Pokrewne

Start
Chelsea Handler Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (epub
Brit Brinson [Dia of the Dead Dia of the Dead (epub)
Cody Goodfellow [Radiant Dawn Radiant Dawn (epub)
Cate Tiernan [Immortal Belove Immortal Beloved (epub)
C J Busby [Deep Amber 01] Deep Amber (retail) (epub)
Carl Ashmore [Time Hunters 01 The Time Hunters (epub)
Drew Hayes [Super Powereds 02 Super Powereds Year 2 (epub) i
Beth Harbison [Shoe Addict 02 Secrets of a Shoe Addict (epub)
Cara Lynn Shultz [Dark World The Dark World (retail) (epub)
[heft] Perry Rhodan 1144 Operation Hornissenschwarm

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.by Colleen VanderlindenPublished by Building Block Studios, LLCDetroit, Michigan, 2014© 2014 Colleen VanderlindenAll rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.For permission requests, email the author at email@colleenvanderlinden.com.ContentsChapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter FourChapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenChapter EightChapter NineChapter TenChapter ElevenChapter TwelveChapter ThirteenChapter FourteenChapter FifteenChapter SixteenChapter SeventeenChapter EighteenChapter NineteenEpilogueSneak Peek: Know Your EnemyAbout the AuthorDedicationAs always,for Roger.Here's to twenty more amazing years.AcknowledgementsI am grateful, as always, to my amazing family.Thank you to my husband, Roger, for being the one to talk me down when I get stressed, for being my rock and my best friend, and for handling the technical and design aspects of publishing Hidden.Thank you for listening to me talk about my characters as if they're real people and reacting as if that's totally normal.Love you, babe.Thanks and hugs and kisses to my kids, who make me smile every single day of my life and are living proof that there is magic in this world.Thanks also to Peggy, Roger, and Will Vanderlinden for their support and enthusiasm.Huge thanks to Hidden's first readers, especially Jayna Longstreet and Kellie Roach.You ladies have been with Molly and company from the beginning, and I will always be grateful for your support, encouragement, and friendship.Thank you to the lovely Elizabeth Hunter.I am eternally grateful for the advice and encouragement you've given me.I am lucky to have lived my entire life in the Detroit area, and this series is, in many ways, my love letter to my home city.So thank you, Detroit, for being so inspiring.Finally, I want to thank my readers.Thank you for loving and rooting for Molly.Thank you for the lovely reviews, comments, Facebook messages, tweets, and emails.I am so grateful for every single one of you, and I hope the time we spend together in these pages is as fun for you as it is for me.Colleen VanderlindenDetroitFebruary, 2014Chapter OneMy name is Molly Brooks.Vigilante.Godslayer.Abomination.At least, that's what they tell me.Along with platitudes like "what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger."Well.We'll see about that.So far, it was true enough.I’d had my soul shattered when my first husband, Nain, died.I’d teetered on the brink of death after a demon tried to blow me up, watched the man I love waste away from a plague sent to my realm to punish me.Each time, I got stronger.I got angrier.So strong and angry that I’d sometimes been afraid of myself.But what about the things that do kill you? What does it do to you, to die and come back?With my luck, it's probably not good, I thought as I made my way across the rocky ground toward the cave I’d seen after waking.Not waking.After coming back to life.I'd managed to kill myself destroying the gateway between my world and the world of the gods.Why did I bother? Because war was brewing, and it was my fault, and my world would be punished for it.So, I'd done what my parents and the Fates told me to do, and I destroyed the gateway to save those I love.The bastards never told me it would kill me, though.When I entered the cave, I was pleased to find that it was not only empty (gods knew what weird creatures I may have found there) but also that the opening was just big enough for me to get through, crouched down, and then opened into an only slightly larger space.Large enough for me to stand up, to sleep on the floor, but not much bigger than that.The black stone that the mountains were made of was the same stone I’d seen throughout the Nether, in homes and sculptures, tabletops and other items.I’d never thought to ask the name of it.I sat down, leaning my bare back against the rough wall of the cave.I’d never thought to do a lot of things.At times, I hadn’t thought much, period.I frowned, leaned my head back and closed my eyes, more tired than I expected to be.The short walk from the place where I’d revived to the cave had taken a lot of energy.Not quite up to peak form yet, I guessed.Coming back from the dead, regenerating a body, apparently takes a lot out of you.Which was a whole crazy thing I really didn’t want to think about too closely.I’d never even considered that it could work that way, that, as a god, or the child of gods or whatever, I could lose my body completely and re-form in the Nether.Nain had done it, thanks to a whole lot of my blood in his veins.I was starting to suspect that it was more than blood, that it was life, or energy, or the soul or whatever the hell you wanted to call it.Freaky shit.I started to doze, in between thinking about what I’d do differently this time around.Before, my trademark had been smashing first and asking questions later.I’d thoughtlessly charged into buildings, not knowing what waited for me.Destroyed beings whose deaths only came back to bite me in the ass.I tried to tell myself that action was necessary, but the fact was that I just hadn’t been smart enough.I’d charged headfirst into my relationship with Nain, when I knew, now, that everything I’d ever wanted in a relationship, Brennan had been all along.My eyes shot open.Brennan.Oh, no.Was he mourning me? I put my head in my hands.Damn it.Would he know I was still alive, somewhere?I hadn’t even been able to see him that last day, after E had dragged him from the Nether.Was he okay? Had he made it? My gut clenched at the thought.I closed my eyes, and focused, hoping against hope that I'd feel something.Anything.I felt it instantly, once I pushed the panic aside.There.I breathed a shaky sigh of relief.My connection to Brennan, the one I’d made after he’d been healed from the shifter plague, still existed, as bright, warm, and soothing as always.Once again, I couldn’t feel my connection with Nain, but remembered it well enough to know that it felt more to me like a searing inferno.I’d stupidly believed, in the beginning, that that inferno, the passion, meant that Nain and I were supposed to be together, that two beings of the Nether, bonded, just made sense.I knew now that what makes sense is being with someone who makes you happy, who feels like home.Nain being back had strangely enough only made me more sure that Brennan and I were the real thing.With them both alive and well, the only one I wanted was Bren.I laid down, curled up on myself.It was a moot point, now, unless I figured out a way to get back to my own realm.I need clothes, I thought blearily as I dozed off again.♦ ♦ ♦When I opened my eyes, it took me a while to remember, again, where I was and how I got there.And it just depressed me and pissed me off all over again.My eyes adjusted to the dark interior of the cave, and I saw something move.I froze.I continued to look as my eyes adjusted more, and, eventually, I could make out the dark shape of what looked like some kind of huge animal, so large it blocked most of the meager light coming in the cave entrance.It sat, still as a statue.Dog? Wolf? Its round eyes glowed a stormy blue in the dark.I barely breathed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]