Adam nodded. “Luce isn’t going to just let our leaving go, is he?”
I shook my head. “He’s not one to forgive quickly. Or at all, as you’re well aware. And he’s proved there are no limits to what he might do.”
“We’ll be ready for him,” said Adam, resolutely.
“I don’t like to ask the Daywalkers, after all that’s happened, to defend Kinloch Kirk, but…”
Adam was already brushing this off. “Why wouldn’t we defend it?
It’s our home as much as it is yours. Isn’t that right?”
I smiled and nodded. “I’m glad you still feel that way.”
Adam shrugged. “The way I see it, Luce tried to rob us of the new home we found. Things have been messed up here lately, but we still know where our loyalties lie. If Luce attacks, then we’re going to fight back.”
#
It was pressing midday when I met Sinjin as we both headed for the beach. The sunlight shone from his dark hair, almost giving him a halo, which seemed incongruous on Sinjin. He was no angel—
maybe a fallen one like Lucifer—but he was mine. My love, my hero, my Sinjin.
“Ready to go?” he asked after we kissed.
I smiled. “Faery isn’t going to know what hit it.”
“A tempest.”
“Damn right.”
Together, we headed down to the beach where the rest of our party was waiting along with those who’d assembled to bid us farewell.
“I wish I could go with you,” said Mathilda, fervently. Her powers and her knowledge of Faery would have been very useful,
but she was needed here in Kinloch Kirk. If Luce came, her magic might be all they had to hold the line against him.
“We’ll take care of things while you’re gone,” said Mercedes, ever pragmatic. “Don’t worry about anything.”
Audrey tried to put on a brave face, but she knew her brother was going into danger. The pair of them were Fae and knew Faery well, but the realm of Faery was vast, and there was plenty there to be scared of, even for those who knew it. We’d be heading for the wild, untamed fringes of that world, where civilized Fae like Dureau and Audrey never went.
Rand shook Sinjin’s hand and gave him a stern, manly nod. It was the sort of thing Sinjin always found faintly ridiculous in other men, but he answered it with a manly nod of his own. He knew the gesture was well meant.
“I can’t believe you’re off again,” said Jolie to Sinjin. “It seems as if you only just got back.”
“I was always a traveler,” Sinjin shrugged. “Before settling here, I had traversed the globe. It will be good to travel again, and I have always wondered about Faery.”
“Why did ye never go?” asked Odran, standing nearby.
“It sounded like a place of bright light, vivid color, and happy music,” replied Sinjin. “I did not think that fit in with my general je ne sais quoi .”
Jolie laughed. Sinjin was going to stand out in Faery, but maybe to our advantage.
Jolie turned to me, and I found a lump rising in my throat and tears in my eyes. I didn’t want to be separated from her for a day, let alone however long this might take. Delaying the moment of farewell, I knelt to hug my niece, who didn’t understand what was happening and had been building a sandcastle.
“Be good, Emma.”
“Auntie Bin!” She didn’t have a lot of language yet, but it was nice to feel loved. Being an aunt was pretty cool.
“When I get back, I’m going to have a cousin for you.” Saying it out loud made it feel real, like it was something that was going to happen.
“Auntie Bin!”
I gave Emma another hug, then stood up to say goodbye to her Mom.
“Be careful.” The tears in Jolie’s eyes mirrored mine as she spoke.
“Aren’t I always?”
“No. You are almost never careful.”
I smiled. “Well, this time I’ll try to be.” And I would. There was more than me at stake now. As long as my child depended on me, then I’d be careful. Of course, I’d also be reckless and headstrong, but only if I thought that was what was best for my daughter. “I love you Jolie.”
My sister threw her arms around my neck. “I love you too.”
“Is everyone ready?!” Odran called out. He was dressed in his best kilt, his long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail that blew in the wind, and he had a sword strapped across his back that was only slightly smaller than me.
“Let’s go,” said Klassje.
Odran pulled the massive sword from its scabbard, his muscles bulging with effort, and made a complicated pattern in the air with it. Wherever the sword swished, it left a shining trail, as if it had cut through reality itself to glimpse what lay behind.
