A King In Waiting – Michael Cronk

“Oh,” Silvana trailed off. “Well, I guess that’s a relief. I wasn’t exactly hoping for a connection.” “Could you imagine?” Freddie said with an obvious grin. “Reynold showing up to your family’s Christmas and birthdays?” He laughed. “Wouldn’t that be terrifying? He’d be like, ‘Merry Christmas. Here are the heads of your enemies.’” “And their children,” Jason said, and Freddie groaned in mock horror.

Jason grinned back, but couldn’t help noticing everyone else slumping down in their seats, no longer watching the screen or the chalkboard. Even Edward put down their chalk and sat back in his couch. Jason could sense a feeling of dread and hopelessness settle on the room. He cleared his throat. He had to say something before the mood spiralled any further. “Ok, so…” he struggled to think of something to say. “So genealogy. Everyone’s connected to Reynold in some way, but it doesn’t matter much.

So then, what would it take for it to matter?” He shrugged at Leslie. “What is a serious connection?” Leslie scoffed at him in good humour. “What do you think is a serious connection to a king?” “Oh,” Jason said. “Inheriting the throne.” Suddenly everyone reacted at once, and the room came alive with excitement.

“Holy shit,” Jason said. “Is that what this is all about? Reynold’s throne?” “An heir to the throne?” Freddie cried. “Who’s next in line?” Silvana nearly shouted. She had leapt to her feet. “Leslie, is that your specialty? Inheritance? Do you know who’s going to be the next High King? And someone’s trying to kill you for it?” “It would make sense,” Jason said, standing next to Silvana and nodding in agreement. “Someone is hoping to put their own candidate on the top throne.

Or themselves!” He pointed at Leslie. “So you need us to find out who’s trying to take Reynold’s job, because they’re the ones trying to kill you. And you were hoping that the book on genealogy would point us to the right person. Leslie, is that right?” “Brilliant, Jase,” Freddie cried, cutting off Leslie’s answer. “We solved it. Well, mostly. But at least now we know what we’re looking for.

Ah!” he sighed. “That’s such a relief! I thought I’d fucked it all up with the damn cameras.”

First published by Michael Cronk 2024 Copyright © 2024 by Michael Cronk All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. Michael Cronk asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book. First edition ISBN: 978-1-7636749-8-1 Cover art by MiblArt Editing by Emmie Hamilton Editing by Kirsty Inic This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy Find out more at reedsy.com 1kitap1.com/en To the BookTube and Indie Publishing Communities Especially Elliot Brooks and Michael R Miller With my eternal gratitude 1kitap1.com/en A Chapter 1 loud bang startled Jason awake.

His eyes snapped open. His body was jolted out of a deep sleep and immediately became tense and alert. The room was pitch black. Jason threw back the covers and leapt to his feet. He shivered as the freezing night air clawed at his skin. “Silvana?” he whispered into the darkness. “Did you hear that?” He could see her outline moving from the bed to wrap a dressing gown around her lithe form.

“The front door,” Silvana replied. “Don’t suppose you’re expecting visitors and just forgot to tell me?” “Not at two in the morning. My visitors come at midnight.” “Of course. I forgot.” Jason held his breath and listened. The house was silent. The suburbs of Plymouth were always peaceful at this time of night.

So why was there someone making a commotion at their front door? He waited. Nothing else happened. “I think…” The door banged again, making Jason jump. “Hello?” a voice cried in a hoarse stage-whisper from outside the house. It was too breathy to tell anything about the speaker. Jason pulled his handgun out of the bedside drawer. He was only wearing boxer shorts and didn’t pause to put anything else on.

He wanted clear aim. He moved to the bedroom door, but Silvana cut him off. “Stay behind me,” she instructed. “Yes ma’am.” Silvana stepped out of the bedroom first. Jason followed with his gun aimed at the ground in a two-handed grip.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 9cb3cfd479801d24
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 2,639,502 bytes (2.517 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781763674981
• Pages: 393
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 689.78 minutes
• Total Words: 137,957
• Total Characters: 775,276
• Average Words per Page: 351.04
• Average Characters per Page: 1972.71

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