Introduction
Magic.
You could ask a hundred people, “What is magic?” and you will get a hundred different definitions as we have all experienced various forms of it in our lives.
Maybe it was the time that massive SUV should have crushed your tiny hatchback until nothing remained; yet after the noise and smoke cleared, you walked away with nothing more than a few scratches. Or maybe it was when every light turned green when you needed it most as you raced towards the hospital to say goodbye to your mother. Or perhaps it was something that went unnoticed—the moment when your cat nudged you in your sleep, and your breathing resumed, or the time your dog barking woke you before the fire reached your room.
Time roll by us in an eye-blink, sprinkling us in flashes we can’t explain. What happened, why did it happen, and more importantly, why did it happen to me? Some people call them miracles, while others, magic.
While these tales take place in a variety of worlds and places, some of them unreachable to Earthlings such as we, their magic wraps around like a silent whisper. Sometimes they comfort, while other times, they remind us of our mortality. They remind us what we have, and what we should hold on to dearly, because magic is just that—magic. It’s unpredictable and non-discerning.
The authors of these stories hope you find your own small piece of magic between the pages of this book.
Let it be a hug from us to you.
A magical one.
No Sanctuary
Tiffany Shand
No Sanctuary is the second short prequel to my Rogues of Magic series. After losing her throne, Ann and Ed are on the run from Orla, who helped to kill Ann’s father and take his realm from her. Now the archdruid herself must find safety in a realm full of enemies and keep her wayward magic under control. If she can’t, she and Ed will lose more than just their lives.
Tiffany Shand
Nowhere is safe when you're on the run.
After losing her parents and her throne, Ann Valeran is now rogue and on the run from the very people who destroyed her family.
With only the help of her best friend and former bodyguard, Edward Rohn, by her side, Ann must navigate her way through the five lands to find safety. The only people to offer her refuge are the elusive resistance, who once opposed her family and everything her father’s rule stood for.
But with assassins after her every turn and having to hide her uncontrollable magic and true identity, Ann must find a way to work with the resistance or risks falling into the hands of her greatest enemy.
Chapter One
Ann Valeran ducked as an axe flew at her head. This wasn’t part of the plan for today. Where did they even come from? How did they find us? The close confines of the cave didn’t make it easy for her to dodge the blow as the axe hissed through the air above her. Why did I let Ed talk me into coming here?
A man lunged for her and swung his club toward her. She dodged the blow, raised her hand and sent him flying. Beside her, Edward Rohn, her best friend and former bodyguard, thrust his sword through one of the Fomorian demons. One after another, hulking demons with glowing eyes surged into the cave.
Another demon came at her with a battle-axe.
This was supposed to have been a safe place for them to shelter for a while, yet Orla’s demons found them once more. Heat flared between her fingers as anger heated her blood. She threw a fireball straight at her oncoming attacker.
The demon screamed as the flames engulfed his body and turned him to ash.
She hurled another fireball at the second Fomorian.
Ed sliced off the head of the first demon. His short golden-brown hair looked slick with sweat. His golden-brown eyes sought her out. “You alright?” he asked.
Ann pushed her long blond hair off her face and rubbed her hands on her long black cloak. “No, I am so sick of this,” she growled. “We’re glamoured. How do these demons keep finding us?”
“Your grandmother said we would have to keep moving and be careful.” Ed kept a grip on his sword. “And you need to limit your use of power.”
Her blue eyes flashed at that. She’d been using magic all her life. How could she stop using it? Her life had changed so much in the last month. A few weeks ago, she’d been living in a palace as heir to the archdruid—her father. Now she was on the run and accused of killing both her parents. In a single night, her life had been turned upside down and she still didn’t know who or what she was supposed to be now. The only good part about losing everything was dead, her best friend and former bodyguard had stuck by her through everything. She wouldn’t have blamed him for leaving her. Everyone else had.
“I’m trying, Ed.” She sighed. “I’ve kept my magic usage to a minimum. How do they keep finding us?”
Ed shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Ann grabbed one of her fallen knives off the ground. She’d always carried knives with her in her previous life. But she never had to use them as often as she did now. Life as a rogue meant being constantly under attack by the forces that now hunted her.
“Orla must be tracking us somehow.” She gritted her teeth at the mention of Orla, the demon who’d helped her half-brother, Urien, to murder her parents.
“Who is it we’re supposed to be meeting?” Ann wasn’t happy when Ed refused to tell her who they were meant to meet here.
“I told you, someone who might be able to help us.”
“Help us how?” Ann sheathed her knives at her back and brushed ash of her long black cloak. It reminded her so much of the cloaks worn by her father’s Black Guard underneath their armour. Ed gave her the cloak as a gift. It’d been spelled to shield her from attack, and so far, it had helped. “Can this person stop Orla? Remove the price on our heads?”
Ed shook his head. “No, but they might be able to help us go somewhere safe.”
Ann gave a harsh laugh. “I doubt such a place on Erthea exists anymore.”
She thought her grandmother, Mercury Valeran, would have helped them to find refuge. Her father, Darius, seemed to have had an escape route already planned from what Ed told her. Her gran swore the glamours were enough to shield them and insisted they couldn’t stay with her since nowhere would be safe for them. So far nothing seemed to work. Ann had been disappointed at not being able to stay with Mercury. At least she would have been with one of her few surviving family members. If they weren’t safe with her, where could they be safe? Going to stay with the druids at Trewa hadn’t been an option either.
Another demon bellowed as he dove into the cave and charged them.
Ann pulled out her knife and threw it at him. The blade embedded itself in his shoulder, making him stumble. “Reoth,” Ann said. Light flashed around the demon and he froze in place, paralysed by her magic.
“How did you track us here?” Ann hurled her other knife to his abdomen. Blood seeped down the front of his tunic and he winced in pain.
The demon’s dark eyes flashed. “I’ll kill you for this, witch.”
“I’m a druid, not a witch. There’s a big difference. Now answer the question.” She pressed the knife so close to his throat it drew blood. “How does Orla keep tracking us?” One way or another she would get answers. Orla had to be tracking them somehow and this might be their only chance of finding out how. No matter what magic they used or what technique they did, Orla still found them. That should have been impossible. Ann might be a rogue now, but she still had the power of the archdruid, and that might as well be good for something. The archdruid was supposed to be one of the most powerful beings on Erthea, so how did Orla somehow track her magic?