Deceiving Their Minds (Tactum Obscurae #1)

Prologue

THE SHADOW

Induction Night

It all started with a secret.

Four friends stood on the edge of a cliff surrounding a rudimentary burial site, staring down at the secret—now dead—that their queen revealed. The now-cooling body of a dear friend, a brother, had become quite the unfortunate scene below them.

An enemy.

A villain.

A betrayer.

A newly crowned Queen.

The Shadow stalked them from the nearby treeline, waiting for an opportune moment to strike. In silence, he watched as distrust and anger grew among the once united friends; a reckoning was coming. Karma, in its truest form, preyed on the queen who had decided to lie and omit truths to all of them.

Blanketed by the safety net of those woods, he observed the crumbling of the town’s unofficial royalty—the Sextum Secretum1, they had called themselves.

A family forged through the difficulties of being heirs than one born of blood.

In the face of the final trial, the Viperae Rosarum Ludi2 had shattered the undisputed hierarchy into pieces until even the strongest of glue could no longer make them whole.

Lilah vonBermere had mysteriously disappeared earlier in the night, after lingering in the background silently with a cruel smirk lining her face.

Ellery Remington was the quiet showman—always observing but never heard from unless you were fortunate enough to be included in his inner circle.

Lexington and Wentworth Kenton were the princes of the esteemed Kenton Estate, and the sons of the town’s founding family. The brothers shared a secret even darker than the events that had occurred on the Alabastor cliffs that night.

And lastly, Audrey Yates, the British orphan of the revered Ellsworth lineage, and the unofficial Queen of Sir Edmund University. The heir with ties to an even more dangerous family line, now that she had accepted her true name.

The betrayer. The viper. The princess.

The queen who wore many titles.

The young, rebellious woman who had broken every law The Guilda Sanguis Venenati3 abided by. She was the reason for The Shadow's presence that evening.

Silently, The Shadow pondered if he should reveal himself, or if he should just walk away and leave them to their own demise, now that the truths behind their Queen's lies had begun to leak through the cracks.

The final bonds of their friendship slowly unravelled, turning the friends into untrusting allies against The Guilda, who had forced their hand in the trials that led up to tonight.

Even still, The Shadow watched gleefully as the smouldering ashes of a ruined friendship, a familial bond, and a first love quickly turned to dust.

Tortured and angry yells erupted on the cliff’s edge.

Shaking his head, The Shadow retreated quietly, a grim chuckle filling the quiet stillness around him as a sneer slid onto his face.

Plans for retribution were already forming in his mind as the need for vengeance wrestled with his fraying need for control.

Deciding to leave the four to their ruin, The Shadow contemplated how he would seek his revenge while still portraying the face of the obedient little Umbra The Guilda believed they trained him to be.

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. I’m coming, princess…do what you must…

The culmination of The Viperae Rosarum Ludi’s second and final game tonight was supposed to be a celebration.

But instead, it had become a night that lit a spark of insurmountable war within The Shadow.

The betrayal of his princess—the crowned queen herself, perfect little Audrey Yates—had lain on his soul and was unforgivable.

A fear that trickled in when he had realised what her plan had been to circumvent her fate within the tribulations of the Ludi’s trials.

Unbeknownst to his obsession, she had caught the eye of a monster even worse than the one she would become, a monster inexplicably darker than the man she had just allowed herself to love.

The forefathers of The Guilda around the world had always quietly feared what would happen when the infamous Umbra finally snapped.

It was whispered in secret that The Shadow of The Guilda never forgot those who slighted him, that perhaps he would be even more ruthless than the Umbra4 who preceded him.

That every infraction, every lie would always be paid for in blood.

For shadows fear no one but burn brightest in the eyes of those who have nothing left to lose.

Let the games begin, princess…the world’s deadliest Umbra is now hunting you.

Just before dawn, The Shadow made himself known as he quietly stood at the side of the freshly filled grave.

A grave of a man who naively believed in those who had orchestrated his fall, friends—now foes—who had unknowingly sacrificed a now-missing part of The Shadow’s soul.

The light to his dark, a man who had helped The Shadow find the tiniest bits of joy among the relentless abyss that was the life of those indentured to The Guilda.

In the silence of the witching hour, he vowed to get vengeance, to uncover the truth behind why the death of the first Kenton brother was her only way to beat The Guilda at their own inaugural initiation trials.

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust…not even a Rose seeks protection when lies break trust…

Nobody was safe from The Shadow’s wrath, and Audrey Yates had now found herself at the very top of a predator’s list to be hunted. A list which no twenty-one-year-old could imagine, since not even her beloved King would protect her now.

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Roses must fall, so do what you must…

Venom and vipers hidden in shadows…not even those fangs protect your fate now…

It was said that the first rays of light the following day were the last ones seen for months, as the first official Viperae Rosarum Ludi5 came to an end.

While The Guilda Sanguis Venenati6 awaited the crowning of newly minted heirs, oppressive clouds covered the sky over the quaint, coastal town of Alabastor Cove.

And little Audrey Yates could not possibly fathom the terror she had just unleashed in her actions to secure that deadly seat.

1 Sextum Secretum (Latin): Secret Six

2 Viperae Rosarum Ludi (Latin) Game of Vipers and Roses

3 Guilda Sanguis Venenati (Latin): Guilda of Poisoned Blood

4 Umbra (Latin): Shadow

5 Viperae Rosarum Ludi (Latin) Game of Vipers and Roses

6 Guilda Sanguis Venenati (Latin): Guilda of Poisoned Blood