by Tracy Lane
“You mean like Kronos did?” Iragos replied with a wide and knowing smirk, causing the dark mage to scowl. “The fact is, Druella, if it weren’t for these two, Kronos might very well be ruling this Council as we speak. If he allowed the Council to survive, that is.”
Iragos advanced on Druella, smiling slightly as she flinched and took one unconscious step back. “There is no telling what he would have done,” he continued, voice firm and thundering through the hallowed halls, “given complete power over the orb. Thanks to these two, that orb rests where it always will: the Cavern of Secrets. I think if we are to defend ourselves against another Kronos, or the Kronos, these two are our best and brightest hope…”
Later, as the Council sat behind closed chambers, discussing Aurora and Kayne’s fate, she sat opposite him in the dining hall, sipping on root tea and tearing off tiny crumbles of a sage muffin.
“What did he mean, do you think?” she asked, watching Kayne shuffle his food around his own plate. Neither of them, it seemed, were very hungry.
“About what?” he asked, hooded eyes suggesting he knew exactly what she meant, but was merely afraid to say it out loud.
“What Iragos said, back there in the Chambers, about Kronos… escaping.”
Kayne sighed and pushed his tray away. His hood was down now, spilled around his shoulders, as was the custom when dining or in one’s own room.
He looked so striking with his freshly shorn hair, his jagged jaw line and pure green eyes, she had to force herself to breathe. “I suppose he means that, no matter where they’ve got Kronos locked up, anything is possible with a dark mage of his power and… cunning.”
She swallowed, pushing her tray away as well. Slumping back in her crystal chair, she fixed Kayne with her own gaze. “And they’re expecting the two of us to stop him?”
He smiled, dazzling her with its intensity, and leaned forward. “Why not?” he asked, bluffing with his cockiness. “It’s not like we haven’t done it before.”
She scoffed, leaning forward as well. The dining hall was mostly empty, but she knew they couldn’t kiss. Not like this. Not here. “But that was before we knew any better,” she reminded him. “Now? I’m not so sure I’m up for Round 2.”
“That’s what squire training is for, Aurora,” he said, leaning back to look at her admiringly. She loved when he did that, and could think of no better way than to spend the rest of the evening.
Or, for that matter, the rest of her life…
Epilogue
Far beneath the bowels of Mage City, deep below the lands and hills and valleys of the Land Below, Kronos paced in his cramped cell. Gone were his cloaks and his finery, his hood and his velvet slippers. Now he wore dirty, damp rags, his left ankle chained to the wall of his cell.
Something dripped in the hallway, constantly, into a dank, moldy puddle below. He paced as far as his leg chains would allow, or about halfway to the door of his cell, then turned and paced back to his stone cot, carved out of the impenetrable wall of his cell.
His salt and pepper hair no longer flowed around his head but merely slithered around his face, as if still wet though it had been days since his captors allowed him to bathe.
Outside his cell door, stationed at all times, half a dozen Guardians stood sentinel, thick in their natural armor, unblinking in their distrustful gaze. Having stolen the Orb, he had disgraced not only their position but, having been charged from birth with protecting the orb, their entire race.
Now they watched him like a hawk, hoping – just hoping – Kronos would try to escape. The Guardians would love nothing more than to tear him to pieces, savoring every moment of his pain.
Kronos vowed to never let that happen. Nor did he intend to squalor the rest of his life chained to a wall. No, Kronos had magic on his mind. Dark magic.
For what the Guardians, the mortals, or even the enchanted in Ythulia didn’t understand was how powerful dark magic could be when one dwelled within darkness.
The longer Kronos stayed below ground, hidden from the sunlight, isolated from others, the stronger his power grew. One day, he knew, he would be powerful enough to break free.
It might take months, it might take years, or even decades, but Kronos could wait. He quite enjoyed the darkness, but forced himself to scowl for the benefit of his captors.
After all, if they thought he was enjoying himself, they might decide to take him somewhere closer to the light. And that just wouldn’t do. Not for the plans that Kronos had in store, not only for the Guardians, but the Council of Brightness.
