The Inner Circle, Book 3 of the Glass Wall ( A YA Urban Fantasy Romance ) (29 page)

I just stayed where I was, pressing down hard
on Rafael’s chest.

“No,” Rafael disagreed weakly. “You’re
stronger than this, Jareth.”

For a moment, Jareth hesitated.

And for a moment, I really believed he was
going to listen.

He bowed his head.

But when he lifted it again, my jaw dropped
open in disbelief.

Scales covered his skin, dark, glistening
scales, rippling down his arm and spreading up to his neck and
face. And as we watched, his eyes morphed into reptilian slits.

“Don’t do this,” Rafael whispered. “I
need
your help.”

Jareth tilted his head, and a dangerous glint
flickered in his eye. “As your Fate-Tracking Counterpart?” he
asked.

I could feel Rafael’s muscles tighten under
my hand. I knew he wanted to sit up, but he was too weak. Through
white lips, he replied, “Much more than that. Are you not my
brother also?”

Dark emotions played over Jareth’s face.

He was clearly struggling.

And then in an impossible, deep voice, a
voice as deep as any Mesmer I’d ever heard, he said the last words
I ever could imagine. “I have a whole world of brothers. I don’t
need you. I am one with the Brotherhood.”

The Mesmers surrounding us all began to
cackle, and then the windows of the coffee shop shattered, along
with every lamp, glass, and plate in the place.

Before Jareth, a dark hole began to form in
the center of the room. And for a brief instant, I could see down
into it, into the darkness beyond, into what looked like the gates
of hell.

But there was something coming up, reaching
out to emerge from the black gaping maw that was clearly the portal
to the second dimension.

It was grotesque. Huge. With multiple
wriggling tentacles.

It was the mutant tulpa.

The End

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Like many of us on this planet, Carmen
Caine/Madison Adler is from another world. She spends every moment
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THE GLASS WALL SERIES

The Glass Wall

What if humans were more powerful than they thought? What if an alien race had a reason to keep humanity entrenched in fear? And what if ancient beings that we've met before were still trying to protect us?

And just what if the fate of Earth depended upon an average 17-year-old girl with a few secrets of her own?

Would she discover that the power of love was truly the strongest of all?

Prequel - the short story "Behind the Mirror"

Rafael Channing is a Fate Tracker, protecting his world and Earth from disaster, but what should he do when disaster appears in the form of love?

Book One - The Glass Wall

17-year-old Sydney's only interest in life is flying under the radar.

But destiny has other plans when the tall, handsome, formal, and unusual Rafael Channing moves into the neighborhood. Athletic and with killer looks, he wears black eyeliner like a magician and seems to be watching Sydney's every move.

What starts out as a light-hearted investigation with her gadget-happy foster father takes a serious turn when she discovers that Rafael isn't human. Add Jareth, the country's latest rock sensation, into the mix and Sydney is swept into a mysterious world of Tulpas, the Fae, and the Brotherhood of the Snake.

Sydney doesn't know she's a Blue Thread of Fate. She doesn't know the fate of humanity depends on her choice of whom to trust--Jareth or Rafael. And she certainly doesn't know that she's taken the first step on the unexpected path of love.

Book Two of the Glass Wall- The Brotherhood of the Snake

The excitement and mystery continues as the romance begins. After breaking the Glass Wall, Sydney finds herself on the run with Rafael. And as her feelings for him awaken, danger arrives in the form of Mesmers, agents of evil sent by the Brotherhood of the Snake.

But when Jareth struts back onto the scene, it isn't long before Sydney finds herself immersed in sinister secrets, and the subsequent whirlwind of events leaves her wondering just who is right and who is wrong?

Book Three of the Glass Wall - The Inner Circle

As the predictions from the Hall of Mirrors come true, Sydney seizes control of her destiny and makes a choice between Rafael and Jareth. A choice of true love.

