Author Cindy Cipriano released The Lost: Book Three of The Sidhe on May 19. Check out the excerpt below.
Excerpt – Prologue
“I beg of you. Please don’t do this,” cried the frail man. He was gaunt and looked as if he hadn’t slept in months. “I’ve changed, give me another chance.”
“I’m in no position to judge you. Nor can I give anyone anything,” said Finley.
His gaze traveled over the man’s hunched shoulders to the green sky, searching, as always, for any way out of the Void. Finley had hoped he’d leave the Void before he had to push the next depereo into the Underworld. He always hoped this, but to no avail. There was always another depereo.
“Please, please,” said the old man, clasping his hands in front of him as if in prayer.
It wore on Finley when the depereo were awake, begging for mercy. Their pleas made his task more difficult. And, it was harder for him to forget about them after he sent them to the Underworld. Finley rubbed the bridge of his nose, wishing again for a way out.
“May I go then?” the old man asked, looking at Finley with hopeful, teary eyes.
Finley looked down at the shriveled old man. He looked like someone’s kindly grandfather. He wondered what the man could have done to wind up here.
How dangerous could this old man be?
An odd feeling traveled through Finley’s veins.
Compassion.
The feeling disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived, leaving Finley with his constant companion.
Desperation.
Finley reminded himself that the choices this depereo had made during his life had brought him here. Like the depereo who came before him, this Sidhe’s evil ways had put him onto the path that led straight to the Void. This man was already dead. His eternal fate had already been decided. Finley was just tasked with delivering the sentence.
I should have used the club like Sun showed me.
“To make sure they’re unconscious,” Sun had explained.
Finley wondered what had happened to Sun. Was his friend all right after his return to the Realm of Man?
No matter, Sun was better off. He had to be.
“May I go?” the man repeated, dusting grains of blue sand from his palms.
“There’s nowhere to go,” said Finley. He pulled the man to his feet effortlessly, as though he weighed nothing. As though the man was nothing.
Just as I am nothing.
“Please, don’t,” begged the man. “I have money. I will give you anything you want. I’ll do anything you ask.”
“Don’t you understand?” asked Finley. “I have no control over any of this. There is no bargain that can be made. I’m condemned. Just like you.”
“But, I am powerful. I can get you out of here.”
“No one can get me out!” yelled Finley. Of all the things the depereo said to him, that was the worst. If a depereo couldn’t change their own fate, how did they think they could change his?
The man stared at Finley, curiously. “How can you bear this?” he asked a touch of pity in his voice.
“I can’t,” said Finley. He shoved the man hard through the gash in the large black boulder then turned away. Finley walked back to the blood-red forest with the man’s horrified screams ringing in his ears.
Book Blurb
Calum Ranson is now closer than ever to finding his lost cousin Finley: he knows where he is, he just doesn’t know how to get there. Stuck in the Void between the world of the living and the Underworld, Finley needs to get home soon before he is changed forever. It’s up to Calum and his friend Laurel to figure out how to free him.
Adding to the challenge, Calum can no longer turn to his other cousin and best friend, Hagen, who has become mysteriously close to one of their school’s biggest bullies, Riley Sloan. Why has Hagen suddenly started treating Riley as his girlfriend when she used to be his enemy? And can Calum succeed in saving Finley without Hagen’s help?
From studying to school dances, field trips to first kisses, the third book of the Sidhe depicts a typical middle school experience, peppered with magic, faeries, and truly heroic deeds.
About the Author
Cindy Cipriano lives in North Carolina with her husband, son and their 27 pets.
Not really. Just three dogs who think they are children and three cats who think they are raccoons. It only seems like 27. Cindy enjoys spending time with her family and the avoidance of cooking.
Cindy credits The Sidhe series to an idea that came to her when she was a small child during, “one of my many “time-outs.” The characters, particularly Uilleam, were born out of her curiosity about what might be found underneath one of the tiles in the floor. It is for this reason she encourages all writers to record everything because, “There is no such thing as an ordinary life. Each of our lives are filled with stories begging to be told.”
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You can find out more about Cindy on her website.
You can purchase The Lost on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million.
Into Another World 