FORGOTTEN SEA
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author Copyright © 2011 by Virginia Kantra.
Excerpt from Dare Island series by Virginia Kantra copyright © by Virginia Kantra.
Excerpt from
Interior text design by Laura K. Corless.
Al rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
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375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 1-101-52692-0
BERKLEY® SENSATION
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY® SENSATION and the “B” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
Special thanks to my online community of writer buddies (you know who you are), who have mentored, supported, and inspired me, especial y Susan Andersen, Heidi Betts, Suzanne Brockmann, Kate Douglas, Eileen Dreyer, Eloisa James, and JoAnn Ross; to my editor, Cindy Hwang, for her patience and support, and to the wonderful team at Berkley; and to Michael, for reminding me what it feels like to be young and in love.
The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, But drowned the infinite of his soul.
—Her man Melvil e
The cure for anything is salt water—
sweat, tears, or the sea.
—Isak Dinesen
Foreword
I n t h e t i m e be f o r e t i m e , w h en t h e d o m a i n s of earth, sea, and sky were formed and fire was cal ed into being, the elementals took shape, each with their element: the children of earth, the children of the sea, the children of air, and the children of fire.
After earth had flowered and life crawled from the sea, humankind was born.
Not al of the elementals were pleased with this new creation. The children of fire rebel ed, declaring war on Heaven and humankind. Forced to cohabit with the mortals, the other elementals withdrew—the fair folk to the hil s and wild places of earth and the merfolk to the depths of the sea.
Over the centuries, the children of fire have grown strong, while the children of the sea have declined in numbers and in magic. In recent years, a tentative al iance between merfolk and humans has subtly altered the balance of power.
Yet the children of air, forbidden to interfere directly in 2
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mortal affairs, have continued to exist apart from both their fel ow elementals and humankind.
Or mostly apart.
There are those among the angels who, in their zeal or frustration, cannot resist becoming involved in the lives and affairs of humankind. The punishment for their disobedience is the loss of their immortality. They become nephilim, the Fal en, living as humans among the humans they once protected, hunted in gleeful retribution by the children of fire.
If the balance of power shifts again, the repercussions wil be felt in Heaven and on earth . . .
1
Th e m a n o n t h e b o at s t r i ppe d h a l f n a k e d , exposing a lean golden chest and muscled arms.
In the parking lot across the street from the dock, Lara Rho sucked in her breath. Held it as he dropped his shirt to the deck and began to climb.
The top of the mast swayed, stark against the bold blue sky. Her stomach fluttered. Nerves? she wondered.
Recognition? Or simple female appreciation?
The sun beat down, forging the water of the bay to a sheet of hammered gold. The air inside the car heated like an oven.
Beside her in the driver’s seat, Gideon stirred, chafing in the heat. His corn silk hair was pul ed into a ponytail, his blue eyes narrowed against the glare. “Is he the one?”
Lara leaned forward to peer through the windshield of their nondescript gray car, testing the pul of the internal compass that had woken her at dawn. They’d driven al 4
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morning from the rol ing hil s of Pennsylvania through the flat Virginia tidewater, wasting precious minutes in
