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  Chosen

  A Danika Frost Prequel Novella

  Connor Ashley

  Charlotte Page

  Copyright © 2019 by Inked Entertainment Ltd and Samantha Adams

  All rights reserved.

  The moral right of the authors have been asserted.

  ISBN e-Book: 978-1-912382-16-3

  ISBN paperback: 978-1-912382-17-0

  ISBN hardback: 978-1-912382-18-7

  This book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is fictionalized or coincidental.

  To my chosen sister, Chloe. Happy birthday!

  - Connor

  To my four-legged drafting partner, Lily. I owe you another round of fetch.

  - Charlotte

  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

  1

  At the edge of Greenvale, a small coastal town in the Pacific Northwest, Danika Frost sat beneath a canopy of sunset leaves, unaware of the panther stalking her like prey.

  The beast was black as night, and if Dani had bothered to glance through the gaps in her picketed fence, she might have seen the glint of light off the creature’s eyes as it prowled the edge of the tree line. Watching. Waiting. A low growl crackled through the trees, and Dani finally looked up from her reading.

  But it was too late.

  In two swift leaps, the panther soared over the fence, landing beside the girl, and snarled loud in her face.

  Dani shrieked, her voice tearing across the yard, and dropped the college catalogue. She raised her arms to protect her head, just like her mother had taught her. But when pain didn’t sink into her skin, she cautiously peeked through her fingers. “Kiva?” Dani groaned, dropping her hands. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

  The great feline licked the side of Dani’s face. You should pay better attention, Little Warrior.

  Kiva’s voice was crystal clear inside Dani’s mind, her tone soft and warm, much like her fur. Dani rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t stop the smile playing at her lips. She loved Kiva, who in many ways was like a second mother, but Dani cringed at the term of endearment. She didn’t feel like a warrior, and she worried she never would.

  Dani picked up the college catalogue and brushed grass from the cover. Her fingers lingered over the image of students laughing while they studied on a perfectly green lawn. A forbidden hope rose inside, making her heart ache.

  “We don’t have to train all the time, Kiva. Most humans like to spend their weekends relaxing.” Dani flipped the catalogue open to the section she’d been reading about the school’s nursing program. “Besides, resting is all the rage with athletes these days.”

  Demons won’t wait to attack simply because you’re not in the mood, Kiva reminded her solemnly. They won’t wait until . . . what do they call it these days? Game time?

  “It depends on the sport, but no one calls it ‘game time.’” Dani laughed, and Kiva blew out a disgruntled breath that tossed Dani’s light brown hair out of her face. “Besides, I have you to protect me.” She reached for Kiva, scratching behind the panther’s ears.

  Kiva rumbled low in her chest, as close to purring as her size would allow, and the sound reverberated through Dani. As the panther curled up beside her, Dani wished she could bottle moments like this and make them last forever. This was her favorite version of the two of them, but it was the one Dani’s actual mother preferred the least.

  “Danika?”

  Speaking of mothers . . .

  Andrea Frost stormed out the backdoor of their small rental home. Seeing her was like staring into a time machine. The Frost women shared the same pale skin, light brown hair, and dark eyes. Dani had inherited Andrea’s nose and her full lower lip. But all the softness had been carved out of her mother, leaving only sharp angles and hard lines.

  At the edge of Andrea’s sleeves, black shadows billowed forth as the Ink on her arms dissolved, reappearing as fierce snakes at her feet. The python and king cobra shot ahead of Andrea and raced towards Dani while a raven circled above.

  “Are you all right?” Andrea asked when she neared, only seconds behind the ancient creatures that had appeared from her skin. “I heard a scream and . . . ” She trailed off when she reached Dani, who was using Kiva as a pillow. Andrea sighed. “What is that?”

  “What’s what?” Dani asked, but her traitorous hands clutched the college brochure tight to her chest anyway.

  “This.” Andrea grabbed the stack of glossy catalogues sitting in a neat pile beside the tree. “I told you I wanted this nonsense out of the house.”

  “Technically, we’re not in the house,” Dani replied as the two snakes slithered up her arms and kissed her face with forked tongues, more like puppies than lethal serpents.

  Come now, Danika, don’t sass your mother. The raven swooped low and perched on Andrea’s shoulder. The old bird fixed his black eyes on Dani. You have a sacred duty—

  “To rid the world of demons. I know, Poe.” Dani focused on his beaky face instead of looking at her mother. It felt easier to direct her plea at him. Poe was very expressive for a raven, but he was still a bird. He had never mastered the same soul crushing look of disappointment that her mother so often wore. “It’ll be years before I carry the Ink. If I become a nurse, I can help people until it’s my time.”

  Poe ruffled his feathers. Four years is far too long to delay your training. No one in the Frost line has ever gone to college.

  “We could start a new tradition. Change doesn’t have to be a bad thing..”

  Andrea held up a hand, silencing both Dani and Poe before they could really get into it. “Poe’s right, Danika. Our lives are too dangerous for you to lose that much training. I need you here with me, where you can learn as much as I can teach you before I’m gone.”

