An Except from my new book, Arcane Betrayal

Dear Reader –

I spent this summer working on the latest novel in my Arcane Talents series. Now here it is, just in time for Christmas (and my birthday)!

Here’s a taste:

 

Targeted by terrorists, a woman inhabited by a tiger spirit turns to the lover she left behind.

Margay Whitfield has a mystical bond to a tiger spirit which allows her to call on the animal’s power – until a terrorist bombing leaves her with PTSD and shaky control over her inner big cat.

 

Now she’s come home to Ashburg, S.C., where her mother owns a restaurant. Margay hopes that a simple, boring job will give her the time and peace to heal her psychic wounds and rebuild her control over Razia, her tiger. 

 

But when the terrorists who attacked her in Ukraine use Raz to turn the town against her and her mother, she has to call a cop.

 

Though Ashburg Police Chief Grant Sawyer has no magical abilities at all, he and Margay were childhood best friends – and high school sweethearts. But ten years of tragedy has left Margay with deep psychological wounds and a fear she could hurt – even kill – the man she loves.

 

Can Margay and Grant defeat the terrorists despite the odds, and rediscover their lost love?

 

 

Excerpt:

 

Grant Sawyer stared down into Margay’s lovely oval face. As always, those big, Feral gold eyes fascinated him. They seemed to glow against the warm brown of her skin in the illumination from the SUV’s dash lights. She wore no lipstick on her wide, full mouth, and her white teeth flashed as she spoke. Her long black hair was woven into countless thin braids, with other strands left curling loose. He’d Googled it, and the style was called goddess braids. 

 

Which, as far as he was concerned, was an entirely appropriate ‘do for Margay Whitfield. All that hair was tied in a swinging tail that hung to her pert, perfect ass. Since she wore only leggings and a United States Arcane Corps long-sleeved tee, he could tell she was as fit as she’d been in high school. Curves everywhere curves should be, and lean muscle everywhere else.

 

God, he wanted her. Her wide nostrils flared, and he had the uncomfortable feeling she could see the hunger in his eyes, smell it in his scent.

 

She was even more beautiful than back when he’d dreamed of a future with her. Before the Arcane Corps -- and something seriously nasty -- had put that look in her Feral gold eyes.

Grant had been sitting in his vehicle working on a report when some instinct made him glance up to see a dark figure darting by. Running so fast his jaw dropped.

 

Then she’d shot in front of his headlights, and he’d recognized Margay. Her braids flew behind her as she ran, long legs flashing as her arms pumped. She’d been running full out, nothing held back, and her face gleamed with sweat even in the cold. She’d worn an expression of such desperation and pain, his heart clenched in his chest.

 

So he’d started his vehicle and pulled out after her. When she’d turned back to him, he’d instantly read the fear behind her wide, tight smile.

 

He couldn’t stand the thought of scaring Margay Whitfield. Yet even after he’d identified himself – even after he’d gotten out of the SUV -- the unease remained.

 

Why the hell would she look at him like that? Why had she been ducking him? They’d grown up best friends – caught frogs as nine-year-olds, watched anime in middle school, geeked out together about SF novels, comics and films as teens. Gone to Dragon Con in Atlanta every year, collecting selfies and cosplaying as superheroes or anime or gaming characters. Shared their first kiss. Gone to prom. Made love.

 

Loved.

 

And yeah, Brandy had been right – Grant had loved Margay more than he’d ever loved his wife.

 

He’d understood why Margay had walked away from him after high school. She’d wanted to join the Arcane Corps ever since they’d been kids. After all, her father had been a Corps vet with a magical tiger of his own. So Grant hadn’t resented it – much -- when she’d left to join the Corps. He’d wanted to be a cop just as bad.

 

She’d succeeded in her goal, just as he had, only to leave the Corps and come home. With rumored wounds that didn’t show.

 

Grant had tried more than once to talk to her -- even showing up at her mother's restaurant -- but she’d just shaken her head and said she was busy.

 

Jocelyn had told him she'd come back injured to the soul. Not physically -- that long, smooth body was whole. She still moved with the same fluid strength and confidence. But there were scars in those golden eyes.

 

Before Grant could think of a way to reach her now, the radio handset on his shoulder gave a demanding crackle. "Ashburg I-1, you've got a 10-80 at 156 Jones St.”

