“Let’s begin.”
***
She slumped against the cold bars. “I failed them again.”
Emmanuella released an anguished cry from her cell.
She’d failed her too.
As she began to slide down the wall, a beam of light burst from her pendant, burning the skin at the base of her throat. “It’s working,” she whispered.
The blinding beam illuminated the room, and Emma’s gate swung open with a creaky groan. She stumbled into the circular stone floor, shielding her eyes, but unsure what to do. Gates blocked all the openings to the tunnels. Where was she supposed to go now?
“Emma!” Emmanuella stood at the gate, clinging to the bars. “You have to free me.”
She’d agreed to get Emmanuella out, but she didn’t know how to make that happen.
“Emma, please!”
The bright light exploded from her neck again. The lock on Emmanuella’s gate fell to the floor with a metallic clang. Smoke billowed into the room and an unsettled feeling washed over Emma. Something wasn’t right.
Pushing the gate open, Emmanuella rushed out, her face lighting up with delight. “You did it!” She spun around in a circle, her robes swinging around her legs. Stopping abruptly, she pulled Emma into a tight embrace. “Thank you!”
Emma was about to tell her she hadn’t done anything, when Emmanuella gripped her shoulders and pulled her away, staring into Emma’s face. A smile lifted the corners of her mouth, but her eyes held an ominous glint. “Just remember, everything isn’t always what it seems to be.”
And then everything faded to black.
***
The bright light faded but Emma still lay limp and unresponsive on the asphalt. They’d been so close. Had it not been enough to save her? The shadow creature faded away.
Will grabbed her hand and squeezed. “Please, Emma. Come back to me.”
Her body twitched then jerked. Emma gasped, drawing a deep breath.
“Mommy!”
“Holy shit,” James mumbled, scooting away a couple of feet.
Emma’s eyes opened, and she gave Will a weak smile. “You did it. It worked.”
Will pulled her up into his arms, burying his face into her shoulder. “Don’t you ever scare the shit out of me like that again.”
“I’ll try not to die again anytime soon.” She wrapped an arm around Jake and pulled him into their hug.
“Good to see you back, Emma.”
She turned, her eyes widening in surprise. “James. You made it.” Her hand reached around Jake, touching her pendant. “Thanks for bringing this.”
“Just call me errand boy.” He grinned. “We were about to give up on you.”
Will raised an eyebrow. “We?”
James gave a half shrug. “We really need to get out of here.”
“In a minute.” Will refused to let go of her yet.
Emma’s arm around him tightened. “How did you save me?”
“James had the pendant, and Jake and I used our powers, but it was the shadows that did it. Jake convinced them to help.” He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. “What was it like…where you were?”
“Cold and scary. I was in something like a jail cell. A light came from my pendant and opened the lock.”
“Thank God.”
“There was someone else there.”
Will was afraid to ask. “Who?”
She looked up into his face. “Emmanuella. She was the one who told me to reach out to you. She told me that you two could save me.” With a grin, she kissed the top of Jake’s head. The grin faded when she looked at Will again. “She offered to help me if I helped free her. She said she wanted to be with the one she loved.”
“Raphael?”
Emma nodded. “After my lock broke, hers did too.” She paused. “Emmanuella was happy and gave me a hug, but then she got the strangest look on her face. She said, ‘Everything isn’t what it seems to be.’ And then I was back here.”
“What do you suppose she meant?”
“I have no idea.”
James scratched at his back, letting out a grunt. He craned to look over his shoulder. “Holy shit.”
Will’s chest tightened in anxiety. “What?”
“There’s a mark on me! It looks like a tree.”
Will laughed in disbelief. “Looks like you’re the temporary guardian of earth. Until the baby’s born.” He turned to Emma. “I know what we’re having. Do you want to know if it’s a boy or a girl or do you want it to be a surprise? Although I should warn you that both of these two know, so I’m not sure how long they’ll last before telling you.”
James swiped at his shoulder blade. “Temporary guardian? I do not accept!”
Emma smiled. “Tell me.”
“I hope you like pink.”
She wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled his mouth to hers. “I feel sorry for any boys she brings home.”
Will laughed.
James continued brushing at his shoulder. “No, Will. This isn’t funny. You asked me to get a damn necklace. I did not agree to become the element earth!”
Will stood and pulled Emma up with him. “None of us asked for this, James. It was forced on us. Welcome to the club.”
“I don’t want to be a member!”
Emma helped Jake into the plane. “Too late, James.”
“Don’t I get a say in anything?”
