“Vincent Wilder.” The voice broke into his thoughts, everywhere and nowhere at once. “Are you ready to learn the truth?”
As heir to a notorious crime syndicate, sixteen-year-old Vincent Wilder is determined to expand his father’s violent empire, but with the threat of revolution, a mysterious voice in his head, and a long-lost history he had known nothing about, is he really up to the challenge?
You’ve read the Children of Light’s origin story, now experience the same events from a different perspective with this prequel novella from The Light and Shadow Chronicles.
Buy link: http://mybook.to/originofshadow
Website link: www.dmcain84.com
Excerpt
The ticking of the timepiece was far louder than it should have been. Every innocuous click of the hands reverberated around the room. Sixteen-year-old Vincent Wilder stood perfectly still, making sure his chin was raised and his expression stony. He tried to hide the fact that his fingers twitched nervously behind his back. This meeting needs to go off without a hitch. There’s so much resting on it. He made an effort to narrow his eyes and puff out his chest, hoping his young frame was imposing.
A single drop of sweat trickled down his forehead, running a sticky trail across his skin. He wanted to reach up and wipe it away, but didn’t dare draw attention to the fact he was perspiring. If they saw it, would they take it as a sign of weakness? So he did nothing and let the salty drop work its way down his forehead, running into his dark eyes. He blinked to clear the drop, but his vision blurred and his eyes itched. He could hold off no longer and was forced to swipe at his eyes with a hurried hand.
His eyesight cleared and he took the opportunity to glance down at the table and the people sat around it. A couple in their early forties sat on one side, close together, huddling for comfort. Their eyes were strong and defiant, the woman’s in particular. Her hands were flat on the tabletop, and she leaned forwards, speaking with determination.
The ashen-faced man beside her was silent. Despite the stony expression on his face, Vincent could see the man’s hands trembling.
Across from them sat Franco Wilder, Vincent’s father. Once, he had a thick shock of dark hair, long and wild, draped across his shoulders. That was how Vincent always pictured his father, but the figure that sat before him had changed drastically in the past few years. As soon as Franco’s hair had started thinning, he had shaved the lot, and the bald head made the most terrifying man Vincent had ever met even more intimidating.
Franco’s posture was rigid and unmoving, a coiled snake waiting to lunge. The dark eyes that had chastised Vincent since childhood were now zeroed in on the couple before him. His father’s fingers were locked together tightly, but Vincent knew that it would only take a split second for Franco to wrench the knife from his concealed thigh pouch. Vincent’s muscles too were primed, ready to propel him into a fight. Never relax around Franco Wilder. He’d learned that very young.
BIO
D.M. Cain is a dystopian and fantasy author working for Next Chapter Publishing. The Light and Shadow Chronicles series features a range of books which can be read in any order. The series instalments to date include A Chronicle of Chaos, The Shield of Soren, Genesis of Light and Origin of Shadow.
Cain has released one stand-alone novel: The Phoenix Project, a psychological thriller set in a dystopian future. The Phoenix Project was the winner of the 2016 Kindle Book Review Sci-Fi novel Award.
Cain lives in Leicestershire, UK with her partner and two young children, and spends her time reading, writing, reviewing and indulging in geek culture (Marvel, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy).
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