Happy Release Day, Kristin Clark!
Title: The Chosen (The Chosen Trilogy, Bk 1)
Written by: Kristin Clark
Published with: Siren Press Publishing
Chloe Caledone is counting down the days until high school graduation, ready for the day she can finally escape her boring small town and experience the world she’s only seen through other people’s eyes. So far, Chloe’s teenage years have been good but boring, and she’s managed to go through life unnoticed—until the morning of her eighteenth birthday. One fateful birthday gift and a run in with a group of the school’s most popular kids later, Chloe finds that her small town life is anything but boring, and her destiny just got a whole lot more dangerous than she’d ever imagined.
The descendant of the most powerful magical bloodline in history, Chloe has been Chosen. Together with her new friends, Chloe will find everything she thought she knew turned upside down in the wake of secrets, lies, and an unanticipated love triangle, all while she and five others descendants of the original Chosen fight to destroy a dark and powerful immortal—who has his eye set directly on Chloe.
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This isn’t how I expected death to be. I imagined it cold, dark, and lonely. This is nothing of that sort. It is warm and light. I feel everything except alone. I feel brave and strong. And loved. The only pain I feel is seeing the one I love so much hurting right now. I did what I came here to do, and now it’s over. I was chosen.
Chosen to make a choice. A choice to live and a choice to die. I chose death, and dying in the arms of the man I love is peaceful. If my own life must be given in place of the lives of others, then I shall give it away.
I’ll leave a memory with everyone I’ve touched. I will remember all the time we spent together. My only hope is that his memory of me is as beautiful as my memory of him. I struggle to open my eyes, knowing what I see will shatter the dream that I want to remember when I die. Slowly I flutter my eyelids, seeing nothing except a blur through tears and blood. Focusing, I see my medallion, dangling empty of the fire it once held around my neck. It now drips crimson droplets, staining the ground on which I lie. I cringe and curl my fingers around the ancient chain, accepting it for what it is. I am gone, and with my life, the fire goes out.
“Chloe, can you hear me? Chloe. Chloe! Come on, baby, open your eyes, please. Please, open your eyes. You can’t go yet. I have so much to tell you. Come on, Chloe, please wake up. God, there is so much blood. This is all my fault. I am so sorry, baby. I’m here, Chloe. I won’t let you go; I won’t do it. I will trade places with you, my love.”
His voice is the sound of an angel, my angel. He is my reason for living. He gave me hope in my lonely, obsolete world, hope that I could fall in love and that someone could love me back no matter our differences or how absolutely normal I am … was.
I can hear him and want so badly to answer him. I want to call his name. To tell him I am here. It will be okay. Painfully, though, I can’t. Instead, I drift farther and farther away, dreaming about the time we had together, reminiscing about the not so long ago memories of falling in love with not just him, but with five other of my dearest and closest friends.
It is almost unbelievable … Hell, it is unbelievable that just a few weeks ago, I was just me. Plain, average, old-souled me. Now here I am, after finding out that I’m descended from a powerful bloodline said to be undefeatable, lying on the ground, defeated, while my soul drifts toward the light of death. Content as I am, with a smile on my face, I say good-bye.
You never know where life is going to take you. I know now what I was brought into this world to do. What I was created for. What I was chosen for.
Meet The Author
Kristin is an avid reader and has been writing stories for as long as she can remember. Her three daughters inherited her creative mind, leaving no day uneventful. She has been a Litigation Paralegal since she graduated college and is beginning a new journey as a Realtor. When she isn’t working, carting her girls around to softball, or writing, she is snuggled up with a good book and a huge Dunkin Doughnuts Coffee.
Mark and Paige are living in sin—that's what any man of the cloth would say. All they want is to get married, but they refuse to exchange vows without their best friends—the Six. As they wait to hear back from them, Mark and Paige can't help but feel they've been put off… forgotten.
When the threat of an enemy stalking them is brought to light, the call is made to bring them into the secretive world of Cole Enterprise.
Slotted for recruitment by the very agency that stole their chance at a normal life, Mark and Paige have to adjust to their new path as secret agents in a war they didn’t even know existed.
What neither fully understands is that nothing will ever be the same… and some vows are deadlier than others.
CHANGE WAS ALL AROUND ME. Everything was different. My life. My dreams. All of it.
Maybe some of it was for the best. Maybe it would push Mark and me to make more of ourselves than we would have on our own.
Crossing my arms tightly, I stepped out onto the dock and made my way to where Mark stood looking out over the water.
Coming back to the cabin and being around our friends after such a long absence from both had enveloped us in something like a constrictive hug. Both needing it, while desperately trying to come to terms with it.
“Hey,” I said, stepping up beside him and sighing when he pulled me into his arms.
I leaned back, turning my head slightly to fit into the crook of his neck. His cheek brushed against my hair and he asked, “Can you believe this place?”
I snorted. “No. But then again, we are talking about Jared’s parents, so…”
“True. It still feels the same here though,” he answered, watching the water ripple along the surface with the wind.
Arriving at the cabin, or what used to be the cabin, had sort of floored us all. No one knew what to say when we’d got our first glimpse of the new and improved place.
What used to be one story with a kitchen, living room, and six bedrooms with bathrooms was gone. Its replacement was two stories, ten bedrooms with full bathrooms, a massive open-floor kitchen/living room, a movie theater room, and a game room. Grant and Nadia had gone all out to make the cabin a place where all of us could live together, for an unforeseeable amount of time.
“It’s like they just knew…” I said, leaving the rest of what I was thinking unsaid. It wouldn’t do any good to dwell on the things none of us could change.
“How are you holding up with all of this?” Mark asked.
I sighed deeply and closed my eyes. “Honestly? I don’t know how to feel right now. It’s like this huge
war being waged right here,” I said, poking my finger against my chest. “I’m happy to see everyone. We’re here together—just like we wanted—but for all the wrong reasons. I’m missing classes and work. I don’t know what to do with myself. My life is literally on hold at this point.”
He hugged me tighter. “Tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it. If you want to leave, we’ll go. They can’t hold us here.”
I snorted. “Can you imagine the look on all of their faces if we just walked out with our suitcases behind us? No. I love you for that though. It’s nice to hear you’d do that to make me happy.”
He kissed the top of my head. “I’d do anything to make you happy, Paige.”