Will shook his head. “Get in the plane and fly, James.”
James swore under his breath as he climbed into the cockpit.
Jake sat in the seat next to Emma, his head on her lap. Her fingers played with his curly hair. She looked up at Will, love shining in her eyes.
“What happens now, Will? What do we do now?”
“Now we start the rest of our lives.”
She pulled his mouth to hers. “I like the sound of that.”
About the Mandorla
When it became apparent that there would be four books in The Chosen series instead of three, I quickly realized I needed a new mark.
I went through multiple ideas, researching a lot of ancient runes. My original thought was to have two interconnected triangles. I’d studied Plato’s philosophy on the elements when I came up with the qualities of the elements. Plato assigned symbols to the elements: Fire is an upside down triangle. Water is an upright one. Since Will and Emma were joined, it made sense to use the connection of the triangles as the symbol.
But I dug deeper and came across the mandorla, which means “almond” in Italian. While it’s most associated with Christianity, it has deeper, more ancient roots.
The two circles represent opposites and the almond is the interconnection of the two, also called the remain. The almond typically represents the intersection of heaven and earth, life and death, but can also represent spiritual and self, masculine and feminine, the known and the unknown.
Shadow and light.
Jake joined the two worlds to save Emma. The question remains—was this a good thing or a bad thing?
Acknowledgements
When I started this book, I was terrified I would screw it up. This was the last book of an awesome series and I didn’t want to disappoint my readers. Thankfully, I had people behind me who believed in me more than I did. Many thanks to my critique partner, Trisha Leigh, who never questioned that I could write Redemption and do it justice. Also thanks to my developmental editor, Alison Dasho, who read the first draft and didn’t fire me as a client. She spotted the problem areas and gave me awesome ideas to make Redemption even better. Alison provided support and hilarious YouTube videos to encourage me as I spent three crazy weeks in August rewriting one fourth of the book as well as adding fifteen thousand more words.
Redemption wouldn’t have the current ending without the feedback of my beta readers. They liked the first ending but thought it lacked something. Thank you to Brandy Underwood, Anne Childon, Rhonda Cowsert, Wendy Webb and Janelle Alexander for being honest with your feedback.
&nbs
p; Many thanks to Branli Caidryn who is still my friend after I pestered him mercilessly, asking “how do you say this in Spanish?”
I also need to thank my children who sometimes have to put up with a cranky, stressed-out mommy but love me anyway. I tell them that it was pure coincidence that I wrote Redemption and tortured poor Jake without mercy while they were home for the summer driving me crazy. That’s what I tell them…
Thank you to my copy editor, Jim Thomsen. This is our seventh book together and he always takes my words and makes me look so much better.
To my proof readers Christine Wilmsen and Kristen Yard—thank you for making me look good.
And finally, thank you to my readers, who liked this series enough to stay with me to the end. What a ride.
About the Author
Denise Grover Swank lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. She writes urban fantasies without vampires and werewolves. She also writes romantic comedy mysteries set in the South. She has six children, three dogs, and an overactive imagination. She can be found dancing in her kitchen with her children, reading or writing her next book. You will rarely find her cleaning.
You can find out more about Denise and her other books at www.denisegroverswank.com or email her at [email protected]
Friend her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/deniseswank
Follow her on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DeniseMSwank
Other books by Denise Grover Swank:
Rose Gardner Mysteries
(Rom com southern mysteries)
TWENTY-EIGHT AND A HALF WISHES
TWENTY-NINE AND A HALF REASONS
THIRTY AND A HALF EXCUSES (May 2012)
The Chosen Series
(Paranormal thriller/romance/urban fantasy)
CHOSEN
HUNTED
SACRIFICE
REDEMPTION
The Chosen Shorts Series
(prequel short stories)
EMERGENCE (The Chosen Short #1) Emma’s story
MIDDLE GROUND (The Chosen Short #2) Will’s story
HOMECOMING (The Chosen Short #3) Reader’s Choice
On the Otherside Series
(Young adult science fiction/romance)
HERE
THERE (December 2012)
The Curse Keepers Series
(Urban fantasy)
THE CURSE KEEPERS (November 2013)
Many readers of CHOSEN have fallen in love with Amber Lynn Natusch’s CAGED series. Find out why.
Read the book that gave CHOSEN a run for its money in December,2011
LOVE IS DARKNESS
Check out the paranormal series by Amazon Top 100 bestselling Samantha Towle, author of
A MIGHTY STORM
Contents
Title page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
About the Mandorla
About the Author
Redemption (The Chosen #4) Page 34
