Runes of Truth (A Demon's Fall series Book 1), page 13
“I wish she wasn’t dead, too, kid, but we don’t all get miracles,” I say, and start the engine.
Thank you so much for reading Runes of Truth!! A big thank you to Michelle, Meagan, Taylor, Amanda and everyone that supported me with this book!
Book two, Runes of Morality, is up on pre-order and this is a trilogy. There is a spin off plan also. Please keep reading for a excerpt from other books of mine and links on where to find me!
Thank you and if you have a second, a review would be amazing! They are everything to authors, even if its just a quick “I like this book.”
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Also by G. Bailey
The King Brothers Series-
Izzy’s Beginning (Book one)
Sebastian’s Chance (Book two)
Elliot’s Secret (Book three)
Harley’s Fall (Book Four)
Luke’s Revenge (Coming soon)
Her Guardians Series (Complete)-
Winter’s Guardian (Book one)
Winter’s Kiss (Book two)
Winter’s Promise (Book three)
Winter’s War (Book Four)
Her Fate Series-
(Her Guardians Series spinoff)
Adelaide’s Fate (Coming soon)
Saved by Pirates Series (Complete)-
Escape the sea (Book One)
Love the sea (Book Two)
Save the Sea (Book Three)
One Night series-
Strip for me (Book one)
Live for Me (Coming soon)
The Marked Series (Co-written with Cece Rose)-
Marked by Power (Book one)
Marked by Pain (Book two)
Marked by Destruction (Book Three)
The Forest Pack series-
Run Little Wolf- (Book One)
Run Little Bear- (Book Two)
Protected by Dragons series-
Wings of Ice- (Book One)
Wings of Fire (Book Two)
Wings of Spirit (Book Three)
Wings of Fate (Coming soon)
Excerpt of Wings of Ice-
Everything inside me screams as I run through the doors of the castle, seeing the dead dragons lining the floors, the view making me sick to my stomach. I try not to look at the spears in their stomachs, the dragonglass that is rare in this world. Where did they get it? The more and more bodies I pass, who are both dragon and guards, the less hope I have that my father is okay. No, I can’t be too late, I can’t lose him too. The once grand doors to the throne room are smashed into pieces of stone, in a pile on the floor, and only the hinges to the door still hang on the walls. I run straight over, climbing over the rocks and broken stone. The sight in front of me makes me stop, not believing what I’m seeing but I know it’s true.
“Father…” I plead quietly, knowing he won’t reply to me. My father is sat on his throne, a sword through his stomach, and a wide mouthed expression on his face. His blood drips down onto the gold floors of the throne room, and snow falls from the broken ceiling onto his face. There’s no ice in here, no sign he even tried to fight before he was killed. He must have never saw this coming; he trusted whoever killed him.
“No,” is all I can think to say as I fall to my knees, bending my head and looking down at the ground instead of the body of my father. I couldn’t stop this, even after he warned me and risked everything. I hear footsteps in front of me as I watch my tears drip onto the ground, but I don’t look up. I know who it is. I know from the way they smell, my dragon whispers to me their name, but I can’t even think it.
“Why?” I ask, even as everything clicks into place. I should have known; I should have never had trusted him.
“Because the curse has to end. Because he was no good for Dragca. Our city needs a true heir, me. I’m the heir of fire and ice, the one the prophecy speaks of, and it’s finally time I took what is mine,” he says and every word seems to cut straight through my heart. I trusted him.
“The curse hasn’t ended, I’m still here,” I whisper to the dragon in front of me, but I know he could hear my words, as if I had just spoke them into his ear.
“Not for long, not even for a moment longer actually. Your dragon guard will only thank me when you are gone. I didn’t want to do this to you, not in the end, but you are too powerful. You are of no use to me anymore, not unless you’re gone,” he says. I look down at the ground as his words run around my head, and I don’t know what to do. I feel lost, powerless and broken in every way possible. There’s a piece of the door in front of me that catches my attention, a part with the royal crest on it. The dragon in a circle, a proud, strong dragon. My father’s words come back to me, and I know they are all I need to say.
“There’s a reason ice dragons hold the throne and have for centuries. There is a reason the royal name Dragice is feared,” I say and stand up slowly, wiping my tears away.
“We don’t give up and we bow to no one. I’m Isola Dragice, and you will pay for what you have done,” I tell him as finally meet his now cruel eyes, before calling my dragon and feeling her take over.
-
“Isola!” I hear shouted from the stairs, but I keep my headphones on as I stare at my laptop, and pretend I didn’t hear her shout my name for the tenth time. The music blasts around my head as I try to focus on the history paper that is due in tomorrow.
“Isola, will you take those things out and listen to me?” Jules shouts at me again, and I pop one of my headphones out as I look up at her. She stands at the end of my bed, her hands on her hips and her glasses branched on the end of her nose. Her long grey hair is up in a tight bun, and she has an old styled dress that looks like flowers threw up on. Jules is my house sitter, or babysitter as I like to call her. I don't think I need a baby sitter at seventeen, not when I'm eighteen in two days anyway, and can look after myself.
"Both headphones out, I want them both out while you listen to me," she says. I knew this was coming. I pull the headphones out and pause the music on my phone.
"I did try to clean up after the party, I swear," I say and she raises her eyebrows.
"How many teenagers did you have in here? Ten? A hundred?" she says and I shrug my shoulders as I sit up on the bed and cross my legs.
"I don't know, it’s all a little fuzzy," I reply honestly. My head is still pounding; it was probably the wine, or maybe the tequila shots. Who knows? I look up again as she shakes her head at me, speaking a sentence in Spanish that she knows I can't understand, but I doubt it’s nice. I don’t think I want to hear what she has to say about the party I threw last night anyway. I look around my simple room, seeing the dressing table, the wardrobe, the bed I’m sitting on. There isn’t much in here that is personal, no photos or anything that means anything to me.
"Miss Jules, looking as beautiful as always," Jace says, in an overly sweet tone as he walks into my bedroom. He walks straight over to Jules and kisses her cheek, making her giggle. Jace is that typical hot guy, with his white blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. Even my sixty year old house sitter can't be mad at him for long, he can charm just about anyone.
"Don’t start with that pouty cute face," she tuts at him and he widens his arms, pretending to be shocked.
"What face? I always look like this," he says and she laughs, any anger she had disappearing.
"I’m going to clean up this state of a house and you should leave, you're going to be late for school. I don't want to have to tell your father that as well, when I tell him about the party," she says, pointing a finger at me, and I have to hold in the urge to laugh. She emails my father all the time about everything I do, but he never responds. He just pays her to keep the house running, and to make sure I don't get into too much trouble. If he hasn’t had the time to talk to me in the last ten years, I doubt he’s going to have the time to email a human he hired. Jules walks out of the room and Jace leans against the wall, tucking his hands into his pockets. I run my eyes over his tight jeans, his white shirt that has ridden up a little to show his toned stomach and finally to his handsome face that is smirking at me. He knows exactly what he does to me.
"You look too sexy when you do that," I comment and he grins.
"Isn't that the point? Now come and give your boyfriend a kiss," he teases, and I fake a sigh before getting up and walking over to him. I lean up, brushing my lips against his cold ones and he smiles, kissing me back just as gently.
"We should go, but I was wondering if you wanted to go to the mountains this weekend and try some flying?" he asks. I blank my expression before walking away from him and towards the mirror hanging on the wall near the door. I smooth my wavy, shoulder length blonde hair down and it just bounces back up, ignoring me. My blue eyes stare back at me, bright and crystal clear. Jace says it’s like looking into a mirror when he looks into my eyes, they are so clear. I check out my jeans and tank top, and grab my leather coat from where it hangs on the back of the door before answering Jace.
"I’ve got a lot of homework to do-" I say and he shakes his head as he cuts me off.
"-Issy, when was the last time you let her out? It’s been, what, months?" he asks and I turn away, walking out my bedroom door and hearing him sigh behind me.
"Issy, we can't avoid this forever. Not when we have to go back in two weeks," he reminds me and I stop, leaning my head back against the plain white walls of the corridor.
"I know we have to go back. We have to train to rule a race we know nothing about, just because of who our parents are. Don’t you ever want to run away, hide in the human world we have been left in all these years?" I ask, feeling a grumble of anger from my dragon inside my mind. I quickly slam down the barrier between me and my dragon in my head, stopping her from contacting me, no matter how much it hurts me to do so. I can’t let her control me.
“Issy, we were left here so we would be safe. We are the last ice dragons, and our parents had no choice. Plus… being a dragon around humans is a nightmare, you know that,” he says, stepping closer to me.
“I don’t want to rule; I don’t want anything to do with Dragca,” I say, looking away.
"I guess it’s lucky we have each other, ruling on our own would have been a disaster," he says, stepping in front of me so I can’t move and gently kissing my forehead.
"I know. I just don't want to go back, to see my father and everything that has to come with it," I say, and he steps back to tilt my head up to look at him.
"You're the heir to the throne of the dragons. You’re the princess of Dragca. Your life was never meant to be lived here, with the humans," he says and I move away from him, not replying because I know he sees it differently than I do. He is the ice prince, and his parents call him every week. I haven't spoken to any of my family in ten years and I have never stepped back into Dragca since then. It’s the only thing we disagree on, our future.
"Issy, let’s just have a good day and then maybe I could get you that peanut bacon sandwich you love from the deli?" he suggests, running to catch up with me on the stairs.
