Fantasy

The Last Rogue Spell

Hi Readers!

We’ve got excellent news. His Angelic Keeper Tempted is finished! I know the Scribe posted it was done a week ago, but that was before we talked her into writing a few more chapters. (We’re not sorry about that. No surprise there.)

His Angelic Keeper Tempted was supposed to head to the editor today, but our editor is running a little behind schedule, so she’ll start working on it next Monday. So we could possibly squeeze in more scenes. We’ll find out next week if that happened.

The final version of the cover is also in development. It’ll be similar to the one that’s on Amazon now, but Sovvan’s costume and magic have undergone some changes. (The Scribe found an armor she liked better on her.) We’ll have the final version in a few weeks, and we’ll do a reveal.

But don’t worry! This delay won’t affect the release date. His Angelic Keeper Tempted will still release on December 31. We’ll have the edits back in time to make the book pretty. I mean perfect.

What has the Scribe has been writing this week? That’s right! Curse Breaker Trapped! But I’m not supposed to talk about that yet even though I really, really want to. But soon, I can.

This is Ran, by the way, Sarn’s son and the hero of our last release, Rogue Spells. Today will be our last installment of the preview for it. Let’s get to it! We’ve got a special treat for next week.

Rogue Spells

by Melinda Kucsera

(A‌ ‌Curse‌ ‌Breaker‌ ‌Companion‌ ‌Novel‌)

But she didn’t, nor could Bear spot her or her wavy gray hair. The woman was gone, but he eventually made it through the ranks of strangely dressed people and bumped into another woman. Bear collided with her knee. But the woman had excellent balance, so she didn’t fall. A little girl in a pink dress wearing a crown skidded to a halt behind the woman.

“Ooo, look, Mommy, it’s a living teddy bear.” The little girl reached for Bear as he backed away.

Unfortunately, his feet still didn’t have toes, so he lost his balance despite all the arm flailing. Who knew how important fingers and toes could be? If he had either, he might have stopped his fall. Instead, he fell between the legs of more people wearing coarse blue pants and landed on someone’s shoe. The little girl squeezed between people until she could grab his scissoring legs.

“What are you talking about?” Presumably, the little girl’s mother had asked that.

“I’ve got him.” The girl pulled him through the forest of legs until she could pick him up.

Bear took in this new vantage, but he still couldn’t see much more than from the ground. The little girl was too short to see over the crowd, so he still didn’t know why everyone was standing around, other than to look at the sky. But not everyone stood with their heads tilted back in their phones in their hands.

“Thanks for picking me up. Did you happen to see which way the woman who is helping me went? She has something of mine.” And there were too many gray-haired women in the crowd with the same haircut. Maybe it was part of the uniform.

“What did she take from you?” The little girl held him at arm’s length.

“A book.” But that’s all he would say about it. They didn’t need to know that book was magical.

But the girl’s mother gave him a skeptical look. She stood like a warrior, her feet shoulder width apart and her arms hanging loose at her sides. Her hands hovered near her pants pockets.

“We had a book too, but it was a magical one, so it flew away. Did it hurt when it hit you?”

Bear stared at the little girl. The only book that had struck him had been thrown by that dragon. Hadn’t it? He hadn’t seen her throw it. Could it be the same book this little girl claimed they’d lost?

“Rosalie, I don’t think we should be talking about that,” her mother said in a warning tone. She had dark hair pulled back into a braid, and a red leather jacket with a patch of a sword in a book on her shoulder. She wasn’t wearing the same pants as everyone else in the crowd, which identified her as an outsider.

“Oh pooh. I can talk about a magical book with a magical bear. That’s like a requirement or something.” Rosalie twirled her star-topped scepter.

Her mother didn’t respond right away. She was busy scanning the crowds, and she must not have liked what she saw because she scowled at something only she could see. “Come here.” She caught her daughter’s hand and pulled it away from him.

“Where are we going? The little girl asked as her mother pulled her through the crowd. But she remembered Bear before he could protest, and she curled her arm around him, holding him tight against her chest.

It was weird being in the arms of another child, but Bear tolerated it for Ran’s sake. Where are you, child? Ran must be here somewhere, or I wouldn’t have come here. It was hard to protect the tyke when he couldn’t find him. But that was the least of his problems right now.

“To get that book. I have a bad feeling about this.” Rosalie’s mother increased her pace, and the little girl ran to keep up with her.

“For the record, so do I.” Bear scanned the crowd, but he couldn’t see what Rosalie’s mother saw. All he could see from the little girls arms was a forest of legs clad in mottled blue pants.

“That’s not comforting.” Rosalie’s mom glanced back at him. She was maybe three or four years older than Ran’s father. But she had hard eyes, and they bored into him.

“It wasn’t meant to be. Nothing about this situation is comfortable.” Bear folded his useless arms.

“Explain that.” Rosalie’s mother turned back to the crowd and wove through it.

Should he tell her what had happened? Would she believe any of it? Bear studied her. There was something about her. She was more solid than the people she squeezed past and more real. Her face had character, and she strode like a warrior toward a battle. Maybe she was a character too.

Rosalie glanced between them. Her sharp eyes recorded every nuance. “There’s something about that magical book you don’t want us to know.” She nodded as if she already knew what that something was. Could she be that perceptive?

The crowd ooed and ahhed and Rosalie stood on her toes, but she couldn’t see anything either because she scowled at the people in her way. “What are they looking at?” Rosalie tugged on her mother’s hand.

“The sky. There’s something up there.” Rosalie’s mother eyed it, then hurried through the crowd.

***

Find out what happens next, get your copy of Rogue Spells now! This is the end of the preview. We’ll be back on Monday with that special treat I mentioned, and no, I’m not going to tell what it is. 🙂



This is Ran, son of Sarn, signing off. Have a great week!


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