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Showing posts with label @MirrorWorldPub. Show all posts
Showing posts with label @MirrorWorldPub. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Sapphyria's Book Promotions Presents: The Demons of Montmartre by Laurence Raphael Brothers; #BookTour, #NowAvailable, #OutNow, #TBR, #Live


Mirror World Publishing and Sapphyria's Book Promotions present the 1-week virtual book tour for The Demons of Montmartre by Laurence Raphael Brothers, book four in the Nora Simeon Investigations series.

About the Book:

Private Investigator Nora Simeon and her partner Eyre work for the Commission, the secret organization that regulates the summoning of demons in the financial industry. It’s the Commission’s job to suppress all public knowledge of sorcery. So when a mysterious letter from a person who calls themselves l’Invocateur threatens to expose the secret to the world, it’s Nora’s job to track him down.

In search of L’Invocateur, Nora and Eyre are off to Paris, but before they go, Madame Villiers, Nora’s mother and one of the Commission leaders in New York, reveals that Nora’s father may be in danger.

Nora has never known her father, a man named Simeon who disappeared when she was an infant. Spurred by her mother’s warning, Nora hunts both her father and l’Invocateur in France. From the elegant halls of the Société Générale to the altar of the Sacré-Cœur, Nora and Eyre find the threads of their search coming together in The Demons of Montmartre.

Purchase Links:

Mirror World Publishing: 

Amazon

Excerpt:

We split up after that, as Martha had a social outing with some of her fellow flight-school students at a nearby restaurant. Eyre and I took the LIRR back to Manhattan from the airfield, with the idea of doing some accounting and paying off our monthly business bills. Just as we got in the elevator on the way up to our dingy little 16th story office, my phone rang.

The ringtone was ominous chords from Night on Bald Mountain. Which meant my mother. We’d only spoken once in the last year, and that suited me just fine. Unfortunately, I had to take the call. If I tried to bounce her to voicemail, she’d probably do something magically horrible to my phone. Also, much as I hated to admit it, I owed her just now. If this was a chance to pay off the obligation, I’d be happy (well, happy in a teeth-clenching way) to take it.

“Mother?”

“Nora, dear. Would you be so kind as to meet me for dinner tonight? Le Bernardin, 8:00 PM.”

“I— what is this about?”

“I prefer to tell you in person,” she said. “It’s rather sensitive.”

“Okay.”

And just like that she hung up.

Back in our office, Eyre nodded as I recounted my mother’s side of the call.

“She said it was sensitive?” Eyre asked. “I think I’d better bow out, then.”

“Oh.” I was dismayed, because I’d been counting on his presence at the meal, not just for emotional support but because if he was there I imagined my mother would be less obnoxious than usual. For whatever reason: his gender, his...species, I guess, or just by dint of him not being me.

“Unless you think I should come?”

“No,” I said. “I’ll be fine.” And on consideration, maybe it would be best at that. Because if it really was something just for my ears, my mother was perfectly capable of telling Eyre he wasn’t wanted, which would mean I’d have to leave with him and never talk to her again. And pleasing as that was in prospect, it wouldn’t lead to me paying off that debt.


Follow the Tour:


Meet the Author:

Laurence Raphael Brothers is a writer and a technologist. He has published over 25 short stories in such magazines as Nature, the New Haven Review, PodCastle, and Galaxy's Edge. His WWI-era historical fantasy novel Twilight Patrol was just released by Alban Lake. For more of his stories, visit https://laurencebrothers.com/bibliography, or follow him on twitter: @lbrothers.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Sapphyria's Book Promotions Presents Crimson Winter: City Of Ruby by Justine Alley Dowsett; #BookTour, #ReleaseBlitz, #NowAvailable, #OutNow, #TBR, #Live, #Giveaway


Show what makes you weak, so they fear what makes you strong...


Mirror World Publishing and Sapphyria's Book Promotions present the virtual book tour
 
Crimson Winter: City of Ruby
by Justine Alley Dowsett
Genres: Young Adult, SciFi, Fantasy, Adventure
Release Date: April 17, 2023

#YA #SciFi #Fantasy #Adventure
#CrimsonWinter #CityofRuby #MirrorWorldPub


About Crimson Winter: City of Ruby:

Reeling after the fall of the Kingdom of Taiyou, Yukari Namikoya and her remaining allies find themselves reduced to scared refugees hidden far below the earth in the Temple of Machalite. The dreaded Lady Lilyth rules in Taiyou now and threatens to bring the whole world under her dominion one piece at a time.

