Curiosity Quills might not publish this book (because I am way too controlling with this series haha), but I still have to thank them and everyone I’ve met through them. To have a publisher is a dream. To have a publisher that is so supportive, enthusiastic, understanding, and willing to let your creative wings spread as far as they can? That’s heaven. Thank you to my entire Curiosity Quills family for always being there for me.
To my critique partners (Kate, Jenny, Kathi, Katie, and Stephanie just to name a few!) and my Valderfans Street Team (Josephine, Nastasia, Jan, Jill, Antoinette, Sarit, Jess, Clare, Sharon, Lorri, Krystal, Tiffany, and Katie): Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’ve been there to help me with blurbs, shook your fist at me for killing off your favorite character (sorry, Kathi!) and shouted about Heirs of War throughout social media. Having a team of people so warm and so passionate about my characters has been the most amazing experience. Thank you!
In the last book, I thanked my characters. This book leaves me feeling like I should apologize to them as well. =) I look forward to where they will take me in book three and beyond.
HEIRS OF WAR, CHAOS TO REIGN PREVIEW
Sheridan could hear them again. The voices. They buzzed under the edge of her understanding, their words muffled as if her head was underwater. She swam in a fog of confusion, the sensation of drowning always with her. Her emerald-green eyes were shielded by heavy lids that she tried to blink open, still struggling to make sense of the words floating around her. Awareness slowly crept its way back to her as the effects of the drugs finally began to wane. She cracked her eyes open, able to make out the two figures standing across the room.
“How is she?” Solanna asked as she dry-washed her hands.
“The same,” Bianca answered succinctly. There was a hint of a sigh in her voice as she continued. “She awoke this morning, refused to eat her breakfast, and when I tried to coerce her, she threw it across the room. Her fit only escalated from there. I was forced to sedate her again, and she continues to think I am trying to poison her on your orders.”
Solanna remained calm, the turmoil she felt only reflected in her scrunched eyes. “I suppose that’s to be expected. I’ve spoken to Alec a great deal about her. Kellen raised my daughter to fear us. Her people, the Cahirans, they claim we never act, and yet she teaches my own child that our judgment against her would be swift and fatal should she ever come across us.”
“She needs time, Banair Solanna. Her entire world has been turned upside down. She still doesn’t believe that she is your child.”
“How can she still believe that when the evidence is in front of her? You can look at her and see. And if that is not enough, she has my gift.” Solanna laughed humorlessly and wiped away the few stray tears winding their way down her pale cheeks. “Do you want to know the horrible truth of this situation, paion? If she didn’t have my gift, then I would have been able to find her. But the curse of being the Duillaine of Air is that I pass my gift along to my first born, and thus render it useless in protecting the most important person in the worlds to me.”
Sheridan closed her eyes, not wanting to hear anymore. They knew she was listening. They had to. They continued to try to convince her of this lie, but she knew the truth. Kellen was her mother. She had to be. Sheridan had seen the portraits of her mother pregnant with her and holding her. Kellen told her stories of the things she’d done as a baby. The songs she’d enjoyed, favorite toys, how she had her father’s laugh… Her memories couldn’t be lies, and neither could the love Kellen had shown her over the years. She’d instilled in her strength and honor, and those lessons were harsh, but necessary. And there was a softer side to Kellen that only Sheridan knew as her daughter. Her mother had been the one to nurse her back to health when she was sick, to hold her when she cried over her first broken heart, to tell her how beautiful she was, and how powerful.
Someone cleared their throat from the doorway, and Sheridan resisted the urge to open her eyes to see who the new visitor was. She had a feeling that she already knew, anyway. It didn’t take long for her new visitor’s deep voice to rumble through the room and confirm her suspicions.
“Forgive me, Banair Solanna,” Varrick said, his voice bouncing off the stone floors like he might be bowing in Solanna’s presence. “I didn’t wish to disturb you.”
“Come in, Varrick,” Solanna responded. “How can I help you? Are the twins alright?”
“Yes, Zelene and Ariana are fine. I, um, came to check on the girl.”
“You came to check on Sheridan,” Solanna repeated, her voice darkening. “My daughter.”
“Yes,” he whispered.
“I see.” Solanna paused, and Sheridan felt the Duillaine’s gaze shift to her. “I understand that you feel…responsible for my daughter. For what happened to her. Allow me to relieve you of the burdens you carry for my child’s disappearance.” Solanna’s attention shifted back to Varrick and she moved across the room to face him. “It wasn’t your fault, Varrick. You were not responsible for her safety then, and you aren’t now. You are Cyneward to the twins, not the Duillaine or our families. Do you understand this?”
Varrick hesitated. “I cannot help but feel responsible for her. I only wish to see her well.”
“As do I, but I fear your presence will only further agitate her. Bianca, I believe it would be wise to limit Sheridan’s visitors for now. Until she has better adjusted.”
Sheridan couldn’t sit back and listen to this anymore. She shot up in bed and directed her glare at Solanna. “So I am your prisoner.”
Solanna’s harsh stance melted and she rushed to Sheridan’s side. “No, of course not. I’m only trying to protect you.”
Sheridan shifted to the corner where her bed met the wall. “No, you’re trying to isolate me. You think that if you have me alone, you can convince me of your lies. Are you worried the Cyneward will tell me the truth?” She turned to Varrick. “Was it her? Did she order you to kidnap me?”
“No, Sheridan—” Solanna reached for her, but Sheridan slapped her across the face.
Varrick was on Sheridan in an instant, scooping her out of the bed and whisking her across the room. He pinned her arms to her chest when she tried to beat against his. “Sheridan, stop. No one is trying to hurt you or lie to you.”
