Exclusive excerpt: 'Dead of Winter' by Kresley Cole
HEA is thrilled to unveil an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Kresley Cole's Dead of Winter, which comes out Jan. 6 and is the latest in Kresley's Arcana Chronicles. We're also excited to announce that you can win an Amazon Kindle preloaded with Poison Princess, Endless Knight and the manuscript of Dead of Winter. Enter the contest starting Tuesday, Nov. 18 (and see another Dead of Winter excerpt), at the Novel Novice blog, followed by more opportunities (and more excerpts) at the blogs Once Upon a Twilight (Wednesday), Mundie Moms (Thursday) and Vilma's Book Blog (Friday), hosted by HEA contributor Vilma Gonzalez.
First, here's the blurb about Dead of Winter (courtesy of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers):
Can Evie convince her rival loves to work together? Their survival depends on it in this third book of #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole's Arcana Chronicles, a nonstop action tale of rescue, redemption, and a revenge most wicked.
Heartbreaking decisions
Evie was almost seduced by the life of comfort that Death offered her—until Jack was threatened by two of the most horrific Arcana, The Lovers. She will do anything to save him, even escape Death's uncanny prison, full of beautiful objects, material comforts…and stolen glances from a former love.
Uncertain victory
Despite leaving a part of her heart behind with Death, Evie sets out into a frozen and perilous post-apocalyptic wasteland to meet up with her allies and launch an attack on The Lovers and the vast army they command. Such formidable enemies require a battle plan, and the only way to kill them once and for all may mean Evie, Jack, and Death allying. Evie doesn't know what will prove more impossible: surviving slavers, plague, Bagmen and other Arcana—or convincing Jack and Death to work together.
Two heroes returned
There's a thin line between love and hate, and Evie just doesn't know where she stands with either Jack or Death. Will this unlikely trio be able to defeat The Lovers without killing one another first?
Here's the excerpt …
1
DAY 372 A.f.? (MAYBE 373?)
SOMEWHERE IN SLAVER TERRITORY
Inhale exhale inhale exhale
As I raced over the countryside on horseback, I kept hearing deep, ragged breaths.
Rain fell from the black sky, drops pelting my face. Winds whipped my horse's mane and made my poncho hood flap.
But I still heard breaths.
The tiny hairs on my nape rose. My mare snorted, her ears pricked forward. I didn't have Lark's animal keenness or the senses of a huntress like Selena, but I could feel someone—or something—watching me.
Stalking me?
Inhale exhale
I rode harder, pushing myself, pushing my staggering horse, forcing her to navigate the rocky terrain faster than was safe.
I hadn't slept since fleeing Death's lair days ago—if you could call them "days" in this never-ending darkness. Sheer will kept me in the saddle. Delirium was taking hold.
Maybe nothing stalked me, and my own breaths sounded foreign to my ears. If I could just rest for a few minutes ...
Focus, Evie! So much was on the line. Jack's life was.
I was determined to save him from the Lovers, Vincent and Violet Milovníci.
Sadistic Vincent had captured him; Violet journeyed to meet up with her brother. Once they reunited, those twin serial killers would torture Jack with their contraptions.
I raced to beat Violet, taking untold risks. Even now, I couldn't believe what I'd done to escape Aric.
Every other minute, a raindrop would hit one of my eyes directly, the sting blurring my vision. I would blink to clear my eyes, and details of my last encounter with Death would blossom in my mind. ...
The feel of his sword-roughened palms as he'd seized my waist and laid me in his bed. His rasped words: "If you surrender to me, you will be mine alone. My wife in truth. I will do anything to have that." Even coercing me, promising to save Jack—for a price.
Blink.
His scent—sandalwood, pine, masculine—had weakened my will like a drug, quelling the heat of battle inside me. Still I'd managed to say: "This won't work out as you plan."
Blink.
His head had inched closer, his amber eyes intent, just before his lips had covered mine. His kiss had a way of muddling my thoughts, making me forget all the things I needed to remember.
Blink.
"There. That's better," he'd murmured as he'd removed my clothes. "Just let me see you ... touch you." With his supernatural strength, he must have taken pains not to rip the lace of my panties.
When I lay naked before him, his amber eyes had glittered like stars. Pinpoints of light had mesmerized me. "So lovely, sieva—. My gods, you humble me." He'd given me one of his rare unguarded smiles. "This is joy I feel, is it not?" I'd wanted to sob.
Blink. Blink. Blink.
I shook my head hard. I needed to pay attention. I couldn't afford to get lost in memories. To get lost at all.
When I'd readied a bug-out bag and my gear in a panic, Matthew had telepathically directed me: — Follow the rushing water upstream into slaver territory. Find the soot valley, then travel its length. If you reach the mass gravesite, you've gone too far. Ascend the next mountain to the stone forest.—
Yet since then, he hadn't answered any of my calls.
I reached the end of a soot-filled valley and started the climb. Rain began to pour.
Minutes? hours? days? passed. Despite the threat I'd sensed, I could barely stay awake. My head kept dipping. Maybe I could close my eyes—just for a second. I dropped forward, resting my cheek against the horse's mane, an arm on either side of her neck.
My lids slid shut.
·
When I opened them, I was at Haven.
The mare was gone. No rain, no winds. The sky was star-strewn black. All around me, that eerie A.F. silence.
Matthew, am I in one of your visions? Every detail felt so real. Bitter ash tinged my tongue. The scent of scorched oaks and sugarcane stung my nose. In the distance, Haven House was a blackened ruin. My mother's funeral pyre.
I'd burned her body and our home.
Jack had secretly helped her die. I understood why. I didn't accept how. I couldn't reconcile after.
How many lies he'd told.
Grief ripped through me, for my mother, for our life before the Flash. My new existence was so brutal and visceral, I wondered if my pre-apocalypse memories were actually a soft and hazy dream.
What was real? Unreal?
Though Matthew had looked away when my mom had died, he could still access scenes from the past. Was he giving me the memory of her death?
A breeze feathered over the ash on the ground, the sound beautiful—like sighing. I heard my mother's faint voice telling Jack, "Use the pillow...."
No, Matthew! I'm not ready to see this! Not ready—
—
Find out more about Kresley and her books at kresleycole.com. And don't forget to stop by Novel Novice tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov. 18) to start entering the contest for the Amazon Kindle!