ILONA ANDREWS

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

You are here: Home / Blog / Friday snippet

Friday snippet

Blog, Kate Daniels POST A COMMENT by

I opened my eyes. I stood on a square platform high above the ground, holding a plastic cooler and a small bag. A beautiful palace spread before me, a vision painted against a glowing pre-dawn sky in cream marble and Lemurian blue granite. Terraces stretched from stately towers; balconies traced graceful rooms, held up by elegant colonnades; waterfalls spilled from the floors above into stone pools. Below a river wound its way to sea, its waters diverted to run through breathtaking gardens, where flowers bloomed along hundreds of ponds and streams, and stone gazebos with padded loungers and carved benches offered a chance for respite.

The air was warm and pleasant. The wind smelled like flowers.

In this realm, my father was a god, and this palace, so beautiful it almost floated among the greenery, was the purest expression of his will, his vision come to life without the constraints of reality.

A soft breeze stirred my hair. I walked across the platform to a narrow bridge connecting it to a terrace, which bordered my father’s study, a vast chamber with tall arched windows.  The doors to the study stood ajar.

“Father?”

Another swirl of the breeze. 

“There you are, Blossom.”

Roland appeared in the doorway.  He wore formal garments today, a tailored blue tunic that dripped to his ankles, fringed with white at the hem, and a long outer garment he called irrok, a length of snow-white fabric, thin like gossamer.  It was secured at his left shoulder and fell in structured, perfect folds across one side of his body. Sometimes, he wrapped it around his hips in spiral folds but today, the irrok hung loose.

Usually, he didn’t bother with formal clothes just for my sake. I got a tunic, sometimes pants and a shirt, and one time, he showed up in a tracksuit, which made me laugh for five minutes.

The clothes were different, but he was always the same. A man with the face of a prophet or a sage, his dark hair streaked with grey, his handsome features touched by the sun, and his eyes full of wisdom and warmth. My father who adored me more than he loved any of my long dead siblings, tried to kill me in the womb, murdered my mother, fought a war against me, and now pouted if I missed a scheduled visit. Complicated, our family did it right.

“It’s been so long since you came to visit me.”

True to form. “Disparaging my husband in front of our son might have something to do with that.”

He waved his hand, dismissing the idea. “I didn’t disparage him. I simply pointed out that a man who would sacrifice his position of power under pressure wasn’t fit to rule.”

I waved my hand in front of my nose. “It stinks.”

“What?”

“Your bullshit, father.”

He chuckled.

NEVER MISS A BOOK RELEASE

Join 30,000 Subscribers

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO
PUBLISHING NEWS

New book releases, give-aways, and appearances.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO
BLOG UPDATES

Free fiction, snippets, and funny stories.

Read our Privacy Policy.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  5. Squeeee! Thank you, we are not worthy, but will gobble all the snippets!

    Happy Friday and hope House Andrews has a restful weekend.

  9. Oooooo a new snippet!!! Love it! June is sooooo far away. Thanks for this! A great start to the weekend.

  12. The introduction led me through a beautiful serene path. The step down put me into a flight or fight scene.

    I love it.

  18. This was an incredible Friday indulgence. So, so welcome. I’m glad Kate isn’t going soft toward Roland. He richly deserves all she can dish out. BTW, I laughed out loud about the track suit. I simply can’t imagine! Thank you!

    • I’m picturing those 80s fashion catalogs ????, with the colourful tracksuits on middle aged men with ski tans. In Eastern Europe we would get the German Neckermann mail order ones- always about 5-6 years later hehe.

      • The velour tracksuit in all its neon color glory.

        Oh I remember them. Please to all the fashion gods that it doesn’t come back. ????‍♀️????‍♀️????????????????

        • The 1970’s came back. I said to my nieces and nephews “I lived through this so no one else had to”. They still wore the *throw back fashions* anyway. Sigh.

        • I’m afraid it might be starting. Along with the words on the butts of sweatpants…. ????

      • In the Netherlands the lycra would come in the form of suits for cyclists. The racing kind. Think “Tour de France”.
        They’re a menace on the paths meant for us on normal bikes or e-bikes, since they travel in groups of 5-6 minimum.
        And they swear if you don’t get out of their way fast enough.

      • Now I can’t get this picture out of my head. Being German and old enough, I also remember those catalogs…

  20. I love it when you write about family. It feels soooo true! Thank you for the Friday Snippet. It’s making my weekend.

  21. Thank you, Ilona Andrews for the snippet.

    Your ROFLOL— I sent Mother (80 with senile dementia) with niece to yoga class this week since she is refusing to do simple stretching exercises daily or plain old walk the dog outside so he can potty. Amazingly her blood sugar dropped from 235 to 125. ????

  24. “Complicated, our family did it right.” I may steal this line. Thank you for the snippet!

  25. The picture of that ‘wise’ man at the top made me laugh! Must be your image of Roland. Love the tone. Kate’s the best.

  26. Off topic, but I’m reading this while my husband is listening to Louis Jordan’s Caldonia. Everytime I hear this song, I think that with a small vowel substitution it would be a great theme song for Caldenia. Gertrude Hunt should blare it while Caldenia descends the staircase!

      • This makes me wonder what Orro would make of the song “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, which I play as I prep for Thanksgiving meal every year. His attempts to digest the saga of Officer Obie, implements of destruction, and Alice … remember Alice? make me 😀

  27. Thank you for the snippet. Family…sheesh!

    Erra in sweatpants, Roland in a tracksuit, and the misread of the title of this next book. More laughs to come. ????????????????????????????

  30. “a man who would sacrifice his position of power under pressure wasn’t fit to rule”

    Is that referring to the pressure Roland put on Curran and Kate to abandon the Pack? ‘Cause forcing someone to do something and then complaining because they did is… well, Roland all over, TBH.

    • I had an abusive boyfriend Ike that when I was a young teenager. thankfully I figured it out and broke up with him. hard to do if it’s your parent!

      • Good for you for getting rid of him! ???????????? That’s not always easy to do and can be especially challenging as a teen. ????

    • It’s more of his special gaslighting talent. I love that Kate doesn’t even try to humor him.

      BTW two weeks until Graphic Audio version of Magic Bites is released. I’m really excited about this one.

  35. wonderful snippet….families are complicated. If you survive them, you are usually prepared for the rest of life.

  37. wow! awesome Friday treat.

    Great to see Roland again and all and have Kate hold him accountable but I really want to know about that plastic cooler. Is it the same one Troy had in the previous snippet?

    (. . . checking calendar and pre-order status. . . sigh. . . Patience isn’t one of my virtues.)

  38. Thanks for the Friday snippet! I needed this!

    I agree with the comments other people have posted so won’t repeat them.

    Especially wanted to call out the sentence where Kate says “My father who adores me more . . .” Loved that list of things Roland has done, including murdering her mother and complaining when Kate misses a scheduled visit. It’s just a great sentence! So Roland and Kate!

    Happy Friday!

  41. Love what he’s done with the place. Gotta love him…. Being upset with him is like hollering at water for being wet. You just have to put a blessing there and take frequent breaks for the sake of sanity.

    Thank you for the snippet and hope your weekend is lovely!!!

  43. Well happy Friday to everyone too! Thank you very much- what a great way to start the weekend!

    • It’s a stock image ????- Ilona uses one for each blog post to illustrate the content. Here, it’s a stand in for Roland.

      • Glad to see you back and hopefully you had some nice time off!

        Although, I was hoping that Gordon might let a spoiler or 10 slip past while you were gone. ????????

Skip to content