Unearthed by Rachael Wade
(The Resistance Trilogy #4)
Publication Date: August 25th 2013
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult
(The Resistance Trilogy #4)
Publication Date: August 25th 2013
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult
*Warning*
This is a short novella (approximately 25,000 words) and is intended to be read after The Tragedy of Knowledge. It takes place after the events of The Resistance Trilogy.
For Gavin and Camille, the Amaranthian war is over. But they’ve evolved since then, and so has the realm they’ve come to know as home. Now comfortable and happy in their new life, they soon discover that something groundbreaking is brewing, threatening to disrupt the peace they’ve worked so hard to secure. And whether they’re prepared or not, it’s about to be unearthed.
This is a short novella (approximately 25,000 words) and is intended to be read after The Tragedy of Knowledge. It takes place after the events of The Resistance Trilogy.
For Gavin and Camille, the Amaranthian war is over. But they’ve evolved since then, and so has the realm they’ve come to know as home. Now comfortable and happy in their new life, they soon discover that something groundbreaking is brewing, threatening to disrupt the peace they’ve worked so hard to secure. And whether they’re prepared or not, it’s about to be unearthed.
“Tomb?” I gulped,
glancing around. “Gav…”
“This isn’t just
a secret passage,” he said, looking up to study the ceiling. “It’s a grave.”
“What kind of
grave?” I slowly rose to my feet, crossing my arms over my chest. A cold,
slithering chill crept down my spine, and I could have sworn I felt the
temperature drop. “I’m ready to get out of here, now.”
“Wait, baby, we
need to do what the Book of the Ancients says. Isn’t that how this stuff
works?”
“That was before.
We’re not frozen souls anymore, Gav. Gérard’s positively gone. There are no witches trying to help us destroy the curse.
Whatever this is, it’s not the same. I can feel it…something’s off.”
“We can’t defend
ourselves like we used to,” Gavin said quietly, his gaze roaming the floor. “If
this is some kind of threat, we’re at its mercy. We have to know what to tell
these people when we leave this passage.”
“Tomb,” I corrected him, feeling another
chill skate over my spine. “We’ll figure out what to say when we get home. I
don’t care. I’m getting out of here. I don’t want to know…whatever’s in that
box, I just don’t want to know, okay?”
“Cam,” Gavin
stepped in front of me, taking my face in his hands, “we can’t just walk away
from this, you know that, love.”
“No.” The word
came out hard and cold. A stern plea. “The second we do what that book tells
us, there’s no turning back. I’m not ready.” I squeezed my eyes shut and shook
my head. “Everything’s been so good…so, so good here. Let’s walk away from
this, please.”
“You know that’s
not an option. Open your eyes, Cam. Look at me.”
My head rolled
forward in defeat and I bit down on my lip. I slowly let my eyes flutter open,
knowing exactly what I was going to find on Gavin’s face when I did.
That soft,
imploring expression of his, mixed with a trace of unwavering determination.
“I know the place
you come from, remember?” he whispered, tucking my hair behind my ear. “Before
me. Before Amaranth. Before him,
even.”
My lips parted at
his words. We hadn’t spoken about Andrew in years. I hadn’t brought him up. Not
once. I had no need to.
“Always waiting
for the ball to drop, waiting for the rug to be pulled out right from
underneath your feet. That comes with trauma, Cam. With heartbreak. Just when
things begin to feel peaceful…you think everything’s going to be stolen from
you. I know you, remember?” He placed his hand over my heart, breathing deeply.
“You’re the same girl you were when I picked you up for our first date—remember
that?” He smiled fondly.
“Of course.”
“You were so
beautiful, wearing your grey Chucks and that sexy black top. At first, you
hated dancing. But you let me drag you all over Café Des Amis, let me dip you
and spin you around and then you were laughing…so vibrant and strong. You’re
that same girl now. The one who quoted O’Connor and Maupassant. The one who
loved my chicken parmesan and who fought to the death when our friends needed
us. You’re that same girl right now, only you’re even stronger. You’re the
mother of our child. No matter what happens when we do what that book says, no
matter what’s going on here, you still have the strength you need to follow
through, because that strength never disappeared. And you know me, too. You
know I keep my word and that wherever this leads us, we’re in this together.
So, it’s okay to be afraid of losing what we’ve worked so hard for, here. But
know that you can handle this, and
that you’re never alone, okay? Never.”
“Shit,” I
murmured, my gaze falling to the Book of the Ancients. “Why do you have to be
right?”
