Riven (27 page)

"Your oaths
to me are at the point of expiring. What are your plans?"

Grayson didn't say
anything, instead looking at Wyatt like the younger man was in
charge.

"I'm not
sure. I...I need some time to process Carson's death, so I'll be
leaving for a while, but I think that maybe it's almost time for you
to meet someone."

"Who?"

"I can't tell
you, not really. All I can say is that he's the one who started all
of this and that I'm finally starting to understand why Carson was so
adamant that the two of you need to meet."

I could tell that
Alec wasn't satisfied with the answer, but he also didn't seem
willing to push Wyatt right now, not when it meant risking alienating
Grayson.

"The two of
you will both be leaving then?"

This time it was Grayson who nodded.
"The three of us left together, it is my duty to finish the
journey with Wyatt. Carson would have done the same had he any
choice."

I suddenly felt as
though I'd been slapped as I realized that Rachel's cryptic warning
about 'the three' was the second time I'd heard that reference. I
grabbed Alec before he could respond to Grayson.

"Rachel's
warning. The last bit about the three, that wasn't talking about
Jasmin, Jess and Ash, it was talking about Carson, Wyatt and Grayson.
They need to go their separate ways, two of them because they have a
choice, the third because he no longer has any choices."

Alec considered my
words for a moment and then nodded. "Rachel left a recording
warning us of the attack last night. I've spent hours trying to
figure out how she knew, but I'm sure that she wasn't working with
Puppeteer and the rest. All I can assume is that she's got a
precognitive feeding her hints about the future. Possibly Adri's
priest. I think we should follow her advice in this instance.
Grayson, I'd like you to swear fealty for another two months and
accompany Tasha. I promised to keep her safe and you represent the
best odds of making that happen."

Wyatt considered
the request for nearly a minute before nodding. "I won't need
your help where I'm going, Grayson. You can stay if you'd like."

The rest of the
day was more of the same as Alec carefully split his people up into
small teams that were to be scattered about the country.

Jasmin was taking
Ben to look for someone who could cure him. Dominic had tried and
while his breathing and pulse had strengthened slightly, he hadn't
woken up.

For reasons I
don't think he even understood, Alec teamed Isaac up with Kristin and
Ash. James and Dominic were temporarily going to take care of
Addison, Andrew, and Alec's mom, while Donovan and Mallory would be
coming with us.

Dozens of other
people filtered through the RV, some I recognized and some who were
too new for me to have learned their names yet, but mostly I just
felt the holes left by those who'd fallen in the fight to defend the
manor.

Donovan, Mallory,
Alec and I stood and watched the last vehicle drive away as the sun
started dipping down towards the horizon. Grayson and Tasha were the
last to leave, mostly because Tasha had fought her assignment.

As their car
disappeared onto the interstate Mallory sighed. "Poor Grayson."

Alec chuckled.
"Tasha is a handful, but she's not
that
bad."

"I
wasn't thinking of Tasha. That man bears a terrible burden and I
shudder to think what will be demanded of him before all is said and
done."

Alec's
levity disappeared instantly. "What do you mean?"

"No,
Alec. I've said too much already. I make it a policy to never discuss
certain of the things I see, not even with you."

I
could see Alec debating whether or not to press her, but Dominic had
spent some time healing the worst of Mallory's scars and regaining a
measure of her health had made her even more determined than ever.

"Fine,
the next time you see Grayson discuss it with him. I'd like to know
what you're talking about so I don't add to his burden needlessly.
For now, I suppose I should get used to the unexpected. Between
Jasmin manifesting a hybrid form and Dominic becoming a healer, I
feel like we've used up our store of miracles for the foreseeable
future. Let's get inside and back on the road. I'll drive so that
Donovan can continue to work on spinning the disaster back at the
estate."

Donovan
smiled. He looked younger than he'd been even just a few days ago.
"I'm happy to report that I have the work there well in hand. I
must say, Master Alec, that pressing for the construction of that
nuclear power plant just outside of town was a stroke of genius. I
think we'll safely be able to blame everything on an accident there.
We already have several teams there doing damage control with the
police and fire department."

Alec
smiled. "Thank goodness for miracles small and large."

Once
we were back on the road with Alec driving and me in the passenger
seat I broached the last thing that had been bothering me since
shortly after we'd pulled over at the rest stop.

"About
those changes, Alec. I don't think we've seen the last of them, but I
also don't think we've properly recognized some of the ones that have
already happened."

"What
do you mean?"

"I
don't think that Rachel is being tipped off by a precognitive, I
think
Rachel
is the precognitive. I think she can see the future and I think
that
is what is driving her crazy."

—The Story
Continues
—

Publisher's Note:

We hope you've enjoyed this installment of the Reflections Universe.
It's becoming apparent that Dean Murray is writing something bigger than
just a paranormal romance or an urban fantasy series. The Reflections
Universe is something that Dean has taken to calling Epic Paranormal
Romance, which we think is a pretty good description for what he's
trying to do.

It's an ambitious, complex undertaking, but so far it's been
incredibly rewarding for his readers. As always,
the
Reflections Reading Order Diagram
is
a great resource for keeping track of how the various books in the
series fit together, but we wanted to take a moment to encourage you
to go read
The Greater Darkness
and
A Darkness Mirrored
(both
by Dean writing as Eldon Murphy) before you go on to read about Jasmin and Ben
in
Driven
.

With the release of Driven, Dean has brought the Sanctuary
pack together with his Eldon Murphy characters and the results
are spectacular. You're not going to want to miss out on the full
impact of Driven by skipping over the Eldon Murphy books.

