Heart of the Thief (The Wardbreaker Book 1) Read online

  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  Synopsis

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  Also by Katerina Martinez

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  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

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Author's note

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  About the Author

  Also by Katerina Martinez

  Copyright

  HEART OF THE THIEF

  The Wardbreaker

  Book One

  By Katerina Martinez

  When you have an exceptional talent, you're gonna attract the wrong people.

  First of all, I don't consider myself a thief. I'm a finder. I find things people have lost, things people have had stolen from them. The only problem is, some people don't appreciate the distinction; especially once I've broken past their protective wards and... stolen from them.

  Enter, Asmodius. I may have stolen from him recently, and he may have found out it was me. When his henchmen catch up to me and bring me before him, he gives me a choice. I can face the consequences of having stolen from one of the most powerful magical families in New York City, or I can work for him. It turns out I have a gift he's pretty keen on exploiting, and as long as I play ball, I get to keep my head.

  But there's another problem with that: this guy is a legit crime boss, and what he wants me to do for him is suicide at best. The worst part? He puts his infuriatingly attractive son on babysitting duty to make sure I'm keeping up my end of the deal.

  Despite the arrogant, controlling shadow hanging over me, I have to put together a team to help me pull off the most dangerous heist in history.

  Either way, I'm probably dead, so I may as well have a little fun while I'm at it.

  For a limited time only, you can grab a FREE novella to one of Katerina’s other series by signing up to the authors’ reader group email lists. To opt in, click on the link below and go through the quick sign up process. There’s no spam, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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  Also by Katerina Martinez

  **(NEW)** THE WARDBREAKER SERIES

  Book 1: Heart of the Thief

  Book 2: Soul of the Storm

  THE OBSIDIAN ORDER SERIES

  Book 1: Wings of Light

  Book 2: Wings of Night

  Book 3: Wings of Shadow

  Magic Blood Series

  The Warlock

  Book 1: Demons and Deception

  Book 2: Mages and Masquerades

  Book 3: Scions and Sorcery

  Book 4: Hellfire and Homicide

  Book 5: Warlocks and Wickedness

  Magic Blood Series

  The Primal

  Book 1: Hunter’s Calling

  The Blood and Magick Series

  Book 1: Magick Reborn

  Book 2: Demon’s Kiss

  Book 3: Witch’s Wrath

  The Half-Lich Series

  THE HALF-LICH BOXED SET

  Book 1: Dark Siren

  Book 2: The Void Weaver

  Book 3: Night and Chaos

  The Amber Lee Series

  THE AMBER LEE BOXED SET

  Book 1: True Witch

  Book 2: Dark Witch

  Book 3: Shadow Witch

  Book 4: Red Witch

  Book 5: Devil’s Witch

  The Cursed and Damned Series

  Book 1: The Dead Wolves

  The Order of Prometheus Series

  Book 1: Smoke and Shadows

  Book 2: Cloak and Daggers

  You can also join Katerina’s Inner Circle on Facebook, where you’ll be able to interact with her directly, whenever you want! That’s also where she’ll be sharing early snippets, early cover reveals, and more contests!

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  CHAPTER ONE

  The red door in front of me had a warning sign on it, but I picked the lock anyway. Soft pulses of anxious energy crawled along my arms as my fingers worked, exciting the hairs all the way up the nape of my neck. I wanted to look over my shoulder for signs I’d been spotted, but instead I kept focused on what I was doing.

  Pretty sure there’d have been spells flying at me by now if I’d tripped a silent alarm I didn’t know about.

  I was crouching by the door to a Demonologist’s inner sanctum, the place where he kept his most prized possessions. To get here, I’d had to slip past his magical defenses as well as his mundane security system. Neither of them had been up to the challenge of keeping me out, but there were few security systems I’d encountered that could. That was why I’d been given this job, and not someone else.

  A knot grew inside of my stomach, tightening as the seconds passed. I wasn’t afraid of getting caught and having to slide out of this place on the back of a whisper. I also wasn’t afraid of having to fight my way out, if it came down to it. I was starting to feel something like fear, though. Not toward the door, but toward what it was guarding.

  I glanced up at the warning sign again.

  “Abandon all hope all ye who enter here,” I said under my breath, reading the red lettering slapped on the door. Those were the words written on the doorway to Hell, if you believed the story. Super original, right? And yet, I couldn’t help but feel a little unnerved.

  Shaking my head, I kept picking at the lock with my tools until it finally clicked open. That was the thing about mages. Most of them were so up their own asses they thought they could put a couple of spells up to protect their treasures and that’d keep the whole world out. But spells could be tricked, and once the spells had been bypassed, the rest was a walk in the park.

