Eyes Like Sunflowers Excerpt

Rahael

My Name Is Memory

She didn’t know who I was.  Not yet, anyway.  I always liked this part, waking up before her.  

In every single life since we had broken the curse there was a brief point in time where I would gather all of my memories sometime after puberty.  I would remember that this wasn’t our only life.  This wasn’t even our first one.  Not even our hundredth… or thousandth. 

I always woke up before her, and loved the small periods of time I was granted where to her, this was our only life, this was the only version of me. Sometimes it would be days, other times I would be given months, where I wasn’t anything other than her best friend.  In her eyes, no matter the color of them, there was an innocence I missed every damn time she remembered… everything.

She would remember how I had betrayed her. She would remember that we were lost in all of these mortal lives together. She would remember that I was the villain. I was the God of Death from her stories.

What’s currently in the works?

It’s been awhile Lost in Time readers!!!

I just got home from an epic vacation, where I spent my days with my headphones in putting together epic scenes to come!

& now that I am home, back on my couch, snuggled up with my puppy (best writing partner ever, by the way) – it’s time to finish up this sub-novel!

I am currently writing a post apocalyptic sub-novel from Rogue’s POV, with some chapters sprinkled in from Mayko- (I know, I know – we all want to find out what happens in book four, Death of Time – and I promise it will be out this year!)

This sub-novel, Eyes Like Sunflowers, is based in Earth’s far away future – where we really get to delve into Rogue’s psyche as we learn about the kind of love and world that created Mayko. I am so excited for you to be reunited with the gang in a more fantasy style way, and fall more in love with certain characters that I am personally just obsessed with!

As a side note, Death of Time is set to be released by the end of this year! I’ve already sat down and written the very last chapter of the entire series, and I have to say, I can’t stop re-reading it!

It’s complicated.

If you’ve read through the Lost in Time series, or hell, even just the first book- you’ll notice right away it’s complicated.

The nuances of the story are easy to miss, when almost every line of dialogue or scene ends up being important down the road. I tried really hard to only put things into the book intentionally, whether it was dialogue between characters or even sex scenes. (ya’ll know I love me a good sex scene, but I hate putting them into the story unless it has some meaning to it.)

That being said, this is a series that takes some serious thought to read, and I thank everyone who has taken the time to fall in love with the characters as much as I have!

I did want to address the first book, Make Me Exist, and why I went about the first half of the book the way I did. Initially, as a writer, I struggled with whether Cyran would get her memories back right away after touching the God stone or if everything would be fuzzy and distorted (how I ended up writing it!) & I ended up going with her slowly gaining her memories back on purpose.

As we know, Cyran has issues with remembering things- so this initial introduction into her hazy memory right from the beginning of the series plays along with her character until the very end (I know, I know, we aren’t there yet!)

The main reason we didn’t have a rush of memories right from the get go, was so that we could all grow with Cyran. Myself as the writer, and the readers as well.

She spends the first half of the book learning who she is, without really changing at all. This gives time to go over whats going on in her head, her struggles as a mother, her conflict with being Jatorrian- without all the background noise of delving deeply into a throng of other characters.

Cyran’s character arc is growth. Her character hasn’t drastically changed, she hasn’t found some inner light within herself that wasn’t there before- she is a character who is comfortable and happy with who she is- forgetful memory, temper, overt bravery, and all. Although she doesn’t burst forth with brand new courage or drastically change the storyline with unexpected or phenomenal power she didn’t know she had (like in most other stories)- she changes the storyline by recognizing what she wants and how she wants it. She is confident in herself and her decisions, and grows with them.

I just love Cyran, and her ever growing knowledge of her abilities, her love for her family, her relationship with Adriem, and her protectiveness as a mother. I adore her flaws and how relatable she is (although a bit more badass then I could ever be).

Get ready for it, Death of Time will be released this year! & it’s a doozy!!

In the meantime, I am working on a sub-novel from Rogue and Mayko’s POV- Eye’s Like Sunflowers, which is available for pre-order and will be released this summer!

If you don’t want to miss anything like random updates, sneak peaks from the upcoming books, and release dates, feel free to subscribe up above for teasers and scenes from upcoming books!!

I look forward to ending this journey with you! & thank you so much for sticking with this new author (this is my first series, but far from my last books! I’m definitely thinking treasure hunting or mermaids for the next book!)

This will be an exciting year! Two more books, and the ending to something epic.

All Lost in Time Books are on sale!

Book Three Of Time, War, And Death is coming!!! December 30th, this Thursday! In anticipation of the new release, all the Lost in Time books are on sale!!

Check them out if you are looking for a mind blowing, steamy, science fiction/fantasy blended read! 😀

OFTWAD: Guilty Filthy Soul

“Rogue-” I choked out, my vision distorting.     

And then there was Adriem, all fire and glory, ready to fight for me.

