The Goddess and The Guardians Boxset: The Complete Romantic Fantasy Quartet Read online

  The Goddess and Guardians Series

  Karen Tomlinson

  Copyright © Karen Tomlinson 2019

  It is the right of Karen Tomlinson to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, mechanical or otherwise) without prior written permission of the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

  Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Join Karen here http://karentomlinson.com/newsletter-landing-page/

  Map by Gregory Shipp https://www.facebook.com/gregoryshippmapmaking

  Map illustration by Kevin Heasman at https://www.facebook.com/dynamodoodles

  Cover art by http://www.derangeddoctordesign.com/

  Edited by Monica Wanat

  Contents

  1. Title Page

  Map of the Eight Kingdoms

  A Bond of Venom and Magic

  Title Page

  I. The Forest

  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

  II. The Island City

  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

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  A Bond of Blood and Fire

  Title Page

  Part I

  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

  Part II

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  A Bond of Sovereigns and Souls

  Title Page

  Prologue

  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

  To be continued…

  A Bond of Swords and Sacrifice

  Title Page

  Prologue

  I. Unity

  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

  II. War

  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

  Epilogue

  Blessed King

  Chapter 1

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Karen Tomlinson

  About the Author

  A Bond of Venom and Magic

  For Annie and Abbie, our beautiful girls.

  May you blaze your own trail across this world!

  This book is for you with all my love.

  Part I

  The Forest

  Chapter 1

  Silence swept through the forest, deafening to Arades Gillon’s fae ears. In the act of shoving a freshly felled tree further onto the ancient cart, he froze, his gut twisting with fear. The fresh scent of pine sap tickled his nose as he ignored the woodcutters bantering across the small clearing.

  He pushed his bulk upright. Sweat beaded between his shoulder blades and trickled down his spine. Arades sucked in a deep breath, desperately reaching for the cold, calculating calm that ha
d kept him alive for so many years.

  It wasn’t there. His heart raced, pounding against his ribs; for the first time in his life, Arades readied himself to flee from his enemy. His breath became shallow and fast, his keen eyes searching out the nightmarish shadow that lurked in the gloom of the old forest. It wouldn’t be alone.

  A guttural growl rippled through the trees, sinking deep into his bones. A violent shudder racked his body. For seventeen years that sound had been blissfully absent from his life; there was no mistaking it. The creature fixed its yellow, predatory gaze on one of the other woodcutters.

  Arades had to run. Now.

  Spinning on his heel, he burst into motion.

  The Seeker snarled. Drool ran from its gaping jaws as it leaped from the dark shadows.

  Yelling a warning to his friends would achieve nothing. They were as good as dead. Wild snarling filled the air as more Seekers burst from the forest. Petrified screams were cut short as human throats were slashed open by razor sharp claws.

  Arades did not look back. Experience told him what he would see, and he did not wish to see his friends die such violent deaths. Terror squeezed his heart as yet more screams were abruptly silenced.

  He would not—could not—fail. Panicked, Arades increased his effort and sprinted toward the town, its people and his beloved daughter.

  The Seekers tore at the warm flesh and blood of the dead men, splintering and gnawing on their bones. Cranach gorged himself quickly and efficiently. He growled long and low; that small amount of warm human flesh did not sate his blood lust. If anything, he craved more. His pack had travelled for weeks without stopping to hunt, bypassing settlements where fresh fae and human flesh lived. On and on they had run, focused only on surviving and reaching their prey.

  Relenting for one moment Cranach watched his brothers feast with an almost paternal relish, giving his starving pack time to drink the blood that would make them strong again. Minutes later, when only blood and ragged remains soiled the ground, Cranach snarled. The pack reacted instantly.

  Their prey was so close; he could almost taste her filthy, mixed blood. She would not escape now. Besides failure would mean having his body broken slowly and painfully into pieces by his lord. His clawed fingers curled tightly around a small scrap of cloth. Snarling in distaste, he raised it to his nostrils, inhaling the sickly sweet scent that clung to it. This girl was more than the usual mix of human and fae, she was something he had never encountered before. The ancient power in her stench burned his sensitive nose, causing him to snort mucus into the air in an effort to expel it.

