Alchemy: an Adult Dystopian Paranormal Romance: Sector 9 (The Othala Witch Collection) Read online

  Alchemy

  Othala Witch Collection Sector 9

  Noree Cosper

  Contents

  The Othala Witch Collection

  Untitled

  Sector 9

  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

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Alchemy © 2016 Noree Cosper

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Created with Vellum

  The Othala Witch Collection

  Sixteen Sectors. Which will stand? Which will fall?

  Many years ago, the Original Sixteen witches were able to contain an outbreak of demon-like creatures from overtaking the earth. But doing so came at a cost. For the human race to survive, the world had to be divided into sixteen sectors, trapping the ravagers to the Outlands beyond, and trapping the humans in.

  The Original Sixteen served as Regents over each of these sectors, and when they died, the strongest of witches took their place, using their own personal enchantment abilities to protect their sector. In the process, communication was lost. The only solace that remains is the knowledge that if another sector fails, their own may still survive.

  But what happens when your sector is the one to fail? What happens when the world inside your walls is just as bad as the one outside them? In this collection of sixteen dystopian paranormal romance tales, each and every one of the sixteen sectors is about to find out.

  View the Entire Collection at FallenSorcery.com

  Sector 9

  Zoe Delarey has been hiding her entire life.

  She's not a normal girl, even by witch standards. Created by her father with forbidden experimental magic, Zoe is an alchemical child.

  When the Regent suspects her father has broken sector laws, he hides her away in a secret stasis chamber protected by powerful magic.

  But it isn't her father who wakes her. Instead, Bastian, a handsome stranger after her father’s secrets, releases her from the chamber. With her father arrested, Zoe finds herself on the run from the Witches Council. She has no choice but to accept Bastian's help, even though she doesn't trust him. He might be rescuing her; he might be using her... Zoe is not sure.

  Thrust into the real world for the first time in her life, she needs to learn to control her magic and, at the same time, get a handle on her feelings for Bastian. Neither of which is going to be easy. Especially when Zoe turns out to be the key to saving the sector from the savage beasts that prey on the lives of the people.

  Will she fulfill the secret destiny that runs through her blood?

  Alchemy is the thrilling 9th part of the Othala Witch Collection. This is a paranormal romance that you won't be able to put down.

  Chapter 1

  My plans for losing myself in one of my books before bed died when my father burst into my bedroom. The automaton maid, or Margo as I liked to call her, brushing my hair paused mid-stroke. She gave a slight curtsey, her plastic eyelids closing over her glass eyes. My father strode across the room to the television, which played at a low volume. The onscreen image of a man embracing a woman as he leaned close to kiss her disappeared as Father pressed the power button.

  “Zoe, gather what things you need. You’ll be sleeping in the Chamber,” he said.

  I stiffened, a sinking feeling resting in the pit of my stomach. I tried to keep my voice even. “But why? I’m not ill or injured.”

  The corners of his eyes crinkled and lines formed around his mouth as he frowned at me. “Is there anything you’d like to tell me?”

  I gulped, my mind going back to Carnival, the spring festival, I had visited in town a week ago. It hadn’t been my first visit. I’d occasionally been able to slip away and walk to the closest town of Bela Vista to take in the sights and experience what other people were like. My favorite part had been visiting the bookstore with its shelves of secondhand books. I’d even managed to buy one or two and hide them away in my secret spot in the garden. Had he found out?

  “No,” I said in a small squeaky voice.

  “I’m not sure how they found out,” he mumbled under his breath as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll explain as we walk, but I need you to follow my instructions and get your things together.”

  Margo turned her doll face to me, and her singsong voice came from her open plastic mouth, “Do you need me for anything, Mistress?”

  “Begin the Wipe Clean Function,” Father said before I could reply. “Bring the other automatons in on this. No word of Zoe shall pass through your lips until I say otherwise.”

  “Understood. I shall retrieve the trunks and begin the Wipe Clean Function,” she said.

  She curtseyed again then ambled out of my bedroom. Father took my hand and pulled me to a standing position.

  “Is there anything you want to bring with you?”

  I gazed at my book, lying on my bed beside my pillow. It would do me no good since I would be in a magically induced sleep in the Chamber. I glanced at the nightgown I wore. The alchemical formula my father used would ruin it, but he’d buy me another when I awoke. I gave a loud sigh. I disliked the Chamber. When I slept there, I never dreamed. All I remembered was the darkest black I’d ever known. It reminded me too much of when I first gained consciousness there. But, Father must have been desperate to send me to the Chamber again.

