Disobedience (Bastan Hollow Saga Book 2) Read online

  Disobedience

  Jane Washington

  Contents

  Foreword

  Prologue

  1. Malevolent Ignoble

  2. Slade Oliver

  3. Malevolent Ignoble

  4. Slade Oliver

  5. Malevolent Ignoble

  6. Slade Oliver

  7. Malevolent Ignoble

  8. Slade Oliver

  9. Maleficent Ignoble

  10. Slade Oliver

  11. Malevolent Ignoble

  12. Slade Oliver

  13. Malevolent Ignoble

  14. Slade Oliver

  15. Malevolent Ignoble

  16. Slade Oliver

  17. Malevolent Ignoble

  18. Slade Oliver

  19. Malevolent Ignoble

  20. Malevolent Ignoble

  To my readers,

  Also By Jane Washington

  Connect With Jane Washington

  Copyright © 2019 Jane Washington

  The author has provided this ebook for your personal use only. It may not be re-sold or made publicly available in any way.

  Copyright infringement is against the law.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Any products or copyrighted works featured are used only for reference and are assumed to be the property of their respective owners.

  Washington, Jane

  Disobedience

  www.janewashington.com

  Edited by Hot Tree Editing

  Cover design by Craig Shields

  To the basic witches.

  The exiled.

  Foreword

  Each book of the Bastan Hollow Saga can be read as a standalone, though it is highly recommended that you read them in order.

  For your convenience, the prologue of this book provides a short summary of the magical history contained within the previous book.

  Prologue

  The History of the Hollows

  Many centuries ago, the world of Bastan was ruled not by the humans, but by the witch and warlock covens who wielded a great and dangerous power over all other creatures. They were feared across the land, but they were also outnumbered by the humans, who eventually drove them from the kingdoms and forced them into hiding. They escaped deeper and deeper into the unforgiving forests on the very outskirts of civilisation, and there, desperation consumed them. In a wretched bid for freedom, they created a rune so powerful that it tore through matter and space, establishing a doorway from one world into another.

  A portal rune.

  In their haste to escape, they wielded their newfound ability without thought, spilling into the world of Earth unaware of the consequence of their magic. A deadly portal sickness invaded the minds of those who stepped through to the new world, warping their sense of reality and threatening the very lives they fought to save. Eventually, the Hysteria proved too great a foe, and it drove them back into Bastan.

  Not to be defeated so easily, a powerful young leader by the name of Wicca began preparations to jump through worlds again. She declared that in the desperation of her predecessors, the natural balance of all things demanded by the universe had been overlooked, and their most important rule had been disregarded.

  Magic required sacrifice.

  To remedy the oversight, a great number of terrible sacrifices were quickly dealt and Wicca managed to contain the Hysteria by trapping it within the confines of a permanent portal, which she named the Calamity Pool. Divided by the evil power of the Calamity Pool, the covens split apart, and many witches and warlocks were left to bear witness to the wicked reality of their second rule of magic, being that magic was an unpredictable, unstable force.

  It was soon discovered that the Hysteria had not been defeated at all. In working her dark magic, Wicca had tied the world of Bastan and the world of Earth irrevocably together. Her people were no longer infected and were free to travel between worlds, but the Hysteria now lived inside the cord that bound the worlds together. It slumbered in that hollow space: quiet, unseen . . .

  Waiting.

  The years trickled by like golden sand through the funnel of an hourglass as the witches and warlocks of the new world continued to explore, unearthing the many layers of Bastan – each of them seeming to be a step closer to the vast world of Earth and ending in the final, unpopulated Tier, where they decided to make their new home. The world of Bastan and the world of Earth changed and grew, but the very nature of change made the cord between worlds unstable. Gradually, the Hysteria awakened, leaking out and infecting Earth – which in turn, threatened to destroy Bastan, as the two of them were now bound together.

  Their hourglass now empty, it became apparent that Bastan could not be permitted such luxuries as change, or growth, or freedom. Each influential event of the year the Calamity Pool had been created would need to be repeated again and again, for any aberration in history might reawaken the disease that threatened to destroy them all. Royal marriages would need to be recreated, murders would need to be recommitted, betrayals and journeys re-enacted, and wars would need to be reincited. Again and again. Unendingly.

  Slowly, the fairy tales in Bastan were solidified, and a new coven of witches and warlocks came together. The Hollows were the coven of the new world – the people born of the hollow space between Bastan and Earth, where their curse still stalked them. They were the pioneers of a new way of magic – one that demanded less sacrifice, less consequence. A new way of life.

  They were the portal-jumpers.

  The world-explorers.

  The fairy tale Enforcers.

  1

  Malevolent Ignoble

  The Calamity Clan - Bastan

  I awoke to the sound of gongs. They rang out clearly through Covalen as hurried hands pulled me from my bed. My first thought was that we were under attack –something that hadn’t happened for as long as my grandparents had been alive. I panicked, and something inside of me stirred, on the precipice of spilling out of my skin.

