rylee epilogues 04 - lynchpin Read online

  Table of Contents

  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

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  COVER

  TITLE PAGE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  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

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  LINK TO DESTROYER

  WHAT'S COMING UP

  NEWSLETTER

  ALSO BY SHANNON MAYER

  AUTHORS NOTE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  COPYRIGHT

  PRAISE FOR THE RYLEE ADAMSON NOVELS

  “Shannon Mayer’s Rylee Adamson paranormal romances keep me glued to the page. Rylee is a kick-ass character who loves with her whole heart and reminds me of my own Rose Gardner—a collector and protector of lost and broken souls. Every new book is better than the last and I always finish her latest book hungry for more.”

  -Denise Grover Swank

  New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

  “The Rylee Adamson Novels are filled with a wonderfully detailed and rich paranormal world with engaging characters, a fast paced plot and lots of action. A must read for urban fantasy lovers.”

  -Eve Langlais

  New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

  “If you love the early Anita Blake novels by Laurel K. Hamilton, you will fall head over heels for The Rylee Adamson Series. Rylee is a complex character with a tough, kick-ass exterior, a sassy temperament and morals which she never deviates from. She's the ultimate heroine. Mayer's books rank right up there with Kim Harrison's, Patricia Brigg's, and Ilona Andrew's. Get ready for a whole new take on Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance and be ready to be glued to the pages!”

  -Just My Opinion Book Blog

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thank you to the readers who wouldn’t let Alex go . . . who refused to believe that Rylee and her crazy pack’s story was over. Thank you for believing in me, and all the worlds I’ve created.

  As always I couldn’t have pulled this off without my amazing team of editors, ARC readers, proofreaders, cover artist, assistant and of course my own crazy pack.

  So much love and gratitude to you all for helping me continue to push through to the next level with my writing, my characters, and my own belief in myself.

  **Lifts a glass**

  Here’s to another book on the shelf.

  “I am not going to die.

  I'm going home like a shooting star.”

  - Sojourner Truth

  AT THE END OF “PAMELA” . . .

  I stared at the scene in front of me. Heroes of the realm, the Veil split open, Pamela, Rylee and Liam waiting on me. Okay, not exactly waiting, but I’ll call it that for now.

  But I didn’t think it would be as easy as just walking out of the Veil. No . . . this was going to have ramifications.

  “You can’t go, Alex.” Giselle put a hand on my arm, stopping me as I stepped forward. “You are holding the Veil together and if you go . . .”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.” I glanced at her, but my eyes were drawn back to the scene in the realm of the living. It was as if something had slowed things down. Rylee and Pamela were still exactly as I’d seen them only a moment before. Faces frozen, bodies unmoving. Liam and the large cat that could have been a tiger if there had been black stripes, were locked in combat. Liam had his mouth on the tiger’s throat. But his teeth hadn’t sunk through yet.

  Giselle sighed. “There was much wrong with the Veil when the demons came through. Did you not wonder why they could break through in the first place? Why any of them could get out? The Veil itself is weakening, the levels are beginning to blend, and if you go . . . you must go through all the levels to escape.”

  “And why is that bad?” The pull on me was sudden and hard to deny, the draw to Pamela as she called my name. Giselle kept her hand on me.

  “Because with each step you take, the Veil will grow weaker yet. Dragging yourself through is the surest step to bring it to its breaking point because you are not supposed to leave. It is worse than calling a demon through the levels of the Veil.”

  I didn’t doubt her, but there was something else. I could see it in Pamela’s eyes. We were so far apart and yet I felt as if I stood right in front of her. Fear, determination, and sorrow so heavy, I knew she wouldn’t have done this, wouldn’t have called me home unless she had to. This wasn’t just Pamela reaching out for me. Her words echoed in my ears. Come home.

  This was Pamela doing what she believed was right.

  I swallowed hard and nodded at Giselle as I brushed her hand off my arm. “I don’t understand why I’ve been called back, and maybe you are right and it will break the Veil. But maybe that, too, has to happen. I trust Pamela.”

  Giselle sucked in a sharp breath.

  I stepped away from her and toward the place I’d left willingly to save those I loved.

  Now, it was time to go home.

  No matter the cost.

  CHAPTER 1

  STANDING IN THE sixth level of the Veil, the place where heroes went after they died, I stood among my friends, and those I called family. I had no reason to be afraid, but there was a niggling fear that despite where I was, things were about to go sideways. At least for me. Because Pamela was calling me through the Veil, and for me that was motive enough to leave and demolish the Veil as I went along.

  I looked up at the sky above us and the scene playing out in slow motion. It felt like we were at the bottom of a deep well and Pamela and the others were peering down at us.

  Giselle touched my arm again, pausing me. The worry in her eyes was clear, but there was no condemnation with it. “If you must go . . .” She paused as if trying to see the future. She was, after all, a Reader. She shook her head. “If you must go through with this, then take these. I doubt the journey is going to be one of butterflies and sweet tea.”

