Magick Marked (The DarqRealm Series) Read Online Free PDF

manners. She was in enough deep shit already.
    Costel’s expression darkened, but Danielle patted his arm and he eased back into his chair. Remarkable how the mate bond could work so seamlessly.
    The queen smiled down at her mate. “It’s all right, my love. She may ask questions. We must be sure she understands her task.”
    Oh, crap. Not again . The last time they’d assigned her a task, she’d been named executioner. What could be next?
    Costel sighed and nodded. “Yes, more than ours exists. In the old times, the people of the DarqRealm—DarqDwellers—traveled between the human world and Etherealis.”
    Rho frowned. “Etherealis?”
    “The other dimension.”
    “There’s another dimension? ” Rho wasn’t able to hold back the surprise in her voice. A quick glance at Frederick told her this wasn’t news to him.
    The king held up a hand and leaned forward in his seat. “The ley lines are the gateways between our world and that place.”
    “Why can’t we go there now?” Rho asked.
    “In a word, Mohan.” He clasped his hands together and placed them on the desk. “The belief has long been that Etherealis is the home of magick, the place from which all magick stems. Millennia ago, the DarqDwellers traveled freely between this dimension and Etherealis.”
    “What is Mohan?” Rho asked.
    “Mohan is a person. More specifically, a very powerful magick mover. He believed that exposure to the human world would dilute our magick over time, until there was none left and all the races would suffer.”
    Rho tilted her head. “Can that happen?”
    Costel shrugged. “The Council didn’t think so. There was no evidence to support his claims.”
    “Was there a trial?”
    “There was a hearing to determine if his claims held any validity. When we found none, his case was dismissed.”
    Rho raised a brow. “I’m guessing it didn’t end there.”
    “Not hardly.” Costel leaned back, his chair squeaking in protest beneath him. “Mohan formed a following large enough to accomplish the unthinkable.”
    Danielle nodded. “He tried to steal all the magick on earth. He assumed if he could control it, he could preserve it.”
    “And he didn’t just try,” Frederick interjected. He’d been so quiet up to that point, Rho had forgotten he was sitting right next to her. She wanted to yell at her boss for not telling her all of this when he’d given her that Kamen to protect. It would’ve been nice to know.
    “Unfortunately, that’s true,” Costel agreed. “He didn’t only try. He succeeded.”
    Rho bit her lip again to hold back the dozens of questions swelling in her throat. How could someone actually steal magick? She didn’t know much about the subject, but stealing it couldn’t be an easy task.
    Danielle began to pace the floor. “Mohan had strange powers, much different than any magick movers or fae we had seen before. He could pull magick into himself with his mind. When he cast a spell to strip the magick from this world, it was too much to hold and he had to displace it somewhere. He captured it in a gold locket.”
    “What he failed to consider,” Costel said, “is that when he stole the magick from the earth, he would harm the entire DarqRealm.”
    “Harm us how?” Rho asked.
    Frederick reached across to give Rho a light pat on the arm. “Our world is linked intimately with magick. Our mate bonds, the wolf and shifter abilities to take alternate forms, the fae and the magick mover’s ability to cast spells and manipulate energy. It’s all tied to magick.”
    “When he took the magick, the vampires lost their ability to turn blood into sustenance. We could drink, but we found no nourishment. Even from our mates,” Danielle said.
    Rho touched her throat, trying not to remember her first days as a vampire, before she’d gotten her fangs under control. Unquenchable, burning thirst with seemingly no end. The vampires must have been in complete agony. Thousands of furious, thirsting