The Reckoning

THE RECKONING A SHATTERED ISLE NOVEL JADE PRESLEY CONTENTS Also by Jade Presley Available in Audio! Patreon Content Warning 1. Lock 2. Cari 3. Blaize 4. Cari 5. Gessi 6. Cari 7. Steel 8. Cari 9. Gessi 10. Cari 11. Blaize 12. Cari 13. Talon 14. Cari 15. Steel 16. Cari 17. Blaize 18. Cari 19. Gessi 20. Cari 21. Cari 22. Cari 23. Gessi 24. Cari 25. Cari Epilogue Let’s Chat! Acknowledgments Copyright © 2023 by Jade Presley. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher 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 products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you’d like to share it with. Thank you for respecting the author’s work. ALSO BY JADE PRESLEY The Shattered Isle series Her Villains Her Revenge The Assassins Her Mates AVAILABLE IN AUDIO! Her Villains Her Revenge PATREON Want exclusive perks like first access to books, fan art, premium swag, live chats with me, and more? Check out my Patreon tiers and see which one works for you! Find all that and more here! CONTENT WARNING This book contains some depictions of emotional abuse, violence, and explicit sexual content with multiple consenting partners. I’ve taken every effort to handle these issues sensitively, but if any of these elements could be considered triggering to you, please take note. To all my amazing, supportive readers. I’m with you, till the end of the line. 1 LOCK “How many did you bring in today?” Huxton, the leader of the Onyx City, asks as he offers me a large goblet of wine. He slides the golden cup across the smooth ebony table in one of his many council rooms. I lean up from my chair, exhaustion clinging to my bones as I reach for the offering and take a large gulp. The sparkling liquid does little to reinvigorate my powers, but they’re on their last dregs. “Two-hundred and sixty-three,” I say, and Huxton’s golden eyes widen. “Stars,” he says, shaking his head. “Have you slept?” I pause with the goblet poised at my lips, my eyes on the swirling liquid inside as I shake my head. “She hasn’t,” I say, taking another generous gulp. My mate. My beautiful, ruthless mate. She nor Gessi have slept since that forsaken box was sent to our chambers in Jasmine Falls. Four nights. Four days. It’s been a never-ending cycle where our efforts were split. Steel and I flying to one village or city in need, Gessi and Cari to another, Gessi’s mates to another, saving as many as we can. “You need rest,” Huxton says, leaning back in his chair. Thank the stars for him, for his formidable city. We wouldn’t have had anywhere to take those we saved if it weren’t for him. “I will,” I say, setting down the now-empty glass. “When she does.” I tap the glass, pushing back from the table. “Thank you for that,” I say, standing before him. “For all of it.” Normally I’m not one for bouts of vocalized gratitude, but he’s earned it. A true ally, one even the All Plane will never forget. “Like I told your queen and mine,” he says, rising to walk with me out of the room. “We are with them.” The shadows in my blood flicker with starvation, as if they’ve been deprived the basic needs of water and food and oxygen. I’m drained, so very drained, but with my abilities of transporting people through the shadows, I was the only one capable of saving so many. And I wouldn’t damn these people because I needed a fucking nap. “Are there any more?” Huxton asks as we stop outside the room he’s given Cari. Steel and myself have rooms of our own too, but I want to be with my mate. Talon and Tor will eventually make the trip to the Onyx City, once they ready the All Plane soldiers we can spare. “No,” I say. “I think that’s the last of them.” I rest my hand on the door handle, feeling almost too weak to turn it, to remain standing, but I don’t dare let it show. Thirteen thousand. We saved about thirteen thousand among the tens of thousands who suffered the recent attacks wrought by the general. He’d bided his time. Waited until he had the throne, to show his hand. His army is formidable and the sky ships and weapons he’s gathered are even more so…we still haven’t figured out who is supplying him. “Good,” Huxton says, knowing better than to reach out to me, to do something as foolish as grip my shoulder in support. He’s smarter than that, but I see it in his eyes, feel it along the edges of his mind that I’m too tired to protect against. “My people will care for them, find places for all of them,” he says. “You need to rest. Your queen does too. They all do.” I nod, feeling as if he breathed too hard I would fall over. I’ve never pushed myself this hard for this long. Huxton gives me another nod, then heads down the hallway, his long gait eating up the space in no time, leaving me alone outside my door. Finally, I turn the handle and step into the room, my vision blurring around the edges as I close the door behind me. “Cari,” I say when I see her through the fog in my eyes. She’s gorgeous,