by W. J. May
“It’s the same thing,” Molly snapped. “At any rate, we wouldn’t be here if someone had just conjured a simple bouquet of flowers, instead of getting us all sucked back in time!”
“Guys, this isn’t helping.” Devon winced against the noise, leaning his head back against the wall. “At any rate, we all know whose fault this is.”
There was a moment’s pause. Then six pairs of eyes turned in the same direction.
“How original,” Julian said dryly. “When in doubt, blame the psychic.”
“It isn’t anybody’s fault,” Angel interjected in a rare moment of reason. “And it isn’t going away on its own. So can we please just do something about it?”
She rattled her chains and cast a pointed look at her brother. It was about as subtle as a rock through a window, and for the first time it looked like Gabriel was considering.
“Should I?” He directed the question at Rae, the way he did most of his sudden queries of conscience. “We know we’re not on camera. They’d have to assume they missed one of the locks.”
“And if they didn’t?” Devon answered sharply. He wanted to get out of his chains as much as the rest of them, but he settled for leaning his head back against the wall. “You can’t use your tatù, Gabriel. We’re in enough trouble as it is.”
Gabriel ignored him, keeping his eyes fixed on Rae. “What do you think?”
She shook her head helplessly, torn either way. Julian swooped in for the rescue. “No, he’s right. That barbarian thinks there’s something strange about us as it is. Remember the way he was counting on us to come quietly back in the clearing? Don’t use your ink.”
“Then what do you suggest, honey?” Angel asked testily. “Because, if our only option was to run, I hate to break it to you but he caught us.”
Julian pulled in a deep breath, keeping his steady gaze locked on the door. “I suggest we meet this employer of his once and for all. Figure out who the guy is and hear what he has to say.”
Not a thrilling prospect. Still, the others considered it for a moment then agreed.
It was a rare occasion when any of them would disagree with Julian’s plans. Whether he was in a position to use his gift or not. Only Angel remained on the fence. Along with her brother.
“I don’t like this,” she murmured, straining against the cuffs as her sapphire eyes roved manically around the tiny room. Dark shadows stained the sides of her pale face, making her look like some kind of ghost. “We should get out of here. We should leave.”
There was a tone in her voice Rae had never heard before. A kind of uncharacteristic panic that was mirrored in her eyes. Julian turned to her instantly, looking as though he hadn’t thought her capable of such an emotion, but it was her older brother who stepped up to the plate. Albeit in his own, rather unconventional, way.
“Did you end up getting that swing set for Lily?”
The lovely woman froze for a moment before her eyes flashed to his face.
“...what?”
“The swing set,” Gabriel repeated patiently, staring straight at her with that practiced calm that never seemed to leave him. “Did you end up getting it for Lily?”
Angel paused for another moment, then turned away with a scowl.
“Don’t distract me, Gabriel. I’m not a child.”
Distract her?
Rae shot an incredulous look at Devon, but he seemed just as confused himself.
“Because I already got her that one we saw in Kent,” Gabriel continued, as if he hadn’t heard her. “The one with the blue lettering. It’s being shipped to your house as we speak.”
For a split second, all was quiet. Then—
“You son of a bitch! Are you serious?!”
His eyes danced as he tilted his head with a little smile. “If you didn’t want me to spoil your kid, then you shouldn’t have had one. Lily loved the swings. And Julian can assemble it himself.”
Julian didn’t look so thrilled about the idea himself, but he was grateful that whatever sort of crisis his wife was going through was beginning to pass.
“At any rate, it’s going to look great next to your new pool.”
There was a beat of silence. Then everyone else exploded at the same time.
“Gabriel!”
“No way are you getting a pool before we do,” Rae cried, turning to her husband with an accusatory glare. “I’ve been asking for one since we moved in!”
“You know there’s one in the basement of our building,” Luke said mildly. “I keep telling you guys, but you never listen.”
“I had to get her the pool as well,” Gabriel said calmly. “To start, it went with the swing set, and it was the quickest way to beat out Devon as her favorite godfather.”
“That’s never going to happen!” Devon shot him a ferocious glare before turning expectantly to Julian. “Just strip him of the title. I can’t take it.”
“I don’t think Angie would like that very much,” Gabriel chimed in with a smile.
“Do it, Julian. I’m your best friend.”
Rae tried to throw up her hands, then remembered they were chained. “I’m still stuck on the fact that you guys are getting a pool! That’s so ridiculously unfair!”
“They’re not!” Devon growled.
“We’re not,” Angel echoed, much to his delight.
Gabriel waited a beat, then pursed his lips with a smile. “...you actually are. The guys are coming on Friday.”
“Look, you can’t just start filling our house with expensive nonsense.” Angel ignored the others and focused on her brother with a scowl. “I want to fill our house with expensive nonsense.”
