Honored: Beginning's End Series, #12

By W.J. May

Learn to fight, it is the only option

 

Be careful who you invite to the table, they might end up running the game…

 

From the moment the Tezerin horde swept into the valley, it became clear that Kiera and her friends weren't getting out. An alliance with the warlords had sounded good in theory, but they had waded far from the shoreline, and those quick-churning waters could just as easily drown.

 

Forced to smile their way through what was quickly becoming a hostage situation, the friends try to navigate a razor's edge of warring agendas and peaked tempers, content to merely escape the palace with their lives. But there are secrets held within the Tezerin valley.

 

Secrets dark as the night that bore them. Secrets older than the earliest whispers of time.

 

Be careful who you trust. 

Even the devil was once an angel.

 

BEGINNING'S END SERIES

Beginnings

Curiosity

Scrutiny

Foresight

Disavow

Trickery

Wisdom

Decree

Influence

Prevail

Dignified

Honored

** 6 more books coming soon!

 

QUEEN'S ALPHA SERIES

Eternal

Everlasting

Unceasing

Evermore

Forever

Boundless

Prophecy

Protected

Foretelling

Revelation

Betrayal

Resolved

 

OMEGA QUEEN SERIES

Discipline

Bravery

Courage

Conquer

Strength

Validation

Approval

Blessing

Balance

Grievance

Enchanted

Gratified

 

USA Today Bestselling author, W.J. May, brings you the story of how the prophecies began--before Evie, before Katerina--starting from the very beginning. The Beginning's End Series is a prequel and continuation of the bestselling YA/NA series about love, betrayal, magic and fantasy. Welcome to W.J. May's world of paranormal, full of shifters, fae, fairy, witches, dragons, dark magic... and did I mention the vampires?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Shadow Publishing
• Release date: Mar 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223763888

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?

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

How hard do you have to shake the family tree to find the truth about the past?

Fifteen year-old Rae Kerrigan never really knew her family's history. Her mother and father died when she was young and it is only when she accepts a scholarship to the prestigious Guilder Boarding School in England that a mysterious family secret is revealed.

Will the sins of the father be the sins of the daughter?

As Rae struggles with new friends, a new school and a star-struck forbidden love, she must also face the ultimate challenge: receive a tattoo on her sixteenth birthday with specific powers that may bind her to an unspeakable darkness. It's up to Rae to undo the dark evil in her family's past and have a ray of hope for her future.

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!

https://www.wjmaybooks.com/subscribe

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

Honored Blurb

A person with red hair and flowers in her hair Description automatically generated

USA TODAY BESTSELLING author, W.J. May, continues the highly anticipated bestselling YA/NA series about love, betrayal, magic and fantasy.

Learn to fight—it is the only option...

Be careful who you invite to the table, they might end up running the game... 

From the moment the Tezerin horde swept into the valley, it became clear that Kiera and her friends weren’t getting out. An alliance with the warlords had sounded good in theory, but they had waded far from the shoreline, and those quick-churning waters could just as easily drown.

Forced to smile their way through what was quickly becoming a hostage situation, the friends try to navigate a razor’s edge of warring agendas and peaked tempers, content to merely escape the palace with their lives. But there are secrets held within the Tezerin valley.

Secrets dark as the night that bore them.

Secrets older than the earliest whispers of time.

Be careful who you trust. Even the devil was once an angel.

Text Description automatically generated

Beginning’s End Series

A picture containing text, bunch, different Description automatically generated

Beginnings

Curiosity

Scrutiny

Foresight

Disavow

Trickery

Wisdom

Decree

Influence

Prevail

Dignified

Honored

NEW BEGINNING’S SERIES

A group of books with a person in a mask Description automatically generated

The Queen’s Alpha Series

Timeline Description automatically generated

Eternal

Everlasting

Unceasing

Evermore

Forever

Boundless

Prophecy

Protected

Foretelling

Revelation

Betrayal

Resolved

The Omega Queen Series

A picture containing text, posing, bunch, different Description automatically generated

Discipline

Bravery

Courage

Conquer

Strength

Validation

APPROVAL

Blessing

Balance

Grievance

Enchanted

Gratified

FULL READING ORDER

A poster of a series of books Description automatically generated

Contents

Have You Read the C.o.K Series?

