Aimee Easterling's Blog, page 16

Fairy tales and urban fantasy thrillers

I seem to have gotten on a couple of unique reading kicks this summer. Just in case you want to play along, here are the books that hit the spot in each category.

I’ll start with fairy tales because, depending on the author, these can feel awfully close to either urban fantasy or to fantasy romance. Traitor’s Masque by Kenley Davidson is a good example of a fairy tale that twists and turns enough to please most readers of character-driven fantasy. The book is very richly written without being overwritten, and I’m forcing myself not to dive into Davidson’s other books immediately so I can savor them the way they deserve. (This series is all FREE to borrow with Kindle Unlimited.)

Next up, the anthology Once Upon a Kiss (FREE with Kindle Unlimited) is a great way to try out a variety of authors with bite-size stories just long enough to get you hooked. Hailey Edwards’ contribution was the sweetest morsel, fantastical and romantic all at once. I need to remember to check out more of Edwards’ urban fantasy!

Speaking of urban-fantasy authors branching out into other genres, I read two non-fantastical thrillers this month by women who usually add magic to their tales. Rachel Caine’s Stillhouse Lake and V.J. Chambers’ Child of Mine both kept me up way too late and didn’t let me go until the bitter end. I don’t even like thrillers (or so I thought), but the psychological subgenre clearly hits the spot. (Both of these books are also FREE with Kindle Unlimited.)

How about you? Which books surprised you this summer because they were in genres or by authors you thought you didn’t enjoy? I hope you’ll join in the discussion over on facebook by clicking on the link below!

Fire Kissed is now live!

I’m excited to announce that the Fire Kissed anthology is now live on Amazon and FREE to borrow with Kindle Unlimited! This box set contains a lucky thirteen never-before-published novellas by urban-fantasy and paranormal-romance authors…including myself.

My contribution is Incendiary Magic, a short but action-packed prequel to the Dragon Mage universe. Fee is a fire mage with an impossible mission — infiltrate the home base of her dragon overlords and destroy them. You can try out the first chapter here.

But I hope you don’t just buy the box set and skip straight to my story. I haven’t read all of the other contributions yet, but the blurbs alone have me waiting with baited breath to sit down with my kindle this evening and give them a try. There’s a high-stakes poker game, an accidentally kidnapped not-quite-bride, and lots and lots of dragons. Plenty to keep me busy long into the night!

The anthology is only up for three short months, so don’t delay. Grab your copy here and enjoy!

Fantasy romance book recommendations

Branching out a little further from the urban fantasy and paranormal books I recommended last time, today’s post is all about top reads in other subgenres of fantasy (notably fairy tales and romantic fantasy).

Death Sworn by Leah Cypress is a perfect fantasy read, with a strong but flawed heroine, an intriguing setup, and enough moral ambiguity to keep me guessing. Plus assassins. Who doesn’t love assassins?

Out of Time by Monique Martin is time-travel fantasy that feels like historical fiction. How can you not enjoy reading about a modern grad student having to get a job in a Depression-era speakeasy in order to pay the rent? (At the time of this post, this title is FREE.)

Cinderella and the Colonel by K.M. Shea feels less like a Cinderella story and more like a fantasy with interesting worldbuilding and a good moral conundrum to work through. Recommended for fans of fairy tales and romantic fantasy alike. (At the time of this post, this title is in Kindle Unlimited.)

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge is probably the most believable Beauty and the Beast retelling I’ve ever read. There’s fascinating, history-based world-building that really matches the fairy tale…but I’ll warn you, the story goes to some pretty dark places.

How about you? What’s the best fantasy book you’ve read so far this summer? Click on the facebook link below and let me know!

Urban fantasy and paranormal romance book reviews

I realized I hadn’t regaled you with my list of Favorite Recent Reads for a few long months. Time to catch up…starting with the genres you’re likely to enjoy the most — urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

Agent of Enchantment by C.N. Crawford and Alex Rivers is my most highly recommended title for this period. The blend of unique worldbuilding, London history, and just the right amount of psychobabble turned an already gripping urban fantasy into a major winner. (At the time of this post, this title is in kindle unlimited.)

