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  Scrutiny

  Beginning's End Series, Volume 3

  W.J. May

  Published by Dark Shadow Publishing, 2022.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  SCRUTINY

  First edition. May 31, 2022.

  Copyright © 2022 W.J. May.

  ISBN: 979-8201540883

  Written by W.J. May.

  THIS E-BOOK OR PRINT is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book/paperback may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright 2022 by W.J. May

  Scrutiny, Book 3 of the Beginning’s End Series

  Cover design by: Book Cover by Design

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

  Have You Read the C.o.K Series?

  The Chronicles of Kerrigan

  Book I - Rae of Hope is FREE!

  BOOK TRAILER:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILAwXxx8MU

  How hard do you have to shake the family tree to find the truth about the past?

  Fifteen year-old Rae Kerrigan never really knew her family's history. Her mother and father died when she was young and it is only when she accepts a scholarship to the prestigious Guilder Boarding School in England that a mysterious family secret is revealed.

  Will the sins of the father be the sins of the daughter?

  As Rae struggles with new friends, a new school and a star-struck forbidden love, she must also face the ultimate challenge: receive a tattoo on her sixteenth birthday with specific powers that may bind her to an unspeakable darkness. It's up to Rae to undo the dark evil in her family's past and have a ray of hope for her future.

  Find W.J. May

  Website:

  https://www.wjmaybooks.com

  Facebook:

  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-WJ-May-FAN-PAGE/141170442608149

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  Beginnings Blurb:

  USA Today Bestselling author, W.J. May, continues the highly anticipated bestselling YA/NA series about love, betrayal, magic and fantasy.

  Learn to fight—it is the only option...

  How do you answer, when the devil comes to call?

  When a swarm of monsters crashed out of the forest, Kiera thought it would be a struggle just to stay alive. But it's not enough to survive, one must also defend. And as fate would have it, there was an ever greater danger lurking in those trees.

  Old enemies surface and ancient grudges come to light, as a new player enters the field. One that could bring ruin to them all. One whose intentions are never quite what they seem. The newfound fellowship is shaken to the core, but as they are constantly reminded, time is not on their side.

  Other places in the realm have felt the burn of the dragon. A strange change is coming over the land, creeping like a shadow, silent as a dream. With no kingdoms there to stop it, no massing armies to fight back, such a darkness could consume them.

  The friends need answers. But will they get them in time...?

  BE CAREFUL WHO YOU trust. Even the devil was once an angel.

  Beginning’s End Series

  Beginnings

  Curiosity

  Scrutiny

  Foresight

  Disavow

  Trickery

  Wisdom

  Decree

  Influence

  Prevail

  Dignified

  Honored

  The Queen’s Alpha Series

  Eternal

  Everlasting

  Unceasing

  Evermore

  Forever

  Boundless

  Prophecy

  Protected

  Foretelling

  Revelation

  Betrayal

  Resolved

  The Omega Queen Series

  Discipline

  Bravery

  Courage

  Conquer

  Strength

  Validation

  Approval

  Blessing

  Balance

  Grievance

  Enchanted

  Gratified

  Contents

  Have You Read the C.o.K Series?

  Find W.J. May

  Beginnings Blurb:

  Beginning’s End Series

  The Queen’s Alpha Series

  The Omega Queen Series

  Prologue

  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

  Foresight Blurb

  Beginning’s End Series

  The Queen’s Alpha Series

  The Omega Queen Series

  Find W.J. May

  More books by W.J. May

  Prologue

  And the fox and the hen ran into their den, at the sound that the fiddlers played

  But never did they see such love, such love as Carnassas did that day

  And the sun shone bright, well into the night, when the monsters came to play

  But never did they see such blood, such blood as Carnassas did that day

  Chapter 1

  In times of stress, most people tended to freeze.

  It was that lesser-known option. The silent cousin wedged between fight and flight. There was no controlling it. Once a certain threshold had been reached, the body simply locked down. A surge of adrenaline quickened the heartrate, the muscles locked into place. The stomach abruptly vanished, leaving behind a sense of being hollow, while pinpricks of dread rippled along the scalp.

  There wasn’t a single person in the meadow who didn’t freeze that fateful morning, staring toward the forest with the same breathless emotion reflecting in their eyes.

