Thursday Excerpt: Fury’s Magic

In between excerpts from current/upcoming releases, I’m going to be posting excerpts from other books of mine you might not have had a chance to read.

Today: FURY’S MAGIC (book 2 in the Fury Unbound Series)

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Elan led us through a tunnel that Tam had never mentioned before. The passage was old, that much I could tell by how smooth the walls were. The floor was compacted dirt, almost as hard as the stone of the walls themselves.

I slipped ahead to walk by Elan. She didn’t feel Bonny Fae to me, though she looked the part. “How long have you lived in UnderBarrow?”

She smiled coolly. “Ask what you like. You needn’t cloak your questions beneath pleasantries. I’m new to UnderBarrow, in from the Wild Wood east of Bend.”

Appreciating her bluntness, I nodded. “I wondered. You seem…too outdoorsy to live in a Barrow for long. There are Woodland Fae out in the Wild Wood, aren’t there? Cousins of the Bonny Fae?”

“You’re correct. I’m one of the Woodland Fae—an otter shifter to be precise. Woodland Fae are often animal shifters, while the Bonny Fae aren’t.”

That explained the different energy I felt coming off of her. She reminded me more of Jason than Tam, when I thought about it. The shifter nature would account for it. I wondered if he sensed it too. A glance over my shoulder showed him talking to Hans, but he glanced up, meeting my eyes before his gaze flickered over to Elan and once again, I saw the flicker of interest. Yeah, I wasn’t imagining it. He had crushed and crushed hard.

I returned to my conversation. “I didn’t know any of the Fae could shift. Of course, I’m only familiar with the Bonny Fae, therefore my experience is limited.” I winced as one of my ribs twinged. This was going to be an uncomfortable trip. “Why did you come to UnderBarrow? Or is that too personal? I’m not prying, just curious.”

Elan shrugged. “Tam asked me to come—well, he asked both my brother and me. We’re twins. I’m an ambassador. We’re discussing setting up an exchange program between our two nations—the Bonny Fae Nation and the Woodland Fae Kingdom.”

That was news to me. I still wasn’t clear on the nature of how the Fae worked. Tam didn’t like discussing politics when we were together.

“I didn’t know the Fae considered themselves sovereign nations.”

“We do, regardless of what the Americex Corporatocracy chooses to portray to the people of this country. They like to think they’re in control, and they are—in the urban areas. But we have our treaties and if they try to push in on our territories, they know they can’t win. Once humans get out in the Wild, they stand a distinct disadvantage. If you want to know the truth—and the Conglomerate knows this fully well—the Devani wouldn’t last ten minutes if they tried to enter the deep forest.”

She sounded so certain that I had to ask. “How do you know?”

“Because they’ve already tried, and they already failed. News of this sort seldom leaks out to the public, but those of us who were there know, and we remember just how vulnerable they can be to the right kind of attack.” A look of dark triumph crossed her face, the kind that warned, “Better to be my friend than my enemy.”