The wrong Crow is Taken.
The bells toll over Elphame.
The Gate is open.
Blood fills the streets.
The mortals have come.
The screaming has started.
The Taking has begun.
The Gate closes once again.
The mortals have their Crow back.
In Whitwick Gates, where every mortal child once faced the risk of almost certain death at the hands of Fae, the mortal realm takes their final stand against Elphame.
Perdi is the first Crow to gain her freedom and guard the Gate against all who seek to Take her people once again. But her return to the mortal world left her balancing perilously between mortals and Fae. Caught between fates, Whitwick calls on the aid of black magick witches and wages war in the only way they can win, by becoming the Taker of Crows, starting with Perdi.
The cost of her survival will stain her very soul and gain notice from the Gods.
Excerpt:
Hell can be found between two moments. Entire lifetimes are lived, destinies are decided, worlds are built and destroyed, life is given and taken just as quickly. Between these points, no matter how short or long they may be, the fates decide what the next will bring. Nothing stops fate or her cruel touch. And she walked today through the fields of Elphame, just as she had down the streets of Whitwick, looking for me. Like the last time she reminded me of her incredible power, I would crumple under her weight again. She walked slowly while I enjoyed little slivers of peace in a world made for war. She was like that, slapping her surprise across your face just as you got comfortable. Her claws would dig at my insides like choices not yet made—and regret for those yet to come. That’s what happened when you ignored the inevitable. It needled you until you bled to death from the holes of ignorance.
It was not bliss—ignorance. It was a punishing and cruel death. It was suffering and looking back, seeing where it all went wrong and knowing you could have prevented it from happening had you acted sooner. It was foolish hope that the inevitable would spare you. Win or lose, there was nothing blissful about willful blindness.
Lanne Garrett 