Kari struggles with the damage she did when she lost control. Her
loved ones suffered at her hands, leaving Ari scarred in ways she will never
be able to ignore.
How he survived? Only the Seraph of Nalmi knows.
Then a request arrives, a simple task compared to everything else she has
been through: travel as Freehaven’s emissary and meet with Brianna, a
now-ancient half demon who destroyed the first demon city across the sea –
and who may have some information on defeating the Catalyst for good.
Kari, Ari, and Guine prepare to cross the Demon Sea…
But the shadows await them.
About the Author
Valerie Storm was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, she fell in love
with everything fantasy. When she wasn’t playing video games, she was
writing. By age ten, she began to write her own stories as a way to escape
reality. When these stories became a full-length series, she considered the
path to sharing with other children & children-at/heart looking for a
place to call home.
Tendrils of darkness reach from the depths of her mind and shadows flicker
around every corner. Still reeling from Raven’s horrific display of
power, Kari suffers in silence.
When Guine finally returns with stories of a mirror that could help him
with his problems, Kari finds herself hoping that maybe, just maybe, it
could help with hers as well.
With the promise of a relatively straightforward outing, Kari, Ari, and
Guine set forth to find the mirror.
But what they find beyond the looking-glass threatens not only Kari and her
sanity, but also the world she loves.
EXCERPT
Suddenly a hand shot out of the wall ahead of her, giving her no time to react or slow her pace as it grabbed her shoulder. Kari pulled at the fingers, tugging at their grasp, trying to hurry. She had to escape the damn water!
Lightning sparked along her claws. She raised her hand to attack again, intending to cut the fingers right off of her.
A familiar voice growled, “Do it and we’re dead.”
Kari froze long enough for the hand to pull her straight into the wall. She stumbled through and fell face-first on something hard and cool.
Groaning, she rolled onto her back and looked up into the sweat-dotted, strained, and frowning face of Guine. Above him hung a ceiling of some kind of jagged, translucent, blue rock.
“Why did you stop?” he demanded rather angrily. “I said we had to keep moving, didn’t I?”
For a moment Kari thought she was still waiting for the water to overtake her. That filthy, disgusting-smelling, murky water. Slowly she realized they had changed locations again; now they were in some sort of cavern. Completely dry and relatively safe, at least for the moment.
Kari jumped up and bared her teeth at Guine. “You didn’t say if I stopped that would happen!”
“Why would I say, ‘don’t stop’ if that wasn’t a vitally important thing to do?!”
“You’re often unclear and exaggerate!” she snapped back.
They glared at each other for a long time. He was mad, but she was madder. He had not been very upfront with her about this wretched maze, and that enraged her. She did not need the Catalyst to fuel her anger; her heart thrummed against her ribs, taking all of her breath with it, and it had not stopped since that first room.
The danger here was real, and yet intangible. She had faced so many people who wanted her dead, or worse. But this place would kill her at the slightest mistake.
Finally, Guine sighed, his face relaxing into exhaustion. He turned away from her.
“It doesn’t matter now. It’s done. But now…now we face a problem.”
The walls were just like the ceiling, seemingly made of something crystalline. Ahead of her, she could see an opening in the circular room.
“What problem? Besides being in this yutemi you’ve created, that is.”
Guine chose to ignore her snappy tone. “We got off-track. Things will change now. I can find the way since I did make this as an option, but now it will take us longer.”
Kari’s gaze slowly trailed back to him. He’d said…what? Two or three days? Without food.
Now it would take longer?
“Just how much longer are you talking about, Guine?” Kari hissed.
He shrugged, not quite nonchalant, but rather resigned. “Maybe tack on a week. At the very least.”
Kari’s mouth dried. Already her stomach rumbled; now that the adrenaline had passed through her system, she was hungry. She wasn’t stupid. She knew her body would be capable of going quite a long time without sustenance, but that long? And what of their water supply?
She felt for the bag, but her fingers were too numb to reach inside for the waterskin. The cavern suddenly seemed very small.
“Guine…”
“Thirst will not be a real issue,” Guine said as if he had read her mind. “When I designed this way, I made a room for myself so that I could survive if I slipped up. There will be a room ahead that provides fresh, drinkable water. Hopefully, we can store enough to last us the rest of the time if we ration it.”
