The lost rainbow mage co.., p.1
The Lost Rainbow Mage: Complete Trilogy Edition, page 1
the lost rainbow mage
COMPLETE TRILOGY EDITION
SK PRINCE
© 2022, SK Prince
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Cover Designer: Mallory Rock, Rock Solid Book Design
Editor: Jennifer Jones, Bookends Editing
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
SK Prince
c/o Blue Feather Enterprises
P.O. Box 367
Cisco, Texas 76437 USA
contents
About This Collection
Her Magic Light
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
Her Magic Fight
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
Her Magic Right
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
What to Read Next
Sneak Peek
Want More?
about this collection
Meira’s just your average, everyday hair stylist, until a secret government faction shows up to toss her in a dark prison.
They refuse to tell her what she’s done or when they’ll let her go. More troubling still are her fellow inmates. Men with fangs, women with wings… Nobody here is normal, except for Meira.
Or is she?
Her captors remain convinced that Meira is not only special, she’s incredibly dangerous—the ultimate weapon.
When her magic finally shows itself, she has no idea how to wield it. Learning how is vital, not only to her escape but to prevent a planned genocide of paranormal kind. Now she’s the only one who can stop what’s coming next. But is she ready to answer heroism’s call?
If you love kickass heroines, hidden worlds, sinister secrets, and page-turning suspense, then this one’s for you. Read the entire Lost Rainbow Mage trilogy—including Her Magic Light, Her Magic Fight, and Her Magic Right—together in one collection for the very first time. Enjoy!
her magic light
One day I’m creating rainbow-hued hair at a salon in sunny Florida, and the next I’m getting tossed into prison with no idea why.
Here, there is no sunlight. No answers. But there are men with fangs, women with wings… and a cruel doctor who puts me through test after test, trying to determine what I am.
I always thought I was an ordinary girl until a scuffle in the jailhouse ends with blood on my hands and a decapitated head at my feet. Now they say I’m special, dangerous, and that I need to be controlled. I am the last of my kind, and I have the power to change the world.
Everyone fears me, loathes me, or wants to use me. The only person who doesn’t is the handsome guard who always seems eager to bend the rules for me… but will he also help me escape?
one
“Hold still,” I murmured as the iridescent hummingbird outside my window darted out of my sight before returning to the feeder once more.
The little bird fluttered on the perch.
I sighed. “You’ve got to hold still,” I repeated. “We’ve talked about this.” At least I had.
When the small head twisted back and forth as if saying no, I chewed my bottom lip, meeting the tiny-eyed gaze as she hovered. Had she understood me? Could she… A niggling feeling wiggled in my middle, and I considered my work on the canvas. Was I forgetting something?
In a flash of color, the hummingbird zipped away and back again, re-snagging my attention. We had a standing date most mornings, or so we seemed to. I facilitated it with a sugar feeder and lots of praise for the hummingbird’s unusually spectacular coloring.
“You match my hair, you know.” I laughed as I completed another delicate feather on my canvas. And despite the painstaking level of detail required, I was able to capture it all perfectly. Colors, light, the shapes, and even the glint of each feather reflecting the waking sun.
I leaned back, my tongue poking just a tiny bit between my lips as I studied my art. This room really was a perfect studio. The floor-to-ceiling windows, the white walls, the high ceiling, the view outside…
All in all, the perfect place for me to be, and I knew that very well after nearly thirty years of living in the exact wrong place.
Minnesota.
Yup, back when I’d still lived in the frigid North, I’d overheard someone in the coffee shop where I worked telling a friend that their cousin was nuts to uproot from Florida and come to live in Minnesota… And then I’d eavesdropped on the rest, listening to details of the way sunlight bounced off rolling waves and managing to grab the name of the small town from which that foolish person had fled.
It hadn’t been my fault. The woman had been loud, her laugh raucous, and if I hadn’t been so interested in the things she was saying, her very presence would have irritated me to no end.
“You know what the part is that truly stinks, Rhonda?” She’d squawked the question so loudly, others had probably heard it from three blocks over.
