The
Only Sorceress
Sorceress
Book
One
Anya
Breton
Genre:
Urban Fantasy
Publisher:
Evernight Publishing
Date
of Publication: June 20, 2013
ISBN:
978-1-77130-458-0
ASIN:
B00DIMY6HU
Number
of pages: 275
Word
Count: 88,000
Cover
Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
Book
Description:
Self-proclaimed
sorceress Kora Walsh knows exactly how to use her shiny new MBA.
She’ll open a new age shop in a colony of the country’s most
powerful witches. But the town rife with bigots doesn’t want her or
her sleek shop tainting their perfect community.
Kora
would leave if she had any choice in the matter. She’s trained from
childhood for her true task—infiltrating coven leadership as her
mother’s mole. Failure to do her familial duty is not an option,
not when her childhood nemesis is assured her failed soul for an
eternity of torture.
And
thanks to the colony’s loudest supporter, the beautiful Desmond
Marino, failure is a very real danger.
Excerpt:
I
might have considered the hotness factor of the guy in the tailored
suit standing on my porch if I hadn’t been operating on three hours
of sleep. Instead, I repeatedly rubbed the crust out of my eyes and
contemplated what kind of insurance he could possibly be selling.
Was
there a company that insured members of the Underground against
accidents? Whatever it was, it would cost me an arm and a leg because
the outfit covering his sinewy body couldn’t have had a price tag
for less than a thousand dollars.
“Yeah?”
I asked over a particularly aggressive yawn. It came out as “Eeeaaa?”
I took the opportunity to pull my polyester robe around myself while
he peered over my shoulder into my empty living room.
“I’m
Desmond Marino,” the guy on my front stoop said.
The
matter-of-fact tone of his smooth, masculine voice suggested he
expected I’d heard of him. Likewise he didn’t extend the arm
hanging beside his black silk-blend jacket to offer me a shake—the
implication being he didn’t feel I deserved the courtesy. Nor did
he lift his eyes from their hooded position. That gaze combined with
his flat, dark eyebrows and the full lips of a Michelangelo statue
gave off the impression of sensual menace. Then again, maybe it was
that he was hot in an international male model sort of way with his
short blue-black hair, chiseled nose, and posh wardrobe.
He
scrutinized me up and down. This guy could give my nemesis a run for
his money in the menace department.
What
in the world had made me think of Trip now?
The
smoky tang of incense floated on the air. I hadn’t burnt any, and
the breeze was too brisk for it to have come from a neighbor. But no,
that wasn’t incense. It was the marker of a witch.
I
took a stealthy sniff while blinking slowly. The crisp note of a
fresh mountain stream overtook the smoky tang. Water witch. My
stomach twisted into a tight knot. Water witches’ empathic ability
often caused the most trouble of the magical community.
“You
are not welcome here,” he said in a voice loud enough to wake the
neighbors.
Despite
the volume I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly during my
twentieth yawn of the morning. “Pardon?”
His
eyes—a disturbing aqua blue not far off from my cerulean
hair—somehow managed to hood more without completely closing. He
was familiar. Strange, considering I’d never officially met a Water
witch.
“This
is a colony for witches,” he said haughtily. “You aren’t a
witch. How did you get in here?”
“I
signed a year lease just like everyone else,” I said, deliberately
misunderstanding him.
“This
is Wipuk,” he said as if he thought I’d gotten lost on my way to
Phoenix. “If you aren’t a witch then you aren’t welcome. You
shouldn’t have even been able to crosswithout magical ability.”
I
made damn sure he saw my eyebrows shoot up to the middle of my
forehead. Desmond Marino was a dick. But if he felt like he could
knock on my door at whatever time it was and tell me I wasn’t
welcome, then I figured he fancied himself important. I couldn’t
simply tell him to stick his head in Cerberus’s maw if I had any
chance of completing the task my mother had set forth for me.
Infiltrating the magical community’s leadership would be a
difficult task without ticking off anyone who might have their ear.
So
I emulated an airhead. Guys were always nicer to stupid girls.
“Really?”
I blinked vacuously blank eyes twice. “I have a shapeshifter
neighbor. And over there in apartment one twenty-six are a werefox
dad and son.” I pointed past Desmond the dick’s shoulder toward
the building across the courtyard. I let my head tilt to the right so
my hair would fall away from my cheek in a girlish way. “I didn’t
know witches could be infected by Were-viruses.”
They
couldn’t. Nor could a shapeshifter be born a witch. The analogy
would be like a dog being born a cat.
Desmond
the dick’s full lips puckered, giving him a Muppet-like appearance.
“They have been given dispensation to live in Wipuk and keys to
cross. You haven’t.”
“Oh
gosh,” I said ruefully with noticeably slow blinks I’d always
imagined equated to idiocy. “I have this letter from the
Centralized Coven Coalition that says… Hang on.” I held up my
index finger in the “one moment” sign. “Let me go get it. I
don’t want to misquote anyone.”
I
scampered to the breakfast bar where I’d dropped my laptop bag. In
the stack of papers that included my business plan for my intended
shop, my bank statements, and market research into the Sedona
economy, was a letter from the coalition. I returned to the door as I
flipped through the pages.
“Here
it is,” I said in an appropriately vacant tone. “It’s addressed
to Rebecca Kora Walsh.” I glanced at him. “That’s me.” At his
darkened look, I continued. “It says, I quote, ‘Thank you for
your recent interest in relocating to the Wipuk colony. Any faction
capable of finding Wipuk is welcome to join us.’” I gave Desmond
the dick my beatific smile along with a playful little bounce that
sent my cerulean hair sliding away from my face. “I found it!”
His
chin was flush with his collar now. The whites of his eyes were no
longer visible. Clearly he didn’t enjoy my airhead act.
“Someone
helped you,” he said with careful enunciation. “You didn’t
simply walkinto Wipuk on our own.”
I
shook my head slowly, allowing my eyes to widen in my Golly-Gee-Mr.
Wilson expression. “I don’t know anyone here except for the
shapeshifter I met last night and the teenage werefox who stole my
boxes but brought them back. No one helped me find Wipuk. I just
found it.” I gestured to the paper in my hand. “Like I said in my
original letter to the coalition, I’m a sorceress. I think that’s
why I was able to find the colony.”
Desmond
the dick stared at my eyes furiously for three seconds as if he’d
expected me to change my tune merely to please him. His next words
came out in the same careful tone as his previous statement. “There
is no such thing as a sorceress. You had to have help.”
There
wasn’t. But he didn’t need to know that. He did need to know I
could wield magic. I’d have to give him a show of it.
About
the Author:
Anya
Breton is a web monkey with an obsession for nail polish and rubber
chickens. Her fears include Peeps and people who hate clowns. She
lives in the Midwest with her significant other.
Website:
http://www.anyabreton.com
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/AnyaBreton
Facebook:
http://facebook.com/anyabreton
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/anyabreton
Giveaway Necklace Code a Rafflecopter giveaway
There are various Taps Sale accessories and with the passage of time, these Basin Taps are being improved. Nowadays the most Bathroom Sink Taps used kitchen faucets are the one with sensors. The Bathtub Taps with sensor have some significant features making them an appropriate choice for any Antique Kitchen Taps. The kitchen faucets with sensor run on a switch function. This switch is for hot and Automatic Taps.
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting me!
ReplyDelete