  Careful not to make a sound, I pushed the door open, but it had other plans. It croaked like a chorus of toads; a constant snapping sound that set my nerves alight. A cold breath of rancid air flowed out through the slowly opening gap, assaulting my nostrils and making them sting. It was Sulphur, a smell like rotting eggs left out on a hot day. But it was also more than that. It was another warning that, beyond this red door, lay the Demonic.

  Taking one last breath of fresh air, I slid past the red door and into the Demonologist’s inner sanctum; a place most mages wouldn’t dare to tread for fear of what could be lurking inside.

  I fumbled around near the door with my fingers, searching for a light switch, but I couldn’t find one. There were no windows in here, no natural light; only a thick, almost unnatural darkness. Now that I was through the room’s protective spells, I figured I could probably use some of my own magic without worrying about setting off alarms.

  I flicked my wrist, and a soft ball of silvery light rolled into the palm of my hand. It floated up at my command and moved deep
er into the sanctum, its luminescence bouncing off of the shiniest surfaces it touched. I heard something move, a sound like a chair scraping across the floor, and my nerves started to sing again.

  The sound rooted me to the spot. Was there someone else in here with me? I scanned the darkness, watching for signs of movement, but the next few anxiety ridden seconds passed silently. Then I remembered.

  “Right…” I said to myself, “I’m in a room full of Demon… stuff.”

  I definitely wasn’t alone, but whatever company I had probably wasn’t human. It also probably wasn’t a threat so long as I didn’t touch anything. Easy. Just don’t touch anything, Izzy. Play it cool, be calm, and everything will be fine. I shrugged the anxiety away, took a step off to the right, and immediately bumped into a glass cabinet. It was only by some miracle that I’d managed to grab it on both sides and hold it in place, but that was close.

  I suddenly found myself staring at the creepiest, most screwed up looking doll I’d ever seen in my life. It was mostly burned, its little dress charred black, its face almost ruined. But its eyes… it was like they were staring right at me. Superimposed onto the glass panel between me and the doll was my face, stark wide and terrified; my ragged breathing fogging the image up.

  “Holy shit,” I said, “Holy shit, holy shit…”

  All the blood had drained from my already pale face, but my heart was pounding all the same. Wild strands of blue hair fell around my eyes and cheeks like they’d been yanked out of the ponytail I’d very carefully tied my hair into before entering the house. As the light from the orb moved behind me, it was like the doll’s strange, amber eyes had replaced my misty grey ones.

  Gingerly I pulled the cabinet back into position until it was resting again. So much for don’t touch anything. Good going.

  With the cabinet back in its place, I took another deep breath and got back to searching the room for what I’d come here to find.

  The Demonologist—Becket Redwood—was a collector of old items. One table was covered in chalices, some that sparkled like new, others that looked hundreds of years old and were probably thousands of times more expensive than the new looking ones. On another table sat radio that looked older than my mother would’ve been now, if she were still alive. That was to say nothing of the books lying around.

  Most of them were so old, the writing on their leather covers and spines had faded.

  They begged me to open them, to touch them, to learn the secrets they held inside. It wasn’t like they were speaking to me; more like they were drawing me toward them. I could feel it, this pull where my head met my spine. It was as if invisible fingers caressed my skin, urging me to tilt toward the books, inching me ever closer to them.

  I shook loose their hold on me and returned to my mission. I’d come here to find a key. I heard a click, and then a slow, snapping sound of an old cabinet croaking open; the same sound the door had made. With a lump of dread wedged in my throat I thought back to the creepy doll. I imagined the glass case door opening by itself, and the burned doll sliding out with a knife in its hand.

  When my muscles relaxed enough that I could move again, I bid the ball of light to shoot over to the doll. It hadn’t left its spot, and its glass case hadn’t started to open. What had opened was a wooden cabinet hanging on a nearby wall. I moved the light over, guiding it with my hand, and there I found what I’d come looking for.

  The old, brown cabinet was filled with keys, maybe fifty of them, each hanging off hooks set into the back. Behind the keys, a design had been etched into the wood; a series of sharp symbols I recognized as magical, but ancient. Mages used runes and symbols all the time; on their clothes, in their magic, on things, places, and even people.

  It was like a language, the language of magic. But just like you could tell the difference between modern English and Shakespearean English, I could tell the writing on the back of that cabinet was old. How old, I didn’t know. It was clear enough, though, that the symbols were a warning. Whoever had drawn them into the cabinet had wanted to keep mages from touching its contents.

  I scanned the keys hanging on the hooks for the one I needed until I found it. They were all old keys, most of them obnoxiously large, or twisted and rusted with age. Many of the copper keys had oxidized and turned green, while others looked like they’d been hit with hammers until they almost didn’t look like keys anymore.

