Release date: June 23, 2016
Sub-genre: Fantasy, Paranormal and Urban
About Trial by Fire:
The first of an exciting new Urban Fantasy
series, set in the world of The Claire Wiche Chronicles.
Meet Reese Pierpoint ~ half human, half Fae, and trying to figure out how to live with both sides of her heritage.
Reese Pierpoint is finally living an ordinary life in Santa Luna, free of her overprotective mother, and happily running her jewelry store. At least, she thinks her life is ordinary - until a strange woman walks into her store and rips that life apart.
Meet Reese Pierpoint ~ half human, half Fae, and trying to figure out how to live with both sides of her heritage.
Reese Pierpoint is finally living an ordinary life in Santa Luna, free of her overprotective mother, and happily running her jewelry store. At least, she thinks her life is ordinary - until a strange woman walks into her store and rips that life apart.
Reese finally sees the world her mother has been protecting her from all her
life, and she's plunged into her new world in a violent way - when the deaths
of local kids turn out to be sacrifices, and the creature responsible is using
them to create a doorway to escape his prison.
Bran Malcolm is a half human, half demon PI, who crosses paths with Reese, and falls hard for her. He teaches her what she needs to survive in the new world she has become part of, and their feelings for each other deepen.
When Reese becomes the focus of the killer's plan, Bran will do anything to keep her safe - even if it costs his life.
Bran Malcolm is a half human, half demon PI, who crosses paths with Reese, and falls hard for her. He teaches her what she needs to survive in the new world she has become part of, and their feelings for each other deepen.
When Reese becomes the focus of the killer's plan, Bran will do anything to keep her safe - even if it costs his life.
Excerpt:
It started like any early June day in Santa Luna—overcast in the morning, what the locals called the June gloom.
I walked the three blocks from my tiny second-floor studio to my store. The Dragon’s Breath was an unusual name for a jewelry store, but I played up the dragon love of treasure, and the interior reflected that, looking like the stone treasury of a castle. With modern touches, like lighting.
I loved my eclectic store, and I was choosy about what I sold there. Because of my reputation, the seller of the pendant walked into The Dragon’s Breath, instead of the pawn shop down the street.
I wish now she had.
She looked ordinary enough when she walked in, ringing the bell over the door. But as she got closer, the humming I can sometimes sense around people vibrated from her.
I should have trusted my instinct and refused to buy anything from her. But when she unwrapped the pendant and set it on my counter, I knew I had to have it.
This was a possession that startled me. I’m not a big jewelry wearer. Yeah, I know I sell it, and I do wear pieces in the store, to show them off. My own collection is tiny—partly because of my mother’s aversion to jewelry. She hates that I chose to sell it for a living.
“Where did you get this?” My voice sounded—odd, like I was hearing myself from the end of a long alley. I wanted to snatch the pendant up and clean it. The need to know what lay under the grime made my fingers itch.
The pendant had some kind of stone in the center, but was so tarnished and dirty, I couldn’t tell what the stone was.
“A family heirloom,” the older woman said. She watched me, probably more than a little freaked by my reaction to the pendant. Hell, I was more than a little freaked. “I wanted to know its worth, before I considered selling it.”
“It needs to be cleaned,” I muttered. I wanted to spend the time, slowly reveal the beauty hidden by neglect… I yanked myself out of the too vivid image. “I can’t give you an estimate until I can see what’s under the tarnish.”
“Why don’t you clean it for me, dear?” I jerked at her suggestion. The knowing smile on her face should’ve warned me.
“I normally don’t—”
“But you want to, Reese, don’t you?” Her quiet voice pulled me in—so much so that I didn’t notice she called me by name. “I believe you’re the only one who can do the pendant justice.”
Before I could stop myself, I reached for the pendant.
The second I touched it, the world my mother had spent her life hiding from me burst into my normal world—starting with the woman in front of me. Who wasn’t a woman.
I stumbled backward, my finger sliding off the pendant. But the damage had been done.
The woman who had turned from normal to strange studied me with her aqua blue eyes. She could’ve stepped out of my mother’s book on supernaturals.
She was a faerie.
I walked the three blocks from my tiny second-floor studio to my store. The Dragon’s Breath was an unusual name for a jewelry store, but I played up the dragon love of treasure, and the interior reflected that, looking like the stone treasury of a castle. With modern touches, like lighting.
I loved my eclectic store, and I was choosy about what I sold there. Because of my reputation, the seller of the pendant walked into The Dragon’s Breath, instead of the pawn shop down the street.
I wish now she had.
She looked ordinary enough when she walked in, ringing the bell over the door. But as she got closer, the humming I can sometimes sense around people vibrated from her.
I should have trusted my instinct and refused to buy anything from her. But when she unwrapped the pendant and set it on my counter, I knew I had to have it.
This was a possession that startled me. I’m not a big jewelry wearer. Yeah, I know I sell it, and I do wear pieces in the store, to show them off. My own collection is tiny—partly because of my mother’s aversion to jewelry. She hates that I chose to sell it for a living.
“Where did you get this?” My voice sounded—odd, like I was hearing myself from the end of a long alley. I wanted to snatch the pendant up and clean it. The need to know what lay under the grime made my fingers itch.
The pendant had some kind of stone in the center, but was so tarnished and dirty, I couldn’t tell what the stone was.
“A family heirloom,” the older woman said. She watched me, probably more than a little freaked by my reaction to the pendant. Hell, I was more than a little freaked. “I wanted to know its worth, before I considered selling it.”
“It needs to be cleaned,” I muttered. I wanted to spend the time, slowly reveal the beauty hidden by neglect… I yanked myself out of the too vivid image. “I can’t give you an estimate until I can see what’s under the tarnish.”
“Why don’t you clean it for me, dear?” I jerked at her suggestion. The knowing smile on her face should’ve warned me.
“I normally don’t—”
“But you want to, Reese, don’t you?” Her quiet voice pulled me in—so much so that I didn’t notice she called me by name. “I believe you’re the only one who can do the pendant justice.”
Before I could stop myself, I reached for the pendant.
The second I touched it, the world my mother had spent her life hiding from me burst into my normal world—starting with the woman in front of me. Who wasn’t a woman.
I stumbled backward, my finger sliding off the pendant. But the damage had been done.
The woman who had turned from normal to strange studied me with her aqua blue eyes. She could’ve stepped out of my mother’s book on supernaturals.
She was a faerie.
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Cate Dean has been writing since she could hold a pen in her hand and put more than two words together on paper.
She grew up losing herself in the wilds of fantasy worlds, and has had some of her own adventures while tromping through the UK, and a few other parts of the world.
A lover of all things supernatural, she infuses that love into her stories, giving them a unique edge.
When she's not writing, she loves cooking, scaring herself silly in the local cemeteries, and reading pretty much anything she can get her hands on.
About Cate Dean:
Cate Dean has been writing since she could hold a pen in her hand and put more than two words together on paper.
She grew up losing herself in the wilds of fantasy worlds, and has had some of her own adventures while tromping through the UK, and a few other parts of the world.
A lover of all things supernatural, she infuses that love into her stories, giving them a unique edge.
When she's not writing, she loves cooking, scaring herself silly in the local cemeteries, and reading pretty much anything she can get her hands on.
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