And another Fury’s Magic excerpt! The book is on my editor’s desk and will be out this month!
I resisted at first, not wanting to dredge up the memories that I already wanted to bury, but this was important. So I took a slow, easy breath, trying not to disturb my ribs, and then softly exhaled in a long stream, willing the images to flow freely.
Then, I was there, on the ground again, and the blows were coming fast and thick. I wanted to shout—to beg them to stop, but then tried to calm myself, to remember that I was safe. These were just images. Just memories.
I examined the men as they were hitting me, looking for any marks that might identify them. They were wearing hooded shirts and loose jeans. It was impossible to see their hair color beneath the hoods. But something caught my eye. I looked past the fists and saw a mark on the chest of each shirt. It was a white circle on black, and inside the white circle, were concentric half-circles that were off kilter just enough to confuse the eye, in shades of black, blue, red, and white. It was hard to describe, though there was something terribly familiar about it.
As I opened my eyes, out of the good one I could see Jason tapping away on his tablet. All of a sudden, he let out a curse under his breath.
“Did it look like this?” he asked, holding the tablet up so I could see the crisp design. It was jarring to the eye, precise and yet skewed.
“Yes, that’s it. All three of them had that symbol on their shirts. Who is it linked to?”
“The Order of the Black Mist. Lyon sent those men to find you.” His voice was raspy.
I did sit up then, forcing my way up and propping myself on my elbows.
“I wondered…” And then, another memory hit me. “The Abomination. It was doing something in the graveyard. I’m not sure what, but I remember wanting to ask you to check out what it had buried there. But I fainted before I could do so. I was hoping Queet would have told you.”
“Queet vanished after he led us to where you were.”
I was about to say that he’d been having a rough time lately, but the familiar strains of my ringtone for Hecate set up a raucous tone. Hans silently handed me my purse and I fumbled out my phone. Punching the Talk button, I held it to my ear.
“Hello? Hecate?”
“Fury, where are you? I’ve been texting you since yesterday.”
I paused. So Queet hadn’t told her yet? Was he okay? Distracted by all the thoughts running through my mind, I started to shake my head to clear it but that was a big mistake and I let out a groan as a jolt of pain stabbed through my forehead over my left eye.
“Fury, are you all right?” She sounded calm, but I knew her well enough by now to recognize the sound of worry beneath the surface.
“Not entirely. I’ll tell you in a moment. What’s up?” I wanted to glance at her texts but that would entail putting her on speaker phone and right now, I didn’t want to chance anybody overhearing anything that might give me grief.
“I found out what happened to Tam, Fury. I know where he is.”
My heart slowed, as I began to battle with a rising flood of fear and worry. “Where is he? Is he alive?”
Her voice bleak, she said, “Yes, he’s alive but…Fury, the Devani chipped him so they can keep track of him. They sent him out on the Tremble, Fury. He’s been sentenced to a year’s exile there.”
And, once again, everything went black.
