Harvest: Faction 1: (The Isa Fae Collection) Read online

  Table of 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

  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

  Chapter 34

  Epilogue

  HARVEST

  Isa Fae Faction 1

  Conner Kressley

  Rebecca Hamilton

  Fallen Sorcery

  Copyright

  Harvest: Isa Fae Faction 1 © 2017 Conner Kressley & Rebecca Hamilton

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Description

  In a world where the sun never sets, one girl must face the darkness in an attempt to save them all.

  Raised in a home for the unwanted and groomed for a life of service, orphan Lara’s worst fear is being selected during the Harvest. Things turn out worse than she fears, however, when one of her best friends, Karr, is called instead.

  In mourning, Lara bids Karr a tearful goodbye, thinking she’ll never see him again. But when he returns, mysteriously changed, and murders their other best friend in front of her eyes, it sets Lara on a path to discover not only what happened Karr inside the box, but what secrets lurk in the center of her Faction and the heart of her home.

  Once inside, she discovers a shocking connection to the darkness within herself that will threaten her faction forever, and that the time to contain that nefarious power is running out…

  Fans of Divergent and Twilight will love this dystopian paranormal romance from USA Today bestselling author Conner Kressley and New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Hamilton.

  Scroll up to one click and start reading this chilling mythical adventure of witches vs. fae!

  HARVEST is a standalone contribution to the Fallen Sorcery Isa Fae collection. Stories can be read in any order.

  To learn more, visit FallenSorcery.com

  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

  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

  Chapter 34

  Epilogue

  Also by Conner Kressley

  Also by Rebecca Hamilton

  About Conner Kressley

  About Rebecca Hamilton

  Chapter 1

  My heart was in my throat as I made my way across the frozen walkway to the faction square.

  Of course, I wasn’t the only one in a panic. Today was the Harvest Ceremony, the most stressful time of the year if one happened to be a witch born and bred in one of the four main Domiciles that studded Faction One.

  Each Domicile served as both home and university to the witches of Faction One, which meant each of us were schooled to fear this moment.

  It was the fourth and most taxing of this year’s Harvest days, and it would answer a question I’d had ever since I was old enough to consider questions. For some, that realization might be death.

  I tightened my coat against the harsh cold. Despite having grown up in a world that had never experienced warmth—just winter day in and day out—I’d never gotten accustomed to the icy weather. I’d heard stories about a world that once had four seasons—a place called earth. But a nuclear war left that world uninhabitable due to radiation poisoning, and that was when many of our ancestors “fell” into Isa Fae.

  On that day, humans came to this world. The rumor was that crossing over had turned them into witches. But who really knew? It was what they taught us in school, but I hardly trusted the elders when they seemed to care so little about our well-being.

  “Hey, Lara! Wait up.”

  I whirled around to see Karr jogging to catch up with me, waiting until he was at my side before setting off again.

  “You’re nervous,” he said. “I can tell.” He kept pace with me, which probably wasn’t hard for him with his long legs, no matter how fast I was walking. “You shouldn’t be. We’ve gotten by this long without being chosen. It won’t happen now. And then we’re in the clear for the rest of our lives. You should be excited for that! This is our last Harvest.”

  Our last one, but not the last one there would ever be.

  Then he smiled at me. That right there—the way his eyes lit up like uncovered gemstones when he looked at me, how his lips curled up invitingly when he spoke, the ridiculous cowlick at the back of his head that only served to humanize him and make him even more special—that made me more nervous than the Harvest ever could.

  I wasn’t sure why, which made me uncertain around him.

  Like everyone in House One, I’d grown up alongside Karr. He had been one of my best friends since Initiation year, when he, my best friend Arbor, and I were thrust together into a spell group where we learned we had more in common than our shared abilities.

  He was more than that to me now, though. He didn’t know it—because I never built up enough nerve to tell him—but Karr was probably the most important person in my life. I dreamed about him during day sleeps, and I thought about him during every waking moment besides.

