Storm of Reckoning

by Doranna Durgin

  From beneath the bed, something made the noise of a child moaning.

  Garrie sat heavily; she dropped the knife and buried her face in her hands, moaning along with... what? Sklayne? But just that fast, she jerked her head up with a new kind of light in her eyes. “I have his things. I can—”

  What, she didn’t quite say.

  Lucia picked her way into the room past the newly stained carpet, so carefully not touching anything. Trevarr’s duster, there. His ugly old satchel, stout and ill-used leather. His boots. His shirt, and even his belt. Lucia bent to pick up the belt; she ran her fingers, feather-light, over the design of the buckle. Swooping lines and angles. “Wings and fang,” she murmured.

  Garrie jerked to life; she snatched the belt away, abrupt and not apologetic for it. “What?” And she, too, traced her fingers over the design, and she whispered, “You’re right. I never saw it. But you’re right.”

  Lucia gathered herself... as brave as she’d ever been brave. “Chicalet, what —?”

  Garrie turned on her, clutching the belt tightly. “They took him,” she said, a voice so raw and strained, her eyes bright and chin trembling. “Hunters, from his world. They were looking for me. He wouldn’t give me up and they took him.”

  She dropped the belt and went down to her knees, groping under the bed until she pulled out a creature who had been cat but who at the moment looked more other. Large and stumpy-tailed, big tufted ears and a short, sleek coat of darkly dappled sheen, his eerie green eyes half-open and dazed.

  Garrie held him, crooning something — lightly smoothing back his whiskers and the ruffled hair between his ears. Lucia thought — oddly — that Garrie deeply inhaled the furry scent of him, her eyes closing.

  When she looked at Lucia, tears caught the light. “I can do this,” she said. “I have the three—”

  Whatever she had, she wasn’t saying. Lucia’s flicker of resentment faded with the realization that she might just not want to know.

  Garrie stuck her chin out, just a little. Not-crying, even if her lower lip still gave her away. “I’m not just going to wait,” she said. “I’m not just going to wonder.”

  Lucia could understand that, except... hunters from another world. Violent men, Trevarr -like men. From another world.

  “We’re reckoners,” she said. “You’re a reckoner. Better than anyone — maybe better than anyone ever. But... this...” She gestured helplessly, encompassing Sklayne, the gaping doorway, Trevarr’s scattered belongings.

  The blood.

  The reality of it crawled cold down her spine. She closed her eyes.

  Trevarr hadn’t gone without a fight. She knew that. The blood wasn’t his, either — dark as his was, it wasn’t this. So he’d fought and he’d lost, a thing she’d somehow come to believe simply didn’t happen — not even weakened, not even battered.

  What could Garrie do against that? Was she even five feet tall? Pushing a hundred pounds? Could she even withstand the energies of Trevarr’s dark world?

  “But nothing,” Garrie said, that new look in her eye. She had a small rash on her neck... a lover’s mark. Faint fingerprint bruises peeking up from her shorts and wrapped around her hip. Lisa McGarrity, Reckoner...

  Lisa McGarrity, changed.

  Maybe not the only one.

  Not after what they’d seen in San Jose, what they’d done there. After what they’d seen here... and somehow lived through. Together.

  “Okay, chicalet,” Lucia said, quite suddenly on board. “I... I don’t know if I’m with you. I don’t know if I can be. But I’m behind you.”

  What Garrie saw when she looked at that doorway, glaring bright against the shelter of the room, Lucia couldn’t guess. But she wasn’t surprised by Garrie’s words. Not anymore.

  “I’m not just going to wait.” Garrie’s glance hit Lucia with impact, a sudden hard shine to it. “I’m going to find him.”

  Lucia thought, quite suddenly, she felt a sudden brush of air... heard a faint flap of giant wing.

  And then it was silent.

  “Or perhaps in order to live, you do have to die just a little after all.”

  — Rhonda Rose

  “He’ll be back.”

  — Lisa McGarrity

  “Come and get me, then.”

  — Trevarr

  Author’s Cut Notes

  This is the second book in the Reckoners trilogy, and my second Author’s Cut edition. Other, older books have received additional copy editing and a bit of polish, but to call a book an Author’s Cut implies some serious change (usually with new, new, NEW material!).

  In this case, yes, a batch of new scenes along with significant copy revisions, although the essential story remains the same — same scenes, same order, same story and subplots.

  In my notes from The Reckoners, I mentioned how this trilogy’s journey was deeply affected by the industry, and by pressures to write thusly. (Write like this person, include more of this element, don’t include any of that element, shorten for production purposes.) All these things pressured the book, interfering with the writing process and the outcome.

  In this second book, the Author’s cut journey was even more enlightening, allowing me to deeply understand how constricting expectations affected my process. In turn, this is teaching me more about what I do need as a writer, and what, to a large extent, I haven't had for many years now — but what might now be again within my grasp for my independent works.

  So I’m even more delighted to have had the chance to shift this story toward what it wanted to be in the first place. And that I’ve been able to write the third book (in production at the time of this release), and finish this phase of Garrie and Trevarr’s adventures.

  See you there!

  Ask the Author

  Really? All that author note stuff aside — a cliffhanger?!

  I know, right? I tried to avoid it, but it’s how the story insisted on happening. Watch.

  Me to story: But what if I —

  Story: No.

  Me: Then how about —

  Story: NO.

  Me: But we could —

  Story: NO. NO. NOPETOPUS.

  So I plead guilty. The story won.

  There is no greater joy for a writer than to know her work gave a reader a bit of a break from the day. I appreciate your letters, emails, blog comments, and Facebook posts more than I can ever express. These days, readers hold more power than ever with their choices, and reviews and word of mouth are an author’s best friend — a reader can offer no greater support!

  If you’d like to keep tabs on what I’m writing, here’s my newsletter sign-up. It goes out several times a year with notices about releases and giveaways, but I won’t fill your mailbox. Or feel free to come by and say hello at my Facebook page, where we have lots of other fun! If you just want to see what else I've written, try this list on my web site.

  Reading Onward

  The Reckoners: A powerful ghostbuster raised by a spirit, her brilliantly eccentric backup team, a cat who isn't a cat at all...and a fiercely driven bounty hunter from a different dimension who brings them together when worlds collide.

  Skilled ghosthunter Lisa “Garrie” McGarrity not only sees dead people, she wrangles them into submission. But her beloved ghostly mentor moved on years ago, and the Southwest has gone quiet under Garrie's hand. Garrie and her team have grown restless and...well, face it. Maybe willing to take a risk or two.

  So when the relentlessly mysterious and fiercely driven Trevarr (and his not-cat!) shows up asking for help, Garrie is inclined to listen. And when he describes big trouble at the San Jose Winchester Mystery House, she’s inclined to go with him, even if it splits her team along the way.

  But she doesn’t expect a mansion crammed with spirits on the brink of madness, and she doesn't expect to face off against the powerful and unfamiliar energies of semi-ethereal beings from another dimension. She definitely doesn't expect the fabric of her own world to unravel around her �
� with no one but her to stop it.

  And truly, she has no idea how deep Trevarr’s secrets run.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Reckoner Redeemed is the final book of the Reckoners trilogy, and is in production.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  All woman, all heart... all horse.

  When hikers Dayna and Eric find a naked and terrified young woman, they’re sure she’s the victim of foul play. But the truth is much more shocking: she isn’t human at all. She’s Dun Lady’s Jess, a horse transformed into this new shape by the spell that brought her and her rider, to whom she is utterly devoted, into this world.

  Possessed now of human intelligence but still a horse deep inside, Jess desperately searches this world for her master and rider, using her fiery equine spirit to take on human idiosyncrasies — and human threats.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Suspense, romance, and a Celtic dog bundled into a contemporary fantasy setting.

  As a child, dog-loving Brenna Fallon naively invokes an ancient Celtic deity to save her beloved hound — and inadvertently anchors the new-found power at a spring on her family’s farm.

  She doesn’t know she’s also left an opening for a far more malevolent force.

  Years later, Brenna discovers the terrible potential of that gateway. With a devastating plague unfolding abruptly around her, she must depend on her wits, a stranger she doesn’t trust, and a mysterious stray dog who becomes more than just a faithful companion as she struggles to drive back the threat of a modern Black Death.

  Welded by a desperate sacrifice, woman, man, and dog face the feral darkness together.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Kelyn of Ketura.

  Daughter of a legendary warrior who left the mountains before she was born. Brave. Strong. Tempered by her struggle to survive in the hostile, craggy Keturan mountains. And plagued by moments of enormous and puzzling clumsiness.

  “Find your father,” the local wisewoman tells her. “To find your true self, find the Wolverine.”

  Angered by his abandonment, Kelyn doesn't care about her father — but the lure of adventure in the Outlands calls to her, just as it called to the Wolverine before her, and she accepts the challenge.

  New languages, new weapons. Magic. Witch hunts. The treacheries of civilization. She doesn't know just how much of a challenge it’ll be.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  One man loses everything to magic — and will do anything to prevent it from taking over his world.

  Magic has never been a part of Reandn’s life. Almost gone from Keland when he was born, there is no trace of it left by the time he patrols the Keep lands as an elite King’s Wolf.

  Magic has never been a part of Reandn’s life. Until the people under his care start dying. Until the threat extends to his family — and then turns on him. Someone, somewhere, is trying to draw magic back into Keland, and they don't care what — or who — is destroyed in the process.

  But Reandn does.

  Magic.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  When Blaine Kendricks discovers strangers in Shadow Hollers, she thinks they've come to trade. She couldn’t be more wrong.

  When Dacey Childers comes to Shadow Hollers, Blaine’s family thinks he's there to hunt game. They couldn’t be more wrong.

  When the Annekteh come to Shadow Hollers, they think the isolated community living there has no way to resist their invasion.

  They’re pretty much right on target.

  But the last man of the lost seer’s blood has returned, and is about to draw Blaine into his magic, his adventure...and the most dangerous hunt she could ever imagine.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Glossary

  Garrie’s World

  Bob/Bobbie - Garrie’s default name for all ghosts

  caray - a Spanish interjection, meaning, “!!!”

  chicalet - Lucia’s nickname for Garrie, based on Spanish chica and the English diminutive, not to mention an allusion to a certain brand of wee gum.

  darkside - a place vague in Garrie’s understanding, from which invading entities come. They all have the same flavor to her. She has thought of it in terms of spiritual planes rather than dimensions. This may change.

  pajarito - little bird. Lucia is not, perhaps, being entirely benevolent here.

  petirrojo - robin: a definite promotion, in terms of assigned nicknames.

  reckoner - those who take care of a final reckoning for spirits who need it; specifically someone who can manipulate ethereal breezes, although Garrie considers her whole team to be reckoners beside her.

  Trevarr’s World

  atreya/o - heart partner

  Atreya vo - Atreya mine

  atreyvo - bondmate

  chakha - a parasitic darkside entity that invades smallish predators and hulks them out, then controls them in a hunt for atypically large prey for its own consumption.

  ekhevia - a hunting tool; it detects energies and can “store” and transport beings in an ethereal state.

  eatsll - a nasty living substance from Kehar.

  fark - Every culture seems to have a word for this...

  Ghehera — Tribunal HQ on Kehar, a small city in its own right with detention and nefarious reputation.

  Kehar - Trevarr’s world

  khorliskha - the searching eye

  kirkhirra - a record of clan history kept in knots and formed into a ceremonial belt. The most complex macrame ever.

  Klysar or Klysar’s Blood/various rude body parts - irreverent cursing.

  Krevata - a clan of semi-ethereal demons, particularly ill-formed and excitable.

  Kyrokha - We’re not really sure yet.

  lerkhet - a mild-mannered and guileless creature bred for use on Kehar. Think guinea pig, elephant, and tentacles. Sort of.

  oskhila - a dimensional travel tool.

  rekherra - a being with both ethereal and corporeal states

  Skklar - Sklayne's people

  Solchran - Trevarr’s village

  About Doranna Durgin

  Doranna Durgin is an award-winning author (Compton Crook, best first SF/F/H) whose quirky spirit has led to an eclectic and extensive publishing journey across genres. Beyond that, she hangs around outside her Southwest mountain home with horse and dogs, and the dogs keep her busy in the sports of tracking, obedience, and agility. She doesn’t believe in mastering the beast within, but in channeling its power. For good or bad has yet to be decided...

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