by Elise Kova
“I’ll try not to,” Jo laughed.
As they passed the Four-Way, Jo noticed something out of the corner of her eye, a silver-haired figure walking, not towards the briefing room, but to his own. Before she could put much thought towards potential consequences, Jo slowed her pace.
“Dollface?” Wayne called out from a few feet ahead of her, once he noticed she was trailing behind. She almost startled, unaware of where her feet had been starting to carry her. Still, she let them lead the way.
“I’ll be right there, okay?” Jo called out, hurrying off down the hall. “I just gotta grab something from my room. Save me a seat?”
“Everything’s Jake, doll,” Wayne smirked before turning away, flipping his nickel with one hand as he waved over his shoulder at her with the other. “That seat belongs to you, now.”
Jo’s chest clenched at the implication. Her seat, her life, a now permanent fixture in the Society. Barely a month ago, that thought would have overwhelmed and suffocated her. But now? Now, she was almost looking forward to what that might bring.
She waited until Wayne was far ahead before sprinting up the staircase opposite her own.
Snow’s door was in the process of closing and her chest was heaving by the time she made it down the hall, to the unmarked one all the way at the end. The stark white of the wood seemed to glow against the backdrop of the surrounding walls’ warmer tones. It looked almost too pristine to be real.
She should knock.
Actually, no. She probably shouldn’t.
The debate rose and fell within her like an indecisive tide. She wanted to ask him, for the first time since a month ago, exactly what was going on with him, with his magic. She wanted to ask if they were still on good terms, if he truly regretted bringing her there.
She wanted to see if he was okay.
That last realization rushed through her with startling fierceness. The last major interaction she’d had with the man was watching him contorted in pain, barely able to stand.
“Here’s far enough,” he’d said. But what did that mean? Why did he not want her to go any further?
All those coalescing questions were enough to have Jo lifting her knuckles to white paint and thick wood, rapping twice against Snow’s door.
The lack of response stretched long enough that Jo began to assume Snow wouldn’t answer. In fact, after a while, she started to wonder if she’d imagined him escaping down the hall. Maybe he was already in the briefing room, waiting for her. Maybe she’d reacted on an impulse that was completely unwarranted.
Slowly, Jo backed away from the door, shoving her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. This was a mistake. Even if he was in there, it was obvious he didn’t want to talk to anyone, let alone her. He was likely just embarrassed. Men and their stupid pride, right?
Jo wished she could shrug off the notion that easily.
But before she could completely turn around, drag her feet back towards the briefing room, Snow’s door cracked open. Jo froze in place. He stared at her with an unreadable expression, posture stiff and silver hair falling just so over his eye. He had an eyebrow raised, gaze searching, waiting. Even painfully composed, aura bordering on irritated, he was still beautiful.
After what felt like an awkward span of silence, Jo cleared her throat, looking away. “Hey,” she said, instantly hating herself. The breath of sound she heard escape him could have been amusement or annoyance; she chose to believe it was the former.
“You’re supposed to be in the briefing room,” Snow eventually said. Jo just shrugged.
“As should you.” And then, because she couldn’t seem to leave well enough alone when it came to the mysterious man, she added, “Are you all right?”
“As ever.”
Jo picked at the thread in the pocket of her hoodie. It wasn’t an answer. But she suspected it was the best she was going to get.
“Do you regret it?” Jo fired off next. It had been a month, sure, but she knew he’d have no problem determining what she meant.
It was expected, if not a bit disheartening, when Snow finally answered, “Yes.”
“Then why show me at all?” Jo demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. “And ghosting me after that? I thought you said everything was all right between us.”
Jo would probably never tire of Snow’s look of baffled shock, the way his eyes widened with more emotion than she was used to seeing on his usually stoic face. But even if it felt like a minor triumph, that didn’t diminish the tension between them, the frustration slowly consuming Jo’s mood. He was certainly driving her mad, because some small part of her loved it.
Eventually, with a tight sigh and a glance away from Jo’s face, Snow replied, “I have no idea what this ‘ghosting’ might be, as I am not a ghost. But I felt. . . I was hopeful it might change things for you. Show you the true nature of this place. Or, at the very least, make up for any misgivings of mine.”
That was actually kind of sweet, in its own way. A sweetness reduced substantially by his reactions and following radio silence, but still. In the short time since joining the Society, she’d learned not to expect too much from the man. Plus, if Jo was honest, she could’ve sought him out also. It went both ways.
Jo mimicked his sigh with a slightly more put-upon one of her own. “Next time, if you feel like making something up to me, ask me if anything needs to be made up for—”
“That’s not—” Snow cut her off, and by the look of surprise bleeding into his features once they’d both gone silent, it was a completely involuntary interjection. When he didn’t automatically finish his thought, Jo frowned.
“What’s not?”
It took a long moment, a multitude of emotions warring in Snow’s distant stare. But then, eventually, he opened his mouth to speak.
“I have much to make up for,” he said, voice low and rough, as if it hurt for the words to leave his throat.
“What’re you talking about?”
“Go to the briefing room, Jo.”
