The Lightning Luminary Only $.99!

I'm so excited to announce The Lightning Luminary is on sale today for only $.99 (usually $3.99)! The Lightning Luminary for $.99Talia Stanley may look like the typical wealthy New Yorker, but she's hidden her secrets for more than a thousand years. One of the last surviving members of an ancient race called Luminaries, Talia has suppressed her ability to control lightning in exchange for safety.And for generations it worked. Talia's hermit lifestyle protected her from strong Luminaries that want her power. All that changed the day Mason Rathbone walked into her life.A good-looking artist, Mason is just the guy to get Talia out of her penthouse apartment and show her what it means to live again. But just as she starts to get comfortable, Talia gets sucked right back into her vicious past.Excerpt:Talia was no stranger to fish. She grew up in a small fishing and farming village, after all. But never before had she had any reason to eat it raw.Sometime in the third century, she’d resided in what was now the western side of Turkey. Back then, it had been the Byzantine, one of the strongest and largest regimes, but like everything else, it waxed and waned with time.Talia hadn’t had much to do with it then. It was the first time she’d gone into hiding. Whereas before, she’d tried to lose herself in the politics or arts of Athens, Talia had fled to the untamed forests, far from the villages and cities she’d known. For the first time in her life, Talia had a taste of loneliness.Physically, she looked seventeen or so, a slight young woman as she’d always been, as she probably always would be. Talia hadn’t looked like the type of person to survive on her own in the wilderness, but she was more than capable.Like a film playing in her mind, she remembered standing on the edge of lake, her feet sunken in the cool mud. With her hands spread wide before her, she called to the lightning to strike the lake. Once, twice, again and again the strikes came. She was less practiced back then, still reliant on full strikes rather than the trickles of energy she used now, but it was enough. The bodies of fish floated to the surface, bubbling up like tar.It was easy to wade out and collect a few. She cooked them over a fire made from lightning, never even considering to eat them raw.And now, with Mason Rathbone at her side, and the dog named Bruce at her feet, Talia relished the sensation of cold, raw fish sliding down her throat. The acid of the soy sauce beautifully accented the earthiness of the salmon. The wasabi ignited her tongue and nose in a way that made her eyes water. Talia smiled as the flavors mixed in symphony.“Like it?” Mason’s features were lit with excitement. His eyes shimmered and remained on her, only looking away long enough to dip his sushi into the soy sauce.Talia nodded and covered her mouth. “Delicious,” she admitted. With the tip of her chopstick, she pointed to another piece. “What’s this one?”“Saltwater eel. And these two, red snapper. These are shrimp. Those are flounder. And this one’s the urchin.”“Urchin?”“Yeah, it’s like this spiky sea animal kind of thing. I think it’s similar to a starfish.” He shrugged when he couldn’t tell her more.“I know what it is. I just never thought to eat it raw.” Talia had collected them as a child. She and her sister would skim the rocky shore in search of them, always in competition to see who could find the most or the biggest.Talia reached across the shared ceramic plate and embraced the urchin piece between her chopsticks.“Really?” Mason asked, his eyebrows sky high with surprise.Talia answered by dipping the bright yellow urchin into the little dish of soy sauce, spilling deep brown into the stark white rice. She stuck the sushi in her mouth so fast a drip of soy sauce rolled down her chin.Before she could catch it, Mason lifted his black linen napkin. He wiped her chin so gently, she could scarcely feel it. Talia swallowed down the urchin and whispered, “Thank you.”Mason cleared his throat. “Soy sauce is deadly. It stains everything,” he teased, as if he cared a bit about her sweater.