Frozen by the Future: The Kerrigan Kids, #8

By W.J. May

Some things, you can't come back from. Some lines, you can't uncross.

 

When tragedy strikes the night of the gala, Aria and her friends find themselves racing against the clock. Lies pile on top of lies. Lines blur and stories twist, until they find themselves so far from the place they started, they aren't sure if they can ever go back.

 

Tensions mount as the friends are torn between Dorian and Michael. A fateful decision threatens one of their own, and those sacred bonds that always held them together begin to splinter and crack. There's only so long they can straddle two worlds. Something has to break.

 

But when the dust settles, will there be anything left?

 

Kerrigan Kids

Book 1 - School of Potential

Book 2 - Myths & Magic

Book 3 - Kith & Kin

Book 4 - Playing With Power

Book 5 - Line of Ancestry

Book 6 - Descent of Hope

Book 7 – Illusion of Shadows

Book 8 – Frozen by the Future

Book 9 – Guilt of My Past

Book 10 – Demise of Magic

Book 11- Rise of the Prophecy

Book 12 – Deafened by the Past

 

READ THE WHOLE SERIES:
Prequel Series:
Christmas Before the Magic
Question the Darkness
Into the Darkness
Fight the Darkness
Alone in the Darkness
Lost in Darkness

 

The Chronicles of Kerrigan Series
Rae of Hope
Dark Nebula
House of Cards
Royal Tea
Under Fire
End in Sight
Hidden Darkness
Twisted Together
Mark of Fate
Strength & Power
Last One Standing
Rae of Light

The Chronicles of Kerrigan Sequel
A Matter of Time
Time Piece
Second Chance
Glitch in Time
Our Time
Precious Time

The Chronicles of Kerrigan: Gabriel
Living in the Past
Present for Today
Staring at the Future

 

Kerrigan Chronicles

Stopping Time

A Passage of Time

Ticking Clock

Secrets in Time

Time in the City

Ultimate Future

 

USA Today Bestselling author, W.J. May brings you a continuation of the international bestselling series, The Chronicles of Kerrigan! Come back and enjoy the famous characters, or step into the series right here. You won't be disappointed!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Shadow Publishing
• Release date: Dec 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393878933

W.J. May

About W.J. May Welcome to USA TODAY BESTSELLING author W.J. May's Page! SIGN UP for W.J. May's Newsletter to find out about new releases, updates, cover reveals and even freebies! http://eepurl.com/97aYf   Website: http://www.wjmaybooks.com Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-WJ-May-FAN-PAGE/141170442608149?ref=hl *Please feel free to connect with me and share your comments. I love connecting with my readers.* W.J. May grew up in the fruit belt of Ontario. Crazy-happy childhood, she always has had a vivid imagination and loads of energy. After her father passed away in 2008, from a six-year battle with cancer (which she still believes he won the fight against), she began to write again. A passion she'd loved for years, but realized life was too short to keep putting it off. She is a writer of Young Adult, Fantasy Fiction and where ever else her little muses take her.

Book preview

Have You Read the C.o.K Series?

The Prequel series is a Sub-Series of the Chronicles of Kerrigan.

The prequel on how Simon Kerrigan met Beth!!

Download for FREE:

C:\Users\wanitajump\Documents\aCoversNew2016\2016-17summercovers\Heistdom+\Cok Prequel Poster.jpg

THE CHRONICLES OF KERRIGAN: PREQUEL –

Christmas Before the Magic

Question the Darkness

Into the Darkness

Fight the Darkness

Alone in the Darkness

Lost the Darkness

C:\Users\wanitajump\Documents\CoK Series\CoKBanner.png

THE CHRONICLES OF KERRIGAN

Book I - Rae of Hope is FREE!

