Of Wings and Shadows (Of Cinder and Bone, Book 5.5) by Kyoko M.

 

Release date: July 22, 2023

Subgenre: Science Fiction Thriller, Genetic Engineering

About Of Wings and Shadows:

 

In a modern-day world teeming with marauding dragons, there is only one solution: The Wild Hunt.

The United States government has decided to hold a tournament called The Wild Hunt to determine who will be responsible for the capture of wild dragons by the Knight Division. The four challengers Noah Wilson, Charlie Howard, Su Jin Han, and Beowulf have to catch five deadly dragons alive if they want to win the tournament and become the new Knight Division dragon hunters. Their journey will take them through the mountains of South Carolina, the seas of Key West, the caverns of Ruby Falls, the Redwood forest, and finally, the murky bayous of Louisiana. Will they succeed against their competition, or will the dragons of the Wild Hunt be too wild to tame?

Of Wings and Shadows is the sixth book in the Of Cinder and Bone series. It takes place in medias res of Book Five, Of Claws and Inferno. It follows Of Cinder and Bone, Of Blood and Ashes, Of Dawn and Embers, and Of Fury and Fangs.

 

Excerpt:

 

Once Noah reached the nearby hiking trail, he could tell the dragon was definitely present; he heard not a peep from the local wildlife, which had likely fallen silent so as not to draw attention to themselves. He slid the rifle around to his hands as he finished cresting the hill and then knelt, peering through the scope to get a good look at the creature.

The midnight dragon had climbed over the black iron fence and stretched out on the rock face on its side. The sunshine made it look like a long, eerie shadow or an oil spill. Its enormous wings were folded along its spiny back and he could see its tail tapping on the rock every so often. Its cerulean eyes were closed for the moment and its nostrils twitched occasionally. He couldn’t really determine if it was completely asleep or not, so he’d have to hope for the best.

The fence around the enclosure made it hard to get a good vantage point to make the shot without alerting the dragon to his presence. Their altitude also meant he’d have to contend with the wind since he was several yards out. He decided to stay within the nearby tree line in the hopes it would provide cover and lay on his belly, setting up the rifle’s tripod to help him steady the shot. For the next few minutes, he simply observed the dragon through the scope. As he did, he could hear something other than the wind whistling through the trees: a light chirping noise that he realized was indeed coming from the dragon. If he hadn’t been in an environment where the other animals had gone silent, he never would’ve noticed it was producing the sound, not the many birds around it.

A red-breasted nuthatch flitted down from a nearby tree and landed on the rock to catch a worm it spotted directly in front of the dragon. The dragon’s nostrils twitched, then its forked tongue flicked out once, twice. The bird picked up the worm and turned to fly away. The midnight dragon snapped it up in its jaws as fast as a striking cobra, swallowing the bird whole. Noah blew out a breath, wincing. “Poor little guy.”

The dragon then stood and stretched its wings, exposing the dark membrane in between the appendages. Noah exhaled, concentrated, and took the shot.

The syringe bounced off one of the rungs of the iron fence.

The midnight dragon heard the noise and turned its horned head, its brilliant blue eyes locking onto Noah immediately.

“Ah, hell,” he muttered.

The dragon roared and spread its wings, leaping into the air and heading right for him.

 

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About Kyoko M. 

Kyoko M is an author, a fangirl, and an avid book reader. Her debut novel, The Black Parade, has been on Amazon's Bestseller List at #5 in the Occult Horror category. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Lit degree from the University of Georgia, which gave her every valid excuse to devour book after book with a concentration in Greek mythology and Christian mythology. When not working feverishly on a manuscript (or two), she can be found buried under her Dashboard on Tumblr, or chatting with fellow nerds on Twitter, or curled up with a good Harry Dresden novel on a warm central Florida night. Like any author, she wants nothing more than to contribute something great to the best profession in the world, no matter how small. 

 

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Of Claws and Inferno (Of Cinder and Bones, Book 5) by Kyoko M.

 

Release date: April 22, 2022

Subgenre: Science Fiction Thriller, Genetic Engineering

 

About Of Claws and Inferno:

 

In a modern day world teeming with marauding dragons, there is only one solution: The Wild Hunt.

