Meet the Savannah Conclave
Three days!!! Ward Breaker comes out Friday.
Book 3 takes Gideon out of the Florida panhandle and drops him into Savannah, and Savannah comes with its own Conclave. I fell in love with this crew while I was writing them, so here’s a quick introduction before you meet them for real.
Director Marguerite Kedros. A dryad. She runs the Savannah Conclave out of a headquarters that has been hidden behind a warding glamour since the 1850s. She is very tall, very calm, and always barefoot. When she steps out of a car onto a hot street, everybody stops talking. Rosalind Brenner, the most dangerous pyromancer in the city, has been threatening to have her replaced. Kedros does not seem worried.
Thane. The Conclave’s driver. Immaculate black suit, chauffeur’s cap, scarred knuckles, and an aura that hits Gideon like a sledgehammer the second he steps off the plane. He is a minotaur, he is unfailingly polite, and he calls Gideon “Mr. Bean” no matter how many times he’s asked not to.
Leonhard. You met his voice in Books 1 & 2. Now you get to see him. Gideon was expecting a nerd with a pocket protector. What he gets is a surprise – Leonard is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma (thanks Churchill) –that can scrub a Mythical firefight off three social media platforms before lunch.
Agent MacGuire. Also back from Book 2, still a gargoyle, still the most irritated person in any room. You will see his true form in this book. You will also see a side of him that surprised me while I was writing it.
Rosalind Brenner. Not Conclave. The matriarch of an old Savannah pyromancer family whose five-year-old grandson was the first child taken. Her house has had fire burning in every hearth for two hundred years, and she has promised to burn the city down before she buries a child. I believe her. So does Gideon.
And of course Dacey, Wiz, Santos, Quinn, and Vena are all here, and Dacey and Gideon finally have a date on the calendar. Whether they get to keep it is another matter.
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One more sneak peek, because I can’t help myself. This is the end of the Fourth of July party in Chapter 2. Pastor Simon has just wandered off after interrupting a moment.
“You know,” Dacey said pleasantly once Simon was out of earshot, “I think your mother sent him.”
“She did not send Pastor Simon to—”
“She one hundred percent did.”
He opened his mouth and closed it again, because honestly, he wasn’t certain Dacey was wrong. He looked down at her, and something about the way she was watching him – amused and warm and waiting – made him decide to say the thing he’d been turning over in his head since the moment she’d arrived.
“I really, really like you, Dace. Let me show you how much. I would love to take you to dinner,” he said. “A real dinner. Next Friday, somewhere nice. I’ll drive up to Tallahassee, so you don’t have to make the trip here.”
Dacey was quiet for a second. Then the corner of her mouth curved up, slow and deliberate.
“Yeah, okay.” She tilted her head slightly and gave him a playfully assessing look. “Pack a bag.”
His mouth went dry.
She held his gaze long enough to make sure he’d understood her correctly, which he had, absolutely and with complete clarity. Blood rushed up his neck, and his pulse kicked into overdrive.
“Maybe this time we won’t get interrupted,” she said.
“Yeah.” His voice came out as a croak. “Hopefully not.”
She stepped closer, and he met her halfway. His hand came up to her jaw, and then she was kissing him. Her hand gripped the front of his shirt and pulled him even closer, and everything else – the fireworks, the warm night, the whole street – went very far away. All that was left was the soft pressure of her mouth, the heat of her skin, and his heart hammering loud enough that he was sure Dacey could feel it under her palm. When she pulled back, her eyes glowed with fire, and it took all of his willpower not to pull Dacey back for another kiss.
“Something to look forward to,” she said. “Goodnight, Gideon.”
“Goodnight, Dace.” His voice came out rougher than he’d intended it to.
“Hey, Giddy?”
He cleared his throat. “Yeah?”
“I really, really like you too.”