"Now you're talking," I grin at him as he hooks an arm around my waist, and leans down to whisper in my ear,
“And maybe later, I could do that thing with my tongue that you–“ he gets cut off when Jules opens the door in front of us, clearing her throat and ushering us out as we laugh.
Excerpt from Escape the Sea-
I stand on the edge of the cliff, holding the blood-covered crown. The crown we fought so long to get. The crown that will win the war. I glance around at the men I love, each one of them I would die for. My pirates are fighting around me on the battlefield, keeping me alive as I face the king alone. This was always the plan, the only one that would work. The ground shakes as more screams fill the night. I can’t look away from the king to see if anyone I know is dying. If anyone I love is.
Everything we have fought for has led us to this moment, and I won’t let them down.
We don’t say any words to each other, words are not needed. He knew this was coming, and the war around us is proof. The king started this, not me. I was chosen to stop this.
“You will never save the seas,” the king sneers at me after a long silence between us.
“I don’t need to. The Sea God will save us all,” I say, my voice loud as the wind howls, and lightning fills the skies.
“What did you promise him in return?” he shouts back at me. I look the king over, remembering every cruel thing he has done to me, the people he has taken from me, and the deaths he has caused.
“Your death,” I say and lift the crown, placing it on my head.
-
Cassandra
“Name the seven islands of Calais,” Miss Drone orders me, like I haven’t been taught them my whole life. Every week, she asks me these questions. I will never see any other island than the one I am stuck on, so I don’t see the point in knowing all their names.
“Onaya, Twogan, Thron, Foten, Fiaten, Sixa, and Sevten,” I answer. It’s like someone has counted to seven, and named an island after each number.
“Who rules all the islands?” she asks as she reads the paper I wrote for her this week. It’s filled with my opinions on the last book she gave me to read, a book about the seven seas.
“King Dragon and his queen, Riah,” I answer. I almost want to add that the pirates own the waters, but I know she won’t like me saying that. It’s not worth the argument that would follow. The king ignores the pirates, and the pirates are said to ignore him. The king chose the seven families to rule each island after he took his throne, then he left us alone on the islands. We only see the king once a year when he visits all the islands with his queen. Well, I’ve never seen him, his queen, or his children. Only the seven council members get to see them.
There’s only one law the king regularly reminds everyone to follow: kill the changed ones, or he sends his guards to the island and kills them anyway.
“Tell me the final words you need to know,” she asks in her cold tone.
"Never go near the sea, never leave the walls. The sea is lost, pirates are death," I repeat back to my teacher. Miss Drone believes telling me the same thing every time I see her will make sure I understand her. She really has no idea. She nods like she thinks she’s done her job today. Those are always the words she says last to me, every week at the same time, the same hour. The same senseless rules.
My whole life is full of rules that mean nothing to me.
"Cassandra, are you listening to me?" Miss Drone asks in a sharp tone. I glance up from my seat, looking at her. I don’t know her first name. She never told me, and I never asked anyone to tell me. My father always calls her Miss Drone, and her daughter calls her Mother. Miss Drone has light-blonde hair that’s cut short, and she’s wearing an old dress, covered in holes. She is a widow from the poor side of the island. My father says she’s lucky, lucky not to be dead or on the streets, and that’s why she doesn’t tell anyone about me. That’s why she has taught me my whole life for the tiny amount of food my father gives her. I guess it’s because food is treasured here on Onaya, where we have little. People can’t leave, because the seas are full of pirates, and even if you did get to the other islands, they are in no better condition. No one can trade between the islands. The only way we know people are even alive on them is by talking to the couple of people who make it to our shore. They come looking for a home and food, but are sadly disappointed. We grow very little on our farms; the land is dying, and people don’t know why. It’s said to be like this on every island, and it gets worse every single year.
"Yes, of course I am," I say. I fake a smile at her, and she relaxes in her seat. Miss Drone is terrified of me. Everyone that has ever been near me is. My father has only let me meet three people in my life. Him, Miss Drone, and her daughter, Everly. Everly keeps me from going insane with boredom, and Miss Drone teaches me things I apparently need to know. Like how the seas are lost, and everyone dies out there.
I don't know why I need to know anything when I can never leave my house, or the grounds surrounding it.
"Well then, I will be off. Everly will be over after school," she says as she stands and walks towards the door. I wait until she shuts it before I walk towards the window.
I can see my whole town from this window. It's striking. The island is shaped like a foot, or that's how I like to think of it. The brown state house stretches like a line straight down the middle, towards my large house and the large acre that surrounds it. Our house is the biggest on the island because of who my father is–one of seven council members. They always get the best of everything.
There are three others houses on my row, but they are far smaller. I have been told there are three more on the other side of the island, too, the same size as the smaller ones next to ours. I don’t know why my father has the biggest house on the island, but he does. I only know what my father has told me. I know that they house the other council members and their families. The council makes all the decisions on the island, everything from enforcing the laws, to how much food they think people need to eat.