It took everything she had not to bristle, not to go on the defensive. “You can’t just say something like that and not—”
“Jo, please.” Snow frowned, not quite looking at her. Something in his expression, in the tight, almost painful whisper of his voice, gave Jo pause. She scanned his face, tried to catch his gaze, but he stared adamantly to her side. “I’ll be there soon,” he added. And, as if realizing he was being inconsiderate (again), he added a soft, “I promise. Please, just for now, trust me?”
And despite herself, despite how many questions she still had, the genuineness in his tone broke her down, won her over. She found herself nodding. It was almost worth it for the momentary relief she watched soften the tension in his brow. Taking a step back, Snow offered her a small, soft smile.
“Thank you,” he whispered, the words all but inaudible as he closed the door between them.
Time passed sluggishly for a moment, Jo’s mind whirring with new questions, old questions still unanswered, images of Snow’s features—softened by relief, eyes shining as they scanned her face. But unfortunately, she couldn’t dwell, not when the tension of a new wish permeated the air, that buzz of magic waiting to be distributed like an electric storm searching for a spot to strike the earth. So, trying not to feel too disappointed, too frazzled by Snow’s enigmatic presence, Jo turned away from his door and started heading back to the briefing room.
But not before glancing, almost on reflex, at the unmarked, black door to her right.
Yes, there were still many wishes ahead of her, and many more questions about the Society that granted them.
ON SALE APRIL 2018
* * *
EVEN IN THE wildest hypothetical scenario, Jo wouldn’t have been prepared for the man who met her on the other side of her door.
Snow, even untouched by the Paris skyline that illuminated her bedroom windows, still radiated moonlight. His silver hair swept over an eye, but seemed looser and rougher at the edges. His
eyes were sunken, hollow.
This wasn’t their fearless and stoic leader. This was the man in agony she’d seen through the Door months ago—the man she’d forced herself to all but forget. There was clearly no path forward to discovering anything more about him.
No path, until he presented one to her.
“I don’t know why I’m here.” His voice belonged to someone who’d spent hours screaming at the shadows in the corners.
“Come in.” She moved on instinct, an invisible tide that ebbed and flowed between them. If he was the moon, then she was the sea, pulled along by the mysterious aura that he wore like couture.
“I shouldn’t.”
“Why?” It wasn’t a particularly good argument, so his lack of fight when he did surrender was all the more glaring. While she was used to his feet seemingly never touching the ground, the wounded, once-majestic creature now walked with a heaviness of a body robbed of all ethereal grace.
Snow closed the door behind him, leaning against it as if to draw space between them. There wasn’t much, and it pulled her a half-step closer in… what? Fascination? Concern? Sympathy? He was all of it wrapped in the most beautiful enigma she’d ever seen.
“I shouldn’t be here,” he repeated.
“Well, you are, so that’s that,” Jo said as gently as she could through her exasperation. “Snow… What happened?”
“Warning you is pointless.” He pressed his eyes closed and hung his head. “It will do no good. You can’t stop it, none of us can.”
“Stop what?”
“And now, now we must do this.” He shook his head again and the long bangs all but concealed his face. “Why did I come? Telling you will do no—”
Jo summoned magic she didn’t realize she possessed and silenced him with a touch.
It was the most delicate, timid touch she’d ever given. Lighter than a butterfly landing, her fingertips on his cheek. Right first, then left.
He was warm. Warmer than she thought he would be for a man who looked so much like his namesake. Had he been this warm when he’d taken her hand at the Ranger compound all those months ago? Had he been this warm when she’d helped him most of the way back to his room after he’d allowed her to witness his magic?
When he didn’t flinch or pull away, the pads of her fingers made indents in his skin as she pulled his attention forward. Look at me, she wanted to say, let me see you. Her lips were still, voice silent, but everything about her was alive.
Perhaps it was some residual magic that lingered between them from his pulling her into the Society… But this man made her feel something indescribable. Something she’d never felt across universes or realities. In a fake world outside of time, this was real.
It was something she’d been missing all along. Something she longed for. Something that was almost like… a reunion.
“There’s been a wish, hasn’t there?” she whispered.
He nodded and pressed his eyes shut again, as if in pain.
“Tell me.” He’d have to sooner or later and if he did it now, he’d have practice keeping his composure for the rest of the group.
As if reading her mind, Snow took a shuddering breath. Then another, slightly more stable one. And then, he found length in his spine and strength in his shoulders. He rose to his full height and looked down at her. His carriage wasn’t overbearing, nor was it the aloof comportment she’d seen him muster so many times before.
He looked like a stumbled Atlas, finding the will to stand and carry the world on his shoulders once more.
“We are to prevent the loss of life.”
“Wh-what?” Appreciation for him telling her in advance hit Jo like a Mac truck. She would’ve never been able to keep her composure in the briefing room when he broke the news. She could already feel it ripping at the seams of her facial composure. Scenes of wide-spread carnage from the news they’d been watching for nearly a month all flashed before Jo’s eyes in a visceral assault. “It’s too much, this time. It’ll be impossible.”
