Stolen Chaos: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Cardkeeper Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  Stolen Chaos

  The Cardkeeper Chronicles #1

  A. C. Nicholls

  Contents

  Stolen Chaos

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Subscribe

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  Copyright © 2017 by A.C. Nicholls

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

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  Stolen Chaos

  The Cardkeeper Chronicles

  A. C. NICHOLLS

  Chapter 1

  A semi-demolished brick wall spewed out a cloud of dust, filling my lungs and pulling a deep, harsh cough from my chest. Being a Cardkeeper had a ton of benefits, including tougher skin and bones. Even so, I hoped I would never get thrown around like that again.

  Ever.

  You see, there are two things to know about being knocked through a wall; the first is that it takes an enormous amount of strength – physical, telekinetic or otherwise. Even for a woman of my size, which was mostly considered normal. The second thing – and by far the most important – is that it hurts like a son of a bitch.

  Before I could find my feet, my only true friend in the world appeared. Link was all of five inches tall, with thinning brown hair and a strong jaw. His piercing blue eyes begged a swift exit, but he was stuck here with me.

  “Aren’t you going to fight back?” he asked in his sturdy British accent.

  “Leave me alone. I’m trying to think.”

  Inside the abandoned warehouse, Krav Vasiliev, the asshole trying to obliterate me, used his telekinesis to forge a whirlwind of debris. As skinny teenage mages went, he wasn’t the most powerful, but telekinesis was one of those abilities that was tough to fight. Give me fireballs any day of the week – I could deflect those easily enough – but a swirling circle of bricks and iron bars? No thanks.

  “Well,” Link said, smacking his lips together, “you can’t bloody well fight him from the ground, can you? Get up, Keira, and show him who’s boss.”

  Aches and pains searing through my body, I pushed myself to my feet, dusted off my knees and tore off my jacket. Now I felt more vulnerable, but more flexible to go with the flow. In the distance, sirens wailed as they gained distance, rushing toward the mayhem that I was right in the middle of. “If you’re not going to help me fight, then at least keep civilians away from the building.”

  “And how do you suppose I do that?”

  Devastation ensued behind me. There was no time for this. “Use your head.”

  Link hesitated, and then sprinted off into the distance at an impressive pace. One day, when he earned his faery wings, he would be able to fly. But to do that, he would have to make what the fae lords considered ‘an act of heroism’, and Link simply wasn’t that kind of guy.

  I turned back to my enemy and ran inside the warehouse. I stopped short, fingering the magicard inside my pocket. I’d use it if I had to. And it was a good one – teleportation. Using this ability was convenient for getting around, but not all that great in a combat scenario. Besides, it hurt like hell to use, and the more I used it, the more it would cost me in the long run.

  “Come,” Krav yelled over the chaos of the debris-filled tornado. His black duster billowed out behind him like a cape, as he hovered above the ground. “Show me the true power of a Cardkeeper.”

  If I could, I’d have shown him the true power of my foot on his balls. But now wasn’t a time for personal aggression. I had to shut him down before anyone got hurt – and anyone included me.

  I surveyed my surroundings, tried to find a way through without getting battered around even more. I could teleport over, but I didn’t want to overuse my own magic. If I could get in close and grab him, I could teleport him way up into the sky and drop him. That, at least, would be magic well used.

  I took a deep breath, raised my arms to protect my face, and stepped into the huge circle of gusting wind. Bricks flew around me. One caught my arm. It didn’t seem to cut me but it hurt like hell. I inched closer, feeling a shard of glass pierce my ankle, but even that couldn’t slow me down. This was no time to stop and treat an injury.

  “You’re very persistent,” Krav said. At least, it sounded like that. It was difficult to tell over the roar of his psychotic concoction. Through the storm, I could just about see the black hair draping over his young face. It was like being screamed at by an emo boy band.

  Using what little energy still lingered inside me, I pushed forward and got a grip on his coat. I looked up, feeling relatively satisfied by the look of horror on his face. Clenching the material as hard as I could, I closed my eyes tight and could feel the power of my magicard begin to burn.

  “Clench up,” I said.

  It happened within a second. Both our bodies fell through time and space as we disappeared from the warehouse. I almost expected to hear the bricks clatter to the floor, but we were already gone. Although I knew it had an immediate effect, it felt like strained moments before we re-emerged high above Chicago’s industrial district. It felt like slipping through a torn piece of air, and it made my stomach turn every time.

  Krav didn’t look too pleased, however, and I didn’t blame him. The cold autumn air roared at our faces as we plummeted from five-thousand feet above street level. I could see the traffic below me, and the ever-growing crowd that the police kept back. I assumed Link had called them.

  Good job, Link.

  But my victory evaporated as fast as it had begun.

  Krav grinned. Until then, I’d thought I had him, but when he used his own abilities to summon a slab of concrete to the air, he dropped onto it and surfed it safely to the roof of a parking garage. Telekinesis had never looked more awesome to me than it did at that precise moment.

