A Corrupt Alliance

A CORRUPT ALLIANCE THE CHAIN BREAKER BOOK 11 D.K. HOLMBERG Copyright © 2023 by D.K. Holmberg Cover by Damonza.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any 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. Want a free book and to be notified when D.K. Holmberg’s next novel is released, along with other news and freebies? Sign up for his mailing list by going here. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time. www.dkholmberg.com CONTENTS 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 Author’s Note Series by D.K. Holmberg CHAPTER ONE The sense of an intrusion burned through Gavin. Though it was a faint sense, he was connected to the power around him, so it was all too easy for him to be able to identify that power as it began to build, and to recognize when there was external influence. He braced for it and focused on what he could feel. It was subtle enough that he wasn’t even sure if that was what he was feeling, except for the fact that a burning sense worked through him. He paused what he was doing and looked around. Yoran was quiet, or relatively so, and while the middle of the city had a bit more activity, it was not so much that Gavin thought he would have any trouble reaching what he detected. The real challenge, as he saw it, was in identifying just what caught his attention. He tapped on the silver enchantment tucked into his ear, which was connected to a thin chain that ran down to another piece situated in his pocket. “I picked up on something,” he said through the enchantment. There were two other people primarily connected to it, and those were the ones he hoped to reach. He was less concerned about Anna, but the El’aras woman known as the Shard might have heard something as well, though Gavin didn’t know. He started toward what he detected, waiting for another sense of it, but nothing came. As he focused on it, Gavin continued to move quickly, trying to determine if there was something he could feel—perhaps something that might push on him the same way the initial sensation did. “Don’t do anything foolish,” Gaspar said through the enchantment. It surprised Gavin that Gaspar would be the first one to pipe up, though maybe it shouldn’t. Wrenlow was busy, focused on hunting through the new library they had found, and likely was preoccupied with all the books. He had not yet returned to Yoran, and in that space, there was no way of reaching him. The act of transferring to that realm seemed to sever the magic of the communication enchantment. Gavin had been trying to find a way to reconnect it so they wouldn’t have to be cut off from one another, as he did worry about the possibility of something else appearing inside the library, but they had not found anything so far. He stopped next to a tall, spindly bells tree, its razor-sharp leaves glittering in the sunlight. He stayed close to it, but not so close as to risk shredding his clothing. He didn’t have to worry about his body, since he fortified it with his own core reserves, and he also had enchantments that gave him stone skin, but he didn’t need to keep buying new clothes just because of where he walked. “I’m just at the edge of the city,” Gavin said. “I don’t know what it is I felt, but there was an intrusion.” “Is it him?” Him. Tenender. Gavin didn’t think Tenender had escaped the prison realm he had been sent to, but he wouldn’t put it past the man to figure out some way. The only way Gavin had repelled him was by using knowledge gifted to him by the bralinath trees—knowledge that still lingered in his head, though he could not reach it as easily as he wished. There were times when he felt the knowledge bloom in the back of his mind, and then it would begin to fade and disappear, as if the bralinath trees were trying to withdraw what they had given him. “Even if he escaped, I doubt he would’ve come here,” Gavin said. Gaspar went quiet for a few moments. “If you need anything, boy, let me know.” “What are you doing?” “Imogen is showing me a few things.” Gavin smiled inwardly. “Be careful with her. If she tries to get you to spar with her, I would imagine it’s a trap.” “Oh, I don’t think I could ever keep up with her when she has a blade. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try something else.” He thought maybe Gaspar would explain what he meant, but he didn’t. Gavin decided not to push it, especially given that Gaspar tended to be a bit sensitive about such things. He walked through an older part of the city, hand near the hilt of his blade. Some of the buildings had been made by the El’aras, ancient enough that the buildings themselves had changed over the years, along with the ownership. The stone had started to crumble and crack, but the feel of this place remained the same. Gavin wasn’t sure if that was tied to something in the building’s construction, or to the fact that no one spent much time here. As he moved, he began to feel another intrusion. This time, it was a burst of magical connection. He whipped out his blade, and he darted toward what he felt.