by May, W. J.
“We need to get this back to Carter,” Devon said quietly. His voice had taken on a tone of soft panic. “We need to get the entire Privy Council in on this right away.”
“Well,” Molly said, “our flight leaves in three hours. Next stop, London.”
* * *
Despite the magnitude of the information they’d just received, Molly, Devon, and Luke passed out almost immediately on the plane and slept almost the entire flight. There was only so much trauma the body could take. Only so many stresses it could compartmentalize and handle before little pieces of it began shutting down. Rae watched them snoring away, with a fond little smile; taking a strange comfort in the fact that, for once, they were all doing something normal.
The only one who was still awake was Julian. He’d been staring out the window since take-off, tracing random shapes, and generally ignoring everyone else around him.
When Rae poked him in the ribs, he looked up with a little smile. “Hey, sorry, did you say something?”
She grinned and rested her head on his shoulder. “Nope, just bored, thinking about Guilder and the awesome welcome party we’re sure to get.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I wonder if they’re camped out in the airport. For all we know, we could go through customs in chains.”
“I’m thinking a leash,” Rae mused. “Something where they can still make us work, but it’s not like we can go anywhere unescorted.” They laughed, and lapsed into thoughtful silence for a while before she guessed, “You thinking about Angel?”
He nodded, a warm smile spreading across his face. “Is it weird that after everything we’ve been through on this trip, all the terrible things that have happened, the terrible things we’ve learned, I’m actually going home happy?”
Rae grinned back, squeezing his arm as she also gazed out the window. “No. I think it’s wonderful. No one deserves it more than you, Jules.”
“I want to ask you so bad what you saw in her head,” he admitted. “It’s all I can think about. But I know firsthand what it’s like to have the privacy of your thoughts taken away from you. I wouldn’t want to do that to her.”
Rae frowned thoughtfully, thinking it over. “Jules, usually when I use Carter’s ink, I’m just along for the ride; I go wherever the thoughts take me. But with Angel it was all right there up in front. I think she wanted me to know. She wanted you to know. To believe her.”
He leaned back with a sigh. “I do believe her, I just…I don’t understand. I don’t understand how she could actually love me, but still do that to me. Betray me and my friends to our worst enemy in the morning, and then kiss me at night. I don’t get it.”
Rae nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, I can imagine.” Her face clouded over as flashes of the trauma she’d seen in Angel’s childhood flashed through her mind. “She never had a choice, Jules. Not for a second. Her entire life was destined before it began; she was given to Cromfield as some kind of child apprentice. At first, she didn’t know what she was doing. And later, she was in too deep to stop. The only thing she had a choice about was you.”
Julian stared at her intently, thinking it over, before he said, “But she chose to betray me.”
Rae smiled and shook her head. “She chose not to give up on her love for you. Once everything was finally out in the open, once she realized she might lose you, she told us everything we wanted to know. Even if it meant saying goodbye to everything else she’d ever known. Even if it meant that Cromfield might kill her. She chose you.”
A dazzling smile spread across Julian’s face, and he turned back to the window to self-consciously hide it. “I wish—I wish so badly that I could bring her back with us to England. Let the Privy Council give her protection.” He turned around suddenly and looked at Rae with a hopeful expression. “Do you think if I talked to Carter, that he would—?”
“Honestly, Jules, I think none of us is in any position to be asking favors from Carter or the Privy Council.”
He laughed nervously. “Yeah, that’s probably true.”
“But, hey,” she nudged him, “maybe later. In a few weeks? A few months? Who knows what can happen? You guys have your whole lives in front…”
She didn’t know where it came from. One second, she was talking to Julian, genuinely happy for him and his newfound love. The next, she was speechless, with tears in her eyes.
“Hey,” he wrapped his arm around her in concern, “what’s the matter? You okay?”
She pulled in a silent gasp of air and tried to smile, but the tears just kept falling. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Sorry,” she wiped her face, but to no avail. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
Julian’s eyes softened sympathetically. “It’s Devon, isn’t it? You and Devon?”
Rae doubled over with a silent sob and he pulled her up against his side, holding the side of her head with a calming hand. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said softly. “You’re okay.”
A concerned flight attendant stopped in the aisle, but he waved her away.
“Jules,” Rae finally breathed, pulling herself together, “do you see a future for me?”
He sighed deeply. “I see nothing but a future for you.”
Her throat seized up and she turned away to wipe her face. “This just can’t be happening. I can’t be…immortal.” Her long dark hair spilled into her lap as she bowed her head. “It’s so weird, sometimes it’s like I just forget, you know? And everything goes back to normal. But then something will happen and I’ll remember it all over again.” Her breath caught in her throat, choking her. “And Devon…it’s breaking my heart.”