 

He cursed silently and triggered the handset clipped to his shoulder as he turned back to his SUV. "Ashburg I-1, en route.” He released the transmit button and told her, “I’ve got to take this.”

 

Margay frowned, worry in her eyes, and half started after him. “What’s a 10-80?”

 

“Domestic violence call.” He curled his lip in disgust. “Sounds like Sam Jenkins beat the hell out of his girlfriend again.”

 

"You need backup? I could go with you.”

 

Because of course she would. Everything else might be gone to shit, but Margay would always have his back. “Thanks, but I’ve got it.”

 

She frowned, visibly worrying. “But what if this asshole has a gun? I'm bulletproof and you're not."

 

"And if you were a cop, I'd love to have you. But you're not, and if something happened, the liability would eat the town alive."

 

At that she deflated. "Yeah, it wouldn’t be a good idea to put Raz in that situation anyway. It'd be too likely to set her off." With a sigh, Margay waved him on. “Better go answer your call."

 

She watched as he slid into his vehicle. When he glanced into his rearview mirror as he drove away, she was still staring after him.

 

As if, despite her cat, despite whatever the hell had happened to her, she still cared.

 

Christ knew he did.

 

Buy links: Changeling Press             Amazon            Barnes and Noble           Apple        Vivlio                            Smashwords

 

An Excerpt from my new book, Arcane Deception, out now!

 

Dear Reader:

I’ve been very busy the last few months writing my newest novel, Arcane Deception. This is the fifth book in the Arcane Talents series I’m doing, set in an alternate universe where people use art, music and dance to work magic. What’s more, U.S. servicemen have psychic links to magical lions, tigers and bears, who help them to form bulletproof magical shells of the animals they wear like Iron Man’s armor.

My heroine, Kate Marshall, is an Arcanist – an artist who uses a combination of art and magic to work powerful spells. My hero, Mark Delaney, has a psychic link with a magical polar bear that gives him the power of the world’s largest land predator.

But their enemies are even more powerful than they are…

When her grandfather wanders off, witch Kate Marshall enlists a handsome neighbor to help find Eli, who suffers from dementia. She doesn’t know Mark Delaney is a magic-using undercover agent trying to bring down a gang of drug dealers with deadly spirit animals.

Soon Mark and Kate find themselves falling in love, even as he wrestles with lying to the woman he’s fallen for. Unfortunately, the drug lord who is the gang’s leader is having them watched, so Mark can’t come clean.

When the gang kidnaps Eli and Kate to force her to collude in their crimes, she must turn to Mark despite his lies, the risk to her heart and the threat to her beloved grandfather’s life.

 

Buy links:

Changeling Press    Amazon   Apple     Barnes and Noble     Kobo     Vivlio

 

Here’s an excerpt:

Kate Marshall hurried along the path as fast as she dared, scanning the surrounding woods for a flash of white hair. Anxiety coiled in a sick knot in her belly. Good thing it was late spring. If it had been winter, she’d have to worry he’d forgotten the way home and succumbed to hypothermia.

No sign of him. Nothing but squirrels rustling through the leaves as courting birds sung from the pines, oaks, and maples looming around her.

Dammit, where is he?

Kate stopped in her tracks, closed her eyes, and scanned again, but nothing glowed behind her closed eyes. No sign of Eli Riley’s Talent shining through the trees. Except…

Wait. Not a glow, but something. She concentrated, focusing until the sense of power grew more acute. It seemed to be emanating from the lake.

Her eyes flew open, and she took off in long strides just short of a run. “Granddad? Granddad, where are you? You’re scaring me!”

Some days, Eli seemed just like the man who’d raised her during those idyllic childhood summers, endlessly wise, skilled in art and magic and the intersection where the two met. On bad days, he became a six-foot tall three-year-old, prone toward tantrums and violent outbursts. Even worse was the lethal combination of his raw magical ability and his failing memory, which could easily kill him if he made an error with a spell. Which was why she’d panicked when she’d woke up this morning to find him gone.

Eli hadn’t been in the studio crafting something fatal, though his backpack of magical gear was missing. She’d searched the rest of the old Victorian house and its extravagant garden, but no luck.

What worried her most was the lake. Her childhood summer haunt was less than a mile away from the house. Way too close for comfort.

He can swim. Hell, he taught me. But what if…

Flickering light flashed through the trees ahead -- sunlight glinting off the water. The sense of power was stronger now. Splashes sounded, suggesting someone swimming.