Where the Wild Things Bite by Molly Harper is a close runnerup. This is a human-meets-vampire romance including ancient books and wilderness survival situations plus a really funny authorial voice that kept me laughing as I turned pages way too quickly.

Rebel Wolf by Amy Green has an extraordinarily hooky beginning — a grad student goes to visit a werewolf in prison, trying to talk him into being her research subject. Highly recommended for fans of T.S. Joyce. (At the time of this post, this title is free.)

And, speaking of T.S. Joyce, she writes books faster than I can read them (which is saying something!). My favorite of her titles this time around was Gray Back Ghost Bear, which includes the author’s patented feel-good romance with great characters, a real storyline, and this time ghosts! (At the time of this post, this title is in kindle unlimited.)

If you want more book recommendations (along with limited-time sales I tend not to post over here), be sure to sign up for my newsletter. And, in the meantime, maybe you’ll click on the facebook link below and let me know which recent urban fantasy and paranormal romance reads you thoroughly enjoyed?

What to read after Patricia Briggs

Do you love the Mercy Thompson series, about a coyote shifter running with werewolves? Or perhaps you prefer the Alpha & Omega series, which follows an entirely new kind of werewolf — one so low on the totem pole that she calms unruly tempers just by entering the room. Either way, all good things must come to an end, and eventually you run out of the gateway drug. What comes next?

 

I asked a bunch of readers, and here were the most common replies:

 

Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series is arguably the most like the Mercy Thompson series in overall feel. If anything, the former series feels a hair derivative of the latter…but who am I to complain when I love Mercy Thompson so much that I let my heroine read Briggs’ newest novel in the beginning of my first werewolf book?

 

Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series is probably a close second on the similarity scale, adding in more action and worldbuilding but lowering the romance quotient a bit. Or maybe I just don’t have as much chemistry with Curran as I do with Adam? Either way, I highly recommend giving this series an extensive try.

 

Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock series begins branching out into classic urban fantasy that is less closely related to Patricia Briggs’ works in ways other than genre. However, the Native American element (which is strong in certain Mercy Thompson books) is also present here, providing an extra link between the two series.

 

Eileen Wilks’ World of the Lupi has less of an urban-fantasy feel, at least in the first book which veers strongly toward the whodunit. But there’s enough shifter action and culture so that I suspect the series will float many Briggs’ fans’ boat despite veering off in a totally different direction. (Different can be good, right?)

 

Shannon Meyer’s Rylee Adamson series is also a crowd pleaser, with a werewolf pet and plenty of other magical beings plus a healthy quotient of action and mystery.

 

Hailey Edwards Gemini series is another werewolf-packed urban-fantasy saga (although this one is indie published and will be harder to find at your local library).

 

My own Wolf Rampant and Alpha Underground series were intended to scratch a similar itch as well — I ran out of the type of werewolf books I wanted to read and decided to write my own.

 

Then you start jumping into urban fantasy that lacks shifters and other obvious linkages to Patricia Briggs but is likely to appeal to similar readers anyway. I started listing specific series, but instead decided to point you toward this Goodreads list for up-to-the-moment information.

 

Want to join in the conversation? Hop on over to facebook using the embedded post below and share your own favorite series! Hungry readers want to know what to read next.

Cerulean Magic is live!

Cerulean Magic is now live on Amazon! This second novel in the Dragon Mage series follows a minor character from book 1 (Sabrina Fairweather) and is designed to be entirely understandable as a standalone. Here’s what early readers have to say about it:

This book has it all. Bad guys, good guys, people you can love and people you can hate. Action, adventure, and love. — VaWineLover

Does NOT disappoint! — Robin

Dragons, Magic and Adventure…who could ask for more??? — Sara F

Full of excitement and adventure — LHill

Sabrina turned out to be a very secretive, twisty character, so her book soon took on the same characteristics. As a result, I had to do more rewriting than usual, but I hope the final product will keep you on the edge of your seat. Enjoy!

