Chapters (132)
- COVER PAGE
- CHOSEN: LOST BOOK 1
- BEGINNINGS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- INFIDEL: LOST BOOK 2
- BEGINNINGS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- RENEGADE: LOST BOOK 3
- BEGINNINGS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- CHAOS: LOST BOOK 4
- BEGINNINGS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
Behind Johnis sat Billos, Darsal, and Silvie on benches, having stood and given their accounts of what had happened. Silvie had passionately sworn a new allegiance to whatever love had compelled Johnis to go after his mother, because it was this love that truly separated Horde from the Forest Dwellers. Billos and Darsal had agreed with more eloquence than Johnis had expected—from Billos, at least. Darsal, yes, but Billos seemed exceptionally verbose in his praise of the successful mission.
Not a word spoken about the library or the Books of History, they had all sworn.
His mother and father, Rosa and Ramos, sat next to Kiella and Karas. The reunion of his parents alone was worth any cost he personally could have paid, Johnis thought. They threw themselves at each other and danced like foolish children, weeping unabashedly as hundreds gathered in stunned disbelief at seeing Rosa alive.
On the trip back, Karas had taken to staring at Darsal, and when Johnis asked her why, the young girl only shrugged and said that she looked like her mother. Before her mother died.
Thomas and Rachelle sat to the Council’s left, quiet mostly, letting the other leaders of the Forest Dwellers direct the inquiry. They were biased, Johnis knew. They alone believed he was the Chosen One and had agreed to keep the knowledge to themselves for now. The danger was too great.
Still, the events of the past week were unprecedented. Even Thomas was quite sure that some kind of correction was in order. Never before in the short history of the forests had any Guard led them in the kind of deception that Johnis had practiced in leading the Third Fighting Group into battle and abandoning Thomas in the Red Valley.
The Guard had nearly killed Thomas at the forest’s edge, mistaking him for a Horde—only his roars of protest had stopped them from sending arrows through his chest. He’d thrown himself into the lake and washed all traces of the desert away in a matter of minutes.
Thomas had lived, but more than a hundred fighters had not.
“For the deaths in the Third Fighting Group . . .” Johnis stopped, choked with sorrow. “For the widows and the children left behind, I should receive a flogging—one hundred lashes—or a month in prison—for each.”
The room was stilled to the sound of soft breathing.
“There is no defense for my betrayal of all that I love. I would give my life for Thomas Hunter and for this Council, but I had no right to ask others to give their lives for my mother. Sentence me and be done with it. If I survive my punishment, I’ll take whatever position you suggest to serve the forests.”