Noncom stands for non commissioned officer. Basically, a sergeant. Read at your own risk.
PS. We named the horse Bucky for you. 🙂
“Was that vampire from the People?” Sam asked.
“Golden Legion,” Stoyan said.
“Is that like the People?”
“The necromancers who work for Roland call themselves the People,” Stoyan explained.
“They call themselves that because they feel they are the only people. The rest of us are lesser mortals,” Lamar said.
“The best one hundred of them make up Golden Legion,” Stoyan said. “The Legion is led by a Legatus, the prick we’re riding to meet. Each Master of the Dead in the Legion can pilot more than one undead. A Master of the Dead can wipe out an Army company with one undead.”
“Depending on how big the company is,” Lamar said. “Regulations size for a company is between eighty and two hundred and fifty soldiers. Two fifty would be pushing it for one bloodsucker. The Legion would need at least three.”
“The point is,” Stoyan said, “When we meet Legatus, you’ll be deaf and dumb, you get me? If I hear one squeak out of you, you’ll wish you were back on the ranch getting strung up by that sheriff your daddy is so afraid of.”
“How will I know if he’s Legatus?” Sam asked.
Hugh thought about turning around and knocking him off his horse to shut him up, but it would take too much effort.
“Because he’ll look like the rest of the People,” Stoyan said. “Like an asshole in an investment banker’s suit.”
“That’s redundant,” Lamar pointed out.
“Who’s Roland?” Sam asked.
“Someone you need to steer clear of,” Stoyan said.
“An immortal wizard with a megalomaniac complex who wants to rule the world,” Lamar said.
“Why does he want us dead?” Sam asked.
“All you need to know is that he does,” Bale growled. “Now shut the fuck up, or I’ll count your teeth with my fist and then you’ll be busy picking them out of the dirt.”
I am visualizing Hugh listening to all this and about to tell everybody to just the f up. But he knows Sam needs this info so he keeps it together. As long as he doesn’t have to explain it all he can tolerate it for a while.
Fun! Thanks for the Friday treat 🙂
EEEK! Thank you. I still have no interest in rehabilitating Hugh though. He caused Aunt Bee’s death. There is no forgiveness for that.
I’m with you Donna. Gunmetal Magic is my favourite story in the KD universe because of Aunt Bee and her interactions with Andrea. I will never forgive Hugh either for causing her death. She was such a terrific character.
Oh, Bee. That scene left me ugly sobbing and it still hurts today. I’m not sure I can ever forgive him either. But if there is a way, Ilona will find it.
Agreed. Hugh is scum.
You should skip this one, than. Not every book appeals to everyone.
I get where you are coming from, but I’d like to ask you to reconsider and think of it from a different perspective 🙂
Hugh could have been a one dimensional evil henchman of Roland’s- but he isn’t. If you read the prologue of Hugh starving on streets as a kid you can see that obviously that kid wasn’t evil. Potential for evil? Definitely, but every character/person has that. I like anti-hero type stories because it tells a story of what people could be like given different circumstances. Hugh turned out the way he did because he grew up with Roland. Roland talks about how many of his kids tried to kill him, and none of those relationships lasted. Maybe Hugh something is what Kate would have ended up if Roland decided to let her live, who knows?
I guess the point is from the old Gatsby adage, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all of the people in the world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” I know we are used to reading stories about good vs bad people but characters don’t have to be classically “good” to be interesting or real.
I know this is an unnecessarily long reply to a simple opinion, but I hope you guys take a chance on this one 🙂
Whoops typo
*Maybe Hugh is something like what Kate
Anyway, the point was that there are people that are purely “white” and people that are completely “black”. But most of us are shades of grey… So maybe we shouldn’t write off Hugh as black already
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sorry Sleepy, I like what you’re saying, but when Hugh was playing with Ascanio’s life in front of Kate in a cage….that stuffed him so far in the “dip him in fish oil and light a match” category for me, that I can’t wait to see if the Authorlords can bring him back from that. If they can? Nobel prize time.
Yep. If I choose to nurture an never-ending pool of hate for a fictional character, that’s my choice. As much as I enjoy HEAs, there are bridges too far.
It is possible that my more bloodthirsty desire of a novel length “Hugh gets his” will not be fulfilled. Though the idea of reading that in episodes, in good company, and snarking and eating snacks is endlessly entertaining.
To be fair, I find Hugh the character pretty interesting, and want to see where this is going. And I kind of suspect any redemption that we can believe in is going to involve him crawling through burning shards, and back, uphill, both ways.
And I am here for that. With popcorn!
I am not trying to change your mind.
But it fascinates me that this is the point you pull up, because this strikes me as so illustrative of the ambiguities in Hugh’s nature as we saw it in the Kate books. I mean, he was a complete conniving manipulative son of a turtle.
…and yet, next we see, Ascanio is pretty much completely recovered and being chewed out by his mother and Alpha in stereo. For all the horrible, awful show Hugh put on, he’s the reason Ascanio came through that, as well. (I’m not sure how much it’s because he likes showing off – or showing off to Kate – or because healing is just that easy for him, or if he has any kind of soft spot for anyone.)
And this is leading up to the point where Roland cuts him loose as well – I think Hugh is going increasingly off the rails.
It is interesting, isn’t it? 😉
I wonder if it’s time for some Hugh t-shirts ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’-style: “I’m not evil, Illona just wrote me this way…”
Bwaahaahaha!
Must have one!
Mauro was a great character too,,, makes Hugh a despicable bad guy,,, can’t wait for his book. 🙂
While Mauro’s murder was sad, and pretty impossible to fix, I would think Kate’s ability would have helped with Ascanio, especially after Hugh nudged things into place. After all, Roland healed Hugh after Curran broke Hugh’s back and threw him into the fire.
I thought Roland acquired a Phoenix egg and stuffed Hugh into it to regenerate him. He didn’t heal him personally.
I consider Roland finding a Phoenix egg and stuffing Hugh into it to be a personal act by Roland.
I didn’t think it was possible, but I’m actually excited about this book. =o) I’ll have to read it, just to see what he’s up to next!
Who knew there was someone who could drive Hugh to anger more then Kate. Thanks
I can picture the look on Hugh’s face, jaw clenched, eyes narrowed, with a white-knuckled grip on his reins… I really didn’t want to look forward to reading more about Hugh and his band of misfits, but now I do!
I gotta say you did such a good job getting me to hate Hugh’s guts in the previous books, I’m having a hard time coming around on him. But I’m still gonna read the book because I love your stuff. ☺️
E
Sam sound like a fresh faced recruit. How did he fall in with with Hugh’s merry band of cut throats? Really looking forward to this book!
My brother’s name is Sam, which leads to an odd effect. (Of course, he used to be a bright, sweet kid. I mean modulo my family – he used to write and illustrate books about sweet little animals accidentally killing each other in horrible ways, but I thought it was pretty hilarious.*)
* This was before this was a thing. More than a few of my friends were apparently concerned.
“Sweet little animals accidentally killing each other in horrible ways”?
I’m mildly speechless. It’s either the funniest thing ever or an evil twisted experiment gone horribly right.
Possibly both ?
It made me think of some of the old Calvin and Hobbs cartoons where you see the things like decapitated snowmen, etc.
?
It was a pretty different sense of humor and aesthetic than Calvin. Think of the soft, sweet cartoon characters aimed at very young children that are all about social development, and mostly, hence, about being nice to each other. From this the Smuggy Bunnies were born. My brother was maybe nine at the time?
So he drew stories about these cute bunnies being relentlessly sweet to each other in relentlessly sweet landscapes… and chains of events wherein things went horribly wrong and they all ended up very dead. (For some reason the one where they played catch with a nuclear warhead sticks in my mind, even though it was a throw-away two-page piece, and not one of the more interesting storylines.) Really, this utterly pales beside the (mostly stop motion) animated movie he made of the life of Mohamed when he was, oh, maybe twelve?
Of course, this is the same brother who now lives in our father’s basement and spends most of his time making hate-videos for his YouTube channel. (He’s in his mid-thirties now, this wasn’t an overnight occurrence.)
And just think… Hugh’s book came about because of an April Fool’s joke that backfired on Ilona and Gordon. I can’t wait to see what happens this year. 😛
Thanks for the snippet!
Ugh! I’m dying here! Thank you for a sneak peak love it can’t wait to see what happens. ?
Woot! NOW it is a good day… ?
Glad to see Hugh remains in character. I’ve no doubt this book will reveal some surprises however. Thank You.
And suddenly this Friday is 100% better!
Looking forward to finding out exactly what Hugh is planning to do.
Many thanks for the snippet- they brighten our day ?
Has anyone told Hugh that his ? horse’s name is Bucky? ?
He knows. I just can’t post any funnies, because it would ruin the reading experience.
Yay! Would love to hear Roland calling his horse Bucky.
Tee hee
At least the spelling is Bucky instead of Buc-ee. 😀
Oh, that would have been hilarious. I’m guessing Atlanta doesn’t have Buc-ees, though.
I’m so confused! Can anyone explain? Why is Bucky funny?
Hugh’s horse is a war horse (and therefore a bad ass horse). War horses are use to the loud sounds of fighting as well as the smell of blood and guts spilling so they don’t run away. Sorry for the gory illustration.
The name “Bucky” doesn’t sound like a war horse name. Bucky sounds like a walking horse name. 😀
If anyone else of the Book Devouring Horde has a better comment…..go for it.
Bucky sounds like a pony, a bad pony!
Thank you! Count me as one of Hugh’s non-fans, but I will read the book and enjoy it because you all wrote it.
So I discovered y’all about 3 weeks ago and have subsequently devoured almost everything I can get my hands on – still gotta get The Edge books. ( running out of book budget) I am that person who inhaled their ice cream in 2 bites as a kid instead of drawing it out and then looked mournfully around wondering why there’s no more ice cream in the house. Thus I have taken to obsessively checking your blog for news and the awesome snippets to tide me over until May 30. Finding new snippets (especially Hugh and Logan pov’s) is the best kind of torture. Thank you much!!
Welcome to the newest member of the Book Devouring Horde!
FYI, you can use the search feature of this site to look for old snippets.
Oh, and look for the Curran POV stories, most of which are available electronically from Amazon and probably other ebook retailers. They’re written by Gordon and include short sections of the Kate books but from Curran’s point of view.
Thanks! I will totally check those out!
I agree with Tink. Welcome!
Lucky, lucky reader. Scour the Internet for all things Ilona Andrews. Lots of free stuff too. You won’t be disappointed.
A mere formality? … Priceless.
❤?❤
Also the world’s worst date,,, the Swine and ???? lol
Yes, Welcome MeggsH ☺
You will meet us Ilona & Gordon addicts here regularly ? They are so great to give us so much wonderful free stuff.
Reading a serialisation like this is self-inflicted torture and yet bliss but reading all the comments from others helps prolong the bliss while we wait impatiently for the next instalment ?
Ah, thank you. A fine end to a less than fine week!
What are you doing working? Naps. Desserts.
In an almost completly unrelated snippet, when I was nine, and crazy for horses since I was three…a horse stable moved up the road. With a nine year old girl.
The first thing she did was put me up on an ancient flea bitten grey horse named Buckshot. Because he could buck on command. Rumored once a a circus horse. Plus the speckles look about the size of buckshot.
Hugh will surely realize Bucky is a testosterone filled name for a horse. Athletic, weaponized. Just keep Bucky away from 9 yr old girls. We are sneaky at that age.
Bucky is perfect.
v
oh my gosh thanks I cannot wait to read about Hugh!!!!
Thank you!
Oh, I can’t wait for the book!???
Thank you
I can only imagine how Kate is described to Sam when she comes up…and Hugh’s reaction to it!
Thank you!!
O happy day! A snippet. Life is good.
That was awesome!
This will be awesome. Idea born almost exactly 2 {was it 2 or 3 years ago?} tomorrow.
I thought it was last year. Turns out it was 2015.
I hope you torture Hugh in ways that are subtle as well as obvious…..and reaaaaaaaaly painful. RIP Aunt B.
I don’t know if I should squee or not. I don’t know which will be better, Hugh and Landon meeting or the discussion of Kate. Either way watch the words fly. Also let the snickering start about a war horse named Bucky. 🙂
I also want to know how Sam fell in with Hugh and is cutthroat band. I would run far, far away if possible.
My boss thanked me for not killing anyone today. I told him it wasn’t a done deal yet. This snippet is very much appreciated.
I’m so excited about Hugh’s book. I can’t wait to see who he falls in love with. She must be very special.
Also, “Bucky” is hilarious.
Maybe we already met the love interest 😉 Sam could be a girl’s name. Or Hugh could be into guys too.
I can’t wait for this book. And seeing how you redeem Hugh.
I’m hoping it’s a certain alpha female werewolf!
…I think I need to bleach my brain.
No need. His love interest has not yet appeared in KD.
While I appreciate the reassurance, I had faith… and still needed brain bleach for the thought! Nnnngh!
I was hoping for a certain white witch! Oh, well. Maybe I’m thinking of someone else.
I love you guys.
I miss this !!!
Hope we get one every Friday!
***Wishful thinking
Like other readers, I’m not sure if I can forgive Aunt Bee’s death, however, the snippet about Hugh as a child, being “rescued” by Roland made me more sympathetic to him. I’m actually intrigued by the idea of redeeming him. Thanks for the snippet.
Yes. This. Shades of grey indeedy.
Very nice and funny
Thank you for your story!