“We’ll think of something.” He glanced away.
“No, we won’t.” Jo grabbed his hands, taking a full step closer to him. Their hips were almost touching now. “Snow, this isn’t hacking into a mainframe or getting revenge on a mob boss. This is a volcano.”
A young adult, high-fantasy filled with romance and elemental magic.
READ NOW: http://getBook.at/AAGG
A library apprentice, a sorcerer prince, and an unbreakable magic bond...
The Solaris Empire is one conquest away from uniting the continent, and the rare elemental magic sleeping in seventeen-year-old library apprentice Vhalla Yarl could shift the tides of war.
Vhalla has always been taught to fear the Tower of Sorcerers, a mysterious magic society, and has been happy in her quiet world of books. But after she unknowingly saves the life of one of the most powerful sorcerers of them all--the Crown Prince Aldrik--she finds herself enticed into his world. Now she must decide her future: Embrace her sorcery and leave the life she's known, or eradicate her magic and remain as she's always been. And with powerful forces lurking in the shadows, Vhalla's indecision could cost her more than she ever imagined.
* * *
Praise for Elise Kova’s AIR AWAKENS
“DEAR BOOK GODS, THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR THIS MASTERPIECE.”
– Rachel E. Carter, USA Today bestselling author of the Black Mage Series
“Avatar the Last Airbender meets The Grisha Trilogy in Air Awakens.”
– RHPL Teen Book Reviews
“…THE book for people that love the Throne of Glass series”
– IrisjeXx
“Phantom of the Opera meets Cinderella in a wonderfully crafted world.”
– Michelle Madow, USA Today bestselling author of ELEMENTALS
An adult fantasy with steampunk grit and Dragons re-imagined
READ NOW: http://viewBook.at/taol
Her vengeance. His vision.
Ari lost everything she once loved when the Five Guilds' resistance fell to the Dragon King. Now, she uses her unparalleled gift for clockwork machinery in tandem with notoriously unscrupulous morals to contribute to a thriving underground organ market. There isn't a place on Loom that is secure from the engineer-turned-thief, and her magical talents are sold to the highest bidder as long as the job defies their Dragon oppressors.
Cvareh would do anything to see his sister usurp the Dragon King and sit on the throne. His family's house has endured the shame of being the lowest rung in the Dragons' society for far too long. The Alchemist Guild, down on Loom, may just hold the key to putting his kin in power, if Cvareh can get to them before the Dragon King's assassins.
When Ari stumbles upon a wounded Cvareh, she sees an opportunity to slaughter an enemy and make a profit off his corpse. But the Dragon sees an opportunity to navigate Loom with the best person to get him where he wants to go.
He offers her the one thing Ari can't refuse: A wish of her greatest desire, if she brings him to the Alchemists of Loom.
* * *
Praise for Elise Kova’s THE ALCHEMISTS OF LOOM
“Prepare to have your mind blown. THE ALCHEMISTS OF LOOM is the perfect mashup of genres, with a killer heroine, fiery romance, and friendships that run as deep as blood.”
– Lindsay Cummings, #1 New York Times bestselling author of ZENITH
“Kova (the Air Awakens series) crafts a fascinating divided world.”
– Publisher’s Weekly
“Reading THE ALCHEMISTS OF LOOM was like curling up with a favorite fantasy classic. Yet what truly transported me was the brilliant twists and layers that make this story totally unique, totally fresh.”
– Susan Dennard, New York Times bestselling author of TRUTHWITCH
Elise’s Acknowledgements
LYNN—Not only have you been my best friend and confidant for nearly a decade, but you have also helped make this book happen. Without you, it wouldn’t have been the story it is. Thank you for add
ing your creativity, voice, and depth to this work… And for putting up with all my neuroses. I can’t wait to see what we make next!
ROBERT—My dear, you have been a huge support to us both in this process. Thank you for showing up to signings with all the things I forgot, for feeding me when I didn’t have time to find food, and for never batting an eye when it was a late night.
CAITLIN, MELISA, and MI-MI—Your insights as beta readers not only transformed this manuscript, but took it to a level not even Lynn and I could have imagined. Thank you for working with us!
MOM, DAD, & MER—As you three know best, this was a particularly hard year for me. But, no matter what happened, I was blessed to know that I’d always have the safety net of your love and support. Thank you for always being there.
MARY—Thank you for helping me continue to write books like this by (sometimes painfully) keeping my hands, wrists, and shoulders in top condition.
REBECCA—I’m honored by every book we get to work together on. Your critiques for this manuscript really pushed it to become a fantastic story truly worth telling. Thank you for everything.
THE TOWER GUARD—Can I ever write a book and NOT include you in it? No, the answer is a solid no. You are the most amazing support team an author could ever ask for. You keep up with me enthusiastically and are always there to encourage me when it gets tough.
Lynn’s Acknowledgements
TEAL—For constantly putting up with my self-confidence issues and reminding me that a lack of notes on a fanfic does not mean I'm a bad writer. Even if it's 60,000 words of a Voltron, college music AU I spent a year on.