Shadow Sun (Nevermor #3)

The Beginning

A/N: Hello all you Never-Ones! The time has come once again, and this time is the last. We have reached the final book in the Nevermor trilogy.

Without droning on too much, I just need to say that this is a book preview of Shadow Sun, and the actual book is for sale now through online retailers. It's available in ebook and print forms.

If you're a fan and care to learn anything more about my work, please look me up on Facebook and Twitter, where I post more often than I post on Wattpad, and you can be sure to keep up with all the new updates.

That's all I'll say for now, and I hope you enjoy the preview!

-------------------------

1

There was a whisper in the darkness, and the boy awoke to a dull, throbbing ache.

The heat of a harsh sun was shining on his young face, burning his skin, but he could not even manage to turn his head to deliver himself from the glare. His blue eyes, burning and cloudy, peeled open to an incredible brightness, and one overwhelming thought filled his mind.

I'm dead. The bastard finally killed me.

He had been young and full of spirit not so long ago—a youth that was wise to the world, who lived by his own rules. Nothing could seem to knock him down. Perhaps he'd not been as invincible as he'd led himself to believe.

The boy struggled to find the truth beyond his predicament, gathering his memories, but they were blocked out by shadows that crept in from the outer reaches of his mind, threatening to keep him in the dark. Despite this, he felt oddly at ease. He was confused, but not at all alarmed. He wasn't sure why, but he had a feeling as though he'd escaped something terrible, and to be blistered and wounded upon this ground was only a reprieve from a worse fate.

But where am I?

The boy's head was heavy but he encouraged his neck to move, turning his face away just as a second sun drifted into his vision. He flinched, desiring to shut it out, but movement above caught his eye. He realized that the light was not another sun, but a golden orb drifting above him, round and luminous like the halo around a candle flame. He wasn't sure how, but the boy felt that it was alive.

He opened his mouth to speak to it, but all too suddenly, he was taken by an overwhelming dryness in his throat. He was weak, too languid to rise, and he recognized his need.

"Water," he gasped weakly, but he did not receive a response from the strange orb before his vision gave way to darkness once again.

2

Time passed, and the boy would never know how much before he came to consciousness the second time. He saw the familiar light drifting overhead, but there was something different about his surroundings. When the darkness of his lids parted, he saw that he was resting in the shade instead of in the burning sun. His skin was cooled by dew and there was soft grass around him. He could hear the sound of water flowing nearby.

Water. That need gave him the strength to rise. He pulled himself up despite a terrible pain in his side, twisting his body to crawl toward the source of the water, which he found to be a spring that had burst from a rock and was flowing into a growing pool. It was there, gushing out and so near to him now, as if the water had been summoned up simply at his desire for it.

Reaching the edge, he brought the refreshment rapidly toward his mouth in an open palm, drinking heavily, gasping in desperation as the liquid filled his mouth and dry throat.