Kainnan: Redemption: The Kainnan series, #4

By Belinda Stott

BOOK 4 OF 9 IN THE KAINNAN SERIES. An epic Christian urban fantasy series, set between two worlds.

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When Ravyn Salvatore finds her way onto the alternate world of Kainnan, the last thing she expects is to be followed there by the kidnapping victim she saved two years prior. Still affected by his ordeal, Zavier Montrese will do anything to obtain her help. Yet on arrival they quickly discover they have far more to deal with than each other,  for a new threat to Kainnan has emerged.

After three epic battles, it had seemed that Kainnan would finally be safe and stable under King Magnus's capable rule. But in the wake of the tyrant Wilhelm's death, the influence of three dangerous individuals is growing rapidly: Wilhelm's right-hand man Lucan, Elias Kraven the drug-lord and Magnus's twin sister Morgana. 

As if encountering the three most deadly criminals on Kainnan were not enough, Ravyn and Zavier soon realize there is a far more demanding challenge they must confront too - facing the traumas of their past to secure their own salvation.

Shifting between dual worlds and exploring themes of revenge and restoration; love, loyalty and passion, Redemption is a gripping adventure that will enthrall you to the very end.

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Praise for the Kainnan series…

"Like Narnia with guns! And more romance…A parallel world controlled by cruel rulers, and in their defeat, you learn life-changing truths to help you cope in the real world too." Junita.

"Full of unexpected twists and deeper meanings, Kainnan will take you on a wild adventure while communicating incredibly valuable lessons about mental health and emotional wellbeing. The plots are truly unique; unlike any series I have ever come across." Olivia.

"Simultaneously engrossing as adventure novels and mentally challenging as I started to identify with the characters in my own life! Belinda truly does have a way of taking you by the hand and leading you through your emotions." Lucy.

"The Kainnan series is so good, I don't want to read anything else until the next ones come out!" Josiah.
 
"Adventurous, terrifying and riveting. They brought tears to my eyes, made me laugh and gave me great insight into human emotion." Lydia.

"Like an action movie captured in print – fast-paced, exciting, full of twists, unpredictable – but with fantastic character development, romance and fantasy too. If you liked Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games, or Ted Dekker's novels, this will be right up your alley." Natasha.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Belinda Stott
• Release date: Jan 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393901020

Belinda Stott

Belinda Stott is a novelist, counselor and international speaker. With her husband Matt, she runs a course called Soul Tour which combines psychology, philosophy and theology to help young adults better understand their own mind, emotions and behavior.  A prolific traveler (81 countries and counting), Belinda reads obsessively, loves fairs, Jacuzzis, castles and feisty heroines, and watches movies which inspire her to create high-stakes stories that visit other worlds and kingdoms. She is particularly passionate about sagas that bypass the mundane to explore what God and life are really all about, describing her style as a blend of spy stories like 24, Alias and the Bourne novels, with a sprinkle of Narnia and the intensity of a Ted Dekker novel. Belinda lives in Christchurch, New Zealand with Matt and their two creative, adventurous kids, Jasper and Scarlett, (who cameo in Kainnan: The Uncovering).  Find out more about Kainnan and Belinda's upcoming, cult-based trilogy at Belindastott.com.

Book preview

In Kainnan: The Switch...

Having survived several attempts on their lives on the alternate world of Kainnan, yet failing to stop the tyrant Wilhelm, Summer, Ryder, Noah and Katerina had been forced to devote themselves to finding Wilhelm before he found them.

Yet before they could locate him, tragedy struck. Ryder barely survived an assassination attempt, Katerina was kidnapped, and Summer was infected with a deadly virus. In addition, Wilhelm had mapped the reciprocal connection between Earth and Kainnan so precisely he was able to set in motion a plane-crash, multiple fires and a bomb on Kainnan to have maximum impact on Earth too. Even worse, he had developed a deadly, fast-acting, contagious virus which he planned to release in multiple places at once.

