Novels by Rachel Holt

Dr. Hoffman signed the discharge papers and handed them to Ethan."She is fully healed," Dr. Hoffman said. "I still do not understand how, but her vision is perfect. Better than most people who have never had vision problems."Ethan took the papers. "Thank you for everything.""Mr. Cross." Dr. Hoffman stopped him before he could leave. "What you did for your sister... what you accomplished with those herbs and that treatment... I have practiced medicine for twenty years and I have never seen anything like it.""Ancient techniques. Passed down through generations.""Will you teach me?"Ethan looked at her. "Maybe someday."He walked back to Lily's room. She was already dressed in the clean clothes Claire had brought yesterday. Simple jeans and a soft blue sweater. Her hair was brushed. Her face was bright with excitement."Ready?" Ethan asked."So ready." Lily stood and grabbed the small bag containing her few belongings. "I have been staring at these walls for a week. I want to see ev

The next morning, Lily was awake and alert.Dr. Hoffman had run every test she could think of. Blood work. Brain scans. Vision tests. Everything came back normal. Better than normal."I do not understand it," Dr. Hoffman said to Ethan outside Lily's room. "Her optic nerves were completely destroyed. Now they function perfectly. It is medically impossible.""But it happened," Ethan said."Yes. It happened." Dr. Hoffman shook her head in amazement. "She can be discharged in two days if she continues like this. Full recovery."Ethan nodded and went back into Lily's room.She was sitting up in bed, looking around with wide eyes. Taking in everything. The walls. The window. The morning light streaming through."Everything is so bright," she said when Ethan entered. "I forgot how bright the world is."Ethan sat in the chair beside her bed. "How do you feel?""Tired. But good. Really good." She looked at him carefully. "You look terrible though. When was the last time you slept?""I am fine.

Dr. Hoffman stared at the sealed container. "This is it? This is the herb?""Yes."She picked it up carefully, examining it through the clear material. The pale white root inside, almost translucent. "I have never seen anything like this.""You need to prepare Lily for treatment immediately.""Mr. Cross, you can barely stand. You need rest""After the treatment."Dr. Hoffman looked at him for a long moment. Saw the determination in his eyes. The absolute refusal to compromise."Fine," she said. "Give me twenty minutes to prepare the room."Ethan nodded and walked to Lily's room.She was still in the coma. Machines monitoring her vitals. IV lines running into her arms. Her face was pale. Peaceful. Like she was just sleeping.But the monitors told a different story. Organ function declining slowly. Brain activity decreasing.She was dying.Ethan sat in the chair beside her bed and closed his eyes. He needed to center himself. Channel what little qi he had left. This treatment would be e

The eight mercenaries opened fire.But Ethan was already moving.He rolled forward as bullets tore through the air where he had been standing, came up behind an old metal machine part, using it as cover.The mercenaries advanced in formation. Professional. Disciplined. They spread out to cover multiple angles, cutting off his escape routes.Ethan did not try to escape.He charged.Straight at the closest mercenary. The man tried to adjust his aim but Ethan was faster. He grabbed the rifle barrel, twisted it upward. The mercenary's finger was still on the trigger. Bullets sprayed into the ceiling.Ethan yanked the rifle from his hands and swung it like a club into the man's helmet. The mercenary dropped.One down.Two more came from the sides. Ethan threw the rifle at one's face, heard the crunch of broken nose through the helmet visor. The man stumbled backward.The other swung a combat knife. Ethan caught his wrist, redirected the momentum, drove his elbow into the mercenary's throat

Edmund's phone rang again.He answered immediately. "Yes?"A brief conversation. Edmund's expression darkened further with each word. He hung up and looked at Ethan."My contact got more information," Edmund said. "Leonardo Russo has a backup team. Mercenaries he keeps for situations like last night. They took Sophia Cole."Ethan's hands clenched into fists. "Russo ordered the kidnapping?""Yes. Revenge for what you did to his compound. And leverage." Edmund stood from his desk. "This was not part of my plan, Mr. Cross. I sent you to retrieve documents, not start a war."Vincent stepped forward. "Father, if Sophia Cole dies while connected to our family, the Coles will never forgive us. This could destroy everything.""I know.""Then we have to help him." Vincent looked at Ethan. "He saved Isabella. We owe him that much."Edmund was silent for a moment. Then he walked to the wall behind his desk and pressed a hidden panel. A section of the wall slid open, revealing a small climate-con

Ethan walked across the study and dropped the bag onto Edmund's desk.Edmund opened it carefully and pulled out the documents. He spread them across the desk, examining each one. Financial records. Bank transfers. Contracts with signatures. Emails printed on company letterhead.His eyes moved quickly over the pages. Reading. Verifying.After several minutes, he looked up at Ethan."These are authentic," Edmund said. "You actually did it."Ethan said nothing. Just waited.Edmund leaned back in his chair, studying Ethan more carefully now. The blood on his shoulder. The torn clothes. The exhaustion visible in his eyes despite his steady posture."Russo's compound was supposed to have twenty guards," Edmund said slowly. "How many were there?""At least thirty. Maybe more."Edmund's expression darkened. "Someone must have told him you were coming.""Yes.""Do you know who?""No."Edmund was quiet for a moment. Then he nodded. "But you still succeeded. Against impossible odds. That is impr

