by Justin Sloan
In his hand was a staff with the familiar symbol of a snake devouring itself, tail-first, at its top.
Although they couldn’t see his face, the eyes seemed amused and Giovanni would’ve bet that the man was smiling.
The Potentate gesturing at the camera. “I see all, I know all.”
“How is it then that we managed to get to you?” Luke demanded, rifle raised.
The Potentate turned his now icy glare on him. “Why ask questions that should seem obvious? If I can see all, and know all…then you got to me because I wanted you to. Is there any other way?”
“You think this is your trap or something?” Luke asked. “Guess what, even if it is, you’re a dead man. We’re walking out of here with your head, you can be damn sure of that.”
Giovanni readied his rifle too, eyes darting from Luke to the Potentate and back, trying to figure out the right move here. If the Potentate was telling the truth about knowing they were coming, about waiting for them and planning this all, simply shooting him wouldn’t really do the trick, right? His trigger finger itched, wanting to find out, but he waited.
“What’s the point then?” Giovanni asked. “Why all this?”
The Potentate lifted his staff, pointing at a camera. It showed Quinn’s body. “See here?” He waited until Luke had grunted and Giovanni nodded. “She has a role to play yet, she…can’t be dead.”
“This is another one of those time loops, isn’t it?” Giovanni said, voice trembling. They were so close, but with so many dead, he wasn’t sure which way he wanted this to go, which answer he hoped for most.
The Potentate turned his gaze on him now, and nodded. “But they always are. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
“All…?” Giovanni asked, thinking back to the time before the time ship, wondering if he meant that too, and if, even then, the Potentate was so all knowing.
“Make no mistake,” the Potentate said, stepping forward in spite of the way Luke tensed with the rifle, “I am your enemy to the end, or at least, a certain end…a very specific end. You have made some correct decisions and some very wrong ones, but now you are on the right path. You are close indeed. Not quite ready, but you will be soon. Very soon.”
With that, the Potentate lifted his staff and the serpent began to glow. With a flash, it was blinding…and then Giovanni was back, spiraling out of there, through darkness, lights flashing and finally…stable.
His eyes opened and he took a gulp of air. It felt…real. Everything else had felt real at the time too, he reminded himself. But not like this. A quick glance around told him all he needed to know, though—he was back on the time ship. The bandages were still on his hands, his face stung and itched, but he was back. That meant, at least for now, Quinn was still alive. Luke was his Luke, waiting back on Earth for him.
For now, that gave him all the reason he needed to smile.
They still had a chance.
AUTHOR BIO
JUSTIN SLOAN IS the bestselling author of the space marine series SYNDICATE WARS with Kyle Noe and George S. Mahaffey Jr., the epic military fantasy series FALLS OF REDEMPTION, the urban fantasy werewolf series CURSED NIGHT, the tough-guy urban fantasy series MODERN NECROMANCY with Michael La Ronn, and the vampire post-apocalyptic series RECLAIMING HONOR (A Kurtherian Gambit series) with Michael Anderle.
HE ALSO HAS WRITTEN on such video games as Game of Thrones, Tales from the Borderlands, and Walking Dead, and has sold/optioned several screenplays/teleplays. Because of his five years in the U.S. Marines, you just might find some of his Devil Dog attitude coming to play in his novels. Justin's books are available in audio and print editions, and he has sold Turkish and French rights to several of his series, with the Blade of the Sea series being published under Hachette Publishing Group (under the shared penname with PT Hylton of Jesse Nethermind).
HAVING STUDIED the craft at the Johns Hopkins MA in writing program and screenwriting at UCLA, Justin went on to work in games and screenwriting. He has presented on writing at the Austin Film Festival, San Francisco Writers Conference, the San Diego State Writers Conference, and more. You can hear his interviews with authors on the Creative Writing Career podcast.
JUSTIN LOVES to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.JustinSloanAuthor to join the email list, receive a free book, receive free giveaways, get the latest exclusive news, connect on Facebook and Twitter, and stay in touch!
AUTHOR NOTE
I AM SO EXCITED to bring you this anthology! It’s not your typical set of short stories, as you’ve seen here. We are creating a whole new universe of amazing characters, and I can tell you that, from what I’ve seen, these spinoffs are going to be amazing. Don’t worry—the spinoff series will stand on their own. It’s just the universe that is shared, so while they will at times likely reference each other and maybe visit the same planets and interact with similar races of aliens, each author is really creating their own area within the universe. Jonathan might go to one galaxy and never even enter the galaxy Gentry takes his characters to, while another series might spend most of its time on Earth. But it’s fun because they all have some connecting thread. Don’t like my writing, but love the writing of L.O. Addison? That’s fine! You can read hers and love it separate from my series.
IF YOU LIKE MY WRITING, please consider checking out my spinoff, coming at you shortly, and my bestselling Reclaiming Honor books with Michael Anderle—part of the Kurtherian Gambit Universe (KGU). I owe a lot of my author success to Michael, and he has created a humongous universe over there with the KGU writers. We are not copying him in that sense, because while he has something like twenty authors, we want to keep this contained. Six authors in total for now, and maybe a couple more later, but never releasing more than one new series a month. The world will be explored thoroughly and you will have plenty of reading, trust me. But each author will have their own projects going on as well.
BEFORE I GO, I want to say thank you to each of these authors, our editors, and to Nick Cole for writing the great foreword. Nick has his own space marine series with coauthor Jason Anspach, and I highly recommend you check those books out. The series is Galaxy’s Edge, and they have done VERY well. Good job, Nick and Jason!
AND THANK YOU, reader. I hope to see you reading this book on the train sometime! In the meantime, please consider sharing your feedback or leaving a review on Amazon. This was a bit of an experiment for all of us, and we would love to hear your thoughts.
WHAT NEXT?
Thank you for reading our anthology! Please consider leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads.
If you would like to check out the spinoff series, please find each of the authors on Amazon and follow us, so you are notified as soon as a book releases. You can also join our newsletters.
For the Seppukarian Universe newsletter, join here or head over to www.JustinSloanAuthor.com and join there.
You can check out the Syndicate Wars books, if you want the backstory for these spinoffs and this anthology. They are like the prequels—you don’t have to read them, but might have fun if you do.
Also, Justin’s spinoff is almost done! This is a draft cover below, but it will be updated and on Amazon October 5, 2017!
Table of Contents
Dedication
Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Hangman’s Loop
Escape First, Vengeance Later
Apocalypse Dreams
Retina
Intertwined
Back at the Mountain
What Next?
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