Book Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILAwXxx8MU

Book II - Dark Nebula

Book Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca24STi_bFM

Book III - House of Cards

Book IV - Royal Tea

Book V - Under Fire

Book VI - End in Sight

Book VII – Hidden Darkness

Book VIII – Twisted Together

Book IX – Mark of Fate

Book X – Strength & Power

Book XI – Last One Standing

Book XII – Rae of Light

C:\Users\wanitajump\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCacheContent.Word\Poster TCOKS.JPG

THE CHRONICLES OF KERRIGAN SEQUEL

Matter of Time

Time Piece

Second Chance

Glitch in Time

Our Time

Precious Time

The Chronicles of Kerrigan: Gabriel

Living in the Past

C:\Users\Wanita\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\Living in the Past Facebook Cover Art.jpg

Present for Today

C:\Users\Wanita\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\Present For Today Facebook Cover Art.jpg

Staring at the Future

C:\Users\Wanita\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\Staring at the Future Facebook Cover Art.jpg

Kerrigan Chronicles

Book 1 – Stopping Time

Book 2 – A Passage of Time

Book 3 – Ticking Clock

Book 4 – Just in Time

Book 5 – Time in the City

Book 6 – Ultimate Future

The Kerrigan Kids Series

Book 1 - School of Potential

Book 2 - Myths & Magic

Book 3 - Kith & Kin

Book 4 - Playing With Power

Book 5 - Line of Ancestry

Book 6 - Descent of Hope

Book 7 – Illusion of Shadows

Book 8 – Frozen by the Future

Book 9 – Guilt of My Past

Book 10 – Demise of Magic

Book 11- Rise of the Prophecy

Book 12 – Deafened by the Past

Find W.J. May

Website:

https://www.wjmaybooks.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-WJ-May-FAN-PAGE/141170442608149

Newsletter:

SIGN UP FOR W.J. May's Newsletter to find out about new releases, updates, cover reveals and even freebies!

http://eepurl.com/97aYf

C:\Users\Wanita\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\W.J. May Logo Black.png

Frozen by the Future Description

SOME THINGS YOU CAN'T come back from. Some lines you can't uncross. 

When tragedy strikes the night of the gala, Aria and her friends find themselves racing against the clock. Lies pile on top of lies. Lines blur and stories twist, until they find themselves so far from the place they started they aren't sure if they can ever go back.

Tensions mount as the friends are torn between Dorian and Michael. A fateful decision threatens one of their own, and those sacred bonds that always held them together begin to splinter and crack. There's only so long they can straddle two worlds. Something has to break.

But when the dust settles, will there be anything left?

Contents

Have You Read the C.o.K Series?

The Chronicles of Kerrigan: Gabriel

Kerrigan Chronicles

The Kerrigan Kids Series

Find W.J. May

Frozen by the Future Description

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Epilogue

Guilt of My Past Blurb

The Kerrigan Kids Series

TUDOR COMPARISON:

Find W.J. May

The Chronicles of Kerrigan

PREQUEL –

SEQUEL –

The Chronicles of Kerrigan: Gabriel

More books by W.J. May

Chapter 1

ALEX IS DEAD.

It didn’t matter how long Aria stood there, how many times she said the words to herself, she couldn’t make it seem real, couldn’t get it to make sense.

Alexander couldn’t be dead.

Yes, he was lying there. Yes, he was staring vacantly at the ceiling and had been for the last ten minutes. Yes, there was blood on his shirt. Blood, and a knife, and—

Alex is dead.

No, she whispered. Nobody heard her.

The others were in a similar state of shock, trapped in a kind of time loop.

Jason was kneeling with his fingers to Alexander’s neck, like if he held them there long enough the pulse might come back. Benji was discreetly hyperventilating—alternating between staring at the body, pacing to the window, and lifting an unseen hand to his girlfriend.

And Sofia...was falling apart.

Help, she whispered it at first, then suddenly louder. "Help! Somebody do something!"

The words hung in the stillness, sharply punctuated with wild, ragged tears.

Do something? What was there to do? Her twin was dead. Not close to it, not in some downward spiral that either magic or prayers might lift him through. His long limbs were splayed at an impossible angle. His lips were slightly parted, his handsome face stiff and pale. Most telling were his eyes—beautiful, dark eyes staring vacantly at the ceiling. Never again to flash with anger, or twinkle with some wicked smile. Never to see a movie, or blink, or cry. He was dead.

Alex is dead.

