Black Gate: Timewalker Chronicles Book 4 Read online

  Table of Contents

  About BLACK GATE

  Dedication

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  WHITE FIRE, Timewalker Chronicles Book 5

  About BLACK GATE

  Katherine Green is living a lie. She’s a top ranking paranormal commander for the Casper Project, a black ops program committed to tracking down aliens, alien artifacts and weaponry. She’s very, very good at what she does, which is lie. She’s a Timewalker descendant. She’s dedicated her life to helping others gifted with power to escape the claws of corrupt leaders who would use them for their own ends. But she’s also very, very good at tracking alien objects of power, and she’s just found the mother lode, a Black Gate, a transdimensional portal between worlds. What she doesn’t know is that the Gate has an agenda of its own, and an Immortal guardian who has been dispatched to kill her before she unwittingly unleashes a horde of evil Triscani Hunters on Earth.

  Teagh’s been Guardian of the Gate, Darkwalker Lord, and the Dark One for centuries. He lives a solitary life hiding from both the Immortals on Itara and the human government here on Earth. He’s a guardian, not an assassin, but when he’s sent by an Immortal Seer to stop one human female from unleashing hell on Earth, he’s too late. She’s already on the other side, and the Gate no longer obeys him. Its allegiance has switched to the Timewalker female whose Mark burns through his blood. She Marked him, and now he aches to keep the dangerous female for himself.

  But there’s a reason the Gate chose her, a reason the Triscani Hunters have been waiting to strike, and a reason the Lost King of Itara mysteriously vanished hundreds of years ago. Katherine and Teagh will fight their desire and each other as they uncover the truth about a dark future that could destroy them both.

  Timewalker Chronicles, Book 4:

  BLACK GATE

  by Michele Callahan

  Copyright © 2014 by Michele Callahan

  All Rights Reserved

  Dedication

  This one’s for you, Dad.

  You sat me on your knee and told me I could be anything.

  And you meant it.

  If only every girl in the world were so lucky.

  Copyright

  Black Gate, Timewalker Chronicles, Book 4

  Cover design Copyright 2014 by RomCon® and Cynthia Woolf

  Photo Copyright: BigStockPhotos - © I T A L O

  Photo Copyright: BigStockPhotos - © ags andrew

  First Edition. September 2014

  Copyright 2014 by Michele Callahan

  Published By Michele Callahan

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, people, places and events are completely a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook 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 recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Prologue

  Tavanier, Florida Keys, five weeks earlier

  Teagh stared out over the Atlantic, toes teased by the edge of the water. Raiden and Mari were most likely in his house now, doing the horizontal mambo. Or the vertical. Or the up-against-the-wall. He’d stopped at a beach a few miles from his home to think, and mourn the loss of possibilities. He’d been Marked for a matter of minutes.

  It had felt like a miracle, right up until he’d had to walk away.

  The sound of the waves always helped clear his head. He’d leave in a moment on his latest hunt for answers. He’d have to relocate now that the enemy had discovered his beachfront home. Relocate. Run.

  All he ever did was hide. But one male against a thousand Triscani weren’t odds he was stupid enough to take. For seven hundred years he’d been hiding from the Triscani, ever since the final battle had cost the Itarans their King and Queen, and the fucking wormhole had brought the ship he was on here. To Earth. In the wrong damn time, over seven hundred years into the past.

  Seven and a half centuries was a long time to be away from home.

  Speaking of home, it was time. He pulled the communicator from his pocket and pressed the button that would summon Celestina. He didn’t wait long.

  “Teagh.” He looked up with a start to see the bane of his half-brother’s miserable existence walking toward him. He bowed deep. He hadn’t seen the Seer, Celestina, in nearly two centuries. She was still beautiful. Still in pain. Trapped in this time, just like he was, along with the other twelve Archivers sitting at the council table up on her ship. He didn’t consider that orbiting vessel home any longer. He’d fled the twelve bastards, including his own half-brother, Bran, over two hundred years ago. Always fighting. Trying to control him, and tell him how to do his damn job. If it were anyone but Celestina walking toward him now, he’d open a portal and disappear. After just losing his connection to the Timewalker Marina, he didn’t have the heart to refuse the lovely Seer who approached him now. And he’d promised to deliver the Timewalker, Mari’s message.

  “Celestina.” He turned to face her and opened his arms.

  “My friend. It’s been too long.”

  “It has been many years, my lady.” Celestina walked right into his embrace and wrapped him in a hug. Some things never changed. Thank the gods.

  “Too many.”

  He held her for a full minute. Perhaps longer. It had been a very long time since he’d seen her or anyone else from that gods-forsaken ship. Not that he cared to see any of the others… “How is my brother?”

  “Angry, full of secrets, stomping around the ship ordering everyone about, as always.”

