Rise
Sierra Cross
(Coven of Fire, #1)
Publication date: June 15th 2017
Genres: New Adult, Urban Fantasy
I closed the door on magic long ago…the day
it made
me an orphan.
Ten years ago, the Coven of Fire sacrificed
their lives
—my mother among them—to hold off an
overwhelming demonic force. Now
it’s back
As a poorly-paid bartender, how can any of
this be my
problem? But Callie, another orphan of that battle,
swears I’m the
key to reviving the coven. And there’s
an incredibly sexy guardian stranded on
my couch
who’s promising to help me stop the demons and keep
the veil between
the realms standing.
One problem: I’ve never been able to use
magic. Our
local bad boy warlock assures me I have the talent, but
even if I
did, we don’t have enough witches to
complete a coven. The only way to survive
is to pull
together this pack of magicborn misfits, who have
more secrets than
spells, into a makeshift coven.
Can we—three untrained witches, a sarcastic warlock,
and an overly intense guardian—take back the city…
before the demongate falls and the forces that killed
my mother destroy us too?
Startled, I flailed
backward. Losing my grip on all six bottles. With a sickening crash they
toppled to the stone floor, exploding on impact. The crisp smell of alcohol
punctured the dank air.
My heart was still
thundering, but I saw no one. “Who’s there?” I demanded.
A figure came into
view. Not like he stepped out of the shadows…more like he materialized in front
of me. Tall. Powerfully built. With short brown hair and a lean angular face
covered in bruises and bloody scrapes. I could have drawn that rugged face, and
all its battle scars, from memory.
I forced myself to
look into his dark, knowing eyes. The eyes that I’d once allowed to see into my
deepest grief. “Matt?” My voice came out higher, younger than I expected. “I
didn’t think you were ever coming back.”
“Alexandra…kid, we
need to talk.” Matt’s gravelly voice—a voice I hadn’t heard since I was
fourteen years old—was low and serious. “I’ve waited over a year for you to
come down here. Don’t know how much longer I can hold this form. So listen and
don’t interrupt.”
I’d almost forgotten how
bossy Matt could be for a ghost. Well, ethereal being anyway. Despite his torn
T-shirt and jeans, he had a palpable air of authority, like some kind of rogue
commando. The impatient blaze in his eyes would be intimidating, if I didn’t
know him. Actually, it still was. But as blown away as I was to see him again,
my life had changed since the last time he’d paid me an astral visit. Since
then, I’d learned that I had no business interacting with supernatural beings.
“I’m not a kid
anymore, Matt,” I said, as firmly as I could. “And I’m not part of your world.
Look…you helped me back then, I’ll always be grateful. But I think it would be
best if you left now.”
“That’s because you
don’t have all the information yet.” He folded his muscular arms, which looked so
real and powerful I had to remind myself that they, like the rest of his
strapping body, weren’t physically here in the room but in another realm
entirely. “Once you’re up to speed on the magical dangers facing our city—”
“Thanks, but I have
enough problems to deal with. You know, in the real world.” I couldn’t bring
myself to tell Matt that I’d been officially declared magically deficient. Not
when he’d always referred to me as “the next coven leader,” after my mother.
Instead, I glanced at the shards at my feet and shook my head in despair. Randy
was definitely going to make me pay for these broken vodka bottles. Just
add it to my tab. “Sorry, but you need to leave me alone, so I can
deal with this, okay?”
I started upstairs to
get the broom…but didn’t make it past the third step before his form appeared
again on the next highest step. Inches between us.
“You have no idea
what your real problems are, Alexandra.”
I froze.
Walk right through
him,
I told myself. You’ve done it before. But Matt’s chiseled face,
swathed in desperation, held my full attention. Something had changed there
since I last saw him—startling, given that he was incorporeal. In the last ten
years, he hadn’t aged one hour. Funny, how I used to think of him as an older
guy. Now he looked about my age. The dark purple bruises flowering along his
square jaw hadn’t healed. Nor had the bloody gash down his pillowy lower
lip—the one part of him that looked incongruously boyish. It was his eyes that
had changed.
“I need your help,
Alexandra.” His dark eyes, once warm and charming, burned with an urgency that
put fear into my heart. “Please.”
·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠· Sierra Cross ·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·
Spells and
skyscrapers. Warriors and warlocks. Coven
secrets and forbidden romances. Sierra Cross lives for
urban fantasy, for modern magic and the bold
supernatural beings who stalk our contemporary world
. Her Spelldrift universe stars kickass witches and their
heroic guardians, as well as vampires, shifters,
mages, Fidei, and the dark demonic forces that
threaten them all.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
secrets and forbidden romances. Sierra Cross lives for
urban fantasy, for modern magic and the bold
supernatural beings who stalk our contemporary world
. Her Spelldrift universe stars kickass witches and their
heroic guardians, as well as vampires, shifters,
mages, Fidei, and the dark demonic forces that
threaten them all.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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