JaydeRussell

Operative - Ch. 51

That was a lot longer of a break than I was expecting. 

Sorry about that, but we're back! And hopefully won't have any more long interruptions like that again in the near future.

Chapter 51 - First thing first

Thea

“Bryce!” I scrambled to my feet and rushed over to latch onto my newly not dead girlfriend. She flinched, then tensed up before carefully returning my hug. I quickly separated to look her over. I didn’t see any blood, but she was ...

Operative - Ch. 50

Chapter 50 - Real Talk

Thea

“Seriously, Thea, if you’re so bored, then why don’t you go find something to do,” Leila complained about my complaining, and I rolled over onto my stomach so I could see her. I was lying on the couch in her new ship while she went over the final checks with Sami and Suriel.

Ithnaa was busy dealing with pirate war stuff, and Softie and I were getting on her nerves. So she sent me here to separate the two of us, but there w...

Operative - Ch. 49

Chapter 49 - Thinking with Portals

Bryce

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but he’s in a meeting with Prince Orrid right now,” the devil receptionist apologized, and I carefully reached forward to press the ‘close doors’ button as she continued. “But rest assured, your asset is secure and will be retrieved the moment Prince Al’Kais returns from Hades.”

I could see the inky black portal on the far side of the room, but standing between us and escaping was the one perso...

Operative - Ch. 48

Chapter 48 - Old Spells, New Tricks

Bryce

“I think I’ve got it,” I said as I opened my eyes to see Marcel, still in the form of the devil who had held her prisoner, sitting on an upended bucket. The two of us were in a narrow janitorial closet a few floors above where we had been held. Modifying the spell had taken nearly a full hour, which was a lot longer than I had hoped, but I learned a new trick while I was at it. Which was hopefully going to make it all worth the del...

Operative cover!

Hey all!

Just some news, not a chapter, BUT I'll be posting chapter 48 immediately after. So, don't stress!

I finally got the cover for Operative back, and it looks great!

Also, I just recently got back the final cut for book 2's audiobook. That should be available on audible by mid-October.

And to address the elephant in the room...

I am very far behind on chapters right now, but I have a plan (like always). I've paused RoyalRoad releases until we're ca...

Operative - Ch. 47

This is coming out way later than I was hoping. I'm still about four chapters behind, but I'm planning on getting caught back up soon.

As it is, we're entering into the endgame for book 3 and I keep getting thrown curve balls by the plot. At this point, I have no idea what's going to happen, but I'm very much looking forward to finding out!

Chapter 47 - The Council Chambers

Thea

“How much longer are they going to make us wait?” I asked as I slouched further into ...

Operative - Ch. 46

Hey all! 

Here's Thursday's chapter. I'm still a few behind, but thankfully, this is a long weekend in the U.S, so I'm going to do my best to get caught up asap.

Chapter 46 - The Agent and the Assassin

Bryce

“Take it slow,” I warned as I helped Ithnaa sit up. She was in a miserable state; covered in barely healed scars, and pale from blood loss. “We can’t wait around here, but we’re both fucked if you pass out now.”

“I’ll be ...

Operative - Ch. 45

Chapter 45 - Attempted Escape

Bryce

I breathed a sigh of relief after sending Lilith the last message. She was keeping the connection open, just like she said she would, and was even going out of her way to make sure I felt her at the back of my mind. Which was definitely something I appreciated, despite having every intention of ignoring her advice to lie low.

If this ‘institute’ managed to bring me back while in Tess’s afterlife, then I didn't think I would be safe...

Operative - Ch. 42

Okay, I did a thing.

For the sake of what's coming up next in the story, I needed to explore the Paradise plot more BEFORE we jumped into Bryce's situation. So, I bumped up those chapter numbers and I'm adding one before them. Hopefully, this shouldn't be too jarring and I'll link provide links to the correct posts to help those reading through for the first time.

So, for reference, here's a link to 2023-08-25 08:48:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Quick update! (not a chapter)

Hey all!

I wanted to do a quick update to keep you in the loop as much as possible.

The story is at a critical point right now, and it's super important to me that these next few chapters actually build up to a meaningful payoff. With that being said, I wrote up this next chapter and wasn't at all happy with it. So, I'm going to rewrite it. 

Which, of course, means a slightly longer delay. I'm hoping to have it released by tomorrow night, but it will for sure be out be...

