Auctus

Enhanced Magic Book 2

Auctus…Augment: A portal protector and her baby gargoyle, a guardian daemon, a hellhound, and a witch. Together, they must survive in a strange land filled with unknown monsters. Combined they must be strong enough to defy an elite group of magical terrorists. They are Auctus, augmenting the magic flowing through her world…but will they be enough?

I’m Glynn Forester. I’m Magis. More. Recently, in an attempt to save my friends and home from the Body, a group of elite magical terrorists, I accidentally dragged them all through the portal I’m charged with protecting. We ended up in a place where monsters thrive and nothing is familiar. Survival is our first order of business. I need to figure out how to provide food, clothing, and shelter to the people I brought with me.

Though the power of this new place sings through my veins, filling me with magical purpose, I’m in way over my head. I don’t know how to take care of so many people. I was barely scraping by just taking care of myself and Boyle, my baby gargoyle.

How am I going to keep my people safe? How will I save my friends who we were forced to leave behind? What will I do about the Body? And the portal? And Grams? And…so much more?

One thing is clear. My relatively safe, slightly boring little world is gone, gone, gone. And I am up to my eyeballs in challenges I have no idea how to meet.

This should be interesting.

    

"Wow! Just wow!!!!! I could NOT put this one down!!!!!!! My heart was beating double time in so many spots! I could feel the angst and pain....I could feel the joy! It was magic!" 

More from this series

Praise for auctus

Jen - Booksprout Reviewer

"FANTASTIC URBAN FANTASY! Auctus is a fantastic book. It is unique and full of adventure. The book is engaging and impossible to put down. I love the characters and the magical world. The book is action-packed and full of suspense, strong characters and magic. I love this book and highly recommend it."

Booksprout Reader Review

"FANTASTIC SERIES! This action packed book draws you in from the very beginning. The descriptive writing style paints a picture that makes you feel as though you’re experiencing events as they happen. You can visualize the characters, the battles and the magical creatures they encounter."

Read an Excerpt

A small pebble skittered across the dirt. In the beat of a heart, Hawk had his blades in his hands, energy pulsed at my fingertips, and Shane had a gun trained into the darkness.

“I come in peace,” Alina said, her voice carrying a note of amusement.

Without warning, a cold, wet nose goosed me. I yelped before I could stop myself, turning to glare at Nicht.

He gave me a wide, canine grin, his tongue lolling.

“Very funny.”

Alina nodded in the direction she’d just come from. “This isn’t the best place to breach. I found a spot near the back where there’s a blind spot. Guards have limited vision because the light doesn’t reach the fence.”

We nodded and fell into a jog behind her, Nicht keeping pace at my hip. I glanced over at him. “Don’t try to suck up now, buddy. I’m holding a grudge.”

He chuffed a sound that was way too much like a laugh for my comfort.

We rounded the corner and ran along the fence line for several moments. Alina finally stopped, nodding toward the empty space between the fence and the nearest building. As she’d promised, it was dark. I watched the guards move through their paces from our new vantage point and noted they never even glanced in our direction.

“This doesn’t make sense,” I told her. “Why aren’t they guarding this side? It feels like a trap.”

“That’s because it is.” She pointed at the ground on the other side of the fence. It looked like a large mud puddle.

I frowned. “Mud? That’s their trap?”

Shane leaned closer and sniffed. “That’s not just mud. It’s…”

“A magical residue pool,” Hawk said.

Feeling like the odd man out, I was reluctant to aske what they were talking about. But I needed to know. “And that means…?”

“Nobody knows exactly,” Shane explained. “That’s the problem. It could be something harmless or it could dissolve us into atoms with the slightest touch. Given the setup here…I’m guessing it’s more of the later.”

“It is,” Alina said. She leaned down and picked up a long stick, flinging it over the fence. It hit the muck with a sizzle rather than a splash and flashed into flames that disintegrated it in seconds, leaving behind a foul, sulfurous stench. “The pit runs the length of the sides and back of this fence.”

“Smart,” Hawk said. “They only need enough manpower to watch the front.”

Nodding, Shane agreed. “And if anything escapes, it’s forced to the front as well.”

We stood in thoughtful silence for a beat. Finally, I had to ask. “So, how do we get past it?”

I didn’t like the smile on Alina’s face. Not at all.

“I have a plan for that. I just need to the wizard to get us through the fence.”

Shane through her a glare. “Wizard? You’re really begging for that third eye, aren’t you?”

Her grin was unrepentant. “You can do it, right? I mean, it’s a pretty basic spell.”

His lips curled in a silent snarl that even Nicht would be proud of. “I swear, woman…”

Alina laughed brightly.

To my immense surprise, Shane’s lips twitched with something that looked a lot like humor.

“Sometime tonight?” I said.

Shane settled his bag on the ground and pulled out a small jar and a brush. He moved close to the fence and ran his palm over it, careful not to touch the metal. Then he nodded and unscrewed the jar. Dipping the brush into a thick black substance that smelled like tar, he painted a line from the dirt to the bottom edge of the razor wire, then over about two feet and down to the ground again.

He carefully repacked the jar. Then touched the tarry stuff clinging to the brush with the tip of a finger, sending it into the air in a light mist. Bristles clean again, he dropped the brush into the bag and slung the strap over his shoulder. “I’m ready.”

Alina extended a hand, palm up and he sighed at her casual bossiness. Stepping close to the fence, Shane rubbed his hands together, then placed his palms over the space he’d marked, and closed his eyes. A moment later, the metal inside the tarry substance disappeared in a whoosh and a flare of silvery light.

We all stilled, our gazes sliding to the guards in the compound. There was not cry, no movement in our direction. They hadn’t seen Shane’s magic.

“Clear,” Hawk said in a husky whisper. He glanced at Alina. “Now what?”

There was that grin again. “Nicht?”

We all watched as the big hound stepped up to the opening in the fence and…

My eyes widened in horror. “Is this really a good time for that?”

Hawk barked out a laugh.

Shane’s grizzled face took on a pleased expression, but when he glanced at Alina it was hard to miss the respect in his gaze. “Smart girl.”

She took a little bow.

Frustration made me want to yell and stamp my foot. Why was I the only one who didn’t have a clue what was going on? “Will somebody please tell me why Nicht is peeing on the magic trap?”

“Science is science,” she told me smugly. “Even for magic. The pool is highly acidic. A Hellhound’s urine is deeply basic. Therefore…”

A lightbulb flashed on in my brain. “Therefore it neutralizes the magic residue.”

“Precisely,” Alina said, clearly very proud of herself.

“Yeah,” Hawk said, grinning. “Don’t look so proud of yourself soldier. We do have to walk through that pee now.”

Alina’s smile slid away. “Yeah. That part’s not my favorite.”