"Let's make this quick," she muttered. "I want to leave these people alone."
"It's none of these," Helix said, scanning the houses they could see before moving farther up the path. "No," he said as another house came into view. "No. No." He jerked to a stop, his empty gaze locked on a little side path that wound out of view. "Wait. There."
They followed him up the dirt path, through a cleft in the hills and up a back road that wound upward toward a cottage. A pair of pine trees graced the front yard, providing just enough shade for a few patches of hardy grass to sprout.
Helix froze. "The trees," he said. "That's it. That's the house."
Lyseira's heart leapt into her throat. She had still been hoping he was wrong, that this had all been for nothing. She had so badly wanted it to be for nothing.
"M'sai." Seth pulled his spear loose. "I'll lead. Be ready."
Lyseira nodded. She called down Akir's protection, warding herself, Seth, and Helix from flames, and then prepared to summon them herself.
They reached the door. Seth gave it three sharp raps, making it shiver in its frame.
"A moment," a woman called from inside.
Lyseira waited, tense, wondering—as she so often did—if these were her final minutes.
The door swung open. Seth jerked up his spear, ready to attack, but it was a mother and her baby. "Seth, no!" Lyseira barked, putting a hand to his weapon.
"Who are you?" the woman said, shying back. "Trevor! There's some strangers here!" Her shoulder was bare. Revenia's mark was plain to see. But it wasn't on the mother's shoulder.
It was on the baby's.
Epilogue
I was the last to leave.
I've never spoken of it, and I never will. But after Harth and Takra had gone, bringing their new students with them, after everyone had taken their things and left the halls barren, I was still there. At the Redding school.
Your school.
I stayed because someone had to. It didn't seem right otherwise. We had all heard the eulogies for Melakai and Elthur, for the fallen heroes from Colmon. But your funeral had been too quiet and too small. And it never should have happened in a graveyard sanctum. It should have happened there—in those barren halls, with the spring sunlight lancing through in towering pillars of dust, where I could still hear your laugh if I just listened for it.
I stayed because someone needed to eulogize your dreams. Someone needed to eulogize the person you might have been, if things had been different—the legacy you might have left. And I did it in the way you would have preferred, Syn. I did it with the strongest chants I could muster.
I was tired of killing. I was tired of violence. This art you discovered—this beautiful craft, this window to a higher world—it deserved better than to be a constant weapon. I felt like something was being forgotten in the headlong rush to war, something wonderful. And whatever else you were, whatever sins you committed, you always loved to see something new. So I made it for you.
You would've loved illusion, Syn, if you'd had the chance to see what it could really do. Light and beauty. Euphoria made visible. There is a place within us full of joy, and we can channel that joy into visions we can share with the world. I celebrated you with swooping loops of light and the smell of fresh morning mist. I filled the air with my memory of our laughter, the laughter of children.
I turned the sunlight into roses.
And then I said goodbye.
Entry from Angbar Shed’dei’s private journal, discovered upon his death
A Note From the Author
Where Gods Lie Silent, the sequel to Of Dark Things Waking, will be available in early 2020.
If you’d like to know the exact release date the same moment I do, join my mailing list—I tell them everything first! If you sign up for it now, not only will you be first to get news on new novels and sales on existing books, but you'll receive each story in my upcoming short story anthology These Morbid Gifts for free as their final drafts are finished. I hope to hear from you!
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Thank you again for reading. I hope you'll join me in Darnoth once more, and soon.
Also by Adam J Nicolai
A bereaved father. A quickening madness. Whenever he's alone, Ian sees his murdered son.
Are these aching visions real? Has the boy found a way back, to pass on some vital clue to his father? Or has Ian's sorrow bloomed into psychosis?
As the visions intensify, assaulting him in every corner of his life, the pressure mounts. Driven to his breaking point, Ian's final choices may avenge his son - or snap his final ties to reality.
Kindle readers have launched Alex to the Kindle Suspense and Horror bestseller lists half a dozen times, from July of 2012 to December of 2016. If you're looking for a novel that seizes you on the first page and drags you relentlessly to the finish, you'll be glad you joined them. Read Alex tonight.
Also by Adam J Nicolai
Young Sarah is a woman haunted – not by ghosts, but by crippling exhaustion, post-partum depression, and the unending cries of her newborn daughter, Rebecca. In fevered snatches of sleep she imagines a Messenger from God inciting her to unspeakable acts, and in her weakest moments his exhortations sound like sanity.
Estranged from her own mother and suffering from a deadly disconnection with her own identity, Sarah doesn’t know how to love her daughter any more than she knows how to love herself. Alone with her baby in a tiny, sweltering apartment, she will suffer. She will weep.
But she will also endure.
Unforgettable and truly unique, Rebecca takes hold of you on the first page and drags you headlong into the hellscape of a tortured young mother’s mind - a journey that will end with unspeakable horror, or the triumph of a mother’s love over darkness.
Read Rebecca now.
Also by Adam J Nicolai
Without warning on a sunny June afternoon, all life on Earth vanishes. Reeling and alone in the aftermath, Alan and his son Todd scrounge through the ruins of civilization to survive.
Finding food and water is easy. Electric power is harder. But Alan has his own search, one he tries to hide from his son: after a lifelong struggle with depression, his scarcest resource now is a reason to keep living.
Through wildfires and tornadoes, as the deadly cold of a Minnesota winter draws closer, the two ask questions that may never be answered. Why did this happen? Why were they spared? They don't realize that behind the empty sky, the entity that did this still watches—or that its plans have only begun.
Fast-paced and brutal, Todd drags you forward from its first moment to its inevitable conclusion—an ending that will leave you in breathless disbelief.
It's time for a thriller that digs deeper.
It’s time to read Todd.
Acknowledgments
This was the most structurally complex novel I’ve ever written, and I wrote it ten times faster (literally) than I wrote my first one. We are well past doozies and solidly into panic attacks.
As always, thank you to the original children of Southlight: Joy Nicolai, Ethan Mills, Jason Parviz, Jerry Murphy, Matt Giesler, Jason Formo, Mike Lonetti, and Jason Tabor. Thank you for coming with me to this incredible place, and helping me realize just how great it could be.
Thank you to Alana Fletcher for a picture-perfect rendition of the fifth Storm, seen from the peak of Thakhan Dar.
Thank you to my beta readers: Jason Parviz, Tom Skripka, Ethan Mills, Jason Godfr
ey, and Jenn Godfrey.
Thank you to my children, who are always so excited about my writing. Your enthusiasm is infectious.
And thank you to my wife, Joy. I dedicated this book to you again because no one has supported me like you have. I think I might finally be getting the hang of this writing thing.
About the Author
Adam J Nicolai lives near St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, Joy, their two children, Isaac and Rydia, and their three cats. He is a Dungeon Master and a min-maxer, a Star Wars fan and a lifelong dreamer. He has written pen-and-paper roleplaying systems, World of Warcraft addons, and a bunch of novels.
He has been working on the world of Or'agaard since he was eight years old, and sharing it with you is a dream come true. To be notified of the release date for Where Gods Lie Silent, just click here.
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