But back on Kainnan, by switching identities with Katerina, Summer was able to make physical contact with Wilhelm and return home to Earth. Having resolved her own personal issues there, she immediately returned to Kainnan — and Wilhelm was finally eliminated for good. The spread of the virus was also successfully thwarted.

However, Wilhelm’s legacy proved to be far from extinguished, with his second-in-command, Lucan, taking possession of both Wilhelm’s technology and King Magnus’s fiancée Sybilla. Whilst Magnus and Aaron were able to hide this information from the group so they could finally live normal lives, Katerina’s cousin, Ravyn Salvatore, is not done with Kainnan yet. Previously drawn in to assist the group in stopping the virus, she now wants to know both where and what Kainnan is. Zavier Montrese, the man she helped rescue, is also looking for resolution to his own difficult questions.

Regardless of the consequences, neither will give up until they have the answers they seek...

1. Reconnaissance

It started small; a few isolated cases here and there.

A woman who collapsed in a grocery store with high fevers and convulsions. A teenager who attacked a group of boys for no obvious reason. A couple who were found dead in their backyard, family members reporting they had both been ill with unnaturally high temperatures. Three students vomiting in the middle of an exam. A woman killing a stranger on a bus.

They were reported as isolated incidents, given the usual amount of media coverage, and not linked together.

Then someone made the connection: each person had eaten the same dairy or bread products. As a result, some had become sick and some turned violent. Yet thousands throughout the state were eating those identical products and not experiencing the same reaction.

Ravyn had come home early from work the day it went viral. She was exhausted from a week of trying to expose a global company who exploited its workers in ways that made her skin crawl. She settled in front of the TV to watch the now continuous footage.

The news anchor was in mid-sentence, ...are investigating but chairman of the FDA, Marcus Simms, has gone on record stating that no source has yet been located for the outbreak. President Wilson has called for a press conference — we’ll be crossing live to this shortly. But first we have Shohan Hustwick with us in Washington DC. Shohan, how’s the feeling in Washington since the news broke?

Hi, Greg. Things are becoming pretty volatile here. There are a number of people who have decided to pack up and leave Washington until this situation is resolved. Understandably people are scared. In the last twenty-four hours alone there have been nearly a dozen attacks reported where people have become uncontrollably violent after eating these brands of bread. She was holding up three different loaves. Supermarkets are of course pulling these products off the shelves which has sparked increasing panic as people are beginning to fear a food shortage. The footage cut to a scene in a supermarket with queues of people stretching almost the entire length of the store. They had trolleys piled high with food and water — no dairy or bread products — and worried expressions on their faces.

From the studio Greg asked, Shohan, if the products are being removed from the shelves, surely this will reassure people the problem is being resolved?

Well no, Greg, it appears to be the unknown nature of this outbreak that’s worrying people the most. Everyone I have spoken to is concerned that the source has not been clearly identified. They’re saying if we don’t know what’s caused the outbreak, how can we know if it has been contained...

Sorry Shohan, I need to interrupt you. We have breaking news. This is a live interview with the police officer in charge of investigating an attack on a group of teenagers by a man in Anacostia. The camera cut to an interview with a harried looking police officer. He was telling the crowd of reporters surrounding him, "The attack happened two hours ago, and we have now been able to confirm that the perpetrator has not imbibed any of the products associated with this outbreak."

One of the reporters immediately thrust a microphone in his face demanding, Are you saying this attack is unrelated to what’s been happening throughout the city?

I cannot answer that with any certainty.

A different reporter asked, Is it possible this man ate something else to cause this? Do we need to add more suspect foods to the list?

Again, I cannot answer this with any certainty, the officer hedged.

The camera cut back to the studio again. Once more here is the current list of foods to avoid, the anchor was saying. A list appeared on the screen. Ravyn gasped at how long it was, trying to recall if she had any of them in her house.

