Sneak a Peek!

Monster of the Silver City comes out on Tuesday!

I’m so excited (and nervous, of course). I’ve never written a second-chance romance before, and I had such a blast with this one. There are secrets, magical mistakes, horse thieving, a cameo by everyone’s favorite mercenary, and of course, plenty of snark and steam.

And you know what? I’m going to let you start it early.

Monster of the Silver City: Chapter One

It’s an honor to be here,” I whisper to my reflection.

My reflection scowls back at me from the murky depths of the tiny mirror. Great. Just the look I’m going for as I face the Exemplar who will decide my fate.

I sigh, close my eyes, and count to ten as my heartbeat knocks around the inside my chest. I cut my heart out, the old tavern song goes. Now there’s nothing left inside.

I open my eyes. Smile at the mirror.

“It’s an honor to be here,” I say.

In the thin light of my room, my honey-brown hair is almost as gray as my robes, as if I’ve already spent my entire life here. I close my eyes, clench the sides of the desk like a drowning sailor grasping at the wreckage of the ship that was supposed to keep her safe, and try again.

“It is an honor to be here,” I whisper as I open my eyes.

My own face smiles back at me, demure and calm beneath my gray Disciples hood.

Okay. Better. I take a deep breath, then push away from the desk. My heart flutters like a bird in a cage. I ignore the bastard, as usual.

This is just another test, after all. Just another in a very long line of tests, stretching back through the years to the day when the Exemplars of the Towers visited our summer estate with their strange silver chains.

And I’ve passed every single test, haven’t I? I passed when so many failed, when my friends vanished from the Towers one by one, the stone hallways growing quieter and quieter with each full moon. I smooth down the front of my tunic, trying to ignore the memories attempting to crawl up from the darkness where I’ve shoved them.

I passed every test except one, I suppose.

But no, that’s not fair. Syrus wasn’t a test. Not exactly. He was more like a line I wasn’t supposed to cross, a door I wasn’t allowed to open. I hesitate in the middle of the tiny little room I worked so hard to earn.

I didn’t just open that door with Syrus, did I?

Together, we burned the damn thing to the ground.

My hand clenches into a fist, and I glance over my shoulder. This room only holds a bed, a mirror, the desk I was given when I became a Disciple, and the chest I took from my parents’ house, the one that used to be called my hope chest. And that chest holds nothing but clothes, gray Disciple robes and gray dresses with gray leggings and gray shoes. The Towers aren’t known for their cutting-edge fashion.

And, stuffed beneath the silk lining in the bottom corner of what is no longer my hope chest, there’s the tiny silver key from my mother and the letter I still can’t bring myself to destroy.

My cheeks burn. That’s why I’m doing this, isn’t it? If I pass this test — when I pass this test — I’ll prove what a valuable asset I am. I’ll show the Exemplars how much I have to offer, and how important I could be on their next expedition across the ocean. I could join their ships, sail across the world, and travel with them to the very edge of the Towers’s mining expedition in the Deep Forest.

And then I can smack Syrus Maganti right across his stupid, beautiful face.

Click here for Monster of the Silver City