It's my honor to present an excerpt of the new adult paranormal romance, FALL - The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book Two by A.K. Morgen, which will release on 10/5/13!
Ayden is an amazing person. Even as she struggles with illness in her own life, she continues to give back to others. Ayden and
Curiosity Quills Press donated 10% of proceeds from FADE to both the
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas and the
March of Dimes for the first 6 months of publication. For FALL, she is holding a contest where you can nominate your favorite charity to benefit from the proceeds. Learn more
here.
Don't forget to scroll down to the bottom to enter the giveaway!
Summary:
How do you save someone who doesn't want to be
saved?
Those called to stand
guard against the end are broken, and Sköll and Hati run free. Now Arionna
Jacobs and Dace Matthews face a threat unlike any before. Ragnarök is coming
and they aren't strong enough to stop it.
Arionna thought she
understood sacrifice, but she never counted on her destiny tearing Dace apart.
Ever since she nearly died, he has been consumed with guilt. Now it threatens
to turn him into the monster he always feared.
It's up to Arionna to
stop him before it's too late, but the path to hell is paved with good
intentions, and Dace is hurtling toward self destruction. This time, Arionna
isn't sure she can save him from himself. Can she convince him to let the past
go, or is her true destiny to sacrifice her heart in exchange for the lives of
the people she loves?
Excerpt:
I stood alone in a shadowy cavern, my legs
trembling.
Ancient torches flickered around me, so brittle they
looked as if a single touch would destroy them. Massive boulders shot upward in
the eerie, inky light, standing like endless mountains barring my way. My gaze
bounced across round and jagged alike, trying to pick out where one ended and
the others began. I couldn’t tell the difference, though.
My attention drifted and skittered around the
cavern, focusing everywhere except on what waited for me beyond the thick
fingers of solid earth standing like the bars of a prison ahead. Soft, ominous
rumbles sounded from that direction, so deep the cavern floor vibrated beneath
my feet.
Run,
Arionna. Run.
I fought to listen to the voice of reason urging
me to flee for my life, but I couldn't seem to keep my legs locked in place. The
compulsion to move, to look, to see,
was too strong.
I took a step forward, then another, slipping
through narrow cracks between one rock and the next. The rough surface scraped
against my arms and tugged at my hair, pulling small strands away from my
scalp. I kept moving though, squeezing between narrow openings until the craggy
ground gave way, ending suddenly at a frothy river.
I glanced across the foamy water.
My lungs stopped functioning.
The endless spread of boulders scattered all
around were tiny pebbles compared to the solitary mass of earth on the far side
of the underground channel. A chain wound around and through the mountainous
rock, so thin it was almost invisible to the eye.
I ran my gaze across the shimmering links,
checking to ensure the magic bond still held firm.
It did.
Air shuddered into my lungs.
Don't be
afraid. Don't be afraid, I
chanted to myself, but when I turned my head, my heart pounded uncomfortably anyway.
I bit my lip to keep from crying out when my gaze
landed on the monstrous black wolf lunging against the tiny chain. Foam ran in
buckets down his chest and into the river around him, as if his hatred cut a
canyon of desiccation through the rock like a knife through butter. He towered
over me, taller and wider than any wolf I'd ever seen. He was a giant. A Titan.
Fenrir.
I shivered at the sound of his name echoing in my
head.
He gnashed his razor-sharp teeth and roared,
struggling against the chain binding him to earth. The sound echoed throughout
the massive cavern, bouncing from rock to rock in the same deep, ominous rumble
I heard earlier.
Pebbles showered down from overhead, falling to
the dirt floor all around.
Fenrir shook them off, then tried to leap.
The chain stretched taut, groaning in protest, but
it held firm.
Fenrir hit the ground―hard―and was up again in an
instant.
He coiled, crouching as if preparing to spring
again, then twitched.
He stilled, not even his chest moving when he drew
breath. Sanity flickered in his gaze for a brief moment, burning away the
obsessive rage pouring from him. What swept through those yellow eyes in its
place was far worse: intelligence.
Fenrir knew his prison would not hold him forever.
Eventually, he would break free.
Not
today. Please, not today, I
pleaded, hoping someone in charge heard me.
Fenrir sniffed the air.
I stopped breathing, praying he didn't see me
standing amongst the rocks.
He turned his head slowly in my direction, one ear
twitching.
His rage-filled gaze met mine and held. Recognition
flared in his baleful eyes.
I trembled, trapped in his sights like a prisoner,
unable to move. The wolf sharing my soul snarled, trying to shake herself free
of the thrall freezing me in place. She was too weak to do more than flutter
and twist inside me though.
Fenrir’s lip curled in a menacing snarl as he
looked into me, looked through me, and saw everything I was and everything
connecting me to him. For a moment, no more than a split second really, he
looked pleased. As if he knew his wait was almost over.
And then rage blazed to life in his eyes again, wiping
away recognition and replacing it with burning, poisonous hate.
He growled low in his throat, the sound that of a
gathering storm.
The cavern floor vibrated beneath my feet again.
Pebbles showered down, striking my arms, my legs…
my face. Each hit stung and burned.
The river of foam at my feet churned across the
rocks like mini-tidal waves.
Dust filled the air in thick puffs, choking me.
Fenrir dove toward me, howling.
FALL – The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book Two will be available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble on October 5, 2013 from Curiosity Quills Press. FADE – The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book One is available now at Amazon US, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.
About the Author:
A.K. Morgen lives in Little Rock, Arkansas with her husband, three dogs, and demonic cat. She has a graduate degree in Criminal Justice and Law, and plans to save the world some day. When she’s not writing, she spends her time teaching her niece and nephews how to cause mischief. You can also find her dancing in the grocery store, building a spork army, and fundraising for nonprofits close to her heart.
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