie mage unit on their final year of training would be a joke if the situation wasn’t so dire.’

Tal’s sigh was so deep I felt my head move.

‘You know it is our job, right? To deal with the Vel. You worry for no reason. They might be natural occurrences; wild magic is stronger near the Barrier, so it isn’t surprising that they multiply here. We won’t encounter the greater Vella on our side, so let’s just try to enjoy using our magic together,’ he said. When Arno didn’t answer, Tal sighed again. ‘You are such a ray of sunshine.’

‘We are a specialised unit with a conduit mage. It isn’t our job to fight common Vel. Those are for soldiers, dragon riders, or even hunters to deal with. They wouldn’t send us unless they expected there to be a problem.’ The angry tone of Arno’s voice woke me up completely.

He’d been worried ever since we’d been assigned to guard a high-order mage as he investigated the increased number of Vel demons in the area. I shuddered at the thought of the strange, glistening wall so close to our camp. Some, especially the southern nobles, believed it was no longer needed. However, they hadn’t read the accounts of those involved in the Necromancer’s War and the Lich King’s abhorrent experiments on the living—but we had, as a part of our training.

I’d had nightmares for weeks after reading of the torturous spells that turned people into greater Vella demons. I was grateful for this remnant of the war, the last defence against the Lich King’s army. I was also a little intimidated by the fact that it had lasted for five hundred years, a feat I couldn’t even imagine replicating.

The mage we were guarding was an artificer of the High Order with a particular interest in the Barrier. He had been in the wilderness for years, but this was the first time he had asked for an escort.

No one knew why the number of Vel had increased. The official explanation given by the University Council was that a dissonance between the spell sustaining the Barrier and the rare incidents of wild magic allowed the demons to access this realm. Arno didn’t believe it, and neither did I. Maybe someone overheard our discussion because the next thing I knew, we were in the dean’s office being given this job by the royal mage.

The high-order mage had led us to a place near Varta Fortress. It was deemed safe, especially since the fortress and its dragon riders guarded the mountain ridge and the Barrier keystone’s resting place, located somewhere deep in the mountain’s heart.

The scholar had demanded protection because, as he’d said, ‘ I don’t have time to deal with such petty annoyances.’ I suspected we’d have to fight a few strigae or—I shuddered—ghouls. We might even have to cleanse a few undead corpses from an abandoned cemetery, but I was more than ready for it.

‘Precisely. They sent us because Ani here is a conduit who needs to build her experience. Besides, we both know she wanted it,’ Talmund said, bending to kiss my forehead. ‘You saw how happy she was when they offered us the chance to prove ourselves.’

‘Oh, stop worrying and give me a kiss before the old twat wakes up,’ I murmured, reaching for Arno without opening my eyes, and he happily obliged.

My magic blossomed under his touch, the physical expression of our synergy. Arno’s healing abilities belonged to the High Order. Somehow, we had discovered that he had synergy with Tal’s and my elemental magic of the Primal Order. ‘Hmm, see, that’s better. You don’t have to worry. I can power your spells, and we can deal with the Vel,’ I said, stretching as he kissed me.

I was slowly waking up under his languid caresses and Tal’s wandering hands when something disturbed the aether flowing around us.

‘Get out of the tent, you useless cunts!’ I heard our esteemed leader yell and sighed heavily. The scholar we were supposed to guard was a royal pain in the arse, but we were under his orders. Rolling my eyes, I untangled myself from my men’s embrace.

‘Come on then, before he throws a fit again,’ I said, and they smirked in unison. We hadn’t undressed for the night so I only needed to grab my weapon before leaving the tent.

‘Yes, sir. What do you re—’ my voice died in my throat as I faced a horror I’d never expected to face in this lifetime.

A wlok.

How the fuck do you defeat a pile of bones?

It wasn’t supposed to be here; it shouldn’t even be possible. Such an abhorrent creation, a remnant of the old war, only existed on the other side of the Barrier, where the Lich King’s touch corrupted everything and everyone. That’s why we had the impenetrable construct dividing the Lowland Kingdoms from the Barren Lands, and we weren’t close enough to the Barrier for it to pass over our borders, even by mistake.

Unless the Barrier is failing. If a wlok was here, what else could come through? Are there more monsters? Fuck, Arno was right. The Barrier should stop anything with even a hint of foul magic, yet an immortal wlok was here .

The wlok was more myth than reality, or so we thought. Nobody had encountered one in living memory. It required certain conditions, a hefty dose of wild magic, and lots of unburied bodies—or a skilled necromancer ruthless enough to sacrifice a town’s worth of living creatures in order to harvest their bones and give the construct a semblance of life.

