Witch Creek
The Wildlands Series, #2
by
Laura Bickle
Date of Publication:
February 27th 2018
Publisher: Harper
Voyager
Genre: Dark Fantasy
In
the backcountry of Yellowstone, evil moves below the surface . . .
Following
Nine of Stars comes the next chapter in Laura Bickle's critically acclaimed
Wildlands series.
BLURB
As the daughter of an alchemist, Petra Dee
has battled supernatural horrors and experienced astonishing wonders. But
there’s no magic on earth that can defeat her recent cancer diagnosis, or help
find her missing husband, Gabriel. Still, she would bet all her remaining days
that the answer to his disappearance lies in the dark subterranean world
beneath the Rutherford Ranch on the outskirts of Temperance, Wyoming.
Gabe is being held prisoner by the sheriff
and heir to the ranch, Owen Rutherford. Owen is determined to harness the power
of the Tree of Life—and he needs Gabe to reveal its magic. Secretly, the
sheriff has also made a pact to free a creature of the underground, a
flesh-devouring mermaid. Muirenn has vowed to exact vengeance on Gabe, who
helped imprison her, but first . . . she's hungry. Once freed, she will swim
into Yellowstone—to feed.
With her coyote sidekick Sig, Petra must
descend into the underworld to rescue Gabe before it's too late . . . for both
of them.
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Excerpt:
Peering
through the cattails, she saw a man with a fishing pole, standing on an
outcropping. He seemed alone, caught in a bit of reverie, gazing at his line
skipping along the surface of the water.
She
dipped below the surface of the water, toward the shiver of the fishing line.
With green-spotted fingers, she lifted the struggling fish from the hook. The
line jerked away.
The man
swore.
Muirenn
lifted her head above the water.
“Holy
shit.” The man stumbled backward. “I didn’t realize you were swimming there . .
. I . . .”
His
expression changed from embarrassment to curiosity as he looked at her. The
pupils of his eyes dilated. “Who . . . are you?”
Muirenn
gripped the fish close to her chest, giving a small smile.
The
fisherman crouched on the rock, setting his pole beside him. “Wow. You’re uh .
. . green? Is that real?”
Muirenn
cocked her head and slipped forward a bit in the water. The edge of her tail
skimmed above the surface.
“Is that
like . . . one of those tails that the girls have at that park in Florida? For
a movie or something?” His suntanned brow wrinkled. “No. That’s real,” he
decided. “You, um . . . want the fish? You can have it.”
She was
within arm’s length of him. She released the squirming fish into the water.
“You
wanted to let it go? Look, I . . .”
The man
talked too much. She swam closer, tentatively.
The
fisherman looked at her, at her dappled skin and the dark rust hair spreading
into the water. She wouldn’t ordinarily have been so bold. The weight off her
tail was going to her head. She let him take in the black of her eyes, the
gills on her throat. He gazed in wonder, and his fingers twitched to a small
square piece of plastic on top of his tackle box.
“Can I
take your picture? What . . . are you?”
A smile
played across her lips, and she spoke to him in a silvery voice. “I’m the
Mermaid.”
“Wow. I .
. . wow. I’m, uh, Norm. Do I, like, make a wish or something?”
“You can,
if you want. I’ll listen.”
She
reached up with delicate fingers to touch him. Her fingers brushed the pockets
of his fishing vest, playing with wonder over the bits and baubles there meant
to lure the attention of fish. The man forgot about his camera and stared,
transfixed.
Muirenn
reached up for his collar . . .
. . . and
dragged him down into the water.
He
splashed and flailed. She brought him down—down to the bottom of the creek. It
wasn’t so far, but it was far enough for a land dweller. He couldn’t fight her
for long. He thrashed until his lungs grew heavy with creek water. He convulsed
as the lack of oxygen reached his heart and filtered up to his brain. And then
he stopped.
Muirenn
grinned, showing row upon row of shark-like teeth. She ripped off his arm and
began to chew. It had been so long since she’d had anything but the errant fish
that wandered into her realm . . . this was a meal worth waiting for.
The creek
ran red.
Red as
the idle red-and-white bobber drifting on the surface of the water.
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Author
Info
Laura Bickle grew up in rural
Ohio, reading entirely too many comic books out loud to her favorite Wonder
Woman doll. After graduating with an MA in Sociology – Criminology from Ohio
State University and an MLIS in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
she patrolled the stacks at the public library and worked with data systems in
criminal justice. She now dreams up stories about the monsters under the
stairs, also writing contemporary fantasy novels under the name Alayna Williams.
Her work has been included in the
ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project 2013 reading list and the State Library of Ohio’s
Choose to Read Ohio reading list for 2015-2016.
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