by T. C. Edge
There is none.
I open my eyes back up and everyone looks to each other. Then, as one, they stand, and led by Adryan we begin moving back into the main hall of the church and out through the door. The guards from inside come with us, and we find Rhoth and his men waiting outside.
“Ah, the Lady of the Nameless,” begins the Fang.
“Not now,” barks Lady Orlando, her eyes turning straight to the south along with everyone else’s, to the sight of the city and its flashing lights, and the soaring shadow of the High Tower dominating it all.
“What is happening?” questions Rhoth.
No one answers. No one needs to.
All men and women stand and stare. The mist seems to clear, blown off on a heavy wind. I guide my Hawk-eyes towards the city, the upper levels of the High Tower coming into clear view before me.
My vision draws me further forward than I’ve ever been before, so close I can almost see through the many glass windows and imagine the people inside, looking down over the many districts of Outer Haven as the war continues to spread.
I imagine the hundreds, thousands of Savants in there, watching with their strange brand of impassivity. Most of them staring with detached eyes, unable to truly feel the empathy that they should.
Then I think of those like Mary and Lucy, their hearts filled with fear. Thinking of their loves ones embroiled in all of this terror. Thinking that they’re safe up there in the fortress at the core of the city, a place that could never be under threat.
How wrong they are.
They’ll look out at the streets of Inner Haven and see them unaffected. They’ll think of the thousands of City Guards and Con-Cops who are tasked with protecting them, and know that, while war may pepper the outer quarters, they’re safe right there in the city’s central hub of power.
How wrong they are.
I know it. I feel it. A sense of dread and foreboding fills me as we all stand in silence. Seconds seems to pass like minutes, dragging their heels, unwilling to be cast away for what will happen when they’re gone.
And then, miles away, a deep bellow radiates from the earth, shaking the ground beneath our feet in ripples. I stare and see the fire and smoke begin to rise up from the depths, climbing up the levels of the High Tower, shattering windows and twisting metal and stone.
From here, only the top half can be seen, standing so tall and proud above the other buildings. But you don’t need to see the foundations to know that they’re being eaten away, consumed by the devil as he breathes fire up the edifice.
The rumble grows louder. The shaking of the earth grows stronger.
We watch in silence and shame as the tower begins to move, bending to one side and then the other, trying to stay standing as the lower levels are destroyed beneath it.
Crushed and overpowered by the tens of thousands of tons of metal and glass and stone above, the explosives destroy the supports that hold the tower in place. The swaying to the left and right grows more fierce, my vision obscured by the swirling black smoke and orange tongues of fire that lick and dart like a giant serpent.
The terrible sight goes on for a time, and I think I can almost hear the screaming from here, see the bodies tossed from high windows to escape the horrifying inferno. I watch in shock at what we’ve done, wishing I never rushed back to witness such a thing.
But I did, and now I can’t tear my eyes away as the building seems to steady and stop, and the world seems to fall quiet and still once more. And then, suddenly, the summit and many dozens of levels below begin to fall, disappearing into the smoke and fire.
A final crushing quake rumbles a moment later, spreading all through the city and the world beyond. I look through the mist and see a different place now.
A city without its beacon, without its shining light.
The skyline looks so different. A terrible, awful price to pay in the name of freedom. Thousands dead to save tens, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions more.
An act of destruction that will never be forgotten. An act of terror to bring peace.
It’s an evil that may just save the future.
The High Tower is gone.
The Enhanced will continue in Book Seven…
Next Up - Invader
Phew, things are getting wild now!
The High Tower is gone, and the city will never be the same again. The question is, will it end the war?
You’ll have to wait until Book Seven - Invader - to find out!
It will be released on Thursday, May 11, and will be available for pre-order soon!
If you want to know EXACTLY when any new book I release comes out, feel free to sign up to my newsletter by clicking here.
By doing so, you’ll also get access to the first book in The Watchers Series (The Watchers of Eden) completely free of charge, as well as a short story that’s only available to those who join my list.
Thanks for reading!
Toby
Author Notes
Written 16th April
THANK YOU for getting this far! I truly hope you’re enjoying the series and, well, since you’re reading this right now I guess you must be!
I’ve decided to follow in the footsteps of some of my fellow authors and include some author notes at the back of my books. This is the first time I’ve done so, but I’ll be doing so from now on (hopefully!)
First off, let me give you a little insight into my writing style:
I’m a pantser.