And as she evades Mesmers, Tulpas, and the Fae's Inner Circle, she discovers the power of human thought.

But then one of the three makes their Blue-Threaded decision, the decision of fate.

Is it the right one?

Book Four of the Glass Wall - The Egg (2014)

A death. A beginning. And the final Blue-Threaded decisions are made.

A NEW ADULT PARANORMAL SERIES

The first book of other-worldly creatures: “Monster” (2014)

THE HIGHLAND HEATHER AND HEARTS SCOTTISH ROMANCE SERIES

The Kindling Heart

(Scotland, 1478) - Ruan MacLeod was through with women. They were nothing but trouble. Leaving the rash life of his youth behind, he returned to Skye, seeking peace. He never meant to split the clan or start a war with the MacDonald of Duntulm. He certainly never foresaw an arranged marriage to the most scandalous woman in Scotland. Even though she was twice his age, the size of a horse and mother to more than one illegitimate child, he agreed to secure his sister's freedom.

However, even that plan goes drastically awry. On his wedding day, he finds himself faced instead with an enticing, green-eyed lass named Bree. A walking disaster, his bride immediately turns his world into chaos and threatens to melt his resolve never to love again.

Betrayed by her own mother, Bree flees to Skye, thinking only to reunite with her long, lost father. Instead, she finds herself wed to Ruan MacLeod as a replacement bride. When she is forced to remain in the castle, she is soon caught between brothers and the mentally ill wife of the laird.

Shy, yet strong, Bree embarks on a journey of independence and learns along the way that all men are not necessarily evil. In fact, one particularly brooding, yet gentle-hearted warrior is worthy of love, and she soon loses her heart forever.

Award-Winning Novel: The Bedeviled Heart

"The Bedeviled Heart" is the ROMANCE SILVER MEDAL WINNER of the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards!

(Scotland, 1479) Cameron Malcolm Stewart, Earl of Lennox, had made his peace with destiny. It was not his fate to love as other men. Each of his politically arranged marriages had ended in disaster. And though he had never touched a one of his wives, he had come to believe that sharing his name would consign a woman to an early grave. So, on the sunny spring day Cameron encounters a delightfully devious, bright-eyed lass selling charmed stones in one of Stirling's alehouses, he tosses her a shilling, thinking only to steal a kiss. But it is a kiss that will change his life forever.

To care for her ailing father, the precocious Kate Ferguson has resorted to swindling the drunkards of Stirling. But a chance meeting with a handsome and seductively mysterious outlaw named Cameron ends with a kiss that changes the course of her destiny.

But as dark times descend upon Scotland, Kate is inadvertently caught in a deadly web of court intrigue spun by the royal favorite, Thomas Cochrane. And as King James III falls prey to his fear of the Black Arts, accusations of witchcraft and treachery abound. The fate of Scotland hangs in the balance, and while Cameron vows to defy destiny itself to hold Kate forever in his arms, he must unravel the plots of nobles and commoners alike to protect the country that he loves.

The Daring Heart

(Scotland, 1482) - To the scandalous Lord Julian Gray, marriage is a malady and nothing more. How can a man even court a lass longer than a fortnight when there are so many pouting lips to kiss?

Roaming the courts of Europe, Julian appears to spend his time drinking wine, wagering gold, and dandling willing lasses upon his knee. But no one knows the man behind the mask. No one knows that he is Le Marin--Europe's most daring and brazen spy.

But everything changes the night he finds a dagger pressed against his ribs and an alluring hazel-eyed minx in his bed.

Born into the Vindictam, the renowned Venetian family of assassins, Liselle dreams of the day she will be allowed to practice the family craft. And when she is sent to the Scottish court, her dream is finally realized. But is it an honor ... or a curse?

As the threat of civil war looms over Scotland, and the king's own brother conspires with the English to put himself on the Scottish throne, Julian can't help but be distracted by the mysterious Venetian beauty and her many secrets.

But will it be his undoing?