Magic Claims
KATE DANIELS: WILMINGTON YEARS 2
AVAILABLE ON JUNE 13, 2023
A new town, new friends, new challenges…. And a new heart-stopping adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling author, Ilona Andrews. Kate, Curran, and Conlan may have left Atlanta for Wilmington, but the usual magic mayhem has also hitched a ride!
Kate and Curran have just settled into their new home and their ‘low profile,’ when a local businessman approaches them with an offer they can’t refuse. A mysterious evil has spawned in the nearby forest and is holding a defenseless town hostage. The ‘due date’ is rapidly approaching.
It’s exactly the kind of fight the Lennarts can’t resist, not for the prize the town offers, but for the people who will surely die if they ignore it. If they succeed, they’ll be rescuing an entire community and can build a strong new base for their family and the Wilmington Pack. If they fail…well, fail is a four-letter word.
Nothing comes without a price. Now Kate must decide if she has what it takes to pay it.
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Aaaaaa!
I know, right?
Same length as Magic Tides?
Probably. It’s still being written.
Print?
Yes, closer to the release date.
Audio?
BDH focus group selected top 5 narrators. Audio narrators prefer longer projects, because a novella and a novel require same amount of prep work. We will be bundling Magic Tides and Magic Claims for the purposes of recording the audio, so the audio recordings for both novellas will be coming out on the same date.
We are shooting for June 13th. If something unexpected happens, it might be delayed by a week or two, but the plan is to do everything in our power to release concurrently with ebook and print.
Excerpt?
Chapter 1
The following is an unedited first draft containing typos and errors. Everything is subject to change.
“Well, of course it blew up, Kate.”
It was a beautiful September morning. I sat on a big log cut from a beached tree. A fire blazed in front of me, laid out in the firepit on the beach. Beyond it, the Atlantic Ocean lapped at the sandy shore under an early morning sky. The water was an opaque aquamarine, the sky was a beautiful blue, and the flames in front of me were ruby red, fed by the mix of herbs and magic. About two feet off the ground, the fire faded into an image of my aunt.
The Rose of Tigris reclined on a carved wooden chaise decorated with lifelike Catalina mariposa lilies. Her white gown cascaded over her large body in artful drapes, setting off the warm golden tones of her bronze skin. I resembled her, but everything about her was … more. I was 5’7”, muscular, and strong, and she was over 6 feet, more muscular, and stronger. Our faces were very similar, but her eyes were darker, her lips were fuller, and her features were bolder. Her glossy brown hair spilled over one shoulder in a luxurious mane, clasped by a golden cord. She looked like a living painting that had blossomed from the ruby flames of the fire call, an ancient empress in repose.
We hadn’t spoken for two months. She had been occupied with something she couldn’t or wouldn’t share. It wasn’t the first time she’d vanished from my radar. Once she was gone for nine months, while her subordinates made flimsy excuses, and when we finally reconnected, she told me that I was an excellent mother. Not that I didn’t appreciate the compliment, but it came out of nowhere.
Since we finally got to talk, I decided it would be a great opportunity to clear up the exploding cephalopod issue. I had accidentally blown up a kraken. It was… unexpected.
“Karsaran targets the highest concentration of magic within a living organism,” Erra said.
“Yes, which for vertebrates would be bone. In the absence of bone, it will target blood, which has the next highest concentration of magic. I understand all that.”
“Then what’s your question?”
“Why did the kraken explode? I expected it to split, maybe to burst, but it detonated like it had swallowed a land mine, and then it rained kraken for about 10 seconds.”
She laughed softly.
In the distance, about 500 yards out, a swimmer cut through the waves, moving fast, parallel to the shore.
“Oh great and powerful aunt, please enlighten this stupid one…”
“It exploded because you don’t practice. You’ve been playing house for what, six years now? Seven?”
“I do practice. I practice every day.” I had incorporated working on my bloodline powers into my workout routine.
“Not in combat, you don’t. You have no idea how much power you need to feed into a command to gracefully split a kraken along its blood vessels, and therefore it ends up exploding and landing on your face.”
“So what do you suggest? Hunting down some krakens to calibrate?”
“Yes!”
“Seems cruel.”
Erra gave me one of her patented ancient power stares, reached over, and slapped an invisible ball in front of her.
“Is that you are smacking my head?”
“You are playing a very dangerous game. You’ve been trying to hide from who you are. First, you tried to do it in Atlanta, and now you’re trying to do it there.”
“You know why we left Atlanta,” I said quietly. The city had slowly smothered me. I felt like I couldn’t even breathe there, much less raise Conlan. “I wanted to give your grandson a chance at a normal life.”
Erra waved her hand. “I do. I agreed with your decision then and I still agree with it now. Atlanta was too complicated. Too messy. Too many eyes and too many powers screaming bloody murder every time you sneezed. You needed to start fresh away from all that. But you haven’t exactly hit the ground running.”
I counted off on my fingers. “Property cleared and warded, house repaired, Conlan enrolled in school…”
My aunt leaned closer. “You’re puttering around on this beach, fixing this ruin, and trying to lull yourself into a false sense of security. Do you honestly think that you’ve solved your problems, child? That if you just stay in this little fortress on the edge of the continent, the world will forget about you, and you can have a quiet life? Even if you ran away to the most remote peak in the Himalayas, it wouldn’t matter. Sooner or later, they will come for you, and you won’t be ready.”
A familiar discomfort rolled over me. “Why would anyone come for me?”
“For your power, for your blood, and for your son. If they take the boy, they can control both you and your husband. If they kill even one of you, they can make a name for themselves. And it won’t be a run of the mill enemy. It will be the kind of power who thinks they can take you.”
For the past few years, a small voice in the back of my mind kept nagging at me. It started the day I banished my father. I’d woken up to a sun-filled morning. Curran lay next to me, warm, sleeping peacefully, his muscular arm draped over me. Conlan was in his crib, making little growling noises in his sleep. I opened my eyes, looked at out white ceiling, and thought, “Who will I have to fight next to keep us safe?”
I’d punched that voice back down, because I decided that I wasn’t going to spend my life waiting for another shoe to drop. Still, over the years, it kept piping up here and there. I thought it would go silent once we were out of Atlanta, but it only grew stronger.
“It’s not just your enemies you have to worry about,” Erra said.
I raised an eyebrow at her.
“One of the men I loved had a war dog,” she said. “He was this huge drooling, farting, foul smelling beast, bred for combat. Ugh, I hated that dog. I never hurt him, but I didn’t want him near me, so I would stomp and shoo him when he got near. A surprisingly cowardly dog. He’d gone up against lions and men in battle, but he’d see me and run.”
A six-foot-tall woman built like an Olympic athlete wearing full armor and filled with roiling terrifying magic. I’d run away too if she stomped at me.
“Is there a point to this story or did you just want to share your disturbing hobby of tormenting loyal dogs?”
Erra grimaced. “You take great advantage of my love for you. Anyway, the dog was only afraid of two things: me and thunder. Every time lightning split the sky, I would find him shivering by my bed and no matter how much I stomped and yelled, he wouldn’t leave. He just sat there, shaking, until the storm passed and then he’d slink away.”
“Aha.”
“I finally asked Leo why the dog did that, and he told me that I was the most frightening creature the dog knew. When the thunder came, he ran to me because I was so terrifying, I would scare away the thunder and keep him safe.”
I laughed.
“Listen to me, you insolent brat! People are the same. Whether you like it or not, you married a First.”
My laughter died.
“And yes, I know that your love is the greatest love there ever was under the sky and he left his Pack for you, but he took the reins of power when he was 15. He grew up being the Beast Lord. It wasn’t just his identity; it has shaped his way of thinking. And I don’t need to tell you that his successor isn’t faring well.”
No, she didn’t need to tell me that.
“When things fall apart in Atlanta, as they eventually will, the shapeshifters will panic. They will run from that thunder to the scariest person they know expecting that he will make them safe. Do you think he’ll be able to turn them away?”
The swimmer turned toward the beach and slid through the ocean, devouring the distance in fast, measured strokes.
“I don’t know,” I told her.
“Your face tells me that you do know.” Erra fixed me with her stare again. “And even if he somehow decided to say no, you would say yes. All it would take is one vulnerable, helpless person with a sob story and you’ll trip over your feet to take them under your wing.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m retired.”
“You need territory, a defensible base large enough to house many people, money, powerful allies, and connections to the local government to make it all work. Do you have any of those things?”
“No,” I squeezed out.
“Then you should get busy, shouldn’t you?”
“Thank you, dear aunt, for once again listing all of my failures.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive. If you want someone to tell you how special and wonderful you are, go see your father. He wants you to fail so you’ll be forced to run to him and beg for his wisdom.”
“What happened to the dog?” I asked.
“He sired many puppies and lived to a ripe old age. I kept a pillow by my bed, and I would drape a special blanket over him when the storms came. I buried both the pillow and the blanket with him when he died, so he wouldn’t be scared in the afterlife. Give your husband and your son my love and get to work.”
The fire went out.
Curran came out of the ocean, the hard muscles across his powerful frame slick with water. Oh wow.
My husband started across the sand toward me. At night he swam naked, but since it was morning, he wore blue swimming trunks and somehow that made him even hotter. But it wasn’t his body that pulled me in, although it didn’t hurt.
Looking into Curran’s eyes was like coming face to face with an apex predator. There was steel will there, raw power, and confidence bordering on arrogance to back it up, but most of all there was love when he looked at me. Erra was right. He never stopped being the Beast Lord. He was the man who could dominate thousands of shapeshifter with a single look, and he was also the man who stayed up all night with a child who’d eaten some poisonous herbs in the forest and spent 24 hours throwing them up. One couldn’t be separated from another. They were all aspects of Curran, and I loved all of him.
Try as you might, you cannot change who you are. A son of my father’s former spymaster told me this two months ago. I didn’t want to change who Curran was.
I didn’t want to change who I was either. It would take a hell of a lot more than a sob story to force me out of my retirement. I’d earned my peace and quiet and I would be keeping it.
Curran reached me.
“How was the water?”
“Invigorating. You should go for a swim.”
“No thanks.”
I loved swimming, but I liked my ocean to be right about the temperature of bath water. Our slice of the North Carolina coast was nicely swimmable in September, hovering around upper 70’s, but we had three days of storms and the water dropped to high 60’s. I had no desire to get into it.
Curran leaned over and kissed me with cool lips. “What’s the matter?”
Land, connections, money… “My aunt had given me a laundry list of things I don’t have and need to get right away.”
He laughed softly.
“Do you think it was a mistake to move to Wilmington?” I asked.
He grinned. “I have my smoking hot wife, my troublemaker son, my fort, my beach… What else can a man want?”
“I’m serious.”
“I can see that.” He scooped me up off my log.
“What are you doing?”
Curran spun around and sprinted to the water with me in his arms. The beach flew by.
“Stop! Curran! Cu…”
He threw me. I hurtled through the air and splashed into the ocean. The water closed over my head.
Aaaa!
I flailed, broke the surface, and gasped. Curran locked me into his arms, his grey eyes laughing.
“You said invigorating, not fucking freezing. Let go of me!”
“Let me warm you up.”
“I’ll warm myself up!”
His smile gained a wicked edge. “Even more interesting.”
I smacked him, kicked him in the chest, and launched into a frenzied freestyle, trying to warm up. I stopped about a minute later. In a pool, I would’ve been about 100 yards from where I started. In the ocean, against the current, I made it to about 50.
