Final Life: Book One in the Final Life Series

For seventeen-year-old Dominique, nothing sucks more than being forced to move across the country during senior year. Angry and feeling alone, she thinks things can’t get any worse until her new neighbor pressures her into playing a psychic card game. When she touches the cards, she has a vision of a red desert where a malignant presence hints at past lives and threatens to kill her...again.

Convinced she’s gone crazy, Dominique struggles to forget the experience, but the vision follows her and intensifies with each repetition. Adding to her problems are two guys mysteriously connected to her fate. If Dominique is to put an end to the evil pursuing her, she must push through her fears, discover the secrets of her past, and put the ultimate survival plan into action. If she doesn’t, she’ll be dead. For real.

An Excerpt from Final Life:
“Miss Wells, I have something I think you might need.” She went to her desk, opened her top drawer, and pulled out a long, beautiful white feather. I gave a small gasp, my thoughts taking me to the white feather I had seen in my vision and later at Jan’s.

“What…is this?” I asked.

“It’s a funny story. I like to take walks in the woods. One day, I got a little lost and started to worry, especially since the day started to turn dark. I couldn’t tell which path to follow, but then I spotted this feather. When I picked it up, a calmness came over me and I immediately knew where to go. It was like the feather pointed me in the right direction.”

She held the feather out to me. “Here, take it.”

“Ms. Ryken, I,uh, can’t.”

She extended the feather closer to me. “Sure you can.”

“Well, okay.” When I touched the feather, a tingle of energy connected at my fingertips. I flinched, closed my eyes, and held my breath, waiting for the heat and dust to fill my senses, but it never came. Instead, a warm and soft breeze caressed my face, followed by the smell of sand. I opened my eyes to find myself standing on the shore of Elk Rapids beach.

The blue water filled with tiny ripples from the gentle wind, and way out in the horizon the deep blue water blended in with the cloudless sky. But how could I be here? How was it possible?

“You need to think of this place when you’re scared.” I spun around and saw Farrell sitting on a nearby cluster of rocks. “You’re comfortable here.”

Home, where I longed to be. Of course I wasn’t afraid here. I sat beside him and scooped up the sand with both hands, letting it sift through my fingers. “This isn’t real,” I said. I looked around and didn’t see anyone else. On a day like this, the beach would've been crowded.

“Yes and no. Yes, it’s real, but only to us. We’re the only ones occupying this space right now.” His eyes glued on mine and his head tilted to the side, as if waiting for me to remember something.

“I’m afraid of dying,” I said. “Not so much the death part, but the not living part.” I scooped up another handful of sand and held it tight, the gritty granules hardening into a ball. “There’s so much I still wanna do, ya know?”

“I know,” he said. “But there’s always hope. The end is not yet written.” He looked up and I followed his gaze. That’s when I noticed that the deep blue sky had filled with stars—millions of them. The day had suddenly turned to night. He stood and brushed off his jeans. “You ready to go back?”

No, I wasn’t ready, not at all. This place was home to me, a place of safety.

He held out his hand. “Come on, it’s time to go.”

My eyes went back to the stars that now streaked across the heavens. The beauty of the night took my breath away. Farrell came by my side. I wrapped my fingers around his, and as soon as I did I was back in Ms. Ryken’s room, the feather resting in the hand that Farrell had just grasped.