Find W.J. May

Honored Blurb

Beginning’s End Series

NEW BEGINNING’S SERIES

The Queen’s Alpha Series

The Omega Queen Series

FULL READING ORDER

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

Chapter 14

NEW SERIES  DECISIONS BLURB

NEW BEGINNING’S SERIES

FULL READING ORDER

Beginning’s End Series

The Queen’s Alpha Series

The Omega Queen Series

Find W.J. May

More books by W.J. May

A person with red hair and flowers in her hair Description automatically generated

Chapter 1

When Kiera was nine years old, some boys dug a hole in the woods outside her village.

It was a foolish pastime, rare for mountain children. There was enough danger in the forest without adding one’s personal touch. But for whatever reason, they’d latched onto the idea with uncharacteristic enthusiasm and set about the task each day. What started as an indulgence, soon turned into an obsession. They were at it all hours, sneaking out after evening chores and rising well before dawn. Armed with crude shovels and pointed sticks, they’d march stoically into the trees, then start digging like furious monkeys. You’d think something was buried, the way they committed.

But such fervent devotion came with a cost.

It wasn’t long until the hole was up to their shoulders. Not long after that, it was up to their heads. That was the point when they probably should have stopped, but the adrenaline had taken over and they’d lost sight of reason. It was only the shovel, their hands could hold no other shape.

Digging, and digging, and digging.

Then one morning, their beds were empty. The walls had risen too steep and high, and it was no longer possible to climb out. They screamed themselves hoarse for hours, but they were deep underground, and the sound was lost in the night. It wasn’t until the calls from one house reached the ears of another, anyone thought there might actually be a problem. It wasn’t until those calls turned into screams that anyone thought to check that fateful hole in the woods.

By the time they were rescued, two of the boys were hypothermic. The other had fallen into a coma, and no one could get him to wake. The hole was filled with stones from the river.

No one went into that part of the forest again. Not for a very long time.

Kiera hadn’t been particularly close to the boys, but the story burrowed deep. She couldn’t help but imagine their terror in that particular moment. The moment they lifted their eyes, and saw the sky too far above them. The moment they realized where their ambition had taken them.

The moment they realized they’d dug themselves too deep.

That’s exactly how I’m feeling now...

Kiera stood in the sliver of a narrow window, staring at the swarm of tents that had amassed outside the palace walls. Her arms were stiff from holding a rigid pose, and her legs ached with exhaustion. Yet despite the countless hours of her vigil, she couldn’t fathom going to sleep.

There were too many to count, and she’d spent a great deal of the night trying. Evander had muttered it was something close to nine hundred, before stalking deliberately down the hall. The fae had lingered a while longer, just to confirm they weren’t getting any closer, before pacing after him.

The door had swung shut, and their room had been quiet ever since.

Where did they all come from?

She was too far away to make out the individual sigils, but a spattering of tattered flags rose above them, spearing through the commotion and marking their place beneath the sky. There were nomadic hordes from the river lands, and burly clans from higher in the mountains. A grisly banner depicting a slain fairy announced the arrival the Dekash—a group of mercenaries so renowned for their savagery, their legend had reached all the way to her own remote village.

All of them had come by invitation. All of them had come to fight.

But who will they be fighting...?

It was perhaps the larger question, and the only one that mattered. It was the same question she’d been asking since the others had eventually drifted away from the window themselves, chafing against the claustrophobia and preferring the solitude of their own beds. She had no clearer answer now than when the thundering battalions had first arrived. And even then, no one had been asking.

There had been nothing but shock.

