Resistance (47 page)

His fingers nudge my chin up and his lips meet mine
in a sweet, slow kiss. “I love you, too,” he says. “Now, time to
sleep. Are you comfortable?” I shake my head and hear the rumble of
a chuckle in his chest. I sigh heavily and pull back from him
mumbling, “But I don’t want to move.”

He laughs outright then. “Well maybe I can help.” He
shucks his jeans off and then runs his hand from my knee up to my
hip and asks, “Do you want to lose these?”

“Well
I
can take care of that,” I say. I
shimmy my shorts off, tossing them over the side of the bed and
then burrowing back into his arms in just his tee shirt. He pulls
the quilt over us and turns the lamp off on the nightstand next to
him. I let myself relax in his arms, determined that tomorrow will
have to be better than today was.

I wake slowly, surprised to see bright morning
sunlight streaming through the cracks in the blinds. I roll onto my
back and look over to find I am alone in my bed. This is a new
development; Flint never gets up before me. Puzzled, I sit up and
stretch a little. Looking down, I see I am wearing Flint’s shirt
and blush when I remember last night. I feel rested and ready to
take control of things again after all the trauma of yesterday,
though. I’m excited to be going to the supply house to find the
journals and figure out what we need to do next. Leaving the city
is always dangerous, but right now it might be just as dangerous to
sit here and wait around for the Fae to show up at our borders.

I’m wondering where Flint wandered off to when I hear
voices from the hallway outside my room. Aodhan sounds frazzled and
scared when he says, “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what
happened.”

Then I hear Flint say, "Breathe, kiddo, you're not in
trouble. Go get your dad, I'll tell Fi." I hear the slight edge of
worry in his voice but he seems to have fooled my cousin, because I
hear footfalls pound down the hallway. A moment later my door opens
and Flint steps inside looking tense.

He sees me sitting up in bed and his face goes
deliberately blank. “Oh, you’re up,” he says, trying to project
calm, but I see the fear in his eyes and it makes my blood go
cold.

All of my instincts are screaming now. Fear settles
in my chest and I don’t want to know, but I force myself to say,
“Tell me.”

He looks like he’d rather do anything else in the
world. “You’re just waking up, Fi,” he says, stalling for time.

I shake my head at him and feel sick inside. “I know
something’s going on, Flint.”

“Yeah.” He clears his throat. “You tend to know when
something’s going on a lot.” He crosses to the bed and climbs on,
sits next to me and I notice he’s flexing his fingers with
trembling hands. I have never seen him so shaken up and it drives
terror straight into my heart.

Panic tries to take over my insides and I force
myself to try and be calm. I hook Flint’s gaze with mine. “You’re
stalling, and it isn’t going to make whatever happened go away.” I
need him to tell me because the possibilities of what
could
have
happened are racing through my head at warp speed, and I’m
desperately trying to tell myself that none of them can be the
reality.

I watch as he catches his bottom lip between his
teeth. His eyes plead with me. “You’re not going to like it.”

I grab one of his hands for both of our sakes. I
can’t stand to watch them shake and do nothing any longer. "I know,
but you
still
have to tell me."

He grips my hand tightly and looks down at our
intertwined fingers; shaking his head. “It’s...” He stops and looks
up again, meeting my eyes. “Don’t freak out, okay? Everything will
be fine.”

I take a deep breath and remind myself to be strong
and not panic, even though I feel like I’m going to throw up at any
moment. “I’ll try. Please, just tell me.”

He clears his throat. “It’s about Eir and Lu.” There
is a look of panic in his eyes that makes me cold all the way in my
bones.

"Oh, no —
please
, no.” I feel all the blood
leave my head and then dizziness rushes in and Flint’s hand closes
on my shoulder; steadying me. “Flint, what happened to them?" There
is a hollowness inside of me echoing
They’re dead
over and
over as I wait for Flint to speak. Tears build instantly in my
chest at the thought, but I can’t seem to stop it.

He glances down at our hands again for a moment and
pulls in a big breath. “I don’t know. They —” He closes his eyes
for a second and shakes his head before finally meeting my eyes.
“Aodhan and I looked everywhere, Fi. Eir and Lu are gone.”

Glossary of Gaelic Terms

Go dté tú slán- May you go safely (Irish
Gaelic)

mo gradh- My love (Scots Gaelic)

Acknowledgements

We would both like to thank:

Michele Kephart for the amazing artwork and
helping to bring Fi and Flint to life for us.

KJ Partridge; chief beta reader
extraordinaire, third part of our shared brain and overall guru of
all things awesome. KJ—this book would never have been finished if
not for your constant feedback, support, love and guidance!! Thank
you so much!

Jamie Turner Norton, Rebecca McGowan, our
other awesome beta readers!

Stacy Sanford (Girl with the Red Pen) — our
totally kickass editor—thank you for loving Flint almost as much as
we do.

C.L. Foster for making our book look so
pretty with her ah-mazing formatting skills.