Curran floated next to me, and he wasn’t even breathing hard. It’s good to be a werelion.
“Hey baby.”
“You are too much.”
He pulled me closer, and I wrapped myself in his arms. We floated in the water.
“About what you said earlier,” he said, his voice a deep rumble in my ear. “I enjoyed this summer. Conlan loved it.”
They both loved it here in the fort. Erra was right – it really was on the edge of the continent, in a place where the land ended, and the ocean began. We could get cornered here, squeezed between an angry sea and an enemy. If we were talking about safety only, I felt better when we were in Atlanta, hidden deep inside the neighborhood where every neighbor was a friend. But Atlanta wasn’t an option.
“Do you like it here?” Curran asked.
“Yes.”
“Then it works for now. It’s simple, baby. When we stop liking it, we’ll do something else.”
Maybe it was that simple.
#
Three weeks later
The beach was an excellent place to work out because the sand was soft and conveniently powdery.
Curran threw me over his hip. If I’d let go, I would’ve landed on my back, but I had a death grip on his neck, and as he flipped me, I went with it and threw a handful of sand into his face. It bought me half a second, which I used to kick his feet from under him and get a triangle choke in place. Unfortunately, choking a werelion was a lot harder in practice. Normal people would’ve tapped out. Curran got up, lifting me in the air while I hung off his neck.
I was about to punch him in the head when he tapped my thigh. His eyes were fixed on the fortress behind us.
I released him. He caught me, helping me to the ground, and I turned to look at the fort.
After the Red Horn gang attacked our home, Curran and Conlan decided to erect a flagpole. It jutted from the tallest of our fort’s six towers and flew a grey flag with stylized black stripes that looked either like tiger stripes or claw rips. When something happened, we raised a second flag below the first, an early warning system, green for shapeshifter, red for danger, and so on. When we left this morning, the grey flag flew alone. Now there was a blue flag under it.
Human visitors. Not from Conlan’s school either. The lone time they came to visit after school started, he flew a ghastly orange to commemorate the occasion.
“Are you expecting visitors?” Curran asked.
The renovation crew had finished 5 weeks ago, and we were all paid up. The grocery delivery wasn’t due for another two days.
“No.” I scrambled to grab my shoes.
We found our visitors in the courtyard. A young Black woman with a wealth of hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun and a well-dressed older Black man. Our son had let them in, guided them to our outside lunch table, served them iced tea and cookies, and then parked himself on the side to keep them company. I could tell by Curran’s face that a father and son conversation would be in Conlan’s near future.
“Don’t bristle,” I murmured as we crossed the yard.
“I’m not bristling,” he murmured back. “I’m perfectly welcoming.”
The man was probably in his sixties, with dark brown skin warmed by a reddish undertone and silver hair, cut short and half-hidden by a light-colored fedora. His curly beard was silver as well, but his mustache was still salt and pepper. He was slightly shorter than average, with a trim build, shown off by a double-breasted grey suit, which he paired with a pomegranate-red shirt. He looked at the world through a pair of glasses with reddish copper frames, and his eyes were narrow and shrewd.
The woman next to him wore a yellow tank top and a high waisted black skirt. A large tote bag rested by her feet. She turned toward me and smiled. Solina.
“Is that one of the mermaids you rescued?” Curran asked.
“Mhm.”
We reached the table, and both visitors stood up. Solina came around and hugged me. I gently hugged her back.
“You look well,” I told her.
“Thank you. This is my grand-uncle, Edward Calloway. Grand-uncle, this is Kate and Curran.”
Edward Calloway offered us his hand. “Please call me Ned.”
Curran and I shook his hand in turn, and we all sat back down at the table.
Interesting. I didn’t know Ned Calloway personally, but I knew of him. I first noticed the name because I kept seeing it on Paul’s materials invoices during the renovations. I finally asked him about it. According to our general contractor, Ned Calloway was a “smart man who’s done very well for himself.” He owned many enterprises in everything from lumber and furniture to textiles and dual-engine car manufacture. A lot of businesses in and around Wilmington carried the Calloway name.
“Your iced tea is delicious,” Ned Calloway said. “What is it sweetened with?”
“Buckwheat honey,” Conlan said. Thanks to his werebear grandparents, my son was a honey connoisseur.
“I’ll have to remember that,” Ned said. “My grand-niece told me a lot about you. Thank you for saving this child. Our family is grateful.”
“It was a happy accident,” I said. “I was looking for a different child.”
“But you found Solina anyway. I should’ve come to thank you sooner, but I was occupied by an emergency. I have a summer home in Carolina Beach. We’re practically neighbors.”
They didn’t come here just to thank us, but rushing this conversation would only slow it down to the speed of cold molasses so I settled in.
“That’s good to hear,” Curran said. “We’ve only recently moved in, so we don’t know that many people. It’s always good to meet a neighbor.”
Ned smiled. “We are the welcoming sort. I’m sure you’ll be a part of our community in no time.”
Where was this going?
“Our family is from Penderton,” Ned said. “That’s not where we started, but where we ended up before I and Solina’s parents moved on to Wilmington.”
Penderton was a small town somewhere north of Wilmington.
“Where did you start?” I asked.
“My parents are from Wallace,” Ned said. “They grew up with little means, married young, and my sister and I were born in Wallace, in an old farmhouse. My father had a head for business. He started in reclamations, then moved on to construction, and did well there. They bought a bigger home in town, but then the forest came.”
“And ate the towns,” Solina said.
Ned nodded. “Until about 30 years ago, that area was mostly fields, vineyards, and horse farms, with several small towns sprinkled in. Burgaw, St. Helena, Ivanhoe… Then woods started growing and there was no stopping them. The forest pushed people together. Smaller villages were abandoned, and Burgaw and St. Helena merged into Penderton.”
A typical scenario that had played out all over the United States. Magic hated technology and high buildings, but it loved and nurtured plants. Trees grew like weeds, merging into massive forests, and things with sharp teeth liked to call them home. People quickly realized that safety lay in numbers and sturdy town walls.
“Now Momma didn’t want to leave Wallace. Her family had been there for many generations. The family cemetery was there. The church where we were baptized was there. It didn’t feel right to abandon that history,” Ned said. “But they couldn’t stay. To make the move easier, my father built their dream house in Penderton.”
“It’s a beautiful house,” Solina said. “Memaw still lives there, and Grandma takes care of her.”
“After my father passed, I tried to get them to move to Wilmington,” Ned said. “But Momma wouldn’t leave. Now they’re trapped there. I love these cookies. I’m a sucker for sweets, and I have to say, these are special.”
He dropped it very casually. Yes, my mother and sister are trapped, wow these are great cookies.
“Good co0okies are an essential food group,” Curran said. “My wife is a great cook.”
“I thought these were homemade. They just have that special touch of something.”
“I’ll pack you a batch for the road,” I told him.
“Oh, I couldn’t impose.” Ned shook his head.
“I have made too much anyway. So why can’t your mother and sister leave?”
“Because of the evil in the woods,” Solina said.
And there it was. This was why they came.
“Now I’ve got to hear this,” Curran said. “What kind of evil is it?”
“We don’t know,” Ned said. “That’s part of the problem. It started after the last Flare.”
Flares were the potent magic waves that came every seven years and lasted several days. With each Flare, a bit more of our world became irrevocably changed. Flares brought disasters. Gods manifested, large structures collapsed, and weird monsters went on rampages. The last Flare was about 5 years ago.
“Three days after that Flare ended, some strange-looking women walked out of the woods near Penderton,” Ned said.
Solina reached into the bag by her feet, pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper, and opened it on the table. A sketch made in colored pencil showing a human female, but not any kind of human I had seen.
Her skin had an odd, almost bluish tint with a pattern of hairline cracks, and I couldn’t tell if that was her natural tone or some sort of body paint. Her shoulders sloped down at a sharper angle than normal, her limbs and her neck were too long, and there was something strange about the proportions of her features. Almost as if her entire mid face was stretched along the vertical axis, flattening and elongating her nose and cheekbones. Her mouth was a narrow slash, and the corners of her lips sagged down, giving her a permanently derisive or mournful expression. Her eyes were round, almost black, set close together, and completely blank.
The woman wore a tan colored garment, a kind of robe or a tunic, cinched at the waist by a belt. Her long ochre-colored hair was pulled back from her face and stiff. It looked like she’d taken a handful of white mud or clay, smeared it on her hair at the hairline, and let it dry. A metal collar clasped her neck, a kind of plaited band formed from strips of golden and silver metal. Her right hand clutched something. A sack or a net?
After the Shift hit, a lot of people turned to ancient gods and long-abandoned religions. I’d seen neo-pagans wear some weird stuff, but that didn’t explain the strange facial features.
“What is she holding?” I asked.
“A banner,” Solina said. “That’s how they communicate.”
She pulled a plastic Ziploc bag out of her tote and put it on the table. Inside was beige fabric.
“May I?” I asked.
She nodded.
I opened the bag and took the fabric out. Three pieces of cloth. It felt like wool, woven into a thin fabric. I unfolded the first one. On it, in bright red, was a single English word written in all caps. TRIBUTE.
Shit.
The word wasn’t painted onto the banner. It had been woven into it with crimson wool.
Curran took the banner, sniffed it, and held it out to Conlan. Our son trotted over and took a long whiff.
I unfolded the second one. A symbol for the first quarter moon, a circle split in half vertically. The left side was solid red. The right side showed moon spots with paler and darker shades of red.
“The deadline,” Curran said.
Ned nodded.
There was one piece of cloth left. I opened it. A symbol for a person, one step above a stick figure and featureless but undeniably a person, woven in red in the center of the banner.
“They wanted human tribute,” Curran said.
“Yes.”
A cold uncomfortable knot formed in my stomach. This was looking worse and worse.
“The town ignored it, of course,” Ned said. “Penderton has solid defenses, and the guards are well trained. These are all tough people, lumbermen, farmers, hunters. On the deadline, at sundown, the women came back. The town expected them to storm the walls, but they just left. Everything seemed to have blown over. Then at noon the next day a huge brown boulder shot out of the woods, landed in the town square, and exploded into brown dust.”
“Everyone who was in the open in the square died,” Solina said. “Nine people. Two kids.”
“In the evening the women were back,” Ned continued. “Same message, but this time they wanted their tribute by full moon. Penderton sounded the alarm, of course. It was all hands on deck. Forest service, National Guard, three teams of mercenaries, everyone came to find the cause of this disaster. They went into the forest. Four days later some of them came out. Pender Forest is a big place, over 300,000 acres. They’d walked around in circles. Some of them disappeared. Some were eaten, nobody knows by what.”
Great.
“Why not evacuate?” Curran asked.
“People tried,” Ned said. “Every single person that left the town after that first blast became sick two days later. Some came back to town and recovered. The others died.”
“Nobody has any answers,” Solina said.
It infected them somehow. Probably with that first boulder, although it could have been something else. And Ned and Solina’s weren’t sick because they’d moved out of Penderton before this whole mess happened.
“What happened with the National Guard?” Curran asked.
“They stayed a month past the tribute deadline, but they couldn’t stay in Penderton indefinitely,” Ned said. “The day after they left, a second boulder exploded at the school. It just so happened that most of the children were in a separate building during the school assembly. Only five people died.”
