Four new backpacks, full of supplies and hundred dollar bills, lined the wall. I sat, tying my combat boots. I strapped the dagger, in its sheath, to my leg and stood.
I looked back to the backpacks; anger boiled up in my chest.
Four. There should be Five. There should always be Five. I ripped my pack off the dirt floor.
“You guys ready?”
Solemn nods from the boys. They shuffled over and picked up their packs, settling the straps over their shoulders.
“You got Joe, Alec?” Johnathan asked.
Alec’s face was set, lips tight and thin as he looked at the body wrapped in a blanket, the empty shell that had been our mentor and one of the Five before us. Alec nodded and knelt beside Joe, grasping his arm.
We portalled to our first home in Moab, the boulder cave. We carried Joe’s body into the cave, into the main cavern where we’d built fires to keep warm. I arranged his limbs, arms crossed on his chest, then wrapped the edges of the blanket tight around him so only his head was free of it.
Standing above him seemed wrong, so I knelt back down beside him. Johnathan went down on one knee beside me, then Seth and Alec followed suit. Johnathan placed his arm around my shoulders.
“You speak,” I said to him in a choked whisper.
Johnathan nodded and bit his top lip while he thought. He cleared his throat of the thick mucus that had formed there. “Well, Old Man, we started out a little rocky, you and I. I can’t even begin to imagine, nor do I want to, what it must have been like to be the last of your Five. You handled it with a brave face and hidden sorrow.
“In the little time you had with us, you taught us well. Even in the throes of death, you taught us—and we survived because of that training. The sadness we feel at your death is selfish. We’re sad for us… for our loss… the loss of a great friend we’d come to love.” Johnathan took an unsteady breath. “You died well, Warrior. Now, go. Go and be with the others. Go and be with Mia.” His last words were just a whisper.
We bowed our heads in silent tribute.
We piled wood around Joe’s body and lit it. We left it to burn inside the boulder cave while we took care of the men we’d entrapped in the circle of rocks not far from there.
They begged us for mercy. They didn’t deserve it.
We made quick work of them, without saying a word. We bound them with magic, drew a pentagram, and sent them to be with those they chose to summon and set loose on the innocents of this world.
The stench of burned flesh met us back at the boulders. Man-made fire would only burn so much of a human body. We let it burn as much as it could before finishing the job with the much hotter fire of our magic.
We gathered Joe’s ashes—along with much of the dirt beneath them—and placed them in an empty two liter Dr. Pepper bottle. It was his favorite drink—we figured he’d be pleased with our choice of urns.
None of us had ever been to Mt. St. Helen’s, so we portalled as close as we could to a place we’d all been, then we jumped into the boxcar of a passing train that took us most of the rest of the way. We stood silent, staring at the still scarred terrain. We hiked to the top of the now dormant volcano. As we stood at the edge of the refuge where Joe’s Mia had died—Brone’s handiwork—Seth removed the Dr. Pepper bottle from his pack and handed it to me. No words were needed as I opened the lid and scattered Joe’s ashes there, hoping some of his ashes landed where Mia’s were.
The light breeze carried the ashes into the trees.
I replaced the lid on the now empty bottle and put it in my backpack.
“Paige.”
I looked up at Johnathan with eyebrows raised before I realized it had been a girl’s voice, and the sound had come from inside my head.
Johnathan opened his mouth to say something, but I gave him the hand—the universal sign of shut up. He raised an eyebrow, but closed his mouth.
“Halli?” I sent, hoping I wasn’t going crazy.
“Paige.” It was definitely Halli’s voice I heard in my head that time.
“Where are you?” I sent, my heart pounding faster.
“Dragon…”
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Holli Anderson has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing—which has nothing to do with writing, except maybe by adding some pretty descriptive injury and vomit scenes to her books. She discovered her joy of writing during a very trying period in her life when escaping into make-believe saved her. She enjoys reading any book she gets her hands on, but has a particular love for anything fantasy.
Along with her husband, Steve, and their four sons, she lives in Grantsville, Utah—the same small town in which she grew up.
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“There is no pain in this death, only peace, knowing I am going to die with the one I love the most.”—Katriona Wilde.
Katriona Wilde has never wondered what it would feel like to have everything she’s ever known and loved ripped away, but she is about to find out: her entire life has been a lie, and those closest to her have betrayed her.
What’s worse, she has no control over her new future, full of magic and horrors from which nightmares are made. Will Kate discover and learn to control who she really is in time to save the ones she loves, or will all be lost?
Shattered Secrets, by Krystal Wade
(http://j.mp/1cAhsiI)
Magical beings who guide human emotions are fighting an invisible war dating back to the dawn of time, and Abigail's one of them. The more she learns of her heritage, the less she wants to know. Armed with a very old, very massive book to teach them about their history, Abigail and Derick run away to a place where they think they can be safe and happy, only to have their troubles secretly hitch a ride.
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(http://j.mp/OwQAKX)
When Mike drowns in the campus river under her watch, Emma’s sheltered life shatters. Haunted by nightmares, she turns to witchcraft and a mysterious Book of Shadows to bring him back.
Under a Blood Moon, Emma lights candles, draws a pentacle, and casts a spell. The invoked river rages up against her. As she escapes, a stranger drags himself from the water and follows her home. Instead of raising Mike, Emma uses witchcraft to assist other victims stolen back from death.
But her powers may not protect her against the vengeful river and the killers that feed it their victims.
Appetizer:
Book Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Main Course:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Epilogue
Dessert:
Closing
About the Author
Copyright & Publisher
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