#Spotlight ; Pride of a Viking by Sky Purington

Pride of a Viking

The MacLomain Series

Viking Ancestors’ Kin

Book Five

Sky Purington     

Genre: Time-Travel Fantasy/Shifter Romance

Date of Publication:  July 9, 2017

ASIN: B06Y5QQF6P

Number of pages: 260 pages

Word Count:  82,000

Cover Artist:  Tara West

Book Description:

Two men tore Erica’s world apart in another life. One was the man she loved and the other the enemy. Now both are back, and it’s up to her to make sure an ancient blood feud doesn’t destroy everyone she cares about. That means steering clear of her dragon mate. But sometimes memories are too strong and the past too powerful. Or so it seems when she slips back in time and ends up on an unexpected journey with a man she was determined to forget.

Having confronted who he once was and what he did in a previous life, Kodran Sigdir sets out to seek answers. He needs to better understand his part in an age old war and to keep his distance from Erica. They should remain apart. Yet destiny seems to be drawing him back to her. How he once felt. All he gave up. Could things go differently this time? Or will the risk to their people be too great? Find out as Erica, Kodran and their kin go up against the enemy one last time in Pride of a Viking, the epic conclusion of Viking Ancestors’ Kin.

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Excerpt:

“Are you sure Hallstein was your mate in another life?” His eyes held hers as he spun her so that they were facing each other. “Do you have memories of your time with him?” He shook his head, spoke through clenched teeth and worked hard to keep rage from taking over as he caught glimpses of what she had endured. “He did things to you, Erica. Terrible things. Things that make no sense given you were Maeva…his mate.”

She leaned back, clenched her jaw and averted her eyes. “Yes, he was my mate. I’m sure of it.”

“Then why can’t you look at me when you say that?” He tilted her chin until she had no choice but to meet his eyes. “What aren’t you telling me? What’s the missing piece?” He frowned. “Because something’s not adding up.”

“It doesn’t…you just...” She frowned as well. “You need to let this go. You need to let me go. It’s the only way this is going to work. It’s the only hope we have.”

“And where am I supposed to let you go to?” He glanced around to remind her where they were before his eyes returned to hers. “Because it’s out of my control, yes?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Do I?” He stepped a bit closer and never removed his fingers from her chin. “Because as far as I can tell you want me to believe you desire Hallstein when that’s the furthest thing from the truth. I think you’re trying to push me away so that you can somehow save everyone all on your own.”

Because he was remembering his last life, he remembered what Maeva had looked like. While they shared the same tall, lithe build with curves in all the right places, he found Erica more stunning in this life. Her eyes were varying shades of striking green that seemed to shift with her mood, and her warm skin tone was luminous. He wanted to feel her soft skin against him. Touch every last inch of her.

She went very still as their eyes held. Or so one would think if they couldn’t detect the slight tremor that went through her. Shivers that only translated to another dragon. He also noticed that she had gone from momentarily vulnerable to completely closed off despite her physical reaction.

“You’re good at that,” he murmured, shifting even closer to see if he could bring out that tremor even more. “Trying to be strong for everyone else all the time. How long have you played that part?” While he should have remained compassionate and thankful, his inner dragon was flaring. The jealousy that reared whenever he thought about her in the enemy’s arms. “How long have you been playing the part of a woman trying to convince Hallstein that you’re his? How long have you been—”

“No,” she cut him off, yanked her chin away and narrowed her eyes. “What I’ve done to help our people is not because—”

“Because you’re meant to be together?” he cut her off just as readily, as he turned things around on her. “Because you’re not, are you?” He shook his head and narrowed his eyes as well. “You’re not supposed to be with him.” His voice dropped to a whisper as the truth hovered just out of reach. Like a memory he was right on the verge of remembering. “You never were, but something happened…”

Something he needed to understand, so he thought fast. If one thing had been proven true with his kin and their mates it was that intimacy seemed to speed up their mental connections. So why not get things moving in that direction?

It seemed Erica followed his line of thought because a moment later she started to move away but he caught her. With an arm around her lower back, he yanked her against him, cupped the back of her neck and kissed her.

The moment he did, everything changed. 

About the Author:

Sky Purington is the bestselling author of over thirty novels and several novellas. A New Englander born and bred who recently moved to Virginia, Sky was raised hearing stories of folklore, myth and legend. When combined with a love for nature, romance and time-travel, elements from the stories of her youth found release in her books.

Purington loves to hear from readers and can be contacted at Sky@SkyPurington.com.