Gavin laughed
softly and let his hand fall from my face. I marched forward, back toward the
stone case, bracing my fingers on its cool, heavy edge. “Okay, then. Let’s get
this over with.”
He nodded swiftly
and moved to join me, giving the coffin lid a strong push.
I wasn’t sure
what to expect when we opened this thing, but given the circumstances, it
couldn’t be pleasant.
“What…the…hell?” I groaned through gritted teeth,
throwing every ounce of my human strength into pushing the damn lid. “This thing isn’t going anywhere!”
“Keep trying.
Harder.” Gavin bent his knees and shoved mightily, working to slide the
stubborn slab of stone to the left.
“Ahh! I give up.” I dropped my hands at
my sides, completely out of breath.
“It’s times like
this I wish we had our frozen soul strength again.”
“Was I always
this physically weak as a human?”
“Pretty much.” He
shrugged, falling back against the wall with a labored sigh.
“Please, don’t
try to spare my feelings or anything.”
A little chuckle
slipped out between pants for breath, and Gavin shoved his hands deep into his
pockets. “Well, the book gave us plenty of light and pointed us to this coffin.
This doesn’t make any sense.”
I was about to agree,
but a low, heavy rumble and the sound of stone grinding against stone stole my
breath, calling my attention to the coffin’s lid. “Gav, it’s moving.”
Gavin pushed
himself off the wall and hesitantly moved forward, taking my hand and aligning
me to the left, just behind him. “Dagger,” he whispered.
My hand slid
under my dress to the leather strap that held one of our old silver daggers,
the same ones we fought with during our battles as frozen souls. We didn’t have
the luxury of super human strength anymore, but we still knew how to fight in
combat, and these simple weapons would have to suffice.
Gavin grabbed his
knife, too, and we readied ourselves for whatever was about to greet us.
As we kept our
eyes glued to the stone coffin, an irrational giggle bubbled up beneath my breath.
“What’s so
funny?” Gavin hissed, glancing nervously at me.
“Nothing,” I
said, forcing another laugh down, “except for the fact that we’re holding up
knives to protect ourselves from…a dead person?” Gavin’s head swiveled in my
direction and his brows raised.
I stopped
laughing.
Yeah. Vampire
kings and queens, dead-witches-turned-reanimated-corpses, and magic? Suddenly,
a confrontation with a dead body didn’t seem so unlikely.
The Book of the
Ancients’ light flickered and flared, swelling and bathing the passage in an
even brighter light, almost to the point of blinding. The coffin’s scraping
sound gnawed at my ears and I winced, my heart flip-flopping in my chest when I
heard the cumbersome lid land with a clunk on the ground. The scraping sound
ceased and the tomb’s light dimmed, leaving Gavin and me standing there in the
quiet, musty hole. I swallowed hard and tensed up, waiting for something to pop
out at us like a cheesy haunted house display.
But nothing
happened.
The air was still
cold, the space eerily calm.
Gavin picked up a
lantern and took a step forward. “Are you ready?”
I nodded then
waited, not moving a muscle.
He cautiously
stepped forward, the sound of his shoes on the dirt path breaking the piercing
silence, and held the lantern up to hover over the stone coffin. Every muscle
in his neck and shoulders locked up, the tension in his back visible from where
I was standing.
“Gav? What is
it?”
“Come see for
yourself.”
My eyelids
blinked rapidly, my mind unsure whether it wanted to propel my body into
forward motion just yet. I fought the fear and took a step in Gavin’s
direction, slowly walking up to meet him at the edge of the coffin.
“It can’t be,” I
gasped and stumbled back, covering my mouth with a trembling hand. “That’s
not…it can’t be. How?”
“I don’t know.”
Bringing the lantern closer, Gavin illuminated the corpse’s face. Only it
wasn’t a corpse. The woman inside didn’t look dead at all. She was flawless.
Exotic. Strikingly beautiful.
She was Samira.
Rachael Wade writes edgy New Adult and Adult romance and science
fiction. She is the author of the Amazon bestselling PRESERVATION
SERIES, THE REPLACEMENT, and LOVE AND RELATIVITY, as well as the
paranormal romance series THE RESISTANCE TRILOGY. When she's not
writing, she's busy going to concerts, watching too many movies, and
learning how to protect animals and the environment. She's an avid
Brandi Carlile fan and loves all things Tim Burton. Visit her at RachaelWade.com and LightsOnLove.com, and come chat with her on Twitter @RachaelWade.
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