Chest of Bone — Vicki Stiefel

As magical and mundane worlds retwine, empath and unawakened Mage Clea Reese must team up with the secretive and complex James Larrimer to hunt her mentor's killer and stop the forces of corruption from obtaining the elusive Chest of Bone, the ultimate source of otherworldly power.

As Clea's beloved mentor Dave Cochran lays dying, tortured by a sadistic killer, he unlocks her nascent Mage powers, tasks her to find a mysterious chest and guard his daughter, Lulu.

Not that Clea believes in "real" magic or understands she's becoming The Key. She's focused on revenge--on ending the man who destroyed her world.

Point man in hunting Cochran's killer, James Larrimer is a predator who pursues endangered-animal traders. Or so it appears. Unbeknownst to Clea, Larrimer's prime directive is to obtain the most exotic creature of all--Clea Reese.

Forces both powerful and strange align against them, as they, too, seek the all-powerful Chest. Only Clea and Larrimer stand between these malignant forces--self righteous in belief and unfettered by conscience--and their ruthless quest. None of the players are prepared for the fusion of Clea's and Larrimer's song, a wild and harmonic resonance which can bind one to the other.

With the lives of those they love at stake, drawn inexorably to one another, will deception and death destroy Clea's and Larrimer's song? Or can they ferret out the killer, reclaim the Chest of Bone, and defeat their enemies, the most powerful of which may be their own conflicted natures?