The Hunt Book 4 - The Hunt: Refugees from a despot who has overrun their world, a group of children are sent to Earth through a rip in time and space ... and are separated by time. They must first find each other before they can go home and save their world.Iris Davenport hated the memories that came with world-shaking thunderstorms -- because she didn't want to remember she was a member of the Hunt. She was perfectly happy with her adopted parents, helping run the lodge on Smokeytop Mountain, exploring the mountainside, and doing search-and-rescue. The last thing she wanted was to face one of the Hunt and be reminded of the vows her parents had made when they gave her to the guardianship of the Hounds of Hamin.
But when a plane taking a sick boy to a a life-saving operation crash-landed on Smokeytop in a thunderstorm, Iris had to help. Even when one of the searchers turned out to be a member of the Hunt, who reminded her of everything she hoped to forget. She had her own life now -- a home, friends, parents, and a boyfriend. None of which she was willing to give up for a world she barely remembered.
Until the past caught up with them in the form of a traitor to the Hunt, and pieces of an old puzzle that could get her and her boyfriend killed if they didn't find all the clues in time.
BUY THE BOOK *** BUY IN KINDLE *** READ THE EXCERPT
The recent storms wreathing the slopes of Smokeytop Mountain had been rumbling
overhead for nearly a week in the wettest, stormiest April in the memory of the town
of Cameron. That Friday night, a dam break temporarily stranded Nate Wilson and
the rest of the leadership of the hiking club with Iris Davenport and her parents at
their lodge. Iris tried to make the best of the situation. Her boyfriend housebound in
her home for the foreseeable future--not so bad. However, adding in three friends
and her parents in the house turned the situation both reassuring and frustrating.
After all, Nate had managed to steal a grand total of five kisses so far in the three
months they had been dating. It was high time he raised those numbers. At least, Iris
thought so.
If only those thunderstorms didn't keep rolling across the top of the mountain as if
someone high above the clouds was trying to flatten it. Or maybe just the occupants
of Davenport Lodge.
"Hey, you keep rubbing like that, you won't have any hair left on your arms," Cody
Hawkins said.
Iris turned from her spot in front of the huge panorama windows looking out over
the valley and opened her mouth to retort. Nate beat her to it.
"Yeah, you try feeling like somebody attached sparking wires all over your arms,"
he snarled, his lip curled in anger, but teasing laughter in his eyes.
Iris flinched. That was exactly how she felt, but most of the sensation was focused
on the scars ringing her wrists. She wondered what her high school friends would do
if they could see the blue sparks dancing over the white, jagged lines in her flesh. Not
that any of them could see the sparks, even if she wanted them to see.
Which she didn't. She saw few benefits in being a member of the Hunt, and the
awful sensation that maybe someone was arriving in that storm was definitely not
one of them. More like the last thing she wanted to happen--whether it was now, or
fifty years in the future.
"Now is not a good time," she whispered, and turned to stare out the window
again.
Could anyone else see the electric blue streaks in the sky, like visible echoes or
negative images of the lightning flashes?
"Let's try to get as much work done as we can," Pandora Tuttle said. "Then we
won't have to have any more meetings until May."
"Sorry." Iris mentally pushed herself away from her post at the window and tried
to stroll casually across the greatroom to the couches gathered around the fire pit.
"Not such a great idea to meet out here after all, huh?"
"Sounded like the perfect place to me," Cody offered. "I mean, half our hikes start
right here. And with your folks offering to host whatever we plan to do..."
He shrugged and gave her that adorable, floppy puppy grin that had made her feel
welcome on her first day of school nine years ago, after the Davenports decided to
foster her. Sometimes Iris wondered what her life would be like if Cody hadn't taken
her under his wing from the moment she crossed the threshold of the school, with
only a minimal grasp of the English language. Would she have been so eager to stay
with the Davenports? It never occurred to her to that it might not be smart to stay on
the mountainside where the Hound had left her ten years ago, until she was in high
school and started to have dreams about the Hunt coming to take her away from her
home and parents.
The dichotomy that filled her life for the last two years made her feel as if she
were two people. She loved the mountain where her parents ran a lodge that serviced
hikers and camping groups. It wasn't just her gift for land and water, the sense of the
life energies flowing through stone and soil and trees. This was her home, the place
she wanted to stay for the rest of her life. Yet the dreams, the realization that
eventually the Hunt would call her away, made her hate the mountain. Not because
staying here made her easy to find. Because the mountain--and now the blue-tinged
storms ringing it--reminded her of the terror that had thrown her from her
homeworld, through the vortex of time and space. It frustrated her. It wasn't fair.
When she didn't remember, when she didn't have nightmares about the journey,
when her scars didn't prickle and sting and burn, she loved the mountainside, she
loved her adopted parents, she loved everything about her life.
Especially since Nate came to Cameron with his foster family, the Hancocks. Life
had been just about perfect, from the moment Cody reached out to the new kid who
showed up halfway through their sophomore year of high school. Iris had been friends
with Nate from the start because Cody made Nate his friend, and she and Cody had
been inseparable since her first day of school, like brother and sister.
LIKED THE EXCERPT?? CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOOK
No comments:
Post a Comment