The Key Trilogy Novels & Stories

THIRD PERSON >Preparing for war… Over the following week, after Dominic and Seraphina arrived, the rest of the family slowly joined them. Nathaniel, Violet, Eli, and Chrysta arrive first, leaving Chase, Gabriela, and Zane to watch over the castle and kingdom. Scarlett and Phoenix arrive along with Jayce, Opel and River, not wanting to but having no choice in leaving their new twins, Trisha and Norrix, with Gabriela and Whitney. Ryker and Isabella arrive a little later, leaving Ariel in Beta Carter’s care.

"I'm right here, Mom. You're safe now." Sarah looked around the metal room at her sons and daughters–Noah, Julian, Marcus, Leo, Caleb, Thomas, Gabriel, Clara, and Maya–standing together in the yellow light. "Arthur Vance tried to protect all of you," Sarah whispered, her eyes filling with tears. "He knew William was building an army, but Arthur hid the final key where William could never reach it." Noah’s eyebrows furrowed. "The final key? Mom, we thought the key was your voice."

They suspected something was up and they watched for any sign that I carried something valuable. I didn’t… yet. Not really. My tablet would be considered valuable, of course. But the really valuable things weren’t what they would expect. I was after three things… keys. The three missing control keys that could save the world. My first destination was the place where Janice disappeared to. She was supposed to get to the bunker and insert her key, but for whatever reason, she never made it. I had to find her, or, failing that, get her key. There was a risk that the key was in the hands of criminal lords, but as far as we knew, no one else knew exactly what they were. Chances were, it had been

Just a single line, written in the same plain English we used back when it was just us on a dock—before money and blood complicated everything. The circle is broken, Sierra, but the third key is still where we buried it. I closed my eyes, rain washing salt and blood from my face, standing alone at the black edge of the ocean, realizing that the last piece of this war wasn’t in a vault or a government server. If Christian already handed his mother the proxy and the government had Leo, then who was left holding the third key from the shadows of our past?

It was her mother's handwriting. [Sofia's Diary]: "Arthur does not understand. The power he found in our blood is not meant to rule the world, but to heal. He has gone mad with ambition. Beatrice and I have decided to hide the 'Key' inside the newborn baby... my own child. If Arthur knows that Liora is the only one who can open 'The Third Archive', he will never stop. I must leave, I must run away with Thomas." Liora slumped weakly. "So... I was indeed created to be the key. And my mother loved Arthur before he turned into a monster."

Aria suddenly understood. "No way..." The Witness gasped. The Eater lowered his sword. And Lyra felt her heart stop. Because she understood too. The Key wasn't an object. Wasn't a weapon. Wasn't a location. It was a person. The Null King roared. "NO!" Reality shattered. The darkness surged wildly. Too late. The truth had already emerged. The Key had been hidden inside the fragments. Inside the Fifth Gift. Inside every choice. Inside every possibility.

He scrutinized it for a long time before saying, "I wouldn't have expected any less of a proper lady of the Chapman family. Your embroidery is top-notch." Something occurred to him, and he pulled out a green moonstone pendant from his sleeve. He gave it to me. "My mother gave this to me, saying that it would keep me safe. I've kept it with me all these years while battling our enemies. I'll give it to you now if you don't mind having it." I saw streaks of blood on the pendant and knew that it had been with Gideon through many life-and-death situations. How could I possibly accept it?

KADE He finally slipped into the solitude of his room, away from his incessant father. It's your birthday in a couple of weeks, his father's voice rang through his mind. It's tradition to receive an Unfortunate on your twenty-fifth birthday. You have no choice but to accept. Kade dropped into the oversized leather chair behind his desk and exhaled. He didn't want a gift from Michael Sario. He didn't want anything from him. He sat forward and glanced at the mining documents he'd been prying through for weeks. Something wasn't right. His mines were collapsing, and he had no idea why. He studied the map on the blueprint before him, trying to find a pattern. Nothing.

I blubber out " why? What was wrong with me?" "Oh honey there was and is nothing wrong with you!" My dad cries trying to grab my hand. I pull it into the blanket and curl into Chris. "It's not that there is anything wrong.. it's what is right about you... you my love are a tribrid...do you have any idea what that is?" I shake my head no, I have no clue what that is. All I know is that my world has just blown to pieces and nothing about my life is real. "A tridrid is extremely rare." Dad continues "in fact it is so rare that there hasn't been one in over 3 thousand years. A tribrid is part witch, part vampire and part wolf." Dad looks at me and his face his dead serious.

It restored the natural order where the wolf was the master and the human was the prey. He turned to face her, his silver hair catching the reflections of the three crystals, his hand holding the Master Key over the central iron ring. He told her to step into the center of the triangle. He said her leather braces wouldn't stop the frequency; her soul was the only key left that could bridge the gap between the three fragments and fuse them back into a single, unbroken engine.