Welcome Allison Pang and her Abby Sinclair Series! Today she brings to us Book 2 of the Series, A Sliver of Shadow.
___________
A
Sliver of Shadow
Book 2 Abby
Sinclair Series
By
Allison Pang
A
Sliver of Shadow Blurb:
Just
when her new life as a TouchStone – a mortal bound to help OtherFolk cross
between Faery and human worlds – seems to be settling down, Abby Sinclair is
left in charge when the Protectorate, Moira, leaves for the Faery Court. And
when the Protectorate’s away…let’s just say things spiral out of control when a
spell on Abby backfires and the Faery Queen declares the Doors between their
worlds officially closed.
The
results are disastrous for both sides: OtherFolk trapped in the
mortal world are beginning to fade, while Faerie is on the brink of war with
the daemons of Hell. Along with her brooding eleven prince Talivar and sexy
incubus Brystion, Abby ventures to the CrossRoads in an attempt to override the
Queen’s magic. But nothing in this beautiful, dangerous realm will compare to
the discoveries she’s making about her past, her destiny, and what she will
sacrifice for those she loves.
Buy
Links:
A Brush
of Darkness
Book 1
Abby Sinclair Series
The man
of her dreams might be the cause of her nightmares.
Six
months ago, Abby Sinclair was struggling to pick up the pieces of her shattered
life. Now, she has an enchanted iPod, a miniature unicorn living in her
underwear drawer, and a magical marketplace to manage. But despite her growing
knowledge of the OtherWorld, Abby isn’t at all prepared for Brystion, the dark,
mysterious, and sexy-as- sin incubus searching for his sister, convinced Abby
has the key to the succubus’s whereabouts.
Abby
has enough problems without having this seductive shape-shifter literally
invade her dreams to get information. But when her Faery boss and some of her
friends vanish, as well, Abby and Brystion must form an uneasy alliance. As she
is sucked deeper and deeper into this perilous world of faeries, angels, and
daemons, Abby realizes her life is in as much danger as her heart—and there’s
no one she can trust to save her.
A Sliver of Shadow Excerpt
Copyright 2012 ~~ Allison Pang
Chapter 1
“Run, Abby.”
Sonja’s warning slid around me with a wash of power.
Startled, I shot up from where I huddled beneath a cluster of fallen logs,
decayed bark scattering as a set of claws shredded my hiding place. I ducked,
the sharpened talons slicing the air with a deadly whistle.
Grinding my teeth, I narrowed my eyes and
concentrated, letting my own form shift. Small, furry, fast . . .
Hare.
The Dreaming rippled. I bounded away, sleek and
long, haunches bunching and then springing forward to propel me into the
darkness. Sonja’s low growl of frustration echoed behind me. I didn’t know
exactly what form she’d taken, but my rapidly twitching nose instantly
recognized the acrid scent of something feline.
The urge to go to ground vibrated through my little
body, but I pushed forward, leaves sliding beneath my paws. All around me were
shadows as my nails dug into the moist earth. The scenery blurred past in a
haze of ragweed and pine trees, needles brushing my fur. I couldn’t hear Sonja
anymore and I paused, my ears rotating to cup the darkness.
The faintest breeze caught my attention, and I
instinctively flattened against the grass as Sonja swooped past, this time in
the shape of a barred owl.
She wheeled, but I bolted, aiming for the tinkling
stream nearby. Shedding the last vestige of the hare, I leapt toward the
surface, my skin sluicing into scales as I slithered into the depths. My gills
opened to shunt out the water, gravel scraping my pink salmon belly.
“Good! Very good.” Sonja applauded from the banks.
The succubus had shifted into her more human form, the bloodred feathers of her
wings shining in the moonlight of the Dreaming. Her skin had an alabaster
purity that could never be matched by anything mortal. Between the hidden
depths of her dark eyes and the scarlet wings, she seemed more fallen angel
waif than daemon seductress. “You can come out now, Abby. I think that’s enough
for tonight.”
My tail flicked me through the current as I changed
again, pulling together the part of what made me, me. Emerging from the water,
I squeezed the drops from my hair and pushed it from my face. “I’m getting
better.” I wrapped the Dreaming around me until I was dressed in a pair of
jeans and a shirt.
Sonja nodded cautiously, smoothing out the wrinkles
of her own tank dress. “You are, but you’re still barely tapping your
potential.” She gestured around us with a hint of irritation. “These are your
Dreams. You limit yourself to your own sense of physics. Becoming a rabbit was
fine and you’ve certainly improved your shifting ability—but why not change the
ground, or the trees?” She yanked on a damp ringlet of my hair. “Why waste time
with this when you could instantly dry it? If you’re ever going to really,
truly defeat your nightmares, you’re going to need more than just a few parlor
tricks.”
“I don’t think that way. You know that. We’ve been
through this how many times now?” I concentrated on the water flowing over my
toes before giving her a wan smile. “Have patience with me. I’m new to this.”
One dark brow rose at me sourly, but she let the lie pass without comment.
In truth it had been over six months—six very long
months. She was frustrated, I was frustrated. I’d been banging my head against
the metaphysical equivalent of a brick wall in my attempts to break free from
the confines of everything I’d ever known in an effort to make sense of the
dark shadows of my inner psyche—which often took the form of vicious,
man-eating sharks.
My nightmares certainly hadn’t paid the slightest
bit of attention either way.
If it hadn’t been for a certain incubus awakening me
to the existence of the Dreaming nearly eight months ago, I would have
continued to experience my familiar nightly cycle of waking up from the
intimate practice of having the flesh shredded from my bones. That should have
meant something.
On the other hand, sometimes ignorance really was
bliss. Discovering that I could visit the place where my dreams occurred was
one thing. Being told I could potentially bring my nightmares to life was
something else entirely.
I understood Brystion’s motivation of having his
sister teach me the finer points of
Dreaming—we weren’t exactly dating anymore, and my chances of focusing
long enough past the hurt of his
leaving was a bit of a toss-up. I couldn’t argue
against the need to control myself better, though I wasn’t sure Sonja saw me as
anything more than a chore.
Still. The faint scent of the sea rolled past us as
though to emphasize the point and I shuddered. Dreams or not, I had no wish to
see the sharks again anytime soon.
The succubus sighed at my woeful expression. “You’ll
get there. You just need to concentrate.”
I waggled my nose, annoyed. I might not quite grasp
everything she tried to teach me, but I wasn’t completely ignorant. “Is that
all there is to it, Endora?” My eyes narrowed as I stared at her, the power
rushing through me, a thin rivulet of the Dreaming taking form in my mind.
A small change, perhaps.
The succubus glanced over her shoulder with a
surprised laugh. Her scarlet wings now gleamed a brilliant purple. “Not bad,”
she admitted, ruffling them with a shiver, a flush of crimson staining them
back to their normal shade.
Her face sobered. “But seriously, Abby. You have
enough potential to make a first-class DreamWalker. With the right training,
you’d be able to slip in and out of the Dreaming at will—and not just into your
dreams, but into others as well.”
“Planning on having me go all Dom Cobb on someone?
Let me dig up a top.” Despite my words, I couldn’t even begin to grasp the sort
of power that might take. Hell, I could barely manage to keep from being
devoured by my own nightmares—and I knew what caused them. What would my
chances be against someone else’s private despair? It wasn’t any of my
business, anyway.
She picked up a stick, sketching out a series of
circles on the ground. “Nearly everything that sleeps visits the Dreaming in
one form or another. Whether they remember it or not is another story, but I’m
sure you’ve heard of people who have prophetic dreams or astral body
projections or some such?”
“Well, sure. But the one time I actually attempted
to leave the Dreaming without waking up, I ended up getting lost on the
CrossRoads. And attacked by daemons.” I frowned at her. The silver roads
granted passage between the mortal realm and Faerie and I’d never really
figured them out. “Brystion was pissed.”
She waved me off. “And rightfully so, but you
wouldn’t be on the CrossRoads for this. Here . . . each circle represents a single
person’s Dreaming Heart. Let’s say this one is yours.” She tapped the one
closest to me. “Now, the Heart of your Dreaming is sacred space, particularly
for mortals. No one can enter it without permission.” Her mouth pursed.“Or in
my brother’s case, invitation?”
I scowled at her. “It seemed like a good idea at the
time.”
“Indeed. Anyway, that’s a bit more than the average
sleeping person would normally allow, but people who are close to each other
tend to form bonds . . .” She drew a few squiggles from my circle to the ones
closest around it. “Friends and family, perhaps. Lovers.” Her eyes met mine
with a hint of amusement. “TouchStones. As a Dreamer, you could follow these
pathways into their dreams.”
I shuddered in distaste as visions of accidentally
stumbling into Phin’s personal unicorn-porn theater crossed my mind. “And what
about enemies? Could they traverse those bonds to me?”
“It is possible,” she admitted. “But that’s one of
the reasons why you need more training.” She gestured at the thick iron gate
surrounding my Heart. “The unwary have their own defenses built in—but Dreamers
have defenses of a different sort at their disposal. The Dreaming itself can
become a weapon if you know how to use it.”
“Ah. Yeah. You know, I’m not really trying for that
sort of thing.” I had no desire to become any sort of neoshaman and messing
with people’s dreams was tricky stuff. “I’ll stick with the blue pill, thanks.”
“Suit yourself, but you might change your mind
someday.It wouldn’t hurt to at least understand the basics.” She held out a
hand to help me out of the stream, and we slowly ambled in the direction of my
Heart. The inner sanctum of my dreams lay behind the gate in the form of the
old Victorian I’d grown up in. Brystion had told me it couldn’t be breached—as
long as I stayed within its confines, I would be safe. Even from him.
I scanned the dark forest behind the house. My
former lover had made good on his promise to be scarce and I’d barely seen any
sign of him, short of the occasional sound of bells echoing like some distant
memory through the trees. The few times we’d run across each other at the
Hallows nightclub had been polite, if a bit strained. I didn’t usually hang
around to listen to him sing, and he avoided flaunting whoever his latest TouchStone
was to my face, a fact for which I was utterly grateful.
The whole point of TouchStones was to give OtherFolk
the ability to stay in the mortal world without limitations . . .and to travel
the CrossRoads at will, usually in return for some sort of gift. The sacred
bonds between mortals and OtherFolk didn’t always involve sex, but in his case
it had to. Knowing that didn’t make it hurt any less. Knowing that after six
months he probably wasn’t going to come back to me hurt a lot more.
Sonja arched a brow at me and I flushed. “Have a
good night. We’ll try again tomorrow.” I waved at her, watching as she passed
through the gate to fade away in a slurry of silver. I often wondered how she
could manage the CrossRoads directly like that, but Brystion had the same
talent.
I reached out and stroked the gate with a curious
finger, the rusted metal flaking into my hand. Physics or not, it still seemed
so real here. And as far as confronting my nightmares. . .
About
the Author:
A
marine biologist in a former life, Allison Pang turned to a life of crime to
finance her wild spending habits and need to collect Faberge eggs. A cat thief
of notable repute, she spends her days sleeping and nights scaling walls and
wooing dancing boys….Well, at least the marine biology part is true. But
she was taloned by a hawk once. She also loves Hello Kitty, sparkly
shoes, and gorgeous violinists.
She
spends her days in Northern Virginia working as a cube grunt and her nights
waiting on her kids and cats, punctuated by the occasional husbandly serenade.
Sometimes she even manages to write. Mostly she just makes it up as she goes.
Author
Links:
Official
site: http://www.heartofthedreaming.com
Borrowing
Heaven, Subletting Hell Blog: http://mynfel.blogspot.com
Word
Whores Blog: http://word-whores.blogspot.com
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/apang
Facebook
Author page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Allison-Pang/154530877925333
Twitter:
@allison_pang (also @phintheunicorn)
Tumblr:
http://ionsfolly.tumblr.com
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment