Sophia Sharp's Blog
January 3, 2016
Chapter 29 of Revelations
Hey all,
So I kinda screwed up the Forsaken Box Set by forgetting to include a pivotal chapter in the second book.
I just fixed it on Amazon, so all future customers will have it. You can just re-download your copy of the box set, or you can read the missing chapter below:
---
Chapter Twenty-Nine of REVELATIONS, Book Two of the Forsaken Saga
~Angels~
When Hunter released her, Nora fell back dreamily. ¬She felt all warm inside, and for the moment, everything was right. She closed her eyes happily as a tingle of shivers ran down her spine. When she opened them again, Hunter was still right there, smiling down at her.
“I was so worried about you,” he said, as he traced a thumb along her cheek. “I didn’t know where you were, or if you were safe, or if I would ever see you again.” The tone of his voice was genuine. His words were genuine. “You cannot imagine how much it pained me to leave you like that.”
“Then why did you?” Nora asked softly.
“I had to,” he told her. “It was the only way to keep you safe. I know you’re stubborn, sometimes – don’t frown at me, you know it too! – and if I had told you the truth, I feared you would want to come with me.”
“Of course I would have come with you!” she exclaimed.
He smiled at her again. “And that’s why it had to be the way it was.”
“And…Madison?”
“She does not hate you. She realized other Vassiz were close behind us the night we first met. That is why she acted toward you…the way she did.”
“To keep me away?”
“To alienate you from her. And when she told me and Alexander what was going on that night, we all agreed that splitting was for the best. To keep you safe.”
“So that means,” Nora began, somewhat hesitantly, “that there’s nothing…going on… between you two?”
Hunter smiled. “No,” he said. “It was all an act.” He chuckled lightly, and Nora sighed. She loved hearing him laugh and missed it when he was gone. “To be honest, I thought my part in it had been so poorly done as to give it all away.”
“So that means the fight I overheard? Between her and Alexander…?”
Hunter shook his head. “Those two lovebirds have been at each other’s side for hundreds of years. Nothing could come between them anymore.” He pushed himself up and offered Nora a hand. “Come. There are some that are eager to meet you.”
Nora took his hand and looked around her for the first time. She was in a fairly spacious room, with no windows and only one grand door leading out. The floor that she had been lying on was hard marble and a spectacular white. So were the walls. If she didn’t know any better, she would have said this was part of the same structure as that great corridor had been. “Who are they?” she asked.
“You’ll see.” Hunter smiled. He slipped his hand around the small of her back and led her forward. Nora took her first step – and nearly fell. She hadn’t realized it before, but her legs felt weak, as if they hadn’t been used for a very long time. But, strangely, based on what she could remember of her condition after the fight with that…creature…she should have been teetering on the edge of death right now. Except she wasn’t. Her body felt weak, yes, but nothing in particular stood out. She was in no pain.
“How long was I out?” she asked Hunter.
“A few hours, at most.”
“What?” Surprise painted her tone. How could she have healed so quickly in only a few hours? She remembered hitting her head and brought a hand up to where she thought she’d made impact. To her surprise, there was nothing there. No scab, or gash, or bump. But she distinctively remembered finding blood there before. “How?”
“Those people that want to meet you?” he replied, a twinkle in his eye, “one of them was able to heal you after the battle.”
“Heal me?”
Hunter smiled at her again. “You’ll see. Come.”
She put a hand around his back and walked beside him to the door. Twisting the handle, he pushed it open, and Nora gasped.
They were looking right at the grand chamber where she had encountered that vile creature. The same shining pool spread across the floor, but its waters looked calmer, somehow. Slightly more relaxed. She looked up at the ceiling and was relieved to find that the crystals there were blue. It meant this was the chamber on the first side of that curtain of black.
Quickly, her eyes followed the hall down to where she remembered flying through a tear in that terrible darkness. She saw the black shadow was still there, but the gnash the creature had cut was gone, replaced by solid black. For some reason, seeing that was reassuring to her.
Then she noticed a bundle of shapes in a far corner. She saw Alexander and Madison first, staring deeply into each other’s eyes. Behind them…a group of people she did not immediately recognize. They were tall and muscular – taller than anybody here by a head. Their bodies were lean and perfectly proportioned. They were also completely unclothed.
A light seemed to radiate from the group, encircling all their bodies like a halo. Nora realized it was much the same as the light that graced this hall, the one that came from everywhere and nowhere all at once.
There were three men and three women in the group, and they were all facing away from her. But as the door Hunter had pushed swung completely open, all six immediately turned to face her. And she gasped again. The people were the same ones she had seen in the pool earlier. And she had been right in her estimation of their beauty. When their faces were not twisted in pain, they simply had the most beautiful, most perfect proportions she could imagine.
Each of the six people looked slightly different, each in their own way, but each was still perfect and more beautiful than the last. She remembered seeing Madison for the first time and being struck by her beauty. Seeing these six, however, was like holding a glowing star to a flickering candle to compare which was brighter. Nora didn’t even want to think where she stood on that hierarchy.
One of the people – a man – stepped forward.
“Nora Cubus.”
She spun around. The voice had appeared in her head, but it wasn’t her own.
“Do not be alarmed.” The man from across the hall was looking straight at her and smiled with easy eyes. “This is the way in which we speak.”
Nora looked to Hunter, but he was completely unfazed. “Can you hear him?” she whispered in his ear. Hunter shook his head. “If he is speaking to you, you will be the only one to know.”
Nora frowned. “Hello?” she said in her head. There was no reply.
“You need to speak out loud for them to hear you,” Hunter told her, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Oh.” That was…a little discomforting. “Hello?” she said again, raising her voice. Alexander and Madison looked up to her, and both of them smiled. Alexander’s arm – the one that had been burnt so badly – and his shoulder, looked completely healed.
“I am thankful you are feeling better. Were it not for you, we would not be here.”
“Oh. Uh…thank you?” Then she remembered what Hunter said. “Were you the ones who healed me?”
The man smiled at her. “Yes.”
“Thank you,” Nora said, and this time she meant it. “You know who I am – but I do not know you. I have seen your reflections in the pool. Was that…really you?”
“We have been imprisoned there for thousands of years, held captive by the beast who tried to take your life.”
Whoa. Just who were these people? If they had the power to heal her…and the power to communicate like this…who knew what other gifts they shared? Who could possible imprison them?