What did he say to you? Eden had been the first of the friends to recover, whirling around with sudden urgency, like guards might be coming up the hall that very moment. His eyes were large and the torches cast slanting shadows down his cheeks. "Tell me what Mierko said, exactly."

She had looked back at him in a daze, those seismic impacts trembling up her legs.

He said...he said we hadn’t been forthcoming, she stammered, heart pounding in her chest. She scrambled to remember the rest of it, piecing through those splintered moments the two had shared in the dark. It had felt like a dream at the time, and even now, it was sliding away like a distant memory. Had they really stood there, making tentative jabs across the shadows? Had there really been a little girl? Or was she moonlight and ether, just another part of the dream? He was smiling the whole time, like it was some kind of game. And then he...

She trailed off suddenly, remembering the way his eyes had fixed upon her chest—dilating with the keen gaze of a predator, like he could see though the fabric to the pendant that lay beneath.

...he knows about the stone.

It was quite possibly the only thing she might have said to distract the others from whatever horror was gathering on the other side of the window. In the space of a single breath, three sets of eyes latched onto her face, all of them shining with the same wordless question.

How?

He said that? Eden asked with a bit of an edge, as though the balance of the next few moments hung upon whatever she said next. He said it directly—

"He didn’t say it directly, she interrupted with a bit of frustration, wishing for the hundredth time that she’d never gotten out of bed. He didn’t say anything directly, but I just... She shook her head, lost for words. Eden, he knows. I’m sure of it. Now what are we going to do?"

The fae stared at her a split second longer before turning back to the window.

Even more troops had gathered in the brief time they’d been speaking, trickling into the valley from every corner of the murky darkness, and pooling on the cracked earth like a flood. It was nearly impossible to see the distant forest over the gleam of their torches. The smoke was already wafting through the open window, mixing with the rising stench of sweat and metal and blood.

Twice, those eternal eyes swept the length of the valley—searching for answers in the flickering shadows, searching for cracks in the ranks. Twice, they came up blank.

A long moment passed, framed in silence.

I don’t know, he answered quietly.

THE IMMORTALS VANISHED down the hall just a few hours later—not to sleep, but to whisper for endless hours in the dark. Jesse lay down not long after that, pressing a silent kiss to Kiera’s forehead before kicking his boots into a corner and climbing onto the massive bed.

Despite the casual homicide that had marked their arrival, the friends had been afforded every luxury the strange palace had to offer, and the room itself was a testament to their host’s vaunting pride. Carved with the same inexplicable seamlessness as the rest of the structure, the interior showed a slightly greater finesse. There were ornaments of bronze and silver, chests of clothes and basins of water, teak furniture and a set of crystal goblets set above the fire. It was finer than any establishment they’d visited, save that which had been crafted by the fae. Its high ceilings and plush fabrics would have been enough to fool even the most discerning traveler—until they wandered to the window and glimpsed the parched wasteland outside.

In hindsight, the shifter was probably hoping she was going to come with him. He was probably intending to scold her a little, as well. No wandering. By now, the others had said the words so many times, they’d nearly ceased to have any meaning, though they repeated them just the same.

But she kept her place by the window, arms wrapped tightly across her chest.

She was still standing there when he awoke a few hours later.

Has there been any change? he rasped, staring up at her from the mattress. His dark braids were tangled from hours tossing in a fitful sleep, and his throat was raw from the curls of smoke still drifting through the window. Despite the fledgling daylight, the horde had yet to extinguish its sea of torches. Has anything happened?

Half a dozen men came through the gate a little after dawn, she replied, never taking her eyes from the window. They were riding horses and preceded by servants carrying large emblems.

They must have been the chiefs.

From the moment the gate had closed behind them, her body had gone rigid with attention, straining to hear even the slightest whisper of noise—the catch of voices, the metal scrape of a blade, the sound of furtive footsteps coming up the hall. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she was the only one listening. No doubt, the vampire and the fae were tracking each movement with a great deal more success from their quarters at the opposite end of the corridor. The friends might have come to the valley with reason and purpose, but those logics held up easier in the bright light of day. Once the sun had settled, it was hard to see anything other than the immediate happenings:

They were sharing a hearth with a pack of desert warlords.