There was an awful flatness to his voice.
“Penderton offered tribute,” I said.
“Jimmy Codair,” Ned said. “69 years old and dying of cancer. He volunteered. He walked into the woods with the women, and nobody never saw him again. The next year, on the same day and hour, they were back.”
They gave it a person.
“The town fed it,” Curran said. “Of course, it would be back.”
“It’s been five years since the flare,” I said. “How…?”
“The town holds a lottery,” Ned said.
I’d learned over the years that you can adjust to just about anything to survive. Penderton adjusted to the price of their survival. One person a year to let the other 5,000 go on with their lives. It felt monstrous because it was.
“These people are not monsters,” Ned said, as if reading my mind. “They have no other options. Whatever you think they should have done, they have done. They have appealed to everyone, from the military and mercenaries to the Order and the Covens. Everyone has tried. I’ve personally travelled to Washington for help. Nobody could help and in the end the town paid the price every single time.”
“This is the fifth year,” Solina said. Her voice had an edge to it.
Ned looked at her.
She inhaled deeply and looked at the sky above us.
Curran fixed Ned with his stare. “That’s a terrible story.”
Ned nodded. “Yes, it is. Thank you for listening to me. I’ve rambled on for far too long. I should probably get to the reason why I am here.”
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded map.
“The town of Penderton is very excited about your move to our neck of the woods. But your lovely home is so far from us. We’d like to invite you to move closer.”
He opened the map, presenting us with an aerial view of Wilmington and the surrounding area. Sea on the east side, the Cape Fear River in the west flowing south, dense woods all around, with the narrow lines of the major roads cutting through them.
Just above the northern border of Wilmington a dotted line marked Pender County, perched like a big mushroom cap on top of the city. Almost the entire county was tinted green, indicating the massive sprawl of Pender Forest. Midway through it, not too far from I-40, a small red circle marked Penderton. And just north-west of Penderton, a big rectangle of green cut through Pender Forest, taking up about a third of the woods.
“Move closer where?” I asked.
“Here.” Ned tapped the green rectangle with his fingertip.
Conlan soundlessly moved to look at the map over my shoulder.
“What is that?” I asked.
“Your woods.”
What? “I don’t follow.”
“These are the woods that Penderton gifted to you. Our welcome present to our wonderful new neighbors. 82,000 acres of woodlands, two-thirds of it Longleaf Pine, prime timber; one third swamp with incredible biodiversity; and a thousand-acre Big Skunk Lake. Best fishing in the county.”
Curran focused on the rectangle of green as if it were a bloody steak and he’d been starving for a month.
Ned put a photograph on the table. It showed a forest of pines, straight like the masts of the sail ships, rising to dizzying height from the sun-dappled golden wiregrass.
“Ninja forest,” Conlan breathed.
“We have the prettiest woods,” Ned said. “There are many suitable places to build a keep.”
A keep. Like the Pack Keep. Damn it.
“I always appreciate a man who does his homework,” Curran said. “You think you know who we are. But do you really?”
The flesh of his head split and twisted into a different shape. A new head formed on his shoulders, a massive, nightmarish blend of human and lion. Faint, smoky stripes marked his grey fur. His black lips trembled and opened, flashing fangs the size of my fingers. Curran’s gold eyes locked on Ned and Solina with predatory intensity.
Solina jumped up and took a step back.
Ned swallowed but stayed seated.
“Think very carefully,” Curran said, his voice a deep rumbling growl. “Be sure this is what you want. Because once I take this land, it will be mine.”
“It’s already yours,” Ned said. “You have all rights, mineral, timber, access, everything. We have already registered the grant with the county. I have the paperwork.”
“Does the town understand who they are inviting?” Curran asked. Up close, his voice shook you. It reverberated in your bones.
“They understand,” Ned said.
“Even if I look like this? Even if I will bring others like me?”
“People are always more than one thing. The residents of Penderton know who you are. They know about your friends. Should they move here from down South, the town will not oppose it. Nor could it. The land is yours. Do with it what you wish.”
The sky above us was completely clear, but I could’ve sworn I heard thunder.
“We are small town people, but we aren’t bigots, Mr. Lennart,” Ned said. “And we keep our word.”
Accepting this forest meant our quiet lives would be over. This thing reeked of old magic power. Fighting it would be bloody, noisy, and dangerous. If we managed to deal with whatever evil had spawned in that forest and survived that fight, we’d need to defend that land. Sooner or later, Curran would build another Keep and once he did that, shapeshifters would flock to him, and we would be right back where we started.
Territory, base, money, allies, and connections…
My “low profile” was slipping through my fingers.
“Okay,” Curran said. “You have me. But I don’t speak for my wife. Convince her and you have a deal.”
Ned stood up. “Could you open the gates for us?”
Curran glanced at Conlan. Our son jogged to the gates and swung them open. There were two large SUVs in our driveway, both with bloated hoods to accommodate the dual gasoline and enchanted water engines. Solina walked over to them and waved.
Ned invited me toward them with a sweep of his hand.
Okay. I’ll bite.
I got up and crossed the yard to the gates. Curran joined me.
The doors of the SUVs opened, and people started getting out, one after another. Just normal, regular people in normal, regular clothes, some older, some younger. A young man in his upper teens, still a kid, hopped out, and helped a woman in her 70’s exit. They lined up in front of us.
“The women came early this year,” Solina said. “They want their tribute in two weeks. The town already held the lottery.”
Ice slid down my spine.
The kid in his teens pulled a banner out of his pocket and held it out. On it, woven with wool the color of blood, were 10 human figures.
The people looked at us.
Curran took my hand and squeezed.
I could say no. I could walk away right now, and nobody would ever call me on it.
I squeezed back.
“We’ll take it,” my husband said.
omggff snippet! thank you!
Squeeeee, YES take all my money now, thank so very very much for bringing Kate and Curran back.
+1, lol
Yes! All the squee ever!
100% this. lol.
????????????????????????????
Squeeeee forever
+1, so excited…already pre ordered!
Yass! Squee to the squee! I can’t wait!!!!
I’m sitting over here trying to come up with words for all the letters of “omggff”…. ???? I’m assuming there are some swear words in there…..
Maybe “oh my good God f***ing Friday”? Or, if you prefer non-swear words, “oh my good gracious flipping Friday”? Google told me “The meaning stands for ideals, knowledge, spirituality, altruism, selflessness, sensitivity, compassion and generosity.”, but that isn’t very literal with the letters…..
Little things like that make me pause and keep wondering until I know. ????
+1
Gimme gimme more Kate and Curran
Thank you!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Can‘t tell you, how happy you made me with this announcement! Greetings from Germany 🙂
Thank you. Is this another Amazon exclusive?
Hey Gretchen,
No, it’s not an Amazon exclusive, there are links to Barnes&Noe and Apple Books already up- Kobo and Google Books to follow ☺️.
It’s a very new preorder in the system so it may not appear in all retailer searches yet, but it should in a couple of hours.
Omg! What a fantastic Friday surprise! Thank you for the double gift!!!
Happy Birthday week to me! A new KD the day aftervmy birthday! wohoo!
OMG!!! We keep getting these awesome bounties. I cannot even ????????????
Thank you thank you thank you ????????????
Wasn’t that story Erra told about the dog referenced in Magic Tides? Would it make sense that she in only hearing it now, or is she being told again?
No, it wasn’t told in Magic Tides ????.
It was shared in a previous small snippet on the blog, which is probably where you remember it from.
Okay, I was just looking for that to check too.
Thanks!!!
I am so incredibly happy you are writing stories with Kate and Curran. They feel like old friends who finally came to visit!
*incoherent screaming*
Poor Kate. Bye bye quiet life. Hello wonderful content for me
She really has a big heart!
What a nice surprise, thank you Ilona and Gordon ❤️
This right here ????????????????????????
This just made my crappy work day so much better. More Kate and Curran!! 🙂
*Happy Dance*
(Does the BDH have an official Happy Dance? I’m going with the Snoopy Dance with Vince Guaraldi music.)
I always thought it was a random mix of incoherent screaming, jumping up and down, and shaking whatever your mama gave you. But I’m probably doing it wrong. ????
Lol you made my night!!!
And also shaking the guts of my enemies like pompoms, of course ????
Im with that sure bdh forevah!!!!
I picture it at ballet mixed with some martial art moves.
Wednesday’s dance…..
I’m so happy right now. Thank you!!
Omg this is the best thing ever and I want the whole story SO bad!!! Already pre-ordered. Thank you so much for this and any future installments in Kate’s world!
Wow, this was fast! Thank you for the snippet and it’s so awesome you’re giving us another story so soon!!!
::happydancing off to the pre-order site::
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
You took the squee right out of my mouth ????
+1
+1
Aaaaah! Excellent news, perfect gift ???? for my birthday on the 16th! Thank you HA, now back to read the excerpt!
Sooooo exciiited for this!!
OMG!!!!!YAY!!!!
WOW!!!
Erra sure has Kate pegged. This sounds so fantastic, thank you!
Happy Friday! Pre-order done, thank you HA ????
Happy, happy Friday!! Thank you Author Lords, we are not worthy (but, very silently begging for more please!)
Wowwww! Thank you so much!
Arghhhhhhhh so excited!!!!
I promise promise promise to not inhale this novella in less than two hours!!!
Ok, maybe not. It’s going to be epic!!!
That is a promise I would break 😀
YES!!! I am so excited anytime I see a new Ilona Andrews book to read!
ahhhh, there’s no shopping high quite like clicking the pre-order button from my favorite authors!
wahoo! happy writing and thank you for sharing!
so if these 10 people don’t go back to the town within a day or two they would die anyway, right?
I bet Luther Dillon would love to study that!!
I want to know why someone one from the school came to visit after school started.
I have the same question. if these are the 10 tributes chosen by lottery, how did they manage to leave the town without dying?
otherwise- yay. so exited. only 4 months to go! thank you HA
The lottery is organised by the town, not the mystery women. They don’t care which 10 people are offered.
“People tried,” Ned said. “Every single person that left the town after that first blast became sick two days later. Some came back to town and recovered. The others died.”
“two days later”- emphasis mine 🙂 . People can leave the town boundaries, just not for long.
Oh, oh my goodness! So happy! I’m excited and want the book. Thank you! Many many happy dances.
I’m here…*beckons book* come over, yes into my hands, my new “not yet finished” lovely book.
thank you! thank you! Love all your series but love KD the most! Its is is my go to series when things are hard in life.
Yes…that. So many times, when things have been so dark I want to go to sleep and never wake up again, I turn to HA books to get me through it. There is just something so special about your writing, some combination of storylines and writing style, hope and snark and perseverance and humor that it helps me keep my head above water until I can stand on my own again. Thank you and bless you for sharing.
Wonderful! Thank you
Yay!!! I never thought I’d be so happy with novellas (I mean, the longer the better, right? LOL), but these books are so much fun! Got me thinking though. Would you ever consider doing Arabella’s books this way too? Big Hidden Legacy fan here oye in case you couldn’t tell ????
oooo…I live Arabella too but am.totally invested in Kate novellas right now.
Oooh, what a great start to another awesome Kate and company book!! Thank you for the snippet.
So excited! Order placed and looking forward to June.
Oh, happy FriYay to me and the BDH!!
Thank you for the update, pre-order, and snippet. Off to read!