“But thanks to you, we are now free again. For that, we are forever in your service.” As one, all six of the people dropped down to one knee and bowed their head. Each placed their left first firmly on the ground and two fingers on their forehead. Nora was taken aback by the gesture.
“But I… I didn’t do anything,” she admitted, feeling flustered. “You can stand – you should not do that for me. I couldn’t possibly have…freed you. I wasn’t even the one who defeated the beast that held you captive! That was Hunter, and Madison.” She heard Hunter chuckle lightly under his breath. And the six did not move from their positions. They looked like glowing Greek statues, perfectly sculpted in every way in their stillness.
“The prophecy told of your coming.”
“Prophecy?” She remembered Alexander telling her something about a prophecy the night they first met. That there was a fleeting mention of some vague prophecy somewhere in the Vassiz creed. But she couldn’t possibly believe it could be related to her. “What prophecy?”
“When the darkness comes, and hope is lost, a shimmering star shall be revealed. And she will free the fallen ones, restoring order to the rule of man.”
Nora frowned. That sounded…prophetically epic. And…completely vague. “What does it mean?” she asked. “And how can it possibly have anything to do with me?”
“There is more, of course. A tome dedicated entirely to the prophecy, writ long ago. What I quoted you is a glimmer of the surface.”
“So what does it say?” Nora asked.
“It says many things, of course. Debate has raged through the eons about its true meaning. But some things are certain. It speaks of a new coming order, a realignment in the place of all. There is mention of a human child, taken in the dream and ripped to reality. She is the shimmering star of hope. It is told that before her eighteenth namesday she will return to her world of birth, and with it she shall set the fallen free. The order of rule will be realigned in those who set the prisons, but she shall come both as one of them, yet set apart. It speaks of you, Nora.”
“Wha…?” She shook her head. “I don’t understand. You…are the fallen?”
“Yes.”
“The fallen what?” She asked the question, but in the back of her mind, a growing suspicion was telling her what they were going to say.
“We are the fallen angels, both ancestors and descendants of the first life on earth.”
Fallen angels? She may have been surprised by it, once, but not after everything she’d seen in the past few hours.
“Our realm is that of the dream, and that is the world we are properly set to inhabit. It is where we stayed, before we found ourselves held captive.”
“And who exactly imprisoned you?” Nora asked. Again, she had a feeling she knew the answer…
“Our brothers, the Vassiz.”
“Brothers?” That, Nora was not expecting. “What do you mean, brothers?”
“The Vassiz are descendants of our kind. They are a hybrid, a mixture of human and angel flesh. The powers they hold come directly from our lineage. The story of their ancestry is not well known, but I will share it with you. It is a story of love, and sadness.
“The first came to be when one of our kind forsook everything given to us in the dream world to come into the world of humans. He spied a mortal woman and fell strongly in love with her. He came to her dreams, spending time with her there, at first, but on waking she would not remember anything that happened while she slept. Every night, he would see her in the dream, and every night she would meet him as if someone new. This lasted for many years, until the woman he loved became burdened with age and frailty. But he did not want to lose her to the embrace of death, and so – against all advice and rationality – he crossed the prohibited barrier from the dream world to the human world.
“He came into the human world in the flesh. It was there where he met his true love again, and she fell into his arms. They lived happily together, but time was short. He did not want to lose her, and so, desperate to extend her life, granted her the gift of angelic blood. He did this by extracting his own blood and feeding it to her. He thought it would keep her alive and with him forever.
“He was wrong. The transformation gripped her very soul, and she lost everything about her that made her human. She became little more than wild beast. And she thirsted for human blood. When he saw what he had created, it pained him greatly, and he took recluse from his love. He locked her away, barring her from him forever.
“But what he could not predict was the spawn that would come forth from her. For the humans she bit before she was locked away transformed into others much like her. Their numbers grew quickly, but each successive transformation retained less and less angelic blood. The result of which, paradoxically, was that less and less of the beast instincts were activated in them. And so, over time, the creatures that had been let wild in the world of man began to conform to the rules of society. They began to retain more and more of their humanity, and soon – the Vassiz race was born.”
“But… I don’t understand. How did you become captive? Are there more of you anywhere?”
“We are the only ones left. A war broke out between our kind and our brothers. It threatened to shroud the entire world in darkness. It raged for many years, with many casualties on either side. Neither had an advantage, but we were slowly destroying both worlds we lived in – the dream realm and the human world. In the end, to preserve life on this earth, the six of us you see before you today, three male and three female, were set to be imprisoned here, in exchange for an armistice.
“But we were betrayed. After we were placed here, the Vassiz leaders ordered all other angels to be killed. They were overtaken without warning and had no chance.
“It was genocide.”
“The Vassiz did this?” Nora was shocked. “Who commanded it?”
“Those known as the elders today. They rose to power following our imprisonment and have ruled over all other of their kind ever since. They are ruthless. They killed any others – members of their own race – who held memories of our fight. The only Vassiz that were left were young and newly converted. They did not know the secrets behind the elders’ rise to power and could never suspect it.”
Nora was amazed. It was the elders who commanded all the packs after her and the elders who got their power by killing all those around them. No wonder they were the oldest Vassiz left.
An anger at the cruelty of it all started to rise within her.
“What did you mean by what you said earlier? That ‘she shall come as one of them, yet set apart’?”
“Your first feeding. You took Vassiz blood.”
Nora felt a pang of guilt. “How did you know?” she asked softly.
“I can feel your life essence. It is different from the other Vassiz.”
Suddenly, Nora realized that everybody else was staring at her. Hunter, at her side, was looking at her with wide eyes. So were Alexander, and Madison. They had both gotten up to stare right at her.
“What?” she asked, addressing the question to all of them at once.
“Your first feeding,” Hunter began, “you took Vassiz blood?”
How did he know? Nora felt the eyes of everyone on her. All were expecting, and waiting. “Yes,” she admitted.
“Who?” Madison asked in that chiming voice. Her tone was much kinder than Nora remembered from before.
“Korver’s wife,” Nora said slowly, staring past everyone to the far wall. “His pack attacked us. It is where Alexander took the arrow for me. She was trying to kill me, I’m sure, and her sons and husband went after Alexander. I got her down, and…” she gulped, “… and fed.”
She felt Hunter squeeze her tighter. “Welcome to our race,” he said softly.
While all that was happening, the…angels…had risen again, and were all looking to her as if expecting a command.
“How did you know?” she asked Hunter again.
He smiled and nodded toward the front-most angel. The one who was speaking to Nora.
“You were talking…to all of us?” Nora asked, surprised. The man smiled at her.
“Yes. You have us at your service, Nora. Only speak and we will do as you command.”
“I have a question. What was that thing that fought me and kept you here?”
“It is a creature from nightmare, ripped straight out of the dream realm. Some would call it a daemon.”
“But…how is that possible? How can something be ripped out of the dream realm?”
“It can only happen here, in this place. This chamber is the one point on the entire earth that the dream world and the human world…touch. There exists the slightest bit of overlap, and the result is that it becomes possible to go across worlds fully, in the flesh. The darkness you see to your side? It is the barrier between the two.”
Suddenly everything started to make sense. Nora remembered being thrown across that barrier, remembered the feeling of losing herself all-too-clearly. So there was a reason why the sensation was the same as coming back to her body from entering the dream world. Or rather, not entering, but projecting herself there.
“It is the same barrier that the first angel used to come into the world of humans to spawn the Vassiz. But going across it is not something one should do twice. It is dangerous to cross like that. You risk losing yourself in the void that exists between the worlds. And in the dream world, imaginations and nightmares run wild. The creature was one such; it was a guardian, put together from the greatest of nightmares that hunt the dream. Created to keep us locked here forever.”
“But not anymore,” Nora said.
“No. Thanks to you, we are now free.”
“So…now what happens?”
“That is your choice, Nora.”
She thought for a moment. She looked at Hunter, standing beside her again, looking at her reverently. She saw Madison and Alexander, holding each other in their arms, watching her with respect. She felt the gaze of the angels directed only at her.
They were all waiting for her to decide what to do.
“We will fight against the elders,” she said coldly. “And make them pay for what they did to you. For the travesties they committed against their race. For the oppression and fear they spread amongst the Vassiz. For what they did to Alexander and Rafael. For the ruin they brought onto the Vassiz they claim to serve, we will fight, and we will win.”
A cheering erupted from the angels, and it wasn’t just in her head. They moved their lips, and sound came out, but it was unlike any sound she’d heard before. It was pure and clean. And elated. She felt their joy with her decision. She looked to Hunter briefly, and he smiled approvingly.
“Wait,” Nora said, addressing the angel again. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Gabriel.”
So I kinda screwed up the Forsaken Box Set by forgetting to include a pivotal chapter in the second book.
I just fixed it on Amazon, so all future customers will have it. You can just re-download your copy of the box set, or you can read the missing chapter below:
---
Chapter Twenty-Nine of REVELATIONS, Book Two of the Forsaken Saga
~Angels~
When Hunter released her, Nora fell back dreamily. ¬She felt all warm inside, and for the moment, everything was right. She closed her eyes happily as a tingle of shivers ran down her spine. When she opened them again, Hunter was still right there, smiling down at her.
“I was so worried about you,” he said, as he traced a thumb along her cheek. “I didn’t know where you were, or if you were safe, or if I would ever see you again.” The tone of his voice was genuine. His words were genuine. “You cannot imagine how much it pained me to leave you like that.”
“Then why did you?” Nora asked softly.
“I had to,” he told her. “It was the only way to keep you safe. I know you’re stubborn, sometimes – don’t frown at me, you know it too! – and if I had told you the truth, I feared you would want to come with me.”
“Of course I would have come with you!” she exclaimed.
He smiled at her again. “And that’s why it had to be the way it was.”
“And…Madison?”
“She does not hate you. She realized other Vassiz were close behind us the night we first met. That is why she acted toward you…the way she did.”
“To keep me away?”
“To alienate you from her. And when she told me and Alexander what was going on that night, we all agreed that splitting was for the best. To keep you safe.”
“So that means,” Nora began, somewhat hesitantly, “that there’s nothing…going on… between you two?”
Hunter smiled. “No,” he said. “It was all an act.” He chuckled lightly, and Nora sighed. She loved hearing him laugh and missed it when he was gone. “To be honest, I thought my part in it had been so poorly done as to give it all away.”
“So that means the fight I overheard? Between her and Alexander…?”
Hunter shook his head. “Those two lovebirds have been at each other’s side for hundreds of years. Nothing could come between them anymore.” He pushed himself up and offered Nora a hand. “Come. There are some that are eager to meet you.”
Nora took his hand and looked around her for the first time. She was in a fairly spacious room, with no windows and only one grand door leading out. The floor that she had been lying on was hard marble and a spectacular white. So were the walls. If she didn’t know any better, she would have said this was part of the same structure as that great corridor had been. “Who are they?” she asked.
“You’ll see.” Hunter smiled. He slipped his hand around the small of her back and led her forward. Nora took her first step – and nearly fell. She hadn’t realized it before, but her legs felt weak, as if they hadn’t been used for a very long time. But, strangely, based on what she could remember of her condition after the fight with that…creature…she should have been teetering on the edge of death right now. Except she wasn’t. Her body felt weak, yes, but nothing in particular stood out. She was in no pain.
“How long was I out?” she asked Hunter.
“A few hours, at most.”
“What?” Surprise painted her tone. How could she have healed so quickly in only a few hours? She remembered hitting her head and brought a hand up to where she thought she’d made impact. To her surprise, there was nothing there. No scab, or gash, or bump. But she distinctively remembered finding blood there before. “How?”
“Those people that want to meet you?” he replied, a twinkle in his eye, “one of them was able to heal you after the battle.”
“Heal me?”
Hunter smiled at her again. “You’ll see. Come.”
She put a hand around his back and walked beside him to the door. Twisting the handle, he pushed it open, and Nora gasped.
They were looking right at the grand chamber where she had encountered that vile creature. The same shining pool spread across the floor, but its waters looked calmer, somehow. Slightly more relaxed. She looked up at the ceiling and was relieved to find that the crystals there were blue. It meant this was the chamber on the first side of that curtain of black.
Quickly, her eyes followed the hall down to where she remembered flying through a tear in that terrible darkness. She saw the black shadow was still there, but the gnash the creature had cut was gone, replaced by solid black. For some reason, seeing that was reassuring to her.
