Rebecca Lim - Fury

We don’t come up for air until Richard starts hooting and telling us to ‘get a room, already, people’.

‘I’m tired,’ I say suddenly, realising it’s true. ‘I could sleep for a year. And I’m … hungry .’

Ryan hears the surprise in my voice. ‘Are you ready to start again?’ he says, putting an arm around my shoulders and walking me towards the hangar door.

Outside, the rain has stopped, and soft sunlight bathes the cracked tarmac, the motorbikes and the shot-up houses in a soft, wintry glow.

‘Yes,’ I reply, as the others put on their helmets and climb onto their bike.

I turn and look at Ryan and kiss him again, because I can, and say fervently, ‘Yes, I am.’

With loving thanks, as always, to my husband, Michael, and to my children, Oscar, Leni and Yve, who give me so much joy and put up with my award-winning vagueness.

To my brilliant, brilliant A-team who has been with me every step of the way — Lisa Berryman, Rachel Denwood, Lizzie Ryley and Nicola O’Shea. To you all, and to the lovely Mel Maxwell and the very talented Natalie Winter and Kirby Jones, my thanks for helping to bring Mercy home. Thanks also to Tim Miller, Lara Wallace, Melanie Saward and Allan Paltzer for working so tirelessly on my behalf.

To the wonderfully dedicated and insanely hardworking Catherine Onder, Hayley Wagreich, Stephanie Lurie, Ann Dye and Hallie Patterson at Disney-Hyperion, and to the marvellous Iris Prael, Ilse Rothfuss and Marie Kubens at Ravensburger Buchverlag, and to all my international editing and publishing teams, thank you for giving Mercy wings.

I am forever indebted to the indomitable Norma Pilling for reading the initial drafts of Mercy , Exile , Muse and Fury and wading through my truly appalling Latin and Italian ‘stylings’ in order to suggest sensible alternatives. Thanks also for climbing to the rooftop of the Duomo for me when I couldn’t be there myself.

A huge merci to M. Michel Rateau for fixing the French and providing useful guidance on the usage of French oaths.

With thanks also to Quino Holland for tweaking the Inca Trail material and the Quechua. It’s an honour to have you in the family.

To my father, Yean Kai Lim, and mother, Susan Lim, and to Barry and Judy Liu, my thanks for, literally, holding the baby. To my sisters, Ruth and Eugenia, you rock, and always will.

And in loving memory of Ngo So Khim, Lim Koon Yaw, Lau Eng Swan, Koh Boon Chiang, Ko Keng Hoo and Frank Liu. Still, and always, missed.

This is a work of fiction. Most of the locations described in this book are entirely fictional, as are all of the characters and events. Again, certain authorial liberties may have been taken with those buildings and places that do actually exist in the real world, and for those, the author apologises and, once more, begs your leave.

Please note that the inscription on the stone statue of the Archangel Jegudiel was taken directly from a Bernini angel on the Ponte Sant’Angelo in Rome, Italy, and the lyrics for the song sung by the Archangel Uriel during the trek towards Machu Picchu are taken from the sixteenth-century Corpus Christi Carol (author anonymous), but with the original Middle/Early English modernised to assist the twenty-first-century reader.

Mercy ‘wakes’ on a school bus bound for Paradise, a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business — or thinks they do. But they will never guess the secret Mercy is hiding …

As an angel exiled from heaven and doomed to return repeatedly to Earth, Mercy is never sure whose life and body she will share each time. And her mind is filled with the desperate pleas of her beloved, Luc, who can only approach her in her dreams.

In Paradise, Mercy meets Ryan, whose sister was kidnapped two years ago and is now presumed dead. When another girl disappears, Mercy and Ryan know they must act before time runs out. But a host of angels are out for Mercy’s blood and they won’t rest until they find her and punish her — for a crime she doesn’t remember committing …

An electric combination of angels, mystery and romance, Mercy is the first book in a major new series.

All Mercy knows is that she is an angel, exiled from heaven for a crime she can’t remember committing.

So when she ‘wakes’ inside the body and life of eighteen-year-old Lela Neill, Mercy has only limited recall of her past life. Her strongest memories are of Ryan, the mortal boy who’d begun to fall for her — and she for him.

Lela’s life is divided between caring for her terminally ill mother and her work as a waitress at the Green Lantern, a busy city cafe frequented by suits, cab drivers, strippers, backpackers and the homeless, and Mercy quickly falls into the rhythm of this new life.

But when Mercy’s beloved, Luc, reappears in her dreams, she begins to awaken to glimpses of her true nature and her true feelings for Ryan. How can she know that her attempts to contact Ryan will have explosive consequences?

Meanwhile, ‘the Eight’ — responsible for her banishment — hover near, determined to keep Mercy and Luc apart, forever …

Mercy’s search continues in the second book of this major new series.

In the third MERCY novel, Mercy wakes in a new unknown host, her love for Ryan and Luc burning stronger than ever. But who will she make the ultimate sacrifice for?

Mercy is thrust into the excessive world of fashion when she awakes in the body of a troubled Russian supermodel, Irina: bitchy, hot-tempered and known to be dabbling in things she shouldn’t, Irina is on the verge of a very public breakdown. Against the glamorous back ground of opulent Milan, Mercy continues her increasingly desperate search for Ryan to lead her back to her immortal lover, Luc. But this time Mercy is aware that her memories and powers are growing ever stronger – and she begins to doubt Luc as The Eight reveal more of her mysterious past. Are Luc’s desires as selfless as her own or does he want her for a more terrifying purpose?

The grand scale celestial battle for Mercy’s soul builds to an incredible stormy crescendo as archangels and demons clash in a cataclysmic showdown that not all will survive …

Rebecca Limis a writer and illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia. She worked as a commercial lawyer for several years before leaving to write full time. Rebecca is the author of fourteen books for children and young adult readers, and her novels have been translated into German, French, Turkish and Portuguese.

Also by Rebecca Lim

Mercy

Exile

Muse

Credits

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2012

Angel Wings © Caroline Church/Illustrationweb

Woman © Susan Fox/Trevillion Images

Sky © Shutterstock

Copyright

First published in hardback in Australia by HarperCollins Publishers Australia in 2012

First published in paperback in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2012

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd,

77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 8JB.

The HarperCollins website address is: www.harpercollins.co.uk

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Text copyright © Rebecca Lim 2012

SOURCE ISBN 978-0-00-744308-6

EPub Edition © APRIL 2012 ISBN: 978-0-00-747989-4

Rebecca Lim asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.

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