RUNE ASSASSIN

  DRAGON KEY BOOK 4

  MAC FLYNN

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  Author’s Note

  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

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Sneak Peek: Black Key

  A Small Favor

  When’s the Next Book?

  Series by Mac Flynn

  About Mac Flynn

  COPYRIGHT

  Rune Assassin (Dragon Key Book 4). Copyright © 2024 by Mac Flynn.

  Published by Crescent Moon Studios, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, disseminated, or transmitted in any form or by any or for any use, including recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the author and/or artist. The only except ions shirt excerpts or the cover image in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel or on the cover are either products of the author’s or artist’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author or artist.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you so much for joining me on a journey through my imagination. If you’re looking for romance and adventure with a guaranteed Happily Ever After, then you’ve come to the right place. My books contain paranormal plotting and fantastical action, and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

  You can keep in touch with me by joining my newsletter or checking out my website for the latest updates.

  Check out my website

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  Thank you for giving my book a chance, and Happy Reading!

  - Mac Flynn

  CHAPTER ONE

  An elegant carriage ride, a magical tournament, and an assassin.

  It sounds like some bad bar joke with a punchline filled with puns, but that was my reality that one sunny day a few weeks after our last adventure. I drew back the heavy shade that covered my window and found myself staring out onto the vast ocean. Between the road and the great blue sea lay a colorful assortment of villas and open white sand beaches. Cliffs accented the scenery and crafted a wild coastline where lovers could hide their secret in the rocky outcroppings.

  And speaking of those, I turned to my former lover and now husband. Tegan sat beside me with his hands clasped in his lap and his eyes closed. His chest moved up and down in an even rhythm. He looked too cute to disturb.

  But I did it anyway.

  I leapt onto him and wrapped my arms around his unsuspecting form. He jerked awake and whipped his head to and fro before he looked down at me. A crooked smile slipped onto his lips and he raised one eyebrow.

  “Will this be the normal awakening routine from now on?” he wondered.

  I grinned up at him. “Only when I can get away with it.”

  “Then you made a dire miscalculation this time.”

  I saw the wicked glint in his eyes and tried to scramble to the other side of the large carriage. He wrapped his arms around me and drew me against his chest. I squirmed and thrashed in his hold but he kept a tight grip.

  “No fair!” I shouted as, between the laughter and the fighting, I had run out of breath. “You cheat!”

  He cocked his head to one side. “How?”

  “Because of your dragon strength,” I told him.

  He chuckled. “Even if I wasn’t a dragon I’d be strong enough to hold you and more.”

  I paused and furrowed my brow at him. “And more?’

  “And this.” He leaned down and captured my lips in a passionate kiss.

  It would have been long, too, if I still wasn’t out of breath. I pulled away and let out a gasp. “Uncle!”

  Tegan blinked at me. “What about them?”

  I laughed and used his distraction to roll myself onto the seat beside him. “It’s just a saying in my old world. It means I give up.”

  He lifted his eyebrows. “Does it? I’ll have to remember that one. Does your world have any more interesting phrases taken out of context?”

  I snorted. “Tons but I won’t remember them until they’re needed.”

  Tegan chuckled. “Such is the way of idioms and other old wisdom. It’s never around when you want to talk about it and always there when it’s most apt to get you into trouble.”

  I sat up and looked him over. “You’re in a contemplative mood, aren’t you?”

  He smiled down at me. “Life-changing decisions can do that.”

  I looped my arms around one of his and leaned my cheek against his arm. “Even the good ones?”

  He stretched his arm around my back and drew me closer before he pressed a light kiss to my forehead. “Especially those ones.”

  I could have sat there forever in complete bliss, but the carriage hit a bump. The hard knock made me leave my seat and land back down with all the grace of a lump of rocks. I sat up and glared in the direction of the box. “He could have at least gotten us a driver!”

  Tegan grinned. “The horses do seem a little reckless.”

  I leaned out my window and looked up at the driver’s box. The empty driver’s box. It was like a scene from a horror movie but the carriage had merrily gone on its way without a serious hitch. I looked over my shoulder at Tegan. “How does this work again? The horses know where they’re going?”

  He nodded. “Apparently. They haven’t veered from a southward course these last nine days.”

  I dropped back into my seat and slouched a little as I folded my arms over my chest. “Do you think that Domini guy is going to give us the specifics of what we’re doing in our lifetime or his?”

