Lucy A. Snyder - Spellbent

LUCY A. SNYDER

BALLANTINE BOOKS NEW YORK

Lucy Snyder hooks you from the beginning, delivering a strong protagonist and a fresh, engaging world of magic.

I cant wait to see what she does next.

ALICE HENDERSON

An exhilarating ride of magic and mayhem.

SEPHERA GIRON, author of Mistress of the Dark

In her thrilling trial-by-fire debut, Snyders heroineJessie Shimmeris transformed from young apprentice to first-class magical butt-kicker... the same transformation the author herself has undergone in the creation of this fully realized new urban mythology. I cant wait for book two!

CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN, author of The Myth Hunters

Look for Lucy A. Snyders next thrilling novel featuring Jessie Shimmer, coming in Summer 2010!

Books published by The Random House Publishing Group are available at quantity discounts on bulk purchases for premium, educational, fund-raising, and special sales use. For details, please call 1-800-733-3000.

Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as unsold or destroyed and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.

Spellbent is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A Del Rey Mass Market Original

Copyright 2009 by Lucy Snyder

Excerpt from The Devil in Miss Shimmer by Lucy A. Snyder copyright 2009 by Lucy Snyder

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

DEL REYis a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book The Devil in Miss Shimmer by Lucy A. Snyder. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.

ISBN 978-0-345-51209-3

Printed in the United States of America

www.delreybooks.com

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Freed from his harness, the ferret clambered up the doors spongy weatherstripping to the roof of the car so we were seeing eye-to-eye.

So do you have any idea whats going on here? I asked.

His true body is coming through into this plane, the ferret told me, staring wide-eyed at Smokys increasingly monstrous form. The ferret sounded smart, his voice like that of an excitable middle-aged librarian inside my head. Finally, some good luck.

Its what? I asked.

This animal body... its just a flesh vessel for my consciousness. I am not a ferret, and the entity that has inhabited Smokys body is most assuredly not a cute little doggy. If Im not mistaken, hes changing into something close to his true form, the ferret said. He had a little bit of an accent, I realized. A Canadian librarian.

But why?

Clearly the magic from the portal has altered him.

But how? I did realize I was starting to sound like a three-year-old.

Id hazard to say its a side effect of whatever disastrous magic caused that portal to open.

Which is a fancy way of saying you dont know? The pain was making me crabbier than usual.

The ferret reared back, looking offended.

For Carol,

who always believed

Although writing is inevitably a solitary occupation, making a book is anything but.

First, big thanks go to my husband, Gary A. Braunbeck, for his encouragement and advice over the years.

Id also like to thank my first readers: Sara, David, Greg, Dan, Trista, Jerry, and the other members of Writeshop. And, of course, I must thank my agent, Robert L. Fleck, for getting my novel out into the world, and I must thank my editors at Del Rey (Liz Scheier and Shauna Summers) for taking my book and helping me make it even better.

And finally, Id like to express my appreciation for Laura Jorstads sharp-eyed copyediting, Jessica Sebors always prompt assistance, Dreu Pennington-McNeils fine cover design, and Dan Dos Santoss truly spectacular cover art.

My name is Jessie, and Im the reason why your life is about to change forever. Maybe youre only just starting to realize that the world is spinning strange, and youre looking for answers. But maybe you already know whats happened, and youre looking for me so you can either buy me a drink or kick my ass.

God help me, I could have stopped them. Im sure of that. My only defense is that I honestly thought I was doing the right thing, but my best intentions are black pavement now.

All I can do now is tell you my story and let you decide for yourself whether Im a heroine or a villain or just another tool. Ive had some time to gather my thoughts, and other peoples thoughts for that matter; its amazing what magic can coax from the dead. So if I start telling you about events I wasnt around to see, know that my memories are solid even if the original owners are dust. Ill be happy to give you the eyewitness tour if you bring good beer.

Begin at the beginning, right? I still cant find memories from the ancients who planted this disaster, so lets start with the night my own life went off the rails...

A Simple Storm-Calling

Cooper woke me up before the nightmare did. He caught me square in the shin with a jerking kick and I bolted up, my heart hammering like a small demon trying to break through my rib cage. Already the dream had slipped from my mind, leaving nothing behind but my wrecked nerves. Cooper twitched and ground his teeth. Sweat plastered his curly black hair against his forehead, and his tattooed arms shook as he crushed the pillow against his chest.

I wanted to hold him close, wake him up. I hated seeing the man I loved in that kind of pain. It didnt matter that he was the teacher and I, his apprentice. But I knew hed lash out at anyone near him when he came out of the dream. So I wiped the sweat Out of my eyes and scooted away from him on the bed.

Cooper, I called. My throat felt like it was lined with steel wool, and I could taste pennies where Id bitten the inside of my lip. Wake up.

No response.

My heart was slowing, finally, but my hands still shook as I wiped my eyes again. Id never had nightmares before I started sleeping with Cooper. The first couple of times wed both gotten bad dreams the same night, I dismissed it as coincidence. But after a dozen nights? It was pretty clear that the terror I saw in his fractured sleep mirrored the terror fading inside my own head.

We were having the same damn nightmare... and lately I was having it whether I was sleeping beside him or not.

He writhed and groaned.

Coopers white fox terrier, Smoky, was cowering under my computer desk, whining. The dog was giving me a scared look: Wake him up before something bad happens. Id seen the dog take on creatures ten times his seventeen pounds when he thought his master was in danger; hed once torn the ear off an ogreish no-neck who was preparing to brain Cooper with a tire iron in a bar parking lot. But when the nightmare came on, fierce little Smoky was helpless.

I could hear the rustling of my six-month-old ferret racing around in his cage in the corner.

Whats going on inside your head? I wondered, staring down at Cooper.

I slid off the bed, took a deep breath, and let loose a shout that shook the floor: Cooper!

He jerked awake, arms windmilling, punching the air, kicking the sheet off the bed. No, I wont, I wont, get away from me