The Invasion: Earth Angel, #14

By B.C. Burgess

In a fiery tale filled with villains and heroes, this installment of the Earth Angel series takes readers on a magical journey rich with emotion, intrigue, and danger. Fans of Twilight, The Red Queen, The Selection, and Harry Potter will devour this breathless fantasy set in a modern mystical world.

Layla has fought her way out of the darkest depths of despair, but to surface, she must face another battle, and this time she'll be fighting on the enemy's turf.

Invading the Dark Guild's castle was believed to be impossible, but they've stolen from an angel, and she will move heaven and earth to exact her revenge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bandit Publishing
• Release date: Jan 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781946793263

Book preview

Chapter One

Twelve days had come and gone since the Dark Guild had stolen Layla’s babies from her, snatched the light from her life while filling every second with unrelenting despair. Now, after hours upon hours of agony, she was ready to reclaim everything the evil faction had ripped away.

She and Quin landed among their army long enough to thank them for coming and raise morale. Then they concealed themselves and flew toward Ireland’s Derryveagh Mountains, their anxiety spiking. Layla’s heart wasn’t out of control yet, but her muscles already felt like steel, and she was confident nothing would stand in her way.

By the time she landed on frozen tundra four miles south of the guild’s castle, she’d reached the highest level of focus she’d ever achieved without a supernatural heart making it so. She turned that focus on the guild’s outer guards. They were about a mile away, but their creatures were closer – multiple species with different handlers. Layla could smell the beasts and sense them skittering across mountainous terrain. Now all she had to do was establish a link to their minds.

The pitch of the keep’s roof was dangerously steep, but at least the icy wind was calm, sweeping over the tallest point of the castle in mild gusts instead of stinging surges that felt like ocean waves.

Barra landed on the precarious rooftop, reporting for guard duty, and he found himself paired with a rookie recruit named Dale.

Barra, huh? Dale greeted. I see they don’t expect any action tonight.

Was that supposed to sting? Barra returned.

Dale laughed while popping a peanut in his mouth. Not compared to this wind.

It’s not so bad, Barra replied, snatching one of Dale’s peanuts from the air. Then he tossed it in his mouth and sat. I’ve been up here during wind storms.

You get sent up here a lot?

Not anymore.

Then why are you up here?

Someone did me a favor. I owed them one.

Ahh... Well wind or no, it’s going to be a bloody long night. It’s dull as piss up here.

You spoke too soon, Barra said, pointing toward the night sky.

Dale looked up and squinted. What is that?

Birds.

They were flying in from every direction, so Barra got to his feet and scanned the horizon.

Can you creature call? Dale asked.

Not well enough, Barra answered, but his voice was lost amidst the tumultuous screeching and cawing as thousands of birds formed a cyclone over the castle. I need to alert Foster.

Dale stuttered an objection while pointing up, but Barra had slid down the tiles and launched off the roof. Well hell, Dale cursed, popping another peanut in his mouth. Then he lazily chewed while watching the feathery tornado.

The birds could be seen three miles out by the guards in the air, but those on the ground were unaware of the phenomenon until word spread over the waves of sentinels, quiet voices floating through the forest, drifting over moss and ferns to land on alert ears.

Varden, one of the outer most guards, caught wind of the occurrence ten minutes after it began. You up there, Gille? he called, looking at the branches looming over him.

Yeah, Gille called back.

Can you see what’s going on? Varden asked.

I see something, Gille answered. They say it’s birds.

Birds?

Seabirds.

Hmm... They need to get Dale’s peanut-eating-ass off the roof.

Gille snorted. I’m going to move closer; see if they need us back.

Yeah, Varden mumbled. Tell them there ain’t shit going on here.

Gille didn’t reply, so Varden turned toward dark undergrowth to check on his familiars – three badgers and a fox. Hundreds of creatures guarded the lands outside the guild’s property, but only four answered to Varden.

He tried creature calling them, and when they didn’t respond, he narrowed his eyes, scanning the southern landscape. The badgers came into view, so he started to relax, but then he realized they still hadn’t answered his creature call. He sharpened his focus while watching their steady approach, attempting to establish a mental link. Then his eyes widened as they snarled and charged.

He kicked one away as another sank sharp teeth into his ankle, and as he bent over to toss the beast off, the third reared onto its hind quarters and locked its narrow jaws on Varden’s throat.

Varden’s tortured yell never hit the air, his vocal cords destroyed as his lungs begged for severed oxygen, and he clutched the creature’s coarse fur while falling to his knees. The sickening crunch of ripping flesh echoed in his head as the badger flailed in his weakening grasp. Then the beast backed away, taking the throat with him.