She watched on for the next few hours. She saw the live interview with President Wilson who talked of installing marshal law if local enforcement agencies proved unable to deal with the increasing number of people turning violent. The hospitals were overwhelmed too with those who were sick. Their symptoms included vomiting, headaches, high temperatures, convulsions and, sometimes, death. The last word sounded unnervingly ominous at the end of this list.

A variety of scientists were interviewed too. Although they tried to sound hopeful, it was obvious they had no idea what was wrong with the food despite working around the clock to try and solve the mystery.

After three solid hours of watching the depressing updates, Ravyn gave up and went to bed — hungry because she was unwilling to risk eating the food in her house until she knew more. She lay in the dark considering her options for at least another hour. But in the end, her decision had already been made several weeks ago, crisis or no crisis. She was going to try to cross into Kainnan, the alternate world her cousin Katerina had visited three times now.

Two years ago, out of the blue, Ravyn had been approached by a man named Jaegar. He had asked Ravyn to help him free Katerina, her missing cousin, from the clutches of Katerina’s ex-boyfriend Wilhelm. Wilhelm had been manipulating Katerina into staying with him by suppressing her most recent memories, right back to when they had broken up. At the time Ravyn had also learnt that Wilhelm was both extremely dangerous and conspiring to release a deadly virus in Washington DC which could potentially kill thousands. Yet that was all Jaegar would tell her about the situation, so Ravyn had been forced to uncover the truth for herself.

Ironically, although Ravyn’s original reason for asking Jaegar out had been to achieve this, from the very start she had also been intrigued by him. He had hard dark-brown eyes which softened when he looked at her and a face that could be handsome or forgettable depending on what he wanted. So for the first eight months she had probed gently and kept her eyes open while also enjoying the attention he showered on her.

Strangely, it had been the reappearance of Zavier Montrese in the international music scene which signaled the beginning of the end for her and Jaegar. She and Jaegar had found Zavier, held captive and wasting away in Wilhelm’s compound, when they had been searching for Katerina. He had been filthy and gaunt; missing for six months after Wilhelm kidnapped him from one of his concerts.

Eight months after the rescue, his band, Zavva, had made a spectacular comeback, rocketing to the top of the charts with a new album. It was seeing Zavier interviewed on TV one day that made all the difference. Ravyn had studied him as he spoke, recalling the emerald green eyes that had fixed on her like she was his lifeline, remembering what a mess he had been — and she started wondering all over again what her cousin had got mixed up in. She was almost tempted to try to get to Zavier himself, but his security was tight and, in the media, he had consistently denied knowing why he had been kidnapped. She couldn’t imagine he would be any more forthcoming with her. Instead she decided it was time to change tack with Jaegar. The subtle approach had failed, so she would be more direct.

That was when they had started fighting. She confronted him several times, demanding answers, pointing out that he had promised to explain everything after things had settled down. She wanted answers, because after Jaegar enlisted her help she had broken into Wilhelm’s military-style compound with him, finding Zavier there. They had only just got out before a huge bomb blew the place to smithereens. Since then Jaegar had continually avoided giving her a straight answer to her questions — but after being prompted by the sight of the man they’d rescued, she’d had enough.

Jaegar tried to reassure her again, to distract her with vague answers, to convince her that Kainnan was a code name they were using for a town upstate — but she didn’t believe that for a second. The one piece of evidence she had uncovered so far had been by accessing her mother’s CIA network. It had been the only time her mother had left it running while she went to take an emergency phone call, and Ravyn had made use of it immediately. While she watched the door for her mother’s return, she found out this one startling piece of information: her Aunt Sarah’s work, (Katerina’s mum) was investigating a place named Kainnan. It was a short article making an outrageous claim; that Kainnan was another world! It was so ridiculous that she hadn’t raised it with Jaegar until their fourth major argument about it. Of course, he denied it, but this time she thought she saw a flicker of concern cross his face. Eventually she stormed out, so furious she didn’t trust herself to stay.

