She thought he was dead. I think she just fucking passed out…
I felt Wreg’s mind then, even as Jon’s light wound up into his and then into mine, strongly enough to make me gasp.
Tears came to my eyes all over again as it hit me they were both alive.
What in the holiest of fucks, Adhipan? I heard Wreg growl. You couldn’t have warned her at least? They just nuked the goddamned city. Of course she thought he was dead! You probably just gave her a goddamned heart attack––
No, I managed, barely a whisper. No. I’m here. I’m here.
Al, Jon sent in relief. Thank the gods. Where are you?
Sister–– Wreg began.
Balidor cut them off.
Alyson, stay right where you are. I’ve just sent the map coordinates to Varlan. We’re leaving now. Pausing, he let out another cloud of heated worry, even as Jon’s and Wreg’s lights continued to half-strangle mine. Gods. I’m sorry. I should have told you more carefully. I’m so sorry, sister. But he’s fine. He’s perfectly fine. Better than you, from what you’ve shown me––
I couldn’t feel him, I gasped, choking. I think I was talking to all three of them at that point. I couldn’t feel him. He was just gone––
No, sister. Balidor’s light exuded reassurance. No, that was us. We’ve got a collar on him. One of the stronger ones, the ones we used with Feigran.
Feeling me flinch, he made his voice more apologetic.
His request. Well, in part. We don’t know Menlim’s status yet. We were worried Menlim might still be trying to track him, and… Balidor hesitated, his voice growing taut. Jem’s with us. He got here an hour before your husband. Given that, it just seemed prudent to… He hesitated a second time. Well, Nenzi asked for it, like I said.
So he wouldn’t fucking kill him, Wreg sent, blunt.
I knelt there, still fighting to control my light.
I could barely comprehend what they were telling me. Tears ran silently down my face as I knelt in the sand, staring down at the rushing water without seeing it.
I understand, I sent, when the silence stretched.
I didn’t though.
I didn’t understand anything. Not then.
Balidor and Wreg and Jon might even have felt that. Once more, they enveloped me in warmth, Balidor sending me reassurance and light even as I felt Jon and Wreg do the same. For a few more seconds, all of their lights pulsed at me, warming my chest, filling me with so much affection and reassurance and love and family, I couldn’t think past it at first.
I could barely let it all in.
We think a lot of the Lao Hu might have made it, too, Jon spoke up, maybe to give me more good news, or maybe just in the hopes of distracting me. We got a loudspeaker to work inside the Forbidden City. They managed to get a ton of their people down into that underground facility before the initial impacts. I don’t know how long they’ll last down there. Revik said the power was out, something to do with the organics… but they should have plenty of air. He thought they’d probably make it until we could figure out some way to get them out.
We’re coming for you, Alyson, Balidor promised. Don’t move. We’ll be right there. We love you, Allie. We all love you…
I could barely make sense of that, either.
I just nodded, exhaling.
I sat on the banks of the river now.
I just sat there, listening to the river as I waited.
It was strangely peaceful down there, with all of their lights nearby.
I heard birds. They called to one another as the sky darkened, as the sun dropped the last of its light behind the horizon on the other side of that swollen river. I saw birds, too; they flickered overhead in wide arcing loops, conducting their nightly rituals before the day ended.
The rushing of the water sounded less menacing now.
I think a few more minutes passed before it really sank in, before a denser heat began filling my light, along with something I hadn’t felt in as long as I could remember, definitely not since that nightmare in Dubai and Revik told me his plan to infiltrate the Dreng.
I knew it made no sense.
I knew it might even be shitty to feel it now, with so many dead.
I knew it wasn’t over. This place itself would be poisoned soon, once those clouds in the distance made their way from the horizon to here. The water would be poison.
The land, the trees… the birds. Even more life would die.
More people would die.
I couldn’t help it, though; I felt it anyway.
I felt hope.
I felt real, honest-to-gods hope.
* * *
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Forensic psychologist Miri Fox has an uncanny sense about people. When police think they've nailed the "Wedding Killer," she agrees to check the guy out, but the suspect, Quentin R. Black, isn't at all what she expects. When he confronts Miri about the nature of her peculiar insight, she is drawn into Black's bizarre world and a game of cat and mouse with a deadly killer who just might be Black himself. Worse, she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Black, a complication she doesn’t need with a best friend who’s a homicide cop and a boyfriend in intelligence.
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THE BRIDGE & SWORD WORLD is a dark, unique and gritty apocalyptic world and alternate history of Earth. It features a young woman grappling with her role in bringing about the end of one world and the start of a new one. Follow Allie Taylor and her antihero partner in crime, Dehgoies Revik, as they fight terrifying enemies and one another in a passionate story spanning centuries, and filled with unpredictable twists, turns and betrayals.
QUENTIN BLACK MYSTERY WORLD encompasses a number of dark, gritty paranormal mystery arcs with science fiction elements, starring brilliant and mysterious Quentin Black and forensic psychologist Miriam Fox. For fans of realistic paranormal mysteries with romantic elements, the series spans continents and dimensions as Black solves crimes, takes on other races and tries to keep his and Miri’s true identities secret to keep them both alive.
THE ALIEN APOCALYPSE SERIES is a dystopian new adult romance about a tough girl named Jet Tetsuo who grew up on Earth following an alien invasion. Forced into living among her conquerors, she has to navigate a treacherous world full of enemies who pose as friends, even as she becomes their most famous fighter in the Rings, a modern day version of the coliseum.
