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  Stolen Trinkets

  The Chaos Mages Book Ⅰ

  Alex Steele

  Steel Fox Media LLC

  Stolen Trinkets

  All rights reserved.

  No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and coincidental. All inquiries can be sent to [email protected].

  First edition, July 2018

  Version 1.0, July 2018

  ISBN 978-1-7324518-2-7

  Copyright © 2018 Alex Steele

  Cover © Steel Fox Media LLC

  Cover by Deranged Doctor Design

  Character illustrations by Zhivko Zhelev

  The Chaos Mages Series (along with the plot / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2017-18 Alex Steele and Steel Fox Media LLC

  From Alex:

  Be grateful for today and never take anything for granted.

  Waste not, want not.

  Live every day as if it were your last.

  From Stephanie:

  Thank you, Alex, for trusting me to put words to your ideas. This truly feels like our story.

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Blood of the Covenant Chapter One

  Cast

  Glossary of Places & Foreign Words

  Make a Difference

  Acknowledgments

  Author Notes

  Follow me

  About the Author

  Recommended reading by Alex Steele

  One

  It had been a few weeks since someone had tried to kill me. These attempts always ended in failure for the assassins; I just ended up late for work and got chewed out for making a scene. You'd think they'd give up eventually.

  I adjusted my grip on the handrail and glanced over my shoulder at the crowded commuter car. A Japanese man with a goatee was at my five o'clock. He hadn't looked at me directly since we boarded, but he was watching my reflection in the shiny chrome trim on the interior of the passenger car. They had no windows due to something about the sight of inter-dimensional travel burning your eyes from your skull and melting your brain out of your ears if you ever gazed upon it.

  Next to Goatee – the nickname seemed fitting – was a twitchy man wearing a hoodie pulled down far enough that I couldn't see his face. Tattoos extended down onto his fingers and thumbs that spelled out MAGIC BITES. He seemed...well adjusted.

  Straight ahead was a blonde-haired woman dressed casually in jeans, a t-shirt, and a tailored coat that hugged her curves. She kept her body angled away from me, but every couple of minutes she looked past me at the two men.

  A short sword hung at her hip, but that wasn’t unusual. Many supernaturals carried a weapon but we had an old-fashioned idea about honor. No one carried guns; it was all blood and blades with us.

  I glanced at the map that showed our progress. We were less than two minutes away from the stop. The would-be assassins wouldn't attack me before we debarked the Rune Car and left the station itself. No one could pay an assassin enough for them to martyr themselves trying to kill you.

  Moira was heavily policed and protected supernatural city, but the Rune Rail system went above and beyond. It was guarded by Valkyries – how they got the Valkyries remained a mystery. They lurked, sight unseen, until someone threw a punch. Or drew a blade. Or cast any spell meant to harm. A few people managed to survive their retribution for a few seconds, but most vanished into a pink mist faster than you could blink. No one delayed the Rune Rail. Ever.

  Everyone swayed forward as the passenger car came to a gentle stop. A wave of magic passed through the crowd that made my skin crawl. It wasn't exactly painful, but it was uncomfortable, especially since no one knew how it worked.

  I kept my eyes forward as the crowd spilled out onto the platform. In my periphery, I could see the woman following me. The two men were most likely following me as well, but I wasn't going to make it obvious that I had spotted them. Yet. Of course it was possible I was mistaken and they were just stalkers. I got those a lot too and, try as I might, it was pretty much impossible to stop that entirely.

  Two large escalators led up to the main floors of the Rune Rail Station. Everyone who wanted to stand waited in a neat line on the right, leaving room to jog up on the left if you were in a hurry. I thought about making my potential stalkers wait in the line on the right-hand side with me, but I was already cutting it close to get to work on time. If I had to have a conversation with them, I was going to be very late.

  I hurried up the left side of the escalator. The Rune Rail levels of Moira were always packed; it truly was the city that never slept. Since there was no real sky to see, a combination of runes and technology – runetech – were used to illuminate the ceilings. It cycled through simulations of the skies, changing hourly, and was currently showing a cloudy, but sunny, sky from who knew where.

  Moira – the city between worlds – was what started the Magical Revolution, uniting supernaturals and prosaics after centuries of keeping our magic in the shadows. Moira was nowhere, and everywhere, at the same time. You couldn't find it on a map, but the Rune Rail connected it to every major city in the world. No one knew how it was created, or where the mysterious city was, but every supernatural wanted to be there.

  It provided an oasis away from the prosaics – what mages called those without magical talents. Twenty minutes or less and the Rune Rail could take you to any major city in the world you wanted. All you needed was a little magic in your blood. Of course, that meant trouble could follow you just as fast.

  I let the crowd sweep me along until I reached what was colloquially known as the Crossroads. It was the first floor above the Rune Rail and home to some of the busiest shops, leading to a sort of pedestrian traffic jam. I went right and followed one of the smaller roads away from the mess. If this was going to get violent, I needed to be as far away from the crowds as possible.

  As I walked past a storefront lined with glass, I kept an eye on the reflection. Sure enough, they were sti
ll following me. With a sigh, I glanced at my watch again. I was definitely going to be late.

  The roads on each level of Moira were laid out in a precise grid. The farther out you went, the quieter it got. Some of the less glamorous businesses found a home out here. There were also run down apartments that housed the people who worked in Moira but were not wealthy enough to afford condos on the upper levels.

  The crowd thinned to a trickle, then became non-existent. My stalkers were very obvious at this point. Goatee stayed about five meters behind me, and Hoodie paced me on the other side of the street. The woman, however, had disappeared at some point. That meant she was probably the one to worry about.

  The business just ahead had a sign plastered in the window saying it had been repossessed due to non-payment of rent. A few meters beyond the building, the street ended at what was called the Edge. Reaching the borders of Moira was like reaching the edge of the world. It just ended, fading into a hazy darkness. A force field powered by runetech kept anyone from falling off, but being this close always sent a chill up my spine; it was like looking into the Abyss. Businesses stuck near the Edge never did well.

  Whatever happened next was probably going to be messy. This seemed like as good a place as any to minimize potential property damage. I had a bit of an issue with causing that.

  I stopped mid-step and turned to face the two men. "I don't suppose you just came to chat?" I asked, my tone hopeful. I liked to give mercenaries a chance to come to their senses. They never did, but it made me feel chivalrous.

  Goatee frowned at my flippancy and took a step forward, cracking his knuckles. "You have given the boss enough trouble. Today it ends," he said in a deep, gravelly voice.

  He could be talking about so many different people. I could ask which person he meant, but that normally just insulted them and was rather pointless.

  “With just the two of you? Come on, last time they sent four." I grinned and rested my palm on the hilt of the katana hanging on my hip. The magic inside it rose to meet my own and I felt everything click into place. "We can wait for the lady to show up, but if you think that'll make me go easy on you, you're out of luck. I don’t discriminate.”

  "I will enjoy the sound of your pleading right before I take your head," Goatee said. Without further monologuing, he rushed forward.

  I drew my katana, the blade singing as I pulled it out of the sheath. The blade didn't glint in the light; the steel was pure black and seemed to devour the light rather than reflect it.

  Goatee gestured, burning a rune right into the air. He thrust his hand against the blazing symbol, and a dagger of bright green light shot toward me. I cut through it, and the magic crackled around me as the spell broke and dissipated.

  I pushed off the ground with my right foot, but a manhole cover pounded into my right arm and hip, slamming me into a wall five feet away. Several of the bricks crumbled from the impact of my shoulder, while I slumped to the asphalt. My kidney felt like…well, it felt like a fifty-pound manhole lid had just crushed it; and I was fairly certain it broke a rib or two. I would have to deal with the damage later.

  The manhole cover slid away, sparking against the concrete. The woman stalked forward. Her coat was gone, and her long blonde hair waved around her as if she were floating underwater. That gave me an idea.

  I traced a quick rune over the ground with my hand. The magic hovered in place, glowing bright orange. I wrapped my hand around the rune and, with a tight grip on my katana to keep from screwing it up, pumped it full of power. This was going to be fun.

  Two

  The air around my hand vibrated from the energy I was pouring into the rune. Hoodie finally got tired of waiting and darted forward. He flicked his wrist and a smoky blade raced toward me. Time seemed to slow as I took in the three mages converging on me.

  I always wondered what could compel someone to kill for money. Based on the hungry gleam in Goatee’s eye as he sprinted toward me, I guessed money for him. His feet pounded against the pavement as he gestured in the air, summoning his magic.

  The woman stayed back, her fingers dancing through the air. I heard the clang of something metal but didn’t see the manhole cover until it was flying past Goatee, headed straight for my face. Jerking back, I released the rune.

  For six meters all around us in a perfect sphere, gravity just stopped working.

  I was expecting it, but it was still hard to keep from flipping upside down when I pushed off the ground to dodge the projectile. My back scraped against the rough brick of the building behind me, but I had to stay close to it or I’d risk floating off.

  Goatee was moving forward with too much momentum to stop himself. The manhole cover had continued on its original trajectory, and, to my intense satisfaction, the two collided. It hit him square in the face, knocking a tooth out of his jaw. Blood bubbled out of his mouth, floating around in a wobbly sphere. I couldn't have timed that better if I'd tried.

  As the manhole hit Goatee, Blondie was launched in the opposite direction from the force of the impact. Her back smacked against the glass window of the shop across the street, shattering it. She disappeared into the building with a shocked expression. I guess no gravity made her magic a bit weird to use.

  Hoodie was floating upside down. His green eyes flashed and were the only things I could see in the shadows of his hood. I knew that look; he was the sort of guy who killed people, not for the money, but for the hell of it.

  "You've got less than six seconds to surrender and walk away from all this," I shouted the offer down at them. I was still rising, and would until I bounced off something. Or until gravity came back, which it would be doing any second now.

  Goatee spat another glob of blood from his mouth and raised his hand toward me. "You're gonna burn for this!" he shouted, baring his red-streaked teeth at me. At least, what was left of them.

  Seven...Eight...

  Purple flames erupted from his palm and twisted straight at me through the air. I kicked off the building behind me and flew over the magic.

  Nine...Ten.

  Gravity came back with a vengeance as I passed over Goatee. I held the katana with one hand and drove it down, straight into his leg. We hit the ground, and the blade stabbed through his thigh into the concrete.

  He screamed in pain, his voice strangled from the crushing weight of doubled gravity. That was the fun part about this rune. Until I canceled it, gravity would end for ten seconds, then come back doubled. It was twice as strong this time, but with the next cycle, it would be three times as strong. I had never let it go past three cycles, and that was pushing it. Even as a mage, my body didn’t do well in those conditions.

  I kept up the mental count. The main advantage this spell gave me was knowing when it would shift again. I didn't want to be surprised along with them.

  The sudden increase in gravity made my cracked ribs ache something fierce. I gritted my teeth and ripped the katana from his leg. He rolled to his side and clutched the injured limb.

  Hoodie had landed on his head but was slowly pushing himself back onto his feet, leaving a smudge of blood on the asphalt. The tinkle of glass drew my attention.

  Three...Four...

  To my right, the shattered glass that was scattered on the street lifted like a glittering curtain. The blonde-haired woman stepped out of the empty window, a murderous expression on her face. Well...that wasn't good.

  With an angry shriek, she sent the glass flying right at me. Maybe her motivation was actually just pent up rage. I lifted my katana and braced my hand against the back of the blade. I had to be careful, even while using my focus, not to overdo this.

  Five...Six...

  The glass streaked toward me, tinkling as it bounced together. I leaped toward it, and a wave of dark green magic poured out of my sword. It collided with the glass shards and consumed them. Dust rained onto the concrete below.

  Seven...Eight...

  I charged toward Hoodie and ducked as he slung another summoned b
lade at me. I kicked him in the gut, then swept his legs. He hit the ground with a thud, and I stomped on his head, cracking it against the curb. He probably wasn't dead, but...eh...

  Nine...Ten.

  Gravity vanished. I kicked up, then launched myself off the building again. Blondie was a little more prepared this time, but launching the manhole cover at me again still pushed her back, slamming her against the concrete. Her skull bounced off the ground, but the impact didn't knock her out.

  I grabbed the ledge of the broken window and forced myself to the ground near her feet. She kicked out, aiming for my knee. I jerked my leg out of reach of the strike and launched myself to her left, bringing my sword down in an arc. I stopped it less than an inch from her neck.

  She froze. My toes lifted slightly off the ground, but I was slowly drifting upward. I pressed the cold metal edge of the katana to her throat, just to make sure I had her full attention.

  "If you get offered this job again, remember that it's not worth the money."

  “Go to hell –”

  I flipped the blade over and brought the dull side down on her temple. That shut her up real fast.