by S. S. Segran
She roared, pulling herself out of his reach, and lunged at him a second time. Her fingers sank into the apparition of his essence and he retaliated. The vines closed around her once more, crushing her until the pain bled into her corporeal body. She could feel the warming throb of the lathe’ad activating. With a rush of panic, she wrenched herself away from Mokun’s tendrils. They merged and hardened, and before she could put more distance between them, they came down on her with the force of a wrecking ball. She lurched to the ground of the Sanctuary, laying on her side as her limbs spasmed. The lathe’ad was alarmingly hot against her consciousness.
A smile slithered across her lips, stretching to her ears. In that last moment of contact, she’d amassed her energy into a protective dome. Mokun had broken it but in doing so had hurt himself, and his distraction had allowed her fleeting access to his thoughts.
She knew where he was, and he would not escape her now.
* * *
Reyor was a resilient woman, of that there was no doubt, and Mokun was acutely aware of time being on her side. For all his enhanced strength, he would be powerless against her if their paths crossed. More specifically, he would be powerless against the device that made her untouchable, which was why it was imperative that he find that blasted tether soon.
With newfound vigor she’d constructed a fresh set of defenses, which was fine by him as long as the manifestation of her consciousness remained holed up within them while he explored the rest of her mindscape. He could tell he was getting closer by the alien thrumming that grew in intensity. He had always wondered what the lathe’ad were and where they had come from—them and the crystals used to channel abilities. The records from the home island had revealed nothing, leaving the inhabitants perplexed while aiding them in their evolution.
Perhaps some secrets are never meant to be learned, Mokun thought.
Something cold slipped through his skin and between his ribs, twisting deeper until he felt his heart contract around it. He opened his eyes, a soft gasp leaving his lips.
Reyor knelt in front of him, the blade in her hand buried to the hilt inside his chest. She made deft work of widening the wound, her other hand cradling the back of his neck. They gazed at each other as his blood formed new patterns on his tunic.
“How does it feel,” she said, “to have the means to stop me here but be so incapable of taking any action?”
His eyes didn’t waver from hers. “We were wrong. Not about the corruption of the world or that civilization needed a reset, but about our interpretation of the prophecy.” With every breath used to speak, slick warmth jetted from his chest, soaking his shirt more. “Stop this now, Reyor, and let us correct our course.”
“Are those your dying words?”
He brought a hand up, stroking her hair. “I do love you, you know that? Perhaps I never said it as much as I should have. I hardly got to know my children in Dema-Ki before I left, so I cannot help but count you as my own.”
The usual hint of affection that he had grown accustomed to over the years was no longer there. “Why couldn’t you have stayed dead?” she hissed. “At least then your legacy would have remained untarnished.”
She dragged out the knife and rose to her feet, tugging his head back. That was when the pain hit, his wound pushing blood like a broken pump now that there was nothing there to stop the flow.
“You failed our cause and your new one,” she said. “Go to the afterlife knowing you’ve done nothing for this world.”
“Reyor—”
“And this time, Mentor, I will be burning your body to ash. See if you come back from that.”
She drew the blade across the column of his throat. As she let his body fall to the floor, Mokun tried to open his mind in the novasphere one last time. I couldn’t do it. It falls on the five of you now.
He wasn’t sure if the message had gotten through. Reyor’s face filled his vision, mauve irises gleaming as she pulled the gold hood over her head. She watched as he choked, scarlet spilling out of his mouth.
I helped create this monster, he thought. We really do reap what we sow.
As his life ebbed, Mokun mouthed up at her. “I’m so sorry.”
He wasn’t sure, but he thought he caught a flicker of anguish in her eyes. Or perhaps it was his own reflection in them.
Not that it mattered. He was gone in the next breath.
Enjoyed the read? Ready for the explosive conclusion? Pre-order Aegis Reckoning, the fifth and final book at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092HS4PK6 now and you'll be notified once it's out!
