Fated Blades
SHORT NOVEL
KINSMEN WORLD
AVAILABLE ON NOVEMBER 23, 2021
An uneasy alliance between warring families gets heated in this otherworldly novella from bestselling author Ilona Andrews.
At first glance, the planet Rada seems like a lush paradise. But the ruling families, all boasting genetically enhanced abilities, are in constant competition for power—and none more so than the Adlers and the Baenas. For generations, the powerful families have pushed and pulled each other in a dance for dominance.
Until a catastrophic betrayal from within changes everything.
Now, deadly, disciplined, and solitary leaders Ramona Adler and Matias Baena must put aside their enmity and work together in secret to prevent sinister forces from exploiting universe-altering technology. Expecting to suffer through their uneasy alliance, Ramona and Matias instead discover that they understand each other as no one in their families can—and that their combined skills may eclipse the risks of their forbidden alliance.
As the two warriors risk their lives to save their families, they must decide whether to resist or embrace the passion simmering between them. For now, the dance between their families continues—but just one misstep could spell the end of them both.
The excerpt is below, but before we get there, let’s do this fast like ripping off the band aid.
Preorder at these retailers.
That’s it.
This is a Montlake release. What does this mean? It means it’s published through one of Amazon’s publishing houses.
First things first:
Ebook?
Yes, here.
Dead tree book?
Yes, here.
Audio?
Yes, no link yet.
I am a librarian, can I order this for my library?
From our editor: “Yes, the physical audio edition will be in libraries. As well, we have a new-ish agreement with DPLA to add Amazon Publishing titles to the DPLA Exchange. Throughout this year, we’ve been adding titles. I don’t yet have a specific ETA on FATED BLADES, but will update you as soon as I have intel.”
Can international readers purchase the book and if so, how?
From the editor: “Yes! They can shop through their country’s Amazon storefront (i.e. https://www.amazon.co.uk/, https://www.amazon.de/, https://www.amazon.co.jp/) for the ebook and audiobook.”
Will the book be available on Kindle Unlimited?
Yes.
Will it be available through retailers other than Amazon?
No.
Do I need a kindle device to read this?
No. You can download Kindle app on any phone or computer. Get it here.
Do I need to read the other novellas in the series before reading this one?
No.
Why did you decide to do this?
To be honest, Amazon wanted to work with us for a long time. We’ve had various people approach us, but Gordon and I are not fans of exclusives. We turned everyone down. Then earlier this year our agent called and said that Montlake is really interested in working with us. According to her, they are great group of people, they are fans of our work, and perhaps we should consider doing a test novella with them to really gauge what Amazon can do for us.
A test novella didn’t seem like a bad idea. We had an idea for a novella set in the Kinsmen world and we didn’t think it would get much traction by itself. Kinsmen is an old series. Silver Shark came out 10 years ago. We desperately needed a break from Ruby Fever or we would never finish it. We talked about it and decided to roll the dice. We would do the novella, feed it to Amazon’s promo machine, and see what happened.
Except that novella turned into a short novel and here we are now, with print and audio.
We’ve gone through the entirety of the editing process with Montlake and we have been treated so well. Our experience with traditional publishing houses is that even when you are selling copies left and right, they tend to treat you as very valuable but also special person in a way a smart toddler might be treated as precious and special by their family. I’m not talking about the editor here, but rather the publisher. They acknowledge you but they also think that you know nothing about anything except writing. They don’t really want your input that much, even when you say obvious things like “Why are we placing huge emphasis on our print orders when it’s 5% of our sales?” You have seen some of our covers.
Working with Montlake, there was none of that. We were part of the team. There was no specialness and it was so refreshing. We very much enjoyed this collaboration. We will see what happens with sales.
Now, we promised you an excerpt.
Fated Blades
Of all the families in New Delphi, beware the secare the most, my son.
We are kinsmen. Our ancestors have enhanced our bloodlines to help humanity spread across the stars. All of us have trained for the art of individual combat. We are faster and stronger than an average human. We are duelists, but the secare were bred to slaughter. They excel at mass murder. That is the sole reason they came to be. It is our saving grace that the two secare families hate each other more than they detest the rest of us.
Avoid conflict with the secare at all costs. Should an opportunity to compete with them present itself, let it pass you by. Do not become their enemy, and better yet, do not become their friend, for there can be no peace between the Baenas and the Adlers. Sooner or later, they will clash again, as their foreparents have done generations ago, and if you ally with one of the two, you will find yourself facing the bloodred glow of the seco blade.
Should you ever encounter two secare who move as one, abandon your pride and run, my son. For your life is more precious to me than any treasure in this galaxy.
Henri Davenport
Letters to Haider Davenport
Planet Rada, Dahlia Province, City of New Delphi
Chapter 1
Rituals brought order to the chaos of life. Order was something Matias Baena deeply cherished, and so every Monday, at precisely 7:00 a.m., he entered his office on the top floor of the twisted blade that was Baena Tower and spent the next three hours sorting through the issues that had accumulated during the weekend. He read everything, organized it in order of priority, and formulated an action plan. At precisely 10:00 a.m., the small team of his top people entered his office to offer their insights and receive their marching orders.
Monday morning was sacred. The office door remained shut, the vid display refused incoming calls, and visitors were told to wait, no matter who they were. Nothing short of an attack on the building would warrant an interruption, so when Solei slipped through the door, Matias raised his head from R & D’s progress report and braced himself.
The chief security officer looked unperturbed. Of average height, with the lean, powerful build of a combat athlete, sandy skin, and pale-blond hair, Solei had been a civilian for six years, but his composure had been tempered in hundreds of space battles. He would report a small leak and a planetary invasion with the same controlled calm.
“Yes?” Matias asked.
“Ramona Adler is here.”
He must have misheard. “Define here.”
“She’s waiting in conference room 1A.”
“Waiting for what?”
“She would like to speak with you. Privately.”
If Solei had announced that his dead father had risen from the grave and was waiting outside the door, Matias would have been less surprised.
Of all the kinsmen families Matias disliked in the city of New Delphi, and he detested most of them, the Adlers were the only ones he hated. It wasn’t a personal hate. It was generational. He had inherited it the way he had inherited his father’s black hair and his mother’s hazel eyes. Both the Baenas and the Adlers had arrived on the planet at about the same time, settling in the same province and inevitably doing business in the same city, both possessed about the same amount of territory and resources, and more importantly, both were secare.
The two families had clashed repeatedly over their first 150 years on Rada. The last outburst of violence had taken place when his grandfather was young and ended without any formal ceasefire. The two sides had nearly wiped each other out and simply couldn’t continue to fight. Since then, the Adlers and the Baenas had settled into icy hostility, always watching each other, always ready for the feud to flare into raging violence. The animosity was mutual and deep. And now Ramona Adler waited in his conference room.
What was so important? Their policy of avoidance was working well so far. When forced to be in some proximity in public, he and Ramona painstakingly pretended the other didn’t exist, and the kinsmen society, which had a long memory, enthusiastically supported their strategy of evading a bloodbath. They were never seated near each other. They were never formally introduced to each other. They never had a conversation.
Ramona could have called. Instead, she marched into his den and demanded to see him. She knew he could react with violence.
Normally, he might have called this reckless, except Ramona Adler was anything but. He had studied her since he was in his teens because she was a potential enemy, and he knew her as well as he did his own family. Ramona was like one of the smoke-furred foxes that inhabited the deep woods in the north, careful, calculating, and subtle. She struck only when she had complete confidence in her success, and she was lethal.
He had to know why she was here, and there was only one way to find out.
Matias rose and strode out the door. Solei turned with crisp precision left over from his military days and followed him, a vigilant, silent shadow.
The conference room lay at the other end of the tower, separated from Matias’s office by a hundred meters of hallway. The Baena building borrowed its shape from the unfurling seco blade that gave the secare their name. It began as a wave, a low curve of plastisteel wrapped in panes of dark solar glass, dipped, then suddenly surged upward to the height of seventy meters, expanding into a hard vertical plane. A not-so-subtle warning.
The glass brightened as it climbed, and here, at the very top of the building, the panels were a deep, vivid red. The tinted light flooded the hallways through the translucent ceiling. Normally, he found it soothing, but today the air above the black floor seemed drenched in blood.
Most kinsmen didn’t know where their unique abilities came from. Their beginnings had been lost to centuries of galactic expansion. The secare were different. All of them traced their origins to the Second Outer Rim War, when two budding interstellar empires clashed over a resource-rich cluster of planets. The brutal conflict lasted for sixty-two standard years, and the secare had been genetically engineered for that war.
While massive spaceships collided across the star systems, spitting energy and missile salvos, the secare fought in close quarters with seco weapons embedded in their bodies. A tool like no other, the seco technology allowed its owners to project short-range force fields from their arms that could become a shield or a blade in an instant. A seco shield could absorb an energy blast and stop a stream of projectiles. A seco blade could slice through solid metal like it was warm butter.
The secare had developed their own martial art, shifting between assault and defense in the blink of an eye. They were the silent dagger to the blunt hammer of the space armada, and the Sabetera Geniocracy used them again and again to bleed their opponents dry.