Then she noticed a bundle of shapes in a far corner. She saw Alexander and Madison first, staring deeply into each other’s eyes. Behind them…a group of people she did not immediately recognize. They were tall and muscular – taller than anybody here by a head. Their bodies were lean and perfectly proportioned. They were also completely unclothed.
A light seemed to radiate from the group, encircling all their bodies like a halo. Nora realized it was much the same as the light that graced this hall, the one that came from everywhere and nowhere all at once.
There were three men and three women in the group, and they were all facing away from her. But as the door Hunter had pushed swung completely open, all six immediately turned to face her. And she gasped again. The people were the same ones she had seen in the pool earlier. And she had been right in her estimation of their beauty. When their faces were not twisted in pain, they simply had the most beautiful, most perfect proportions she could imagine.
Each of the six people looked slightly different, each in their own way, but each was still perfect and more beautiful than the last. She remembered seeing Madison for the first time and being struck by her beauty. Seeing these six, however, was like holding a glowing star to a flickering candle to compare which was brighter. Nora didn’t even want to think where she stood on that hierarchy.
One of the people – a man – stepped forward.
“Nora Cubus.”
She spun around. The voice had appeared in her head, but it wasn’t her own.
“Do not be alarmed.” The man from across the hall was looking straight at her and smiled with easy eyes. “This is the way in which we speak.”
Nora looked to Hunter, but he was completely unfazed. “Can you hear him?” she whispered in his ear. Hunter shook his head. “If he is speaking to you, you will be the only one to know.”
Nora frowned. “Hello?” she said in her head. There was no reply.
“You need to speak out loud for them to hear you,” Hunter told her, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Oh.” That was…a little discomforting. “Hello?” she said again, raising her voice. Alexander and Madison looked up to her, and both of them smiled. Alexander’s arm – the one that had been burnt so badly – and his shoulder, looked completely healed.
“I am thankful you are feeling better. Were it not for you, we would not be here.”
“Oh. Uh…thank you?” Then she remembered what Hunter said. “Were you the ones who healed me?”
The man smiled at her. “Yes.”
“Thank you,” Nora said, and this time she meant it. “You know who I am – but I do not know you. I have seen your reflections in the pool. Was that…really you?”
“We have been imprisoned there for thousands of years, held captive by the beast who tried to take your life.”
Whoa. Just who were these people? If they had the power to heal her…and the power to communicate like this…who knew what other gifts they shared? Who could possible imprison them?
“But thanks to you, we are now free again. For that, we are forever in your service.” As one, all six of the people dropped down to one knee and bowed their head. Each placed their left first firmly on the ground and two fingers on their forehead. Nora was taken aback by the gesture.
“But I… I didn’t do anything,” she admitted, feeling flustered. “You can stand – you should not do that for me. I couldn’t possibly have…freed you. I wasn’t even the one who defeated the beast that held you captive! That was Hunter, and Madison.” She heard Hunter chuckle lightly under his breath. And the six did not move from their positions. They looked like glowing Greek statues, perfectly sculpted in every way in their stillness.
“The prophecy told of your coming.”
“Prophecy?” She remembered Alexander telling her something about a prophecy the night they first met. That there was a fleeting mention of some vague prophecy somewhere in the Vassiz creed. But she couldn’t possibly believe it could be related to her. “What prophecy?”
“When the darkness comes, and hope is lost, a shimmering star shall be revealed. And she will free the fallen ones, restoring order to the rule of man.”
Nora frowned. That sounded…prophetically epic. And…completely vague. “What does it mean?” she asked. “And how can it possibly have anything to do with me?”
“There is more, of course. A tome dedicated entirely to the prophecy, writ long ago. What I quoted you is a glimmer of the surface.”
“So what does it say?” Nora asked.
“It says many things, of course. Debate has raged through the eons about its true meaning. But some things are certain. It speaks of a new coming order, a realignment in the place of all. There is mention of a human child, taken in the dream and ripped to reality. She is the shimmering star of hope. It is told that before her eighteenth namesday she will return to her world of birth, and with it she shall set the fallen free. The order of rule will be realigned in those who set the prisons, but she shall come both as one of them, yet set apart. It speaks of you, Nora.”
“Wha…?” She shook her head. “I don’t understand. You…are the fallen?”
“Yes.”
“The fallen what?” She asked the question, but in the back of her mind, a growing suspicion was telling her what they were going to say.
“We are the fallen angels, both ancestors and descendants of the first life on earth.”
Fallen angels? She may have been surprised by it, once, but not after everything she’d seen in the past few hours.
“Our realm is that of the dream, and that is the world we are properly set to inhabit. It is where we stayed, before we found ourselves held captive.”
“And who exactly imprisoned you?” Nora asked. Again, she had a feeling she knew the answer…
“Our brothers, the Vassiz.”
“Brothers?” That, Nora was not expecting. “What do you mean, brothers?”
“The Vassiz are descendants of our kind. They are a hybrid, a mixture of human and angel flesh. The powers they hold come directly from our lineage. The story of their ancestry is not well known, but I will share it with you. It is a story of love, and sadness.
“The first came to be when one of our kind forsook everything given to us in the dream world to come into the world of humans. He spied a mortal woman and fell strongly in love with her. He came to her dreams, spending time with her there, at first, but on waking she would not remember anything that happened while she slept. Every night, he would see her in the dream, and every night she would meet him as if someone new. This lasted for many years, until the woman he loved became burdened with age and frailty. But he did not want to lose her to the embrace of death, and so – against all advice and rationality – he crossed the prohibited barrier from the dream world to the human world.
“He came into the human world in the flesh. It was there where he met his true love again, and she fell into his arms. They lived happily together, but time was short. He did not want to lose her, and so, desperate to extend her life, granted her the gift of angelic blood. He did this by extracting his own blood and feeding it to her. He thought it would keep her alive and with him forever.
“He was wrong. The transformation gripped her very soul, and she lost everything about her that made her human. She became little more than wild beast. And she thirsted for human blood. When he saw what he had created, it pained him greatly, and he took recluse from his love. He locked her away, barring her from him forever.
