Maggie by Helena Elias and cover by Andrew Davis.
The Horde has a champion and her name is Mod R. Tor has been very careful with the information regarding this book. During the conversation about the cover release, an idea of a small snippet was raised, and Mod R went into battle mode under a banner of “Please a snippet for the Horde.”
Somehow she got them to agree to a very small snippet. Here are the spoils of Mod R’s battle. May she be ever victorious.
Victory Snippet
Month of Redberry, Day 25
The ocean glittered, an endless expanse of deep cobalt blue under the night sky. Three moons glowed high above, a large platinum crescent striped with gold and two half-moons, one eerie and green and the other angry and red. To the left, a dark coastline loomed, the tall hills picturesque and mysterious. To the right, small islands thrust up from the ocean like the fins of fantastic sea serpents. It was the kind of scene that took your breath away.
My breath was currently in short supply because I was viewing this panorama from the back of a huge monster flying in full defiance of the laws of physics while being restrained by a homicidal secret prince with serious mental issues. Restrained was exactly the right term. If I had portaled into one of the romantic fantasies living on my shelves, Silveren would be holding me in a tender and supportive embrace. But I had ended up in Rellas. He had a death grip on my waist. He was remarkably strong, and I was pretty sure I’d end up with a massive bruise.
The dursan banked, turning right. It was like riding a roller coaster. I shut my eyes for a second as my stomach tried to come to terms with the sudden change of direction. We were heading toward a lone island, little more than a chunk of rock rising from the sea. It looked about three acres wide, with some sort of ruin clinging to its apex.
Earlier today, Silveren attempted to murder the Sun Margrave, the chief prosecutor of the Kingdom of Rellas, by unleashing a horde of dursans during a public celebration on the anniversary of his mother’s execution. His revenge had been decades in the making.
On paper, Silveren would have made a fine tortured fantasy hero. His father had led a revolt against King Sauven, his half-brother, and died on the battlefield, while his mother was tried for treason and executed. He was a prince orphaned by a cruel king and raised in secret by a noble who was tragically in love with Silveren’s dead mother. Silveren hid his magic, joined the knighthood, and climbed his way to becoming the Lord Commander of the Order of the Redeemer, all the while plotting his revenge against his uncle and the kingdom that had robbed him of his parents and a happy childhood.
It was the kind of tragic backstory that readers lost their heads over. Silveren was basically Hamlet except that he wasn’t a brooding nincompoop. He ticked all the boxes, and he was shockingly handsome, just to spice things up.
The reality was less romantic and far more brutal. Silveren wasn’t a noble liberator. He was a ruthless, calculating killer, who had no problem plunging Rellas into a chaotic civil war for the sake of his vengeance. If all had gone to plan, he would have climbed over thousands of bodies to the throne just so he could kick his uncle off it. He had planned it quite well, but he failed to account for a single variable: me.
Two months ago, I lived in Austin, had a simple job, and read way too many fantasy books. Of all of them, The Rise of Kair Toren was my favorite, a gritty epic fantasy series filled with magic, lethal knights, and cutthroat politics. One night I went to sleep in my apartment and woke up in Kair Toren, naked and drowning in a rain-filled ditch.
The series was meant to be a trilogy, but only the first two books had ever been published. Nobody knew how the story would end, and within days of landing in this world, I realized that this Rellas was not a book. This was an actual reality, a different place from the one I came from, and one that was very alive and filled with real people. I couldn’t let them suffer. I decided to change their future.
I ruined Silveren’s revenge. I dismantled his schemes. He had a coconspirator, Ulmar Hreban, and I exposed his treason and got him arrested. Earlier today, I used a magic item to pretend to be Silveren’s long-dead mother and tried to manipulate him into calling off his attack. When that failed, I stabbed him. Many times. He should have died.
Instead, here we were, flying over the ocean to a secluded island. If I was lucky, Silveren would murder me and abandon my corpse. The island was about two miles offshore. It was a long swim, but I could probably do it. Unless I hit a current that would drag me out to sea, which meant that I would drown, resurrect, and drown again as I drifted farther and farther out into the open water. Yay.