“And what about food?”
He hesitated. “The room…also has a solution for that. For humans. There’s no way we could know it would work for you, or at the very least not kill you.”
Kari stared past him. The only exit out of the cavern they were in was a single tunnel that turned sharply into darkness.
“I will not die in here, Guine.”
“I don’t intend for you to,” he said wearily. “But if things were serious at all to you before, it’s worse now.” He walked to one of the walls and sat down. “We should rest before we go on. Exhaustion and stress make the mind do stupid things.”
Kari didn’t move. She thought of a time long ago when she had left behind Snow Shade. Then she had perhaps gone a day or so without a real meal. It was like torture to her, weakening her body and senses until she had come across something to eat.
She could have adjusted to the idea of three days with no food. But more than a week?
About the Author
Valerie Storm was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, she fell in love
with everything fantasy. When she wasn’t playing video games, she was
writing. By age ten, she began to write her own stories as a way to escape
reality. When these stories became a full-length series, she considered the
path to sharing with other children & children-at/heart looking for a
place to call home.
Tendrils of darkness reach from the depths of her mind and shadows flicker
around every corner. Still reeling from Raven’s horrific display of
power, Kari suffers in silence.
When Guine finally returns with stories of a mirror that could help him
with his problems, Kari finds herself hoping that maybe, just maybe, it
could help with hers as well.
With the promise of a relatively straightforward outing, Kari, Ari, and
Guine set forth to find the mirror.
But what they find beyond the looking-glass threatens not only Kari and her
sanity, but also the world she loves.
About the Author
Valerie Storm was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, she fell in love
with everything fantasy. When she wasn’t playing video games, she was
writing. By age ten, she began to write her own stories as a way to escape
reality. When these stories became a full-length series, she considered the
path to sharing with other children & children-at/heart looking for a
place to call home.
Tendrils of darkness reach from the depths of her mind and shadows flicker
around every corner. Still reeling from Raven’s horrific display of
power, Kari suffers in silence.
When Guine finally returns with stories of a mirror that could help him
with his problems, Kari finds herself hoping that maybe, just maybe, it
could help with hers as well.
With the promise of a relatively straightforward outing, Kari, Ari, and
Guine set forth to find the mirror.
But what they find beyond the looking-glass threatens not only Kari and her
sanity, but also the world she loves.
About the Author
Valerie Storm was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, she fell in love
with everything fantasy. When she wasn’t playing video games, she was
writing. By age ten, she began to write her own stories as a way to escape
reality. When these stories became a full-length series, she considered the
path to sharing with other children & children-at/heart looking for a
place to call home.
Now a member of Freehaven’s Council, Kari tries to put her past behind her
and settle down in her new home with her ever-present Lord and love,
Ari.
Cracks in her mind, parting gifts from the heart eater, make planning the
upcoming Spring Festival a struggle, but Kari is determined to do her best,
even after Guine departs the town.
When a mysterious child appears at the festival and marks Kari, all
semblance of normalcy is banished.
A triple threat from her past awaits beyond the walls of Freehaven and
options are thin. Not willing to spill any more blood, Kari takes it upon
herself to stop them—with Ari by her side.
EXCERPT
The girl grabbed the neckline of her shirt and jerked her closer with too much ease. Kari stiffened as the girl’s cheek touched hers.
“Funny wolf demon, hiding in this wretched town.” Her voice was low and cruelly amused. Kari tensed, prepared to jerk free and throw a fist, but the girl hissed, “Ah, no, don’t move. There are many innocents here, though I would not call demons innocent. I know you would not want them hurt.”
She suddenly realized the closeness of so many villagers, as if she’d been ripped out of reality and dropped harshly back into it again.
Kari bit back a growl. “Who are you?”
She knew, though, before the small girl laughed. The boastful yet righteous arrogance of someone who believed truly and wholly in her cause—it could be no one else.
“I feel your defeat. You’ve answered your own question.”
Kari’s throat was dry. “Ri…Riniko. What are you doing here? Why—”
“Since you’ve yet to heed our warning, I’m here to play a little game.”
