The release day for Silver Dust is approaching and I still don't have the final cover to share with you (it won't be long though, promise!) so instead I'm going to give you the first chapter.
Hope you like it!
A Winter chill blows into San Diego
THE CAB DROPPED me at the gate of the Bella Rosa apartment complex. I stalled at the curb for a moment, clutching onto my stuffed green suitcase. San Diego felt different somehow, cheerless, less inviting, as if I was no longer welcome.
I inhaled and considered calling another cab back to the airport and a return flight to Stockholm. Part of me never wanted to leave Europe, but Grandma sounded excited on the phone when I mentioned possibly coming home for Easter break and Celia promised to arrange a meeting with her secret liaison, the super-skilled seer who supposedly could look into my past far more effectively than Celia herself.
I was able to come back to my San Diego apartment because of Winter’s generosity. He had paid off my lease for a full year. He was like a toothache. No matter what I did, it was impossible to rid him from my thoughts. He lingered like an earworm of some catchy tune I’d much rather forget.
With a sigh, I hauled my luggage on its spinner wheels through the gate. Two boys on electric scooters zipped past. I stumbled backwards and watched them dart down the sidewalk, perilously swerving around each other, shouting and laughing like the world was their private playground.
My elemental magic reacted to a disturbance—one of the scooters bumped into something and careened toward the street. The boy panicked, losing control. I engulfed him in a transparent magnetic field that leapt from my hands of its own accord, gently nudging the scooter back onto the sidewalk and away from oncoming traffic.
The second boy stared at his friend, astonished. Neither boy was entirely sure what they had just witnessed. A moment later, they shrugged it off and sped away on their scooters.
My command of magic grew more nuanced and effective every day. Sometimes it felt like instinct more than choice. When it came out smooth like that, I no longer felt the usual sizzles and reverberations.
I climbed the stairs to my apartment, dragging my suitcase behind me. I wasn’t naïve. I knew that Winter had people on me, and I was certain that by now he would know I was back in San Diego. Sooner or later he would reach out and I’d have to sit through a full-blown lecture. I was already working on ways I could shut him up. Looking back, I had started to believe he could sense my etheric essence from a distance, nor would I put it past him to have wiretapped my landline. I was ready for anything and expected the worst, yet, to find him sitting on my couch broad-shouldered in a tight workout shirt and shorts caught me off guard. The allure of his defined musculature made it annoyingly hard not to stare.
He was leafing through one of my history books—well, maybe it was his book now, considering he had bought it, like most of the books on my shelves, after the soul swallowers pulverized the original volumes.
Winter arched an eyebrow. “You seem surprised,” he said. “Scandinavia has clearly dulled your senses.”
I was conscious of the fact that I was scowling at him. I built a fake little smile to help fight off a few choice words. My senses were fine, I had just learned to shut them off and prioritize other things, important things.
“Oh, Winter, why don’t you make yourself at home?” I said.
His face lit up like my sarcasm was just what the doctor ordered. “Don’t be cross. I’m just making sure you’re alright.”
“I’m alright. Goodbye.”
A crease formed between his eyebrows. “You need to let bygones be bygones, Luna Mae.”
“Do I? Okay. Bye. Be gone.”
“You want me gone, at least until you screw up as you certainly will do. And then it will be, Where’s Jonas gone off to? Oh, how could I use his help? And then I’ll come back and slip on my rubber gloves and busy myself with the task of cleaning up yet another mess.”
I threw my hands up in the air. “You live in your own fucked-up reality, you know that? There’s no mess here, unless you count all the delusions of grandeur spilling out of your mouth.”
“No mess? Really? And yet you’re putting yourself into lethal danger?”
For the love of God.
“Really, Winter? It’s spring break. I’m not in danger. Gram wanted to spend Easter with me. End of story.”
He shook his head. “The story never ends. The moment you returned without telling me, you put us both in danger.”
Drama much? Sheesh.
“So, now you know,” I said. “Crisis averted.”
“If only Chaos and Horror were crises that could be easily managed,” he said with a deep sigh. “I’m using everything in my power to keep you shielded. The least you could do is let me know when you change continents.”
I shrugged. “We’re doing this, huh? We’re just going to pretend you’re not having me watched… dude, you knew full well I was coming home.”
He furrowed his brow. “Stunts like this leave me no choice. You’re not taking any of this seriously.”
“Oh, but I do, trust me. When every single move I make is monitored by your Immortal pals in Stockholm, I need to be seriously seductive when I change my underwear or take a shower or make love. You know, give the boys a show. They work hard.”
My words had the desired effect. His features contorted despite his colossal effort to show no emotion whatsoever. “You’re joking. Obviously.”
I chuckled. “I wouldn’t be so sure, Mister Methuselah. Do you think any of your men would have the courage to tell you about my lovers?”
Plural. Good job, Luna. Why pull punches, right?
He kept staring at me, not quite sure I was bluffing.
“I mean, they know, they’re perceptive.”
“Know what?” he said.
I smiled. “They know you expected the naïve witchling to fall head over heels for you and just sit in her room, pining away for your return.”
“Are you quite done with this tedium?”
“Nowhere near done. Did your snitches happen to mention that Kirsi paid me a visit?”
Little sparks glistened in his eyes. Holy shit, Kirsi was good. She had managed to evade surveillance, or maybe she had a certain influence in her homeland.
