House of Cards

The Chronicles of Kerrigan

House of Cards

Book III

by

W. J. May

Copyright 2014
by W.J. May

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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Copyright 2014 by W.J. May

Cover design by: Book Cover by Design

Edited by: Chelsa Jillard

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The Chronicles of Kerrigan

Book I –
Rae of Hope
is FREE!

Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILAwXxx8MU

Book II –
Dark Nebula
is Now Available

Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca24STi_bFM

Book III –
House of Cards
is Now Available

Book IV –
Royal Tea
,
coming Fall 2014

Preface

Rae
giggled as her mother playfully dabbed frosting on the tip of her nose. She was ten years old, and they were making cupcakes for her birthday party in a bright, sunny kitchen. The sun glinted off her mother’s shoulder length, thick hair. They were wearing tiaras, gown costumes and pretending to be princess and queen. It was a perfect moment. It didn’t matter to Rae that it had never happened.

She knew s
he was on the verge of waking, but fought hard to stay in the place between dreaming and waking, this perfect place, where she could pretend she had grown up with her mother by her side, playing dress up, having princess-themed birthday parties, having her mother call her by pet names like “pumpkin” or “monkey”, telling embarrassing baby stories to her friends and their mothers at gatherings, like a normal girl.

These small
bits, things that other girls took for granted, were precious to Rae. Not having them left a hole in her life, which made her feel vulnerable. After her fight to the near death with her half-brother, Kraigan, while she had been healing, she had thought a lot about family and memories and how the two things shape a person. She looked at her best friend Molly, and saw how her relationship with her mother and father directly affected the person she was today, even if Molly couldn’t see it. Rae felt like she was lacking this seemingly vital part of her personality, that having it would make her stronger.

While she couldn’t turn back time to avoid the horrible fire that ended her father’s reign of terror and unfortunately claimed her mother’s life, she could pretend in these quiet places in time, where no one would know that it wasn’t r
eal. So she clung tightly to these stolen moments with her fictitious memories.

Chapter 1

Nervous

              “You ready for this?”

Rae stared at Julian as they stood in front of the large wooden door, his hand on the knob, about to bring her into the completely chaotic world
she had not known existed until two years ago. Just before turning sixteen, she had come to Guilder Boarding School with no knowledge of tatùs or the fact that she would receive an ink mark on her sixteenth birthday.

One minute she was the parentless kid being raised by her aunt and uncle in New York, and the next she was the
center of unwanted attention at Guilder. Now she stood about to join a secret agency because they wanted her, not the other way around. The child deep inside who had been orphaned at a young age and never quite healed from the experience now demanded answers. The sudden realization that her perceptions of reality had shifted so drastically in such a relatively short period of time momentarily stupefied her. She blinked, and then blinked again, trying to force her focus back on the present.
“I’m re—”

             
A sudden crashing against the other side of the door, followed by an inhuman howl, cut her off. Julian jumped back at the impact, then flashed his super-model gorgeous grin with a twinkle in his dark brown eyes, and tightened the ponytail holding his long dark hair when the door stayed intact. Aside from Devon, Julian was one of Rae’s closest friends. He glanced at her, the door and then her again. “You sure?”

She knew him well enough to recognize when he was taunting her.
Rae shot what she hoped was her dirtiest look and stepped in front of him, determined to quell all nervousness. Could the butterfly wings in her stomach be blamed on the fairy ink-art on her lower back? Along with waking up to some unknown marking on her sixteenth birthday, she learned it had some kind of supernatural power, which she would need to figure out. If that had not blown her mind, Rae also learned both her parents had tatùs, where almost everyone at the school only had one parent inked. She, and her tatù, were both on edge. With forced determination she grabbed the handle of the door and yanked it open.

Before she had a chance to check out the room, some kind of Frisbee disc flew toward her. Tatù reflexes kicked in naturally and she ducked just in time. She couldn’t stop the giggle
upon hearing the deep “oof” reverberating out of Julian as the unidentified, flying object nailed him in the chest. It bounced off him harmlessly and landed on the floor at her feet. She leaned down and picked it up.
Surprisingly heavy. I bet Julian will have a bruise. Speaking of which…
She straightened and grinned. “Thought your tatù gave you the ability to see the future.” She couldn’t hold back the laughter as she handed him the disc. “Even I saw that coming a mile away.”

             
Obviously winded, Julian shook his head. “I-I’ll g-give you that one…s-since it’s your f-first day.”

             
What had Headmaster Carter said?
Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.

The first day of preparing to be one of the best covert agents in Britain, under the special training and watchful eye of the Privy Council. A secret operative. It sounded official and important.
She imagined she should be feeling very accomplished right about now.

The problem was, she didn’t. At that moment,
Rae felt like she had a year and a half ago when she had first arrived at Guilder Boarding School and been the odd one out. Everyone had stared, whispered and treated her like a leper. It had been awful.

Don’t do this
, she told herself imagining her mother standing behind her, giving her a pep talk.
You are not the same girl anymore. You know who you are now. You’re powerful in your own right. You’ve got this!

Forcing her shoulders back
, she put herself in the present, not the past. She had proved them wrong then, and judging by the fact that the large, noisy room had suddenly gone silent as a tomb, she would have to prove them wrong again. Time would prove that she was up to it. She knew it would. She would prove that she belonged here if it was the last thing she did. She had to because she also had another agenda. A personal one.

Over
the past few months she’d lost sight (or maybe her eyes had been opened) of who to trust. Her mentor, Carter, was acting secretive. Her boyfriend had betrayed her in the line of duty. Some of her friends had been proven to be anything but. Her half-brother Kraigan had screwed everything up.
At least
he hadn’t succeeded in killing me when he tried.
She had won that battle, though she barely remembered how. Carter and Julian had shown up at the very end and cleaned up the mess, sweeping Kraigan off to an undisclosed location.

She had no idea where he could be right now
and she was at least half sure that would be a bad thing. She detested the guy, but he’d kept her father’s journal a secret when he had the opportunity to screw Rae over. Now everyone was searching high and low for the darn thing and had no idea she’d hidden it the night Kraigan had tried to kill her. Has it really only been a week? She had recovered and accepted a position working for the mysterious organization that seemed to be pulling all the strings in her strange little world, but remained determined not to share her father’s journal. Not yet anyway. Everyone she knew kept things from her. She was determined to keep this one thing to herself, at least until she had wrung every last bit of information out of it that she could get. For that, she needed time, and for the time being, that meant that assimilation was key.

             
“That’s Kerrigan? She’s so thin, fragile looking.”

             
“You know she’s got her father’s ability? Bad blood only breeds bad blood.”

             
Whispers from the room abruptly cut off her thoughts of the journal.