Fantasy

We need to end it, but…

Hi Readers,

This is Ran, Sarn’s son, and no, the book has not ended yet. But it’s not totally my fault. Other characters are present during the last chapters. I swear! Blame them too!

Curse Breaker Revealed is supposed to go to the editor today. Cross your fingers and send us good thoughts! The Scribe (Melinda) is also working today, so that limits her ability to finish it. But she’s performed miracles before.

And it’s possible the book already ended. That’s happened before. I never point that out when it happens because I want as much page time as possible, and if Melinda writes more, then there’s more of the sequel completed. This gives me the upper hand when we discuss our editorial calendar. (How do you think I got three books this year?)

But not this time. Robin has decided it’s time for her to get some books. Even if I keep the Scribe from noticing that Curse Breaker Revealed ended and convince her to write more (I’m hoping for half) of Curse Breaker Jousts before Melinda realizes that Revealed ended, Robin’s books are next in the queue. But we’ll see about that.

You’ll find out next week how things went down. Did I get more page time? Or did the Scribe finally catch on to me?

In other news, we put some more previews of our AI-narrated audiobooks on YouTube. Check them out and subscribe to our channel.

And now, back to our preview of Curse Breaker Trapped while your favorite characters fight for more page time!

If you have read it, by all means, proceed and enjoy this heart-warming, funny scene.

Curse Breaker Trapped

by Melinda Kucsera

An Unexpected Visitor (part 3)

“Who is she? Tell me anyway, in case she shows up.” Sarn didn’t like that one Rider of the Apocalypse had targeted his sister, but what could he do about it?

“She’s called Death. She was once a pagan goddess. Then I guess God didn’t know what to do with her, so he made her the Angel of Death. She must have put on a convincing act to get that job, but she gave it up to become a Rider of the Apocalypse.” Sovvan threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know what possessed her to do that.”

“What are the other three Riders?” Sarn hoped they weren’t as powerful as Death.

“War and Famine. I don’t know much about them except who grabbed the reins for each. But they’re a problem for another day. Miren is looking for information about them in the library.” Sovvan waved them away like they weren’t an issue.

“Why? They sound like a more immediate problem to me.” Especially since they didn’t know much about them, including their whereabouts. Sarn hated loose ends.

“Because I think I need to put them back in the opposite order that they were released. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. You’ve been a mage longer than I have. Does that sound logical to you?” Sovvan pushed her dark hair behind her ears.

“It does actually. Sometimes order matters with magic.” Sarn could think of a few examples.

“Great, but that leaves me with a bigger problem. I don’t know what the fifth and sixth seals released, or how to capture them and put them back inside their seals. Miren said he’d look for information about them too. I hope he finds some because I don’t know anything about them.” Sovvan sagged in defeat.

“Are you responsible for them too?” Sarn wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close again.

“No, I thought if I came up with some ideas and a stack of reasons why I can’t round up the Riders, then the council of angels will have to assign that task to someone else.” Sovvan shrugged and pushed the rocks around on the floor. Ran and Furball played games with them, but both were out now.

That sounded like a recipe for disaster to Sarn. Then again, he was usually the one assigned to handle all the magical problems. Maybe there was an angel better suited for that. Sarn hoped so for his sister’s sake. “You said there are four Riders, but you’ve only told me about three of them.” Had she left one out on purpose?

“I saved the most annoying one for last.” Sovvan grimaced. “The first Rider is supposed to be Pestilence, but these weird creatures called the Agents of Chaos took that mantle of power, and they went back in time to get revenge on me.” Sovvan clenched her fists. “I tried to go after them, but I don’t know how to go back in time.”

Sarn had never seen his sister this angry. He squeezed her shoulders. “I don’t have the magic for that, and if your magic is anything like mine, you don’t either.” That didn’t make this situation any better.

Sovvan glanced away. “But I went back in time by accident once when I was a ghost. That’s the other thing I wanted to tell you.”

“What are you talking about?” Sarn let go of her in shock. He had a bad feeling he already knew what she was going to say.

“I went back to that evening when I died. I watched what happened all over again. Then I went forward somehow to a few days after my death. I wanted to talk to you, but the neighborhood witch wouldn’t let me see you. I needed to tell you that I’d found a way to come back, but that way didn’t always work until recently. It’s complicated.” Sovvan kneaded her skirt.

“Miren and Ran told me about the other times you came back.” Sarn ran a hand through his hair. They hadn’t mentioned the time travel thing. He didn’t think she’d told them that. Talk about her death would have upset Ran and probably Miren too since it had kept him from knowing her until now.

“I left that part out. I didn’t want to tell them until I spoke to you because it didn’t involve them, just us.” Sovvan twisted a lock of hair around her index finger.

Sarn didn’t know what to think about any of this. He didn’t like the idea of a rider of the Apocalypse screwing around with the past but there wasn’t anything he could do about that. He didn’t have the power to move through time, nor did he want it. That sounded like a recipe for disaster.

“I guess there’s nothing we can do about that Rider in the past. I don’t remember encountering these Agents of Chaos things. What do they look like?” Sarn squared his shoulders.

“They’re tiny clockwork creatures about this size.” Sovvan held her fingers about an inch apart. “But they can combine together into larger humanoid creatures made of metal and gears.”

“What’s a clockwork creature?” Sarn had heard of water clocks. Jerlo had one in his office, but he couldn’t imagine a creature made of them. That just sounded preposterous.

“It’s made of gears, but that’s all I know. What if the Agents of Chaos change something in the past? I don’t want to lose you or Miren or Ran. I can’t help you or protect you back then.” Sovvan let go of her hair and hugged him.

“You can pray and depend on the kindness of strangers to protect your family when you can’t,” Thing said.

Sarn had forgotten that OwlCat was in the room. He suppressed a groan. He wasn’t ready to deal with that mind-talking owl again, but Thing must be healed after he’d tried to crack open a stronger mind than his.

“That sounds like a good plan. What if prayer isn’t enough?” Sovvan squeezed Sarn harder. “I can’t lose you.”

“You won’t. I’ve had magic all my life, and I learned to cast shields at a young age.” Sarn couldn’t recall when exactly he’d cast his first shield, but he’d cast it over Sovvan, so she was alive then. He’d just willed the shield into existence, and it had appeared. Over time, he’d learned how to reinforce it.

“I think War dropped by for a visit,” Thing said, and his out-of-context comment caught them both off guard.

“What are you talking about?” Sovvan let go, so she could turn and face the muttering OwlCat.

***

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