Rook

by JC Andrijeski

  “I didn’t kill him,” I said.

  Maygar laughed. “No. You just made sure every seer who wanted him dead knew exactly where he was.” He muttered, “Brilliant, really. I’d have thought more would be loyal.”

  “Some were loyal,” I said.

  “Well at least one wasn’t,” Maygar retorted.

  I glanced at Revik. He reached into my lap and took my hand, clasping my fingers tightly.

  “You did the right thing,” he said.

  I nodded, looking at our entwined fingers.

  I glanced out the window. The sun finally peered through the overcast England sky. Even through thick pollution and clouds, columns of fogged gold cascaded down to illuminate discrete pockets of humanity and green lawn.

  I thought about going back to that high perch in the Himalayas, with the monkeys and chai and golden eagles floating over strings of prayer flags and snow-covered mountains and trees. I thought about being there with Jon and Cass, hiking with them and hanging out in the markets, going swimming and exploring and making friends with the other seers.

  I thought about being there with Revik...and I smiled.

  When I glanced up, he was staring at me. He touched my face when I averted my gaze, and I felt a pulse of warmth off him, affection that slid into something else, that grew almost tentative as it expanded soft tendrils through my chest. It strengthened as I gripped his hand, until I was sending the same back to him, tugging gently on his fingers.

  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 several thousands...likely tens of thousands...flooded down the steps and into 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 military who blanketed over half the city in the wake of the President’s assassination.

  The vast majority of those in the crowd were human, of course.

  Still, he’d received well-wishes from several of the seers’ delegations prior to his arrival for the ceremony, as well. 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 DC 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, as well as who had been involved in terrorist attacks in Europe and the Middle East, the country had been in an uproar.

  Still, fear and hysteria had their uses.

  The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court stood opposite him now, wearing full dress robes. She had only been newly appointed to the role, in the wake of the mysterious death of her predecessor, and since she was new also to the Court itself, the appointment had surprised a number of people. It broke protocol for an Associate Justice to rise to the top spot so quickly, but no one seemed willing to question precisely how it had happened, either. Of course, it would have surprised people even more to know that she wasn’t the same person who had been appointed to the Court the year previous.

  The few who knew her well now all appeared to be unavailable for comment, however...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 wipes and re-patternings, and no one asked any more questions.

  Ethan approved the action.

  Hell, it had been his idea.

  Few in his inner circle even questioned it. Then again, that circle had grown smaller in the past weeks as well, by necessity as much as design.

  On one thing they all agreed, civilians and government alike. The country needed to be in firm hands right now.

  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, in her outdated glasses, flashed the slightest bit of warning from her lizard-like 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 conference room rug. The applause grew more frenetic, more emotional. It was amazing how quickly they forgot.

  But humans always loved a good story.

  “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 gleaming a pristine white. The little girl gazed up at him, oblivious to the screams and cheers of the people flooding the steps below the balcony below her. Her small body remained entirely erect, dwarfed among the crush of staffers, family and Justices on that higher platform, along with the Speaker of the House and members of his Cabinet, cushioned on either end by a generous array of Secret Service agents.

  “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, flipping back long, dark, mahogany-colored hair.

  “It plays well for the press,” she said. “Especially with him injured.”

  “Do we know yet, who is responsible?”

  Her well-formed lips curled a little. “The same fringe group Caine was working with, we think. Wellington’s already declared war. Of course, it won’t be official until tonight.”

  The Secretary of Defense’s 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 the other man a disparaging look. “If nothing else, it is clear now, what we must do to survive.”

  “Really?” The Secretary of State said. “...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, using 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, tears wiped from the eyes of watching humans, banners waving back and forth as Ethan 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.

  * * *

  CONTINUE READING WITH:

  SHIELD: ALLIE’S WAR BOOK TWO

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  THE ALLIE’S WAR SERIES is a dark, unique and gritty psychic romance involving 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 unpredictable twists.

  QUENTIN BLACK MYSTERY is a dark, gritty paranormal romance and mystery series starring brilliant and mysterious antihero Quentin R. Black, along with his partner, psychic forensic psychologist Miram Fox. For fans of Sherlock Holmes and paranormal romance, the series spans continents and dimensions as Black tries to redeem himself by making the world safe for his kind.

  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

  I’m a USA TODAY bestselling author who writes paranormal mystery, romance and science fiction, often with a sexy, metaphysical and apocalyptic bent. My work has been featured in anthologies, online literary, art and fiction magazines as well as print venues such as NY Press. I travel extensively and have lived abroad in Europe, Australia and Asia and from coast to coast in the continental United States, but currently I live and work full time in Bangkok, Thailand.

  To learn more about me and my writing, please visit jcandrijeski.com.

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  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  There are probably over a hundred people I could thank for providing input and inspiration on this series. Thanks to Amelia Craigen, Izolda Trachtenberg, April Aasheim, Michael Bellomo, Benjamin Chambers and especially Tamela Viglione for their genius minds, Jackie and Andy for putting up with me in the early years and my writing groups in San Francisco and Portland for all of their insights. Thanks to all of my lovely friends at McLeod Ganj for inspiring me and teaching me. To the beautiful folks at J Café, I tip my hat as well, for always having coffee ready for me on my crazy writing jags.

  Finally, appreciation and some measure of apology to my family, who have done their best to tolerate my oddities, including the ones that always seem to lead me wandering for long periods far from home.

  ROOK

  Allie’s War Book One

  Copyright © 2014 by JC Andrijeski

  Published by White Sun Press

  Cover Art & Design by Jennifer Munswami at

  J.M. Rising Horse Creations

  www.facebook.com/RisingHorseCreations

  2015

  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.