Break.

I sat up in bed, confused.

Several hours, and several more orgasms later, we had all bathed and decided to eat.

After dinner, still exhausted and now stuffed with food, we climbed back into bed.

Being completely unable to keep our hands or dicks to ourselves, there was at least one more climax each before we finally drifted off.

Break.

It was well past midnight, probably not long from dawn, and the word battered against my brain. I climbed out from under Rilen’s arm and found a robe.

No idea whose it actually was, but it worked.

Feeling almost ghostly, I drifted to the balcony. In the far east, the first hints of sunrise were just starting to grace the night.

Break.

It sounded almost like chanting, the word repeating against my mind.

I studied the landscape ahead of me. Darkness dotted by a few lamps and lanterns in windows. Street lamps were glowing in the public squares, and I could see a few people hurrying home or to their jobs down the streets.

I looked at the Spine.

It thrummed, seeming almost to bulge.

Break!

I grabbed hold of the railing and was barely able to keep from vomiting. The whole world seemed distant to me, and I wanted to go back inside and pretend I didn’t understand.

“Kimber?”

I turned, and all three of my men were standing there. Roran had posed the question.

I took a deep breath. “The tremor last night was the last of them. There’s another one coming, and it’s time to break the Spine.”

With a nod, Dorian sent the twins running back into the rooms. He stepped forward and took my elbow to pull me back into the living room.

“The twins will go with you. I’ll stay behind to control the chaos with the rest of the temple.”

“I want you with me, too.”

“Don’t be stupid, Kimber. I shouldn’t even give you them. S’Kir is about to fall into chaos.”

“Dorian, I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“You’ve trusted the magic this far. Just keep going. These idiots are going to need all the help they can get.”

I tilted my head. “Is that how you feel about the people of S’Kir.”

He grinned. “No, that’s how I feel about part of the council. Two arrogant assholes in particular, who need to be knocked down several notches. I have to trail them.”

“Why not let them screw up?”

“Because you can’t disrobe a member of the dais, Kimber. You can only resign or die to be removed. You know they won’t step down. Letting them die is more work than it’s worth.”

I laughed. “I was wondering if you were still a bastard after getting me in bed.”

“Of course, I am. I’ve been a bastard all my life. Just because I fucked you doesn’t mean I change who I am. I’m just now the lucky, cranky asshole you share a bed with.”

“Stop scaring her.” Rilen walked out of the bedroom, dressed in formal robes.

Roran was right behind him, carrying my formal dress and robes as well.  “You don’t have to immediately go back to being a dick.”

Following a rude gesture, Dorian left the room.

Rilen and Roran set to helping me dress.

“He’s really a cranky old shit,” Rilen said. “But you’ll get less of his attitude now he knows how amazing your little quim is.”

“The rest of the time,” Roran continued, “you can ignore him. Or do what I do.”

I lifted my hands so they could slide the top of the practical dress they’d picked over my head. “What’s that?”

“I shove my dick in his mouth.”

I started giggling. “Well, since I don’t have one of those, I’ll have to use yours.”

He grinned. “You can shove my dick in his mouth anytime.”

They settled the dress over me, lingering a little longer than necessary over my breasts and ass.

I didn’t complain. I was happy to have them back.

Break! Now!

The ground shuddered but didn’t heave. There was no tremor.

“It really wants to go, doesn’t it?” Rilen peered out the windows.

“It does,” I nodded.

“We’re ready when you are, Mistress Kimber Raven, Breaker of the Spine.” Roran gave me a half serious, half mock bow.

We saddled the horses we each favored in the stables as fast as we could, and I was glad the outfit they had picked was a split skirt. I was in no mood to ride side saddle.

I trotted the horse to the end of the compound and headed for the Spine.

For the Breaking Cave.

A great wave of pure white magic tumbled down the sides of the mountain. I watched in awe as it sped toward us.

When it reached us, the power it held was overwhelming. It was so strong that it threatened to knock me off my horse.

In that power was a new clear understanding of what I was meant to do.

Break!

I needed to reach the Breaking Cave to be able to fully control what was about to happen.

Kicking the horse into a full gallop, I raced down the street on the path that would take me to the cave.

Rilen and Roran kicked their horses into a full gallop as well, desperate to keep up with me.

Roran managed to catch me first. “Kimber! What are you doing?”

“We need to get to the Breaking Cave. That's the epicenter of the magic.”

Rilen pushed his horse hard enough to catch up with us in the next moment. As we rode, though, not one of us said another word.

I was grateful the cave wasn’t far from the temple. I knew the horse could get there without being exhausted.

As I watched ahead of me, I saw the Spine tremble again. I pointed up. “Watch. Watch the magic as it comes off the Spine.”

The twins watched the massive rise of rocks as another huge wave of magic rolled off and rolled past us.

Break!

Both of them gasped after the wave had passed.

“I've never felt magic like that before,” Rilen said.

“Now I understand why each of the tremors was wrong.” I pulled my horse onto the dirt trail that led to the cave.

 “I understand, too. We can't allow just one part of the magic to rule all of the others.” Roran pulled his horse to a halt at the mouth of the cave.

“They only contained a single color, one emotion only,” Rilen continued his brother’s thought.

Rilen leapt off his horse. “So the job of the Breaker was to reject all opportunities to break the Spine by individual color and emotion.”

I nodded. “The very first tremor was an absence of color. The next seven tremors were only the individual parts of magic.”

“And now,” Rilen said, “this eighth set is the completion of color.”

Roran looked up as another wave of white magic rolled down at us. “It's only when the magic is whole—because white contains every color of the rainbow—that the Spine can actually be broken properly.”