Heh:
‘He grinned. “I have my smoking hot wife, my troublemaker son, my fort, my beach… What else can a man want?” ‘
The BDH cries “a moat!” The Universe (and HA) had other ideas 😀
Wow! Can’t wait to see what will happen! How will this affect Conlon’s schooling? And Kate will have to go through the building process again. So – tributes are up to 10 a year now. Will the werewolf and his gang relocate to the new area? And what new horror is waiting in the woods? Will we get more snippets?
We always get snippets hehe, I’d say the odds are good 😉
Happy birthday to me on the 13th, fingers crossed.
I just want to pop in and say that the new Kate cover art does the most amazing job of capturing how I envision Kate, better than any other. Good looking, take-no-shit attitude, growing into her power and adulthood.
Thank you. I will accept this compliment. Someone should pat me on the back for my cover skills. 😀
*pat pat cookie*
Extra cookies and tea and i agree one of the best kate looks so far- i can see erra from this image as well! ❤️
+1
Pat Pat.
Thank you!
+1!
While I definitely love it, Small Magics is my favorite cover. That is a real “I am NOT in the mood for your sh!t” look. I imagine Kate has a copious stern look repertoire.
Also I’m very attached to the braid look. Which I judge myself for because comfort-wise I love to take my hair down after a long day.
General disclaimer though: no matter what is on the cover I’m going to love the beejesus out of any book that flows from the Author Lords.
Yes. Lovely as these are, I loved those models who had the ancient Middle East in their bone structure. This one is lovely, but has a more European aspect. But if Ilona is happy then so am I. IA’s words and stories, especially those set in the Kate Daniels world, transport me like no others. I’m so grateful to them.
Unfortunately, stock image sites have a limited availability of athletic looking women with the right features photographed in the poses suitable for the covers. It is surprising how often the model looks great but the pose makes it impossible. 🙁
Love it!!! I can’t wait. So glad we’re getting to see Kates story continue. I’ll be going to preorder now. ????
Happy dance! So glad we don’t have to wait long!
oh my word, you guys are fast. I haven’t even read it yet but I’m going to go make myself a nice cup of chai and read it! Thank you!! Have a nice day 😀
This has made me SO FREAKING HAPPY. Also very anxious for Kate and Curran’s HEA.
I think this IS Kate’s HEA she is happiest when she is protecting something and Curren is happiest when ‘making something work’ ????
Just finished the latest Innkeeper installment. Now I have to be very careful of spoilers on this blog, as I haven’t even read the last Kate installment. It’s so nice that you write faster than I can keep up. When I finally get a day free, there’s always something new waiting. Well, I mean new to me.
The ending of the first chapter is screaming, “MORE THAN A NOVELLA!!!!!”
I am intrigued.
Thank You.
You guys are the actual best to us!! I feel so lucky to have found your books!
I believe this falls under “Shut up and take my money”
I love that war dog. And Erra for her kindness to him.
I hope that someday we can find out the name of that dog.
it’s amazing as always, thank you
This is so good! Hooked doesn’t begin to define how I feel. Thank you. Pre-ordered and looking forward to it.
:: Faints!!
Yay!!! Super excited for this and love the format of “surprise” here what’s next!
OH WOW. Happy Friday, indeed! I cannot wait for June… Have fun writing, this book sounds amazing!
it’s my birthday today. I’m home alone as my family is away, my dog ate my brand new shoes and barfed it up at 6am, and then I got my period. THIS MADE MY ENTIRE BIRTHDAY SO MUCH BETTER. Thank you all for continuing to work and create, you make things that are wonderful.
Happy Birthday!
I hope the day starts looking up now!
ooohhh you Evel authors now I’m hooked!!!! THANKS!!!! I will wait with bated breath for the next book.
It speaks to your excellence that I didn’t read the snippet or even look at the price before I ordered. Thank you so much for bringing these old friends of mine back for another visit!
Ha ha, I did the same !
Oh Wow oh Wow oh Wow
Your writing grabs me and compels me.
Thank you for continuing the Kate series!
In tribute I am gifting the first two to a friend. ????????????????????????
Dumb question, but what does this sentence mean?
“If they fail…well, fail is a four-letter word.”
The phrase “four-letter word” is usually applied to terms that are widely considered vulgar or offensive to a notable degree, so calling something (in this case failure) a four letter word signifies it’s unacceptable.
I hope this helps 🙂
Like „wait“ for BDH-members… also a dirty word. 😉
Several swear words/curse words are 4 letters long…..in the northern US states most of us consider ‚snow‘ to be one of the ‚dirty‘ words by this time of winter.
4 letter words Used to be considered unacceptable in ‚polite‘ ( or professional) company.
Yaaaaay!!!!!!!! Kate! Kate! Kate! Eeeeeekkk! I’m so excited. What a truly marvelous Friday. Thank you HA for bringing us more joy and more stories! Already pre-ordered. ????
Reading the Wilmington stories brings to mind being invited over to meet your new neighbors and they’ve got fresh baked cookies. You bite into one and you are blissfully reminded of the favorite cookie your grandmother baked when you were a child.
It’s not the same cookie, in fact it’s quite a bit different. Yet it contains hints, flavors, and overtones of that which your memory holds dear about that childhood cookie. Which makes it all the better, for it holds the best of the original and yet is full of surprises, mingling the familiar and the unexpected in new and enticing ways.
That’s my take on it anyway.
wow. what a way to define it. it so totally covers how we feel. nice wordsmithing there. ????
+1
Oh my!!!!
Thank you. Just thank you. My mate and I so appreciate your work. We are both nurses and, believe you me, we have read every scrap you have written in the last few years.
Oh!! My heart is in my throat! What a lovely way to end the week. Thank you! Now… off to pre-order before life distracts me.
I’m so excited! Can someone help me understand timelines-the 9 months referenced here is when Erra went into a sleep state w Julie because of the transformation caused by the Eye, right?
Also, does she talk to Julie? Hugh?
Indeed, it’s a reference to the time spent with Julie.
And yes, Kate talks to both Hugh (you can see it in Magic Tides) and Julie 🙂
That conversation between Hugh and Kate in Magic Tides cracks me up every time. ????????????????
Prince CapsLock is a menace ????
WHY IS IT ALWAYS MY WIFE
Kate has problems with authority. ????????????
What a great Friday gift! I’m in, sign me up and take my money! ( and Thank you!)
Pre-ordered!!!!!!! I love the premise already, and Erra called it!
Oh wow. So much joy! Thank you!
Really?? They just finished construction. *sigh* I see Ezra’s hand in this somewhere.
❤❤ Thank you. Saw this, which reminded me of Curran and his love of moats which made me come out here to find this lovely excerpt. https://mobile.twitter.com/zillowgonewild/status/1624103344531701760
Would make a great place to vacation with books. Once some minor work was done of course. ????
God bless you! After a tough week, you successfuly brought a smile on my face!
2 Kate books in a year, it’s a dream! Thank you so much! I can’t wait … 😉
Wonderful Friday Surprise! Excellent Snippet. Pre-ordered Magic Claims. Thank you!
You are too good to us! ????
Also doing the Snoopy Dance. I just pre-ordered and am looking forward to the next Kate and Curran chapter.
that’s the image I get of Keelans happy dance as he dashes into the cornfield.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh
Thank you, that was so fun to read! Preordered and eagerly awaiting June. ????
I have had the worst week and this just completely turned everything around! BEST NEWS EVER!!
Yay! Happy Dance! I love the attention to detail. Conlan is a connoisseur of honey who flies the Orange Flag of Annoying Officialdom. I am enjoying your “No announcements until there is a publishing date” policy. It relieves me of the underlying anxiety of “What if something awful happens and it gets canceled?” Now, by the time I hear about it there isn’t really time to fret.
OMG! I wonder if Erra “helped” with that research….
I love Erra and Kate!! Erra is the best!! I’m ready to see Conlan kick some ass! Thank you!!
OMG, yaaaaaaay!!!!!
yyyyyyyyaaaaaayyyyyyyy
thank you!!!!!
Yes!!!!!!!!!!! June can’t come soon enough!
THANK YOU, omgosh you guys are the best
Thank you! A very nice surprise.
Loved the conversation between Kate and Erra. Joys of family.
I couldn’t stop saying “oh my gosh” when I read the part of Curran looking at the map. I was laughing too.
Wilmington…Atlanta 2.0. ????♀️????????????????????????????
I think I actually started to shake in place and make weird noises. So unexpected and it makes me so GIDDY.
Yay! I’m getting a new story for my birthday. Thanks for the early gift.
Yippie!
Wow. wow, wow!!! I love this entire post. EVERY. PART. Thank you for the wonderful update and the first chapter. I am soooo excited!!
Wait, what?!? Another Kate!?!?! When HA says it’s working hard on something, they aren’t kidding!!
I came to visit the site just to see if there was a post on life in general, pets, etc. And stared kinda stupidly at the new images on the home page…..thinking, wait this is different than Magic Tides….wait, what? Magic Claims! That’s new!
Pre-order – done. Thank you! I REALLY hope you guys are enjoying this work!
Surprise!! ????
dunh dunh dunh
Thank you!
oh my God, this wasn’t a snippet, this was almost a novella on of itself…and thank you,I really needed this! Among other things it lays out what I thought, that Curran would create a new pack as the Atlanta pack kind of falls apart.
I’m kind of sad that the Atlanta Pack under Jim isn’t working out. Unless Jim has quit it by now and someone else is screwing up.
Nope, Jim still is Beast Lord in Julie’s book…which is what Ascanio is gunning for (good luck, kid. The rats will never agree… the Lonescos have had enough of your sh$t). Julie’s book takes place a few years after the Wilmington years start.
Sorry if this is spoilerific!
squeeeeeeeeeee ::happy dance:: squeeeeeeeeeee! you guys are so good to us!
Squee!!!
OMFG!
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
*so happy*
*does Happy Dance*
Thank you for this amazing surprise post. I just got home from surgery and this was such a blessing. I don’t comment often but your blog brings me such joy. Thank you and your beautiful, creative minds!
Speedy recovery!
aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
Done and done! Also.. almost done with the new innkeeper book. Brilliance. Glad I sat on my hands and waited to read it in one piece. Cracked up with the Costco girl. ????
“Aaaaaa!” YES!!! Thank you for a fabulous Friday surprise! ???? Off to pre-order…
Do we know to whom Kate is referring? Maybe I missed it in Magic Tides? ????
“Try as you might, you cannot change who you are. A son of my father’s former spymaster told me this two months ago.”
Yes it’s a Magic Tides reference, her conversation with Rimush son of Akku after she left the Farm ????
Thanks Mod R! You rock!
And now I must go re-read Magic Tides as my penance.????
You give the most wonderful gifts . Thank you . This will be a headache for Kate and a delight for us .
This is absolutely the best news. I’m so grateful to have new Kate stories back in my life.
This made my day. ???????????? also, I like this new plan of hey, look what we did, here it is SOON.
Thank you for the wonderful news!!!! I’m so excited!!!!
Thank you!!!! But I really have a question now: I remember from last Zoom session House Andrews saying that „the stakes are not so high for Kate in Wilmington as in Atlanta“.
Not so high? NOT SO HIGH??? They are freaking „human sacrifice“ high! I am pretty sure Kate will have to claim the town as her territory to push out the old evil… Is anyone betting against me on that?
Pre-ordered, now it’s a question of how many times I read the snippet between now and then.
