Scorching Eden
Book Three of the Manipulated Evil Trilogy
T.C. McMullen
ISBN: 0-9754372-3-2
280 pages
$15.95 USD Trade Paperback / $2.99 Ebook
Available at your favorite online bookstore or by order from your local bookstore.
Chaos created
draws people forth
to drink in false blessings
from evil and dark
Little hope left
to right all wrong
but in the darkness,
two hearts hold strong
​
Fighting against twisted love, desire, and assumptions, Ravyn's remaining battalion must travel into a dark world, a world hidden from the Abrenians. Only death and torture from a deranged civilization awaits them until another species of humans introduce themselves and give some hope. But can her elite few pull together a society long resigned to the misery of their world and halt a man set on severing ties to the One? Or will all fall to the absolute destruction already sweeping across the worlds...
"T.C. McMullen puts to rest forever the fallacy that women can't write convincing battle scenes. Those scenes about in Scorching Eden, and they are wrenchingly believable. So is the world that is alien to Ravyn and Kyle equally, and so - even - are Rhynon and Enar, whose evil is all the worse because we glimpse through other eyes what they might have become instead. Scorching Eden has one of the most satisfying 'surprise endings' I've ever read. Don't miss this superb blend of adventure, science fiction, romance, and fantasy." — Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 Eppie winner REGS
"A complex tapestry of thriller, adventure, fantasy, and romance. Each chracter has their own part to weave in this tale, the ending a surprise that I hadn't seen coming at all. A great read." — Annette Gisby, UK author of Silent Screams and Drowning Rapunzel
Chapter Excerpt
NOTE: Due to spoilers to the first two books being within the first couple chapters of this book, I can not reveal the chapters. This is a small excerpt near the beginning of the book.
~~~~~~*~~~~~~
Ravyn narrowed her eyes. "You don’t want me to go in there? Then back off! Turn your beasts around and go back where you came from."
"They’re Jeradons," Rhynon said.
"What?"
"Jeradons. Just one of the species Enar created for our use. Look at them." He yanked the reigns around so his mount turned sideways to her. "Magnificent, isn’t he?"
The black, leather flesh rippled over masses of muscles. Its ears, tall and turned inward, shot up above a plate-bone mass that partially protected its long eyes. The whip-like tail twitched wickedly and it punched the ground with massive paws.
"Just look what you can be a part of, why can’t you see it?" Rhynon said. He leaned toward her in his saddle as if to emphasize his words.
"Created for your use?" Ravyn said. She tilted her head to peer up at Rhynon. His shadow shielded her from the red sun. She wondered if he had become so blind to his own beginnings. "Created for you just as you and I were created for Chione? Her intentions turned out well, didn’t they?"
"This is different," he said.
"Why? That Jeradon is life, just like you and I are. Why are you so intent or ruling anything? And why can’t you see I’m not?"
Rhynon hissed through clenched teeth. "Stupid weak woman!"
"Stupid egotistical man," she shouted back and almost laughed at the immaturity of it. In some different place, in some different time, she could see herself arguing with him just as Keelyn and Kian argued with each other.
Rhynon growled an angry sound and spurred the Jeradon forward. Ravyn dashed into the forest, surprised to find the two boys next to her. Lucan attempted to pull her back but she reached the dark shadows beneath scarlet leaves large enough to cover her full body. She beat the foliage aside until she found a place beyond Rhynon’s view but she could still see him and his several friends through a small space between the plants. He called for her again, his voice strangely strained. His Jeradon screamed its awful sound and stomped its large paws. It spun around, fighting Rhynon’s heavy hand on the reigns. Two others broke free from the group and dashed back to the mountains.
A breathy grunt erupted against Ravyn’s back. The boys screamed.