If I was unlucky, Silveren would feed me to his dursan.
I’d died three times in the last two months. I had come back to life every time, with my injuries healed and in a lot of pain. Dying hurt but coming back to life hurt even more. I’d been stabbed, drowned, and tortured to death, but I had never been eaten alive and digested. I had no idea if I could resurrect after being devoured. I couldn’t let him sic the dursan on me. Of all the outcomes of this awful meeting, that would be the worst one.
The dursan circled the island and reared, big wings beating until we were almost vertical. Silveren clamped me to him, his arm a steel bar across my stomach. Ugh.
The dursan landed on its hind legs and dropped to all fours, crouching. Silveren shoved me out of the saddle. I slid down the dursan’s massive shoulder, fell eight feet to the ground, and landed hard on a stone tile, on my thigh. A flash of pain shot through my leg.
I scrambled back up, brushing my hand over the silver ornament on my head. Still there.
Less than an hour ago, Matheo delivered the ornament to me with a note from Ramond vi Everard, the Duke of Selva. The accessory looked deceptively simple, just three flowers with opal petals and malachite leaves, but it was priceless. I was wearing the crown of Selva’s Duchess in my hair. Its official name was Triflower. Silveren had no idea what it was. As far as he knew, there was no link between me and Ramond, and I had to keep it that way.
If Silveren threw me in the ocean, I would have to thread Triflower through my clothes before I drowned. I couldn’t lose it. It had once belonged to Ramond’s mother.
Around us remnants of some ancient building dotted the island. Crumbling walls still showing beautiful carvings, fragments of columns gnawed to nubs by time, and stone guard rails half collapsed into gravel. Dark fissures gaped in the stone tile where the floor had broken.
This must have been a private estate, or a castle of some sort, abandoned for centuries and now fallen into ruin. We were on the top floor, or what remained of it.
Silveren stepped onto the dursan’s shoulder. The beast extended its limb, spreading the massive fingers of its paw. Claws shot out and hooked the stone. Silveren walked down to the paw, hopped off onto the tile, and nodded to a corner where two dilapidated walls met. The dursan stalked off and lay down, curling like a gigantic house cat, hidden from the view of anyone watching from the coast. The secret prince must’ve scouted this island before he kidnapped me.
I took a step back and slipped my hand into my pocket. My dress had been modified to hide a dagger. It was the only protection I had.
Silveren closed the distance between us. His hand snapped out and locked around my throat. I stabbed with my knife through my dress. He blocked the stab with the flat of his other hand. His fingers clamped my wrist, and he dragged my hand with the knife out of my pocket and wrenched it up, twisting my arm. Pain shot through my forearm into my elbow. I bent forward. He let go of my throat, plucked the knife from my fingers, and tossed it aside.
“Now with that out of the way, I have some questions.”
I dropped to the ground. That was the only way to get out of having my arm twisted.
He let me go, crossed his arms, and stared at me. The moonlight slid over his heartbreaking face. He didn’t look enraged. He looked cold and determined. The real Silveren, finally. No politeness, no flirting, just crystallized menace.
I got to my feet and stared back.
“Why?” His tone was even.
“Why what?”
“Why all of it. Since the moment our paths crossed, you have been a hindrance. Every single time I’ve encountered you, things went to shit. What have I done to you that you keep getting in my way?” My murder was temporarily postponed.
Please use this thread to discuss spoilers of TKWNKM. You are welcome to leave questions here and we will try to answer some of them.
Preorder links for This Crown Will Not Rule Me, Maggie the Undying 2, release date September 21st 2027. Available in hardback, ebook and audio formats:
Yeah, Friday snippet xx
Confirmed Friday first!
First?
Fri-yay snippet!!!!!
Thanks, Mod R for battling on our behalf!!!
thanks for the snippet
Happy Friday
+1
Thank you, I can’t w*it for September!!