  Teagh would have laughed, but his brother, Bran, loved Celestina with a depth that was downright terrifying, not that is did his brother any good. Bran would’ve done anything for her. Kill kings. Destroy entire planets. Yet Bran kept her always at arm’s length. He had to.

  Celestina appeared to be oblivious to his brother’s torment, which was just as well. Bran’s secrets were not his to tell. But Teagh knew the lady well, perhaps knew more about her than even his obsessed brother, yet he had no idea what drove her. The Seers, Celestina and Helene, were mysteries better left untouched. The only two females to come back on the battleship with them had both spent centuries riding the strands of time, searching. Always searching. For who or what, he never knew. But perhaps, now he did…and his suspicions were not reassuring.

  The Immortal, Droghan, wouldn’t be idle prey. He was vicious and smart, and, as one of the true Itaran Immortals, damn near impossible to kill. When the bastard had shown up in his home hours ago, he’d been beyond shocked.

  More than just surprised, he’d been worried that the Archivers and Seers who came through the worm hole with him seven hundred years ago might be up against a hell of a lot more than they’d bargained for. Droghan was leg
endary in both cruelty and power. And he was supposed to be dead, reduced to nothing by the Angel’s Fire of the Itaran Queen herself days before the final battle. A future battle.

  Which meant Droghan would still be alive. Now. In this hellish version of Earth’s past.

  Fuck.

  He pulled back and held Celestina’s tiny hands in his giant ones. She cared for him, deeply. It was easy for him to read the emotions in her darkness. But friendship and compassion were all that lay between them. Events were spinning now, moving faster. The Immortals on her ship quickly approached the time of the final battle, when their present would finally catch up to the future they’d left behind.

  If Droghan was here, the battle was even closer than he thought. He needed to know if his new suspicions were correct. How could a Seer as powerful as Celestina not know such a dangerous enemy was here, on Earth? That bastard, even alive, should have been on Itara. Not here, in his fucking living room.

  “Droghan was here, in my home.”

  “Droghan?” Celestina pulled back with a gasp, a frown on her face. So, she didn’t know. “That can’t be. He was destroyed.”

  Teagh nodded. “Yes. In the future. A future that has not happened yet. But he was here, in my home, with the Triscani under his command. He claims to know where Ajax is being held prisoner.” Teagh had yet to confirm the bastard’s claims, but he would find out the truth soon enough. He just wasn’t sure what he could do about it.

  Celestina whispered, so faint he barely caught the words. “The dream…” Pacing now, Celestina wrapped her arms around her waist, the flowing blue of her gown a perfect match for the sky above her, her tiny feet in delicate sandals that looked to be made of spun copper. “What did he say? What does he want? How is this possible?”

  “He claims to know something about Ajax. And he hunts for a new Queen. A human Timewalker. Not Angeline.” He looked away from her, out over the crashing surf, avoided her astute Seer’s gaze.

  She refused to allow him a moment to consider the ramifications of a human Queen, of a Queen that his King, Ajax, wouldn’t even know. “And?”

  “And the Timewalker, Marina, asked me to give you two things. The first is this stone.” Teagh placed the soul stone with the Timewalker’s Mark in her hand, shocked when a flash of power nearly knocked Celestina from her feet.

  “By the gods.” Celestina stared at the stone as if she’d just been struck by lightning. He wanted to ask what had just happened, but knew the question would be a waste of breath. “What is the second thing?”

  “A message. She said to tell you that she was successful, and so you would not remember that there is a traitor on board your ship.”

  Celestina stopped in her tracks and stared out to sea for several minutes. Thinking. Her aura flashed from confusion to clarity to rage. When she looked up at him, her face was once more composed, serene. A lie only he seemed to be able to see. If only Bran possessed his power. But Bran was his half-brother, born of the light, not the dark. Bran wouldn’t be able to see past the mask she wore, couldn’t know that the Seer was in trouble. In pain. And afraid.

  Teagh felt a tight band of worry wrap his brow. In seven hundred years he’d seen her afraid a mere handful of times. Celestina was the greatest Seer among the Immortals. No one knew her true age or the limits to her visions or power. She’d been in the forward command post, with the King and Queen, when everything had gone wrong. They’d evacuated the council, lost the King and Queen, and boarded the ship that brought them here. His ship had been tracking a Triscani vessel and followed them into the wormhole.

  They’d been stuck in Earth’s past ever since, trying to figure out what happened. After seven hundred years, they were still trying to figure out a way to win the final battle this time around. Droghan’s arrival didn’t bode well for any of them.

  “Please, Tina. Talk to me. Tell me what is going on. I can help you. If not me, talk to Bran.”

  “No. I can’t put either of your lives in any more danger. I won’t. I have enough sin to carry already.” Celestina looked away, stared out over the water, her long golden hair lifted by the soft breeze. “Thank you, Teagh. You know I love you both. Droghan? Yes. I will inform Bran immediately. We need to find him and figure out how to destroy him. Find the human Timewalker before Droghan kills her And find Ajax. We’re running out of time.”