  The monsters froze as well.

  Where they’d come from, no one could guess. They seemed to have dragged themselves straight from the depths of hell. In hindsight, there weren’t that many. No more than a dozen. But what they lacked in numbers, they made up in sheer, unadulterated size.

  The ones in the front resembled some kind of bloated jungle cat. But there was a thickness to them, and none of the inherent
grace. Where there were meant to be eyes, tiny black orbs darted across the meadow like those of a snake. Where there was meant to be fur, chunks of ragged, greyish spikes patterned across their bodies instead. The ones standing behind were much bigger.

  In a moment of mindless betrayal, Kiera realized that all the gossip she’d heard in the tavern and all the stories she’d heard as a child had gotten it wrong. There were not simply ogres, and trolls, and giants, but a wide stretch of harrowing creatures that loomed in between.

  These creatures were as tall as the blisserin, their sinewy bodies brimming with just as much brutish strength. A few were simply nameless terrors—demons in a state of living-decay—while others bore an odd resemblance to animals, though each stood upon two legs like a man.

  Kiera truly didn’t know which was the most terrifying. Her eyes roved ceaselessly between them, unable to decide which was worse. For a split second, they drifted to all the people as well.

  They will not survive this. None of us will survive it.

  Then a little girl pointed to one of the creatures in front. “Look, Mama...a kitty!”

  For a suspended moment, there wasn’t a single person in the meadow who didn’t follow her gaze. Even the death-cat she’d been pointing to cast a quick glance around, as if confused that such a description could ever be levelled against something that resembled itself.

  Then the freeze lifted, and that sunlit meadow was ripped apart.

  “RUN!”

  A single shout echoed from the crowd, but it was quickly overtaken in a clamor of barbaric snarls and demonic shrieks. Like a shadowy tide, they swept across the grass at a speed that defied even Kiera’s stricken expectations, trembling the ground beneath them as they crashed into the happy festival with enough force to tear skin from bone.

  Tables overturned and tents vanished—ripped from the ground like oversized flowers, then shaken violently to spill out any people lingering inside. A swarm of skeletal birds flew out of the forest behind them, each strong enough to lift people straight into the sky, and there was a wild cry from the merchants’ wagons, as one of those hulking beasts turned out to breathe fire.

  Kiera stared in horror, still rooted in place.

  Carnassas was dead. He hadn’t even left his chair. That wide belly of his had been split straight across the middle by a demonic talon, staining the table in front of him with a sickening mixture of ale and blood. There were many more like him, people who had been struck down before they even had time to rise to their feet. But life had not been easy for anyone who had gathered at the festival, and even more of them were starting to rally. A sudden hand yanked her onto her feet.

  “You need to run!” Jesse shouted directly at her, though they were standing only a few inches away. “Do you hear me, Kiera? You need to take out your blade, and—”

  He cut off suddenly, as a monstrous bird swooped down from above and fastened onto the back of his cloak—curling those wicked talons and lifting him into the sky.

  “JESS!”

  She reached desperately after him, but those birds were fast as lightning and it was already too late. In a matter of seconds, he was nothing but a shadow, lifting higher off the ground.

  That being said, the shifter had no intention of letting himself be carried away.

  If it had grabbed any other person, it might have been successful. Its brethren were certainly having great success further along the field. But Jesse wasn’t like most people, and he’d been holding a blade of his own when it grabbed him. In a single reflexive movement, he swung violently upward, separating the rest of its body from its scaled feet. It veered away with a wraithlike screech, as he landed back upon the grass, taking a moment to right himself, before grabbing her once more.

  “Did you hear me?” he shouted again, as if they had scarcely been interrupted. “You need to take out your blade, and run!”

  Eden was already sprinting across the grass, not toward the monsters, like she might have imagined, but toward the abandoned arena at the other end of the field.

  The archery ring, she realized. He’s going for the bows and arrows.

  It seemed an almost laughable sentiment, given what they were up against, but he wasn’t the only one fighting back. It was a fervor that had swept across the meadow just as quickly as any dark tide. And as she quickly discovered, those gentle festival people were not as gentle as they seemed.

  “All together!”

