My heart is full, practically beating from my chest. I’ve never been so exposed; I was always too scared to let anything other than my swagger and poise shine through.
For once in my life, I’m all out of words and I can tell Rhett is, too. And anyway, I’m happy without them for a few hours. I kiss him and I don’t stop, long after the only sounds are crickets chirping and Hex snoring, as day turns to dusk and dusk to ash.
Chapter Fifty
Rhett
I awake from a sweet dream to a light, shining through the skin of the tent. Sometime during the night, the game of Twister Laney and I were playing ended and we secured our own territories amongst the mess of blankets.
I can tell it’s still night, the light too dim to be dawn.
Although I’m hesitant to leave Laney alone, Hex is here. And he’s as dependable as a Swiss-made clock. I slip out from the tent to investigate the light.
The Claire stands twenty feet away, just waiting patiently. She knew I would come. In fact, I realize with a start that it wasn’t the light that woke me, but a voice in my head. Awake, young witch hunter.
It seems weird that she’d use the term “young” to refer to me, when she appears to be only a teenager herself; and yet, she has an aura of wisdom about her, like she’s seen it all in her time.
As I approach the girl, I recognize her as the one who stepped forward to save the red Changeling’s life. A piece of knowledge seems to appear in my head, almost as if it’s been put there. “You know my father,” I say, wondering even as I say it how I know.
Yes, she says in my head. We have been allies for many years.
“I failed him,” I say, easily falling back into that pit of self-loathing that Laney helped me climb out of. “With President Washington dead, there’s no way to remove the curse on my father.”
No, she says. You have been deceived.
“What?” I say. I feel my legs buckling, but I don’t try to stop it. I fall to my knees in front of her. “Please explain,” I say. There’s desperation in my voice, but I don’t care. Standing before this wise old witch in the body of an eighteen-year-old, I feel no shame.
There is another way to remove the curse. All shall be revealed in time.
A flower of hope blooms in my chest, but just as quickly it dies. “I’m not going to like the other way of removing the curse, am I?” I say.
The Claire’s glowing white dress seems to shimmer as she glides over to me. Nothing that is worth it will ever be easy, she says. But you have our Mother’s blessings. She loved you and Laney very much. Do not waste her love.
“I won’t,” I promise her.
She floats away, her light getting dimmer and dimmer until it vanishes into the night.
With legs like lead, I drag myself back to the tent and collapse next to Laney. She stirs in her sleep, wrapping an arm around my chest, so warm and strong.
I don’t know what tomorrow may bring, but I know with Laney and Hex at my side, it’ll be another day worth living.
Chapter Fifty-One
Nearby New America
When the monstrous brown bear stands on his hind legs, he towers over Flora.
She’s quite enjoying Og’s pathetic attempt at salvaging his pride.
“Yow have something for me?” she says, trying to see past his impressive girth.
Og’s voice is as rough as gravel. “Yeah,” the bear grunts. “A small token to pledge my allegiance to you.” He steps aside and Flora’s eyes light up. A small child, long bark-brown hair dusting his eyes. His arms and legs are bound by tight ropes that have painted angry red circles around his wrists and ankles. His cheeks are tear-stained and dirty.
“Come to me, child,” Flora hisses, and one of her lieutenants, a vicious cheetah, nudges the boy forward. A fresh flow of tears begins and the child whimpers. To Og, Flora says, “Leave us.”
Og stares at her with huge black eyes. “Does this mean—”
“Silence!” she roars. “I’ll let you know my decision in the morning.”
She’s been using that very same line again and again. Let them sweat, she thinks. Not that long ago the Shifters had lost faith in her, made her an outcast, sought new leadership. And now…
Now she’s their queen. No one else could’ve played President Washington against Rhett Carter with such poetic grace. No one else could’ve masterminded the destruction of the most powerful Head of the Witch Council the magic community has ever seen.
Only her.
And now they bow before her and offer her gifts and compliments and their service. Let them beg. Let them humble themselves.
And then let them destroy the humans and any who stand by them.
She knows she won’t refuse the help of a single Shifter. She’ll need them all to realize the goal she’s had for as long as she can remember:
Human extinction.
The boy screams as she throws herself on him.
~~~ * ~~~
Look out for the thrilling final chapter in the Salem’s Revenge series, Burn, out in 2015! And keep reading for a sample of Slip, the first book in David Estes’ new sci-fi dystopian series, the first two books of which will be released on December 1, 2014!
A personal note from David…
If you enjoyed this book, please, please, please (don’t make me get down on my knees and beg!) consider leaving a positive review on Amazon.com. Without reviews on Amazon, I wouldn’t be able to write for a living, which is what I love to do! Thanks for all your incredible support and I look forward to reading your reviews.
