Visit the World of the Steel & Stone Series by Annette Marie in the Highly Anticipated Finale, UNLEASH THE STORM
Piper started out as a magic-less apprentice
only to become the wielder of the most powerful weapon in existence, but the
cost of that power has been blood and pain.
As she and Ash retreat into the Underworld to escape the coming daemon
war, he’s all she has left – but if she can’t find her strength, she’ll soon
lose him to dangers in his world that even he can’t fight. Read the
exhilarating conclusion to the Amazon best-selling YA urban fantasy series in
UNLEASH THE STORM by Annette Marie…
People are raving about the Steel & Stone series!
I could not put
it down! It had everything I want to read in a UF – action, great characters,
awesome world building, diverse species, secrets and lies, twists and turns and
a smidge of romance…. Now I want more! – Book Passion For Life
Celebrate
the Release with a Giveaway!
Grand Prize: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (Open
U.S. & Canada) + Steel & Stone
Bundle Set
~International
winner would receive a $100 gift card instead of a Paperwhite~
4 Runner-Ups will receive copies of the Steel & Stone Bundle Set
Here
is the embed code for the Rafflecopter:
Rafflecopter
Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b050ef29187/?
Piper thought she
could handle the Sahar, the most powerful magical weapon in existence. She
thought she could protect her loved ones and stop a war. She thought she could
make a difference.
She was wrong, and
her mistakes were paid for in blood.
Leaving her
world—and her failures—behind, she retreats to the Underworld with Ash and the
other draconians. They forge deep into long abandoned mountains, the first
draconians to fly the valleys and passes in centuries—or so they thought. Until
now, Ash’s mysterious heritage has been nothing but a name, but his presence
does not go unnoticed. A new danger stalks him, one that may be even greater
than what they escaped.
Cut off from the
power she’d come to rely on and lost in a world where she doesn’t belong, Piper
has never felt so hopeless. But she must find her strength, and find it
quickly, before she loses Ash to an ancient power he can’t fight, before her
home is devastated by the daemon war, and before her mind, body, and soul are
consumed by the Sahar’s insidious magic.
On Sale in Digital: March 4,
2016
A thirteenth griffin
dropped through the opening in the ceiling to land in the center of the aisle.
Golden hair brushed across his face, most of it captured in a thick braid that
hung down to his waist. Topaz jewels on fine white gold chains had been woven
through the plait, making it glitter. His clothing was a mixture of rich red
silks and light armor, as beautiful as it was functional. He held a long sword
in one hand.
His eyes, normally a
bright yellow-green, were black as pitch as they locked on her like a lion
stalking an injured gazelle.
“Miysis.” She couldn’t
help the cautious note in her voice.
He lifted his blade
out to one side of his body, a casual but attack-ready position.
“Piper. Draw your
sword.” The words were an icy croon in his impossibly melodic voice, almost as
beautiful as Lyre’s incubus harmonics.
Oh shit. It was pretty
safe to say he knew exactly who had killed his sister, and he intended to kill
Piper for it in a formal execution of justice.
“Miysis—” she began.
He gave the tip of his
sword a little flick—some kind of signal. His soldiers surged into motion,
moving blindingly fast. In seconds, they had surrounded her and Miysis,
creating a circle around them. Miysis glided a few steps closer to her, his
black eyes not shifting from her face. His golden-brown wings were folded
behind his back and his tail swished slowly behind him, the end flaring in a
fan of feathers.
“Miysis, can we—” she
tried again.
“Draw your sword.” He
lifted his, light sliding across the shining steel, and she knew that was her
last warning.
Check out
the entire Steel & Stone series!
CHASE THE DARK (Steel & Stone Book 1)
Every
gun was pointed at her. This time she knew they meant business. The prefects
she hadn’t permanently downed took a few steps back, getting out of the potential
crossfire.
“Hit one more of my men and we’ll
open fire,” the man at the back called. “Lie on the floor with your hands on
the back of your head. Now!”
Before she could obey and get
arrested, or disobey and get shot, the air rippled. Electricity filled the
atmosphere, crackling like lightning about to strike. She heard a weird rushing
sound, then there was harsh breathing right behind her; someone stood at her
back.
“Are you going to shoot me?” The
voice that asked the question was deep and guttural, sepulchral and alien in a
way that froze everyone in the vicinity.
