Rapture. Jacquelyn Frank
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NO GOING BACK. NOT UNLESS SHE DEMANDED IT.
Right then, however, the only thing she was demanding was his attention. She had unwittingly relaxed back against him, her spine tucked snugly up the center of his body as she became like liquid. Without even realizing he was giving in to the impulse, Magnus bent forward and brushed a kiss up along the slope where her shoulder joined to her neck. For a moment she went taut, her closed lashes lifting as she tilted her chin to look at him.
Daenaira quieted again, that liquid quality pervading her once more and her head drifting to sweep back against his shoulder where she remained resting with sultry blinking eyes that spun a knot of raw need in his belly. Not for the lust that fired his soul, but for that empty place that had craved the warmth and acceptance of her permission to touch and to hold her like this.
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Published by Kensington Publishing Corp.
RAPTURE
The Shadowdwellers
JACQUELYN FRANK
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
For Laura.
I know this one is your favorite, so it’s all yours.
You’re my very best beloved friend.
I don’t know what I would ever do without you.
Contents
Vocabulary of Shadese Terms
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Vocabulary of Shadese Terms
Please keep in mind no translations are exact. These are meant to guide you to the general implied meaning.
Ajai: Ah-ZH
Anai: Ah-N
Aiya:
Bituth amec: Bih-TOOTH AH-meck: son of a bitch (or stronger)
Drenna: Drehn-NAH: Darkness (Heaven). The goddess of Darkness.
Frousi: Froo-S
Glave: GL
Jei li: ZH
K’yatsume: K
K’yindara: K
K’jeet: K
K’ypruti: K
K’yan: K
M’itisume: Mmit-
M’gnone: Mmig-no-n
M’jan: Mm-zhan: Brother/Father (religious)
Paj: Pazh: A pair of light silk or gauze cotton trousers with cuffs tight to the ankles traditionally worn under any skirt that flows away from the body with movement.
Sai: S
Sua vec’a: Swah VEHK-kah: Stop! Cut it out! Desist!
Prologue
Magnus understood the nature of evil sometimes a bit too well. There were times like these when he felt as though he had become a mirror for it, his own soul a distant reflection now as other things crowded it out. It was a thick and unwelcome feeling, a little too much like losing faith. At the very least it was a jaded perspective, and because of who and what he was, it simply would not serve.
The priest took a breath and instead focused on the grim task at hand.
Magnus drew the sojourn blade he held in his scarred and callused hand over the carefully laid granite pentagons decorating the plaza. Sparks were shorn from its angular tip as he drew an arc of challenge before himself. Blade makers far and wide would have cringed at the rude misuse of the painstakingly crafted metal, but sometimes evil needed a special invitation. Magnus engraved