Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 1, After the Fall (35 page)

BOOK: Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 1, After the Fall
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My mouth dropped open in admiration of her skill at slamming the old folks in the room.  I could see they weren't unaffected by Shayla's barbs.  But she was right about one thing; whatever bad blood or memories they had between them could be discussed later.

"So, good news, Shayla," I said, "Maléna lost the challenge."

"Don't be so sure about that," said Shayla, her words striking fear into my heart.  "Her little games with you and your partner did a nice job of creating a distraction, keeping all of you busy long enough not to notice several creatures sneaking into your realm from the Underworld
and
the Overworld."

"What are you saying?" demanded Red.

"I don't like the sound of this," said Niles.

Jared remained silent, watching each of the room's occupants carefully, especially the silent angel who wouldn't stop staring at me.

My eyes darted all over the place, my brain working like some kind of super computer trying to put all the pieces together.

Tim flew over to my shoulder and whispered in my ear.  "Remember that secret I had for you.  Get ready for the big reveal."

His words send shivers of apprehension down my arms and legs.  Goosebumps broke out everywhere as Shayla's words came out and sank into my brain.

"I am saying that the Gray has fallen.  Or a piece of it has.  The demons are coming; some of them are already here.  Overworlders are also arriving, many of whom are standing just outside your compound now.  You must prepare for a fight and find a way to seal the tear in the veil before it is too late and all humanity is lost."

"There cannot even
be
a tear in the veil so how do you expect us to seal it?!" yelled Red.

"You can deny the truth all you want.  That does not make the truth cease to exist for the rest of the world," she said in a mocking tone.  "We suggest you open the portals and put the guardians in place once again.  It is the only way to lessen the stress you have placed on the Gray and allow it to heal."

"We cannot," said Céline.  "The decision was made over a thousand years ago.  The dragons were defeated.  You and the other dragon slayer made sure of that."

"Does someone want to fill me in here?  Because I'm totally in the weeds," I said.

Shayla turned to me.  "The passageways to the Otherworlds used to lie behind portals that were guarded by dragon guardians.  One dragon pair for each portal, one to the Underworld and one to the Overworld.  When the fae decided to seal the portals for good, the only way to do so was to banish the guardians to the Otherworlds.  Garrett and I were sent to dispatch the guardians and see to the sealing of the portals, which we did."

"And it cannot be undone," said Red.  "The guardians cannot be resurrected.  There are no more guardians, and the portals would be merely swinging doors without without them."

"How many dragons did you kill?" I asked, impressed all over again with my ancestor's ass-kicking abilities.  I wondered if she'd have any spare time when all this craziness was over to give me some tips.

"I killed one, and Garrett killed the other."

I looked around at all the adults in the room, but none of them had the lightbulb on over their heads like I did.  I felt supremely stupid thinking I'd misunderstood, but I couldn't help but speak up.

"Listen, I'm no math wiz or anything ... but if you only killed two dragons, what's the problem, exactly?"

Red dropped his head and shook it, making my face go hot with embarrassment.

"Never mind," I said, turning to go sit down.

"She is right," said Ben, grabbing onto my hand and pulling me over to his side.

I looked over at the angel for some reason and caught him frowning before he cleared his expression again.  I wondered if I imagined it, and if I hadn't, why he was doing that when Ben touched me.

"You only killed the guardians.  You did not kill their mates," Ben explained.

"But their mates went with them into the Otherworlds," said Shayla.  She didn't sound like she was arguing - more like probing for more information.

"Yes, but that isn't resurrection to bring a creature back from the Otherworlds who entered without death."

I frowned at Ben. 
How does he know all this shit about being dead and stuff? 
I pulled my hand away gently, not sure I wanted to be snuggling up to a zombie expert.

"He could be right," said Dardennes.  "I had not considered that aspect."

Shayla turned to Garrett.  "What do you think, vampire?  Can we bring the mates of the guardians to the portals and operate them once again?"

I noticed Niles and Céline cringing at the vampire title.  Dardennes and Jared seemed unaffected.  Ben took a step closer to me, but I moved away, trying not to seem obvious about it.  I had nothing to fear from Garrett.  I was certain of it.  Ben, I wasn't so sure of.  He had too many secrets and too much power.  The fact that he had the guardians trapped in a tapestry in his bedroom was kind of freaking me out right now.

"I believe it is possible," answered Garrett.  "What do we know about them?  Has anyone here gotten any information from any creatures coming over about the status of the guardians?"  His gaze moved over to the tapestry behind him.  "Surely someone has learned something of value."

The rest of the people in the room looked at me.

"Yeah, okay," I admitted, wishing I'd known more about this stuff when I was wasted on the absinthe so I could have asked the dragons better questions.  "So I talked to the dragons.  And they said the time is nigh.  That the veil is falling and we need them."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

 

A BANGING CAME AT THE door as soon as the last word left my mouth.  Ivar's head came in through the entrance.