Also, called it on the snippet being the start of Wilmington #2.
Can’t wait til June 13 th – pre-order done ! Thanks HA for making Friday’s awesome . Everyone have a great weekend
I have already read this twice. I’m so excited. Love how their lives are shaping up up in this town. Can’t wait for the preorder link to show up. Stalking Amazon as it states no results found in store.
Hi Aj,
The link for Amazon is up in the post, here it is again ☺️ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVGK9FBP
It’s a very new preorder, only a couple of hours old, so the retailer search systems haven’t all caught up yet ????
oh my gosh darn ford! this is brilliance for a happy weekend!! thank you from a very delighted BDH.
You’re mean. Devoured your offering and now I have to wait. We should demand 10 more. Like the he tribute.
Can’t wait till June. Better weather and now Kate’s coming. Yay!
Thank you
On Amazon, I wasn’t able to find Magic Claims yet by inputing the book’s name or the authors’ name in the search bar. I wanted to pre-order NOW so I kept looking for the book in other ways.
I found the preorder for Magic Claims by first finding Magic Tides, then clicking on the link under it that says, “Book 1 of 2: Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years.” This takes you to a page where you can order book 1 (Magic Tides) and/or pre-order book 2 (Magic Claims). Yeah! Pre-order done!
Hi Caz
The Amazon preorder link is available in the blog post above ????, all you need to do is click the button that says Amazon, B&N etc. We try to make it easy.
It is a new preorder and the search system hasn’t caught up yet. It will appear in a couple of hours.
Thanks, Marvelous Moderator R. I saw that, but I prefer to go to the order website by myself, rather than clicking on a link to take me there, and I didn’t want to wait for the search system to update because, well, this is Kate!
Once I clicked on a link on my Bar’s website that was supposed to take me to a different website for CLE training but routed me to porn. I was on a Government computer at the time (with my boss’s permission) but, still, there was “lots of ‘plaining to do.”
Huzzah! This looks awesome! Thank you House Andrews!
AAAAAHHH – so much joy!
OMG, YES, TAKE MY MONEY!!!!
At the end of it I cried. I have no idea why. I wasnt even close to tiers until I read the last line and them I cried. Thank you.
Wow, Friday snippet! Pre-ordered! Yeah!
OMG. Late and Shirley Jackson lottery references. So awesome!!!
Mind officially blown. . . I have been dealing with doctors offices for two weeks and I’m almost at the end of my rope. I don’t know why they can’t talk to each other. This makes my day. Thank you
Yay!
Holly Shelter…though Hofmann Forest is about 79000 acres, it’s further north & part of Jones co. not Pender…
Oooooo it’s like taking a walk through my childhood! I can’t wait…
Thank you! I thought my Friday was really great as I got dismissed from jury duty. Then to discover this just makes it over the top!
I guess I shouldn’t share my omgomgisitjuneyetthisreadsfun with you. You might realize I would pay more than you ask. I am just grateful I will be enjoying my summer and will not have to bo to work sleep,deprived because I was reading all night!
wow! love this. I love Kate anyway but this story gripped me right away. cannot wait!
This is so cool, and available in June! Woot woot. Read it; pre-ordered; and read it again. I will have it memorized by June.
Ohhhh this is amazing
I see all the clues from the previous post, the triangle hold, the moon cycles, the bloodroot needed to dye the threads red that were woven into the banner.
Hehehe ????
My heart squeezed when Curran squeezed Kate’s hand. Can’t wait till June.
SNIPPET!!!! ????
Will it be on Kobo as well?
This is a great teaser I must say!
Yes, it’s already on there https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/magic-claims
Ahhh how will I wait until June!
Oh boy! So when is this coming out?! Heart’s beating fast. You glorious authors????
June 13th ????
one more preorder
And now we wait for June????
I can’t begin to tell you how much I needed this today. Thank you ????
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I had a crappy few days. My car died in the middle of rush hour – needs a new alternator and battery and something about power steering fluid. ugghh
and my chronic fatigue flared up (thank you long Covid, the gift that keeps giving)
Reading the snippet made my day AND a new book to look forward to. Yay!! Can’t pre-order on Kobo yet but I’ll keep trying.
I love reading the intersection between Kate and Hugh … siblings
Thanks again
Here is the Kobo link ???? https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/magic-claims
Happyhappyjoyjoyhappyhappyjoyjoy!!!
I may be moving around the time this comes out, but it will be a nice little break from packing/unpacking if so.
Noooooo… 4 months, we have to wait 4 months after that hook. *composes self* Thank you very much, I’m going to preorder, try to pretend that I’ve forgotten about it and attempt to distract myself by reading something else. Maybe Julie…
These surprises make me so happy! Thanks for being awesome 🙂
I am AGOG! We are soooooo lucky…squeeeeeeee
I hope you two are having massive amounts of fun writing what you want. I am having massive amounts of fun reading what you write! Thank you sooooooo much!
Oh man! I love that there are more Kate stories.
But I kinda hate that they are getting sucked back into being visible. And Curren getting pulled back into being a Beast Lord. I wanted an HEA for them and their friends. It’s not that I think this is a bad story path, I’m just thinking on an emotional level as if they were real people. I feel sad that they can’t have a quieter, not-fraught-with-danger-and-high-visibility life. So much for Conlan being able to just learn to live as a regular person rather than the son of the (former) Beast Lord.
Of course, there would be less story material that way. Damn, my feelings are so conflicted! Yay more Kate et al. stories!!! Sigh, poor Kate et al. not having a quieter simpler life.
Have faith in House Andrews ????. It hasn’t stirred us wrong yet.
I know! And I don’t want to sound ungrateful. I am totally thrilled and grateful that we are being provided with more Kate stories. I’m just a weirdo and have real difficulties separating from stories if I am emotionally invested with characters, even though it isn’t real. I don’t even watch tv shows or many movies anymore—I can’t detach. I love Kate and Curren and the rest like they are real people. I just want people I love to be happy. ????
As in stirring the pot? ????????????????????
I think they will be bored bored bored without adventure. Kate has trained her whole life for this…
So perhaps reframe this thinking to be ‘these characters were Born to lead’ you know?
+1 The quiet life is great for months at a time, as a respite from craziness. But can you really see Kate knitting shawls for the rest of her immortal life? There aren’t enough hobbies in the world to keep her interest.
She was not born to have a quiet life. And she’s basically immortal. How much quiet life can she handle?
Although more than a few months might be nice for her.
Love Kate and Erra. And this sounds like a classical set up (town in the woods and mysterious tributes) so I’m looking very much forward to see what kind of twist you’ll add. Also went to preorder the precious right away before enjoying your gift snippet. I love the Wilmington setting very much so far, thank you. Also intrigued whether your mentioned research will be featured in this book or elsewhere. Anyway only 4 more months until the next Kate&Co woohoo.
If you read the snippet, you’ll find some of it already mentioned ????
yep, probably just too giddy to have realized
absofreakinglutely love it. can’t wait!
That was AMAZING!!!!! Pre-order done, can’t wait to fall back into KD world.
I recently finished re-reading all the KD books. When I finished Blood Heir, I did not remember a scene with Julie and Derek somewhere public (maybe a market) and had to hide from Kate and Curren. Did I just miss it, or did I imagine that scene, or was it in the serial but cut from the book?
My memory isn’t what it used to be so I am hoping for some clarity or confirmation that I imaged it.
Hi Kelly,
That scene was indeed shared back when Blood Heir was a blog serial, but it did not make into the final manuscript after edits.
so wonderful! thank you so much, you made my day!
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE! That is all.
Woohoo!! Love Kate and Curran!! And Solina the mermaid is back! The adventures continue!
Kate is the person I needed in my teens. Also Mirabelle from “Encanto”. (An interesting combo, yes I know, but since I’m a Gemini, there’s always contrasting elements hanging out together….)
You are awesome????????????????????. Thank you for my birthday present! I so look forward to it!
pls let us know when we can recommend to our libraries! ❤️
Thank you for the chapter, and for writing more Kate & Curran & Conlan adventures!
Take. My. Money.
YAY!!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Already pre-ordered…thank you, thank you
YESSSSSS! Also feel free to make it as looong as you like! Even if it takes a bit longer. ❤️
OMG, I am so excited. In the last week I have re-read the first Willmington book, the first Hugh book and the first Julie book. I also reread the last Kate/Atlanta book. Our world is becoming an increasingly frightening place, so I need me some extrodinary fantasy. All I can say is goodie, goodie, goodie. Goodie gumdrops!
*gasp*
Oh. My. Goodness.
That was sooo good. Thank you!!! I’m so excited.
Ahhh :O You have me hooked. Hooked, I say. Poor Kate, it doesn’t sound like living a low-key life is happening anytime soon 😀
OMG! Ordered!
Fantastic Friday. Wow what a snippet. Take all my money and just keep writing more amazing stuff. Love love love.
Ha! Quiet life my Aunt Mickey’s patootie! It never seemed realistic lol! I love this! Thanks so much!
I wish I could possibly express how much I love you two.
Thank you for YEARS of bringing us into this world.
I ALWAYS pre-order any thing you do, but Kate, Curran, Erra, Julie, Conlan, Hugh….I live for these stories.
thank you.
this is the best news EVER
all I want for Christmas is for HBO to option this story and never come back. there is no better post apocalyptic story written ever ever
I knew Kate would be back!! yesssssss
+1
My heart broke a little for Kate reading this… She really wanted a quiet HEA. But she’s Kate. Poor kid.
That said, I really liked how Erra was sneakily trying to push Kate to get stronger because Moloch was coming.
Also… vanished off the radar for 9 months and then told Kate she was an excellent mother… I chuckled happily at that.
If Kate really wanted a quiet HEA she would have made the Guild go after Aaron. She is who she is, whatever fantasies she has.
I’m crying because I’m so happy to see them again, and they’re sooooo familiar. Thank you for the gift!
Also, I’m sensing (HOPING, PRAYING for) an Erra book ????
Or at least more of Erra in other books!
Whoa… and thank you!
greedy me,I am bouncing around wanting more, but I will try to calmly wait to June! aarrgghh
what an epic set up. I cannot wait for this. thank you both.
Thank you, that was absolutely delicious!!!
Thank you
K.D., Legacy, Innkeeper, they all are riveting. I’ve been an avid reader for 50 years, since I was ten years old. Literally thousands of books read. I.&G. A. are at the top of my favorite authors. The size of the BDH indicates that I have good taste????.
Much more importantly, I cheer you on. You have achieved a degree of autonomy to write as you want to. I Firmly believe that an artist should proceed as their feelings and art inspire them to do.
I don’t know why people don’t seem to see authors in the same light as the great painters and sculpters of the world. The art comes from the same place, the mind, and heart of the artist. Authors though create entire new universes, not just a three dimensional figure or picture. To me, this is much more significant.
I think it’s the fact that books can be printed in mass and still be considered the real thing, while a painting is individual.
Maybe authors should start selling at auction, to collectors the ORIGINAL, one and only manuscript. That, I think, might change the art veiw on writing.
Thank you for many enjoyable hours spent living in one of your universes.
Sincerely, Roger Lyons. The best to you and yours
Bravo Mr. Lyons! I second your appreciation of House Andrews artistic skills!
Some really good points there.
So excited!!! preordered. FYI it is now available on kobo for preorder.