  Now that we were graduating—now that our lives would finally be our own—I was starting to think about what my life would look like from now on. Today was the last Harvest I would be eligible for. I needed to survive it just one more time. After that, I would officially be on my way to becoming an Auxiliary, which meant I’d be able to decide things about my life on my own.

  And that meant I could decide who was or was not
in it. Including Karr.

  I turned from Karr and his gorgeous smile, looking instead at the Box in the distance.

  That horrible, snow-covered wooden square, cased in metal rods that twisted into magically binding symbols, assured that what was inside stayed in there. A new knot formed in my throat as the possibilities of today finally pushed their way past how I always felt when Karr was around.

  I could be one of those people, thrown into the Box, never to be seen again. That wasn’t the way they sold it, of course. Four times a year, witches were chosen for the Harvest. They were plunged into the Box in hopes of restoring what our forefathers lost. In the hope that it might bring back the night.

  It was that, or try to find our way to another faction of Isa Fae. One that hadn’t lost the night. But as far as anyone knew, that was impossible.

  “I just don’t know why they even do this,” I muttered.

  Arbor came up to my side and scoffed. “Because they know they can’t get anyone to do it voluntarily.”

  She looked over at me. Giving me a wink with eyes that looked like my own, she made a face as she motioned to the man beside us. She was the only person in the entire faction who knew the way I felt about Karr, and she never let me forget it.

  “That’s true now,” Karr said, seemingly unaware of the way Arbor was gently ribbing me. “But it wasn’t always. I remember Professor Warbler telling me about times when there were lines of people waiting to go into the Box—lines that stretched around half the faction.”

  “I guess that was before they realized no one ever escaped the stupid thing,” I muttered, chancing one more look at the Box before we rounded the corner toward the main square and headed off to the Harvest.

  “Really?” Arbor asked. “No one? Not even one person?”

  “No one I’ve ever heard about,” Karr said. “Lara?”

  I shook my head. “No one I know about, either.”

  Arbor shrugged. “Maybe they didn’t want to come back. They could have found their way to another faction. One that hasn’t lost the night. And said screw this place.” She pursed her lips. “I wouldn’t blame them.”

  Karr stuffed his hands into his pockets, fidgeting a little as he stepped up ahead of us. “Yeah. Maybe.”

  Was it possible that he was nervous, too? He never seemed the type. Karr always came across as so secure in himself, in his abilities and the luck that seemed to follow him everywhere he went. From the time we were kids, he had always been chosen first at everything. When he wasn’t, the sheer perfection of his performances made the choosers wish they’d considered him earlier.

  Looking at the band on my wrist, I mused. Three bars of atern filled my magical meter. Enough for a moderate spell. Still, something told me Karr could have done more with the one bar that now lit up on his band than I would ever be able to do with all three of mine.

  “Well, like you said, there’s nothing to worry about,” I said with all the confidence I could muster. Was I was trying to convince him, Arbor, or myself? I doubted the empty words helped, and they certainly didn’t make me feel any better. But I held onto the hope, anyway. “And you’re right—this is our last year. After today, we can put all this behind us and start to think about the future.”

  “Start?” Karr looked back at me, smiling again. “I thought you had done more than start. Your sister tells me you girls are moving in together after graduation.”

  Arbor and I weren’t sisters—or at least, we didn’t know for sure one way or the other. We were orphans and had been placed in House One as infants. We’d landed in different families, but it would have happened around the same time, and we did look very similar. That didn’t necessarily mean we were sisters. After all, no one ever told either of us if we had surviving family members, and we hadn’t really met until we’d started school.

  Still, Arbor had eyes like mine, eyes of green so bright they glittered as the glaring sun cut through the skeletal tree branches and shone in her face. I had never seen another person in the faction with eyes like mine, so I naturally assumed she was my sister. Even if she wasn’t, that wasn’t going to stop me from treating her like one.

  “So, is it true then?” Karr asked, raising his eyebrow when I didn’t refute the claim.

  Arbor threw her arm around my shoulder. “You can bet on it, Treetop,” she said, using the nickname she’d had for Karr ever since his growth spurt during elementary tutelage. “My sister and I are taking on the faction together. Maybe we’ll be dressmakers, maybe we’ll be lawmakers. Whatever we do, we’ll do it together. And you’d do well to come along with us.”

