Journey-The Reckoning

By Claudy Conn

When Riley Doogan met Finn Dunraven in Journey, she knew she was attracted to him—who wouldn’t be?—but was afraid they were too different for a relationship to last. That was then.
In this action-packed sequel, it turns out Riley and Finn have a lot in common—and not all of it good. Both are confronted with family secrets that force them to re-evaluate who—and what—they are. Both discover they have untapped powers, but those powers come with a price. And when the secrets from the past explode, and take dirty politics to a new level of madness that threatens everything and everyone they know and love, they both must decide not whether, but how far, to tap into their powers—dark and light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Claudy Conn
• Release date: May 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310287411

Claudy Conn

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Claudy Conn is a multi published author who got her start with her bestselling historical/regency romances.She tells us that she fell in love with the fantasy/paranormal genre and created a world of paranormal.She hopes you will read and enjoy and join her on her facebook where she loves to interact with her readers.page.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Claudy-Conn-Paranormal-Romance-Author/135826686471445

Book preview

Journey: The Reckoning

Books by Claudy Conn

available at smashwords.com

Through Time Series

Through Time—Pursuit

Through Time—Whiplash

Through Time—Slamming

Through Time—Frankie

Through Time—Compulsion

~

Legend Series

Spellbound—Legend

Shee Willow—Legend

Prince in the Mist (Novella)

Prince Prelude—Legend

Aaibhe—Shee Queen (Novelette)

Trapped—Legend

Free Falling—Legend

Catch & Hold—Legend

~

Shadow Series

ShadowLove—Stalkers

ShadowHeart—Slayer

ShadowLife—Hybrid

~

Hungry Moon Series

Hungry Moon: Quicksilver

Hungry Moon: Destiny

Hungry Moon: Jodi

~

Witches, Warlocks, and Dark Magic

Dark Love

Netherby Halls

Lady X

Journey

~

Risqué Regencies

Myriah Fire

Oh, Cherry Ripe

Rogues, Rakes & Jewels

Taffeta and Hotspur

Wildfire Kiss

After the Storm

Runaway Heart

Lady Bess

Lady Star

Serena

Mandy

Disorderly Lady

Madcap Miss

~

Multi-book Bundles

The Complete Legend Series

Through Time Series Box Set

Claudy Conn’s Bestselling Regencies

Journey: The Reckoning

By

Claudy Conn

Copyright Page

Journey: The Reckoning

By Claudy Conn

http://www.claudyconn.com

Copyright © 2015 by Claudy Conn

Edited by: Karen Babcock

Cover Artist: Kendra Egert

All rights reserved

Published in the United States of America

Smashwords editions

May 2015

Unedited excerpt of Awakening—Bray

Copyright © 2015 by Claudy Conn

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Names, characters, and events depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

PART ONE

~ Prologue ~

Riley Doogan

I COULD SPEND A great deal of time beating myself up over what now seem obvious mistakes, ones I didn’t quite comprehend only a short while ago.

For example, why had I not paid attention to my instincts? I knew something was off with Whalen when he asked me to sit for coffee. His eyes looked … odd. It was one of those things you just pass off, and that was what I did, but knowing magic the way I did, I should have known better.

Right, so Whalen was being used. No sense, however, in the shoulda, coulda, woulda words. What was the point in that?

Whalen had been an innocent pawn, compelled to do what he did, and now he was lying unconscious on the ground. Our lives had been turned upside down.

The gun he had been waving around had gone off when I shifted us to the Sacred Stone, and I had been shot.

When I went over it all, I saw it in panoramic slow motion, because I couldn’t stop myself from playing the scene over and over again in my mind’s eye. It was as though if I kept replaying it, I might make sense of it all.

Stupid, I know.

You know that moment when whatever epic thing happens to you, and you rewind it to see how it all started … how it all ended? Epic? Oh yeah, this was my epic moment, because it was the moment the human in me died. Sort of.

It all happened so fast. The shot that rang out and caught me straight in the heart. The bullet that drove a hole through my human heart, a human heart that would not be able to repair itself. And it didn’t repair itself. My heart stopped pumping.

Blackness.

Even through the blackness, some other me was aware that death had infiltrated itself and had taken me hostage.

Death was a place void of light. Death dragged me kicking and screaming because I wasn’t ready to go, but there was another reason—the reason that allowed me awareness, the reason being that other me, the one buried deep inside and ready now to take control.

Death was in me … and it covered ground.

What was that? A light? Yes, it was a spotlight, and I think I reached out my hand. I wanted to go in its direction even though the light made me squint. It was so bright, I couldn’t focus.