To say nothing of the sniveling young runts who had put him there: Kayne and Aurora. For those two, he had special plans. Very, very special plans indeed…
About the author
Tracy Lane lives in Kissimmee, Florida with her son Jesse and her daughter Brittany. Since publishing her first book, Paranormal Properties, in February 2013, she has written a few short stories and plans to write more young adult and middle grade books.Visit her website at www.tossysbooks.blogspot.com.
Also by Tracy Lane
Paranormal Properties. The Weir family has just arrived in Dusk, North Carolina, one of the most haunted cities in America, to scope out some of the town’s 127 reported “paranormal properties,” which just happens to be the name of their own ghost hunting show: Paranormal Properties. What Jake Weir doesn’t know, and what his parents could never imagine, is that Jake can see ghosts! And hear them. And talk back to them! This talent comes in handy when he runs into Dusk’s oldest, most famous ghost: Frank Barrone, a one-time lounge singer made famous by his booze-soaked ballad, “Barroom Eyes.” Frank was gunned down by a local mobster in 1951 and has been searching for his killer ever since. When he learns that Jake can see and hear him, Frank makes young Jake a deal: if Jake will help Frank find his killer, Frank will help his parents find a ghost to film for their upcoming Halloween Special on Public Access TV. Ages 9 and up. Awards: 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Award Winner (Children's/Juvenile Fiction). Accelerated Reader Quiz No. 163449 EN - 5 Points.
Thank You
Now that you have finished my book, won’t you please consider writing a review? Reviews are the best way readers discover great new books. I would truly appreciate it.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank everyone at Pants On Fire Press for believing in me again and to my friend Jason Arritola for thinking of such a wonderful name for this story.
Catalog
Son Of Blood
Amongst the horror, her love was his salvation.
Martin is a four hundred year old vampire. Together with his son, Christian, he protects the idyllic nature of the coastal town of Skerries, for a significant cost, the blood of the strangers who outstay their welcome. Martin knows his soul is cursed and that, when the time comes, he will burn for eternity in the depths of hell but he strives to ensure that Christian will never have to take a human life and thus be reunited with his human mother in heaven. Revered, respected and feared, the town's people know little about the vampires that coexist with them except that when they are called upon, they come. This is something that the seemingly unassuming town Mayor manipulates for his own benefit. It is not until he learns of the forbidden love between Christian and his daughter and the mysterious death of one of the town's teenagers, that the Mayor and residents turn on their supernatural guardians.
Resilient. Livia has never felt like she fits in. As normal as it sounds, Livia is anything but ordinary. She can feel every emotion of every single person around her, and it’s maddening. In pursuit of some psychic quiet, she moves with her family from New York City to Whidbey Island in the lush and sleepy Pacific Northwest. But when a horseback riding accident in her new home gives her a broken leg that heals in a day, she finds that another unexplainable ability has manifested, and her life isn’t about to get any easier. Adam has no problem fitting in and making friends. In fact, he’s the top of the school, the boy everyone knows and loves. However, people only see what
he allows them to. No one knows what Adam is truly capable of.
After witnessing Livia’s accident, Adam sees something intriguing in her quick recovery, something that gives him hope that he’s not alone. Adam is the only one whose emotions Livia can’t read. Afraid of not knowing what goes on behind his dark eyes, Livia decides to keep him at a distance. Yet the more she tries to ignore him, the more alluring he becomes, and while their personal quests for identity will inevitably bring them closer together, it is the confirmation of what they really are that threatens to tear them apart. Resilient, told in alternating point of views, is a gripping story of survival and romance, in which two teenagers face the consequences of being anything but normal.
How I Became A Teenage Survivalist. Bracken is a typical teenage boy, more interested in the angles of the girl’s exposed back teasing him from the seat ahead of him than in anything the geometry teacher could present. His life is filled with school, video games, and thoughts of girls, not necessarily in that order. Life just flows along uneventfully and unacknowledged, like the electricity that courses through the power lines — until PF (Power Failure) Day. On PF Day, the sun strikes Bracken’s world with an unseen surge of electromagnetic fury, which cripples power stations and burns transformers to crispy nuggets of regret.