Operative - Ch. 44

I had to mess with the release order a little bit, so chapter 42 came out after 44 instead of 45....

Long story short, here's a link to chapter 45 to be used after you finish this chapter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 44 - The Duchess

Lilith

“And for goodness’ sake, would somebody please wake up the duchess already? This was supposed to be for her benefit.”

Operative - Ch. 43

Chapter 43 - Stay of Execution

Bryce

“Forgive me if I’m overstepping,” a masculine voice apologized. “But it seems prudent to point out that the subject is on the verge of a potentially lethal heart attack, and we’ve yet to put resurrection measures into place. If she’s killed now, then it will be several days before we can bring her back.”

“Fine,” Mother spat as she tore the barbed needle-like blade from my chest and stabbed it through the palm of my han...

Operative - Ch. 41

Hey all! Real quick, I needed to rearrange chapters, which means the next few aren't in chronological order of when I wrote them. To make it easier to find, I'm providing a link to chapter 42 here and to 43 there. Hopefully, that will keep things from getting too confusing.

So, here's the link to 42!

Chapter 41 - Unscheduled Interruption

Sora

“How is she?” I asked Ithna...

Operative - Ch. 40

Chapter 40 - Phantom Pain

Bryce

I tried to rub away the headache that had only gotten worse over the last few hours. Libby hadn’t been lying when she said there was a lot of information to go through.

The fourth event had been caused by a group manufacturing artificial souls, and the all-out war that followed lasted for decades. It only ended when Tess managed to lure the entity to an isolated system in a distant part of the galaxy, then proceeded to conve...

Operative - Ch. 39

Chapter 39 - Plan B

Thea

“How many glasses?” The overdressed human asked as he sat the bottle down in front of me. I was in a bar somewhere on Paradise. I think Ithnaa told me the name at some point, but I didn’t bother to remember it.

“A glass would only get in my way.” I grabbed the whiskey off the bar and replaced it with something that looked expensive from my ring. The bartender shouted something at me, but I ignored him as I walked away.

This place wa...

Operative - Ch. 38

Chapter 38 - Return to Paradise

Ithnaa

“Where are we anyway?” Sora asked as I moved over to one of the bookshelves and started reading through the titles.

“One of many safehouses I have hidden across the Network. This one is under a mountain on an unnamed volcanic world.” I pulled a leather-bound manuscript off the shelf and leafed through it. Satisfied, I handed it back to Sora and continued searching.

“That’s some serious super villain vibes,” they co...

Operative - Ch. 37

Chapter 37 - Oathbound

Sora

“A paladin’s oath is at the core of their power,” Talis explained as he paced in front of us. He looked just as good in the undersized robe as we had hoped. “There are a few contributing factors to its strength, but the primary ones are the goddess you follow, how restrictive your oath is, and how closely you follow the spirit of those restrictions.” Ithnaa failed to hold back her laughter, which caused Talis to stop and raise an eyebrow at ...

Operative - Ch. 36

Chapter 36 - Stirring Events

Bryce

“I’m, uh, so sorry. I didn’t expect this to be yours,” I said as I quickly pulled the sweater off and handed it to the goddess. She was a human woman, maybe early to late fifties, with her gray streaked brown hair tied up in a loose bun. She had on a white blouse that was half-tucked into a pair of black slacks. It looked like she had just gotten home from a meeting and fallen asleep without changing. Which was a feeling that I knew wel...

Operative - Ch. 35

Chapter 35 - Paladin Problems

Sora

My eyes shot open, and I pushed the djinn off me as I rushed to the bathroom. I tripped over something going through the door, but thankfully, landed on my knees in front of the toilet. Ithnaa teleported behind me just in time to pull my hair out of the way as I started emptying my stomach.

“Oh, fuck me.” I panted in between dry heaves. “I don’t remember feeling like this before we went to bed.”

“You’re ...

Operative - Ch. 34

Chapter 34 - Post Mortem Clarity

Bryce

I don’t know how long I sat there. It could have been hours, days, months, or even years. The entire time, the stars stayed stationary above me, an unchanging constant that brought me a sort of hypnotic comfort. The more that I thought about it, the more I came to realize that the effect must be intentional. Some sort of charm spell to help souls settle into their new routine after traumatic deaths.

I used that though...

