Dominion (53 page)
Authors: John Connolly
“Now that's just silly,” she said. “But you know what, Mr. Kerr, my sweetest love? If you think you can handle it, I heard about this little placeâa real fixer-upper I'm told, though the last tenants pretty much wrecked it. Still, I think you'll see the potential of it regardless. I certainly do.”
Her bronze hair was like a halo around her earnest face, and Paul found he wanted to run somewhere quiet with her, somewhere private and distant, and lose himself in her in every way. God, he realized, he'd go anywhere she suggested, anywhere at all.
“We can make it right again,' she continued. “I think you'll love it, Paul, this place of ours. I know I will. I mean, I already do; I guess I always did. It's called Earth.”
Paul slipped his arms around her waist and held her tightly to himself.
“Yes,” he said. “Let's go there.”
Reluctantly she pulled away from him so she could look into his face.
“There's just one more thing,” she said.
“And what's that?”
Syl smiled, but it was a shy, bashful thing, and she bit her lip before replying. She took his hand and placed it on her belly.
“I think this time there'll be three of us . . .”
While two names appear on the jackets and covers of the Chronicles of the Invaders series, the books are ultimately the work of a stalwart behind-the-scenes team.
At Headline, we're particularly grateful to editor Emily Griffin, who has the patience of a saint; to Mari Evans; to Jane Morpeth, who cheered for Syl from the start; to assistant Sara Adams; to copyeditor Kay Gale; to proofreader Jane Selley; to publicist Elizabeth Masters; and then to designer and artist Siobhan Hooper, who made everything look so darned good.
At Emily Bestler Books/Atria, we'd like to warmly thank editor Emily Bestler, and associate editor Megan Reid; publisher Judith Curr; associate publisher Suzanne Donahue; editorial assistant Lara Jones; production editor Martha Schwartz; production manager Fausto Bozza; publicist David Brown and his assistant Emily Bamford; Hillary Tisman in marketing; managing editor Kimberly Goldstein, assistant managing editor Alyson D'Amato, and managing editorial assistant Leora Bernstein; and, naturally, the splendid creative team, including art director Albert Tang and designers Leydiana Rodriguez and Tony Mauro.
In addition, the Headline/Hachette team in Irelandâespecially Breda Purdue, Jim Binchy, Ruth Shern, and Siobhan Tierneyâhave been immensely supportive throughout. We owe you a drink, or four!
As ever, thanks must go to our agent Darley Anderson and everyone at Darley Anderson Literary Agency; to Madeira James, who gives us a presence on the Internet thingy; and, of course, to Ellen Clair Lamb, who cheered, aided, and abetted us from the very beginning.
Thanks are also due to our families and friends, and apologies if you sometimes wondered where we'd got to.
Finally, to those wonderful booksellers who believed in what we were doing and gave our series a little push, we are eternally grateful.
JOHN CONNOLLY
is the author of the Charlie Parker series of mystery novels, the supernatural collection
Nocturnes
, the Samuel Johnson trilogy, and (with Jennifer Ridyard) The Chronicles of the Invaders series for younger readers. He lives in Dublin, Ireland. For more information, see his website at
JohnConnollyBooks.com
, or follow him on Twitter
@JConnollyBooks
.
JENNIFER RIDYARD
was born in England and grew up in South Africa, where she worked as a journalist for many years.
Conquest
and
Empire
are the first two novels in The Chronicles of the Invaders series with her partner, John Connolly, whom she lives with in Dublin. Find Jennifer on Twitter
@JennieRidyard
. For more about this series, visit
ChroniclesOfTheInvaders.com
.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
authors.simonandschuster.com/John-Connolly
authors.simonandschuster.com/Jennifer-Ridyard
ALSO BY JOHN CONNOLLY
THE CHARLIE PARKER STORIES
Every Dead Thing
Dark Hollow
The Killing Kind
The White Road
The Reflecting Eye
(Novella in the
Nocturnes
Collection)
The Black Angel
The Unquiet
The Reapers
The Lovers
The Gates
The Whisperers
The Burning Soul
The Wrath of Angels
The Wolf in Winter
A Song of Shadows
OTHER WORKS
Bad Men
Nocturnes
The Book of Lost Things
Night Music: Nocturnes 2
THE SAMUEL JOHNSON STORIES (for young adults)
The Gates
The Infernals
The Creeps
THE CHRONICLES OF THE INVADERS (with Jennifer Ridyard)
Conquest
Empire
NONFICTION (as editor)
Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels
(with Declan Burke)
We hope you enjoyed reading this Emily Bestler Books/Atria eBook.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Bad Dog Books Limited and Jennifer Ridyard
Jacket Design by Tony Mauro
John Connolly Photograph by Iván Giménez Costa
Jennifer Ridyard Photograph by Cameron Ridyard
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