Keepers of Secrets: Arthurian Fantasy Novel (Realms of the Fae Book 1) Read online

  Keepers of Secrets

  Book 1: Realms of the Fae

  Tiara McClure

  Keepers of Secrets

  Copyright © 2019 by Tiara McClure

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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

  For information contact :

  [email protected]

  www.tiaramcclure.com

  Cover design by Miblart

  Copyediting by Celestian Rince

  First Edition: November 2019

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two | Monday, four weeks till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Three | Tuesday, four weeks till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Four | Thursday, four weeks till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Five | Saturday, four weeks till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Six | Tuesday, three weeks till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Seven | Wednesday, three weeks till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Eight | Falling somewhere in time

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten | Losing all sense of time...

  Chapter Eleven | Sunday, three weeks till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Twelve | Monday, two weeks till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Thirteen | Monday, one week till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen | Wednesday, one week till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Eighteen | Thursday, one week till Thanksgiving.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One | Thursday, four weeks till Christmas.

  Chapter Twenty-Two | Sunday, three weeks till Christmas.

  Chapter Twenty-Three | Somewhere between Sunday and Monday.

  Chapter Twenty-Four | Monday, maybe Tuesday...Who knows...

  Chapter Twenty-Five | Definitely Monday, one week till Christmas.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Keepers of Rites

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  GRADE 11, OTHERWISE known as the beginning of the end. No matter what anyone tells you, it drags on forever for girls like me.

  Girls who wish they weren't so different from everyone else. Girls who don't know what they want to do once they finally escape high school. Girls who can't get a date with anyone but the guys they don't even want to friend zone.

  My name is Loreali Cain and I am a self-proclaimed introvert who prefers her peace and quiet over legendary parties full of drunk grade 9 girls and horny grade 12 boys. Of course that just makes me a loser according to most of the kids at Paradell Secondary.

  If you'd asked me what I did in my spare time six months ago, then my answer would have been simple. Survive school and work at the local grocery store. Yep, that was it.

  I've never been the popular girl. Heck, I've never even been liked. Nope, I'm the girl that sits in the back corner quietly sipping on some pop while everyone else gulps down shots of cheap tequila that their best friends got for showing their boobs at the local liquor store. And I'm the girl that's sober enough to run when the cops inevitably show up.

  Now don't get me wrong, I had and still have, a friend. Her name is Ashley Lawrence, otherwise simply known as Ash. We met four years ago and have been almost inseparable ever since. She's always known me better than anyone. She's always said I'd go on to do great, world-changing things.

  I just wasn't expecting those things to happen so soon.

  Chapter Two

  Monday, four weeks till Thanksgiving.

  IT WAS MY MOST HATED day of the week as it meant the beginning of the five-day cycle of mental torture that was known as high school classes. Of course this Monday was no different as I had to face two pop quizzes before I even had a chance to head to my job down at the local grocery store.

  It was no wonder that I was dead tired when I finally made it home that night. Bypassing the kitchen, I made a beeline for my bedroom and decided to take a nap before I tried to take on my paper that had been due earlier that morning. Somehow I'd managed to convince my English teacher to take pity on me and give me an extension. However, even Miss Stevens, who loved me and called me her beloved prodigy during parent-teacher conferences, had her limits. I knew I had to get the work done tonight, but it would have to wait until my nap had finished.

  Yawning, I fell onto my bed, rolled over onto my side, and promised myself that I’d only take a short nap before my eyelids shut. What felt like a few seconds, but could have been minutes or even hours, passed before my eyes suddenly opened. I looked around and felt goosebumps on my arms when I realized that I was somewhere familiar, yet foreign. A place that felt like it could have held some forgotten memory if I had ever managed to travel past the endless canola fields that dotted Everstone County.

  A forest of ancient redwoods that looked like they could rival a modern skyscraper in height, surrounded me on all sides. They rose into the bright-blue sky above me while thick blades of grass tickled my thighs.

  I stepped forward and stopped before my head jerked left. I swear I saw someone or something move in the shadows of the treeline. But by the time I blinked, whoever had been there was now gone. I started to walk forward again and stopped when a swarm of butterflies descended upon me. Surrounded by a kaleidoscope of white, purple, and black, I laughed before they disappeared into the forest in front of me.

  I thought my heart was going to burst from happiness before I started to chase after them. I was halfway across the clearing when my heart sank into my stomach. At first, I didn't understand why. There was nothing menacing about the forest. In fact, it almost felt magical from where I was standing. However, the thought of going into it made me feel sick.

  Even then, something told me that I had to enter it. So I took a deep breath and gulped before I reached out my hand to touch the tree in front of me. Then the explosion happened.

  First, I heard it. A bird shrieked so loudly that its cry almost broke my eardrums.

  Next, I saw it. Black storm clouds rushed in over my head and suffocated the blue sky until all that was left was darkness.

