Amber Lynn Natusch's Blog, page 4
November 30, 2021
From the Ashes is FREE – Nov 29th – Dec 3rd ONLY!
Piper Jones can’t catch a break.
After a lifetime of animosity and indifference from the supernatural community, she thought she’d finally found a home with the vampire king’s enforcers. Then the dark and mysterious Merc walks into her life, and it takes a disastrous turn for the worse.
Now under attack by enemies both known and unknown, Piper has little choice but to flee her refuge—and start over in a place few vampires ever go. Rural Alaska seemed to fit the bill, except for Knox and his crew of werewolves. The pack shares a connection with Piper that few of them can explain, and none of them can escape.
With time running out for answers, Piper must fight the demons of her past to ensure her future—or die trying.
FROM THE ASHES, the first novel in the now complete Force of Nature series. This series features a slow burn reverse harem story line.
FREE Nov 29th – Dec 3rd Only!DOWNLOAD NOW
October 8, 2021
A CURSE OF NIGHTSHADE is Now Live + a Giveaway + an Excerpt!
I made a deal with a devil once, and it cost me all but a shred of my soul.
Now, cornered in an alley by a sexy, silver-tongued demon who wants something other than my final tie to existence, I’m faced with a choice.
Since escaping the demonic realm six months ago, I’ve honed my skills and my rage hunting the craven evils of New York City alongside the witches who saved me. Vigilantes, they call us. Cold-hearted killers. Monsters of the night. If only they knew how true that was—what our pasts have shaped us to be.
Mine forged me into the most powerful Daughter of Fire ever, which is exactly what this hell-spawned charmer claims he needs to kill the demon who stole my soul. Together, Zen insists, we can share in revenge–but on one condition. I must bind myself to him, an unthinkable deed with deadly ramifications at best. He’s playing every beguiling card in his deck to lure me in, but I’m no fool. He may be the enemy of my enemy, but he’s still a demon.
And I won’t make that mistake again.
A CURSE OF NIGHTSHADE, the first paranormal romance novel in the Witches of the Gilded Lilies series by USA Today bestselling author Amber Lynn Natusch. Each book in this series follows a different hero and heroine with each story playing into the series story arc.
About the BookSeries Witches of the Gilded Lilies | Genre Adult Paranormal Romance
Publisher Independent | Publication Date October 8, 2021
Purchase Your Copy Today!
To celebrate the release of A CURSE OF NIGHTSHADE,BookMojo is giving away a $100 Amazon gift card!A BookMojo Giveaway Hosted By Rafflecopter
GIVEAWAY TERMS & CONDITIONS: Open internationally. One winner will receive a $100 Amazon gift card. This giveaway is administered by BookMojo on behalf of Amber Lynn Natusch. Giveaway ends 11/30/2020 @ 11:59pm EST. BookMojo will deliver the prize to the winner shortly thereafter.
Read an ExcerptA CURSE OF NIGHTSHADE
A Witches of the Gilded Lilies Novel
© 2021 Amber Lynn Natusch
CHAPTER ONEThe sharp crack of a whip split the air right before it bit deep into my side, tearing through my paper-thin skin until it met bone. Blinding pain shot through me, and had it not been for my arms shackled above my head, pinning me to the rocky wall, I’d have crumpled to the ground. The steel resolve that had fueled me for weeks or months—or possibly longer—was failing with every gash, every beating, every broken bone. I was too battered and weak to endure much more.
My intense desire to defeat my captor had slowly given way to the quiet promise of peace my death would bring.
Blood trickled down my face and dripped on the sharp stone at my dirty feet, and I fought to lift my head. Sweat and tears stung my eyes as I prepared to face the orchestrator of my torment for what would be the last time.
“You can have it!” I said, forcing the words past my cracked lips. “You can have it…”
The phrase he’d been waiting to hear for so long echoed off the cavernous walls, summoning him. Seconds later, a shadowy figure appeared and slowly solidified into a hulking silhouette of leathery black flesh before me. His burning red eyes were drunk with anticipation and victory. He’d finally broken me.
His long-sought prize would soon be his.
“Say it how I told you,” he replied, his voice like silk through a grotesque mouth full of fangs. “It will not work if you do not.” The blade-sharp edge of his obsidian claw dragged down my face lightly, an encouragement and a warning wrapped into one, for I knew what he would do with it if I disappointed him yet again. The scars etched deep into my skin were evidence of that truth.