The war was long over, and the few remaining secare had scattered through the galaxy. Once comrades in arms, now the secare avoided each other at all costs. It was one of the universe’s great ironies that after running halfway across the galaxy to get away from each other, both the Baenas and the Adlers ended up in the same sector, on the same planet, and in the same province.
The Baena family was guarded by state-of-the-art security. Matias oversaw it personally, and he hired only the best. All his guards were seasoned veterans with combat implants and skills honed by training and battle. They were well armed and ready. And if he felt like it, he could kill everyone in the building in minutes. It would be a massacre. They would know that he was coming, and all their experience and weapons would do them no good.
If he could do it, so could Ramona. The secare were killing machines, and the six generations separating them from a long-forgotten war had done nothing to change that. If she snapped, he would be the only barrier between her and the slaughter of his people.
Why was she here?
“How did she get into the building?”
“She walked in,” the CSO said. “Our security intercepted her, and she told them that she’d come to see you. They called me. It seemed prudent to control the situation by escorting her to a secure room, away from civilian personnel.”
They both knew that Solei’s control of the situation was an illusion. Ramona could leave that room any moment she wished. And Solei’s people would sacrifice their lives to keep the other employees safe until he got there.
“Good call.”
“Thank you.”
They reached an ornate double door. It whispered open at their approach, and Matias entered a large crescent-shaped room. The wall opposite the entrance was curved red glass, presenting a distant panorama of New Delphi. Between him and the glass wall stood a large oval table, carved from a single massive chunk of Gibirus opal. The mineral inclusions within the stone reacted to light, fluorescing with shifting ripples of color—fiery red, glittering gold, and splashes of intense emerald—setting the table aglow from within. Ramona sat at the table, her back to the window, her face lit up by gem fire.
He had never observed her from this close.
Twenty-eight years old, average height, athletic build of a practicing martial artist, long brown hair, features most people would find attractive. All things he already knew from images, recordings, and occasional cursory glances during the handful of times they had found themselves in relative proximity at formal events. None of it had prepared him for her impact at this range.
The difference between her images and reality was shocking. Like seeing a recording of a brontotiger taken with care under perfect lighting versus turning around in the middle of a hike and finding a pair of golden eyes staring at you from the brush.
Her hair was a warm chocolate brown. She hadn’t bothered to put it up, and it spilled over her white jacket down to the curve of her breasts. The red light from the windows played on the dark strands, coaxing auburn highlights from the mass of loose waves. Her face was a soft oval, with a small but full mouth and high cheekbones. Her nose had a tiny bump on the bridge.
A narrow white scar, about two centimeters long, traced the curve of her bottom lip, stretching just under it to the corner of her mouth. She had killed the kinsman who gave it to her. She’d cut him in half, from right shoulder to his lowest left rib, with a single strike. The recording of it made the rounds. No other family dared to attack the Adlers after that.
Her eyes, a bright, startling blue, looked at him without fear or apprehension. She sat with a calm assurance, her body supple and elegant in a simple white pantsuit. She knew she was strong and fast, and that confidence showed in the tilt of her head, in the line of her shoulders, in the way she held herself. She could jump onto the table in a fraction of a second and dash toward him, her forearms releasing the seco and shaping them into lethal blades. A part of him would’ve welcomed it. He had never fought another secare outside of the family training hall.
He wanted to keep looking at her.
He wondered how fast she was.
He wondered if he was faster.
Ramona raised her eyebrows slightly.
He had to say something or do something. He couldn’t just stand there, gawking like an idiot.
Matias took the closest chair and waved his hand. The ten guards positioned along the wall lowered their weapons and walked out. Solei lingered. Ramona looked at the CSO with her disturbing eyes and then looked back at Matias. He felt a sudden urge to do something dramatic and impressive.
He needed to get ahold of himself. She was in his territory, in the building he owned. He already had her undivided attention.
Matias dismissed Solei with a nod. The CSO withdrew, giving Ramona one last warning look. The door shut behind him.
Matias fixed her with his stare. “To what do I owe the horror?”
“I came to ask two questions.”
Her voice suited her, a rich, smooth contralto.
“Very well. I’m all ears.”
“Do you know where your wife is?”
His brain skipped a beat, then kicked into high gear. It wasn’t a threat. If the Adlers had kidnapped Cassida, the ransom demand would have been delivered via a message. There was no reason for Ramona to put herself in danger.
He accessed his implant. A translucent interface overlaid the vision in his left eye. He selected Cassida’s name from the contact list and waited.
A second passed.
Another.
A third.
She should have answered. Her implant would have recognized his call and linked with his even if she was unconscious. Either her implant was removed, which meant Cassida was dead, or she had deliberately blocked his calls.
“No answer?” Ramona asked. Her tone was perfectly neutral, but somehow, he felt mocked.
“Fine. I’ll play. Where is my wife?”
“I wish I knew.” She slowly reached into her jacket, withdrew a small tablet, and placed it on the table. “But I think he does.”
On the screen, Cassida ran across a small, paved lot, her bright golden dress flaring around her, her auburn hair flying, as she sped toward a blond man waiting by a late-model aerial. He opened his arms, and Cassida jumped onto him, wrapping her legs around his hips.
A wave of ice splashed Matias and evaporated into intense, furious heat. His left hand clenched into a fist under the table. His wife was cheating on him.
Their marriage wasn’t perfect. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t loving or passionate, but it was perfectly amiable. He had remained faithful to her since their wedding almost three years ago. It never crossed his mind that she wouldn’t do the same.
Ramona was looking at the screen with an odd expression. Not pain, but rather resignation. “The unbridled joy seems unfair.”
“What is the point of showing me this?”
“That’s the wrong question. The right question is, Who is the man she’s climbing?”
She zoomed the recording with a flick of her fingers, and he saw the man’s face—golden tan, square jaw, glowing with health and that particular polish that came with wealth and too much grooming. Recognition punched him.
“Your wife is having an affair with my husband,” Ramona said.
For a moment they shared a silence as he came to grips with Cassida licking the inside of Gabriel Adler’s mouth.
Ramona spoke first. “That brings me to my second question. Have you experienced any security or data breaches in the last few weeks? Go ahead. Check. I will wait.”
Matias surged off the chair and out the door. In the hallway, the guards saw his face and flattened themselves against the walls.
“She does not leave,” he growled. “Solei, with me.”
#
Thirty minutes later Matias marched back into the conference room, and this time he didn’t bother to sit down.
Ramona offered him a bitter smile. “She took everything?”
He didn’t answer. The humiliation was too deep, and his rage burned too hot.
For the last two weeks Cassida had used his credentials to log into their files from his home office. He had no idea how she’d obtained his password, but with the proposal deadline approaching, he had worked from home with increasing frequency, logging in after hours. Her activity hadn’t raised any alarms. She’d copied the entirety of their seco research.
“Gabriel has done the same,” Ramona said.
They were sharing a rapidly sinking boat.
Until three years ago the technology of the seco had been lost. The seco weapon was a marvel of bioengineering. In its initial form, it was a hair-thin glowing strand visible only under strong magnification. When examined through nanoscale imaging, the strand turned into an ethereal narrow ribbon knitted from a million nanobots. It floated in the buffer solution, undulating and shifting, waiting for its host. When the time came, it and its twin would be implanted into the forearms of a newborn from a secare bloodline.
If the baby didn’t inherit the secare ability, the ribbon would harmlessly dissolve within a year.
If the baby was born secare, the glittering constellation of nanobots would anchor itself and grow for another twenty-five months, forming a subcutaneous channel along the front of the arm until eventually the skin would split, allowing a microscopically narrow ridge to rise to the surface. It was invisible to the naked eye and too small to be felt by touch, but he knew exactly where it was. If he held his arms straight out, palms down, he could almost see the ridges running from his elbows to his wrists. When he wanted a blade, the seco burst forward over his wrist. When he wanted a shield, it fanned out from the entirety of his forearm, projecting into a shape he required.
The secare started training their children as soon as they could walk. They used the seco, they killed with it, and they replicated it, but nobody fully understood how the strands worked or why some children from secare bloodlines could use them and others couldn’t. The secare were never trusted with that knowledge by their creators.
Then, three years ago, a salvager had stumbled onto a forgotten Sabetera Geniocracy lab in a random asteroid field. He brought the data banks he found there to Rada, sold them to the Baenas, to the Adlers, and to a third kinsmen family, the Davenports, letting everyone think that the sale was exclusive, and got the hell off planet as fast as his ship’s drive would carry him.
The recovered intel opened the door to the creation of seco force fields by industrial means. Oh, it would require significant power and complex machinery to accomplish this, but it would blow conventional shields installed on modern warships out of the proverbial water. Bringing seco generators into mass production promised enormous benefits.
It also required a huge infusion of cash. Between the cost of rare metals, the custom nano cultures, and the cutting-edge tech required to retool the field to work without the biological component, developing the prototype would drain the Baenas’ savings to nearly nothing. They could lose everything they had built over the last seven generations, but if they succeeded, the family would be stabilized and well funded for centuries to come.
The secare were born risk-takers.
Nine months into the project, Matias realized that they were in a three-way race. The space sector offered only one industrial partner capable of mass-producing the seco generators. Whoever successfully pitched their idea first would reap all the spoils. All three families abandoned their other projects and shifted all their resources toward building a successful prototype.