Dr. Rhett “Jack” Jackson and Dr. Kamala Anjali have worked for the Knight Division capturing wild dragons for years, but now the government has decided to hold a tournament called The Wild Hunt. Jack, Kamala, and their teammates Calloway, Libby, Agent Shannon, and Yousef, must capture five of the deadliest dragons alive before the opposing team or they lose their jobs at the Knight Division. Jack and Kamala are also chasing after Kazuma Okegawa, the yakuza lieutenant who has been trying to kill them. Okegawa is planning a hostile takeover of the worldwide illegal dragon trade and if he succeeds, everyone will be in grave danger. Between the Wild Hunt and Okegawa’s plot to destroy everything in his path, Jack and Kamala have to rely on each other to stay alive in the middle of an inferno.

Of Claws and Inferno is the fifth book in the Of Cinder and Bone science fiction/contemporary fantasy series. It follows Of Cinder and Bone, Of Blood and Ashes, Of Dawn and Embers, and Of Fury and Fangs.

 

Excerpt:

 

Lake Natron resided in northern Tanzania near an active volcano known as Ol Doinyo Lengai. It was part of the reason the lake had such unique characteristics. The mud had a curious dark grey color over where he’d been set up for observation, and he noted that there was now an odd-looking mound of it to the right of one of the flamingo’s nests. He zoomed in further and further, peering at it, and then realized what he was actually seeing.

The dragon had crouched down beside the nests and blended into the mud. From snout to tail, Jack calculated it had to be twelve to fourteen feet long. Its wings were folded against its back, which had small spines running down the length to a spiky tail. It had a fin with three prongs along the base of the skull and webbed feet tipped with sharp black talons. He estimated the dragon was about the size of a large hyena. It peered up at its prey with beady red eyes, its black forked tongue darting out every few seconds. Its shoulder muscles bunched and its hind legs tensed.

Then it pounced.

The dark grey dragon leapt onto one of flamingoes atop its nest and seized it by the throat. The bird squawked in distress and immediately beat its wings, trying to free itself. The others around them took to the skies in panic. The dragon slammed it into the mud and closed its jaws around the animal’s throat, blood spilling everywhere. The flamingo yelped out its last breaths and then finally stilled. The dragon dropped the limp carcass and sniffed the eggs before beginning to swallow them whole one at a time.

“Holy shit,” Jack muttered.

“Have we got a visual?”

“Oh, yeah. Based on the size, the natives and the conservationists were right to be concerned. It can probably wipe out a serious number of wildlife in a short amount of time based on what I’m seeing. There’s only a handful of fauna that can survive in these conditions and it could make mincemeat out of them.”

“Alright, so what’s the plan?”

“They told me it’s very agile, which is why their attempts to capture it haven’t worked. I’m going to see if it responds to any of the usual stimuli. So far, they said it doesn’t appear to be aggressive.”

“Copy that. Be careful, cowboy.”

“Ten-four.” Jack glanced down at his utility belt and opened the pocket on his left side, withdrawing a thin silver whistle. He put it to his lips and blew for several seconds. Much like a dog whistle, Jack couldn’t hear anything.

But the dragon’s head creaked around and those beady red eyes locked onto him.

Jack lowered the whistle and licked his dry lips. “If I were in a movie, this would be the part where I said, ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this.’”

The dragon roared, its grey wings extending out from its body, and then flew straight at him.

 

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About Kyoko M. 

Kyoko M is an author, a fangirl, and an avid book reader. Her debut novel, The Black Parade, has been on Amazon's Bestseller List at #5 in the Occult Horror category. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Lit degree from the University of Georgia, which gave her every valid excuse to devour book after book with a concentration in Greek mythology and Christian mythology. When not working feverishly on a manuscript (or two), she can be found buried under her Dashboard on Tumblr, or chatting with fellow nerds on Twitter, or curled up with a good Harry Dresden novel on a warm central Florida night. Like any author, she wants nothing more than to contribute something great to the best profession in the world, no matter how small. 

 

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Of Fury and Fangs (Of Cinder and Bone, Book 4) by Kyoko M.

