Heirs of War

  HEIRS OF WAR

  Heirs of War, Book One

  By MARA VALDERRAN

  Copyright 2012 Mara Valderran

  Smashwords Edition

  All Rights Reserved.

  maravalderran@gmail.com

  Edits by Kriscinda Everitt

  Cover Design by Gretchen Byers

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locations is entirely coincidental.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  DEDICATION

  THE PROPHECY

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  HEIRS OF WAR, CROWN OF FLAMES

  DEDICATION

  To my Granny, who always believed in me, supported my endeavors without question, and loved me unconditionally. I only wish the time we had would have been longer.

  Granny, I love you a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck.

  THE PROPHECY

  “…And the fifth shall be marked by the powers.

  When the blood of the five is shed,

  A new power will be bestowed upon them,

  A power none have witnessed before.

  The mark of the five shall complete the circle

  And their blood will be the sacrifice

  In which a new era is born

  Uniting all worlds as one…”

  CHAPTER ONE

  Zelene felt the sting of the slap before her foster-father’s hand had made contact with her cheek.

  “You look like a slut,” he slurred at her.

  She tried to take a deep, calming breath and counted to ten before responding. “Well, that’s the point when you go on a date, Danny.”

  She winced before the next hit came, her reaction having more to do with her mouth running away with her than with the impact from his now balled up fist.

  “I’ll go change,” she muttered before slinking off to her room.

  Of course, she had no intention of changing. She knew well enough that when Danny got like this he would soon pass out, and then she would be free to do whatever she liked.

  Unless Nora got home first.

  Even if Danny had already doled out the punishment Zelene supposedly deserved, her foster-mother would make sure to outdo him when she got wind of whatever supposed transgression Zelene had committed.

  Zelene gave Danny around fifteen minutes before she dared poke her head from her bedroom. The sound of his snoring drifted from the second-hand armchair he reclined in as the television blared something from Fox News. She crept into her foster-parents’ bedroom and went straight for the nightstand, where they hid the car keys from her. She dug through the junk in the drawer, until she came across a letter addressed to her.

  She read the letter twice; her eyes widened and then darkened significantly as she took in the meaning of the words. The slam of the front door moved her to action, and she eased into the hallway, making a beeline for the backdoor. She knew exactly who she needed to talk to about this, and she didn’t want to waste another minute.

  Within the hour, Zelene gnawed at her fingernails as she waited by the car. She parked in a darkened alley and stood listening to the cans rattling in the shopping cart of a nearby homeless woman, lending a heartbreaking soundtrack to her already heartbreaking plight. She straightened as a tall and burly form rounded the corner.

  “Shouldn’t you be wearing a trench coat to meet in a place like this?” Varrick asked as he made a point of looking around the alley and lifting a brow.

  She responded with a stiff shrug. “Yeah, well, I’m being covert for a reason.”

  “Stole your foster-parents car again?” He asked the question as if he didn’t need an answer.

  “They won’t let me come see you.”

  He crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Why not?”

  “I got a letter from some lawyer,” she explained as she paced away and picked at her jagged fingernails. She turned to face him, her freckled cheeks flushed with anger. “He says I have the option to stay in the system, so I can finish school.”

  “Which is a good thing.”

  “No,” she shouted, her words bouncing off the brick walls around them. “The letter came a month ago, Varrick. A month ago. They’ve been hiding it from me.”

  “Why?”

  She closed the distance between them, her footsteps urgent. “Because they know what I would do. I want to come live with you, which means they won’t get paid to keep me anymore. All you and I have to do is go to the lawyer’s office Monday and fill out the paperwork. Then we can—“

  He held up his hands. “Zelene, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

  His rejection wounded her, despite her mask of calm. “Why not? Aren’t you the one always saying you can’t wait for me to get away from them?”

  He nodded, a pained expression on his face Zelene understood all too well. Varrick placed a hand on her shoulder. “But not by living with me. You and I both know there’s no way Social Services would approve me as your guardian. Not after what I did.”

  “Ten years ago, Varrick,” she argued. She bit at her lower lip, her voice cracked as it dropped to a whisper. “And you were defending me. That guy put me in a hospital.”

  He glowered at the memory. “But that guy happened to be your guardian at the time. It wasn’t my place to intervene. We’ll figure something out to get you away from them, I promise. I don’t want you to stake your hopes on something that can’t happen.”

  Zelene folded her arms, her mouth twisting into a determined scowl. “Fine. But there is no way I am staying with them after I’m eighteen. I’ll run away, but I won’t stay with them a day longer than I have to.” She glared as he got a familiar glint in his eyes. The one saying a tiring lecture was in her near future. “I have to go,” she snapped before he could say anything. “I have a date.”

