by DC Little
“We need to talk about our course of action, anyway.” Mercy sat next to him, leaning her head into her hands and rubbing her temples.
Orion instinctively let his hand rest on her neck and gently massaged her tight muscles. His hands were one part that didn’t ache with every movement. “I’m sorry you have put yourself on the line for me yet again. I will repay you.”
She flashed a grin at him. “You better believe you will.”
“I don’t envy you, brother.” Tucker chuckled as he squatted in front of them. “You and I have a talk coming once all this is settled.”
“All this?” Orion asked.
“Yeah, how my sister is going to handle our furious leaders when we return from a forbidden mission with five prisoners of war.” Tucker winked at Mercy.
“Geez, thanks for the encouragement,” Mercy said, a sigh escaping as she leaned into Orion’s touch. “Maybe we could set up a new camp out here...and not go back?”
“Seems like the chicken way out to me, girlie.” Butler sat next to them. “Your father may have a temper, but he sees reason...well, most of the time.” A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and Orion found he knew that feeling, liking the fact he got that trait from his dad. “The fact is, what’s done is done. What are the leaders going to do? Banish their own children?”
“Um, guys?” Ethan jogged over to them. “It looks like we won’t have to wait to find out how angry our fathers will be.”
Mercy’s head spun toward the entrance of Zion, and Orion slowly followed her gaze. Chantry, Arland, and several other armed men jogged, no, ran toward them. Mercy stood, squared her shoulders, and walked to meet her fate.
Orion pushed to a stand, wobbled slightly before his dad caught him with a powerful arm.
“I would stay back for now,” his father told him, holding tight to his arm.
Fire swept through him, but he kept his feet firmly planted. Mulroney and the boys had frozen as if they knew their fates were about to be determined.
The red-head beauty stood before her father, her hair blowing in the breeze, her back straight, shoulders square, and a presence that he now realized might even be as strong as her father’s. It could just be that she really would save them all.
>>>—MERCY—<<<
Mercy stood at the point, closing her eyes for a moment to revel in the feeling of the spring breeze blowing against her face and through her hair. A peace lived in the spring breeze, a peace full of the scent of new life, of hope.
The scratching of a moccasin on the rock had her turning from her revelry, but without haste or anxiety, for she knew he was there even before she heard him or saw those twilight blue eyes. She steeled herself for the jolt that hit her every time their eyes met and watched as he rolled up to a stand.
He had healed well, with sight still perfect in both eyes and only a small scar, still purple, under his right eye. The addition gave him a rugged look, one that she didn’t mind at all.
“You’re not my relief,” she said as he came to stand next to her.
“With your father upping the surveillance, they are getting desperate for sentries, but you’re right. I snuck you an acorn cake,” he said, holding out a moist cake still warm from the rock oven.
“She’s going to catch you one of these days,” Mercy said, but secretly she loved that he stole little morsels for her.
Orion shrugged. “I’m pretty sure she knows. Sometimes I swear she leaves them out just for me.”
Lexi seemed to have a soft spot for Orion, always quick to defend any slight rule broken by him and giving him extra helpings.
“Maybe she’s fattening me up.” Orion patted his flat belly.
Mercy turned to hide the blush she felt coming on. She knew his belly held no touch of fat. His washboard abs always distracted her during trainings.
“Actually, I wanted to get you alone.”
Mercy arched a brow, trying to deny the sudden rush of blood in her ears. “Oh, really?” They hadn’t kissed since that night before he left. She didn’t know if the battle still hung between them, or if she pulled back, or if he did.
Though at times she would still touch her lips when no one was looking, wondering if it really had happened and if it would feel just as magical the next time. Besides those moments, she was satisfied with not taking it further. Choosing Day fast approached, it would be time soon enough to decide if she would choose herself over Zion.
Orion’s cheeks pinked, but he quickly rushed the words out, “I have a plan.”
“Hmm, for what? For dinner? For training? You said you would start teaching the others that stuff you call free running.”
“No, think bigger. A plan that could solve multiple problems,” he said, his eyes turning even brighter.
Mercy cocked her head. “How big?”
“Like Choosing Day big.”
“Ugh,” she huffed and turned away. “Why did you have to bring that up?”
“Because I have a solution, and a way to free my sister and the girls at the same time.”
Mercy spun back toward him. “I’m listening.”
>>>——<<<
Thank you for reading Mercy Rising: The Prophecy. I hope you enjoyed the inception of Mercy’s saga. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can leave a review here:
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Ready to continue the action-packed journey of Mercy and Orion as they prepare to free the girls trapped in the coalition and change Zion ways forever?
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MERCY RISING: ORION’S ORIGINS
Orion was stolen from his father’s arms and raised by the Coalition’s ruthless leader. In the years after the power grid failed, coalitions rule the few that are left. Orion rebels at the cruel ways of the Old Man, embarking on a journey of self-discovery that leaves him questioning everything he was raised to believe.
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CONTINUE THE SAGA of
MERCY RISING:
THE FORBIDDEN
Book Two of the epic series, Mercy Rising, continues the tale of The Prophecy, following Mercy and Orion into The Forbidden.
Mercy wants nothing more than to shirk the prophecy of saving her people, but Orion’s plan may give her the incentive to free her from a completely different burden. If Zion had more women, maybe Choosing Day could be a thing of the past.
Orion can’t stand the thought of leaving Mercy’s side, but his sister and the girls are counting on him. He has to save them. Hoping to steal them from under Meyers’ nose, he has no idea of the cost his plan holds.
Follow Mercy and Orion as they navigate new territory in The Forbidden.
Mercy Rising is a clean, dystopian survival fiction series that is based on the children, now grown, from Grant Us Mercy, a post-apocalyptic survival fiction series. If you haven’t read Grant Us Mercy yet, read it now while you wait for Mercy Rising: The Forbidden to go live. You’ll appreciate the gripping back story.
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GRANT US MERCY
Read the beginning of Mercy Rising’s post-apocalyptic event. Twenty years before Mercy rose, follow her parents and older brother as they navigate a new world.
The power grid goes out during a solar storm, pushing the world into chaos. The Chantrys do whatever it takes to stay together and survive in this new and dangerous world.
When the world goes dark, one family realizes that all their preparation means nothing if they don’t have each other.
Join Blake and
Kris on this action-packed inception to the edge of your seat journey in the post-apocalyptic serial novel, Grant Us Mercy. The entirety of this thrilling series is complete and available.
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Readers of Grant Us Mercy say:
★★★★★
“Loved this...clean and ADVENTURESOME!!”
"D.C. Little takes readers on a harrowing journey of only a few miles to demonstrate how fast modern society falls apart in the wake of a disaster."
"All the prepping in the world can't prepare you for everything that can happen. This book is exciting and thrilling. It is a must read."
"By signing up for the author's mailing list I also received a short story that provides a parallel story line to the main characters. D.C. Little has crafted a very entertaining story line."
★★★★★
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DC Little writes what she loves, incorporating survival techniques within action-packed natural disaster stories. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are her playground, both for adventure and scheming up new plots.
If DC is not attached to her computer typing out her latest novel, then you will probably find her on some sort of adventure with her husband and son. Whether white-water kayaking, backcountry skiing, dirt bike riding, or finding the next bug-out hidden oasis, she feels most at home in the trees and granite wonderlands of her home county.
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