Roll on summer
This is so good. Thank you both so much! I’m so excited to read this. Thank you thank you thank you
Thank you so much! This was an awful low-down dirty week and now I’ve had a snippet and something to look forward to! Yay Friday!
I can’t.. no words.. I think there are tears of appreciation in my eyes.
You are the BEST!!!!
I apologize if is not the right place to say this but the last couple of weeks has been a struggle as I suddenly lost my 21 year old son to a tragic accident. Thank you for sharing the gift of your writing. You have the ability to take a reader to a place that is far from where they currently exist. I can’t repay you all for that brief moment of peace. Blessing on you and your family. Hug one another and a hug from me. Life is sweet, beautiful and sometimes all to brief.
I am so sorry for your loss… my thoughts are with you…
So very sorry for your loss. May his memory be a blessing to you. I wish there were something that could make it better.
Oh no…I am so sorry to hear this. I don’t even know what to say except that this life on earth is just a temporary stop on the way to a better place. You will see your son again, and until you do part of him will always be with you in your heart. I truly believe all of that, as cliche as it may sound. Sending many virtual hugs and prayers your way. ????
So sorry for your loss. All the love
Sent your way
???????? Happy Friday indeed! Or in my case Happy Saturday given the time difference. This was the best surprise! I pre-ordered first than came back to read the excerpt! It was just everything… so much packed into one chapter. So many future possibilities alluded to. Erra and Kate bit had me laughing. Kate, Curran, and Conlan more adventures coming our way. Thank you for this gift Ilona and Gordon.
Book ordered and I can’t wait. This is such a wonderful gift to all of the BDH. Yes we do pay to read it, but the hard work and heart that you put into your books is appreciated by us all. Thank you from Western Australia.
Oops heat should have been heart.
Hehe fixed ????.
I’m so sad that you don’t offer the books on Kobo anymore. I would like to read the Wilmington years there…
Hi Sami,
Both Magic Tides and Magic Claims are available for purchase/preorder on Kobo ????
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/magic-tides-1?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=uk-ebook-max&gclid=CjwKCAiA85efBhBbEiwAD7oLQEptVy0n3-lwThAXUnVRKrHO1-BAuWyXwuTTiNhxX5FVI9YrUm6nuhoC7iMQAvD_BwE for Magic Tides
and https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/magic-claims for Magic Claims.
The links added to the posts reflect only a few of the retailers which carry them, if you have a favourite it’s worth giving a search in their catalogue to see what shows up, even if they’re not linked directly here ????
I hope this helps ????.
Wow .. oh wow … I dearly wanted to read more. This is why I love your books. ????
yippee!!!! I already love it!
whhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! ????????????????????????????????????
Well that explains the websearch on shoulders and muscle attachments.
This looks to be super amazing. I’m re-reading Magic Bites, and some of the nuances over the years are interesting. I do hope IA is coming to Austin!!!
Omg!!! Two Kate books in one year! You spoil us House Andrews! I guess Kate has to rejoin the magical workforce now, quiet life on the idyllic North Carolina beach is now over. I would hate to have them move to another keep in the woods though when they just barely finished their current house. Their seaside fortress sounds way more fun than the Atlanta Keep lol (never really loved The Keep as a setting, all I could imagine was a tacky looking Medieval Times and was glad when they left). Maybe Curran can convince Keelan (spelling?) to move there instead and serve as Acting Beast Lord.
I guess we know why it’s called Magic Claims, more land for the Lennarts/Wilmington Pack to expand and this poor town being claimed by some strange creatures demanding human sacrifices. Hopefully no more magical land claiming for Kate though as that didn’t go too well when she claimed an entire city (though I won’t be surprised if it’s part of the storyline too). Can’t wait for June!!
I can say nothing but “yay!!!”
oh. my. gosh. !!!
Ah Kate. At least it took TEN people with a sob story instead of one. I can’t wait.
Thank you for the snippet!
thank youuuu
Thank You! Also…NEW KD CONFIRMED!!!!!
WOW!!!! Yes!! Joy in my heart!!!!
I can’t wait!
This is going to be so good. Thank you for this and the preorder is done!
Oh, heck yes!!! ????????
Lagniappe! Yaaaay!
yay a happy dance . more please.
thank you
https://tenor.com/view/kermit-the-frog-muppet-flial-arms-panic-not-calm-gif-7359311
An unedited first draft.
What a gift to see work in progress.
I’m already excited how this will look in the final version.
I rember the 1st version we had from chapter 1 of Magic Tides.
In the retail version, all the things of which I had thought “that’s weird” or “that doesn’t make sense. Why on earth would this character do that? ” were gone and had been replaced with things that did make sense.
Now I wish June would hurry up and arrive.
Oh! That was just fabulous.Thankyou
SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
OMG, what an exciting surprise! I placed my pre-order before even reading the intro, ha ha! I’m over the moon with delight 🙂
Any idea when this will be available on Amazon Germany?
Hi Alina,
It already is: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0BVGK9FBP ????
Wow, preordered it is 🙂
Thank you for the snippet!
OMG, that was awesome!
i pre-ordered before I read the snippet, and I’m delighted I did.
Roll on Jun!! thank you so much for sharing ????
Shrieks of Incoherent Glee!!!!!!
Good morning!
I’m not sure whether to worship you or block you. I’m drooling into my breakfast tea and counting the days; preorder sent and leave request submitted.
You gave me a great idea for merchandise, unless you think a flagpole is too much? I’m thinking a BDH flag with an array of countdown flags culminating in a red warning flag for release days would be tasteful. Or, a series flag for the doldrum days? I’m stumped on the design of said flags, but possibly you are already on this?
Yours in anticipation ????
I’d buy any BDH flag(s) offered. It would be fun. Imagine the web searches by non-BDH persons wanting to know what it/they mean. Heh heh.
OMG! I was taking a sip of tea when I read this and of course it spewed out as I laughed!.. I will say Ditto.
That just made my day ????????, thank you!
Cheer!
Yesterday I couldn’t preorder the book (german Amazon), but today I could. And now I am so happy, although I have to wait till June, and it will not be released faster because I preordered.
But it feels so good to know, that the book will reach me foor sure.
Still – it is a Tuesday. Why are books released on a weekday and not a cozy saturday to be read in peace over the weekend?
Thank you so much for giving us a second new Kate book!
Book releases happen on Tuesdays in order to maximise the number of first week sales counted for bestseller lists ???? https://bettermarketing.pub/why-are-books-released-on-tuesdays-d20a3f98f467
It has also now entered publishing industry tradition.
Huh, I always thought it was because my payday is Tuesday and new books fall into the same essentials category as mortgage and food… buy before anything else
???? gotta agree!
Thank you for the explanation. Still wishing for a weekend day, but now I understand why I will never get it. And I’m not willing to wait for the saturday after the release, so I have to live with a sleepless night because I just have to read one more page – or maybe two? or three? ????
I love your work so much, I love it, amazing, treats after treats, it’s awesome, you are awesome hahaha
Every time I read one your books I’m like “other books I read were good, it was fun and interesting but this… this is the best”
Thank you very very very much for the excerpt!
Take care ~~~
I love that you preempted the FAQ from the BDH.
Amazing start to the next instalment of Kate.
Brilliant snippet/chapter – thank you!
And just to say – loving the Tapas Innkeeper Comic – the changes you mentioned have been really well done and have only added to the story/helped the comic-style move along. Ohh…and for anyone wondering, I’ve not had to pay anything to date to read it – just do a couple of surveys to get some free ink and that’s carrying me through! I hope it’s turning out as you hoped as well.
oh boy, here we go..
Hi Mod R,
Sorry to bother you. I was just looking through the comments trying to find where it had been mentioned that something like 30,000 words had to be cut from Magic Bites and I stumbled upon a comment about Deidre from Iron and Magic, I was wondering if we were possibly going to see more of her in Hugh 2?
It’s not a bother, this is what I am here for ????.
I can add it to the list of questions for House Andrews, I don’t believe it’s been answered yet.
“Got to be average, got to be average…Dang it, someone needs help? Got to be….Arggg!!!”
Kate makes me think of a star baker who made a huge splash here about 10 years ago then disappeared from the restaurant scene overnight. I literally went to her bakery one week and closed signs were on it the next. I used to chat with her and knew she had a young family. I imagine her hiding out in suburbia trying to blend in with the other PTA parents but totally killing it at the bakesales and other fundraisers.
The BDH flexes its buying muscle again. Just checked the sales ranks and MAGIC CLAIMS already has the Number One ranking for Paranormal Romance sales overall and is also Number One in several of the sub-categories in that genre. Talk about overnight sensations!
Anne in Virginia
????
And that doesn’t even count those of us who don’t preorder but have it circled in our calendar already and will order on the first day when it is released. ????
Right??? I’ve never preordered, but always make sure to get it within the first couple of days.
Whoop, whoop! ????
just ordered the book, worked!
thank you so much for writing this for us!!
Googling farenheit to celsius conversion and still didnt understand that the water was cold hahahaha. Too city girl, never seen the ocean
I’m so excited!! IA are my favorite authors! I am absolutely devoted to Kate and Curran. More, more, more!
Woohoo, I’ve already read chapter 1, 4 times. lol. Thank you, thank you for the lovely Friday gift!!
Life is Good!!
SWEET!
Love it, thank you ????
Oh, Erra! Pot, kettle…and burying the pillow and blanket with the dog. Teared up reading it while my collie snoozed on his pillow at my feet.
Just now re-reading Magic Tides. It will be fun to read this next iteration and see which old friends turn up and how many new ones enter a closer orbit.
Will there be an ebook available through Kobo?
The Kobo preorder is already up ???? https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/magic-claims
Yay! Thank you!!! I posted before I had read any of the other comments/replies.
I love this so much. Y’all are amazing authors. Thank you so much for all your work to bring us these fabulous stories.
I am so, so, excited. This is exactly what I’ve been wanting from Kate and Curran, and it pushes things forward for the rest of the broader story in such a delightful way. Regardless, as with anything IA announce, the preorder has been placed.
Oohh! Oooohhhhhh! I’m drooling !
Love Kate and Curran’s definition of work out ????
Thank you so much for the Snippet and Suprise Pre-order! Can’t wait! Also hope you agency didn’t have a heart attack. It’s more than 3 months away but not quite 6 months… ????
Yeah!!!!!! I love it! Great intro!
Erra’s story reflects the event at the end perfectly. The town needs shelter from the thunder and Kate and Curran are scary enough to offer that.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy dance!!! Yay!!!
Congratulations! (To all of us)
Dear. Pic didn’t post. Trying even smaller.
In case that’s too small to read: Magic Claims #1 in Paranormal Werewolves and Shifters Romance.
I make fun of how granular Amazon gets with their categories, but this one is a very big category with a lot of big names (including Ilona Andrews!).
Preordered. As if I would do anything else. Very much looking forward to it.
You are too good to us. *slams the preorder button*
Ahhhhhh! The waiting is always the hard part. GRIN.
O
M
G
!
It’s like spending time with dear friends, chosen family, picking up where you left things the last time together, as though no time had passed.
I am continually astonished and awed by House Andrews ability to world build and to keep Kate fresh, exciting, creative and exactly the same. Chef’s kiss.
Thank you thank you thank you
OMG! This is coming so much sooner than I expected!
I had only finished reading Book 1 of the Wilmington Years the other day and then listened to the recording of the Zoom call shortly after that, so seeing this blog post made me so happy! Can. Not. Wait!
