(Aunare Chronicles, #4)
Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: July 19th 2022
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult

Synopsis:

The moment I realized I had to go back to Earth, I panicked.

It wasn’t a little bit of panic. It was the kind that sucked the air and light from the room and made my body go cold with sweat and fear. I knew that if I did this, if I went back, then I had a shot of saving everyone—Earthers, Aunare, everyone—but it could cost me everything and everyone I love. And it could cost me my life.

But that moment of panic passed. It was still an insane, stupid, deadly idea, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew going back to Earth was the only plan that made sense.

Lorne agrees that this is the right plan, but he wants to come with me. We’re married now. A team. A unit. Where I go, he goes. It was in our marriage vows. And while I love that, I know that going to Earth will hurt him. He’ll want to see where I lived, how I survived, and seeing, knowing, understanding my past better will only hurt him. And yet, I don’t have a better plan.

There will be no hiding there. Not anymore. Everyone on Earth knows my face.

The vids of what happened on Abaddon and Sel’Ani have played throughout the known universe for months. But seeing those vids opened the Earthers’ eyes. They realized that I’d been fighting for them for years before I left. I’d taught martial arts, patrolled the streets, and helped save as many of them as I could. And now, somehow, my story has inspired Eathers to speak up and act out.

My name has become the rallying cry of the revolution.

Returning to Earth is risky, but nothing in life is without risk. I’m not afraid anymore. All I feel is determination to win. I won’t stop until SpaceTech has been destroyed.

Excerpt

I WAS MOVING SO FAST that I couldn’t feel my legs anymore. If I thought too hard about it, I would trip and fall. All I could think was move, move, move.

No lights flashed. No deafening siren. And I knew there wouldn’t be one. The Crew gave no warning to trespassers.

The soft beep after the door closed was too soft for anyone to really notice, but I knew it was there. I’d been listening for it. I’d trained to listen for it. And I knew what it meant.

Poison gas would fill the hallway unless I made it to the other end of the hallway in time.

The hallway was long and thin and dark and I couldn’t see where it ended or how much farther I had to go. So I moved.

Moved.

Moved.

At the door, there was a second keypad. That code rotated, but a few of us had a master code for that one. We hadn’t set a master code for the outside one, which seemed stupid in retrospect, but none of us ever planned to be out of touch. If I ever got away, I never thought I’d be stupid enough to come back.

What had I been thinking?

I should’ve asked that guy at the door for the new code. Or he should’ve given it to me. But maybe this had been a test of some sort. Maybe the guy hated me. Fucked if I knew.

The guys were behind me, too far. But only I had the code.

Roan had the same code. Once it was entered, the gas alarm would turn off.

There was another soft beep.

I was running out of time. Two more soft beeps and it’d be done.

I put another burst of energy in my legs, and then I was at the door. I had seconds. If that. My hands moved quickly over the keypad, but every time I entered the code, the keypad turned red and beeped.

Fuck that. It wasn’t a fake code. This was the master.

This had to work. I didn’t have a backup.

I entered it again.

Red. Beep-Beeeeeep.

Fuck off. I entered it again.

Red. Beep-Beeeeep.

You son of a bitch.

It wasn’t working.

They changed the master code.

I slammed my hand on the door. Someone would hear. Someone would come.

Slam-slam-slam-slam-slam.

“Come on. Come on.”

“Amihanna?” Lorne said softly. “What’s happening?” I didn’t know when he’d caught up with me, but I couldn’t die in here. I couldn’t let all of them die in here. I couldn’t let him down.

I ignored Lorne. Slam-slam-slam-slam.

Nothing.

Slam-slam-slam-slam.

There was another soft beep.

Only one left.

I couldn’t believe I’d come this far, lived this long, survived through so much, only to get taken down by my own goddamned booby trap.

This was so stupid.

I slammed my hand on the door and then rested my forehead against it, waiting for the poison.

“Amihanna. What’s going on?” Lorne asked again.

“Am!” I heard Roan yelling but I couldn’t deal with his drama right now.

I tried to breathe but I couldn’t. I couldn’t think. “I need to get through the door and it’s not opening. There’s—”

“Stop fucking around. Blow it the fuck up, Am!” Roan screamed at me. His voice was getting louder.

I turned to see him running down the dark hallways, going as fast as he could.

“Hurry the fuck up, Am. Before the fucking poison releases!”

I closed my eyes. Holy shit. Being on this planet was making me feel like I was a helpless halfer again. Less than an hour on the ground here and I’d already forgotten everything I’d learned.

But I was more than just an Earther now.

“Step back,” I said.

I crossed my wrists in front of my chest and gathered power. A second later I swept my hands across my body as I screamed.

The door exploded into a million tiny pieces. Lorne held out his hand, and all the flying bits flared into ash.

I dropped my chin to my chest as I tried to rein in the power that had risen inside me. I’d panicked. Not even an hour on Earth and I’d already fucked up.

Roan was right. What the hell was I doing?

My breaths were coming in quick puffs, and Lorne tugged me to him, wrapping his arms around me. “You alright?”

“Just a moron.” A complete idiot who almost got us all killed.

“Next time remember that you’re an Aunare, and use words before you freak out.”

I whimpered.

“You have to communicate. Remember, you said you would. I know it’s got to be impossibly hard to be back here, and you’re going to slip into your old self so easily. But you can’t forget what you learned. Okay?”

I tried to catch my breath. Stupid. I was so stupid. But he was right. I forgot everything. “I just…being here…I feel like the old me.”

He held me away from him for a moment. “You’re not. You’re more—stronger, faster, better—than you ever were. So, let’s not do that again. Okay?”

Not do that again? I huffed. “Yeah. Definitely not. That sucked.”

Someone punched my shoulder and I looked over to see Roan grinning at me.

“You think this is funny?”

“You forgetting that you’re badass? Kinda.” He motioned to the opening that I’d blown in the wall. “Listen.”

Listen?

There was yelling in the room beyond the door, and when the dust settled, I was standing in front of Haden, who held a gun in his hand, pointed straight at me.

I tugged down my hood. There wouldn’t be cams in here.

His eyes widened. “Maité?” He slowly started to lower the gun.

I gave him a grin. “Amihanna,” I corrected. I had a feeling I’d be doing this a lot.

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About the Author

Aileen Erin is half-Irish, half-Mexican, and 100% nerd–from Star Wars (prequels don’t count) to Star Trek (TNG FTW), she reads Quenya and some Sindarin, and has a severe fascination with the supernatural. Aileen has a BS in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles, and spends her days doing her favorite things: reading books, creating worlds, and kicking ass.

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