by Dean Murray
"I'm the one who told Adri, Dad. She promised not to tell anyone, which she hasn't quite done yet."
Shawn looked at the three of us and then took a deep breath. "Alec, I haven't been completely honest with you. I developed a power a few years ago. I can sense whether or not someone can deliver on a threat or a promise. When you said downstairs that you were going to see the Coun'hij trimmed back, I knew you could do that, but I was surprised by the effort that was going to be required."
Shawn's eyes went distant for a moment. "You trimming back the Coun'hij will require blood and suffering on a scale I've only seen in one other potential promise. When you said just now that you'd overthrow the Coun'hij, I weighed the forces on both sides of your promise. Your commitment is pure. It is a cleansing pillar of fire that was poised to recruit powers that dwarfed your earlier promise, but it wasn't sufficient for the task you'd vowed to undertake."
For nearly a minute, Shawn looked at me in silence. "When Adri promised to help you, I felt the forces that she will somehow bring to bear, and they are only slightly less than what you were going to amass. Just now though, together, you're bringing potential power into play that makes anything else I've ever seen look like a drop in an ocean of violence. Together the two of you are truly more than the sum of your parts."
I returned Shawn's stare and then very deliberately asked the question we all wanted to know. "Is it enough? Can Alec...can we stop the Coun'hij?"
For a second I thought Shawn wouldn't respond. "It's not just the Coun'hij. I've felt the power of the Coun'hij, and they can't match what I just saw arrayed against you. There are forces at work that I don't understand, but yes. You can succeed...I think you have to succeed or there won't be anything left of the world."
Alec turned to Ulrich one last time. "Will you help me, Ulrich? Will you give our people, our world, a chance?"
Ulrich's nod was a short, simple thing, but I was realizing that it was simple things that turned the world.
"Yes. The house of Bishop will stand with you."
Chapter 21
Adriana Paige
The Bishop Compound
The Outskirts of Chicago, IL
I'd more or less moved through the rest of the day in shock. I'd tried to pay attention while Alec, Shawn and Ulrich had started planning for their war on the Coun'hij, but by that point I was so tired that it was all I could do to keep my eyes open.
Ulrich had called Vicki in and asked her to take me to the rest of the Sanctuary pack. A few minutes later I was in a different wing of the house, one that seemed to have been completely devoted to our pack's use.
Jasmin and Ben were sleeping peacefully next to each other in separate beds in one room. Donovan had judged Jasmin recovered enough now that she could be pulled out of the cage. Knowing that she was going to fully recover took a weight off my chest, but Donovan said that Ben still hadn't shown any signs of waking up.
Rachel and Dom both looked surprisingly fragile, but I didn't wake them up, I just pulled each of their doors quietly shut and went to check on the rest of the pack. Isaac was worse off than Jasmin, but apparently Shawn's pack had a more than adequate supply of drugs to keep him from losing control of his beast. Donovan had set up an IV drip, and Jess was sitting at his bedside. She looked up as I came into the room.
"I know you from somewhere, don't I?"
"I'm Adri. We talked for a few minutes after Oblivion took away your memories."
"That's right, and then you left. Are you back now?"
That was the question. I'd just committed to help Alec, but that didn't necessarily mean he wanted me back in his life.
"I think so, but it's not entirely my decision."
Jess nodded absently; her attention was already back on Isaac. As I turned to go, she spoke again.
"I don't know what to do with Isaac. Things were going pretty well and then he blew up when I wanted to go on a trip with just my dad. Everything has been strained since he got back from New York the first time, he almost died last night, and I still don't know how I feel about him."
I wasn't qualified to give myself advice on matters of the heart. I was the last person who should be trying to help Jess sort out the mess that was her love life, but I found myself trying regardless.
"Don't rush things, Jess. What you and Isaac had before took years to develop. You just need to give yourself time. Eventually your heart will tell you what you want."
"How can I not love him? Everyone keeps telling me how much we were in love before. The only thing that's changed is me, so that means it's my fault if we can't get back together now."
I shook my head. "No, Jess. You're different, yes, but Isaac is different too. I can't explain it, not really, but he changed when you...went away. I don't think it's all just you. When he was in New York, he was pretty conflicted about Alec. That's different from the Isaac I remember from before."
I backed out of the room while she was still digesting that. Kristin gave me a nod as I walked by, but she obviously didn't want to talk. Donovan found me again a few minutes later.
"Miss Paige, we have a room prepared for you if you're tired."
"Thanks, Donovan. I think I'll take you up on that offer. I haven't slept in something like thirty hours."
I awoke a few hours later feeling a little better, but I still wasn't back to normal. There were six texts and a voicemail from my mom, but before I could decide what to tell her, Shawn knocked on my door.
"Hi, Adri. Can I come in for a second?"