Operative - Ch. 33

Chapter 33 - The End of a World

Teolix

I poured myself a drink as the dark room lit up from another nuclear blast hitting the planetary shields. They were still holding, at least for now. My engineer had them falling by the end of the week, and the corporation stopped negotiating after they managed to bomb our last FTL array. The siege was coming to an end, and I was out of options. So, I resigned myself to watching the world burn from the comfort of the Executive...

Operative - Ch. 32

Chapter 32 - Plots of Revenge

Thea

“Is that even possible? I could be a celestial again?” I took a step back as what Kai just said actually hit me.

“Sure!” She answered before clarifying. “Well, sort of. It’s actually kind of complicated, and it wouldn’t be exactly the same, but it would undo nearly all the bad parts about being a devil. Like, take La’akea for example. You ate sandwiches with her when you visited, remember?” I nodded, because of course I ...

Operative - Ch. 31

Chapter 31 - Darkest Hours

Sora

We appeared in a room made of white marble bricks with pillars inter-spaced throughout. Small clumps of people were grouped together, enjoying each other’s company, and I completely tuned them out as I scanned the room. “I don’t see Thea. Where is she?”

“I gave her a room to herself. It’s right this way,” Chorus explained as he led me out of the room.

“Did you tell Esme what happened?” I asked as I followed him down a...

Operative - Ch. 30

Chapter 30 - Regrouping

Ithnaa

I appeared with Sora in their room and immediately tried to teleport back to Bryce. My body flickered as the spell ran up against the wards she had in place, and I didn’t move. I tried one more time, but again, nothing happened.

Sora slammed their fist into the wall as they cursed. Then they did it again, and again, and again. Each time with unnatural speed, and each time leaving more and more blood behind. I rushed behind them and pulled t...

Operative - Ch. 29

Chapter 29 - Afterlives

Bryce

I pushed myself off the ground as my vision returned to me. I wasn’t out for very long, or rather it hadn’t felt like long, but everything around me had changed. The air was cool, but not uncomfortable, and the stars above me were more brilliant than any I had ever seen.

Actually, that wasn’t quite true. I had seen stars almost as beautiful on my way to meet Chorus in his temple. As my mind went back to that memory, I felt a sense of bit...

Operative - Ch. 28

CW: Gore

Chapter 28 - Mother

Bryce

I sat with my eyes closed and legs crossed on a comfortable pillow deep inside a cave on Halcyon’s moon. My mantle had done wonders for my ability to stay awake, but it only went so far. I was approaching three days without sleep and finally starting to feel tired. Of course, it didn’t help that we were now in the ‘hurry up and wait’ portion of the plan.

Setting up the spells yesterday in Suhali’s library w...

Operative - Ch. 27

Good news, everyone!

Fugitive has officially been released on amazon! You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C71GSDCF 

If you could take a moment to leave a review it would mean the world to me. Seriously, there's nothing better you can do for a book's discoverability than to leave a review in the first week of its launch.

You don't even have to buy a copy or anything. A couple min...

Operative - Ch. 26

Chapter 26 - Suhali

Ithnaa

“Well, it was worth a shot,” Sora declared as we watched Anali and her crew leave. “Alright, captain, what’s the plan?”

“Right, we need to start by making contact with the local Lord. However, I don’t have time to do it myself, which means I need Leila to go with Ithnaa to the planet’s surface.”

“I can handle her myself. There’s no reason to waste resources by sending someone with me,” I argued, but Bryce shook her h...

Operative - Ch. 25

Chapter 25 - The Bet

Samira

“Are you certain that’s wise?” Doc asked Ithnaa as he leaned over to hand me one of his spanners. I was working in the cramped space under the floor trying to attach some indecipherable magi-tech box to the shield modulator. To make matters worse, all of Doc’s fasteners had weird measurements, so none of my tools were the right size. Which meant I had to use his, and they had all been modified to fit his huge hands.

On top of all of that...

Operative - Ch 24

Chapter 24 - Djinn’s Deal

Ithnaa

“Are you serious? She said that?” Anali asked in disbelief. “Wait, what about our contract? I’m not going to agree to anything with that still in place, and I want to talk to Captain Virra myself to go over the details. I’m not giving her an open-ended promise, especially not through you.”

“Too bad.” I glared at the mortal still lying on the couch. “Bryce isn’t leaving that room until she comes up with a way to kill Mo...