Novels by E.T. Thornton

Okay. You can do this, Gianna told herself as she let her wolf come forward to help sharpen her senses. She hurried back the way that they had just come, following the rapidly fading scents. With her sharpened scenes Gianna was able to move quicker, and soon found herself back at the door the guard had led them through earlier. Holding her breath, Gianna listened to see if she heard any sounds on the other side of the hidden door. Not hearing anything, she carefully opened the door just a crack to make sure there was nothing to hear over the pounding of her own heart. Once she confirmed that the coast was indeed clear, Gianna pushed back her wolf and stepped quietly into the hallway. Making sure that the door was covered, she quickly made her way back to their rooms. Peaking around the last corner, Gianna was relieved to see that no one was in the hallway. Good, she thought to herself, they have not had a shift change yet. Gianna quickly sprinted to the door and closed it softly b

“We can just go somewhere else then,” Sophia pleaded one last time. “I have a feeling that if you go back, you won’t come back.” ““The shifter kingdom is our best bet. They do not like Keres, and maybe I can learn about my father there. There might even be family that will take us in for a while at least. I promise I’ll be back,” Gianna said as she pulled Sophia in for a quick hug. “Stay here,” she said as she slipped off her backpack and put it between a bush and a tree. With one last quick smile, Gianna hurried off, carefully making her way back to the cave that the guard had brought them through maybe fifteen minutes ago. “Please don’t go,” Sophia whispered as she watched Gianna quickly making her way along the rocks. Sophia watched her sister till she disappeared in the cave. Once Gianna was out of sight Sophia slid her backpack off and put it on the ground with Gianna’s. She pulled the rain jacket that Gianna had packed her out, and slipped it on to help block the wind. It wa

“Let’s go,” Gianna said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile, as they quickly made their way to the door. Gianna let her wolf come forward just enough to help heighten her senses, but not enough that her eyes would change. Opening the door, she was relieved to see just the guard there, and that he was carefully scanning up and down the hall. “Ready,” the guard whispered. “Yes. We have everything,” Gianna whispered back as she quietly stepped out into the hallway, keeping Sophia behind her. “Good. Follow me,” the guard whispered as he quickly turned and begane to make his way down the opposite way that Gianna had planned. “Why this way,” she whispered as they quickly caught up to him. “Trust me,” the guard said as he guided them up against the wall and motioned for them to be silent, as soon as they came to an intersection in the hallway. Gianna looked down so that she could hide her eyes, and let her wolf come forward a little more. The guard eased a little closer to t

Gianna hurried to the door as soon as she heard the knock. It was almost time. All they had to do was eat, pretend to go to sleep, and then make a run for it. She had checked over everything that she and Sophia planned to bring one last time to make sure that they had everything that she could think of that they might need. Opening the door, Gianna forced a relaxed smile, and hoped that the maid delivering their dinner took note that she was already dressed for bed. Gianna’s smile almost faltered when she saw a stern-faced guard holding the try with their dinner on it. “I’m so sorry,” Gianna said, recovering quickly. “Let me take that,” she said as she went to take the tray. “Let me carry it. The tray is right heavy,” the guard said, quickly stepping past Gianna, and easily kicking the door shut with his heavy booted foot as he easily carried the tray. “Thank you,” Gianna said as she hurried to move a few of Sophia’s school books off of the table in front of the sofa so that

The guard that had pretended to be asleep by the door made a show of stretching and yawning when Captain Dolion kicked his boot as he passed him on the way back in. “Get up sergeant. I have a job for you tonight.”“I don’t want a job tonight. I had to cover for Jackson this morning.”“Does this change your mind,” Dolion asked as he threw a couple of the bills that the advisor gave him. “What’s the job,” the sergeant asked as he picked up the money and began to count it. “Follow me,” Captain Dolion said and he motioned to two other guards as well. They followed him into another smaller side room. “Listen the King’s advisor wants to keep this hush hush. I know that I can trust all of you to keep your mouth shut, right?”Everyone around Captain Dolion nodded. “Good. All we have to do is make sure that no one leaves the princesses rooms tonight.”“What for,” one of the other guards asked.“I don’t know,” Captain Dolion said, “but we are getting paid enough extra not to care, right,”

Hurrying from King Keres’s office his advisor smiled as he remembered King Keres’s praise. He liked all of the plans that he had organized for his special day tomorrow. Surely if everything goes off perfectly tomorrow he might even be looking at a promotion or a raise the advisor thought happily to himself as he reached a heavy wooden door. Taking a deep breath to hide his happiness, the advisor quickly gave two short knocks on the door and opened it without waiting for a reply. Looking inside the room, he saw just the guard that he was looking for in the middle of a game of cards. “Captain Dolion, may I have a word with you,” the advisor said quickly as he saw all of the eyes in the room turn to him. None of them were friendly, but he also knew that they wouldn’t dare touch him due to his position. “What do you want,” Dolion asked after barely sparing the advisor a glance. “I need to speak to you out in the corridor, please,” the advisor said as he saw the looks some of the guar

