Autumn's War (The Spirit Shifters Book 4) by Marissa Farrar Page A

want his body?” Chogan wondered out loud.
    “Unless he wasn’t dead,” Peter suggested.
    Chogan shook his head. “No, he had been. I sensed death from Blake’s body.” With his senses, he couldn’t be wrong about such a thing.
    “How close behind were the soldiers when you ran?” Peter asked.
    “Real close. I could practically smell them.”
    “Is it possible that they revived Blake? Maybe one of them had medical training and they brought him back.”
    A tiny spark of hope flared in Chogan’s heart. Was it possible his cousin was still alive?

Chapter Six
     
     
    THE OUTSIDE WORLD no longer existed.
    Caught, suspended, floating in a black sea, he had no understanding of anything anymore. He was vaguely aware that he once knew something else, something unreachable, but no part of him was able to put the thoughts into any kind of structure. They were like dreams fading the moment he woke. He reached for the ideas, to grasp them and construct them into something understandable, but before he could they were gone.
    He remembered pain, an overwhelming pain, but he no longer felt it. For that he was thankful. He believed there were details about himself he should know, his name or where he came from, but there was only the darkness.
    Was he dead?
    Surely if he was dead, other dead would be here with him? Yet he was completely alone, not a single sound, or shade of light, or faint voice in the distance. There was nothing, and it was a nothingness he couldn’t decide if he should be frightened of or not. Yet he felt calm, peaceful. He no longer understood the concept of time. Hours could have passed or it could have been years.
    He had no way of knowing.
     

Chapter Seven
     
     
    ONE BY ONE, people were brought in to Autumn and Lakota, and one by one, they were connected to their spirit guides and turned by Autumn’s blood.
    The more connections they did, the faster the process got, until a veritable conveyor belt of shifters flooded in and out of the tourist building. Outside, the number of impossibly large, predatory animals continued to grow. A few took themselves off into the surrounding forest, while the aerial shifters lifted into the sky, trying out their newfound wings. The screeches, howls, and roars of the animals filled the air.
    Most of the volunteers came in excited but nervous, and eager to get on with things. A few changed their minds at the last minute, and backed out of the cabin to rejoin their friends or family members. Autumn didn’t think any less of those people. She couldn’t imagine how terrifying it would be to change who you were forever.
    Finally, they were done.
    Mia stepped forward. “Now it’s my turn.”
    Autumn turned to her friend. She was exhausted from the process, the taking of her blood, and everything else that had happened. She shook her head. “Please, Mia. Not now. I don’t have the energy to argue with you.”
    “Why do you need to argue? Just do it.”
    She put her head in her hands. “Please, Mia. Have you not seen the sort of pain those people went through to make themselves shifters? I can’t put you through that kind of pain. You’re like a sister to me.”
    “If you see me as your sister, you should respect my choice.”
    “What about Peter? Don’t you think you should talk to him first?”
    She sighed. “We’ve already gone over this. Neither of us believes in asking a man’s permission to do anything.”
    “Not permission, no. But surely it’s worth a conversation. You love him, don’t you?”
    Mia’s eyes flicked down to the floor, her cheeks turning a shade of pink. Then she lifted her gaze back to Autumn. “Yes, I love him. I love him with all my heart. That’s why I want you to change me. I want to be like him. I want to be able to understand everything he goes through and help him.”
    “How would you feel if he made such a huge decision without discussing it with you? What if he came back and told you he’d been able to make himself