Hi Readers,

We hope you had a happy Easter if you celebrate it and a great weekend if you don’t. The cast celebrated with an Easter egg hunt but during it, we misplaced something really important.

At some point over the weekend, the portal that connects Papa’s cave to my Scribe’s apartment shrank down until it was an egg-sized purple ball. I think someone (Uncle Miren probably) might have put it with the other eggs.

None of this would have been a problem had the basket of eggs not disappeared. We can only assume the portal activated while it was in the basket and sucked the whole thing into your world.

But not everything that goes through the portal stays together. So we think those eggs might be scattered around your world.

So if you see a purple egg in your travels today, let us know, especially if it starts glowing. I don’t recommend touching it since we have no idea where you’ll end up if you get sucked through a portal. Only our scribe can control them.

Now that we’ve taken care of that, we can move on to what I promised you last week: your first look at Relic Hunter! You can pre-order it on Amazon today. We’re working on getting up for pre-order on iBooks, Kobo, Nook, Google Play, Smashwords, etc but they’re taking a while to get set up. We’ll have them up on those stores as soon as possible on or before May 7th.

What’s Relic Hunter about?

Some things should stay lost. When they don’t, it’s Zoya’s job to find them and put them down for good.

But that’s easier said than done when that thing is a magical relic.

Too bad that relic is in the hands of a young mage who possesses a power he can barely control. And this particular relic doesn’t need much to kick start a process that just might open a portal to hell—if Zoya doesn’t find and contain it first.

Who will prevail—the relic hunters or the relic they came to contain?

That may depend on who controls the boy who accidentally activated it. Get Relic Hunter today!

*Relic Hunters is the first book of the Divergent Heroes series starring two knights with disabilities who frequently sort out magical problems, engage in sword fights and wrangle the occasional demon while keeping their wits sharp and their sense of humor sharper. It’s all in a day’s work when you live in a quasi-intelligent enchanted forest.

*Relic Hunter features a younger version of Sarn from the Curse Breaker series. It’s set eight years before Curse Breaker: Enchanted. It can be read as a stand-alone or as part of the Curse Breaker series. No prior knowledge is needed to enjoy this adventure. Let Zoya and her cousin take you on an adventure you won’t soon forget.

Now, we bring you your first look at Relic Hunters. 

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The Moment It All Went Wrong

[Eight Years Ago]

“Which way?” Yan gestured to the sun-dappled fork in the trail, but he was asking about more than their direction of travel.

To the right led eventually back to their order, and the left required a map check because the enchanted forest shifted the paths that ran through it on a whim. But said forest never bothered to inform any of the hapless riders using that path of the course change. Usually, they left the terminus the same, but those enchanted behemoths loved to mess with the middle bits of the paths by weaving them into figure eights and adding unnecessary zigzags.

And that’s where they were now, somewhere in the middle of a giant, quasi-intelligent forest full of enchantments and plenty of mischief. Why me? Zoya glanced around to ensure none of the trees she rode between had taken offense at her errant thoughts. She never knew what to expect from them. Nor would she be surprised if they started reading her mind.

“Well?” Yan drummed his fingers on his thigh a hand-span above the soiled bandage wrapped around his still-healing stump. One of his legs ended at the knee thanks to a hungry demon, but his other leg was whole and just a little scratched up. “Are we facing reality or wandering some more?”

Zoya scratched her nose and considered his question as she studied her cousin for a hint of his true feelings on the matter. Are you eager to return to the order, cuz? She couldn’t tell. Yan’s open expression gave nothing away. He could be willing her to choose another destination, or hoping she’d elect to take the quickest route back to their comrades. Was she eager to return? Hell no.

“Why am I making all the decisions? This is a partnership,” Zoya snapped.

“Because you’re the Knight-Quester, cuz, not me. I’m just your humorous sidekick and cousin.”

Yan threw her a wan smile. He should still be abed in a well-stocked infirmary not strapped to a half-deaf mare who’d go anywhere if they kept the carrots coming. But not even humor could hide the hurt of not being chosen. It was right there in his eyes. Everyone wanted to be named Knight-Quester, but there were only so many questers the order could support at any given time.

“Still sore about that, eh. I thought you got over that ages ago.”

Yan avoided her gaze. “I did.”

“Sure, you did.”

“You still haven’t picked a direction. Are you having second thoughts about going back?”

Yan looked at an enchanted tree to his right giving her a good view of the healing wound on his neck thanks to the gold light shafting through the dense canopy above. A line of neat stitches closed that finger-long cut, but he should still cover it.

Did they even have any clean bandages left? Zoya wasn’t sure. She shifted her weight on the saddle then let that concern go for now. Until they found a stream, she couldn’t exactly boil any of the soiled bandages to clean them. But thinking about that was preferable to answering the question hanging over her head. It was an axe waiting to fall. When it did, would it sever her connection to the order she’d given her life to? She just didn’t know. And that was the heart of Zoya’s problem.

Am I stalling? Yan’s sharp glance said she was. Zoya gripped the reins until her hand complained and her mount, a chestnut gelding, flicked an ear in her direction. His wind-tangled mane needed brushing, and so did the rest of him. But it was no good. Her gaze strayed to the spot where her arm ought to be. It ended at a bandaged lump two hand-spans below her elbow. At least I still have one fully working arm left.

Down that path madness lay. Stop thinking about loss and think about gain. You defeated a minor demon and recaptured a dangerous artifact with only one hand. If that wasn’t the definition of ‘single-handed,’ then it should be. Though Yan had helped too. Zoya hadn’t defeated the demon all by herself. It had too many henchmen for that.

But it was a hollow victory.

Your first glimpse of Relic Hunters will continue next week. Pre-order it now if you’re looking for:

√ badass heroines (and villains) with brains, blades, and humor
√ a fantasy adventure filled with side switching, doublecrossing and magical mayhem

Get Relic Hunter now.

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