  “Mom . . . ”

  “I’m sorry, Danika, but my answer is final.” Andrea nodded toward the house. “Now, come inside. I want to review your close combat techniques before I go hunting.” Andrea smiled, her expression warming. “If you do well, I’ll let Kiva stay home to keep you company.”

  Dani nodded, hugging her knees to her chest. “I’ll be right in,” she said and watched her mother leave as tears burned in her eyes. Only when she was alone did she let the tears fall. Only alone did she allow herself to feel the weight of her mangled dreams.

  Even though it was her destiny to become the next Ink Carrier, to bear the ancient creatures on her skin, Dani didn’t want that life. She didn’t want the violence or the travel or the uncertainly that came with a life spent hunting demons. She wanted the future sprawling before her in the pages of the college brochures. She wanted green lawns and gothic architecture and terrible dining hall food. She wanted the consistency of spending four years in the same place. She wanted to study. To make friends. To fall in love.


  She wanted to spend her life healing humans, not slaying monsters.

  If only her mother could see that.

  Dani scrubbed the tears from her face. She wouldn’t give up on a real future, not without a fight.

  She was, after all, her mother’s daughter.

  Dani sprang to her feet, her mind racing with all the ways she could try to convince her mother. Maybe she could compromise. There were two-year nursing programs. And scholarships. Dani could figure out how to pay her own way. There had to be something that would change her mother’s mind.

  With fresh conviction flowing through her veins, Dani hurried inside. They hadn’t been in Greenvale long, only a few months, but it already felt like home. The single-story house was small, but it was the nicest place they had ever lived. Dani loved the beautiful white porch that wrapped around the front of the house. Poe liked to sit on the railing and drill Dani on the dozens upon dozens of different kinds of demons that had been spotted on the human plane, and the snakes liked to curl up and warm themselves on the stone steps on the rare occasion there was sun in their town.

  Inside, Dani searched for her mom. Andrea wasn’t in the kitchen, so Dani continued through to the living room, where her mother was weighing a pair of daggers in her hands.

  “Good, there you are. Ready?” Andrea tossed Dani one of the knives.

  Dani caught it out of the air, adjusting her grip on the hilt. “I’m going to college, Mom. With or without your blessing.”

  Andrea sighed and stared at the ceiling. Dani got the distinct impression that her mother was counting to ten before answering her, a trick Kiva had also taught Dani when she’d get frustrated as a child.

  “I’d rather go with your permission,” Dani said in a rush, wishing she’d taken more time to prepare. “I promise I’d still train every day, and I’d come back on all my breaks to learn more. Or I could go somewhere local. We could stay in Greenvale. There’s a community college here. I could live at home and hunt with you at night. We can make this work.”

  “You know we can’t stay that long, Dani. Once we’ve rid the town of demons, I have to move on.” Andrea brushed a stray tear from Dani’s cheek. “I get why you want to do this,” she whispered, quiet enough that none of the Ink, who waited at the edges of the room, could hear. “But it’s not meant to be.”

  “Please, Mom.” Dani’s voice wavered on the edge of breaking. “There has to be a way.”

  Andrea stepped back and adjusted her grip on the dagger in her palm. She glanced at the Ink. Kiva lay sprawled out in the door way, Jasper and Silas curled up beside her tail. Poe crossed the room and perched on the edge of the couch. Some silent message Dani couldn’t hear must have passed between them, because finally, Andrea nodded.

  “Fine.” Andrea’s single word sent a surge of hope ricocheting inside Dani’s ribs. “If you can beat me, I’ll let you go.”

  “Really?” Dani could hardly believe it, but before she could thank her mom, Andrea lunged forward.

  Focus, Little Warrior! Kiva’s voice filled Dani’s mind. She dodged right, narrowly missing her mom’s sudden attack. Keep your guard up.

  Dani dodged and parried Andrea’s attacks, the scrape of metal against metal pinging through the room as they drew together again and again. Dani pushed with all her strength, fighting for focus despite Poe’s constant commentary.

  For heaven’s sake, Danika, stay on the balls of your feet. The bird flapped his glossy wings and let out an irritated squawk. We just went over this!

  Leave her be, bird, Silas said, contorting his body to get a better look at the fight.

  “If all of you . . . ” Dani said, gasping for breath and spinning out of her mother’s reach. “Could zip it. For just. A second.” Dani lunged, striking out at her mother, but Andrea blocked her thrust. “I could actually—”

  Dani’s words were lost when her mother knocked the short blade from her grip, spun her around, and pressed her forearm against Dani’s throat. With her other hand, Andrea raised the dagger and placed the tip just behind Dani’s ear.

  “You can’t let anything distract you,” Andrea said, her breath brushing against Dani’s skin, which was now slick with sweat. “Even them. If you do, the demons will eat you alive.” Andrea dropped the blade. “And I don’t mean that metaphorically.”

  Dani shuddered.