  From the leather straps over her hips she pulled two large, curved blades. My eyes widened at the exotic look of the weapons. They were mid-sized—maybe eighteen inches total in length for the blades themselves, and they were bowed in the middle at a sharp angle, almost as if they were being folded in half.

  The handles were made of an off-white material that made me think of Blaz for some reason. Giselle smiled at me as she twisted them in her hands, cutting through the air. “The handles are dragon tooth. Getting them to mold to the blades was done with great effort, and no small magic. But these blades are as strong as those Rylee carries and should protect you as well as hers do.”

  She gave me one, then the other.

  “Are you sure?” I took them gingerly. “I’ve not used many weapons. I’ve not trained like Rylee.”

  Giselle didn’t slow her movements as she spoke, removing the leather straps from around her waist. “That pair of blades are good, strong weapons, made by a Guardian of the realms. You not having trained won’t matter to them. You are a fighter, whether you want to be or not. The blades will sing for you; I’m sure of it.”

  Before I could move away, she put her arms around my waist and snugged the belt that would hold the double sheaths to my lower back. The contraption fit far more comfortably than I’d expected. I twisted my hands and found the sheaths on the first try. Magic weapons . . . I could get used to that idea.

  Giselle took a step back and nodded as she looked me over. “There. Now at least you will have a chance.”

  “You say that like I could die again.” I laughed, but at the look on her face my laughter dried up. “Giselle? I’m already dead.”

  “You are,” she nodded slowly, her eyes thoughtful, “which means that if you were injured badly, or . . . killed here . . . I do not know what would happen. It might be that your soul would cease to exist. There have been those who died fighting against the demons. I do not know where they went.”

  “Well, shit,” I muttered. “Guess I better not piss anyone off.”

  I stared hard at her, my thoughts shifting. “If you don’t believe I should go, why are you helping me at all?”

  Her eyes softened as she spoke. “You gave your life to save Rylee. And what I see in the future for you will be harder yet. I may not want you to do this, but perhaps it is a selfish thought. Because I know your actions will once again affect us all.”

  “I did it for the world. I didn’t die just for Rylee,” I said.

  She laughed softly. “No, Alex, you did it for Rylee and we all know that. If you had not loved her as fiercely and as loyally as you do, you would never have become the Lynchpin in the first place. It is your heart that allowed the demons to be stopped, as much as it was Rylee’s blood to seal the Veil closed.”

  I opened my mouth to argue wi
th her, but then snapped it shut. No point in arguing what we both knew was true. I rolled my shoulders, feeling the tug on me, the call from Pamela pulling me away from the Veil and back into the real world.

  In my heart, I knew I didn’t have to go, that the call from Pamela wasn’t binding, but a request.

  I had a choice, but did I really?

  I fiddled with the belt snug around my waist. “Any other advice before I go?”

  Giselle put her hands on my shoulders and pulled me forward to kiss me on the forehead. “Run as fast as you can. Not all the heroes will want to let you go, Alex. They will feel the shattering of the Veil as surely as I do and it will undermine all they have done to keep the demons back for all these years.”

  I looked around us. Many of the heroes who’d died and ended up in the sixth level of the Veil were friends of mine. People I’d fought beside as we’d battled through the demon hordes. People I trusted and believed would always fight for me as I’d fought for them. Of all of them, I couldn’t imagine one singling me out and trying to stop me. “Can’t you explain to them that I have to go? That Pamela wouldn’t call me out on a whim?”

  “They would not understand, Alex. They are Guardians of the realms. They will see you breaking through the Veil as a breach of trust. You will stand on the other side from them for the first time in your life.” Her eyes were sad. “And that is why I suggest you run. Despite what others saw in your twisted form, you were always fast and smart. You will need to be both to get through what it is you face.”

  A twang through my muscles made me stumble, as if someone had strummed them with their fingers, hooked into my tendons and tugged me a step away from Giselle.

  That was the pull on my soul that Pamela exerted. Her cry for me was fed with magic and her power, and I did not want to deny that call. Everything in me needed to spin on my heel and turn away from Giselle. I wanted nothing more than to follow the line to Pamela all the way out. To run toward the far horizon where I knew the crossing place lay between the sixth level of the Veil where we stood, and the fifth level that waited for me.

  That thought gave me pause. I would have to go through to the fifth level of the Veil. And if people were chasing me . . . “If someone does follow me,” I adjusted the two blades on their sheaths that lay against my lower back, testing the feel of them again, “they won’t be able to cross into the fifth level, will they?”

  Giselle’s eyebrows flicked upward. “They may not be able to see it like you do. I suspect you will have a clearer vision of most of where you are headed. But they can cross it if the desire to stop you is strong enough.” She nodded, fractionally, as she dropped her voice. “In short, yes, they will be able to follow you through. Likely they may not realize it at first, and that will buy you time. It is not common knowledge how movement between the levels works.”

