Blurb:
Teague Willam was sent
on a mission from the future. He must go back in time to save his family. But
in doing so, he might unleash the greatest evil the world has ever seen. The
fine balance between the natural and spiritual is in his hands as he tries to
not only save the life of a dear loved one, but also keep a rogue demon from
taking control of the land of the liv-ing and the dead.
One wrong move and the
demons win.
Author:
J.F. Jenkins lives in
Minneapolis Minnesota with her husband, son, and two cats. She graduated from
Bethel University in 2006 with a degree in Media Communication with minors in
both writing and film
Excerpt:
Chapter One
Teague Willam watched
Persephone the First. She huddled in the corner of the small room that made up
her "cell", curled into a ball as she hugged herself. With one hand,
she held her head, as if in some kind of pain. Tears streamed down her face.
"Keep it
together. You have to keep it together," she whispered to herself.
He wanted to offer her
words of comfort, but in the dream world, all he could do was observe and take
note of everything happening around him. As a Fate, Teague often dreamed about
different events in vivid detail. Most of them were of the past — that was his
specialty. Each Fate had a time frame they saw the most. His father Anj saw the
present most often but was known to have visions of all three time frames:
past, present, and future. However, Teague's abilities were nowhere near as
strong , even though his visions were much more detailed than anything his
father experienced. The few times they'd talked about it, Anj described his
dreams as being short and to the point but not necessarily specific.
While Teague may have
been dreaming about the past, it was also his present — confusing, but that was
how time travel worked. He'd been sent to the past to right a terrible wrong.
Whatever was happening to Persephone was technically occurring in the time
frame his body was presently in. Because he was from the future, the incident
represented his past. He wasn't about to complain. The more information he had,
the better. He needed all the help he could get to complete his quest.
Teague couldn't
provide Persephone with any direct comfort, but maybe in some small way, she
could sense his presence. Magic had a way of making itself known even if no one
could see it at work. If anything, it made him feel better inside.
"You're not
alone," Teague said. "I won't leave you if I don't have to." He
sat next to her, wanting to touch her but unable to do so.
When Persephone lifted
her gaze, she did so and looked directly at him. Though, the young woman he saw
wasn't Persephone but Cheyenne Loveless, the teenage girl Persephone had
possessed. The whole possession thing confused Teague. There were a lot of
pieces he was still trying to put together. From what he did understand,
Cheyenne was the chosen vessel for Persephone to be reincarnated into and a
long lost descendant of the original deity. Persephone's true love, Hades the
First, was reincarnated into a teenage boy named Denver Collins. Together, they
would fulfill an ancient prophecy that was supposed to bring back power to the
Divine Council, the ancient political circle of the gods and goddesses who
controlled the laws of all magical beings.
Poor Cheyenne. There
was so much sadness in her gaze, and confusion. Teague felt sorry for her. She
didn't always make the best decisions, but she also wasn't always in control of
her life. The part of him that wanted to hate her for all of the pain she'd
caused his family, got shot down by the compassion he held for her in his
heart. Seeing her sad, fear-filled eyes, he realized she was nothing more than
a girl and no different than himself. Because even though he was a teenager,
there were days when he felt like a small child — and the world was a big place
for him to get lost in. She was the same, a pawn being used for a greater
scheme that she didn't understand. The world of magic was foreign to her — a
fact he hadn't realized until that moment.
Footsteps could be
heard from outside of the room. Cheyenne was still in control of her body, and
she gazed at the door with a whimper. "He's coming. Stay strong."
There was a jingling
of keys in a lock. The door opened and in walked the dark angel Lucien. Teague
had seen him a few times before in other dreams. He could never forget what the
creature looked like. On first appearances, he was just like any other normal
young man. Lucien could have passed for being around twenty years old and was
the typical tall, dark, and handsome thing that supposedly made girls swoon.
On his back was a pair
of large, blood-red, wings speckled with flecks of silver that brought out his
cold, lifeless, steel-gray eyes. First encounters with him suggested he was
innocent enough, that he meant well. But the demon had a manipulative tongue
and an evil heart. Nothing he said could be trusted. He didn't flat-out lie,
but in every deal he proposed and in every truth he spoke, there was also a
hidden loophole present, and he had no qualms with using it for his advantage.
Or at least that was what Teague had observed over his many visions of the
monster.