Interested in keeping up with Sky’s latest news and releases? Visit Sky's website, http://www.skypurington.com to download her free App on iTunes and Android or sign up for her quarterly newsletter. Love social networking? Find Sky on Facebook and Twitter.

Website:   www.skypurington.com

Blog:   www.skypurington.blogspot.com

Twitter:   www.twitter.com/skypurington

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#Spotlight ; Illumination by Susannah Sandlin

Illumination

Penton Legacy

Book 5

Susannah Sandlin

Genre: PNR/UF

Date of Publication: July 11, 2017

Number of pages: Approx. 330

Word Count: 90,000

Cover Artist: Kim Killion

Tagline: Nik wants to escape his family curse. Shay wants to change the world. Together, they are the only hope to save the vampires of Penton.

Book Description:

He came to Penton seeking peace. Nik Dimitrou joined the Army to escape his family legacy, only to have his psychic abilities exploited as a weapon. Now, as a civilian, he turns to the bottle to veil the images that haunt his mind whenever he touches anyone—except vampires. With them, he has finally found a home. But as Penton, Alabama, moves into open warfare with the Vampire Tribunal, Nik finds himself a linchpin in the deepening conflict, not to mention facing a transformation in his own body more frightening than anything he’s encountered before.

She wanted to change the world. Shay Underwood watched her Peace Corps parents move from one third world country to another—until both died following an outbreak of fever. Driven to her own career in tropical medicine, Shay works in New Orleans to cure the disease that killed her parents—until a careless weekend outing draws her into a world far more dangerous than the diseases she studies: a vampire society engaged in human trafficking and on the verge of all-out war.

Two cities, two strangers, one world. With Penton rebellion leader Aidan Murphy making risky choices and chief vampire lieutenant Mirren Kincaid forced to take a leadership role in Penton, it will fall to two outsiders, Nik and Shay, to find a way for the town—and themselves—to survive in this much-anticipated conclusion to the multiple award-winning Penton Legacy series.

Goodreads

Excerpt:

Cage caught the human before he made it two steps toward the door and freedom. “Oh, no you don’t, my friend. I said we had things to discuss, and I quite meant it.”

            Nik retrieved a set of handcuffs from a pocket and held them out. “Try these.”

            “I like a man who comes prepared.” Cage grinned and jerked the man’s arms behind his back, slapping on the cuffs with an ease that told Nik he was no stranger to using them. From his long mercenary days, maybe.

            “What’s your name?” Robin looked up at the human. “Who are you working with?”

            The guy just looked at her with a smirk.

Enough of that. Nik didn’t like the guy’s attitude, and they didn’t have time to waste.

            Apparently, Cage was thinking the same thing. “Just take what you need from him, Nik. He must be bonded to some bloody vampire or other and he’s more afraid of his master than he is of us. A mistake, I might add.”

            Nik approached the man, flexing his fingers. He didn’t bother with a wrist or touch on the shoulder. He wrapped the fingers of both hands around the man’s head and held on. Good thing about vampire strength. No matter how much the man squirmed, he couldn’t escape Nik’s grip.

            Robin took advantage of the moment and patted the guy down, extracting his wallet from a back pocket. “Jonathan Lachey. Probably his real name. Doesn’t look smart enough to use a fake I.D.”

            “All right, Jonathan. Let’s see what you can tell me.” Nik closed his eyes, and the clarity of the visions made his breath catch. Direct touch had always amped his visions, but nothing like this. As with the images from objects, however, he could now sort through the guy’s memories and thoughts instead of suffering an uncontrollable onslaught. “He’s bonded to someone and trying to reach out mentally.”

            “Better work fast.” Cage held Jonathan more firmly in place while Nik plundered inside his head.

            Nik paused on an image and tightened his grip on the man’s skull. Nothing escaped but a strained whimper. “You raped my sister.”

            And a lot of other women. So many. Several of the girls were pregnant—including the woman he now knew was his old high school classmate, Shay.

“Don’t kill him, Niko.” Robin put a hand on his arm, her voice low and lethal. “At least not yet.”

About the Author:

Susannah Sandlin writes award-winning paranormal romance, including the popular Penton Legacy series for Montlake Romance, and romantic suspense and thrillers, including two series, The Collectors and Wilds of the Bayou, also for Montlake. Writing as Suzanne Johnson, she writes the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series for Tor Books. Suzanne grew up in Alabama halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’s birthplace and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, so she has a refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of college football and fried gator on a stick. She currently lives in Auburn, Alabama, where she is a full-time author who does copy editing on the side through Reedsy.com.

