Under the Lies

By A.K. Koonce

They pushed too far. The demented Hatter and all of his minions can test me all they like, but they just crossed a line.

Alixx Stone. That’s my line. Screw with my life all you like but don’t threaten my men.

The problem is, even if I save my friends, it won’t be enough. There’s an entire Kingdom who have been hurt by one man’s selfishness. Elder Liddell’s dark secrets are endless and now he’s dragged me into his twisted past.

My own flesh and blood did this.

And I’m starting to realize, I’m just as destructive as he is.

This is a why choose series, recommended for readers 18 and over.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A.K. Koonce
• Release date: Sep 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215346020

A.K. Koonce

A.K. Koonce is a USA Today bestselling author. A mom by day and a fantasy and paranormal-romance author by night, she keeps the fantastical stories in her mind on an endless loop while she tries her best to focus on her actual life and not that of the spectacular but demanding fictional characters who always fill her thoughts.

Book preview

One

Madison

It’s a blaze of hate that’s searing through me as I walk with forced calmness. Each step I take is like a countdown to destruction, the ticking of a bomb, the sparking of a fuse.

Leering slices through the crowd all around me. The people of Wonderland are fully displaying who they really are now, and these Elders, they’re cruel.

They’re violent.

They’re deadly.

And they’ve focused all that nastiness on the one person they never should have touched.

From his place on the ground, Alixx Stone’s bright eyes watch me as I pass through the shoving and yelling audience. His big wings are lowered, sitting in the dirt with a tired look of surrender.

The heat of the sun and the sweat of the bodies around me are hardly felt as I walk to him.

All I feel is that desperate look in Alixx’s eyes as he shakes his head at me over and over again, pleading with me to walk away.

And let him die alone.

With force, I break through the mass of screaming Elders, and the moment I step into the grassy clearing where only the prisoner and his jailers are lingering, a quietness follows me. I hear their whispers crawl along my skin, but it’s Elder Liddell who’s pinning me with a questioning gaze.

Madison, my d-d-d-dear. He shakes his head as if he can work out the craziness that’s creeping into him. Please go inside with your friends. I-I-I-It’s going to be a long evening, I’m afraid. His trembling fingers straighten the old top hat on his head, and it takes me a moment to decide how best to handle someone like Liddell.

I suppose I should fight craziness with craziness, the one trait I seemingly inherited from my demented grandfather standing before me.

Pain slices through the wound on my leg as I lower myself down right in front of the poor little prisoner. I bet this is the first time in his life my assassin’s ever been on the receiving end of torture like this. I can’t help but wonder if the danger of it all is really registering for him or if it’s another twisted adrenaline rush for him.

Alixx’s eyes eat up my every move as my palm lifts and my fingertips bring his chin up to fully meet my gaze.

D-d-d-do not touch him! Liddell demands.

These people have said that to me over and over again since the moment I laid eyes on this man. And it’s all I’ve wanted to do.

I never look away from Alixx.

People always say that, I whisper to the man just inches away from me. They keep saying it, and it keeps making me want to do it even more, I tell him.

A small smile cuts across his lips, a touch of madness and a touch of affection there.

Why is it you never listen, Sweetheart? Alixx rasps out on the saddest voice I vow I’ll never hear leave his lips ever again.

My heart pounds so hard that I know exactly why that is.

It’s because I love you, Alixx.

His eyebrows lift high, his lips parting just enough for me to kiss him in a slow drawn out display of total love and deviance.

A single kiss has never said fuck you like the one I share with Alixx Stone. Our love hushes the hate. It silences the violence with a single brush of our mouths, a stroke of our tongues, a bite of his teeth.

Or so it seems.

Big hands knock into my back, pressing me down to the ground hard enough that my cheek slams into the dirt. A hot copper taste floods my mouth as dirt billows up all around me. Chaotic noise climbs into the air all over again, screaming loud enough that I can’t hear the chastising words of Elder Liddell.

And it’s all a distraction that I needed.

Mick’s body pressing me down sets off the assassin in front of me. I know he won’t fight for himself, but he’ll fight for me.

The magic that locks him in place trembles against an unseen force, shaking as he himself begins to shake, muscles tensing, eyes narrowing, jaw grinding.

Magic explodes around him in pressing waves.

It sends me back, and then even more slashing energy is all around me. A pounding beat sinks into me like a drum reverberating all through my body. It’s a terrifying thing that I can’t find the source of.

Until I see Kais taking slow, calculated steps, booming energy into the very earth itself with every single step he takes. Power drifts off of him like smoke fuming up from a gleaming ember. His entire body is held differently. There’s something in him. Something dark that shadows over his existence as he looms over the man pinning me to the ground.

And then fire combusts.

Blinding light like pure hellfire alights his palms, and he sears that light into the man pressing down on me. Screams and shuddering agony crawl out of Mick’s mouth as something slices right into him, right through him, splitting him down the middle from the abdomen up as hot blood washes across my skin and sprays up across the man standing over me.

And then Mick slumps against me.

And dark, deadly eyes look down on the bloody mess he’s made.

The same adoring eyes I love so much.

Kais is a killer.

I’m just now seeing him for everything I always knew he was. In another life, he was a soldier, a great and admirable soldier. But he’s done following orders. He’s made that evidently clear in this slaughtering moment.

He shoves the dead body off of me with the gentleness of his boot, and then I mirror him. I try to mimic him the way I mimicked Lighton’s smoke ability. Energy courses through me, I feel it clawing through each of my veins until it settles in my palms.

Faint white light, pure burning fire settles in my hands.

It feels chaotically euphoric.

The screams and the stumbling of Elders rushing back to the castle climb around us. Liddell’s slit eyes glare back at me from over his shoulder as he shoves his people aside to rush into the safety of his home.

Brody guides Cat over to our side, both of them fighting to get past the throng of Elders. Lighton rushes by them, and he’s at my side in an instant, taking in the sight of my fiery palms and bloody clothes.

We need to leave, Lighton says, his hand slipping down my hip and pulling me away from the cowering crowd.

No, we need to strike. Now, I command.

Lighton’s brown eyes widen as he looks back at me. If it were just them, I’d agree. They may lack magic, but they have other ways to harm us.

What can they possibly have that could be a match for us?

A crawling cry rips through the air. A familiar barbaric sound that shudders fear right down my spine.

Fucking wingless monkeys, Lighton growls.

Those things already sliced up my throbbing leg just hours ago. And apparently, they didn’t stop at the base of Creatures’ Cliff.

A storming herd of the abused, tattered creatures tear into the earth. Long claws and longer fangs snap in the wind, their body’s ambushing anyone that’s close enough, tearing into innocent people that stand between us and the hundreds of beasts that are rushing closer and closer with each passing second.

I have no idea if Liddell did this or if the thrashing creatures followed me here.

Either way, we’re fucked.

Where do we go? I glance to the castle and then to the glistening blue water that surrounds us on nearly all sides.

A small arm brushes mine, and I nearly leap out of my skin from the startling feel of it. A small blond boy with a tired expression looks up at me. You know you’re going to owe me for this, right? the Profit says.

Preston! I fling my arms around him, but he winces from my heated touch and shrugs me off.

Stop. Affection costs extra. He nods as if we’re meant to follow him, but I can’t imagine where.

The thundering feet of beasts are closing in, so it’s not much of a choice at all when we all follow the mysterious boy to the edge of the earth, his gaze set intently on the distance.

Everything Preston does is just a little bit off.

So when he takes one more step, his foot held just above the drop that tumbles down into white wafting water that surrounds us, it’s no different. He free falls