Curse Breaker Darkens: Curse Breaker, #2

By Melinda Kucsera

Jerlo wants to finish his paperwork, not search for a man who should be dead in a prison that's nearly impossible to reach. When a disembodied voice warns him that a demon is after his indentured mage, Jerlo sets off without a second thought.

He swore an unbreakable oath to God to protect Sarn, no matter the cost. Even if he hadn't, he'd still go on this quest. No one except God should have access to the power inside the Kid. But one man does, and he's locked in the oubliette for demon summoning. 

In a country run by a group that wants to destroy all magic, mages and demons shouldn't exist. Neither should the rock monster that's pushing Jerlo deeper into a trap. But this demon plans to do more than exist, and it'll need more than monsters to succeed.

Now, Jerlo's in a fight, not just for his life but for his soul. With just an unshakeable faith in the God who sometimes talks to him, will he lose everything in a deadly contest of wills? 

Get Curse Breaker Darkens now. 

Curse Breaker Darkens is an epic fantasy adventure starring a quirky guy who talks to God and the demons who chase him through the dungeons under Mount Eredren. Curse Breaker Darkens is the second book in the Curse Breaker Series, but no prior knowledge is necessary to enjoy this book. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melinda Kucsera
• Release date: Nov 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781949145045

Melinda Kucsera

I write fantasy and science fiction novels and short stories usually at sword point. Everyone should have such eager characters......Hello readers!Yes, this is a fictional character speaking to you. My fellow characters just locked our scribe (Melinda) in a tower. She needs to finish our latest adventure.Want to meet us? Hop on over to get our first adventure for FREE: http://www.mkucsera.com/enchantedWe’re eager to entertain you with our magical mayhem. So go download our book! We're waiting for you.

Book preview

Copyright

Curse Breaker: Darkens © 2017 Melinda Kucsera

The cover is a collaboration between Melinda Kucsera and Aklat Covers, (https://facebook.com/aklatcovers)

The 3d render of Jerlo is © by Melinda Kucsera 2020

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. 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 publisher. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Table of Contents

Copyright

Table of Contents

The Curse Breaker Series

Want Free Stuff?

Would You Give Us A Star?

For Whom Darkness Calls

Before We Darken

Into Darkness

Someone Else’s Problem

A Man Set Apart

Who Is Your Master?

A Child Caught Between

A Will Caged Is A Will Sundered

The Twice-Dead Still Breathes

In These Dark’ning Times

In Darkness, She Binds

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

CURSE BREAKER: FACETED

I’ve Come to Speak to You Again

Want Free Stuff?

Would You Give Us Some Stars?

About the Author

In Memoriam:  A Note from Our Scribe

I’d Love to Hear from You!

The Curse Breaker Series

His Angelic Keeper Series

Curse Breaker’s Companion

Robin of Larkspur

Divergent Heroes

The Curse Breaker Series

A high-fantasy action/adventure series full of magic and mayhem with a Christian bent. Other books in the Curse Breaker Series:

(Suggested Reading Order)

CURSE BREAKER: ENCHANTED

HIS ANGELIC KEEPER

CURSE BREAKER: DARKENS

CURSE BREAKER: FACETED

CURSE BREAKER: FALLS

CURSE BREAKER: BOOKS 1-4

(Includes Curse Breaker: Enchanted, Darkens, Faceted, and Falls)

CURSE BREAKER: SUNDERED

HIS ANGELIC KEEPER: HIDDEN

CURSE BREAKER: HIDDEN*

SPELL OF SHADOW & LIGHT

HIS ANGELIC KEEPER FALLEN

HIS ANGELIC KEEPER TEMPTED

CURSE BREAKER FALLOUT*

CURSE BREAKER TRAPPED*

CHAOS RISES*

*Forthcoming

Want Free Stuff?

So do we! Who are we? We’re the stars of the Curse Breaker series, and we’re giving away a FREE preview of Curse Breaker: Faceted. (Yes, we can do that. We’re the stars, remember?)

Just go to https://www.mkucsera.com/Faceted to tell us where to send your preview. Your preview comes with several awesome bonuses:

Bonus #1:

Your email address will become part of the Newsletter-Dragon’s horde. Who is she? She’s the dragon who delivers our newsletter each week. That’s right.

We have a Dragon Email Delivery Service, and it’s so much more secure! She incinerates threats on sight and curious characters. Your email address will be safe in her claws.

Bonus #2:

You’ll get exclusive content, advanced access to extended previews, and our weekly adventure series delivered safely to your inbox by our digital dragon.

Bonus #3:

You’ll have a front-row seat to our ongoing battle with the Newsletter-Dragon. She’s constantly making trouble behind the scenes for us, characters.

Bonus #4:

You could appear in our newsletter and in a future book. How does that work?

