The Eighth

A Dark Short Story Prequel to The Alt-World Chronicles.

The Sanctuary is losing its war against the malevolenci - demonic beasts tearing through reality - and survival rests on three leaders fighting a battle they may lose tonight.

Esme is the Order's current alterni, summoned from another world to wield magic no one else can control. Each time she closes her eyes, she relives the screams, the smoke, the endless waves of monsters. Tonight, she knows the visions aren't memories.

They're warnings.

King Owen Lord has led countless charges against the malevolenci, and he's buried every alterni who stood beside him. When a new rift opens at a treasured historic site, he knows that the battle he was born to fight might claim another partner he's not able to save.

Watching them both is Roman, Master Conjuri, sworn advisor to the crown and teacher to every fallen alterni for three generations of kings. He alone knows that the Sanctuary might not survive another chosen one. The old strategies are failing. The enemy is evolving. But Roman refuses to let the gods down.

Tonight will decide more than the fate of a chosen one. It will decide the course of the war.