A part of her couldn’t understand how Jesse had been able to sleep.

Half a dozen, he repeated, lifting silently from the bed and ghosting across the floor to her side. His green eyes swept across the same pennants and banners, recognizing many more of them than she did herself. An instinctual shudder swept across his shoulders, but he kept every hint of it from his face. And they are meeting with Mierko now? Discussing our proposal?

An awkward silence fell between them.

"How would I know that?" she finally answered.

Another silence.

I don’t know, he replied, trying to keep things light, perhaps he told you. He turned abruptly away from the tents and stared down at her, those lovely green eyes glinting in the pale light. Perhaps it was one of the things you discussed during your late-night wandering.

She lifted her eyes slowly, meeting his gaze.

So much for keeping things light.

In a fortunate bit of timing, there was movement at the other end of the hallway. The faint rattle of a basin, the soft latch of a door. A few seconds later, their door pushed open and the immortals stepped inside. Their cloaks were tightly fastened and there was a layer of dust on their boots that hadn’t been there the night before. The smoke that had been drifting through the window clung much heavier to them, as though they’d spent the evening lighting torches of their own.

We cannot leave this place, Eden said without preamble, in a voice quiet enough that it wouldn’t carry beyond the room. He avoided looking at the window. He had looked enough. It’s not just the western rim of the valley, the horde circles around the entire length of the palace. There are regular patrols, overlapping, and performed by trained soldiers. Even if that wasn’t the case, it’s unlikely we could make it past the front door, he added with an irrepressible twinge of frustration.

The words were quiet, yet certain—spoken in a single outpouring of breath. His bright eyes lingered a moment longer, catching on the glint of a hundred spears, before he repeated his original assessment. Flat and unyielding, like he was trying to convince himself.

We cannot leave.

Kiera drew in a silent breath, afraid, but even more afraid to show it. She didn’t know which was worse—the words themselves, or the fact that Eden had been the one to say them.

For a man borne of such restless momentum, there could be no worse sentence. Even now, his blood was thrumming. Evander placed a steady hand on his arm.

You wish to leave?

Nothing happened for a moment, then the friends turned in perfect unison to the shifter standing in the middle of the floor. He looked nearly as afraid to have spoken, as Kiera was feeling herself. But with that great mass of tents just over his shoulder, there was little other choice.

I mean...you were searching for way to leave? he asked again.

The words struck the air between them, seeming loud despite their mildness, like the sudden reverberation of a gong. Eden’s eyes lifted slowly and settled on the boy’s face. He said nothing.

You wish to stay? the vampire asked sharply, piercing as a blade. They looked at each other a moment before he tilted his head with a dangerous expression. "You really think that wise?"

The tension braided thick as a cord, flushing the wolf’s cheeks.

They have... Jesse’s breath caught, and he tried again. They have done nothing more than was promised. We came here searching for an army, did we not? Did he not promise to discuss the matter, to seek the advice of his counselors? He lifted a blind hand, gesturing haplessly out the window. It seems he’s done exactly that.

At that point, even Kiera turned around to face him, staring with silent astonishment as he struggled to hold the fae’s gaze. Do you actually believe that? No, she wasn’t sure he did.

But in lieu of better options, the young wolf was choosing to hope.

And these are his counselors? Eden asked with a dangerous lack of inflection, looking him right in the eyes. The swarm of tents bristled behind him. This is how it looks to seek advice?

We have come all this way seeking men for a fight, Jesse reasoned quietly, and the man has done nothing to break that diplomacy. His pulse quickened, as though he could still see the glint of those spears behind them. He’s even gathered them for us...unsettling as they may be.

Unsettling.

Kiera let out a hard burst of laughter, surprising them all. Unsettling, she echoed, "what a generous word. I can of quite a few others. But I’ve