Time of Ruin (Ash and Ruin #2)
Release Date: 07/22/14
Summary from Goodreads:
The world has ended, and hope is the most dangerous thing left.
Battered and bruised after barely escaping San Francisco with their lives, Kat, Dylan, and Blue press north – desperate to reach the possibility of a new home.
But strange, monstrous ravens are tracking the remaining survivors, food is becoming scarce, gasoline is running short, and people are becoming suicidal, making survival almost impossible.
And the Pestas are growing bolder. Somehow, their numbers are growing.
The further north they go, the harder it becomes to ignore the signs that they’ve made a fatal mistake. Kat must face the impossible truth that there is no escape, there is no safe haven, and their worst nightmares don’t come close to their new reality.
Battered and bruised after barely escaping San Francisco with their lives, Kat, Dylan, and Blue press north – desperate to reach the possibility of a new home.
But strange, monstrous ravens are tracking the remaining survivors, food is becoming scarce, gasoline is running short, and people are becoming suicidal, making survival almost impossible.
And the Pestas are growing bolder. Somehow, their numbers are growing.
The further north they go, the harder it becomes to ignore the signs that they’ve made a fatal mistake. Kat must face the impossible truth that there is no escape, there is no safe haven, and their worst nightmares don’t come close to their new reality.
Excerpt 1
With a shaking hand, I pull my water
bottle from the netted pocket and take a few sips, reluctantly controlling
myself from gulping down half of it. Once my mouth is pleasantly wet, I hold
the bottle out to Blue and let him take a few sips. I’m happy the mouth is wide
so I don’t need to spill any out for him.
The last thing I want to do is to dig
through my pack and get out Blue’s bowls and kibble, so I pull out a can of
beef stew, my last can of the blessed protein-and-carb packed stuff, and pull
the tab to open it. “We’ll share, okay?”
Blue sits on his haunches, back
perfectly straight, as he watches me. I know it’s a leftover trick from his
first family, but it makes me smile.
“Me first,” I say and point at the
ground.
With a short whine, Blue lays on the
ground, resting his chin on his paws as he watches me tilt the can to my mouth.
Eating only half of the stew isn’t as hard as I thought it would be; my stomach
is so tight with worry over leaving Dylan, over the trail of smoke in the
distance, and my need to find transportation that I’m not as hungry as I should
be. I have to choke down the last bite of mealy potato before I hold the can
out for Blue. He has no such difficulty eating the other half of the stew, and
in minutes, he’s licking the inside of the can clean.
“Pig,” I tease as I toss the can away.
Blue ignores me and lays down to clean his paws.
I let my head fall back against my pack.
My eyelids are heavy, and it’s increasingly more difficult to keep my eyes
open. I click my tongue for Blue, and he jumps to his feet in an instant. I
chuckle and snap my fingers for him to come to my side. With his warm body
tucked in close to me, I lay one hand on his back and let sleep pull me under.
I don’t know how much time passes before
I’m awoken by a sound that I know neither I nor Blue made. My eyes snap open,
and my whole body goes instinctively still. I hold my breath so that I can hear
better. Blue shifts under my hand. He picks up his head, his ears perfect
triangles as he listens for the unfamiliar noise. I grip the loose skin at his
neck and make a tiny noise to keep him quiet.
Somewhere a twig snaps, louder than any
shot fired.
Not for the first time, I miss the
farmhouse where I found Blue, with its intact walls and locks on every door. I
bite the inside of my cheek, wondering if I can get to the edge of the wall and
away from here before whoever is walking up the steps comes around the corner.
A dim yellow light creeps across the
floor underneath the dresser we’re hiding behind. My heart is choking me,
lodged high in my throat, and all I can hear is the beat of my pulse and the
rush of my blood.
“Yeah, this is good,” a man’s voice
rings out, striking me like a whip.
I’ve missed my chance to run.Book One:
(linked to Goodreads)
About the Author
Like so many other writers, Shauna grew up as an avid reader, but it was in high school that she realized she wanted to be a writer. Five years ago, Shauna started work on her Elemental Series. She released the first installment, Earth, on May 1, 2011 and has since released four sequels, with the series coming to an end with Spirit. She is currently hard at work on a new Urban Fantasy series, staring a spunky witch with a smush-faced cat named Artemis.
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