About the Book:
An epic fantasy novel with sorcery, superpowers, ancient history, and demonic wars across time, this is the first book in a series from debut author Jerry Collins.
In a world where nothing is as it seems comes a woman with the power to possess the souls and wills of men, to do with as she pleases. Jatara thirsts for world domination, moved by an unrelenting drive to capture and control the minds of her subjects. This horrific saga of pain, betrayal and death takes place in ancient Europe, but the story transcends time, to the present and beyond. Jatara’s plan for world conquest is only obstructed by Derideon, an omnipotent ruler of the underworld, who wants Jatara to join his regime and praise him as her master. Will she obey? Or defy him? The battle of wills has begun, but only one will thrive, and only the strong will survive.
Read an Excerpt:
Featured in June/July Issue: Summer Reads
CHAPTER 1
A man draped in a cloak tossed a torch into the barn that joined the guest and servants’ cottages. He entered the main house and looted the library of books before setting the house ablaze. Afterwards, he released the livestock before they perished in the flames. This dastardly fiend committed robbery and murder, while the family dwelling within slumbered quietly through the night. A raging fire erupted, engulfing the house in minutes, leaving young Jatara and her family to die in a swirling inferno.
Jatara awoke to the sounds of agonized shrieks coming from her parents’ room, followed by deafening cries for help. “Mama, Papa… where are you? I’m scared!” she wailed to the empty room.
As she opened the door and entered the hallway leading from her room, an enormous heat wave pushed her down the staircase. Jatara’s small five-year-old frame rolled and tumbled to the front door. She pleaded once more for her loved ones to come out from that furnace of death. “Mama! Papa! Help me! It’s hot and I can’t breathe… Please, Papa! I’m scared!”
In that moment, the arsonist burst through the door, grabbed Jatara and carried her away from the house in the instants before it collapsed. “Come on, girl! You’re no use to me dead! A heifer like you will make a great slave that will serve me well.”
He dropped her on the ground and took off on foot before the villagers who had seen the flames had time to arrive. She shivered in the mud, wet and afraid, as feelings of despair and abandonment consumed her. Jatara was petrified, knowing that her loving family had just been destroyed.
She could see nothing but sorrow and vengeance in the future to come.
The approaching villagers would decide the orphan’s fate. Egor and his companion, Zorka, the family’s ex-servants, were the first to arrive.
They found Jatara on the ground and stood her up. Egor and his wife had accumulated a great deal of wealth working for the child’s parents.
Egor was also the first parasite to initiate conversation. “Child, where are our masters? Have they been incinerated in that treacherous fire? Answer me, girl… what have you done? Were you playing with the oil lamp?” Jatara humbly submitted herself to Egor’s inquisition, and tried to answer honestly.
“Lord Egor, I do not know what has happen to my mama and papa. I woke up to their screams.”
“Did they make it out with you? How did you survive?”