Now Cassida was on the run, and a copy of the Baenas’ entire research was on the run with her. And so was Gabriel Adler with all his family’s work.
Matias unclenched his teeth. “What are you offering?”
Ramona narrowed her eyes. “I know my husband. This wasn’t his idea.”
“He’s off with my wife and your research. Now isn’t the time for sentimentality.”
Ramona shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to imply that he is an innocent pawn and your wife led him astray. But Gabriel lacks any sort of ambition. He has very little self-discipline, zero interest in business, and no knowledge of kinsmen politics. As long as he is fed, given an ample allowance, and allowed freedom to indulge himself, he’s perfectly content. He is too lazy to start this adventure on his own. I’m in awe of your wife. She has managed to motivate him in a way I never could, and the universe knows I’ve tried.”
“Cassida is very good at motivating.” She had mounted a relentless assault on his peace of mind since the moment they’d married. He thought they had reached an understanding. Apparently, Cassida simply shifted focus to a more receptive target.
“Time is a factor,” Ramona said.
He understood what was left unsaid. The stolen research would be sold. That sale would bankrupt their families.
“Cassida wouldn’t have left without lining up a buyer,” he said. “She isn’t always prudent, but she is shrewd. She knows that the moment I discovered the theft, I’d go after her with everything I’ve got.”
Ramona nodded. “I thought as much.”
They had to move now. They had to recover the research, and they had to do it quietly. On Rada, a kinsmen family’s standing was vital. It could mean the difference between being targeted in a feud and being invited to a negotiation table. Deals were offered and agreed upon based on the respect afforded to one’s family name.
The secare enjoyed an aura of menace. Both families had been attacked, and both he and Ramona had delivered a gory object lesson that the city wouldn’t soon forget. Most of their rivals considered a direct conflict with them out of the question. If it became known that not only had they suffered a catastrophic data breach, but their spouses had done it and then run away together right under their noses, their reputation would be in tatters. They would be disgraced. Even if they recovered the tech, they could no longer negotiate from a position of strength.
If speed was first, secrecy had to come second. Involving their families would only hinder them. He trusted his relatives with his life but not with his secrets.
“Who else knows?” he asked.
“The chief of cybersecurity and Karion,” she said.
Her older brother. He wouldn’t talk.
“I know my husband, but I don’t know your wife.” Ramona met his gaze.
“An alliance?” He raised his eyebrows, pretending to be surprised.
“A temporary one. Not between our families or our companies. Only you and me. We go quietly, we find them, we recover our assets before they destroy us, and then we never speak of it again.”
Ten minutes ago, as the cybernetic security department fell on its figurative sword in front of him, his brain had already cycled through the possibilities and arrived at the only possible course of action. He’d been going to propose the same thing, and if she’d balked, he had a list of arguments ready to convince her. She’d saved him the trouble. If only his enemies were always so obliging.
Ramona was waiting for his answer.
He let her wait for another breath and nodded. “Agreed.”
#
Matias Baena was something else.
Ramona leaned back in her seat and listened to him issue a flurry of orders to his CSO and Ladmina, his VP. He rattled off a quick, succinct rundown on immediate corporate tasks referred to in a manner that told her next to nothing about their true meaning and moved on to a catalog of things he required.
A fast, untraceable aerial with a survival kit.
A threat assessment on the Davenports, the third family with access to seco tech.
An internal lockdown on all information associated with the data breach.
A gag order and an expungement of her visit this morning, erasing all traces of her presence in the building from their surveillance.
An immediate implementation of a monitoring protocol tracking Cassida by implant and banking activity and both Cassida and Gabriel through a face recognition algorithm. If his wife spent any money, appeared in range of any cameras accessible by the public, or attempted to leave the planet, Matias would know about it.
He must’ve constructed a thorough list in his head, and now he methodically went through it, knocking items off one by one without a pause. Nothing was left to chance. He’d dissected the situation into chunks and addressed every aspect.
Precision was the quality secare prized most.
He acted like a secare, and he looked like one too. Her family kept the archival footage of the original unit, and she had watched it so many times over the years she could likely draw them from memory—the lean, strong soldiers in identical charcoal black, hardened by battle, stripped of all softness, with eyes that warned you off. The space crews developed the spacer stare, a haunted, distant look. The secare stared at you like a pack of human predators.
With his powerful body in a black doublet and his chiseled, harsh face, Matias would’ve fit right in, but it was the stare that cinched it. The scalding-hot stare of a hunter.
She had always thought he was cold, a closed-in, distant man with a stern glower. Someone capable of rationalizing cruelty. Someone who didn’t bend because he couldn’t be bothered, who never lost his composure. Impenetrable, like a chunk of obsidian. Who knew there was fire under all that volcanic glass?
A stray thought flickered through her mind. It must be so nice to have someone like him watching your back. Someone competent. Decisive. Someone who has his shit together. Too bad he is an enemy.
Earlier that morning, Ramona had sat in her office alone and viewed the two recordings of Gabriel, the first of him stealing their data and the second of him meeting Cassida. She remembered the exact moment her brain processed what she was seeing. She felt a blinding pain, and then she went numb.
There was no time to feel or to come to terms with anything. She had to save the family. The emergency was so dire it pushed all her emotions out, leaving room for nothing else.
She had to hunt Gabriel down. She had two brothers, her parents, two aunts, an uncle, and a handful of cousins, and yet she had no one to turn to. Karion might have joined her, but she needed him to hold on to the family while she was gone. Santiago, her younger brother, was barely twenty and lacked patience. He would fly off the handle, and that was the last thing she needed now. None of the other relatives were secare, except for her retired parents, and she would rather die than get them involved.
She was on her own. At the time she had simply accepted it, but now, as she listened to Matias, she felt a crushing realization—she was alone. Utterly, completely alone. She would never let it stagger her, but it hurt.
The CSO and VP departed, Solei giving her a cold, flat stare before he left the room. Matias tapped the corner of the desk, and the ethereal light screen materialized on the wall. An older woman appeared, sitting on a garden bench against the backdrop of heavy dahlia blooms, her skin a deep brown tinted with red, her silver hair braided into a thick plait wrapped in an elaborate gold mesh.
“Aunt Nadira,” Matias said.
After Matias’s father died, his mother sank into her grief, abandoning her post as the leader of the family. Nadira jumped into that pilot seat before the Baenas had a chance to drift off course and steered the family for another eight years, until Matias was ready to take over.
She looked so harmless now, just an older woman in a beautiful emerald sari, surrounded by dahlias blooming in every color. And if an intruder broke into that garden, they would die before they ever sensed her presence.
Nadira smiled. “And how is my favorite nephew?”
Matias leaned forward. “Incredibly concerned and saddened by your recent illness.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Am I sick enough to require your immediate presence?”
“You are.”
“And am I refusing all visitors except my precious nephew because he is the only one I will allow to view me in my sorry state?”
Matias nodded. “Exactly.”
“The shit has hit the fan, I take it?”
He moved his fingers right to left. The sensor in the vid screen obeyed, tilting it toward her. Ramona met the older woman’s gaze.
“Oh,” Nadira Baena said. “That bad?”
He tilted the screen back and nodded.
“How long?”
“As long as it takes.”
“Very well. I’ll have Sylus inform the family.” Nadira leaned toward the screen and fixed her nephew with a sharp stare. “Watch yourself. Come back alive.”
“Always.” He kissed his fingers and offered them to her.
The display vanished.
“I can’t simply disappear,” Matias said.
It was an issue she was intimately familiar with. “The problem with spearheading a family business is that most of the corporate officers are also your relatives, who view you as the ultimate arbiter of their disputes.”
“Yes. And in my case, they make no distinction between an argument over the precise calibration of the Kelly-particle agitator or the choice of a faucet for a new heated bubble tub.”
“Same.”
They shared a look. They were still enemies, but even enemies were allowed latitude when it came to complaining about family.
He rose. “The aerial is ready. Do you need us to stop anywhere?”
She had taken care of her affairs this morning. If her plan to convince him to cooperate had failed, she would have gone at it alone. “Everything I need is in my vehicle. I’ll give your people the code. They can bring it up.”
“Perfect.” He approached the door and waited as it slid open. She walked through the doorway, presenting him with an unobstructed shot at her back. If he struck, it would be now.
Matias turned left. “This way.”
They headed down the hallway to the same private elevator she had taken this morning, except this time there wouldn’t be six armed guards in it. Just her and Matias Baena.
She had lost her damn mind, but she’d made the right decision. She came to this man she had meticulously avoided all her life, a man who had no reason to trust her, and told him that his wife had betrayed him with her husband. There were a hundred ways he could have reacted. He could have lashed out at her; he could have refused to believe her; he could have shut down, gone into shock, or simply had her thrown out. Instead, they were riding an elevator, determined to fix this disaster before it became a catastrophe.
She was no longer dealing with it alone. She didn’t trust him, but she trusted the rage she’d seen in his eyes when his wife kissed her husband. For the first time since she saw that cursed recording, Ramona had room to take a deep breath. She did, and when she exhaled, she felt angry. Unbelievably, overpoweringly angry.
Gabriel. How dare he? How fucking dare he? She gave him everything. She turned a blind eye to his womanizing, to his endless vacations, to his consistent failure to carry out the simplest tasks. She freed him of all responsibilities. Literally, the only thing she asked for was loyalty. Not to her as a spouse—that was beyond him—but to the family that enabled his carefree existence.
She’d worked so hard on this project. She gave it her all, her every waking hour, her sleep, and her peace of mind. She lived and breathed it for the last three years. Her life had become a grind, a constant search for just a little bit more money, enough to keep the project going while overcoming never-ending technological setbacks. The relentless pressure of knowing that if she failed, or just wasn’t fast enough to outrun the other two competitors, the family faced financial ruin was her constant companion. It kept her up at night and woke her up in the morning.
The two of them, Cassida and Gabriel, thought they could simply take everything she’d worked for. They thought she would roll over.
Ramona laughed. It sounded like a promise of murder.
“We’ll catch them,” Matias said, his voice cold like the space between the stars. “I give you my word.”
Incredible excerpt – yay!
To say Mod R couldn’t wait for the news about Steve West to break out is an understatement 😀
Uh oh get the drool pans out! 😀
Steve West could read a phone book, and I’d happily listen.
I AM SO HAPPY.
In short – EVERYONE WINS.
Ahhhh I can’t wait!!! Just preordered!! Now gotta go listen to the others in kinsmen universe again!!
OH MY FREAKING!!
YES! YES!YES!
Pre-ordered and took the day off!!
Pre-ordered (UK Amazon showing no cover).
Feel like rubbing my hands together and muttering “my precious” ????
Please see the caption on the cover art “Cover coming soon” 🙂
Pre-order done. And I can guarantee I will attempt to pre-order it again before the release date.
STEVE WEST !!!!!!!!
Oh my beating heart…..
Ordered both formats today and patiently waiting on the audio
Love from Oxfordshire
Same here, I am soooo excited and to hear Steve West’s voice makes it all the more thrilling ????
Another hello from Oxfordshire! Kelly
We cherise this gift from the AuthorLords.
+1
Wow! Thank you for the excerpt. Now, I have to download the Kindle app for my Nook since that will be the only way for me to get my hands on the e-book.
I pre-ordered. Can’t wait to read the entire story! What a great Thanksgiving present. When I came back on the website (before clicking on the blog), I saw the updated page featuring Fated Blades. Very colorful. 🙂
Always worth the wait!
Woohoo! Haven’t read the snippet yet, but wanted to ask if there is supposed to be a link to the kindle app under ‘Do I need a kindle device to read this? Get it here.’
🙂 There is, you may need to refresh.
Thanks, Mod R, I see it now. 🙂
I went out the Google app store and got the Kindle app there since my Nook is Android. If you have Apple, you may have to go the Apple app store (or whatever that name is) and get it through there.
Oh my gosh, I just read the snippet, it was so good!! The story grabbed me right away and then it just ended! Wowza. I cannot wait for this novel to come out!
Also, I’m glad you had a great experience with Amazon. I plan on reading the book via KU and then buying it right after, woohoo!
My first reaction was, Silver Shark came out 10 years ago?! I still remember when it was published. Now I feel old lol. But thank you so much for the preorder links and snippet. Can’t wait to read this!!
Silver Shark is my comfort book. I re read it on a regular basis. I’m so excited for Fated Blades. I’ve pre ordered the ebook AND the physical book.
Yippee!!! The excerpt is fantastic. I’m glad the publishing t experience with Montlake has been enjoyable. I hope it continues to be so.
Tomorrow is my birthday and Fated Blades is going to be a great present????????????????
Thank you.
Wow. Just wow! Thanks for the explanation about the choice in publishing. This adds to your good advice section on writing books. As to the book itself, thanks so much for the generous “snippet.” Come on, November!
So, I’m 4 weeks into a concussion, sitting down with my morning tea and having the 30 minutes of screen time I get this morning. SO GLAD I visited your blog in my first 5 minutes. I’m also 4 weeks into not reading any books, because reading anything longer than headlines is usually too visually exhausting (my eyes just stop focusing). Slowly made it through this whole preview (yay for reading!!!) – the most I’ve read in a month – and signing off now because reading it took me 20 minutes – but can’t say enough how much this totally made my day. Can’t remember when publication is but I’m THRILLED to have this to look forward to. And if I can’t read it there’s always audible. So happy for you too tht you’ve had this great experience with a publisher that is treating you well. You deserve to be treated well by your partners.
Many virtual hugs Jessica, and a speedy recovery!
What she said.
I hope you are better soon.
Enjoy your book in whatever form you need it.
Same. My daughter got a concussion in July, and it took her quite a while to get back to realio, trulio normal. Give it time and don’t do anything to reinjure it.
????????????????????????♀️????????♀️????????♀️????????♀️ Thank you!
First- love the choice in narrator!
Second- really enjoy the posts that include how the sauce gets made.
Third- pre-ordering now
So good!
One clicked on the Kindle. Will do the same when the audio link is up.
Will this be available on Kobo(Canada)?
It is an Amazon exclusive, it will only be available on Amazon :). Here for Canada https://www.amazon.ca/Fated-Blades-Ilona-Andrews-ebook/dp/B09G9VJTKT/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2VQMMRP8C75FG&dchild=1&keywords=fated+blades+ilona+andrews&qid=1631813579&sprefix=fated+blades%2Caps%2C328&sr=8-2
Oh no… so sad.. amazon only… oh I understand for the author overlords…. but sad for me…. I don’t buy from amazon … crap
I usually don’t buy from Amazon either. However, I make an exception for Ilona and Gordon.
I understand it too, but I am crushed as for various reasons I am in the same boat. The accessibility internationally and across vendors is one of the reasons I had been recommending books to friends and family.
I’ve written and deleted out my comment at least 10 times now. If I can afford the dead tree version do I make an exception because I love kinsmen so much? I replaced my dead tree versions through Kobo about 8 years ago and stopped buying physical books around the same time. It has been half an hour since I found out about the exclusive release and I still can’t decide if I want to read the snippet and torture myself.
You can always borrow it from libraries <3. I hope that makes it easier. Thank you for your understanding 🙂
Sorry about this. 🙁 That’s one of the reasons why we resisted exclusivity of Amazon until now, but we finally decided to see what all the fuss is about. We both understand your decision. There will be other books. Hopefully soon. Got to get a move on and finish things.
I also don’t buy from Amazon, for a number of good reasons. I will have to wait and get it from the library.
Library!
I feel the same way about amazon, but I had to compromise my principles because I simply can’t wait for Fated Blades to be released anywhere else ????
How many times were you asked the above questions before you decided to just make a list and answer them ????
I found it kinda funny.
I love Steve West! He was great as Hugh, but he’s just an all around good narrator. I have other series read by him as well. One of the best!
He’s awesome!
I remember the other book when it came out and I wanted more in the series so Thank you! Preordered and I can’t wait.
Silver Shark was my first book from IA and it remains my favorite. I reread it anytime I am feeling down or overwhelmed. So I am very excited for the new book.
Thank you!
Pre Order done ✔
Countdown widget applied to phone ✔
Thank you for the snippet. I do wish this wasn’t Amazon exclusive, as I strongly prefer the format of nook (and also all of my other IA books are on nook and it annoys me to not have my books perfectly organized by author) but I will buy it on Kindle anyway, because I love your work… and I would never wish for you to have less than amazing sales numbers but I kind of hope the numbers reflect “having other sellers available is worthwhile.”
I thought that too. However, I sighed, downloaded the Kindle app, and pre-ordered the book on Amazon. 🙂
+1 I have Kindle on my MacBook, but am not fond of the format. However I shall suffer through it when the time comes.
Thank you. Both for the excerpt and the explanation. I rarely purchase kindle books b/c of past actions by Amazon to kindle book buyers, but I will purchase yours…(and David Eddings books when available.)
I cannot wait until the books hits my tablet!!
In case you missed it, the Belgariad books are now out on Kindle. I’ve grabbed them in case they get pulled in the future. Still waiting for the Mallorean and other sets.
OMG that is awesome. I had no idea his stuff was getting the kindle treatment. I will need to grab those.
Ordered… I love the Kinsman universe and revisit it like an old friend
Really enjoyed the preview, looks like another big hit, I am sure Montlake will be thrilled with reception of book, the publishing industry is dropping the ball, you would think they would have the sharpest people available trying to stay ahead of the changes brought on by eBook sales, instead those sharpies all seem to be working for social media. And I think it is fair to call Amazon social media. I wonder where this leaves the future of Hidden Legacy, and Kate Daniels World?
Hidden Legacy is under contract with Avon Publishing and the Kate Daniels World series, Aurelia Ryder and Iron Covenant, are self published works 🙂
Wowie!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Already pre-ordered….now I have to find something to occupy me other than marking off the calendar days until the release! Thank you!!!!
Whoa… That is gonna be so good!!!
Pre-Order Done!! Can’t wait!
I love the Kinsman Universe and can’t wait to read it. I glad it was a helpful palate cleanser in between books ina series. Many of my favorite authors do this and I love all the books that result from their creative minds.
