Riven — Kait Nolan

Kait Nolan's Mirus series is set in a paranormal world unlike any you've visited before -- inventive new mythology full of fast-paced action, dark dangers, sparkling magic, and sizzling, undeniable attraction.





A permanent injury in the line of duty effectively ended Ian Ryker's career as a Shadow Walker for the Council of Races. Being posted to a safe house in Washington, D.C. was one step short of forced retirement�"until the day Marley Weiss, a local human woman, witnessed something she should never have seen. According to Mirus law, that glimpse of their world makes her life forfeit. Once, Ian might have followed orders to take her out. But not this time.



Note: All stories in the series are standalone and can be read out of order.



EXCERPT:



“This…won't be pleasant. Shadow walking is a fairly rare ability. I can take you with me, but your body really isn't meant to do what it's about to do. It's going to be rough on your system.”



Marley frowned. “Rough how?”



“I'm not sure exactly. I've never taken a human -- part or otherwise -- into shadow before.”



She didn't ask if it was safe. They had no choice. “Let's do it.”

Ian stepped into her, wrapping strong arms around her. “Whatever happens, don't let go.”



Marley nodded, linking her arms around his waist.



Then the bottom fell out of her world.



She was blind, lost in darkness and a screaming silence as her brain and stomach pitched with vertigo. She was a human pinball ricocheting off forces unseen, first one way, then another. She pressed her face into Ian's chest and clung to him, her only anchor in the chaos. He hadn't lied about the cold. The chill soaked into her bones, and ice crystals formed on her lashes. The fingers she had linked behind his back were going numb.



Whatever happens, don't let go. His words echoed through her mind, and she struggled to tighten her grip as her feet whipped away from him, their bodies spun with some new centrifugal force. Ian's arms slid up hers, gripping her shoulders. Marley's fingers began to slip, the muscles too cramped with cold to tighten further. She tried to cry out, but her voice made no sound as one hand pulled free of the other. The cold rushed in, flooding the space between their bodies.



Marley was a rag doll at the mercy of unseen currents. Ian's hand shot out, clamping around her wrist in a bruising grip. But the ice crystals had spread along her limbs, down her hands, and his fingers lost purchase.

Unable to scream or even breathe, she was lost to the tumbling darkness.