Roadside Magic (30 page)

Read Roadside Magic Online

Authors: Lilith Saintcrow

Tags: #Dark, #Fae, #Supernaturals, #UF

BY LILITH SAINTCROW

Blood Call

G
ALLOW AND
R
AGGED

Trailer Park Fae

Roadside Magic

Wasteland King

B
ANNON &
C
LARE

The Iron Wyrm Affair

The Red Plague Affair

The Ripper Affair

D
ANTE
V
ALENTINE
N
OVELS

Working for the Devil

Dead Man Rising

The Devil’s Right Hand

Saint City Sinners

To Hell and Back

Dante Valentine
(omnibus)

J
ILL
K
ISMET
N
OVELS

Night Shift

Hunter’s Prayer

Redemption Alley

Flesh Circus

Heaven’s Spite

Angel Town

Jill Kismet
(omnibus)

A R
OMANCE OF
A
RQUITAINE
N
OVELS

The Hedgewitch Queen

The Bandit King

AS LILI ST. CROW
T
HE
S
TRANGE
A
NGELS
S
ERIES

Strange Angels

Betrayals

Jealousy

Defiance

Reckoning

PRAISE FOR THE WORKS OF LILITH SAINTCROW:

Dante Valentine

“She’s a brave, charismatic protagonist with a smart mouth and a suicidal streak. What’s not to love? Fans of Laurell K. Hamilton should warm to Saintcrow’s dark evocative debut.”


Publishers Weekly

“Saintcrow’s amazing protagonist is gutsy, stubborn to a fault and vaguely suicidal, meaning there’s never a dull moment… This is the ultimate in urban fantasy!”


RT Book Reviews
(Top Pick!)

“Dark, gritty urban fantasy at its best.”

—blogcritics.org

Jill Kismet

“Nonstop rough-and-tumble action combined with compelling characterization and a plot that twists and turns all over the place. Saintcrow . . . never fails to deliver excitement.”


RT Book Reviews

“Loaded with action and starring a kick-butt heroine who from the opening scene until the final climax is donkey-kicking seemingly every character in sight.”

—Harriet Klausner

“Lilith has again created a vibrant, strong female heroine who keeps you running behind her in a breathless charge against forces you just know you would never be able to walk away from completely unscathed.”

—myfavouritebooks.blogspot.com

“This mind-blowing series remains a must-read for all urban fantasy lovers.”


Bitten by Books

Bannon & Clare

“Saintcrow scores a hit with this terrific steampunk series that rockets through a Britain-that-wasn’t with magic and industrial mayhem with a firm nod to Holmes. Genius and a rocking good time.”

—Patricia Briggs

“Saintcrow melds a complex magic system with a subtle but effective steampunk society, adds fully fleshed and complicated characters, and delivers a clever and highly engaging mystery that kept me turning pages, fascinated to the very end.”

—Laura Anne Gilman

“Innovative world-building, powerful steampunk, master storyteller at her best. Don’t miss this one… She’s fabulous.”

—Christine Feehan

“Lilith Saintcrow spins a world of deadly magic, grand adventure, and fast-paced intrigue through the clattering streets of a maze-like mechanized Londonium.
The Iron Wyrm Affair
is a fantastic mix of action, steam, and mystery dredged in dark magic with a hint of romance. Loved it! Do not miss this wonderful addition to the steampunk genre.”

—Devon Monk

“Lilith Saintcrow’s foray into steampunk plunges the reader into a Victorian England rife with magic and menace, where clockwork horses pace the cobbled streets, dragons rule the ironworks, and it will take a sorceress’s discipline and a logician’s powers of deduction to unravel a bloody conspiracy.”

—Jacqueline Carey

GLOSSARY

Barrow-wight:
Fullblood Unseelie wights whose homes are long “barrows.” Gold loses its luster in their presence.

Brughnies:
House-sidhe; they delight in cooking and cleaning. A well-ordered kitchen is their joy.

The Fatherless:
Robin Goodfellow, also called Puck, the nominal leader of the free sidhe.

Folk:
Sidhe, or clan within the sidhe, or generally a group, race, or species.

Ghilliedhu:
“Birch-girl”; dryads of the birch clan, held to be great beauties.

Grentooth:
A jack-wight, often amphibious, with mossy teeth and a septic bite.

Kelpie:
A river sidhe, capable of appearing as a black horse and luring its victims to drowning.

Kobolding:
A crafty race of sidhe, often amassing great wealth, living underground. Related to goblins, distantly related to the dwarven clans.

Quirpiece:
A silver coin, used to hold a particular chantment.

Realmaker:
A sidhe whose chantments do not fade at dawn. Very rare.

Seelie:
Sidhe of Summer’s Court, or holding fealty to Summer.

Selkie:
A sealskin sidhe.

Sidhe:
The Fair Folk, the Little People, the Children of Danu.

Sluagh:
The ravening horde of the unforgiven dead.

Tainted:
Possessing mortal blood.

Twisted:
A sidhe altered and mutated, often by proximity to cold iron, unable to use sidhe chantments or glamour.

Unseelie:
Sidhe of Unwinter’s Court, or holding fealty to Unwinter.

Wight:
“Being,” or “creature”; used to refer to certain classes of sidhe.

Woodwight:
A wight whose home or form is a tree, whose blood is resinous.

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Copyright

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Copyright © 2016 by Lilith Saintcrow

Excerpt from
Wasteland King
copyright © 2016 by Lilith Saintcrow

Excerpt from
Blood Call
copyright © 2015 by Lilith Saintcrow

Cover design by Lauren Panepinto

Cover illustration by Dan Dos Santos

Cover © 2016 Hachette Book Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

Orbit

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First ebook edition: January 2016

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ISBN 978-0-316-27786-0

E3

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