*incoherent teakettle noises*
I know Kinsmen is an older series, but it’s one of my favorites, and I am so incredibly happy about this that I cannot even express it. I’m excited and jittery and need this in my haaaaaaaaands.
I preordered ebook, which I rarely do cause vision is wonky but then realized there will be an audio eventually with HUGH!
Steve West was so brilliant in Iron and Magic I even listened to some Amazon audible free romances just because he was the reader.
I shall own both versions, yay me!
Thanks, joybringers.
Pre-ordered! Interesting that the print version comes out three months (!) after the Kindle version.
I was wondering about that too when preordering the print version.
Reading Riches! New Diana Gabaldon on the same Day!
Can’t wait!
Thanks for the heads-up, have pre-ordered!
You two are on my auto-buy list, but I still loved getting the excerpt, which has whetted my appetite to read the rest of the book. Happy to hear you had such a good experience with the publisher 🙂
Totally awesome! Can’t wait for the whole story!
Any chance that the audio version will be published at the same time as the kindle one? (I know preorder is not available for audio yet)
Also, Steve West!!!
We just don’t know yet but the blog will be updated as soon as the info is available! 🙂
I’m going to go with my usual phrase;
Eeeeekkkk!!!! I’m so excited! This sounds amazing!
also – the least said about some of the past covers, the better!
Ilona mentioned rejecting the first cover draft for Ruby Fever and I was like: hm, maybe a bare-chested Alessandro wouldn’t be that bad ????
I went and pre-ordered and then I came back and read the excerpt. LOUD CHEERS AND GREAT REJOICING!!!!
Can’t wait. Can’t wait. Can’t wait!!
Woo!
So. excited. To be back in the Kinsmen world!
Ordered and can’t wait!
Same here, I am soooo excited and to hear Steve West’s voice makes it all the more thrilling ????
Thank you so much. Yes, just logged into Amazon (Canada) to place preorder.
(Life has been heck & dang. Family members in California have been dying at an alarming rate. Now brother & sister-in-law, still California, are in very poor and not as poor health. Fights with my narcissistic only living parent are driving spouse & I over the edge of sanity. I apologize to him often for this huge inconvenience. )
Condolences to you and your family!
Sorry you have to deal with this. The last living parent in our family was also a narcissist, from my side, now gone and missed by no one in our family. What helped the most was losing any illusions that she would act in a rational, empathetic manner. Just expect horrible behavior, and maybe once in a while you might get a pleasant surprise if they briefly act civilized. And understand that you can’t get used to it, if it happens. Sooner or later they will go back to being themselves. Narcissists have zero incentive to change, because how could they possibly be any more awesome than they already are?
But they’re not immortal. Treat them in such a way that you won’t have any regrets when they’re gone. That doesn’t mean you have to put up with their BS. You can meet them in the moment, be polite when they are, and be absent when they’re not. Hang up, leave the room, leave the house, leave town, or whatever it takes to remove you from the toxicity. This too shall pass.
The excerpt is just wow! And Steve West doing the audio book makes me squee. Off to pre order…..l
Yay – It will publish just before my birthday so I’ll get an early present 😀
ditto!
I love you guys!
I’ve never really understood the *SILENTLY SCREAMING* emotion than I have now. Can’t wait for this!
Ooh! Perfect!
Ooooh, this is gonna be gooood!
Already pre-ordered!
Yes, yes, yes!
Preordered.
Steve West! What a treat! He did a great job in “Iron and Magic”! I’m really conflicted on whether to it the excerpt as it will make the wait for the full version harder…
Bravo!
Squeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
I’m now very curious of the audio version and who Steve West is. I’ve pre ordered both formats! Now I’m sooooo excited for release date!!
Steve West is the narrator for Hugh’s voice in Iron and Magic and has the most soothing velvety voice, he also does sleep app content. My misophonia loves him!
Silver Shark came out 10 years ago? Oi, I feel old!
Gotta admit, this one feels heavy on the romance. Silent Blade and Silver Shark are romance too, but the romances seemed like a side plot to the main mission. This one is front and center, and feels like there’s much less uncertainty. Of course they get together, and of course they rescue the data. Is it terrible of me to want a plot twist?
Still super excited to read it, and see where it goes!
Oh, you have no idea 😀 . Please wait until you read it hehe. All the Kinsmen are based on romance trope twists, and this is the twistiest of them all!
Ooooo a hint of the rest of the book. ????
Wow! That’ll teach me to make judgements based on snippets, lol!
*bows down to Mod R* I trust you! and HA, of course! Now I’m even more excited to see what happens.
Love the excerpt, I preordered immediately. On a side note, did Kid 1 and her boyfriend make it through the storm and home safely?
I don’t know what it is about this cover but the image of that man is doing all sorts of good things for me.
Mood 😀
just pre-ordered Kindle version. will order the print version when it comes out in Feb.
this is super exciting 🙂
I can understand your business decision. I stopped buying from Amazon three years ago and haven’t looked back. I look forward to checking it out from the library in the future!
OMG. Can’t wait! And Steve West can read the phone directory to me and I’ll swoon.
pre-ordered!
Wow, that was really nice! Seriously looking forward to both ebook and audio! Steve West did an amazing job on Hugh’s book.
Interesting comments on the regular publishers. Somehow I kinda thought as much, from the various asides since I started following your blog. There were a few comments on how angry you’d both gotten over publishing issues the past few years. Cutting their own throats is what they’ve been doing. Absolutely no one likes being patronized.
ALL THE SQUEEE!!!!!
So excited.
Question? Is it better for you guys if we do a KU version or buy outright? I will probably buy outright cause it’s shiny and I want it but I’m just wondering!
Either way, as usual House Andrews are not prescriptive about how you get to the books: KU, outright purchase, library loan. Please don’t pirate, that’s the only ask. *Hugs*
Dang. I forgot to order for my library’s collection. I got an email about vendor supply issues later this fall. Must order early. And buy two!!
YAAAAAAAAY! This makes me so happy! Preordered!
And glad you had a good experience with the publisher!
I will be sad not to buy it since I have the others, but I don’t do Amazon or Kindle. I’ll anxiously await the library copy.
The excerpt was amazing! Now to wait until November ????????
Wow – just WOW!!
I hate to admit to being a little resentful that you took time out of writing Ruby Fever to write this novella– before. Now? After this snippet, all I can say is:
I LOVE IT! I WANT IT! GIMME!
Sometimes you have to switch gears creatively or you get really stuck. This was written parallel to Ruby Fever, so not a lot of time was lost. It just went really fast. We were done in a little over a month.
Will there be an opportunity to purchase signed copies (or at least get signed bookplates)? I am really proud of my autographed Ilona Andrews collection! Not sure how that would work with Amazon-only print ordering.
Hey Di,
It probably won’t work with this order to get signed copies out, but House Andrews will be happy to sign it if you bring it to any future book signing :). They’ve said before they’ll sign anything that is put in front of them hehe.
Also there is the option to order signed book plates on future releases and stick it on this one if you can’t make it to a signing or book tour. Life finds a way!
How do your sales / royalties work with kindle unlimited? Do you do better with a purchase vs the unlimited download?
Either way/ however it is easier! As usual House Andrews are not prescriptive about how you get to the books: KU, outright purchase, library loan 🙂 . Please don’t pirate, that’s the only ask.
Pout not on nook…oh well have to wake up Kindle app…it’s Ilona Andrews…fine will just have use it…Audio West oh yes yes yes, that part not a problem at all. Thank you
I am so excited to get a new book in the kinsmen world!
Happy Birthday too me!!!
Never read one of this series bug I will have to try this one.
*Such* a great opening – but then you always grab me from word one.
Thank you for the preview.
I will now go preorder the book.
(assorted squeeing noises!!!)
I am really looking forward to reading it.
Enjoyed the excerpt and placed my pre-order! Yippee!
Xmas just came early
How lucky we all are 🙂
I’ve pre-ordered my copy, although the Australian Amazon site also has no cover image available.
That’s why the caption on the image is “Cover coming soon” :). Amazon US doesn’t have it either.
Hope this helps 🙂
Thank you so much! ????
I tried to skim the comments, but I don’t think I saw this asked yet (apologies if it has been asked already). How do you pronounce secare? I like to know how things are supposed to be said when I’m reading them. I was guessing sa-car-eh, but could also see sa-care or see-care. It’s probably something else though. ????
I have asked for you and it is either of these 🙂 https://forvo.com/word/secare/#la
Thank you for that! I didn’t even think about it being a real word, but I should have looked before asking! ????♀️ If it didn’t seem like a fundamental part of the story, I would have just went with whatever, but it was an important part, so I wanted to get it right. ????
I hit preorder before I read the excerpt because I know that I’m going to love it. I love that universe and often re-read those books like all the others. November can’t come soon enough.
Awesome! Can’t wait!
Also, Henri Davenport seems…different. 😀
I was wondering about the name too. Impossible that he ´s the bad guy with such large shoes to fill.
Perfect…comes out on the day our school’s mock results are due in… an excellent reward for marking GCSE & A-level papers!
Snippet was excellent as always…thank you once again for writing something that’s going to be brilliant!
Yay, and ebook and print version ordered. It’s great that working with this publisher was such a refreshing experience. Hopefully, sales will be lovely!