I heard something … someone, as though she were far, so far away. Her voice was familiar … my voice screaming for me to accept who I really was.

Another voice, also far away and dear, oh so dear. A beloved, masculine voice. He called my name. He cried for me. Finn. Finn was there with me.

I had to do this. I had to come through this.

Everything around me seemed like sticky hands holding me back, but I had to overcome. Was I strong enough? Finn’s sweet, honeyed words begged me to come back to him.

Another, sharper voice told me to wake up. Wake up, Riley. You aren’t human. You aren’t. Wake up.

And then another voice—my human voice—promised peace. Earth was hell, she told me. She was right but annoying. I decided not to listen to her and shut her up. I wasn’t the sort to give up.

I heard myself snort in my head. If earth was hell and Finn was the devil, then that was what I wanted. I needed him. He needed me. I wasn’t going to give up—it wasn’t the time. I charged towards his voice, spurred on by that stranger in me, past the gummy fingers trying to hold me back.

The pain was excruciating. I cried out as it shot through me, but I didn’t stop, and I felt my lashes flutter as I tried to open my eyes.

I knew what had to be done, and I told him, but I was aware that my voice was barely audible as I said, Finn, you have to stop Prio. Stop him from leaving!

The bullet should have been my death blow, and I knew it. My body has always been quick to heal itself, but this … this was something beyond what I thought were my abilities.

Blood bubbled out of my mouth and ran down my chin, and I choked on it.

I could feel my human organs strain under the brutal onslaught of the healing army inside me. I felt chilled as blood poured out of the hole in my chest.

I felt Finn’s palm over my body. He was attempting to heal me. I felt the warmth of his power enter me, but my human heart had already stopped.

Nope—no healing this time.

I knew even Finn’s healing power couldn’t reverse what had happened to my human body. I collected the last of my strength and opened my eyes, staving off the deadly reaper dragging me away, and told Finn, I love you, Finn Dunraven.

I could scarcely hear my own voice.

My eyes closed against my will. I wanted to keep looking at his dear, handsome face, but a black fog engulfed me and the pain in my chest seemed to suspend itself as I sank into that deep canyon.

Death, I thought, was a release, but I didn’t want release just then. I would have withstood the pain to go on living and loving Finn.

I was, I think, numb in that moment as death dragged me down. I had thought I would have more time with him … just a bit more time.

"Nooooo!" I heard Finn cry out. "Lass, m’own wee lass … don’t leave me to spend eternity without ye beside me. Riley, stay, I beg ye, lass, fight for me. Riley, please stay. Live for me."

I heard the sob in his throat and ached for him.

"I know ye can do it, lass. Find it in yerself to hold on … for me, Riley. Save me, lass. Save me, Riley."

Huh? I could hear him. Did that mean I wasn’t dead?

Where was I then, if not dead?

Not dead? How could that be? My heart was not pumping out blood. Did I still have blood to pump out? It felt as though I didn’t. Yet, something odd was happening to my body, and then I felt my heart expand all on its own and throb. It was changing its shape, it was moving blood through my veins all at once, and those veins were somehow wider, stronger. How?

"Riley, ye aren’t human—not really. Ye are more—so much more. Ye know it. Ye have always known it. Now own it. For me, Riley—own it for me."

He’s right, said that other me, the one who could shift without thinking, the one who had been growing inside me those last weeks. She was so much more than I, and she was taking over.

My eyes opened with a snap.

Alive. Not only alive, but more alive than I had ever been. A new mana flooded through my veins and into my heart. Something was happening to my body. Something inhuman in me had taken over … inhuman, otherworldly, something that had been there all along. But how? Why? Where had it come from?

My human heart had stopped working, and in its place a mysterious and powerful aura deep inside emerged and came to vibrant life, reshaping my organs, revamping my veins.

Torturous pain swept through me as my organs shifted inside me. It was as though they were expanding, and it was happening all too fast.

I doubled over in pain. A grunt turned into a wail as I experienced agony through my system.

Pressure plowed through me, and I couldn’t stop myself from crying out and holding myself. My ability to stay conscious was raked over, and I know I must have passed out, because I would wake to the same agony over and over again, only to black out.

I don’t know how much time went by as I was swept up in this all-consuming, rippling pain. I couldn’t think past the pain ripping me apart.

And just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

Was that me breathing? Was I breathing?

Yes, that was me.

I suddenly had an answer. Whatever had been dormant inside me had emerged and was now dominant. I was human no longer … not human … and yet, I still thought like a human.

