through the mirror on the far wall, emerging on the other side in the Great Hall.
He’d find Aria and fulfill his promise to her.
***
Acknowledgements
I almost refused to let these tales see the light of day. In fact, I stopped writing Skeleton & Dust in order to write Mercy , and was very surprised when I felt the need to return to it and finish it. These stories are very epic, bits and pieces outside of the main storyline that add character and depth. All of my BETA readers agreed however that Skeleton & Dust was a story that needed to be told, even if that story was short.
I’d like to thank Natasha Heck as always for standing by me, along with Melanie Chartier, Nichole Patraw and Robyn Leanne Smith for being amazing Beta Readers. I never know whether or not I have done a good job until you ladies are squeeing your faces off.
I’d also like to thank my Michael, Sapphyre and Jade for being the best family any author could ask for.
***
Lantern & Poison
Companion to Surrender
***
Author’s Note
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, okay, maybe not that far away and not that long ago, I wrote a book. Surrender was originally glowing with a whole bunch of scenes from the villain’s point of view. Back then in my baby author days I had no idea what a point of view shift was or how I was jarring the reader’s out of the original story line to follow my crazy brain Across the Stars to some other Land and some new characters nobody really cared about.
Every single beta reader told me to delete these scenes because they were outside of the original story line and they did add anything to the book. The first time I heard that I stuck to my guns, but by the time the fifth beta reader got through my book and told me the same thing, I decided I needed to take a cleaver to my work and chop some stuff out.
Being the girl that falls in love with her work too easily for it to be healthy I put these scenes in a separate file and titled it “villaintrack” simply because, this is what the villains were doing when they were hunting Kaliel and her kin, the Flames .
So almost seven years have passed since I first finished writing these scenes and I was cleaning out my poor laptop and I found them, the old deleted stuff. I dusted it off and began reading thinking I was going to see how much I had grown as a writer.
But these scenes were actually damned good, and freaking scary. What I loved the most about this is that I wrote from not only the villain’s point of view, but each of the Flames that were captured and killed during Surrender . In this little novella you get the firsthand account of what happened to Isadora, The Iolite Flame, Lotesse, The Emerald Flame, Cosissea, The Ruby Flame, Shezeel, The Quartz Flame and Tiki, The Carnelian Flame. You also get a glimpse into one of the factions of the Daed, and you get to learn just how crazy Crestaos really is.
If you’ve read Surrender , you’ll vaguely remember Kaliel’s side of these events, and if you haven’t read Surrender , feel free to read this and then that.
This is not a love story.
***
Chapter 1
The shadowy figure swept across the burning fields without hesitation. The smell of smoke hung thick in the air, fire coiling around each blade of grass, inching closer to Delotha. The city had been taken, nothing but fire and smoke. Delotha sucked in a breath of air through the fabric of his black robe and continued to the point near the tree where he would click the dial into place and disappear. His feet shuffled along the grass as he mumbled the words to himself, his hands shifting in the robe to turn the dials to the correct symbols, his escape. A few more strides across the grass and he would reach it. The tree grew larger as he drew nearer, and finally, placing his right hand on the trunk, he slipped the last dial into place and the opening in the ground appeared beneath the tree. He took one final look back, his heart sunk at the folly. He turned
He’d find Aria and fulfill his promise to her.
***
Acknowledgements
I almost refused to let these tales see the light of day. In fact, I stopped writing Skeleton & Dust in order to write Mercy , and was very surprised when I felt the need to return to it and finish it. These stories are very epic, bits and pieces outside of the main storyline that add character and depth. All of my BETA readers agreed however that Skeleton & Dust was a story that needed to be told, even if that story was short.
I’d like to thank Natasha Heck as always for standing by me, along with Melanie Chartier, Nichole Patraw and Robyn Leanne Smith for being amazing Beta Readers. I never know whether or not I have done a good job until you ladies are squeeing your faces off.
I’d also like to thank my Michael, Sapphyre and Jade for being the best family any author could ask for.
***
Lantern & Poison
Companion to Surrender
***
Author’s Note
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, okay, maybe not that far away and not that long ago, I wrote a book. Surrender was originally glowing with a whole bunch of scenes from the villain’s point of view. Back then in my baby author days I had no idea what a point of view shift was or how I was jarring the reader’s out of the original story line to follow my crazy brain Across the Stars to some other Land and some new characters nobody really cared about.
Every single beta reader told me to delete these scenes because they were outside of the original story line and they did add anything to the book. The first time I heard that I stuck to my guns, but by the time the fifth beta reader got through my book and told me the same thing, I decided I needed to take a cleaver to my work and chop some stuff out.
Being the girl that falls in love with her work too easily for it to be healthy I put these scenes in a separate file and titled it “villaintrack” simply because, this is what the villains were doing when they were hunting Kaliel and her kin, the Flames .
So almost seven years have passed since I first finished writing these scenes and I was cleaning out my poor laptop and I found them, the old deleted stuff. I dusted it off and began reading thinking I was going to see how much I had grown as a writer.
But these scenes were actually damned good, and freaking scary. What I loved the most about this is that I wrote from not only the villain’s point of view, but each of the Flames that were captured and killed during Surrender . In this little novella you get the firsthand account of what happened to Isadora, The Iolite Flame, Lotesse, The Emerald Flame, Cosissea, The Ruby Flame, Shezeel, The Quartz Flame and Tiki, The Carnelian Flame. You also get a glimpse into one of the factions of the Daed, and you get to learn just how crazy Crestaos really is.
If you’ve read Surrender , you’ll vaguely remember Kaliel’s side of these events, and if you haven’t read Surrender , feel free to read this and then that.
This is not a love story.
***
Chapter 1
The shadowy figure swept across the burning fields without hesitation. The smell of smoke hung thick in the air, fire coiling around each blade of grass, inching closer to Delotha. The city had been taken, nothing but fire and smoke. Delotha sucked in a breath of air through the fabric of his black robe and continued to the point near the tree where he would click the dial into place and disappear. His feet shuffled along the grass as he mumbled the words to himself, his hands shifting in the robe to turn the dials to the correct symbols, his escape. A few more strides across the grass and he would reach it. The tree grew larger as he drew nearer, and finally, placing his right hand on the trunk, he slipped the last dial into place and the opening in the ground appeared beneath the tree. He took one final look back, his heart sunk at the folly. He turned
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