  I couldn’t wait to take it from him.

  Preparing my stomach for another trip, I willed myself to teleport onto the roof. Once more, I slipped through space and appeared only a few feet away from my enemy. I regained my balance on solid ground, and briefly wondered how messy my hair must look after being so high up.

  When Krav saw me appear, his eyes glowed with fiery rage as he squeezed his hands into fists so hard that they began to shake. “Goddamn it!”

  I saw it too late – a goddamn Volvo catapulting through the air as easily as a spitwad. As it smashed into my body, carrying me across the lot in the folded sheet of metal
that used to be a door, I could tell you that it sure as hell didn’t feel like paper.

  Krav belly laughed, a childish giggle that only wound me up more.

  Bleeding now, I peeled myself out of the wreck and used it for cover. I then pulled the magicard from my pocket and stared at it, studying the faded picture of the mage’s trapped soul on the front. It was the size of a playing card, but far less flimsy. It wouldn’t break, no matter what you did to it. It was one of those things that made it a lot easier to carry around.

  “Come out and fight me, little girl,” Krav beckoned.

  That did it. Dipshit. Even though I was fifty-eight years old, I hadn’t aged in the last thirty. I wasn’t going to be called a ‘little girl’ by someone less than half my age. I kissed the card for luck, a part of me hoping that the mage inside would grant me stronger power. It was a stupid idea, but no more desperate than kissing a pair of dice to help you roll a double.

  Fury rattled through me now, and I stepped out from behind the car. I had a new idea, but it involved using more of my magic… a lot more. “You crossed the line,” I spat at Krav, enjoying how the fear crept back into his eyes. “And now you’re going to get your ass kicked by a girl.”

  As a reflex, Krav moved his fingers to raise another car off the ground.

  By then, I’d teleported beside him, and I delivered my best right hook to his jaw. It connected well and seemed to stun him, but he didn’t topple over as expected. I teleported again, reappearing behind him, where I grabbed him and tried to wrestle him down.

  But he was too strong.

  Not only was it tough to hold on, but when a lethal pile of rocks zipped toward me, I had to get out of there. Using my power again, I carried myself through space, arriving safely on the other end of the roof.

  “Pathetic,” Krav said, his young mouth curving into a grin.

  I wasn’t going to let that distract me. All of this moving around made me feel sick, and the use of magic gave me a severe headache. I felt a cool trickle below my nose, and raised my arm to touch it. When my arm came back down, fresh blood painted my skin.

  Shit.

  I had to limit my magic. I’d overdone it before, and it had led me to pass out. If I fell unconscious in front of Krav, who knew what he would do to me? Scratch that. Hell yeah, I knew. Dead. Six cold, dirty feet under.

  But then an idea suddenly hit me.

  I looked up toward the sky, wondering just how fast I’d been travelling when we’d teleported. One hundred meters per second? Maybe two hundred? Whatever the speed, it must have been real damn fast.

  “What happened to the fight that you promised me?” Krav bellowed a false laugh, but it got to me, flowing through my ears to wriggle underneath my skin where it took root just the same as a real one would have.

  “It’s coming,” I sneered. “Just give me a second.”

  Trembling with both fear and fatigue, I took a deep breath and teleported up to the clouds. The paper-thin air made it tough to breathe, but it didn’t affect me as much as it would a mortal. I began to plummet toward the ground, picking up speed as I tore through the sky. I gained momentum so rapidly that I saw the road emerging at a shocking speed. When I thought I was going fast enough, mere feet away from the concrete, I made my last teleportation of the day.

  I appeared back on the roof, my knee raised as I drove it into Krav’s back. All of the speed from the fall had been stored up within me and I heard the solid crack of his back as I let it out in one bold attack.

  We both went sprawling out across the lot. I had been prepared, so I managed to roll into an upright position. Krav, on the other hand, finally got a taste of how it felt to be launched into the solid metal of a car. As his back struck the front panel, his body contorted and his head hit the ground. After that, blissful silence.

  I took a moment to collect myself, heaving in deep breaths and enjoying the cool air on my face. When I felt ready, I stalked toward his limp body and looked down at the bruised mess that used to be Krav’s face. He would be okay – he was immortal too – but he wouldn’t be using magic again anytime soon.

  As I glanced down at his hand, I saw his magicard tucked beneath his fingers. I wondered just how good it would feel to use it. If I could only have it for a little while, I’d wield the power that Krav had used against me…

  No.

  These things weren’t toys. That was the kind of mentality that turned a good mage bad. Perhaps that was why I’d been chosen as Chicago’s Cardkeeper instead of Krav. Instead of any mage, for that matter.

  Still, my job was my job. I peeled the card from his hand and stowed it away. I then pulled an empty magicard from my pocket and held it above him. I knew this part would make me feel bad – it always did – but at least I could look forward to going home afterward.