She walked around for an hour trying to decide whether to confront Aunt Sarah. But she suspected that would be pointless too. It was getting dark when she approached the hall. She couldn’t help but smile at herself. Part of her had obviously decided to try approaching Zavier, for she had walked to the location of his band’s gig that night.

The concert hadn’t started yet, but a constant stream of young people was already pouring in. Many were dressed outrageously, more than a few were wasted; the air was charged with hype and excitement. She purchased an over-priced ticket from a hawker and joined the throng. To her relief there was no allocated seating for she needed to get close enough to catch Zavier’s attention.

By the time Zavva’s backup band had finished she had made her way to the front, near where she hoped the band would exit the stage afterwards. Being alone, people had let her through, albeit reluctantly. Then Zavva started their set.

She had heard a few of their songs on the radio, as well as meeting Zavier in the flesh, but nothing prepared her for how charismatic he was on stage. As the singer he was vibrant, captivating, daring, carrying the concert with the force of his on-stage persona — and the crowd responded to him with unrestrained passion. His dark hair was longer and clean now, his body still thin but less gaunt. His eyes were the same; flashing emerald green and his face was chiseled and attractive with deep cheekbones. She was as riveted as the rest of the fans.

Near the end of the set the band settled into a slower song. Ravyn was beginning to wilt, wanting it over now. She was just starting to wonder whether she had any hope of getting near him afterwards, when Zavier declared into the microphone, This goes out to the angel that saved my life nearly a year ago. She knows who she is and one day I hope she’ll make herself known to me again.

As the song started Ravyn turned to the closest guy and asked in astonishment, What’s that all about?

You haven’t been to a Zavva concert before? He does that every time. He’s trying to find the girl that rescued him when he was kidnapped.

Why?

The guy shrugged. Who knows. Maybe he’s got a crush on her, maybe he wants to thank her...she just dropped him at the hospital and bailed, you know. They say he tried to find her through the hospital security cameras just like the police did, but all the footage was wiped.

‘Jaegar,’ Ravyn thought grimly.

She concentrated on the lyrics of the song. To her cynical ear, they sounded overly sentimental and gimmicky. Perhaps that was because they made her so uncomfortable. She wasn’t fond of public displays of affection.

She was relieved when the concert ended following an extended drum roll and dramatic bows from all four members. As the crowd went crazy, she pushed right in close to the barrier, hoping she had picked the right side. Within a few minutes she knew she had, as the crowd began to push in hard behind her, crushing her against the barrier.

The drummer, bassist and guitar player came through first. They strolled over to shake hands with fans before disappearing backstage. When Zavier appeared, the physical pressure increased tenfold so she could barely draw breath to call out to him — not that he would have heard her over all the fans screaming his name. Nor did he seem inclined to even look in their direction. She was on the verge of giving up when he glanced over and waved at the fans jammed along the barrier. His eyes skimmed over her and she held her breath, hoping he had recognized her. But he turned away, talking to his security guard. Moments later the man approached her and said, Come with me please, Zavier would like to talk to you. He had to lift her over the barrier then she followed him backstage.

When they reached Zavier’s dressing room he said, Go on in, and left her standing there alone in the corridor. She felt supremely nervous as she knocked on the door and entered.

Zavier was standing facing her, apparently waiting for her. When she stepped inside, he let his breath out in a rush and asked, Ravyn? Is that really you?

She nodded, wondering where to start, unnerved by the way he was staring at her.

I’ve been looking for you, trying to find you. I wrote that song for you.

Why?

You saved me! You freed me, then you disappeared — I wanted to thank you, to see you again...

"You don’t need to thank me. I wasn’t trying to save you. I was there for someone else," she said, thinking of her cousin Katerina.

He sounded on the verge of tears. You can’t imagine what it meant to be stuck in there for all that time, to be so alone, to have no hope left and then for you to appear...

Why were you there? Why did Wilhelm kidnap you? she asked, studying him closely.

