He pulled me closer, letting me into more of his light.
I could feel it by then, what he’d wanted to tell me.
That time, when he stared at me, I didn’t look away.
Epilogue
ETHAN
ETHAN WELLINGTON STOOD on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building.
A crowd of thousands––likely tens of thousands––flooded down the steps and onto the parkway below, filling every empty space for as far as his physical eyes could see.
He saw them standing on streetlamp bases, on curbs, in the street, on the grass. They filled every spot not taken up by another physical object, or cordoned off by the legion of Secret Service and representatives from various military branches who blanketed over half the city in the wake of President Caine’s assassination.
The vast majority of those in the crowd were human, of course.
Still, he’d received well-wishes from several of the seer delegations prior to his arrival for the ceremony. They apologized for their inability to come in person, but Ethan understood better than anyone why no recognizable seer would be safe on the streets of D.C. today, or perhaps the streets of any major city in the United States.
Three weeks had passed since his friend, Daniel Caine, had died.
Since the assassin had been identified as a seer who did contract work with the Chinese, the country had been in an uproar.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court stood opposite him now, wearing full dress robes.
She was only newly appointed to the role. Caine had chosen her, of course. There’d been some lingering controversy in the wake of his assassination, given where his loyalties were now believed to have resided, and how recently she’d risen to the country’s highest bench.
Wellington assured everyone she was well-suited to the role, however.
He further cautioned that they couldn’t very well go back and question every decision Caine ever made while president, not without due cause.
His words caused any lingering opposition to her appointment to die down.
Of course, if they’d known Chief Justice Novak was no longer the same person who had been nominated to the Court three months previous, it’s likely they would have been even more alarmed. The few who knew her well––on a personal level, that is––appeared to all be mysteriously unavailable for comment, however.
It was one more advantage to the image ban in place for all public figures.
A few well-planned eliminations, some reconstructive surgery and a number of more thorough mind re-patternings, and no one asked any more questions.
Ethan approved the action.
Hell, it had been his idea.
When the Chief Justice looked up, Ethan smiled, meeting the older woman’s eyes.
Hey doc, he thought at her with his human mind. What’s up?
Xarethe’s expression did not flicker.
“Sir,” she said. “Please raise your right hand.”
Ethan did as he was told. His left hand, which still poked from the end of a dark blue sling, the color of which perfectly matched his suit, he placed on a King James Bible.
The Chief Justice, still wearing her outdated glasses, flashed the slightest bit of warning from her reptilian eyes. All trace of the German accent evaporated when she said,
“Are you prepared to take the Oath, Mr. Vice President?”
Ethan glanced out over the crowd as they burst into cheers of ecstatic applause. He’d broken a conspiracy in the heart of the White House, even tried to save Caine’s life as he lay dying on the Oval Office floor. The applause grew more frenetic, more emotional.
It was amazing how quickly they forgot.
But humans always loved a good story.
Like Caine before him, Wellington was more than happy to provide them with one.
“I am,” he said. “…Ready, that is.”
She smiled, raising her right hand. “Very well, sir. Please repeat after me…”
He only half-listened as he intoned the phrases after she spoke them.
His eyes scanned faces in his nearer audience, where his wife, Helen, stood by a little girl in a purple dress with a stuffed white rabbit clutched to her chest. The rabbit was brand new; its fur gleamed a pristine white. The little girl gazed up at him, oblivious to the screams and cheers of the people flooding the steps below the platform.
“I cannot believe he wanted to do this outside,” the Secretary of State muttered to Ethan’s right, within the girl’s earshot.
The Secretary of Defense stood beside him, wearing a navy uniform covered in medals. She smiled without turning, flipping long, mahogany-colored hair out of her eyes.
“It plays well for the press,” she said. “Especially with him injured.”
“Do we know yet, who is responsible? Who is really responsible?”
Her well-formed lips curled. “You know the answer to that, James. We don’t always lie to the press, you know.” She gave him a wry smile. “Wellington’s already declared war. Of course, it won’t be official until tonight, when he speaks to Congress.”
Her eyes flashed a pale yellow as she glanced over the crowd, pausing to wink at the little girl before she smiled at Ethan.
“Caine did us a favor,” she added, giving her fellow Secretary a wry smile. “If nothing else, it is clear now, what we must do to survive.”
“Really?” The Secretary of State snorted. “And just what is that, Jarvesch?”