  The one I needed was a simple brass key, dull and clunky but still holding its shape, its handle a four-leafed clover. It sat at the heart of the cabinet, one of the only keys that wasn’t completely messed up. I couldn’t just take it, though. The warning was clear, even if it was about five hundred years old.

  Good thing I’d come prepared.

  A friend of mine had given me a spell to use, something that would let me touch the key without pissing off the dark magic aura this thing was wearing like a robe. I mean, not only had the cabinet shown me where it was, it had opened for me, and it had placed the key I needed front and center. This thing wanted me to stick my hand inside it. It was goading me, and the last thing I wanted to do was to invite a bunch of Demonic crap into my life.

  I produced a little test tube from my pocket and opened the cap. Despite the darkness, the powder sitting inside of it glittered and glimmered with soft, amber light. My magic, I could conjure in an instant. It was a thing as easy as breathing. Unfortunately, I’m an Elemancer. My realm is fire, and storms, and lightning.

  Your typical, vengeful, Greek God kind of stuff.

  None of that was going to help me when presented with a puzzle that required a little Demonology to solve. Enter my friend, the only purveyor of black-market spells on the whole East Coast—that I knew of. She had the ability to siphon off another mage’s magic and turn it into a powder, or a liquid, that just any old mage could use in a pinch.

  I knew I’d need something like this tonight, so I’d bought one. The right tool for the right job.

  I stared at the powder as it poured into my hand, and then I blew into it, sending it forward in a puff of amber dust and glimmering light. The cabinet suddenly started to wobble and shake, bouncing on its supports like it was… well, possessed.

  It jerked and rocked, smacking against the wall and making all kinds of noise, until the key loosened from its hook and fell. I caught it before it hit the floor, and then started breathing a little more easily.

  Phew.

  It was a good thing the owner of the house I’d broken into wasn’t home. He’d have heard that kind of a ruckus for sure. I stuffed the key into my jacket pocket and went to turn around, but my sixth sense tingled, and instead of turning, I wrapped my fingers around the dagger I kept strapped to my waist.

  “Izzy Warden,” came a raspy voice from the door to the inner sanctum. “Long time no see.”

  I shut my eyes, and sighed. “Dammit. Not you assholes.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  They called themselves the Mystic Trio; I knew them as the pain in my ass. Slowly, I turned around, dismissing my orb of light and plunging the room deeper into darkness. I could still see their silhouettes standing in stark contrast against the open door behind them, but the hope was that they now couldn’t see me.

  “What do you want, Rattigan?” I asked, “I’m kind of on a schedule, here.”

  “It’s Hartigan,” he snapped, “And I want the key, obviously.”

  I pointed at the cabinet behind me. “Take your pick, there’s a ton of them back here.”

  “Don’t try to bullshit me. I know you took the key, now hand it over.”

  “You know, I’m getting pretty sick of you guys moving in on my jobs at the last minute and trying to take the credit for my hard work. Have you tried to, you know, do a job the honest way? I bet between the three of you, you could probably… no, you know what? I see it now. You’re all terrible at this.”

  “Shut up!” Rattigan yelled, his voice pitching up. He coughed to clear his throat. “We’ve come for the key, and we’re not
leaving without it.”

  “Well, that puts us in a little situation, doesn’t it? But you see that doll in the cabinet over there? I’m pretty sure it doesn’t like us hanging around in its room, and sooner or later it’s gonna get real pissed off that we’re in its space.”

  “It’s just a stupid doll. What the hell is it gonna do?”

  The cabinet bumped, catching all four of us by surprise.

  “Very funny,” Rattigan said. He must’ve thought I’d made it move, but I hadn’t. “Now hand over—” the radio suddenly sprang to life, its lights turning on and loud static hissing from its ancient speakers.

  The noise made my blood turn cold, but it had spooked them way worse, and that gave me an opening. I bull-rushed through the dark room, using their silhouettes as a guide to find my way out. I shoved Rattigan’s bony ass out of the way and bolted past Dolf, making a mad dash down the hallway and away from them.

  There were only two of them, I thought as I ran, but I didn’t have time to consider where the other one was.

  “She’s getting away!” Dolf yelled, his voice like a French horn. A blast of red, magic light whizzed past my ear just as I scooted around a corner, smashing through the window it had hit. Glass shattered and fell all over the floor. A moment later, he and Rattigan were in hot pursuit.

  The time for subtlety was over; lucky for me, the house was empty. That meant I’d only have them to deal with, and not the Demonologist whose house this belonged to. Those were the worst kinds of mages to piss off, especially the ones that owned rooms full of possessed objects they could lock you in with.

  I continued down the hall until I reached a flight of stairs. The only bad thing about this house was the size of it. The entire building was like a maze of corridors that turned in on themselves, doors that led to tiny, empty rooms, and unmarked stairwells. I thought about throwing myself out of a window, but where was the grace in that?