“But what he could not predict was the spawn that would come forth from her. For the humans she bit before she was locked away transformed into others much like her. Their numbers grew quickly, but each successive transformation retained less and less angelic blood. The result of which, paradoxically, was that less and less of the beast instincts were activated in them. And so, over time, the creatures that had been let wild in the world of man began to conform to the rules of society. They began to retain more and more of their humanity, and soon – the Vassiz race was born.”
“But… I don’t understand. How did you become captive? Are there more of you anywhere?”
“We are the only ones left. A war broke out between our kind and our brothers. It threatened to shroud the entire world in darkness. It raged for many years, with many casualties on either side. Neither had an advantage, but we were slowly destroying both worlds we lived in – the dream realm and the human world. In the end, to preserve life on this earth, the six of us you see before you today, three male and three female, were set to be imprisoned here, in exchange for an armistice.
“But we were betrayed. After we were placed here, the Vassiz leaders ordered all other angels to be killed. They were overtaken without warning and had no chance.
“It was genocide.”
“The Vassiz did this?” Nora was shocked. “Who commanded it?”
“Those known as the elders today. They rose to power following our imprisonment and have ruled over all other of their kind ever since. They are ruthless. They killed any others – members of their own race – who held memories of our fight. The only Vassiz that were left were young and newly converted. They did not know the secrets behind the elders’ rise to power and could never suspect it.”
Nora was amazed. It was the elders who commanded all the packs after her and the elders who got their power by killing all those around them. No wonder they were the oldest Vassiz left.
An anger at the cruelty of it all started to rise within her.
“What did you mean by what you said earlier? That ‘she shall come as one of them, yet set apart’?”
“Your first feeding. You took Vassiz blood.”
Nora felt a pang of guilt. “How did you know?” she asked softly.
“I can feel your life essence. It is different from the other Vassiz.”
Suddenly, Nora realized that everybody else was staring at her. Hunter, at her side, was looking at her with wide eyes. So were Alexander, and Madison. They had both gotten up to stare right at her.
“What?” she asked, addressing the question to all of them at once.
“Your first feeding,” Hunter began, “you took Vassiz blood?”
How did he know? Nora felt the eyes of everyone on her. All were expecting, and waiting. “Yes,” she admitted.
“Who?” Madison asked in that chiming voice. Her tone was much kinder than Nora remembered from before.
“Korver’s wife,” Nora said slowly, staring past everyone to the far wall. “His pack attacked us. It is where Alexander took the arrow for me. She was trying to kill me, I’m sure, and her sons and husband went after Alexander. I got her down, and…” she gulped, “… and fed.”
She felt Hunter squeeze her tighter. “Welcome to our race,” he said softly.
While all that was happening, the…angels…had risen again, and were all looking to her as if expecting a command.
“How did you know?” she asked Hunter again.
He smiled and nodded toward the front-most angel. The one who was speaking to Nora.
“You were talking…to all of us?” Nora asked, surprised. The man smiled at her.
“Yes. You have us at your service, Nora. Only speak and we will do as you command.”
“I have a question. What was that thing that fought me and kept you here?”
“It is a creature from nightmare, ripped straight out of the dream realm. Some would call it a daemon.”
“But…how is that possible? How can something be ripped out of the dream realm?”
“It can only happen here, in this place. This chamber is the one point on the entire earth that the dream world and the human world…touch. There exists the slightest bit of overlap, and the result is that it becomes possible to go across worlds fully, in the flesh. The darkness you see to your side? It is the barrier between the two.”
Suddenly everything started to make sense. Nora remembered being thrown across that barrier, remembered the feeling of losing herself all-too-clearly. So there was a reason why the sensation was the same as coming back to her body from entering the dream world. Or rather, not entering, but projecting herself there.
“It is the same barrier that the first angel used to come into the world of humans to spawn the Vassiz. But going across it is not something one should do twice. It is dangerous to cross like that. You risk losing yourself in the void that exists between the worlds. And in the dream world, imaginations and nightmares run wild. The creature was one such; it was a guardian, put together from the greatest of nightmares that hunt the dream. Created to keep us locked here forever.”
“But not anymore,” Nora said.
“No. Thanks to you, we are now free.”
“So…now what happens?”
“That is your choice, Nora.”
She thought for a moment. She looked at Hunter, standing beside her again, looking at her reverently. She saw Madison and Alexander, holding each other in their arms, watching her with respect. She felt the gaze of the angels directed only at her.
They were all waiting for her to decide what to do.
“We will fight against the elders,” she said coldly. “And make them pay for what they did to you. For the travesties they committed against their race. For the oppression and fear they spread amongst the Vassiz. For what they did to Alexander and Rafael. For the ruin they brought onto the Vassiz they claim to serve, we will fight, and we will win.”
A cheering erupted from the angels, and it wasn’t just in her head. They moved their lips, and sound came out, but it was unlike any sound she’d heard before. It was pure and clean. And elated. She felt their joy with her decision. She looked to Hunter briefly, and he smiled approvingly.
“Wait,” Nora said, addressing the angel again. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Gabriel.”
February 27, 2014
Foretold (The Forsaken Saga, #4) is live!
Hey everyone,
So, again, sorry for the delay, but I'm happy to finally announce that Foretold, the fourth book in The Forsaken Saga, is now live!
I already posted the cover here yesterday, but I think it's worth another look.. it's my favorite by far in the whole series.
Cover:
Buy Links:
Barnes and Noble Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
Description:
In the epic fourth book of The Forsaken Saga, Nora comes face to face with the elders for the first time. With Hunter and the angels at her side, she will try to do that which no one has done: destroy the elders, and break their terrible reign of power.
But it will not be easy. The elders have held on to their posts since the first memories of the Vassiz. Will prophecy be enough to guide Nora against them?
If she succeeds, the world as she knows it will change forever. But if she does not, everyone she knows will suffer a terrible fate. She is determined, but there are hidden secrets that may yet prevent her from reaching her goals..
So, again, sorry for the delay, but I'm happy to finally announce that Foretold, the fourth book in The Forsaken Saga, is now live!
I already posted the cover here yesterday, but I think it's worth another look.. it's my favorite by far in the whole series.
Cover:
Buy Links:
Barnes and Noble Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
Description:
In the epic fourth book of The Forsaken Saga, Nora comes face to face with the elders for the first time. With Hunter and the angels at her side, she will try to do that which no one has done: destroy the elders, and break their terrible reign of power.
But it will not be easy. The elders have held on to their posts since the first memories of the Vassiz. Will prophecy be enough to guide Nora against them?
