The stone bridge stretched in front of me. It was only twenty-seven yards long, but it felt like a mile. I shuffled across it, one foot in front of the other, my body weak and exhausted, and poor Bear heavy like an anchor in my arms. She was still breathing. I felt her every ragged breath. She was shivering and sometimes she would yelp, but she was still alive.
Almost there.
One step at a time. Almost made it.
Just a little further.
The little cave gaped in front of us. It was a nearly circular depression in the rock, about fifty feet across, its walls smooth, its floor empty.
I tried to set Bear down, but my legs gave out, and we both collapsed. I pulled myself upright and unhooked Bear’s leash from around my neck. Three stalker hearts tumbled to the ground. I had cut them out along the way, strung them onto the leash like fish, and then I put that grisly necklace around my neck. It was the only way I could carry it.
I chopped one heart into small pieces. My hands felt so heavy and clumsy. I scooped a handful of stalker stew meat and shoved it in my mouth.
It burned like battery acid.
I swallowed. Fire sliding down my throat. I chopped the meat smaller. The last thing I needed was to die choking on stalker’s heart.
The pieces of raw flesh landed in my stomach like rocks. My hands trembled. I retched and forced it back down.
I’d managed to down one and a half hearts before the shivers came. Cold clutched at me. My teeth chattered, my knees shook, and I could not get warm. I slumped against the cave wall, shuddering. Bear trembled, turned, and crawled to me.
Tears wet my eyes.
Bear slumped against me and rested her head on my thigh. I petted her. We shivered together. Time stretched, each moment sticky and viscous.
The shivers came in waves now. They washed over me, broke into stabbing pains, faded, and came again.
I had to stay awake. Something told me that to sleep was to die.
I shook Bear. She looked at me with her warm eyes.
I forced my quivering lips to move. “You have to stay awake.”
The shepherd looked at me.
“Stay with me. I’ll tell you a story. You were born into this new age. Your parents were probably born into it as well. You don’t know but it didn’t use to be like this. It used to be… nice.”
I stroked her fur with trembling fingers.
“I remember when the first gates opened. The government called them anomalies back then. One of them was right downtown. The military cordoned it off. Shut down half of the business district.
“At first, everyone was alarmed. There was news coverage, and theories, and the markets crashed. But the gate just sat there, not doing anything. Roger and I drove by to look at it. It was huge. This high-rise-sized, massive hole in the middle of the city, swirling with orange sparks, strange roots and branches twisting along its boundary, just out of reach. I remember feeling this overwhelming anxiety. Like looking at the tornado coming your way and not being able to do anything about it.
“I asked Roger if we should move. And he said, ‘Let’s talk about it.’ Roger was my husband and my best friend. Neither of us got along with our parents. I have no siblings, and he didn’t talk to his brother, so it was the two of us against the world. We discussed it on the way home. Our jobs were here. We’d just bought the house two years before. Tia was doing well in school. Roger’s company was twenty minutes from the site, and I was north of it, so if something happened, we’d have time to get out. We decided to stay.
“For two months the gate just sat there. People stopped talking about it, except to complain about the traffic. Then one day – it was a Monday. I don’t know why crap like this always happens on Mondays – one day, I had this long Zoom meeting with the San Diego office, trying to sort out the new advertising campaign. I kept hearing raised voices and then San Diego went offline.
“I came out of my office. Imagine the conference room crammed with terrified people, and they are all staring at the screen, glassy-eyed and completely quiet. There was a newscast on tv, and the journalist sounded so high-pitched, she was squeaking like a terrified mouse. The anomaly had burst and vomited a torrent of monsters into the city. Downtown was a warzone. Bodies torn apart, cars upside down, and creatures that had popped straight out of a nightmare streaming across the screen…”
I remembered the burst of hot electric panic that shot through me. I knew in that moment that whatever plans we made and the future we thought was coming, had just died, smashed to pieces with a hammer of an existential threat.
“I stumbled away from the room and called Roger. He answered right away. He said, ’Pick up the kids and go home. Straight home, Ada, no stops. I’ll get there as soon as I can.’”
My eyes had grown hot. I swiped the tears off with the back of my forearm. My fingers were stained with stalker blood, and I didn’t want it in my eyes.
“These are angry tears. The fucked up thing is, I remember his voice, Bear. I remember how he sounded. Strong and sure. And I miss that. I miss that voice, I miss the old him, and he is a fucking shithead, and I will never let him back into our lives, but there it is.”
I swallowed and checked Bear. She looked at me. Still alive.
“I left the office. The streets were choked with cars. I’m on the corner of Grace and Broadway, right by that pancake place, and a cop is in the middle of the intersection, and this herd of people just tears out of nowhere and stampedes down Grace. The crowd runs past, and the cop is on the street on his back, not moving. I saw that man being trampled to death. Then a body falls on the street from above. I look up, and there are six legged things crawling on the building to my right and yanking people out of the windows, and up ahead, just past the IHOP, there is a high-rise apartment building. And it shakes, Bear, and then people start raining from it, jumping in desperation and just smashing onto the street. And I know it’s about to fall, so I jerk my wheel right, and tear down Grace Street in the direction the stampede had come from, because I have no place to go, and something tells me not to follow the crowd. It was hell on Earth, Bear. I don’t know to this day how I got out.
“I picked up Tia, made it to Noah’s daycare, grabbed him, and drove home on autopilot. At some point we passed Target, and it was on fire. We get to our house and huddle in the bedroom on the bed. The kids are scared, so I turn Netflix on and for some reason it is still streaming despite the world ending. We watch and wait.”
I sat in that bedroom and thought what life would be like if Roger died, and every time I imagined losing him, it felt like someone had cut my soul with a knife. Until today, those were the worst two hours of my life.
“Finally, I hear the code lock, and then Roger walks into the bedroom, wild eyed, disheveled, but alive.”
The relief had been indescribable.
“I hug him, but he doesn’t hug me back. He just stands there, stiff. I thought he was in shock. I make some frozen pizzas, we eat, and we stay with the kids watching Netflix. Roger is distant. It’s like he’s gone into some inside place where nobody is welcome. At some point he leaves the bedroom. I wait until the kids fell asleep, check my phone for news, and then look for him.
“He is sitting on our front porch. He has a pack of cigarettes, and he is chain smoking, one after another. He quit when I was pregnant with Tia. Ten years later, that fucking pack still bothers me. I didn’t make him quit. He chose to do it. Either he had a secret pack – and who keeps a hidden pack of cigarettes for 6 years? – or he’s been smoking on the side and hiding it from me. Why?
“Anyway, I tell him what I saw on my phone.”
That conversation was branded into my memory. I could recite it word by word and in an instant I was right there, back on that porch, with the night encroaching onto the city and the blaze of orange in the distance, where Target was still burning hours later.
“They are saying that the anomalies are gates that lead to some other world or dimension. There are twelve gates in the US. Our outbreak is fifteen percent contained. They think they’ll have it under control in forty-eight hours.”
“Nothing is under control.” His voice was almost a snarl.
I reached out to take his hand.
He shifted away.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I don’t know what happened, I don’t know what you saw, but I’m so sorry.”
“I took 90 home,” he said. “The traffic stopped. Everything stopped. And then the things came. They went after the ones who got out of their cars first. Then they figured out that we were in the cars. I saw them rip a man apart right in front of me. They threw him on my car. His guts fell out of his body onto the glass. His intestines were sliding on the windshield, and he was still alive. I just sat there and watched him die.”
Roger stabbed the cigarette out on the step, crushing it.
