Lady of Darkness (Lady of Darkness, #1)

by Melissa K. Roehrich

Three women who knew how to use every single one of the weapons that adorned them with lethal efficiency. Three women who knew how to use their bodies as weapons— in all the ways a woman could use her body. Three women who were far more clever than most and that was perhaps their most valuable of weapons. Three women who had been raised together. Trained together. Three women feared by most. Nightmares come to life.

“I’ve done nothing to warrant sending his Wraiths after me!”

“Death’s Maiden has questions for you,”

“I cannot say,” he cried, breathing through his teeth around the pain. “I am forbidden. I am bound by ancient blood magic. I cannot say.” “Foolery,” the third, Death Incarnate, snapped. “There is no one here who can do such magic. Magic is not found here.” “There is,” the male gasped. “I swear it!”

“Tell me, Dracon, did you know that your Fae magic will not heal you here?”

kingdom had been on a continent across the sea but had been defeated when they sought to overthrow King Deimas and Queen Esmeray. The king and queen gave their lives for the war by using their magic to not only defeat and lock away the Avonleyans but also to protect them from the Fae Courts to the north and south of their human lands. Their sacrifices had provided the humans protection from the Fae who desired to enslave the mortals that shared the continent. This book, however, went into more detail about the conquered kingdoms: things she hadn’t been taught in her extensive studies, details about their strange magic, and the gods and long extinct bloodlines.

“Unless you have something better in mind, I’m quite content to lounge in the sun all day, thank you very much,” Scarlett replied, her attention turning back to the book.

Tava whispered, fidgeting with her spirit amulet at her neck. Three interlocked circles, side-by-side— the symbol of Falein, the goddess of cleverness and wisdom.

Lord Tyndell was the noble of the manor, residing there with his two children, Drake and Tava. His wife, she had been told, had passed from a wasting disease when the children were young.

She had plenty of wealth thanks to her mother, who had been a highly sought after healer in the capital city until her death when Scarlett was nine. She had never known her father.

“For the love of Arius,

“I have no desire to go from one prison to another,” Scarlett scoffed. “He wants you to come home,”

The Lairwood Family had long been the Hands to the king, and Mikale Lairwood was in line to be the Hand to the Crown Prince, Prince Callan. Mikale had also set his sights on Scarlett and made his intentions clear about a year ago. The same time she had come to reside at Tyndell Manor. Despite having refused him on more than one occasion, he was persistent; and because Lord Tyndell was the leader of the king’s armies, and Mikale was currently a Commander in said armies, she found herself in the young Lord’s presence far more often than she wished. However, the fact remained that she had no noble blood in her veins, and there was no way Lord Lairwood would approve of a union to anyone without noble blood in the family.

“Take that next step, Mikale. We all know Scarlett would wipe the floor with your ass,” a man said, coming up behind Mikale and Drake. “And we’d all love to see it.” Scarlett’s heart stumbled, and she couldn’t help the smile that filled her face as she breathed, “Cassius.”

Cassius set her down, brushing his hand along her cheek, and Scarlett closed her eyes to the touch. “Where have you been?” she whispered, barely audible. Tava had stepped closer to Drake to give them space. “Here and there,” he answered. His hand stilled. “Open your eyes and look at me.” She did as he ordered and peered into his eyes of rich chocolate brown. No words were needed. They rarely were with them.

It would be frowned upon for a woman in a noble household to be trained in weaponry. Never mind the fact that she hadn’t been born noble. It was generally unacceptable for any woman to know how to defend themselves, and should she be discovered to be swinging a sword…well, it wouldn’t be good.

“I find the need to be so well-versed because I have found most men to be so incredibly inadequate.”

waiting to see if Scarlett gave in to the rage that was roiling in her gut. It felt like fire and ice all at once, aching to be unleashed.

The man was tall, taller than any of the other men in the room, with broad muscled, well, everything. He wore a tunic of blue and grey with the golden crest of Windonelle embroidered on it. A member of the king’s army then,

His golden eyes were fixed on her, even though he spoke to the others in the room, his head slightly to the side as if perplexed, and a lock of his dark hair tumbled over his brow. Had she seen him around the manor before? She thought she might know him from somewhere, but wasn’t sure where. She certainly could have seen him around.

