BLURB:
With the rift closed for the season and no more monsters to fight, Daelin Long gets bored as librarian in the podunk town of Settler, Oregon. A job interview and her brother's arrival present a tempting opportunity to escape, until her brother and her best friend, a ghost, disappear.
While Daelin searches for them, more mysteries pile up: dead people coming back to life, portraits of the town founders replaced with strange white trees, and people on the other side of the rift returning. It’s impossible. The portal that allows monsters from other universes to come to Earth is sealed until next summer.
The Rifters, a secret group protecting our world, believe the troubles are nothing more than the tantrums of an offended ghost. Daelin disagrees. If she’s right, the evil hell-bent on destroying Earth has new technology making the rift more deadly.
Before the monster summons the next apocalypse, Daelin must find it and destroy it.
Book 3 in the Rifter series.
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EXCERPT:
“The oath keeps me from leaving. The whole ‘to unswear is to die’ thing.” Yeah, the possibility of death and the pleas from her sister for help had kept Daelin Long rooted. Also the lack of response to the résumés she had sent out. New York City and the big publishers had less interest in her since she had taken up a residence three thousand miles away in the tiny town of Settler, Oregon.
“As long as you don’t betray our secrets, you’re free to leave the Rifters. Do you want out?”
Daelin had promised her sister, Charming. What her sister needed her for, Daelin couldn’t quite figure out. It had something to do with the beings who regulated the rift, the Governors, an enemy disguised as allies. In a weird way, it made sense. The rift distorted common stones into killer bees. It twisted ghosts into murdering phantoms. It had altered her sister into a warrior who didn’t hesitate to kill. “Sometimes I think so.”
“Well, I hope you decide to stay in Settler whether you remain in the Rifters or not. You add life to our little town.”
“I’ve lots to think about, so I won’t do anything rash. Besides, the kind of crazy happening around here is better than a blockbuster summer movie.”
“Noted. I’ll make popcorn for you this evening. After you close the library at four o’clock, come to my office so I can expand your tattoo.” She bowed spryly for her age, a benefit of being with the Rifters for so long. The connection with the portal energy boosted vitality, speed, and strength. Not to superhuman abilities, but to better than average. Sabina moved like a twenty year old.
Daelin glanced down at the tattoo of blue and purple panels resembling stained glass on her wrist. Copper and gold wires glowed, snaking through the tinted panels. “You’re going to promote me to Reader, despite my constant failure to trust in all things?”
Sabina fixed the floral polyester scarf around her neck and picked her way over the rocky ground out of the clearing. The morning had taken hold enough to detect shapes and hazards under foot, and the hint of dawn broke over the dark hulks of the twin eastern peaks shrouding Settler. The town sat inside the caldera of an ancient volcano. “You trust where it counts. The rift has behaved peculiar this year. For one, it hasn’t opened since end of June. The quiet is unsettling, and a feeling nags at me. Someone asking questions could be in our best interests.” She pressed a crooked finger to her thin lips. “Which will remain between us.”
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M. Pax is author of the space adventure series The Backworlds and the urban fantasy series The Rifters. Fantasy, science fiction, and the weird beckons to her, and she blames Oregon, a source of endless inspiration. She ghost hunts for fun with a group of curiosity seekers, docents at Pine Mountain Observatory in the summers as a star guide, has a cat with a crush on Mr. Spock, and is slightly obsessed with Jane Austen.
Learn more at mpaxauthor.com.
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