“I sat there like that for three hours, waiting for them to find me. I didn’t know if you and the kids were dead or alive. I didn’t know if you made it home or if you were stuck like me. And the whole time I had this voice in the back of my head telling me that I needed to get the fuck out and take care of my wife and kids. I needed to nut up, get out of the car, and go find you.”
Oh my God. “You made it home. That’s all we wanted.”
He didn’t look like he heard a word I said.
“And then I thought, what if you were already dead? What if I never found you? And you know what I felt?”
I couldn’t tell if he wanted an answer. “No.”
He looked at me, and his eyes seemed feverish. “I felt relief.”
“What?”
“I felt relief. A burden lifted.”
The hair on the back of my neck rose. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do. Adaline, why would I lie about this now?”
I stared at him, stunned. What do I do with this? How do I fix it?
“The world is ending. This right here…” He held his hands out and circled the street. “This is done. It’s over. It’s over for all of us.”
“I think you’re still in shock.”
“Maybe. But I see things very clearly now. We are living on borrowed time. There will be more of these holes. They’re not just going to give up. We can’t beat them. I don’t know how much time we have left. Six months, a year, a week. Nobody knows.”
I’d gone strangely numb. A part of me knew he was talking and making words, but none of the sounds made any sense.
“I’m going to live whatever time I have left on my own terms. Doing what I want.”
He fell silent and looked at me. This was the part where I had to say something.
My voice came out wooden. I was so calm, and I had no idea why. “And what is it you want, Roger?”
“Not this.”
“Ah.”
“Not anymore.”
“Is there room for me and the kids in this new life on your terms?”
“No.”
The word lashed me.
“We’ve been together ten years. If you don’t want to be married, that’s fine, but you don’t get to just quit being a father. The kids have known you their entire lives. They won’t understand, Roger. They need you. I need you.”
“It’s not about you or them. This is about me. I need something else.”
“Tia loves you. Noah adores you. That little boy can’t wait for you to come home. Every day he does a little dance when he sees your car in the driveway. You know what Tia told me while we were waiting for you? She said, ‘Don’t worry Mom, Dad will kill all the monsters.’”
Roger shook his head. “I can’t. I can’t kill any monsters. I didn’t save anyone. I just froze. And I’m not going to spend the rest of my life feeling like a coward.”
“So, you’re just going to abandon us? To whatever happens?”
A hint of something cold and vicious twisted his face. “I have a right to be happy. For however long I have left. I’m going to grab my happiness and hold on to it while I still can. This is done. We are done.”
“What am I supposed to tell the kids?”
“Whatever you want.”
He got up and went inside.
“And now you know how my marriage ended, Bear. I’ve had a decade to think about it. I understand it better now. I was able to drive away from the slaughter. I escaped. He couldn’t. He just sat in that car stuck and waiting to die, and it must’ve occurred to him that he was doing that exact thing in his life. He must’ve realized something about himself that neither he nor I knew until that moment.”
I stroked Bear’s fur.
“He’s down in Puerto Rico. He owns a boat and takes tourists out to the reefs to snorkel with manta rays. He is exactly where he wants to be. And until today, I was where I wanted to be. I manifested as a Talent three years after that first gate break. Yes, I got this job for benefits and pay, because I have bills and kids, but there are other ways to earn money. I do it because every time I find adamantite or aetherium, it makes us a little stronger. It gives us a better fighting chance to repel this invasion, and I will keep finding this shit until all the breaches are broken and all the gates are closed, so my children can have a safe, boring future.”
I realized that I was snarling and took a deep breath.
“I don’t blame Roger for the divorce. I blame him for being a shit father. I’ve tried, Bear. I’ve sent emails, I texted, I offered phone calls. He didn’t respond. The only communication from him was through the child support payments. That’s how I knew he was still alive.”
Another shudder twisted me.
“He works as little as possible, so he makes just enough to survive and maintain the boat. At first he was sending $200 a month, then $100 per month, then he stopped. I kept offering to send the kids to visit him or inviting him to visit us, and he cut that off. He said he didn’t want to see them. I finally had enough and had my lawyer email him an affidavit to relinquish his parental rights. I thought it would shock him into having a relationship with our kids. It came back as a scan in twenty-four hours, attached to a blank email, signed, notarized and witnessed by two people. He wanted to get rid of Tia and Noah that much.”
I gritted my teeth.
“I didn’t tell the kids, but I have the Death Folder on my desktop, with insurance, and the will, and all that crap. Tia knows about it, and that affidavit is in there. Once my death is announced, they will learn that their father doesn’t want them. My children will think they don’t have anyone left in this world. People break promises all the time. Roger promised to love me. Melissa promised to be my friend. London promised to protect me.
“Promises must be kept, Bear. Especially to children. I promised Tia I wouldn’t die in this hellhole and I meant it. We are going to survive. We will get out of here if I have to crawl on my hands and knees all the way to that damn gate.”
First?
Certified 🙂
Woohoo!
Also: 😭😭😭 heartrending. Love getting this backstory. Poor Tia and Noah! I’m so happy Elias was thinking about protecting them last scene….
+1!
Thank you for this! Really loving the story!
My thoughts exactly!
Yes. I liked that he was looking after them and the other families too.
+1
“Promises must be kept.” Oooooh, that gives me chills! I can’t wait til she gets back and rolls (or helps roll) the heavy wheels of karma over all those pricks!!!
+1
+1
+1
+1
first?
Top 3?
love the story!
thank you!
Yippee
First?
Top 10?
I’m early in the comments!! This never happens!!
1st?
Darn but still a winner because get to read this awesome story
Definitely not first 😉
Thank you so much! Hope Andrew is recoving well!
Another great chapter. It was nice to see how it all started.
Wow! This is heart-wrenching
Awesome.
happy friday……. good start for the end of the week
thanks for the Chap IA
Strength!
Thank you. Was afraid Gordon’s surgery would prevent you from posting today. I hope his recovery is going well.
Thank you for making my Friday a lot better w The Inheritance! I would have understood if there was none due to Gordon recovery.
I was entertaining myself if there was no “The Inheritance today.” Bear for The Inheritance, Beast for InnKeeper, Bunny for Hidden Legacy. There’s a pattern here…Kate Danielle’s…what is it…Brendel!!! Ok, Grendel but like I said, entertaining meself….might as well include Bug’s Bapoleon…!
😄🐶
Thank you!
Can we all just agree that Roger is human garbage?
Loving this and the world building…
Ada is my favorite sort of character. A strong woman who will do anything for her family and the people she loves.
Found family is such a popular trope right now, but your themes of protecting actually family above all else is what keeps me coming back. Love the loyalty in your main characters.
I understand Roger’s thinking. A man must protect his family – he couldn’t even move. But he could have rationalized that staying still was optimal in THAT situation. And he would carry a weapon in the future and definitely have a weapon at hand at home.
Even if he is a coward he shouldn’t be so selfish, or he should have waited till last kid was 18 – even if he thought the world was doomed.
I understand what he may have thought in the story, but his actions are unforgiveable.
It turned out that her husband was sociopath. its more of a surprise that Ada is not, given her mother. And given the mother, Ada didn’t notice it as a flaw until it was forced into the open.
Hadn’t even thought about that, but you are right. Thanks for the insight.
it is in crisis that we show our true colors.
+1
Is it wrong of me to want a gate to open right on top of Roger?
Not wrong. Not wrong AT ALL.
Straight up monster vomit in his cereal!
+1 LOL. Mod R, you never cease to make me laugh. Thanks.
How about all over his boat? That way Roger can’t clean it up right away. If the monster has tentacles, it could pull him and his boat under.
Oh, I figure he’s got that coming. Yes, indeedy.
Not on top of him.
First, get London and Melissa, then throw all 3 of them into a gate just as it’s collapsing so they won’t be able to come back.
