AllFreeNovel
Share Us
PROLOGUE
Cahokia was dying. Their gods had all but abandoned them. Close to the confluence of the Missouri, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers, it had once been the greatest city in North America, but now everyone was leaving.
Overpopulation had been rampant when an earthquake left the city in ruins, leveling buildings and spreading disease until the region had been so decimated there was no saving it. As those who had survived moved off to the West, the last of the priestesses gathered the last of her magick, mixed it with the prairie winds, and blew into her hand, releasing the guardians. To the north, the spotted leopard was dispatched; to the south, the noble striped tiger; and in between the two, the great maned lion.
CHAPTER1
QUINN
New York City, New York
Seven Years Ago
Quinn Forrester shoved the handle on the revolving doors as she hurried inside. The newspaper occupied the entire building, including the basement where the large printing presses still ground out printed newspapers, although more and more, electronic versions ruled the day.
“Hold that door, please!” she called.
The distance between the revolving door and her destination seemed more like miles than a mere smattering of footsteps. She made it inside the doors just as they closed, thanking the older gentleman as they swooshed behind her. Quinn managed to twist herself until she was facing the doors and could hit the button for the fifteenth floor.
She might be a few minutes late to the staff meeting, but that would be all right. She’d broken an enormous political corruption story three days before and so was the paper’s rising star. Quinn had worked hard for her success—working hard for her degree from Columbia in journalism and taking any and every assignment that came her way from the time she graduated until now.
Her latest story was a doozy. A whistleblower in the Comptroller’s Office had learned of widespread corruption within the office. Numerous officials were using public funds to afford their private pleasures. Her source had provided her with all the documentation she’d needed to blow the scandal wide open.
The night after her story broke, her boyfriend, Todd, who was also the publisher’s son, had silenced all the wagging tongues and put a ring on her finger. Quinn had been flying high ever since. She had it all: a thriving career, a hunky fiancé with whom she shared a loft apartment in Tribeca, and a tidy savings account from shrewd and speculative investing. What more was there?
“Hey, Tina,” she called to the receptionist, who didn’t even look up.
That was odd. She and Tina were work friends. Granted they didn’t really hang out together outside work, but they often had coffee or lunch together. It was probably Tina’s skanky ‘baby daddy’ cheating on her again. Quinn picked up her pace as she headed to the large conference room where staff meetings were held.
Quinn entered the room and wondered at how quiet it was. Staff meetings were usually lively, noisy affairs where Todd’s father had to rein them all in to get anything done. No one even looked up at her. In fact, they looked pointedly away. Something was up. When she glanced at Todd, he couldn’t meet her eyes. Did whatever was going on have something to do with the fact that he’d been up and gone before her alarm went off?
Before Quinn could even form a question, Esme, who was Todd’s father’s assistant, stepped into the room behind her.
“Quinn, Mr. Hanson would like to see you,” said Esme.
“Well, it’s his staff meeting. Won’t he see me when he comes in?”
“He’d like to see you privately,” she said quietly.
Quinn looked to Todd, who was staring out the window. All the little things that had been ‘off’ about this morning were suddenly starting to congeal in the pit of her stomach. Without another word, Quinn turned to follow Esme to the publisher’s office. Esme opened the door and stepped aside, allowing Quinn to enter before closing it behind her.
Theodore Hanson, Sr., was seated behind his desk flanked by the paper’s heads of human resources and legal departments. Quinn stepped towards the desk. It was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room and she was left with nothing to breathe.
“Ms. Forrester,” started the lawyer.
Ms. Forrester? That wasn’t good at all.Nobody at the paper addressed anyone by their last name. Quinn stood behind the set of chairs that faced Senior’s desk.
“It has come to our attention that the story you broke on corruption in the Comptroller’s office is woefully erroneous, bordering on libelous.”
“That’s not true. My source was employed by that office in a position of considerable responsibility in the hierarchy. He gave me scores of information that I turned over to the legal department.”
“But not until we forced the issue and not until the evening before your story hit the front page.”
“You didn’t tell me you wanted it until late that same afternoon. I’ve done nothing wrong,” declared Quinn, hating how defensive she sounded.
The blob in her gut began to churn. Todd being gone when she woke, the morning paper missing from their apartment, the housekeeper showing up a day early, no one at the paper meeting her eye, security being stationed within close proximity—it all made sense now in a singularly horrific way.
“That may have been an error on the managing editor’s part, but certainly you should have verified the documentation with other sources, as well as confirmed the employment status of the source who gave that information to you,” continued the lawyer.
