Blood Winter
Authors: Diana Pharaoh Francis
Praise for the Horngate Witches series
“Strongly crafted world building, with exciting nonstop action and main and supporting characters that are vivid and varied.”
—
Sci Fi Guy
“One of the most intriguing and compelling urban fantasy series around.”
—
RT Book Reviews
“A series to remember.”
—
Fresh Fiction
“The tough, feel-good supernatural fights . . . will keep action fans coming back for book after book.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Outstanding writing and characters. A must read.”
—
Hub Pages
“Reading a Horngate Witches book is a bit like watching a big summer movie. Action! Explosions! Impossibly tough characters doing awesome things! It’s a heck of a ride.”
—
Fantasy Literature
BITTER NIGHT
“This lush urban fantasy populated with witches, angels, Sunspears, and Shadowblades contains all the decadent delights of dark chocolate. One taste, and you’d devour this book.”
—Ann Aguirre, national bestselling author of
Grimspace
and
Enclave
“Max is a volcano of seething anger and hatred. . . . Readers are sucked into this chilling world. Awesome!”
—
RT Book Reviews
“High-energy, gritty.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Dark, unique, and electrifying.”
—Faith Hunter, author of
Skinwalker
CRIMSON WIND
“A complex heroine, darkly twisted setting, and high sexual tension.”
—
Fresh Fiction
“A fast-paced thrill ride. . . . The novel [goes] from zero to sixty in a matter of pages. . . . Phenomenal world building, entrancing characters, and a thrilling plot make this a must read for urban fantasy and paranormal romance lovers alike!”
—
Black Lagoon Reviews
“Max is back and lucky for readers, her life hasn’t gotten any less complicated. . . . Readers should hang on tight, for this second Horngate Witches novel is filled with massive danger and gritty struggles for survival. You won’t be able to put this one down!”
—
RT Book Reviews
(4
1
/
2
stars)
“An exciting thriller. . . . With an incredible ending to an action-packed tale, readers will clamor for the third book in Francis’s excellent epic saga.”
—
Alternative Worlds
“Once again, Max proves to be one of the top urban fantasy heroines. She’s tough, actually cares about people, and is big enough to admit when she’s made a mistake. I loved watching her grow in
Crimson Wind,
both as a leader and a woman.”
—
Bitten by Books
SHADOW CITY
“Amazing, fascinating, spellbinding. . . . Francis has a gem of a series in her hands, and this book is top-notch action and fantasy rolled into one. . . . A must read series for all urban fantasy readers.”
—
Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Reviews
“Max is an awesome heroine. She packs a lot of punch and is kind of a bad-ass. . . . There was never a dull moment. Francis does a wonderful job at keeping the reader in suspense throughout the book.”
—
Boekie’s Book Reviews
“The latest Horngate Witches thriller is a great entry due to the actions and reactions of the lead characters. . . . Readers will relish this strong urban fantasy.”
—
Genre Go Round Reviews
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Contents
To Tony, Q-ball, and Syd. I love you all dearly.
Acknowledgments
I HAVE SO MANY PEOPLE TO THANK FOR HELPING ME
with this book on so many levels. To start, I’d like to thank my wonderful and supportive family. Your patience and support mean the world to me and have kept me sane. Tony has been a rock, and Quentin and Syd are the light in my life.
Thanks also go to Lucienne Diver for being an amazing agent; Adam Wilson, who is a fabulous and patient editor; Wendy Keebler, who is an amazing copy editor; Julia Fincher, who makes sure things get done; and to everyone else at Pocket Books who helped make this book happen.
For those of you who contributed to the book in other ways, like beta reading, critiquing, helping with the title—thank you: Barb Cass, Christy Keyes, Megan Glasscock, Paula Richey, and Missy Sawmiller.
I’ve had a lot of support from my fellow writers in the war room. Thanks to all of you for the companionship and the cheerleading and the commiseration when needed. Thanks also to the folks on Twitter, LJ, FB, and my blog. Your support and camaraderie have been so important to me.