“Exterminate the enemy,” she said. “Before they are strong enough to do it to us.”
Beyond them, Ethan Wellington continued to speak into the small but powerful microphone, saying the words that would make him the next President of the United States.
“…will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office in which I am about to enter,” he said forcefully.
“So help me, God,” the Justice prompted, her hard eyes smiling faintly.
The crowd erupted behind him in emotional cheering. The feed cameras ran, capturing faces and waving hands. In the monitors, he saw tears wiped from the eyes of watching humans, banners waving back and forth as he gazed out over the Washington Monument.
In the distance, tanks could be seen parked at either end of the mall.
Jets flashed in the sunlight overhead.
He had made it, in spite of everything.
He had reached for it, and he had finally made it.
Ethan smiled, and the cheering grew louder still, more emotional.
“…So help me, God,” he said.
* * *
Want to read more about Allie and Revik?
Check out the next book in the series:
SHIELD (Bridge & Sword: Awakenings #2)
Grappling with her new identity as “Bridge,” a being meant to herald the end for all of humanity, isn’t even Allie’s biggest problem. A new set of rules around Seer culture and her relationship with the infamous Seer infiltrator, Revik, keep getting her in trouble, and the Rook in the White House wants war with China. Then the boy appears. A sociopath with all of the energetic markings of Syrimne, he thinks Allie belongs to him.
~ or ~
Want to read a prequel story about Allie & Revik?
NEW YORK (Bridge & Sword: Awakenings)
In a world not so different from ours, peopled with a second race of supernatural beings called “Seers,” Allie encounters an enslaved seer while visiting New York to see her boyfriend Jaden’s band. Then things go south with Jaden, and a religious cult targets Allie for deadly end of the world ritual.
* * *
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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.
* * *
Read More from JC Andrijeski
http://jcandrijeski.com
“Seeking Truth in Made-Up Worlds”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JC Andrijeski is a USA Today bestselling author who writes paranormal mystery, along with apocalyptic and cyberpunk-y science fiction, often with a metaphysical bent.
JC has a background in journalism, history and politics, and currently occupies herself by traipsing around the globe and reading whatever she can get her hands on. She grew up in the Bay Area of California, but has lived abroad in Europe, Australia and Asia, and from coast to coast in the continental United States.
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ROOK
Bridge & Sword: Awakenings #1
Copyright © 2017 by JC Andrijeski
Published by White Sun Press
Cover Art & Design by Damonza.com
2017
Link with me at: http://jcandrijeski.com
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
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
ONE: Allie
TWO: Mr. Monochrome
THREE: Glow-Eye
FOUR: Running
FIVE: Drive
SIX: Terian
SEVEN: Apocalypse
EIGHT: Barrier
NINE: Rook
TEN: Mortal Peril
ELEVEN: Surfacing
TWELVE: Seattle
THIRTEEN: Germany, 1941
FOURTEEN: Vow
FIFTEEN: Change
SIXTEEN: Rejection
SEVENTEEN: Horsemen
EIGHTEEN: Leaving
NINETEEN: Vancouver
TWENTY: Murder
TWENTY-ONE: Revik
TWENTY-TWO: Grief
TWENTY-THREE: School
TWENTY-FOUR: History
TWENTY-FIVE: Construct
TWENTY-SIX: Betrayal
TWENTY-SEVEN: Revelations
TWENTY-EIGHT: Break Down
TWENTY-NINE: Exit
THIRTY: Freed
THIRTY-ONE: Compromised
THIRTY-TWO: Surprise
THIRTY-THREE: Wolf
THIRTY-FOUR: Fire
THIRTY-FIVE: India
THIRTY-SIX: Challenge
THIRTY-SEVEN: Brother
THIRTY-EIGHT: Hunt
THIRTY-NINE: Sacrifice
FORTY: Wire
FORTY-ONE: Respite
FORTY-TWO: Candor
FORTY-THREE: London
FORTY-FOUR: Lunch
FORTY-FIVE: Descent
FORTY-SIX: Contact
FORTY-SEVEN: Taken
FORTY-EIGHT: Galaith
FORTY-NINE: Realization
FIFTY: Pyramid
FIFTY-ONE: Lost Souls
FIFTY-TWO: Bridge
EPILOGUE: Ethan
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CREDITS
Rook (Bridge & Sword: Awakenings #1): Bridge & Sword World Page 50