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“Do you ever get gut feelings?” Aaron asked.
“When I get the flu.” Rosamund laughed too long at her own joke, then grew uncomfortable under his steady regard. “I used to. Sometimes. But my father said gut feelings were nothing but wishful thinking, and I might as well depend on a fortune-teller’s crystal ball.”
“He wanted you to stay in the real world.” And why? When Aaron had come down to the library basement with antiquities that needed to be authenticated or manuscripts that required translation, Dr. Elijah Hall had been brilliant, stiff-necked, and grim, yet keenly interested in the paranormal. Most important in Aaron’s mind was his sharp instinct for the genuine above the counterfeit.
Never, ever had he mentioned that he had a daughter.
Why had he so emphatically quashed Rosamund’s curiosity?
Had Dr. Hall foreseen a dread prophecy for her?
“Are you familiar with the legend of the Chosen?” Aaron asked.
“The Chosen . . .” He could almost see Rosamund flipping through the encyclopedia of her mind. “Yes. The Chosen and the Others. When the world was young, a beautiful woman gave birth to twins, each marked as something set apart from average people. Repulsed, the woman took them into the darkest woods—in these fairy tales, it always is the darkest woods—and left the babies for the wild animals to devour.” She looked at him inquiringly. “Is that the legend you mean?”
“That’s it. Do you know the rest?”
Rosamund continued. “Those two children were the first Abandoned Ones, babies left by their parents without love or care and, to compensate, given a gift of power. The babies survived. The girl was a seer. The boy was a fire-giver. They gathered others like them and formed two gangs—one for good and one for evil—and they fought for the hearts and souls of the Abandoned Ones.”
“A battle that goes on today,” he finished.
“Yes.” Her brow knit. “It’s not a very comforting fairy tale.”
“How many are?”
“Most have endings of some kind. The witch is tipped into the oven. The evil stepmother falls from a cliff—” She caught sight of his face. “All right, not happy endings, but still, there’s none of that The battle goes on today stuff.”
“Yet it’s so much more realistic to know there can never be an end, or at least not until the”—he could scarcely stand to say the words—“until the Apocalypse.”
“If the legend of the Chosen Ones were true, which it’s not.”
Aaron wished that she was right. Unfortunately for her and her future peace of mind, she was staring right into the eyes of one of the Chosen Ones.
Read more about the Chosen Ones
on Christina Dodd’s Web site at
www.christinadodd.com.
Christina Dodd
THE NOVELS OF THE CHOSEN ONES
When the world was young, twins were born. One brought light to a dark world; the other, darkness and danger. They gathered others around them, men and women destined to use their powerful gifts for good or evil. Today, their descendants walk the earth as the Chosen, and the ultimate battle is about to begin.
STORM OF VISIONS
STORM OF SHADOWS
CHAINS OF ICE
CHAINS OF FIRE
AVAILABLE NOW
“Devilishly clever, scintillatingly sexy.”
—Chicago Tribune
Available wherever books are sold or at penguin.com
S0217
NOVELS BY CHRISTINA DODD
Danger in a Red Dress
Thigh High
Tongue in Chic
Trouble in High Heels
In Bed with the Duke
Taken by the Prince
THE SCARLET DECEPTION SERIES
Secrets of Bella Terra
THE DARKNESS CHOSEN SERIES
Scent of Darkness
Touch of Darkness
Into the Shadow
Into the Flame
THE CHOSEN ONES SERIES
Storm of Visions
Storm of Shadows
Chains of Ice
Chains of Fire
Revenge at Bella Terra Page 31
