The Guardian
New York City attorney Meera O’Connor navigates life according to her carefully curated set of rules. And most definitely doesn’t believe in magic.
Until she learns her new neighbor is on the front lines of a centuries-old battle between beings that shouldn’t exist – a battle in which Meera herself may have a role to play.
Struggling to reconcile her pragmatic and dependable rules with this new version of reality – and the attention of a charismatic photographer who isn’t quite human – Meera begins to fear for her sanity as she becomes embroiled in the midst of a war for life itself. With a supernatural Nor’easter heading straight for her city, ruthless forces threatening all she loves, and terrifying new abilities at her fingertips, Meera must decide who she is, who she wants to be, and how far she’s willing to go.
An adult dark romantic fantasy with monsters, mayhem, and magic of both the fantastic and everyday varieties, The Guardian is book one in a planned trilogy.
Status: in revisions
-excerpt-
The wind whipped her coat around her legs and tugged at her hood, forcing her to clutch the drawstring beneath her chin. Her street was empty—hardly surprising, given the hour and the storm, though given both, she might’ve been glad for company. Every superstition and silly fear resurfaced at times like this, tales of shadow creatures and ghastly beings that haunted the eldritch hours when the tree limbs thrashed and snatched and the darkness seemed to creep closer.
As if on cue, the streetlights flickered, followed by a flash of lightning. Even so, the immediate crack of thunder startled her with its violence. She stumbled, her spiked heel catching in a crack of the sidewalk and wrenching her ankle. Not for the first time that night, she cursed Steph as she wiggled free. That’ll hurt later.
Another crack split the night, though this sounded closer. Too close for thunder. A prickle ran down the back of her neck as she glanced up.
With a high-pitched hiss, the streetlights guttered and died, leaving the street lit by the storm’s eerie glow.
Power outage? Everything had a reason. She tested her injured shoe—ditch them, or hobble the rest of the way?
A shriller hiss startled her into looking up just as slash of blood-red light appeared in the middle of the street.
In midair.
And as she stared, ankle throbbing, heart pounding, the slash split, ripping a seam in the fabric of reality.
The Fighter
Book two in The Terramica War trilogy.
Status: in planning
