Three years ago Junco Coot was an insane sniper.  Three weeks ago she was a prisoner being tortured in a morph tank. Three days ago she was nothing but billions of molecules floating in a sea of darkness.

Today, Junco Coot is the key to saving or ending the world.

Three years ago Raubtier Aves was the captain of the Avian Military.  Three weeks ago he was trying to forget Junco ever existed. Three days ago he was given a gift of eternal salvation.

Today, he will give that gift back.

The Angels are here, the end is coming, the Demons have been released and Lucan has a past that ties it all together. Seven thousand years of waiting for revenge is over and there’s just one more question that needs to be answered?

Who will be there at the end?

Excerpt

Lucan—Amelia Habitat

Tier defied my order to kill Junco when I saw she was unstable. And then Junco defied everyone. And they came home together. My son delivered to me the one being in this universe who could kill me. It was like an offering. I was stunned. Junco made me very uncomfortable. She looked me in the eye when she spoke. She brushed off my commands like they were requests. She decapitated Fledge members, both friend and foe alike, and she gave up her life for my son.

And she is so, so sweet when she’s calm and still.

How badly do I wish that I had more calm and still moments with Junco?

I might’ve fallen in love with her sitting in my living room watching her play a piece on the piano, so oblivious to the world she never even knew I’d entered the room, even though I came home by the front door that night.

Then I started telling her things, and then she started telling me things. Very, very personal things. And I’m just not sure how I’m supposed to feel about a young woman who was created to kill me, but stole my heart instead. I hate the way she was raised. I hate that she was trained. I hate the fact that she’s never had anyone keep their word and stick by her side.

All of this bothers me. It keeps me restless when I should be relaxed, it keeps me tense and angry, and makes me rage when I’m in private and I think about it too long.

Amelia stirs and brings me back to the present. I lean down into her neck and kiss her just below her ear. She sighs in her sleep.

I love Amelia in a different way. I don’t want to make another Amelia when this is over. I’m not sure I have the desire to spend the time required to fashion another companion. And not because I’m lazy, but because I feel in my heart that Amelia is a soul and she can’t be replaced. Even if I used the same programming, made the same body, that woman would not be my Amelia.

Because souls are not interchangeable.

So what choice do I have? This last task must be done.

I kiss her lips now and she wakes enough to respond to my advances. She rolls over and turns into me, resting her head on my chest.

How long have I waited for this perfect woman?

How long have I waited for my Seven?

My fingers caress the soft pale skin of her neck and this makes her sigh. She’s still half asleep, her breathing less slow now, her heart rate picking up as she sheds her slumber. My palm rests against her windpipe and I kiss her again.

“I love you,” I whisper.

I squeeze, causing her to open her eyes for the last time and look up at me in confusion.

I want to let go of her, take her in my arms, and plead for her to forgive me.

But I don’t. I crush her neck and in a few seconds it’s over. Since she is the entity which controls this entire habitat all the lights go out and all the environmental life support machines cease.

Her perfect body, limp.

Her perfect mind, gone.

I would rather kill her myself than let my father take her as a punishment in my cycle.

Because that’s what love is.

Protection.

J. A. Huss likes to write new adult books that make you think and keep you guessing. Her favorite genre to read is space opera, but since practically no one reads those books, she writes new adult science fiction, paranormal romance, contemporary romance, urban fantasy, and books about Junco (who refuses to be saddled with a label).

She has an undergraduate degree in horses, (yes, really–Thank you, Colorado State University) and a master’s degree in forensic toxicology from the University of Florida. She used to have a job driving around Colorado doing pretty much nothing but shooting the breeze with farmers, but now she just writes, runs the New Adult Addiction and Clean Teen Reads Book Blogs, and runs an online science classroom for homeschoolers.

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