THE GATE SHIFTER SERIES is an unusual shifter romance centering on shifters from another world altogether, called morph. Earth humans remained blissfully ignorant of the existence of alternate dimensions until Nihkil Jamri tries to save private detective, Dakota Reyes, while he is surveying Earth. Part urban fantasy, part detective series, part paranormal romance, part science fiction adventure, the Gate Shifter series explores crime solving, interstellar warfare and alien romance with the least likely candidates imaginable.
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DRAGON
Bridge & Sword Series #9
by
JC Andrijeski
Copyright © 2018 by JC Andrijeski
Published by White Sun Press
Cover Art & Design by Damonza.com
2017
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Table of Contents
SYNOPSIS
PROLOGUE: The Beach
ONE: Ten Months Earlier
TWO: Nine Months, Fifteen Days
THREE: Eight Months, Five Days
FOUR: Right Hook
FIVE: Excuses
SIX: Dragon
SEVEN: Kiss
EIGHT: Running
NINE: Trust Me
TEN: The End of a Race
ELEVEN: NORAD
TWELVE: Faux Pas
THIRTEEN: The Last Night
FOURTEEN: Gone
FIFTEEN: Watching Death Approach
SIXTEEN: Change of Plans
SEVENTEEN: Hong Kong
EIGHTEEN: Prodigal
NINETEEN: America
TWENTY: Voice
TWENTY-ONE: Denver Airport
TWENTY-TWO: Beneath, Where He Would Not Go
TWENTY-THREE: Expected
TWENTY-FOUR: The Red Door
TWENTY-FIVE: Mirror, Mirror
TWENTY-SIX: Nothing Ever Dies
TWENTY-SEVEN: Like Lightning in High Clouds
TWENTY-EIGHT: Interspecies Negotiations
TWENTY-NINE: Heads of State
THIRTY: Fall of an Empire
THIRTY-ONE: Second Op
THIRTY-TWO: Cover Story
THIRTY-THREE: Book and Lizard
THIRTY-FOUR: Dragon Fire
THIRTY-FIVE: No One
THIRTY-SIX: Anniversary
THIRTY-SEVEN: Who’s Next
THIRTY-EIGHT: Not Caring
THIRTY-NINE: Three Months
FORTY: Found Out
FORTY-ONE: Rumors
FORTY-TWO: An Open Door
FORTY-THREE: Being Led
FORTY-FOUR: Uncanny Valley
FORTY-FIVE: Creature
FORTY-SIX: Nephew
FORTY-SEVEN: One Month
FORTY-EIGHT: Stop Talking
FORTY-NINE: Myther
FIFTY: A Distant Voice
FIFTY-ONE: Goodbye Girl
FIFTY-TWO: Brother Mine
FIFTY-THREE: Rain Comes Softly
FIFTY-FOUR: The Last President
FIFTY-FIVE: The Wall
FIFTY-SIX: Action and Reaction
FIFTY-SEVEN: Hated
FIFTY-EIGHT: Countdown
FIFTY-NINE: Tree of Knowledge
SIXTY: The Beach, Revisited
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CREDITS
Table of Contents
SYNOPSIS
PROLOGUE: The Beach
ONE: Ten Months Earlier
TWO: Nine Months, Fifteen Days
THREE: Eight Months, Five Days
FOUR: Right Hook
FIVE: Excuses
SIX: Dragon
SEVEN: Kiss
EIGHT: Running
NINE: Trust Me
TEN: The End of a Race
ELEVEN: NORAD
TWELVE: Faux Pas
THIRTEEN: The Last Night
FOURTEEN: Gone
FIFTEEN: Watching Death Approach
SIXTEEN: Change of Plans
SEVENTEEN: Hong Kong
EIGHTEEN: Prodigal
NINETEEN: America
TWENTY: Voice
TWENTY-ONE: Denver Airport
TWENTY-TWO: Beneath, Where He Would Not Go
TWENTY-THREE: Expected
TWENTY-FOUR: The Red Door
TWENTY-FIVE: Mirror, Mirror
TWENTY-SIX: Nothing Ever Dies
TWENTY-SEVEN: Like Lightning in High Clouds
TWENTY-EIGHT: Interspecies Negotiations
TWENTY-NINE: Heads of State
THIRTY: Fall of an Empire
THIRTY-ONE: Second Op
THIRTY-TWO: Cover Story
THIRTY-THREE: Book and Lizard
THIRTY-FOUR: Dragon Fire
THIRTY-FIVE: No One
THIRTY-SIX: Anniversary
THIRTY-SEVEN: Who’s Next
THIRTY-EIGHT: Not Caring
THIRTY-NINE: Three Months
FORTY: Found Out
FORTY-ONE: Rumors
FORTY-TWO: An Open Door
FORTY-THREE: Being Led
FORTY-FOUR: Uncanny Valley
FORTY-FIVE: Creature
FORTY-SIX: Nephew
FORTY-SEVEN: One Month
FORTY-EIGHT: Stop Talking
FORTY-NINE: Myther
FIFTY: A Distant Voice
FIFTY-ONE: Goodbye Girl
FIFTY-TWO: Brother Mine
FIFTY-THREE: Rain Comes Softly
FIFTY-FOUR: The Last President
FIFTY-FIVE: The Wall
FIFTY-SIX: Action and Reaction
FIFTY-SEVEN: Hated
FIFTY-EIGHT: Countdown
FIFTY-NINE: Tree of Knowledge
SIXTY: The Beach, Revisited
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CREDITS
Dragon: Bridge & Sword: The Final War (Bridge & Sword Series Book 9) Page 70