Or drowning. Her heart shot into her throat.

“Granddad, dammit!” Kate broke into a sprint, ignoring the thin branches that whipped across her face. “Granddad!” I can’t lose him too. She burst from the trees. “Granddad!”

But when she spotted the swimmer, it was not her grandfather. Not with the long blond hair slicked around broad, bare shoulders that gleamed in the morning sunlight. The man stopped swimming and turned, treading water, wiping a big hand down his dripping face. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Have you seen an old man?”

“No, nothing but couple of deer and about a dozen squirrels.” He started back to the shore, muscular arms stroking the water, sending droplets flying through the arc of a rainbow. “What’s the problem?”

“My grandfather… He’s got dementia. I woke up this morning to find him gone. He comes out here to paint.” Kate raked both hands through her brunette hair, absently plucking out leaves and twigs from her heedless run. “Oh God, he could be anywhere. The road -- he could have been hit by a car. Sometimes he doesn’t remember to check before he crosses…” She started to turn away.

“Hang on, let me get dressed and I’ll help you look.” He waded out of the lake, water streaming down a body like a gladiator’s, all hard, carved muscle. He wore only a pair of black swim trunks and a glowing golden tattoo in the center of his chest, a circle surrounded by sigils. Looked like some kind of protective spell. And he was big, easily six-one. On any other day in any other situation, she’d have drooled.

“Where do you live?” He walked over to a pile of neatly folded clothes. Picking up a towel, he started drying off, muscle flexing in his broad chest.

“In the Victorian a mile that way.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder and looked away, trying not to ogle.

“Oh, you must mean Eli. I didn’t know he’d gotten that bad.” He pulled on faded jeans despite his wet trunks, then shrugged on an equally faded black T and stuffed his bare feet into running shoes. The shirt’s white lettering read “USAC Academy.”

He was Arcane Corps. No wonder he radiated so much power, she’d felt it a quarter mile away. Kate was tempted to close her eyes and check the glow of his magic, but that would be rude.

He extended a hand, a frown of concern on his face. “Mark Delaney. I’m so sorry about your grandmother.”

A spasm of pain stabbed her, but she forced a tight smile as his long fingers enfolded hers. His skin felt calloused and cool. “Thank you. I’m Kate Marshall.” She studied that tough, intensely masculine face. Beard stubble roughened his square jaw and broad, cleft chin, blond brows slashing over Feral gold eyes. It was hard to tell, but she thought his hair would be honey blond when it dried. His lips were thin and masculine, but they looked soft, kissable. Tempting, despite the nerve-wracking situation she was in.

After a carefully calibrated squeeze, he let her go. “Don’t freak out, I’m going to manifest so I can track him. I’m a Feral.” Golden light exploded around him as his magic became visible in a flare of sparks and whirling energy. A heartbeat later, it coalesced into a huge shaggy figure with a long bullet-shaped head and foot-wide paws. The raw power of the animal spirit beat at Kate’s senses as it towered over her, almost ten feet tall. Mark was only dimly visible in its center, cocooned within it like a man in armor.

Blinking, Kate suppressed the instinct to step back.

“Don’t worry, Kola and I have been stable for years,” Mark said as the bear dropped to all fours. Its shoulder was level with her chin, and she was five-six. “I’m in control.” Which wasn’t always a given with Ferals, whose spirit animals could make them prone toward explosions of aggression.

Feeling a bit self-conscious about her reaction, she said, “I knew from your shirt you must be Arcane Corps, but I wasn’t expecting a polar bear.” Serving in the military was the only way you could legally meld with a Familiar that powerful. Ferals were the magical equivalent of the Navy SEALs, and most Americans viewed them with awe.

Well, except for Humanists, who thought they were demon possessed.

***

I hope you’ll take a look!

Buy Links:

Changeling Press    Amazon   Apple     Barnes and Noble     Kobo     Vivlio

 

My other big project is a class I’m teaching at SavvyAuthors.com called Blueprint to Book: Plotting and Writing a Novel with Angela Knight. Unlike my previous class, this is a set of video tutorials in which I demonstrate how to write a novel. It covers everything from character creation to plotting, to writing and rewriting. I even discuss cover creation. Click for more information.

If you’re interested, here’s the first lesson video.

I hope you’ll join me for the class.

Have a great summer!

Angela Knight