She whirled to find the man still leaning against the wall, studying her. “Do you need something?” she snarled. The man raised his brows at her address. She heard Cassius say her name in warning yet again, but she crossed her arms and glared at the man. “Do you not speak? Or do you need a treat to entice you?” A small, amused smile curled on the man’s lips.

He had a slight accent that she couldn’t quite place. She’d been to all three of the kingdoms on more than one occasion, but it didn’t seem to fit any of them. His eyes dragged up and down her body and then he added, “While in a dress of all things.”

“Captain Renwell. He trains one of the units of the Lord’s armies.” He trains them? Interesting.

“Would you like a demonstration of what else I am capable of? I would love to share some of my secrets with you.” The glimmer of amusement in his eyes seemed to glow brighter. “Would you like me to throw a dagger at your face?”

“I dare you,” the Captain smirked. “Shit,” Cassius muttered under his breath. Before the word had finished leaving his lips, Scarlett had pulled a dagger that was strapped to her thigh beneath her gown, cocked it, and hurled it right at the man’s stupid, smirking face. And he caught it. By the handle. He simply stepped to the side and caught it before it embedded itself in the wall, a breath from his ear.

Captain Renwell crossed the room and came to a stop mere inches from her. As he extended the blade to her, he leaned in and whispered, “Is it admiration now, Lady?”

She went cold with rage, and as she was contemplating the best move to break his hold, the man’s eyes widened. He dropped her ankle, stepping back from her. His face went from amusement to perplexed as he studied her with that curious expression once more.

“Liar,” he purred. She stuck out her tongue at him. He huffed a laugh. “One would think that a Lady would have manners when it came to her tongue.” “My tongue is none of your concern.” “What if I wanted it to be?”

“Train me,” she breathed, trying to regulate her rapidly falling and rising chest. It was the first time she’d felt alive in nearly a year. It was the first time she had wanted to train in just as long. At the very least, it would give her a distraction from the monotony her days had become and get her back in shape for this assignment. “No,” the Captain said, sheathing his sword and holding out a hand to help her up. Gone was the teasing and amusement. His face was all harsh lines and hard eyes now.

“Do you want to fix your hair first, Lady?” Ryker asked smugly, noting the loose braid that was barely holding together now. Scarlett tugged the string from the end of her hair and tossed it to the side. “I will not say it again: I am no Lady.” And she launched into an attack. She held little back as she sparred with the Captain this time. Her silver hair flew around her in a wave as she ducked, twirled, and met him blow for blow.

but he was fast. Fast like she witnessed a select few at the Fellowship. Fast like she was.

As they moved about the ring, she let herself drift down into that pit of calming rage. That place where she drew up strength and focus, honed by her own years of brutal training. Fury only allowed out when it was needed. She channeled that ire into each swing, each thrust, each blow. Some thought she needed to learn to control that rage. Others delighted when she unleashed it.

She felt her back hit the wall, and he forced her back against it. Cassius was monitoring things, but he wouldn’t interfere unless she signaled to him to do so. She struggled against his hold again and almost as if he allowed her to, her fist came a little closer to his face. His eyes were fixed on her curled hand, on her right fist, where a ring glittered.

The Captain brought his golden eyes to her icy blue ones. “Where did you get that?” he breathed, barely more than a whisper. “It was my mother’s,” she replied through gritted teeth, her strength failing. The ring boasted a crest of an owl above a gold flame set into a sapphire stone. Her mother had given it to her the night she had been so brutally killed by Dracon.

He studied her a moment longer, then he leaned in close. His breath was hot against her ear as he whispered in that imperceptible whisper, “You win, Lady. I shall send word for when we are to train.”

His golden eyes went wide as he took her in, wrapped in a robe that didn’t even come to her knees, her long hair over her shoulders, reaching nearly to her navel, and her bare feet. “I have received your message, Captain Renwell,” she drawled. “I also must insist we meet at eight in the evening rather than nine.” “This is most inappropriate,” was Ryker’s answer, looking her in the eyes, and only in her eyes.