"Sure, Shawn. What's up?"
He shut the door and turned on the white noise generator that I hadn't thought to activate before I'd gone to bed.
"You should know that I lied back there. My power didn't tell me that we can win against the Coun'hij and whatever else is going to jump in to try and keep them in power. The rest of it was true, but not that."
"So we're going to lose?"
"Would it make a difference if I told you that we were?"
"No, not for me. Not for Alec either, but I think it would for your dad."
Shawn nodded. "That's why I lied. My dad might suspect, but he won't know. You don't live in a family with so many ties to the mafia without becoming a good liar."
I took a breath and then nodded. "Okay. Thanks for telling me."
Shawn shook his head. "I'm not saying that we're going to lose, Adri. I'm saying that I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before. All of those forces arranged against each other and the decision balances on the edge of a knife. It should be impossible, but it's not. That's why I had to lie to my dad. I'm going to do whatever I can to make Alec's vision come to pass. Bringing my dad in on Alec's side is the first step."
It all made sense except for one thing.
"Why are you doing this, Shawn? What's your angle?"
He looked at me for several seconds before shrugging. "I can't ever seem to lie to you, Adri. Maybe it's because there isn't any challenge in it. I could tell you that I just want to try and avoid the devastation that will result if Alec loses, but that wouldn't be the truth, at least not all of it. I'm helping because it's a form of penance."
"What did you do?"
"Nothing. It's not what I've done; it's what I'm going to do."
Shawn left before I could ask him another question, but his words stayed with me. I was still considering them when Alec found me.
"I was hoping to be able to talk to you alone, Adri."
"Me too."
Alec walked over and sat down on the bed next to me. Someone had found him a change of clothes, and he'd taken a few minutes to get cleaned up. As I looked at him, I realized that his arms weren't injured.
"How are you healed already?"
"Honestly? I'm not sure. All I can figure is that maybe my ability was active from the start of the fight and it was stopping Agony's power from working. That or maybe all of that power that I sucked down at the end of the fight somehow reversed the effects. Even normal injuries shouldn't be
healed already."
I nodded. It was another mystery that we might never have an answer for, but that was okay. The important thing was that Alec was going to be all right.
"I was worried that you wouldn't make it."
Alec's smile was full of wonder. "I went into the fight expecting to die. Kristin saw it in a vision, not just once, but twice. I knew I was going to die, but I decided I would rather die than take another step down the path that had made you leave me."
My face heated up. "I'm sorry, Alec. I've had a lot of time to think about what I did and it was a mistake."
He tilted his head slightly to the side and looked at me. "Was it a mistake? A month ago I would have said yes, but I'm not sure now."
"I should have stayed and tried to help you see what I was worried about rather than just leaving."
Alec shook his head. "I'm not sure I would have listened, not really. Look, the important thing is that you're back."
"Am I, Alec? I know I promised to help you, but that doesn't mean you have to deal with me being underfoot all of the time. I didn't...I mean, I don't want to force myself back into your life."
I couldn't bring myself to meet his eyes. I was too afraid of what I'd see in them, and after everything, I guess I was still a coward. Alec reached over to me and pulled my chin up so that I was forced to look at him.
"Adriana Paige, I want you in my life. I never wanted you to leave. I may be able to see now why you leaving was a good thing, but I never stopped loving you. Please stay with me."
It was exactly what I'd wanted to hear, but I was so choked up that I couldn't respond. Alec refused to let me look away though.
"I'm serious, Adri. I've gone back through that fight trying to figure out what changed, why Kristin's dream didn't come true, and all I can come up with is that it was you. That fight was just like every other significant moment of my life. It's always been you who has given me the strength to do the right thing, the strength to win when everything else in the world seemed arrayed against me. I'd love you for that if for no other reason, but that isn't why I love you. I love you simply for who you are. You make me a better person and I'm going to do everything I can to be worthy of you."
His voice had lost its normal smoothness as he fought back tears, but he pressed on.
"You're the most amazing person I know. You don't wear your strength on your sleeves but it's there, it's who you are. You're strong, and you're beautiful. You're kind, and you're good. You're breathtaking in ways I haven't even begun to unravel yet."
I finally managed a nod. "I love you, Alec. I was prepared to beg you to let me come back, but you don't even hate me for all of the pain I've put you through."
Alec pulled me into a kiss and for a few minutes nothing else mattered.
—The Story Continues in Riven—
Publisher's Note:
If you've enjoyed this book, please consider signing up for the author's mailing list. By signing up you'll receive $10.00 worth of free books. We'll be offering a special discount to existing fans for the first week each new book is live, so signing up for his mailing list will mean that you'll always know about new releases with plenty of time to take advantage of the new release discount.