And what the Lady Lilyth can't control, she plans to destroy.

In a desperate bid for the survival and freedom of the various races of Crimson Winter, Yukari must seek to uncover secrets the Vile Emperor has kept hidden for a millenia and in order to do this, she has to journey to the last place she'd ever thought she'd go - the Ruby City.

Purchase Links:

Mirror World Publishing eBook: 

Mirror World Publishing Paperback: 

Amazon Kindle eBook:  https://amzn.to/3KUo98N

Amazon Paperback:  https://amzn.to/41lCq3O
Excerpt:

The afternoon sun was high in the sky as I exited through the main doors of Shinjuku High. Though it was well into fall now, the sun beamed down with a determined intensity, baking my skin with its dry heat. There was not a cloud anywhere to be found across the pale blue expanse and the harsh light gave no indication of dimming any time soon. I closed my eyes against the glare, but that only served to fill my vision with the red of light through my eyelids and I’d had enough of that colour for one day.

Shaking my head, I shrugged my way out of my unnecessary jacket and quickened my pace toward my mother’s silver Toyota. Up ahead, I caught sight of my friend Yue boarding her father’s bus after greeting him with an exuberant hug. 

I smiled slightly, watching them. I would never admit it aloud, but I had always felt a little envious of the easy relationship Yue had with her parents. My family life had never been so simple, my father being a busy military lawyer and my mother made bitter by the fact that Father never seemed to have any time to spend with her. Unfortunately, that bitterness often spilled over onto me.

Mother smiled and waved as she caught sight of me. I froze, shocked – what could have made her so happy? Not wanting to ruin it for her, I quickened my pace further and practically darted to the rear passenger door of the little car, letting myself in and wondering what I could expect.

“Are you in a hurry, dear?”  she asked with a bemused expression. 

“No, Mother.” 

“Are you comfortable back there, Yukari, or did you want to move up here and sit with me?”

This was…different.

“I know you usually sit back there,” she admitted, “but I realized we hardly ever talk, you and I, and I thought it might be good if we got to know each other a little better.”

“All right, Mother,” I answered tentatively and joined her in the front, leaving my school things behind.

“That’s better, isn’t it?”

I nodded but said nothing, worried my voice might betray how awkward I felt. It wasn’t usual for my mother to treat me like an equal and I wondered what this could possibly be about. As she started up the car and pulled out onto the street I found myself studying her out of the corner of my eye.

“So,” she said as she met my gaze with a sidelong one of her own, “any cute boys I should know about?”

“Mother!”

“What?” She grinned impishly. “It’s just your father and I always sort of hoped that you would bring someone home to meet us, but you never did…not even any friends, except occasionally Hotaru.”

“I don’t like any boys, Mother,” I answered, but as I spoke the words I knew in my heart they weren’t true – there was someone…

“What about that boy…what was his name?” Mother continued, incorrigibly. “He was kind of cute. A little rougher around the edges than I would have expected…oh, what am I saying? I’m sure whomever you choose will be perfect.”

My mind whirled, trying to understand what could have caused this change in my mother and what could have gotten her on the current subject, but along with my swirling thoughts came the red haze, blurring everything until I had no hope of unraveling it.


Meet the Author:


Justine Alley Dowsett is the author of over ten novels, and one of the founders of Mirror World Publishing. Her books, which she often co-writes with her sister, Murandy Damodred, range from young adult science fiction to dark fantasy/romance. She earned a BA in Drama from the University of Windsor, honed her skills as an entrepreneur by tackling video game production, and now she dedicates her time to writing, publishing, and role-playing with her friends.


Hosted By:


Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Sapphyria's Book Promotions Presents Crimson Winter: City Of Ruby by Justine Alley Dowsett; #CoverReveal, #ComingSoon, #TBR


Mirror World Publishing and Sapphyria's Book Promotions presents:
 

Crimson Winter: City of Ruby 
by Justine Alley Dowsett.
Genres: Young Adult, SciFi, Fantasy, Adventure
Release Date: April 17, 2023
#YA #SciFi #Fantasy #Adventure
#CrimsonWinter #CityofRuby #MirrorWorldPub


Show what makes you weak, so they fear what makes you strong...

