Shatter (Midnight Ice Book Four)

All Titles by Kaitlyn Davis

Midnight Fire

Ignite

Simmer

Blaze

Scorch

Burn

Midnight Ice

Frost

Freeze

Fracture

Shatter

Once Upon a Curse

Gathering Frost

Withering Rose

Chasing Midnight

Parting Worlds

Granting Wishes

The Raven and the Dove

A Dance of Dragons

The Shadow Soul

The Spirit Heir

The Phoenix Born

Leena’s Story – The Novellas

To my family for their unconditional love,

my friends for their overwhelming support,

and my fans for their incredible enthusiasm.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Table of Contents

All Titles by Kaitlyn Davis

Dedication

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

Epilogue

Preview of Ignite (Midnight Fire Book One)

More Books By Kaitlyn Davis

About the Author

Chapter One

~ Pandora ~

The titans arrived not even twenty-four hours after Sam died. Pandora and the rest of the crew were enjoying the cool breeze on a sunny day, the peaceful sound of chirping birds mixed with laughter, and the picnic basket Kira had painstakingly put together as a celebratory feast, when they felt the ground tremble.

Earthquake? Kira asked innocently, confused as the grass and dirt shook beneath them.

Pavia raised a heavily arched brow. In Florida?

But Pandora knew.

And so did Jax.

And their gazes snapped together in an instant, full of the same realization.

Quakers.

Which could only mean one thing—the titans were there.

Yet as her heart filled with dread at the idea of facing her father, facing the people who’d wished for her death, facing what was sure to be an angry mob, she couldn’t help but notice a strange sort of gleam in the corner of Jax’s eye. As though he were excited. Eager, even.

A piercing crack snapped her from her thoughts.

Lightning.

Bolters.

It was followed by a scream. Then two more.

I don’t think that’s an earthquake… Naya trailed off.

Pandora sneered, jumping to her feet. It’s definitely not.

Another flash of lightning whipped across the sky. The rest of the group lurched to their feet in one sudden, haphazard move. The grass beneath them began to fissure as the vibrations grew, making them shuffle for balance.

Okay, Luke and I will go find my grandfather and the rest of the council, Kira began, shouting over the mounting rumbles to make sure everyone could hear. Though her voice wavered at a high octave, laced with uncertainty, her eyes were determined and focused. Pavia and Tristan, go find the rest of the cured vamps in your little History of Warfare class, and see if you can gather any weapons. Even if you only have rubber bullets, just the sight of an AK-47 might make the titans pause. Naya and Mateo, go back inside and stay out of sight. You’ve already broken out of jail twice, let’s not make it a hat trick. And Pandora and Jax? Well, why don’t you two go welcome your guests. Pandora frowned and tossed Kira a pointed look, to which the conduit shrugged. What? It’s only polite.

Before anyone had time to protest, the water in all eight of their glasses began to float, lifting up and above the plastic rims. The droplets danced across the air, swirling into a funnel, pulled by an unseen force. Except, it wasn’t unseen. Not really. It was titan tridents, gathering their power.

Whatever happened to good old-fashioned conversation? Pandora thought, watching the water shoot out of sight. The titans weren’t playing around. They were gathering their strength—and though that strength was considerably lessened since yesterday, it was still pretty freaking intimidating. And pretty freaking annoying.

Are you still shielding us? Pandora asked Jax as everyone scattered, listening to Kira’s orders and following them without question.

His brows came together. What?

Are you shielding us? Pandora widened her eyes, pleading. From the trackers? Do they know where we are?

Oh, he responded quickly, shaking his head as though clearing his confusion. I stopped. After yesterday, I let the shields drop. I figured there wasn’t a use for them anymore.

A tremor shot across the grass, aimed directly for their feet. The ground exploded in a cloud of dirt, knocking them to their knees. Pandora glared at Jax.

Oh, yeah, she drawled, unable to stop herself as she spit out a wad of debris. No use at all.

But instead of him responding how Pandora might have expected—rolling his eyes and tossing his own playful jibe back, or ignoring her and helping her to her feet—his eyes hardened to something lethally sharp, something unexpected. I’m not afraid of the titans.

Pandora grabbed his hand and pulled him to standing, not quite sure how to respond. His attention dropped to the spot where their fingers intertwined, and he clutched her tighter before softening his gaze.

We don’t have to be afraid anymore, Jax murmured, brushing his thumb across her palm, protective and supportive. Loving. You don’t have to be afraid.

Pandora released a breath, finally understanding where that moment of steely aggression had come from. The tension in her chest unlatched and fell away, replaced with a warm sort of sensation that spread to the tips of those very fingers Jax was holding.

I know, and I’m not, she told him softly, tugging slightly on his arm so he would meet her eyes. And then she grinned. "But a few more quaker tremors, and Kira and Luke’s house might snap. They’ve been pretty great hosts, so let’s go meet our so-called guests somewhere out in the open. Can you prop the shield? It might give us all a moment to regroup."

Let’s just go, he answered quickly, frowning.

But it’ll only take—

She was interrupted by a bolt of lightning exploding a mere five feet from her body, snapping the branch off a tree as it scorched the earth black, leaving an eerie electric crackle in its wake. A warning.

Come on, Jax said gruffly, yanking on her arm to pull her along.

She bit her protest back and followed. Because, really, she’d hate to see Kira and Luke’s house totally destroyed right before their wedding. As much as she grumbled about the planning, she’d been meaning to get them a gift when she had time, and setting their new home on fire wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind.

