Forsaken (37 page)

Ulrich
had called Vicki in and asked her to take me to the rest of the
Sanctuary pack. A few minutes later I was in a different wing of the
house, one that seemed to have been completely devoted to our pack's
use.

Jasmin
and Ben were sleeping peacefully next to each other in separate beds
in one room. Donovan had judged Jasmin recovered enough now that she
could be pulled out of the cage. Knowing that she was going to fully
recover took a weight off my chest, but Donovan said that Ben still
hadn't shown any signs of waking up.

Rachel
and Dom both looked surprisingly fragile, but I didn't wake them up,
I just pulled each of their doors quietly shut and went to check on
the rest of the pack. Isaac was worse off than Jasmin, but apparently
Shawn's pack had a more than adequate supply of drugs to keep him
from losing control of his beast. Donovan had set up an IV drip, and
Jess was sitting at his bedside. She looked up as I came into the
room.

"I
know you from somewhere, don't I?"

"I'm
Adri. We talked for a few minutes after Oblivion took away your
memories."

"That's
right, and then you left. Are you back now?"

That
was the question. I'd just committed to help Alec, but that didn't
necessarily mean he wanted me back in his life.

"I
think so, but it's not entirely my decision."

Jess
nodded absently; her attention was already back on Isaac. As I turned
to go, she spoke again.

"I
don't know what to do with Isaac. Things were going pretty well and
then he blew up when I wanted to go on a trip with just my dad.
Everything has been strained since he got back from New York the
first time, he almost died last night, and I still don't know how I
feel about him."

I
wasn't qualified to give
myself
advice on matters of the
heart. I was the last person who should be trying to help Jess sort
out the mess that was her love life, but I found myself trying
regardless.

"Don't
rush things, Jess. What you and Isaac had before took years to
develop. You just need to give yourself time. Eventually your heart
will tell you what you want."

"How
can I not love him? Everyone keeps telling me how much we were in
love before. The only thing that's changed is me, so that means it's
my fault if we can't get back together now."

I
shook my head. "No, Jess. You're different, yes, but Isaac is
different too. I can't explain it, not really, but he changed when
you...went away. I don't think it's all just you. When he was in
New York, he was pretty conflicted about Alec. That's different from
the Isaac I remember from before."

I
backed out of the room while she was still digesting that. Kristin
gave me a nod as I walked by, but she obviously didn't want to
talk. Donovan found me again a few minutes later.

"Miss
Paige, we have a room prepared for you if you're tired."

"Thanks,
Donovan. I think I'll take you up on that offer. I haven't slept in
something like thirty hours."

I
awoke a few hours later feeling a little better, but I still wasn't
back to normal. There were six texts and a voicemail from my mom, but
before I could decide what to tell her, Shawn knocked on my door.

"Hi,
Adri. Can I come in for a second?"

"Sure,
Shawn. What's up?"

He
shut the door and turned on the white noise generator that I hadn't
thought to activate before I'd gone to bed.

"You
should know that I lied back there. My power didn't tell me that we
can win against the Coun'hij and whatever else is going to jump in to
try and keep them in power. The rest of it was true, but not that."

"So
we're going to lose?"

"Would
it make a difference if I told you that we were?"

"No,
not for me. Not for Alec either, but I think it would for your dad."

Shawn
nodded. "That's why I lied. My dad might suspect, but he won't
know. You don't live in a family with so many ties to the mafia
without becoming a good liar."

I
took a breath and then nodded. "Okay. Thanks for telling me."

Shawn
shook his head. "I'm not saying that we're going to lose, Adri.
I'm saying that I don't know. I've never seen anything like it
before. All of those forces arranged against each other and the
decision balances on the edge of a knife. It should be impossible,
but it's not. That's why I had to lie to my dad. I'm going to do
whatever I can to make Alec's vision come to pass. Bringing my dad in
on Alec's side is the first step."

It
all made sense except for one thing.

"Why
are you doing this, Shawn? What's your angle?"

He
looked at me for several seconds before shrugging. "I can't ever
seem to lie to you, Adri. Maybe it's because there isn't any
challenge in it. I could tell you that I just want to try and avoid
the devastation that will result if Alec loses, but that wouldn't be
the truth, at least not all of it. I'm helping because it's a form of
penance."

"What
did you do?"

"Nothing.
It's not what I've done; it's what I'm going to do."

Shawn
left before I could ask him another question, but his words stayed
with me. I was still considering them when Alec found me.

"I
was hoping to be able to talk to you alone, Adri."

"Me
too."

Alec
walked over and sat down on the bed next to me. Someone had found him
a change of clothes, and he'd taken a few minutes to get cleaned up.
As I looked at him, I realized that his arms weren't injured.

"How
are you healed already?"

"Honestly?
I'm not sure. All I can figure is that maybe my ability was active
from the start of the fight and it was stopping Agony's power from
working. That or maybe all of that power that I sucked down at the
end of the fight somehow reversed the effects. Even normal injuries
shouldn't be healed already."

I
nodded. It was another mystery that we might never have an answer
for, but that was okay. The important thing was that Alec was going
to be all right.

"I
was worried that you wouldn't make it."