  I watched the card suck Krav’s soul from his body. Whispers sounded around me and my hair began to prickle, as if static energy lifted it. Glowing lights appeared around the body, turning it transparent and raising it. Krav’s eyes shot open and he gasped in pain, his soul being compressed and transported.

  Then, the magicard began to glow. It shook as the mage’s soul fused with it. I began to feel weak, lifeless. Like every ounce of strength in my badly beaten body was leaving me. It was a surreal sensation – something otherworldly.

  Finally, the card dropped to the ground. The lights dissipated and my hair returned to normal. Krav’s body was gone, but the image of him – flowing black duster and all – suddenly appeared on the face of the magicard.

  “About time,” I said to myself as I stooped to pick it up.

  I’d never known exhaustion like it. Well, save for the other fifty or so times I’d done this. But why was it that each time seemed to take a larger toll? Why did every mage I stopped seem to feel more powerful than the last? I was getting old, I supposed. Even though my body hadn’t aged a day in almost thirty years, my mind certainly had.

  On the bright side, I’d accomplished my mission. Krav had been put to rest and, outside of me, nobody had gotten hurt in the process. All I had to do now was find Link, and return the cards to the Vault.

  I should have known right then that it wouldn’t be that easy.

  Chapter 2

  With long, dark hair and nondescript facial features, I’m not a traditionally pretty woman. At least that’s what everyone says. Perhaps that’s why I was laced with irritation when I walked into Jasper’s VHS store; I didn’t appreciate being gawked at like I was half-naked and ready for cheap thrills.

  “My eyes are up here,” I barked at Jasper Jones.

  A short, overly hairy man of a similar age to me, his sunken eyes suggested psychosis, but deep down, his heart was in the right place. At least once you curbed his hormone-led perversities.

  “Sorry.”

  I walked further into the store, trying not to breathe too deeply. The place smelled of something old and familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Whatever it was, it did its job – the combination of a dying technology and the foul odors kept the VHS store empty. Not that it mattered. The store was nothing but a front.

  “Did you get Krav?” Jasper asked, staying in his chair.

  I was vaguely aware of Link climbing up my leg, and then sitting on my shoulder in silence. “After something of a battle, yes. I’m surprised at the strength of his powers, to be honest. I was expecting an easy day, but what I got was… this…” I pointed at the scrapes and bruises on my face.

  Jasper smiled, slanted yellow teeth peeking out for one shy appearance before disappearing again behind his bearded mouth. Dust motes danced between us as he studied my battle scars. “All right. Get a cloak on and I’ll send you through.”

  “Thanks.”

  I weaved my way through to the back of the store, behind the suspicious-looking red curtain that led to the adult section in most places like this. But here, the velvet barricade hid nothing but an empty room, save for the clothes rack hosting dark, silky robes. As
per the rules when visiting the Vault, I slid one over my clothes and nodded at Jasper.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Absolutely.”

  Jasper waved his hands, throwing every ounce of energy into constructing a portal. A ring of fire blazed before me, and a flashing blend of colors twisted within it. As a cold wind crept through and caressed my face, the image of a mountain revealed itself inside the portal.

  “Take your time,” Jasper groaned, sarcasm tainting his voice. His arms were stretched out as he held the portal in place. Opening gates to others realms was one of his finer skills. Having not quite made it as a Cardkeeper, he’d been aptly appointed as the Guardian of the Portal.

  Plucking Link from my shoulder and holding him safely in my cupped hands, I stepped through the portal and winced as the harsh, wintery winds blasted through me. The gateway to Chicago closed behind me, and I stopped to take a quick look around.

  Mountain upon mountain surrounded us. Dark skies lingered above us, cracking thunder and threatening rain. I believed the location was somewhere in the Andes, but it was invisible to mortal men. The rocky land, as well as the dark, ominous tower that loomed in front of us, lay in a place between worlds, where only mages, Cardkeepers and Guardians could visit.

  “Come on, Keira,” Link groaned within my numb hands. Dark bags hung under his eyes as he frowned. “I’m freezing my balls off, here.”

  Underneath his usual snark, my tiny friend had a point. Careful not to tread on my robe, I ran toward the tower, the magicards tucked safely in my pocket. It would be a shame to lose them now, after everything I’d done to retrieve them.

  The heavy wooden door creaked as I pushed it open. As soon as I stepped inside, a torrential downpour unleashed below me. I took a moment, grateful that I’d avoided an icy drenching, then closed the door and hurried deeper into the dungeon-like tower.

  This tower – known as the Vault – kept magicards safe from the hands of mortal men. Only, mortals weren’t the real problem. Mages were the biggest aggressors, and worse yet, their blood allowed them to slip through portals, granting them access to the Vault. That was where I came in – protector, guardian, and keeper of the cards.