The Lost Siren: Rise of the Drakens Book 1 Raven Storm (books for 8th graders .TXT) 📖

my close friends who put up with reading all the early drafts and sticking with me to see the full story come to fruition. Thanks to Jen and your keen eye, and my ARC team.

Thank you to my husband for putting up with my long hours of intense focus and making sure our children aren’t running around feral in the process. Thank you for believing in me and supporting my dreams to write.

Thank you to all the readers who support me. YOU are who I write for.

-Raven Storm-

THANKS

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Scroll for a sneak preview of the sequel to The Lost Siren.

SNEAK PREVIEW

The Lost Alliance: Rise of the Drakens, Book 2

AVAILABLE NOW FOR PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON

ONE

Iscreamed when the mountain exploded, shrapnel and debris thick in the air like a downpour. The force of the blast propelled me forward and away from the mountain, when all I wanted to do was turn around and go back, to find Benedict and Georg and make sure they weren’t dead because of me. I felt Kieran and Ronan’s answering screams and heard the roars of the other drakens around me. Terror was tangible in the air as we strained our wings and fled towards the island of Lyoness, due east.

The demons fell around us, claws scrabbling uselessly at the air when the blast threw them high. All around us they plummeted to their deaths, shrieking and wailing the entire way down. For a moment, the hordes backed off, confused and alarmed as the drakens took to the skies, leaving behind the mountain they’d been trapped under for centuries. An arrow whizzed by my ear and I turned, spotting a vampyre standing on the high cliffs with a bow, glaring at me.

Rage burned from red eyes, his veins protruding through his translucent skin. His hair was as white as his skin, and a large scar ran from his left eye to the right corner of his mouth. He raised his fingers to his lips, letting out a high-pitched whistle that cut through the chaos.

Horrific screeching followed his signal, and I had to pause in midair to clap my hands over my ears. Creatures with hulking, muscles bodies and wings descended among us, much large and even Brogen had been. They swooped down from the sky, snarling as they collided with drakens. Their faces were ugly—twisted with bulbous features that were as out of place as the large tails they swung like battering rams. I watched one knock a draken out cold, flinging him against the rocks as his brother swooped in to catch him, flying away as fast as he could. Another creature wrapped his arms around a blue-scaled draken, crushing his wings as easily as if they were paper. Gelf slashed the creature across the face and he dropped the draken, as Pirth was waiting underneath to catch him. Gelf and Pirth each grabbed an arm on the wounded draken as they hauled ass away from the mountain. What were these creatures?

“DON’T FIGHT THEM! FLEE!” I screamed, praying they would all hear me, that they would ignore their instinct to fight. We couldn’t afford any more drakens dead. I felt Kieran and Ronan through the chaos, trying to get to me, trying to reach me, but there were too many bodies. Too much death. We quickly lost sight of each other.

I flew after my people, my wings already tired and strained with effort. The other drakens had centuries of strength and endurance built up, whereas I’d only been in this draken for a few hours with only adrenaline and fear to spur me forward. I felt my strength waning but refused to quit. I ignored the pain in my chest as I gasped for air and my muscles burned. I kept flying east—east and tried to ignore the empty place in my heart that reached out for Benedict and Georg, who were likely dead and trapped beneath the rubble of the explosion. I sobbed as I flew, unable to do anything as my altitude drifted lower, and lower. My body screamed in agony, and I quickly lost sight of the drakens ahead of me.

A searing pain shot through my left wing, and I veered crazily. I knew without looking that the vampyre with the scar and the arrows hadn’t missed this time. The treetops rushed up to greet me as I desperately tried to stay in the air, but I wasn’t strong enough or acclimated enough in this new body to know what to do. My muscles spasmed and I dropped like a stone. Branches beat at my body as I fell, whipping my face, my arms, my back and my legs. I couldn’t do anything to stop my descent, the space to narrow for me to risk flaring my remaining wing, lest I injure that too. The ground finally caught up to me and I met it hard, knocked unconscious before I could even think to release a distress call.

Someone was with me.

I fought the instinct to open my eyes or call for help. I focused inwards, intent on observing whoever stood over me, one finger gently stroking the skin on my arm. Whoever it was, they seemed more curious than harmful. I gave a small prayer of thanks I had shifted into my human form while unconscious—it was a small mercy.

“Shiny skin! Pretty like the snow.”

A child’s voice—a female. I listened closely as she stepped around me with a smoothness that didn’t fit her bubbly voice.

“Grandmother would want to see the sparkly girl.”

Panic seized me, and I shot straight up, ignoring the pain in my body.

“Don’t tell anyone I’m here!”

The little girl