Author's Note:

It's always a little hard to know what exactly to say once I get to this
point in the production process, but as always, I really hope that you enjoyed
Riven. 2013 should be a banner production year. Riven was mostly written during
December of 2012, but it was finished in 2013, and since then I've also
finished a rough draft of the 4th Guadel Chronicles book and I'm currently
about two thirds of the way through another book focusing on Geoffrey from
The Greater Darkness.

I hope you'll continue to come along for the ride as Alec, Adri, Va'del
and Jain's stories each start their next chapter, and I hope that you'll help
spread the word about my books so that others who haven't found them yet can
enjoy them as well.

Lastly, if you haven't signed up for my mailing list please consider
going to my blog (
deanwrites.com
) and doing so. It's the best way
to stay abreast of any new releases.

Acknowledgments:

All of the usual suspects need thanked, but I definitely need to single
out my dedicated core of beta readers. Mom and Dad, Shalese, Matthew, Mark,
Mimi and Kim have faithfully read almost everything I've written and provided
feedback along the way. These books would be worse without their efforts.
Thank you all!

My editors, RJ Locksley and Amy Jirsa-Smith did an exemplary job on
Riven and I'm grateful that they continue to do business with me. Any errors
in Riven are almost certainly because this (sometimes) stubborn writer
refused to heed one or both of their suggestions regarding a proposed
fix.

I owe a big thanks to Obsidian Dawn for brushes used in creating the
cover for Riven. You can find Obsidian Dawn
at www.obsidiandawn.com.

Finally, I'm grateful to my immediate family, Katie and my daughters,
for their support. Katie is a real trooper with her editing and cover help
and I'm profoundly thankful that I managed to turn her into a fan so many
years ago.

About the Author:

Dean Murray is a prolific author with 23 titles across multiple pen names and more than 300,000 copies of his work currently in circulation.

Dean started reading seriously in the second grade due to a competition and has spent most of the subsequent three decades lost in other people's worlds.

Things worsened, or improved depending on your point of view, when he first started experimenting with writing while finishing up his accounting degree. These days Dean has a wonderful wife and two lovely daughters to keep him rather more grounded, but the idea of bringing others along with him as he meets interesting new people in universes nobody else has ever seen tends to drag him back to his computer on a fairly regular basis.

Keep up to speed on Dean's latest
projects at
deanwrites.com
. If you
want to interact with readers who love the series as much as
you do, please consider checking out
the
Reflections Facebook page
or
Dean's forum
.

Something powerful is stirring in the darkness. Something so ancient that even
creatures who've been alive for hundreds of years have long since discounted this new
threat as nothing more than myth.

Normal humans will be caught in the crossfire, but then that's always the way of
things. Geoffrey has no memory of his past life or any idea how to survive in the
violent, dangerous world in which he's trapped. Despite his best efforts, he's about to
find himself in the middle of a conflict that threatens to sweep away everything,
and everyone he's been fighting so hard to protect.

The invitation to join the secretive Guadel should have been the fulfillment of dreams
Va'del didn't even realize he had. When his sponsors are killed in an ambush a short time
later, he instead finds his probationary status revoked, and becomes a pawn between
various factions inside the Guadel ruling body.

Jain's never known any life but that of a Guadel in training. She'd thought herself
reconciled to the idea of a loveless marriage for the good of her people, but meeting
Va'del changes everything. Their growing attraction flies against hundreds of years of
precedent, but as wide-spread attacks threaten their world, the Guadel have no choice
but to use even Jain and Va'del in their fight for survival.

The only thing worse than having no family at all, is having a family that is out to hurt you. That would all be bad enough for a normal 17-year-old, but it's even worse for Alec Graves. A shape shifter's pack, his family, is the only thing stopping the other preternatural creatures out there from killing them.

Alec's pack isn't just neglectful, he's pretty sure that his father wants him dead. Alec is about to be sent to the front lines of a war between his people and everything else that goes bump in the night. His only chance of survival is to convince everyone around him that he's the perfect soldier, but there are lines that Alec won't cross, not for any price.

Publisher's Note: Dean Murray's ongoing Reflection Series has been a stunning success with hundreds of thousands of copies in circulation, and a rich, complex world where choices—right or wrong—have real, profound consequences. Unsatisfied with the restrictions imposed on him by writing inside of the conventional series structure, Dean has returned to Sanctuary and the characters so many fans have fallen in love with.

Bound is the first in Dean's new Dark Reflections novels, an alternate timeline set in the same world and featuring many of the same characters, but with a profoundly different backstory.

Dean finally answers many of the questions that his most dedicated readers have been asking themselves for years. What would have happened if Alec's father hadn't been murdered by the Coun'hij, how would Adri's life have changed if her family hadn't been shattered in a horrific accident?

The answers may surprise you, but one thing is for sure; you'll see new sides of familiar faces and when all is said and done, you'll never be able to look at some of them the same.

Meet Charles Tucker, he has spent nearly 30 years living in
denial, trying desperately to hide from his past and the events
that shattered his heart beyond any possibility of healing. He
can't let anyone close, for doing so would open him up to being
hurt again, and there's no way he could survive another wounding.

Meet the Saunders family, new to the neighborhood and
teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Mark, the father, talks
a good story but is that all he is? His plan could hold the key
to reversing his family's financial misfortunes, or it could
wipe out everyone involved.

Meet Chet, a battered old '64 Chevy pickup that was there on
the night Charles' life imploded. For nearly three decades,
he has been locked away in an old barn, safely out of sight
if not completely out of mind. For 29 years Charles has
blamed the old pickup for the destruction of his life,
now he's about to find that the vehicle that destroyed his
life might be the key to his healing and a journey of
unexpected miracles.