Human was no longer anything I could call myself, and that felt as though I were laying to rest a dear and treasured friend.

My mind was fighting with the new intrusion in my body. My mind fought against the take-over.

My muscles and flesh had expelled the bullet from my heart, sending shooting, agonizing pain through my body. I felt ravaged and clawed and as another blinding spasm of pain shot through me I couldn’t hold back my scream.

Finn was there, calling my name, saying words of encouragement.

I gasped for air because I couldn’t breathe.

I felt as though a troop of infinitesimally small elves were scurrying around inside my chest cavity, inside what was once a human body, as they reconstructed what had been into something new and indestructible.

They were busy, those elves, I thought as I yelped with pain. I imagined the active little beavers stitching veins and muscles into shape, repairing the hole the bullet had left in an organ that no longer resembled a human heart. I tried to prop myself up on my elbows but immediately collapsed on to my back.

I was exhausted, yes, but more than that, I was in shock.

Disbelief engulfed my logical brain. Undeniable facts slammed into what I used to think was logic and truth. How had all this happened in the space of moments? Because that is what I knew as a fact: only minutes, no more than a few minutes, had ticked by.

Finn lifted me into his arms and sobbed out my name over and over.

I felt my lashes flutter again as I opened my eyes. Tears raced down his cheek, and I wanted to wipe them away. My big hunk had been crying.

It was then that I saw a movement at his back. It was then that I remembered where we were and why. I silently called for my wand and held it fisted in my weak hand. Weak? Not really, I thought, as I felt a surge of power race through me.

Prio stood like the God of War, his blond hair slicked back, his dark brows drawn as he held a lethal-looking sword poised to kill.

Finn! I screamed.

Finn turned, and I watched as a glance passed between them. I saw something flicker in Prio’s eyes. Something that spoke of who he had once been.

And then that flicker was gone.

He didn’t immediately engage Finn. Instead, he turned and marched towards his warriors, his arms outstretched.

What was this? Under all that dark magic, did Prio still live? Was there still something of the Rowan prince deep inside him? And where was the Red Demon he was working with? Why wasn’t he here?

I tried to comprehend all this. Prio had once loved Finn. Did he still?

Prio got into position before his men. He stood with his hand on the Sacred Stone and laughed, but it wasn’t a joyous sound; it was one of bitterness. "Ye, Finn, thought I needed this thing … this Rowan Sacred Stone. I don’t. Everything ye believed in is false. Do ye hear me, Finn m’lad? When I’m done with this land, my men will transport me back to Rowan, and then, my brother … and then, the bitch yeu call a mother, the ones the Rowans stupidly call their queen, will die and I will take my rightful place. He paused. I’ll make ye an offer now. I’ll spare her—yer wicked mother—I’ll spare her in her own private prison in another realm. Make up yer mind to it, because one way or another, she will no longer be queen. If ye join me now and work at m’side, there will be a place for ye. I’ll even let ye keep the wee Wiccan Riley ye seem to like so much. If ye don’t join me, Finn … if ye don’t … it will be hell for ye, and for yer wee witch and all those she loves."

"Prio … don’t do this," Finn said as he laid me gently on the ground.

I objected. I wanted to stay in his arms. I wanted him to know, come what may, I was on his side. I suppose, though, he knew that.

I managed to prop myself into a sitting position on the ground, but hell, it hurt. I am not talking ouch hurt, I am talking reaming, screaming hurt.

Things were moving faster than I was healing, so I did the only things I could: I watched and listened. My wand as always was ever-ready, not that I thought it could do much good against such dark power.

Finn took a step towards Prio, but I leaned forward and grabbed the bottom of his jeans and tugged. My strength had nowhere near returned, and the effort made me cry out in agony. Oh, that hurt big time.

He turned to me and said softly, Easy lass … don’t move. Ye don’t have to—just stay and let yer body recover.

I looked off toward the new portal, which was now in the process of opening. It was a swirl of energy, and dark colors spit and exploded in the air around its mouth. No, it had nothing to do with the Sacred Stone.

I watched in horror as it grew in diameter and a storm of whirling energy formed right before our eyes. Our eyes locked, Finn’s and mine. I think we came to the same conclusion at the same time.

It all sank in then, like a lead weight that has nowhere to go but down.

It was all so obvious now.

Prio had never planned on leaving.

He hadn’t been waiting these past two weeks for the Sacred Stone to open its portal so he could return to his realm. He had another plan.