If she succeeds, the world as she knows it will change forever. But if she does not, everyone she knows will suffer a terrible fate. She is determined, but there are hidden secrets that may yet prevent her from reaching her goals..
February 26, 2014
Foretold (The Forsaken Saga, #4) has been... uploaded!
Hey Everyone,
I'm terribly sorry about the delay. I ended up working and re-working the ending until I got it just right. I wasn't anticipating the edits, but I wanted to leave you guys with an end to the book that would do justice to the series.
I know I promised the book almost a week ago. That's what sucks about setting hard deadlines. But I think you'd rather have a good book than one that was rushed.
Anyway, this is it for The Forsaken Saga. Four books, and we're done. I don't have the buy links for you yet.. because I literally just uploaded the books to all the retailers. It should be up on Amazon with 12 hours.. although, maybe sooner. It'll be everywhere within 24 hours.
Now, we just play the waiting game..
Sophia
...
...you didn't think I'd just leave you with that, did you? No! To tide you guys over and build excitement a little bit, here's the cover and the first chapter. Let me know what you think in the comments!
I'm terribly sorry about the delay. I ended up working and re-working the ending until I got it just right. I wasn't anticipating the edits, but I wanted to leave you guys with an end to the book that would do justice to the series.
I know I promised the book almost a week ago. That's what sucks about setting hard deadlines. But I think you'd rather have a good book than one that was rushed.
Anyway, this is it for The Forsaken Saga. Four books, and we're done. I don't have the buy links for you yet.. because I literally just uploaded the books to all the retailers. It should be up on Amazon with 12 hours.. although, maybe sooner. It'll be everywhere within 24 hours.
Now, we just play the waiting game..
Sophia
...
...you didn't think I'd just leave you with that, did you? No! To tide you guys over and build excitement a little bit, here's the cover and the first chapter. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Chapter One
~A Bitter Mood~
A dry wind blew sand across the plain. Nora shielded her eyes to avoid getting stung. That only helped a little. The thin cloth handkerchief that hung around her neck was not much protection against the gusts, no matter what the locals said. Still, it allowed her to breathe the arid air a little easier.
It was not until she got to Egypt that she realized just how pure the air back home had been. After her transformation, and the sensory magnifications that came with it, she should have been more attuned to it. For some reason, she had never really noticed.
Maybe it was just because of her transformation, but once she stepped off the plane onto the small, hidden airfield Jacob had somehow gotten access to the assault on her senses began. The air here scratched her throat and dried her skin. Within minutes of exposure, she felt more uncomfortable than she ever had in her life. It was the dry climate that did it, coupled with the monstrous heat. As a Vassiz, she would have thought herself less susceptible to such irritations, but apparently, that wasn’t the case.
At least she wasn’t alone. All the others with her had the same reaction. Alexander and Madison, Hunter and Jacob, they all complained of the same ailments. The dry air was just not meant for Vassiz.
Yet they’d been here since stepping foot on the parched land nearly three weeks ago. Here, in Egypt, where Rafael had told them the repository of torrial might be. Where the angels later confirmed it was. But, since the last meeting in the dream realm between Alexander, Madison, Rafael, and the angels, the angels had cut off all communication. Something had happened between them and Rafael that time. Because of it, the angels were of no help. Only once they found the repository would the angels deign to meet with them again. It was a frustrating predicament for Nora.
Searching for the repository, with absolutely no hints to its whereabouts, was becoming a fool’s errand. It could be anywhere in this blasted country. Despite looking nonstop, day and night, for the better part of three weeks, she and her companions were no closer to discovering it than they were the first day.
Which was perhaps why she felt so much on edge, now. Nora picked her way across the sand dunes, angling toward the makeshift tent she now lived in. A lack of progress toward finding the repository, coupled with a dwindling hope that it would even be possible to find it put her in a sour mood. At least the sun’s rays had abated slightly since their peak a few hours ago.
She was not looking forward to returning to the tent. It was no larger than her room at home had been once. She wouldn’t have minded it so much, were it not for the fact that the entire space was shared by four other people. Four other Vassiz. Alexander, Madison, Hunter, and Jacob.
The only solace she could find in that situation was that Jacob was not always there. After bringing them here, he flew back home so as not to arouse suspicion. But after hearing of their troubles, he returned to lend a hand. He thought he could help, and Madison seemed to trust him. Because of that, they all had to trust him, and so far, he had done nothing to betray that trust. Still, Nora felt a little uneasy discussing things in the open with him listening.
She thought the search would have been simple when she first made the trip. Well, maybe not simple, but entirely less frustrating than it was turning out to be. She had naively imagined they would just show up in Egypt, look around a bit, and find the repository all in the space of a few days. She snorted. It was almost comedic how far that was from the truth.
As each day slowly stretched by, Nora’s feeling of apprehension about the whole endeavor grew stronger and stronger. They could not hide from the elders forever, and staying in one spot made them more vulnerable. If they didn’t find the repository soon, they would be discovered. Staying in place guaranteed that. That was why they had set up the tent miles away from any form of civilization, with nothing but sand stretching in all direction. If they could avoid notice, perhaps they could stretch their luck a little further.
It wouldn’t have been that bad, Nora thought laconically, if they at least knew the repository were close by. As it were, all they had to go on was Rafael’s vague description of where it might be. They were near Cairo and had been searching the swelling city day and night. But as far as they knew, the repository could be in any other of the hundred towns and cities in Egypt.
Nora suppressed an angry growl as a speck of sand flew into her eye. She blinked it out. More often than not, she’d been feeling that way recently. Angry. A lack of tangible progress made it so, worsened only by the fact that she felt like she was hanging everyone out to dry, waiting for the elders to come along and find them.
Hunter followed her because he loved her. And she loved him back, but they had had precious little time to themselves these last three weeks. Alexander and Madison had followed her, because…well, she wasn’t sure why, exactly. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel thankful for the presence, rather, she felt a horrible feeling of responsibility toward them should anything go wrong. Which was somewhat ridiculous, considering how much older and more experienced they were than her. It had been their decision to come along, to tie themselves onto her in her mission against the elders, after all. Still, she was their leader.
