Title: Soothsayer
Author: Cari Z
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: January 30
Length: 68200
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Synopsis
Cillian Kelly can look into people’s eyes and see their fates. He’s running from a past filled with mistakes, lying low and selling his services on the sly. When he learns that Sören Egilsson, a man who sacrificed himself so Cillian could escape imprisonment two years ago, is somehow still alive, Cillian has to find out how. What he gets is the body of the man he loves possessed by an ancient spirit who draws Cillian into a battle to the death for the right to control Sören’s fate, and the power that comes with it.
Kelly Doesn’t Get A Puppy
The vision, when it came, was debilitating.
They always were, after she’d been talking to Cillian. The migraine would descend upon her with warning whispers and sparkling lights, and if she didn’t find a place to sit down fast, she’d fall down. The feedback consumed her, left her brain screaming and her body helpless. It could be hours before she came out of it, or occasionally more than a day.
This time it was hours, and Kelly came to with a bloody nose and a numb arm from how she’d laid on it. She wiped her upper lip with a handkerchief and made a face at the bloodstain she’d left on the couch. Damn. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about it being permanent.
Kelly wasn’t quite like Cillian. Under the right circumstances—usually, whenever she interacted with her son—she got glimpses of her own potential futures. And right now she could see the target that was going to be placed on her home, and how another her, the one that hadn’t talked to her son, burned to death as a result. Good grief, these Egillsons were serious.
Well, this was the end of her Canadian adventure. It had been nice while it had lasted, and it had lasted for more than a decade, so she really couldn’t complain. There was just one loose end to tie up. Kelly wiped her face again, then reached for her cell phone and dialed her neighbor. “Dana? About the puppy you offered me. Something’s come up, and I won’t be staying here much longer, so I can’t take it after all. But I’ve got another home in mind for it.”
It would make a nice early birthday present for Cillian.
Soothsayer
Cari Z © 2017
All Rights Reserved
My phone buzzed, interrupting my musing. I frowned as I pulled it out of my jacket pocket. Only a dozen people had this number, and I wasn’t expecting to talk to any of them any time soon. I unlocked it and looked at my new message.
Move ten paces to the right.
My feet were moving even before my brain caught up, obedience was so instinctual. Two seconds later, I was out of the mouth of the alley, and three seconds after that, a beat-up silver sedan coming down the road was clipped by a delivery van and veered straight into the corner of the building. It wasn’t moving fast, thankfully, but the crash was plenty loud, especially since I was just a few feet away from the point of impact.
A memory flashed through my mind, one of my personal rare and painful gems. I was in the backseat of an old Lincoln, and I was very small. My feet wouldn’t have touched the floor even if I hadn’t had my knees squished to my chest, and my face was pressed to the knobby joints so hard they were leaving red blotches on my cheeks. The man driving was on a phone—an old-school cell phone, clunky in his hand, distracting. He wasn’t paying attention, but I knew the moment before the car was hit and covered my head with my hands, so when I went flying into the door, it didn’t hurt as much. Metal crunched, and bright spots flashed across the darkness behind my eyelids as the car spun and spun…
I shook my head and took a deep breath, focusing on the present. The van hadn’t stopped, but I didn’t bother trying to catch its license plate number―there were plenty of people exclaiming and getting on their phones. I headed over to the driver’s side and opened the door, but didn’t reach in to touch the woman who had been driving. She was moving under her own power, picking her head up off the remains of her airbag and whimpering softly. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…”
“It’s all right,” I said gently. I might not be a martyr, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t feel compassion for another person, especially one who’d just been thrown into a wall. “You’re okay. Just a little accident. There’s an ambulance coming to help you.” I could already hear it in the distance. We were only a few blocks from a major hospital. “Can you look at me for a moment?” She blearily turned, and as soon as our eyes met, I sighed and backed out of the way. One of the employees at the auto-painting store took my place, and a second later—bam. The fucking Ace of Cups moment. Who found true love as a result of a car accident? This wasn’t exactly the heartwarming scene I’d envisioned getting me through the day earlier.
“Are you all right?” the newcomer asked frantically. “What’s your name? I’m Felix. I’m gonna stay with you until the ambulance gets here, okay? Oh Jesus, are you all right?”
“I’m…I think so?” the woman said, her voice gaining a little bit of strength. “I’m Paula.”
“Paula, hey.” He smiled at her, and she smiled back. I rolled my eyes. “Nice to meet you.”
For fuck’s sake. Well, at least the settlement from the trucking company would give them a nice nest egg to get their new place together. I turned away and walked to the end of the block before getting out my phone again and making a call.
She picked up on the second ring. “Hi, baby.”
“What, you can see me getting smeared across a wall, but you don’t bother to let me know about having a gun pulled on me?”
“Cillian.” My mother sounded half apologetic, half resigned. “You know it doesn’t work like that.”
Yes, fine, I did know that, but I didn’t feel like being reasonable right now. “So you didn’t see that this morning, then?”
“Did you need me to see it?”
I wasn’t about to go down the self-sufficiency road with her. It meant a surefire argument, and I was still buzzing with adrenalin from being so close to the car crash.
“No,” I said flatly. “I guess not.”
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Cari Z. is a Colorado girl who loves snow and sunshine. She writes award-winning LGBTQ fiction featuring aliens, supervillains, soothsayers, and even normal people sometimes.
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1/30 On Top Down Under
1/31 Love Bytes – www.lovebytesreviews.com
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I honestly can’t wait to read this. Cari Z. has been a favorite since I read the changing world series. I have been going thru her books like wildfire because they’re so good!