by Anna Kashina
He shook his head. “The Kaddim hate me. And they’re still out there.”
She looked into his eyes, an inadvertent smile sliding over her lips. “Are you going to dismiss me because of that?”
“Hell, no. But… I can’t even think of what will happen if I lose you.”
“You are not going to lose me,” she said. “Unless you want to, of course. If you ever do, you have but to say the word.”
He reached over and pulled her into his arms in a powerful move that bordered on roughness, his force echoing inside her with new arousal.
“You must be joking,” he said.
She inhaled his scent, briefly closing her eyes so that she could savor it.
“I must be dreaming,” she whispered.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This novel would never have been possible without the support and inspiration from many important people in my life.
First and foremost, I will always be grateful to my grandfather, Vladimir Keilis-Borok, who enjoyed the world of the Majat warriors even more than any of my other writing, and felt so personal about Kara and Mai that he found strength to discuss their lives and motives with me until his very last days. He was among the first people who saw their potential for being together during my early work on the Blades of the Old Empire, and our conversations about it yielded some of my favorite scenes. The majority of the first draft of this novel was written during my trips to his bedside in the last months of his life, and this book will forever bear the mark of his magic.
I thank my lifelong friend Olga Karengina, who has always been my number one beta reader, and whose encouragement and support drove me on during the work on this book. I am grateful to several friends and fellow authors for their helpful critique, especially W. B. J. Williams, who read the full draft of this novel in a very short time and gave me some critical encouragement and suggestions on the story, and J. M. Sidorova, whose comments and inspiration shaped a lot of my writing in this book. I also thank those multiple readers and fans who urged me, after reading Blades of the Old Empire, to explore the idea of physical closeness between Kara and Mai, which ended up getting out of hand and developing into a full-blown romance.
I am grateful to my husband for sharing my passion for fantasy and martial arts, and for his tips and suggestions that underlay some of the advanced Majat techniques. I also thank my parents for being supportive of my writing for all these years, ever since I turned six.
Last but not least, I am very grateful to my agent, Michael Harriot, and to the publishing team of Angry Robot Books, especially Lee Harris, Caroline Lambe and Michael Underwood, for their support and all the hard work that went into bringing my book to publication.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Kashina grew up in Russia and moved to the United States in 1994 after receiving her Ph.D. in cell biology from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
She works as a professor in a major university and combines her successful career in science and her passion for writing.
Anna’s passion for ballroom dancing, world mythologies and folklore has fed her high-level interest in martial arts of the Majat warriors.
She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
annakashina.com
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