by May Dawson
Her dark hair is pulled back tightly from her square face. There’s no trace of her usual humor this morning, and she offers us a tired smile. “Thank you for coming to see me this morning.”
Radner’s eyes sharpen as she takes in Cax’s jacket thrown over Tera’s shoulders. “Tera, you seem to have infiltrated this little band of Avalon’s heroes, hmm?”
“I wouldn’t say heroes,” Cax says.
“I wasn’t talking about you,” she says. “You were the first infiltrator.”
I slide my hand into my pocket, watching Radner curiously. In my peripheral vision, Cax shifts impatiently, crossing his arms.
Though I have faith in her, I’m not sure how Radner is going to spin this: how can she assign Tera a mission without revealing ours?
“I think it’s more like they adopted me,” Tera’s voice is both light and mischievous, although I can read the ever-present suspicion underneath. “For some mysterious reason.”
Radner snorts. “Have you looked in a mirror, Tera Donovan?”
Tera’s lips part slightly in surprise.
That’s an unpleasant way to give a compliment. Typical Radner.
“Anyway,” Radner says. “I do some consulting work on the side—like many professors here—for our government. And they believe you’re in an unusual position, Tera.”
Mycroft turns away, wandering toward the window, his hands shoved deep in his pockets.
“It’s certainly an unusual position,” Tera agrees. as her smiles vanishes. Faint lines deepen around her delicate nostrils, the only giveaway of her tension. She’s wary. She’s right to be.
“The man who murdered Erik and who almost killed you is still loose,” Radner says.
My hands flex at the memory of the boy with a bomb tattooed onto his wrist. When the True damned him to death, he did his best to drag Tera with him.
“The True who murdered Erik,” Tera corrects.
She realizes a stalled police investigation would hardly matter as much if it didn’t involve the True.
“Since Erik was trying to punish the True by taking your life as well, we believe you can draw out the True. And fortunately, you have these men to look out for you. They do have their uses.” Radner flashes us all a quick smile that no one returns.
“Fortunately,” Tera echoes.
“I’m sure you remember what I told you earlier, Tera,” Radner leans back, her eyes fixed on Tera in a way that makes me question my long allegiance with Radner. “You’ll have to find a way to prove yourself useful to stay in Avalon.”
Tera’s chin rises quickly, but she doesn’t answer. She stares at Radner with cool eyes.
“Do you understand me?” Radner asks.
“Yes, ma’am,” Tera says. “I’d do anything in service to the Crown, of course.”
“Of course,” Radner says. “Because you’re nothing like your father.”
“Not a bit.”
The tension between them vibrates in the air.
“After all,” Radner says, “Your father may have used it for evil, but he was a powerful magician. And you’ve nothing now, correct, Tera? No gifts?”
Mycroft whirls from the window, but I take a step forward before he can. God only knows what trouble Croft will get us all into.
“Enough!” I hold out a hand to shut up both him and Radner. “Tera has her own gifts.”
Radner leans back in her chair, and her eyebrows arch over amused eyes. “I guess we’ll see about that.”
“May we go?” Cax grinds out.
“Let me know what your plan is,” Radner says. “I’m sure the veterans can come up with something—after all, you’ve certainly all been sneaking around.”
“Everyone needs a hobby,” I say.
Radner hands me a file, no doubt stuffed with what they know about the local True—not that we aren’t already well-informed—and I lift it to my forehead in a mock salute before I reach behind me for the door knob and open the door.
I’ve got to get the three people I care about most in this world out of this room before someone says something I can’t fix.
To escape into Avalon, download Two Kinds of Damned now…
A Note From May
Hello, and thank you for reading.
To stay in the know about new releases and sales, please sign up for my reader’s group at http://eepurl.com/c_yMPf As a thank-you for being a reader, I’ll send you a free novella to read!
You help indie authors like me so much when you leave a review. A review also helps me decide what to write next, so I can focus on bringing readers what they want most. Until someone brings me a TimeTurner (please?) I’m forced to prioritize all these stories bouncing around in my head. You can review here.
Just a few words help so much. If you do review, thank you! You’re my favorite.
~May
About the Author
May Dawson’s first crush was Indiana Jones, and it wasn’t just for Harrison Ford’s rugged good looks. She’s always been drawn to adventure, and she found it in Bali and the Antarctic, traveling widely before she settled down to raise two red-haired munchkins/hooligans. These days you can find her embracing a very different kind of adventure: love. Living it. Writing it.
http://eepurl.com/c_yMPf
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Also by May Dawson
The Lilith Series:
Wild Angels
Fierce Angels
Dirty Angels
Chosen Angels
Ashley Landon, Bad Medium
Dead Girls Club
The True and the Crown series:
Three Kinds of Wicked
Three Kinds of Damned
Their Shifter Princess:
Their Shifter Princess
Their Shifter Princess 2: Pack War
Their Shifter Princess 3: Coven’s Revenge