So she and Jax ran, sprinting from the backyard, around the side of the house, across the street and toward the park in the center of Sonnyville. They stumbled. They fell. They felt the weight of their new mortality as their knees scraped and bloodied with each drop, but they kept on going. A fire hydrant burst, and a suspiciously sinuous gush of water crashed into them both, shooting them off their feet, so they tumbled across grass and concrete. Pandora’s head banged into the pavement, a sharp sting. But she crawled to her knees, gritting her teeth against the pain—after all, the lack of healing was her own damn fault, and now she’d have to deal with it. A metal pole ripped free of its spot beneath the earth just in time to trip her. Another bolt of lightning sent a tree crashing down, close enough that the branches scratched her cheek. Fifty feet away, the town was perfectly calm. But a maelstrom chased after her, oozing with vindictiveness. And though ninety-nine percent of her was absolutely pissed, there was a nagging one percent that was bruised and battered in a way her titan body wasn’t used to that understood their frustration. But that didn’t mean she was going to take it.

Enough! Pandora shouted as another tremor made the earth beneath her quiver, propelling her onto her rather sore ass once again.

They’d made it to the park.

They didn’t have to run any farther.

Pandora fell back, collapsing to the trembling ground with a sigh. Her head slipped to the side, gaze darting a few yards away toward the dais where the conduit council met. It was mocking her with its openness. Unlike the titans, the conduit leaders invited their people to listen and join in on their meetings. No secrets. No hiding. Everyone had a voice.

How much could have been avoided if the titans were the same?

But it wasn’t worth it to go down that road. What was done was done, and she’d always known there’d be consequences. Besides, she wasn’t as powerless as she’d once been.

Pandora grinned as blue heat sizzled beneath the tips of her fingers, aching to be used, aching to be woven and threaded and twisted into something powerful. But she kept her newfound weaver magic beneath her skin, biding her time as she stood and turned her focus to the horizon.

She saw the fire first. Blazing flames. Red and orange and yellow waves that burst into the sky, enveloping the field in a scorching haze. They were connected to the conduit bodies beginning to fill the park, responding to a surprise threat in the only way they knew how. But those weren’t vampires, which meant the conduit fire blanketing the space around them had no power to stop what was coming.

Shadowy figures walked through the flames unharmed. The irony wasn’t lost on Pandora. For all their fear of the darkness, that was what the titans looked like now—men and women painted ebony, emerging from the fire like Sam’s beasts once emerged from the mist, ready to wreak havoc. The conduits dropped their flames, realizing they served no purpose against this foe.

All at once, the titans appeared.

Pandora heard footsteps behind her, the groan of old wood, the mumble of softly spoken words, but she was too transfixed to look away as the twelve titan leaders marched forward with their director at the helm. Malcolm Scott held his daughter’s gaze.

What have you done? his voice raged across the field.

The air crackled, pulsing with the electric energy of bolters, quakers, tridents, alchemists, and every other titan power surging to full force, but Pandora didn’t flinch. Instead, she calmly reached within herself, to the molten core of blue fire at the center of her soul, and touched her magic. Strands of invisible fire emerged from her fingertips, bright cerulean that only she and maybe the other weaver could see. But she moved far too fast for any alarm to be raised. Pandora’s power was ancient, and she’d had a thousand lifetimes’ experience with how to use it. So she wove the strands, stretching them across the field, encasing the titans in a bubble they couldn’t see as she kept her features coolly defiant.

Where is he? her father asked, hands curled into fists at his side. What have you done?

Jax moved to step in front of her, to guard her, unaware of her power sizzling through the air, but Pandora stopped him with a touch. She swallowed, finding her voice, making sure it was strong enough to fill the void stretching before her. Exactly what I always meant to.

The head quaker, who Pandora realized was no longer Javier, knelt and pressed his fingers to the ground. But the shock wave he tried to send died as soon as it struck the invisible circle of Pandora’s power. The bolter tried next, but the heat fizzled out before it reached the sky. The trident’s wave of water splashed harmlessly against the bubble she’d woven around them.

Titan eyes narrowed, confused.

They turned to her, slightly afraid.

The weaver, she noticed, had his head arched back, swiveling slowly as he finally noticed the blue haze encircling them—his own sort of power but magnified to a level he would never understand.

I remembered who I was, and I saved the world, Pandora continued, tone sharper than any sword. I killed Samael.

Eleven jaws dropped with pure shock.

One clenched.

And, Pandora continued, trying to hide how her throat tightened at that small fact. If you want to hear how, I suggest you drop the terror act and remember that we’re all on the same side.

Pandora paused to take a deep breath. The click of two dozen safeties turning off caught her attention, and she glanced behind, realizing for the first time that Tristan had, in fact, gathered his small army of cured vampires. They fanned to either side of her, rifles in hand. And the conduits were standing with them, led by Kira and Luke who stood with flames dancing threateningly across their palms as an act of support. Pavia and Naya were nowhere to be seen, but Jax was right there by her side with a devilish grin across his lips and pride shining from his eyes.

If you don’t want to talk peacefully, Pandora continued, meeting the stunned gazes of the eleven titans watching her, landing on her father’s eyes last, you can get the hell out.

No one moved.

Time seemed to pause.

And then the archivist stepped forward, stepped in front of her father.

Alison, Pandora remembered. The name stuck on her tongue, bitter and sticky. Alison, who Pandora used to plead with for information about her mother. Alison, who never shared a single memory. Alison, whose ears had been deaf to the cries of a lonely child. Alison, who was finally, finally, listening.

A truce, the older woman said softly. But at the sound, the other titans seemed to breathe, exhaling at once, shoulders falling collectively as the tension oozed away. A truce so we can hear your story, so we can understand what happened.

But? Pandora heard the word hovering silently at the end of that sentence. But if we don’t like what we hear, what? Game over? Pandora snorted ungracefully and shook her head. Some things never changed, but for now, a truce was enou