Home > The Chosen

The Chosen
Author: Jill Sanders

The Chosen

 

 

Jill Sanders

 

 

Grayton Press

 

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

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DIGITAL ISBN: 978-1-945100-33-8

PRINT ISBN: 978-8470728319

Copyright © 2021 Jill Sanders

Copyeditor: Erica Ellis – inkdeepediting.com

 

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No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

 

 

Contents

 


Summary

 

 

Prologue

 

Chapter 1

 

Chapter 2

 

Chapter 3

 

Chapter 4

 

Chapter 5

 

Chapter 6

 

Chapter 7

 

Chapter 8

 

Chapter 9

 

Chapter 10

 

Chapter 11

 

Chapter 12

 

Chapter 13

 

Chapter 14

 

Chapter 15

 

Chapter 16

 

Chapter 17

 

Chapter 18

 

Chapter 19

 

Chapter 20

 

Chapter 21

 

Epilogue

 

 

Also by Jill Sanders

 

About the Author

 

 

Summary

 

 

Tara’s parents had always told her that she was special. But until her sixteenth birthday, she never knew just how special she was. Coming into powers had been the last thing on her to-do list. Especially after her parents’ disappearance on that fateful night. Now, almost ten years later, she’s learned how to hide her gifts and that it’s best to keep to herself. Which means a life on the run, moving anytime she slips up. And she tends to slip up—a lot.

 

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All Colt wants to do is complete his latest job so he can take some well-deserved time off. But this mark was proving to be a slippery one. After more than a decade in special ops, bringing one helpless woman in should be the easiest job ever. But after a bump-in with the blonde, something strange happens to him. He no longer cares about the job.

 

 

Prologue

 

 

Tara smiled down at the soft-pink cake with its sixteen perfectly placed sparkling pink candles and smiled.

Her friends, the select few that she’d deemed worthy to attend such an elite event, cheered around her as the fairy lights that had been strung overhead twinkled around them all.

The entire yard had been transformed into a magical fairy-tale wonderland. Just for her. A long table of gifts sat on the porch, ready for her to open after everyone had some cake and punch.

There was a DJ playing all of their favorite songs and a dance floor and flashing lights. No one had dared step out on it, since the party wasn’t in full swing just yet.

As she blew out the candles, she silently made a wish that Hunter McCann would ask her to dance tonight.

But the moment the last candle’s light disappeared, the sky above her lush hillside home suddenly darkened. Then the wind kicked up, sending decorations flying as everyone scurried to seek shelter from the lightning and rain.

Tara stood in the center of the yard and cursed the freak weather as everyone ran for shelter. The rain was ruining her perfect party. The water soaked the designer silk dress that she’d convinced her stepmother to splurge on just for the special occasion.

Why was this happening to her? Couldn’t it rain on some less-popular person’s birthday instead? She stomped her foot in frustration and, suddenly, the ground shook. She screamed, and so did everyone else at her party as the sky grew even darker. Silently wishing for everything to go back to the way it was, she pouted and closed her eyes momentarily as the shaking grew harder.

Then she watched in horror as the wind and rain gathered around her, as if surrounding only her. It pelted her face, soaked her completely, and lifted her long blonde hair, tangling it around her face.

She pushed her hair aside just in time to see the hillside where her beautiful home sat vanish into thin air before her eyes.

Crying out, she reached for everyone, for her parents, her friends. But as if in a terrible end-of-the-world movie, she watched in horror as fear crossed all their faces while they faded into nothingness.

When the wind finally died down less than a minute later, she stood in her ruined party dress, with her hair soaking wet, on a patch of perfectly green grass. A large blinding light hovered above her in the night sky.

Evening had somehow turned into night just as quickly as everything she’d loved had faded before her eyes.

She had to blink a few times to assure herself that she was all alone and that the light high above her was real. And that everything she cared about was truly gone.

When she looked around, she couldn’t see any signs that her home had ever existed in this place. The hillside she stood on appeared to be the same one where she’d grown up, where the stone building she’d always called home had just stood.

Half expecting a pile of wood, stone, and cement to be in the place where her home had sat, she turned and saw… nothing. Just grass, trees, and wildflowers.

The scariest part was the massive singular moon hovering high above her. The light from it almost blinded her, and she could barely see the twinkle from the stars that she knew so well. Were they all gone too?

She sank down into the soft grass and cried until her head ached. She must have fallen asleep at one point and when she woke it was dawn. She stood up, dusted off her dress, and began to search the area for any sign of her family, her friends. What felt like hours later, when her voice had grown hoarse from calling out to them, she sat down in the grass and cried again, this time for everything she’d just lost. Not because of the horror of the day—for the loss of her parents, her friends, her life—but because she was now all alone.

Tara woke with a start, shaken from the nightmare. The memory. Her first thought was to run. To hide. She felt tears streaming down her face. Then she heard the hum of the cars passing her by on the highway and remembered where she was—in her travel van on the side of the road.

She looked out the window and the sight of the many stars lighting up the darkness of the desert night calmed her until she relaxed back.

Closing her eyes, she wished the memory would disappear just as everyone that day had.

It had taken her close to a week to find someone to help her. She’d walked through the woods until she’d stumbled upon a cabin. When she’d told the police what had happened, they’d glanced at one another and snickered. Then they’d accused her of fabricating the entire story.

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