“She’s waking up,” Emily heard a femine voice yelling right before she heard the pounding up feet and then her hand being held tightly. “Emily. Emily, can you hear me,” her mate asked in a trembling voice. The sound of his voice and the pain that was in it broke her heart. It took more energy than she would have ever thought, but Emily finally forced her eyes open. As soon as she could focus, she found her eyes locked with beautiful relief filled green ones. “Hi,” she managed to croak out with a small smile. “Hi beautiful,” Gabriel replied huskily as he leaned forward to kiss her forehead. “How are you feeling?’ “Thirsty and tired for some reason. Rica said that I have been out for three weeks.” Gabriel helped Emily to sit up a little so that she could take a few sips from the cup of water that was pushed into his hand. “Yes. The wound hit you harder than anyone thought. Agatha thought that she had lost you for a moment, but Rica pulled you back. We just couldn’t get you to wa

I kind of figured we would have to do something like that. Do Gabriel and Conri know? Emily asked grimacing. Nope, Rica said. How much trouble are we going to be in for doing this?Loads. They might even kill us if we make it. Do you think that my grandmother would have suggested this if she thought we wouldn’t. No, but I also know that things can go bad quickly, Rica said hesitantly. Why are you so hesitant? Do you know something? I know a lot actually. There just isn’t anything that I can tell you right now. That was helpful. I know. All I can say is that we do need to survive. For Gabriel and Conri? And others…Rica said carefully. What others? I can’t say yet. Okay…so do you not want to save Agatha? I do want to save her, I just need you to be strong and to get us through this. Promise me. I promise. Should we tell Gabriel and Conri? I think we have to. They are going to have to give a lot of their energy to Agatha to heal us. Okay. Do you want to tell them? No.

“Angela, how are they,” Emily asked as soon as they made it back into the valley and then rushed to the hospital where all of the injured were receiving help. Emily was relieved to see that everyone that they passed at the hospital did indeed have minor injuries. “Not good,” Angela said, quickly swiping a tear from her cheek. “I can’t keep them in this state much longer, and as soon as they are no longer in this frozen state, they will quickly bleed out.” “Can’t I pull energy and give it to them to help them heal,” Emily asked sadly, as she looked at her grandmother and Agatha. Angela shook her head. “No, the bullets have done too much damage for them to recover from.” “Could we do surgery while they are frozen to repair the damage to give them a fighting chance,” Emily asked, refusing to give up. Angela sighed and slumped in a seat by Agatha’s bed. “Even frozen, the surgery would kill them. Rotterford knew what he was doing when he shot your grandmother. He missed her he

“You are right,” Emily’s uncle said, sighing heavily. “I know that saying ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I was wrong’ will not fix the mistakes that I have made.” “Then what do you want? The only reason that you are not dead is because my mate was hearing you out,” Gabriel growled. “I wanted Emily to know the truth, and I think I just wanted to clear my conscience.” “You came all of this way so that you could have a clear conscience,” Emily asked skeptically. “And so that you could know the truth,” her uncle said with a small shrug. “I am dying, so if you decide to kill me it won’t matter,” he laughed bitterly. “That might be better than what is coming. I have cancer in case you were wondering.” “I can’t heal you,” Emily said quickly thinking her uncle was hoping that injuring Lord Rotterford and finally telling her the truth would make her help him. She felt bad thinking that, but she also knew that she had to try to help Agatha and her grandmother if possible. She couldn’t help her uncle t

“What do you mean,” Emily asked. “I have made a lot of bad decisions in my life. I know that I can never make what I have done to you right, but I can at least make sure that you are able to live the life that you have now.” “What have you done to me? Do you mean the part where you called me a whore for taking my chances with Lord Rotterford over you,” Emily cried as she pointed to the man that was still withering in pain on the ground. “Or do you mean, where you stole from myself and my parents and forced me out of my own home to pay your gambling debts?” Emily’s uncle looked pained as he admitted, “I have done way worse. I was the fool that told the hunters where they could find your mother. I was blinded by jealousy of my brother. I was hoping that I could make it look like he was the one that told them where she was that day then she would run to me for comfort.” “You wanted to have me killed so that my mom might turn to you for comfort? How could you even think that she woul

Emily wanted to close her eyes as she heard the gun fire, but she found that she couldn’t look away. Knowing that you are about to die is a funny thing. It is almost like time stands still. You have all of the time in the world to think about things, but in reality everything happens within seconds. Since Rica had tried to come forward when Jenna first placed the spell on them, Emily’s eyesight was much sharper. She could see every detail of the bullet as it came barreling toward her, but at the same time her mind took this opportunity to think about all of the things that she would regret. Emily hated the fact that she and Gabriel and Rica and Conri never really got a chance to enjoy each other. Hopefully they know how much they love them. Emily also hated the fact that she couldn’t save her grandmother. She had only come out of hiding after all of these years because of her. Just as the bullet was about to reach her, Emily heard another shot fired. Her eyes changed focus just in