by Amy Hopkins
She swung high, then leaned back as Danil swung low. They slammed their backs together, slowly turning in a circle as their weapons flashed, striking and parrying as their enemies died.
Bodies fell and Skrima shattered. With the help of their mortal enemies, the people of Irth fought for their lands.
And they won.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Julianne yanked her sword back in time to avoid taking off a nearby remnant’s nose.
The beast spared her a dull-eyed glance and gave a brief nod before it crushed the red shell in its hands. Blood and ichor oozed between its fingers, and without bothering to wipe the mess off the remnant flicked the crushed Skrim’s body to the ground and bounded away.
As the dusty silence of a battle fought and won slowly crawled over the field, Julianne stumbled toward Marcus on tired feet. She gratefully accepted the arms he wrapped around her and sighed into his chest.
"I'm still trying to decide if I'm dreaming or if I've gone mad," Marcus commented with a sigh of his own. "Were the remnant really helping us?"
"I don't think they were helping us so much as destroying the Skrima. They came for a purpose, and for whatever reason, they decided to leave us alone when they were done." Julianne looked up at him through tired but happy eyes. "We were just lucky. So very, very lucky."
"Are ye lovesick fools comin’ in or what?" Garrett barked at them. "Ye look like yer both about ready ta have a nap on the grass. Nothin’ wrong with sleeping outside, mind, but this muck ain’t fit fer a pig."
Julianne looked down at her boots, pulling a face at the blood, slime, and broken red shells beneath them. "I wouldn't sit in this, let alone lie down in it."
She pulled away from Marcus and took his weight on her shoulder as they walked back toward the town they had just rescued. Both raised weary hands to wave at those they passed.
Far from a trained army, the soldiers on this battlefield were battered and bruised. They bore not only the wounds of a tough fight but the twin burdens of age and frailty.
That only made Julianne's chest swell further. "Marcus, did you ever think we would find such brave people?"
"After what happened back in Arcadia? I never doubted we’d find other brave souls or good people, but this? This has exceeded my wildest expectations."
“Mine too,” Julianne whispered as they looked around. “Look—there’s an old cart over there. You can rest in that.”
Marcus wrinkled his nose. “It stinks of moldy hay.”
“Trust me, it’s an improvement. Hold on—”
Marcus waited patiently as Julianne’s eyes glowed. She nodded, then blinked as if startled. After a shake of her head, her eyes cleared.
“Who was that?” Marcus asked, quite familiar with Julianne’s silent mental conversations.
“It was Bastian.” She frowned and cocked her head to one side as her eyes glowed briefly again.
“Over here!” Polly called, running over with Danil.
“What is it?” Danil asked, still short of breath.
Julianne still looked slightly bewildered. “Bastian just contacted me. He wanted to check if everything was going all right.” She paused.
“And?” Danil asked impatiently.
“And…Hadley’s with him.” Julianne fell silent again.
“Hadley?” Danil asked incredulously. “Wasn’t he with Hannah? Last I heard they’d gone to where the snow never ends. Why is he back?”
Julianne lifted serious eyes to her friends, worry etched deeply into her face. “He’s come to ask us for help. Ezekiel needs us. To send Hadley all this way? Something is very, very wrong.”
FINIS
Author Notes Amy Hopkins
Written May 25, 2018
It feels like ages since I wrote this book! It kinda has been, at least compared to my usual schedule. Before you pull out the pitchforks, go look at that cover again. Isn’t it shiny? THAT’S why I had to wait.
All six (wow, six books already?) books have beautiful new skins, and they look amazing!
Meanwhile, it’s been an interesting time to be in the bowels of the KGU. My AOM compatriots are brewing something… Zeke has a new trick up his sleeve… and for a brief snip, at least, I get to work with my old pal PJ again! He’s loads of fun to write with and I’m really glad we could team up for… the thing. The thing I’m not allowed to talk about. (Don’t tell Chris and Lee I talked about it, ok? They might decide they have to kill me.)
All our characters have been thrown into a giant melting pot and will then branch back off into their own books for more adventures, before coming back together for one last epic showdown. My part in that will be the final Jules book. Why? Well, she’s had one hell of an adventure, but now she’s ready to hang up her boots and take some time off.
I’m not closing the gates on more AoM though. If there is something you’d love to see, hit me up. It may just spark an idea I can’t let go of :)
Happy Reading, guys!
Amy.
Author Notes Michael Anderle
Written May 28, 2018
First, THANK YOU for not only reading this book, but reading through our author notes here at the end.
Right now, I’m about 15,000 feet in the air on a Delta jet heading from Boston to New York Kennedy.
I’m sure I’ll get higher ;-) (No, I couldn’t resist.)
As Amy mentioned ‘something’ is happening in the Age if Magic. It is interesting the authors writing inside of the age are creating this…story together that exceeds the
Why?
Because it means the authors inside of the Age like working and being with each other. They enjoy their characters, the situations and the opportunities to engage in this little area of the Kurtherian Universe has brought them and are willing to tackle
The premise is
OK, I get it!
Alright, so I can’t say anything about
Since I can’t talk about that, let’s talk about the new covers!
Last year, I started a plan to build the capabilities for 3D work into my pipeline. With Protected by the Damned covers helping to hone our skills, I spoke with Amy to see if she would like to use these 3D model capabilities and redo the covers for her series?
And she agreed! (Well, once we showed her one of the examples (or maybe it was two.))
Since then, she has been on a tear to get the covers all redone in order to release THIS book. I hope you like them (once they are all released.)
So, why did I want to start producing 3D model covers in the first place if I have amazing model shot photography? Because I’d like to provide short snippets (vignettes) of video stories with our characters. The problem is video is REALLY expensive to produce.
If you follow and implement how it is done at the moment.
However, I don’t accept the present expensive methodologies. Nope, I want to Indie Outlaw this stuff and if it means I take more time to get my shit together (and the necessary $$$ to accomplish this) then so be it.
However, my goal is to produce good quality (not great, not perfect) stuff for about $1,000 or less for each 90 seconds. If I can manage that, I might be able to pull some cool stories together and ‘amaze’ the fans.
Wouldn’t that be cool?
I just realized typing these author notes that maybe YOU (or you in Houston…Or you in Austin, Tx or you in Louisiana, Massachusetts, California, England, Germany, Australia Arizona etc. etc. etc.) reading these author notes might ALREADY
know how to do what I hope to accomplish, or know someone(s) who do.
I’m willing to be told to go look somewhere to see cool stuff. If you know of cool stuff, drop a link on the Protected by the Damned Group (it’s smaller) or in the Kurtherian Gambit group message me directly.
Either way, let’s create some wonderful fun together, shall we?
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
*I’ve never actually been high in my life. However, working on some of these projects late into the night with travel fatigue and police and/or fire siren’s constantly going off down in the street below does make me loopy.
Amy Hopkins
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Books from Amy Hopkins
The Talented Series
Dream Stalker: Talented Book 1
Barrow Fiend: Talented Book 2
Truth Taker: Talented Book 3
Faery Teind: Talented Book 4
A New Dawn
*With Michael Anderle*
Dawn of Destiny (1)
Dawn of Darkness (2)
Dawn of Deliverance (3)
Dawn of Days (4)
Broken Skies (5)
Broken Bones (6)
Other Books
Realm of the Nine Circles
Books By Michael Anderle
For a complete list of books by Michael Anderle, please visit
www.lmbpn.com/ma-books/
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www.lmbpn.com/audible