The Serpent's Coil

by Christy Raedeke

  “It is all One,” Alex says.

  “We are all One,” I reply.

  I believe it, too.

  Feeling the warm gold ouroboros around my neck, I tap it with two fingers like a touchstone. There is so much uncertainty right now, so much I don’t know about my future. Rolling to my side, I nest my head deeper into Alex’s arm. When I put my hand on his chest, I can feel his heart—steady, strong, radiating, contracting, over and over.

  We are light and we are gravity, I think, as I feel my own heart swirl, too.

  Believe love connects universe.

  Acknowledgements

  Being new to novel writing, I did not know the proper time to submit my acknowledgements with Book One. When I realized it was too late, I was devastated. This is the first page I turn to when I buy a book and I was aghast at the thought of not being able to thank all the people who helped me achieve the dream of getting published. So please indulge me if I go overboard in this one!

  I must start with Julie Inada, lifelong friend and extraordinary writer and editor. It was Julie who encouraged me to take the writing class that connected me with the people who would become most important over the next few years: my critique group. Marcia La Fond, Kelly Hudgins, Erin O’Kelley Muck, Julie, and I met every week for reading and writing. It was with their help that I conceived and wrote Prophecy of Days. More recent additions to the group, Jennie Englund Meads and Anjie Seewer Reynolds, have been enormously inspiring, helpful, and supportive. For me, writing would be impossible without your insight and feedback.

  Huge thanks to Oregon Literary Arts for awarding me the Holmes Fellowship for Young Readers’ Literature. That boost of funds and confidence went a long way! Oregonians are fortunate to live in a state that has such a vibrant and generous literary organization.

  Agent Laura Rennert helped get the manuscript into shape—no easy feat. Thank you Laura, for believing my work was worth selling! And what’s a seller without a buyer? Thanks must go to Andrew Karre for believing Prophecy of Days was a work worth buying. Foreign Rights Agent Taryn Fagerness sold translation rights to the series, helping my little books reach other lands in other languages. What a thrill!

  I am grateful to Flux Acquisitions Editor Brian Farrey and editor Rhiannon Nelson, who along with Sandy Sullivan, Nanette Stearns, and Kathy Schneider challenged my anachronisms and inconsistencies in the kindest way possible. Kevin Brown and Amy Martin blew me away with two gorgeous covers, and Joanna Willis did a spectacular job with the inside. Rhonda Ogren helped me get distribution beyond what I had hoped, and Marissa Pederson, Steven Pomije, and Tricia O’Reilly got the word—and me—out there. And I could not mention publicity efforts without also thanking PR maven Tonya Dressel, my Fixer and dear friend. She never ceases to amaze me with what she can do.

  Thanks to Blair and Carol Moody, who indulged my inner hermit with the generous loan of their mountain chalet. The majority of this second book was written in glorious solitude there.

  To my extended family of readers—Carole Cameron, Barb Cameron Slaton, Suzanne Slaton, and Janie and Peter Hutchinson—thanks for drudging through early drafts, trying to break me of my comma splice habit, and encouraging me on. Thanks to my sister, artist Cathy Gersich, for the work on first sketches for the book. And thanks to Judy and Keith Countryman, who became my greatest cheerleaders as they traveled the country from Hawaii to New Jersey.

  Thanks to Nikki and Steven Davis, who bought the first book I ever signed and became early readers of Book II. Young readers Nora Honeycutt and Hannah Hilden helped tremendously. I’m grateful to Kathryn Hinsch for dreaming big on my behalf, to Acharya for her essential feedback, and to Kim Sellers-Blais for her eagle eyes. Thank you, Teri Hall, for being my go-to person for all things author-y and neurotic-y. Thanks to Peggy Frasse, my intrepid travel partner (and overall book champion) who carries the world in her handbag. Toni Kellerman, Pam Edgington, Julie White, Chris Catton, Debbie Rae, Molly Stephen, Wendy McKay, and Christine Mitchell, thank you for being so supportive of me and the book. You are all proof that friendships made in college can last a lifetime. Thanks to one of my favorite writers, David Sorsoli, for both challenging and inspiring me over nearly four decades, from our humble Ashland homes to Amsterdam, Munich, and Barcelona.

  To my parents, Carol Cameron Moody and Jerry Gersich, thank you for raising me with a sense of curiosity (around curiosities). You have both contributed greatly to my love of the mysterious, the hidden, and the bizarre while still managing to appear rather normal to the outside world.

  Shantung Hsu, PhD, I am honored to call you teacher and friend (and to be able to base a character on you!). You have taught me so much about the unseen world.

  Finally, I am deeply grateful to my handsome husband Scott for his great good humor, steady patience, and boundless love. And to my children, Juliet and Hank, who nip gently at my heels as I run toward my dreams.

  I love you all.

  Joan Kleen

  About the Author

  Christy Raedeke’s love of mysticism and thirst for ancient knowledge has led her around the world—trekking in the Himalayas, floating down the Ganges, cathedral hopping in Europe, studying feng shui in Kuala Lumpur, cloistering at a hermitage in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and looking for shaman among the Maya ruins of the Yucatan and Chiapas. She and her husband Scott currently live in Oregon with their young children.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  An Assessment

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

  Thirty-Nine

  Forty

  Forty-One

  Forty-Two

  Forty-Three

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author