by A. W. Exley
"Politics?" Better her than me. I would grab my sword and dive back into a vermin hive before I would tackle a room full of politicians. But then, Alice had a way about her, and she'd probably have them all eating out of the palm of her hand.
"If that's what it takes. I want to help women and children to improve their lives. I just don't know how to start." A frown pulled her pale brow and she leaned back against the seat.
"If that's what you want, we'll figure something out," I said, and pulled her to me for a hug.
Frank pulled the motorcar into our driveway and up the gentle sweep to the house. Magda, Henry, and Stewart came running out.
After a good night's sleep, I would have to figure out how to defeat a long-dead ancestor of Seth's. My skin crawled at the sound of her name, but everything we had learned pointed to the global spread of vermin having a three-hundred-year-old point of origin: Millicent deMage.
Alice ran into the open embrace of Magda.
Seth left the car and came around to me. "Promise me you will get some sleep tonight?"
"I promise." I'd go to bed at least, but I had a list a mile long to make of things we needed to do. His arms slid around me and I let myself soak in his warmth of his embrace.
"I'm going to deliver Louise to London, and then I will have Warrens pull everything we have on the history of Serenity House and Millicent," he said against my hair.
Mentally, I added the name Aleister Crowley to the list of people we needed to research. Along with druids, ley lines, death roads, and possible reasons why vermin didn't like the pandemic survivors. Oh, blast, I also needed to see Charlotte before local gossip caught up with her.
"Tomorrow, Ella. I can feel your mind buzzing with things to do, but they will wait a few hours."
A sigh heaved itself free and a wave of fatigue hit. I slumped against Seth and he held me. That night I learned anything was possible when you surrounded yourself with people you trusted. I would allow myself a few hours to recover my strength, and then we had to push on with the Grim War.
I raised my gaze to meet his serious grey one. "Just so you know, I am going to be hard to impress after this."
A smile pulled the corners of his mouth and one eyebrow raised. "Whatever do you mean?"
"After we blew up the first hive, you promised me an explosive evening. I'm ready for that now, but I wonder how you’re going to do better than a monstrous, flaming wicker man of the undead?" I smiled up at him and hoped he picked up on my hint that I was ready to advance our relationship.
I had done a fair bit of thinking about how I wanted that evening to unfold. Somewhere in that enormous house they must have a bear or tiger skin rug. I was sure that was how intimate moments usually occurred in romantic novels, on the back of some poor deceased animal.
A frown wrinkled my brow. That didn't sound terribly romantic now that I thought about it. I substituted a woollen blanket for the dead bear. But then wool against bare skin always made me itch, so that wouldn't work either. Becoming a fallen woman seemed a fraught path. What was comfortable and romantic but wouldn't make my skin break out in a rash? Instead of rolling on the floor, I placed us on the silk-covered chaise. Much better.
Seth stroked my cheek and then crooked a finger under my chin, tipping it toward him. "I promise you an evening where you will fly so high you will be able to touch the stars."
Oh. I couldn't wait. Well, it would have to wait, since I desperately needed a bath first. Then he kissed me, and I completely forgot about my list of things to do.
About A. W. Exley
Books and writing have always been an enormous part of my life. I survived school by hiding out in the library, with several thousand fictional characters for company. At university, I overcame the boredom of studying accountancy by squeezing in Egyptology papers and learning to read hieroglyphics.
Today, I write fantasy historical novels with heart. I live in rural New Zealand surrounded by a weird and wonderful menagerie of animals.
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Rory, the Sleeper
Serenity House book 4
By A. W. Exley
Who will awaken the sleeper…?
Ella wants the sleeper to stay undisturbed. Especially when it's Millicent deMage, the first Duchess of Leithfield and a supposed witch who died three hundred years ago. As Ella learns about the history of Serenity House, she begins to realise the long dead duchess could be the key to understanding the pandemic of vermin.
For the final battle Ella needs a new ally, one forged from an old adversary—Charlotte her step-sister. Ever since Ella shattered her world and destroyed her family, the young woman has been trying to figure out how to survive. Now, Charlotte is the one woman who can anchor Ella in this world as she does battle in another.
Sometimes the fiercest battles are the ones we fight in our minds. But this might be one fight Ella can't win and she will be the one trapped and put to sleep forever…
