It’s been hard to pull excerpts from this book because I feel like almost everything in the book is so spoilery, especially if readers haven’t read MAGIC WITHOUT MERCY yet. Today I decided to heck with the worry, let’s just get some snippets going!

I will post an excerpt every week, usually on Mondays (I tried doing it on Friday and that didn’t work, lol) until release day of November 6th. Without further ado, snippet #1

WARNING: Spoilers ahead

MAGIC FOR A PRICE – November 6, 2012

***

Zay leaned one shoulder against a column and watched me.

“Why?” I finally said, when my heart was slow enough not to make my words stutter. “Why did you tell them I would lead?”

“Because there isn’t anyone else I would follow.”

“Bull. You’ve followed the Authority all your life. Followed Victor. Followed Maeve.”

He gave me a smoldering look, his arms crossed over his wide chest. “I don’t follow them anymore, Allie. I follow you. Better than that—I stand with you. You are the only one who kept us alive on that battlefield. You are the only one the Hounds trust and follow, Stotts trusts and follows. You are the only one I trust.”

“You trust Victor.”

“As a teacher, yes.”

“You’d follow him into battle.”

He shrugged. “This isn’t just about a fight. It’s about magic. How we fix it. Who fixes it. What it will be when that is done. It would be too easy, too tempting for any other person in that room to make choices for magic I refuse to live by.”

“Like what?”

He paused, frowning as he realized I didn’t understand what he was getting at.

“The Authority is an ancient organization. It is not a democracy. We are given our positions, appointed to them by our superiors. But there is always room to move up. And every person in that room has a reason to want to be the one person with the power and ability to decide what should be done with magic.”

“Done with it?” I asked. “Heal it. Cleanse it. Fix it,” I said. “What the hell else would anyone want to do with it?”

“Control it,” he said. “Use it. Rule it. Own it. Just like Bartholomew Wray. Just like Jingo Jingo.”

I was going to tell him he was wrong. Magic was poisoned and killing people. Anyone in their right mind would want to fix it and let it go back to being what it has always been.

But not all magic users cared about the greater good. Certainly Leander and Isabelle didn’t care. There were others. My dead father still placed his desires above all others. He had once told me he suspected even Victor had done things to tip the balance of what was done with magic to what he thought was right.

Which Victor had as much as admitted to when he’d told us he’d taken away more of Eli Collins’ memories than was required by the Authority.

“I don’t want to control it,” I said, all the breath out of me.

Zay waited a moment more. Then he unfolded his arms and started toward me. “I know.”

***