Encountering a greater demon of the Vella was unheard of. I wasn’t just out of my depth; I was drowning in the ocean, clueless and scared, while an immortal wlok stared me in the face.

Everything can be killed. I just have to find a way to do it.

I needed to believe in my unit because this monstrous evil couldn’t be allowed into our world. It had no coherent thought, no intelligence behind its insatiable hunger and constant need to expand. Once released, a wlok rolled over fields and roads, searching for more—more life, more bones, just … more. Human or animal, it didn’t matter—it took anything and everything, stripping the flesh from bone and absorbing it to roll onwards, endlessly, constantly growing.

Wlok left no evidence behind, shredding and absorbing their prey without damaging the surrounding vegetation. They would be the perfect weapon if they weren’t impossible to control. Everyone who encountered the monsters simply vanished, their bones joining those that went before.

It must have been the wild magic and potency of the Lost Ridge Mountain that had brought this one to life, because only a madman would release a wlok. And only a fool would try to fight one.

It was our turn to be those fools. The magical force majeure had surprised us in our sleep, rolling over the camp. Whoever had decided to send us here was as big a fool as us, and we were about to pay the price of their arrogance.

‘Annika, look out!’

Talmund’s voice echoed through the valley right before several rocks crashed over the ledge. I barely had enough time to reach for the aether and create a shielding glyph before they fell towards me, smashing into the invisible barrier. I shook violently, choking back my fear, before facing the wlok as it tumbled forward again while my men took their positions.

My gaze went to the man we were supposed to guard. I watched in horror as the mage tried to cast spell after spell aimed at the vortex of bones, each one hardly slowing the wlok as it reformed and attacked again.

But before I could form a coherent thought, he was engulfed, and that scream … the soul-shattering scream of pure agony still echoing in my ears, stripped away every rational thought.

He’d been ripped apart within seconds, and as I added my own scream of terror to the unfeeling universe, I realised the same rule that made a conduit mage leader of their battle group meant that I was now in charge.

Our small group didn’t have a hope of escaping this alive.

‘Annika, for fuck’s sake, what do we do now?’ Arno shouted from over the boulder, and I stood up, brushing away the debris covering me.

Talmund answered before I could. ‘Run. I will hold it off for as long as I can. Go to Varta Fortress. Maybe the dragons can burn this bastard to dust.’ He stepped up from his hiding place, sword held aloft, and ran a hand over his blade, setting it ablaze—a paladin mage ready to sacrifice himself to save others.

Although my conduit abilities made me the strongest mage, it was Tal who always led us and most often shouldered the burden of responsibility. He once again stepped up when I had frozen. Now, one of the men who was bound to me for life stood against the fiend like a hero of old.

‘I will always protect you, Ani. I will be your shield, guarding your back when you do that insane thing with your magic.’ I could still hear his loving whispers as we lay together, his breath caressing my neck. I loved him more than I feared the wlok, and I couldn’t let him face this alone.

‘You’ll die if you do that. We’re not leaving you behind,’ I answered, and Talmund shrugged sadly, his expression forlorn. ‘Unless you have a plan, we’ll die here anyway. At least this way, the people in the valley will have some warning,’ he said, and I knew he was thinking about his mother and sister, who lived in a town hardly three days’ ride from here.

‘Tal, I mean it, get the fuck away from there,’ I shouted. As he braced himself for the nearing wlok’s charge, I threw a hastily created fireball at the monster to buy Tal some time, but he didn’t budge. To make matters worse, Arno stepped forward, heading towards the warrior, his arms outstretched and healing tattoo sigils gleaming on his palms, ready to support him.

My hands shook as I drew a fire sigil. I didn’t have dragon fire, but with two Anchors, I was capable of fuelling a limitless spell, even if I wasn’t sure how much of it my body could withstand. I knew Tal was right; one of us should run, but I couldn’t leave them to their fate.

A sudden pull on my aether broke my focus, shattering the half-made sigil, and I screamed when Tal charged, drawing power from our bond. Blue flames of pure aether enveloped the outer edges of the wlok, burning its bones to cinders—but it was too big, too strong. For each stroke of Talmund’s sword, another sharp edge of bone ripped a piece of flesh from his body.

More and more blood filled the air, scintillating like a red haze while Tal danced with his sword, eyes filled with pain. My paladin, my heart, my everything, unwavering in the face of death, was buying us time as the mindless truss of animated bones ripped him apart.

