by May, W. J.
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Mark of Fate
Book IX
By
W.J. May
Copyright 2016 by W.J. May
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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Copyright 2016 by W.J. May
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The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Book I - Rae of Hope is FREE!
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B1NNFR0
Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILAwXxx8MU
Book II - Dark Nebula
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B46UWNO
Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca24STi_bFM
Book III - House of Cards
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LPIAFL0
Book IV - Royal Tea
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SGIN35W
Book V - Under Fire
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YVNJECW
Book VI - End in Sight
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015HGNL0C
Book VII – Hidden Darkness
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018SSJEZC
Book VIII – Twisted Together
Amazon:
Book IX – Mark of Fate
Coming March, 2016
Book X – Strength & Power
Coming April 2016
Book XI – Last One Standing
Coming May 2016
Book XII – Rae of Light
Coming June 2016
PREQUEL – Christmas Before the Magic
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0195ZSB3I
Chronicles of Kerrigan Prequel
A Novella of the Chronicles of Kerrigan.
A prequel on how Simon Kerrigan met Beth!!
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Description:
Mark of Fate is the 9th Book of W.J. May's bestselling series, The Chronicles of Kerrigan.
“Life doesn’t always make sense, and the heart doesn’t always understand what the head realizes.”
Rae Kerrigan has proven herself a vital asset to the Privy Council and yet, they still question her loyalty.
Back in London, Rae returns to find that everything isn't exactly as it seems. The Privy Council may be officially offering her and her friends their jobs back, but not everyone is as eager to call a truce.
Sides are chosen. Lines are drawn in the sand. Rae finds herself torn, not only between two futures, but between two loves.
When an object left behind from her father exposes a ghastly secret, Rae find herself faced with the toughest question of all.
Can there ever be a happy ending for a Kerrigan?
Mark of Fate is the 9th book in the Chronicles of Kerrigan series.
Book 1, Rae of Hope is currently FREE.
Follow Rae Kerrigan as she learns about the tattoo on her back that gives her supernatural powers, as she learns of her father's evil intentions and as she tries to figure out how coming of age, falling love and high-packed action fighting isn't as easy as the comic books make it look.
Series Order:
Rae of Hope
Dark Nebula
House of Cards
Royal Tea
Under Fire
End in Sight
Hidden Darkness
Twisted Together
Mark of Fate
Strength & Power
Last One Standing
Rae of Light
Prequel: Christmas Before the Magic
Contents
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Chronicles of Kerrigan Prequel
Find W.J. May
Description:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Strength & Power
Sneak Peek
Note from Author
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
CoK Prequel!
More books by W.J. May
Free Books:
TUDOR COMPARISON:
‘When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching—they are your family.’
― Jim Butcher
Chapter 1
‘When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching—they are your family.’
― Jim Butcher
Unless you’re a Kerrigan. In that case, the ones raising hell are most likely your family…
“What are you doing in my mother’s house?” Rae said the words slowly, carefully, stepping strategically around the table as she spoke as to put her body in between her mother and Kraigan. Yes, she was the one who had initiated contact this time, but she had also initiated contact last time and she’d thought they all remembered with painful clarity how well that had gone.
Kraigan answered her question with a wicked, perfect smile. “Aww, come on, Rae. Is that any way to greet your little brother?” He opened his arms wide. “Give us a hug.”
No one moved.
“Why?” Molly hissed from by the door. “So you can steal a tatù from her?” Her fingers crackled with an electric warning as she folded her arms menacingly across her chest. On either side of her, Devon and Julian both took a threatening step forward.
Oh yes…they all remembered how well it had gone last time.
“That’s adorable,” Kraigan looked the petite redhead up and down. “Kitty has claws.”
“What are you doing in my mother’s house?” Rae asked again, more deliberately this time.
“Kitty has—” Molly threw
down her purse and lifted her hands into the air. “Oh, that’s it!”
Kraigan burst out laughing, dropping back into a casual fighting stance.
Except, before either one could move a muscle, Julian stepped between them, his eyes flashing dangerously.
“You don’t win.”
Don’t. Not won’t.