This is going to be fun!!
Yes!!! Preordered the kindle version and CANNOT WAIT!! Thank you!!
Holy Guacamole, I am so excited for this book. The previous excerpts were intriguing, but ho hum because I was salivating for more Baylors, more Inn keeper and more Julie. Duh-how could I have forgotten that The Silver Shark is one of my go to’s when I just need a quick escape this crazy world. Oh Magoo, I mean IA you’ve done it again!!!! Can’t wait.
Thank you, have preordered the dead tree and am awaiting the audio link when available.
Thank you also for the longish snippet. Is there a word for long snippet?
An excerpt, and in this case, a chapter hehe 😀
I am in love. Thank you so much for this excerpt. Ordered and can’t wait.
I want it NOW!!! Take my money, please. 🙂
Sorry didn’t read a lot of the above conversation but wanted to give you a shout out. Have to say it. Awesome. Like always.
Can hardly wait till November.
Oh man! November is so far away.
You guys certainly know how to write a great hook!
Regarding the dead tree copy – atm it has a different release date (feb 2022) did I miss something or is that an error? I really want a physical copy but struggle with the concept of waiting a few extra months… (and alas my book budget doesn’t allow for duplicates)
Saw the same on Amazon.com.
Hey Kate,
Yes, the printed version will be released in February 2022- it was a decision made so that the release would not be massively delayed.
I hope this helps 🙂
It’s gonna be glorious; thanks for the heads-up.
Pre-ordered. Thankyou for the except! Read A Mere Formality last night coz I needed the giggles. Time for a re-read!
Oops duplicate. Technology is not my friend today ????
No worries, I sorted it out 🙂
Already hooked. Reminds me a little of Jessie Milhaik, but better.
I had had a really seriously crappy day today work-wise—dealing with a sociopath is never easy—and then I got to the blog and had this at the end of the day and THANK YOU. It really took the negative edge off the entire week that spat out an even worse day and that is some kind of genius miracle. Very much looking forward to getting it in my grubby little hands.
Pre-order, click!
Happy happy dance!
I have to wait until the end November?!????
Singing the Pointer Sister’s song,”I’m So Excited!” Preorders have been done for both myself and my daughter, count down is now in progress! Many thanks to both of you for providing a point of joy in these stressful times.
What a great start to the book! Thank you! Pre-order done!
And Steve West! ::swoon::
I recently listened to him narrate “The Little Paris Bookshop” after having read the book some time ago – such a talent!
Thrilled!! Glad you’ve had a good experience too..I just smashed that pre order button ????
YYEEEEAAAA! Pre-ordered eBook and print copy. Disagree that a kinsman novella self-published by House Andrews wouldn’t get traction but happy that you’re tossing the dice in general because I still get to read your work. So excited!
Great read so far!! Pre-order in!!
I know I won’t be patient enough to wait until Thankgiving to finish it, but the timing is still great. Thanks to House Andrews!
Thank you for this! I have had a hard day. Six weeks ago I moved to VA from MS to be the granny/nanny for my granddaughter while my daughter goes to law school. I am living in the basement of my daughter and son in law’s home while he works and she goes to school. I am still working by teaching online classes only for my community college. So all that to say, I had my belongings loaded into Uboxes (U-Haul versions of the pods) and sent to VA at the end of August. The driver was in a wreck on the way and my belongings were mostly destroyed. The surviving belongings were finally delivered to me today. I am missing three quilts that I made and a wide variety of my belongings (some I was very sentimentally attached to) were destroyed. This was such a nice pick up. I love everything you guys write. And really Steve West is so awesome to listen to. I love to listen to your books while I sew! Anyway, I have had several glasses of wine but every time I look in the boxes, those three quilts and a large amount of fabric is still gone!
Thank you for how generous you are with your writing! It is very uplifting to check your blog and get to read a preview or snippet.. or heck I would probably enjoy reading your grocery list!
I’m so sorry this happened! We were burglarized about 10 years ago, and there are still things that were stolen that I tear up about at times. I know its just “stuff,” but its gut wrenching missing those things I’ll never see again.
So sorry to hear you lost your belongings in the accident, especially the quilts. Our “things” are precious for the memories attached to them and the effort involved in making them.
Love the snippet! Kinsmen universe is one of my faves! Anxiously waiting…
For some reason I’ve not bought any IA books on Audible. Probably because I can read them much faster than I can listen to them and I just can’t wait when a new one drops!
But with all the comments about Steve West, I had to go listen to some samples and picked Iron and Magic.
Just bought that due an upcoming road trip and will buy the new Kinsmen on audible as well. What a magic voice!
I am also going to go find some samples of Steve West. Usually to impatient and/or inattentive for audio.
Elated that another Kinsmen is coming out. I’ve been re-reading the stories over the many years and wished for more. They make me happy. Thank you so much for another Kinsmen!
Wow and we have to wait until November 🙁 🙁
Well, this is yummy. I can’t wait. And excited for Steve West as the audio reader!!
Thank you for the excerpt. Loving it! Pre-ordered
Yay!! I’ve pre-ordered, marked my Google calendar, marked my physical planner, and checked my work schedule. I’m ready to read when it comes out! Thank you!
I love my Subterranean Press compilation of the Kinsman books and stories. I hope they look at eventually doing one for this novel with Luisa’s stunning art.
Pre-ordered and will read before the Gabaldon which also releases on the 23rd. Busy week ????
Yeah! Thank you!
????????????????????????????
Preordered!! Two new experiences today: first time renting a car without having insurance set it up for me, and preordering a book through Amazon. (Old dog meets new tricks!!)
A girl and her librarian just reviewed Sapphire Flames https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7wKQ0R8nv4 and has plans for the other books in the series as well. Woo hoo!
And now I’m off to re-read Silent Blade and Silver Shark; not essential for Fated Blades, but still, I CAN!! 🙂
Oh. My. God. That was exquisitely mind-blowing awesome! Can’t wait! Can’t wait! Can’t wait!
boooooooook. 😀
pre-order. check!
I love the Kinsmen Universe and am ridiculously pleased we’re getting more from this world. I’ll be sure to preorder the ebook and save credit for the audio.
Preordered ebook, will buy dead tree copy when available and eagerly anticipate listening to audio book too.
Like many other posters, I choose other vendors rather than Amazon if possible but I am not going to deny myself an IA book and I respect the IA team too much to think they have done anything but make a well considered decision. From Ilona’s post of a few days ago I assume the suggested cover for Ruby Fever is disappointing (again). I sometimes wonder why publishing houses don’t put more thought into making covers that have more crossover appeal especially when they have authors like IA whose work appeals to fans of fantasy, sci fi, romance and adventure.
One disappointment I do have is that I was hoping that if the book does well the IA team might write more stories in the Kinsmen world and we might eventually get another of those beautiful Subterranean Press illustrated books. I can’t imagine Mortlake allowing that to happen.
Mod R, if it’s not spoilerish , can you tell us if we catch up with Meli and/or Claire in this new story? The Kinsmen stories are among my favourite reread/ relistens .
I have not seen the very latest edit, but no, there is no character crossover with previous books afaik ????
Heh – am I the only one looking at Matias’ navel in fascination?
I pre-ordered just now while browsing Amazon.
So um, Fated Blades is currently #8 on the Kindle bestseller list ! !
It’s #1 on the Sci-Fi New Release list.
Woo-hoo! That’s the power of the Horde for you. We buy no matter what. 🙂
I……Just…Hot Damn.
Is it Thanksgiving yet so I can have read this seveal times?
Thank you, bless you and may this be profitable for you.
Henri Davenport❤❤ love that you pay tribute to something you read and recommended. Thanks for the recommendation BTW.
Can you please put your book recommendations on the blog in easy to search way. I don’t know how it’s done so if it’s not too much trouble.thanks.
Hey Astha,
This function already exists, please click on the tag Recommended Read and you will see all the articles in that category, which are here https://ilona-andrews.com/category/recommended-read/ ????. Picture below.
On the main Blog page there is a “Books we Like” button which also leads to your princess.
I hope this helps ????
Mod R,
You are such a gift to us all. Thank you for everything you do to make our lives brighter!
????
Loved the excerpt. Can’t wait for this book.
I just went and reread Silent Blade and Silver Shark today after reading the excerpt!!
I really love those books/novellas.
This has been a long two weeks (or two years) and I am going to save the sneak peak for when I need a real pick me up (probably tomorrow).
“Silver Shark” is one of my favorites but Meli is awesome, too. I’m glad Amazon is working with libraries now. I hope this does gangbusters well for you.
I suspect sales won’t be an issue. Just pre ordered in UK. Currently it is ranked 150 in kindle store 1st for both fantasy romance and science fiction romance (kindle) and 1st science fiction romance (books)
This is lovely, Kinsman is a fave, I’ve bought everyone, including the collection that included what I already bought. Very nice. Already pre-ordered.
Hi. Will the book be available for pre-order on Amazon India. I checked the listings, its not up yet.
All the best for the release.
Hey Mary,
The link for Amazon India is here https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09G9VJTKT/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=fated+blades&qid=1631781670&s=digital-text&sr=1-4
I hope this helps 🙂
Thank you. This helped. Pre-ordered now.
