Excerpt and Giveaway: Challenging Destiny by Cherie Colyer

Description:

Logan Ragsdale and his younger sister, Ariana, have been marked, chosen to be unwilling participants in a war between angels and demons.

Logan can sense something's not quite right. Like an unexpected chill on a summer's day, he can feel the unseen closing in. He's had these feelings before and, each time, someone close to him died. He's afraid this time it might just be Ariana.

Logan's fears are soon confirmed when he discovers their new friends aren't human, but rather representatives from Heaven and Hell sent to Earth to ensure he and Ariana accept their roles in an ancient prophecy. Demons want Logan to open the gates of Hell. Ariana has the power to stop them, but if she chooses to side with Heaven to spare the lives of thousands of innocent people, she'll damn her brother for eternity.

Together, they must derail the biblical event if they hope to save themselves and the future of mankind...but what price are they willing to pay to keep the other safe?

EXCERPT

From Logan’s point-of-view.

That night I awoke to a noise in our apartment. Soundlessly, I got out of bed, grabbed the metal baseball bat I kept near my door—a habit I’d picked up from my uncle—and went to look around. I pushed Ariana’s bedroom door open a crack. Her room was dark. It smelled like the autumn-spice candles she always burned. She was fast asleep, curled up on her side under her thick cream comforter. A search of the family room and kitchen turned up empty. Relieved, I decided that I had to have been dreaming or had heard one of our neighbors out in the hall. I stumbled back to my room, cursing under my breath when I jammed my little toe on the edge of the doorframe.

My head had barely hit the pillow when a raspy, male voice barked, “Trap!”

My racing heart drowned out the rest of its words. I knew that voice, and there was never a person attached to it. My mind went numb with fear, and every muscle in my body tensed. I’d thought I was past hearing voices. I wanted to scream and would have, but I didn’t want to wake Ariana.

The disembodied voice spoke again in a hurried whisper: “Must protect.” There was a long pause. “Up to you.”

And then silence. Outside, a distant horn blared and cars swooshed past the apartment complex. I sat in the shadows created by the moonlight and listened.

It didn’t speak again.

What trap? Protect who? Why was it up to me? The words had been garbled so badly, I wasn’t even sure I’d heard them correctly. Hearing voices freaked me out—it always had. And now I had more questions that I didn’t know how to find the answers to.

A moment later, Ariana’s blood-curdling scream had me out of bed and sprinting to her room.

*****

Kira’s point-of-view

“This is your will, to make a deal with me?”

I swallowed my lingering doubt about what I was doing and replied, “It is.”

With a glint of something untold, he said, “Kira Rose Mercer, I accept your offer.”

I breathed in deeply, relishing the victory. The fall air smelled crisper than it had a moment ago. I took a step back, ready to go home and put the last few weeks behind me.

“Not so fast.” He pulled a silver dagger from his pocket.

“You—you can’t harm me,” I stammered, my mouth dry.

“I’ve no desire to hurt you.” He ran the blade over his palm. A thin line of blood stained his otherwise perfect skin. “The deal must be sealed.”

I had won, I reminded myself. If spilling a little blood would get him out of my life, I’d do it. I held up my hand, flinching when the cold steel sliced me.

Now what?” I asked.

“We shake.”

The moment his blood mingled with mine, I knew something was terribly wrong. Fire filled my veins, traveling swiftly through me like molten lava. He pulled me even closer.

“You should have chosen your words more carefully,” he whispered gleefully into my ear. “But we will have an eternity to discuss exactly where you went wrong.”

“No!” I screamed, but it was too late. I could feel myself changing in unexplainable ways. A raised red circle pierced by an arrow formed on my forearm, binding me to him forever.

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About the author:

A little about myself: I write young adult and middle grade novels. I love finding new stories that keep me up late reading. While my favorite genre is fantasy, if the book is beautifully written with characters that come alive I’m all over it.

My debut novel EMBRACE is now available from Omnific Publishing.

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