Untold Press is proud to release Energy Reborn, the fourth and FINAL book of Lynn Vroman's Energy Series. To learn more about Untold Press and our books, visit us at www.untoldpress.com
A Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy Series
Energy Reborn
The Energy Series, book 4 By
Lynn Vroman
Final book of The Energy Series
After the trauma from their final battle with Exemplar, Tarek is certain Lena is better off without him. She deserves a life without the baggage he carries. She deserves someone…real. As he fights alongside Oren in Exemplar, one thought keeps him sane: He didn’t let Lena go. He gave her an out.
Lena has spent the last eight months trying to move forward. She can’t think about Tarek; she has to raise fifteen-year-old Peter, who suffers from the same ghosts as her love. All she wants is to make Peter happy. But then Peter runs away to fight in Exemplar—again. This time is different. This time, Peter doesn’t come back.
Desperate, Lena reaches out to the one person able to help her, the person who needs saved, too.
Tarek.
For Lena, the only answer to saving those she loves is to finish what they started—end the Synod’s reign over Exemplar for good. She’ll not let Tarek or Peter hide behind a war anymore, even if it kills her.
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The entire Energy Series in sequence below. Click on image to purchase!
About The Author
Lynn Vroman
Born in Pennsylvania, Lynn spent most of her childhood, especially during math class, daydreaming. The main result that came from honing her imagination skills was brilliantly failing algebra. Today, she still spends an obscene amount of time in her head, only now she writes down all the cool stuff.
With a degree in English Literature, Lynn used college as an excuse to read for four years straight. She lives in the Pocono Mountains with her husband, raising the four most incredible human beings on the planet. She writes young adult novels, both fantasy and contemporary.
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Energy Reborn Excerpt
Crying didn't bother him anymore.
Muffled sobs used to feel like weevils burrowing into his brain. He had wanted the cries to disappear, find a way to silence them so he'd have peace while killing. He hated it, yet understood where the despair came from. He didn't take the truth that well either.
This world, his world, was full of people who weren't real people.
That revelation caused a collective shock to infiltrate every home, every secret corner. Memories of families were manufactured lies. Parents had never existed for most. Childhood thoughts were a farce before the age of six, the median age for bodies the Creation Lab produced before implanting energy pilfered from other worlds. Most would never be able to have children. They were all biobots, synthetic carriers for strong souls.
Tarek learned how to tune out the grief a while ago, and the truth. Issues he only dwelled on when alone–when killing didn't save him from his mind.
He adjusted his scope.
Yes, he could ignore the crying now. A perfect shot had that power.
Tarek lay on his stomach. Rooftop debris–broken syringes and jagged edges of crushed alcohol containers–dug through his sweatshirt. Sweat dribbled off his forehead to sting his eyes.
He ignored his discomfort as easily as the crying and flipped off the safety. Lights, never-ending strobes, bounced off buildings. Staring too long at the changing colors coming from billboard holograms and storefronts threatened a headache, but he managed to keep the jackasses in his sights.
Synod authority harassed a group of men on the street, demanding signed pardons most wouldn't have. The elders considered everyone a traitor.
They were right.
People in this sector were guilty of blowing up the capital building and crashing the satellite feeds. Heterodox citizens fought when Oren asked eight months ago, with a promise of truth. Truth, most had come to realize, wasn't such a great prize. Ignorance really was a gift.
Tarek had warned Oren not to tell them, not to reveal the true nature of how most citizens came to be. No Exemplian he had ever met wanted to find out their whole existence was a lie. But Oren believed differently. The man's belief cost them an army. Stupid to tell a mass of people who already dreaded life–beaten down by having too many lives–that what they struggled with wasn't even real.
Get it together.
None of that mattered. What mattered was getting a clear shot between the eyes. His finger hovered over the trigger, the sniper rifle firm in his grip. Zander's rifle. His aim wasn't as precise as Zander's, but he did all right. Tarek had adopted the gun seven months ago when the Guide decided to go back to Earth.
No, don't go there.
He couldn't handle that part of his life–the part who went to Earth with Zander.
Lena.
No.
He peered into the scope.
The second an authority Protector pulled out his gallium cuffs, about to cinch them around the wrists of a man begging on his knees, Tarek shot. Before the other Protector could pull out his weapon, Tarek took him out too.
The deaths didn't create a frenzy, not even when two energy orbs released from the Protectors' bodies and sailed to the sky, ultimately finding their way into the apartment building where Tarek hid. The would-be victims dragged the useless bodies into the shadows, to the garbage incinerators hidden there. Exemplians in this sector had their turmoil to deal with, and what was left of the Synod against them. They weren't cowards, though.
They refused to fight outright since the initial attack on the Creation Lab. But no one had ever complained when a mysterious bullet punctured the skull of an authority Protector. His shots seemed to wake up some of the citizens from a stupor, bringing them to action for a few minutes to get rid of the bodies. Tarek would take that; it'd be enough.
He refused to move from his spot. Where there were two, there were ten more. He searched the crowd through his scope, sweat turning his hoodie to soggy cotton against his back. There, right below the blank screens, were three more Protectors picking through the crowd to inspect the source of the commotion.
They plowed through braver citizens willing to stand in their path, tasing them. People dropped to the dirty pavement, their bodies spasming from the high voltages.
Tarek remained steady.
Three…
Two…
One…
Pop! Pop! Pop!
The crowd swallowed up the bodies as the Protectors' energies raced into the building. For once, the noise quieted. All that echoed up to his spot was the distant hum of the incinerators, gobbling up bone and blood and flesh. Tarek squinted into his scope, his even breathing rhythmic, relaxing. No other authority assholes rushed the crowd.
A minute passed by.
Fifteen more followed.
No more targets were willing to meet his bullets.
Shame.
Five dead authority Protectors wasn't even a dent in the grand scheme of things.
Plus side, those he'd killed wouldn't be coming back for another go at life.
Their little army made sure of it eight months ago.
Tarek gave one more cursory search of the crowd in case any Protectors stepped from the shadows to scout the rooftops.
Nothing.
As he lowered his gun, a familiar dark blond mop coming toward this building caught his eye. He looked through his scope one more time.
Sonofabitch.
Not again.
Groaning, so he wouldn't give in and shoot the boy in the leg for being a pain in the ass, Tarek pushed to his feet and stalked to the rusted metal door. Eight flights of stairs separated him from the boy who refused to keep his scrawny butt on Earth, where it was safe.
Peter. Dumb boy.
Dumb, brave, anger-filled boy.
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