The entire coffee shop was part of their conversation now. Myself included.
And she hadn’t even waited for her friend to reply before she continued toward her conversational destination. Her friend remained unamused, doing little more than making various exaggerated facial expressions and taking long draws on her coffee as she waited for the topic to change.
“It’s that I won’t get any more free vacations to Florida. Little place called Sweetwater. Crappy name, sleepy town, but it’s warm.” She’d laughed again, this bout even more grating than the last.
“I don’t know when I’ll next feel decent sun on my skin again.” She’d shivered like the Minnesota winter had penetrated the store, and I’d shivered too, suddenly overtaken by a bone-deep chill.
I made up my mind before I even finished my shift that day. But honestly, it was more like someone else had already made up my mind for me. A persistent buzz took up in my head and refused to leave—the idea I needed to move here, that this unseen town was somehow my home.
And now that I was here, no doubts remained. Call it fate, kismet, or simply dumb luck, Sweetwater, Florida, was exactly where I needed to be.
I shook my head, clearing away the unexpected memory.
The hummingbird glanced at me, and I sat straighter on my seat. Actual mischief seemed to have gleamed in its eye for a moment before it landed briefly, stretched taller, and ruffled all of its feathers out of the arrangement I’d only halfway finished painting.
I bit back a curse word and laughed. This was why people warned against working with children or animals—too much of the unexpected. Sometimes even chaos.
Chaos… Chaos… I frowned. Was I forgetting something? Surely not.
“I guess I just broke the golden rule of show business.” I leaned back to the canvas and fixed the position of a feather, layering more depth into the portrait.
The hummingbird cast another look at me before lifting up from the feeder and zipping by in a blur of flashing color.
I waved belatedly. “Tomorrow, then. Same time, same place.” I wasn’t worried. I could almost set my watch by her.
Her. I assumed the bird was female, anyway. Something about that knowing g
Maybe it was just the fact her feathers seemed to closely mirror the colors I’d carefully applied to my own hair. I’d thought I was inspired by a rainbow I’d seen over the sea, but maybe I’d already caught sight of my hummingbird and subconsciously used her as inspiration.
Well, I certainly had enough inspiration now. I took a look around my room. I’d crafted enough canvasses of that same hummingbird to stage a one-woman exhibition. Sometimes obsession signaled the beginning of the end for artists, but I truly felt like I’d reached the beginning of the beginning. And now that I’d come to the right place, all the other pieces of my life would effortlessly fall into line as well.
If I ran out of storage space, I could probably sell some at the local craft market, provided I signed up as a vendor. I’d wandered around it often enough—my work wouldn’t be out of place.
Or… I tilted my head as I glanced out of the window. I could ask Bess if she’d let me hang some at work to drum up a bit of interest. Add a little color to her chaos.
Bess!
Oh, shit. Bess. Work.
Hell. I’d done it again.
I stood in one quick, smooth motion, moving toward the door before I was even straight. I grabbed my house keys from the small mosaic-top table by the front door and picked up my purse from where I’d slung it over the armchair.
The front door creaked its irritation as I thrust it open, but I didn’t care. I stood on the stoop a moment, my eyes closed as the sun’s warmth touched my skin. No matter how late I was for something, I always took a brief moment to savor that first touch. It was like my skin absorbed the energy on a whole different level.
Like it recharged me somehow.
Yes, moving here from Minnesota would never be a mistake—even though I’d arrived with little more than the clothes on my back and the pittance in my savings account.
I stepped out into the street, exchanging a silent wave with my elderly neighbor as I did. Mrs. Hayes was clearly lonely, and she loved to chat, but her chats always extended beyond simple pleasantries, and I was late enough already.
Hopefully, my boss Bess would forgive me in return for a cup of her favorite coffee. Yes, that’s what I would do. Anyway, I still needed some of that life-giving brew for myself after this morning’s mess-up.
No more than five minutes later, I breathed in the nutty, slightly smoky aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the scent of sweet hot chocolate that hung in the air at my favorite new coffee shop. Sunshine Brew wasn’t the only place to get coffee in town, but the line wrapped around the inside of the store proved it was the best.