Julian had a special way of knowing these things for sure, and because it was Julian saying it, Kraigan actually took a step back, straightening up as if he’d never meant to fight in the first place.
Devon folded his arms across his chest with a smug smile. “Not so cocky now that you don’t have a gun on you, eh? Rae’s little brother?”
A shattering sound erupted by the fireplace as an empty coffee mug slipped from Beth’s hands. “You pulled a gun on—”
“KRAIGAN!”
All the sound in the room stopped cold as everyone turned in unison to look at Rae.
She stood with her hands resting lightly on her hips, a single eyebrow raised in accusation. “My mother’s house?”
Kraigan’s lips turned up in a sarcastic smile. “Well, we couldn’t very well meet at my mother’s house, could we?”
You could have heard a drop after that.
He glanced blandly around the room at the five identical looks of shock. “What? Too soon?”
Rae closed her eyes for a split second, then took a seat at the table, deliberately trying to slow the pace of the conversation before things could get too heated. She’d almost forgotten what a certifiable psychopath her half-brother was. A bit like Gabriel.
She kicked that thought out of her head and once she was settled, she kicked out the chair across from her and gestured for Kraigan to sit. “Well, I see someone’s already bouncing back from the truth about their mother’s untimely death…”
“Not really.” He eyed the chair carefully for a moment, before settling himself down in one graceful movement. He may try to act unconcerned, flippant even—but Kraigan wasn’t stupid. Even he had to realize the firepower he was up against by stepping into this house. He was Simon Kerrigan’s son, after all. “Actually, that’s kind of what I came to talk to you about.”
“Oh, and here I thought you came for a summer picnic,” Molly grumbled.
Rae held up a hand to cut her off, leaning across the table with sudden interest. “You found her?”
Kraigan nodded slowly, keeping his eyes locked on Rae all the while. “I did.”
Rae guessed she shouldn’t be so surprised. Jennifer Jones may have been one of the greatest inked super-agents on the planet, but Kraigan was his own brand of crazy. And when channeled into something as powerful as revenge, Rae couldn’t see too many things getting in the way of him and his target. It was the reason she had come to him in the first place. “Of course you did,” she breathed.
His mouth turned up in the faintest of smiles, and a second later Rae realized she was smiling herself; grinning even, a feeling of dark anticipation fluttering away in her stomach. “Damn, Kraigan.” Her brows pressed together. “Is she dead?”
“Not yet.”
Devon glanced between the two with an almost worried expression. “Much as I hate to break up this first-ever moment of sibling bonding…” He yanked out the chair in between them and let it drop to the floor with a loud clatter. The sound of it snapped both brother and sister out of their shared vengeful trance. “You want to tell us why you bailed out and let the trail go cold? You know, a while ago they invented these little things called cell phones.”
Rae’s forehead creased with a sudden frown. Devon was right. Why on earth would Kraigan have taken his eyes off Jennifer for even a second?
“Devon,” Kraigan sighed, running his hands up through his curly brown hair, “still exactly the same as the first time I met you at Guilder. Running around after this one,” he jerked his head in Rae’s direction, “just trying to keep pace.”
Devon opened his mouth for a sharp retort, but Kraigan beat him to it.
“To answer your question, I didn’t let the trail go cold. I followed it,” he paused for dramatic effect, “right here.”
The second he said the words, several things happened at once.
Julian collapsed suddenly into the nearest chair, his eyes glassing over to the iridescent white they took on when he was scanning the future. Molly and Beth immediately crouched down under the line of the windows. And like they’d synchronized it, Devon and Rae flipped over the kitchen table to provide a barricade between the people inside and the door.
It was a blur of speed—lasting only about three seconds.
Kraigan was still blinking around in surprise. His mouth opened and he had to close it as he glanced around the suddenly defensible kitchen, and for the first time Rae had ever seen he flushed with what looked like a hint of embarrassment.
“…to Scotland. Not to this house.”
He met their furious looks rather sheepishly before lowering his eyes to the floor.
“Oops. Maybe I should’ve led with that.”
Rae banged her forehead against the table as the rest of them slowly relaxed their strategic positions. “Kraigan.” She would have slapped the backside of his head if he had been within reach, and been assured he wouldn’t absorb one of her tatùs.