“Kari!” Ari called.
Riniko’s small hands tightened. “Tell him to leave. We’re busy.”
She hesitated. Ari yelled for her again, and now she envisioned him pushing through the crowds, looking for where she’d gone.
Riniko’s grip didn’t loosen. “Your boy is insistent.”
Kari turned her head with some difficulty, given Riniko’s grip. The little witch traded, wrapping her arms around Kari’s neck with a giggle that cracked against her eardrums.
Visible between passersby, Ari made his way to them. His brows raised at the sight of the girl around her neck.
“Who is…”
Kari smiled, big and wide, and prayed he didn’t notice her trembling lips. “She’s lost. I’m part of the Council, so she came to me. Go back to Rathik and Essie, I’ll catch up.”
Ari saw something in her face; his eyes constricted, his jaw pulsing, uncertain of what to do.
Please walk away, Ari. It’ll be okay this time. I promise.
When she did not say anything more, he relented. “Alright. Meet us over there, okay?”
Kari nodded, jostling Riniko. Ari glanced between them, then jogged off.
Riniko giggled again, quieter this time. “Good.”
Kari grabbed her around the waist and yanked her off. There was something insanely surreal about holding a small child in her hands, a child whose eyes burned with unmatched cruelty and fire.
“What do you want?” she snarled.
Riniko wrapped too-small fingers around Kari’s wrists and met her eye with a cool, even gaze. “You know what we want. I’m only here to set the fire of action a little higher for you.”
Her palms, pressed against Kari’s skin, warmed. Kari’s eyes widened, and she struggled with the instinct to fling the small child away.
“We do not want to burn this entire village to the ground. Despite the way these villagers associate with demons, they are still good, innocent people. The demons can be excused as long as they remain thusly. But you cannot. You must come and face your fate.”
Her arms were burning; Kari bit back a scream. “I keep telling you, I don’t want to hurt anyone! Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“Tell that to those poor people in the east. They probably thought you didn’t want to kill them. But now they’re very, very dead.”
Kari staggered back. There were fewer villagers out now, less to see this odd pair, but Kari dreaded what Riniko would do if even one was drawn to them. She inched away from the square, edging toward an alley between two buildings.
“Isn’t it enough that I died once? What more can you want?”
Riniko laughed. “Oh, yes, but Zina got cold feet. Superstition, I guess. She couldn’t let it die with you. No, she believed it would go on, despite having no body. So here you are, her little pet wolf demon, but she won’t be here to save you a second time.”
Cold feet? Let it die with her?
The burning on her arms increased, snapping her attention back to Riniko’s young-girl face.
“I’ll come to you,” Kari croaked. “Does that make you happy? I’ll leave and find you.”
Riniko’s eyes lit up, though she did not remove her hands. The heat continued to rise until Kari thought she could smell her flesh cooking.
“Oh, do you promise?” Riniko asked, her voice girlish, sickeningly sweet. “Pretty please?”
“Please stop,” Kari whispered between her teeth.
Little hands lifted, releasing her from the agony of fire. Kari trembled, then froze as those hands touched her cheeks.
“It was easy to infiltrate this place, Kari. It would be even easier, now, to set it all ablaze. You remember my previous work.”
Kari’s hands around Riniko’s waist shook with the effort to not squeeze her into pieces. “You’re the monster, witch,” she snarled.
“It takes a monster to slay one,” Riniko responded. “Remember that if you decide to hesitate any longer. I’m tired of waiting for this final show. My sisters have both seen that I was right and now it’s time to end this.” Riniko raised her hands. “Put me down.”
Shaking profusely, Kari set Riniko on the ground, where the little witch-girl brushed off her plain, brown dress. She fluffed her hair, then raised a finger to her lips.
“Remember your promise,” she said, then spun and skipped away into the darkness.
About the Author
Valerie Storm was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, she fell in love
with everything fantasy. When she wasn’t playing video games, she was
writing. By age ten, she began to write her own stories as a way to escape
reality. When these stories became a full-length series, she considered the
path to sharing with other children & children-at/heart looking for a
place to call home.
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