No one in Bracken’s world had ever thought about how much they depended on electrical power, but now, without it, they are plunged into survival mode. Without electricity there is no communication, no modern conveniences, and soon, no modern means of transportation, as the reserves of refined gasoline run dry. Worse still is the failure of the water and sewer systems, the impossibility of getting food and supplies to people living in cities, and the deaths of millions of people from starvation, disease, and lack of medical care.
Bracken soon realizes how lucky he is to live on a farm in the Midwest. What seemed like a dull and backwards life before is now the greatest chance for survival in what seems like a powerless world. Food, water, and heat are readily available, although hard work is required to make use of them. Bracken and his family must learn to survive like their ancestors, who settled their land. Told in the first person, Bracken tells the story of how they not only survive, but how PF Day actually makes their lives better and more satisfying.
I Am Currency. Would you turn in your books to a corrupt government, or would you join the movement? When a meteor slams into the earth causing a shift in the planet's magnetic core, the age of technology ends and economies across the globe crash. Years later, knowledge is not only power…it is currency. Bookkeepers are invaluable in this post-apocalyptic world. Nevel can never tell anyone he is a bookkeeper. His photographic memory is his secret. With a dystopian government that keeps all known books under lock and key looming as a constant threat and with parents involved as agents in the U.B.M. (Underground Book Movement) to protect the books that still secretly exist, Nevel is in a dangerous position. Never does this cause an issue until the day a fellow classmate, Quinn, appears at his door and proves to know more than she should. Awards: 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist (Children's/Juvenile Fiction).
Outbreak: The Zombie Apocalypse. It begins with a flight into Heathrow Airport. It ends up at Matt Hawkins’ front gate, in a crowd of savage, lumbering bodies. An epidemic is sweeping Great Britain, transforming countless victims into mindless predators and forcing Matt and his little brother, Danny, out of the safety of their late parents’ privileged legacy and into a rapidly changing world.
Every day is vital. Every action counts. As the brothers make alliances and learn to defend themselves and their home against an unthinkable enemy, choices are made, some with devastating consequences. In the midst of this nightmarish fight to survive, Matt begins to learn what is truly important to him, and exactly what it means to be human.
Breakout: The Zombie Apocalypse Book 2. In this sequel to Outbreak: The Zombie Apocalypse, Matt Hawkins strives for redemption following Britain's first zombie outbreak. His internal struggles and his psychological analysis of those around him lead him to question the ethics of humanity and himself as he fights to survive the apocalypse.
Hawkins perception of the immoral decisions of the leadership in seeking a possible cure force him to reevaluate his past and question his own motives as he tries desperately to conceal a secret that could ruin him and prevent him from keeping the fragile promise which has become his only motivation to live. From the sanctuary of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales to the promise of an escape through the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone, Kent, their only hope for survival and for the possibility of ending the zombie outbreak, the diverse group of people experience loss while they hope for success but all at a very high price.
Becoming Zodiak. He has the looks, the skills and even the name, but is that enough to win... Becoming Zodiak?
Zodiak. An unmatched, unbeatable team composed of twelve elite fighters. Their purpose? To rid the streets of crime and corruption, and to fend against a kind of wickedness that runs much deeper than any ordinary crime could. And they were unmatched, they were unbeatable. Until they weren’t.
After the events of what should have been just another mission, Zodiak finds itself one member short—one member too few. The team is scrambling to fill their empty seat, to find a new number twelve, and this desperation bringsabout one of the largest media events the world has ever seen: a competition.
My Water Path. Mississippi, the late 1950s. After the death of his father, eleven-year-old Jory Sheppard runs away from an unwanted life in foster care. Trying to make it on his own, he is caught in a violent storm on the Mississippi River, but when he is rescued from the raging waters by an old black man named Moses, it becomes the event that will change his life.
Taken into Moses’ family as one of their own, Jory is introduced to a world so familiar and yet so very different from the one he once knew. As he learns and grows under the benevolent care of his new family, he struggles to make sense of the society in which he lives—a society that would spit on a man such as Moses simply because his skin is black, and make every effort to rip Jory from the family he loves.
Quickly entrenched in a struggle that is much bigger than himself, Jory must learn the difference between what feels necessary and what is right, what pity is, and what hate is. If he wants to fight the injustice and uncertainty that surrounds him, he must learn what it really means to stand up for what he believes in.
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