All hail the epitome of MOD-ness and her fierce championship for the BDH. Thank you!!
so satisfying.
All Hail Mod R the Victorious! Im so happy right now! Thank you!!!!!!
Picking up right where we left off – thanks for the Snippet and hope all is well with the Tree Frog!
Oh thank you, wise and brave Mod R, for this most precious gift.
Not really a question, unless you decide to give away the entire plot, but Maggie has presumably lost most of her precognitive advantage, so it will be interesting to see how she gets around that.
Sorry I feel like this has been asked multiple times but is it still a duology? Is it officially a trilogy? Just want to set my expectations correctly.
Maggie the Undying is a trilogy 🙂
The duology was a misunderstanding by the Horde that got perpetuated for some reason. What House Andrews said when the series was initially sold to Tor over 2 years ago was “we don’t know yet whether it will be a duology or a trilogy, but we need to deliver 3 books.”
Thank you Mod R!!! Loved this snippet!! 😎 this is going to be a lonnnggggg w*it.
Yay, yay, yay! Snippets on Fridays!
We need a Medal for ModR. Order of the Horde-Feeder?
+1 for a medal for ModR!
Bless you Mod R, we appreciate your efforts 💕
Mod R may you ever have good things in your life!
Thank you Mod R! Love the snippet and looking forward to the release!
And the sociopathic narcissist reveals himself in all his glory. It’s of course all about him. Going to be hard to redeem him if that’s in the plan. Wow.
This also struck me about Silveren in this snippet. She must be an enemy of ME, that is why she’s against me, not that Silveren’s actions will cause the deaths of thousands of people. (eyeroll)
I find it interesting that while Kier and Silveren are described completely differently in the story that their actions share this, “all about me.” trait. At least from our limited (Maggie’s) viewpoint.
Spoilers & Theories: Based on nothing more than a word here or there and hunches.
1. What does the stelka have to do with the undyingness of Maggie?
2. Ramond- nothing he ever does is on accident. I feel like he’s batman-esq with the whole Dark Knight thing. Saves random people, just because he wants to while leaning into the whole don’t give a ____ attitude towards the throne. The question is does he love her for who she is or what she fears. I think A, but it will be a twisty path to get a HEA.
3. Curious to see the character development of Arvel, as he was masking vapid for a lot of the book. The snippets added more to the still waters run deep. I wonder if he will become a friend or if he will become an antagonist.
4. Clover- Fricking awesome character. She is the best lady’s maid EVER.
5. Time travel question- Is it like Narnia, in that years can happen here with just a blink in Austin, or what type of time delay/exchange may there be. Also curious about the how one gets from one place to another. Level of inherent emotion tied to the world, like Outlander.
6. I feel like the author is in the book world, and that is why he didn’t finish the last book. I wonder about the arch mage, as he is very powerful
7. Curious about Maggie’s power- and if or what it will change as the book goes.
8. Silveren- Will he pull a Hugh after the trilogy, or die in book 2…
9. Also, massively curious about the chain of events that needed the guilt pre-cursor for the thing to do the thinging.
I had other thoughts but they usually pop out during a reread and I can remember these atm. Super excited to see where the world goes. Thank you Authorlords for the hours of escape and worlds of magic.
+1 to all of this
So thankful for this snippet! ModR you are the Champion of the BDH! 💐 🏅 👑
WHEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! SNIPPET SUCCESS!!! MOD R 4 EVER!
The BGH is hungry, thank you for feeding us this snippet! Thank you TOR for allowing it, and Ilona and Gordon for writing it.
Sigh… that should be “BDH”
Mod R the Horde wrangler, the keeper of House Andrews book secrets, the pleader of snippets on the Horde’s behalf, and the Mod extraordinaire. Thank you for the Friday snippet.
The wait for the entire book continues…at least I’m listening to Graphic Audio’s Magic Clams…I mean Magic Claims. 😂😂 The Horde claims the clams!