Thanks!
Preorder is in – looking forward to June. (74th birthday, new Kate book, visit to my daughter – Yay!)
I didn’t check back to the blog and missed this yesterday. How do I keep doing that? Argh!
Oh Happy day! Great snippet and ordered! Thank you so much for another Kate and Curran so soon.
Fantastic!! I love the studied approach and the twists revealed.
Can’t wait. I’m definitely BDH. Want it now! MORE! This was fun. Thank you. I can deal with 4 more months. Maybe.
I had such a bad day yesterday so to wake up to this was, well it was life saving in so many ways. Whenever I need escape from the world or to be reminded that despite our flaws we will be able to find that one human who is our person, I just pick up an IA book. Especially the Kate Daniel’s series. Has such a special place in my heart. Thank you for gifting us with these worlds and this new series! Cannot wait to see how it unfolds.
Fun fact: This is the series that set me on the path to become a television writer funny enough. I loved the world so much, I completely changed my career trajectory with the hopes of one day adapting it for the screen. Fingers crossed this dream comes true. BDH can do anything so why not this? ????
Holy s*it that snippet was goooooooood!
Thank-you 3000!!!
Wonderful! Off to pre-order now. Thank you beyond what I can express.
KATE! Ive missed you all so much!! Thank you authors-nim!
i wish i could set an auto pre order for all your books, dont care what it is about. but most certainly for any and all kate books.
thank you so much for the snippet ????
Wow. The date will be marked on my calendar!!!
Really, really, really good. Of course I am intrigued. Your research and your imagination will come up with something I do’t expect. What kind of evil will we see this time? Thank you for great entertainment. Thanks for putting up with all the stuff that goes with your writing. Man this is exciting!
wooohooo!!! Happy Friday indeed!!! Best news, and better yet a fantastic snippet to go with it! Preordering right away. Thank you!!! Awesome way to start the weekend! ????
I am excited and look forward to Conlan’s adventures in the Ninja forest when his friends from Atlanta visit.
I do find the human tribute storyline disturbing and may cause me to hesitate in reading this story. The description of the women and the blog post on research info brings to mind the Burmese women with their elongated necks and rice powder sunscreen.
To me it brings to mind Terry Pratchett’s and Ben Aaronovitch’s descriptions of the fae.
Let’s get in front of this right now: these are not Burmese women. They are not covered with rice powder. Their description is not based on any existing ethnic group.
squee! preordered on Kobo.
Squeee!!!
Excellent Friday(well, now Saturday) gift!
Thank you! In case you couldn’t tell, I am over the moon excited! ????
Novella preordered and patiently awaiting both the book and the audio book.
Awesome!!!!!!!!!! So looking forward to this next book. Enjoy the way you explain human behavior and how we reacts to things in life. Don’t push yourselves to hard the BDH will wait for all of your books.
Yeah thank you for the birthday day present as June is my birthday I love it already
Looking forward to new characters. The less of the old gang the better. Jim was always obnoxious.Many of them used Kate and still would ill treat her. She can use some less toxic friends.
Oh my gods, this is such good news!! And what an opening chapter ????*runs to Pre-order
I can’t begin to tell you how much I love you for this snippet. Please take my money!! ????
Oh my Goodness! Argh!!! I LOVE it!!!! Thanks for the sneak peak! I might just need a cold shower 😀
Yeeeees,yes, yes ???????????? Thank you
I should have skipped the excerpt. On the other hand, it was most welcome as a distraction that I need to focus on. I lost my beloved cat yesterday and had to put him to sleep. 17 years of companionship in life’s adventures. I was gutted. I have others of course, but they aren’t him. I buried him under an olive tree in the yard and planted pansies on the grave. And I’ve been drifting around somewhat aimlessly now I don’t have to get up early each morning to give him his meds and fluids and cut up his fillet mignon. Yes, he ate that for his last month, plus whipped cream, which he had some just before his end. He had gone blind, the week before, he had bad arthritis, his tooth was abscessed and painful and his kidneys were dying. But he was still game to live till this past week. I have no doubts he told me he was done and I respected that. But it still hurts. Getting new animals isn’t an option though I keep wishing a kitten would drop out of thin air. That won’t be happening though I don’t think. My cats have never but for one, been kittens when I got them. Just strays in need of a good home.
Sorry for the loss of your beloved cat. always so hard to say goodbye to our sweet animal friends. ❤️
It’s so hard when you lose a fur baby. Some people don’t understand, but pets really are part of the family. We lost our kitty a year ago, and I still miss him every day (but more and more I am smiling instead of crying when something reminds me of him.) Sending you many hugs…
Squeeeeee! Snoopy happy Dance all around the room. IA is so good to the BDH. I already ordered before I read the snippet.
Hope you have a great weekend.
Booking June 13th off of work so I don’t have any interruptions. 🙂
I am glad see to another work in KD’s world. Sad news on the audio side, but I understand, and will wait impatiently for release of both. XD
Magic Claims is project for now, but will there be another Innkeeper later this year? I must say the final fight which appeared on Audio took me be pleasant surprise, but it was also thrilling. So I’d like to read/hear more of Dina, Shawn and co.’s adventures.
I couldn’t say no. More Kate and Curran? Yes please. Insta-purchase! Also, thank you for the snippet!
Well holy hell…you sure know how to hook…
OMG. You two are the best. Like, ever.
And the book cover is FIRE.
After all that work on the Castle. Those folks got Kate’s number.
This looks to be even better than Magic Tides and that’s saying a lot. I’m okay with novellas if it means a get a fix twice as fast as a full length novel. I’m also okay with buying the ebook, waiting for awhile and then buying the audiobooks since that’s how I usually consume fiction. I’m quite fond of Rene Raudman’s performance but I’m sure I’ll like the new narrator too. In other words, quite frankly, I’m thrilled to take anything you guys want to give us, any way you want to deliver it. Just keep it coming.
Preordered before I even noticed the first chapter was there. LOL. Proud member BDH? Yes. Yes, I am!
Hot damn!
Oh Boy! More Kate et al! Wilmington is growing more and more interesting. Thank you, HA!
Thank you so much.
Well, Okay!! Sign me up!
This snippet already has me on edge to keep reading. It’s so damn hard when you get to the page turn and there’s no damn page to turn to. June huh? This is me putting on my “patient” face.. I’ll wait and pre-order…
Awesome Snippet!!
This is on fiiiiire!
I shall reread Magic Tides now and then Blood Heir in honour of this announcement and snippet.
Thank you, House Andrews!
Wow! That was a great opening! Thank you for snaring me with it, once again!!! Why do I love to read your work so much when I need to be correcting student papers and writing serious theological articles? Wow . . . , just wow. And thank you.
Ok I love this so much. I lived for 15 years in Lumberton NC and often drove to Wilmington. It was a very country drive Cotton fields, corn fields and a tiny bit of tobacco. And lots of trees. And 7446 Highway 72 Lumberton NC. 115 acres fenced off for a $13 million, 6 bedroom house with a fountain out front with battling lions. Oh, and 3 quarters of a moat. Built by a man who made his money selling doublewides. Last I heard the Chinese were looking at it for 3million. Not sure if it ever sold. But every time I drove by I thought about how 50 years from now it would be overgrown and someone would stumble on it and be so confused!
Lovely. Thank you!
The BDH is truly international. Dropped by both the English and German Amazon sites and MAGIC CLAIMS is Number One in their sub-categories on both sites. Fast good work, BDH.
Anne in Virginia
Am I the only one who gets excited about a snippet, loves said snippet, can’t wait for the whole novel, sooooo excited! Then I look at the calendar……????
July. Oh well. House Andrews always delivers awesomeness. It will be more than worth the wait. More Kate? BOO-YAH!
Thank you for the anticipation.
It’s June! ???? Sooner than we think!
My bad! I saw that on my second read through.
I JUST finished (today!) the re-read I started after Magic Tides was released. And then I got this bonus! Woot! I love this series so much and am so happy to have more stories with Kate & Curran.
Good afternoon,I just have one question. When will Magic Tides be release on Audible. I listen to my books while I’m working and it makes the day fly and I catch up with my favorite couple and baby boy. Also Julie’s life. I will get the books on kindle to read, but need the Audible to keep my sanity…lol
Hi Monica,
An update on the Magic Tides audiobook is given in the article above:
“ We will be bundling Magic Tides and Magic Claims for the purposes of recording the audio, so the audio recordings for both novellas will be coming out on the same date.” which is then estimated to be June 13th as well ????
“Julie’s life”- do you mean Blood Heir ????? It is already on Audible, here is a link https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Blood-Heir-Audiobook/B08VRPDJSX?qid=1676154022&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=TNWA8DDS2NS71DWEPSY9&pageLoadId=xHTwLyl9NVEfWdsz&creativeId=41e85e98-10b8-40e2-907d-6b663f04a42d
Hope this helps ????
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Thank you so much for the great snippet and news of Magic Claims!
I’m only 2 1/2 books from finishing my reread of Kate Universe books! So fun to reread and pick up on details I missed the first time through.
I also want to thank you and ModR for this great blog! I love being a proud member of the BDH (drinking from my BDH mug, while typing on my phone with the BDH sticker on the back, and leaning against my Ripper Cushions pillow!).
I am putting in my pre-order today!
I’m intrigued to see how Kate and Curran respond to this new challenge. What kind of magic do these women have? Will Kate’s magic be able to combat it? Will she have to bring Hugh and Elara in to help? How will they manage having two places? (I’m not clear on how close the land they are being gifted is to their “castle.”) Will Curran really become the Beast Lord of a newly created pack? How will Kate protect and help these people and still have some version of the quiet life (or was that always a pipe dream)?
Just a few of my many questions!
Doing my happy Snoopy dance!
Your writing is such a gift!
I didn’t comment often, but I feel compelled. Every single time I read something written by Ilona Andrews I’m gobsmacked by just how great it is…every single time! I swear you could rewrite the telephone books and make it unputdownable!
If unputdownable isn’t a word, it most definetely can be made as one when applying it to an Ilona Andrews story.
Honestly, I could cry. You probably know what these books mean to the BDH but I’ll share my feelings despite that. When you finished the original KD series it was like saying goodbye to a friend. We can visit that friend, re-read as many times as we like, but that friend for all intents and purposes was gone. We had memories we could revisit. There would be nothing new, no events, no thoughts, we’d peripherally see Conlin grow up through Julie.
Now we get to have that friend back in our lives. We get to see how they’ve grown and share new adventures with them. It means so much to me and I think many others in the BDH.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for bringing them back.
Great excerpt! Chapter 1 makes me want to read more. Can’t wait.
Yes! I can’t wait. 2 of 2 though? Hope you’re not limiting yourselves.
Apparently the answer to Curran’s question is: an 82k acre forest, and probably a moat ???? haha
I’m so greedy I want it now. Thank you for the teaser/torture.
I am so glad that you are bringing the K&C Universe back from it’s sad ending ( any ending would be sad). For me, the K&C Universe only really applies if K&C are a main part of it.
I do wonder why the lady on the book cover was changed. In Magic Breaks Kate looks like a person who is of Persian decent. The new cover model looks typically American.
Nothing wrong with american, but Kate is of Persian decent and the previous model fit the character.
I’m not criticizing, just curious why they were changed ( I pictured the previous model as Kate, it’s hard to alter my view).