  She whirled around as some of the barrel-chested men who’d been tossing boulders just a few minutes before loaded a few onto the broken axel of a wagon, then catapulted them full-force into the ribs of an approaching monster. The creature let out a hideous roar, stamping its feet like an enraged bull, then in a moment that defied all reason and understanding, it tried to dig the stones out of its body, using nothing but a pair of its own razor-sharp claws.

  There was another howl, followed by a shower of blood, as it fell to one knee—quickly overwhelmed by a pack of shifters that appeared from nowhere and ripped it to shreds.

  Jesse tensed at the ready, aching to shift himself. But Kiera was gaping in astonishment.

  How did it just...?! Does it not feel pain?!

  Another beast picked up on the excitement, trampling closer to finish the dying creature itself, only to be instantly overrun by those same wolves. What began as a small group had expanded into something more, as every pack who’d come to the festival had merged together into a single force—one that was strong enough to annihilate virtually anything in its path.

  For everything else, there was magic.

  Kiera’s eyes blossomed with light, as a coven of witches used a collective spell to entrap one of the giant cats racing toward it. While it wasn’t enough to destroy the creature, it slowed it down enough that a hefty dwarf made short work of it with an axe.

  One of those delicate nymphs she’d been marveling at earlier had put what looked to be an ogre into a kind of trance—giving a group of elderly people the time they needed to run back to the wagons and escape. The spell lasted only as long as it was needed. When the ogre whirled around in a rage, she turned promptly into a flowering willow. The tree was smashed to bits, there was no saving it. But a single warlock levitated one of the splintered branches, and drove it straight into the ogre’s mouth. It choked once, then died badly. The warlock stared a split second, then limped away.

  I don’t believe it. They’re actually turning the tide.

  None of the different factions would have stood a chance on their own. If they’d chosen to scatter, they would have been chased down in the forest, or picked off by all those circling birds.

  But when all of them stood together? That was something else entirely.

  And the wolves...never had Kiera seen anything like the wolves.

  Perhaps it was simply the fact that they were so sudden. Human one moment, and beast the next. There was no time for delicacy or the removal of clothing. The little fairground was strewn with the remains of tunics and strips of leather shoes. But more likely, it was the sheer ferocity.

  Never could Kiera have pictured herself indulging in such savagery. Nowhere in her entire body was a hint of that primal urge. Before her very eyes, a group of what had recently been men leapt upon the back of one of those terrifying beasts, and started ripping into it with their mouths.

  Jesse was quick to join them, adding his boots and tunic to the rest.

  Run!

  His parting words echoed in her ears.

  If it weren’t for the fact that many of the beasts had been subdued already, he likely would never have left her alone. But there were other people in more desperate need of protection. The festival was a place for families, and there were still plenty roving nightmares to go around.

  “Papa!”

  She took three steps toward the forest, then whirled around as a pair of shadows streaked past. It took a second to realize they were the same feline-monstrosities she’d seen earlier. It took another second after
that to realize that she was not the intended target. Those yellowed eyes had fixed upon a boy in his late teens—one who was screaming in desperation for his father.

  Not to come and save him. But to run the other way.

  “Papa—no!” he cried, lifting a blunted sword as the deadly cats raced closer. His father was barreling toward him at the same time. “I can handle it! I can handle—”

  There was a muted thud, as the young man was tackled out of the way by an older version of himself. Soon after came a series of sickening noises Kiera would remember as long as she lived.

  The boy fell to the ground, stunned. Then he sprang back up with a scream.

  “Stay back!” she cried frantically, grabbing hold of his shirt “It’s already over! I’m sorry, you cannot save him!”

  He gave her a fierce shove, knocking her backward onto the grass, then raced forward once again—waving that sword with a terrible scream. She scrambled to her feet, ready to either help or restrain, before realizing all at once that something very important was missing from the picture.

  ...where’s the other cat?

  For a split second, everything was quiet. Then she heard the first of the screams.

  When the monsters had first rushed out of the forest, the older generation had pushed the children back—instructing them to run toward the forest. Some of them had obeyed. Some of them had made it only as far as the abandoned wagons before panicking and ducking underneath.

  Kiera spotted them just a second after the creature, watching in silent horror as it stalked slowly forward with its chin lowered to the ground.

  There was no time to think about the next steps. There was no time to shout for someone better or make a plan. Without a second’s hesitation, she sprinted straight toward them.