Varden shook and gurgled, drowning in his own blood, and the creatures advanced to the next wave of guards.

Still chewing his last bite of dinner, Foster followed Barra out into the courtyard, and they were accompanied by Zethar, the guild’s newest scientist.

Well look at that, Zethar mumbled, staring at the sky. "There is a seabird cyclone over us."

What do you make of it? Foster asked, scanning the castle walls.

How the hell should I know? Zethar returned. I’ve never seen such a thing.

You’re one of the smartest guys here, Zethar. Give me something.

Have they swooped down?

Barra shook his head. Not that I’ve seen.

Hmm… Then there’s something in the air.

Foster scanned the guards scattered around the courtyard. Has anyone creature called them?

They won’t respond, someone shouted back.

The cloud cover thickened as lightning struck the southern horizon, too far away to cause harm, but close enough to raise the hair on Foster’s neck. I want a report from the outside lines. Now. He paused and looked at Zethar. Would the storm explain the birds?

The scientist shrugged. It’s the only explanation I can conjure.

A soldier shouted from the guardhouse over the gate. Word just came in from the outsiders. As of three minutes ago, there wasn’t anything going on.

Foster’s jaw flexed as he looked at the sky. The storm was closing in at a phenomenal rate – dark and ominous clouds blanketing the surrounding valley like a quilt stitched with lightning. But the sky above the castle remained clear for the circling birds.

Foster blindly unclasped his cloak and slipped it off, passing it to Barra. Go tell Albion to secure the keep until we figure out what’s going on.

Yes, sir, Barra agreed, rushing away.

Foster moved further into the courtyard, barking orders to the men and women around him. Clear the grounds of children. Stay alert and be prepared for anything. I want constant updates from the outside lines.

The soldiers jumped to obey, and Foster lifted his gaze to the black clouds, watching them grow closer.

The earth rustled beneath enslaved creatures set free; the saturated peat flattening under the bodies of their former masters, throats agape, gurgling blood.

The guards were getting thicker, and the creatures had to make a choice – retreat or fall to a glorious death. They stopped in their tracks, lifting their noses to the sky. Then they turned and left the scene, bypassing the fifty-nine lives they’d claimed – a price paid to the powerful witch who’d won their allegiance.

As the forest cleared of creatures, invisible magicians moved in, floating above the saxifrage and wood sorrel while skirting branches.

Morrigan and Caitrin clutched each other’s hands, and thirty yards to their right, Serafin and Daleen did the same. Twenty paces behind them, hundreds of allies cautiously followed, a wave of shimmers crashing over ferns.

Five enemy auras came into Morrigan’s and Caitrin’s view, so they halted, searching for others. Two more moved out from behind an aspen, and as Caitrin spoke into Morrigan’s mind, they measured the distance between their targets. Caitrin squeezed Morrigan’s hand, giving her the green light. Then they raised their palms toward the nearest guild member, combining earth and water magic to turn the ground beneath the enemy to mud.

Barely a wave was made as the guard slipped underground, his fingers stretching for air, and only a short gasp could be heard. The next guard didn’t have time to notice the absence of his neighbor’s aura before he, too, plunged into liquefied moss and dirt, doomed to suffocate as nature solidified around him. Then another was swallowed, and another. Soon all seven of the auras within Morrigan’s and Caitrin’s sight were buried beneath repaired earth, so the bonded couple floated forward, keeping their eyes peeled for the next cluster of guards.

Several yards to their right, Serafin and Daleen dispatched the enemy with a combination of earth and fire. Daleen’s vines slithered around necks, cutting off airways as thorns punched holes in nerves and bone, and once the enemy was wrapped in greenery, Serafin inflamed the spells, radiating enough heat from the vines to char their suffering contents. Bodies crumbled, and Serafin and Daleen advanced, glancing up at the encroaching clouds.

Veiled by the supercell she and Quin had summoned, Layla dropped into a dive, dodging lightning and outracing rain toward the hazy glow of an enemy aura. Not even a shimmer betrayed her presence, so she had the guard by his hair before he knew she was there. As her feet found his shoulders, his body appeared, and they started losing altitude, but Layla wasn’t worried. With a deep breath and the strength of a supernatural heart rate, she braced the wizard’s torso while yanking his head, and the two parted ways.

Layla burned them both to ash while stabilizing her flight. Then she sped toward the next airborne guard, intercepting Quin along the way.

His parents and Venetia did their best to keep up, silently executing the guards who weren’t in Layla’s line of sight, and by the time their grounded allies had taken the valley, Layla and Quin were following the clouds toward the castle. They remained invisible, along with his parents and Venetia, but the hundreds of allies riding the tail of the storm had average concealment spells and shimmered like a blossoming rainbow.