  “Wait,” I whispered, soothing down my power as I was jostled to my feet.

  It was barely dawn, the sky only beginning to lighten, though there was still no sign of the actual sun. There was a permanent rune on my left wrist, and I pressed my finger to it now, feeling the churning of energy beneath my touch. Gradually, my power calmed down, and I was able to focus on the people crowding into the small room that I occupied within my grandparents’ house. Grandmother was there, holding out the usual green robes I wore. Grandfather was beside her with a short length of ivory cloth, and it drew my eye immediately. It seemed to suck in whatever light hinted in the early morning sky, reflecting it back to me in the subtle shimmer of silver threaded through the ivory. I blinked several times, sure the material moved as though stirred by an invisible wind, but it remained still.

  “Congratulations, Mel,” an excited voice muttered to me. “Today, your life begins.”

  It was Evil – who we called Evie. She was one of the coven delegates, and I realised with a sharp inhalation that my room was full of them. Cruel – who was one of the few to go by his original birth name – stood up against the door as though he wasn’t sure whether he even wanted to be in the room, his thick arms – scar-torn from repeated blood runes – were crossed over his chest. Bitter, who simply called herself Bee, hovered around Cruel in her usual fashion, pacing back and forth as though guarding him. Contemptable – or Tem – had been one of the people to pull me from bed, and now she tugged at my nightgown, snapping at Vicious, who wasn’t so much helping as he was staring. As skilled as Vic was in tracking and combat magic, he wasn’t the most stable warlock. He was addicted to tahin, a drug derived from the
leaves of the tahi bush. The bush itself wasn’t dangerous; the berries were a rich antioxidant and very popular in teas, and the roots were particularly useful in healing brews. The leaves, however, proved to have hallucinogenic powers when rolled up beneath the tongue. Vic’s lips were always stained blue, and his eyes were usually glassy.

  The presence of the delegates swept through my sleep-fogged mind like a hurricane, leaving me standing and shaking with the horrible realisation that today was it. Today was the day I had been dreading for months – no, years.

  Today was my aetalus.

  I spied movement to the left of Cruel as my clothes were whisked away, and I turned to catch the two heads that had popped up into the window. Des and Odi were grinning, and I itched to cover my nakedness. My grandparents and the delegates were one thing, but my two best friends – my two male best friends – were a whole other story. This was a sacred part of the aetalus. They weren’t even supposed to be there . . . but of course, that would have just made them want to be there even more.

  Tem and Evie shuffled me towards the door and I widened my eyes at Des and Odi through the window. They took the hint and quickly disappeared, only a moment before we stopped in front of Cruel. He didn’t budge from the doorway at first, only frowned darkly down at me, his tiny eyes narrowing to little pinpricks of colour, lost within the blank space of his broad face. His heavy brows lowered, his muscles bunched, and for just a moment, I thought he would object.

  Don’t waste the aetalus on this one.

  She isn’t like us.

  I stood tall, and he deflated slightly, but it was not defeat in his eyes when he stepped aside for me to pass. It was anticipation. He didn’t need to tell the others I wouldn’t complete my aetalus. I would prove it myself. He was just going to sit back and watch. If I even survived, he would have the pleasure of formally banishing me from the coven himself.

  “Don’t be nervous,” Evie whispered as we left my room and spilled out into the atrium of my grandparents’ house. Her hand pressed between my shoulder blades, urging me forward. She could probably feel me shaking.

  The entire room was open, with only branches for walls and the scattering of leaves above for cover against the elements. The marble floor was spelled to be weightless and to allow the smaller branches of the tree to grow through. The entire village of Covalen had been built along the treetops of a royal ciana forest. The royal ciana trees grew to monstrous heights and had narrow root systems, allowing them to clump together, their wide-reaching branches often interlocking. The bark was smooth, the branches wide and flat, and the leaves were bright green, often blooming with deep red flowers or sprouting with dangling seed pods. The durability and strength of the trees combined with their light foliage made them the perfect pillars to build structures around, resulting in an entire community that lived above the ground. Most families had either two houses, or else two sections to their house, with an atrium left completely open to the elements.

  In the very middle of the atrium was the household bath, where the delegates led me now. Evie’s hand on my arm was gentle; Tem’s was clinical. I could feel the eyes of the others as I stepped into the bath. The water was cold, but Tem pressed a finger to her arm, and a rune blossomed beneath, three shapes all nestled into one another. She trailed her fingers through the water and steam rose from the surface as heat bloomed around my legs.

  I walked into the centre of the bath and kneeled as Tem and Evie followed me in. The skirts of their robes dragged through the water as they approached, but I kept my eyes fixed to the other side of the atrium, feeling the weight of so many stares against my bare back. I had expected to see Des and Odi peeking through the door, so when I didn’t, I scanned the open sides of the atrium where the branches rose up as intermittent walls. Sure enough, the golden waves of Des’s hair were visible behind one of the branches. I could also make out Odi’s muscled form crouched by a part of the tree that had grown through the floor like a fat, bark-covered snake, slumbering heavily against the cold marble.

