A couple of people are having really difficult time this week due to deaths in the family. They asked for a snippet, so we are making an exception and releasing a little more. We will have to put the obligatory buy links and cover so Avon views this as promotion.
Chapter 2
I had texted Mom while en route, and the family met us at the door. Bern took Ragnar from Augustine and carried him into my office; Grandma Frida wrapped a blanket around Runa, Arabella thrust a cup of hot cocoa into her hands, Leon told her she was safe now, and Mom thanked Augustine and shut the door in his face.
Then everybody left, abandoning us in my office. Runa blinked at me from the client chair, her hands wrapped around the mug of hot chocolate, looking a little shell-shocked.
I walked over to where Ragnar lay on the floor, to the left of my desk. Someone had already moved the rug, exposing the arcane circle underneath, and Bern had placed the boy inside it. Drawn in chalk by hand, arcane circles served various purposes. Some refined the mage’s power, some amplified or channeled it. This one drained excess magic. I had drawn it for just such an emergency and redrew it every week, for practice. From above, it resembled a complex double ring, encircled by glyphs. Straight lines of various lengths pierced the rings, radiating out like the sun’s corona.
I took a piece of chalk from the shelf and drew two lines connecting the second circle under my chair to the one with Ragnar in it. I sat in the chair and sank a burst of magic into the smaller ring under my feet. The chalk lines flashed with silver and faded to a weak white glow as the circle began to sap my magic from Ragnar. Eventually I would get tired and have to quit, but I had a lot of power and I was willing to bet Ragnar would be purged first.
“He’ll be fine,” I told Runa. “There is no way to keep his magic from being drained as well, so he might be groggy, powerless, and kind of flat emotionally for the next few days.”
“That might be for the best,” she said.
I felt pressure to say something, but my brain refused to come up with anything appropriate. Asking her if she was okay was pointless. Her mother and sister had just died. In her place I would be catatonic.
Runa looked away from me to the corner of my desk. Her eyes widened. I glanced to the right to see what she was looking at.
A framed picture of Alessandro Sagredo sat on my desk. The frame itself was square, but the photograph cutout was shaped like a heart, its edge studded with rhinestones seated in the small pools of the glue from the hot glue gun. The left half of the frame was a hideous Pepto-Bismol pink; the other was covered in pink glitter. Massive plastic jewels decorated both. The image of Alessandro was black and white, and on it in pink glittery marker someone had written, “My smoochie poo.”
I would recognize that cursive anywhere. My twenty-eight-year-old sister took the time out of her busy schedule of wrenching the truth from terrorists and murderers and preparing for an extended trip overseas to make this monstrosity, and then conspired with my other sister to troll me with it.
Why, Nevada? Why . . .
He was tall and broad-shouldered. He stood with an easy, natural grace. I used to stalk his Instagram and I knew every line of his face, but he hadn’t posted for a while and usually his pics were posed. Alessandro against a Maserati. Alessandro on a yacht. Alessandro riding an elegant Andalusian horse like he was born in the saddle. Alessandro the Prime. Count Sagredo. The heir of one of the oldest noble families in Italy. Wealthy, powerful, handsome, once a teen heartthrob with millions of followers on Herald and Instagram and now a man who weaponized his influence and beauty. He could make a photograph communicate whatever he wanted.
But this, with the sun in his eyes and wind messing with his brown hair, this was real. And his smile was magic. I looked at it and was eighteen again, standing across from him in a trial room, waiting to match my magic against his and prove that I was a Prime. He had spoken to me, impossibly handsome, with amber eyes and that slightly lopsided grin, and I couldn’t even make noises come out of my mouth.
I thought I was over this.
“Boyfriend?” Runa asked.
“No.” And that didn’t hurt at all.