Cerulean Magic: Chapter 2, Scene 2

If you missed the beginning of Nicholas’s chapter, please click here to catch up.

She. The word smacked Nicholas across the face just as his brother had intended, and his feet turned toward the stairwell as the fastest path to achieve his destination.

“There’s no big hurry,” Alexander called after his retreating back. “One of the visiting sloggers said she’d been up there for two hours already. He thought the female was one of us. Imagine, a silver dragon and he had no idea she didn’t belong.”

Nicholas could well imagine. Mudsloggers — or sloggers for short — were ordinary humans who occasionally visited the Aerie to trade or work. They were inevitably terrified of dragons, or were at least in awe of the tremendous beasts who prevented the Green from overrunning the few skyscraper safe zones where both dragons and humans lived in harmony. Why should a slogger bother to consider color and gender when the mere presence of a dragon was enough to make most of them piss their pants?

“She shifted?” Nicholas called backwards even as he pulled at his own inner fire and felt fiery wings pop out of human shoulder blades. Stairs were faster than the elevator…especially when you were a dragon and able to fly.

“Nope,” his brother answered, matching him wingbeat for wingbeat. Together, they pushed upwards, navigating the nine stories between kitchen and roof in the time it would have taken for the elevator to ascend a single level.

“She’s leaving then.” Nicholas wasn’t sure why his stomach lurched at the thought. Probably just because he’d never met a female dragon before. Never imagined there were sisters out there to match the brothers — some of his blood, all of his heart — with whom he shared this aerial retreat.

Because there weren’t new dragons being born or made. Every shifter had popped into existence three decades earlier at the same time normal plants morphed into the dangerous Green. Perhaps that was why learning about a female dragon after all this time felt like stepping into a fairy tale where knights and dragons were matched by princesses and tasks of honor.

“Hasn’t even spread her wings,” Alexander countered. Then, catching Nicholas’s arm before the latter could push open the heavy metal door that stood between them and the open summit of the Plaza, his brother admonished, “Slow down. You don’t want to scare her away.”

Nicholas couldn’t slow down, though. Instead, his feet rushed forward, hip thrusting out to press against the release bar in the middle of the door. Sister. The word danced like a newfound secret down his spine and for a moment Nicholas remembered what secrets used to feel like before they’d turned into a burden nearly impossible to bear.

Still, he forced himself to pause after stepping out into the cool, damp tang of evening so his eyes could adjust to the rapidly fading light. Back in the Before, the rooftop would have been ablaze with the glow of electric bulbs, the city beneath so brilliant it made stars in the sky impossible to pick out of the smoggy skyline. Now, the Aerie faded into near darkness as soon as evening fell, only a few beacons of light shining to the north, south, and west where five other buildings rose high enough in the air to provide refuge from the Green.

But Nicholas had no attention to spare for either absent lights or pesky vines that were unable to breach his current elevated location. Instead, his gaze locked onto the beast perched atop the tremendous air-conditioning unit that rose above the roof’s otherwise flat surface.

Silvery hide reflected the last rays of the setting sun and a long tail twined sinuously around the vertical wall below. The strange dragon appeared to be relaxing, basking even. But her eyes were open wide, her muscles tensed as if to flee. And Nicholas found himself motioning his brother backward with a single wave of one desperate hand.

“Go below,” he commanded, knowing even as he spoke that he was screwing up already. Dragons weren’t good at at obeying orders, and Alexander was likely to do the exact opposite when faced with a stark demand.

But…a female dragon. The notion must have filled his brother with every bit as much awe as Nicholas felt, because footsteps obligingly retreated back toward the stairwell from which they’d both come. The door clicked open and clanged shut once more, then Nicholas was alone with the biggest secret he’d uncovered in his entire life.

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into Sabrina and Nicholas’s world! Cerulean Magic will go live later in the month. If you haven’t already joined my email list, be sure to sign up so you’ll be alerted to my fan-friendly 99-cent launch sale. Thanks for reading!

Cerulean Magic: Chapter 2, Scene 1

Chapter 2 begins two hours before the events of chapter 1.

