Hey everyone, it’s Brittni Brinn taking over the blog today! I’m super excited to give you a sneak peek of Book Three of the Patch Project Series published by the fine folks here at Adventure Worlds Press! The book is called Where Long Shadows End, and we’ll be announcing a release date any time now!

Before I share the Prologue with you, I just want to take a second to thank everyone who’s entered the Fan Art contest so far! If you want to join this friendly creative contest, just post something based on the Patch Project series to social media with the hashtag #ThePatchProjectFanArtContest by June 30th. You could win one of the first copies of Book Three! You can find all the details here.

Here’s the opening to Where Long Shadows End! Hope you enjoy!

PROLOGUE

Isak looked around, disoriented. He was standing outside, facing a burned-up ridge that spilled out onto a flatline plain. The huge red sun hung heavy over the wasteland.

Had he skipped forward? Why? He tried to remember where he had just been, but came up empty. The desire was usually so strong when he jumped through time. Barely a second to blink between the wanting and the having. The curse of instant gratification.

Isak shifted his weight from his bad leg. Something snapped underfoot. Startled, he caught his balance and then froze. The broken, charred board was familiar. 

“Hello?” His cry echoed, no walls or trees to contain it. Sunset tinged the burned ruins around him red.

He knew this place. He recognized the board, part of a dining table he’d sat at hundreds of times. He knew that the square-cut logs sticking up around him used to support a two-story restaurant in the middle of a vast forest. He knew that he was alone and that everyone he loved was gone.

Before all that he knew could fully register, Isak heard distant footsteps coming up behind him. “What did I want?” he racked his brain as the footsteps drew closer. “What brought me here?”

The footsteps were right behind him. Isak caught a glimpse of a white streak in dark hair as someone familiar passed by. They continued for a couple of steps and then stopped, their back to him. They wore a leather jacket, mud-splattered jeans, hiking boots—nothing particularly significant. Maybe it was the way they stood with their hands deep in their pockets that gave them away. In addition to all the other things he recognized about this place, Isak recognized her.

“How long has it been?” he asked.

She stared beyond the ruins of Ulway’s Restaurant and Retreat Centre, out towards the wasteland. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” Pinot finally said, turning her ageless face towards him. “For everything to be over?”