  Revolted, he bared his teeth, stretched his body to its full height and howled. The pack instantly followed Cranach’s order. The muscles of their back legs bunched and rippled under their thick, greenish-brown hair as they burst into movement. Sweat glistened across their filthy, humanoid torsos, and their gore-covered jaws snapped menacingly at each other.

  With shoulders hunched and heads thrust forward, the Seekers ducked between the branches of the dense trees.

  Cranach growled, snapping a tree branch out of his way with one gigantic claw. Running upright was impossible in this forest. He howled once. His brothers immediately complied with his order. Without breaking stride, the Seekers fell on to all four limbs and increased their speed. Their black claws churned up the forest floor as they charged towards their prey and the unsuspecting trade town nearby.

  Arades pumped his arms and legs until they burned, crashing through the forest, forgoing stealth. Wind rushed by his ears as he forced himself to go faster. Vaulting a rotten, moss covered tree trunk, his hands slipped and he stumbled over exposed slimy tree roots as he landed. Years of training and instinct kicked in and he righted himself immediately.

  The forest was so thick around the northern trade town of Berriesford that taking to the sky was impossible. Arades needed at least ten feet of clear space around him to spread his wings and fly. His lungs burned, sweat running down his forehead into his eyes. Feral snarling and crashing permeated the dark damp shadows behind him as the beasts gave chase, but he dare not look back lest he stumble and fall.

  Brambles clutched at his boots, branches catching his clothes and legs—but he pushed on resolutely, his long legs devouring the uneven ground.

  He broke from the forest into the arable land surrounding the town. Arades roared as he launched himself upwards into the sky. He snapped out his wings and beat against the air, faster and with more vigour than he had used for years. Thousands of tiny feathers covered the strong membranes, catching the invisible strength of the breeze.

  Gods, he had been so stupid! As a warrior he should have flown more, armoured more… “Complacent idiot!” he berated himself.

  His wings were weak from underuse. Arades clenched his jaw, forcing the armoured particles out from between his feathers, shifting them with his fae magic until they completely covered the whole of his wing span. Within seconds a burnished, golden metal coated his wings, tattooed with his own unique pattern of glowing markings.

  The stone town of Berriesford nestled in gently rolling farmland two miles in the distance. Even from here he could see the busy trade roads leading into the town. Arades swallowed his fear for all those people, feeling the malevolent presence of the Seekers behind him. With all his strength, he drove himself onward using the wind to help him soar towards his daughter.

  Curious faces looked up. Berriesford folk were unaccustomed to seeing armoured fae warriors in their skies. Trouble was scarce in these parts since the treaty with the Ice Witches nearly one hundred years earlier.

  Arades ignored their surprised exclamations and gazed anxiously toward the roof of his own small house. Landing solidly on the dirt track outside his home, Arades sprinted to his front door. He nearly knocked the door off its hinges. The shelves he had put up the month before rattled enough to knock down the small statue of Lunaria, the goddess of creation. It smashed into pieces on the floor. Arades grimaced, hoping that was not a bad omen.

  “Diamond! Diamond! Where are you!” he bellowed.

  He belatedly remembered she was working in the school house. He had promised Tanelle, Diamond’s mother, he would educate their daughter and that is what he had done. Now she was on the other side of town, the side nearest to the beasts that hunted her. Growling with frustration at his stupid mistake, he grabbed his two Silverbore swords from beside the fireplace, turned and ran back outside.

  The stooped form of General Edo came limping around the corner of the house. To the people of Berriesford this man had only ever been seen as a scruffy forest dweller—a loner, who lived in a small hut in the forest and spent his time gathering and selling the sweet yellow berries that grew among its vast emerald depths.

  “Arades! What’s going on?” General Edo shouted, narrowing his steely grey eyes and scrutinising Arades’ armoured wings and urgent movements.

  “They’re here! They’re here for her. We have to get her away from this town. Now!” shouted Arades, his brown eyes full of anxiety.

  His friend nodded and immediately shook off his tattered cloak. General Edo straightened his shoulders and spine to expand his wings, transforming into a fae as tall and broad as Arades. Metal shimmered across the general’s wings. Grim-faced and determined, both fae warriors bent their knees, spread their golden wings and launched in to the sky.