Published: October 2nd, 2015
Elyse has done everything she can to protect her friends from The Council's reach. As long as they believe she's dead, she has time to rest and train for war. And war is inevitable.
When Kara arrives with the news that Anna and Chloe have been captured, Elyse is faced with the realization that no one is safe until The Council is stopped and Christoph is destroyed. She doesn't need a prophecy to tell her to lead an army. Christoph has done the one thing that ensures she'll fight to the death. He's threatened the people she loves.
It will take more than the words of an oracle to help them fight against the most powerful Descendant alive. To break The Council's oppression and rise up against a plot so many years in the making, Elyse will need to get dangerously close to her enemy. So close, in fact, she may not survive.
Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than average people, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's well over eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal.
For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability. Or so she thinks. Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time.
Some are waiting for her to put an end to centuries of traditions that have oppressed their people under the guise of safeguarding them. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning-and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules
Lead Council member, Christoph, is dead by Elyse’s hand, and Descendants have begun to emerge, exposing their secret to the world. Some see this as the prophecy come to fruition, but the prophecy caries a heavy consequence. It was never meant to be as peaceful as most had hoped.
Humans and Descendants struggle to live together in a world that isn’t ready for such a change. America is divided. Those who glorify the supernatural race believe Descendants truly are the gods they claim relation to. Others see them as a threat.
When Elyse gives birth to the next generation oracle, she sees one final vision—war. The destruction of the country’s major cities, and the end of America as we know it.
After her daughter is born, Elyse finds herself without the ability she needs to predict the future. Desperate to save the world from such conflict, she puts her faith in the hope that Descendants are the key to survival. After all, they have the power to supply a broken society with the means to survive.
Only from the ashes can a new world be born.
EXCERPT
My throat stung as I searched for Anna and Chloe. What sort of horror would they face? How would they defend themselves? I felt nauseated, but I couldn’t lose it now. I didn’t know if they were dead. They could be safe. Please let everyone be safe.
People ran, fought, shot weapons, scattered. Fire curled around the house and the trees. Smoke billowed into the sky turning it black. From the left a man charged at me with a knife, and I couldn’t get my dart ready fast enough. My heart beat wildly. I turned to run. Then I heard him fall and saw the arrow in his back. I didn’t know where he’d gotten the bow, but William stood behind him. He stared at me, warning me to be quicker.
“Be careful,” he yelled. We both turned and shot a pair of gunmen in the distance. “You need to get out of here.”
I shook my head and charged after the man causing the fire. It shot from his hands as he burned the world around him, the flames consuming trees, the house, people.
Heat waves blurred my vision and sweat rolled down the sides of my face as I closed in on him. I punched the buttons on my wrist again. Blood soaked the dart and dripped from my fingers. I aimed at the man with fire, but he spotted me and dodged the shot. I loaded again, but he was closer, aiming the flames at me. The heat, the smoke, everything began to swarm in. I grabbed a knife sticking up from the chest of an unfamiliar body and threw it in his direction. It spun fast, but he was quick, trained. The knife grazed his cheek, and that only made him angry.
I loaded another dart, but it was too late. I turned as he threw fire at me. The flames caught my back, and no matter how fast I tried to run, the heat kept up. I inhaled from the shock of pain, unable to breathe or scream. Then William was there. His arrow flew past me, and I prayed it hit the man, that it would extinguish the fire. I heard him cry out behind me and knew the flames must have stopped, but the burning continued.
I fell forward in agony, and rolled along the ground, but the fire ate away at my flesh. I saw William’s tortured face as he ran toward me. Then the familiar euphoria spread. His ability held me even when I was in pain. I no longer cared about pain. All I cared about was him. I couldn’t look away. I didn’t care that I was burning. When his knees slid in next to me, I heard him whisper into my ear.
“Sleep,” he said, and I obeyed.
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About the author:
Jessica Therrien is the author of the young adult paranormal fiction series Children of the Gods. Book one in the series, Oppression, became a Barnes & Noble best-seller shortly after its release in February of 2012.
Aside from her Children of the Gods series, Jessica’s work can also be found in a published collection of flash fiction stories called Campaigner Challenges 2011. Out of over 350 submissions her story, The Soulless, won first place for people’s choice and fourth place in the judging round of Rachael Harrie’s Writing Campaign Challenge. Her story, Saved, is also available as part of the anthology.
Jessica spent most of her life in the small town of Chilcoot, California, high up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In this town of nearly 100 residents, with no street lights or grocery stores, there was little to do but find ways to be creative. Her mother, the local English teacher, inspired her to do all things artistic, and ultimately instilled in her a love for language.
In 2003, Jessica attended California State University Long Beach where her passion for language found her studying Chinese, and in 2005 she moved to Taiwan to study abroad. From 2005 to 2006 Jessica was fully immersed in the Chinese language as she attended National Taiwan University, and in 2008 she graduated from San Diego State University magna cum laude.
Jessica currently lives in Irvine with her husband and two sons. She is planning a re-release of her series through Acorn Publishing in September of 2015. The re-release will include the third and final book in her Children of the Gods series as well as a bonus chapter in the back of Oppression.
Thanks for posting!!
ReplyDeleteLove the covers :) Hope to see the whole face soon! (grins)
ReplyDeleteI love the colors you have chosen for the covers of these books! Look forward to reading these.
ReplyDeleterebeccaniehaus at mail dot com