Web: www.suzannejohnsonauthor.com

Blog: www.suzannejohnsonauthor.com/blog

Twitter: @SusannahSandlin, @Suzanne_Johnson

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSuzanneJohnson/

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#BookReview ; Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser

At their New England art school, Paulina and Fran both stand apart from the crowd. Paulina is striking and sexually adventurous—a self-proclaimed queen bee with a devastating mean-girl streak. With her gorgeous untamed head of curly hair, Fran is quirky, sweet, and sexually innocent. An aspiring painter whose potential outstrips her confidence, she floats dreamily through criticisms and dance floors alike. On a school trip to Norway, the girls are drawn together, each disarmed by the other’s charisma.

Though their bond is instant and powerful, it’s also wracked by complications. When Fran winds up dating one of Paulina’s ex-boyfriends, an incensed Paulina becomes determined to destroy the couple, creating a rift that will shape their lives well past the halcyon days of art school.

Crackling with bon mots and knowing snapshots of that moment when the carefree cocoon of adolescence opens into the permanent, unknowable future, Paulina & Fran is both a sparkling dance party of a novel, and the debut novel of a writer with rare insight into the complexities of obsession, friendship, and prickly, ever-elusive love.

Paulina & Fran is a YA LGBT fiction written by Rachel B. Glaser. She is an American writer, poet & artist. She is the author of a collection of short stories, Pee on Water & MOODS, a book of poetry. In 2013, she received the McSweeney’s Amanda Davis Fiction Award.

As it is evident by the title itself the story is about Paulina & Fran, both are students at the New England Art School & are quite different from each other. While Paulina is fierce, outgoing & intentionally mean, Fran is timid, sweet & innocent. They both get drawn towards each other when their class was on a trip to Norway & they end up spending most of the time with each other, away from the rest of the students. But as their friendship strengthens Fran gets attracted towards a boy who happens to be Paulina’s ex-boyfriend & now Paulina wants to be with him again. Her mean streak starts to kick in as she decides to wreck their relationship even if that includes destroying her friendship with Fran. Get this book to know what happens next.

In her debut work Glaser has been successful to pen down real life like characters which makes this book interesting. Paulina comes out as unlikeable while Fran is a bit too innocent. Unfortunately the depth which I was expecting in the story wasn’t achieved, also some parts of the book were a bit unrealistic. The language is easy to comprehend which makes it an easy read, the title is simple & the cover is interesting as well. An intriguing read for sure!

#Spotlight ; Flash Point by Ronelle Antoinette

Flash Point

Elemental Trials

Book Two

Ronelle Antoinette

Genre: fantasy romance

Publisher: Ronelle Antoinette

Date of Publication: 7/7/17

ISBN: 1537201891

ASIN: B072JNPYZ4

Number of pages: 320

Word Count: approx. 92,000

Cover Artist: Mar Fandos

Tagline: The choices of a few will ignite a realm

Book Description:

Scandal will shake foundations.

A night of careless passion leaves Battlemage Jex Xander and Adept Enari Alycon in a precarious position. Long-time lovers they might be, but the Imperial ambassador and the daughter of Egalion’s High Mage have rather public roles in the court—whether they wish it or not—and scandal couldn’t come at a worse time.

Treachery will tip balances.

When a hostile kingdom reluctantly agrees to parley, the fate of two-thousand years of peace is on the line. In the midst of negotiations, Enari becomes the target of one of the Greater Maelstrom. She and Jex must race against time to save her life and that of her unborn child. What happens when an earth-shattering secret, a demon bent on destruction, and a kingdom teetering on the brink of war collide is anyone’s guess.

Choices will have consequences.

The decisions of a few will determine the fate of many, and who or what will remain standing in the end is still uncertain. Hearts and lives are on the cusp of irrevocable change…and not necessarily for the better.

And secrets? Those will change everything.

Amazon

Excerpt:

Enari Alycon and Jex Xander were the last two mages to enter the shadowed chamber.

She hesitated on the threshold, instinct making her clutch his hand as her eyes struggled to pierce the darkness. The single tapers that stood to either side of the altar were small and insufficient to dispel the thick gloom. Dizziness and nausea overcame her as the strong incense permeated her lungs. The room felt oppressive, claustrophobic, and her mind screamed at her to retreat.

Jex’s hand closed around her wrist in warning.

“Remember,” he whispered, “once we step inside, you’ll need to remain absolutely silent until the ceremony is complete. No matter what happens, do not make a sound, understand?”

His breath was warm and the soft kiss he pressed to her temple made her shiver. She nodded and hesitantly followed her Chosen inside.

He closed the door behind them. The soft boom reminded her of the latch on the door to the Hall of the Dead; solid and inexorable.

Final.

Jex led her up the aisle at a slow and measured pace, their steps muffled more than they should have been in the stone chamber. The shadows seemed to whisper words too soft to discern, a dark susurration against her senses. The sensation was like cobwebs and moth wings and the touch of a burial shroud all mixed together.

After passing the last row of benches and their silent occupants, Enari discovered that what she had originally taken for a shadow cast by the altar was instead a large, smooth-edged opening in the floor. Her Chosen’s hands guiding her with confidence as he directed her to kneel, adjusted the fall of her skirt, and placed her hands in her lap. He cupped the back of her head and tilted it forward until all she could see were the stones beneath her knees and that yawning pit. The touch withdrew and she heard the rustle of his robes as he took his place behind her.

It was only at this angle she saw the faint reflection of candlelight in dark water. A pool then, and not an empty well as she first assumed.

The realization was not as comforting as it should have been.

“Enari Alycon, daughter of Eryk Alycon and Tanith Hithaerien, today is the day of your Ascension. You have entered this chamber in a state of flux, tempered from apprenticeship but not yet forged as an adept. You are Initiate, the in-between.” The deep, strong voice of her father issued from within the dark cowl of the figure in front of her. “As those who came before were tried, so you shall be. Who among you will stand witness?”

Enari was confused. What trial? Hadn’t she passed all the tests the week before? She’d thought the Rite of Ascension a mere formality, if a secret one, but now it sounded that assumption had been incorrect.

“We will,” came the unified and ringing response from those seated behind her.

Enari shivered again, cognizant of the power behind the declaration. The touch of their voices was the only warmth in this brooding place and she was grateful for it.

“And who among you will hold the door for her?”

“I will,” Jex confirmed, his voice strong and certain.

“Then let it be.”

Her father turned to the altar and picked up the metal fragment. Motioning for Jex to step forward, he pressed the weapon into his hand.

Enari watched from beneath her lashes without raising her head, seeing the glimmer of candle-flame slide along the razor’s edge.

Her Chosen went to his knees in front of her. He raised the shard, letting her examine it for a heartbeat or two, then used the blade to cut her palm and his own. Enari winced at the line of pain that blazed across her skin, biting back a hiss just in time to keep from breaking the mandate of silence. Jex pressed their weeping palms together and laced his fingers through hers.

She could almost taste her own dread now, bitter as a mouthful of lemon rind.

“Blood to blood and gift to gift,” Jex intoned, “I lend you my strength for the test ahead. I will hold the door so you may pass and may it be with joy that I close it after your return.” There was a hint of fear in his emerald eyes as he spoke the final words.

 “Initiate, it is time for you to face The Pool and The Dweller below,” her father announced.

Sweat broke out across her forehead and the back of her neck as her eyes settled on The Pool.

Jex rose to his feet, fingers still twined with hers, and she balked, not wanting to go any nearer to that still and menacing water. He reached behind her and seized her belt, forcing her up and forward. His hand remained at the small of her back to hold her in place once they stood at the very lip of The Pool.

Her stomach knotted and a slithering nausea twisted its greasy fingers around her throat. She swallowed hard and tasted bile.

Jex put his mouth against her ear and began to speak.

“We have to lower you into the water. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and don’t be afraid. It’ll be over before you know it.”

She turned to him, shaking her head. More than anything, she did not want to let that black water touch her. Blue eyes met green and she pled the only way she could.

His expression went flat and his voice hardened. “You asked me to serve as your Chosen. Let me do my duty.”

“Be silent!” the High Mage barked.

Jex gave him a dirty look, but nodded once and the two men took hold of her, each putting a hand under one of her arms and grasping her hands in theirs. With agonizing slowness, they began to lower her.

The first shock of bitter cold stole her breath.

As the velvet of her robe became wet, it dragged on her and clung to her legs. She kicked, trying to free her feet but the heavy fabric stuck fast.

Before she was half-submerged, she started to tremble. The water felt just short of freezing solid and had a slimy quality that disgusted her.