Instead, someone in Rowan was opening a portal …

Prio, Finn shouted above the din of noise the portal was making, "we are brothers. Let me talk to our mother. I don’t want to rule, and I don’t think she is fit to rule, but this … this violence is not the way."

"Our mother? She is yer blood, and ye can scarcely claim her for all the love she ever showed ye. Our mother? He spat the word like it was a bug in his mouth. She destroyed m’mother. She made our father a slave to her whims. Didn’t ye ever notice? Haven’t ye wondered, Finn, how it was such a strong man never stood up to her? He shook his head. What ye should be doing is helping me lead our people—all our people, Argle and Rowans as one. I need to scrape up m’ounce of justice for our father, and ye should want that too. He shook his sword. Don’t ye know? Haven’t ye figured it out yet? She uses the forbidden dark magic! She will never listen to ye or anyone else for that matter. Finn, haven’t ye guessed how our father died? Don’t ye see? The two of us—we are all that is left of him. I don’t want to raise m’sword to ye because of that single connection." He sighed heavily.

In that moment I saw the Prio who had existed before he went in league with a demon. I thought that was who he still could be, if only Finn could get through to him.

Prio … Finn tried again.

Prio cut him off and repeated, "We are all that is left of him. That thought keeps one corner of darkness out of me still … for him. Finn, she killed our father."

Finn choked on his denial and spluttered something incoherent, but Prio wasn’t giving up. He shouted back at Finn, "She killed him. He stepped towards Finn. Don’t ye know that? He went against her, told her he had a following and that he would not allow her to hurt the state of Argle and its winged immortals. He broke the spell she had on him, and when she discovered it, she became enraged, and in her fury she raised her Death Sword and cut him."

"No, Finn said, taking a step backwards as though he had received a physical punch to his gut. No … she wouldn’t … couldn’t. She loved him."

"Finn … ye wouldn’t see, but ye aren’t blind. Remember that morning. I was on m’way to see them, I told ye I had to talk with our father—remember? I stopped outside their door when I heard their voices raised against one another. He told her he had never loved her. He told her he knew what she had done and it was over. She went into a fury. I opened the door and found her standing over him, his blood splattered all over her and her Death Sword in her hands. She killed him, Finn."

No. No … it isn’t true, Finn shouted, but I saw a flash of doubt waylay his features.

Aye then, but it is true, horribly true. Prio spat on the ground. Ye know it in yer heart. Ye have always known what she is.

I watched these brothers, and it seemed to me that Prio was taking pleasure in the pain Finn obviously was experiencing. Had the dark magic already infiltrated his soul? Had the demon he had called on for help already won him over?

I couldn’t be sure. What I saw in Prio was an odd contradiction of himself. He was torn. We had to get to him before he was devoured by the dark magic he was summoning to do what he thought was right. It wasn’t. That sort of revenge never is right.

As for me, it was as though I had a ‘truth’ button and a ‘lie’ button, and this time, truth was being rung loud and clear. Finn’s mother was a monster. That didn’t make Prio any less a beast, but she was a monster.

I closed my eyes. We all start out as babes. Some children live with monsters and become much the same; others overcome. The ones that overcome are heroes, and I have heard it said that heroes and tragedy go hand in hand. Well, my Finn was a hero, and I would be damned if all he was destined for was tragedy. I had to do something.

I was still so sick and doubled over on myself as Prio continued to taunt Finn, and I saw them locked in a verbal battle that could only have one outcome.

Prio backed away and sneered. "Ye know now, don’t ye? I can see it on yer face. Ye know it is true. Yer mother killed our father. Do ye still want to stand with her?"

I am not standing for or with her but for Rowan, Finn answered. Taking the human world hostage is not the way to lead.

Ye are wrong. It is the only way to get the Rowans to break with her. Show them our strength, our ability to lead—give them power, Prio spluttered now in a rage.

No. You have killed innocents … and will have to kill more if you want to accomplish such a wicked thing, Finn hissed at him.

"War kills innocents for the greater good, Prio said. If ye won’t stand with me, then stand aside."

"No. Ye have killed those not at war with ye because ye are dark and needed to kill. I have to stop ye. Prio, come home with me, and we’ll stand against her. I will take yer side, not hers—only stop this madness. I will stand beside ye and allow no harm to come to ye for yer misguided actions." Finn’s voice offered a gentle promise.

Prio went very stiff and sneered at Finn. "We have chosen our sides, and mine, laddie, mine is for the well-being of Argle and the Rowans alike. Yer mother would put Argle in the ground and bury it if she could. Aye then, I am dark, but I had no choice. I turned