by D. N. Bryn
I had never planned to write another These Treacherous Tides book. I gave it a series title, not because it was meant to be a series, but because I couldn’t choose between that and Our Bloody Pearl. A series title allowed me to give the book two names. Our Bloody Pearl: These Treacherous Titles. Two titles for the price of one. I figured myself a right damn genius for this.
This right damn genius really played themselves.
The moment Our Bloody Pearl came out, readers immediately asked where I was with the second book. I wasn’t anywhere. (Or, more accurately, I was riding feathery dragons through the snow and escaping spaceports with ghosts.) But bless these poor souls banging on my door, because three months later I sat down and wrote Once Stolen.
I had always wanted to write a main character who experienced the world the way it felt to me, with all its soothing tranquilities and skull-shattering irregularities. I wanted this in part because every character I write is a piece of me, but more importantly, because both my mom and I spent half our lives thinking we were alone in this. If we had seen this as a valid part of certain fictional people, maybe we wouldn’t have taken so long to realize it was a valid part of ourselves, too.
Cacao would never have come this far, if not for a whole bunch of (if I may) fucking heroes.
Firstly, my family, who has continued to stand by me as I charge onward in this publishing adventure, despite the fact that some days it feels like trying to swim up a waterfall. Secondly, my amazing group of beta readers, who guided this story from the cobbled mess of its beginning to the (still slightly cobbled but much more readable) novel it is now. Thirdly, the gang of These Treacherous Tides cheerleaders who have put so much of their time and love into this series.
And, finally, a huge thanks to the God of Abraham. Next time, can I get a personal manual? My factory settings clearly aren’t the default here.
COMING JULY 2022…
ODDER STILL
The ship groans, as though the old steam vessel is purposefully taunting Rubem, poking at the headache pounding behind his eyelids. Each roll of the lower deck rubs against the bruises that seem to extend all the way to his bones. The damp, salty air knives its way through the gash Lilias left in the side of his forehead. His face twitches against the cracking blood.
In the darkness, he swears he can feel it festering.
He focuses on the pain, on everything he’s felt during bad days in the past, trying to block out the thing in his neck, the dark, silent thing that’s turned the skin beneath it numb. If he has skin there anymore. If he’s even himself anymore.
What he wouldn’t give for a drink.
The ship groans again, light ricocheting from far above as Lilias opens and closes a door on the middle deck. Maybe she’ll bring him something to curb the gnawing in his stomach, or maybe she’ll come knock him out again. At this point, he has no preference.
That’s a lie.
His torn body aches for the void of darkness, but what he wants more than food or peace is to turn this ship around. To go home. To poor little Sheila, whose blinded eye should still be tended and to his caiman triplets—triplets still, even though Lilias killed one of them—and to the deck swing of his house on the river north of the Murk, with a glass of merlot in his hand and his jaguar kitten leaping at the parrots. To put this damned ancient in a tree where it belongs, pray his neck comes out in one piece, and drink himself into oblivion. And never, ever see that bittersweet silt-breather of a boiuna again.
That’s what he wants.
And by the gods, he’ll get it.
OTHER BOOKS BY D.N. BRYN
OUR BLOODY PEARL
Forty years before Once Stolen…
After a year of voiceless captivity, a blood-thirsty siren fights to return home while avoiding the lure of a suspiciously friendly and eccentric pirate captain.
This adult fantasy novel is a voyage of laughter and danger where friendships and love abound and sirens are sure to steal—or eat—your heart.
Copyright © 2021 by D. N. Bryn
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2021
Print (paperback) ISBN 978-1-7362966-0-8
Print (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-7362966-2-2
Ebook ISBN 978-1-7362966-1-5
For information about purchasing and permissions, contact D.N. Bryn at [email protected]
www.DNBryn.com
Edited by Chih Wang with CYW Editing.
Cover design by Laya Rose.
This work is fictitious and any resemblance to real life persons or places is purely coincidental. Should you discover the existence of snake-like mermaids in a mist-laden swamp, please also treat them as fictitious. They prefer to live in peace.
