For The Love Of…Excerpts #3 by Artemis Crow

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by Artemis Crow

Today I’m happy to present the first chapter in the third book in the Zodiac Assassins series, the novel, “Libra’s Limbo”. I hope you enjoy it!

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“IT WASN”T a proper paranorm party until a troll dropped a steaming pile of dung…or blood was spilled. But the assembled paranorms were not in a celebratory mood.

Poised at the edge between the gloom of the passageway and the light flooding the Great Cavern, Libra pulled his foot back and remained in the comfort of the dark as oily waves of the paranorms’ anger and fear coated him. His hands clenched into fists, he forced his pounding heart to slow. He was one meeting away from everything he had longed for: freedom from the life of an assassin.

Sunlight pierced the cold of the paranorm subterranean world, spotlighting the various species enthralled by the spectacle of the Corvus Ward king and Lyon—Libra’s fellow Zodiac Assassin and leader—stalking each other inside the circle formed by the crowd’s numbers.

Created by the goddess Hecate for persecuted paranorms, the spider-web-shaped subterranean world called the InBetween was vast, and not completely charted. At one time, the species had lived together, but the Twelve’s rule had grown predatory and cruel, their grip on the throats of those they were chosen to protect tightening, choking the life out of the relationships they were supposed to be nurturing. One by one, groups of paranorms had left this central hub, the Great Cavern, striking out to create their own territory in the far reaches, and blocking any ingress or egress that they hadn’t created themselves to prevent the Twelve from gaining access.

More recently, many of the reclusive paranorms had returned to the Great Cavern seeking help from the Twelve to find their stolen children. But before the mystery surrounding the abductions could be solved, a demon army had been summoned from the depths of the abyss. Punching through the roof of the Great Cavern, the denizens of Hell had erupted into the human world and disappeared.

The Zodiacs and the few paranorms who had chosen to stay in this part of the InBetween had struggled to set their violated home to rights in time for this unprecedented gathering of most of the better-known paranorm groups, species that historically never shared the same square footage.

But history was just that—they had a new future to mold.

Including me.

Libra took a deep breath and released it slowly. His constant struggle to maintain mastery over his dark emotions could be relaxed. Life among humans would never tax him; no demands they might make could faze him. In minutes he would be named the paranorm ambassador to the humans; by tomorrow he would be ensconced in his penthouse in New York while the finest tailor in the city measured him for new suits.

A delicate cough sounded behind him. He jumped then glanced back, instantly regretting his reaction when he saw the arrival’s face. His skin chilled, the flesh rising into blizzard-worthy goose bumps.

He had fought for every miniscule scrap of good in him, struggled to hold onto it against the violence and ugliness of his life, the job of assassin foisted on him by familial obligation. The rest was faked, qualities he chose to project, a facade by design. The expensive clothes he wore had become his armor, the manners and insouciance and humor he plied were his shields. Only he knew what it cost him to keep the legacy of paternal rage and maternal hatred shoved deep inside. Only he knew the sliver span on which he walked, or how the dark emotions clawed at him to be loosed. Only he knew that it was his control that kept him from endangering them all.

Only he knew his truth. And how lost he’d been since the rule of the Twelve had ended, when he should have felt free.

And her. She knew his truth; perhaps better than he did. She had created him, after all.

He turned his attention back to the crowd. “Mother.”

“Why he was chosen to lead the Zodiacs is beyond comprehension,” the woman said low and slow, her gravelly voice as grating as the screech of Kellas Cat nails dragging across slate. “The Beast of the InBetween tamed by a woman and pack of brats—what a waste of raw brutality and rage.”

Libra adjusted his tie and brushed his suit jacket, smoothing the non-existent creases to ease the strummed nerves vibrating through him. Predators had a knack for smelling fear, sensing weakness; it was how they survived. But she didn’t hunt to fill her belly. No, she fed on the terror, lapped up the adrenaline, rolled in it like a dog in offal, her teeth bared in a grim smile while she devoured her prey.

“His family is precisely why we chose him…and why he wanted to stay here. To protect the family he loves. And any paranorms who choose to live here.”

The crowd stepped back from the king and the Zodiac, an en masse cringe in anticipation of violence.