Rogue spun around, struggling against the darkness, desperation agonizing his gentle features.  The air exploded around me, shadow and light.  The empty nothingness of darkness against the eternal golden fire of light.  I finally realized what Rogue struggled with… all that emptiness I had lost myself in had almost destroyed me, and Rogue had spent so long there.  Alone and in the dark.        

I helplessly watched as Rogue and Adriem faced each other.  Darkness and light clashing violently between them.  Nothing that could be seen by anyone else, but I could see it in Adriem’s thoughts.  I could feel it.  The way Adriem drew from his well of strength, using everything he had to shatter the cold.  To set fire to deaths chill and beat the ice back. 

It seemed like a battle of wills, but… it wasn’t.  Adriem was giving Rogue all he could so Rogue could shine.  It wasn’t just Adriem, all sunshine, that flickered with hope in the night.  Rogue had that power too.  Because you know what a star needs to shine?  A shit-ton of darkness.  It wasn’t light or darkness that one out.  Shadows bled off Rogue like wings. 

OTWAD- Chapter, The Final Countdown

The muscled Jatorrian swung his sword at me savagely, but not with any real skill.  I was almost relaxed as I blocked every one of his blows with my own fire.  He swiped at my neck, but I caught him with crossed swords.  He dipped and stabbed at my abdomen, and I twirled my fire to slam into his.  Frustrated by his slowness, he hacked at me, every blow glancing off my own energy as I simply deterred him from hitting me.  

He fought me as if we wielded true swords.  This wasn’t metal clanging against metal though.  This was fire, licking flames made up of the energy that made ourselves.  Countless hours training with Adriem at a young age hadn’t taught me much about swordsmanship, but I had learned that my will was stronger than most, and somebody else’s fire couldn’t restrain me.

I flitted to the Jatorrians side and without hesitation, cut my sword through the air, a precise swing aimed at his throat.  He raised his sword to block me, the Jatorrian greens of his eyes gleaming with his false confidence.  

My jaw clenched shut and all of the muscles in my arm strained as our swords collided, sparks of fire hot energy chipped away by the slamming force.  I braced the weight of his resistance in my arms, and gritted my teeth as I pushed through his fire.  For a short moment, his sword engulfed mine, molten energy dripping and pliable as we smashed them together.  My energy flared with the Jatorrians struggle.  I was stronger.  Ercole had been right, weak men couldn’t fucking handle me.  

I grunted with my next shove of pure will, my sword sliding out of the entangled mixture of our extended energies.  We weren’t fighting with metal swords, and my sword cut straight through his.  My opponent didn’t even have the time to register surprise as sharp fire sliced into his neck, burning and cutting his head clean off.                 

OTWAD, Chapter: Wicked Game

Blackness clouded my vision as my adrenaline overloaded my senses, too much for how devastatingly exhausted and stricken I already was.  The man thrashed over me, dying, but still alive.  His knee collided with the side of my abdomen and when I doubled forward to curl myself into the fetal position, his head smashed into the side of mine.  Fuck, that hurt.  Pain fractured up my jaw and my body throbbed in defeat.  But that was okay, the dead man collapsed on top of me; no longer a threat.  

Before the dead weight could settle too comfortably on me, he was lifted off and I watched dazed as his body was tossed to the side.

“Madame?”  Warm hands brushed along my neck.  I sucked in a breath of air to ensure he wasn’t choking me, and coughed at the rawness of it.  “Madame, what can I do?  Where have you been hurt?”  The fingers prodded at my neck, his thumbs brushing along the soreness of my jaw.  

A deep moan parted my lips, and it felt damn good.  I could take care of myself.  The smug thought flitted across my mind as I envisioned how pissed off Mayko would be for missing all the fun.“Help!”  The man above me called out.  I narrowed my eyes and glared at him.  I didn’t need fucking help.  “Help!”  He shouted out again, frantically looking toward the house.  When he looked back down, I knew exactly who he was.

Ronan’s POV

Chapter Twelve: Enter Sandman – Ronan

“Hey, Char,” I kept my voice low enough to insinuate that we needed to be stealthy, but I didn’t really care.  I would rather the men storm into our room first, I was pretty certain we were the only ones awake.  “Wanna play a game?”  We needed to distract any of the intruders long enough so Cyran would have enough time to escape.  We just needed to keep her safe until her daughter was born; and births weren’t on the forecast for tonight, so death couldn’t be either.  

“What kind of game?”  Every word shook as they fell off her tongue, but her tone raised in excitement.  “Is it dangerous?”  Her emerald eyes glanced at our bedroom door and her small chest rose and fell rapidly as imagination stole over her reality.  

“Very.”  I stood to get her attention back on me, I only had a few seconds to discuss lifetimes of battle tactics the demon and I had perfected over time.  Some of it was in there somewhere.  The lives we had already lived together, the fights we had conquered, the enemies we had slain.