Her cheeks flushed a little. “Stake my claim?”
“It’s about fecking time, I’ll add. I like it when you get territorial.”
She pressed her face into his shoulder. “I’m never going to hear the end of this.”
“Aye, no.” He chuckled. “If I could get the angle right, I’d take a picture.”
He watched her laughing against his shoulder, ridiculously pleased that she was sleepy and silly and walking home with him. That she trusted him. That she looked at him and didn’t see a monster, but a man.
Oh, fuck me. Gavin felt his heart thump twice.
He didn’t just want Chloe Reardon. He was in love with her.
The Devil and the Dancer will be available
at all major retailers on March 12, 2019.
Afterword
Dear Readers,
Thanks for diving back into the Elemental Legacy series again. I hope you enjoyed reading Blood Apprentice as much as I enjoyed writing it.
The next book in the series will be Gavin and Chloe’s novella, The Devil and the Dancer, which will be out in March 2019.
After The Devil and the Dancer I’ll be returning to my contemporary romance series, Love Stories on 7th and Main for two books. Then I’ll be back with Ben and Tenzin for the third and fourth Elemental Legacy novels, which have not been titled yet.
I hope you take the time to sign up for my newsletter or my blog at ElizabethHunterWrites.com to keep up with all the latest news, teasers, and contests happening for my books.
And of course, honest reviews at your favorite retailer are always very welcome and help a writer out!
Thanks for reading,
Elizabeth Hunter
Acknowledgments
Readers who follow my writing know this book has quite a history. I had planned to set the second Elemental Legacy book in Puerto Rico—where Ben still had human family—when I planned the series five years ago. I had outlined the story, planned a research trip, and half-fallen in love with the island without having set eyes on it.
And then, Maria made landfall.
I watched in horror, along with the rest of the world, as Hurricane Maria battered the island of Puerto Rico, destroying homes and businesses, demolishing infrastructure, and ultimately killing thousands of people who died during the storm and its aftermath.
I was devastated to watch a place I had already grown to love suffer such horrible tragedy.
After the winds had stopped, a research trip to the island for a fantasy novel seemed like the last thing I should be thinking about. I put Blood Apprentice on hold and joined many of my readers in donating to organizations on the ground like World Central Kitchen and the Hispanic Federation who were working to help Puerto Ricans recover.
Though I still want to visit the island, because of the hurricane and then life complications over the past year, I was not able to visit before I wrote this book, which is why I am so very grateful for all the many bloggers and vloggers who documented their experiences of life before and after Maria, the excellent resources I found online, and most of all, my extremely generous and detail-oriented readers from Puerto Rico who volunteered to beta read this book to make sure I didn’t make any egregious errors.
Special thanks to Arlin Feliciano, Melanie Miro, and Danielle Calleja for their notes, feedback, and insight to Puerto Rican culture, geography, ecology, and FOOD! (Food is very important.) Any missteps or mistakes left in the book are my own and completely unintentional.
Thanks also to my editing team, Amy Cissell, Anne Victory, and Linda at Victory Editing for their excellent work on this book. And additional thanks to Damonza for the beautiful cover for Blood Apprentice.
Thanks to my assistants, Jenn Beach and Gen Johnson. Special, socially-awkward thanks to Emily Smith-Kidman, Jenn Watson, and the entire Social Butterfly PR team for making me look cooler than I am.
Finally, I want to thank all the many readers who waited so patiently for Ben and Tenzin’s next adventure. I hope it was worth it! You won’t have to wait very long to read more about Chloe and Gavin. The Devil and the Dancer comes out in March 2019.
To my family, who have been my rock through the last year, I love you to infinity.
“I will turn their mourning into joy;
I will comfort them,
And give them gladness for sorrow.”
Jeremiah 31:13
About the Author
ELIZABETH HUNTER is a USA Today and international best-selling author of romance, contemporary fantasy, and paranormal mystery. Based in Central California, she travels extensively to write fantasy fiction exploring world mythologies, history, and the universal bonds of love, friendship, and family. She has published over thirty works of fiction and sold over a million books worldwide. She is the author of Love Stories on 7th and Main, the Elemental Legacy series, the Irin Chronicles, the Cambio Springs Mysteries, and other works of fiction.
ElizabethHunterWrites.com
Also by Elizabeth Hunter
The Elemental Legacy
Shadows and Gold
Imitation and Alchemy
Omens and Artifacts
Midnight Labyrinth
Blood Apprentice
The Devil and the Dancer
(March 2019)
The Elemental Mysteries
A Hidden Fire
This Same Earth
The Force of Wind
A Fall of Water
The Stars Afire
The Elemental World
Building From Ashes
Waterlocked
Blood and Sand
The Bronze Blade
The Scarlet Deep
A Very Proper Monster
A Stone-Kissed Sea
The Irin Chronicles
The Scribe
The Singer
The Secret
The Staff and the Blade
The Silent
The Storm
The Seeker
The Cambio Springs Series
Long Ride Home
Shifting Dreams
Five Mornings
Desert Bound
Waking Hearts
Contemporary Romance
The Genius and the Muse
7th and Main
INK
HOOKED (Winter 2019)
Linx & Bogie Mysteries
A Ghost in the Glamour
A Bogie in the Boat
Blood Apprentice: An Elemental Legacy Novel Page 31
