The Descent: Book Three of the Taker Trilogy by Alma Katsu (English) Paperback B

Description: The Descent by Alma Katsu The author of The Hunger delivers a "daring, soaring, and ultimately gut-wrenching" (The New York Times) conclusion to her critically acclaimed Taker Trilogy, bringing Lanore McIlvrae to a final encounter with Adair, her powerful nemesis. Dismayed by Adairs otherworldly powers and afraid of his passionate temper, Lanore has run from him across time, even imprisoning him behind a wall for two centuries to save Jonathan, her eternal love. But instead of punishing her for her betrayal, Adair declared his love for Lanore once more and set her free. Now, Lanore has tracked Adair to his mystical island home to ask for one last favor. The Queen of the Underworld is keeping Jonathan as her consort, and Lanore wants Adair to send her to the hereafter so that she may beg for his release. Will she honor her promise to return to Adair? Or is her true intention to be reunited with Jonathan at any cost? FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Alma Katsu was born in Alaska and raised near Concord, Massachusetts. She has a BA in writing from Brandeis University and an MA from the Johns Hopkins Writing Program. She is the author of The Taker Trilogy (The Taker, The Reckoning, and The Descent) as well as The Hunger and The Deep. The Hunger was a finalist for the Bram Stoker and Locus magazine award and was selected as one of NPRs 100 favorite horror stories. She lives with her husband in Virginia. Visit her on Twitter @AlmaKatsu. Excerpt from Book The Descent ONE The sunlight glinting off the Mediterranean that afternoon was bright enough to blind, and the boat bounced hard off the waves like a broken-down carnival ride. Id come halfway around the world to find someone who was very important to me, and I wouldnt let a little rough weather keep me from finishing my journey. I squinted against the headwind to the horizon, trying to will a rocky shoreline to appear out of nowhere. "Is it much farther?" I asked the captain. "Signorina, until I met you this morning, I never knew this island even existed, and I have lived on Sardegna my entire life." He was in his fifties if he was a day. "We must wait until we get to the coordinates, and then we will see what we shall see." My stomach floated unsteadily, due to nerves and not the waves. I had to trust that the island would be where it was supposed to be. Id seen strange things in my lifetime--my long lifetime--many of them stranger than the sudden appearance of an island that heretofore had not existed. That would be a relatively minor miracle, on the scale of such things, considering Id already lived over two hundred years and was destined to live forever. But I was a mere babe compared to the man I was going to see, Adair, the man who had given me--or burdened me, depending on your point of view--with eternal life. His age was inestimable. He couldve been a thousand years old, or older. Hed given differing stories every time we met, including the occasion of our last parting four years ago. Had he been a student of medicine in medieval times, devoted to science and caught in the thrall of alchemy, intent on discovering new worlds? Or was he a heartless manipulator of lives and souls, a man without a conscience who was interested only in extending his life for the pursuit of pleasure? I didnt think Id gotten the truth yet. We had a tangled history, Adair and I. He had been my lover and my teacher, master to my slave. We had literally been prisoner to each other. Somewhere along the way he fell in love with me, but I was too afraid to love him in return. Afraid of his unexplainable powers, and his furious temper. Afraid of what I knew he was capable of and afraid to learn he was already guilty of committing far worse. I ran away to follow a safer path with a man I could understand. I always knew, however, that my path would one day lead back to Adair. Which is how I came to be in a small fishing boat, far off the Italian coast. I wrapped my sweater more tightly around my shoulders and rode along with the ships rocking, and closed my eyes for a moments rest from the glare. I had shown up at the harbor in Olbia looking to hire a boat to take me to an island everyone said didnt exist. "Name your price," I said when Id gotten tired of being ridiculed. Of the boat owners who were suddenly interested, he seemed the kindest. "Have you been to this area before? Corsica, perhaps?" he asked, trying either to make small talk or to figure out what I expected to find at this empty spot in the Mediterranean Sea. "Never," I answered. The wind tossed my blond curls into my face. "And your friend?" He meant Adair. Whether he was my friend or not, I didnt know. Wed parted on good terms, but he could be mercurial. There was no telling what mood hed be in the next time we met. "I think hes lived here for a few years," I answered. Even though it appeared that Id piqued the captains interest, there was nothing more to say, and so the captain busied himself with the GPS and the ships controls, and I went back to staring over the water. We had cleared La Maddalena Island and now faced open sea. Before long, a black speck appeared on the horizon. "Santa Maria," the captain muttered under his breath as he checked the GPS again. "I tell you, signorina, I sail through this area every day and I have never seen that"--he pointed at the landmass, growing in size as we approached--"before in my life." As we got closer, the island took shape, forming a square rock that jutted up out of the sea like a pedestal. Waves crashed against it on all sides. From the distance, there