The Pain Season, Book II of the Covalent Series
by Libby Doyle
EXCERPT
Setting: A New Year’s Eve party thrown by my main characters. Zan is human, but Rainer Barakiel, her lover, is a being from another dimension known as a Covalent. Pellus and Jeduthan are Covalent as well.
THE PARTY turned into a jam session, there were so many musicians there. They drank all Rainer’s expensive liquor.
Around 11:00, Rainer announced the yacht was out at the dock to take them to the fireworks.
“Can we bring the keg?” Jason asked to widespread laughter.
“The yacht has a full bar and a bartender.”
“You and Zan sure know how to throw a party, Rainer,” Scott said. He slapped him on the back.
Before long, Zan, Rainer, Pellus and Jeduthan were standing at the prow of the yacht in a cold wind, waiting for the fireworks. Everyone else had opted to watch from the glass-enclosed deck above them.
“Are you warm enough, my love?” Rainer asked Zan. He tightened his arms around her.
“Nice and toasty, honey. Hey, do think Pellus and Jeduthan are having fun?”
“Are you having fun, Pellus?” Rainer called across the prow.
“Yes. Jeduthan has told me she wishes there were boats where we come from.” He paused as Jeduthan said something. “And drunken hu—er—people. She has decided she likes them.”
They all laughed. In a minute, they heard an uproar from inside that signaled midnight had come. Zan leaned to the side and hung her head back.
“You’re supposed to kiss me at midnight.”
“Oh, right,” Rainer said. He cupped her head in his giant hand and obliged. When she heard the first booms of the fireworks, Zan wasn’t entirely sure they weren’t in her head. She opened her eyes to see shimmering gold playing across the sky.
“Do you have fireworks in the Covalent Realm?” she asked.
“No, not like this, but we have phenomena with similar beauty. The Stream fills the horizon of our city, flashing in rich blue. Imagine a thousand shooting stars, their tails filled with diamonds and sapphires.”
Zan snuggled into him. “That sounds better than fireworks.”
“The Turning is astonishing to behold as well, like the aurora borealis, but purple and silver. Its streaks forever dance and rise from the ground in a glimmering wall of light. You can see it best from the ramparts, or the high terraces.”
“The Turning. That’s where you go to fight, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I get scared when I think about that,” she whispered.
“Your job is dangerous, too, Zan.”
“I know. It can be.”
Rainer found her hand and squeezed it. “For a Warrior of the Rising, the Turning is a feeling as well as a sight. Despite the peril we face there, few of us would trade our experiences. To feel the Turning’s power is not something I can adequately express in words.”
“I feel that way a lot myself these days.”
She leaned her head back for another kiss.
BLURB
On the night of the equinox, Zan O'Gara learns monsters are real.
When Zan can no longer deny her lover is hiding things, she confronts him. Rainer Barakiel assures her he will soon share his secrets but she dreads the day, afraid the love of her life is connected to a ritual murder. Her heart won’t allow her to believe he could harm an innocent man. The truth is worse than she could have imagined.
As Barakiel’s power as a Covalent warrior grows, so does the strength of his father’s obsession with him. Lucifer spreads his dark tendrils through the Earthly Realm using a network of depraved men, and Barakiel soon realizes his love has drawn a target on Zan’s back. Events at the autumnal equinox make this clear to Zan as well. Barakiel has lied to her.
And so begins a season of pain and rage. A season of traitors and war. And love. Like the elemental forces that made him, Barakiel’s love does not end.
"A commendable follow-up with otherworldly action, down-to-earth melodrama, and sensuality in between." — Kirkus Reviews
Warning: This book contains foul language, explicit sex, and violence. Adults only! The Pain Season is the second novel in a five-part series that is best read in order. The romantic science fantasy begins with The Passion Season, Book I of the Covalent Series. Learn more at Libby Doyle’s website.
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