Every gun was now aimed at a point
just over Piper’s right shoulder. She tried to keep her breathing steady as
fear tightened every prefect’s face. Men who had faced the ten-foot minotaur
without batting an eyelid, trained and seasoned fighters, were staring over her
shoulder with shaking hands and pale faces.
She slowly licked her lips. “Ash?”
she whispered.
He shifted closer until he brushed
against her back. “Do you have what we need?” he breathed. The heat of his body
made her shiver.
“Yes,” she breathed back.
He huffed in relief, sounding almost
normal for a second. Then he slid one arm around her waist, delicately as
though he were afraid of accidentally crushing her.
“Don’t move or we’ll shoot,” the
prefect leader yelled.
“That,” Ash said as he extended one
hand in front of Piper, “would only make me angry.”
Piper stared at his hand, too shocked
to move or to think. His outspread fingers were black with a dull gleam like
leather, the tips smoothly forming long claws. Large black scales covered the
back of his hand and ran up the top of his arm like an armguard. The scales
gave way to human skin, leaving the underside of his arm disconcertingly
normal. Somehow, that was even freakier.
The air grew hot around them. It
sizzled. The lead prefect jerked like he was about to yell the word that would
riddle Piper and Ash with bullets, then light flashed in Ash’s palm and
everything exploded for a second time.
BIND THE SOUL (Steel & Stone Book 2)
“Piper!” he roared.
She bolted, arms flailing for balance
as she ran for the waiting car. The back door opened. She caught a glimpse of
Miysis before he moved back to make room for her.
“Piper, get back in here right now!”
She dove into the darkness of the
car. Miysis reached across her and pulled the door closed as the car began
moving. Piper glanced out the window in time to see Quinn running across the
lawn after her, fear stamped across his face. Her insides squirmed with guilt.
He couldn’t know who owned the black car and he couldn’t have seen Miysis in
the shadowy interior. All he’d seen was his daughter, wearing a dress for the
first time in years, sneaking out to a mysterious car with unknown occupants
one night after he’d found out she was possibly participating in illegal
activities. She hoped he didn’t think she’d just been picked up by a pimp.
Miysis eased back into his seat as
the car sped up. She pulled her skirt down to where it belonged and gave him a
quick once over. Her heart sank. He looked like a million bucks in a smoky gray
tux with a silvery vest and a fancy-collared shirt. His honey blond hair was
tousled in a perfect mix of messy and deliberate and his golden-green eyes
almost glowed in the dark interior of the car.
Sitting next to him, she looked
ridiculously cheap and underdressed. His gaze flicked over her stupid little
dress. He opened his mouth to speak.
“I didn’t have anything to wear,” she
wailed before he could complain. “I didn’t have anything.”
“I know,” he said with a hint of a
smile. “That’s why I brought you something.”
He pointed to a long garment bag
hanging beside him.
She blinked. “You bought me a dress?”
He smiled, by all appearances totally
serene. “You didn’t think I would let my date go in rags, did you?”
“Your—your date?” She gaped at him.
“I’m going as your date? I—I thought you were making me one of your attendants or
something.”
Daemon royalty always had a gaggle of
advisors, attendants, and bodyguards following them around.
“Really, Piper. How would I explain
the daughter of the Head Consul waiting on me? You should be glad I didn’t have
a date already.”
“But—but—” She goggled.
Miysis was one of the top-ranking
Overworld daemons. Going as his date was like going to a coronation with a
member of a royal family. She’d never imagined he would go out on a limb like
that for her. The entire political community would be gossiping about it for
months. She might be the Head Consul’s daughter, but compared to Miysis, she
was a dirt-poor commoner.
“But aren’t you worried what people
will think?” she asked.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the
looks on their faces,” he said with satisfaction. “The confusion and alarm will
be priceless. They won’t know what to make of it.”
She thought about it then shrugged.
“I guess if you don’t mind …”
He canted one eye toward her. “Do
you?”
YIELD THE NIGHT (Sttel &
Stone Book 3)
“Kindra, no—”
The daemon rose to her feet, shedding
her glamour in the same movement. Her wild red hair drifted outward, suddenly
immune to gravity. Her ears were now pointed, cheeks hollow beneath
dramatically sharp cheekbones. Her eyes were huge and black as coal. Her body,
more willowy and lightweight than ever, coiled in readiness. Narrow red
things—scales? feathers?—rose in lines on her arms like a cat’s hair standing
on end.
