Synopsis
Dez Cross has
problems. She’s almost eighteen and on the verge of losing her mind thanks to
the drug the Denazen corporation used to enhance her abilities.
People close to her have turned their backs on the underground and are now
fighting for the wrong side. And then there’s Kale... Things couldn’t get any
worse.
Until, of course, they do. Denazen is about to start a new trial—this one
called Domination—and it works. But that means out with the old and in with the
new. The order has been given to terminate all remnants of the second
trial—including Dez. The good news is that there’s a survivor from the original
trial. A woman whose blood may hold the cure for the second generation of
Supremacy kids' defects. But the underground Sixes aren’t the only ones who
know about her.
Dez's father is
willing to throw away everything he has to keep Dez from getting the
cure—including the one thing that might tear her apart from the inside out.
Exclusive Excerpt
“I told them you
wouldn’t come alone. Yet here you are,” Kale’s dark voice said from the
doorway. “You’re an odd one.”
“You don’t realize
it, but coming from you, that’s kinda funny,” I said, swallowing hard and
turning to face him. The light from the hall lit the entire right side of his
face, leaving the left cloaked in darkness. Two sides of the same dangerous
coin. I wanted to back away but resisted, meeting his gaze straight on. My Kale
was in there somewhere—and he could sense weakness. “Did you kill her?”
“She’s dead.”
“I figured as much,” I said, jaw
tense. Another step closer. “But I’m asking if you did it.”
He cocked his head to the left and I
could see his expression. Confusion. “You asked the same thing about the other
girl. Why does it matter?”
“Because it does. It matters to you,
too. You just don’t remember.”
He took another step. Inches. He was
inches from me now, the warmth from his body radiating like the sun. Every one
of my muscles plunged into an all-out war with my heart. Common sense screamed
for me to match his steps forward with ones away. Keep your distance—he’s
dangerous!
My heart wanted to
move closer. I wanted this to all be nothing more than a bad dream.
“I feel like...when I look at you—”
He shook his head and placed a hand on either side of me, up against the
mattress, and brought his face close to mine. For the longest moment all he did
was stare. When he did speak, there was so much rage in his voice. “You stabbed
me. When that didn’t do the trick, you pushed me from the bridge. I’m asking
you why?”
“I never did that, Kale. No one’s
ever pushed you from a bridge as far as I know. I promise. As for the scar,
yeah. You were stabbed. Alex did it.”
“You’re lying, Kiernan.”
“I’m not. And my name is Dez,” I
said, voice cracking under the weight of his words. “Deznee.” I wasn’t
ready to give up, so I went with what had always worked for me. Something
insane.
Pushing forward, I crushed my lips
to his, wrapping both arms around his neck to lock him in place. He didn’t
resist and, to my surprise, didn’t shove me away. Instead, after a moment, he
responded, his lips moving fervently with mine.
The kiss only lasted a few moments.
I was the one who broke it, pulling away as the clouds passed, allowing the
moonlight to shine through the bedroom window once again. For a second, neither
of us said a word. His cheeks glistened with my tears, making it look like he’d
been crying, too, as he stared—eyes wide and mouth agape—like he’d never seen
me before.
For a crazy, insane moment, time
froze. I thought maybe the kiss had done the trick. That this time the princess
had woken the prince. He looked at me with a mix of shock and awe, the tiniest
hint of my Kale gleamed through. My heart pounded so loudly I could barely hear
anything else. It was there. I could see the spark in his eyes. “Kale?”
But it didn’t last. Or maybe it
hadn’t been there at all. Maybe I wanted to see it so badly that I imagined the
whole thing.
His lips parted and the corners
tilted upward just a hair. “Roz is right. You are crazy.”
Find
Jus Accardo
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Tremble
Author Bio
Jus Accardo spent her
childhood reading and learning to cook. Determined to follow in her
grandfather’s footsteps as a chef, she applied and was accepted to the Culinary
Institute of America. At the last minute, she realized her path lay with
fiction, not food, and passed on the spot to pursue writing.
Jus is the
bestselling author of YA paranormal romance and urban fantasy fiction.
A native New Yorker,
she lives in the middle of nowhere with her husband, three dogs, and sometimes
guard bear, Oswald. Her first book, Touch was released in November 2011 from
Entangled Publishing. She is currently working on the next book in the Denazen series.
