Monday Morning Sneak Peek: CHALLENGING DESTINY by Cherie Colyer

Did a weekend of reading leave you wanting more? 
Sneaking peeks of your newest novel from under
your desk at work? 

For the eternal reader...here is your 
Monday Morning Sneak Peek!

Enjoy.

CHALLENGING DESTINY by Cherie Colyer

Logan Ragsdale and his younger sister, Ariana, have been marked, chosen to be unwilling participants in a war between angels and demons.

Logan can sense something's not quite right. Like an unexpected chill on a summer's day, he can feel the unseen closing in. He's had these feelings before and, each time, someone close to him died. He's afraid this time it might just be Ariana.

Logan's fears are soon confirmed when he discovers their new friends aren't human, but rather representatives from Heaven and Hell sent to Earth to ensure he and Ariana accept their roles in an ancient prophecy. Demons want Logan to open the gates of Hell. Ariana has the power to stop them, but if she chooses to side with Heaven to spare the lives of thousands of innocent people, she'll damn her brother for eternity.

Together, they must derail the biblical event if they hope to save themselves and the future of mankind...but what price are they willing to pay to keep the other safe?

www.cheriecolyer.blogspot.com

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS

PROLOGUE

1732

He stood before me. Regal. Proud. No hint of the demon I knew him to be. I knelt on the cold ground behind the blacksmith’s shop. Not out of respect, but because my trembling legs would no longer hold my weight.

“You will do anything?” he repeated, a hint of curiosity in his otherwise bored tone.

I forced myself to meet his gaze. He looked so normal. Like all the other men in my village. He even had a thin scar beneath his left eye. I wondered if he had cut himself in an effort to appear more human.

“If you agree to walk away—to stop pushing for this ceremony you spoke of—yes.”

The man who had turned my life upside down pursed his lips as he appraised me. My heart slammed frantically against my ribs.

I could see in his perfect blue eyes that he was going to agree. My plan to save my brother and me would work.

Dry grass crunched under his expensive brown shoes as he walked slowly around me. “And when Elise comes to you, what will you say?”

At this, I raised my chin. “That I’ve seen the lies in her words, and I will never help her.”

He came to a stop in front of me and offered a hand to help me up. I steeled my breath and took it. I was so close to putting an end to the nightmare I’d been thrust into.

“This is your will, to make a deal with me?”

I swallowed my lingering doubt about what I was doing and replied, “It is.”

With a glint of something untold, he said, “Kira Rose Mercer, I accept your offer.”

I breathed in deeply, relishing the victory. The fall air smelled crisper than it had a moment ago. I took a step back, ready to go home and put the last few weeks behind me.

“Not so fast.” He pulled a silver dagger from his pocket.

“You—you can’t harm me,” I stammered, my mouth dry.

“I’ve no desire to hurt you.” He ran the blade over his palm. A thin line of blood stained his otherwise perfect skin. “The deal must be sealed.”

I had won, I reminded myself. If spilling a little blood would get him out of my life, I’d do it. I held up my hand, flinching when the cold steel sliced me.

“Now what?” I asked.
“We shake.”
The moment his blood mingled with mine, I knew something was terribly wrong. Fire filled my veins, traveling swiftly through me like molten lava. He pulled me even closer.

“You should have chosen your words more carefully,” he whispered gleefully into my ear. “But we will have an eternity to discuss exactly where you went wrong.”

“No!” I screamed, but it was too late. I could feel myself changing in unexplainable ways. A raised red circle pierced by an arrow formed on my forearm, binding me to him forever.