I checked my watch and joined the line. I could risk another ten minutes of tardiness if it meant bringing my boss a steaming cup of apologies.
As I waited, I glanced at the huge chalkboard menu with its vibrantly colored options and cute little doodles to illustrate the text, but only out of habit. No one who came in here regularly needed to read the menu. Hell, I could probably list the orders for half of the people standing in this line. And the only reason I didn’t know them all yet was because I was technically still new in town.
Truth be told, I’d probably still be considered new in twenty years’ time. That was the way of small towns, after all. It suited me, though. Being new offered some degree of anonymity while I figured things out and settled into my new life.
I approached the front of the line, reaching into my purse for my wallet. I drew out my loyalty card and handed it to Carrie, the smiling barista.
I wanted whatever powered her—she never did anything but smile, no matter how early I came in for coffee.
“Your usual?” Her grin grew wider still as I nodded.
“And Bess’s usual as well, please.” I might have been new in town, but I already had a usual and my favorite barista in my favorite cafe had graciously committed to memory. I liked that.
She grabbed two to-go cups and the caramel syrup for Bess’s triple, large, non-fat latte with extra caramel drizzle and chocolate flakes.
“So, some weird stuff going on around town, right?” Carrie kept her voice as low as she could against the noise of grinding beans.
“Hmm?” I leaned a little closer. “What weird stuff is that?” I’d barely looked up on my walk here—my entire mission being to collect coffee and get to work before Bess advertised my job in the evening edition of the paper.
“All the dudes.” Carrie gestured vaguely toward the large storefront window that looked out onto Main. “Don’t look now.” She lowered her voice. “There’s one of them sitting in the corner.”
I froze and then started to very casually turn to my left to glance over my shoulder, but Carrie grabbed my forearm. “I said don’t look.”
I grinned awkwardly. “And what am I not looking at?”
She wrinkled her nose as she grabbed the whipped cream canister. “Whip?” She tipped it toward me.
I nodded. “Always whip.” I glanced over my shoulder as she went through the motions of completing my order.
Piercing blue eyes.
That was all I saw.
Piercing blue eyes met mine bang-on.
I faced Carrie again, my heart pounding at being caught looking at the man.
Carrie watched me thoughtfully, her eyes narrowed a little. “Told ya not to look,” she said.
But despite my best intentions, something about the man proved to be magnetic, and I glanced again, prepared this time for the eyes that seemed to see right through me.
But he had already shifted his focus back to his copy of the morning paper, coffee in hand. He still looked out of place, but at least now he was trying to blend in somewhat.
“Is he wearing an earpiece?” I muttered my question to Carrie as she fixed lids on the to-go cups.
She nodded. “Yep. And I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him speak into his cuff a couple of times, too.”
I wanted to look again. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Hell, I had no need to.
The image of the man with the vivid blue eyes and tousled brown hair was pretty much imprinted on my brain. Everything about his face suggested that we should go to bed together… Or that we’d just been there.
But his suit was all business. And his earpiece was… weird.
“Secret service?” I barely mouthed the question, but Carrie only shrugged.
“I just think it’s odd to see so many strangers in town all at once.”
I laughed. “Well, I’m still new here, and I’m willing to bet there aren’t many that are stranger than me, right?” I winked and tossed my rainbow hair for effect.
Carrie just sighed and shook her head as she handed me the drinks.
If I weren’t so late already, I would have marched up to our mysterious visitor, thrust out my hand in greeting, and demanded to know what he was up to. But sadly, that was not to be. Not today, anyway.
two
The bell jangled merrily as I left Sunshine Brew.
A local named Will Parker insisted on holding the door open for me to pass through, and I offered him a polite nod in return. Will had asked me out a couple of times, and I liked him well enough, but I wasn’t interested in inviting gossip while still being such a newcomer to town.
“Morning, Meira.”
I met his overeager smile with a more laid-back grin of my own. “Morning, Will. Have a nice day.”