  Last, I felt it. The earth shook underneath my feet as a bolt of green lightning fell from the sky and exploded in front of me.

  Losing my footing, I fell onto my back while the ground opened up in front of me. Dirt was flying everywhere when I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Panicking, I clawed at the grass surrounding me and silently prayed for the will to stand. However, I couldn't.

  Paralyzed, I closed my eyes and cursed my luck. I knew I should've listened to my gut instincts instead of being nosy. Now I was stuck here with dirt falling on me and whizzing past my head all at once. With my luck, I'd end up getting buried alive and dying in my sleep.

  And we all know that no one ever wakes up when they die in their sleep. For the internet says so. I was still busy panicking when everything around me suddenly went silent.

  Thinking I'd been lucky and escaped death by dreaming, I breathed a sigh of relief and
started to open my eyes. I was thankful that the dream was finally over and I was now awake. Or at least, that was what I thought had happened.

  I cracked my eyelids open and instantly had to shield my eyes with my hand when I realized that there was a blinding green light in front of me. It was so bright that I couldn't even tell where I was anymore. It blocked out everything around me.

  The ground, the sky, and possibly even the sound, since the only thing I could hear now was a constant low hum that sounded like an electric fence that was one step too close to you. My eyelids fluttered for a few more minutes.

  Yawning, I glanced down at my other hand and realized that I couldn't even see that below me. Everything was just green. Bright... Oh, why can't I stop yawning... Mind altering... I feel like I'm about to pass out...Green...

  My entire body was drenched in a cold sweat when I jolted up from my bed and looked around my room. I touched my hand and was fairly sure that I was awake, until I wasn't. Something wasn't right despite the fact that everything was in the same place I'd left it before I fell asleep.

  I swung my feet over the edge of my bed and decided to use a tried-and-true method to see if I was truly awake. I punched myself in my arm. "Ouch," I mumbled as I rubbed the sore spot on my arm. The pain should have convinced me that I was awake, but it didn't.

  Something still felt weird about my room. But the more I thought about it, the more I started to realize that it wasn't something I could see, but rather something that I couldn't. I stood up and started to walk towards my bedroom window when I felt something brush my shoulder.

  I jumped almost ten feet into the air and howled like a scared coyote before I spun around with my shaking hands ready to fight.

  "Well, this definitely isn't how I expected you to react."

  I blinked at the darkness and the petite silhouette of a girl that was hidden in it.

  "Who are you?" I stammered.

  The girl stepped into the moonlight that was filtering into my room from my window. Her wavy hair almost looked white as it brushed the edges of her elbows that were resting by her side. "You will find that out later," she said with a smile that made me feel more uneasy than calm.

  "Later?"

  "Yes, Loreali. Later."

  Wait, how the heck did she know my name?

  The girl's eyes brightened until they looked like floating orbs of white in front of me. "Because I know the truth of your destiny. The one that you share with me and the others."

  "Did you just read my mind?"

  When she nodded like it was no big deal, I knew that this had to be a dream. Lowering my hands, I started to pace the floor before I slapped my cheeks. "Loreali, wake up," I muttered to myself, hoping that a little more pain was just what I needed to awaken in my bed.

  "What are you talking about?" the girl giggled before I stopped and looked at her again.

  There was now a faint white glow surrounding her body as she smiled over at me like this was all some kind of joke. "I need to wake up," I stated firmly.

  "You don't need to wake up, Loreali, when you're already awake." She stepped towards me and offered me her hand. "Come with me," she whispered. "I have something to show you."

  Her smile seemed genuine enough, so I reluctantly took her hand. She walked past me and headed towards my bedroom window.

  Lifting the blinds upward, she started to open the window while years of stranger danger training began to kick in for me.

  "No!" I screamed, ripping my hand from her grasp. "I'm not going anywhere with you! I don't even know your name."

  She frowned. "But, Loreali, I'm here to help you.”

  She tried to grab my hand again, but I managed to keep it away while I glared at her. "I told you, I don't know you and I'm not leaving my house with you. I mean, how did you even get in here?"

  She sighed and crossed her thin arms over her little chest. "That isn't important right now."

  "But me leaving with a complete stranger is? Nope, I'm not doing it!" I crossed my arms over my chest and readied myself for the stare-down that I knew was coming.

  The girl didn't disappoint. Her bright-white eyes turned into slits as she stared at me silently for a minute or two. "Ugh, fine! I guess you win." She threw her hands up into the air while I grinned at her.

  "Good, now time for me to wake up."

  "Right." The word rolled off her tongue slowly while I closed my eyes and tried to force myself to wake up.

  To my surprise, she was still there when my eyes reopened. What the heck had just happened?

  "I told you, you aren't asleep," the mysterious girl said with a smirk on her thin lips.

  "But I have to be. I mean, there's no way you are real. You're glowing, for crying out loud!"