“It appears blood will be spilled, and soon,” she said.

“Perhaps. But times are changing. Brute force and savagery can no longer be the norm, not if we want to reveal our existence to the flighty humans and survive.” He rolled his neck, focusing on the crowd’s rising agitation in an attempt to ignore his own. “It’s my job to make them understand that. That’s where my talents will best serve the entirety of the InBetween.”

The sharp, deep caws of the angry Corvus Ward males punctuated the nasal grunts and growls of the native Kellas Cat tongue. Together they drowned out the hiss of the vibrantly colored, reptilian-humanoid Aspis.

The ethereal, clairvoyant Portends had backed away from the throng, pressing their gossamer-clothed backs against the rough cavern walls, their faces screwed up in pain, cringing away from the anger and fear buffeting their delicate senses.

The lone demon-soul-sucking Innocent Demonica—a haunting, primal species who came in two physical versions: pale white skin with crooked, black cracks in a random pattern over their faces and bodies, and the revered black skin with white cracks—was as far from the rest of the crowd as she could get. That a Demonica had deigned to attend this meeting was singular.

Lyon’s face was inches from the Corvus Ward king’s. Both men were flushed, the king’s ink-black scalp feathers rising out of his long, black hair until they stood straight up. Not a good sign.

Then they bumped chests.

Aw, hell.

Libra stopped fidgeting. His knees bent, his heart rate spiked again—pounding against his ribs as if the organ were demanding he leave, walk away, as if it knew this confab was a bad idea.

Instincts, bah.

He hadn’t indulged in instincts or gut feelings since they had been beaten out of him.

Before he could take a step, her hand gripped his forearm. The air swirled around him, reeking of the cloying smell of gardenia that worked hard, but failed, to disguise the rotten-flesh stench of carrion flower nectar. He hadn’t seen the woman in years—had hoped he’d never see her again. Perhaps he should have taken up prayer, or destroyed his sense of smell, because in one whiff he was jetted back to his childhood. The sting of her slaps and punches and kicks. The fear that they would never stop; the hope he might die before the next beating.

Adrenaline surged through the shock, obliterating the emotions of the boy he once was, leaving only the numb of a man grown and in strict control. A trickle of sweat formed between his shoulder blades and inched and itched down his back, but he refused to acknowledge the physical betrayal of his body, his emotions. The day he had escaped her, he had sworn no one would ever touch him unless he desired it, hit him without repercussion, or elicit a physical response that he didn’t welcome.

Her breath tickled the curve of his ear. “I know why you’re here.”

He moved his tongue around to wet the desert that was his mouth, but it got stuck in the ridged roof, his lips glued to his teeth. “You know nothing.”

“You are just like your father—wanting what you can’t have. Taking that which is not yours. Leading the paranorms, advising them, standing as their representative to the human world will take a strong hand, a courageous heart. You have neither, so I’m here to make sure you don’t get what you seek. I am here to protect the paranorms from a male so afraid to embrace his greatest gift that he lives a half-life.”

Libra took a slow, even breath. He would never let her see how much her words hit home—how they burned like acid on his skin, flayed it, penetrated the crevices to seek out the starving, dark hollows inside him, filling them until they were sated.

“I am nothing like my father, all rage and lack of control, his scale so tipped to the dark that he was chewed up and swallowed by it.”

He tugged to pull away from her but she gripped him harder, forcing him to face her. “Before you run away as you are wont to do, the king has a proposal for you.”

He studied the sweep of the thick, white hair that covered her shoulders, and the subtle lines around her eyes and mouth. She hadn’t aged well; bitterness and anger had eaten away at her once fresh beauty.

Her lips twitched when she realized what he was doing. She bared her teeth for just a moment, the grimace involuntary, her vanity revealed in a blink. Witnessing her weakness should have thrilled him, but it left him hollow. He hadn’t been tainted with her malice…at least not fully. Yet.

“I hear that Lyon and his mate stole ten Corvus Ward children.” She stood straighter, her lips thinned. “The king wants them back.”

Libra crossed his arms. “My compliments to your spy network. Perhaps they can find out why the children were taken in the first place. What purpose does ripping them away from their families and terrorizing them serve? Provide those answers and you may be able to broker a meeting between Lyon, his children and the king.” He maintained eye contact with her, refusing to look away. “And to be clear, Lyon and his mate adopted them. That’s a far cry from theft. Every child chose to stay—perhaps the king needs to honor their wishes.”