“Says the man restraining me,” she spat back. “If she didn’t order you to take me, then why did you? You’re a Cyneward, not a soldier. There’s nothing in this for you.”
He gently released her hands and patted her cheek. “Seeing you safe and healthy. That’s what’s in it for me. You were taken on my watch, Sheridan, and I can’t begin to make that up to you.”
“Your watch?” She repeated the question back, confusion stilling her temper. “Even if what you’re saying is true, it doesn’t make sense. You aren’t my Cyneward. If I were truly her firstborn,” she pointed at Solanna, “then you’d have no reason to watch over me or care what happens to me. This is a trick.”
Varrick closed his eyes and when he opened them again, the full force of his guilt shone in his irises. “You were with Ariana when they took you. It was her fear that alerted me, but by the time I got there… I’m not your Cyneward. But my curse is that if I was, I would have been able to find you in an instant.”
Sheridan glanced over his shoulder to Solanna, surprised to see tears streaming down her cheeks. The Duillaine looked so heart broken, and angry. Her emotions were raw and open for all to see, which gave Sheridan pause in her protests. “You blame him. You just told him it wasn’t his fault, but you’re still so angry at him…” Her eyes glistened as the truth was laid bare at her feet, but she shook it off. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care who you are, or who I am to you. To any of you. I want to go back to my mother. To Kellen.”
Varrick’s breath caught in his throat. “She nearly killed you, Sheridan.”
Sheridan craned her neck in an effort to stand taller. “She made me what I am, and I believe in her.”
Var
rick easily loomed over her. “I will die before I let that vile woman lay a hand on you again.”
“Well, haven’t you heard, Cyneward?” Sheridan leaned forward with a sneer. “That can be arranged.”
Varrick pulled back as if she’d slapped him as well.
Bianca let out a slow breath. “I believe Sheridan needs her rest now.” The paion ushered Solanna and Varrick, both equally stunned by Sheridan’s words, out of the room, then turned back to her patient with a disapproving scowl.
“I feel fine. I don’t need rest,” Sheridan said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Bianca scoffed. “I didn’t remove them from the room for your benefit. I removed them for theirs. You should be careful of the words you speak, Sheridan. You risk hurting those who love you more than you can possibly imagine, and once you come to accept the truth of your situation and of Kellen, you will regret it.”
Sheridan folded her arms across her chest and glared at the paion. “I doubt it. I don’t care what they say or what happened when I was a baby. Those people are my enemies, and they always will be. And so will you.” She stormed across the room and flopped back down on her bed. “Since I’m a prisoner here, I’d like to be alone.”
“You might not feel so confined if you would just give Solanna a chance,” Bianca retorted before leaving in a huff.
Sheridan sat back up, eyeing the door contemplatively. Bianca might not have meant to, but she had given Sheridan an idea as to how to finally get free of this place. She’d played pretend before, and she could do it again.
HEIRS OF WAR, CHAOS TO REIGN
COMING 2015
OTHER WORKS
Heirs of War
Heirs of War #1
Seventeen year-old Zelene has never believed in magic or been one to trust fate. Prophecies about princesses and long lost families were the stuff of fairy tales and had no place in her life. But then magic-wielding assassins attack claiming she is one of the five Duillaine Ainnir, the next generation of the most powerful women who rule over the worlds. Together, the five girls are prophesized to save the worlds from the war that has been raging for years.
As their enemies strike, the girls are taken back to their world and discover the ties binding them together. Rhaya has always had an uncanny knack for reading people, but can’t seem to unravel the mystery tying her to Isauria, the new friend she bonded with instantly. For years, Isauria has been dreaming of Terrena, a girl living her life on the run in a magical world ripped apart by the tragedies of war, but Isauria is completely unaware that she is psychically linked to the world she was born in.
Zelene views them all, especially the elders, with a distrustful eye, familial bonds or no. When she learns that her long-lost twin Ariana has been captured by the rebels, Zelene’s attitude changes. She doesn’t know what she can do when her own magic is still locked within her, but can she trust the elders to rescue Ariana when it seems their medieval politics are what brought about the war in the first place? With all that is at stake, the answer becomes clear to Zelene.
Screw the worlds. She’s getting her sister back.
Now available on:
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For extra content and deleted scenes for the Heirs of War series, look for Mara on Wattpad.com!
Altar of Reality
Shifted Realities #1
Curiosity Quills Press
When sixteen year-old Madeline suffers her first grand mal seizure, she wakes up in an extremely unfamiliar world, but surrounded by familiar faces. Her hometown is in ruins, the aftermath of a Cold War turned hot, and her best friend Brandon insists she’s been in a coma since the explosion that killed her parents when she was twelve. The Lord Commander, now running the southern territories, believes Madeline died with them, and Brandon needs to keep it that way.
Madeline isn’t sure what to believe. Brandon thinks her memories must be of a dream life she created while in her coma. But when she returns to the reality she knows, he insists the war-torn world must be the dream. She doesn't know if she's truly caught in the middle of a brewing rebellion or teetering on the brink of insanity. As she finds herself flipping between the two lives, her heart becomes torn between two versions of the same boy and the lines between her realities begin to blur.
Coming January 2015
Find it on Goodreads
Look for Mara’s short story “The Austenation” in The Actuator 1.5: The Borderlands Anthology
When the Actuator breaks the earth into a patchwork of altered realities, the remaining Machine Monks begin looking for the Keys to put it back. In the meantime, everyone in the world has been transformed without knowing why. This collection tells about some of the people struggling to deal with the change.
Mara Valderran’s “The Austenation” crosses Pride and Prejudice with werewolves so the young heroine is forced to do the unthinkable and take matters into her own hands.
Amazon Goodreads
Heirs of War, Crown of Flames Page 39