“It is true. Miss Scarlett has an ailment for which she takes a tonic every night at the same time. If she is telling you your requested time is too late, then for her health, it is.” Ryker seemed a little taken aback at the truth of the matter. He gave her a slightly quizzical look to which she returned a small nod of her head. She didn’t like talking about her ailment. Even more so, she didn’t like that no one could figure out what it was. The most skilled healers in the kingdom didn’t know what ailed her, only what could keep the spells away. She’d been taking a tonic every evening before she went to sleep for as long as she could remember. Scarlett could still picture her mother as she mixed the herbs and liquids for her each night. When her mother had passed, Sybil, the successor high healer at the compound, had taken up the job and still delivered it every evening to the manor.

The man had practically raised her after her mother had been so brutally assassinated. He had personally overseen her training alongside Nuri and another. The three of them had become his most lethal weapons and his most protected assets.

They were both drenched in sweat, but she didn’t dare let her eyes linger, even if he was ridiculously attractive. She could admit that. She saw plenty of pretty muscles and handsome faces come through the Fellowship, but Ryker’s attractiveness was different. Wild but steady.

“Because where I am from, females fight alongside males on the battlefields. Because those men in your king’s armies are not more skilled than you are. You could likely best many of them outside of the elite group that I train. Because you deserve the choice of something else if that is what you desire.”

Nuri Halloway was a different sort of nobility. She was the adopted daughter of the Assassin Lord. An orphan on the streets like Cassius, the Assassin Lord had found her at the age of four, scooped her up, and taken her to his home. His daughter not by blood, but by choice. She had been trained as an elite killer right alongside Scarlett. They were taught to move among the shadows with such stealth you didn’t see them unless they wanted to be seen. Her gift of stealth, however, was how she came to be called Death’s Shadow.

When the Wraiths of Death were all dispatched on one target, they begged for death by the end.

At the age of six, Scarlett’s mother had turned her over to the Assassin Lord to learn “how to defend herself,” and another healer’s daughter of the same age had joined her along with Nuri. What had come of that was the creation of a nightmare made flesh. The three girls had bonded during hours of brutal training. The three girls grew to love each other in the darkness. The three girls formed the bond of sisters.

The girl’s hair was braided down her back, her scimitars at her waist as usual, and a bow slung across her back. She was entirely in black, her hood down. She looked tired, as if she’d been up all night. She probably had been. She’d likely been stalking someone for a job.

“Because when we stop growing and learning, we start dying.

Few knew how to fight and best the Fae. In fact, the majority of their assignments were Fae and for good reason. The Fae occupied the lands on the northern side and southern side of the continent. They were divided into four Courts ruled by two sister queens. One ruled the western courts of Fire and Water, and one ruled the eastern courts of Wind and Earth. And it was the Fae Queens who had sided with Avonleya in the Great War in exchange for help enslaving the mortals. For the love of their people, King Deimas and Queen Esmeray sacrificed themselves to cast two powerful spells that took their lives: one to lock the Avonleyans away to their own continent and one to make magic inaccessible in the mortal lands.

blades of shirastone or black ashwood arrows.

It is clear how every man in your life feels about you. It was evident the day I watched them with you in the training barracks. Drake sees you as a little sister to protect. Mikale sees you as a pet to be tamed and prized. And Cassius—”

“Scarlett,” he said quietly. She turned to Ryker to find him staring at her. “Where is your ring?” “My ring?” she asked, looking down at her hands. “Yes. The ring you said your mother gave you.” “I didn’t put it on this morning. I didn’t even think of it as I rushed out to meet you. What does it matter anyway? Branches just… exploded everywhere. How the hell does that happen?”

And as they stood there, Ryker steadying her, she again felt as if she knew him. It was the same feeling she’d had when she’d watched him leaning against the wall in the training barracks. “Have we met before?” she asked, working to keep her voice from trembling at what had just happened. “What?” “I swear we’ve met before. I feel like I recognize you in some weird way…” she trailed off. Ryker seemed to consider something, but then he was quickly lowering his arms.