I reserve the right to add people to the pile as the story continues, but those 3 are definitely going in.
Melissa might deserve our disdain, but her children surely don’t deserve to lose their mother. Perhaps we should settle with her losing her job. Or maybe being demoted? She should certainly be removed from any supporvisory position,,at a minimum.
Hmmm. I thought her kids were grown, but I just looked at Chapter 1 again. She’s only 2 years older than Ada, so her kids could be teenagers. I guess we can hold off on throwing her into the gate, but if I find a gross, slimy puddle somewhere, she’s going in.
I vote for fine and demotion. she doesn’t have the nerve. she can go back to being a regular miner.
I vote for no more gate access and jail time
+1
popieram
WOW!
Between this and the team getting all of the containers set up in the sun (concrete piers) and shade, it’s a VERY good week 😀
Thank you! Heart wrenching and still a great way to end the week. Enjoying this so much! Everyone have a fun weekend!
I feel like I am there with her and bear. My hearts breaks but I feel her determination.
I mean this in the best possible BDH way….this is the worst. I’ve had an emotionally similar devastating event with someone who meant everything to me. This is worse than the gory parts. You made me feel it, House Andrews.
Today’s segment is amazingly accurate.
Thank you.
Big hugs. You’re just as much of a badass as Ada!
This roller-coaster is a tense ride, but it will get us all through safely. Through a catharsis if it has to.
Well played, author lords 🙂
Guess that street indeed 🙂 Yes, I’m one of the people who did NOT notice the monster on the building, I had to read a post from someone to notice :/
A nice walk down memory lane to explain Ada’s determination. Yes, she WILL get home – she promised! Melissa and London will get told off – or worse – they BROKE their promises!
Also, pretty please, an extra installment (before Monday) to see how the eat stalker heart thing resolves. PLEASE! 🙂
Yum, yum, Stalker Heart Tartare,a gourmet treat whipped up by Chef Adaline.
Annnd this is how our brains work… I noticed the monster and only saw the red – my unconscious bias said “Spider-Man”and nope I didn’t question it or analyze why that didn’t make sense🤣🤣
I’m just hoping there will be an installment on Monday. It’s a holiday here in the States and the Author Lords might have a long weekend planned.
There will be an instalment on Monday 🙂
I was wondering the same thing.
thank you for asking and answering!
🥳🥳🥳😘
Gut wrenching! Explains so much.
Thank you for gifting us with this tale, I hope for more in this world. Yes I’m a card carrying Horde member. Our motto “MORE, MORE, MORE”
Little know fact, more, more, more translates to Barsa, barsa BARSA! That is if you were a Barsa.
It sucks Ada and the kids had to go through that with Roger but I do love when the trash takes itself out.
+1
+1
I had been worried that Roger might come back to get access to the insurance money. I’m glad to hear that Ada was clever enough to protect the kids, and I am hoping that she gets back before the Death Folder is opened!
I wonder if Tia will tell Elias about it and he’ll read it first? Maybe?
Fantastic thanks
Thank you…..
This is a great piece of writing…I could see & feel everything she was feeling…..this is what makes your stories a must read for me…..
When it came down to crunch time, Roger decided to ditch his responsibilities and please only himself; no concern for those he claimed to love. For 10 years – plenty of time to get over the trauma and work on being the dad he could be. At first glance it’s the easy road, but I don’t know how he can live with himself.
Adaline stepped up to do the best she could in a horrible situation, for her children (those benefits), and the world in general (going into the breaches for adamantite/aetherium), all after being betrayed by someone who she though loved her and their children.
I want to be Ada.
It constantly amazes me how much all these characters matter to me. There is nothing shallow or hackneyed in anything produced by Ilona & Gordon. I read voraciously and can acknowledge that with some authors you can relish the ‘potato chip’ stories and other times you yearn for the finest ‘steak’ stories. I have never been disappointed in anything you have written and am always anticipating the next great story. In these days it is a blessing to be able to escape for even a little bit into another world created by Ilona Andrews. Thank you!
+1000000!!!!
Favorite snippet yet.
I love the way we get the backstory as she’s talking to the dog. This is so real.
So much love! This rips up my heart and makes me so proud, all at once. Well-said, House Andrews! Well said.💜💜💜
the strength of a woman…
love this!
thank you!
so good! love how talented IA at sharing back story. also appreciate showing that in crisis people’s true colors can be self-serving – the lizard brain. love Ada. love bear
Awesome characterization of the scumbag Roger! So believable. Ada and Roger’s characters remind me a another book where there is a nuclear disaster and the survivors (who were everyday, normal people before the event) evolve to either rise above the challenge or descend into the worse possible versions of themselves.
so does anyone else hope roger gets sucked into a breach and never returns, or is that just me 😆
Not just you….
SO GOOD.
Wow what a great part! Looking forward to Monday. I hope Gordon’s healing is going well.
Can we send Roger some flowers? Some spikey/thorny red ones and some pollen spewing purple-violet ones?
Omg I love her. As a 40 something mom, this last paragraph hit so hard. Amazing. I hope she gets out on her own. Badass.
Ooo! Yes! Maybe she’ll meet Elias right at the gate!
I’m a little bit ashamed to admit that I had my doubts about this story after the first chapter. Not surprisingly it turned out that I was worried about nothing. By chapter three part one I was sold, and quite thoroughly invested in Ada’s story. Forgive my lack of faith, I should have known better. It just seemed like such a departure from your normal story telling, at least I have no problem with admitting I was wrong. And there’s one thing more that this story is teaching me p*tience. I’ve been told that it’s a virtue. I’m trying really hard to feel virtuous after every chapter. The operative word is “try”. but, I will persevere, and maybe by the end of the story, I’ll have learned enough that the w*it for the e book will hardly be painful at all. A worthy goal, don’t you think?
This made me cry.
Poor Ada has such a sad story!
Thanks for the chapter!
Have a great weekend.
Every installment I’m like “this is it. this is when some small positive thing will happen.” And then I’m pulling my hair out like “Arrgh, noooo, my heart my heart!” And my partner is just looking at me wondering WTF…lol.
I love it. Brava.
one day Roger is going to realize that despite the horrible new world people are still doing their best and living on their terms and that he wasn’t a coward when he froze in that car but he was definitely one when he ran away from his young family when they most definitely needed him most.
I hope Ada finds another partner who will appreciate her and be worthy of her love.
Yeah, out of fight-flight-freeze-fawn, he froze. I have the same fear response and it feels awful. But freezing is a survival instinct. He deliebrately chose to abandon his family after the adrenaline wore off.
Honestly, someone like him will likely not regret it until he’s on his death bed. Not because he feels bad for the pain he’s caused but because no one will be there to comfort him.
I always have this naive outlook that bad people that hurt us will regret it and come begging just so we can satisfyingly show them we moved on and are okay without them but I know Roger isn’t the type. he’s given up on life completely and the only reason he has that tourist ferrying job is because he literally cannot survive without it. I’m sure he lives in somerundown shack apartment, the absolute bare minimum so he’s not fattening some landlord’s pocket as he waits to die.
1st – Get well wishes for Gordon and sympathy for Ilona (I have one of those as well, best we can do is to gently provide enough”rope”….until it dawns that maybe it’s ok to follow dr orders🤔)
2nd- Many many thanks for a great serial. I want to add Roger to the monster bait box too.
3rd – Random question: Has Elias also received an “inheritance”?
Elias is a blade warden, so he has a Talent and magic, but he has not received an inheritance from a breach alien like Ada has 🙂
Yet… Has not received an inheritance from a breach alien like Ada has, yet. (hehehe)
The BDH can only wait an hope
+1
🥰 I really want Ada to walk out of the gate before anyone else comes in, a screw you to London and Melissa
+1
YES! and Elias pulls up just as she and Bear are coming out and she’s like “I saved my damn self!”
And she would save Elias’s team. I don’t think they could survive with out the special knowledge from the Inheritance
Oh my! What a heartbreaking installment! How is it that you always make your characters so real and believable? You are such talented writers – truly gifted!
I love that Ada’s will is adamant. I love that she is so determined (vs. stubborn.) What an awesome story this is! Thank you.
Love your writing style so much HA!!! You create such fleshed out characters no matter how little they are a part of the story but have such an impact on protagonist’s. Truly gifted you two!!!❤️❤️❤️🥇🥇🥇
Woop, Thank you
This is great!
Ah Ada’s motivations become clear-er. I am sure she recovers and Bear too because well, no story if she does not survive it! Only question is: what’s happening with our healer friend (he’s disappeared!) and what will Elias and Leo decide to do about it? Go in without the healer, or a lesser one? OR will they find Jason where ever he is and thus unravel more puzzles ….or conspiracies to take out the Guild(s)? And while that is going on, poor Ada’s suffering away in the Breach… and we aren’t much clearer to figuring out the Inheritance… ummm. Good story, could roll on for a few books sorting it all, ROFL. Oh, did I suggest that? No, no bad me! 🙂
after the last snippet I was worried AH father would show up for the insurance payout, but this tidbit relieved my fears. I also understand more why Elias is taking the children under his protection, since technically it was his men who fubar’d and put their mom in danger/ left her for dead.
Ada is a bad ass. Not just because she can kill monsters and brave breaches (even before she could kill monsters, which is even MORE bad ass), but because she is brave enough to do whatever it takes to protect her people.
I wonder if eating slayer hearts is going to change her even more. And Bear. But whatever she changes into, she will be a mother first, last, and always.
Thank you, House Andrews, for a wonderful episode!
strength – is is formidable – thank you
Thank you! Such a heart wrenching story. Fictional (monsters and all), but do true… I really hope for more happiness for Ada 🙂 Strong human being 🙂
Roger. What a shmuck.
Is it Monday somewhere in the world tomorrow? Loved this chapter and looking forward to more, as always. Thanks House Andrews and Moderator R!
And my heart just broke into a million pieces…
Right now I’m wishing that a portal opens in Puerto Rico and swallows Roger whole.
I was born a reader. I have spent what adds up to YEARS of reading into the night, waking in the middle of the night to read, spending school lunches, work breaks reading. Even as a child during recess, back against the building, reading while others played. This morning I put off starting the day’s appointed jobs (retired) until I could read this latest chapter . ARGGH.
I can’t wait to buy this book…..AND I WON’T HAVE TO WAIT between chapters.
So much raw emotion.
“Promises must be kept, Bear. Especially to children. I promised Tia I wouldn’t die in this hellhole and I meant it. We are going to survive. We will get out of here if I have to crawl on my hands and knees all the way to that damn gate.”
OMG! That hit hard! You will survive!!
Thank you 🙏🏽 sooo good as it tugs on all the feels – her frustration, betrayal and anger- how she tried to connect over the years for the kids. Loving her determination, resilience and perseverance – trying to imagine forcing myself to eat heart tartare – nope not there yet
DANG that was a good one, whoa.
Also, wow, Roger is a total shithead.
Also, also – I am READY for Ada to get introduced to Elias’s brand of integrity and reliability.
Great addition to the story today.
Moderator R,
I was looking for a way to ask you questions directly but the only form I saw was for technical issues. So here is the Question.
Has House Andrew, in all the Youtube interviews, have ever addressed issues, problems, advantages for them writing as a pair vs other authors who only have themselves?
Is Inheritance a story idea developed before they developed Margie?
Thanks
Hey Vincent, you can always email me questions directly at modr@ilona-andrews.com 🙂
Pretty much every interview of House Andrews addresses this question, to the point where I kind of refuse to ask it when I host hehehe. I remember a really really good bit, I think it was in the Ruby Fever video where they actually discussed a scene live with us, showing us exactly how they write together.
Yep, here’s the link 🙂 https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/ruby-fever-spoilerific-qa/ . If you CTRL+F “work together” you’ll get to the right part in the transcript and then find it in the video.
That is a cool example of how their minds work together, plotting a scene.
But as a literalist, I can’t help but wonder how the words actually get on the page? Who types, one or both? Sequentially or simultaneously?!
Imagining if it were me and my partner:
(me, typing) Word word WORD word
(him, typing) [delete delete delete] WORD word word Word
(me, speaking ) Hey, M@#$F#$@, put that back, I liked it the other way!
(mayhem ensues)
Ilona usually types ☺️
Roger is the worst.
*nods* Worsty Worstington the First
The sense of entitlement is strong in that one. =/
Once I finish reading the chapter I ran down to the living room where my husband was on the couch. He’s on the couch right now because his company shut down about a month ago and there are no jobs (which feels like an insane thing to have to say about a scientist who builds drugs for cancer!!!)
So I asked him what we’d do if a hole opened up in the sky and spat out monsters. He said we’d figure it out together and take care of our daughter (he is 10000% the absolute opposite of Roger!!!!).
We then turned together and looked at our snoring 13 yr old dog on the couch and we both agreed that while we’d do our best, she’d get taken first. Not because she’s tasty but because she’d bark at some gnarly monster till she got eaten 🤷🏽♀️
First off I hope Gordon didn’t suffer a lot after his nerve block wore off.
Second, that is a depressing background story. Hope HA doesn’t know anybody like Roger.
Third, thank you for the segment.
Everyone have a happy and safeMemorial Day weekend here in the USA
Some really nasty traitorous people in this story. It seems to be a theme.
Good! So good!
That bit of tightness in the chest, the tears in the eyes and, yeah, a twist in the gut. All the emotional “side effects” make this story a great read.
Please, let the dog survive and, maybe, be a bit… magic-finessed? Could she turn into a shapeshifter?
I’d love it if Bear could communicate with Ada, mentally or audibly somehow, but maybe she’ll just be immune to breach magic, or poisons, or can sense the location of the anchor?
Sorry, sorry! My imagination is running away with me.
Can’t wait for the next part! See you here on Monday!
Cheers!
Good on you, Ada! This is an Andrews novel, which means you’re going to make it–strong! And I’ll be with you all the way!
So coming back to Shipping, yesterday I re-read all of the instalments, as one usually does, of course, and I came to the part about no fraternization between Guild and DeeBRAs which I promptly forgot bc initially, I was looking at London and London is now Persona Non Shippable.
Then Elias showed up and is very Shippable. So I have to fix this in my BDH-mind. I came up with:
Ada is no longer just a DeeBRA. She is a specialist with a new talent, the Inheritance Talent or whatever.
She leaves DDC and is hired by Cold [Case?] going in early bc she has all this special information AND better abilities. This means she can use her new talents, make more money and, more importantly, SHIP WITH ELIAS!
I also suspect that the Blue Lady was the last in a long line of Ada-types, having herself received the special talents from someone in the same way. The universe is trying to fix the Portal Problem.
I like the way you think.
+1
+100!
“BDH: Facts be damned – we ship with glee and clamor for more!”
I hope Roger has his giblets bitten off by a shark…and lives as a Eunch while Ada and the kids get a happy ever after.
I like that idea
Roger’s giblets would be too small for a shark. Maybe a barracuda? And bonus points barracudas are toxic if eaten.
One word: Wow!
I keep hoping the next installment involves someone punching London.
I have a feeling Ada is going to beat his butt down at some point and that will be THE BEST but he still needs a good punch NOW.
I am so invested in this story. Thank you so much for sharing with the BDH and thank you Mod R for being fantastic.
+1
This is Soo good! How is it only a one off?
Whoa, what a read.
It is very interesting when crap happens who will freeze, run, or stand.
Roger…grrrrr…. If Bear ever sees him, growl at him will you please? No bites, I don’t want Ada in trouble. 😀
Love the story but this gave me the chills!
What. A. Dick.
I hope his little boat sinks with him on it.
Dearest ModR, I have been saving some questions.
Ada referred to the gate as deep yellow and Elias called it low orange. Is that the same or were they given different information?
There was a third miner that escaped, but is not interviewed. Are they still in shock?
Ada never went back for her pack. Was that deliberate?
Ada should have been at the R and R meeting, but she didn’t know about the gold. At least London had to know about it.
I have also wondered if Ada has been eating, or has she lost ten pounds from the healing?
1. Probably just looking at the color transition spectrum from different perspectives, but we’ll see.
2. There was no third miner 🙂 . London (escort captain), Melissa (mining foreman) and two miners were the only ones that escaped the breach so far. Dryshia (miner 1) was interviewed in Chapter 6, Part 1 and Wagner (miner 2), would not cooperate because he resents leadership and advised Dryshia to do idem in the same snippet https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/the-inheritance-chapter-6-part-1/
3. She’s not risking dragons, poison thorns and giant silverfish. She’s moving forward towards escape
4. We’ll have to see how the story plays out.
5. What do you mean, Ada’s eating the best stalker heart tartare that side of the gate 😉 . Pure protein gains! Crushing her macros!
Ooooh, well spotted by Fibula, that colour detail. My Solo Leveling-trained over active imagination immediately starts wondering if, in fact, the gate level is changing… 🤔 But then, it might be a deep yellow/low orange herring 😉
The build up to Ada and Elias meeting is so suspenseful- will she get out in time? Will he get in soon enough to rescue her and Bear? Or will she rescue him with her new badass powers? lol can’t wait for the “meet cute”
More like meat cute lol. Monster meat cute hehe
Ha!
Roger would get a serious “Hmmmmmmmmmm” from Eilias !
That slutty little Hmmmmmmmmm! of his that made us into the Book Devouring Horndogs 😀
+1000
But we BDH’ers don’t ever jump to conclusions …. or to shipping. We are just fluffy and nonchalant.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
So I’m texting my husband at work the other day. And I point out something that doesn’t quite make sense. He replies: ‘Hmmm’. And my reaction is entirely out of proportion to a one word reply. Let’s just say it was very unfortunate for him that he works too far away for a quick visit…
Definitely shipping Ada & Elias. Adias? Elda?
Gotta say, he’s found the quickest route to her heart-taking care of her kids when he absolutely does not have to!
Hi, I hope Gordon is going well and will make a full recovery.
Fear may induce tree reactions : _ Fight : Ada, it’s her who called her husband and who took a job to have more options to fight back. She ‘s active and quickly adapts.
_ Flight : Melissa : Who push everyone in her path to save her life.
_ Freeze: Roger : Who rest stuck in his car.
The tree actions allow the survival of the characters but people can’t decide how they will react. Soldiers are trained to fight back, to kill, to minimize the others two impulses.
But in the case of Melissa, it’s not the right reaction because she was team leader and she must have been trained for unexpected situation.
And it’s not because we freeze in unexpected/frightening situation that we stop loving our children. In my opinion, Roger must have been really unsatisfied with his life for a long time and the ” End of Time” is just a convenient excuse to reject completely his past life. He must be selfish and egocentric at his core. The stress of the invasion exceeds the morale pressure of the society so he goes live on a boat in Porto Rico.
I’m curious to know why Roger doesn’t talk to his brother.
Thanks for this chapter.
Yes, neither Ada nor Roger got along with their parents, which can happen for any number of reasons. But Roger also being cut off from his only sibling long before the gates manifested is … interesting.
It does open up Roger’s brother, the kid’s uncle as a possible caretaker, maybe. Perhaps he has known exactly who Roger is for a good long time. Or maybe he’s just like Roger, who (but HA) can say? I’m guessing he won’t show up.
As for Roger. Had trauma and decided to follow his heart’s desires-ok, that happens. But the thing is- what matters the most to him is NOT making sure his wife and kids are safe. It’s lounging around on a boat in the tropics. He signs away his kids!! This has made who he is very clear. He cares only for himself. Ugh. I wonder if anyone else is picturing his boat sailing into a horizontal gate/whirlpool that suddenly pops up ahead of it.
This is DEFINTIELY a non-chalant type of shipping that I can get behind!
#Doomgater? #Roghellmouthportal? #Byebyeguy?
Wow. So that is what happened. And I both have no sympathy for Roger and understand where he is coming from.
One wonders why Elmwood gets so many of these gates.
1. Best wishes to Gordon (and Ilona) during the post-op healing phase. Just FYI, Gordon: doctors and physiotherapists do not tell us “don’t overdo it” (by – just as a wild hypothetical – hauling trash bins) because they are overcautious worrywarts. They say that because they have had experience dealing with HUNDREDS of recovering patients and have seen first-hand what happens when people overstress recovering joints. While you have personal experience dealing with ONE case – your current one. Guess who ACTUALLY “knows best”? (“ME” is the wrong answer.)
2. When Ada gets out of the gate, she needs to recommend a change to the standard coveralls – padded kevlar patches on the knees. Helps with any necessary crawling…
3. This is NOT a suggestion to HA, but: remember the “superhero” movie “Mystery Men” (1999), where the klutzes rescuing the superhero from the supervillain’s lair accidentally hit the wrong button and fried him to a crisp? It flashed across my mind when “choked to death on stalker heart” was mentioned…
Wow. This one was a testament! As soon as this is released, it is mine. I can’t wait!
Add Ada to the IA favorite characters list (spoiler: it’s long lol)
Great chapter..hope Gordon is feeling better (I have frozen shoulder and it is a BITCH) and wishing you a great weekend
wow! just wow!
Thank you for another great installment! Hope Gordon’s recovery continues apace and Ilona gets her appointment scheduled. ModR is the bestest, and I don’t say that lightly.
crying
I now live for Mondays and Fridays!
+1
I am not crying. Must be the rain.
Thank You
♥️
So much emotion in this chapter 💔
I hope a gate opens up right under Roger.
Since Monday is a holiday for most of the US will there be a delay in the release ?
Hey Keera, no delay 🙂 , chapter will be here on Monday
WOW, what a powerful section, I felt so much when reading it ❤️
THANK YOU 💐
“Promises must be kept, Bear. Especially to children. I promised Tia I wouldn’t die in this hellhole and I meant it. We are going to survive. We will get out of here if I have to crawl on my hands and knees all the way to that damn gate.”
ALWAYS ❣️
I can’t express how much I love this. I know it is just a copy and paste. But to me it feels like chanting a fight song. Invigorating and inspiring.
Oof!!! This was intense! I love how you guys humanize your characters. They could be real people. I think that’s why you two are my favorite authors.
Thanks for this. It was great as always.
Yes!
Thank you,
Carrie
Real charmer she was married to. My ex wanted as little as possible to do with me, but when it came to the kids, he decided he’d rather be a good father than like the one he had.
Loving Ada so much. And Bear.
I am loving this. I didn’t think it was going to be my thing after the first episode but now I look forward to each release. Thank you
Oh my
Fascinating; thank you!
Even more thoughts:
– Between the inheritance and stalker heart, Ada is no longer just a DeBRA. Does this mean she can drop the government DeBRA job and team up with Cold Chaos (and Elias – whether or not romantically)?
– How will stalker heart tartare change Bear? Will Bear get to / want to stay with Ada? (Not a dog person, but if Ada and Bear don’t end up together, I will be VERY disappointed)
– What is Ada’s back up plan for the kids since Roger the selfish jerk is so far out of the picture? Will he try to get custody once the news about Ada dying in the breach hits?
– Elias already admires Ada as a great DeBRA. Won’t he be even more impressed when he finds out that she has saved herself, and wouldn’t it be great if she and Bear save him and his team?
Wow! I love this book!
I hope House Andrew’s is doing good and recovery is going well. ❤️🩹
I love your writing. The action, pacing, romance and especially the strong (and hilarious) family interactions.
There are definitely “Rogers” out there. My dad left when I was 10. He moved, remarried and started a new family. Not a word, card, anything for over 10 years. He sort of resurfaced after my brother and I were over 18. As a kid you never get over it.
The Rogers of the world are one reason why I think people should stop coercing people into having children. Not every nice-seeming friend and acquaintance has the emotional maturity or bandwidth to fulfill that kind of long term commitment. My father and first husband ( both deceased) failed to keep in touch after their respective divorces. My dad lived in town and paid child support but I didn’t recognize him when I ran into him at his step kids’ 4H meeting. He sat down beside me and I leaned away, thinking he was a creeper. I was in 4th grade.
We have period simulators but I wish we had parental abandonment simulators. Roger appears to be telling himself that they will just forget him and be fine. If he stays in touch he will have to listen to their fears and how they miss him. He has a right to be happy but I guess they don’t or that’s just their mom’s job.
We moms don’t have magic amnesia pills that make kids forget that their dad didn’t love them enough to stay in touch. They will have their therapy and know intellectually that the problem was within him, that they did nothing wrong. They might even get an awesome stepdad. I hope.
But there will always be that scar tissue where they felt unloved and unlovable. They will see something that reminds them and breathe through the resurgence of that pain.
They will be determined to be great parents if they choose to have children and Roger will never know his grandchildren. He is too selfish to understand what he threw away.
If something comes for him, it would be cathartic.
Gotta love a determined Mama!!!
thank you for this back story. . . and i didn’t even wretch reading about eating the heart.
hope you have a good holiday weekend.
I had to stop reading these… it is un’bdh’ of me I know, but I wanna wait for the whole thing! The suspense was killing me! I’m still obsessing over Puffles…lol
Right there with you on Puffles, Michelle!
But there is no way I can stop reading these.
Puffles! Puffles! Puffles!
Dragons make everything better!
I love this book.
I was a camp counselor (so, so many years ago) for kids with disabilities and I met a lot of parents. Mostly I met single mothers. So often the Dads couldn’t handle it and left the family. I met a married couple and the Mom kept telling me how lucky she was to have a husband who stuck with her and their kid. This part of the story reminds me of that so much.
This is interesting. In Poland (where I live) there is a common understanding that fathers abondon families if there is a child born with a disability however a reporter once made an investigation into the topic and how found zero data to support this. In fact, she has found out in a small sample that in majority of cases the family stays together but the dynamic shifts to father working a lot of overtime (even 2 jobs) to support family and the mother often stopping working to care for the disabled child 24/7. It still sucks for these families because there is very little to no space for a real closness after this turns into a survival in the system that offers very little support (though it is probably better than in the US – at least healhcare is public in Poland so you do not have to worry as much about HC bills )
My sample size (n) was really small so it may not hold up in an official study here in the US either. But the extreme conditions for families sound totally realistic because often a child with disabilities has care that costs more than a person makes. So by the Mom (it usually is the Mom) quitting her job and having the Dad work more to compensate creates a dynamic of survival but not flourishing.
And not to go political but yes, we do not offer much support for our people here with these things or have the healthcare that some other countries have.
While I have seen some amazing dads and guys step up to support disabled kids, and there are some amazing single-parent dads out there, *overwhelmingly* (over the last 20 years), I work with, support, and socialize with single-parent moms whose partners left them.
I feel that sometimes the dads walking out of their family’s lives is preferable to not seeing the disability (and criticizing the children for not trying harder or being a spoiled brat or worse) or trying to blame the disability on the mother and undermining their parenting.
Marriage and parenting are hard. Disabilities, on top of that, will crack open what will eventually fester and break anyway, IMO.
So true SoCoMom. It’s why the death of a child can create cracks or open wider existing cracks in a marriage and you get a substantial number of marriages ending in divorce as well.
Also, I can see how a missing father is better than a toxic one. That makes sense. Kudos to all the workers like you who are offering support to these moms!
Ada’s story resonates because it is so real. Far too often, people fail at being decent, adult human beings.
I get the anger being directed at London, Melissa and Roger. Their actions are despicable. But the hate makes them one-dimensional villains. The truth is that they‘re not evil. When sh*t hit the fan, they were revealed – not just to others, but also to themselves – to be self-centered cowards: a devastating judgement.
On 9/11, I happened to be at a global meeting in New York. All of us were far from home and our loved ones. None of us knew whether or not this might be the start of the next world war. First we were trapped in Manhattan, then within the closed borders of the US. While some colleagues worked together towards solutions, others defaulted to “every man for himself.” As Ada says, people realized something about themselves in those existential days, and that sorting was very much on public display.
To me, this serial accurately echoes that experience. HA is amazing.
Not necessarily evil but definitely punchable. Like any people we interact with on a daily basis.
Truly, one never knows one’s own bottom (horse racing perspective) until one is faced with these types of situations, eh? We all hope we can at least be honourable people, even if not heroes.
Alix, this reminded me of 9/11 as well. I can’t believe it’s been over two decades (I was on my fourth day back to work after maternity leave.) I still remember like it just happened, and I remember watching the news live on tv, not being able to bring myself to turn it off. To this day I can’t watch the news on 9/11…it brings it right back.
Living in NJ, I had many family members and friends who worked very close to or in the WTC. Because of many, many twists of fate (and somebody upstairs watching out for them) we did not lose any family.
Example: one very close relative, who normally had meetings at Windows on the World restaurant in the WTC several times a week and who had lived through the first WTC bombing, was on a business trip in Europe (and was stuck there until borders opened.)
Unfortunately, I knew many people who were not so lucky, though.
I’m also so sorry you had to go through that, and I think you are so right that such experiences do bring about many changes. It’s almost as if all of a person’s facade is shaken away, and you just never know what will be left. Some people turn out to be self-centered jerks, but some previously very quiet and shy people turn out to be true heroes.
You‘re absolutely right, Kat. The memories are raw and visceral. I imagine they are indelibly inscribed in everyone who was personally involved. Thanks for sharing your experience. I agree that, while there were jerks, it was also inspiring to see quiet acts of support, solidarity and determination in the aftermath.
I disagree, at least in the case of London. London acted evilly, for 2 reasons. First, as a gate captain, London had a responsibility to protect those in his care. He made no attempt to protect anyone. Second, London literally attacked and killed the people in his care with a grenade. I don’t know about you, but I consider murder to be evil, and London murdered several people. People he was charged to protect.
Good point, Eric.
All of them abandoned their responsibilities and human decency, but London did active, premeditated harm whereas Melissa and Roger „simply“ trampled over others literally and figuratively in the interest of self-preservation.
To give Melissa fair credit (or no undue demerits), nobody “should” have died because of her actions.
Melissa’s biggest failure was that, as the mining foreperson, she should have been bringing up the rear, herding her miners and the DeBRA to safety. Failing that, after getting to the exit first, she should have been hanging onto London’s grenade arm and screaming in his ear to “wait just a few more seconds dammit” – which might have slowed him down enough for the rest of her crew (and Ada) to get clear. That is all more a sin of omission than commission.
Her “active bad deed” was that she knocked Anja down in her panicked rush to safety. That wasn’t a pretty picture, but Anja wasn’t seriously injured or even much delayed because of it. Both Anja and Sanders were ahead of Ada — and Ada figured she only needed about five more seconds to reach safety herself — when London dropped the grenade and blocked the exit with his shield. Anja “should” have survived the knock-down just fine.
London, on the other hand … well, as Eric said, that grenade was a deliberate and knowing act of murder.
So much emotion. I love it when authors can use words that make me so emotional that I laugh or cry. Continued to tear up as I read through all the comments; it hit me that hard.
Perfect.
What an incredible story! You guys write so fantastically that the characters just jump off the screen. Can’t wait to see Melissa and London get what is coming to them. 🙂
‘Promises must be kept.’ Love it! Can’t wait to see what happens next.
I waited a few weeks t9 read after the first post. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it as I consider myself a no drama person. I am loving this. it makes me realize action drama is great because crap happens and we have to deal and HA gives us great strong women who deal.
(What I don’t like is wishy washy manufactured emotional drama which I’ve never encountered in HA books)
Kept me on the edge of my chair!
Best to Ilona Andrew’s!! Thank you thank you thank you!
Thank you! Great read. I think Roger needs to be eaten by a shark. Eaten very slowly.
Every time someone mentions Roger getting eaten by sharks, I think of Anne Bishop’s the Others series. The sharks call cruise ships “meat in a can.” Would Roger’s boat become meat in a small can or a box?
How about an appetizer? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
👍🤣🤣🤣
wow. packs a punch
Trauma can do a real number on a couple and expose cracks in what you thought was a solid foundation of a relationship. It wasn’t monster. invasion but the way Ada’s ex is here mirrors a lot of how my ex got after the worst happened. Glad to see Ada redirecting her energy to fight for what she wants, even if it’s a dangerous job. Good stuff
Well this was so good and heart wrenching
Phew. I wish her story didn’t reflect so many broken families. Good job on the emotions!
I now have someone in this story I want to punch more than London. I didn’t think that was possible.
+1
Stalker Heart Tartare, a gourmet delicacy prepared fresh by your chef Adaline Moore. This dish is a culinary symphony, a masterpiece of raw meat, exquisitely minced and served in heaping handfuls. It’s a truly unique and bold dish that invites you to explore a world of flavors and textures which may just save your life by neutralizing poisonous plant spores you have breathed in. The star of the show is the meat itself, ideally a high quality stalker heart cut from a a freshly killed vicious stalker. Served cold and unseasoned, in revolting mushy handfuls. This meal is more than just a dish, it’s an experience. The way that the slimy handfuls burn on the way down, plus the lump of lead feeling in your stomach is truly captivating. And, hopefully a life saving meal for you and your canine companion.
A review by Gourmand’s Dish
Might need a little soupçon of gravol.
haha!
This made me think of the anime (and probably webtoon) Delicious in Dungeon 😂
+1
i feel like we all need a hero right now. that’s why I love these stories, heroes (ahem women) who are bad a** and are strong. 💪
And here we are, still dangling precariously by our fingernails, desperately trying not to look down at sure death. The cliff hanger is still with us, our heroine’s fate still unresolved. But at least we got some back story, and some idea of the motivation behind Ada’s life choices. Monday will be too soon to return to Elias, so I predict Ilona will take pity on us, and move the plot forward. And not a moment too soon. Timing is everything and Ilona has it in spades.
Oh my
That is a great but extremely sad backstory and I vote Roger should have mandatory first into the gate duty.
Ada and Bear are awesome! Thank you and hope Gordon is doing well with recovery.
So good!
I forgot to add that Oro could probably make us all beg for just a tiny taste of Stalker Heart. Someone should call Dina and ask. 🙂
yes please!
Wow, I got chills!
Thank you for this Friday treat. The story is wonderful. I hope Gordon is healing well.
My jaw hurts from clenching my teeth! Roger …I have no words. Or at least no SFW ones. I found myself starting to growl, but that alarmed the dogs and other human.
I am so in love with this story!
Another incredible installment, I think we’ve seen the best, it just keeps on coming. Unfortunately, we all have seen people we love react to crises. Roger, London & Melissa crumble. Your story lines always make me me think beyond, thank you…
PS I hope the patient is doing well.
Wow! Love her strength! Bear may not have understood her words but she understood her emotions and tone of voice. Love live Adaline. So hope the Authors continue this series for us
Yes. She will. And she will carry bear out if necessary. Yes!
Loving this!
Go Ada Go
love this
Cant wait for elias to meet her!
ONE little monster attack and almost being monster lunch, and that’s all it took for Roger to ditch his whole family??!!! He is the WORST!!!! I hope a sea monster swallows him and his stupid boat!!!!! 😂
Seriously though, what a heart-breaking (and very touching) chapter…I really love Ada so much. She really is a true member of the Mama Bear Club! As my daughter says often, don’t mess with Mama Bears!
💕💕💕
Another poster said it, to paraphrase, it’s likely that Roger would have found some other reason to ditch his family sooner or later. I felt a pit in my stomach in the first reading when he delegated the children’s pick up to Ada….
I just love these. I never know what to expect and it’s always great.
Can I ask, do you know when the full novella will be released? Will the whole novella be posted chapter by chapter on the blog?
The official release date is not known yet 🙂.
And yes, the novella will be serialised.
Just gets better each episode, Thankyou.
I think this story is one of the best things you have written.
This is fantastic. You absolutely nailed it with the part about Roger not caring and Ada protecting her kids. My parents divorced when I was 12 (and my sisters were much younger) and my dad disappeared for years, and my Mom said much the same – minus the monsters and with a lot more swearing. Thank you.
omg, it’s soooo good❤️ I can’t wait for more!!!! Thank you for your amazing writing ❤️
Love this story. Thank you so much.
I am so hooked on this story!!! I stop everything when another episode comes out!!! Love it!
promises must be kept!
Thank you letting us into this world with Adaline. Roger will never change because he was definitely that way when Ada married him. The crisis brought out the true Roger and it is like people today. It is always about them and to hell with the rest of the word.
Ada has already had a hero save her. The story, to me, is what she has chosen to do with her “inheritance”. This installment compares two people facing horrible situations and choosing differently. We know from the beginning that Ada is family first. Then life happened and solidified it.
If Elias came round the corner with his team to get her out, and he has no reason to believe she survived, she would go with him in a heartbeat, any sane person would. I am not a people person, but if I were in a literal hellhole, I could not describe the relief I would feel to know that I was no longer alone.
As for Elias, he has two goals retrieve the bodies, shut down the gate. If he can’t retrieve the bodies he will shut down the gate otherwise he will have hell to pay when the monsters escape. As much as he respects Ada, if the choice is between her and the gate, I think he will choose the gate. Of course, I think the same would be true if it was between saving himself or the gate, he would choose the gate.
The reason for Roger is to show the comparison, it wasn’t that he understood he was a coward “in that moment” but that he chose to stay one. As for London, to me he is a villain not a coward. This was not his first rodeo, he deliberately killed those people to cover his tracks. Both men left Ada behind, different reasons. I am thinking a different punishment for London…time will tell if I am thinking correctly…
Of course, I could be interpreting this all wrong. Mondays and Fridays can’t get here soon enough. Thank you for this.
thank you for breaking my heart with this chapter 😭😿
Roger is a narcissistic butthole. We don’t like Roger.
Oh, she’s breaking my heart!
Ada is such a badass! She’s been through a lot and she still fights to protect her kids and survive. Love Bear! Roger is an ass. Looking forward to more! Thank you!
Love this even if it is an emotional roller coaster. Can’t wait for more.
Absolutely loving this story! Speedy recovery to Gordon.
i friggen love this story. so good
Wow! Love these little reading snacks.
I keep watching for each chapter and enjoying the story more and more. The back story on Roger added more dimension to Ada and her reasons for getting out. Now I’m starting to worry about the people coming in getting “dusted”. Will she and Bear have to save them too?
oh dios mio!!!!! adoro el arte de sus palabras aunque sea en otro idioma que no es el mío, gracias traductor de Google
Thank you for this story!
I am loving reading it. This section had me in tears.
The personal stuff is real, thats what makes it good SI FI…
Love Ada. Love Bear. They are a team. Bravery and loyalty should be rewarded. Come on, Ada. Come on Bear. Melissa and London would make excellent lobster bait. Roger could be eaten by a shark as he throws the lobster bait overboard. Never mind if there aren’t any lobsters where he is. Something would eat them.
Don’t call Roger a shit. That’s an insult to shit …..!
I hope a portal opens on the deck of his (passengerless) boat, some *thing* comes out of the portal, grabs Roger, goes back into the portal, which then closes with a *snap*!
Absolutely the best thing to wake up to on a Saturday morning! A new installment of this story. I wait anxiously for the next one and can’t wait to buy the book when it’s out. Thank you!
This is seriously good stuff. You are forcing me to acknowledge the value of patience at the end of each installment.
Patience is overrated.
Wow. This was powerful for the ending of her and Roger’s relationship. The declaring of the truth that promises must be kept, especially to children.
The first thing I noticed was the red what’s it crawling up the wall! I am enjoying the heck out of this book. Happy to hear Gordon’s surgery went well, one more thing checked off the to-do list. Wishing you a refreshing R &R weekend.
Terrific as always. It’s always wonderful how you all are able to develop characters with such heart -and depth of emotions. Bravo!!
The scene where Roger says he longer “wants this” hit hard. It’s like my current situation is on display for all to read. It was somewhat cathartic yet sucks because my break up is just starting.
This is similar to what he/my other half said to me: “I have a right to be happy. For however long I have left. I’m going to grab my happiness and hold on to it while I still can. This is done. We are done.”
At least there are no gates vomiting monsters into the world as I work through this change in my life. Keep being amazing authors and thank you for the reads!!
hugs! you’ll survive this and get your HEA.
it’s coldest the hour before dawn.
Thank you for the kind words
My advice (possibly worth what u paid for it) on how to survive dark days is to find some small thing to look forward to each day. It could seeing a person u enjoy or 1/2 an hour peaceful reading. It could b a cookie or a sunset or listening to music u like. Anything u want. I think we know what it will b on Mondays and Fridays. But it gives u something to think about during the hard parts of your day. And something to plan for tomorrow. All I can say is that it worked for me.
It sucks that u r going thru this. But know that your Horde is here for u. ((Hugs))
Agreed.
The day I started finding and focusing on the positives already in my life instead of the dumpster fire sh*t show going on (and what was fair/not fair), I found peace. In the end, that has brought me more happiness than a bigger house or having a “normal” life.
Took me a while and it was really painful until then. Please know you are not alone. Hang in there and I wish you well. I hope you find that peace too.
thank you…..I am trying to focus on some positives to get me through the days
Ha! Yes, Mondays and Fridays are covered!! And I can’t thank the Horde enough for the support.
I’ve stood in a similar place, 20+ years ago.
I cannot tell you when every moment will stop feeling like you are on fire.
I cannot tell you when you are able to get through an entire day without crying/screaming/numbness.
I can tell you that life begins to creep back in if you can just take it minute by minute, hour by hour.
You will discern what is essential to being your best you, and it will guide you and sustain you to a better place.
Does take time.
some very wise words…appreciate it very much
And as a father I would also crawl if needed to get to the gate and my kids. Nothing would stop me
yes, let’s also shout out the dads and husbands here who are true, loyal, brave and self-sacrificing.
Somehow I think that her ex would have bailed sooner or later no matter what happened. Eventually the resentment at having to think about others would have boiled over and he would have gotten a trophy girlfriend or a fast car or a Harley and bounced his way out of their lives anyway.
just discovered the serial today and loving it! thanks for feeding the BDH. the world building is always amazing and one of my favourite things about your books. looking forward to reading it all 😁
I just finally pulled all these posts together to read. I also am just recently off the job but man-o-man I’ve been busy around here.Nothing is allowed to break! I also know a family that uses their dishwasher as a drip rack only- they hand wash their dishes because the kids like to play in the water… Love this story, love Ada, hope that Elias is the hero she needs. I love the Inn Keepers and hope that story line continues,and the Wilmington years, but this is reading like a great new story line to start running too.
Love it. Grrr.
This was a beautiful chapter. Thank you for posting the most beautiful thing I’ve read this week.
Oh, wow. Ada and I are a lot alike.
I got the bonus of special needs kids, 0$ support, and taking jobs that could not pay the mortgage because of the refinancing he swore we could handle. When I had to deal with what assets and debts we had left, I found he’d transferred everything into his name and left me to undo it all and pay it all off.
Yeah.
Go get ’em, Ada and Bear!
So I was rereading from the beginning and noticed that in the first chapter it says the gate is an orange level but when we meet Elias he says it was a deep yellow gate.
Was this because Elias was given incorrect information or was this an error?
Thanks! Also sorry if this was already asked and answered. I haven’t been reading all of the comments.
This has been asked probably a dozen times now, so you are not alone. Light orange and deep yellow are basically synonymous. 🙂
I read this on Friday and came back today to reread. I was shocked to see the explanation for Roger. It hit so close to home. I was married for 18 years to my husband a career Army artillery officer. He went to Iraq in Dec 2004 and came home Dec 2005. He was very cold to both of our elementary age girls and me when he got home. Within 3 months he begins his campaign for a divorce. His reason- I’m not happy. I deserve to be happy. Life is to short. The more I tried to talk and work things out the worse things became. I finally agreed after I learned he was having an affair. His entire argument for the divorce was he deserved to be happy and he wasn’t happy with me. Unlike Roger, my ex remarried 4 months after our divorce and put all his effort into his two step children and ignored his own children. I am amazed at how Ilona and Gordon can take such emotional and complex topics and distill it down to its essence. Promises are to be kept. The pain when they are broken never really goes away.
Yes. This is part of what I love about their writing and why I immediately became a life long fan. It is so real. Despite the fantasy settings and all the fantastical, the things that are truly heartbreaking, truly awful, truly cruel, and truly wonderful are all human realities.
Must. Have. More. It is 11:38 pm here in Alberta and I’m checking to see if new post shows up…heh heh. I know it’s Sunday but it’s wishful thinking…would like the ebook to read. Please!
Roger is trash. I hope a monster gets him, and London and Melissa.
Thank you BDH, I read the installment and then I scroll down to read everyone’s post. The support for one another is beautiful and true.
I’m glad to be apart of it.
I officially loathe Roger.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤️ “Promises must be kept, Bear. Especially to children.”
Yes. That is an awesome mother. And a major reason why I love reading I.A.
As for Roger, no. You chose to have kids. That is an irreversible choice to protect & love them. There are no take backsies.
*holding out for sight unseen Jackson as mentor or more*
I am hoping that Elias and Ada become more to each other. He cares about her kids. I get the feeling that he also cares about her. Just my own opinion.
I found that the name Roger is a fairly unusual name. I just don’t see it often in books. It was disconcerting seeing Roger as a bad guy. A really bad piece of work too. My name is Roger! Like I said, it’s disconcerting