Whenever I looked at Alessandro, in pictures or in person, he made me think of duels and courting, of a time when men carried swords and women concealed daggers. There was a dangerous edge to him, hidden deep in his eyes, and it drew me to him like a magnet. But that Alessandro was a fantasy, born from reading too many books set in medieval Italy with all its wars, glamour, art, and poison. He was a fantasy the way imagining being a secret princess was a fantasy. I knew it wasn’t real, but it was so seductive, I couldn’t let it go.
The real Alessandro didn’t carry a sword. He was an Antistasi Prime. His magic nullified other mental magic. The Keeper of Records had chosen him to test my power during the trials. To be recognized as a Prime, I had to make Alessandro step over the line drawn on the floor. He took the full brunt of my power and resisted it for several minutes, but in the end I won.
With that type of talent, there were only two paths open to Alessandro: military service or private protection. He chose neither. Instead, he did what many young Primes with too much money and freedom chose to do. He indulged. He sailed yachts, raced fast cars, and dated stunning women.
He and I were worlds apart. He would never be what I imagined him to be and it was probably for the best.
I slapped the frame facedown on the desk. The back of the frame was covered in pink hearts and small pictures of Alessandro printed from his Instagram.
If the world had any compassion in it at all, I would teleport a thousand miles away.
Runa squinted at the back of the frame. “Is that Alessandro Sagredo?”
I picked up the frame to throw it in the trash, changed my mind halfway there, and dropped it into the desk’s top drawer instead. Putting him in the garbage was beyond me. “My sisters have a weird sense of humor.”
“Sisters do that,” she said, her voice dull.
And hers was dead. “I’m so, so sorry.”
She looked at me with haunted eyes. “Thank you. You’re the only person who’s been nice to me since this happened.”
Who wouldn’t be nice to her? She just lost most of her family. “What do you mean?”
“I was at UCLA. I’m working on my master’s, molecular toxicology.”
Her tone was flat, her expression detached. She had to be barely keeping it together. I’d been there before, in a place where you’re so freaked out that you hold yourself supertight, because any splash of emotion could break the dam and you would fall to pieces.
“On Monday I got a call from the Houston PD. They said, ‘The residence in Piney Point Village burned down and we believe your mother and sister died in the fire.’ Just like that. I understood that sentence, but also kind of didn’t. I knew what the words meant, I just couldn’t put them together to make sense. I must’ve stood there with the phone in my hand for ten minutes, just trying to process, you know?”
I didn’t, but I could imagine it in vivid detail.
Runa sighed. “I took the first flight.”
It was Wednesday now. She’d been in town for two days.
“I came back to a burned-out husk of a house and two dead bodies. Ragnar was on a school trip to Colorado at an astronomy camp. No cell reception. I had to call the local police station and get them to notify him. That first day, after I viewed the bodies, I just didn’t know what to do with myself. I mean, what do you do when your mom and sister are lying on a table so burned, the ME has to use dental records to identify them?”
That was odd. Why dental records? Everything Primes did was dictated by the need to strengthen and preserve their magic. Parenthood was no exception. The Houses based marriages on calculated DNA matches most likely to result in powerful offspring. Because of this, every magically significant bloodline registered with a genetic database. It would take at most twenty-four hours to compare DNA from the bodies to their genetic profiles, and unlike dental records, DNA match was error-proof.
Runa looked into her cup. “I didn’t want to be by myself, so I called Michelle. We’ve been friends since middle school. She wouldn’t take my call. Then I called Felicity, my other friend. She picked up, made all the right noises, and then when I asked her if I could stay with her for one night, she told me she would call me back in five minutes.”
Runa looked at me. Her eyes looked dead. My heart cracked. When I met her two and a half years ago, Runa was larger than life. She made jokes, she ate poisoned fondant, she flirted with Rogan’s security detail. She was strong and confident and alive. This Runa wasn’t even a shadow of herself. She was a ghost.
“Felicity never called back?” I guessed.
“No. I’ve known these people for years. They were my squad. We’ve lost touch since we all went to college, but we got together on holidays. We follow each other’s accounts on Herald. These were my friends, Catalina.” A little life came back into her gaze. “I expected them to have my back.”
