Aldrik was opposite the wide mouth of what was once a great river. And yet, with an expel of her power she crossed to him, propelled on the air, tilting forward. His hair whipped around his face and his dark eyes locked with hers in shock.

His lips formed a single word. “Vhalla,” he whispered into the rush of wind around his plummeting body. Vhalla stretched her hand forward, desperate. She would reach him. The ground was coming up fast, and Aldrik finally began to reach for her as well.

His body tilted and twisted over the pockets of air she tried to create beneath him. There were too many unpredictable factors, she wasn’t strong enough, and she wasn’t skilled enough to stop a body like this. Panic propelled her to exhaust the last of her magic trying to slow him.

His hand groped at the air. Vhalla extended her arm, she had to reach him. The tips of her fingers touched his and Vhalla felt her body magically beginning to slow, the wind refusing to harm her. Aldrik stared at her, and she saw an emotion completely consume him that she had never seen from him before: fear. Vhalla’s arm threatened to rip from her socket, his hand was so close. She almost had him, a moment more, a moment further, an ounce of energy that was not used to push the wind around her and him. The ground was relentless in its desire to violently meet their falling bodies, and she only had one last attempt before they were crushed upon it.

Vhalla took her chance.

She grasped the empty air, his fingers slipping past her bloody ones, and she screamed. The last thing Vhalla saw was the moment when Aldrik’s body met the ground, blood pooling instantly about his broken and lifeless form, before everything went black.

Earth’s End: Book Three of Air Awakens

COMING IN FEBRUARY 2016

A woman awoken in air, a soldier forged by fire, a weapon risen from blood.

Vhalla Yarl has made it to the warfront in the North. Forged by blood and fire, she has steeled her heart for the final battle of the Solaris Empire’s conquest. The choices before Vhalla are no longer servitude or freedom, they are servitude or death. The stakes have never been higher as the Emperor maintains his iron grip on her fate, holding everything Vhalla still has left to lose in the balance.

Acknowledgment

MY COVER ARTIST, Merilliza Chan—I have to start with you, my dear, my “official fan art” creator. Your artwork for the Air Awakens covers continues to get better, time after time. The noises I made when seeing the final Fire Falling cover were inhuman. That armor? Aldrik’s face? It’s too beautiful. You inspire me to write better to make sure that the story I’m crafting lives up to the promises your artwork makes.