  “I know.” Running out of time. That was a cruel joke. They’d been stuck here, in the past, for centuries, waiting for the day of the final battle to once again approach. Now that it drew near, the Archivers were screwed. The Lost King was in no condition to fight. The future Queen had no idea who she was, and she was being hunted by one of the most powerful Immortals to exist. They had a traitor on board the Archivers’ ship and the lovely Celestina was keeping secrets from them.

  Teagh wanted to press her for answers, but knew the act would be futile. Celestina was the most stubborn female he’d ever known. She was an enigma.“You have worked very hard to find me when I didn’t want to be found. You exposed me, put me at risk, and dabbled with the past, as Marina’s message proved. I can’t help but wonder why.”

  Her gaze darkened, the glacier-blue irises turned the color of a dark, stormy sea. Teagh’s shoulders tensed. “A Gate, Teagh. The humans have found one. They will open it soon, in Colorado.”

  “A vision?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who have you told?”

  “No one else, and now I cannot. If there is truly a conspirator on the council, as Marina’s message insists, I can’t trust anyone on the ship. I must inform Bran about the issue. He will have to hunt for the traitor. We’ve all been together on the ship for centuries. I trusted them all implicitly, and now I don’t dare go to any of them for help.”

  Teagh digested that for a moment. A traitor on Tina’s ship. An Archiver or a Seer. The rest of the crew had no access to the Seers visions. The idea of anyone on the Archiver council betraying the Lost King was absurd, but Celestina obviously believed the human Timewalker’s warning. This news was somehow linked to Droghan, the Gate, and the Triscani invaders. “I guess we save the world all by ourselves. The Archivers have grown complacent. We’ve been here too long. They won’t believe you. Not about this. Not after seven hundred years. What do you need me to do?”

  “Find the Timewalker descendant, Katherine.” Celestina bit her lower lip, something Teagh had never, in hundreds of years, seen her do. A cloud of sadness enveloped both of them. The woman’s aura was damn strong.

  “Tell me the rest.”

  “You must take control of her power. Prevent her from opening the Gate. If you can’t stop her, you must kill her.”

  “Gods be damned.” Leave it to a prophetess to curse a male who was already in a sour mood. Teagh rolled his shoulders and stared up at the sky, at the piercing blue, so clear. So simple. His life was more like the sand under his feet, ever shifting and unstable. Both barren and dangerous.

  “I’m so very sorry.” She wrung her hands together and he knew worse news followed. She didn’t disappoint. “Katherine is family to Tim and Sarah. If you can’t find her on your own, they can lead you right to her. But you must not tell them your true reason for going to her. They know where she is. They can contact her and draw her out.”

  “I’m a guardian, not an assassin. You know that. Don’t ask me to murder an innocent female. I won’t do it. Not even for you.” He’d killed females before, on the battlefield, in combat during the war with the Triscani before this accursed leap back in time. He’d nearly lost his head to a few of the more experienced half-blood women who were wicked with a blade. If they came at him, tried to slaughter him, they were fair game. But not like this. Never like this.

  Celestina’s eyes filled with tears. She shook, voice and aura filled with resignation. “You aren’t murdering an innocent, Teagh. She is dangerous. You must guard this planet. Guard the Gate. And that means you need to find her and kill her before they use her power. She is one mortal fem
ale. One human with just enough Timewalker blood to get us all killed. She can’t control her power. She is surrounded by soldiers she trusts. Honorable men. Warriors willing to sacrifice all to protect her. Men she loves like brothers and will not betray. Men she’s willing to die for. A few days will not be long enough to convince her to betray them. A few days won’t be enough…”

  Teagh winced at her unfinished sentence. She was right. A handful of days wasn’t enough time for the woman to learn to trust him. To believe him. To listen to him and keep her power from these men she loved so much. A few days? It might as well be centuries. There was very likely no length of time that would get the job done. Not for him. He was a black-hearted bastard when it came to his duty. That wasn’t going to change, either. Still, he didn’t kill innocents in cold blood. “Then throw a wrench in their plans. Mess with these men she loves. Find another way.”

  “There is no other way. They’ve already found the Gate. It chose her. It summoned her. She will open the Gate, and the darkness will devour her and her men.” Celestina wiped the tears from her cheeks with trembling fingers. The waterworks and tremors both signs of weakness the diminutive warrior princess never would have revealed to his brother.

  Teagh frowned. “Won’t that solve the problem? They can’t open the Gate for the Triscani if they’re all dead.”

  Celestina shook her head, an agony of knowledge shining from her aura. “The dark wants her for itself, Teagh. It’s too dangerous. If by some miracle she survives, if the Gate’s power doesn’t kill her, it will obey her.”

  The words were a sinister fist around his heart. The Gates obeyed only one being on Earth. One.