An Innocent Bit of Mischief

Today’s excerpt from Girl of Rooftops and Shadows. Enjoy!

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Once the city was asleep, Clevwrith found Despiris and took her away from the Cob. He said nothing of where they were going, but there was promise in his eyes. The special mystery of the situation intrigued Despiris and drew her on without questioning him, away from the stacks, through the crumbling mansions of the elite part of the old city, into the slums of the new city.

Where could he possibly be taking her? Despiris let herself wonder, let the unknown titillate her. There was something magical in the anticipation of a surprise, and she did not want to break the spell until it was time. Because that would be soon enough, and then it would be over. She knew a thing or two about patience. Biding your time was a sacred virtue in the book of the Shadhi, and this was just one more opportunity to practice it. To hone her perfection.

Into the populated city he stole her, where midnight had chased strangers into their homes for the night. At this hour it seemed the world was empty except for the two of them. A ghost-town of stars, which consisted precisely of two ghosts.

Out under the glittering night sky, they climbed onto an anonymous person’s roof. There was no moon tonight, just the twinkling, white-freckled heavens, specks of scattered spotlight.

“Now, Des,” Clevwrith began. “There is one last thing I need to teach you before we have covered everything in Shadhi fundamentals.”

Despiris waited eagerly, always keen on a new lesson.

“What I’m going to show you is unlike anything I’ve taught you before. There will be no weapons, no bag of tricks, no wicked intent, no ulterior motives. No victims. A purely innocent bit of mischief.” The twinkle in his eyes rivaled the stars, holding her rapt.

“I didn’t know the two could coincide.”

Clevwrith flashed a small smile. “They can.”

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COMING SUMMER 2020

Manifesto of a Shadow, Page Twenty-Eight

There is strength, and there is subtlety. There is speed, and there is stealth. There is precision, and there is improvisation. And then there is that other, less-apprised but equally as imperative skill which should never be overlooked, and that is grace.

– First Master of the Shadhi, Year One of the reign of shadows.

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Keep your eye out for Girl of Rooftops and Shadows, coming this summer!

Queen of Nothing Excerpt

Enjoy an excerpt from Queen of Nothing! Start the adventure with Book 1 for only $0.99 HERE.

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It was startling, seeing him this way, shirtless in the rain with a much more impressive physique than I’d guessed he sported under his clothes.

He smirked at my stare, so I played it off with a sarcastic, “What do you do out here your whole shift? Push-ups in the mud? Chop wood we don’t know about?”

Working one hand, then the other, into his wet sleeves, Caster grinned as he pulled his shirt over his head, cutting off my examination of his torso. “I’m glad you asked. Because while the rest of you snuggle cozy-like into your plush comforts and blankies, I fight the hungry beasts and slay the ever-encroaching monsters of the Chemlands–”

As if on cue, a glimmer of silver just too sharp to be rain caught my eye over his shoulder, and a figure materialized through the downpour behind him. My mouth opened to cry a warning, but the jolt impacted Caster before I found even a whisper of my voice.

Blood spurted from just beneath his shoulder, the blast knocking him forward, and as he fell I saw the raised arm of the figure, the gauntlet dislocated and bent back to reveal the smoking barrel of a hidden gun that had fired without hesitation into Caster’s vulnerable back – and was now aimed directly at me.

Girl of Rooftops and Shadows Reboot

Queen of Nothing is finished, edited, and all set for its April 28th release. Phew! So, what’s next? Well, hopefully progress on a number of neglected darlings, but right now I’m working on the reboot of Girl of Rooftops and Shadows. I needed a small break from actual writing after Queen of Nothing ended up being 40,000 words OVER what I intended and totally burnt me out, so I’m simply re-editing this lovely book that I’ve wanted to revamp for some time.

Here’s a small excerpt so you can get a taste!

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A tomb-like darkness haunted the alleys of the Cobweb District through the night.  The ‘dark before the dawn’ was a regular in those parts – even by day, the place affectionately referred to as the Cob kept a tight fist on its brooding reputation. Moon and sun alike sailed out of sight overhead, blocked by the broken and chipped walls that rose with ominous regime over the ancient sector of the city.

To walk in the light was a foreign and unseemly notion to the inhabitants of the Cob’s corridors. Inhabitants which mainly included a legion of mice, rats, and really rather beautiful but reclusive spiders.

For the most part, Clevwrith might consider himself a spider.

Some would definitely call him a rat.

He clung to the shadows, eyes downcast away from the biting cold, hardly able to make out his own boots on the broken cobbles. Hands deep in his trick-filled pockets, he brooded right along with the dark, thoughts like a kaleidoscope of ink poured in water. An easy scapegoat for the heaviness that weighed often on his shoulders, his cloak drooped around him, sweeping the ground in his wake where it accrued a lacy hem of cobwebs.

At least the maze of walls kept out all but a meandering draft of a breeze. That was something to be thankful for. It was already cold enough in the still, dank shadows.

But he walked in the chilling shadows nevertheless.

The shadows were his home. His curse, he supposed.  Not even candlelight was permitted in these parts after dusk.  They had to be careful.