That thought sounded ridiculous as well. Although she thought she had started adapting to the role fairly well before they left, her command of it was slowly slipping away. Doubt crept in instead. What kind of leader brought her followers into something so hopeless, so utterly insane? If she had been smart, she should have left everyone in Washington and gone at it alone. At least that way she wouldn’t have to deal with the guilt should anything go wrong.
Only a sense of duty kept her here. She had promised Gabrielle and the angels she would seek revenge against the elders for what they did to them. Destroying the elders was also the only way to ensure she could live the rest of her life in peace. Looking for the repository was an absolute necessity, and she would search every rock, structure, and alley by herself if that’s what it took.
She stopped to shield her face as another gust of wind blew sand into the air. The sooner they found the repository, the sooner she could get out of this God forsaken land.
She noticed the tent in the distance and picked up her pace. Maybe somebody else would have better news than she did.
As she approached, she started to make out the sound of voices inside. Despite her augmented hearing, she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying against the wind. Well, she’d find out soon enough.
Nora quickly covered the remaining distance and opened the tent flap. Three faces turned to her. Hunter smiled when he saw her, although the expression did not reach his eyes. He was just as stressed as she was. Alexander nodded curtly at her. He looked tired and drawn out. Madison was the only one who had been able to remain composed, although the way she had taken to speaking recently, with short, clipped sentences, betrayed the act.
“Any news?” Nora sat down beside Hunter. He moved to put an arm around her, but she shrugged him away. She was in no mood for displays of affection right now.
“None,” Alexander replied sourly. “I only got back a few minutes ago.”
“Nothing for me, either.” Hunter sighed. His eyes tightened. “And I’ve tried everything I can.”
“Well, I have made some progress, although not on the torrial front.” In addition to searching, Madison had been charged with finding out if there was some way to use the herbs they had picked up from the two hunters, Serkhol and Borrak. The mixture had been able to knock a Vassiz out cold, though Madison was trying to figure out if they could use those properties for something else.
Since taking blood, neither Nora nor Hunter could fall asleep, so neither could access the dream realm. It was another roadblock they had to overcome. To make use of the angels’ help, they had to fight the elders in the dream realm. But unless Madison could figure out how to use the herbs to help Nora and Hunter fall asleep, without sapping either of them of their powers, there was no telling when the effects of taking blood would fade away.
Nora’s first feeding had been on Vassiz blood, which was much stronger, and much more potent, than regular human blood. It was expected that it would take much longer for the effects of her feeding to wear off compared to the effects of Hunter’s.
“Well?” Nora asked. “What is it?” In the past week, Madison frequently suggested she’d made some vague sort of progress. Twice she had thought she’d perfected the formula, and twice, upon taking it, Nora discovered she had not. The first time, the thick syrup made all of Nora’s Vassiz senses fade away, but, unlike when Serkhol and Borrak administered it, it did not make her pass out. Instead, a wave of paranoia gripped her, and she spent the better part of two days convinced every shadow moving in the distance was the elders coming for her. The second time, Nora’s senses did not fade away, but she fell instantly into a deep and troubled sleep. Nightmares haunted her mind, more vivid than she could believe, but the dream realm remained inaccessible. At least that time, she had only lost a few hours when she was asleep.
“I think,” Madison said slowly, “I know what went wrong last time.”
“That’s it?” Nora snapped. “That’s all you have for your progress?”
“Do not be so quick to dismiss it,” Madison said, with an icy calm. “Without subjects to test it on, it takes days to figure out even the simplest thing.”
“You’re right,” Nora sighed. “I’m sorry. I know you’ve been working hard.”
“We all have,” Alexander noted.
“I know. It’s just we’ve been here so long, and we haven’t actually accomplished anything…”
“Getting here was an accomplishment by itself,” Madison said.
“I know. But now that we have, I just… I don’t know, I would have thought the search for the repository would have gone smoother, that’s all.”
“Even if we found it earlier, Nora,” Hunter put in gently, “it wouldn’t have mattered before Madison formulated the potion.”
“I know,” Nora sighed. “It just feels like we’re sitting ducks here, waiting for the elders to strike.”
“They’ll have a hard time finding us in this desert,” Alexander said. “We’ve all been careful not to give ourselves away when going to town.”
“But is that enough? What if somebody recognizes one of us?”
“Out here?” Alexander barked a cruel laugh. “That’d be quite a feat. There are Vassiz worldwide, yes, but none that we would know. And besides, the disguises…”
“Right.” The disguises. They weren’t much, but they made quite a difference. Her own hair was now a streaked blonde, rather than the dark brown she was used to. Every time she caught a look at herself in a mirror, or some other reflective surface, she was startled at how much different she looked. Couple that with the physical changes that came about following her transformation and almost nobody else would pin her as the same girl the elders had shown to the other Vassiz. “So, Madison, what went wrong?”
“Too strong a mixture,” Madison answered. “Contaminated with impure ingredients. Only the purest will work, I fear.”
“Will you be able to find them here?”
“I think I’ll be able to,” she said coyly. “And once I do, the formula will be ready.”
“That’s good,” Nora said. “If it works, that means we’ll be ready as soon as we find the repository.”
“It’ll work,” Madison confirmed. “I’m sure of it.”
“Good. Now then, has anyone heard from Jacob?” He had left that morning without a word, presumably to go look for the repository on his own.
“No.” Hunter shook his head. Alexander made the same gesture. Even Madison shrugged.
Nora dug her nails into the palm of her hand. She was always the last one to get back to the tent after a day of searching. That was what they agreed upon, because if the elders found the tent it afforded her the best chance of getting away. But now that Jacob had arrived, he had taken to staying out all day and nearly all night before returning to report his progress. None of them knew exactly where he went, either. It put Nora on edge.
“Well, nothing we can do but wait, then,” Nora said, in a tight voice. They had all agreed to come back to the tent twice in every twenty-four hour period, once at dawn and once at dusk, to report whatever progress they’d made. And none of them ventured out again before seeing the others.
“He’ll be here,” Madison promised. “Soon.”
February 9, 2014
Fourth (and final) book coming February 21st!
Hey Everyone,
Just a quick update: the fourth book of The Forsaken Saga is set to be out February 21st. That's just under two weeks away!
The fourth book concludes the entire story. So this is the last one, guys! I have a super awesome cover for this one - it's my personal favorite.
