Page 1 of Riot of Autumn

PROLOGUE

A QUICK AND DIRTY RECAP OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED SO FAR!

When Miri was fifteen, her mom sent her away in the middle of the night with a stranger. Davis drove her halfway across the country and left her behind. Miri never heard from her mom again. Ten years later, Miri inherits the family home on Wild Haven Island and moves there to learn about her mom’s past. Imagine her surprise when she runs into Davis, who also lives on the island. He’s less than happy to see her. Miri’s mom risked everything to keep Miri safe, and now she’s walked right into the belly of the beast.

Wild Haven Island is a town obsessed with the Fae. Turns out it’s for good reason. Miri discovers her mom was part of a group that tried to form a magical Fae coven called an Axis. Miri’s mom ran, but everyone else involved appeared to be tainted by the Axis. The leader of this failed Axis, his name is Anthony. Surprise, he’s Miri’s dad. He’s also a Fae, from Fairy. What he wants is to pull down the veil and get back home. Or is it?

Long story short, Anthony forces Miri and Davis to bond, forming the first part of a new Axis. Miri has alchemist magic and Davis has elemental magic.

Lena’s been in love with Archer since grade school. He’s clueless. Still, there’s an undeniable pull toward each other and it doesn’t take long before they’re acting on those feelings. Adding another layer of complication is the new douche in town—looking at you, Colton Zima—who worms his way onto Wild Haven’s activities committee, which Lena and Archer run. Lena finds out she’s got life and death magic; Archer has shadow magic. Lena’s dad is an abusive POS and Archer’s parents are assholes. Neither Archer nor Lena wants to form a magical bond and help create the Axis. They’re afraid it might change them like they believe it changed their parents.

Lena can see auras and she notices a lot of gold auras infected with black flitting around the island. Including Colton’s. In the end, it doesn’t matter if Archer and Lena want to bond. Colton stabs Archer, forcing Lena and Archer to bond so she has the power to heal him.

Zara’s a human who’s lived in Fairy her whole life. One night, the Duke of the Summer Court tries to sacrifice her in order to pull down the veil. She escapes through the veil and ends up on Wild Haven Island. She meets the whole gang, including Ruby, who could be her twin. They figure out that Zara is the missing person needed to form the Axis, although is that really what they want to do?

Because Zara missed out on all the usual childhood milestones, the crew throws her birthday parties, play truth or dare, go skinny dipping, and have a prom. Zara figures out that Anthony has attached himself to Miri and Davis’s bond, as well as getting his hooks into Lena and Archer’s bond. In order to break that connection, Zara and Rhys bond. There’s a big fight, and the night ends with Zara spotting the Duke, walking down the middle of Aspen Street.

He should not be on this side of the veil.

1

RUBY

“You look like a drowned parrot.” Ezra grins at me from the driver’s seat of his UTV, a crazed glint in his eyes.

It’s hard to resist the urge to punch him.

The lime-green eighties formal dress I wore to our adult prom is a sagging and wrinkled disaster. Kind of like this whole night.

The obvious question is why would anyone throw an adult prom? Well, my younger sister Zara lived in Fairy her whole life and never got to experience all the normal shit the rest of us grew up with. My friends and I have spent the last few months trying to recreate all those milestones for her. Although, I never went to prom in high school either.

I drop my chin and take in the sad state of my dress. It’s hanging a little limply on my body, and my hair and makeup are equally fucked. That doesn’t mean Ezra gets to say that shit out loud. He can eat a bag of dicks.

A flash from earlier in the night burns the back of my retinas. Ezra’s hands on my hips, sliding over my stomach and ribs as he danced with me.

Okay, maybe dancing isn’t the right word. He’d been grinding his dick against my ass and practically fucking me in the middle of the street during our weird-ass prom. Maybe I need to punch myself, because I seriously considered finding a spot to shove him on his back so I could ride him like a deviant cowgirl.

It wouldn’t be the first time I fantasized about what it would feel like to have Ezra on top of me, inside of me. No. Those thoughts are dangerous and it’s a slippery slope I shouldn’t want to test out. Messing around with Ezra is a horrible idea on so many levels. He’s one of my oldest friends, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t hurt me before. Now that I’m older and wiser, I’ve determined that relationships are not for me. They only expose your weak underbelly and give someone else the power to crush your soul. If I let myself chase after Ezra and he rejected me again, it would be one more important person in my life to confirm I’m not worth it.

Those are dark thoughts that don’t need to be taking up space in my head right now. I turn and soak in every inch of Ezra in the driver’s seat.

“You look like you made a wish to be a real boy on a carnival fortune telling machine.” I lift one eyebrow as I stare at his too short pants.

Tonight’s prom night turned out to be a shitshow, which I’m pretty sure is how most of them end up. Though I’d hazard a guess that our evening was more of a catastrophe than your typical high school affair.

Rhys and Zara formed a magical bond, which destroyed the connection that the scumbag Anthony had with Miri, Davis, Lena, and Archer’s bonds. Then the night got really crazy when a seriously epic fight broke out in the Fae woods. Anthony, Colton, Seraphina, and a bunch of other asshole Fae who’ve taken up residence on our island of Wild Haven were pissed about the whole severing of Anthony’s control.

Davis used his elemental magic and doused us all in rain. Miri created some insane potion bombs that we threw around like kids playing with water balloons. Archer blacked out the entire clearing with his shadows, and at the end of it all, Ezra was naked for some fucking reason.

At least we won. I think.

Afterward, we gathered at Rhys’s bar, essentially to confirm that we’re all screwed. More and more Fae have been popping up in Wild Haven, for whatever fucking reason. Anthony claims all they want is to pull down the veil between our world and Fairy to get home. In order to do that, an Axis must be formed. Up until about nine months ago, none of my friends or I knew what an Axis really is.

Turns out an Axis is a magical Fae coven of sorts that involves eight people. Four couples who bind their magic and lives together to form one powerful gang, like when all the Power Rangers combine and create a big robot or some shit. Three out of the four couples have now bonded, leaving just me and Ezra as the holdouts. No one has clearly explained to me why we would willingly do exactly what Anthony wants.

Long story not so short, it’s not been a great night. Definitely in my top five of crap evenings. Now Ezra’s driving me home and pointing out how shitty I look. Not that he can talk. His pants are ridiculous.

He stole them off one of the Fae we fought in the woods earlier tonight. After he was naked. Again, why? The pants only reach the middle of his calves and cling to his muscular thighs like their mission in life is to tease me.

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