“I know. I said oops.”
Devon glared as he got to his feet. “Over-theatrical son of a—”
“Get over it,” Kraigan snapped.
That was the only apology they were going to get. Oops. Rae sensed that the one-time-only ‘apologizing’ portion of his life was over.
“So, I followed her here to Scotland. At first I wasn’t sure why she’d bother,” he glanced outside at the stunning moonlit vista with disdain, “I mean, what a dump, right? But then I remembered from a file that I’d stolen from the Privy Council—”
“You stole a Privy Council—” Devon grimaced painfully.
“—that you lived here.” Kraigan nodded his head at Beth in what he clearly took to be a gracious manner. “So I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone?”
For the second time in less than a minute, the entire kitchen stopped cold, and then in a whirl- wind, the group of four stood protectively around Beth, all looking at Kraigan like he might explode at any moment.
His eyes flicked around at their faces with a hint of confusion, before he threw back his head with an exasperated sigh. “I didn’t mean actually kill…it’s a freaking expression!”
“The kind that you should avoid entirely whilst in my mother’s house,” Rae hissed icily.
“Oh relax,” he yawned, “I don’t want to kill your mother. Although that does have a certain symmetry to it…” He tilted back in his chair with a grin as Rae leapt angrily closer to him. “Relax,” he said again. “I only meant that not only could I kill the infamous Jennifer Jones, but I could meet the equally infamous Beth Kerrigan. It’s an honor.” He cocked his head and studied her curiously. “Talk about case files. Yours kept me reading for half the night. Did you really smuggle a box full of percussion grenades through Colombian customs? I’d love to know how you did that—”
“Enough, Kraigan!” Rae cut him off, feeling suddenly exhausted by all the banter. She’d just stepped off a plane for what felt like the millionth time that summer, having marched into the headquarters of the most powerful tatù alliance in the world, to tell them that not only had she and her friends been running all over the world chasing a mysterious ‘not-really-dead’ man bent on world domination, but that she was quitting her job once and for all. Oh yeah, and she’d also taken down about half of their greatest guards in the process.
She’d come back to Scotland with the sole purpose of getting yelled at by her mother, and then getting a million nights’ worth of sleep. Her plans didn’t extend much beyond that point. They certainly didn’t include this unexpected run-in with her crazy brother.
Kraigan jutted up his chin, looking affronted. “What the hell happened to you, Rae? I thought you�
��d be happy to know that I’d tracked down our little traitor like you wanted. Even happier to know that I found out she was coming here—so close to your own mother—so that we could beat her to the punch.”
Rae rubbed her temples. “And I am; it’s just…”
Her pause had Kraigan speaking instantly again. “In fact, I thought it was damn gentlemanly of me to think to include you in her murder. I could have done it by myself, you know? But I felt like it should be a family affair.”
A family affair?
Beth sucked in a sharp breath. She’d stiffened at the mention of Jennifer’s name, but hadn’t said anything. Rae wondered, but with Kraigan in the room it was hard to take a moment to focus on the why. The rest of the room stared at Kraigan like he was deeply disturbed, but at this point Rae felt as though nothing would shock her. At least he wasn’t trying to kill her.
“While I’m grateful you found her,” she said more forcibly, “it’s just been a long day, and I could do without your colorful Charles Manson kind of commentary, alright?”
“Oh, sis.” He scooted his chair beside the one she’d been sitting on and straightened it upright, and then patted the seat. With a coaxing smile, he said, “You’re stressed, I can see that. What happened? Tell me all about it.” He propped up his chin on his fists and gazed at her with mischievous faux concern; even crossing his legs in an exaggerated fashion.
Valiantly resisting the urge to punch him in the face, Rae sat down and moved her chair back several feet to re-establish the distance between them. The last thing she wanted was Kraigan touching her skin and stealing one of her best tatùs, not with a fight with Jennifer Jones looming on the horizon. “Well, if you must know,” she shot him a sarcastic glare, “I just quit my job.”
Much to her surprise Kraigan dropped the act at once, straightening up and looking at her with something close to respect. “Really? The Privy Council’s prized weapon? Gone rogue?” He grinned. “Maybe you are a Kerrigan after all.”