I can't wait to get your feedback =)
Just a quick update: the fourth book of The Forsaken Saga is set to be out February 21st. That's just under two weeks away!
The fourth book concludes the entire story. So this is the last one, guys! I have a super awesome cover for this one - it's my personal favorite.
I can't wait to get your feedback =)
February 1, 2014
Relentless (The Forsaken Saga, #3) is now live!
Hey everyone,
Just as I said... February 1st marks the release day of Relentless, the third book in The Forsaken Saga!
Anyway, here's all the info you need, plus the amazing third cover, featuring one of my favorite characters in the series..
Cover:
Buy Links:
Barnes and Noble Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Amazon.ca
Description:
There is a prophecy that speaks of a time of great turmoil, a time when the rule of power will be overturned by the hammer of fate. That time has come, and one girl stands in the middle of it all...
Nora has been reunited with Hunter, and together they must face the elders. But this time, they have the angels on their side. It is a precious advantage, but only if used properly...
She has learned of the prophecy of her fate, and learned of her destiny. But while others are certain, she is less sure. And as she moves forward, she learns that absolutely nothing can ever be guaranteed.
Just as I said... February 1st marks the release day of Relentless, the third book in The Forsaken Saga!
Anyway, here's all the info you need, plus the amazing third cover, featuring one of my favorite characters in the series..
Cover:
Buy Links:
Barnes and Noble Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Amazon.ca
Description:
There is a prophecy that speaks of a time of great turmoil, a time when the rule of power will be overturned by the hammer of fate. That time has come, and one girl stands in the middle of it all...
Nora has been reunited with Hunter, and together they must face the elders. But this time, they have the angels on their side. It is a precious advantage, but only if used properly...
She has learned of the prophecy of her fate, and learned of her destiny. But while others are certain, she is less sure. And as she moves forward, she learns that absolutely nothing can ever be guaranteed.
January 27, 2014
Book 3 in The Forsaken Saga is coming in a few days!
Just to let everyone know.. book 3 is on track to be released February 1st. So just a few more days, now, for you to get to continue Nora and Hunter's story!
January 15, 2014
Revelations (The Forsaken Saga, #2) is available now!
Hey guys,
As promised, Revelations (The Forsaken Saga, #2) is now out! Here's the beautiful cover and all the buy links:
Cover:
Buy Links:
Description:
Keep an eye on this blog for the cover reveal of the third book of the Forsaken Saga! It'll be out on February 1st, 2014!
As promised, Revelations (The Forsaken Saga, #2) is now out! Here's the beautiful cover and all the buy links:
Cover:
Buy Links:
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Barnes and Noble
Kobo.com
Description:
Nora has survived the dark caves, and emerged with Hunter by her side. But her escape is quickly tainted as she realizes the biggest danger still lies ahead...
She has been transformed, and powers she has never known begin to manifest themselves within her body. As she struggles to gain control, how long will she be able to restrain herself - and her new bloodlust - from taking over?
As she journeys onward, doubts begin to creep into her mind. Doubts about leaving home, about the decisions she's made. But with the Vassiz still behind her, there is no turning back, now.
And she has questions that need to be answered. Just who are the elders, and why have they taken such a keen interest in her? As she starts the unravel the cloak that shrouds their existence, she begins to suspect that she may have stumbled into something much larger than herself... and starts to understand her destiny for the first time.
Keep an eye on this blog for the cover reveal of the third book of the Forsaken Saga! It'll be out on February 1st, 2014!
January 1, 2014
Revelations, the second book in the Forsaken Saga, is coming January 15th, 2014
Hey everyone,
Just a quick announcement. The second book in the Forsaken Saga, titled Revelations is coming out January 15th, 2014! So all of those who are waiting... you only have two weeks to go!
Here's the beautiful cover image, made by my friend Laura Sava:
You can sign for my new releases email newsletter here:
http://eepurl.com/KKvqb
And get an email the day the book comes out, so you don't miss it!
Just a quick announcement. The second book in the Forsaken Saga, titled Revelations is coming out January 15th, 2014! So all of those who are waiting... you only have two weeks to go!
Here's the beautiful cover image, made by my friend Laura Sava:
You can sign for my new releases email newsletter here:
http://eepurl.com/KKvqb
And get an email the day the book comes out, so you don't miss it!
December 14, 2013
Forsaken
Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to clear up some confusion about Forsaken:
1. Forsaken is my newest release, but it's not a new story. It's a re-imagining of Shattered, from the Dream Realms Trilogy.
2. The difference? Lots of added content, complete editing and proofreading, and overall just a much better reading experience.
3. The reason? I felt like I didn't do the Dream Realms trilogy justice when I first published it in 2011. There were mistakes all over. My writing was overly descriptive and flowery in many parts. If you're checking this blog, I'm betting you've managed to overlook those flaws, but I wanted to share the Dream Realms world with a new group of readers... maybe those who were too young to check it out when it came out in 2011.
So, there you have it. I took two years off from writing to finish school, but now I'm back. We'll see how things go.. I think I may have missed the boat a little bit, but I have way more stories to tell. And, I think I'm a much better writer now.
We'll see how it goes. It's almost the new year, now, and a perfect time for beginnings.
This is my beginning.
I just wanted to clear up some confusion about Forsaken:
1. Forsaken is my newest release, but it's not a new story. It's a re-imagining of Shattered, from the Dream Realms Trilogy.
2. The difference? Lots of added content, complete editing and proofreading, and overall just a much better reading experience.
3. The reason? I felt like I didn't do the Dream Realms trilogy justice when I first published it in 2011. There were mistakes all over. My writing was overly descriptive and flowery in many parts. If you're checking this blog, I'm betting you've managed to overlook those flaws, but I wanted to share the Dream Realms world with a new group of readers... maybe those who were too young to check it out when it came out in 2011.
So, there you have it. I took two years off from writing to finish school, but now I'm back. We'll see how things go.. I think I may have missed the boat a little bit, but I have way more stories to tell. And, I think I'm a much better writer now.
We'll see how it goes. It's almost the new year, now, and a perfect time for beginnings.
This is my beginning.
December 7, 2013
New books
Hey,
Don't know if anybody's still out there.. it has been two years since I last posted on here... but here's a quick teaser for an upcoming book of mine:
Don't know if anybody's still out there.. it has been two years since I last posted on here... but here's a quick teaser for an upcoming book of mine:
