Fantasy

We had a falling out

Hi Readers!

We’re back and we’ve got some major news for you about our upcoming books. Let’s dive right in!

So, what’s happening with our books?

I’m glad you asked that because a lot has happened this week.

His Angelic Keeper Tempted releases on Dec. 31 and our Scribe, Melinda, has been hard at work on our next release, which up until a few days ago was supposed to be Curse Breaker Trapped. But Melinda couldn’t get the book to behave.

I assure you. I had nothing to do with her book woes. (This is Ran, Sarn’s son from the Curse Breaker books, by the way.) I know it’s hard to believe I had nothing to do with this, but I didn’t.

Then who did?

This time, I get to place all the blame on Papa, (Sarn from the Curse Breaker series).

That’s right. This is his fault and Jerlo’s and a few other characters.

You see, a lot happened in Curse Breaker Hidden. But some world-changing things also happened in His Angelic Keeper Tempted. I can’t tell you what they are until the book comes out, but they will affect every book in every series in some way.

Melinda tried to fit that into the story she wanted to tell in Curse Breaker Trapped, but it didn’t work. So she split the book.

That’s right! Instead of Curse Breaker Trapped, our next book will be Curse Breaker Fallout.

Curse Breaker Trapped will still come out in 2022; it just won’t deal with the fallout from His Angelic Keeper Tempted. We’ll do all that in Curse Breaker Fallout. Nice right?

Now, this leaves one question in my mind. The Scribe told me she wanted to release Curse Breaker Trapped and Curse Breaker Jousts in 2022. With the addition of Curse Breaker Fallout to our lineup, does that mean there will be 3 Curse Breaker books next year?

The Scribe has not answered that question yet, but I’ll bug her until she does.

We’ll have more information about Curse Breaker Fallout next week. The Scribe is working hard to finish it.

And now to help you get ready for His Angelic Keeper Tempted, which will change everything as we know it, we’re diving back into our preview of the book that precedes it:


His Angelic Keeper Fallen

by Melinda Kucsera

“Can you do your sword thing, sis?” Fedre waved his hand, imitating the sword cuts she’d made to create the last magical doorway they’d used.

Faylon shook her head. “I’m still tapped out, so creating a portal is beyond me until I get a recharge. But Mom’s not around to give me some of her power, so I’m grounded for now. No flying and no cutting doorways to adjacent realms. Sorry, bro. Can either of you help us out?” Faylon glanced at the silent angel and the pachyderm.

Rachielle shook her head. “I can’t make portals. If I need to go somewhere, I fly there. But I can’t fly all of us.” She folded her arms and stuck out her chin.

Great. Then it was all on Four then. Fedre glanced at the Memory-Eater, but she still wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Can you create a portal to the Gray Between for us?”

“I can make a portal, but I can’t let you cross it.” Four shook her head.

“Why?” Fedre approached her, but Four was a full-grown elephant, so she out-massed him.

“Because you don’t belong there. You’re not dead.” Four backed away until she was under the red canopy of a Memory Tree.

“Neither is our mother, and she might be there.” Faylon touched the hilt of her sword, sheathed on her hip.

Rachielle copied her stance. The angel was ready to square off against his sister. “She said no.”

“Stop it. We’re all on the same side. We shouldn’t be fighting each other.” Fedre stepped between the two women. When he was certain they wouldn’t come to blows, he faced Four. “We don’t belong here either. Are you just going to leave us here?”

“I guess not.” Four staggered as the implications of that sank in. She didn’t want them to stay here, either.

“I didn’t think so. Then I guess we’re going to the Gray Between with you.” Faylon glared at her.

“I guess you are.” Four hung her head and traced interconnecting circles on the ground with the two fingers at the end of her trunk.

Fedre had felt a prickle of prophecy every time someone mentioned the Gray Between, but he still couldn’t get anything more than that from his sixth sense. The gateway tunnel must have crossed through that place, so there might be some sign of what had happened to their mother or a clue about where to go next if she hadn’t ended up there.

I hope we won’t have to go back to Hell anytime soon. Their last visit had been bad enough. Fedre had met enough of the psychotic half of his extended family to last him a lifetime. But he was in for a long wait if Four intended to take a full minute to draw each circle since the spell called for one hundred and forty-four of them.

Four paused and studied her work after she’d drawn only a dozen circles. “Be patient. The energies are disturbed here, so it’s taking me longer than usual to draw them into the portal spell.” The Memory-Eater bent to her task.

“But you can make it, right?” Fedre shifted his weight from foot to foot. It was hard to be still when the people he cared about were in danger, but there was nothing he could do to help them until he got out of here.

“Yes, but it’ll take time until the energy of this place settles. When we took down the gateway, it disturbed the natural flow of things.” Four touched the ground with her trunk again.

“It also dumped a lot of magic into the system.” Faylon shoved Fedre aside as a bolt of pure power shot through the space he’d just occupied.

“Thanks. What was that?” Fedre stared at the scorch mark on the ground where that bolt had struck. That could have been him. He shuddered at the thought.

“It’s wild magic. We need to be on guard against it.” Faylon scanned the canopy of red leaves, blocking all sight of the sky above. Some trees had fallen, but many had not.

“Why?” Fedre backed away from that scorch mark. Magic was a good thing, and he had trouble thinking of it as anything else. But that bolt had blackened the ground.

“Magic likes to flow, but it needs something to flow through because magic on its own has no shape except what the wielder gives it.” Faylon dropped into a low guard position as she turned and scanned for more bolts of wild magic.

“I know. That was my first lesson in magic. I still don’t see a problem with this wild magic. If it needs a container, it’ll strike the Memory Trees. There’s plenty of them, and they’re much bigger targets than us.” Fedre gestured to the trees that surrounded them, but his sister’s vigilance worried him.

“They’re repositories of memories, not magic users.” Faylon tossed her braid over her shoulder. “I hate to break it to you, but that wild magic is attracted to us because we can use it.”

“Can we use some of that magic to get us out of here?” Fedre turned to catch Four’s reaction. He still didn’t trust that elephant.

The Memory-Eater froze as she considered that, then shook her head. “Maybe if I were a proper mage, but I’m not.”

“What about you? Can you use it?” Fedre glanced at his sister, but she also shook her head.

“I’m just a dragon. I can only use the fire magic of our homeland. I don’t know what’s in this wild magic. It could be made up of all kinds of power, so no, I can’t use it.”

“What about the portal? Can wild magic power it?” A tingle of foreboding sent Fedre diving to the ground as another bolt of power shot through the air where his head had been.

Faylon whistled. “That was a close call.”

It was, but Fedre didn’t want to dwell on it. He’d rather get an answer to his question. “Well, could we use it to power a portal?” It sounded plausible to him since the power had come from a gateway between worlds.

Four had stopped drawing circles, but she was nowhere near finished with the spell. “I’m not a channel. If one of those bolts hits the spell I’m constructing, I’m not sure what will happen. The backlash might incapacitate me, and that won’t help anyone.” Four twitched her ears as if she heard something. “Let’s stick to the original plan.” She bent and traced another circle in the dirt, then stepped back and admired her work.

Was she deliberately stalling? It was possible. Fedre didn’t know much about Memory-Eaters. But there had to be a way to speed things up.

“Look out!” Faylon shouted.

But her warning came too late. The bolt struck Fedre square in the back before he could dodge, and the world went white as pain lit him up from the inside. Mom was on her own. He couldn’t save anyone until the wild magic stopped bouncing around inside his body.

***

Get His Angelic Keeper Fallen today to continue this fun adventure.

–Sincerely, Ran, son of Sarn, and my Scribe, Melinda 


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