The Five:
Aari Barnes
Jag Sanchez
Kody Tyler
Mariah Ashton
Tegan Ryder
The Elders:
Ashack [Ay-SHAK]
Nageau [Nah-GO]
Saiyu [SAY-yoo]
Tayoka [Tah-YO-ka]
Tikina [Tee-KEE-na]
The Villagers:
Aesròn [Ay-zuh-RON]
Akol [AY-cole]
Hutar [HYOO-tar]
Huyani [Hoo-YA-nee]
Magèo [Ma-JAY-oh]
Nal [Nahl]
Sentries:
Deverell Vaughn – Wales
Dominique Mboya – Democratic Republic of Congo
Gareth Vaughn – Wales
Lei Shao – China
Marshall Sawyer – USA
Nadia Dekker – Indonesia
Victor Colback – Canada
Supporting Characters:
Anya Deol
Catalina
Chief – Victor’s wolfdog
Danielle
Joseph
Kanta
Kenzo Igarashi
Oten
Paloma
Paul
Piper Whittaker
Salazar Family
Phoenix Corporation:
Adrian Black – CEO, Phoenix Corp.
Arianna Abdul – Head of New Mexico Sanctuary
Dr. Albert Bertram – Chief Scientific Officer, Phoenix Corp.
Elias Hajjar – Head of Security/Special Projects, Arcane Ventures
Dr. Ina Deol (deceased) – Lead Scientist, Quest Biotech
Jerry Li – Chief Financial Officer, Phoenix Corp.
Luigi Dattalo – Chief Executive, Quest Defense and Quest Aerospace
Dr. Nate – Director of Human Resources, Global Sanctuary Projects
Tony Cross – Personal Assistant to the Boss
Vladimir Ajajdif – Chief Executive, Quest Mining
The Boss/Reyor – Owner and Founder, Phoenix Corp. and all subsidiaries
Mentor/Mokun – Founder, Arcane Ventures
Did you enjoy this book? Please consider giving us a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or wherever you like to talk about books. Reviews are important fuel that keeps independent authors going—it helps us sell our stories and allows us to write more books, and generally keeps our spirits up when we sometimes have a hard day writing!
Have you joined my Insider reader group? Sign up at the link below to receive three Aegis Chronicles short stories, plus exclusive advanced reader opportunities. https://www.sssegran.com/insider
So, here we are, the second-to-last book in the Aegis League series.
It hasn’t quite hit me that we’re approaching the end, but this isn’t the time to talk about that yet. We’ll save the emotional retrospection for later.
This wonderful core group around me will always have my eternal gratitude: my mother for her unending love and support (and keeping an eye out on my work-life balance—I promise, Mom, I’ll be more consistent with my workouts); my father for continuing to be my sounding board for ideas and making sure I’m not procrastinating on my writing too much; and my editor, Gordon, for being impossibly patient with not only the edits for this book, but also any revision of the series, and for helping me navigate the at-times ridiculousness of the language I so love.
Thank you of course to the community of friends, family, and re
aders who encourage me onward and upward. It means a lot to know that there are lovely, genuinely caring people in my corner. I adore every single one of you.
Actually, a little aside to the readers who’ve been waiting patiently for this book—I’m sorry it took so long! The plan was to have it out by last year, but I wasn’t satisfied and decided to put a few more months of work in. Thank you for sticking around as I went MIA to get this done.
Lastly… well, 2020 was some kind of a year and I’m not sure that most of us would like to dwell on it any further. Still, its events did bring conversations to the surface that would have otherwise remained unexplored, conversations that will hopefully lead to actions for a better world.
Wishing you the best in 2021, and I hope to see you all in the final book, Aegis Reckoning. It’ll be grand!
Shirin S. Segran
Vancouver, British Columbia
April 2021
Amazon Bestselling author S.S. Segran is a lover of books, dogs, adventures, and all the popcorn she can stuff her face with. Her genre-defying Aegis League Series roams the exciting worlds of action/adventure, sci-fi, thriller and speculative fiction in the YA universe. Even as she delves into her creative endeavors, she intends to support youths in developing countries realize their potential through her non-profit organization, AegisLeague.org.
When not devouring a novel or writing one, Segran can be found drawing on paper and tablet, or tumbling into a black hole of comic books and video games. She’s an ardent fan of horseback riding and parkour, and having enjoyed jumping out of a perfectly fine plane at fifteen thousand feet – perhaps skydiving.
Segran loves to hear from her readers. If you wish to connect with her, feel free to contact her via her website at www.sssegran.com