Three hundred Dark Guild members hovered between the incoming wall cloud and the rampart, eyes wide, hands outstretched and shaking, minds searching for the guards who’d been swallowed by the storm. The situation on the ground was similar – soldiers searching the dark timber, calling for their comrades. Many had been dispatched to find answers. None had returned. The guild members on the battlements were torn, unsure if they should watch the incoming storm or the circling birds or the silent forest, and Foster paced outside the keep’s front door, scanning the sky while waiting for an enemy sighting or the return of a missing ally.

The storm’s growing nearer, sir, someone called from the battlements. Will we let it swallow us as it has the others?

Foster halted. He was about to get answers one way or another. Shields!

Against what, sir? What are we deflecting? A storm? Birds and rain and wind?

Everything. Defend against everything. Push that cloud away. Don’t let it blanket this keep.

Yes, sir. The guard turned forward, magically magnifying his voice to give the order. Shields! Send this storm back to the beast that belched it!

The shields went up, forming a massive, multicolored wall, and its casters flipped their gazes between the approaching storm and the screeching birds over their shoulders. The guards on the ground were shielded as well, their backs to the castle wall, and their attention was divided between the murky sky and dark timber.

The wind picked up, the birds grew louder, and the forest creaked. Lightning-laced clouds drifted threateningly close, misting the shields with moisture while dropping the temperature, but then they shifted upward, curling back the way they came. Most of the guild members gawked at the retreating storm in confusion, but Foster’s eyes narrowed, still looking for answers.

The clouds thinned, giving way to moonlight... which reflected off a sea of shimmers.

Foster’s eyes widened as he shouted at his soldiers. Hold!

Layla hovered near the southwest tower with Quin and their golden family, still invisible and poised to destroy what remained of the guild’s defenses.

Layla took Serafin by the hand while Quin clutched Daleen’s, lending them their extraordinary powers. Then they turned sideways and spread out as far as their linked hands would allow. The four of them soared east, gliding across the top four layers of enemy shields, and each of them stretched out an arm, spewing ice from flattened palms.

Some of the shields weren’t set to protect against ice, and most of them couldn’t withstand the power behind Layla and Quin’s particular brand, so barriers busted and bodies froze, falling on those below with thuds and screams.

While the enemy toppled from the sky, Caitrin and Morrigan soared over the edge of the forest, drifting their fingertips across the topmost branches of the oak and hazel trees skirting the castle wall. The earth trembled, and the guards shook with it, trying to keep an eye on the swaying forest. Timber creaked as strong roots ripped from the earth. Then branches whipped out, knocking guild members aside.

Layla and Quin reached the southeast tower and flipped around, evaluating their destruction. They’d taken out over half the shields while leaving the remaining barrier filled with holes, and the trees wreaked havoc on the grounded guards. The sky lit up as Layla’s army appeared, auras emblazoned and determined. Then Venetia and Bryce shouted orders from the front line, leading the airborne allies forward. More shouts arose from the forests, and the undergrowth glowed as Tristan and Emrys led hundreds from the timber, dodging magically animated trees before swarming the stone walls and making their way to the crowded battlements.

Kemble and Cordelia had slipped behind enemy lines using the loch, which was divided by the guild’s western wall and flowed through grates below the surface. Diving to the depths of the lake, they’d slipped through the steel bars and surfaced near the keep’s courtyard. Now they watched the chaos from their enemy’s point-of-view while working magic on the water around them.

One of the guild members shouted at Foster. What should we do, commander?

Guard the keep, Foster returned, flashing his gaze over his crumbling army.

Right, the soldier replied. Got any advice?

Layla appeared near the southeast tower, her burning gaze on Foster, and he met her stare while answering his comrade. Make peace with the end.

Layla descended, and the birds abandoned their cyclone, diving in and flooding the eastern half of the lawn in a feathery wave. While the birds pecked at fingers and heads, the loch rose, slithering up the inside of the western wall before crashing down on the courtyard.

Most of the guards on the ground were sucked under water, and the few who managed to stay on their feet were being dispatched by Kemble and Cordelia, who rode the crest of the summoned wave into the fray.

Foster cursed and did a backflip onto higher ground. Then he aimed a palm at the flood. The water below Cordelia and Kemble shifted, yanking them into the tide, and the wave lost momentum, settling its victims on soggy ground.

The surviving birds soared away, but the Crusaders had breached the walls, the refugees had captured the southern parapet and towers, the trees had busted through the gates, and Layla and Quin had landed.