Alec's
smile was full of wonder. "I went into the fight expecting to
die. Kristin saw it in a vision, not just once, but twice. I knew I
was going to die, but I decided I would rather die than take another
step down the path that had made you leave me."

My face heated up. "I'm sorry, Alec. I've had a lot of time
to think about what I did and it was a mistake."

He
tilted his head slightly to the side and looked at me. "Was it a
mistake? A month ago I would have said yes, but I'm not sure now."

"I
should have stayed and tried to help you see what I was worried about
rather than just leaving."

Alec
shook his head. "I'm not sure I would have listened, not really.
Look, the important thing is that you're back."

"Am
I, Alec? I know I promised to help you, but that doesn't mean you
have to deal with me being underfoot all of the time. I didn't...I
mean, I don't want to force myself back into your life."

I
couldn't bring myself to meet his eyes. I was too afraid of what I'd
see in them, and after everything, I guess I was still a coward. Alec
reached over to me and pulled my chin up so that I was forced to look
at him.

"Adriana
Paige, I want you in my life. I never wanted you to leave. I may be
able to see now why you leaving was a good thing, but I never stopped
loving you. Please stay with me."

It
was exactly what I'd wanted to hear, but I was so choked up that I
couldn't respond. Alec refused to let me look away though.

"I'm
serious, Adri. I've gone back through that fight trying to figure out
what changed, why Kristin's dream didn't come true, and all I can
come up with is that it was you. That fight was just like every other
significant moment of my life. It's always been you who has given me
the strength to do the right thing, the strength to win when
everything else in the world seemed arrayed against me. I'd love you
for that if for no other reason, but that isn't why I love you. I
love you simply for who you are. You make me a better person and I'm
going to do everything I can to be worthy of you."

His
voice had lost its normal smoothness as he fought back tears, but he
pressed on.

"You're
the most amazing person I know. You don't wear your strength on your
sleeves but it's there, it's who you are. You're strong, and you're
beautiful. You're kind, and you're good. You're breathtaking in ways
I haven't even begun to unravel yet."

I
finally managed a nod. "I love you, Alec. I was prepared to beg
you to let me come back, but you don't even hate me for all of the
pain I've put you through."

Alec
pulled me into a kiss and for a few minutes nothing else mattered.

—The Story Continues in
Riven
—

Publisher's Note:

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Author's Note:

If you made it this far, then I very much hope that you enjoyed Forsaken!
When I sat down to write The Greater Darkness and took my first steps into the world
that Alec and Adri would come to inhabit I had some vague ideas that there were
places I could go that didn't involve just Geoffrey. A couple of years after that,
I sat down to write Broken and while those vague ideas hadn't become very
substantial still, my plans for the Reflections world quickly expanded into
something much more ambitious.

I'm thrilled with all of the six Reflections books so far. Some for one
reason, some for another, but Forsaken represents a real shift for me because it's
the first time that I've started really laying some of the groundwork for the more
ambitious stuff that I ultimately hope to accomplish with the series. Hopefully
before you picked up Forsaken you read Broken, Torn, Splintered, Intrusion, and
Trapped. If that's not the case, please consider going back and picking them up,
as well as The Greater Darkness by Eldon Murphy. There is a lot of backstory and
other bits and pieces in those stories that will become more important as the
series continues.

Scent of Tears ought to be on that list as well now that I think about it. It's
just a short story, but in many ways it's where everything started for Shawn, and
he's going to continue to be more and more important as time goes on.

Finally, you'll be happy to know that at the time I'm writing
this (December 2012) that I've already started working on the next book in the
Reflections series. I've codenamed this one 'TWB,' It's currently about 10% of the way
done and I'm hoping for an April or May 2013 release. TWB is another really
exciting project for me because I'm going to use it to set things up for the
next several books.

Acknowledgments:

All of the usual suspects need thanked and as always I'm grateful for their
help and support. There a few individuals who need special mention though.

Deciding that I was going to try and get Forsaken, Trapped, Brittle Bonds,
and The Greater Darkness published by Christmas 2012 meant that I had to bring in
some extra help on the production side of things. Ashley Case pitched in with
editing and turned Forsaken around much faster than I'd hoped. Amy Jirsa-Smith
did stellar work on follow-up edits and Katie Jane did a great job on the cover
for Forsaken.

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

Lastly, I want to express a big thank you to all of the fans out there who
help spread the word on a daily basis. Thank you! I'll do everything I can to keep
this journey exciting.

About the Author:

Dean Murray is a prolific author with more than 20 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
.

Adri is the happiest she's ever been, but a noose is slowly tightening around
the entire pack. Alec's victory in Chicago put the shape shifter ruling body on notice
that he was going to do everything he could to bring them down, but she knows that
right now he needs time to secure allies, time that they are almost certainly not
going to have.

Alec's power has grown to a level Adri never would have believed possible just
a few months ago, but the Coun'hij has the perfect tool for killing him and destroying
every structure in Sanctuary. All indications are that Puppeteer is stalking them
with an army of bestial creatures who are immune to Alec's special ability.

Alec has taken his first step towards reestablishing the monarchy, with him as
the king, and now that Adri is back in his life he seems to know who he wants to be
his queen, if they manage to survive. Unfortunately Adri never realized becoming
royalty was part of the bargain when they got back together.