Before Piper could even finish her
protest, Kindra sprang out of the trees. With impossible speed, she flashed
across the expanse of lawn. Piper swore under her breath and ran out after her,
keeping low.
Kindra was on the first man before he
could turn. Piper didn’t see what Kindra did but the man screamed as he fell.
The others spun toward the daemon. She dashed away, almost too fast for the eye
to follow, then reappeared, making a grab for a second one. The third got his
gun up and fired but Kindra abandoned her target and flashed away, a dark blur.
His gun flipped up, hitting him in the face, struck by an invisible blow from
the daemon. He staggered, brandishing his rifle and wildly looking around for
Kindra.
Between the darkness, the haze of
rain, and the lethal daemon, none of them noticed Piper coming.
FEED THE FLAMES (Steel &
Stone Book 3.5)
In this
short story addition to the Steel & Stone series, discover the fate of
Seiya and Lyre following the conclusion of YIELD THE NIGHT (Steel & Stone
#3).
“So your spell will disable the
collar for . . . how long?”
“Maybe five minutes.”
She masked her shock. Most daemons
performed magic through on-the-spot spell-casting. Magic could also be woven
into materials such as metals and gemstones, but that was far more complex.
Creating weavings that could interact with other weavings was high-level magic.
She couldn’t do anything like that, and neither could Ash. Sure, they’d learned
how to set a spell in a piece of stone or metal, but they weren’t inventing
intricate, interactive weavings.
Developing new magic was the life’s
work of the most gifted daemon minds. The only daemons she knew with that kind
of talent worked at Chrysalis, Samael’s most sinister business. They’d
developed some of the most complex magic she’d ever heard of, like the collar
that had nearly killed Ash.
She studied Lyre, swallowing the
touch of suspicion trying to creep into her voice. Spell weaving wasn’t something
a daemon picked up on the fly.
“Where did you learn to make stuff
like that?”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re right.
This is the perfect time to share my life’s story.”
REAP THE SHADOWS (Steel &
Stone Book 4)
An animal snarl ripped through the
silence as the beast dove for them like a half-ton missile. She threw her hands
up and cast a shield. Black fire exploded outward when the creature slammed
into her spell. The dragon rebounded into the air, great wings beating as it
roared.
Piper spun to see that all the
apprentices were on the ground, having thrown themselves down when the monster
had charged them.
“Get up and run!” she yelled.
Lexa yanked Lee up by his arm. “Go!”
The apprentices scrambled to their feet
and bolted down the alley. Lexa ran after them, but Piper’s eyes were locked on
the second shadow. It held still, standing on the rooftop with partially spread
wings. She could feel the burn of the draconian’s gaze on her. He was here for
her.
With a frantic glance toward the
fleeing apprentices, she turned and ran between two buildings. Just before her
line of sight was cut off, she saw the dragon swoop over the heads of its prey,
letting out a terrifying roar even as it deliberately missed them by several
feet. It must be herding them away.
Fighting for calm, Piper sprinted down
the narrow passageway between buildings—too narrow for a draconian’s wingspan.
Darkness enclosed her but she didn’t dare create any light. She ran on,
stumbling over cracks and garbage. She could feel the press of the draconian’s
stare and knew he was following her, not the others.
Ahead of her, the passageway opened up
into a wide street faintly illuminated by a single streetlamp. She skidded to a
stop just short of the sidewalk, lifted her gun, and waited.
Annette Marie is the author
of the Amazon best-selling YA urban fantasy series Steel & Stone, which
includes the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award nominee Yield the Night. Her
first love is fantasy, a limitless realm of creativity where she can break
all the boring rules of real life, but fast-paced urban fantasy, bold
heroines, and tantalizing forbidden romances are her guilty pleasures. She
proudly admits she has a thing for dragons, and her editor has politely inquired
as to whether she intends to include them in every book.
Annette
lives in the frozen winter wasteland of northern Alberta, Canada (okay, it’s
not quite that bad). She shares her life with her remarkably patient,
comparatively sensible husband and their furry minion of darkness—sorry,
cat—Caesar. When not writing, she can be found elbow-deep in one art
project or another while blissfully ignoring all adult responsibilities.
No comments:
Post a Comment