“If they had, they would have also told you she was with Celia Trice.”
Recognition flickered in his eyes.
“You might have heard of Celia,” I went on. “She’s one of the most powerful diviners in all the magic world.”
“Is this ever coming to a point?”
Temper, temper.
“Yes, a sharp point… Celia told me I’m related to Chaos. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
He set the book he’d been holding on the coffee table. “I think I’ll honor your request now and leave.”
As he stood up, I blocked his way. “How is Chaos related to me? Don’t act like you don’t know. You practically forced him to give me his blood.”
Nothing. No flickering of the eyes, not the slightest twitch of a muscle. He just stood there, expressionless.
“So that’s how it’s going to be,” I concluded.
His eyes dipped to mine. “Of all the things to concern you, this revelation should be at the bottom of your list, Luna.”
I sat on the couch. “Celia Trice wouldn’t have flown all the way to Sweden to tell me if it wasn't important. I am tired of these games, Winter.”
He sat next to me. “Had you asked Celia to look into your past?”
“Answering a question with a question... you had to be the guy who invented that a few millennia ago. You do it a lot. Forget it, I’ll go straight to Chaos. He will not hesitate to tell me. He is family, after all.”
He flared his nostrils, then glanced out the window. “Chaos isn’t here. He left the West Coast,” he said with eyes still looking away. “In fact, I believe he’s left North America.”
How fucking convenient.
“Not a problem. He’s not the only one willing to help.”
His head spun, eyes locking on mine. “What? Who?”
Aha, now he’s taking this seriously.
“Oh, I thought you liked kept secrets? Last chance, big boy. Who gave me to you? How am I connected to Chaos?”
Irritation shot across his face. “You’re not. You are who you choose to be, in every sense of the word, not the product of a genetic imprint.”
It’s like talking to a mule.
“You know, Kirsi thinks you have a soft spot for me. I said you didn’t, and you’ve just proven me right. Because this is not how you care about someone, treating me like a child and leaving me in the dark about my true heritage which you know I struggle with.”
I walked to the door, opened it wide. Winter flicked his wrist. The door banged shut.
His eyes darkened. “You couldn’t have chosen a worse time to come back. Someone or something has been targeting magic and supernatural residents in San Diego county.”
The sincerity on his face changed everything.
“Targeting them how?” I said.
“The victims are stripped of their abilities, then slip into a deep coma. They become completely unresponsive even to our science and magic.”
The world spun around me. My ears began to buzz. That hit close to home. My mother had slipped into a vegetative state after fighting off some unknown entity who was after me. A cold fear cut through me that I was to blame now as I was then. “San Diego? Why… San Diego?” I muttered.
“I can’t be certain,” he said. “San Diego county has an elevated density of supernatural beings, due to the weather and its proximity to abundant nearby portals to the Deep Down and other enchanted places, like Serenity Valley.”
“That’s the biggest bullshit reason ever,” I said, clapping back. “You really have no respect for my intelligence, do you?”
Winter shook his head. “If you let me finish, I was going to say, there are so many to question and until we talk to everyone and find out what is out there lurking over this city, you should return to Europe immediately. I’ll summon you the moment it’s safe to return.”
I grimaced. “Summon me? That’s old-world chauvinism for you.”
A wave of impatience rolled over his features. “Your magic is too potent. It gets stronger by the minute. If a malevolent force got a whiff of your etheric essence, there’s no limit to the dark powers they would unleash to drain you.”
“That sounds unpleasant,” I said. “Listen, I get it. It’s a bad, bad world out there. It’s not my first rodeo, remember? And, besides, my magic can barely be traced back to me. I know, I’ve tested it.”
“Would you bet your life on it?”
“No, but I’d bet your life on it,” I said, whiffing at a joke.
“You’re not funny,” he said. “And it’s not just your life, it’s anyone who might be standing next to you.”
I hated when he was right. Winter hadn’t a clue who or what was behind the strange outbreak of catatonic supernatural folk, but that was precisely why it was so unnerving. It could be anyone or anything, it could be Horror himself.
“Okay, you win, I’ll think about it,” I said. “I’ve been traveling for twenty-four hours and I need to crash before I decide anything.”
I realized he was hooking his eyes onto me like a vulture.
“What?” I said.
“I’m telling you to sit this mess out. I got it covered.”
How I wish that were true.
“Shit,” I said. “You’re worried Horror or another Eternal is involved.”
“I’m not saying that,” he said.
“You didn’t have to. It’s written all over your face.”
“Nothing is known, Luna,” he said. “And nothing is needed from you on this one. And, for sure, there is nothing written on my face.”
“Okay, Mr. Poker Face, I’m about done here,” I said. “I’m going to sleep now for quite a few hours. If the world’s still here when I wake, a decision will be forthcoming.”
Winter took a breath and then walked out without saying a word.
I did not care that my reaction was inappropriate considering what he had revealed. I was delirious and not ready to be commanded. The situation he had described sounded dire. Why was I pissed at him anyway? I was so tired nothing made sense anymore.
I trudged unsteadily to call him back, swinging the door open and stepping outside. I grabbed the railing, bent over it and stretched my neck out to scan the area below. There was no sign of him.
Winter was gone. I could not even be sure he had ever been there. The whole thing had started to feel like a nightmare.
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