didnt appear to be a house on the island, nor any people. "Where is the dock?" the captain asked me, as though Id know. "There is no way to put you ashore if there is no dock." "Sail all the way around," I suggested. "Perhaps theres something on the other side." He brought his little boat around and we circled slowly. On the second side was another cliff, and on the third, a steep slope dropped precipitously to a stony and unwelcoming beach. On the fourth side, however, there was a tiny floating dock tethered to a rock outcropping, and a rickety set of sunburnt stairs leading to a stone house. "Can you get close to the dock?" I shouted into the captains ear to be heard above the wind. He gave me an incredulous look, as though only a crazy person would consider climbing onto the floating platform. "Would you like me to wait for you?" he asked as I prepared to climb over the side of the boat. When I shook my head, he protested, "Signorina, I cannot leave you here! We dont know if it is safe. The island could be deserted . . ." "I have faith in my . . . friend. Ill be fine. Thank you, Captain," I said, and leapt onto the weatherworn wooden dock, which bucked against the waves. He looked absolutely apoplectic, his eyes bulging as I climbed the staircase, gripping the railing as I struggled against the wind. When I got to the top, I waved to him, signaling that he should go, and watched as his boat turned back the way we had come. The island was exactly as it had appeared from the sea. It seemed carved from one lump of black stone that had emerged directly from the ocean floor. It had no vegetation except for a stand of scraggy pines and a bright chartreuse carpet of moss spread at their roots. A few goats ran by and seemed to regard me with an amused, knowing air before they scampered out of sight. They had long, silky coats of many colors and one had a frightening pair of twisted horns, wicked-looking enough to be worn by the devil. I turned to the house, so ancient and solid that it seemed to have grown straight from the bedrock of the island. The house was a curious thing, its stone walls so sandblasted by weather that it was impossible to tell much about it, including when it mightve been built, though it resembled a fortress--small and compact yet just as imposing. The front door was a big slab of wood that had been thoroughly dried and bleached by the sun. It had elaborate ironwork hinges and was decorated with iron studs in the Moorish style, and gave the impression that it could withstand anything, even a battering ram. I lifted the knocker and brought it down once, twice, three times. When I heard nothing from the other side of the door, however, I started to wonder if maybe Id made a mistake. What if the captain had misread his charts and left me on the wrong island--what if Adair had moved back to civilization on the mainland by now? Id tracked him down through a man named Pendleton whod acted as Adairs servant until Adair chose to go into seclusion. While Pendleton wasnt sure what had caused Adair to withdraw from the world, he gave me coordinates to the island, which he admitted was so small that it appeared on no maps. He warned me there was no easy way to get in touch with Adair, as he didnt use email and didnt seem to have a phone. I had no intention of alerting him to my arrival anyway--force of habit made me wary of Adair still, but I also didnt want to risk being put off or dissuaded from coming. I knew Adair was somewhere in the area, though, because I felt his presence, the unceasing signal that connected him to each of the people hed gifted with eternal life. The presence felt like an electronic droning in my consciousness that wouldnt stop. It would fall off when he was far away--as it had the last four years--or grow stronger when he was close. This was the strongest it had been in a while--and was competing with the butterflies in my stomach in anticipation of seeing him again. I was distressed to hear that Adair was living by himself, particularly because it was such a remote location. Now that I saw the island, I was more worried still. The house looked as though it had no electricity or running water, not unlike where he mightve lived in the eighteenth century. I wondered if this return to a way of life that was familiar to him could be a sign that he was overwhelmed by the present and couldnt cope with the never-ending onslaught of the new. And for our kind, retreating into the past was never good. I sought out Adair now after four years apart only because Id been seized by an idea that I wanted to put into action, and I needed his help to make it work. I had no notion, however, if he still cared for me enough to help me, or if his love had dried up when it went unreciprocated. I knocked again, louder. If worse came to worst, I could find a way into his house and wait for Adair to return. It seemed an arduous trip to make for nothing. Given my immortal condition, it wasnt as though I needed anything to live on, food or water, or that I couldnt deal with the cold (though there was split wood stacked against the side of the house and three chimneys, each with multiple lots, visible on the roof). If Details ISBN1982165715 Author Alma Katsu Short Title The Descent Pages 352 Language English Year 2022 ISBN-10 1982165715 ISBN-13 9781982165710 Format Paperback Series Number 3 Publisher Gallery / Saga Press Series Taker Trilogy Imprint Gallery / Saga Press Publication Date 2022-01-25 UK Release Date 2022-01-25 Subtitle Book Three of the Taker Trilogy DEWEY FIC Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137582868;

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