“Balance,” I said. “Just as you are two halves of a whole, so the magic is broken into parts of a whole. If any one part is missing, it unbalances everything.”

We ducked into the cave, taking horses to the trough. Hitching their reins to the tie line, the three of us quickly descended into the cavern.

The walls were pure white. It was nearly blinding. Placing a hand on one of the crystals, I asked the light to decrease so we could actually see.

Welcome! The Spine is yours to command.

It was amazing to hear the magic so clearly, to understand what it wanted me to do. Without moving my hand from the wall, I slipped in toward the center of the cave, and I could feel every part of the rock trembling with anticipation.

I looked at the two men standing in the mouth of the cavern. I motioned them to me. “Put your palm on the crystal, and you'll be able to help me with this. I have the feeling I may get lost in the magic, and I need you both to ground me.”

Without hesitation, Rylan and Roran were next to me, and not only did they put their hands on the crystal wall, but they also put a hand on my shoulder.

It is time.

I heard them both gasp, but my attention was taken. I was given the details of what I was about to do to a mountain that had stood for millennia.

Starting far in the north, I began to coax the rock to slide gently toward the ocean. I made sure, as much as I could, that the mountain slipped off to either the east or west without destroying anything. I made room for even more of the rockfall that was about to come.

Massive peak after massive peak, slab after slab, boulder after boulder, I guided and led the Spine down from its heights into its ocean grave.

The more I brought down, the further it spread into the ocean, adding more and more to the land of the North Landing.

The rocks slid into the gap left by the previous slabs and were then pushed further toward the north.

I was creating an indelible scar on the land that would never be flat or flush and would always have peaks and valleys. The Spine had been a wound on the land for millennia, and there was no way to fully heal it.

It was, in the long run, better that we not forget our world was once divided. The Spine had been raised to sever the ties between the druids and the vampires.

It hadn't been raised to such heights for no reason.

I wasn't trying to heal it. The scar would always remind us there had been a Spine dividing the two halves of S’Kir.

And now it was time for the two halves of our world to join together and be one land again.

I kept directing more and more of the mountain as it fell into the trench left behind. Eventually, I reached our protective little cave, and the land shifted to protect us from the fall of rocks.

Slowly, slowly, I worked my way down the Spine, past the city, and all the way down to the south.

When I reached the very southern tip of the land, I understood why someone had to break the Spine, why there had to be someone to control where the rocks fell.

Standing under the very last peak was the Gate.

The Gate was an imposing edifice. It had stood for millennia before even the Spine was raised.

I could feel a dangerous, dark, foreign power pulsing on the doors.

This was not the time to worry what was beyond. My job was simply to make sure those doors would be able to open.

The last of the mountain slid to the north, keeping the gate free to open.

Finally, the magic started to recede. It released me from its hold at the same time that I released it from my hold.

I looked down and found Rilen and Roran were still with me, still following my magic.

They looked terrible, and I suspected I looked no better.

The magic had one last task for me. Holding Rilen and Roran’s hands, I tapped the last vestiges of my power to push the rocks that covered the cave to the north and south of where we were.

The cavern was destined to be the passage between two great cities, one of druids and one of vampires. A great heaving tremor separated the rocks above our heads, sliding them open, revealing the bright milky white walls of the cave to the sky above.

The path through the Scar was open.

On the other side, for the first time, we could see the vampires we had been separated from for millennia.

This was the prophecy.

This is what I had celebrated not all that long ago.

This was what the historians would write about someday.

The two halves of S’Kir stood on either side of the Scar.

Reunification.

Finally.

We watched the figures at the other end of the chasm stare back at us, just as lost for words as we were.

Or so I thought.

I watched as perhaps two dozen figures not terribly distant from us raised their hands. I raised mine as well, in welcome, in peace.

A series of thunderous explosions echoed off the walls of the chasm we stood in. The sound deafened me and confused me at the same time.

Were they celebrating already?

A hot, hard pain sliced through my leg, and I fell to the side. I looked down and found my leg bleeding, badly.

“Fuck!”

I turned to find the source of the swearing.

Dorian stood over me where I had fallen. There was a look of pure, unadulterated anger on his face. He straightened, his arms stretched to the side, and held the most amazing spell I had ever seen in a bubble around us.

It almost seemed his power was unlimited.

“Rilen, Roran.” His words were steel. “Pick her up. Get her back to the temple, immediately. I will be a moment behind you.”

Each of them threw an arm around me and lifted me off the ground. I could feel myself grow dizzy and faint. I noticed Mistress Ophelia was standing with Dorian.

“What’s happened to her?” Ophelia's voice was distressed.

“She's been shot.”

I didn't understand the words, but somehow, I understood with those words, our world had just fundamentally shifted forever.

“Shot?” Roran asked.

“Hand cannons with small cannon shot.”

“What?” Rilen asked

He roared. “Just get her back to the temple!”

Dorian grabbed Mistress Ophelia's hand and held it up. “We need to weave the shield in place.”

“It won't hold them off forever,” Mistress Ophelia said.

“We don't need it to stay for long. Just until we can return and put up something stronger and more permanent.”

“Do you even really need me to do this?”

“Balance,” he snapped.

I couldn’t hear anything after that. The buzzing in my ears was too loud. Everything was turning gray on the edges, and I could barely feel myself moving.

“Hang on, ilati,” Rilen whispered. “Just hang on.”

 

THE BLOOD WILL CONTINUE…

 

CLICK TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BOOK 3 IN THE VAMPIRE CROWN SERIES.