Another explosion rocked the dungeon, this one close enough that cracks spread across the ceiling like lightning frozen in stone. The assault team was doing serious damage, pushing deeper into the palace than Jacob had dared hope. But that also meant casualties mounting, lives being spent like currency to buy minutes of chaos."All five artifacts," Jacob said, processing the implications. "You are certain Verons has all five in this palace?"Marcus nodded weakly. "He has been collecting them for years. The first two he acquired a decade ago through various criminal channels—artifacts that had been stolen and resold through black markets after your family's death. The third he purchased from Bishop Nico three years ago when the Bishop needed funding for his Seron operations. The fourth came into his possession just weeks ago when his agents intercepted a shipment you were trying to move."Jacob's blood ran cold. "What shipment? I have had artifacts one, two, and three with me since lea

The old man's eyes focused on Jacob with recognition that cut through whatever fog of pain or exhaustion had been clouding his awareness. His face was deeply lined, weathered by years of suffering, but the features were unmistakable. This was Marcus Krigg, Jacob's uncle who had supposedly died in the initial assault on the family compound."Jacob," Marcus said, his voice thin but clear. "You look just like your father did at your age. I had hoped you were dead, safe from all this. But of course you came. The Krigg bloodline never did know when to quit."The guards shoved Marcus against the bars of Jacob's cell so they could speak face to face, though they remained chained and separated. Jacob studied his uncle with a mixture of relief and horror. Marcus had survived, but at what cost? The man before him was a shadow of the strong, confident leader Jacob remembered from childhood."They told me everyone died," Jacob said. "The reports were conclusive. The entire family wiped out in coo

"Barely," came the reply from the adjacent cell. "Some days I wonder if death would have been kinder."Jacob pressed against the bars separating their cells, trying to see into the darkness. "I thought you died at the Battle of Red Gorge. The reports said your entire unit was wiped out when the ammunition depot exploded.""The reports were wrong. Or more accurately, deliberately falsified." A shadow moved in the neighboring cell, and Jacob could make out a figure chained similarly to himself. "Verons captured me and twelve others during the retreat. We have been his guests in this lovely establishment for the past five years."Five years. Jacob tried to process that. Commander Chen had been one of his most trusted officers, a tactical genius who had helped win battles that should have been impossible. The thought of him rotting in Verons's dungeons for half a decade made Jacob's rage toward the tyrant burn even hotter."How many others?" Jacob asked. "You said twelve were captured?""

Jacob lunged toward Verons, mystical energy gathering in his hands for a strike that would end the tyrant's life. But Verons had not survived decades of brutal politics and warfare by being slow or unprepared.He whistled sharply, and the guards who had frozen in the doorway snapped into coordinated action. They were not ordinary soldiers. These were specialists trained specifically to handle mystical threats, and they moved with the confidence of people who had done this before.Nets woven with suppression enchantments flew through the air from multiple directions. Jacob tried to dodge but the chamber was too confined, the nets too well-coordinated. They wrapped around him, and the moment the enchanted material touched his skin he felt his mystical energy disrupting, fracturing, becoming impossible to control properly.He still fought. Even weakened, even tangled in nets designed to neutralize his abilities, Jacob was dangerous. He threw two guards into walls hard enough to crack sto

Verons's smile widened, showing teeth like a predator who had finally cornered his prey. "So you do remember. Good. It would have been disappointing if my brother's death meant so little to you that it faded into just another forgotten battle.""He died honorably," Jacob said. "Fighting for what he believed in. His death was clean and quick.""Clean?" Verons's voice dropped to something dangerous. "Quick? You speak as if those qualities make his murder acceptable. As if honor somehow balances the scales of taking my only family."He walked to the wall and selected a long blade from the torture implements displayed there, testing its edge with professional appreciation. "My brother was the finest warrior our family had produced in three generations. He should have lived to lead armies, to shape nations, to father sons who would carry our bloodline forward. Instead he died in frozen mud fighting someone else's war because you were too skilled for him to defeat.""War has casualties," Ja

The descent seemed endless. Down stone stairs worn smooth by centuries of prisoners dragged to their fate, past cells where skeletal hands reached through bars, through corridors that grew progressively darker and colder until they reached a level that felt more like a tomb than a prison.The guards stopped before a reinforced door. One of them produced an ornate key and unlocked multiple mechanisms with practiced efficiency. The door swung open to reveal a chamber that made Jacob's stomach turn.This was not a cell. This was a torture room designed by someone who understood pain intimately. Chains hung from walls at heights calculated to maximize joint stress. Tables bore implements whose purposes were horrifyingly obvious. Drains in the floor spoke of cleaning blood that flowed regularly enough to require permanent infrastructure."Welcome to your new home," the officer said, showing genuine pleasure at their discomfort. "Lord Verons will be down shortly. I suggest you use the time