He was silent, watching her just as carefully as she was him. Eventually he shrugged, I don’t know.

Ravyn frowned, "You’re lying. You do know, you hinted that you did in the hospital. Something big was going on in that compound and it involved my closest friend. I need to know what it was."

Why?

Why what?

"Why do you need to know?" he asked. She was silent, unable and unwilling to articulate the pressure that was pushing her to seek answers.

Will you tell me or not? she asked instead.

He looked around as if to check no one else was present and shook his head. No, I’m not going to tell you.

Suspicious now Ravyn asked, Won’t or can’t?

Again, he ignored her question. Instead he asked, Can I take you out?

She didn’t even have to think about it. "No, you can’t...I have a boyfriend, and you’re a rock star — you live in another city and you drink and date all sorts of women — continually if the tabloids are to be believed. And you’re lying to me right now and I never date liars."

Don’t be too tactful, he muttered.

"If you want me to stay and talk a little longer then you talk — tell me the truth about why you were kidnapped?"

She could almost see the mental wrestling going on inside him. Unsurprisingly caution, or perhaps fear, won out and he shook his head. I can’t, I’m sorry. But look, that stuff, the girls and the partying; it’s all just a show. I really am a good guy behind it all. Can’t you give me a chance?

I’m sorry, she said, sounding anything but. "I only came for answers and if you won’t give them to me, I’ll have to look elsewhere. I am glad we could free you. She paused and they studied each other for several moments. The intensity of his stare was unsettling, but she pushed it aside and said, Goodbye and good luck." Then before he could try to stop her, she slipped back out the door and hurried from the venue.

She was nearly back at Jaegar’s before she realized she was being followed. She knew how to lose a tail, but she was tempted to confront the man instead. She recognized him as one of Zavier’s bouncers. As she wove through the streets, she realized she was actually too tired to bother. That decided, she took some evasive measures and lost him three blocks from Jaegar’s, feeling extremely satisfied with herself for doing so.

Ravyn pushed everything aside then for another nine months. It wasn’t hard to do for she was overly busy at work, with multiple trips away. She was able to ignore the unsettling questions until she stumbled across yet another tabloid article about Zavier. Like previous ones, it suggested a number of highly improbable explanations for Zavier's kidnap. After reading it she confronted Jaegar again. They had another big fight and by its conclusion she had decided it was too much work to continue with the relationship. Although Jaegar pleaded with her to give them another chance, Ravyn had already decided they had no future together — and she was newly resolved to solve the mystery about what had taken place eighteen months earlier herself.

Two days later she received an email from Katerina asking if she would house-sit the home Katerina and her husband Noah owned as their previous tenant was moving out. She said yes immediately, knowing she would never have a better chance to look for clues.

A week later she began her search of Katerina’s home. She took her time because she knew she had plenty. The couple were travelling through New Zealand and had no plans to return any time soon. Ravyn was still coming and going too with her work, so the search stretched out to nearly six months.

But then one night she moved the bed in Katerina’s bedroom and discovered a loose board in the floor. Underneath she found a small cavity containing one thing: a small black book. It was Katerina’s diary and it recorded every detail of her experiences on Kainnan.

{

2. The musician and the detective

When Zavier’s security guard sheepishly admitted he had lost Ravyn, Zavier nearly fired him. Instead he instructed him to hire a private detective immediately to find Ravyn, with no expense spared. He pulled the footage from the security cameras at the venue to get a photo of her for the detective. But to his amazement Ravyn never looked towards them, keeping her head turned away or her face covered, almost as if she knew exactly where they were.

Thom, the detective, was extremely skilled however. From the security cameras, he tracked down several of the fans that had been standing at the barrier with Ravyn and pulled photos from their phones showing Ravyn being lifted over to join Zavier. Then he began the search while Zavva continued on their tour of other states.