And last but not least, thank you to my readers. Thank you for reading my books and spreading the word. I could not do this thing that I love so much without you.
W
HAT IS THIS STUFF
?”
As Tyler complained, he brushed at his clothing. A streak of bright red dust clung to the shirt wrapping his lean, muscular frame. His long blond hair was tied at the base of his neck, and he sported a Three Musketeers-style mustache and beard.
Max sipped at the concoction in her glass, wincing at the thick, syrupy taste. Now that food was getting a lot harder to come by, Magpie, a Circle-level witch and the covenstead’s cook, had come up with a high-calorie drink made from honey, berries, and who knew what else. It tasted like the worst kind of cough medicine, but Shadowblades and Sunspears didn’t have much choice. They needed a minimum of twenty thousand calories a day each to fuel the spells that created them, and going to Costco or Walmart for tubs of peanut butter and pallets of power bars was no longer an option. The Ugly Juice, as everybody was quietly calling it when Magpie’s back was turned, was the only answer they had come up with.
“Maybe you rubbed up against something,” she suggested unhelpfully as the red smudge refused to budge. “Or someone.” She lifted a brow suggestively.
“The same something—or someone—you rubbed up against?” He glared at her arm. His blue eyes burned in his narrow face, and he spun a knife around the fingers of his left hand. It never seemed to leave his grip anymore. Like a deadly security blanket. He was perpetually angry, always needing to move. As if he was hunted.
Max glanced down at herself and frowned. A streak of red dust ran down her forearm. She wiped at it. The stuff might as well have been spray paint. She shrugged and gave up. “Probably something one of the witches concocted. Likely Kyle,” she said, wincing again.
Her brother had all the power of a Triangle witch and all the training and self-control of a toddler. He tended to experiment with spells before considering the consequences, with frequently messy and sometimes dire results.
“He needs a keeper,” Tyler said, taking half a biscuit drenched in gravy and offering it to the beast lying at his feet.
The Grim stared up at him with unworldly green eyes for a long moment, before closing Tyler’s entire hand in her jaws and scraping off the biscuit, leaving welts across his skin. The creature was at least two hundred fifty pounds of pure muscle and stood about three feet tall at the shoulder. Her bearlike fur was blue-black, developing into a ruff behind her heavy, square head. Her tail curled around her legs.
“Nice doggy,” Max said, eyeing the scrapes on Tyler’s hand. His healing spells kicked in instantly, and a moment later they vanished. “What’s she do when she’s pissed off at you?”
He looked down at the Grim. The beast looked like a cross between a dog and a bear, but she was something far more magical and dangerous. Not to mention unpredictable, moody, and very possessive of Tyler.
He grimaced, and then the corner of his mouth turned up reluctantly. “It’s not what she does when she’s pissed that’s the question, it’s what she does if she isn’t.
That
I’m still waiting to find out.”
Max snorted. “You do seem to attract sketchy women.”
“Like you?”
“I was thinking of the witch-bitch herself. Giselle.”
He chuckled. “You’ve got a point there. Apparently, I like hard-assed women with vicious tendencies.”
“Good thing, too, given that you’re surrounded by them. And sleeping with one,” she said, jerking her chin at the Grim. “Does she hog the bed?”
Tyler winced. “More like I
am
the bed. I usually wake up with her sprawled across me and with a mouthful of dog hair.”
“Sounds romantic.”
“Shut up. What about Beyul? Alexander’s Grim doesn’t exactly strike me as the sort to sleep at the foot of the bed.”
“He likes the couch.”
“What about Spike?”
Spike was a Calopus and looked a lot like a silver wolf, except for the two thin horns that curved from her skull and the multitude of poison spines along her back, chest, sides, and tail. She had taken a liking to Max and had become her regular companion. Just at the moment, she slept under the table, her chin resting on Max’s foot.