Quin grasped his parents with a summoning spell, pulling them from the water as Layla’s right palm smashed into the ground. Her magic rippled out in waves, shattering the topsoil of the entire lawn, and every enemy left standing lost their balance while others sank into muddy earth.

Coming to their senses, Kemble and Cordelia fought Quin’s magical grasp, so he released them and began helping Layla deflect incoming spells. Dozens of Crusaders alighted, taking over the task. Then Venetia, Emrys, and Tristan landed behind Layla. Kemble and Cordelia were back on their feet, and Layla’s grandparents had found her, so she headed for the front door of the keep, surrounded by a circle of Crusaders.

Guild members swarmed from the north, east and west, but they were intercepted by the refugees; and the enemies in the courtyard battled Crusaders and timber. Oaks and hazels crushed bodies with ease, and the guild’s ancient yew tree had torn its massive roots from the ground, busting the sacrificial altar in its shadow before obliterating large groups of purple-swathed soldiers.

Layla veered toward the keep’s front door and found Foster perched on a stone dragon flanking the entrance… his arm completing a rotation. Whatever he’d thrown was meant for her, but she’d turned, so the blur shot between Serafin’s and Caitrin’s shoulders. They both looked over as Layla reached out, trying to halt the threat with magic, but she was too late. The flash hit the outside of Quin’s right bicep, ripping flesh as it shot by. Then it pierced Venetia’s neck.

Layla looked from the blood blossoming on Quin’s arm to Venetia’s throat, which had a stone dragon’s tooth lodged in it. Venetia reached for her wound, struggling to breathe as her face paled, and Layla flipped her gaze back to Foster.

Her veins caught fire as she screamed, and her feet left the ground, her palms stretching toward the condemned. Foster bowed his head, resigning himself to her wrath, which came from the wall garden behind him. The ivy scaling the stone grew, slithering around his torso and limbs, and his face turned blue as nature crushed his ribs and squeezed the air from his lungs.

Once his aura disappeared, Layla looked at Venetia, who’d fallen into Tristan’s arms. He knelt to secure his hold, and Serafin crouched in front of them.

Can you fix her? Layla asked.

Serafin pulled Venetia’s hand from her neck, and blood surged around the spike. It pierced her carotid artery.

Venetia’s eyes filled with moisture as she looked at Layla. You need to go.

Layla’s nostrils flared. How fast can you fix it, Serafin?

It would take at least half an hour to stabilize her.

Go, Venetia repeated. Remember your purpose.

Healers, Layla breathed. There must be healers with you.

Bryce… get Bryce.

Layla scanned the chaos around them, and when she spotted Bryce, she grasped him with a summoning spell and pulled his flailing body close. The moment his feet found earth, he spun around, ready to defend himself, but then he saw Venetia.

Soaring to Tristan’s side, Bryce took Venetia and cradled her in his arms. What have you done, he whispered.

Carotid artery, she rasped.

Bryce glanced at Serafin’s bloody hands. Is that true?

Yes, Serafin confirmed. The spike is still lodged in her neck.

Can you help her? Layla interrupted.

Bryce’s face flexed as he shook his head. I’m not a healer.

Venetia reached up with a shaky hand, pulling his gaze back to hers. Tell them to go… then find Helena.

Helena’s fallen.

Then we’ll find someone else.

Go, Bryce insisted, glancing at Layla. Don’t let this be in vain.

Layla swallowed a lump, fat teardrops skating down her cheeks as she stared at Venetia’s blanched face. I’m sorry, she whispered. Then she took Quin’s hand and turned away.

As they approached the unguarded entrance to the keep, Layla pointed at the magical tourniquet circling Quin’s bicep. Your arm. Can you use it?

It’s fine, he answered, reaching for the wooden door, but Layla grabbed his wrist and pulled him around.

Are you sure?

He took her cheek and leaned close. I won’t let our babies down, Layla.

She sucked her lips into her teeth and gave a nod, shaking more tears from her raging eyes, and he gave her forehead a kiss before turning toward the door. Let’s go.

She moved in front of him, touching her shoulder blades to his chest, and as their family flanked his sides, Tristan and Emrys covered his back. All of them raised their palms while taking deep breaths. Then Quin used magic to push open the double doors.

Dozens of spells flew at them, but they expected the attack and had multiple shields stretching across the entryway. Layla’s and Quin’s barriers deflected the magical ammo, taking out at least a quarter of the enemy in the first few seconds, and as the rest of the guild members dodged, Layla scanned the room, noting every detail of the entry hall and its wide staircase.

Now, Quin ordered, and the shields dropped as he and his family crossed the threshold.