by Theresa Kay
But after everything, I now have all the things Peter considered essential.
Hope for the future, in the form of Stella, Ethan, and Kalla.
Love of family, of friends, and of my green-haired alien boy who’s also my bondmate and best friend.
And something I thought I’d never have again: faith in myself.
This is the end of Jax's story… but there are still other stories to tell in this world. If you’d like to read more about what happens next from Rym’s POV, please let me know by shooting me an email/Facebook message/etc. and/or leaving a review!
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Also By Theresa Kay
BRIGHT BEYOND
(a novella serial)
Start with the FREE prequel short story, Dark Expanse
In a world of military space stations, planetary jumps and alien offensives, Eva Braebel's life has never been easy. She's small. She's female. And she earned the ire of a powerful General at a young age. With hard work and the support of her friends, she achieves more than she ever dreamed possible: A position as flight squadron leader and the man she loves by her side.
Eva just got everything she's ever wanted, but how long can she keep it?
ANTHOLOGIES
“Stability,” a short story included in The Telepath Chronicles
Cora has spent most of her life in a clandestine medical facility, isolated from the world and content to submit to tests and experiments at the request of her keepers. Content, that is, until the day she discovers their end goal: breeding her to create a more stable telepath. So when an attack on the facility gives Cora her chance at escape, she seizes it. But as she gets closer to freedom and learns more about the world outside, Cora finds she doesn’t know whether she’d rather be outside or in—or whom she can trust.
"Six Days," a short story included in The Z Chronicles
The longest anyone has survived a zombie bite before succumbing to the madness is six days. That means, if she’s lucky, Sarah has four more days before she goes full-on flesh eater and she needs every single one of them. The life of her infant son depends on her finding an uninfected person willing to take him before she loses her mind. Her husband is dead, her son is depending on her, and the countdown is on.
"Protocol A235," a short story included in Dark Beyond the Stars
Beth is a maintenance tech on the Genesis, the spaceship that will carry her, along with fifty thousand other passengers, to a new home in deep space. But when she comes out of cryosleep to serve her thirty-day solo shift, she finds the ship in disarray, its systems malfunctioning. Worse yet, a previously undisclosed protocol has been put into effect. Protocol A235. And now Beth finds herself facing much more responsibility than she signed up for.
"Services Rendered," a short story included in Beyond the Star: A Planet Too Far
Li’hanna, a member of the prized and elusive Kotkaa race, is prepared to do anything to keep the secrets of her clan out of the hands of the evil imperial fleet.
Captured by one of the imperial hybrids and his human associate, she’s smuggled aboard a transport ship that belongs to the vengeful Jeren Skalos. When she manages to break free, she finds herself assisting the human crew to outwit the enemy—instead of running for her life.
What starts as a desperate escape attempt engenders something else—a partnership that could be the beginning of a rebellion against the empire.
“Solar Flare,” a short story included in Beyond the Stars: New Worlds, New Suns
After crash landing on a desert planet, Gretchen Anderson survives a trek across the sand under the planet’s triple suns only to find herself forced to navigate the power struggle of an insect-like alien race.
The only person she knows who had a subscription to Writer’s Digest at eleven and was always excited to write research papers, Theresa has been putting words to paper since a young age. She writes predominantly in the sci-fi and fantasy genre. Residing in central Virginia, she juggles two kids, a husband and a full-time job in addition to her writing and in her free time she reads almost anything she can get her hands on.
Okay, enough talking about myself in the third person… I love interacting with readers, so if you want to shoot me a line, you can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Goodreads. Even if it’s not about my books, I like chatting about my (many) fandoms, books and reading in general, or just about anything really.
www.theresakay.com
This is always the toughest part for me to write. There’s so much that goes into writing and publishing a book and tons of people have helped me along the way.
I’ll start off with my awesome beta readers for this round: Lenore, Kirsten, Lillian, and Jen as well as alpha readers Kelly and Carla. You guys really made this story better and I’m so grateful for taking time out of you lives to read my book and give me feedback.
The Rebel Writers continue to play a huge part in my writing journey. We’ve each had some big changes over the past year or so, but I couldn’t do any of this without you and I love you guys! Caylie, Stormy, Alex, Kat, Regan, and (new member!) Leigh, I could go on and on, but I’ll leave it at you guys are simply the best and I hope we can all get together for the next #bookclub.
My publishing journey has changed once again with the rights of Broken Skies being reverted back to me. I may not be a hybrid author anymore, but I learned a lot in my experience with traditional publishing/Skyscape and made some great friends in that world- Rysa Walker, Alys Arden, and Jacqueline Garlick.
A special thanks to Patrice Fitzgerald for inviting me to be a part of her Beyond the Stars anthologies and also to the rest of the JUGS ladies-Jen Wells, Rysa Walker, Annie Bellet, Blair Babylon, Sara Reine, Susan Kaye Quinn, Autumn Kalquist, Elle Casey, and Mimi Tpaulin.
Extra special thanks to these other authors who have given me a hand up in one way or another: Kelly St. Clare (she really knows how to use a selfie stick); Karen Lynch (now we don’t have to trade spoilers); Amy Warren and Abigail Welborn (fellow #7sentencesva alumni); Jason Brant (superdouche); Jennifer Eaton (aliens still rule!); Krystal Wade (best gas station tour ever); Tracy Banghart, Jolene Buchheit and Angie McGrew (Bitches forever!!), Denise Grover Swank, Rachel Higginson, Cassie Mae, Pavarti Tyler, Laura Howard, Sam Peralta, Liz Long, and Casey Bond.
My eternal gratitude goes out to all the bloggers, vloggers, Instagramers, and reviewers who supported the Broken Skies series. Thank you to Ren, Angela, Jen, Morgan, Kaysia, Jenna, Sarah, Emma, Sabrina, Leah, Chin, Claudia, Ryley, Maria, Sasha, Ben, Paula, Brittany, Kelly, Jenaire, Lillian, Maribel, Joood, Jessica, Arinana, Tonyalee, Kristen, Natasha, Rachel, Christina, Sara, Kelly, Shannon, and Autumn. I’m sure I’m missing people, but I’m truly grateful for all of you and all the ways you’ve supported me and my books.
Another thanks to Writerhouse in Charlottesville for being a wonderful place to write and come together with other local writers.
There are a few people on the technical side of things that also helped in getting this book to you, the reader.
My wonderful editor, David Gatewood, who really helped me amp up and streamline the action sequences. With his expertise, wit, and a little tough love, he whipped this book into shape.
For making the book pretty, my thanks go to my cover designer Nicole Spence and my interior formatter Cassie Mae (CookieLynn Publishing Services).
And always last, but never least, thanks to my husband Chris for…well, everything.
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