  I looked back at him. “No, I don’t need anything.”

  “Come then, I haven’t much time to make arrangements,” he said.

  I followed Father’s urgings out into the hall and down the sweeping staircase that led to the foyer. Faded colored photographs of his ancestors hung on the wall, all great witches according to the stories he would tell me. He didn’t even glance at them as he led me down the hall.

  My pulse quickened, and I licked my dry lips. I hadn’t been sent to hibernate in my capsule in the Chamber since I’d snuck
into one of the dinner parties he’d been forced to have two years ago. His guests had started asking questions about the mysterious girl and Father had thought it best to hide me away.

  “What is this about?” I asked. “What is wrong?”

  He stopped in his study in front of the ceiling-to-floor bookshelves lining the wall to a large desk. I inhaled the scent of sage, cinnamon, and oak that permeated the room, allowing it to calm me. His hand hovered on a thick green book. He looked back at me with his jaw tight.

  “Regent Acosta is arriving tomorrow morning along with her retinue from the Council,” he said.

  My breath caught in my throat. My father’s stories of the Regent had sent chills through my body. They didn’t leave me clutching my pillow at night like the one about the ravagers that her power protected Sector Nine from, but they always filled me with a queasiness. I knew if she ever found me, I would become a specimen at best, or an abomination to destroy at worst.

  “But that’s such short notice,” I said in a rush.

  “Indeed. She must suspect something and is trying to catch me,” he said. “Now, come. I have very little time.”

  He pulled the book three-fourths of the way out at a tilt and the bookshelf began to slide open with the sound of wood scraping against wood, revealing a dark stairwell. Father flipped a switch on the wall inside and a soft yellow light bathed the stairs. We tromped down the wooden steps and into the Chamber. A metallic scent drifted from my capsule, a rectangular box with runic inscriptions along the rounded edges that was long enough for me to comfortably lay in.

  My father took out several colored glass jars from the satchel on his hip and set them on the table. “Go ahead and lie down. I’ll prepare the formula.”

  A clear liquid, slightly thicker than water, in the box slushed around as I lay inside, crossing my arms on my chest. My eyes began to grow heavy as the warm fluid settled over me. Father knelt beside me and balanced a vial filled with steaming aquamarine liquid on the lip of my capsule. From his pocket he pulled out an amulet of an onyx cat head dangling on a silver chain. Its moonstone eyes shimmered in the light. I lifted my head for him to clasp the chain around my neck.

  His fingers brushed against the pendant. “Ai-Apaec shall watch over you.”

  “For secrets to keep and mysteries to discover.” The pendant and the ritualistic words we spoke every night before I slept settled some of the shaking of my insides. Still, a weight settled in my chest as I stared at the tight lines around my father’s eyes. “Why does it have to be this way?”

  He brushed the back of his hand across my cheek. “Things were different with the old Regent. But she died over a decade ago and Dominique rules with an iron grasp. She would not abide your continued existence.”

  “But why?” I swallowed the rising tears. “I’ve never done anything to her. Why do I have to be a secret?”

  “That is a long story I’ll have to tell another time.” He patted my cheek and rose with the vial in his hand. “This will only be for a few days. I will wake you once she leaves.”

  I closed my eyes as he tipped the vial and began chanting in his soft cadence. The liquid around me swirled and rose, covering my face and filling my lungs. Instead of struggling for air, my body grew lighter. I tried to take one last glimpse of my father, but my eyes refused to stay open. His voice drifted farther and farther away as the dream world pulled me in.

  Chapter 2

  I woke to find a man who wasn’t my father standing over me. He leaned closer to my open capsule, his brow furrowed over eyes blue like a morning sky.

  Wait, this wasn’t right. Had the Regent sent her men for me?

  I shrieked and aimed a kick for his chest. He grabbed my ankle, shifting me onto my side.

  “Whoa,” he said. “Calm down. I’m not here to hurt you.”

  I yanked my foot from his grasp then sat up. Water splashed over the side, onto the floor. “Who are you and what have you done with my father?”

  “You can call me Bastian. I’m not sure who your father is, but I can take a few guesses.” His hooded gaze traveled over my face, and then down my body. Heat rushed through my face. “The real question is who and what are you?”

  “Are you blind or daft? I’m a girl.” My chest churned with feelings I didn’t understand, causing my voice to take a sharp waspish tone. “My father is Santiago Delarey, lord of this manor, which you should know, unless you are some thief.”

  “Oh, I can see you’re a girl. Not many people I know sleep in . . . sarcophagi, if that’s what this thing is,” he said.