Acknowledgments
Gosh, I love my job. I get to make up stories about the end of the world and witches and strange creatures made of mud and a whole lot of other crazy things…and I get paid for it? I’m still in awe of the support that my readership has shown me in the last three years. I can honestly say that I’d still be stuck in a cubicle crunching numbers and reading reports (think “TPX reports” from the movie Office Space). For that, I’m forever in your debt!
I also want to thank my wife, Adele, for once again spending much of her down time pouring over my manuscript and providing incredibly intelligent and creative feedback that made this book so much better.
Another special thank you to my agent, Andrea Hurst, for letting me be myself and not telling me that I had to wait months and months to release the sequel to Brew. In fact, she wholeheartedly agreed with releasing both Brew and Boil at the same time! Thank you! And to her team, including Katie Reed, Christine Herman, and Sean Fletcher, you all are INCREDIBLE critical readers. Your intelligent and creative feedback took Boil to a whole new level. And thanks for dealing with my ridiculously aggressive deadlines and never once questioning them.
A gargantuan thank you to Tony at Winki Pop Design for creating yet another awesomely creepy but beautiful cover for this series!
Thank you to my beta readers, who generously give me a significant chunk of their free time simply because they love reading and helping authors like me improve their books. In the case of Boil, they saved me from screwing things up more times than I can count. So thank you Laurie Love, Alexandria Theodosopoulos, Kerri Hughes, Terri Thomas, Brooke DelVecchio, Rachel Shade, Sheree Whitelock, Karen Benson, Kat Mellon, and Anthony Briggs Jr.
To my Street Team, the Estes Angels, thank you for believing in me and picking me up each and every time I fall down. I don’t deserve half of the support you give me!
Lastly, to the nearly three thousand members of David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite on Goodreads, you are my personal heroes and I truly believe you could conquer evil in a witch-apocalyptic world every bit as successfully as Rhett, Laney, and Hex.
Young Adult Novels by David Estes
The Dwellers Saga:
Book One—The Moon Dwellers
Book Two—The Star Dwellers
Book Three—The Sun Dwellers
Book Four—The Earth Dwellers
The Country Saga (A Dwellers Saga sister series):
> Book One—Fire Country
Book Two—Ice Country
Book Three—Water & Storm Country
Book Four—The Earth Dwellers
Salem’s Revenge:
Book One—Brew
Book Two—Boil
Book Three—Burn (coming in 2015!)
The Slip Trilogy:
Book One—Slip (coming December 1, 2014!)
Book Two—Grip (coming December 1, 2014!)
Book Three—Flip (coming in 2015!)
The Evolution Trilogy:
Book One—Angel Evolution
Book Two—Demon Evolution
Book Three—Archangel Evolution
Children’s Books by David Estes
The Adventures of Nikki Powergloves:
Nikki Powergloves—A Hero Is Born
Nikki Powergloves and the Power Council
Nikki Powergloves and the Power Trappers
Nikki Powergloves and the Great Adventure
Nikki Powergloves vs. the Power Outlaws (Coming soon!)
Connect with David Estes Online
David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite
Facebook
Blog/website
About the Author
David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. He grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually he moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife and soul mate, Adele, who he’s now been happily married to for more than three years.
A reader all his life, David began writing novels for the children's and YA markets in 2010, and has completed 19 novels, 16 of which have been published. In June of 2012, David became a fulltime writer and was able to travel the world for two years with Adele, while writing his books. They’ve now settled down in Hawaii, where David hopes to create many more books for his readers.
David gleans inspiration from all sorts of crazy places, like watching random people do entertaining things, dreams (which he jots copious notes about immediately after waking up), and even from thin air sometimes!
David’s a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, an obsessive Goodreads group member, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table. He loves responding to e-mails, Facebook messages, Tweets, blog comments, and Goodreads comments from his readers, all of whom he considers to be his friends.
A sample of SLIP, the new sci-fi dystopian thriller by David Estes, available December 1, 2014!
PART 1
THE BOY WITH NO NAME
Chapter One
Past article from the Saint Louis Times:
Controversial Population Control Decree Written Into Law
Since the cataclysmic natural events referred to globally as the Rise and the Fall, American lawmakers have discussed various ways to control the growing population to ensure sufficient resources for survival. A five-year study has determined that the ideal economic and social population for the Reorganized United States of America is 504 million. As our great country is on the verge of reaching our ideal population, a population control system will be instituted on the 5th of December of this year. Prior to pregnancy, all couples planning a family must register with the Department of Population Control of the Reorganized United States of America, and pay a nonrefundable processing fee. After processing, each couple will receive a ‘pregnancy offset,’ which the media is casually referring to as a Death Match, someone who is likely to die in the near future. Only when their Death Match has died will the couple be authorized for pregnancy and child-bearing, thus maintaining the population status quo. This process has been coined Birth Neutrality, and is being referred to as ‘the cornerstone of our survival,’ by recently elected President Ford. In the event of an unsuccessful pregnancy, the Death Match will be voided and provided to another couple in need of a match. At that time, the couple may reapply and try again. Punishment for non-compliance will fall under the jurisdiction of the newly established Department of Population Control, which has been nicknamed Pop Con.
