Extract

Taking another breath while trying not to notice the electric prickling on her face, Elena triangulated the source of the scent to a particular cabin. She’d just stepped foot in that direction when the electricity vanished.

The birds stopped singing.

The air froze.

And the earth trembled under her feet.

She came to a halt. An unknown sound made her look up. The starlings were circling in a constant wheel as they whispered their frantic and incomprehensible warning inside her skull.

The ground jolted violently.

Bunching her wings and gritting her teeth against the renewed pulse of pain, she rose up off the shaking landscape. Cabin doors flew open below her, people spilling out like disoriented ants to run in the direction of the lawn.

The ground under the cabins began to crumble.

Elena swept down to grab a young woman who was a frightening half step ahead of the disappearing earth. Elena wasn’t strong enough to carry a full-grown adult any real distance, but she managed to haul the woman to where the other guests could grab her, then yelled at everyone
to go farther.

A scream split the air.

Elena twisted back…to see a man, his arms and legs flailing, disappear into nothingness. The ground had opened up under his feet in a rushing crash of dirt and rock. She flew toward him as fast as she could, but it was a futile effort.

Even as she reached the spot where he’d disappeared into the stygian maw of the earth, the sprawling and chillingly deep hole began to fill with a golden-red flow of magma. There was no sign of him, no sign of any of the cabins. Not even a smear of flesh or a splinter of wood.

The ground stopped shaking.

The earth stopped crumbling.

The birds danced.

Directly below Elena glowed a wound in the earth that pulsed with scalding heat.

All at once, there were no more starlings in the sunlit winter sky. Only screaming, sobbing people on the grass-heavy ground near a lava pit that shouldn’t exist…and Elena’s left wing was beginning to drag.

Review

‘Archangel’s Prophecy’ had a lot of buzz and I quickly read through the ‘Guild Hunter Series’ so that I could be up to speed and finally read this installment. Having skimmed the reviews on GoodReads and read how everyone couldn’t wait for the next book because Singh had left it in such a way that left all readers crawling up the walls with anticipation, I seriously debated waiting until the next book came out before starting this one. But, I couldn’t wait and curiousity dug in!

This book focuses on Elena and her immortality, unfortunately something is happening to her and she is regressing out of her immortality. All she knows is that there is a voice in her head saying that ‘she must die for the other to live.’ No one knows who the other is but the Cascade appears to be working against her and her desire to live. We have power surges, lava filled sink holes, ominous prophecies and the death of a series of vampires.

A characteristic of Singh’s writing is that it is a very easy read, engaging and enjoyable throughout. I love her writing style, it is engrossing and I always find myself devouring her books. I start to read them, look up and I’m half way through.

The action surrounds Elena’s physical changes, however, there is another problem. Her brother-in-law is attacked in his home and the perpetrator has threatened to hurt Beth and Maggie, Elena’s sister and niece. The stubborn hunter part of Elena comes to the forefront and she refuses to slow down in the bid to save her family. The only slight annoyance is that Singh continually repeats the descriptions and references to earlier events and traumas. Yes, this is useful but sometimes these become a bit much and as an avid reader of the whole series, I do not need the constant repetitions, especially as at times these are word-for-word.

The ending of the novel is very ambiguous and you don’t quite know what has happened to your favourite characters or how much time is passing. I have a theory that I hope it true, although it is a little far fetched, but do not worry, I will not share it until the next installment has been released as I do not want to spoil anything.