Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3 The Staghorns were burning, and Oakwald with them. The mighty, ancient trees were little more than charred husks, ash thick as snow raining down. Embers drifted on the wind, a mockery of how they had once bobbed in her wake like fireflies while she’d run through the Beltane bonfires. So much flame, the […]
Chapter no 7
A motion sensor picked up Brandon climbing out of the hole in the wall, and fluorescent lights in the ceiling flickered on. He had landed in the middle of a bathroom. A ladies’ bathroom. But Brandon didn’t have time to be embarrassed. He scrambled to his feet and peered back through the hole at the […]
Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2 Elide Lochan had once hoped to travel far and wide, to a place where no one had ever heard of Adarlan or Terrasen, so distant that Vernon didn’t stand a chance of finding her. She hadn’t anticipated that it might actually happen. Standing in the dusty, ancient alley of an equally dusty, ancient […]
Chapter no 6
Reshmina stared at her brother in horror. He knew the Taliban planned to attack? Did other people in the village know? “Pasoon, the ANA are Afghans! Our own people! And I have no more love for the Americans than you do,” she went on before her brother could speak, “but this betrayal will only make […]
Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1 The snows had come early. Even for Terrasen, the first of the autumnal flurries had barreled in far ahead of their usual arrival. Aedion Ashryver wasn’t entirely sure it was a blessing. But if it kept Morath’s legions from their doorstep just a little longer, he’d get on his knees to thank the […]
Chapter no 5
The elevator kept sliding down—and not the way it was built to. Brandon could feel how wrong it was in the pit of his stomach. From the horrified looks on their faces, the other passengers in the elevator felt it too. “Hit the emergency stop button,” the blonde woman said. Nobody moved. The elevator kept […]
The Princess
The Princess The iron smothered her. It had snuffed out the fire in her veins, as surely as if the flames had been doused. She could hear the water, even in the iron box, even with the iron mask and chains adorning her like ribbons of silk. The roaring; the endless rushing of water over […]
Chapter no 4
Reshmina and her brother ran up the steps of their village, Reshmina’s thoughts racing faster than her feet. Americans were here. Reshmina had encountered Afghan National Army soldiers before—they had a base nearby and checked in occasionally with the village elders. The Americans were a different story. Reshmina had seen their helicopters flying over the […]
The Prince
The Prince He had been hunting for her since the moment she was taken from him. His mate. He barely remembered his own name. And only recalled it because his three companions spoke it while they searched for her across violent and dark seas, through ancient and slumbering forests, over storm-swept mountains already buried in […]
Chapter no 3
Brandon loved riding the express elevator that zipped up all one hundred and seven floors of the North Tower without stopping. It was a kind of magic—one minute you were on the ground, and the next you were more than a thousand feet up in the sky. Brandon watched with anticipation as the red digital […]