We often ask readers for advice about how to deal with a certain dragon and her shenanigans. When we put out those calls for help, we collect the responses and act them out for your enjoyment both in the newsletter and in the books based on it.

We don’t use your email address for anything other than to:

That’s all the Newsletter-Dragon allows. All other requests are incinerated on sight along with the requester. She takes your privacy seriously. We, characters, do too, and so does our Scribe, but we prefer that Melinda write our books and leave her newsletter to us.

So, go grab your preview and your FOUR FREE bonuses. Here are those links again:

—The cast of the Curse Breaker Series

Would You Give Us A Star?

If you’re loving us and our story, why not pop over to your friendly ebook store and leave us a review or tick off some stars to let everyone know? As fictional characters, we take reviews very seriously. Please help us win over the hearts and minds of your fellow readers by leaving a short review. We love feedback. So please give us some. Please?

Thank you for reading Curse Breaker: Darkens!

For Whom Darkness Calls

For all those who walk in darkness,

may light always find you.

Our scribe would like to thank:

Steve, Anna, Kelly, and all our readers

for their suggestions, advice, and support.

Without you, this series would still be sitting on her laptop.

Thank you!

Before We Darken

Hi Readers!

As you can tell from the cover, this book doesn’t feature a lot of me. Who am I? You don’t know by now? Well, the best way to meet me is to head over to Curse Breaker: Enchanted and read my dad’s story or sign up at (http://www.mkucsera.com/welcomecharacters) so I can take over your inbox once a week and regale you with my adventures.

I promise you’ll enjoy it. Both the book and my character-run newsletter are full of magic, mayhem, and the most adorable character ever—me!

I’m Ran, son of Sarn, if you hadn’t guessed.

This novel picks up where Curse Breaker: Enchanted left off. Were there more demons loose in Mount Eredren? We’re about to find out. Tighten your stirrups and hang on because we’re galloping into the mind of Jerlo!

He’s always been an enigma wrapped in fifty layers of religious belief and self-deception. Growing up, I didn’t see a lot of our illustrious commander for reasons I can’t reveal. So when our faithful scribe (Melinda) used her magic to view the past and started penning this little adventure, I got very excited. It’s not every day you get to step into the mind of a tactical genius on a dangerous errand.

So let’s get to it!

Into Darkness

Hello, darkness my old friend,

I’ve come to speak to you again.

Under your cover, I bend,

a light-loving boy to your end.

My lord’s throne he’ll then ascend

and force the world to descend

into madness, my old friend—

so the maggots can attend

the putrid feast we will send.

—Prayer to the Dark One

Will it keep until tomorrow? There were some troubling elements in his tale.

Nolo’s question repeated like heartburn as Jerlo turned the page and stared at it. That conversation, which had happened two weeks ago, kept playing in the back of Jerlo’s mind despite his best efforts to shut it out.

Some troubling elements in his tale, heh. When aren’t there? Jerlo scribbled his name on another form and set it aside. Sarn could only speak the truth as he knew it, but that boy had been tailoring his speech since way before he’d become Jerlo’s problem. So that wild tale about a dark creature from another realm wreaking all manner of trouble was likely just the tip of an even larger problem. One the Kid would never reveal unless forced.

Jerlo sighed and turned the page. His eyes skimmed the courtesy report sent from Mount Racine’s head Ranger, but not a single word registered.

Will it keep until tomorrow? Nolo’s disembodied voice asked from the shadowed corners of his office.

Jerlo dropped his head into his hands and gave in. It has to. A body and a book are unaccounted for, he said, supplying the next line to his mute audience. Dragon statues ringed his desk. Their glowing crystal eyes reminded him of Sarn.

I don’t know who helped Shade pick up a passenger. Or what that creature was or how they summoned it, Sarn had said two weeks ago on that goddamned bluff while staring into the rising dawn—a clear sign he was editing his tale for his superiors.

Jerlo rubbed his aching eyes as the conversation looped back to the beginning again.

Will it keep until tomorrow? Nolo’s voice echoed in the windowless office.

You’re not here. Jerlo laid his head down on a pile of papers in defeat. Maybe it was his conscience replaying the conversation to prod him into action. A body and a book are unaccounted for. A body and a book.

The body had belonged to a demon-ridden youngster named Shade, and the book likely contained spells for summoning Shade’s vanquished rider. Neither were found despite a thorough search of the enchanted forest. What did his conscience expect him to do about that? Commanding Mount Eredren’s contingent of Rangers was his job, not finding lost articles, even if they were magically significant.

Are you certain it can wait?

Jerlo started. This time the voice spoke not from memory but from the doorway. His second in command, Nolo, regarded him with worried eyes.

Which problem are we talking about? Please tell me Sarn’s staying out of trouble.

