Rouxs: (pronounced Rucks) practitioners of all sorts of magic, especially the dark arts. Creators of Death, whom they imbibe with powers and abilities, limitations and vulnerabilities.
Acknowledgments
This book was written in an insanely short amount of time—I remember asking writer friends if it was really possible to finish it and even though they said yes, I knew they were lying—and during a period when my lawyering life demanded 1,000 percent of my attention.
Book deadlines from your publisher and twenty-four-hour demands from your client conveniently ignore the fact you have a nine-year-old to care for, a little boy wandering through the kitchen or standing next to you in line at Stop & Shop, chattering about baseball All-Star games and Thanksgiving in Atlanta and Christmas at Daddy’s house and are we going to Jamaica this year—No, we are not going to Jamaica this year—and theorizing on Supreme Leader Snoke. They don’t care that while you’re pulling all-nighters to produce documents to the government and the next day making sure you finish at least three chapters of your book, that same nine-year-old is pretty much caring for himself.
And doing so without a moan or groan because somehow someway he gets it, he knows his mommy needs to write. It’s what makes her who she is, it completes her. And she might not be mommy of the year or classroom mommy or soccer-baseball-basketball mommy, and she’s kind of a mess who forgets everything and is scattered and wild, but he loves her despite those truths.
Even if he sometimes gives her the side-eye.
So this go-round, the only person deserving any sort of acknowledgment is my little human, my heart: Dash.
Thank you for complementing my new soul with your old one.
About the Author
Author photograph © Robert Hite
Madhuri Pavamani is the author of the paranormal romance trilogy The Sanctum. A southern girl with northern sensibilities and a slight twang, who still uses the word “y’all” but never “fixin’,” she has an affinity for writing twisted love stories and dark poetry. A graduate of Barnard College, and incapable of leaving the bright lights of New York City, Madhuri works in Manhattan, but rests her head in New Jersey. She loves whiskey, tattoos, Bukowski, and yoga.
To learn more about her, you can follow her blog at madhuripavamani.wordpress.com, follow her on Twitter at @madhuriwrites, on Instagram at @madhuriwrites or “Like” her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/madhuriwrites/.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE: DUTCH
CHAPTER TWO: DUTCH
CHAPTER THREE: JUMA
CHAPTER FOUR: DUTCH
CHAPTER FIVE: DUTCH
CHAPTER SIX: DUTCH
CHAPTER SEVEN: JUMA
CHAPTER EIGHT: JUMA
CHAPTER NINE: DUTCH
CHAPTER TEN: DUTCH
CHAPTER ELEVEN: JUMA
CHAPTER TWELVE: DUTCH
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: JUMA
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: JUMA
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: DUTCH
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: DUTCH
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: JUMA
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: DUTCH
CHAPTER NINETEEN: DUTCH
CHAPTER TWENTY: JUMA
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: DUTCH
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: JUMA
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: JUMA
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: DUTCH
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: JUMA
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: JUMA
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: DUTCH
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: DUTCH
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: DUTCH
CHAPTER THIRTY: DUTCH
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: JUMA
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: JUMA
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: JUMA
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: DUTCH
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: JUMA
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: DUTCH
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: JUMA
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: JUMA
GLOSSARY
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright Page
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DEATH. Copyright © 2017 by Madhuri Pavamani. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Crystal Ben
Cover photographs: woman © Luba V Nel/Shutterstock.com; texture © ilolab/Shutterstock.com
ISBN 978-1-250-12721-1 (ebook)
First Edition: September 2017
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