  Tegan set an elbow on the narrow lip of his window and furrowed his brow. “If I were him, I wouldn’t give us any particulars of the case until we were at our destination.”

  I glanced out the window. “I wish I knew where that was, too.”

  “I think we’re headed to the southern coastline that abuts the Blutstein Empire and the Conas Kingdom,” Tegan informed me.

  I cocked one eyebrow. “What makes you think that?”

  “For one, we’ve headed south long enough to almost reach the ocean,” he pointed out as he drew aside his curtain to reveal the view. We passed flat green fields from which rose large white-stained villas. “And for another, I recognize some of the houses we’ve recently passed.”

  I sat up and lifted an eyebrow. “So is that a good or bad thing?”

  “We’ll at least enjoy our time doing his bidding,” Tegan mused as he made to drop the curtain.

  The cloth had barely begun its descent when a bird shot through the open top of the window. The small creature landed squarely on one of my knees and stared up at me with beady pitch-black eyes. Its plumage was an impossibly bright blue with extra long tail feathers etched with black coloring.

  More importantly, the tiny creature carried in its beak a small envelope.

  I blinked at it as Tegan studied the bird. “Is your message from our employer?”

  The bird hopped closer to me and nodded. Tegan took the envelope from its beak and the little bird bowed low before it flitted under the curtain and out the window. My dragon husband drew aside the cloth and we watched the tailfeathers disappear southward.

  I turned my attention to the envelope, as did Tegan. He cut open the top with a sharp nail and drew out a triple-folded paper which he unfolded. His eyes scanned the contents and a worried line creased his brow.

  I leaned forward to try to get a look. “What it is? What does it say?”

  “It’s a message from Domini,” Tegan informed me before he cleared his throat and read aloud the message. “Greetings, my loyal blood brother and sister-”

  I snorted. “I think I want to be adopted.”

  Tegan’s eyes twinkled at me but he merely continued. “I am sure you are curious to know your assignment after a week’s worth of silence. As you are now close to your destination, I feel it is the right time to inform you that I have given you the duty to protect an old friend of mine.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  Tegan read on. “He holds a yearly tournament for those gifted with magic. However, this year I have heard ill tidings that one of the contestants intends to murder him.”

  My mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”

  “Your assignment is to reveal the assassin and, if possible, bring him alive before justice. If that cannot be done then their death will suffice.” My heart dropped into my stomach at the dark suggestion. Tegan pursed his lips as he read on. “I feel I must warn you that any undo attention to yourselves may give the assassin the impression that you mean to foil his plans. In which case the unknown assailant will have no qualms about taking your lives, so I suggest you keep a low profile. Good luck.”

  I started back as the message and its envelope burst into blue flames. Tegan waved his hand to flick away the last bits of cinder that remained of the paper. His dour face reflected my own as I spoke aloud our single thought.

  “We are so fucked.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Tegan leaned back and a crooked smile appeared on his lips. “This doesn’t sound easy, does it?”

  I snorted. “It sounds impossible. I mean, when have we ever been able to keep up a low profile for more than a few days?”

  “That’s all we’ll need because the tournament will have finished by then,” Tegan assured me as he cupped his chin in one hand. His eyes showed a curious look in them. “I can only think of one tournament that would have a high-profile founder in the south and that’s the Lusio Trials.”

  I cocked my head to one side. “What are those about?”

  “They are hosted by a wealthy man by the name of Felix Lusio,” Tegan explained as he furrowed his brow. “He made his fortune by hiring vampires to dive into the waters and recover treasures from sunken ships and he had a hand in creating the lucrative pearl trade, as well.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Sunken treasure? What did the owners of the ships have to say about that?”

  A wry smile slipped onto Tegan’s lips. “They had no say. Lusio was very coy about which wreckages he plundered and always insisted they were ancient ruins.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Sounds like a nice guy. And we’re supposed to be protecting him.”

  A strange expression passed over Tegan’s face before he leaned his head out the window. “If he is our protectee then we’ll have our work cut out for us.”

  A noise caught my attention and I looked out my window. The road ahead was crowded by a small group of very pale people. They stood in the shade of a small lean-to but the more daring held umbrellas and stood in the middle of the road. Many in the group held up hand-made signs written in red ink.

  I read a few of them out loud. “Lusio the Liar. Lusia Has Robbed Graves. Revoke Lusio’s License or Suffer the Consequences.” I turned my head to Tegan. “License?”