About Crimson Winter: City of Ruby:

Reeling after the fall of the Kingdom of Taiyou, Yukari Namikoya and her remaining allies find themselves reduced to scared refugees hidden far below the earth in the Temple of Machalite. The dreaded Lady Lilyth rules in Taiyou now and threatens to bring the whole world under her dominion one piece at a time.

And what the Lady Lilyth can't control, she plans to destroy.

In a desperate bid for the survival and freedom of the various races of Crimson Winter, Yukari must seek to uncover secrets the Vile Emperor has kept hidden for a millenia and in order to do this, she has to journey to the last place she'd ever thought she'd go - the Ruby City.

Meet the Author:


Justine Alley Dowsett is the author of over ten novels, and one of the founders of Mirror World Publishing. Her books, which she often co-writes with her sister, Murandy Damodred, range from young adult science fiction to dark fantasy/romance. She earned a BA in Drama from the University of Windsor, honed her skills as an entrepreneur by tackling video game production, and now she dedicates her time to writing, publishing, and role-playing with her friends.


Hosted By:


Sunday, July 17, 2022

Sapphyria's Book Promotions Presents: Sex, Bugs & UFO's by Warren A. Shepherd; #BookTour, #ReleaseBlitz, #NowAvailable, #OutNow, #TBR, #Live, #Giveaway


Sex, Bugs & UFOs by Warren A. Shepherd

 

Publisher: ‎ Mirror World Publishing; 1st edition
Publication Date: ‎ July 17, 2022
Print Length: ‎ 348 pages
ISBN: 978-1987976892
ISBN-10: 1987976892
ASIN: ‎ B0B3ZZ5PXK

About the Book:

Abandoned by his mum at the age of seven, former UFO investigator, Dave Morrissey, is coerced back into business to investigate a cold case that’s suddenly gotten hotter with the death of an old woman in a nursing home. As the questions begin piling up about her peculiar past, Morrissey must reluctantly enlist the aid of a shifty tabloid journalist with surprising insights into all things otherworldly.

Together, they uncover clues that paint a target on Morrissey’s back big enough to attract the sights of an unstable UFO conspiracy theorist, a cunning galactic bounty hunter, and a vicious terrorist for hire with nefarious designs on the secrets hidden in his DNA.

Morrissey’s desperate quest for the truth launches him from the grey streets of London, across the stars, and deep into the heart of an intergalactic mystery that will turn the idea of who he is and where he belongs in the universe on its head.

All Morrissey wants to do is find his way home but in space, no one can hear you whinge…

Purchase Links:

Mirror World Publishing: 

Amazon: 

Amazon CA Ebook: 

Amazon CA Paperback: 

Kobo: 

Barnes & Noble: 


Read an Excerpt:


Explosions sparked the midnight sky, strobing the darkness with a frantic glow. Fireworks, the humans called them and for some reason, saw fit to employ them in their year-end celebrations. A curious use of pyrotechnics to be sure, but Chendra Vaziil had been on enough worlds to know that every species had its idiosyncrasies; Earth was no exception. It was a primitive planet populated by a race not much more sophisticated than the animals they kept as pets; a race so bereft of vision they’d yet to break free of their solar system to any great purpose; a race so seething with violence that it existed in a constant state of war with itself. In essence, Earth was the perfect place for him to hide.

Vaziil was in the last stages of his transformation cycle. Within days his genetic pattern would be set, and his alien physiology would become virtually undetectable to the uninitiated, save for an archive of his core matrix. Certainly, it would pass the scrutiny of these intellectually stunted simians. He stroked the length of his arm, admiring his handiwork, though he hadn’t quite gotten used to the sponginess of the human epidermis. How these beings had endured for so long with such a fragile shell was beyond him.

The Earth woman, at least, seemed pleased by his appearance. She slept soundly at his side, satiated by their lovemaking, as she called it. He knew humans were often led by their primal urges, the drive to copulate amongst the strongest. Cohabiting with her provided a suitable cover while he acclimated to his new home — and his new body. Besides, the activities they shared weren’t altogether unpleasant. He flicked absently at the flaccid object dangling between his human legs, amused by its versatility. It was an adequate tool and the physical release it provided was surprisingly invigorating. There were worse things in the universe to endure.

Sounds in the hallway disrupted his thoughts. The woman’s living accommodation unit was one of six in the old building so ambient noise was to be expected. But something about the nature of these sounds pricked Vaziil in disturbing ways, ways he couldn’t quite put his newly human finger on.

As he pulled on his clothing, the realisation chilled him. He was on a strange world, interacting with a strange species. His senses thrummed with new experiences at every turn. Everything around him was alien to him. Everything around him seemed alien — except those noises. The weight of their footfalls, the rhythm of their gait, the simmering energy that surrounded them; it was all too familiar. Which could only mean one thing…

Too late. The door burst inwards, the sonic charges blowing the hinges away like dry leaves. Vaziil drew his arm up instinctively, protecting his delicate form from the shattering debris. The woman woke in panic, calling out the human name she knew him by. The room filled with smoke and noise, clouding his senses, but his attackers were no better positioned. Amateurs. In their attempt to catch him by surprise, they’d lost precious seconds waiting for the dust to settle. Vaziil used the confusion to his advantage, leaping over the screaming woman. He jerked her up from the bed, pulling her close to shield him.

Three figures poured through the doorway, their heavy weapons tracking mechanically toward him. They wore the distinctive cobalt body armour of the Thon Pahl Special Forces; not amateurs after all. Vaziil dragged the woman to the kitchen, grabbing the first weapon he could find — a spiral of metal she’d used to open a bottle of alcohol the night before. She squealed, the sharp sting of the tool piercing her throat, ever so slightly.

“Roger — what’s happening? What are you doing?”

But Roger was no longer there. Vaziil was operating on one hundred percent Holrathon instinct.


Meet the Author:

Warren A. Shepherd was seven when he first realized the world didn’t fit him quite right. Two sizes too big or two sizes too small, he couldn’t be sure. But having been transported from the streets of London, England to the streets of Toronto, Canada at such a young age left him with a profound sense of alienation — a boy with one foot in each world yet belonging in neither. The experience, however, did sharpen his sense of self-awareness and made him a keen observer of the human (and not-so-human) condition. 

When he sees what humankind is capable of, both the good and the bad, he imagines how we would cope amongst the stars and is driven to tell stories of strange new worlds to try to explain the one that he often cannot. 

After all, it takes an alien to know an alien… 

Connect with the Author:


Author Website:

Twitter:

Instagram:

Facebook:

Goodreads Author Page:

Amazon Author Page:


Enter the Giveaway:


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Sign up to be a tour host: Details and Sign Up Form

Friday, June 24, 2022

Sapphyria's Book Promotions Presents: Sex, Bugs & UFO's by Warren A. Shepherd; #CoverReveal, #ComingSoon, #TBR, #PreOrder

 

Publisher: ‎ Mirror World Publishing; 1st edition
Publication Date: ‎ July 17, 2022
Print Length: ‎ 348 pages
ISBN: 978-1987976892
ISBN-10: 1987976892
ASIN: ‎ B0B3ZZ5PXK


About the Book:

Abandoned by his mum at the age of seven, former UFO investigator, Dave Morrissey, is coerced back into business to investigate a cold case that’s suddenly gotten hotter with the death of an old woman in a nursing home. As the questions begin piling up about her peculiar past, Morrissey must reluctantly enlist the aid of a shifty tabloid journalist with surprising insights into all things otherworldly.

Together, they uncover clues that paint a target on Morrissey’s back big enough to attract the sights of an unstable UFO conspiracy theorist, a cunning galactic bounty hunter, and a vicious terrorist for hire with nefarious designs on the secrets hidden in his DNA.

Morrissey’s desperate quest for the truth launches him from the grey streets of London, across the stars, and deep into the heart of an intergalactic mystery that will turn the idea of who he is and where he belongs in the universe on its head.

All Morrissey wants to do is find his way home but in space, no one can hear you whinge…


Are you ready to see the cover?


Preorder Links:

Mirror World Publishing: 

Amazon: 

Amazon CA Ebook: 

Amazon CA Paperback: 

Kobo: 

Barnes & Noble: 



Meet the Author:

Warren A. Shepherd was seven when he first realized the world didn’t fit him quite right. Two sizes too big or two sizes too small, he couldn’t be sure. But having been transported from the streets of London, England to the streets of Toronto, Canada at such a young age left him with a profound sense of alienation — a boy with one foot in each world yet belonging in neither. The experience, however, did sharpen his sense of self-awareness and made him a keen observer of the human (and not-so-human) condition. 

When he sees what humankind is capable of, both the good and the bad, he imagines how we would cope amongst the stars and is driven to tell stories of strange new worlds to try to explain the one that he often cannot. 

After all, it takes an alien to know an alien… 

Connect with the Author:


Author Website:

Twitter:

Instagram:

Facebook:

Goodreads Author Page:

Amazon Author Page:


Hosted By:




Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Sapphyria's Book Promotions Presents: Lands Of Jade by Justine Alley Dowsett; #BookTour, #NowAvailable, #OutNow, #TBR, #Live, #Giveaway

Darkness falls…so I can… see the light of day again 


Mirror World Publishing and Sapphyria's Book Promotions present the 1-week book for Lands of Jade: Crimson Winter, Vol. 2 by Justine Alley Dowsett.

Genres: Young Adult, SciFi, Fantasy, Adventure
Release Date:  April 17, 2022
Page Count: Approximately 434
#YA #SciFi #Fantasy #Adventure #SapphyriasBookPromotions #MirrorWorldPublishing

About Lands of Jade:


Darkness falls...

For the first time in eight hundred years, the sun sets on the desert world of Crimson Winter, throwing the planet into unexpected darkness and further chaos. And with the setting of the sun comes the unexpected rise of hordes of undead creatures from the endless Sand Lakes.

...so I can...

Yukari Namikoya, Japanese high school student turned Chosen of Sapphiros, must rise to the occasion and use the powers she has been given to try and protect those she's come to love against overwhelming odds.

...see the light of day again.

But when each night lasts a little longer, Yukari soon realizes that their days might be numbered and a sinister force beyond even the menace of the Vile Emperor might be behind the terrors that are besieging the planet during such a desperate time. The worst part is that Yukari doesn't know if her powers, or even the combined forces of her allies will be enough to protect the Kingdom of Taiyou, let alone the whole world.


Buy Lands of Jade and get 50% off any other Mirror World title from their store until the end of April. The discount is automatic for anyone who buys Lands of Jade as an ebook or paperback.


Read an Exclusive Excerpt:

“Prince Narlhep is within the temple,” Rama stated with particular emphasis and I looked past him to the temple doors beyond – they were sealed shut. 

“No!” I gasped, noticing Narlhep’s sword lying at Kaji’s side as a sudden realization dawned on me. “He didn’t…” 

“I’m afraid so.” Rama grimaced. 

“But he knows how to open the doors now, right?” I looked past Rama and Kaji to our prisoner, still tightly held, bound in a rope net and creatively gagged with bandages from the medical supplies. “He made Viron tell him, didn’t he?”

“I don’t think it’s going to work that way,” Kaji informed me. “Narlhep went in there with the intention of facing Jedeite and proving his right to the throne of Taiyou.” 

“He did what? But we proved Viron is a traitor. Surely the council wouldn’t require…”  

“The council is not the only approval Narlhep believes he needs right now, and I, for one, agree with him,” Rama stated. “The confirmed existence of the gem gods is going to take some getting used to. Most Taiyouns, if they believe in Jedeite at all, believe he abandoned us long ago. Now that the Oujou have been defeated and Jedeite’s power returned to him, Prince Narlhep is likely doing the right thing by solidifying his claim through Jedeite first. It’s the first step to the acceptance that this land is not only ours, but His as well.”

I contemplated the ornate and magically sealed Jade doors, with their Jade pillar statues of the form of the Oujou decorating either side of the entrance. There was no objection I could make to Rama’s arguments as this land was not my own, but I sincerely wanted to protest against the prince having gone in there to face the gem god who was said to represent ‘civilized savagery’. 

I was not a religious person, despite being the Chosen of Sapphiros, and until perhaps as late as the other day I would have said I believed as many of the Taiyouns do – that the gem gods were a myth, or were, at the very least, absent from the day to day affairs of this world. Now, I wasn’t so sure. Certainly their power was evident; I was proof of that with my newfound abilities, as was the magic infesting this world. Also, Yue claimed she had spoken with Jedeite himself in her mind, which left me with no choice but to accept my friend’s claims or believe she was losing her hold on sanity. 

I had seen any number of things I would have believed impossible before coming here, but I had never heard Sapphiros’ voice or seen the evidence of his presence, other than the power that now coursed through me and my friends, and the blue diamond-shaped marks upon our chests that marked us as his Chosen. 

Now Narlhep, someone I had known only a short time, but whom I had come to consider a friend, had willingly sealed himself inside the Jade mountain to face his god. Despite my desire to continue denying the presence and influence of the gem gods, I found myself worrying for his safety, hoping the doors would open any moment now and he would emerge. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem like it was going to be the case. 

“How long has he been in there?” I asked.

“He went in at change,” Rama replied and I quirked a brow in confusion. 

“He means the bounce,” Kaji clarified. “In Taiyou, that’s when they change shifts – like night and day.” 

I looked up to find the sun directly overhead; on this world the sun never set – which took some getting used to – but the endless days were broken up by the moment the sun touched the horizon and started its return journey through the sky. The Roughlanders – who lived out in the harsh deserts of this planet – called it the bounce, but I suppose, like many other things, it was different here in the fertile and protected lands of Taiyou. 

I nodded, absorbing this new information. “So we’re stuck here for the time being, then?” 

Kaji and Rama nodded. “But that will at least give our reinforcements time to get here,” Rama added. “There’s little use trying to move all of the injured without help.”

I nodded and took the time to carefully compose the message to Lord Rama in my mind, requesting aid in the form of soldiers, supplies, and pallets to carry the more seriously wounded, before forming an arrow made of glowing energy between my hands and letting the message fly.


Follow the Book Tour:


Enter the Giveaway:

Contest is for a Kindle copy of Ruins of Sapphire, Crimson Winter Vol. 1. Contest is for US and Canada only. 


Meet the Author:








Justine Alley Dowsett is the author of ten novels and counting, and one of the founders of Mirror World Publishing. Her books, which she often co-writes with her sister, Murandy Damodred, range from young adult science fiction to dark fantasy/romance. She earned a BA in Drama from the University of Windsor, honed her skills as an entrepreneur by tackling video game production, and now she dedicates her time to writing, publishing, and role-playing with her friends.

Connect with Justine:




Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Sapphyria's Book Promotions Presents: The Demons Of Chiyoda by Laurence Raphael Brothers; #BookTour, #NowAvailable, #OutNow, #TBR, #Live, #Giveaway

Nora Simeon hates demons.


Mirror World Publishing and Sapphyria's Book Promotions present the 1-week book tour for The Demons of Chiyoda (Nora Simeon Investigations #3) by Laurence Raphael Brothers.  

Follow the Book Tour for Spotlights, Exclusive Excerpts, and Reviews:
https://saphsbookpromotions.blogspot.com/2022/03/book-tour-schedule-demons-of-chiyoda.html


Publisher: ‎ Mirror World Publishing 
1st edition (March 17, 2022)
Publication Date: ‎ March 17, 2022
ASIN: ‎ B09STVRWSL
Print Length: ‎ 199 pages
​#MirrorWorldPub #TheDemonsofChiyoda 
#UF #LaurenceRaphaelBrothers.

About The Demons of Chiyoda:

Occult private eye, Nora Simeon, and Eyre, her uncannily pretty boyfriend, are on another case on behalf of the Commission, the secret organization that controls financial sorcery in the Americas. This time they're hunting down an investment-bank sorcerer who cracked when passed over for promotion and used a summoned demon to commit murder. Finding the murderer is easy, but he's already dead, assassinated in a locked room.

The case's ramifications quickly reach far beyond New York. From a murder scene in Queens, Nora and Eyre discover a tangled web of international corruption and sorcery linking crimes in Japan and the US. Traveling to Tokyo at the behest of the mysterious Onmyōdō Group, they run afoul of the even more deadly Ministry of Shadows. In the rural reaches of Fukushima province, Nora and Eyre discover a fateful secret that could shake the foundations of financial sorcery all around the world and come up against an old enemy whose malice poses a greater danger than any they've faced before.

Read an Excerpt:

More people got on the train at Queensboro Plaza, so we sat in friendly silence except for the ninety-decibel roar of the train until we got off at Hudson Yards. After that it was just a short walk to 9th Avenue and 35th Street. Up sixteen floors in the dingy old elevator, past the frosted glass door with “Simeon Investigations” in gold leaf on the glass, and into my tiny, cramped office. And okay, I lied about there being nothing left to do, because I’d forgotten about the phone until we sat down at our desks.

First things first, though. I walked over to the flowerpot on my windowsill and my pet fire elemental, Spark, rushed out of it, a long streamer of fire like an incandescent snake spiraling up my arm, then changing form to buzz excitedly around my head like a demented moth who’d flown too close to a candle. Eyre held out his hand and the elemental darted over to him to alight on his wrist, now looking like a newly-hatched chick. Well, a newly-hatched chick who’d been drenched in gasoline and set afire, anyway. Spark was familiar enough with Eyre that they knew not to burn him. My assistant made those “cht-cht” noises you do when you’re trying to talk to a bird, but this seemed to freak Spark out and they fled back to my shoulder.

“Spark’s getting stronger,” Eyre said. “Not too long before you can consider embodying them. They’ll be able to do it themself eventually, but best if they have some help.”

“You think they’re...smart enough to be a person?”

“Not yet. Maybe not for ten or twenty years. But they’ll grow more self-willed before then, like a pet cat or a dog. And a willful fire elemental might be a bit of a chore to manage if they don’t have a body to conceal their flames. It will be good practice for them when they mature into intelligence, too.”

“Well, you’re the expert. I’ll keep it in mind.”

The problem was I’d need help if I wanted to bind the elemental’s spirit into a material body, and I wasn’t exactly on speaking terms with the only person I could think of who I could reasonably ask for assistance. It wasn’t an urgent matter, anyway. I opened a cabinet and found a big cone of sandalwood incense, offered it up for the elemental to ignite, and then placed it in the pot where they could play with it at their leisure. Then I took Carson’s phone out of my bag.

“Eyre, you want a try at this?”

He’d recently taken an online course for PIs about breaking into people’s phones but had yet to succeed with the new skill in real life.

“Sure.”

I handed it over and he started doing his thing with a laptop, a USB cable, and his hacking class powerpoints. Meanwhile I began to write up my report for the Commission, and then stopped because I remembered the photos I’d taken. I brought up the image of the characters on the wall, wrote them out myself on a pad without all the blood smears and drips and stuff, and then tried Google Lens on that.

天罰. Hm. Could be tiānfá, “curse” in Chinese, or tenbatsu, “divine punishment” in Japanese. Both seemed fitting, but neither were immediately meaningful.

“You getting anywhere with that phone?”

“Stupid thing has all the latest updates. Can’t get through the lockscreen.”

I brought up my own phone’s dialing screen. “Try 73724.”

“Why? Did you find it searching his bags or something?”

“Just do it,” I said, hoping hard. Once when I was sixteen I hoped really hard for something almost impossible to happen and it did, so since then I try it from time to time.

“I’m in.”

Twice in twelve years! How about that?

“Ha.” I got up and walked over to Eyre’s desk. He had the phone jacked into his laptop and was in the process of syncing everything over to a clean workspace he’d set up. “Cold reading. Not too bad for a hunch.”

“You’re kidding.” He studied the number for a moment, then shook his head. “Doesn’t mean anything to me. How’d you guess it?”

“Spelled out Perah on the dialpad. Guess Carson must have cared some about his demon too. Wasn’t just one way.”


Meet the Author:

Laurence Raphael Brothers is a writer and a technologist. He has published over 25 short stories in such magazines as Nature, the New Haven Review, PodCastle, and Galaxy's Edge. His WWI-era historical fantasy novel Twilight Patrol was just released by Alban Lake. For more of his stories, visit https://laurencebrothers.com/bibliography, or follow him on twitter: @lbrothers.

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