Rein: A Tidefall Novel
REIN
A Tidefall Novel
Bex McLynn
Contents
Introduction
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
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Dearest Reader
Acknowledgments
Other Titles
About Bex
Copyright © 2019 by Bex McLynn
All rights reserved.
Developmental editing by Chris Westwater
Editing and proofreading by Cissell Ink
Cover design by Covers by Juan
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
To Chris
You’re always right. Always.
To Honey, Mara, and Emmy
I talk. You listen. Then you kick my ass. So, thanks for that.
To Tammy and Kathryn
Why do you even put up with me? You’re both goddesses.
To Greg
You’re my crazy beautiful.
Introduction
Rein
Noun. An instrument or means of curbing, restraining, or governing.
Verb. To restrain; to control; to check.
Noun (archaic). The inward impulses; the affections and passions.
Chapter 1
Lake Saimaa, Lappeenranta, Finland
Winter 1735
Nikolas stared at the campfire, his mind made up.
His life had reached its End.
As dusk settled, his somber packmates prepared for their full moon vigil. One man tossed additional wood on the campfire, while another made a pot of sludge-like coffee. A third man sat on the cold ground, resting his back against a log as he sharpened his knife.
Nikolas's hand drifted to the hilt of his own knife. Tonight, should the curse strike, turning one of his packmates into a raging Mad One, would he plunge his knife into that man's heart? Would he kill him?
No. He wouldn't.
And if a Reiner wouldn't Rein a Mad One, then what bloody use was he?
Turning his back on the campfire, he strode off into the woods.
"Secundus?" Philip, their newest packmate, called after him, his voice tight with uncertainty.
"Leave the Sec be," Artur grumbled as he sharpened his knife. "He'll be back."
Nikolas suspected that Artur's faith in him returning hinged on their never-ending routine, not dedication to purpose. Would he be back?
No. As a Reiner who no longer Reined, his life was at an End.
Snow gripped the skies with somber clouds and no pink sunset tinted the horizon. Following both the scent and sound of water, he hiked to the nearby deep lake. He pulled his flask from his hernest—the harness and pouch worn under his clothes—and drank down the fiery vodka, draining his flask as the full moon broke though the cloud cover. He stripped down to his small drawers. Despite the alcohol burning in his gut, his skin still tightened in the frosty air, and he made it infinitely worse when he jumped into the lake.
He bit back the roar that scraped at his lungs like shards of glass. Reflexively, he rose up on his damn tiptoes like a ballerina as his bollocks pulled so far into his body, they might as well have replaced his eyeballs.
He flailed in the water, rippling the surface and disrupting its glittery reflection of the moonlight, yet made no move toward the shore. Rather, he stood there—arms outstretched as his body wracked and his teeth chattered—and waited.
If he wanted his life to End, well, there was no place more dangerous to a Wolfkinder like him than moonlit water on a full moon night. Dark things lurked in moonlit waters. Now he just needed the foul Moon Goddess to show up and kill him.
As he waited, he attempted to float on his back while staring up at the night sky. He should have known better. Wolfkinders couldn't swim worth a damn. He sank like an anvil tied to an anchor, and he did not like it. Not at all. Disappointed, he struggled to the muddy shore and sat his soggy behind in the shallows.
He waited.
He waited some more.
The frigid air nipped at his extremities and his patience. Although Nikolas was second-in-command of his pack and occasionally had to defer to his Prime, he usually got his way. Being drunk and waiting for his death made him a surly bastard.
"Get on with it!" he bellowed in German. "I choose my time. Be a considerate sow and End me already."
The night wore on. Nikolas tossed his knife into the lake. A rash action but he intended to not live to regret it.
For a fleeting second, the damp smells of the lake water and the persistent cold brought Teodor to mind. Nikolas could almost feel the weight of his friend's body bowing his back and shoulders. Damn all, how that last, godsawful Reining had broken him, leaving him to seek his own End.
As the splash from his knife faded, an explosion of water threw him flat on his back. He rolled, raising his hands to ward off the spray of icy water that stung his eyes and lips with salty brine.
A woman surged from the depths of the lake, rising like a viper from a reed basket. Her blue skin shimmered and rippled like the cold, dark lake water. She posed tall and proud before Nikolas, and all her curves and swells undulated seductively. Nikolas's eyes trailed from the slope of her shoulders and mounded breasts, down to her quivering belly and swaying hips. The rest of her remained submerged in the writhing waters.
He heard a cacophony of subtle sounds. A melancholy tune on a lyre and chirps and chortles—the chatter of dolphins—buzzed about in his head. Each inhalation brought the smells of saltwater and seaweed into his lungs. The sensations of the sea darkly trespassed at the lake.