The pain I felt through our bond brought me to my knees, blinding me with its intensity. Talmund was drawing on my power hard, so hard I could barely contain the stream of aether, but he needed it. So I dug my hand in the dirt, focusing in order to direct the onslaught of magic.

Something swelled inside my chest, a pressure that caused Arno’s gaze to snap in my direction. He could always sense me. I didn’t need to look at his face to know the strain he was under, yet I did. He was pale, so bloody pale that I knew he was draining his life force to keep Tal alive for as long as he could. I took a deep breath and pushed some aether into my bond with him as well.

Maybe if I’d been experienced I could do more, but I was an untested conduit who could only use my skill to sustain their spells or fight the wlok myself. I couldn’t do both. Worse, I suspected that even if I channelled all the aether of the Lost Ridge into their magic, it would only prolong our agony if they insisted on fighting this demon.

‘Run,’ Arno mouthed, but I didn’t move. Arno—my gentle fae, scholar, and healer, the only man who could make me laugh when I was ready to rip the world apart. The man who kissed away my scrapes and bruises … was standing his ground while asking me to run.

What life would I have without them?

If they were going to die, then I would die with them. The thought hardened my resolve, and I reached for the aether, feeling Tal’s and Arno’s spirits grounding me as I opened myself to the primordial power that sustained our world. The air shimmered as my mind seeped through the cold stone beneath my feet until I touched the pure, wild magic of the mountain. It blazed with power, and I took it in, moulding it to my will.

Tal’s agonised scream broke through my concentration as the bedrock responded to my call. I saw the sharp bone piercing his chest, his eyes glazed with torment, when he stumbled towards me. He knew he was dying, yet he forced another painful step, reaching out to touch me.

A smile blossomed on his bloodless face when another bone pierced him from behind. He didn’t falter but looked at me as if, in his last moments, I was all he needed. ‘You can do it, Ani. I believe in you. I’ll wait for you behind the Veil.’

Tears poured from my eyes as I shaped my magic into a spear of pure power, the mountain trembling when I released it. The only way to stop a wlok was to prevent its relentless tumbling, and I was going to bury it with us. The elemental force smashed into the cliff above the wlok, shattering the granite to send down an avalanche of stone and dirt upon us all, inseparable even in death.

Tal’s family would be safe, and even if no one found our gravesite, it was the right thing to do. My magic raged, ravaging the mountainside, when I felt Tal’s tether vanish from my core.

My unyielding heart, who had walked through life armed with an incorruptible code of honour, had died trying to keep me safe. Agony blasted through my senses and unbalanced my magic. I screamed and screamed, tears leaking from my eyes. I prayed for death to take me; losing Tal was unbearable.

Arno’s eyes widened. I knew he felt the same pain I did and that he tried to take mine away, but nothing, not even his healing skills, could numb this wound. He whispered my name. I saw the desperation in his eyes and watched in disbelief as a man who valued life reached for death.

My healer cut his forearms, letting blood pour over his fingers in the direst of rituals to draw a sigil. Arno was no longer trying to heal me. Instead, he channelled foul magic, forbidden to his kind, tainting his soul in a living sacrifice in order to summon enough power to create a protective spell around me.

The avalanche crashed into us, and I screamed as the wlok tore Arno apart moments before the granite boulders buried them together. Arno’s tether, too, vanished from inside me. I was left empty and numb to the world, cursing his name for condemning me to live while they both died.

Earth-shattering power still raged around me, as uncontrollable as my grief. With no Anchors, I was unable to stop it. I didn’t even try, hoping that it would consume me or the protective spell keeping me safe from the rocks above.

The mountain shook again, its walls distorting, the ground rolling like the sea as an earthquake broke it apart. Aether mauled me like a dog that had finally turned against its owner. Blood flowed from my eyes and ears, my body shutting down, overwhelmed by the power tearing through me when a deafening roar penetrated my living tomb and the anguish in my soul.

Dragon riders . Our saviours had arrived to rescue us. My sobs didn’t stop. I didn’t care about their arrival. It was too late to save those I loved. I saw the rock wall crumble, but I didn’t move, didn’t call for help, hoping to find oblivion in death.

The enormous muzzle of a black dragon, its skin marked with blue stripes, appeared, eyes filled with compassion. My unbound magic reached for him, searching for a new Anchor, almost forging a connection, and his vertical pupils widened.

Exhaustion washed over me as the darkness enveloping me grew deeper, my breathing now ragged. When I took my last breath, I welcomed it, hoping that somewhere on the other side, I would meet my men again. They held the pieces of my shattered soul, and with their deaths, I had nothing left to live for.

I was ready to die.