It was nearly a year before Zavier’s investment paid off and Thom located Ravyn. Zavier had three months left of his touring schedule by then, so he paid the detective to watch her and learn what he could about her. He was aware he was behaving like a stalker, but the memory of Ravyn’s face bending over him in the room where he had been tortured and broken wouldn’t leave him. He had a suspicion he had romanticized her to such a point she didn’t actually exist in the form of his imagination, but the euphoria of the rescue was too strong to release him from it.

At the end of the three months he met with his band and told them he was taking a short holiday. There were no girls to appease — he had abruptly stopped the flirting and making out after seeing Ravyn that last time. Nor did he tell his parents what he was up to. Instead he caught a cab to the airport alone and flew back to Washington, uncertain what he was going to do but determined to do something.

{

Ravyn had chosen to look for the portal that seemed the easiest to find according to Katerina’s diary. It was a short flight from Washington. She spent the flight re-reading the whole diary again, trying to memorize what she considered the most significant parts. She was so focused on the magnitude and craziness of what she was about to investigate that this time she didn’t notice she was being tailed.

Because he knew Ravyn would recognize him, Zavier took a different flight, having sent Thom on hers. When he touched down, he called the man immediately for an update, to be told she had just reached a dilapidated park and was paying her taxi driver. Zavier bribed his own driver to get there as fast as possible. He watched the buildings and houses flying by outside the windows and tried once again not to think about why he was behaving like a stalker.

His father had insisted he have counseling after he was freed. He tried to refuse but he never could resist his father when he was determined. So instead he decided to go along but not participate. However, the psychologist his father had chosen was clever and managed to get him talking. He had even ended up discussing Ravyn once and the man suggested he was fixating on her, seeing her as the answer to his pain rather than being willing to face it himself. The idea was too disturbing to consider, so Zavier changed the topic. When the man brought up her name again later, he decided he’d had enough therapy and quit without telling his father, who eventually challenged him on it. He lied then and said he felt much better.

Now as the taxi sped to Ravyn’s location he grudgingly allowed himself to consider his motive in chasing her down. She was beautiful — perhaps he had a crush on her? But he dismissed that idea immediately for he preferred blondes that were soft and accommodating of him and his lifestyle — neither of which Ravyn appeared to be. Maybe he was bored, seeing this as a challenge? That was a distinct possibility because if he was to be brutally honest with himself, something he did only rarely, he was bored by his life. It seemed embarrassingly meaningless despite the euphoria he felt when he performed.

Yet true honesty required him to admit that the psychologist was probably right. He wanted to find Ravyn because he needed help sorting through what had happened to him and for some reason, he had decided she was the one who could help him.

Thom was waiting for him when the taxi pulled over just shy of the park. The detective led the way and they positioned themselves behind some trees to watch what Ravyn was doing.

Katerina’s journal had given the location of the suburb, described what the door looked like and named the park, but it hadn’t told Ravyn where the door was within the park. Consequently, she was methodically searching for it, working off a grid in her mind.

It took a good thirty minutes to find the door and she was glad of her warm coat, for the chill in the air was seeping into her bones as she searched. But eventually she shone her torch into a grove of trees and found the sagging, dilapidated shed. She wiped the grime from the outside of the windows and tried to see in but there was a layer of dirt on the inside of the glass too. She tried walking around the shed, but it was wedged into the trees. Interestingly, unlike the rest of the park, there was no rubbish around, as if the homeless and vagabonds avoided the area.

Eventually she gathered up her courage and focused on the lock. A cursory examination revealed it to be a cheap padlock which she quickly dispensed with. However, the door still wouldn’t open. On closer inspection she discovered a hidden keyhole which defied her lock-picking skills for a good twenty minutes. She was about to give up when she heard the barrels shift and the lock popped open. She glanced back quickly, out into the park, but there was no one in sight. So she opened the door and stepped through the entrance into the dark shed within.

Zavier and Thom had re-positioned themselves carefully once Ravyn disappeared