As he gaped at the woman, she smirked in haughty satisfaction, tossing long thick ropes of her shimmering hair down her back. "Eye am Tengis."
Nikolas groaned. An Eye, a servant of the Moon Goddess, hovered over him. He hadn't battled an Eye in centuries.
The biting cold that had been nipping at him changed to a debilitating freeze. As it crept further up his limbs, the marine song intensified and vibrated inside his head. His blood, thinned by the alcohol, slowed his muscles' reaction to the threat. But why heed the warning? Whether it was the Moon Goddess or one of her Eyes—hell, he'd even settle for one of her bloody Hands—what did it matter? He wanted his End.
"Fat sow," Nikolas slurred, taunting her, wanting her to get on with it.
"I am not a cow," she enunciated menacingly, her blue eyes sinking and swirlin
g into indigo depths. Then softer, "By the moon, they are dulling with each passing year."
"Swine." He rolled his eyes. "I said 'fat sow' not 'fat cow.'"
"Are you a Reiner or a farmer?" Her voice and icy breath pressed close to his ear, catching him off guard.
Her sudden nearness had him reaching for his dagger. He yanked at an empty sheath. A funny, slightly hysterical feeling came over him. He should have known, now that the danger loomed, that his instincts would surge. It would mean a hard End for him, if he battled against his own killing.
"Perhaps you are a farmer." Tengis hovered inches above him in a halo of icy blueness. "What need they of a plow ox but for you?" She looked him over, cocking an eyebrow. "Or a bull."
More hysteria bubbled up from within Nikolas, and he took it for what it was. Regret. His overconfidence had him foolishly believing that Unamene, the Moon Goddess herself, would come for him. That as a Reiner sworn to rid this world of her servants, the goddess would thrill in Ending him.
"She is not coming." The Eye languidly stretched her body above him as she addressed his unspoken thoughts. "I will be the End of you, Reiner. But first, I will enjoy you much."
He never should have thrown his damn dagger into the bloody lake. He could feel Tengis starting to apply her thrall, pulling and tugging at both his body and mind, rolling him like the moon's influence on the tide. The noises that marked Tengis's arrival—the lyre and whistling sea song—increased, causing him to groan and wince. Grasping about blindly, his hand closed about a rock, and he swung wildly, smashing it against her head.
Tengis screeched and reared back as Nikolas clambered to his feet, kicking aside smooth, lakeshore pebbles.
He squared off against the Eye and, like a fool, wished he faced the goddess instead. Like hell Unamene found him lacking. If his life rated as undeserving, then the goddess needed to answer for its low state. He had spent centuries combing the Continent, putting to a bloody End those afflicted by the goddess's curse of Madness.
His chest heaved with his indignation. "I am Nikolas Pollos. Secundus for the Cerberus Centurions. Famed Mongrel of the Black Mountains, Charlemagne's Master of the Wolf, and Hell Hound of the Holy Roman Emperor. Son of—"
Nikolas bit off his rant as he was snatched into the air. Tengis, with one of her tentacles wrapped around his leg, held him aloft and upside down.
His grand speech went unfinished. Alcohol and his own misplaced bravado made him careless. He had remembered her abilities to influence and overpower one's mind—the horrid song and seduction, and her ability to apply invisible forces to her physical surroundings—the relentless pressure on his chest. Yet he'd forgotten about the Eye's tentacles. She had kept her lower half hidden beneath the dark water.
Nikolas bitterly acknowledged that Tengis had gotten the better of him. She held him like a fish on a line. Thrashing, he fought the urge to shift into his wolf skin. To keep his head above the choppy water, he had to brace himself with his arms, burying his hands into the murky silt in the lake. His paws would not help him here.
"Eye am Tengis!" The Eye slapped him across the face with a tentacle. "I will squeeze you like rotten fruit and delight in your Ending."
Another tentacle pinned his flailing arms against his sides. Panicked, Nikolas sucked in a breath as she lowered him into the water.
Oliviana sheltered in the tree line by the lake and swore to every god she knew.
Her bloody prey was bloody drowning.
Yet, she hesitated to rush onto the lakeshore. Never in her life had she seen such a massive Eye. Hell, Oliviana could easily palm Krynica, her own Eye. She even carried Krynica around in a flask. This Eye, with her glowing blue skin and thick, muscular tentacles, permeated the entire area with her marine song and the out-of-place scent of sea brine.
Oliviana's heart pounded and her skin tingled with fear, but if she wanted her revenge, then she needed to leave the shelter of the trees and save her Reiner.
She almost laughed. She would save him just to End him.
The Eye who had been repeatedly submerging her Reiner until his struggles weakened, stilled her movements. Alarm spiked through Oliviana to see all those articulated appendages suddenly freeze.
