It's release day for Chain of Grey • The Narvan #2!
You can find your copy at your favorite online bookseller or request it from your local bookstore. If you'd like your library to carry it, you can request that too. The Narvan series is available in both print and ebook.
Chain of Grey (Book 2): Amazon / Kobo / B&N
Trust (Book 1) is also being re-released. Amazon / Kobo / B&N
Due to the virus outbreak, my March and April book signings have been cancelled, but I will be happy to sign a book for you at any future events once this chaos gets under control. Let's hope that happens soon.
Life outside the Narvan is not as ideal as Vayen would like. His job is unfulfilling, the people aren't his, and even after five years, Anastassia still hasn't quite forgiven him for stranding them in obscurity.
Vayen's idle daydreams of returning to the Narvan turn into a nightmare with an assassination attempt. Old friends have become enemies and old enemies are even less happy to see him. Threats barrage him from all sides, endangering not only his own life but those of his family.
There are too many hands vying for the Narvan, sinking the system into chaos. Vayen's well-intentioned plans have blown up and his homeworld, along with everyone else is suffering. Putting the Narvan together again means showing his face to the High Council, who will want to make an example of him for betraying their trust.
Staying out of it will get him killed. Unfortunately, his odds with jumping into it aren't much better.
Here's a sneak peek of the opening of Chain Of Grey...
I didn’t think my shipping business was overly successful, not to the point where anyone would want me dead because of it. But as I lay there on the floor, observing the fine spray of my blood on my office wall, I had to consider that I might be wrong.
Heavy footsteps drew closer.
Damn. I knew I was rusty, but it was still disappointing to know that I’d not done any serious damage with the two knives I’d managed to throw before toppling from my chair. I tried to peer around my desk, but my body wouldn’t cooperate.
Rhaine was going to be pissed when I missed dinner yet again.
The footsteps stopped. Something tingled inside my head. The telepathic barriers I’d erected years ago dissolved as my strength faded. The tingle came again as someone invaded my mind. It was a familiar touch, one that sent my head reeling as much as the blood loss.
The blurry form of my killer loomed over me. “Oh Fuck! Vayen? Is that really you? You’re alive?”
***
Whispers told me I was dreaming, but I ignored them in favor of enjoying a quiet meal with my family. We sat around the table in our little house on Veria Minor, Ikeri shoving sweet yellow fruit into her mouth until her cheeks were bulging, Daniel looking guilty, and Rhaine giving me a look that said I should ask why. I didn’t. Instead, I slowly ate the meal I’d made after coming home from my day at Dugans, savoring this normal moment I’d never thought to have.
A moment that wouldn’t exist if the High Council hadn’t drugged me into forming a bond with my partner. If they hadn’t demanded that I kill her. If we both hadn’t had to give up what we’d worked so damned hard for and ended up here, around this table.
Ikeri giggled. Juice dripped down her chin. I laughed, ignoring the pressure in my head that was likely the warehouse informing me of a late shipment. Rhaine and I had agreed on no work or datapads at the table. I’d deal with it in the morning.
Except, it occurred to me that it wasn’t a message on a datapad. I tried to will the pressure away. I’d closed off all my telepathic contacts from my previous life. Other than Daniel, who was sitting right there picking at his dinner, no one else in our colony was telepathic. Beyond that, my link was gone. No one should be in my head in any manner.
My hand itched for a gun, but I hadn’t used one of those in five years. They were safely locked away in a chest in a closet under the armored coat I’d folded up upon arriving on Minor. For peace of mind, I allowed myself two small knives when I left the house, but I was home now and they were put away. I didn’t need weapons anymore, certainly not in my own home.
We were safe here. I picked up my fork and ate another bite.
Ikeri slid off her chair and grabbed my hand, tugging me toward the common room where we sat most nights to watch the local vids. Rhaine was talking as I stood. I had the sense that she was telling me what trouble Daniel had gotten himself into, but the words I heard were wrong, muffled, confused. It wasn’t her voice, but a familiar man’s voice. One I didn’t want to think about. Ikeri tugged at me again, more insistent and with more strength than I expected. I started to fall.
I woke with a gasp to a view I never thought I’d see again. I prayed to Geva I’d stepped out of one dream and into another, but when I blinked for the tenth time, the cold metal room was still there. The grey metal ceiling, metal walls, crisp white sheets on the narrow bed, my old clothes on the shelf beside me—my room on the buried ship on Frique.
Merkief stood over me with his hands clasped together as if he’d been praying. “I’m so sorry. If I had had any idea you were Isnar K’turoc, I would never have taken the job. I swear. It wasn’t one of your known aliases, and it was just a quick and easy contract, no setup.” He grimaced. “Sorry, not to make you feel insignificant.”
“It’s all right. That’s what I was going for.”
Had I ever really been gone? Being on the ship again made my years on Veria Minor seem almost surreal.