“It’s outside, not inside. Plus, there’s plenty of room—”
“Guys—please!” Molly banged her cuffs against the wall, clattering the chains. “Do you think we could do this another time? You know, when we’re not trapped in a psychopath’s basement?”
The room echoed with a guilty silence, and she nodded smugly.
“Besides, we all know that I’m Lily’s favorite.”
Like flipping a switch, the argument started right back up again. This time even worse than before. Threats were flying, profanities were ringing back and forth. At one point, Devon pulled so hard at his own chains that poor little Molly was lifted right off the ground. It was a comedic moment to be sure, but one that didn’t even register enough to pause their shouting.
Except not everyone was playing along...
After a few minutes, Rae noticed that one person was staying clear of the fight. Although he’d done his very best to instigate it. She looked on with great interest as Gabriel leaned back against the wall, watching his little sister with a hidden smile.
...a little sister who had long ago been conditioned to fear the dark.
In a flash, the smile melted off her face and Rae’s heart melted as she looked from one to the other. Understanding Angel’s strange panic and Gabriel’s quick distraction for the first time.
Sometimes it was easy to forget that the two of them had grown up in a place very similar to this. A place that had burned into their psyche and left scars that lingered long after the man who’d caused them had been lowered into the ground. A world without sunlight? Chained in the darkness beneath the ground? No wonder Angel was having a miniature panic attack.
You’re distracting Angel, but who’s distracting you?
It would take a friend to notice. Someone who had known him a very long time.
The way Gabriel’s spin stiffened at the slightest movement in the shadows. The way he was standing so deliberately still that the iron chains didn’t touch his skin. The way he smiled along with the others, but his eyes were always moving. Always searching the darkness for things yet to come.
Rae sighed, watching him standing there. As usual, feeling the most protective of the ones who needed protecting the least.
“Hey,” she said, trying to get his attention, leaning behind Devon as she rattled lightly on the chains
, “Gabriel, can you—”
Truth be told, she didn’t really have a way to end that sentence. But as it turned out, she would never get the chance. No sooner had she opened her mouth to ask it than a door opened at the top of the stairs, smashing into the wall. The tiny basement was flooded with light.
In hindsight, not exactly the best time for a fight.
The gang fell instantly quiet, squinting in the sudden brightness as a set of footsteps echoed loudly down the stairs. It seemed to take an abnormally long time to get there, and they listened with bated breath as the sound got closer and closer, hidden behind that impenetrable wall of light.
It was utterly surreal to simply stand there, waiting for the enemy. No powers. No weapons. Not doing a single thing in the world to defend themselves.
However, under the present circumstances, there was nothing else to be done. Sometimes being gifted with incredible responsibility meant that the responsible thing to do was hide the gift.
Carter had told her that. Or maybe she’d seen it on a bumper sticker.
The footsteps came closer and closer before coming to a sudden stop—the last one ringing out in the silence. The seven friends stood in a silent line. Hands tied. Arms raised. Waiting for whatever was coming next. But they could never have imagined what that might be.
There was a gasp of surprise as the lantern came down. A single, breathless sound before Rae opened her eyes and saw the man who was standing before her.
I don’t freaking believe it.
I blinked. Then blinked again.
“Kraigan?”
THE END
A Passage of Time
Book 2 of the Kerrigan Chronicles
USA TODAY BESTSELLING author, W.J. May brings you a continuation of the international bestselling series, The Chronicles of Kerrigan! Come back and enjoy the famous characters, or step into the series right here. You won't be disappointed!
How can you save the future, when someone's slowly unraveling your past?
Rae Kerrigan and her friends have found themselves in trouble before, but never quite like this.
When a split second mistake jumps the gang back in time, they make it their sole mission to get home again. But manipulating the space-time continuum is easier said than done. And not everyone in seventeenth century London is quite so eager to let them escape.
Trapped in the 1600's with no way to get home, they find themselves teaming up with the most unlikely of allies. Old enemies prowl about in the shadows, but new heroes come forth to fight. Rae and the others are sworn to set things right, but a mysterious stranger might run them off course once and for all.
Can they make it back to their own time? Can they undo the damage they've already done? Most importantly...is it ever too late to turn back time?
Find W.J. May
Website:
http://www.wanitamay.yolasite.com
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https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-WJ-May-FAN-PAGE/141170442608149
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The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Book I - Rae of Hope is FREE!
Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILAwXxx8MU
Book II - Dark Nebula
Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca24STi_bFM
Book III - House of Cards
Book IV - Royal Tea
Book V - Under Fire
Book VI - End in Sight
Book VII – Hidden Darkness
Book VIII – Twisted Together
Book IX – Mark of Fate
Book X – Strength & Power
Book XI – Last One Standing
BOOK XII – Rae of Light
PREQUEL –
Christmas Before the Magic
Question the Darkness
Into the Darkness
Fight the Darkness
Alone the Darkness
Lost the Darkness
SEQUEL –
Matter of Time
Time Piece
Second Chance
Glitch in Time
Out Time
Precious Time
The Chronicles of Kerrigan: Gabriel
Living in the Past
Present for Today
Staring at the Future
EXCERPT from W.J. May’s New Series!
ETERNAL Blurb:
WHEN THE KING IS MURDERED, his only daughter, Katerina, must flee for her life. She finds herself on a strange and dangerous path. Alone for the first time she’s forced to rely on her wits and the kindness of strangers, while protecting her secret at the same time.
Because she alone knows the truth. It was her brother who killed the king. And he's coming for her next.
Alone and struggling she finds herself an instant target, until a mysterious protector comes to her aid. Together, and with a collection of the most unlikely friends, the group must navigate through an enchanted world just as fantastical as it can be deadly. But time is not on their side.
With her brother’s hired assassins closing in at every turn, Katerina must unlock a secret that’s hidden deep inside her. It’s the only thing strong enough to keep the darkness at bay.
Can she find the answers she needs? Will she ever take her rightful place on the throne?
Only one thing is certain...she’s running out of time.
The Queen’s Alpha Series
Eternal
Everlasting
Unceasing
Evermore
Forever
Boundless
Chapter 1 – Eternal Excerpt
The girl stood at the window, staring bleakly into the world beyond. There was nothing but darkness as far as the eye could see. A land blanketed in shadow, a night without stars.
Only a single light penetrated the endless gloom. A flaming beacon shining on a distant hill.
Even from miles away, she could see its brightness. The wild flames stretched up into the heavens, lighting the countryside around them and flickering in her eyes. Even so far away it was impossible to miss, and even without anyone saying a word the girl knew exactly what it meant.
My father’s dead. The king is dead.
The flames whipped even higher in the midnight breeze, and she took a sudden step away from the window. Her crimson hair spilled in rivulets down her chest, and despite the shadows all around her eyes shone bright in the darkness. Shimmering with the weight of a thousand tears. Gazing out the frosty pane of glass with a sadness that knew no words.
He was a hard man, her father. But he was her father nonetheless. And over the years, time had softened him. His children had softened him. He wasn’t as hard as he once was. There was a lightness beneath the weight of the crown. At times, he seemed almost ready to smile.
“We’ve got to go, milady!” A sharp whisper cut through the silence, breaking the girl out of her spell. “We can’t stay here anymore!”
The girl blinked several times, forcing herself back to the present, then turned to look at the cluster of frightened women standing at the foot of her bed. Despite the late hour, they were all fully dressed. It was an ingrained instinct, one that had travelled to even the highest levels of the land. If you wake up to a scream in the night, the first thing you do is put on your shoes.
“You’re right...” She swept through the center of them, moving strangely, as if she was in some sort of dream. “I need to pay my respects to my father...”
The women exchanged a frantic, helpless look as she groped around in the darkness, reaching for her coat. Less than a second later an ominous rumbling shook the very ground they were standing on, followed by a series of distant screams.
“Milady, you don’t understand.” The bravest of the women stepped forward, reaching tentatively to catch her hand. “There isn’t time—”
&nb
sp; At that moment the door burst open, and the women fell back with a shriek. The girl looked up in a daze as a tall man strode into her bedchamber. A man who had weathered a hundred battles and had lived to see nights like this before. A man she had known all her life.
“The king is dead,” he announced with no preamble.
Although the beacon had told them as much, the women gasped and clustered together. The girl merely glanced at the beacon outside. Her thoughts were jumbled and made no sense. A chaotic parade of random memories, nonsensical and ill-timed. Each one hurrying to replace the last.
This is the man who taught my brother and me to ride when we were just children. My father is dead. I wonder what kind of magic sets the beacon on fire. My father’s dead. I must remember to tell the groom to have my horse saddled in the morning. My father is dead.
When he received no response, the man glanced nervously at the women gathered behind her. They shook their heads, at a similar loss, and he tried again.
“Your Highness...your father is dead.”
Her eyes flickered up to his rain-soaked hair, wondering vaguely at the smear of blood on his face, before she nodded robotically, pointing back to the window. “Yes, I saw the beacon. I was just gathering my things to go pay my respects—”
“You don’t understand!” A wave of panic tightened his voice, as if they were running out of time. “He didn’t just die, milady, he was killed. Killed by a dagger to the heart. This dagger.”
He reached inside his coat and pulled out a shining blade, pressing it firmly into her hands. A tiny jewel was missing from the left hilt, and a steady stream of crimson was dripping onto the floor.
For a moment, she simply stared. Then a jolt of delayed shock rocketed through her body.