by Jamie Magee
Tears swelled in her eyes.
“I’m going to set you free, and you’re going to fly,” he rasped.
Reveca shook her head struggling to draw in a breath.
“You will, you hear me!” Talon grunted. “You drop this stubbornness. You drop the selfishness. You set yourself free, and you be who you were in the great moments. That is who you are.”
It was a speech Talon had given many warriors dying in his arms. It came from his era, the thought at death is like the thought at the start of sleep; it sets the stage for your eternity.
“Let me feel it, Vec,” he demanded. “Let me feel your peace. Remember the air rushing through your hair, the gardens, the halls we had filled with laughter. You think of the hungry we fed and the poor we exulted. You think of the sick you healed. Think of him, Vec...”
Reveca’s forehead flinched in pain, but he felt her peace start to swell. “And you...” she said as her eyes fluttered closed.
In rage, he bowed his head to hers then kissed her blood-soaked lips. Revenge and wrath swarmed him as he came up swinging. Swing after swing soared through the air not finding its target. Seconds later, he was standing outside of the hoard watching them all stab and stab.
In a blink of an eye, they all faded.
Talon turned looking for any target at all. The dead were gone, Scorpio was gone, Reveca was gone...
He shook his head denying the truth of it all. A denial that was short lived when he felt Saige’s grief slice into him, and her wail of sorrow echo through the swamp.
Shaking, Talon looked down at his bloodstained hands. Then he slowly lifted his fingers to his lips.
The last of Reveca... the end of an ageless era had slipped through his hands.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. He was not supposed to roam this earth without her existing in some way.
A short breath left his blood-soaked lips. For all he knew...none of them would have to live with this pain for long.
The end had never loomed this close to the Pentacle Sons before. It had never once claimed their queen.
Creator be with us all...
Acknowledgements
I have long ago recognized one of my many flaws and gifts is that I cannot pretend to like someone I do not. Some might take this action of mine as honesty, others could see it as willfulness that shields me from ever seeing past my current judgment, no matter how right or wrong it may be. I believe it is both and that my standpoint may have taken people out of my path that I would’ve enjoyed being there in the long run. It was entertaining to open this floodgate with Scorpio. To see how he found a family in the mist of an enemy. Where this will lead him could be any number of places that I refuse to spoil for any of you! Until Volume Two lands on your reader, and hopefully long after, take the time to find the blessings lost in the fog of curses. There will always be one, I promise!
Over the past four years, I have published over twenty novels and each of the acknowledgments are moved from one novel to the next. That wasn’t done to take short cuts, but because on this journey I have been blessed enough to keep the same souls at my side. I wanted to take the time with this acknowledgment to state how precious they are to me.
My Creator, for I know this gift and passion for words comes from a divine force that I humbly adore and owe everything to.
My husband, no doubt, deserves some kind of medal! The man is there from the first instant the idea is thought to life, through the long days of writing where I slip into another world. He manages the blessed life we have built, taking care of our little ones, making sure that there is some kind of substantial meal on the table for each of us. He’s a saint when it comes to telling me what day of the week it is, and letting me know that dawn is approaching, and it might be a good idea to get some sleep. He understands that music drives me and is just fine with the same song playing on repeat for days until I have the scene trapped in words. He’s used to having a conversation with me and in mid-sentence, I stop and rush to write a line down. There is no doubt that he didn’t sign up to share his wife with the fictional family that always dances in my mind, but he rocks it all the same. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to have someone want your dreams as much as you do, someone that never lets doubt creep into your mindset.
My children, they make me smile every day. They are now to the point where they’re all for naming characters, dancing to that same song that plays over and over. They love to joke about ‘mom’s bubble’—they know that mom dreams wide awake and tease me when they have to pop that bubble to tell me something.
Special thanks to Amy Donnelly, Steffini Walker, and Heather Falls for reading through these pages with me!
Readers. I swear to you, to this day it blows my mind that there are people on this earth that I will never have the chance to meet that have shared these stories with me, people who get it, who leave reality and step into my daydreams with me if only for a moment. You humble me. I can’t stress that enough. Thank you so much for taking a chance, giving up your time to read my work.
As you can clearly see, people often think that writers have solitary lives, and in some real fashion we do, but more so than not, the story you are reading was impacted by not only those that walked the publishing line with the writer, but the world at large. Inspiration is everywhere, in every dark and positive moment, in every song, drive, commercial. Everything is inspiration. Life is beautiful, even the dark stressful moments. You just have to find that beauty, and thankfully I have outstanding people in my life that ensure that I notice it each and every day.