Soon, only her head remained clear and Jex was crouching at her side, still gripping her bloody hand. His other settled on her hair.

“Deep breath, now,” he directed.

And before she could even think to scream, he jerked his hand free of hers and thrust her head beneath the surface.

About the Author:

Ronelle Antoinette lives in western Colorado with her husband, two cats, and one dog-who-believes-he's-a-person. While she is a mother to none, she’s an auntie to what should qualify as a small army. She is an admitted caffeine addict, chocoholic, and hopeless romantic who has carried on a passionate affair with the genre of fantasy since she was old enough to read 'chapter books'. She dabbled in creative writing for many years and even considered it as a major in college. (She ended up getting a Bachelor's degree in Counseling Psychology.) She published her first novel, Errant Spark, in July of 2016.

https://www.facebook.com/ronelleantoinette

https://twitter.com/RonelleAntoinet

http://www.ronelleantoinette.com/notes-fromround-the-bend

https://www.goodreads.com/Ronelle_Antoinette

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#Spotlight ; Just Me, The Sink & The Pot by Sudesna Ghosh

JUST ME, THE SINK & THE POT

by

Sudesna Ghosh

Blurb

Meet Pamela, an overweight girl who's looking back at her school days. From longing for a Valentine to dealing with a sibling who hates her, Pamela has a lot to deal with. She even has a special bunch of friends at home who she can turn to - but they aren't the kind of friends you'd expect. Life sucks when you're fat. Can Pamela ever be happy?

Read an excerpt of the book here...

One day a classmate asked me, “Where is your lunch?” I told her that I had already had it and went back to my fake laughter and smiles. The others chatted and laughed while they ate from their tiffin boxes. Some brought samosas or ice cream from outside the gate. My hunger pangs got worse as I saw all the food and smelt the delicious odours around me.

The ice cream cart was run by a sweet old man who knew me since I’d started school. He would ask me some days, “Child, you don’t want your favourite orange stick?” I would say no thank you and smile before running away from him and his cart. One day he seemed to be desperate to make me have an ice cream. “Child! Come here and have an ice cream. You don’t have to pay me,” he called out. I smiled, turned around and went to hide in an empty classroom. Two minutes later, I shrieked; the old man had found me. He was carrying a dripping ice cream for me. I started laughing. Then I started running away from him. The old man started running after me!

My classmates were shocked. The sports teacher was happy to see me run for the first time – I had never run before because fat moves when you run. Everybody would laugh. The lunch break ended with me accepting the mostly melted orange stick from the kind ice cream man. We were too tired to talk about the whole event. But it did make me a bit popular that year, with the school Yearbook including the story and a picture of me running away from a 6 feet tall man holding an ice cream.

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About the author

Sudesna (Sue) Ghosh is a writer based in Kolkata. She was born in the United States and moved to India when she was 9. After completing high school there, she went back to the US for her higher education at the University of Rochester. She has also penned What Would I Tell Her @ 13 and News Now, along with several short stories. When Sudesna isn’t writing, she tries to do her bit for animal welfare.

       

                          

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#Spotlight ; The Thirteenth Gate by Kat Ross

The Thirteenth Gate

Dominion Mysteries

Book Two

Kat Ross

Genre: Fantasy/mystery

Publisher: Acorn

Date of Publication: June 26, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-9972362-8-6

ASIN: B071RQ142S

Number of pages: 380

Word Count: 88k

Cover Artist: Damonza

Book Description:

Winter 1888. At an asylum in the English countryside, a man suspected of being Jack the Ripper kills an orderly and flees into the rain-soaked night. His distraught keepers summon the Lady Vivienne Cumberland—who's interviewed their patient and isn't sure he's a man at all. An enigmatic woman who guards her own secrets closely, Lady Vivienne knows a creature from the underworld when she sees one. And he’s the most dangerous she's ever encountered.

As Jack rampages through London, Lady Vivienne begins to suspect what he's searching for. And if he finds it, the doors to purgatory will be thrown wide open…

Across the Atlantic, an archaeologist is brutally murdered after a Christmas Eve gala at the American Museum of Natural History. Certain peculiar aspects of the crime attract the interest of the Society for Psychical Research and its newest investigator, Harrison Fearing Pell. Is Dr. Sabelline's death related to his recent dig in Alexandria? Or is the motive something darker?

As Harry uncovers troubling connections to a serial murder case she’d believed was definitively solved, two mysteries converge amid the grit and glamor of Gilded Age New York. Harry and Lady Vivienne must join forces to stop an ancient evil. The key is something called the Thirteenth Gate. But where is it? And more importantly, who will find it first?