“What does Devon say about it?” he asked quietly, still squeezing her shoulders.
She sighed. “He says we’ll figure it out. That we’ve faced worse than this before, and that if anyone can figure it out, it’s the two of us.”
“He’s right,” Julian said gently. “I know it might not be what you want to hear right now, but he’s absolutely right.”
She wiped her eyes again and tried to put on a brave smile. “It’s stupid for me to even be talking about it, now that we know Cromfield’s running around with a million different super-powers and he can’t die. We don’t know where the hell he is, or how to stop him.”
“Hey, it’s not stupid.” She scoffed and Julian tilted her chin up to look at him. “It’s not stupid,” he said again. “This is your life. You know, as one of your best friends, that’s pretty much top of my list of priorities.”
She grinned ruefully. “Right below getting Molly to step off your love life?”
He laughed aloud. “Yeah, right below that.”
There was a low groan as the plane’s landing gear slowly lowered down.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we will be starting our final descent into Heathrow International Airport. Please make sure your tables and chairs are in the upright and locked position…”
“What do you think?” Rae asked, gesturing to their sleeping companions. “Should we wake them?”
“Nah—they’ve got a few more minutes. Let them sleep.”
It wasn’t until the plane touched down on the runway, sending up sprays of water on both sides, that Julian finally turned back to her.
“And Rae, about Cromfield…” His eyes shone with an abnormal intensity as they locked onto hers. “He can die. Everything can die. We just need to figure out how.”
Rae nodded automatically, and dropped her head on his shoulder as she stared outside at the trees blurring past the edge of the runway.
She certainly hoped he was right.
* * *
The five friends thought they would see members of the Privy Council lined up outside the gate when they stepped off the plane—they were wrong. They thought they’d see Carter, and Bethany Kerrigan, standing with guns blazing outside the baggage check, but wrong again.
They found Devon’s car in long-term parking and headed home in silence, pausing only to drop Luke off along the way.
“
Well, good luck, you guys,” he said a little nervously. “If I don’t hear from you for a couple of weeks, I’ll assume they just dumped the bodies.”
They laughed and drove away, but, under the joke, all of them were nervous. The Privy Council was not a group to let this sort of disobedience just passively slide. And they were not the kind to wait for the wrongdoer to come to them either. They were proactive. Collectors. Punishers. And neither Devon, Rae, Julian, nor Molly could come up with a reason that they hadn’t been picked up yet.
When they finally pulled onto Guilder grounds, it was the same thing. The school was a dead zone. Of course, they’d half expected this. School was out for the summer, and, by now, all the remaining students would have long since left. But the Privy Council still trained and operated here, and there was not a soul to be seen. Not even a lone groundskeeper as they pulled up the ghostly drive.
“Alright,” Molly muttered, “this is starting to really creep me out. Where’s Madame Elpis? She lives here full time and I don’t even see her car here.”
Devon frowned worriedly. “I don’t know.” He pulled the car around and headed out of Guilder. “Let’s head to the Privy Council building.
He drove, and they all sat in silence, even as Devon pulled into a parking space not far from the Tudor-style home that had been converted into the Privy Council office. “Let’s try here first. Then the training facility.”
The four of them got out in silence, and began the long walk across parking lot. The front doors were locked.
Jules looked around. “Training facility?”
Devon and Rae nodded at the same time.
Molly sighed. “Can we just walk there? I’m tired of sitting.”
“Sure, Molls.” Rae slipped around her friends and led the way to the half hidden entrance and punched in the security code to the entrance and then again in the training facility.
It was dark when they stepped inside. Devon flipped the lights in the main gym, but nothing happened. He glanced back at them with a shrug, and the four of them proceeded across the gymnasium floor to the halls in shadowed darkness on the other side of the gym. It wasn’t until they reached the main conference room that they finally saw a light and heard some voices from behind the closed door.
“Thank goodness,” Molly muttered. “I was starting to think zombie apocalypse.”
Devon glanced back at the others before his eyes fell on Rae. “You ready to do this?”
She sighed. “Do we have a choice?”
He flashed her a little smile before pushing open the door.
It was like flipping a switch. Every single person in the room froze the second they stepped inside. And it was every single person. All the missing people Rae had yet to see on Guilder grounds.
Madame Elpis was standing in a corner with several members of the faculty. Dean Wardell was hunched over in an easy chair—avoiding eye contact with everyone. Carter was sitting behind his desk, surrounded by minions, and Beth was sitting by his side. It was clear she’d been crying.
“Mom?” Rae asked fearfully. “What’s—”
Carter stood up with a grave look on his face as two armed guards appeared from just behind the door and grabbed Rae by the arms. She stifled a gasp of surprise and froze in place just like everyone else, staring at the room with wide, bewildered eyes.