  He ran his hand along the dimly lit runic inscription around the lip of my capsule. Wisps of mist from the alchemical formula my father had added dissipated in the air up around me.

  The worried look on Father’s face when he’d placed me here flashed through my mind. He’d promised to wake me soon.

  I pulled my white nightgown over my legs as I lifted my chin to meet Bastian’s gaze.

  “I don’t usually sleep here. I have a bedroom,” I said.

  “Oh?” he asked with a purr. “I would love to know where that is.”

  His grin softened the hard lines of his cheek bones as a lock of black hair fell over one of his eyes. Heat flooded my cheeks. Who was this man to break into my house and make such comments? Would the Council employ such a man? I pushed myself farther back in the corner of the capsule. The muscles of his arms shifted underneath the gray tactical vest and tight black shirt as he stood up. His blue eyes darkened as he stared down at me. He adjusted a small radio on his belt and held out his hand.

  “You still haven’t told me your name,” he said.

  I wrapped my arms around my chest and glared up at him. “Why should I? You are some sort of thief. What have you done with my father?”

  He sighed and stepped back. “I’m not the one who has done anything to your father. You can thank the Witches Council for that. The arrested him two weeks ago.”

  “Two weeks?” I whispered.

  A chill crept into my stomach. The Council was responsible for maintaining the laws of the sector and assisting the Regent with keeping the borders sealed from the evils that lay in the outside world. Father said the Council would not take kindly to one like me. His meeting with the Regent must have gone incredibly wrong. Had they taken him to question him about me?

  I took a deep breath to quell the churning in my stomach and stood up. Dizziness swept through me, forcing me to sit on the lip of the capsule as spots danced in my vision.

  “Why would the Council arrest him?” I asked softly. “He’s one of them.”

  “No clue. But I plan to find out.” Bastian stepped forward and rested a hand on my shoulder, spreading warmth through my chilled skin. “You okay, senhorita?”

  “Zoe,” I said.

  “What?” He halted. The light faded in and out around him, giving him an almost angelic glow.

  “You asked my name. It’s Zoe.”

  He squeezed my shoulder. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? Want to help me out on where your dad hid the good intel?”

  I leaned into the warmth radiating from his hand. “You’re a friend of his?”

  He shrugged as he moved to scan the large wooden book case standing against the left wall. “Business associates, really. It’s funny. I never heard of him having a daughter.”

  “Well, he never mentioned you either,” I narrowed my eyes at him. “He’s a private man, as you should know if you were really his business partner.”

  The yellow light came into focus and the glow around Bastian disappeared. As the spots faded from my vision, the room became less blurry. With a deep breath, I stood and headed to the large cherry wardrobe on the right wall and flung open the doors. The scent of oranges drifted from my row of shirts, pants, and dresses.

  I grabbed a thick purple skirt and white cotton blouse, and glanced over at Bastian. He stood, as if waiting, but didn’t turn around. With an inward groan, I pushed the one of the wardrobe door
s to its limit.

  “Where are the servants?” Maybe with their help, I could get this man out of my house.

  “The automatons? They were confiscated by the Council along with most of your father’s papers.”

  I moved the door to find him leaning against the small wooden table in the corner with his arms crossed. His gaze traveled over my skirt and up my shirt, leaving a trail of heat in its wake. I took a deep breath to quell my pounding heart and licked my dry lips. I had more things to worry about other than the emotions this man stirred, like what he was doing here in the first place.

  “Why do you want my father’s secrets?” I asked. “Are you trying to get evidence against him? You work for the Council, don’t you?”

  He gave a bitter laugh. “I wouldn’t work for those freaks if they gave me a mansion in Rioj.”

  “Freaks? You mean witches?” I rested my hands on my hips and tilted my head to the side. “It’s strange how one of my father’s business associates would hold a prejudice against witches. So, if you don’t work for the Council, you’re a thief, then? Come to scavenge whatever is left?”

  He raised his hands in a half shrug. “You got me on the business associates part. We did have a few meetings, but not much. I am here to see why the Council would want to arrest one of their own. He must have been up to some crazy things.”

  “On whose behalf?” I asked.

  “A small group of people wanting to change the status quo.” He shrugged.

  “Uh huh. Well, I think the Council would have taken anything important.”

  His gaze traveled over to my capsule and then back to me. “I’m not so sure anymore. Why were you in there?”

  I stiffened. “My father wanted to protect me. He must have known something was happening.”

  “I think I’m not the only one who’s not being exactly truthful here,” he said.