Author's Note:
If you made it this far, then I very much hope that you enjoyed Forsaken! When I sat down to write The Greater Darkness and took my first steps into the world that Alec and Adri would come to inhabit I had some vague ideas that there were places I could go that didn't involve just Geoffrey. A couple of years after that, I sat down to write Broken and while those vague ideas hadn't become very substantial still, my plans for the Reflections world quickly expanded into something much more ambitious.
I'm thrilled with all of the six Reflections books so far. Some for one reason, some for another, but Forsaken represents a real shift for me because it's the first time that I've started really laying some of the groundwork for the more ambitious stuff that I ultimately hope to accomplish with the series. Hopefully before you picked up Forsaken you read Broken, Torn, Splintered, Intrusion, and Trapped. If that's not the case, please consider going back and picking them up, as well as The Greater Darkness by Eldon Murphy. There is a lot of backstory and other bits and pieces in those stories that will become more important as the series continues.
Scent of Tears ought to be on that list as well now that I think about it. It's just a short story, but in many ways it's where everything started for Shawn, and he's going to continue to be more and more important as time goes on.
Finally, you'll be happy to know that at the time I'm writing this (December 2012) that I've already started working on the next book in the Reflections series. I've codenamed this one 'TWB,' It's currently about 10% of the way done and I'm hoping for an April or May 2013 release. TWB is another really exciting project for me because I'm going to use it to set things up for the next several books.
Acknowledgments:
All of the usual suspects need thanked and as always I'm grateful for their help and support. There a few individuals who need special mention though.
Deciding that I was going to try and get Forsaken, Trapped, Brittle Bonds, and The Greater Darkness published by Christmas 2012 meant that I had to bring in some extra help on the production side of things. Ashley Case pitched in with editing and turned Forsaken around much faster than I'd hoped. Amy Jirsa-Smith did stellar work on follow-up edits and Katie Jane did a great job on the cover for Forsaken.
I owe a big thanks to Obsidian Dawn for brushes used in creating the cover for Forsaken. You can find Obsidian Dawn at www.obsidiandawn.com.
Lastly, I want to express a big thank you to all of the fans out there who help spread the word on a daily basis. Thank you! I'll do everything I can to keep this journey exciting.
About the Author:
Dean Murray is a prolific author with more than 20 titles across multiple pen names and more than 300,000 copies of his work currently in circulation.
Dean started reading seriously in the second grade due to a competition and has spent most of the subsequent three decades lost in other people's worlds.
Things worsened, or improved depending on your point of view, when he first started experimenting with writing while finishing up his accounting degree. These days Dean has a wonderful wife and two lovely daughters to keep him rather more grounded, but the idea of bringing others along with him as he meets interesting new people in universes nobody else has ever seen tends to drag him back to his computer on a fairly regular basis.
Keep up to speed on Dean's latest projects at deanwrites.com.
Other Books by Dean Murray
Riven
Adri is the happiest she's ever been, but a noose is slowly tightening around the entire pack. Alec's victory in Chicago put the shape shifter ruling body on notice that he was going to do everything he could to bring them down, but she knows that right now he needs time to secure allies, time that they are almost certainly not going to have.
Alec's power has grown to a level Adri never would have believed possible just a few months ago, but the Coun'hij has the perfect tool for killing him and destroying every structure in Sanctuary. All indications are that Puppeteer is stalking them with an army of bestial creatures who are immune to Alec's special ability.
Alec has taken his first step towards reestablishing the monarchy, with him as the king, and now that Adri is back in his life he seems to know who he wants to be his queen, if they manage to survive. Unfortunately Adri never realized becoming royalty was part of the bargain when they got back together.
The Greater Darkness
(Writing as Eldon Murphy)
Something powerful is stirring in the darkness. Something so ancient that even creatures who've been alive for hundreds of years have long since discounted this new threat as nothing more than myth.
Normal humans will be caught in the crossfire, but then that's always the way of things. Geoffrey has no memory of his past life or any i
dea how to survive in the violent, dangerous world in which he's trapped. Despite his best efforts, he's about to find himself in the middle of a conflict that threatens to sweep away everything, and everyone he's been fighting so hard to protect.
Frozen Prospects
The invitation to join the secretive Guadel should have been the fulfillment of dreams Va'del didn't even realize he had. When his sponsors are killed in an ambush a short time later, he instead finds his probationary status revoked, and becomes a pawn between various factions inside the Guadel ruling body.
Jain's never known any life but that of a Guadel in training. She'd thought herself reconciled to the idea of a loveless marriage for the good of her people, but meeting Va'del changes everything. Their growing attraction flies against hundreds of years of precedent, but as wide-spread attacks threaten their world, the Guadel have no choice but to use even Jain and Va'del in their fight for survival.
Table of Contents
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
Interlude
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Interlude
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Other Books by Dean Murray