  I nudged her in the side with my elbow. When I glared at her, she just kept grinning.

  “We could always use a third roommate,” she added.

  My cheeks burned so hot I had to turn away for fear Karr would see me blushing.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Karr said, waving her off. “You know I can’t live with women. It’s against the law.” He shrugged. “Besides, I’m twenty-four. I want to get married.”

  The fire in my cheeks didn’t subside at all.

  “Married?” I balked, unable to hold back my surprise. “I didn’t… I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

  “I’m not,” he answered quickly. “But I will. What I mean is, after today, I’d like to get serious about the future.”

  He touched my shoulder, and I turned to face him.

  “Do you know what I mean?” he asked.

  “I absolutely know what you mean,” I said, swallowing hard. “I feel that way, too, sometimes.”

  As an uncomfortable silence pressed around the three of us, the mumblings of conversation coming from the throngs of people pressed together in the main square becoming more apparent.

  The three of us were late. Not an oddity for our little trio, but not exactly a welcomed quirk. Even when we were young witches without unmonitored access to the atern in our bands, we would get to talking and the time would pass. Before we knew it, we’d be in a rush to arrive at our classes before the elders got upset.

  We rarely made it in time, and today didn’t look like we’d fare much better. By the time we settled at the main square, the crowd was large enough to stretch halfway toward our House.

  “We should have just stayed home and looked out the window,” Arbor said, following her quip with a giggle. “We’d have had a better view.”

  “It doesn’t matter what we see,” Karr said. “Only what we hear.”

  “You mean what we don’t hear,” I said, swallowing hard and letting my ever-building nervousness lay heavy on my voice.

  “You worry too much,” Karr said. He patted my shoulder.

  Sparks flew through my body as his hand pressed against my body, and I had to imagine he could feel them, too. Though if he did, he never let on. Just looked back up at the crowd.

  This was it. Many of the people here would go on to live normal lives, while a few would be sacrificed to the Box.

  In mere moments, we would learn our fate.

  Chapter 2

  My nerves were getting the better of me.

  My hand found Arbor’s the way it always did in moments like this—moments when the stress of everything became too much for me to bear alone. There was a time when my other hand might have found Karr’s, but it didn’t feel right anymore. Touching him like that… touching him at all, actually… lit up a firestorm of emotions inside of me the likes of which I had neither the time nor inclination to deal with.

  So instead, I looked down at that hand, down at the band which read off the atern level I was now exhibiting. Three bars, and nothing at all to use them for. A moderate spell might help me out of a tense situation or two—it might even guide me through tough times—but it wouldn’t do any good right now. The situation I was faced with at present could be cured by neither study nor spell. No magic would save the people who were about to be forced into the Box.

  We knew the horrors that awaited those unlucky few. We knew w
hat they stood to lose once their names were called. Their lives, for sure. Those would be all but forfeit, seeing as how no one had ever returned from such a banishment. But other things as well. They might also lose their sanity if they weren’t lucky. Should they cry and grovel the way some had in the past, they would also lose the respect of those left behind.

  Among some social circles, being called to service inside the Box was considered an honor. Those banished were looked at as heroes, as people to look up to and try to emulate. Their families were given special gifts and treated with the highest of courtesies.

  None of that happened to those who broke down, though. To weep openly in front of your peers, to curse fate and beg for pardon to anyone who might listen, was a sin as unforgivable as taking a life.

  And it was never forgotten.

  The Harvest began with the ceremonial blowing of the woodwinds. The tune was meant to bring peace and calmness to those in attendance. If they were anything like me, though, it just served to chill their bones even further.

  “It’s begun,” Arbor said, squeezing my hand.

  “It’s okay,” I answered, swallowing hard. “We’ve made it this far. Fate’s been kind to us. She’ll continue. You’ll see. It’ll be you and me.”

  It was strange. Her palm was pressed against mine to strengthen my resolve. Yet, here I was, giving her words of comfort in the face of this uncertainty. Maybe I was trying to convince myself more than her.