One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)

by Rachel Gillig

Nothing is free. Nothing is safe.

The Nightmare.

Click. Click. Click.

The intruder was in my mind.

Suddenly it became bitterly clear: The infection had not spared me. I had magic. Strange, awful magic. All it had taken was a touch. Just a touch of my finger on velvet, and I had absorbed something from within my uncle’s Nightmare Card. Just a single touch, and its power stalked the corners of my mind, trapped.

Shame - this line gave me so much hope for this book. I thought it was going to put me in a choke hold.

Let me out, the Nightmare said again, his voice slithering out from behind his jagged teeth.

“Magic gifted to him by the Spirit of the Wood, which he then used to create Providence Cards.”

“They are all woven together, their balance delicate, like spider silk. Unite all twelve Providence Cards with the black blood of salt, and the infection will be healed. Blunder will be free of the mist.”

“The mist will continue to spread.”

Be wary the rose. Be wary of beauty divine, unopposed.

“Nothing comes for free,”

“There is no hiding the infection. Whether today, tomorrow, or years ahead, we will discover every fever—every degeneration—every unsanctioned magic.”