"I am sorry to interrupt your meeting.  But there appears to be a situation outside the compound, Anton."

"What is the problem, Ivar?"

"The green elves report several orcs and vampires at entrances to the compound.  They have taken some casualties already."

My heart drummed hard in my chest, and I got an instant stress headache.

Shayla's hand moved to her dragon fang weapon, pulling it out of its sheath.  "Come with me, Beau.  Let's go see what we can do to help the green elves."

The mystery angel shifted his gaze away from me and followed Shayla to the door, his wings fluttering a little and then coming back in tight to his back.  No way could he fit through the door with them open even a little.

"What do you recommend we do?" asked Dardennes, speaking to Shayla's back.  It was seriously freaky to hear him asking for guidance and sounding a little lost.  It scared me probably more than anything I'd seen all week, and I'd had a pretty shitty week.

She stopped at the doorway, now both her fang and her sword drawn.  "Get your people together.  Make the decision you must about the portals.  Work with your witches and wrathes to get that veil fixed.  And ready yourselves for the journey."

"What journey?" I asked, my mouth working ahead of my brain.  I felt like the world was dropping out from beneath my feet when she answered.

"Your journey to the Otherworlds, Jayne.  You don't think those dragons are just going to come when you call them, do you?"  She winked at me and gave me a cocky smile.  "See you on the other side."

The angel named Beau locked eyes with me one more time before he turned and disappeared out the door behind her.

Cliffhangers

Do they make you crazy?

 

If you are not a fan of cliffhanger endings (I can't seem to help myself), you can go to my website
www.ElleCasey.com
and read the first chapter of the next book in this series, on the page titled "
Sneak Peeks
".  If the second and/or third books of the series have already been published, you can go to
Amazon.com
and click on the "Look Inside" feature of those books and read the first chapter or more for free.  You can even download the sample chapters to your Kindle for free.

 

About the Author

 

Elle Casey is an American writer who lives in Southern France with her husband, three kids, Hercules the wonder poodle and Monie the Bouvier des Flandres who will someday be bigger than everyone in the family.  In Elle's spare time she writes women's fiction and young adult novels (you can find her Women's Fiction work under the pen name
Kat Lee
.)

 

A personal note from Elle ...

 

If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving positive feedback on Amazon.com or any book blogs you participate in.  More positive feedback means I can spend more time writing!  Oh, and I
love
interacting with my readers, so if you feel like shooting the breeze or talking about books, please visit me.  You can find me at ...

 

www.ElleCasey.com

www.Facebook.com/ellecaseytheauthor

www.Facebook.com/ellecaseyauthor

www.Twitter.com/ellecasey

www.Shelfari.com/ellecasey

Acknowledgments

 

None of my books makes it to my readers without a lot of support.  First, of course, to my readers: I give thanks to you because you are the reason I write!  Every day I search my inbox, Facebook, and Amazon pages for your comments.  They inspire me to keep going through it all.  Thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to share your kind words and thoughts with me!

 

To my friends in France and elsewhere, thank you for your support and for all the fun you share with me when I'm not banging away like a possessed madwoman at the keyboard.  Super hugs in no particular order to my France-friends, the Wild-Teim family, the Beplates, the Munnés, the Robinsons, the Wurths, the Buissons, and the Bayles.  You make living in Southern France an absolute dream.

 

Always to my husband and kids.  Even when we are separated by thousands of miles (ahem, baby boy), it is still all of you who lift me up, the wind beneath my wings.

 

On the technical side of things, thank you to Claudia at Phatpuppyart for my cover.  Thanks to Amazon for giving me the platform to publish my work.  To my betas, Theresa V, Amy J, Margaret R, Craig C, and Patricia M ... thank you so, so much!!!!  You all add to my final product and I couldn't be more grateful.  And to all the websites that work with me to remove pirated copies of my work from the Internet,  know that without your support, I would stop writing entirely.  Every time I find someone stealing my work, it takes a little piece of me away, so thank you for all you (and others) do to help eradicate this problem of Internet piracy.

Other Books by Elle Casey

 

Apocalypsis: Book 1, Kahayatle

Apocalypsis: Book 2, Warpaint

Apocalypsis: Book 3, Exodus

*Apocalypsis: Book 4, Haven

 

War of the Fae: Book One, The Changelings

War of the Fae: Book Two, Call to Arms

War of the Fae: Book Three, Darkness & Light

War of the Fae: Book Four, New World Order

 

My Vampire Summer

*My Vampire Fall

*My Vampire Winter

*My Vampire Spring

 

Wrecked

*Reckless

 

*Coming in 2012

BOOK: Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 1, After the Fall
9.01Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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