Nicholas had sworn off secrets. Unfortunately, secrets didn’t feel the same way about him. Instead, they seemed bound and determined to waft their way out of his friends’ lips and into his ears whether he kept his nose stuck in a tablet or not. And, inevitably, those same secrets ended up with the people he cared about hurting or dead.

Well, not this time. The dragon shifter reached out and attempted to pull the heavy tray away from Charlotte’s burdened hands. “Here, let me take that.”

“Excuse me?” She turned on him with flashing eyes and furrowed brow. “In case you hadn’t noticed, carrying food around is my job. I’m a serving wench, remember?”

“Serving wench? What is this, the Dark Ages?” Nicholas closed his eyes and counted to two. It was meant to be ten, but Charlotte’s heavier-than-usual footsteps were receding rapidly, so he expedited the sub-process before trotting down the hallway in her wake.

His friend didn’t slow down, though. Instead, Nicholas ended up walking backwards in front of her hurried form in an effort to recapture the young woman’s attention. “Look, this isn’t appropriate work given your sensitive condition. You need to tell the baby’s father and let him provide the assistance you deserve. He…”

“Shush!” Now Charlotte did stop and glance in both directions down the empty corridor. “That was a secret. You said you wouldn’t tell anyone….”

“And I didn’t,” Nicholas countered.

Not that he had any choice in the matter. Like every dragon, Nicholas possessed a knack…but his came with a troublesome side effect. Step into his presence and man, woman, and child alike vomited up secrets at the drop of a hat. That aspect of his trait was straightforward enough. The tricky part emerged later, when Nicholas became physically incapable of discussing those secrets with anyone other than their originator.

It was maddening…especially when the secret keeper persisted in allowing pride to outweigh good sense. On at least one memorable occasion, a secret kept had resulted in a life lost. If Nicholas had any say about it, Charlotte wouldn’t fall into the same enticing trap.

“Well, that’s a relief,” his current companion started. But Nicholas cut her off before she could brush past him and return to work.

“I didn’t tell anyone, but you need to. You said you’re already beginning to show, which means you’re probably tired, nauseous, and generally not feeling your best….”

“What are you, a midwife?”

“I prefer the term Ob/Gyn,” Nicholas countered dryly. What he actually was was a data nerd who possessed a cached version of the internet from the Before. A quick image search had turned up a handy pregnancy chart…but then he’d gotten lost down a rabbit hole of terrifying forum posts.

Nicholas shivered. No, none of those nightmares were going to happen to Charlotte on his watch. She’d just have to stop saddling herself with unnecessary burdens and toe the line of good sense….

Then the elevator dinged and two new sets of footsteps turned into the corridor behind him. In response, Charlotte leapt five feet backwards so quickly she nearly spilled the contents of her far-too-heavy tray. Great. Rather than appearing to be a pair interrupted in the midst of a heated debate, they instead looked like lovers startled out of an intimate moment.

Sure enough, when he turned to face the newcomers, both of their faces wore matching expressions of warm amusement. The younger man — a server just like Charlotte — smoothed his expression in reaction to Nicholas’s glare, but the other onlooker was less easily cowed.

“Tch, tch, brother,” Alexander teased. “What have I told you about manhandling serving wenches in the corridors?”

“That’s where you got it from?” Nicholas demanded, turning back to face his original conversational partner. “Please tell me he’s not…”

“He’s not,” she cut him off.

As if Nicholas would have spilled the beans even if he was physically capable of doing so. He flared his nostrils in lieu of rolling his eyes, then turned his glare onto the male server. “Take Charlotte’s tray.”

At least that human was intimidated by a dragon shifter’s curt command. Of course, then Nicholas felt like shit as the male moved to obey so quickly that he tripped over his own two feet and barely refrained from knocking Charlotte down in the process.

By the time trays had traded hands, Alexander was laughing so loudly the entire corridor reverberated with his amusement. Nicholas’s brother continued to chortle as the the male server retraced his footsteps and disappeared back into the elevator from whence he’d come. And Alexander didn’t pause when Charlotte strode off in the opposite direction either, snub nose in the air and annoyance lending metaphorical wings to previously leaden feet.

