City of Dust: Completely gripping YA dystopian fiction packed with edge of your seat suspense
The fight is never over.Life in Arafel is no longer safe. Not since August’s disappearance, and whispers of a ghost controlling Pantheon.Meanwhile, Talia stands torn between secretive twin, Eli, and best friend, Max.Betrayal forces Talia to leave the sanctuary of her forest home as she pursues the stolen Book of Arafel. A book which could destroy the freedom of all those she loves if it falls into the wrong hands. And when she enters the ancient ruined city of Isca, she fights to protect the vulnerable from the iron grip of the Pantheon, while learning to fight for the man she loves.But with the shadow of the Black Aquila looming ever closer, will she put the freedom of others above her own, or will she follow her heart?This is Michelle Kenney’s thrilling second instalment in the Book of Fire Trilogy.Readers love Michelle Kenney:‘Michelle Kenney cleverly weaves together a heady mix of dystopia, history, science, romance and mythology.’‘I see plenty of potential in her writing for great books in the future.’‘Michelle weaves a truly believable world with characters you really come to care about.
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MICHELLE KENNEY is a firm believer in magic, and that ancient doorways to other worlds can still be found if we look hard enough. She is also a hopeless scribbleaholic and, when left to her own devices, likes nothing better than to dream up mystical, fantasy worlds in a dog-eared notebook. Doctors say they’re unlikely to find a cure any time soon.
In between scribbling, she loves reading, running, attempting to play gypsy-folk music and treasure-hunting on deserted beaches with her young dreamers-in-training.
Michelle is a graduate of the Curtis Brown Writing for Children Novel Course. She also holds an LLB (Hons) Degree and is currently an Accredited Practitioner with the CIPR, with whom she has won several national awards for her magazine and media/PR-related work.
Michelle is currently represented by Chloe Seager of Northbank Talent Management and can be found at:
Website: https://thescribblersonline.com/michelle-l-e-kenney/
Book of Fire
City of Dust
MICHELLE KENNEY
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018
Copyright © Michelle Kenney 2018
Michelle Kenney asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008281441
Version: 2018-09-04
Table of Contents
For Nick,
and our journey around the words.
Et in Arcadia Ego
When a black aquila falls from the golden sky, it will spark a winter of a thousand fires. Or so Grandpa used to say. Yet this day was iris blue in bud. Colour enough to steal a girl’s thoughts. And the ground was green with the sweetenings of spring as the bird fell. It was noiseless at first, before the hollow barrelling of wind, like a meteorite powering directly towards Arafel’s forest. And as though it was Pantheon’s ice-bitch herself, I ran.
‘Tal?’
Max’s whisper steadied me, like the steadfast branches of the Great Oak in the middle of monsoon season. And I strained through the nightmare towards the voice that could take me away from the fear, the watching forest, and the distended white faces that loomed and receded, jeering. Always jeering.
‘Tal?’
The second whisper pulled me back. It was the way it worked. The first reached through the haze of distorted images; the second caught and pulled me home.
I rolled in to his chest, burying my face in his outdoor scent as my room loomed into focus. Everything was just as it should be. The wizened branches of our white oak were still entwined above my simple reed mattress, mirroring our bodies. I drew a steadying breath, and forced my tight limbs to relax. I was home.
‘The same?’
His gentle question said everything, and I nodded before turning away to stare out at the kind night sky. It blinked its forgiveness. Somehow it knew Max’s care was bittersweet. That, after Pantheon, I’d understood three things:
One, that for some inexplicable, never-to-be-understood reason, Max loved me; two, that I loved him back, fiercely; and three, that his forest-green eyes were entirely the wrong colour.
I’d nearly whispered it once, after a dream, but managed to stop myself just in time.
Commander General Augustus Aquila. It helped to think of him as Pantheon’s new leader, untouchable and distant somehow. It kept him at bay from my everyday thoughts, even if it didn’t work in my dreams. And yet somewhere deep inside, Max knew. I saw it in the way he glanced at me when he thought I was distracted. And the guilt was suffocating. Which was why I kissed Max, why I wanted his body to warm mine before the dawn shift, why I listened when he talked about the future – our future – ignoring the twisting deep inside.