Release date: October 24, 2020

Subgenre: Science Fiction Thriller, Genetic Engineering

About Of Fury and Fangs: 

 

Someone wants Dr. Rhett “Jack” Jackson dead.

After surviving a vicious attack from a dragon in his own home, Jack and Dr. Kamala Anjali investigate who sent the dragon to kill him. Unfortunately, their list of enemies is long. Plenty of people have an axe to grind with the two scientists responsible for the rebirth of the previously extinct dragons that are now flourishing on every continent of the planet. Jack and Kamala rejoin with their team at the Knight Division to hunt down the culprit and put an end to their revenge scheme once and for all.

But will it cost them everything?

Of Fury and Fangs is the fourth novel in the Amazon and USA Today bestselling Of Cinder and Bone series, following Of Cinder and Bone, Of Blood and Ashes, and Of Dawn and Embers.

 

Excerpt:

 

It was one-thirty a.m. when all hell broke loose.

The security alarm shrieked, its panicked cries high and deafening, and nearly catapulted Dr. Rhett "Jack" Jackson off of his comfortable couch where he'd been sprawled in an exhausted, impromptu slumber. Jack let out a startled yip of surprise as he leapt to his feet, blinking hard to clear the sleep from his brown eyes. He winced as the screaming alarm jabbed at his eardrums and hurried over to the control pad on the wall near the front door. He punched in a code and the alarm fell into blessed silence. He sighed in relief and then swiped to another screen to see what had caused the disturbance.

The security alarm, unfortunately, was a bit overdramatic. Over the past year, Jack had gotten used to the system crying wolf every so often due to its oversensitivity. Once, it had gone off when his daughter Naila had slapped both palms against the downstairs window facing the backyard. Another time had been when their German shepherd Brunhilde had been teaching herself to open the sliding door. Its first two weeks of installation had been a nightmare as well, since it often went off and the house’s occupants couldn't even identify the source of the problem. By now, Jack had developed a lot of reservations about it, and had been considering switching to a new system.

He rubbed his eyes with his palms before he read the alert aloud in a gravelly, sleep-deprived voice. "Upstairs master bedroom. My ass, it's the bedroom window. Unless it's the damn Easter Bunny, I'm going back to sleep."

Jack took two steps towards the couch and then heard his daughter's distressed wails, wincing. "Oh, right. The munchkin."

He instead turned and headed for the stairs, yawning and scratching his messy brown hair, calling out, "Hang on, chubby monkey, Daddy's coming."

Jack reached the top of the stairs.

And stopped dead.

There was a dragon standing in the darkened hallway.

At first, Jack swore he was still asleep. He had to be. He couldn't possibly be seeing correctly.

And yet the icy fear slipping down his spine said differently.

The dragon stood at roughly five feet tall once its head rose upon sighting Jack at the other end of the hallway. It was lean and had dirty brown scales with an off-white belly. Its black, hooked claws kneaded the carpet as its yellow eyes stared at Jack, its pupils dilating to drink him in from head to toe. Its wings rustled along its back on either side of the sharp spines protruding down its body to the thin, whip-like tail. A single horn glinted sharp and deadly under the small, motion-activated hallway light.

The only thing more noticeable than that were the many long, jagged scars scored across the creature's stomach, limbs, and neck. It had been hunted recently. Judging from the depth and extent of the scars, it had certainly killed a hunter or two to have survived with so many marks.

"Okay," Jack whispered hoarsely. "Five bucks says you're not the Easter Bunny."

 

Amazon

 

About Kyoko M:

Kyoko M is an author, a fangirl, and an avid book reader. Her debut novel, The Black Parade, has been on Amazon's Bestseller List at #5 in the Occult Horror category. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Lit degree from the University of Georgia, which gave her every valid excuse to devour book after book with a concentration in Greek mythology and Christian mythology. When not working feverishly on a manuscript (or two), she can be found buried under her Dashboard on Tumblr, or chatting with fellow nerds on Twitter, or curled up with a good Harry Dresden novel on a warm central Florida night. Like any author, she wants nothing more than to contribute something great to the best profession in the world, no matter how small. 

 

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