Table of Contents
Praise for the Novels of the Dark Elite
Firespell
Chloe Neill has written an incredible cast of characters and her heroine, Lily, has a wonderful, engaging voice.... Fans of urban fantasy, paranormal, and young adult will definitely want to pick this one up and lose themselves in the magical underground that is Chicago.
Fresh Fiction
If you crave a story full of intrigue, mystery, magic, and a bit of romance then this is your book.
Bookstack
Exciting teen urban fantasy.
Genre Go Round Reviews
In a genre laden with boarding school dramas, how can one possibly stand out? Ask Chloe Neill. She did an excellent job of making Firespell stand out above all the others. How? you may ask. By writing exceptionally interesting, fun characters.
Pure Imagination
Praise for Chloe Neills Chicagoland Vampires Novels
With her wonderfully compelling reluctant vampire heroine and her careful world building, I was drawn into Some Girls Bite from page one, and kept reading far into the night.
Julie Kenner, USA Today bestselling author of Good Ghouls Do
If you loved Nancy Drew but always wished she was an undead sword-wielding badass, Merit is your kind of girl.
Geek Monthly
Novels in the Dark Elite Series
Firespell
Hexbound
SIGNET
Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
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First published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, January 2011
Copyright Chloe Neill, 2011
All rights reserved
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PUBLISHERS NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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eISBN : 978-1-101-47674-1
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For SHB, because sometimes you find the greatest things when you least expect them.
Diamonds are forever. Magic, not so much.
Scout Green
I stayed absolutely still, my eyes closed, the sun warm on my face. As long as I didnt fidget too much, the noon sun was just strong enough to cancel out the chilly October breeze that blew through our part of downtown Chicago.
I guess there was a reason they called it the Windy City.
It was a Sunday afternoon at St. Sophias School for Girls, and I was squeezed into a tiny square of sunshine on the lawn with my friend Scout. She sat beside me with her arms stretched out behind her, eyes closed and head tipped up to the sky. I sat cross-legged, art-history book open in my lap. Every few minutes wed inch our legs a little farther to the left, trying to take in the last warm bit of fall.
This totally beats sitting in class, Scout said. And wearing uniforms.
Scout was dressed in a black skirt and shirt shed sewn from two White Sox T-shirts. It was quite a change from the navy-and-yellow private school plaid we usually wore. And then there were the shoes (Converses shed coated in gold glitter), the hair (a short blond bob with dark tips), and the silver nose ring. There was no mistaking Scout Green, even in the uniform, for the average St. Sophias girl.
You are totally rocking those clothes today.
Scout opened an eye and glanced down at her jersey skirt. I appreciate your appreciation of my obvious good taste. Besides, someone had to rock it out. This place is like a dismal swamp of bleh .
I put a hand over my heart. Thank God youre here to save us, Saint Scout.
Scout snorted and crossed one ankle over the other, her shoes glinting in the sunlight.
And now I know why I keep finding glitter on my bedroom floor.
Whatever. My shoes do not shed.
I gave her a dubious look.
Seriously. Thats just... um... horn dust from the unicorns that braid your hair while you sleep.
Scout and I both looked at each other. Unfortunately, while I didnt remember waking up with any mysterious braids, we couldnt exactly rule out the unicorn part.
Oh, did I mention Scout could do magic?
Yeah, you heard me. And I know what youre thinking: Lily Parker, theres no such thing as magic. The tofu is starting to go to your head.
Youre going to have to trust me on this one. See, as it turns out, Chicago is home to an underground world of magicians battling it out while the rest of the city is asleep. And those magicians included the girl, who was now humming a song from High School Musical 3 , beside me.
Scary, right?
Millicent Green, aka Scout, was actually an Adept and a member of Enclave Three.
And heres the second twistso was I.
See, I was actually from upstate New York, but when my parents decided to head to Germany for a research sabbatical, they figured St. Sophias, deep in the heart of Chicago, was the best place for me to spend my junior and senior years of high school.
They said parents knew best. To my mind, the jury was still out.
I didnt come to Chicago with any powers, at least not that I was aware. And my parents certainly werent doing magic in their free time.
Again, at least not that I was aware. But with a secret trip to Germany? Who really knew? Id been told by Marceline Foley, the headmistress of St. Sophias, that their work had something to do with genetics. Shed changed her tune later on, but there was no unringing that bellor the fact that their European vacation was related to a place called the Sterling Research Foundation. For their safety, Id made a promise to let my parents secrets, whatever they were, stay secret.
![Chloe Caldwell [Chloe Caldwell] - Women](/uploads/posts/book/114454/thumbs/chloe-caldwell-chloe-caldwell-women.jpg)
