Winterstruck: an urban fantasy supernatural crime thriller
Page 21
I sniffed. "I'll never be able to hear violins without thinking of you."
I wiped my cheeks and looked around for his personal effects. I found his wallet. I removed the engagement ring from my trembling finger and tucked it in between the leather folds.
"You were the best thing that ever happened to me. I love you."
Dawn was breaking by the time I left the hospital and drove into the stately neighbourhood of big houses on bigger pieces of land, where the streets were lined with canopies of hundred-year-old oaks. The red light of the morning sun pushed through the grey clouds just for the moment, coating everything in its pink glare. The temperature was up several degrees. The radio said something about a warm front coming our way. The forecast promised rain.
As I trudged up the driveway, all around I heard the sounds of waking,. Early spring birds in full song, cars starting in neighbouring driveways, traffic running in the distance.
The house before me was an enormous three-story, more than a century old. It was the largest on the street, with a carriage house and three times the lawn and gardens of anyone on the block. Both the inside and outside had been featured in magazines. Oh, the memories this place stirred.
But I had nowhere else to go. Nothing more than the clothes on my back, and my car parked on the road. Nothing left.
Leafless lilac bushes flanked the steps to the porch. A robin lighted on a bare branch, his redbreast no longer just a hopeful promise of spring. Changes were happening. Already the streets were bare of snow. The air was warmer. Spring had arrived at last. Breath held, I rang the bell and waited.
I planned to give Simon a few days. Then I had some questions for him. We still had to find Hemlock. And then there was the matter of the stalled negotiations and who was trying to stop them. We could figure it out when the Summer Court recovered.
The door opened. I had no idea how I would be received. It'd been years since I'd been here.
But Luke had wanted this. I was only sorry he wasn’t around to see it.
I plastered a smile to my face and sugar-coated my words. "Hello, Mother."
THE END
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COMING SOON - Book 2, Dawnbreaker
Read about what happened with Julia's partner, Reece Thatcher in the book, CARRION. Get it free when you sign up for my newsletter. Visit my website for details: www.sarawalker.ca
Read on for an excerpt.
Excerpt of CARRION
Eight o'clock in the morning and I was stuck on Front Street, trying to make it through the morning rush to the office. The radio said the intersection up ahead was blocked by both an accident and construction, meaning I was going to be late. Fine by me. With my work partner on a leave of absence my case load had increased, so I could really use a break. I put the car in park, settled back in my seat, and searched through the radio stations, looking for one that wasn't playing commercials or country music. I glanced out the window at the pedestrians when I spotted her. The siren.
We'd been after her for months. And there she was.
May 5, 2000 saw a planetary alignment that was supposed to cause the Earth’s magnetic poles to switch places. But things didn't exactly happen the way everyone thought it would. Those who had predicted the world would flip upside down were labelled heretics at best. But the fact is, the energy from that alignment was harnessed by an unknown power and used to evict every fae from the realm of Faerie, and then slam the door shut between their world and ours, leaving no hope of return.
Humans have no idea the fae live among us, and it's my job to keep it that way.
I'm Special Agent Julia Ivory. I work for a black ops branch of the government charged with keeping humans ignorant of the fae and with apprehending all fae who meddle with humans.
I didn't stop to think. My body knew I needed to apprehend her before my mind kicked in with any of the considerations of doing so. I jumped out of my car and started chasing on foot. She ducked into Union Station, slipping in with the crowd of commuters.
I followed, pushing my way through the moving mob until I reached the centre of the main room, where I planted my feet and started scanning the crowds. My eyes searched while the rest of me trembled from the neck down, out of breath and ready to admit defeat. But I couldn't give up. I needed this win. My apprehensions had dropped to nothing without my partner, and I had to show my boss I could work alone before he assigned someone else to work with me. I'd never worked with a better partner than Reece Thatcher; I didn't even want to consider working with anyone else.
The siren claimed to be a street kid— she certainly knew the downtown well; she was slipperier on these streets than a bar of soap in the shower.
My cell phone rang for the third time that morning. The boss knew enough to leave a message unless it was an emergency, so I assumed something must be on fire.
"Yeah," I said. I held the phone to my ear as I moved through the crowd, searching for the denim poorboy hat atop long blond waves.
"Julia? Are—are you busy?" I could barely hear him over the noise of Toronto's busiest transportation station, but I got enough to know it was my partner, Thatcher.
"No—Just—" About to berated him for asking the obvious, I stopped, only just realizing he'd used my first name. My stomach twisted in apprehension. Was this a bad news call?
"What's up?" I asked casually. I couldn't very well blurt out the thing I wanted to ask—if he'd found his missing sister—because that would be insensitive and ignorant. Though I didn't agree with the way my mother had raised me, she'd at least made sure I had good manners.
I spotted the siren and froze. She'd paused on the staircase leading up to the train platforms. We locked eyes and she gave me a smile. With the collar up on her brown suede jacket and thick waves of creamy blond hair falling down her back, she could have been posing for the cover of Toronto Life magazine. You'd never know by looking at her that she knocked people out every time she opened her mouth to sing. She wasn't Canada's next Celine Dion. People literally keeled over, blacked out, hit the floor, and when they woke up, they were missing their purses, wallets, and valuables.
"I need your help."
I nearly dropped the phone. In all the years we'd worked together, Reece Thatcher never— never—asked for help.
"I'm on my way."
While uttering those four little words, I etched the details of the siren's smug face into my memory. She gave me a wink. Biting back a growl, I turned around to head back to my car.
My partner needed me. The siren would have to wait.
***END of Excerpt***
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Acknowledgments
Thank you to all my readers and everyone who buys my books or picks them up in the library!
Many, many thanks to Melody Simmons for working her book cover magic, and to Cindy Dockendorff for her tireless waving of her editing wand and help getting this book into shape.
Thank you to my writing group friends. This book wouldn't exist without you because I would have given up by now.
About the Author
Sara C. Walker writes urban fantasy novels and speculative fiction and poetry. Her work has appeared in anthologies published by Tyche Books, Exile Editions, and many others. When not writing she enjoys hiking through the forests of Central Ontario. Find out more and read free stories at www.sarawalker.ca
Get Sara’s new release newsletter: http://www.sarawalker.ca
Also by Sara C. Walker:
urban fantasy for young adults:
Catching A Sorcerer
Hunting A Demon
short story collection:
Rain-Pattered Petals
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