  I glanced around us at the milling heroes. None had drawn close to me, almost as if they hadn’t noticed me. Being submissive and weak had its moments. “You going to tell me how it works, then, so I can be ready for it if someone follows me?”

  Giselle lowered her voice further, reached out and took my arm in a tight grip. “Movement between the Veils is only possible to the levels below where you start. If you started in the fourth level, you could visit the third, second and first, and then back to the fourth. But you could not drop to the fifth or sixth. All the heroes here could follow you if they wanted to. If they understood it was possible.”

  I nodded, believing it wasn’t going to be an issue for two reasons. The first, because I was a nobody. Sure, they could call me the Lynchpin all they wanted, but the reality was nobody here understood my role in closing the Veil. And if they did? They saw only a weak and twisted wolf, unable to shift for most of my supernatural life. Even now, my shifting only took me back to that twisted form.

  The second reason was far more visual. Above us, the sky was filled with the image of Pamela and Rylee, Liam and the big tiger. They all still stood frozen, like a giant screen set on pause. Pamela’s back was to Rylee and Liam, her hands wrapped around the handle of what looked like a sword in the ground. Around us, the heroes stared at the “screen” as if that was where the game was to be played out. As if it would be Rylee once more.

  No one would be looking at the submissive werewolf running for a line between the levels of the Veil that only he could see.

  “Why are they frozen like that?” I stared up at my family, feeling the fear and determination from all of them as if I stood next to them. No doubt Rylee was shocked at what Pamela had done.

  What would she think when I found my way out of the Veil?

  “I believe a timer of sorts has been set, Alex. If I were to guess, I would say that if Pamela lets go of that handle, your time will be up.” Giselle’s words hit me hard.

  “Then I guess I’d better get going.”

  “I surely wouldn’t dawdle.” Giselle gave me a tired, sad smile and released my arm. “Tell my girl I love her, and that forgiveness is a virtue, not a weakness.”

  I nodded again, my throat tightening unexpectedly. The thought that I could go home, that I could be with my family again, had never occurred to me while I’d been stuck in that place that blocked the demons from escaping. I’d been in limbo between the sixth and seventh levels of the Veil, in the darkness that was the barrier keeping the demons at bay . . . it hadn’t been unpleasant, but it had been lonely. It had taken me only a short time to realize that my mind would slowly deteriorate in that state of nothingness.

  I shook myself. Time was ticking; I had to go. I turned and the blades shifted on my lower back. They reminded me of Rylee.

  I must have said it out loud because Giselle laughed softly. “Yes, they do. But why ruin something that works? Rylee's swords always served her well. Let's hope these two do the same for you, Alex.”

  She put her hand between my shoulder blades and gave me a little push. “Your chance is now. They are all watching Pamela and the others.”

  I glanced upward once more. It was strange to have a scene floating above my head, like a picture frozen in time. I looked away. The tears tracking down Pamela's cheeks were clear as day, as was the fear and determination in her eyes. Pamela’s emotions were a distraction I couldn't afford. I knew little about the levels of the Veil that waited for me, only that I had to go through all of them to get out. And I was not a powerful shifter, so it was me going into this journey blindly, and hoping to all that was holy I’d make it to my family.

  “Yuppy doody,” I muttered under my breath as I took my first step. Where would this journey take me? I suspected it wouldn’t be over if I made it all the way out. No . . . I shook myself. I wouldn’t doubt my ability; I couldn’t. If nothing else, I was loyal, and I wouldn’t give up. Maybe I wasn’t a powerhouse, but the other traits I did carry, I would trust in them.

  Carefully I walked through the small groupings of heroes, doing my best not to let them take note of me. Here and there, I got a glance, but I kept my eyes down and my feet moving.

  As I walked around a grouping of unicorns, I looked past their backs and into the distance where the pull centered for me.

  The crossing point between the fifth and sixth levels was there shimmering like an iridescent curtain in those frou-frou tarot card shops. Colors danced over it, reflecting the weak light that was a constant in this realm. If I was going to give it a general direction, I would say it was north, but maybe that was just because my mother had always told me the north star would lead me home. My heart twanged a little at the thought of my mother. Being human, she wouldn’t be within the Veil, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t hoped somehow she’d be here.

  I broke into a jog as I passed the last of the unicorns, weaving my way through the different heroes who stood on the outskirts of the groupings. Heroes that had died honorably and were placed here, in front of the seventh Veil, to protect the world.

  “Home free,” I muttered to myself as I cleared through the last of them. Nothing was in front of me but open plains, and further out some old ruins. Gauging the distance was hard, so I didn’t bother to try. I had to go, and no one noticed me slipping away, so caught up were they in the drama going on with Pamela, Rylee, and the others.