  “Anyone who dives into the seas around here needs a license,” Tegan explained as our driverless carriage was forced to stop in front of the group. Tegan opened his door and hopped out. I did the same and the two of us walked over to the group.

  One of the umbrella owners hurried up to us with a pamphlet which he held out. “A minute of your time, please.”

  Tegan smiled as he looked passed him at the blocked road. “You have forced that but what seems to be the issue?”

  “Have you heard of Felix Lusio, the local dive master?” he asked us.

  Tegan nodded. “The name does sound familiar.”

  “He has sought to dive into even more and deeper areas around the bays,” the vampire explained as he handed us each a pamphlet. “We are trying to halt his efforts, at least until a complete map of all the sunken ships has been made. Such an act will make it not only safer for his divers since they’ll know where they’re headed but we can guarantee Lusio has the right to salvage the goods from that vessel.”

  “I take it Lusio is not well-liked in the area,” Tegan guessed.

  The vampire’s lips curled back in a sneer. “He is a scourge, sir. He uses the divers and pays them a paltry sum for their efforts, and he pays off the local salvage assessor so he can drag the divers into robbing vessels which he has no right to salvage. Worse yet, the fiend has threatened the divers that they will be implicated in any court proceedings should anyone turn him in.”

  I cast a knowing look at Tegan. “Sounds like someone I don’t want to meet.”

  Tegan lifted his pamphlet. “We’ll be sure to read this, but if you wouldn’t mind removing yourselves from the road.”

  The vampire nodded. “Of course. Thank you for listening.”

  He turned to the others. “Alright, everyone, off the road!”

  They shuffled out of our way and we climbed back into the carriage.

  “I didn’t know vampires could be awake at this hour,” I mused.

  “They generally can’t,” Tegan informed me as he studied the contents of the pamphlet. “The daylight saps their strength and leaves them weakened even when night falls again.”

  “So they must be really mad at Lusio to be out now.”

  “Very mad,” he confirmed as he closed the flyer.

  We rolled past them and I couldn’t help looking out the window. All the vampires were shabbily dressed with patches on their elbows and knees and ragged hems galore. It was so unlike the elegant attire I’d seen in the capital.

  “And not all vampires manage to save up money in their long lives?” I guessed.

  Tegan shook his head. “Their lives are hardly any different than ours. They’re born, they live, and sometimes they even die, and all the excitement and heartache of life weighs on them even longer.”

  I winced and dropped the curtain. “I think I’ll stick to one life. I’m having enough adventures during this one.”

  Tegan drew aside his curtain and studied the sights. “Our next one is about to start. There’s Lusio’s estate.”

  The road curved not in my favor, so I scooted over and leaned across him to catch a peek. We rolled around a grass-covered dune and a small plateau of some twenty acres appeared before us. A large green lawn surrounded an elegant manor house. The structure was built of the finest wood with pillars of stone that held up the veranda that wrapped around the whole of the home. The blinding white of the house was in stark contrast to the many flower beds that dotted the short lane that led up to the wide stone porch steps. Stone paths wound their way through the flower beds and dozens of trees of various lineages provided shade to the weary wanderer.

  The three floors of the home each featured many windows to look out on the domain of Lusio. A few were open and white silk curtains waved in the gentle breeze that blew off the dunes in front of the house.

  The raised plateau stood above the high-water mark and was protected from wave erosion by a huge wall of boulders that stretched for a quarter of a mile. High cliffs to the west prevented neighbors in that direction and as far as I could tell, there wasn’t another structure for miles along the easterly part of the beach.

  The detached stable that stood some two hundred feet to the left of the home was likewise adorned with all the pomp and circumstance as the house. A pair of pillars framed the large doors that opened outwardly and I glimpsed a long row of stalls with the shadows of horses in them.

  “Wow,” I breathed.

  “An engineering marvel crafted by the smartest minds of both the kingdom and the empire,” Tegan informed me as he, too, admired the view. “It took a decade to build and reinforce so the ocean didn’t draw the house into its depths.”

  Our driverless carriage rolled down the driveway and around the circular end to park in front of the door. Tegan alighted with our shared knapsack slung over one shoulder. I shouldered my broom and he helped me out. We stepped onto the deep and wide porch and paused on the threshold. A wide assortment of elegant chairs and benches were placed against the front wall with an abundance of tables between them. The whole thing could have comfortably seated fifty people and still had room for a small orchestra.

 

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