He is. Nolo didn’t say ‘for now,’ but his tone implied it. His second shifted his weight from foot to foot, and for a moment, he doubled.

Jerlo blinked. Two Nolos now crowded the doorway. One was a man of middle-thirties with skin the color of rich earth wearing the forest green uniform of the Rangers, and the other was a black smudge holding a black bow and a full quiver. Death’s Marksman gave Jerlo a nod, then faded into Nolo’s shadow. Nolo shook himself, and the beads at the ends of his braids clicked together.

You creep me out when you go all Death’s Marksman on me like that. Jerlo suppressed a shudder.

I don’t know why it keeps coming out. For years, I’ve barely felt its touch, but lately, the black quiver is always at my back, waiting.

I bring out the best in everyone, Jerlo muttered as he leaned back in his chair.

Very funny, but off-topic.

How is it out there? All quiet on the enchanted forest front?

Yes, too quiet after the mayhem two weeks ago. Nolo searched for a chair, then gave up.

Jerlo sat on the largest, most comfortable chair, and the spare chair boasted a pile of books about an order of magic-hating monks called the Seekers. It was best to know one’s enemy before he came. That was Jerlo’s motto, even if legends and rumors made up most of his intel.

Nolo leaned against the lintel and yawned. Still no sign of the body or the book, though the former must have decomposed or been buried by now. Nothing discarded in the enchanted forest stays there for long.

I’d feel better if we had proof one way or the other.

What if there are more of those things running around out there? Shouldn’t we look for them?

That’s what I’ve been doing. Jerlo lifted a book from the top of the stack and tossed it to his second.

What’s this? Nolo caught the book and cracked it open. He grimaced at the smell and the grotesque imagery.

A book about demons written by a monk five hundred years ago. It’s the closest match I can find to the horned thing the Kid described.

Are there more of them running around? Nolo paged through the book.

I don’t know. Jerlo threw up his hands, but he intended to find out. His continued sanity might depend on it. Is there anything else I need to deal with?

No, tonight’s watch was a quiet one. I had the Kid straighten up the training room. He wasn’t happy about it, but he didn’t argue. It’s not like him to acquiesce like that. He’s been different since that thing went down.

Different how? Jerlo sat up straight in his chair.

Less argumentative and more distracted—it’s like the bulk of his attention is focused elsewhere on something I can’t see. I don’t like it. Nolo’s grip on the book tightened until his knuckles paled.

Neither did Jerlo, but the conversation died, and the ‘M-word’ echoed in the silence. It was a subject neither would broach because the Kid might be the only living mage left thanks to the Seekers. What a frightening thought that was, and he and his second tried hard to ignore it.

Nolo backed away from the dreaded ‘M-word’ until his back touched the door. He was god-touched by an aspect of Death, but not a mage. What he did wasn’t magic. It was a skill with deadly consequences.

We all grieve in our own ways. Maybe that’s all it is. The Kid knew Shade for years before that worthy’s death. Nolo scrubbed a hand over his face.

Go rest. I need you sharp tonight. And I should finish some paperwork. Jerlo gave the never-ending pile a glum look. It would take an ocean of ink and several years to make a dent in it.

May I hold on to this? Nolo held up the book on demonology, and the moaning face etched into its cover stared at Jerlo with hollow, eyeless pits.

If you’re seeking a little light reading, try the Shayarin legal code. I guarantee you’ll pass out before the end of chapter one. But that tome in your hands is likely to induce nightmares.

If you don’t need it, I’d like to give it a read to see what we’re up against. There could be more of those things.

Go for it, just don’t blame me if you wake up screaming from night terrors.

I won’t. You should try to get some rest too.

Jerlo waved off his second’s concern, and his gaze landed on a half-finished letter. What had he meant to write? Not anything important or he’d remember.

Have a good morning. Nolo went out and closed the door.

Heh, a good morning would bring answers. So far, this one’s brought only questions. Jerlo set the letter aside and leaned back in his chair. Outside his windowless office, the sun was preparing to ascend its throne. Even though he couldn’t see it, he felt its rise, and he imagined its first pink rays striking Mount Eredren’s craggy face. Through its thick stone walls, that light pushed into his body, warming his bones. Jerlo laced his fingers together over his flat stomach and closed his eyes.

Something had niggled at him since before Nolo had entered. Jerlo groped after it, but the thought fled through the holes in his mind. When he finally wrestled it into submission, his vision grew wavy. Everything faded to gray, then green as the view steadied. Jerlo now peered out of the eyes of a fourteen-year-old mage-gifted child. It was Sarn’s memory, stolen during a strange interview—by accident, of course. Jerlo was no thief. It had become part of the flotsam and jetsam cluttering his mind until something had reminded him of it.

Every element was the