  The girl tilted her head back slightly and began to laugh. "I am just as real as you and the rest of this room, but I can see that you aren't ready." She turned around and faced the window before she sighed. "When you are, I will come for you. Until then, take care, Loreali."

  I watched her open the window and step up onto the ledge. Although part of me wanted to stop her, a bigger part of me was thankful that she was leaving. I held my breath and watched her glance over at me one last time as if she were hoping that I'd somehow change my mind and leave with her, before she stepped out of the window and into the night.

  I rushed to the window and tried to see if she'd managed to fall onto one of the bushes below the window, but was surprised when I realized she was no longer there. Somehow she'd vanished completely with one step into the darkness. That or she was amazing at hiding in bushes.

  Not wanting to stick around to find out which one it was, I walked back over to my bed and lay down. Yep, this definitely had to be a dream.

  Chapter Three

  Tuesday, four weeks till Thanksgiving.

  HOW I MANAGED TO FINISH my English paper before second period, is still a mystery to me. But I did finish it. Grinning from ear to ear, I slapped the rushed paper down onto Miss Stevens' desk before I took a seat in the back of her class where I knew I could hide my half-open eyes from her old, bespectacled view.

  She looked down at my paper and then back up at me before she muttered for me to come forward. Crap, what did I do now?

  Hunching my shoulders forward, I walked across the classroom like a dead man walking to the plank while the rest of my class began to take their seats behind me.

  "Miss Cain," she whispered as she readjusted her glasses that had fallen to the tip of her nose.

  "Yes, Miss Stevens?"

  "Is this your paper?"

  "Yes, why?"

  "Because, my dear, there's nothing here."

  I swear I could've died right then and there when she flipped the paper over to me and showed me the blank page. All my carefully crafted words, gone. All my literary-guide-based thoughts, gone. The blood in my face drained and I'm sure I looked like an ashy vampire when I looked down into her molasses-hued eyes with my mouth hanging open and my head swinging from side to side.

  "No, that can't be right. I know I wrote the paper. I must have—"

  Miss Stevens put her hand up to silence me. "No excuses, Loreali. You've had more than enough time to get your paper in."

  "I know," I stammered, not understanding what had just happened.

  "Then you know why I must give you a zero today, then."

  A zero! There was no way I could go home with that kind of grade. "Miss Stevens, no! I mean, please just give me a chance to get it to you."

  Miss Stevens shook her head. "No more excuses, Loreali. Now please take a seat and don't waste my time again. I like you and would like to keep it that way."

  I gave a solemn nod before I turned around and made the long journey back to my seat. Slumping down in my chair, I had no idea how my homework had just disappeared. I had finished it and had even glanced at it before I stuffed it into my messenger bag before school. So where had it gone?

  That question haunted me for the rest of my day at schoo
l and into the beginnings of my shift at work. Of course, there wasn't really much else to think about at work as it was the most monotonous job you could imagine ever having.

  'Hello, how are you? Did you find what you were looking for today?' Both were phrases my boss had ingrained into me during my two weeks of training over the summer. Of course, I perfected the delivery by adding a seemingly genuine smile to every transaction and the occasional laugh at an overused dad joke.

  It drove me insane most days, but allowed me to wallow in my confusion today. Standing up straight, I kept my eyes on the clock and my fingers on the keyboard while I used every brain cell to figure out what had happened to my paper.

  “Hello,” I said with a cheerful grin when I noticed the next customer walking into my line. “What can I...?”

  I stopped mid-sentence when I looked up and saw a pair of baby blues staring back at me. Trying to keep my mouth from falling open, my thoughts about my homework flew out the door with the cool late summer air as I shook my head in disbelief at how gorgeous this boy was. Wow.

  “Hello,” the handsome stranger in front of me said in a light-hearted English accent that turned my legs into jelly. “How are you today? Also is that an accent I'm hearing? American, perhaps."

  “Good,” I answered. But I was more than good. I was awestruck.

  Tucking one of my tightly wound curls behind my ear, I turned my eyes back onto my screen. "You've got good ears, I'm from the States."

  "Ah, well it's always good to meet a fellow expat. I'm from England."

  Oh, I was well aware he was from England. His sexy voice dripped of God Save the Queen, afternoon tea, and straight-up decorum. Fiddling with my keyboard, I could barely think straight with him speaking to me. "Sorry," I mumbled. "Just having some technical difficulties."

  “That’s all right. I don’t think I’ve seen you here before. Are you new?” Mr. Blue Eyes asked.

  “Kind of.” I looked up at him briefly and gasped a little.

  Everything about him was perfect. His short, black, straight-out-of-prep-school hair. His soft blue eyes that reminded me of a perfect summer afternoon out on the river. His brilliant white smile that almost blinded me whenever his lips parted. He was perfect, but crap! I needed to get a hold of myself.