Someone forgot to tell his sister.

We need to help him! she wailed to no one in particular. He’s...he’s been hurt!

Hurt, not dead. No one dared to contradict her.

She was huddled beside him, like some broken puppet who’d lost its strings. Every few seconds she’d make another attempt at shaking him, clutching fistfuls of his jacket in a desperate attempt to get him to wake before collapsing once again, her slender body cringing into the floorboards, wracked with such violent, convulsive sobs she was unable to breathe.

She didn’t appear to notice the knife. Or the puddle of blood beside her.

Alex is dead.

He’s...he’s so cold. In a flash, the shifter was on her feet—searching the room in a panic before tearing Benji’s tuxedo jacket straight off his arms. We need to get him warmed up—

Sof... he interjected softly, speaking for the first time.

He tried to catch her, but she was too quick—diving back to the floor and draping the jacket over her brother. She stared expectantly. It soaked through with blood.

It’s not enough, she muttered, eyes dilated to a frightening extent. Jase, give me yours!

Sofia, Benji tried again.

Jason stared what felt like a very long time before taking off his jacket suddenly and laying it over Alexander’s body. His eyes were shining, but he didn’t cry. He simply stared at the girl across from him, trying to hold himself together, willing to do anything she asked.

Why isn’t he warming up? she whimpered, lifting his hand and cupping it to her cheek. I don’t understand...it isn’t...it isn’t that cold...

As long as she lived, Aria would never understand why that word was the trigger. Cold. But the moment she said it, Sofia stopped fighting. She sank to the floor instead, still gripping her twin’s hand, staring with that same glaze in her eyes.

A door opened and shut behind them.

Did you make some coffee?

Three of them looked at each other. One of them hugged her knees and stared at the body.

We’re so stupid!

Alexander wasn’t just dead, he’d been murdered. There was a gaping wound in the center of his chest, the knife lying within reach of his fingers. Someone had come to the school and murdered him. For all they knew, that person was still lurking about campus. Maybe inside the cottage itself.

But the voice was familiar. It was only Dorian coming home.

Alex? he called, and there was a rattling of keys as he set down his things in the kitchen. Sorry I didn’t get your text until...

He rounded the corner, then froze perfectly still.

It was Noah all over again. A sea of broken glass, a pool of blood. A teenage student dead on his living room floor. He sucked in a jagged breath, then sank into a sudden crouch.

...what the hell happened?!

Not for one second did he question what it actually was. Not for one second did he look at the boy on the floor and think there was even the slightest chance he was still alive.

Alex is dead, Aria whispered.

His eyes shot to her face with something that looked like anger before it immediately softened into something else. He picked himself up, knelt at the shifter’s side.

Stabbed... he murmured, lifting a gentle hand to the boy’s chest. His eyes drifted incredulously to the knife before flashing with sudden urgency to the rest of them. Was anyone else hurt? Were any of the rest of you—

We weren’t here, Jason said softly.

Dorian stared at him a second longer than was normal, like he was having trouble catching up, before turning wildly to Benji—who was still covered in the shifter’s blood.

"Ben! He leapt to his feet without thinking, flying across the room and catching the young man by surprise, ripping open his dress shirt to see the damage for himself. You...you’re not..."

We weren’t here, Benji repeated, looking badly shaken. He tried half-heartedly to pull the shirt back together, but the buttons had come off. Instead, he turned to Sofia—still sitting lifelessly on the floor by her brother’s side. We came to bring him to the gala, followed his phone...

He trailed into silence, unable to finish the rest.

The phone was lying beside Alex, not far away from the knife. Every few seconds a light blinked to indicate a missed call. Aria stared at it a moment, then turned away.

Where were you? Jason asked faintly. The window had been smashed wide open and the crisp night air was making him shiver. They were all shivering. None of them had noticed yet.

Dorian glanced up wearily, then turned on the heater.

I was in Paris, he answered quietly, following up with some names I found on Mason’s flash drive. Alex had texted me that he was coming over. Apparently there was some big news he wanted to tell me. I didn’t even see the message until I’d already touched down...