The observation deck at the top of the crystalline spire had become Jack's favorite place to think. From here, he could see the entire city spread out below—rebuilt stronger and more beautiful than it had ever been, filled with people living lives that would have been impossible without the protection his network provided.But tonight, as the dual moons cast silver light across the transformed skyline, Jack wasn't admiring their achievements. He was remembering where it all began."Hard to believe it started with Charles Oliver's execution," he said aloud, knowing his friends would hear him through their permanent mental link even though they were scattered across different dimensions on various missions."You mean it started with a weak boy nobody wanted," Lucy's voice replied warmly through their connection, her protective instincts wrapping around the memory with fierce affection.Jack smiled, pressing his hand against the medallion that had become part of his chest. The golden sur

The war room deep within the crystalline spire had become the nerve center for the most ambitious defensive project in dimensional history. Holographic displays showed the status of their entire universal cluster—thousands of realities connected by the portal network, each one now monitored by their expanded consciousness.Jack stood at the center of it all, no longer the weak boy who had once struggled to survive in a world that saw him as worthless. The medallion had become so integrated with his being that its golden surface was visible beneath his skin, pulsing with the rhythm of dimensional currents across countless worlds. But unlike the corrupt artifacts that had consumed previous wielders, his medallion was sustained by the bonds that connected him to his friends."Protocol Seven is now fully operational across all monitored dimensions," Sierra reported, her tactical awareness coordinating defensive measures on a scale that would have been incomprehensible months ago. "Early w

Six months after the dimensional crisis, their city bore little resemblance to the place that had nearly been destroyed by Vale's invasion. The rebuilding hadn't simply restored what was lost—it had created something entirely new.Where the old council headquarters had stood, a crystalline spire now reached toward the sky, its faceted surface designed to detect dimensional anomalies from hundreds of miles away. The building served as headquarters for the Dimensional Monitoring Initiative, the organization Jack and his friends had established to prevent future crises."Seventeen minor rifts detected across the northern sectors this week," Sierra reported during their morning briefing, her tactical awareness processing data streams that would have overwhelmed any individual mind. "All within normal parameters, but the frequency is increasing."Jack nodded, his consciousness simultaneously monitoring the reports while maintaining awareness of dimensional currents across their entire real

As the final seconds of his transformation ticked away, Jack felt his consciousness crystallize around a revelation that changed everything. The medallions' power didn't have to choose between perfect guardianship and human connection—it could create something entirely new."What if the burden doesn't have to be mine alone?" he said through their shared mental link, his voice carrying wonder despite his fading physical form. "What if we've been thinking about this wrong from the beginning?"Through their psychic connection, his friends felt his idea taking shape—not one guardian managing impossible responsibilities, but a network of consciousness that could handle the dimensional network's complexity while remaining anchored to humanity."You mean permanent integration?" Sierra breathed, her enhanced understanding immediately grasping the implications. "All of us linked directly to the dimensional network?""The ancient guardians failed because they became isolated from the people the

Jack's consciousness spread like spilled mercury across the dimensional network, his awareness touching worlds he'd never imagined. He could feel the pulse of life on countless planets, sense the delicate balance that held reality together, perceive threats to dimensional stability that existed light-years away.It was overwhelming and magnificent and terrifying all at once.Through his expanded perception, he could see their own world as just one node in an infinite web—small, fragile, but pulsing with the fierce determination of beings who refused to surrender to despair. He could feel Mrs. Sophie organizing relief efforts in the ruined city, Lord Rasmus's surviving soldiers helping with rescue operations despite their old conflicts, even the corrupted treasure hunters slowly recovering their humanity as the dimensional toxins were purged from their systems.But he could also feel himself slipping away from all of it. His connection to individual human concerns was fading as cosmic

The moment Jack's hand closed around Vale's dark medallion, reality screamed.Two opposing forces—one meant to protect, one designed to consume—collided within his consciousness with the fury of colliding stars. Jack felt his sense of self being torn apart and rebuilt simultaneously, his awareness expanding beyond the boundaries of single-dimensional existence.Vale's eyes widened in shock as his dark artifact began resonating with Jack's medallion, the two pieces fighting for dominance within the same host. "What are you doing, you fool? You'll destroy us both!""Maybe," Jack gasped, feeling the competing energies threaten to tear his mind apart. "But at least I'll take you with me."The dark medallion's hunger crashed against Jack's consciousness like a tidal wave of pure malevolence. It whispered promises of power beyond imagination, showed him visions of ruling infinite realities, offered him the ability to reshape existence according to his will. The corruption was overwhelming,