That didn’t surprise me. Houses entered alliances based on family ties and mutual benefit. Runa wanted to hire Augustine, which meant she suspected that her family was murdered. If she was right, both she and Ragnar could be targeted. Runa was alone and inexperienced, which made her vulnerable. Sheltering her, aiding her, or associating with her brought no advantages. It only put you in danger.
“I spent the night in a hotel,” she said. “Ragnar flew in the next day. I met him at the airport and his face just fell. He must’ve expected me to tell him that it wasn’t true, but it is, and then he shut down. He went limp on me right there, and he was too heavy for me to carry. Then airport security called the first responders, and I let them take him to the hospital. I didn’t know what else to do. I was late to my appointment with Montgomery, but he agreed to meet me at Memorial. You know the rest. When Montgomery offered to see me at the hospital at one o’clock in the morning, I really thought he would help. I should’ve known better.”
“What did he quote you?” I asked.
“Twenty million. Even if I sold every financial asset the estate has, I couldn’t raise enough money.” Runa shook her head.
Even for MII, that was a high price tag. But then Augustine came and got me to help her. He had a moment of compassion. Unfortunately, telling her that wouldn’t make anything better.
Runa looked down at her hot chocolate. “Thank you again. I’ll be out of your life as soon as Ragnar wakes up.”
The responsible thing to do, the Head of the House thing to do, would be to send her on her way. This wasn’t our fight and there was no profit to be made here. We were an emerging House, and we had neither the financial resources nor the manpower of MII. If I helped her, I would be putting all of us in danger.
But she was a friend. She’d kept us all from dying at Nevada’s wedding, and when I looked at her, my chest hurt.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I told her. “We have more than enough guest bedrooms and if you don’t want to be alone, you can crash on the media room couch. Someone’s always in the media room.”
She stared at me.
“It’s a very special couch,” I told her. “Mad Rogan once fell asleep on it. We’re thinking of having it gold-plated and donated to a museum . . .”
Runa’s composure broke like a glass mask and she cried.
I got up, took away her hot chocolate before she sloshed it all over herself, and hugged her.
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I told myself I wasn’t going to read snippets but 2 weeks ago my quick in and out surgery took a different turn. Now I am stuck recovering for 6 weeks with meds that make me nauseous and not allowed to do much but walk every two hours.
So thank you for this!! You guys are too kind and the most awesome authors ever.
Get well soon, Keera.
Hope you get better soon!
Get well soon!
Oh no 🙁 Hope you heal up quick! ♥
-Tiffany
Get better soon!
I don’t know why I read the snippets. The sort of me comes out. I’m greedy, selfish, entitled and want more! More, more, more! Why can’t I be a master of time travel and go into the future so that I can read the finished book already! Sigh… I guess I’ll have to wait. Thanks for this btw. I lost my mom in November and my Dad in March sonI understand the hardship and loss people are going through. It helps to get lost in a good book or snippet as it were.
That’s worst not “sort”. Autocorrect is diabolical with a tainted sense of humor lol
So very sorry for your loss, Chantay. Hugs.
*Jedi Hugs*
It sucks. It really sucks. I’m so sorry.
Oh Chantay… That is a tough six months. I hope that your burden lightens and your skies clear.
I hope you feel better soon!
Been there with the post surgery meds. Ask your doctor about Prilosec if it hasn’t been discussed yet. It’s the only thing that allowed me to keep anything down while I was on the other meds.
Thank you! A new order is coming.
Thank you! I’m having a rough day as well (work related). This is a wonderful gift.
I feel for Runa and her brother. House Baylor made another very important ally. 🙂
I also love that the allies House Baylor makes are with the more human Houses (even if that’s ironic, given that Harrison is animal mages). But they are allies with the Houses that still have heart & humanity left. I am unconvinced that Augustine is not a bad guy*. But even if he’s a “good” guy, his moments of humanity are brief and far between, and the rest of the time, he’s cold and calculating and… not good. Even if he’s not on the side of the conspiracy, he’s the same person who coerced Nevada to go after Pierce, expecting her to fail and most likely die. He’s the same person that wouldn’t help Rynda or Cornelius (and yes, some of these things are reasons for me to believe he’s actively a bad guy).
*I know. A double negative. That’s what I can manage today. “I’m not sure he’s a good guy” doesn’t seem to cover it.
This was… this was… perfection! Thank you so much for posting. I can’t wait for this pairing.
Thank you so much!
Thank you. You two are very good to the BDH and we appreciate it.
This book is going to be soooo good.
No chance that it will release early, is there?
I didn’t think so.
Looking forward to the whole book! Thanks again.
Thanks so much for this. I am stuck at home recovering from my second hip replacement (now bionic on both sides), and touching base with the Baylor’s is just what I needed.
Can’t wait for the book. Love the series.
I love how your characters always feel so real, like people who could be my friends. No matter how ridiculous or fantastical the situation, your characters always connect.
Bravo!
Thank you for sharing..,,I am sorry for all those who lost loved ones….praying for peace for those who need it.
Thank you for posting this. I can’t wait for it to be ready and to listen to another awesome recording.
Nice, It’s available for pre-order on Audible as well.
I want to pre-order this AGAIN
+1
This.
I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve obsessively checked to make sure that I’ve pre-ordered whichever book was coming out next. If Amazon didn’t tell me I’d already pre-ordered something, who knows how many copies I would having to me on release day!
+1! LOL
The worst part is that Amazon often notifies me WAY after I’ve already pre-ordered (I honestly don’t understand why they don’t have an automatic email blast to everyone following that author the second a book goes up. It’s not hard).
So yes, between my checking around the pages of the authors I follow, plus Amazon’s emails not knowing when I’ve already purchased a book (ALSO NOT HARD), I’d have multiple copies of so many e-books!
Thank you so much for sharing this.
*whimper* Oh man, I thought we were in for another fun book but now there are FEELINGS
I want it even more NOW and it’s SO long til August
Thank you for the snippet
+1 – Everything Rhoda said.
Well that was a good “I’ll just pop in and take a look” visit . I have no crises or catastrophes in my life just now, touch wood, but I loved the chapter, so thank you. Now all we have to do is wait until end August for the rest, sigh!
This. This made my heart hurt. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
It’s really no wonder that the BDH constantly persters you for more. More books, more stories, more snippets. Your writing reaches us, deep inside where it counts.
I love this little teaser, thank you author lords!! I’m excited for this book to be released. But did I miss chapter one? Sorry I haven’t been on Facebook as much lately, so I probably missed it, any links be chance to it? If not it’s ok, I will definitely be buying the book on release day. Thank you again you guys are AWESOME!!
Amy,
Here is the link. https://ilona-andrews.com/read-first-chapter-of-sapphire-flames/
Awesome thanks for the sneak peek
I am so glad you have written this at a time when those folks in need could benefit from it. I wish them peace. And send my condolences, too.
+1
Thank you for sharing. You guys are so generous to us fans. I hope everyone who has experienced a loss this week is able to get a little bit of happiness from this.
Oh god, release day can’t come soon enough! You all just wring the emotion out of us. I am on tenterhooks waiting for the rest of this story.
Thank you. Can’t wait!
thank you.
August is so far away! Thank you for the chapter though!
Ditto
Argh! August, why are you so far away???
Was having a rough day and that just allowed me the catharsis of shedding a few tears. Thanks. Some days you just need a good cry.
I would buy that coach or steal it from the museum they donate it to.
Can’t wait for the book to come out.
Know i want to read that scene of the Baylor family find him asleep there.
Thank you! I love it, of course. Wishing well to those who need it.