Pre-ordered as soon as I saw the update on the Fb page.
Although, with my limited book budget, I normally favour Kindle Unlimited I will definitely purchase Fated Blades. Can’t wait to read it especially after the excerpt above.
Thank you so much.
I re-read the Kinsmen novellas even more often than the Innkeeper and Hidden Legacy series and am looking forward to adding this one to that list.
Thanks for the lovely present at the end of a tiring day. November can’t come soon enough! Silver Shark/Silent Blade are go-tos when I need a break. I’ve always wanted to see more in the Kinsman world. Glad the Montlake experience was so positive. No one needs additional stress in life, especially in this pandemic time.
As of 9.30am today (17th), fated Blades is 150 in UK kindle store overall and 1 in fantasy romance, science fiction romance. So based on those figures, it should be a best seller. Happy dance
I’m invested. Plus it comes out on my birthday…yay!!
Not sure amazon australia got the memo!!! Their suggestion to the search terms ‘fated blade Illona Andrews’Dogs of doom’ by Bronwyn Leroux, and ‘the adventures of Reginald Stinkbottom!!!’ ???????????????? screenshot available on request!
Here is the link for Amazon Australia, I hope this helps ???? https://www.amazon.com.au/Fated-Blades-Ilona-Andrews-ebook/dp/B09G9VJTKT/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=M9NJO704BVIY&dchild=1&keywords=ilona+andrews+fated+blades&qid=1631872523&sprefix=ilona+andrews&sr=8-1
???????? I don’t know, maybe they’re recommending something awesome with those books! Epic titles!
Oh wow I didn’t realize Silver shark has been out for more than ten years, I just recently re-read Silver Shark and Silent Blade as comfort reads and I keep coming back to them, especially the longer Silver Shark *__* I love the Kinsmen Universe and I am soooo looking forward to November!
Wow it’s been over 10 years? :O Time really does fly! I don’t know what it is about them, but Silver Shark and Silent Blade are my comfort reads too <3
I love Silver Shark and the Kinsmen universe and I am so looking forward to reading this. But I have to wait 2 more months ????
I am not sure if the Expanse books will take that long to read. Hm, I could start my Insanity run for the Mass Effect Legendary Edition…
#1 best seller in fantasy romance on Amazon this morning.
I don’t know if that’s thanks to your own marketing or Montlake since the link has been live less than 24 hours.
Congrats!
+1 Just pre-ordered and saw #1. ????????
I just wanted to share that I love the cover and I’m looking forward to reading it but I’m finding myself ridiculously amused by the cut out for Matias’s belly button.
I cannot wait! I loved Kinsman, and this will tide me over perfectly until Ruby Fever comes out. And then hopefully Arabella gets a chance to shine?
Wonderful! Can’t wait! Thx for posting!
P.S. Is Ramona Adler related to Irene Adler? ????
*squee* so excited! Pre-ordered. 🙂 Kinsmen is one of my fav series, so glad you’re releasing another book in the same universe
Pre-ordered! And currently showing as #10 in the entire US kindle store! Woo!!!
Does DPLA act as a library for individuals or a source for libraries?
I hope this will help ???? https://dp.la/about/frequently-asked-questions
Yay! Ordered! I am looking forward to this. In my opinion the Kinsmen series holds up well and I am looking forward to this addition.
Thanks for the excerpt! Pre-ordered and can’t wait!
I ordered as soon as I saw the links. I didn’t even scroll down to read the excerpt. Kinsmen is my favorite universe! When I need a familiar world I go here! I’m so excited I’m vibrating!! Thank you!!
The power of the IA blog… without even a cover photo yet:
Best Sellers Rank: #10 in Kindle Store
This is a very interesting twist to the Romeo and Juliet theme. Can’t wait!
???? I hadn’t thought of it like that, so glad you mentioned it! Grown-up, capable, communicating Romeo & Juliet: I’m all in!!
Fated Blades Kindle Edition
by Ilona Andrews (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
#1 Best Seller in Space Exploration Science Fiction eBooks
Best Sellers Rank: #10 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#1 in Space Exploration Science Fiction eBooks
#1 in Fantasy Romance (Books)
#1 in Genetic Engineering Science Fiction (Books)
Woo Hoo
I am really hoping Montlake is paying you what you deserve. I have been very concerned since I learned how much money publishing companies take from Authors. It is slave wages. I was hoping you could just self publish everything.
Preordered and once it’s available on Audible I’ll preorder there as well!
Popopooooooo amazing first chapter !!!! Thank you !!!
OMG!!! OMG!!! Happy dance!!! I am so ready!!!
I am hugely excited. Thank you so much!
As of 12:47pm est it’s #11 in the kindle store, and doesn’t even have a product image yet ????
Can’t wait!!
Order in – looking forward to reading this book as i enjoyed the other kinsmen works books – can’t believe how long since the first one came out!
Thank you both so much for keeping on writing such brilliant books
It reads as the original Kinmen.
History, Situation, Purpose, Focus.
Go, go, go …
And only six weeks away
Thank you
Would read your work anywhere you choose to publish it but it sounds like this experience was really positive for you both! Love Kinsman universe and I am happy there will be an audiobook too!
I love everything by IA, but extra SQUEEEEE for Steve West! That guy is so talented. I heard him for the first time on Iron and Magic and was so impressed. I once bought an audiobook from an author I didn’t even know because he was listed as the voice actor. ????
I totally agree with you. That voice is beautiful.
Pre-order is in, count down is on.
Done !
Happy Birthday to me (November 22nd of all days)
Needed a pick-up…..Can hardly wait.
Amazing!!! That was such fun and now I am going to re-read the first books again. Thank you for the snippet. Pre-ordered the book the second I saw the link.
Pre-ordered.
Is it November yet?
House Andrews Rules!!!!
:Insert image from Finding Nemo, Mine Mindset: Take my money, it’s already worth it (seriously I had a headache, and it passed while I was reading ❣️)
Dear House Andrews,
You write. I buy. Easy!
Thank you for the latest opportunity to have an adventure in one of your worlds.
OMG! Order ebook and print. Planning a vacation day to read
Will it eventually be available for Nook?
Hi Diane,
No, it is an Amazon exclusive.
IA book on Kindle Unlimited????!!!
Woohoo!! This is so awesome!! I’m a KU junkie! I read anything, I mean anything, on there. 😐
I’m glad the publisher treated you well. Happy authors means books!! And the cover looks gorgeous. Nothing like the HL covers
Squeee! Not only do we get a Kinsman book, but the audiobook narrator is Steve West?! This is like hitting the jackpot!
Congratulations!!
On Amazon:
Best Sellers Rank: #11 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#1 in Space Exploration Science Fiction eBooks
#1 in Fantasy & Futuristic Romance
#1 in Paranormal Romance (Books)
Hi, this looks amazing. Just one question: is there a definition or something similar of what ‘secare’ means? English isn’t my first language and I couldn’t find a translation.
Thank you for sharing this with us, I look forward to reading the book. I immediately preordered it.
Secare is not an English word ????. It is a Latin verb: seco, secare, secui meaning to cut, to cleave, to divide. https://www.latin-is-simple.com/en/vocabulary/verb/6284/
I hope this helps ????
Such a fun tidbit! Thank you ModR!
Oh my, someone hand me a fan.
Hey Mod R, does this mean that the story won’t be released on the B & N nook? I DO have the kindle app on my tablet, but I prefer my books on the nook.
No, Fated Blades is an Amazon exclusive, it will not be available on Nook ????.
::tying cushions around my middle, and trepidatiously adding a strainer helmet::
I’ve never read silver shark… (starts dodging the rest of the enraged BDH) BUT, wait not the face! But I’m going to read this! It looks excellent!
There is another Kinsman universe story besides Silver Shark, you can get both of them in the release titled The Kinsman Universe
I am admitting to having not read Kinsman til Mod R put up the quiz a few weeks ago (though I had purchased them last year). Hey, no hitting BDH! Just wanted you to know they were really good and you should give them a try. I only wished they were longer!
Fated Blades is longer (but which IA book is ever long enough hehe) so you will see your wish fulfilled! So glad you decided to give them a try <3
I am really glad to see the authors revisit the Kinsman universe. Where does Fated Blades fall in the universe timeline? Before, after or contemporaneous to Silent Blade or Silver Shark? I know several years of universe time transpired between those two books. I was curious if they repeated the pattern.
As of 2:36pm ET, USA, here’s the Amazon ranking (because I just ordered it!):
Best Sellers Rank: #11 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#1 in Space Exploration Science Fiction eBooks
#1 in Fantasy & Futuristic Romance
#1 in Paranormal Romance (Books)
Another amazing gift from HA!
Mod R Sorry I should have read the complete Q & A before asking about the nook. I was just so excited and went to B & N and didn’t find it, so I jumped the gun and posted my previous comment before going back to the top of the page with the rest of the Q & A and finding the answer to my question there. Huh, how about that, that must be why It’s called Q & A. Anyway, I guess I’ll be ordering the book for the kindle. Sigh I did so want to have it with all the rest of my Illona Andrews books on my nook. ????
Thank you! Can’t wait!