Only once the hallway was empty save for two siblings did his trouble-making brother fall silent at last. But then Nicholas flinched because Alexander’s usual easy-going smile faded as quickly as it had come, his eyes darkening with distress instead.

“No, please don’t tell me a secret,” Nicholas ground out.

“It’s not a secret exactly,” Alexander countered. “Half the Aerie will know within the hour. But there is a strange dragon up on the rooftop. We need your knack to figure out who she is.”

Stay tuned for part two of this chapter, coming up tomorrow.

Cerulean Magic: Chapter 1, Scene 2

If you missed the first scene of this excerpt of Cerulean Magic, please click here to catch up.

“Miss Fairweather.” Gleason’s voice had descended from chilly to arctic, annoyance dripping off every syllable. And when Sabrina turned to face him, she could see why — the merchant was out of breath from attempting to catch up with a woman who possessed legs considerably longer than his own. Nothing like a reminder of his lack of height to put the holder of her debt in a poor humor.

Despite having already gotten off to a bad start, though, Sabrina couldn’t resist adding to the slight by correcting his wording. “Captain Fairweather.”

Only when a wintry zephyr stroked icy tendrils against her fingertips did Sabrina realized that a nearly inaudible hum was rising along the back of her throat and calling her breezes back to heel. Well, what the heck. It’s not as if he doesn’t already know what I am, she thought, changing the pitch of her tune in order to waft the current away to settle clammily against her opponent’s exposed skin.

Gleason shivered, but an abrupt chill to the air wasn’t enough to topple him from his high horse. Instead, his rebuttal came out as a sneer. “Captain of a ship to which I rightfully own the title.”

“What title?” Sabrina countered. Because Gleason was right and Gleason was wrong. Yes, her inherited airship came with an long-term debt that she’d need another decade to pay off. But this wasn’t the Before. There was no piece of paper to convey ownership and no court to award damages should she fail to settle in a timely manner.

If Sabrina wanted, she could take her dirigible and her independence and start over somewhere else entirely. Maybe fly to the western reaches and see what opportunities existed in that no man’s land or develop new routes in the opposite direction by supplying raft colonies out at sea.

And yet, despite possessing numerous options to evade Gleason’s unpleasant presence, Sabrina hadn’t missed a single payment. So why was this trumped-up banker dogging her heels and impinging upon her enjoyment of a festival that came around only once a year?

“I can see those clever little wheels turning in your head,” Gleason said after a moment. “But you’d best not forget your place. I’m respected along the airways. When I said you’d deliver, everyone knew you’d deliver. I vouched for you once…but it wouldn’t take much for me to change my tune.”

And that part’s true. As much as she might kick herself for the mistake, seven years ago Sabrina had indeed played into this blackmailer’s grubby little hands. After being orphaned at the age of twenty, she’d signed papers she shouldn’t have signed, had borrowed money she shouldn’t have borrowed, and had given Gleason far too much control over her in the process.

But Sabrina wasn’t desperate any longer. She had friends in high places, gigs galore due to befriending an earth witch then being accepted as a courier by that witch’s dragon-shifter mate. No matter what Gleason wanted her to believe now, the airship captain wasn’t dependent upon the merchant’s good graces any longer.

So Sabrina took a step closer and peered down her straight nose at her opponent’s battered countenance. Like a gamecock, Gleason had yet to see a fight that didn’t look like a good time. And even though he often won those dockside contests, he still boasted a jointed nose and two cauliflower ears from one too many fists to the head.

Perhaps that frequent pummeling would also explain away his surly nature?

“Get to the point,” she growled once the merchant’s eyes had slid to the side in a subtle but real indication that he was willing to back down.

And even though Gleason clearly didn’t want to admit he’d been cowed, he obeyed. “I have a job for you,” he said at last.

Great. It wouldn’t just be a job, of course. If it had been an ordinary gig, Gleason would have sent her a message the usual way — mechanical pigeon — then taken his exorbitant cut of the proceeds. No, the holder of her debt had run into trouble and he planned to use Sabrina’s bond to extricate himself from the quagmire.