“My soul is yours to take…”
Though I barely breathed those words aloud, I knew he’d heard me. The flash of pointed white teeth gleamed in the firelight as he ripped my shackles free. For a fleeting moment, I thought that he might be letting me go—that his sick game had come to an end—but then a burning sensation flared in my chest and I collapsed to the ground, clutching it tightly. The demon’s claws wiggled above my heart, and I watched in horror as a plume of wispy white smoke drifted up from my chest to swirl around his fingers. The pain grew with every passing second, and I folded in on myself, as though I could somehow hold on to what I had just promised him. As though I could escape my fate. But like sand, it slipped through my fingers along with my life, the trail of white now glowing brightly. The very essence of my being was being torn from me, and I looked on helplessly as it circled up his thick arm and around his shoulder, headed for its final destination.
The searing pain slowly gave way to numbness, and weakness plagued me as I slumped to the floor.
Soon…it will end soon…
The massive demon uncurled from his crouch to loom over me, but I hardly took notice. My vision waned as the final shreds of my soul drifted toward him, leaving me vacant and fading. I knew how it would end—with my death and nothing more—but in my final moments, the survival instinct took over, and my hand shot forth to catch the tail end of glowing light. My will to live renewed with the contact and I pulled on it, my body fueled by the delusion that I could draw what I had freely given back into me. The demon roared his displeasure at my defiance and struck me hard, but it mattered not. What was done was done and could not be reversed. The demonic spell had already been cast.
And as my body gave out and the shadows closed in, all I felt was peace as I took my last breath.
A fierce, biting wind jostled me awake, and I wondered if hell wasn’t truly hot at all—if instead it was a frigid wasteland where I would spend eternity. But even through bleary vision, I could see that something was wrong. A bustling street filled with horses and carriages and tall buildings on the other side stretched out before me. Even in the faint glow of the gaslights, my russet-brown eyes burned, and I shielded them with my arm as I tried to block out the punishing noise surrounding me. The clomp of horse and carriage, the din of unfamiliar voices, and the squeal of police whistles stunned and overwhelmed me, and I steadied myself with deep breaths, though the tang of the air made that hard.
Confusion, then panic coursed through me as I tried to make sense of my surroundings. If I was not in hell, where in the hell was I?
I fought against my weakened limbs and pushed myself up to sit in the shadows, pressed against the brick wall at my back, but the foul stench of rot and manure assaulted me, nearly knocking me down again. As my eyes focused, I realized that I was tucked away in a building’s alcove. No one rushing by seemed to notice me, and for a moment, I wondered if I was invisible—if I was a ghost.
That theory seemed easy enough to test, so I tried to stand and walk out into the street; but my legs gave way, and I crashed to the stone beneath me in a lump. My hand shot out to brace my fall and struck a weathered wooden door to my right. Moments later, it flew open. A nun, dressed in a black habit, poked her head out to see who had knocked. Her wrinkled face turned as she searched the street before her, her rheumy eyes finding nothing. Then her gaze fell upon me, slumped against the wall, and she gasped, then backed into the building.
Not a ghost, then…
As I tried to stand again, another figure stepped out to join me in the alcove: a stunning, chestnut-haired woman with dainty features, dressed in silken finery. She could have been an angel if it hadn’t been for her lack of wings. She extended a gloved hand to me, but I didn’t take it.
“You need not fear me, Oleander.”
“How do you—”
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she continued with a smile. “We all have. Won’t you please come inside and join us? We have much work to do.”
Before I realized it, I was on my feet, ready to follow her, but the bite of jagged brick against my palm as I leaned on the wall for support helped clear my head. “Who are you?” My dry throat made my voice so hoarse that I could barely be heard.
“My name is Ivy Foxglove.”
A deadly flower… just like me…
“How am I here?” I wondered aloud.
Her damn smile widened. “Would you like to come meet the others?” she asked, as though she already knew the answer. A little breeze swept into the alcove, nudging me forward a step.
I dug my fingers into the cracks in the façade and held on for dear life. “The other who?”
Her head canted to the side and she looked at me with a quizzical expression, as though the fact that I had no idea what was going on had just occurred to her. “Why, the other Lilies, of course. Your sister witches.” Her voice wrapped around me like a blanket, comforting me. “Now come,” she said, motioning for me to follow, “you’ll catch your death of cold if you stay out here all night.”
“But I am dead,” I replied, my voice as empty and hollow as my soulless chest.
She turned to assess me like I’d taken leave of my senses. “You are most certainly not dead. Wherever would you get such a strange idea?”
“The demon—”
“Shh!” The harsh sound of her attempt to silence me was in stark contrast to her previous gentle demeanor, as were her firm hands on my shoulders as she hauled me inside the building. She leaned in close, pinning me to the door as she shut it. A warning niggled at the back of my weary mind, but Ivy’s voice silenced it in a second. “There will be no talk of such things in this place, do you understand?” Though I didn’t, I nodded anyway. She brushed my sweat-soaked black hair from my face and straightened my soiled shirt on my shoulders. “You are tired and confused, which makes sense given where I can only assume you’ve just come from, but this world does not know of such things and therefore must be protected—which is precisely why we summoned you.”
She took my hand in hers as she stalked through the stone building that reeked of frankincense and was filled with crosses and statues and tapestries, each depicting Mary or Jesus or some saint I couldn’t identify because I’d never bothered to learn. She moved with the grace of a predator, smiling and waving to the nuns as she passed, but Ivy was clearly no nun. Her use of the word ‘witch’ spoke to that fact.
She prattled on about ‘the others’ as she turned a corner leading to a narrow spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever. My exhaustion and hunger knew no bounds by that point, and my mind struggled to process her words as I stumbled to keep pace. We rounded the final steps to a wash of firelight, illuminating a massive library filled with walls of books. She strode to the far wall and pulled one free. The bookcase moved, exposing a room with a large wooden table covered with bowls and jars and things I couldn’t place, more shelves of books, and in the middle of it all, sprawled on a sofa and a chaise, three women of various ages staring back at me.
“Lilies!” Ivy called as she drew me into the room. “Our Daughter of Fire is finally here. We are now complete!” Their eyes raked over me as I stood before them, addled and ready to collapse. Then Ivy turned her warm green gaze to me. “Oleander Nightshade…welcome to the guild.”
CONTINUE READING
The PNR Portal is a paranormal romance event celebrating the release of A CURSE OF NIGHTSHADE.
Go through the portal to discover lots of PNR must reads!
September 20, 2021
Update: Come Out and Play ~ Limited Edition Signed Hardcovers!
Okay, everybody, this might be a bit of a long post (for me, anyway), but I NEED you to please hang with me. If you don’t, you’ll go to pre-order your hardcover copy of Come Out and Play and be like “WHY ISN’T IT ON THIS SITE???” I’ll then have to point to this post with that look of disappointment that only a tired parent can give and I really don’t want to do that.
So…
First, I want to THANK the fans of Dare You to Lie/Don’t Say a Word. You guys are amazing. When Tor Teen declined to buy the final two books in this series, I was devastated. Book one was a lead title and poised for great things….until my publisher decided only months before its release that they weren’t going to push contemporary titles anymore, leaving Ky and the gang out in the cold. So, I did what any bitter author would do: I rallied and hustled and helped its debut week perform well. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough.
We, as readers, have all been in the position at some point where a series we love gets axed because of poor/underperforming sales (although this is VERY much because of how the publishing game is played and not the books themselves) and know how disheartening it is to feel that strange sense of abandonment and frustration. I mean, we read those books and loved them and then nothing. Just poof…gone. It’s happened to me a time or two and I’m clearly still not over it (I hope you’re handling it better than I am).
Being a relentless type A, I hate not seeing things through, especially when I’m invested in a project, which is definitely the case with this cast of characters. So (after bitching about my situation for a few weeks), I pulled myself up and dusted myself off and got down to business. I mean, I started my career as a self-published author (one of those early ones that took off in 2011)….I should know how to put a book out myself, right? I already have editors and cover designers and formatters. I know roughly how long it should take me to write book three (I think it actually makes book #29 that I’ve written to date). I know when to book the various things that needed to be done. And I still retain the rights to the characters and world (my agent and I made sure this was the case before I signed just in case something like this went down,) so legally.
So I wrote the book. That’s the good news.
The bad news is I did NOT know anything about hardcover formatting and printing. Paperbacks? Yes. But hardcover is an entirely different beast—one I’ve been working hard to learn about over the past year to make sure those of you that want one to complete your collection can get it. The downside to this is that it’s expensive. I’m not Macmillan. I don’t have an in-house printing press or direct access to one to keep costs down. In truth, to manufacture the hardcover for Ky (which came in at a whopping 111,000 words!) it’s going to cost me more per book that you’d pay for it in stores if printed by a big house like Macmillan….and that’s BEFORE shipping.
I think you can see where I’m going with this…
I’ve thought a LOT about how to handle this because putting hardcover on a site like Amazon means I give up ALL RIGHTS to pricing, which could effectively make it so I LOSE money on sales. Not a stellar business plan for me. I’m looking into Barnes and Noble as well as stores in other countries to see what their rules are, but I don’t imagine they’ll be great either. It’s a bummer, but it’s a reality I’m doing my best to navigate. I’m a one man publishing house at the moment, and even with the help of my PA, we can only do so much.
Which is how I came to the conclusion that the BEST way for people to order hardcover books is through my website directly. This will limit WHERE I can ship to, but it DOES allow me to SIGN COPIES, which I know some of you love!
IT ALSO ALLOWS ME TO SEND THOSE COPIES OUT BEFORE RELEASE DAY!!!
And that leads me to my next point. If you want to order a SIGNED (or unsigned) COPY OF COME OUT AND PLAY, I will be doing a LIMITED PRINT RUN before the book releases, complete with a CUSTOM, FIVE-CHARACTER SKETCH INSIDE that will only be included in the hardcover edition!!! I need at least SIX WEEKS to get that order printed and shipped to me so I can turn them around and ship them to you BEFORE THE NOVEMBER 16th RELEASE DATE! Depending on how quickly the printer turns them around, that could be a couple days or more than a WEEK…possibly two. It’s like getting an ARC of a book you’re REALLLLLLY excited about. I’ve done my best to make sure this can happen (Ky is being formatted RIGHT NOW so she can go to print ASAP), but I only have a limited time to leave orders open for this first run so I can deliver on time.
The purchase link for the hardcovers can be found below. The hardcover special edition pricing (which includes shipping in the continental US) is $35/book. If you’re abroad, please know that I’m looking into ways for you to get a copy and will update you when I know more.
Please know that I really do appreciate all the messages and emails and blog comments I’ve gotten over the past year or more. They’ve driven me to deliver what I THINK will be your favorite book of the series.
…and make sure you read the dedication in the front.
This book is for you guys!
For Kylene Danners, there’s only one fate worse than death: entering a beauty pageant. So when her friends (and a shot at a twenty-thousand dollar college scholarship) push her into one, she assumes she’s found hell on earth—until girls start dropping out under suspicious circumstances, and Ky finds herself smack dab in the middle of another dangerous mystery—a twisted web of duplicity and deceit far more deadly than she expected.
COME OUT AND PLAY, the third young adult mystery novel in the Hometown Antihero series.
Coming November 16, 2021
PREORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!
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Amazon NL | Amazon DE | Amazon IT | Amazon IN | Amazon ES
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August 19, 2021
Giveaway! You Could Win a $250 Amazon Gift Card!
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Giveaway ends October 31, 2021 @ 11:59pm EST. The prize will be awarded shortly thereafter.
One winner will be chosen to receive a $250USD (or your country’s currency equivalent) Amazon gift card.
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August 17, 2021
It’s ROMANCE AWARENESS MONTH! Celebrate With 100+ Romance Reads!
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August 16, 2021
Blurb Reveal – Come Out and Play, Hometown Antihero Book Three – COMING SOON!
GAMES AREN’T FOR KIDS—THEY’RE FOR KILLERS.For Kylene Danners, there’s only one fate worse than death: entering a beauty pageant. So when her friends (and a shot at a twenty-thousand dollar college scholarship) push her into one, she assumes she’s found hell on earth—until girls start dropping out under suspicious circumstances, and Ky finds herself smack dab in the middle of another dangerous mystery—a twisted web of duplicity and deceit far more deadly than she expected.
COME OUT AND PLAY, the third young adult mystery novelin the Hometown Antihero series.Add It to Your TBR Pile Today!Goodreads
May 1, 2021
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January 25, 2021
UNBOUND is Now Live!
With an army immune to the god of fear’s manipulation at her back, Khara’s ability to defeat the immortal Phobos should no longer be in question. But an unexpected incident with her mother has left Khara’s powers compromised, and his time to strike grows near.
Soon she will have to make a choice. Soon she will have to trust an enemy. For this twisted game will all come down to two in the end: the god of fear against the princess of darkness.
And only one can win.
KEEP READING TO SEE AN EXCERPT!
Excerpt
This ever-changing story
Of the one who dare not fail,
Tasked with the near impossible,
No choice but to prevail
Only death and loss and torment
In the Always and Never hail,
These sacrifices paid in blood
For the one with souls for sale
While the evil in her rises,
A tipping of the scale,
The war between the light and dark,
Erodes the thinning veil.
Now fear has finally broken her,
The fierce heroine of this tale:
The Princess of the Underworld
And the Land Beyond the Pale
Prologue
I awoke in a sea of darkness so complete it engulfed everything in existence, save for the hand in front of my body, coiled around a length of rope. The hand was my own; the rope remained a mystery. I tugged it closer, only to find the slack in it pulled tight.
Fist over fist, I followed the line through the eternal black, wondering if either would ever end. It felt as though I had been walking forever, destination unknown, and yet I knew I had to continue; knew there was a reason for this journey, even if I could not quite place it.
The further I traveled, the tighter my chest grew. Pressure from an unseen source bore down upon me as a light fog began to cloud my vision. The veil of aether swallowed me as I walked on, the darkness giving way to a suffocating cloud of grey. But that grey grew lighter with every step, and I knew I was getting close.
I could feel it in my bones.
Fear surrounded me as blinding light cut through the dullness, and I freed one hand to shade my eyes. The brightness before me began to solidify into a focused shape lying at my feet, and I slowly crouched next to it as my heart thundered in my chest. I had reached the end of the line.
With nothing else to do—nowhere further to go—I reached my hand out toward that blinding shape. My fingertips barely grazed the glowing aura that reminded me so much of my mother’s that, for a moment, I wondered if it was her. But the second they touched the ethereal nothingness, I knew it was not.
An unholy scream rang out and the shape wheeled on me, dark eyes peering through the light with a predatory stare. Fear like I had never known shot through me, and I stumbled backward. The hand that held the rope flew wide and released the line.
Then I fell.
And fell.
And fell.
I hurtled through the jet-black cosmos with no way to catch myself, through the darkened emptiness that seemed to go on for eternity. The rope that had guided me was gone. But as fast as I fell, a pale, glowing shape appeared in the distance, gaining on me with every passing second. Soon it would be upon me, and my fate would be sealed.
“You cannot have me,” I whispered into the air rushing past me.
Another pained howl echoed through the black abyss, and my body slammed into something soft and familiar.
With a gasp, I shot up in bed and searched for the enemy with panicked eyes. All I found were Oz’s room in the Victorian to greet me and the Dark One himself perched next to me, staring.
“I found him,” I whispered, disbelief thick in my tone. “He who shall not be named…”
“Where?” Oz’s black wings shot wide around us to fight an enemy that was not there.
I contemplated his question for a moment, brow furrowed. Because, in truth, I did not know the answer, and yet I did. I could not name it, though I was certain I could find it again. The nothing was most definitely a something.
“Nowhere…and everywhere.”
The Dark One swore. “More riddles,” he growled as his wing formed a protective arc around me. It was such a subtle gesture that I wondered if he was even aware of it, or if his concern regarding Phobos had caused him to act without thought. Because he knew all too well the threat the fear god posed to me. To us all.
And he was most definitely coming.
CONTINUE READING…
October 9, 2020
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USA Today Bestselling Author Amber Lynn Natusch
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July 30, 2020
ROGUE REFORMATORY: BROKEN is Now Live!!!
BESTSELLING AUTHORS AMBER LYNN NATUSCH & MARTY MAYBERRY PRESENT SUPERNATURAL MISFITS ACADEMY, A YOUNG ADULT PARANORMAL PRISON SERIES.
After Maddy and Cece failed to defeat the energy source fueling the wards of Wadsworth Reformatory, they discover a whole new set of problems. The headmaster is gone, and everyone else is acting eerily normal. If the girls didn’t know better, they’d think nothing had happened.
Except strange occurrences start cropping up around them, from crystal balls and ominous messages, to magical rooms and possible ghosts. These new hurdles threaten to throw the sisters off their original mission: escape. But an even greater threat looms over Wadsworth, and even with the help of Rhys and Aidan, it’s going to take a miracle for them to get out alive.
Maybe two.
Purchase Your Copy Today!
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About the Book
Rogue Reformatory: Broken
by Amber Lynn Natusch & Marty Mayberry
Series
Supernatural Misfits Academy
Genre
Young Adult
Supernatural Suspense
Publisher
Independent
Publication Date
July 30, 2020
Purchase Your Copy Today!
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Excerpt
ROGUE REFORMATORY: BROKEN
A Supernatural Misfits Academy Novel
© 2020 Amber Lynn Natusch & Marty Mayberry
CHAPTER ONE
Maddy
“Fuck off,” a guy growled as I rounded a corner and slammed into him. Cece, Rhys, Aidan, and I bolted down the hallway, fear rising with every step. A few seconds ago, Wolfy, my twelve-inch-tall, bonded sentinel wolfling, had burst into Aidan’s room and woken us up, shouting something has happened. We were on our feet and out the door seconds later.
While early morning sunlight poured in through the windows in the hall, we piled into the elevator, and I gnawed on a fingernail as the car plunged down to the lowest basement floor. Last night, we’d cracked a blob-like power source in the dank basement of Wadsworth Reformatory, knocking it out of commission. To top it off, we’d stuffed the evil headmaster into the gap, and it had sealed around him. But with the way Wolfy came barging into the room with his ominous message, I knew something was wrong.
I just didn’t know what.
Before the doors finished opening, I jumped out and rushed down the hall into the cavernous room where we’d—supposedly—eliminated Wadsworth’s headmaster problem.
Bad thought on our part.
As I gaped at the huge, glowing, pulsing source of power, my limbs shook. Yeah, we might’ve subdued it, but no, we hadn’t come close to caging it. The icy glow in the center flickered, and white lights rippled across the bulbous surface. At least it wasn’t growing bigger.
Yet.
Wolfy charged into the room and slunk over to hide behind my legs.
“I…” I shook my head as horror rushed through me. The crack we’d made had smoothed over somewhat, but no snarling headmaster glared out at us. “Where is he?”
“Dead, I hope,” Cece said from beside me.
I reeled on Aidan, who stood close to her—but not touching her—his arms crossed over his chest. Whatever had happened between them when he’d pulled her from her mute and unresponsive state the night before had clearly changed something, since she wasn’t clutching her head and screaming in pain like she had only hours earlier when she’d stood before the source without his touch.
“I thought you said this would end it,” I said. “If the headmaster’s not here, where did he go?”
He unlinked his arms and lifted his hands, but his smirk negated his contrite pose. “Rhys and I stuffed him into the crack, then sealed it over. That should’ve taken care of him for now.”
“Perhaps,” Wolfy said, slinking forward to stand between us. The dusty black fur on his back bristled, but I doubted he was challenging Aidan, because his little body trembled. “I don’t understand. He should’ve been trapped until we could decide what to do with him.”
“Looks like the headmaster decided for himself,” Cece said.
Suddenly, the source rumbled and shook, and tiny bits of energy lifted off it like solar flares.
“What’s it doing?” I asked. My jaw tightening, I called the beast curled up deep inside me, just in case I needed it. My beast roared, eager to be released, but I mentally kept it at bay. It snarled, but I persevered. Be patient. I’m in control, not you. Hopefully. I hadn’t done a very good job with that so far.
“Um…” Cece backed up a step. “My guess is it’s still pissed off about last night.”
“Perhaps…” Aidan said, walking around it. He stepped closer and stooped down, and I wanted to grab his arm to haul him back, but he seemed like he knew what he was doing. “Last night, Maddy tried to destroy it by herself, but it didn’t work. What if…if we all channeled our power at the same time, that should be more than enough to obliterate it.” Leaving the source, he returned to stand beside Cece.
“Great idea.” Rhys flanked my other side, and power arced between his fingers like thin bolts of lightning. “I’m sure my family’s connection to the building will make a difference. Let’s do it. Finish this thing off before it causes more damage.”
“Hold on.” Cece’s eyes closed. “I sense something. It’s searching. Pulling.” A shudder ripped through her. “I think it’s straining to break free.” She winced, as if simply listening to the source had caused her great pain.
“That’s it for me,” I ground out, my gaze flicking to Rhys and then Aidan. “Time to show this blob of light who’s boss.”
Something flickered inside the source. “Did you see that? It…” I stopped. Leaning closer, I saw nothing. Had I imagined it? I must’ve. With a nod to Aidan, I lifted my arms. Wolfy moved to stand beside me, a growl rumbling in his chest.
Aidan’s face tightened, the only evidence that he was ready to add his strength to mine and Rhys’s.
“Guys…” Cece said. She bolted forward and grabbed my sleeve, tugging me backward. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. It—”
A thunderous boom shook the floor, and a blast of energy shot out of the source, knocking all of us backward. Aidan dove to the side, while Rhys somehow remained on his feet, his arms extended. Light poured from his fingers, ready to be deployed.
Thrown backward, I smacked into the wall, and the bang of my impact reverberated in the room. My body aching, I slumped to the dirt floor, clutching my arm. It stung and itched at the same time, and I gulped as I stared down. Scales erupted across my hand, creating a rippling, gleaming, greenish glove. Had I been burned and were blisters forming? Before I could blink or wail for Cece to help, the blister-scales disappeared, absorbed back into my skin.
My eyes were playing tricks on me.
Cece moaned from beside me and rubbed her head. “You okay?”
I nodded, unable to push words past my lips. What the hell had just happened? Dirt and dust dropped from the ceiling as the power source expanded and then retracted. Its bluish-green center darkened to colors found only in the deepest part of the sea. When it swelled again, and a boom resounded, a second wave of energy blasted across us.
Wolfy raced over to stand in front of me, peering over his shoulder. “This doesn’t look good.”
Cece yanked on my arm, hauling me to my feet. Her attention shot to the pulsating mass in the center of the room. It smoldered, and inky smoke drifted off it and across the floor. The stark fear I found in her eyes made bile rise up in the back of my throat. “We need to get out of here.”
Aidan cocked his head and stared at her. “But—”
“Now!” Cece shouted. She dragged me toward the entrance, with the guys behind. “We can come back later. Like when we have a less hare-brained plan—and that’s rich coming from me.” The look she shot Aidan was stern, but the panic that lined it set me on edge. “Run!”
With Wolfy scampering ahead of us, we fled the scene. When the elevator doors opened on the first floor to eject us, Wolfy bolted right, his little claws clicking on the floor.
“Hey, we’re going this way,” I said, tipping my head to the left. My hands shook, and my heart had surged up into my throat. I lifted my hand, examining it from all angles, but it appeared normal. What had happened back there?
“I have something I need to check out,” Wolfy said. “I’ll find you later.”
“What’s going on?” I called out as he scurried away. What aren’t you telling me? I added, sending the last directly to his mind.
“Nothing.” He darted around the corner, disappearing from view.
We hurried to the central hall area, then leaned against the wall while we caught our breath, acting casual, or at least as casual as we could when high color filled our faces. Sweat trickled down my spine, and I ached to rub it away. Kids strode by, only a few sparing us a glance.
Which…was odd. Had no one heard the blasts in the basement? Shouldn’t someone be aware of what had happened? And why wasn’t the floor collapsing beneath us?
“What did you feel back there?” Aidan asked Cece.
“Yeah,” Rhys said, “why did we have to run?”
“It…I can’t quite explain it, but I knew if we left, it would back down. And if we stayed there any longer, bad shit would happen.”
“Bad shit like what?” Aidan asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder.
“I don’t know. Do you want to go back down and find out?” she asked. The set of Aidan’s brow said that he didn’t. “I could sense that distance would keep us safe. That it would be…subdued. For now.”
“That thing is unpredictable,” I said. “Dangerous.” We needed to neutralize it.
“I think we’re okay for now.” Cece lifted her nose to sniff, then bumped off the wall with joy filling her face. “Wait. I. Smell. Waffles!”
I groaned. “How can you think of food right now? We were just saying that thing is dangerous. I think we have to—”
“I’ve been starved since the moment I got here.” Her elbow bit into Aidan’s side, and he exhaled. “Someone keeps waffle-blocking me.”
“But what if that…thing finds a way to come after us?” I ground my teeth together so hard, it was a surprise I didn’t break them.
Cece paused partway down the hall and turned to face us. She squinted inward, seeking… “Nope. We’re okay for the moment. It’s sort of going to sleep.” She dipped her head at Aidan. “We barely ruffled its feathers.”
Not good. “I wonder…maybe we need to go back and try to destroy it again.” Whirling, I started toward the elevator with fire licking through my veins.
Rhys caught up with me. “I think we should hold off,” he said softly, watching as two guys shuffled past us. Other kids streamed around us, hurrying toward the cafeteria. What was it about the waffles? “Let’s get something to eat and discuss the options first.”
“I’m worried that it’s not done with us.” My hand flicked out. “With all of us.”
“Agreed. But next time we go down there, we’ll need a better strategy. We couldn’t demolish it last night, and it still feels volatile today. There has to be another way besides blasting it with power.”
Cece and Aidan joined us. Her eyebrows rising, Cece made eating gestures at me and whispered. “Food?”
My shoulders dropped as I relented. “Okay. But while we’re eating, we’re going to talk about what we’re going to do with…it.”
“Of course!” Cece pivoted and rushed toward the cafeteria, hauling Aidan behind her.
I reluctantly followed with Rhys. Everything inside me said we didn’t have much time. We needed to eliminate the threat before it eliminated us, but I couldn’t do it alone, and Rhys was right. Blasting away at it was not going to get us anywhere.
My sister waited for us in the cafeteria entrance. Aidan’s attention was focused on something inside the room. We walked inside and joined the back of the line, moving forward and taking trays of food. Turning, we paused to locate an empty table.
Aidan’s fellow fey waved and called out for him to join them. Him, not us.
Separation based on our different powers was still alive and well at Wadsworth. It seemed silly to worry about something like that after we’d just been blasted by a creepy, oozing mass in the basement, let alone the fact that we’d killed a bunch of keepers and possibly the headmaster last night. Which raised an important question: why did everything appear so normal?
You’d think they at least would’ve noticed the power surges from below ground.
Speaking of keepers, I could swear the one standing near the door was one of the guys we’d battled last night, but I had to be mistaken. Wolfy had said he’d take care of things, and who would smile benignly at us after something like that? Later, I’d have to clarify exactly what Wolfy had done with the keepers.
At first, I thought Aidan would sit with us, but his demeanor had changed from part of the group to distant the second we’d walked into the cafeteria. He gave Cece a quick, dispassionate glance before he left without a word and sat with the other fey. Matching collars and all that.
Collar issues we planned to ignore.
“You okay?” I asked Cece, and she shot me an indifferent look. To someone who didn’t know her, she would appear unfazed. But I could see that his actions hurt her. I shot Aidan a glare that lost its impact since he’d turned his back and missed it. Grumbling, I followed Cece and Rhys as they crossed the room, where I sat across from Cece at a table filled with kids with more than one power. Like me.
A brunette girl sitting with three guys at the end of our table scowled at Cece.
Cece had one focus: her plate. After pouring syrup on her waffles, she cut into them, then took a big bite. Closing her eyes, she moaned and wiggled in her seat.
“What are we going to do?” I asked, buttering my waffle.
Rhys bit into a slice of bacon. “First thing after breakfast, I think we should stop by someone’s office.”
Yes. The headmaster was either dead or huddled inside the power source. No time better than now to snoop. Wolfy could join us and direct our search.
“Cool,” Cece said. “And after that?”
Rhys shrugged. “We can find somewhere quiet to figure out how to eliminate that thing in the basement. We probably should wait for Aidan. I imagine he has input.”
As I chewed, the brunette at the opposite end of the table started to get up. Fire burned in her eyes, and the flames were directed at Cece, who was oblivious, completely absorbed in eating every crumb of her waffle.
I glared, but the brunette rolled her eyes.
Irritation sparked through me. Deep inside, something wild and untamed and unknown stirred. Like the beast, yet different than the source of my power, this new part of me ached to break free.
As the brunette stomped toward us, I unleashed it. It shot out of me and toward her.
She came to a full stop, her jaw dropping. She gulped and floundered backward, the fire in her eyes extinguished, as if I’d chucked a cup of water in her direction. Guppy-breathing, she plopped back down onto her seat. The guys she sat with looked back and forth between us before leaning close to her. Furious whispers erupted from that end of the table.
Uh oh. Everyone assumed I was wearing a collar, due to Aidan’s glamour. Crap. Had I given myself away?
Cece’s fork clattered onto her plate, a bite still speared by the tines. “Maddy…what the hell was that?”
“I….” After carefully lowering my fork onto my tray, I rubbed my face. “I was just…” I frowned. What now? The feral thing I’d touched wasn’t quite the same as the beast I’d come to know and…okay, tolerate, not love. With a shrug, I picked up my fork and took another bite of my waffle. “No clue.”
Rhys and Cece gaped at me, their hands lying motionless on the table. Unease shot through me, and my hands shook.
“We need to get out of here,” Cece said. She shoved her chair back, and its shriek rang out in the room. Heads turned our way. “Now.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
We dumped our trays and left the cafeteria, not stopping until we were back in the hall.
“What’s up, guys?” I asked, playing dumb. Damn. I had ruined this for us. My shoulders hunched forward. “I’m not wearing a collar, and I gave it away. That’s why the brunette freaked, right?”
“That’s not quite what we’re worried about,” Rhys said. “She came toward us.”
“Know that already.”
“And you—”
“Yeah?”
He leaned back to study my expression. “You don’t know what you did.”
“I have an idea, but…” Gnawing on my lower lip, I waved my hand at him.
“Your eyes.” He shook his head.
I almost hated to ask. “What about my eyes?”
“They changed,” Cece whispered. I hadn’t seen her this scared since the time I’d ‘borrowed’ her longboard and taken on the tallest hill in town. One of my braver moments.
“For a moment,” Rhys said, “your eyes were amber.”
Cece nodded. “And slitted like a reptile’s.”
CONTINUE READING…
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To celebrate the release of ROGUE REFORMATORY: BUSTED by Amber Lynn Natusch & Marty Mayberry, we’re giving away a 3-month membership to Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program to one lucky winner!
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About Amber Lynn Natusch
AMBER LYNN NATUSCH is the author of the bestselling Caged series for adults. She was born and raised in Winnipeg, and is still deeply attached to her Canadian roots. She loves to dance and practice Muay Thai―but spends most of her time running a chiropractic practice with her husband, raising two young children, and attempting to write when she can lock herself in the bathroom for ten minutes of peace. Dare You to Lie is her debut YA novel with Tor Teen.
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About Marty Mayberry
MARTY MAYBERRY writes young adult fiction and infuses it with suspense, romance, and a touch of humor. When she’s not dreaming up ways to mess with her character’s lives, she works as an RN/Clinical Documentation Specialist. She lives in New England with her husband, three children, three geriatric cats, and a spunky Yorkie pup who keeps her on her toes.
Marty is a member of YARWA and a PAN member of RWA, as well a four-year PitchWars mentor.
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