The apartment. He probably wanted to brag about his new apartment. Aria glanced numbly towards the kitchen. The luggage tags were still on Dorian’s satchel. If only he hadn’t left. If only he’d been here a few hours earlier. Then maybe—

She stopped suddenly, afraid of what was coming next. Who could have done this?

The others turned to look at her—reeling, but slowly coming round to the same thing. Their eyes travelled slowly from the knife on the floor, up to the giant map above the mantel.

You were looking up Mason’s associates? she continued breathlessly, unable to reconcile the smiling man she’d danced with in Chicago with the bloody knife on the floor. You think one of them could have come here? Broken into the school?

Or maybe one of the others? There are SO MANY others.

It’s a criminal network, Benji said quietly, unable to make his voice any louder. Maybe they found out we were after them. Maybe they traced it back to...

In a flash, that sense of timelessness shattered. The strange limbo that had held them all motionless vanished, and in the blink of an eye the window became a target, the body became a warning, and all the people standing in the little cottage were suddenly, dangerously, exposed.

Jase, Benji said in a low voice, again lifting his hand to his girlfriend, get away from the window. Now. Hurry up.

Jason’s head jerked towards the glass then he staggered quickly to the other side of the room, pausing only to grab Aria’s wrist and drag her along with him.

We need to call someone, Aria said in a daze, running her fingers through her hair. They caught immediately on her long, delicately woven braid.

The braid. The gala.

Alex is dead.

Why the hell am I in a ballgown?

Everyone, Dorian echoed, looking as unraveled as the rest of them. We need to call everyone. I was just trying to help, trying to do some good—but this is too much. They got to Alex, they killed him for what we were trying to do. We need to stop. We need to call everyone.

There was a beat of silence.

The friends looked up at the same time. Then they looked at each other.

Yes, they should call everyone. There was a body on the floor—of course, they should call everyone. But what exactly did that mean? Their parents would come flying in from the gala. Their grandparents, and teachers, and PC agents as well. They would tear the cottage apart. They’d find the map, they’d find the files, they’d find out exactly what their star recruits had been doing in secret all that time. The freighter in Tunisia, the bunker in Bolivia, Mason in Chicago—all of it.

Reprisals would be fierce.

They would be expelled of course, permanently dismissed from the agency. Dorian would be fired, might even end up in prison. And Sofia would be sent back to whatever halfway-house the Abbey decided to dump her. Just her and the remains of her twin. Since she was eighteen, there was a chance that might not even happen. They gave criminals ten pounds and a bus pass. If there was any decency in the world, perhaps an orphaned teenage shifter could get twice the normal rate.

Weighed against the death of a friend...none of that really mattered.

They’d gone in with their eyes open, fully aware of the potential consequences. They were willing to take the risk. Even now, they’d be ready to pay whatever price was required.

...except for Alex.

Aria lifted her eyes, looking directly at his body for the first time.

They had done this together. They had fought these people together. It was something they believed in, something they could be proud of, together. Then the second one of them was alone...?

They got to Alex...they killed him for what we were trying to do.

They’ll shut this down, she murmured, gazing up at the map. All of it—it’ll be over.

And that list of perfect criminals—criminals so perfect they couldn’t be prosecuted for any crimes—would go free. And Alexander would have died for absolutely nothing.

I don’t care, Jason said shakily. Maybe they should.

She cast him a sideways look. Do you think Alexander would have wanted that?

Their eyes met for a sharp moment.

I don’t know, Arie. Why don’t you ask him?

Benji had eyes only for Sofia. He was staring in quiet desperation at the back of her head, one hand still raised between them, just inches from her long, dark hair.

They’ll send you away, he breathed, almost to himself. I’ll never see you again.

In any other case, it might have been an exaggeration. They were both smart and resourceful. They were both of majority age. But the powers that governed the supernatural community were different than that of the common world. If they wanted someone to disappear, that’s exactly what would happen. If the commander of said forces wanted someone deliberately kept away from his only grandson...there would be no chance of finding her.

No—this isn’t a question. Dorian pulled out his phone, lifting it with a shaking hand. "I don’t know