Scars of Silver by S.A. Archer Read Free Book Online Page B

stumbled backward before catching himself, his
eyes wide as he stared at the fractures creeping up the courtyard
walls. “Would I knock myself off balance? Open your eyes, Lugh!
Something is wrong!”
    Thunder rumbled like a landslide and then the sky
flickered. Or rather the magic that gave the ceiling of the Mounds
the appearance of a sky. Both Sidhe warriors relinquished their
aggression to witness the cascade of destruction rupturing the
fabric of their world. Cracks like a spider’s web shattered the
illusion until the great bowl of rock overhead became visible for
the first time in as long as any Sidhe could remember.
    Jhaer kept his balance better the next time the
ground shifted, although the horror that stabbed through him
threatened to drive him to his knees. The thunderous sounds of
earth ripping from earth filled the cavern that housed the magical
realm of the Mounds. As the ground above them shifted ominously,
Jhaer’s hands snapped upward, fingers curled as if gripping
something heavy. Trembling from the strain, his mastery over the
earth alone supported the bowl of rock overhead.
    “Lugh!” Jhaer growled through clenched teeth, “Help
Danu! NOW! I can’t… hold it up… much longer!” All his
concentration, his strength, focused solely on preventing the
Mounds, home to hundreds of thousands of fey, from catastrophic
collapse, for as long as he could.
    Differences postponed in the face of imminent demise,
the Seelie raced toward the castle as Jhaer bore the weight of the
world. With muscles trembling from the effort, Jhaer waited for the
dread to dissipate, anticipating the Creatrix to reach out and
fortify the Mounds. But what he felt was life, the connection to
Danu, fading away. The All-Mother, she who bound the Mounds
together for centuries, was disappearing. She was dying.
    All hope shattered, leaving only fatalistic
determination. Through raw force of will, Jhaer held aloft the vast
cavern ceiling, allowing as many fey as possible the chance to
escape, the stronger ones via teleportation, the lesser fey
certainly crowding the portals that might whisk them to the
surface. Alone, Jhaer balanced each rock, each clump of dirt. For
miles. Sweat ran in rivulets down the strained muscles of his body.
Holding. Binding. Unyielding. And yet fissures snaked through the
cavern under the oppression of tons upon tons of earth overhead.
Fissures Jhaer could not mend. Fissures that sheared as chunks
broke free and rained from the sky. Chunks that slipped through his
shattering strength. Jhaer dropped to his knees, giving all his
power to the failing magic. The edges of the cavern crumbled,
creating a cascade as each lost rock freed those above it.
Rockslides like waterfalls poured down in a roaring that could not
completely annihilate the screams of terror. Down the ceiling fell
in ever greater pieces until the entire cavern plummeted down like
a mountain to entomb everything beneath, burying alive everyone who
had not already escaped. Including Jhaer.
     
    ###
     
    ~We hope you enjoyed the sample chapter of
Aftershock~
    Jump into the first half of Season One with
    Scattered
Magic
     
    P.S. - Don’t get confused! The three
mini-series that comprises Season One of The Sidhe are also
available as individual collections. ( Touched , Rise of the
Unseelie , Champion of
the Sidhe ) These three collections contain the same 15
episodes as Scattered
Magic and Remnants of
Magic . So why do we have the episodes released in two
different ways? Some folks want to read only one or two
mini-series, while some want to have all the episodes in the
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Glossary and Name Pronunciation Guide
     
    Aspect of magic: In addition to the Touch and
the common magics (Glamour and teleportation), each Sidhe possesses
a single aspect of magic, which dictated