Oliviana held her breath and waited.
The Eye struck, exploding into action. Her tentacles shot like harpoons from the water, striking deep into the tree line. Retractable, razor-sharp hooks tipped each tentacle. Numerous thunks pounded out as her hooks struck the trees.
Oliviana stood and shivered, plastered against the backside of a trunk where one of the hooks had penetrated. With the speed that the tentacle attacked, a gust of air carried the scents of fresh splintered wood and the salt of the sea.
Closing her eyes, Oliviana envisioned Teodor hunched over his workbench, tinkering away. By the gods, she could do this.
She heard the Eye growl as the tentacle hook retracted, creaking the splintered tree. Giving one bolstering squeeze to Krynica's flask that was strapped on under her clothes, she darted around the tree and sprinted for the shore, snatching up a handful of pebbles.
Thanks to her Wolfkinder-like night vision, she could see that the Eye had started retreating into the lake. She had whipped her tentacles back as she pulled her limp prey deeper into the water. The Reiner struggled feebly, scrounging for purchase on the lake bottom.
"Leave him," Oliviana said, forcing a growl into her voice, hoping to hide her trembling.
The Eye hissed at the command and wrapped a tentacle about the Reiner's neck and started to squeeze. Her plaything squeaked and flailed anew.
"I am to End him," the Eye said, her voice a strained hiss.
Oliviana flicked her gaze over the Eye. Her rigid posture didn't hide the sluggish rise and fall of her bared chest. Good, her amusement with the Reiner had left her spent.
"He's mine." Oliviana continued to approach the Eye, her boots crunching on the pebbles that carpeted the lakeshore. "He owes me a debt."
"I care not for grievances." The Eye yanked the Reiner under the dark water, maintaining her grip around his neck, as she continued to retreat with her prize.
That wouldn't do. The further into the lake the Eye retreated, the greater the chance that Oliviana would lose her Reiner. Or worse, the Eye could use the moonlight reflecting on the lake's surface and conjure herself a portal and flee. Oliviana needed to convince the Eye to give up the fight. Fingering the pebbles in her hand, Oliviana selected one and Moved it.
Within a blink, the pebble disappeared from Oliviana's hand. The Eye flinched, whipping the appendage before her face. Oliviana knew what the Eye would see. There would be no wound, yet lodged beneath her blue, translucent skin would be the lake pebble.
"Accursed Hand!" The Eye shrieked. "You dare! Eye am Tengis!"
"And I could give a goat's ass," Oliviana snapped back; she hated the reminder of what she appeared to be—a Hand of Unamene. "There are countless stones on the beach, and some are not as tiny as that one. Give me what's mine. Now."
Oliviana kept her gaze locked on Tengis and saw the play of emotions on her face. Anger flashed first, then disgust; she finally settled into grim understanding.
Tengis narrowed her eyes. "You have been here the entire time, haven't you, little Hand? Watching and waiting while I played with the Reiner?"
Yes, Oliviana had watched, but she would never admit that her doubts about taking on the enormous Eye kept her hidden as long as they did.
"You are clever and cruel," Tengis said, her voice a mix of admiration and scorn. "You will End him?"
Oliviana kept her voice firm. "Yes, but at a time of my choosing."
Tengis smiled and shrugged her shoulders as if she hadn't a care. Oliviana instinctively braced.
"An End is an End," Tengis said almost gaily. "What care I of the means?"
Then using her tentacle, Tengis lifted the Reiner from the water and dangled him like a prize before her. When Oliviana cautiously stepped closer, the Eye flung him far out int
o the lake.
"Good hunting, Hand," the Eye sneered before Porting away in a flash of blue light and thrashing lake water.
Of all the damn bloody things. Oliviana was right back to where she started.
Her bloody prey was bloody drowning. Again.
Striding toward the water's edge, she reached beneath the layers she wore to access the pouch of her hernest and retrieved her flask. With a quick twist, the cap came off, revealing the blue, luminous light of Krynica.
The tiny Eye snaked her tentacles out of the flask's spout and pulled herself into the lake. Her tiny tentacles, which were no thicker than braided bootlaces, were attached to a pliant, blue body that was able to slip in and out of the flask. With her gaping mouth and large, golden eyes sitting atop her head, she resembled a frog trailing tendrils of algae.
Oliviana gazed out over the choppy water. "Can you sense him, Krynica?"
Krynica quivered, her tentacles coiling around her, and her small voice chimed like crystal, "Yes."
"Can you bring him to me?"
"No. He's too big."
Oliviana stared out at the moonlit lake and frowned. "Take me to him, then."
"I…yes. I'll try."
"Just drop me close to him." She extended her hand toward Krynica. "I'll do the rest."