  “College isn’t happening. I don’t want to talk about this again.” Andrea sheathed the dagger and rolled up her sleeves. “Kiva. Poe. Jasper. Silas,” Andrea called to the Ink. “Return.”

  The four ancient creatures burst into black mist, visible only to the Carrier bloodline, and seared themselves into Andrea’s skin. Dani’s mom flinched as the Ink spread into a tattooed likeness of each warrior. The snakes, Jasper and Silas, along her forearms. Poe covered her neck and shoulder. Kiva claimed the whole of her back.

  “Stings every time,” Andrea muttered under her breath. She shook out her arms, like she could feel the weight of the ancient spirits’ power in her skin, and reached for the leather jacket Dani had coveted all her life. “I have to hunt. Do you want to join me?” Andrea grabbed her sword—the one that had been passed down the Frost line for hundreds of years, the blade that would one day belong to Dani—and strapped it around her waist. “Well? Let’s go.”

  Dani scrubbed hot, angry tears from her cheeks. “I hate you,” she whispered, feeling the words all the way down to her bones. The truth of them. The terrible lie. “I will never be like you.”

  “Danika—”

  But Dani didn’t wait to hear whatever her mother wanted to say. She fled the house, leaving behind everything but the hollow, aching loss in her heart.

  2

  Dani wished she had brought a jacket, but even more than that, she wanted to take back what she’d said to her mother.

  After she stormed out of the house, the sun wasted no time disappearing below the horizon. The autumn night was uncomfortably cool, and the lack of sleeves made Dani shiver. She crossed her arms, rubbing them to keep warm. At least the cold distracted her from the real reason she felt so miserable.

  But she didn’t want to think about that. Any of it. She couldn’t face the future knowing the life she so desperately craved was always one step out of reach. And she certainly wouldn’t let her mother’s hurt expression linger too long in her mind. Dani knew she’d have to apologize, but she didn’t know how she’d ever find the words.

  A fresh breeze kicked up, making Dani shiver. She looked longingly into a coffee shop while she waited on the street corner for the lights to turn. The plush chairs looked like they’d swallow her whole, and nothing sounded better than a cup of steaming tea. Except perhaps a mug of hot chocolate with extra whipped cream.

  Guilt swept through her for even thinking it. Poe would give her so much shit if he caught her drinking something like that.

  Danika Frost, the squawking curmudgeon would admonish in his British accent, the affectation much thicker than the other Ink, despite all of them being in America since Andrea’s great-grandmother left England. Your body is a demon-killing machine. You can’t fill it full of sugar!

  God, that bird was such a buzzkill.

  Dani patted her pockets and sighed, crossing the street away from the coffeeshop. She didn’t have any cash on her anyway. Not that they ever had much. Killing demons might be a full-time gig, but it certainly didn’t pay like it. Her mom usually managed to find temp work in their new towns, and they had a little inheritance left from Andrea’s mother, but they’d always lived simply. The Frost women never went hungry, but there was no room to splurge either.

  “Danielle!”

  The streets were mostly empty, so Dani knew the voice was meant for her, but she didn’t turn around. She wanted to be alone, and besides, anyone who didn’t know her well enough to know her name didn’t warrant a pause. If they confronted her about it at school, she could claim she hadn’t heard them.

  Whispers chased after her, then another voice called out.
“Danika?”

  Begrudgingly, Dani slowed and glanced over her shoulder. A group of people from school were walking toward her. At the head of the group, his blond hair perfectly mussed, was Gabriel. A senior like Dani, Gabriel had something Dani never would: A normal life.

  When the group reached her, Gabriel shoved his hands in his front pockets. A smile tugged at his lips, creating the cutest dimple Dani had ever seen. He rocked forward onto his toes and glanced back at the rest of his friends before settling his ocean eyes on her. “It is Danika, right? You’re in my US history class.”

  Despite her best efforts, heat flushed to her cheeks. “Yeah, English and physics, too, I think. And Dani’s fine. Only my mom calls me Danika.” And the Ink, she added silently to herself. Humans like Gabriel didn’t know anything about the demons that hunted them, and it was her job to keep it that way.

  “Dani. Got it.” Gabriel glanced at the assortment of classmates behind him. “We’re heading over to the Haunt. You should come with us.”

  “Oh, thanks, but . . . ” Dani trailed off, unwilling to share her penniless state but unable to conjure a better explanation with Gabriel’s perfect blue eyes locked on hers. Even if she had money for the cover charge or drinks, she still shouldn’t go. She needed to stay sharp. She needed—

  No. Dani was done letting the Ink dictate her life. At least for tonight.

  “A night of dancing sounds great actually,” she replied, finding her voice again. She glanced up at Gabriel, her cheeks warming with embarrassment. “I sorta left home without my wallet though.”

  A cautious smile pulled at Gabriel’s lips, too soft to show off his dimple again, but his cheeks turned pink. He rubbed a hand along the back of his neck. “You could come as my date,” he said, nerves coating his voice.