I love bad/ crazy/ evil/ ruthless guys as heroes ? (ex: right now I’m really into JM Darhower’s “Monster In His Eyes” series and it’s sequel… don’t be fooled by the 50 shades feel of the first book, Monster is a whole another ball game). Enough to say I was behind Hugh 100% when we met him, then found him weirdly over the top when he pursued Kate in Atlanta, then loved him again when we saw how loyal to him his troops were. I’ll be very happy to read his book! I do hope it’ll be posted in installments — it means we’ll get it much quicker~
Has there been any hint there could be in that book a female character who might possibly/ maybe/ eventually be a love interest?
That was so awesomely funny! Thank you!
I don’t know if getting snippets of something nowhere near complete is good or torture. I want to read it NOW and I can’t. I don’t want to rush the authorlords. I know better, but – but –
Sigh. Thank you for the preview, especially on the anniversary of its “conception”. I will wait…
I’ve always kind of liked Hugh and am looking forward to finding out more about him. Kate and Curran are pretty dark characters themselves, both of them use killing to solve problems and they’re still likeable. ??. Both Kate and Curran could be considered psychopathic, they only care about their own people (which luckily includes a lot of folks) No character is all good or all bad in this universe, it’s that fullness of character that attracts me to these stories plus the kickass adventures!
Despite all of the awful things that Hugh has done over the course of the series, and some of them have been monumental, I’ve never been able to truly hate him. Somehow Ilona managed to write him as such a complex character from the very beginning that I never saw him as a one dimensional villain. As time goes on and more and more details are revealed I increasingly see him as a foster kid who would do anything for love and acceptance, or, barring that, acknowledgement. That he has done horrible things at Roland’s behest should come as no surprise to any of us. That he has a love/ hate relationship with Kate and everything she holds dear should likewise be unsurprising. That he is bitter and angry after Roland kicks him to the curb, well, you get the idea. Personally, I’m cheering for him as hard as i can, even though I liked Aunt Bee as much as the next person, because everyone deserves a happy childhood and Hugh had his stolen from him twice, once by circumstance and once by Roland. I can’t wait to read his story to see if he can pull it off.
Forgiveness and change are a complicated conversation and, as one of the family members of Dylan Roof put it, a work in progress. I think Hugh is like Dyaln Roof in that he inspires the gamut of reactions based on where we are. Some of the victims families forgave him, some prayed he would realize someday realize what he had done, others just want him to pay.
Dylan will no doubt be dead before he has time to consider changing, but it can happen — look at Eldridge Cleaver, who went from Soul on Ice to Soul on Fire, who went from justifying rape and murder to becoming a a respected man who was literally living history (I served on a civil rights panel with him the week before he died, and he was nothing like you’d expect of a former Black Panther. I was expecting someone more intense and forceful like Bobby Seale, whom I once saw speak, but he was a very gentle person). I like the idea of Hugh eventually owning the terrible things he did and choosing to be someone different. It gives me hope, like Eldridge Cleaver.
It’s a tough time now and a lot of people are doing or forced to do terrible things all around the world. To build a better future, there has to be peace and reconciliation, and forgiveness if we can, all of which is hard and painful, but it can be done if we are willing to make sacrifices and work at it, as South Africa has shown us. To me, Hugh’s story is what we need because we can’t kill off everyone who has done terrible things — that would probably be half the planet and definitely all the children soldiers in Africa. I’m not saying everyone should forgive because every person has theory own personal journey, and not all perpetrators choose to take responsibility for their deeds. But I like that Hugh’s story will show one positive possibility (and that’s not to be confused with HEA or some idyllic story or feel good bullshit), especially now when times feel dark.
Very interesting comment, I like the way your thoughts and personal philosophy runs.
Loved the snippet, too, I am very much looking forward to reading it. One wonders what it is about being close to Roland to make you choose mounts with inappropriate names (Marigold (that was really harsh, btw), Cuddles and now Bucky).
Thank you for the snippet. I think I have had conversations like that were like this. Great way to start my weekend of doing spring cleaning.
Wait. Who is Sam?? Or at least, where is Sam mentioned so I can go back and read about him?
Sam is a new character in Hugh’s world.
Thank you. Made the day so much better.
Page 231 Magic Breaks,, there are 50 not 100 in the Golden Legion
I saw it somewhere else too, but I’m drawing a blank on where it was
Thanks for the awesome snippet btw, loved it.
I didn’t think I would be interested in Hugh’s story given that Hugh was someone you love to hate!
But, I’m getting sucked in….evil author lords?
So is this book going to be posted in segments online like the Innkeeper’s series or released as a whole?
Thank you for the snippet. I am going to enjoy this book as much as the rest. Your character development is awesome.
Thank you, this was a nice surprise. 🙂
Squeee!