We know you’ve been waiting for the fourth book in Kresley Cole’s Arcana Chronicles forever and finally, Arcana Rising is out today!
To celebrate, check out the opening passage of the novel, which shows Evie’s fate just after The Emperor attacks, killing Selena and possibly Jack in the process.
1Day 382 A.F.Death kept taking me farther from Jack. I stretched my arms out, fingers splayed toward the heat. “He can’t be dead.” I sobbed. “Can’t. NO, NO, NOOOO!”“You want to follow the mortal? Get your revenge first. The Emperor mocks your pain.”I could hear that fiend in my head–laughing.The red witch exploded inside me, a force that could never be contained. I shrieked, “You will PAY!”As the Emperor laughed, Death murmured in my ear, “I have your grandmother, Sievā. That was the gift I spoke of. We’ll teach you how to kill the Emperor. You’ll avenge Deveaux.”“Don’t you understand? Jack’s not DEAD!” I screamed that over and over. “He’s alive!”With my mind teetering on the brink, I spied something in the skies above us. I gaped, disbelieving.Real? Unreal? Just before oblivion took me down, a mountain of water curled over our heads, racing toward that hell of flames.Circe’s towering wave. Taller than a skyscraper.–Quake before me!--Terror from the abyss!-Richter and Circe’s calls boomed in my mind, jolting me back from the blackness.“Come!” Aric snatched me into his arms and sprinted from the clash. “When they meet, the blast and then the flood…”I stopped fighting him; the need to turn Richter’s laughter into screams clawed at me, which meant I had to survive.Aric gave a sharp whistle, and a horse’s nickering answered. Thanatos. With me secure in his arms, Aric leapt into the saddle, and spurred the warhorse into a frenzied gallop.We all but dove down a slope, then charged up the next.I gazed over Aric’s shoulder as that tidal wave crested above Richter’s lake of lava.Heaving breaths, riding faster than humanly possible, Aric kept Thanatos at a breakneck pace. Up another mountain face. Down its slope–Circle struck.A hiss like a giant beast’s. A detonation like a nuclear bomb.The shock wave was so loud my ears bled. As loud as the roar preceding the Flash.The air grew hotter and hotter. The ground rocked as a blast of scalding steam chased us.BOOM! The force sheared the top off the mountain just behind us. Boulders crashed all around as we careened into yet another valley. Still we rode.Aric grated, “Surge comes next.”The ground quaked from the weight of an ocean of water. I could hear the surge shooting toward us.“Aric!”He got as far as he dared, as high as he could. “Hold on.” Clutching me tight, he dropped from Thanatos who kept running.Behind the cap of another mountain, Aric braced for impact. He wedged his metal gauntlet between boulders, wrapping his other arm around me.Gaze locked on mine, he yelled “I’ll never let you go!” We each sucked in a breath.The searing water hit. The explosive impact ripped me from his chest, but he caught my arm, clenching his fingers above my elbow.Death’s grip. The ungodly force of the flood. My watery scream…Aric never did let me go–My arm…gave way.Separated.
And just like that, Evie seems to be on her own! Will the Empress be able to play the game wisely and find out what happened to Jack without the help of her friends?
Order Arcana Rising now to find out!
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Kresley Cole is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the electrifying Immortals After Dark paranormal series, the young adult Arcana Chronicles series, the erotic Gamemakers Series, and five award-winning historical romances.
A master’s grad and former athlete, she has traveled over much of the world and draws from those experiences to create her memorable characters and settings.
Her books have been translated into twenty foreign languages, garnered three RITA awards, and consistently appear on the bestseller lists, in the U.S. and abroad.
You can learn more about her and her work at www.kresleycole.com or www.facebook.com/KresleyCole