Amazon

Excerpt:

The Greymoor Lunatic Asylum made a grim impression even in daylight. It crouched at the end of a long, treeless drive, barred windows gleaming beneath a peaked slate roof. After her first interview with Dr. William Clarence, Lady Vivienne Cumberland had taken a hard look at those bars. She’d strongly suggested to the asylum superintendent that he move Dr. Clarence to a room with no window at all.

That had been just over a month ago. Now, in the darkest hour of the night, with rain coursing down the brick façade and thunder rattling the turrets, Greymoor looked like something torn from the pages of a penny dreadful, hulking and shadowed despite the lamps burning in every window. At the wrought-iron front gate, a black brougham drew to a halt. Following a brief exchange with the occupants, two officers from the Essex constabulary waved it through, immediately ducking back into the shelter of a police wagon.

“I told them to watch him,” Lady Cumberland muttered, yanking her gloves on. “To keep him isolated from the staff and other patients. Clearly, they didn’t listen. The fools.”

Alec Lawrence gripped the cane resting across his knees. He had been present at the interview, had looked into Dr. Clarence’s eyes, a blue so pale they reminded him of a Siberian dog. The memory unsettled him still, and he wasn’t a man who was easily shaken.

“We don’t know what happened yet,” he pointed out. “Superintendent Barrett can hardly be faulted considering we withheld certain information. I rather doubt he would have believed us anyway.”

Vivienne scowled. “You may be right, but it was only a matter of time. I’ve known that since the day Clarence was brought here. The S.P.R. made a very bad mistake entrusting him to Greymoor.”

“We still don’t know for sure—”

“Yes, we do. The killings stopped, didn’t they?”

“That could be for any number of reasons,” he said stubbornly.

“Including that the creature who committed them is behind bars. Or was, at least.”

Alec Lawrence buttoned his woolen greatcoat. This was not a new debate. “Perhaps. But there’s not a scrap of hard evidence against him. Nothing but a single reference in a report by some American girl and Clarence’s own odd demeanor. Had there been more, he would have been locked up tight in Newgate Prison.”

Vivienne turned her obsidian gaze on him. With her high cheekbones and full lips, she might have been thirty, or a decade in either direction. Only Alec and a handful of others knew better.

“That American girl is Arthur Conan Doyle’s goddaughter and she seemed quite clever to me. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway,” she added quietly. “Walls don’t hold Dr. Clarence’s sort for long.”

“Look,” he said, softening. “For what it’s worth, I think we did the right thing taking him off the streets. I just....” He trailed off, unsure how he meant to finish the thought.

“You don’t trust my judgment anymore. Since Harper Dods.”

“That’s not even remotely true. I simply think we need to keep open minds on the matter. The signs aren’t there, Vivienne. I’m the first to admit Dr. Clarence is an odd duck, perhaps worse. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t human.”

Vivienne arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “And yet here we are, summoned by Sidgwick in the middle of the night. I wonder if he’s regretting his decision?”

The note from Henry Sidgwick, president of the Society for Psychical Research, had arrived in the form of a small, bedraggled messenger boy pounding on Lady Vivienne’s front door in St. James an hour before. It was both vague and ominous, citing an “unfortunate incident” involving Dr. Clarence and urging all due haste to the asylum.

“I suppose we’ll find out in a minute,” Alec said, turning his collar up. He swiped a hand through chestnut hair and jammed a top hat on his head. “Off to the races.”

A gust of rain shook the carriage as it slowed at the front entrance. A six-story tower capped by a Roman clock and white spire anchored two wings extending on either side. Unlike most asylums, which had separate annexes for men and women, Greymoor’s residents were all male. The north wing housed those poor souls suffering from garden-variety disorders like dementia and melancholia. The other was reserved for the so-called “incurables,” a euphemism for the criminally insane. Violent, unpredictable men deemed unfit for prison.

Despite his doubts, Alec Lawrence would have happily had the lot of them over for tea rather than spend five minutes in the company of Dr. William Clarence. In his heart, he wondered if Vivienne’s instincts were correct. But he wanted her to be wrong because the alternative was far worse.

 About the Author:

Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She's the author of the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day, the Fourth Element fantasy series (The Midnight Sea, Blood of the Prophet, Queen of Chaos), and the new Dominion Mysteries. She loves myths, monsters and doomsday scenarios.

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