Starla Huchton for being our magical unicorn
cover designer. We adore you.

Melissa would like to thank:

My husband, Keith Simmons. You really are
the sweetest man a girl could ever ask for and I consider myself so
very lucky to have you. Thank you for putting up with my neglectful
ways when I retreat into my head and get sucked into my imaginary
worlds. You never stop supporting me and my dreams and I am so
grateful for you. I love you, babe!

Tyffani Clark Kemp, you are so supportive
and a constant cheerleader in my every endeavor! I love you to
bits!

Lenore Southworth, my high school English
teacher. She was the first person who ever said I could write a
book. Thank you, Mrs. Southworth for giving me the push to follow
my dream.

And of course, Allana Kephart— there is no
one else on this planet I would want to do this with. You really
are in my head, finishing my sentences and getting me like no one
else does. Thank you for being a kindred spirit and genuinely
awesome person. I love you to the moon and back, my friend.

Allana would like to thank:

First, I want to thank Carrie Corbetta, for
supporting the very first excuse of a manuscript I ever wrote about
a haunted house that will probably never see the light of day. Even
though it will most likely sit under my mattress for the rest of my
life, and I’m sure it was the worst piece of literature you ever
read, you still smiled and gave me enough hope to chase this dream,
and for that I am truly grateful.

I know we thanked her in our joint
acknowledgements but I want to say a big thank you to both my mom,
Michele Kephart, and my dad, Butch Kephart, for unknowingly keeping
me sane throughout this process.

HUGE thank you to Donna Richmond, who
praised my work when I was feeling super low about it and kept me
motivated without even having to be asked. Thank you for all the
laughs, Donna!

Courtney Robinson and Megan Bruenger deserve
huge thanks, too, for continuously keeping my creative juices
flowing when we discuss fanfics and TV shows. It might sound silly,
but our stories are some of my favorites. I love you girls!

Finally I want to thank Melissa Simmons, the
lady who just made me cry a few paragraphs back. Working with you
has been a complete blessing and I am so glad you came into my
life. I know for a fact I could not have done this with anyone but
you. I am so glad you share in my insanity. I love you more than
words could describe, girly, and I hope we can keep doing this for
many years to come.

RUINED

A Novella in The Dolan Prophecies Series

Patrick and Maeve Dolan left the safety of
their New York human settlement on a sultry summer night and never
returned. Ambushed by the Winter Court guards during their search
for information on how to free humanity from faery rule, they are
now ensnared in the Winter King Landric
’
s
web, and he has some questions of his own.

The Winter King is curious about the way the
Dolans run their city. In a surprising turn of events,
he
’
s determined to learn all about their
16-year-old son, Eirnin. Landric separates the couple, threatens
and tortures to the best of his ability, but the Dolans
won
’
t give up the information
he
’
s after.

Murphy, one of King Landric
’
s guards has been a ward of the Winter Court for as
long as he can remember. Trained from childhood to be as quiet and
obedient as possible, he
’
s always been the
perfect servant. At least, until Princess Lumi strolled into his
life and made him question everything he believes in.

When the princess vanishes without a trace
in the middle of the night, Landric is determined
Patrick
’
s people had something to do with
it. Without the only connection to kindness and humanity they had,
Murphy and Patrick both find themselves falling into very different
kinds of insanity.

Will Murphy follow his heart just this once,
choose his own side and find Lumi? Will Patrick
’
s hope dwindle before he can escape and save his
family? Or will their unyielding resistance be the death of them
all?

About the Authors

Allana Kephart has been making things up and
bending people to her will from a very young age.  She loves
animals and reading and spends a large amount of time thinking up
ways to torment her characters. She loves coffee, too many TV shows
to name, food and the color purple. She is the co-author of The
Dolan Prophecies Series, Gumshoes & Grifters Series &
Fractured Fairytale Standalone series with Melissa Simmons and has
published two short stories on her own in the Best Thing I Never
Had & Happily (N)ever After anthologies.

Melissa Simmons loves music, reading, her cat
and her husband-not necessarily in that order, of course. She is
obsessed with all things Disney, Supernatural (tv show) and comic
book tv shows/ movies and doesn’t care who knows it. Her favorite
superhero is Batman and she will defend his awesomeness to her last
breath. When she isn’t writing and plotting, she loves to bake and
spends her days helping other authors promote their work. She is
the co-author of The Dolan Prophecies Series, Gumshoes &
Grifters Series & Fractured Fairytale Standalone series with
Allana Kephart and has published a short story on her own in the
Best Thing I Never Had anthology. She resides in upstate NY with
her husband and their adorable cat.

Social Media Links-

Allana Kephart’s
Goodreads-https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7376577.Allana_Kephart

Melissa Simmons’ Goodreads-
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1639094.Melissa_Simmons

Facebook-
https://www.facebook.com/MelandLanaWrite

Twitter-
https://twitter.com/MelandLanaWrite

Pinterest-
http://www.pinterest.com/melandlanawrite/