  I refocussed back on the front of the room, but I also lifted one of my arms to cover my breasts. Above me, Tem made a grunt of disapproval, pinning my hair up so it wouldn’t get wet. Evie poured water over my shoulders and back, using a small bucket that she dipped in the water. Nakedness was not a thing to be ashamed of within the Calamity Clan – the coven of witches and warlocks I had been born into. Nakedness was natural, and natural things were good. Death was also natural, as was blood. I didn’t exactly see eye to eye with the Calamity Clan on most issues, which was unfortunate, because subservience to our elected leaders was also considered natural.

  “You may choose the essence that we anoint you with,” Tem announced, and Vic walked around the bath with a wooden box, stopping before me and sliding back the lid to reveal several dozen tiny vials. None of them were labelled.

  Inwardly, I groaned.

  The aetalus begins.

  I extended my free hand, my other arm still stubbornly wrapped across my chest, and leaned towards the box. I closed my eyes, my fingers falling against the vials. I touched each one of them, trying to sense the energy beneath the glass surface. In truth, the aetalus wouldn’t truly begin until later that night, but the witches and warlocks of the Calamity Clan were a tricky lot, and I suspected that every choice I made that morning would contribute to the aetalus in some way.

  Luckily for me, herbology magic was one of my specialities. Even as the thought occurred to me, a frown fell over my face. They all knew that herbology was one of my strengths . . . so why give me an easy test?

  I pulled my hand back from the vials and pressed my thumb to my wrist, just below the permanent rune that marked me. A complicated revealing rune took shape, and I tried to shake off the sounds of disapproval again. A rune mapping together so many shapes and lines – essentially blending two completely separate spells – should have required me to draw blood with my quill. It was one of the many ways that I differed from my own people: I didn’t like to use blood magic, if I could avoid it. I returned my fingers to the vials, touching each one of them in turn. The revealing rune wasn’t particularly strong, but it was enough to identify the contents of the vials.

  Lavender.

  Peppermint.

  Rose.

  Animal blood.

  Cypress.

  Human blood.

  Charcoal.

  I pulled back, my eyes flicking open, my hand dropping back into the bathwater. Now I understood. This was a different kind of test. One meant only for me. I turned my head back to where Des and Odi hid, but didn’t dare look for long enough to draw attention to them. Just knowing that they were still there brought me comfort. Feeling torn, I reached out and tapped the correct vial. Human blood.

  A scattering of applause sounded around me, and Vic began to un-stopper the vial, but Cruel suddenly appeared beside him, holding out his hand. Vic handed over the vial and then stepped back, his almost manic eyes flicking over me.

  “Good job,” he mouthed, before his smile stretched wide.

  There was nothing that the Calamity Clan liked more than spilling human blood.

  Cruel pulled out the stopper and tipped the vial onto his fingers. I closed my eyes again because I didn’t want to see the blood spill out, but he gripped my chin suddenly in his other hand, and I heard the splash of him stepping into the bath. I opened my eyes again as he pinched my chin sharply. Tem and Evie seemed to have retreated, and I could hear them stepping out of the bath now as Cruel stared down at me.

  “Today, you are eighteen,” he announced, his grating voice carrying through the atrium. “Today, you become an adult, and as an adult, you must be tested. Do you agree?”

  I couldn’t nod with his hard grip on my chin, so I quickly mustered the words he wanted to hear. “Yes, I agree.”

  “You are special, Malevolent –”

  “Mel,” I quickly interjected.

  “You are special because of your power,” he continued, igno
ring me. He released my chin but grabbed the arm I still held against my chest, pulling it up and away so my permanent rune was on display to the whole room. It was a simple cross that extended vertically, a crescent curving into the lines of my palm and a mirroring crescent circling onto the pale skin of my wrist. It was supposed to represent the two parts to my whole. The mirror of my spirit. The little voice inside my head.

  “A duality witch,” Cruel called out, and the gathered delegates burst into applause again. They were uncharacteristically excited. “You have a great gift, Malevolent.” His voice lowered now, his eyes drilling into me. “And it is because of that gift we must demand not one, but two sacrifices for your aetalus.”

  He caught the look of horror on my face before I could mask it, and the answering flash of disgust that raced over his features told me everything I needed to know: it didn’t matter whether I passed all of their tests or not. Cruel, at least, knew my secret.

  He released me, leaving red smudges around my wrist; his fingers had been marked by blood from the vial. I let my hand fall into the water, and hoped that the colour would wash away. He tipped the vial to his fingers again and then touched his second and third fingers to the very top of my forehead, just before my hairline, before he drew back.