  “Be careful,” he frowned as the car door slammed shut.

  Zelene was still wearing the same grimace—and the same chip on her shoulder—when she arrived at the party. She wasn’t entirely sure why she had agreed to go to this thing. And to go with Rob of all people.

  That was a lie. If she was honest with herself, she had been listening to the little voice in her head that was always searching for a way to piss Kyle Logan off. Going out with his best friend would be just the ticket.

  Not that he had a reason to care at all since he had inexplicably dumped her six months ago. She had thought everything was going so well between them. From childhood best friends to high school sweethearts. Theirs was a romance worthy of story books.

  Or so she’d thought. Now, as approached the
party, her knee-high boots clicking against the driveway in time with the thudding bass music coming from inside, she knew how incredibly wrong she’d been. Sure, Kyle looked like the carefree kid she had grown up with as he tousled with Rob in front of the house, but she knew better now.

  Rob stopped at the sight of her, straightening his shirt and brushing his dirty blonde locks out of his eyes. Kyle’s light brown hair always looked a bit disheveled, and she hated how sexy she thought it made him look as he slowly turned around to face her. His eyes turned to glaciers as they took her in, drifting up and down her body and lingering on the red v-cut shirt she had opted to wear. She instinctively looked down at her cleavage and realized her chest was flush, which always happened to her pale skin when she was angry or embarrassed.

  And dammit, Kyle knew that.

  Her eyes narrowed in response to the smirk growing on his face. “Kyle.”

  “Zelene. Looks like you’re getting around just fine.”

  She took in a deep breath, knowing exactly what he was insinuating. Hell, he had been the reason a scarlet letter had practically been painted on her chest after they broke up. Well, two could play at that game. “You’re right. I hear Rob here is a nice piece of ass to add to my collection, so I thought I’d give him a go. How’s Dean?”

  His face darkened, though she wasn’t sure if it was from her retort or the mention of Dean, the long-lost cousin that had come to adopt Kyle a little under a year ago. That was when everything had shifted between them. Kyle had a family now. He didn’t need to hang around with orphan Annie anymore.

  “He’s fine,” he finally answered through gritted teeth.

  “He was always so nice to me.”

  “Too nice, if you ask me.”

  “Well, maybe I’ll give him a call when I’m done with Rob here.”

  Kyle took an urgent step forward, staring down at her with what looked like concern. “You stay away from Dean. And if he ever contacts you again, you tell me. Got it?”

  Her anger was washed away by the confusion she felt over his sudden concern. “Again? What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing. Enjoy your date, Zee.”

  And with that, he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked inside.

  An hour later, enjoying herself was still impossible. Her mind was reeling from her little encounter with Kyle. It was the most they had spoken in months. Why was he so concerned about her relationship with Dean? There wasn’t even really a relationship with him to speak of. She saw him around town every now and then, and he always went out of his way to be nice to her, but she had assumed that was because of her tumultuous relationship with his ward. Could it be that Dean had a thing for her? She visibly cringed at the thought. He was almost old enough to be her father. Gross.

  Almost feeling his eyes on her, she looked up to find Kyle staring at her with a faraway look on his face. He looked…sad. She didn’t know whether to smack him or hug him at this point.

  "Are you okay?"

  Zelene shook herself, shifting her attention away from the back of Kyle's head as he retreated. "I'm fine." She tried to say the words like she meant them, but she heard the snap in her own voice as she spoke.

  Rob licked his lips. "I'm sorry. Last time I talked to Kyle he wasn't going to be here. If I had known he planned on coming, I wouldn't have brought you. I would have taken you somewhere else." He glanced down at the drink in his hand and added in a defeated voice, "Especially if I would have known how you would have reacted."

  "What's that supposed to mean?" she redirected her fury. "I'm not allowed to hate him because you're trying to ride his coattails to get into my pants?"

  "What the hell, Zelene?" He put the cup down on the coffee table, turning back to her and placing a hand on her knee. "You aren't supposed to act like you still have feelings for him when you're on a date with me. And I don't just want to get in your pants. You know that," he said earnestly.

  She crossed her legs in a way that forced him to drop his hand from her leg. "No, I don't. All I know is that you're friends with him, and I know he made a point of telling the whole school we slept together, garnering me a scarlet letter to sew onto my cardigan and him cool points. Who’s to say you aren’t trying to pick up his leftovers?"

  The hurt across his face caused her a twinge of guilt as he stared at her. "Is that what you think?"

  Zelene leveled a challenging gaze at her date. "Wouldn't be the first time one of his friends tried."

  "Well, I'm not like them," he said as he stood up. "Which I thought you saw. Have a nice time, Zelene."

