11/23/2024 Snippet, BANSHEE BEACH.

I’m not going to be doing number updates, unless I somehow manage to write twenty-eight thousand words tomorrow (which is what I’ll need to get back on track). NotAWriMo is no longer on the table, and that’s fine. The important thing is to get this book finished, and I finished the trip to Red Beach today. I needed it done.

Buy the first two books in this series!

At least the Banshee didn’t make us wait for the fireworks.

I’d expected something dramatic, and quick, and I was half-right. The festivities started with the biggest ‘broomstick’ — the one that could seat twenty — suddenly shuddering under multiple explosions of arcane fire. In a second its entire surface was covered in overlapping, expanding circles of flames, each of which changed color when they encountered another line of fire. It was weirdly beautiful, until you really thought about what those flames would have done to a person, hey?

The smaller brooms started flying randomly right away, which I figure meant the link spells must have fallen apart. But that was good. It made it look like they were trying to escape, only the Banshee wasn’t having any of it. One by one they exploded, in a cloud of splinters and smoke. Denny snarled at the steady pace, or maybe it was because it was so slow pace. “What the fuck! What is this, a game to her?”

“Yes,” I told him, as leadenly as I could manage. Above us, the last small broom pinwheeled through the sky. “She’s a Dominion Archmage. This is a game, and we’re all the toys. So stay in the box.”

He opened his mouth, and I raised my voice. “I said, stay in the toy box. This only works if she thinks she’s killing her some wild mages out of spite, along with all their stuff. If she doesn’t, every town and village within ten miles of here will get their own personal fireball, just to be on the safe side. And you didn’t ask us first if we wanted to get caught up in your drama, compadre.”

#commissionearned