Blackwood Book Novels & Stories

Someone had erased the founder's name from every history book I had opened, except in one. It was the newest, the only one that looked recently printed. Unlike others, there was no missing page, and the founding clan had a name. "House of Blackwood." I frowned. Why had someone gone to such lengths to erase the name from every older book and let it stand in the newest book? My eyes drifted to the book with the witch's symbol, and suddenly I wondered less about what it was because I was beginning to wonder who had rewritten the kingdom's history and why.

"You and I go in. Just us. If he’s there, he’s waiting for a fight. He’s waiting for the Vulture. I’m not bringing an army to a family meeting." The Blackwood State Library loomed out of the fog like a monolithic temple of stone and brass, a structure of towering columns and arched windows that had stood in the center of the city for over a century. It was an island of academic quiet in a city that had been bleeding for weeks. As they parked the SUV in the shadow of a gargantuan stone statue of the city’s founder, the silence of the library grounds was absolute. The library wasn't just closed; it felt shuttered, like a lung holding its breath.

“Then we do what we must.” Maxwell glanced at me. “You ready for this?” I wasn’t sure anyone could be ready for what we were about to do. But there was no time for hesitation. I squared my shoulders. “Let’s go.” --- The Blackwood estate loomed ahead, its towering gates shut tight. The once-grand mansion had fallen into disrepair after the war, its windows dark, its gardens overgrown. But beneath it lay the vault—one of the most heavily guarded places in the supernatural world.

The name alone was a storm. I had heard the stories. Everyone had. In fact I had witnessed the disaster that befell then Blackwoods. The Blackwoods were more than legends—they were myths made flesh. An extinct bloodline, wiped from the face of the earth, their wolves unlike anything the world had ever seen. And yet, for nineteen years, the supposed last of their kind had been under my roof. In my pack. In my bed. I had been sleeping next to a phantom, a relic of a forgotten power.

Phil, Adams, the organization, and whoever she was yet to meet. Kate breathed out just when she realized she had been holding her breath, “One thing they seem to have forgotten to account for is my heart—of the woman wielding it. They forgot that I am Blackwood. And Blackwoods… we don't break. We bend, we bleed, but we never, ever break.”

Low and restrained, not harsh, not passionate — the voice of a man who had learned to weigh words in the balance. Leya opened the door. Samuel Ithis Blackwood crouched under a fire-charred titanic walnut desk. The bookshelves loomed above him, rank after rank of books that scented the air with power and dust. The lantern cast but a dim spear into the room, and the golden amber shadows danced on his face. The one held a glass of brandy in it. The second was placed on a sheet of paper, as if the ink of the paper was too much to lie on something alive, yet claimous.

“Let them try.” The Blackwood Empire wasn’t just a company. It wasn’t just a home. It was a declaration of war, written in light and blood and silent, compounding interest. And they were ready to serve the papers.

I tell him. Flavius nods in response and begins to pack his things. I fill my satchel with various clothing items and few books. "Why are you packing books?" Flavius asks curiously. "Since we are visiting another horde without sending a messenger ahead, I need to bring something that will serve as a gift. Those of the Horde of Fates are known knowledge seekers. I have many books in my private collection that have not been seen since The Fires. They should serve as a suitable present," I say.

The air felt heavier now, as if it carried more than moisture—something invisible and watching. His backpack lay half-buried in the sand, soaked but intact. He fished out the leather-bound notebook he’d carried everywhere since he was thirteen—the one with the stories, the nightmares, the dreams he could never fully explain. Inside were drawings of forests that bled, oceans that whispered, and a woman with hollow eyes and hands covered in roots. He had drawn her before he ever heard of WildWood. Before he heard the name Emily. Before he knew that she was family.

I nodded, though disappointment fluttered in my chest. The Living Book wasn’t something easily hidden. Its very presence radiated light and power. If he carried it with him, anyone with eyes would notice. That meant he was keeping it locked away. That night, I slipped quietly into the woods once more. After days of forced silence and distance, seeing Zevarion again felt like a balm against the growing storm inside me. We sat close beneath the cover of trees, the firelight flickering gently beside us. I told him everything, what I had overheard outside Xareth’s office, what I suspected and I feared.