Synopsis:
In the second book of The Portals of Destiny series, the Chosen have teamed up to learn about each other’s worlds. But things on their home planets are not as they left them. Astra is plagued by a genocidal maniac, Earth’s Jhinn are worse for the wear after losing their General, and Volgon is turning over a new leaf.
Meanwhile, the Chosen discover there is a lot about each other they don’t understand, and that makes fighting anything–let alone the universe threatening Mekans–difficult.
When more of the Chosen die, the question becomes not how will the Chosen defeat the Mekans, but can they?
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Excerpt:
Master Ferrok watched the scrago as they floated lazily in their pens. His favorite beast had her head buried in the lush sea grass, nibbling on the tender shoots. Normally this pastime brought him joy, but not today.
He felt a disturbance in the water behind him. Master Briska floated around next to him. She held out a handful of green sea grass to a scrago near the side of the pen. Her mouth curled in a half smile, but it never reached her eyes.
“Tell me the Chosen can still fulfill their destiny,” she whispered.
Ferrok sighed in a blast of water that shot out of his siphon. “You wish me to lie?”
“Are you certain it would be a lie?”
“I don’t know. About any of it.” Ferrok picked a piece of sea grass and methodically ripped it into tiny strands. “We thought we were doing the right thing in sending the Guardians to their new worlds early, but look what that got us: one of the Chosen is dead, and our prophets can write nothing but gibberish concerning the Chosen and the Mekan threat.” He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. “Did we cause that?”
Briska met his violet eyes and cringed at the hopelessness in their depths. “Do you wish me to lie?” she asked.
“Yes, damn it all, I wish you to lie!”
Briska flinched at his outburst. Of all the Masters of Gentra, she had stood behind Master Ferrok and his decision to send the Guardians to the home planets of the Chosen early, going against the exact words of the prophecy. None of them ever thought any harm would come of that decision.
And now one of the Chosen was dead, murdered by another as she lay sleeping.
Maybe we were the cause.
Briska knew what was at stake, had seen it with her own eyes on the computer screens: the Mekans were coming, and with them the destruction of all life in the galaxy.
“The Guardians will be on alert, more so than they were before Tess’s death. They are only supposed to be gone with their Chosen a for few weeks, only long enough to allow them to get to know one another and to see the worlds they all come from. They will keep their Chosen safe,” Briska said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.
Ferrok nodded, continuing to peel the sea grass into strips. They floated gently to the ocean floor. “I won’t rest easy until they return here to Gentra.” He straightened and put on a smile, hoping it would help ease the fear clenching his heart. “I suppose not much can happen in a few weeks’ time.”
Briska forced a smile. “I suppose not.”
A servant arrived, announcing the arrival of visitors from a nearby settlement.
“We’ll be along shortly,” Ferrok said.
As he and Briska swam to the main audience chamber, his mind churned. Worry for the Chosen tangled with fear of the future if they failed in their task. And flowing through it all was a voice whispering that it was all his fault that the world was going to end. It laughed when he denied it, murmured the names of those that had already been destroyed by the Mekans when he tried to convince himself that everything was going to turn out fine, despite the death of one of the Chosen.
They have to prevail.
As though hearing that desperate plea, Briska took his hand in hers as they made their way silently through the warm water.
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About the Author:
Shay West was born in Longmont, CO and earned a doctorate degree in Human Medical Genetics from the University 
of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO. Dr. West currently lives in Grand Junction, CO with her two cats. When not writing novels, she plays with plushie microbes and teaches biology classes at Colorado Mesa University. She is the author of the Portals of Destiny series and the Adventures of Alexis Davenport series. She has also been published in the military scifi anthology, Battlespace. Her final book in the Portals of Destiny series, Resigned Fate, is forthcoming from Booktrope in 2013. The final book in the Alexis Davenport series, Desperate Reflections, will be released in 2013.
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