I cried too. Its been a emotional month. My cat has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and I am struggling with PTSD. thanks for the light in the dark xx
Been there. Fought it successfully with chemotherapy for two years – this was our first cat. It was a wonder: she sat there for 20 minutes every month and was willing to get the infusion – I swear she realized we did it to help her. Her kidneys gave out at the end. It was expensive and time consuming, but worth it.
(Disclaimer: this will not work for every kind of cancer and every cat, and may be too expensive where you live.)
Anyway, I have been where you are and feel with you. You will know when it is time to let your cat go over the rainbow bridge.
Have you given a thought to CBD oil? Not sure if would be okay for the cat but it’s a thought, maybe worth the research. I’ve read about a lot of good results. So sorry about your faithful companion.
Thank you for the snippet ! I just took a glance at it and AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Nevada got to get her revenge for the R+N dress picture huhu Awesome !
I was thinking the same thing – revenge: a dish best served cold with lots of sparklies! 🙂
Thanks for being so great! I just love it already! Let’s speed the summer up, shall we? Such sweet torture! 😉
Thank you so much! I had a bad morning and this was a nice surprise. It was lovely and I can’t wait for more. Poor Runa. She went through so much. I love both her and Catalina and I hope they will form a real solid friendship.
Thanks for posting!! Can hardly wait!!
I want to thank you for both of your Snippets and for the hard work that you and your husband to give us little lights to make our life a little better. I pray for all of those who are suffering due to loss, surgery, sickness or any ailments that make you feel down and like no one’s there for you. It may not be much, and we may never meet. But I’m praying for you. I pray that God moves in your life and for healing and peace to abound. God bless you all
Thanks for this. I’m having a rough time (no deaths thankfully) and really needed the pick-me-up.
Love those Baylor girls.
can’t wait for the book … such a great BFF pair those to women 🙂
sorry for the double post – autofill in messed me up
can’t wait for the book … such a great BFF pair those to women 🙂
Thank-you so much for this unexpected treasure.
Ilona, now you know. Your writing has magical healing powers! This little boost helped in so many ways. Thank you!
DEFINITELY!
Thank you so much for this! For the others that have suffered recent losses — I am so sorry. It sucks.
And Ilona & Gordon, thank you for this whole chapter, where you showed us how much this sucks.
I love that the Baylor’s are at the stage where they get to tease Mad Rogan…
Oh, and I told my oncologist that no matter what she needs to get me to September 2021 so I can finish reading this trilogy.
Don‘t limit yourself! I am hoping for an Arabella trilogy after this one…
PS: I am sure heaven has the perfect library.
PPS: Hell probably also has a library. All the books you like are gone or have the most important pages torn out. However, every book you hated in school will be there…
Arabella and/or Bern!!
Haha haha!!! Perfect description Norbert.
Thank you. The week is only a couple of days old, and I’m ready for it to be done. This snippet is most appreciated. (And, you can let the publisher know we are anxiously awaiting the publication date. )
Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for these stories, these snippets. You guys are awesome.
Thank you! Just yesterday during a conversation with coworkers I heard myself say “I don’t feel like I’ve had enough joy in my life” just like that. Yikes! Prozac anyone?
Your snippets, Innkeeper and all your books bring joy! Thank you!
Thank you.
OMG!! You’re awesome. Thanks!!
This totally made my Tuesday. I’m so ready for this work week to be over already.
(This is the spot where someone deigns to tell me, “It’s only Tuesday.”)
Yes, and I was over this week yesterday. So the snippet is most lovely and I can’t wait to read the rest!
That was so sweet, my heart is breaking for Runa, can’t wait for her and Catalina to spend more time together.
Thank you for this and I hope the people you posted it for will feel a little better
Sending hugs and love to you all ~~~❤️
This just brings out so many emotions. The snippet, the reason behind it, that the people at Avon will be understanding of it. And the whole
amazing BDH community, many of whom are sadly dealing with hard things in their own lives. My prayers are with you. Life will move forward with time, and if you let it (by reading this blog for example) you’ll move forward with time too.
My sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones.