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  Fawbry wrapped his arms around Malja. “You sure your portals work?”

  “I’ve never stepped through one of my own.”

  “What?”

  “We’re going to find out right now.”

  Before Fawbry could protest, Malja jumped in.

  * * * *

  And they tumbled on the hard ground of Carsite. When Fawbry stood, he laughed and danced around in a circle. “You did it! We’re here!”

  Malja sifted pebbles through her fingers. She couldn’t believe it. Despite all the evidence that she would be able to succeed with this, part of her had doubted it all along. But she had succeeded. She could feel the rocks of Carsite beneath her and smell the ... burning?

  Malja popped to her feet. Fawbry’s shocked face said more than anything. She looked at the town of Raxholden — smoldering ruins. Black smoke poured into the sky and a few flames consumed the buildings in the back. The rest had burned out a while ago.

  In stunned silence, Malja and Fawbry hiked into the town. They had seen many horrible things in the past, but both of them tried to avoid seeing the burned bodies let alone smelling the cooked flesh.

  “Malja?” a deep but choked voice said. “Fawbry?”

  Off to the right, they saw a hastily constructed shelter. Within its shadows, several people moved. Survivors.

  A large, dark man stepped out — Canto. “You came back.”

  “We did,” Fawbry said, bowing his head and placing a hand on his stomach. “I wanted to tell you that Hirasa is okay. That she’ll be back soon.”

  “That’s a small blessing in this terrible time.”

  “What happened?” Malja asked.

  Canto leveled a cold glare at her and said the one thing that changed everything. “Harskill.”

  Afterword

  Thank you for reading The Way of the Power. I hope you enjoyed it. If you want to be kept up-to-date on all things Malja or any of my work, click to sign up for my monthly newsletter. You even get a FREE short story just for signing up. Really. It's FREE!

  If you've enjoyed this story, please leave a review on the website where you bought it from. Those reviews help get the book in front of other readers, and without you readers, I've got nothing.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks, always, to Jeff Dekal for yet another stunning cover, to my mother for her support, and to Glory and Gabe for putting up with me throughout the summer as I worked on this book.

  Most of all, thank you, my readers. Malja is so important to me, and it warms me to know that she has found a place in your hearts as well. One more book to go for her, and I promise to keep giving my best.

  THE WAY OF THE SOUL

  THE FINAL BOOK IN THE MALJA CHRONICLES IS COMING SOON!

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  About the Author

  Stuart Jaffe is the author of The Malja Chronicles, the Max Porter Paranormal-Mysteries, the Gillian Boone novels, Real Magic, After The Crash, and 10 Bits of My Brain, as well as numerous short stories appearing in magazines and anthologies. He is the co-host of The Eclectic Review — a podcast about science, art, and well, everything. For those who keep count, the latest animal listing is as follows: four cats, one albino corn snake, one Brazilian black tarantula, three aquatic turtles, seventeen chickens, and a horse. Thankfully, the chickens and the horse do not live inside the house.

  Stuart can be easily found online at these sites:

  Website

  Blog

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  Goodreads

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  Copyright Notice

  The Way of the Power is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  THE WAY OF THE POWER

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 2014 by Stuart Jaffe

  Cover art by Jeff Dekal

  First Edition: October, 2014

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Afterword