Preordered on Amazon … Thanks for the heads up.
We are a much smaller market than the US, but this is Amazon.ca, 24 hours after the pre-order link went up:
Best Sellers Rank: #16 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#1 in Paranormal Romance (Kindle Store)
#1 in Genetic Engineering Science Fiction eBooks
#1 in Genetic Engineering Science Fiction (Books)
No big surprise, but I think you have another winner on your hands…congrats! And I can’t wait ????
O my . Steve West! I wanted to climb on his lap when I listened to Hugh’s book like Matias’ wife did with the other man. I have been buying copies of Sweep of the Blade, Iron and Magic, and Emerald Blaze and giving them as gifts this past year. My neighbor is home alone while her husband takes the kids to visit the inlaws? Sent her Blood Heir. My one friend is sad her youngest left the house ? She got Emerald Blaze. So I definitely preordered this latest even though I’ve stopped using Amazon. And this release will help with the stress of family gatherings or zoom gatherings this upcoming holiday season. Hope I don’t get pregnant with Steve West when I get the audio. Lol. Or am I?
On, can’t wait to get and read this!
The snippets were tantalizing already, but the excerpt you gifted us? Just incredible! Had to pre-order fast to be able to re-read.
Interesting that the whole process and your experience with it differs so vastly between your recent books (Traditional vs. Self-published vs. Amazon).
I am truly very glad for your creative project, the Kinsmen are really gems and this one is really as brilliant as Ramonas skirt in Luisas beautiful drawing.
Moderator I have a question…is this book availableat the Kindle store or is it a Kindle unlimited book?
My Kindle unlimit1ed subscription allows me to download books without extra costs but Fated Blades is not listed as a Kindle unlimited book but rather as available for purchase in the Kindle store, which is how I normally purchase my books.
Hi Lisa,
Both, it will be available in KU and for straight up purchase. However, it can only appear as a Kindle Unlimited book once it is released ????. It is only in pre-order state now.
I hope this helps ????
Thank you. November is coming is my new mantra.
Incredibly awesome! Thanks! You made my day! Pre-ordered already (of course, as I’m in the BDH of HA)!
Thanks again; am so looking forward to reading this!
Haven’t done audiobooks yet as I find them too slow compared to my eyes; but I am sorely tempted…
Best,
Louis
WOW! I have ordered, thank you so much.
Preordered. I am very excited and love the beginning. Thank you!
???? this is happened when you were missing checking in House of Andrews website by one day.
Just pre ordered. Better late than never. Lol.
Ebook version and will do audio book when it is available.
As of this writing. It seems ebook is #1 and paper #5 on Amazon chart in Exploration Science Fiction.
Congratulations ????????
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
That is all.
One click! Yes! I know you said it was on kindle unlimited but I need to own it forever ! So excited!
I am SO excited! It comes out right near my birthday! Also, I’m so glad that you had a good publishing experience this time around. Hope it goes well in the future too. Thank you thank you thank you thank you for this story which I have no doubt will be AMAZING. I’m working on an absolutely impenetrable calculus assignment (ugh) and this lifted me up from “soul-dead” to “falling out of chair with excitement.”
You can’t buy the dead tree version on Amazon Canada,,, pita
I should have waited until I had the book in my greedy little hands but I couldn’t wait. Now I am left craving more. The delivery can’t come soon enough
You are splendid. Thank you for sharing this absolute treat!
I am so excited I just pre-ordered my kindle book. Sending happy thoughts to all of you.
hello,
have the other Kinsmen books been released in paperback?
I couldn’t see them on amazon.
Hey Kyle,
No, the other Kinsmen books exist only in ebook, audio and Collector Edition hardback format 🙂
And Amazon Australia doesn’t have the preorder link 🙁
Hey Kyle,
The link for Australia is right here https://www.amazon.com.au/Fated-Blades-Ilona-Andrews-ebook/dp/B09G9VJTKT/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=M9NJO704BVIY&dchild=1&keywords=ilona+andrews+fated+blades&qid=1631872523&sprefix=ilona+andrews&sr=8-1 and I am having no trouble finding it with a search, could you please post of a screenshot of results not showing it? Thank you.
Sometimes when I type a search on Amazon, the book I am looking for is not the first listed and I have to scroll down to find the book… some may even be from a different author.
For paperback
Sorry, I meant for the paperback version.
I wanted to preorder Fated blades but couldn’t find the preorder for paperback on AU.
If I was having to pay for shipping from America I was going to add the other kinsmen books in paperback to the order but couldn’t find paper versions.
Cheaper shipping and then I have all 3 🙂 for my bookshelf.
Yes, I noticed afterwards that the paperback appears out of stock, we are looking into it :). Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
I love the snippet!!! So thrilled for this book!!!
Can we get an audio sample of Steve West reading Fated Blades, please?
Wow. Can’t wait to read this book and getting back into Kinsman universe.
And bought ????
Of course i preordered.
I got up, started the computer, got my coffee,
went to twitter, went here. PREORDERED. Read
the expert (YESS I WANT IT! You have no idea how
HUNGRY i am for your books – Obsessed)
So happy. such a happy suprise first thing
in the morning 🙂
Thank youu
Wow, no drop off in sales yet:
Best Sellers Rank: #6 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#1 in Space Exploration Science Fiction eBooks
#1 in Paranormal Romance (Kindle Store)
#1 in Science Fiction Romance (Kindle Store)
Well Amazon, it’s a bit annoying that the paperback preorder is not available to me here in Canada, and if I order it from the US site, I will have to pay almost $10 in shipping. 🙁
SIGH, well I guess I will just have to wait. It’s got to become available at some point, right??
Wow! Love it already.
I’m so excited♪ and just can’t hide it..
Pre-ordered and READY!
I was impressed how easy it was for me to pre-order. The Amazon link took me right to my kindle Amazon account with the e-book all ready to click pre-order.
I’ve given up most of my tech (I’m all about TV rabbit ears, flip phone and radio), but my tablet worked fine with this. I was glad this was so easy to do.
Loved the snippet. I’m much more into the characters now.
Wow! I am so excited to read this! Thank you for the snippet.
Ehhhh. I’ve got so much work to do today but I will save the snippet as a treat for tonight as a reward.
=D
I pre-ordered immediately. I didn’t even care that it was going to be part of Kindle Unlimited. I eagerly await this book.
Oooooo!!!! I can’t wait!!!! Thanks guys!
Wow! Awesomeness! IMO: Steve West is a great narrator. Can’t wait to hear it!
Looking forward to reading this as both e-book and in print.
I am so excited to A) to have another book of yours to cherish and B) that Steve West is the narrator. He’s amazing.
I am so glad there will be a Kindle Unlimited option. 🙂 Hopefully some KU readers will pick up a title or three after they finish reading it.
YAS
Wow! Awesome 1st chapter. Thank you for the peek!
I use the B&N nook as my only e-reader and do not have an Amazon account. I have also (purchased and) read everything else you’ve written. I am very sorry to hear that this will only be published by/available through Amazon, though I’m glad you’ve enjoyed your experience with them so far.
Holy COW this amazing! Thank you so much for the sneak peak!
Oh my.
I can’t wait.
Since Audible is an Amazon subsidiary will the audio version be available on that site?
Hey Judy,
Yes, the audiobook will be available on Audible 🙂
Wow!!! Gimme gimme gimme!
Thank you for something to look forward!!!
Apple Books?
Hey Kcoldwell,
Fated Blades will only be available through Amazon and Audible, or libraries :).
I am disappointed I cannot buy it in my kobo store 🙁 I do not own a kindle unfortunately nor do I like reading books on my phone/iPad
I understand the economics, hope it sell well
Hey Theo,
The book will also be available in audio book form and paperback, or hopefully for loan in your libraries. Thank you for your understanding 🙂
anyone else come back to this post just to look at the picture again?
I didn’t even need an excerpt to pre-order. You are one of the few authors that I read over and over and over again. Always interesting and entertaining. Thank you for another Kinsman book. Now to re-read the others. ????
Not fair just putting this up there and then stopping…so I had to pre-order, and now I wait.
But seriously, excellent start and I expect the rest to be just as good ! Looking forward to reading the complete story !
For Mod review—I’m putting it in an old (relevant) post b/c it’s not necessarily for everyone, but is for IA—if you ever wonder do your words connect with people, I’m here to tell you yes, they do.
I am an ER nurse. I retired 3/2020, when the light at the end of the tunnel was NOT an oncoming train. (I’m crying as I write this.)
“The difference between her images and reality was shocking. Like seeing a recording of a brontotiger taken with care under perfect lighting versus turning around in the middle of a hike and finding a pair of golden eyes staring at you from the brush.” From Fated Blades, Ilona Andrews
Makes me think of the difference between a video clip of a Covid ICU and the reality when you’re standing at the door and it’s your loved one with all that beeping, and 5 masked and garbed staff members working on keeping her alive. Or you’re one of those 5 staff members, doing this day in and day out for 18 months…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJcE6DGkAvg Jeannie C
Thank you so much Jeannie, for all the work you’ve done, all the lives you saved and all the ones you saw pass. I hope you have a wonderful retirement and all of us get to see the beautiful light of all of this being over soon <3
Amen and Hoorah!