People asked where Faery was, but in truth it was everywhere, just behind the veneer of reality we called the world. The world of mortals was almost like a thin layer of wallpaper pasted over chaos, and Faery was the bit of chaos that had been organized.
Well… ‘organized’ as much as chaos ever can be; Faery was where someone had tidied up chaos a bit then got bored and said ‘ Eh, that’ll do ’.
As Odran completed the pattern with his blade and sheathed it once more, the slices that he’d carved in the air peeled back to reveal another world beyond. Bright light shone forth, and color spilled out, making the beach of Kinloch Kirk seem suddenly drab by comparison. We were looking into the realm of Faery.
“Welcome to mah kingdom!” announced Odran, proudly. “Ah do hope ye enjoy your stay.” He strode in, beckoning us on.
Klassje looked at Dureau nervously—this was no more her world than it was Sinjin’s—but he took her hand and walked through.
Sinjin and I looked at each other.
“We are going to get her back,” my vampire lover whispered to me.
“I swear that to you, Bête Noir .”
I nodded. “I know. Let’s go find our daughter.”
Together, we walked through the split in reality into the realm of the Fae.
To Be Continued in
The Lost Child
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SNOW:
Hair black as night, lips red as blood, skin white as snow.
Beautiful. Ethereal. Enchanting.
Profitable.
Bought and sold for male entertainment, Neva Valkoinen, or Snow White , as patrons know her, dances for the wealthy and lecherous at the Wicked Lyre Tavern in the city of Ascor.
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(Written under my reverse harem pen name, Plum Pascal) I don’t know who I am or where I came from.
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When a shadow demon boards my train, I’m overcome by his power and I black out.
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Awaiting my arrival at the train station is Harlow. He’s an incubus—a sex demon. And he’s got instructions to deliver me to my host family.
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Famous last words.
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I’m a Regulator—a law-enforcement agent who monitors the creatures of the Netherworld to keep them from wreaking havoc in the mortal world.
When a dark-arts warlock is murdered and I was the last person to see him alive, I’ve got two choices. Either figure out whodunnit before I’m deported back to the Netherworld, or before I become the next victim.
So, yeah, it’s really more like I’ve got one choice.
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created by Hades, in Hades’ own image and can I just say that Hades must have been pretty hot…
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As the body count increases, I find myself having to keep a sadistic demon in check all the while fending off the advances of a super powerful vampire, Bram. And dealing with Knight isn’t exactly a walk in the park.
Sometimes working law enforcement for the Netherworld is a real...
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A self-deprecating witch with the unique ability to reanimate the dead.
A dangerously handsome warlock torn between being her boss and her would-be lover.
A six hundred year old English vampire with his own agenda; one that includes an appetite for witches.
The Underworld in a state of chaos.
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Enter Rand Balfour, a sinfully attractive warlock who insists she’s a witch and who just might turn her life upside down. Rand hires her to help him solve a mystery regarding the death of his client who also happens to be a ghost. Jolie not only uncovers the cause of the ghost’s demise but, in the process, she brings him back to life!
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Abandoned on the battlefield by the people she calls her tribe, Bryn must face the fact that she is now playing prisoner to the Queen of the Underworld, who also happens to be her fraternal twin sister. As the days and months go by with no word from the Supreme Elder of her tribe, Bryn thinks her life couldn’t get much worse.
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Of course, looks can be deceiving...
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THE MISTS OF MAGIC AND MAYHEM SERIES
(This series takes place 15 years after the last Sinjin Sinclair book, THE LOST CHILD but it’s not necessary to read all the books preceding this one)
The order of the Underworld is no longer…
Where once factions of creatures—vampires, witches and warlocks, werewolves and fae—all came together, united under the banner of
Queen Jolie, now those factions are separate and vying for control.
The vampires, unified under the authority of Master Vampire, Sinjin Sinclair, are living a life of hedonistic opulence aboard three cruise ships on the open water. Sinjin, bemoaning the loss of his one true love, can find little interest in anything else.
The Changeling Page 23