Yay for a snippet!!! My immediate reaction after yay was MOAR 😂
Will we find out who the noble was that raised Silveren? I’m assuming it was someone also named Silveren/from that family.
Are dursan native to Rellas? Are they endangered since they are a symbol of Ralinbor’s battle against Sauven? Silveren presumably lost a lot of them at the recent battle and most people don’t see them casually in Kair Toran so wondering if they are dying off?
It is not enough. 😫 it will never be enough.
Gaaaahhhhhh! Mod R! You are our hero!!!!
Happy sigh . . . thank you for writing the wonderful snippet Ilona and Gordon, and for wrenching it out of Tor Mod R, you are all the bees knees.
Hooray to Mod R! You have magical powers…
I very much LOL’ed at this line: “Silveren was basically Hamlet except that he wasn’t a brooding nincompoop. ”
I went to seen Hamlet a couple months ago.. actors were great, but I had forgotten 2 things:
1. how bloody long that play is… we left at intermission because it was late and there was STILL 1.5 hours to go.
2. how much Hamlet is a whiny b*tch
Maggie is not a whiny b*tch.. so long may she not die!
Mod R you are our hero!! What a treat! I’m so excited about TCWNRM😍
Here’s my question – will there be any book subscription special editions. I want to try to get on the waiting list of those subscriptions so I can get a copy! 🙂 I missed out on Owlcrate and am kicking myself for canceling the sub months before.
We will announce the special editions as soon as we are allowed to do so by contract 🙂
Mod R ROCKS!!!! Not to mention House Andrews 🙂 Thanks so much for this snippet – I’ve been feeling pins and needles with the ending of the first book…
yaay…snippet. Thank you so much
I’m wondering is Solentine deliberately didn’t tell Maggie that Ramond was alive because he knew he was planning on proposing.
Thank you Mod R! Thank you!!
OMG, this set up is exactly the way I thought it would go. I can’t wait. I love the juxtaposition of how romance novels go against real her real life
I giggle at her exasperation every time one of the males in the story go to romance “type”. The tropes aren’t as fun in real life vs the romance novel viewpoint.
Eep!!
We are not worthy. Loud, determined, and loyal, but not worthy of the protectiveness of Mod-R, may her fingers always be able to type.
Okay so here’s a theory my third reread brought to me, that this scene is the perfect set up for (also squeee) – Adam Latour was an our-world transplant (like Maggie) that lived the whole sequence of events in Rellas and wrote it down as a historical document for himself in our world. He was somehow able to use his brand of magic to travel back and forth at will (or like on once in a while events like All-Hallows-Day), and on his third attempt back, was taken by Silveren (or Silveren’s successor depending on how far down the timeline he lived). There is some magic in Silveren’s family line that lets him detect people that are transplants between worlds, that’s how he zeroed in on Maggie at once, even though she looked entirely unremarkable. And Adam then died, because Adam’s magic was teleportation not Undying-ness. And so Maggie has been transplanted into Rellas, back in time, in his stead. Please someone say they at least understand what I have written.
That’s a fun and new theory! (and completely follow-able)
Thank you!
We are chalantly squee-ing, and alarming our animals in the process.
Can i ask if this one will be in Waterstones UK like the first one? If yes will the release date be the same?
Hip, hip, hooray for Mod R’s worthiness as the champion of the horde! ⚔️
Yeah!
I can’t WAIT until September!! I’ve already preordered my copy! Can’t wait to meet y’all tomorrow at the Texas Book Festival!
Mod R loves us!
Thank you Mod R!!
Thank you Mod R!
Questions:
Does Solantine know Maggie can resurrect?
The scrolls made Clovers hands tingle; does she have magic?
Will we find out who LaTour is?
Are Maggie and Everard separated for all of TCWNRM?
hahahaha I was just telling the new readers on Reddit that we wouldn’t get any snippets because Tor keeps the book under lock and key. But we have Mod R to fight for the BHD! Thank you so much for the snippet ❤️