“Not interested,” she said, knowing even as she spoke that Gleason wouldn’t let her off the hook so easily.

Sure enough, the vertically challenged merchant took one step closer, and this time he gazed not at her but at Zach’s gawky form browsing through shelves of bottles and canisters within the glass-fronted shop. Sabrina’s breath caught and she forced herself not to shuffle around so she could shield her sibling from view with her own tall frame.

“I heard through the grapevine that you’d been saddled with a half brother this winter,” Gleason said, his smile ingratiating but his words loaded with deeper meaning. “He looks old enough to man up and take on your father’s debt if you’re no longer interested…. “

Heat rushed to Sabrina’s cheeks, and despite herself she felt magic fluttering around her braids once again. It would be so easy to call up a gale, to push her own personal pain in the butt straight down the street and out into the wakening Green beyond the borders of the burn zone. If she was lucky, the plants might eat Gleason alive and put her out of her misery.

“…Or perhaps he’d like to know what his old man really got up to during those long tours?” the blackmailer continued slyly. “Perhaps everyone would like to know.”

And there it was, the real reason Sabrina continued to kowtow to this puny gamecock. She could start over somewhere else…but people in the trade had long memories. Sabrina’s crew didn’t deserve relegation to the periphery of what passed for civilization, and Zach didn’t deserve yet another source of shadows to darken his sky blue eyes.

No, Sabrina couldn’t afford to reject Gleason’s offered gig outright. Not when she had so many secrets she was bound and determined to keep…not when her banker held those same secrets tightly grasped in his pugilistic fists.

Instead, she gave in to her maternal instincts and angled her body so the blackmailer was forced to turn away from Zach’s innocent form in order to look her directly in the face. “Okay,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’ll do it. What’s the job?”

The cold certainty in Gleason’s eyes was worse than any smile. He’d known she’d cave and had planned the upcoming details to be yet another slap in the face.

“Some colleagues of mine misplaced a female dragon,” her blackmailer answered after letting Sabrina stew for several long seconds. “They tracked her to the home of some acquaintances of yours, a very difficult place to breach if you’re not already welcome there….”

Knowing where her opponent was going before he even completed his thought, Sabrina began to swear with all the fluency of a lifelong sailor. Was she really being asked to betray her one true friend as the price of maintaining a long-hidden secret?

“Your job is simple,” Gleason continued, ignoring both vociferous complaints and angry breezes. “Just collect the dragon and bring her back to her family. Then your debt will be considered paid in full.”

In my next post, you’ll get to meet Nicholas, so stay tuned!

Cerulean Magic: Chapter 1, Scene 1

Cerulean Magic is due to launch later in the month. While I’m polishing the second half, I thought you might enjoy reading the first couple of chapters. (Please excuse any typos — this draft hasn’t been to the copy editor yet!)

“A moment of your time, Miss Fairweather.”

The familiar male voice chilled Sabrina’s blood, but she continued walking through the shadows of what had once been New York City without flinching. After all, her brother was ambling across the pavement alongside her…and Zach’s tender ears deserved protection.

Sabrina only realized she was humming a quiet defensive melody when air currents began swirling through her numerous ebony braids, clacking the weighted ends together like chattering teeth. In response, Zach glanced sideways in question before craning his head backwards to assess the proximity of the following footsteps.

Then Sabrina lost her breath — and the breeze — all at once as a fast-growing vine took advantage of her brother’s lapse of attention. Wrapping around the teenager’s knee, the ferocious plant jerked Zach down into the bitter ash left behind by burners in preparation for the week’s festivities.

“Watch where you’re walking,” Sabrina said evenly, her stride not even hitching as her sword slashed through succulent vegetation and freed her brother’s leg.

If they’d been traveling through the Green proper, half a dozen additional vines would have joined in the battle. But the combination of recent fire plus late winter chill had beaten back humanity’s enemy this time around. As a result, Zach was able to simply shake off the snake-like assailant and pick up his pace in order to converge upon the sister who had pulled an arm’s length ahead.

In the end, both siblings rounded the corner onto the festival’s main drag together despite the stumble. Unfortunately, their follower hadn’t been shaken off as easily as the near-dormant Green. Thumping boot steps still trailed behind, reminding Sabrina that she needed to find a way to get her absent-minded brother out of the picture before Gleason caught up.

She’d intended to to hurry her sibling along until they reached a shop tempting enough to draw him inside, in fact, but Zach slowed as soon as they stepped out onto Central Avenue proper. The sights and sounds of the annual trader’s festival widened the teenager’s eyes, and soon he was spinning in an awestruck circle.

Sabrina couldn’t really blame her kid brother for being amazed either. Brightly powered street lamps were a rarity on the ground where the Green usually sought out every flow of electricity and retaliated by ripping wires to smithereens. And while the scene lacked the bustle of New York City in the Before, there were more humans gathered together in one place than Zach had likely ever seen before in his life.

Temporary booths lined the sidewalks and buskers called from every street corner. Sabrina had attended trader’s festivals many times before, but even she found the colors, sights, and sounds overwhelming.

She only allowed thirty seconds for wide-eyed wonder, though, before grabbing the back of Zach’s shirt and pulling him out of his awestruck daze. Together, they continued walking, ignoring head nods from passing strangers and calls of greeting from across the crowd. After all, Gleason had nearly caught up and Sabrina still hadn’t found a destination sufficiently enticing to draw her brother’s attention away from whatever unpleasantness her pursuer planned to unveil.

Ah, here we go.

The abandoned building they paused in front of probably hadn’t looked like much the day before. Its plate-glass window was still grimy in the upper quadrant where the temporary proprietor hadn’t bothered to scrub away thirty years of accumulated dirt. And steps leading to the front door were split and twisted where tree roots had dug underneath and pushed concrete awry.

But the bottles of every shape, size, and color lined up inside were all her brother noticed. His mouth gaped open ever so slightly and greed filled his youthful face. To a budding scientist like Zach, an apothecary’s shop trumped any more ordinary establishment selling candy, games, or even pets.

Unfortunately, the boy didn’t speak. Just bit his lip before turning questioning eyes in his older sister’s direction.

“Here,” Sabrina answered the unspoken query, dropping coins from the Before into Zach’s waiting hand. The money wasn’t worth much, but it should be sufficient to buy a little time given her brother’s obsession.

He paused, though, rather than heading directly into the coveted shop. Glancing first at the rapidly approaching figure whose boot steps had slowed only slightly now that his prey had come to a halt, Zach then turned to look once again through the apothecary’s slightly grubby window pane.

Bad blood, but a kind heart, Sabrina thought wryly. The teenager was clearly torn between protecting his big sister and hunting down whatever unpronounceable ingredients he needed to further his experiments. A far cry from the narcissistic Frank Fairweather who had given both siblings their blue eyes and tall builds…along with a shady past that Sabrina hoped her little brother would never learn about.

And was Frank also responsible for that other remnant of the youth’s heritage — an adamant refusal to speak — that hovered like a dark shadow behind Zach’s sky blue eyes? Sabrina didn’t know the provenance of the trauma, and usually she would have tried to tempt the teenager into pushing past the blockage and voicing his question aloud.

She didn’t want her brother to be privy to whatever bile Gleason would soon spew in her direction though. So she let him off the hook. “You don’t have to worry about me, Zach. I’m not a damsel in distress.”

They stood staring into each others’ eyes for one long second — noses at precisely the same elevation and irises precisely the same shade of blue. Then, shrugging, Zach descended back into boyhood. Taking the broken stairs two at a time, he flinched as the bell above the door startled habitual fear back into wary eyes. Then, shaking off the momentary terror as quickly as it had come, he settled down to browse seemingly endless rows of powders and pellets and potions.

It was hell to stand in as parent for a kid whose past left him scarred and broken in ways Sabrina didn’t know how to understand, let alone fix. Hell…but also heaven.

Sighing, she shook off concern for her new-found brother and returned her attention to a man who was not accustomed to being made to wait.

Stay tuned for scene two in tomorrow’s post!