For more information on the topics discussed in this article, speak “Pop Con and you” into your holo-screen.
Have a comment on this article? Speak them into your holo-screen now.
Comments:
JimBob006: I think this is a positive step forward. My grocery store is always packed and the shelves are empty. More people will mean even less food to go around. Something’s got to give.
CyborgLuvr12: This is bulls!$*!
LingLi8: Now I know how my great-grandparents felt.
GovHater: JimBob006 probably works for Pop Con.
~~~
Michael Kelly’s stomach is in knots.
It’s no different than he’s felt since his promotion to Head of Population Control, except that the knots seem to tighten with each word that his second in command, Corrigan Mars, speaks. “Finally,” Corr says slowly, “we’ve got a Slip.”
Damn, he thinks, but he can’t say that. “What do we know?” he asks instead. As usual, he’s playing his role and playing it well.
“Not much,” Corr says. “Except she’s young, maybe three or four years old, female.”
“The doctor?” Michael says.
“Dead. He was particularly good at keeping secrets, even under our most sophisticated interrogation procedures. His mind was stronger than his body.”
Michael knows exactly what that means, and it makes him cringe inwardly. Torture. But he doesn’t show his revulsion on his face, his false expression stalwart and emotionless. “Just one child slipped through the cracks though, right?” Michael’s chest tightens when he realizes his mistake. His loose tongue. He called the Slip a ‘child.’ A child born illegally is no child, is nothing more than an enemy of the state, something he should know better than anyone.
Corr blinks once, but if he notices the error he doesn’t show it. Instead he only nods in confirmation. “There were others, but none had reached the age of mobility. The doctor started doing illegal births a few years back. He began slowly, as most of them do, but then ramped up operations as he gained confidence. The Slip was his first.”
“How’d we catch the others?”
“After the first, the doc started keeping records. He used code names and misdirection, but we managed to crack the code during his interrogation. From there it was relatively easy. The Hunters tracked every last UnBee down.”
UnBees, Michael thinks, hating the slang term more than ever. Unauthorized Beings. “How many?” he asks, wishing he didn’t have to. Wishing he could walk out and never return.
“Dozens.” His old friend says it with a smile, like killing more children than can be counted on two hands is something to be proud of. When did the gap in their beliefs widen into an eternal chasm?
“Good,” Michael says, bitterness coating his tongue. “Catch the Slip. Use every resource we have available. Our careers may depend on it.”
The smile never leaves Corr’s blood-red lips. “Don’t you worry, Boss. We’ll catch her and we’ll kill her. Her parents, too.”
The moment Corrigan Mars exits his office, Michael Kelly slumps back in his chair, his body shaking with regret. All he wants to do is run home to be with his son, the boy with no name.
Chapter Two
The boy doesn’t even know his own name.
At age five he wonders if it’s ‘Son,’ as his father always calls him.
“What’s my name?” he asks his father.
He knows his father doesn’t like the question because he won’t look him in the eyes. “You are special, Son,” his father says into his ear. “You don’t need a name. A name will only let them control you. Even the smallest and most unwanted seed can slip through the cracks and, against all odds, grow up to be a tall, strong, beautiful thing.”
He doesn’t know what his father means, but he stays silent. He sits on the bed and watches as his father pulls on his b
lack pants, black belt, black shirt, black tie, black coat, and black shoes. Even his father’s socks are black. But he sees his father’s secret: His red underwear is like a brightly colored kite that someone has thrown a dark blanket over, smothering its brilliance. It reminds him of the kites he sees the other kids fly sometimes, rising over the sheet-metal fence surrounding the backyard. A memory flits through his mind.
“What are they?” he once asked his father.
“Kites,” his father said, standing next to him and gazing at the bright sky, shielding his eyes with his hands.
Mimicking his father’s stance and posture, the boy asked, “Are they magic? Like the dragons on the holo-screens?”
His father laughed, and it was like music to his ears—he hadn’t heard such a beautiful sound from his lips in a while. “No, Son. The other children are flying them. Do you see the strings? Look hard.”
Other children. He knew who his father meant. He’d seen them through a tiny hole he found in the metal barrier, just big enough for him to peer through, one eye closed and one open. He’d been trying for weeks to gather up enough courage to ask about them.
He looked very hard, but still couldn’t see the strings, which was strange because he could usually see everything. The kites seemed more like magic to him. He desperately wanted to run to his secret hole to look for the other children, but he didn’t dare.