Thank you for such wonderful art. I have enjoyed every minute of reading all of your work.
Sincerely, Roger. The best to you and yours
Unfortunately, stock image sites have a limited availability of athletic looking women with the right features photographed in the poses suitable for the covers. It is surprising how often the model looks great but the pose makes it impossible.
April, May, June . . . ????
Lettuce Read (stole that) Let us not forget the rest of February, I mean how spoiled can a person get! NO snippets till publication . . . I hate exercising self control
Thank you for this
Well, I know that I’m not alone in thanking you guys for this wonderfull surprise, my enthusiactic confirmation that I want, and will buy this novella. And since my comment is going to be well down near the bottom of the comments, I hope that Mod R will pass along my wishes for a full length Kate in Wilmington novel (After Iron & Magic 2) Just in case anyone is foolish enough to believe that such a thing would NOT be welcome with open arms, and fervent cries of enthusiasm (and possibly hosannas of gladness) Thanks Mod R (I know you keep good track of all these pesky little details)
Wait, what, a new Kate and Curran’s story so soon!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I checked the blog.
They have a special place in my heart. Thank you for bringing them back and for the huge snippet !
OMG! OMG!???? you are spoiling us! you the best ????
cannot wait June 13th or around.
now let’s go read the draft – 1st chapter!
If I may ask this question, do you plan to have special editions of Kate’s Wilmington years with cover art like the ones from Luisa Preissler or the French editions by bookmark sometimes in the future?
Those were really gorgeous and I’d buy them all!
Hi Nelly,
The special editions currently in the works will include Iron and Magic and Blood Heir from the Arcane Society and the Innkeeper Chronicles from Subterranean https://ilona-andrews.com/2023/signings-and-pretty-books/
The Wilmington Years would be a great candidate for something like this! It will be announced on the blog as soon as plans exist ????
Hi Mod R, This a fyi only that I wanted to pass on, the pre order links all work, but only the Amazon and Apple boxes, that contain the links, are labeled. the center b & n box is showing as a blank box (the link DOES work though) I only knew that it was (probably) the b & n link because the very same thing happened for the Magic Tides link. I had to ask you for that info that time. So if you wanted to fix it, now you know.
Hi Michael,
Thank you for notifying, but I’m afraid the display error is on your end. Perhaps if you refresh your image will fully load ????
KD World has such a special place in my heart! There is so much to their lives that I want to know, and I am beyond thrilled to get more! Thank you for continuing to let us experience all the goodness that is Kate and Company!
SQUEEE! Found myself comparing BDH with Juggalos. Came to the conclusion armor instead of face paint is so much cooler.
Happy Friday indeed.
I’ll take it! You’ve got me. I’m hooked. Can’t wait for June.
Thank you for the snippet!!
Oh, I’m so happy Kate is back! Magic Tides was so good and I was so sad when it ended, and now I have this to look forward to. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Doing a mental happy dance cuz I didn’t expect any other Kate Daniels books. Now I can’t wait for June to get here! Yay!
Holy crap! I guess Kate is going to have to listen to what Erra said. Trouble is coming their way. Kate and Curran will always attract danger and people who need help. Cant wait!! Thank you!
Dear Mod R,
Thanks for your reply. I have absolutely NO idea why the box is empty, maybe it’s my browser? (refreshing it was no help) I didn’t really need it bc the link was there anyway. I just wanted to let you know, bc you’ve been so nice to me in the past. And I wanted to be nice in return. As always, you do fantastic work and it’s muchly appreciated. We’re very fortunate to have you.
And Curran gets his moat
Love it! Thank you so much for brigging this friday gift and our favorite family ????????????
Yay more more KATE I LOVE KATE
This might be a question for somewhere else…
but was it mentioned in Blood Heir if Erra claim the land in California? or is she not doing that anymore.
These new stories are unearthing more questions of the world of Kate Daniels.
Jun 13th????
I am soooo thrilled we are getting another book so soon.
Best news all week!!
You guys are truly awesome!!
Squeeeeeeeeee
best present ever
So much love to you both. I feel you love us doing this. As much as we love all the other characters and worlds, we love us some Kate and Curran. I pray this is the beginning of a new journey for them. Live long and prosper you two.
Can’t wait!
No, seriously, I really am beside myself at the prospect of more Kate and Curran. I like all your worlds (don’t think you can write a bad book, even if you tried) but I LOVE the Kate Daniels universe and am greedy for more!
Any news on how Dougie is doing? Hope the little lad is hanging on.
It was revealed, I believe during the Blood Heir after party https://ilona-andrews.com/2021/answers-to-blood-heir-burning-questions/ , that Dougie will survive ????
Love you guys so much !!!!
Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!
Y’all are evil, twisted creatures with so much imagination! I’ve already pre-ordered.
Y’all must keep doing this to me…
I don’t squee. I don’t squee. I don’t squee.
Oh, alright.
“Squee!”
Happy dance!
yay! Thanks, off to buy Magic Claims
This is huge, wow, like….if I understand correctly, the Lennarts may be building a new Keep in their Pender Forest desmense, and becoming the center of a new Pack (Hugh will LOVE this)
So do we keep the Fort Kure ‘cottage’ as a seaside getaway for long weekends??
So excited to see how this plays out! <3 what amazing gifts!
Whoo Hoo!!
Pre-ordered and I am salivating.
Of course, the Lennert/Daniels would rise again!!
Ilona and Gordon love to torture/entice the BDH…you guys have done it again. I can’t wait til June, I WILL be getting this sucker on my pre-order list. You guys always make my day and when my Google stream featured KD, I knew I had to zoom over to your site. sooo glad I did. Happy writing!
Thank so much for more Kate, Curran and everyone! I’m a little sad, but not surprised that their HEA isn’t quiet ????. Hopefully they’ve learned enough that they can manage the next set of responsibilities without the same level of stress ????????
Interesting how well Ned targeted both Curran and Kate’s triggers. ????
Thank you! It’s my 50th birthday week. What a great present! Woo-hoo ????
Looks like Christmas is coming in June this year , I dig it ????
Oh wow, exciting! Added to my “not yet published” list on kindle, which I go and stare sadly at on a weekly basis.
???????????????? so good
4 months…. Ah well, I’ll forget about it fairly soon and it will be a nice surprise when it comes. 🙂
Question: I don’t want to buy from Amazon or Apple. B&N failed my order. Is there another shop where I can do the pre-order?
You can try your favourite retailer’s catalogue, using their search function ????
I can provide you links to Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/magic-claims
and Google Books https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Ilona_Andrews_Magic_Claims?id=uFetEAAAQBAJ&gl=GB or help if you can let me know which website you want to order from ????.
Thank you for the links. I tried ordering from where I usually order but couldn’t find the book. Your link did work.
You know, I would’ve bet a ton of money we would see a Roman or Hugh book before we saw a Julie or Kate book. I’m really glad this was only a hypothetical bet
Good for you guys…that’ll teach me to think I can predict the great Ilona Andrews! I’ve surrendered to the helplessness of my fate- ya’ll want to write it, then I will buy and read it with great pleasure.
IA I love you! Thank you! You guys rock!
OMG!!!! This was so genius! HA are literary geniuses. I am literally shivering from excitement! Just Keep ‘‘em coming, never stop!!!!
I’m looking forward to the next book in the Wilmington Years #2. If I haven’t read Blood Heir, is it advisable to wait and read the three Wilmington Years first, then Blood Heir? Thanks!
There have been no announcements around it being 3 Wilmington Years books ????. Whilst they chronologically happen before Blood Heir, the book can be read without the information from Wilmington.
LOL, good thing, since that’s how many (if not most) of us read Blood Heir.
Yea! So great to be back to Kate the Great!
Yeeeessssss.
Second time ready this exert in as many day. Thankyou so much for bringing Kate and Curran back into my life.
So I’ve not visited for a week or two and like to read posts in the order they’ve been released. Read the PSA about scammers then came onto this post and in my confused state thought THIS was an example of a scam. And those scammers did an AMAZING job – the description sounds relevant and the mock cover -well it’s amazing what AI can do these days….
(Shakes head). I’m a muppet. And whoop whoop it’s a REAL book!
Love the snippet! Not sure I like the new cover version of Kate. Been rereading the original novels and those covers are what Kate looks like to me.
Huzzah for the first chapter!
I’m in the “not sure I like the model on the cover” crew. I always imagine Kate looking a bit like Cher in her youth, just more muscular. If Ilona is doing this herself with stock images, though—not all bad, in fact I’m pretty good…(with it).
She is using stock images. These books are self-pub. While I’m not likely ever to be in HA’s shoes, if I were, a live photo session is not likely to be where I would choose to spend my money.
oh boy oh boy oh boy- how awesome is that
Thank you….so much!
Will there be a section weekly or at least at some regular time?
Thank you for continuing Kate and Curran’s adventures. I’m looking forward
to the publication.
No, the Wilmington Years are not serialised on the blog ????
Can’t wait. ‘ nuff said.
Happy dance, happy dance!! There’s my Kate!!! Love it and can’t wait!!
OMG! I can not wait for the audio although I may need to read it first!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read this and each time I’ve had goosebumps. Thank you for the snippet. I cannot stand the wait till June but I will abide it. :).
Love, love, love your work.
Step 1 – pre-order – Done
Step 2 – heheheHEHEHESQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
ahem – Thank you!!!!!
Can’t wait til June!!!
Book 2 of 2: Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years
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Yea!!!!!!
I love this so much. Must say I got choked up at the end of this excerpt.
thank you <3
How do you make me love the characters so much?! I’ll have to go re read (again!) the KD books now to get my fix …
Thank you for the snippet. Just wondering why illustration of Kate on covers for Wilmington Series show someone completely different than the wonderful image of her on your website showing ‘Kate Daniels book listings’? I recall you hired someone for those images & thought you would use them going forward for book covers.
OMG!!!! This is such a surprise. The best surprise. The absolutely BEST!!! I can’t put into words how much I missed Kate, Curran & Conlan. I can’t wait to see where this leads. So happy.
I forgot how much I enjoyed being in Kate and Curran’s world – and I truly truly enjoyed being immersed in Magic Tides. It was like searching for a favorite lost sweater in your closet, but instead of it being dusty, moth ridden with holes, you find it looking better than ever, fitting just so comfy and warm. I still have the biggest smile and I can’t wait for Magic Claims! (I see what you did with the title – claims as both noun and verb!!)
Hey Mod R, question for you. I just wanted to know if Linus Duncan’s head of house status is due to being a member of the Scottish house’s. Or is it due to Linus having offspring we haven’t met yet? Sorry this is off topic to this post.
Hi Debra,
Have you read Ruby Fever? I’m not sure how much to answer so I don’t spoil it for you.
Linus is Head of House Duncan, which is his House in Texas, somewhat separate from the House Duncan in Scotland, because he left that side of his family behind- the two sides of House Duncan on different continents are not linked administratively but his lineage and clear ancestry of Primes is known.
For more on that and details on children , you would have to go into Ruby Fever ???? https://ilona-andrews.com/hidden-legacy-books/#ruby
Love Kate and Curran family life 😀
I guess it hasn’t been said how many novellas are in the Wilmington Years, but I would guess at least 3…? (rhetorical question, I know they aren’t announcing things in advance. Lovely to have these two gems though)
Why does June seem like forever away now?