By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Dale Mayer

Drawing is her world …
but when she’s pushed into the In-Between
and thought lost forever, it’s his world too.

Her…
Storey Dalton wants her life back. Her home back. Her world back. The way they were before she messed with time. She does not want to become a living dead lost In-between. She thought she’d known the worst that could happen … but she wasn’t even close.

Him…
Eric thought he’d seen the worst that his father could do…but he hadn’t … unfortunately. Heartbroken and panicked, Eric tracks Storey to the misty dead space – and follows her in. There is a way out – but not a way that anyone would willingly choose.

It…
The stylus has no way to help with Storey’s latest predicament. But survival is paramount. Only this time it can’t do it alone. There might be help available … if they can save someone else…first.

Them…
Storey wants to save her world. Eric wants to save Storey. The stylus wants them to save someone else. But can anyone save them all?

Tammy is now with her family and happy. With her safe, Storey and Eric go to retrieve the imprisoned Councilman. They barely manage to portal out with the him before the guards arrive. Then the Eric’s father, the esteemed Councilman does the unthinkable. He pushes Storey out of the portal.

Storey is now caught in the in-between, and as she starts thinking through her problem with her stylus, it’s not very promising.

Back in Toran, the Councilman is arrested and place in the dungeon under guard. Eric is determined to find Storey and bring her back, only to learn no one ever returns. Of course Storey isn’t staying put either, but her stylus is mapping where they go and Paxton is seeing it as he inputs the data from his stylus.

In order to do this properly Eric gathers all the things he could possible need including getting sketchbooks from her home, he also sneaks the broken stylus into his pack. There is no stopping him once he’s as prepared as he can be and Paxton has no choice but to let him go.

In the meantime Storey is learning a lot about the history between the Torans and Louers. It’s not pretty and her finding Dillon is going to reveal some very well hidden secrets.

This is a favorite scene as Eric arrives.

Shaking her mind free of those depressing thoughts and tucking the knowledge that Dillon was a Louer back into the corner of her mind, she turned to the more immediate issue.

“You said there is a Toran here. Who and where?”

Eric.

“Really?” she shouted. This time she danced around Dillon, joy rippling through every part of her. “We’re saved!”

Dillon stared at her and blinked.

She groaned in disgust. “Dillon, it means someone is here to help us.” She continued to skip in small circles. “I presume he’s on his way to us? And we should stay until he finds us?”

He landed at our old coordinates, where you found Dillon.

She laughed. “I knew he’d find us. Does he have the new coordinates?”

Paxton has just given them to him.

“Good.” She said with satisfaction. “Then he should be here any moment.” Then she frowned. And tugged Dillon several steps over. “Just so he doesn’t land on top of us.”

She stared and stared at the spot. Nothing happened. She glanced around in case he’d adjusted the coordinates slightly and still nothing. She turned back to look at the original spot.

And there was Eric.

His grin flashed, huge and full of relief.

“Woot!” She launched herself into his arms. “I knew you’d come!”

He picked her up and swung her around and around. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you.”

He put her back down and gave her a blistering kiss.

She pulled back slightly and beamed up at him. “Maybe I’ll have to disappear again, if you’re going to welcome me like that!”

“Trust you.” He glanced around. “Man is this is a weird place.”

She snorted. “Tell me about it!”

He smiled down at her, then froze and spun around. “What the…”

“Yeah, what a surprise, huh?” Storey glanced at the sleeping Dillon. “I still don’t understand that whole 45 degree angle sleeping thing.”

“He’s asleep?” Eric dropped his to a faint whisper. He bent over slightly to look closer.

“Yes. I think he’s been asleep since he arrived. According to the stylus that was a long time ago.” She shrugged. “He’s spoken to me a couple of times, but then always nods off again.”

“Unbelievable.” Eric shook his head. “How did he survive here?”

Storey wished she knew. “I have no idea. I think he went into a sort of hibernation. The stylus doesn’t think he’ll survive if we try to take him home though. That his muscles, after not experiencing gravity in so long, won’t support him. And that’s just the beginning of the problems. The thing is, I can’t leave him.”

Eric stared down at her. “This isn’t a Louer child to return to her parents. This is an adult male Toran. If he dies while going home, surely that’s better than this quasi-dead existence.”

That whole death with dignity thing. She sighed. “I hate to kill the poor man. And speaking of family,” Storey winced, not sure how Eric would react. “He says he has a brother, named Paxton.”

Eric’s head swiveled to stare down at her in shock. Then back at Dillon. “It couldn’t be.”

“What?” When he didn’t answer right away, Storey poked him in the chest. “What couldn’t be?”

“Paxton did lose a brother when they were young men. He was playing up to the ladies while porting and fell In-between.”

She gasped and turned to stare at Dillon. “Oh no. Then we definitely can’t leave him.”

“Neither do I want to take him home to his brother to die.”

She didn’t know what to say. “Stylus. Is there anything we can do for Dillon?”

His body won’t be able to handle living in the other dimensions.

“But he’s not alive here either,” she said in frustration. Then caught Eric’s look. Right. He couldn’t hear the stylus.

Quickly she explained what she she’d heard. “According to the stylus, Dillon can’t live in other dimensions, but it told me earlier he won’t be able to survive much longer here, either. I don’t want to believe that.”

“But there is no other way.” Eric wafted his arm in the thick soup. “Either desert him to this endless darkness or take him home and he will either live or die, but at least he’ll be home again. Think of his family. This would mean tremendous closure for them.”

Storey opened her mouth to speak, but a weird noise sounded.

What the hell was that?
Dale Mayer. Design Trilogy (Kindle Locations 6321-6359). Valley Publishing.

Seems the best move Eric made was bringing the broken stylus. The soul contained is very knowledgeable and once a leader.

There are many complications both on the way out of the in-between and to getting home. Since the best pathway the styluses could follow was back to Tammy, she unwittingly attaches to them.

Plenty of suspense a few more surprise and the promise of a romance that will last.

5 Contented Purrs for Dale!

Dale Mayer

Dale Mayer is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her Psychic Visions and Family Blood Ties series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Second Chances, SKIN), her thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life and Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy series).

She honors the stories that come to her – and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!

To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.