  She closed her eyes after he walked off, squeezing them together as if she might blink away this whole damned party. She opened them and eyed the coffee table where Rob had left the drink he had made her, and she quickly realized she might be able to drink away the whole night. Wasn't that what her foster parents were always doing? She grabbed the red cup and without a second thought, she tipped her head back and poured the entire salty beverage down her throat. One of the idiots nearby starting chanting "Chug! Chug!" as she did so.

  "I was chugging, idiot," she snapped.

  She considered the other teenagers around her, wondering what to do now. She didn't like most of these people and most of them didn't like her. She rolled her eyes, wondering who the bigger idiot was—the guy chanting at her to chug, or her for thinking she’d be okay around the people who did their best to make her life miserable. She stood up, swaying slightly, and headed back to her car, slamming the cup down on the mantle on her way out.

  Something happened as she paced around outside, trying to gain her composure before driving home. The world had gone blurry, and then she’d had the most wonderful dream as she slumped against the tree she had only meant to rest by. She was alone and afraid. But then Kyle was there, pulling her into his arms and murmuring how worried he had been about her as he laid soft kisses against her temple.

  "You scared the crap out of me," he whispered.

  "What do you care?" she slurred as her glazed eyes slowly came to his face. "You hate me."

  "No, I don't," he said as he placed a hand on her cheek. "I could never hate you."

  "Why...." her eyelids fluttered, trying to close.

  "To do what I've always done, Zee. Keep you safe."

  "From who?"

  "In the off chance you do remember this conversation tomorrow, let's just say that you don't belong in my world right now. It's not good for you."

  "I miss you," her voice came out barely above a croak, but he flinched as though her words had burned him.

  He placed his hand on her cheek again, a gentle thumb across her freckled skin. For a brief moment, the world around them seemed to disappear. All they were left with was the wind rustling through the trees as it wafted his scent under her nose.

  "I miss you, too."

  "Take me home," she pleaded as the world began to slip away again.

  Kyle nodded, knotting his fingers in her hair as he pulled her forward and planted a light kiss on her forehead. "I'll take you home."

  Somehow, she’d gotten home. The bruise on her cheek was a testament to that. Her little dream had quickly turned into a nightmare when her foster-parents found her drunk. The rest of the night was a blur at best, but the morning after was as clear in her mind as the concealer she was using to try to cover up the aftermath of the “lessons” her guardians were trying to teach her.

  She tossed it on her dresser, giving up and just hoping if she kept her head down no one would notice. She slung her bookbag on her shoulder and marched into the living room, holding her hand out expectantly to her foster-mother.

  “What exactly do you want, girl?”

  For as long as she’d lived here—more years than she liked to count—she’d never had a name. Just “girl”. And that was if they were in a good mood.

  “Keys. I missed the bus, and I’m going to be late for school.”

  Nora snorted and turned back to the television. “Guess you
’re gonna have to walk then.”

  “Are you kidding me? I’ll be lucky to get to school before lunch time.”

  “Should’ve thought of that before you got behind of the wheel of my car drunk. How do you think your father would get to work if you had totaled that car?”

  “He’s not my father. And how do you think you’d get any checks if I’d died?”

  “We’d manage. Maybe we’d sue the government for giving us a dud for a kid.”

  Zelene’s chest heaved with anger. “You know, if you want to keep collecting those checks, you better go back to being more careful about not leaving marks on me. I’d sure hate for the wrong person to see this today.” She stomped out the door, giving it a loud slam for good measure.

  It wasn’t her best comeback, certainly. But it was really the only thing she had in her arsenal. She’d come to realize by now that nothing was going to change. She’d tried reporting the abuse years ago, but with no marks, she had no proof. As long as Nora insisted on literally beating her upside her head, she didn’t have a leg to stand on.

  She thought about reporting them again as she walked the fifteen miles to school in the scorching southern heat. But with her eighteenth birthday right around the corner, there was really no point. She’d be rid of them soon enough, and she didn’t want to risk the repercussions if she failed again.

  But maybe…maybe this would be enough to convince Varrick to help her get emancipated from the system period and come live with him. She’d be eighteen, so no one could really stop her from living where ever she wanted, even if Varrick had been deemed an unfit guardian. Right?

  She continued to bounce these ideas around in her head, almost perfecting the conversation she would have with Varrick after school as she made her way down the hallways. She didn’t even notice Kyle standing at his locker until he spoke to her.

  "Hey, Zelene."

  Her only response came in the form of forcibly putting a book in her locker.

  "So, I hear you ditched Rob last Friday."

  "Did you really?" she asked, sarcasm lacing her every syllable. "Where did you hear that from?"