“Bah, what do children know?”

He stepped into her, towering over her not-inconsiderable height, his body stiff with uncoiled tension. They know when they’re safe, when they’re loved. He wanted tospeak the words, but it would be a waste of breath. She would never understand. He stepped back and forced himself to relax.

She looked up into his face, her eyes roving over it as if searching for something. “I should have known your father couldn’t make a man out of you.”

Libra grit his teeth and resisted the urge to defend his sire. The man didn’t deserve it, nor would he have wanted it.

He turned away. “What is the proposal?”

“Pledge your fealty to the king and he will let Lyon keep the Corvus Ward children. As long as none of them prove to be a royal.”

It was all he could do not to snort. Insane. That was the only word that described the ridiculous proposal. First, pledging fealty to the Corvus Ward king would put Libra right back in the muck and mire he had just managed to crawl out of. Another arrogant master who could demand whatever he wanted of him, and, with fealty sworn, Libra would have no choice but to obey.

Second, no one let Lyon do anything. “Why would he part with even one Corvus nestling for my fealty?”

“He wants his own Zodiac.”

“Then have him approach one of the others. They are much more capable.”

He heard her draw in a slight breath and hold it. It wasn’t like her to be tentative. She was all sharp angles and pointy ends. Subtle and quick as a paper cut whose sting didn’t steal your breath until after your flesh had parted and the blood had welled. He wouldn’t spare her by speaking first—he had learned patience, and his control was eternal. He could wait her out.

“The other Zodiacs are strong, yes, but not as strong as you could be.”

And there it was—the elephant in the room had finally raised its trunk and trumpeted the truth. A chill stole over his limbs then crept inward until it bottomed out in his gut, freezing him in place. Despite knowing what the king wanted, he had to say it out loud.

“He wants the agent,” he said slowly, carefully, the muscles in his belly forcing the air out of his lungs so the words could be released.

“Yes. And it’s past time you claimed the role.”

“You know that’s impossible.”

She dug her fingernails into his flesh, anxious, desperate even, an emotion he’d never felt from her. “You could have the power of Aether; you could be its agent. The quintessence that Chaos herself created to give life to the gods and goddesses of old, their very breath. You could be the spaces between; you could have dominion over matter itself if you would but take it.” She hissed and clenched his arm even harder. “The power of the agent should have been mine, but you and your father stole it from me. I will not allow the legacy of my line to die with you because you are a coward.”

After decades of estrangement, why had Aubrianna chosen to approach him now?

He was Libra, but living a balanced life wasn’t possible for him, not with the piece of demon-king soul attached to his own. The evil inside him longed to be unleashed…always. If he became the agent, if he accepted the curse that his mother considered a gift, he was sure it would be Nether he’d awaken. His scale would be skewed to the dark side and he’d be lost to it forever. He had chosen to live a half-life in the light and made it be enough. There he would remain.

“There hasn’t been an agent of Aether for all of recorded history. Only the songs of bards and fools say an Os Mage Mother was ever an agent of Aether, and that, most likely, was wishful thinking.” Libra pulled out of her grasp. “Which leaves an agent of Nether, darkness personified, the stealer of breath, the destroyer of life. No.” He brushed the wrinkles out of his sleeve. “I will never swear fealty to the Corvus Ward king; my loyalty is to the Zodiacs of the Great Cavern and the paranorms of the rest of the InBetween—all of them. As for Aether and Nether, let them die with me—there is no one and nothing worth activating that power.”

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Speaking a little soon there, Libra…

 

May your words flow freely,

 

Artemis

Artemis Crow

www.artemiscrow.com

The Zodiac Assassins series

Available on Amazon Kindle and Print, Nook and Kobo

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Lyon’s Roar – https://amzn.to/2IB




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Leona’s Descent – https://amzn.to/2yaDfjW




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Libra’s Limbo – https://amzn.to/2q3VkNg




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Leona’s Cage – https://amzn.to/2QTbVyp

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Gemini Asunder  – https://amzn.to/2PyNUig