“Rae Kerrigan?” one of the guards thundered.
Rae didn’t think she’d ever been more terrified to hear her own name. “Y-Yes?”
For a split second, she met Devon’s eyes.
Then the whole world came tumbling down.
“You’re under arrest, Ms. Kerrigan.”
Wait? What? She struggled against them, and considered using a tatù, but hesitated as she hissed, “What the hell’s going on?”
THE END
Twisted Together
Coming out in February 19, 2016
*There will be no Pre-Order.*
Note from Author
I can’t believe HIDDEN DARKNESS is finished! It barely seemed like yesterday and I was thinking about Rae and what she would do if she had this tattoo that give her supernatural powers. Now I’m working on book 9 of this series!! (10 if you include the prequel lol)
I hope you enjoyed Rae’s story as it continues. If you have a moment to post a review to let others know about the story, I’d greatly appreciate it!
I love hearing from my fans so feel free to send me a message on Facebook or by email so we can chat!
I’m working on Twisted Together and have am imagining what Beth and Simon went through before Rae was born. Crazy crazy crazy world!! And I love it!!
All the best, W.J. May
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Website: http://www.wanitamay.yolasite.com
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The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Book I - Rae of Hope is FREE!
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B1NNFR0
Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILAwXxx8MU
Book II - Dark Nebula
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B46UWNO
Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca24STi_bFM
Book III - House of Cards
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LPIAFL0
Book IV - Royal Tea
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SGIN35W
Book V - Under Fire
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YVNJECW
Book VI - End in Sight
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015HGNL0C
Book VII – Hidden Darkness
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018SSJEZC
Book VIII – Twisted Together
COMING FEBRUARY 19, 2016
PREQUEL – Christmas Before the Magic
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0195ZSB3I
Coming Christmas 2015!!
A Novella of the Chronicles of Kerrigan.
A prequel on how Simon Kerrigan met Beth!!
AVAILABLE:
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More books by W.J. May
Hidden Secrets Saga:
Download Seventh Mark part 1 For FREE
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Seventh Mark part 2
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Marked by Destiny
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OC90BD6
Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-_vVYC1gvo
Like most teenagers, Rouge is trying to figure out who she is and what she wants to be. With little knowledge about her past, she has questions but has never tried to find the answers. Everything changes when she befriends a strangely intoxicating family. Siblings Grace and Michael, appear to have secrets which seem connected to Rouge. Her hunch is confirmed when a horrible incident occurs at an outdoor party. Rouge may be the only one who can find the answer.
An ancient journal, a Sioghra necklace and a special mark force life-altering decisions for a girl who grew up unprepared to fight for her life or others.
All secrets have a cost and Rouge's determination to find the truth can only lead to trouble…or something even more sinister.
RADIUM HALOS - THE SENSELESS SERIES
Book 1 is FREE: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IFSS4ES
Book Blurb:
Everyone needs to be a hero at one point in their life.
The small town of Elliot Lake will never be the same again.
Caught in a sudden thunderstorm, Zoe, a high school senior from Elliot Lake, and five of her friends take shelter in an abandoned uranium mine. Over the next few days, Zoe's hearing sharpens drastically, beyond what any normal human being can detect. She tells her friends, only to learn that four others have an increased sense as well. Only Kieran, the new boy from Scotland, isn't affected.
Fashioning themselves into superheroes, the group tries to stop the strange occurrences happening in their little town. Muggings, break-ins, disappearances, and murder begin to hit too close to home. It leads the team to think someone knows about their secret - someone who wants them all dead.
An incredulous group of heroes. A traitor in the midst. Some dreams are written in blood.
Shadow of Doubt
Part 1 is FREE!
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Part 2
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Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZK09Fe7kgA
Book Blurb:
What happens when you fall for the one you are forbidden to love?
Erebus is a bit of a lost soul. He's a guy so he should be out to have fun but unlike the rest of his kind, he is solemn and withdrawn. That is, until he meets Aurora, a law student at Cornell University. His entire world is shaken. Feelings he's never had and urges he's never understood take over. These strange longings drive him to question everything about himself
When a jealous ex stalks back into his life, he must decide if he is willing to risk everything to be with Aurora. His desire for her could destroy her, or worse, erase his own existence forever.
Courage Runs Red
The Blood Red Series
Book 1 is FREE
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VC8HSFE
What if courage was your only option?
When Kallie lands a college interview with the city's new hot-shot police officer, she has no idea everything in her life is about to change. The detective is young, handsome and seems to have an unnatural ability to stop the increasing local crime rate. Detective Liam's particular interest in Kallie sends her heart and head stumbling over each other.