OK, so that may not mean a huge amount to a lot of you, so let me explain…
In the wonderful world of authoring, there are pretty much two general methods by which we go about the writing process. Obviously, there are grey areas in between, but in general we have plotters and pantsers.
Plotters are the types who like to plan out their novels. They sit down, work out their characters and scenes and all the beats they want to include, and develop their story before they really begin writing it.
Pantsers are those who more or less do the opposite. They sit down and write. They explore the world they build and the characters they include and develop them as they go.
Mostly, I’m in the latter group. I have plotted novels before (if you’ve read my Watchers series, City of Stone is one I fully plotted out before writing it) but mostly I tend to discover my stories and characters as I go.
As I say, there are grey areas, and so I’ll commonly have a general idea as to where the book is going and what characters will be where and when, but I will often surprise myself with the situations that come up too.
A good example, I guess, would be from back in book two, Hybrid.
Do you remember the scene where Brie goes to meet Adryan for their first ‘date’ in Inner Haven after they’ve met at the Bachelor Ball?
She turns up, meets him inside the western gate outside his car, and they have a short conversation that ends up with Adryan admitting the real mission that Brie is meant to carry out: to kill Director Cromwell.
Obviously, that’s a pretty big plot point in the entire series that ended up shaping the next few novels quite dramatically.
Well, would you believe that I didn’t even know that was going to happen until I wrote it? True story! I honestly had no idea that Brie was going to be sent there to assassinate Cromwell. None at all. At least, not until my fingers tapped out that line from Adryan’s mouth:
“You’re here to kill Director Artemis Cromwell…”
All authors have their own methods. Some are capable of crafting wonderful, unique, and intricate plots by planning everything out. I find that tricky personally. I’m better when I just let the story flow as I write, jotting down notes and beats and characters and twists as I go.
I have a whole document of hundreds of little notes to include, some of which I insert later on and others that I leave out. It’s a good way of developing backstory for characters to add in later, and to work out little twists and turns that, hopefully, you guys don’t see coming
.
I enjoy those too, by the way. Twists, I mean. I love them in movies (big Chris Nolan fan, who just loves his twist endings!) and so like to add them into my books as well. A good example would be Zander telling Brie they’re twins at the end of book one. I hope not many of you saw that coming!
So, I suppose, I’m a bit of hybrid myself with regards to how I write. I’m a pantser mostly, letting the story develop as I go, but also jot down plenty of notes to include later, making me a bit of a plotter too.
Anyway, thought you might be interested to hear about my ‘method’.
***
With regards to Renegade, I always wanted something big to happen. The High Tower being toppled was just that. Sorry about the cliffhanger ending (another thing I do rather enjoy!), but since I write and release pretty fast, you’re never too far away from finding out what happens next.
Honestly, given all I’ve said above, at the time of writing this I’m not entirely sure myself what that might be!
I have my ideas, of course, but there are a few different routes I’m considering as the series develops.
And, yeah, it’s ongoing. I’m working on book seven, but that won’t be the end of it. Not in this series, nor for the rest of my dastardly plans!
What do I mean by that?
Well, simply that the reception this series has gotten so far has been amazing, and humbling, and I feel like there are so many other areas in this world of the Enhanced to explore.
Obviously, I’ve been including hints that there’s a lot more out there than Brie realises. A whole world of possibilities to explore, with all the weird and wonderful characters and their strange abilities.
I’m always having new ideas for this world, and am just trying to narrow down where the first spinoff will go.
I might take one of the characters from this series and have them go off somewhere new on some new adventure. I might jump overseas and introduce a whole new set of characters in a different place entirely. I might even go back in time and do a prequel that explores just how everything went so damn wrong!
Whichever I go with, I’m hoping you guys will take to it like you have this series. And if that happens, then there’s no reason why I won’t explore other possibilities too
Of course, I absolutely love hearing from you. So if you’ve got any questions or words of advice or suggestions then please, go ahead and email me at [email protected]. I will always get back to you, that’s a promise.
Also, one more thing to add. I appreciate your feedback a hell of a lot, and love getting reviews from you. If you could spare just a moment to leave a review for this book, or any others that you’ve read, I’d appreciate that a great deal.
Anyway, I suppose that’s enough rambling from me right now. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed it, and remember, book seven – Invader – will be out VERY soon!
Thursday, May 11 to be exact.
Good talk, people!
Hope to hear from you soon.
With love,
Toby