Art print and excerpt from THE SHADOW BRIDE

...along with details for signed and personalized copies from Wild Geese Bookshop 🪿

I’ll keep this one short and sweet—and apologize profusely for all the emails leading up to The Shadow Bride—but today I received the final artwork for my personalized preorder campaign with Wild Geese and needed to share:

Drawn by the wildly talented Hafsa, who can be found over at @hachandraws <3

Just. Stunning.

Again, anyone who orders a signed and personalized copy of TSB from Wild Geese will receive this print along with your book. 🖤 And as it comes straight from a scene in said book, why not share an excerpt to go along with it?

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FROM CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: MILA RETURNS

[. . .]

“Fantastic.” Quick as a flash, he tucks the ribbon back into his pocket. “Indulge this little whim of mine, and I’ll give it to you. It could be useful, you know,” he adds in a lower voice, and my belly clenches like a fist at the sound. “To learn the limits of your new body.”

“Why is this so important to you?”

And it is important, I realize with a start. Despite his casual demeanor, his gaze blisters with an intensity that burns. “You need to know your advantages in order to press them. The revenants certainly will.” An idea sparks in his eyes before I can argue. “If the revenants and ribbon aren’t incentive enough, I suppose I could simply . . . flee.”

My brow furrows. “What?”

He doesn’t explain; instead that idea solidifies into a knowing, mischievous gleam, and—the split second before he turns on his heel—I remember his warning outside L’ange de la Mort: Never run from a vampire. My frown deepens. Because he can’t possibly think—

In a streak of black and silver, he bolts up the stream, and my body reacts without conscious thought.

It bolts after him.

If a small, distant part of my mind—the human part—realizes what I’m doing, it remains wholly silent in wake of the instinctive, all-consuming rush of power down my spine. As before with [REDACTED], my vision sharpens. It bleeds red as blood pounds through my ears. Each stone on the bank, each frond of bracken, each teardrop and each fiber of moss and grass and earth—it all rises before me with crystalline clarity before my eyes lock on Michal.

I can hear his laughter. Swift as I am—my hair blowing, gown billowing, feet weightless upon the water—I can still see each tremor of his shoulders, each stride of his legs, as he pushes farther away from me, faster and faster still. A snarl tears from my throat. I forget the emerald ribbon. I forget everything but the sight of his retreating back. Because I will have it. I will have him, and my own strides grow longer in response. I lean forward, and I lift my chest, practically flying across the water until Michal grows larger in my sight—until he glances back at me in surprise, in delight, and I brace without breaking speed, bending my knees and catapulting myself at him.

We collide in a crash of limbs, and he twists, wrapping his arms around my waist before we hit the ground. His back takes the brunt of the impact. Skidding through the rocks, he holds me tightly—laughing—as we finally slow to a halt. “I can’t believe you caught me,” he says, breathless, before dropping his head on the bank. “No one has ever caught me before.”

I stare up at him, my chest tightening to the point of pain. “Do you often flee unsuspecting women?”

“Only the ones I steal from.” He releases my waist, bringing one hand between our faces. [. . .] Slowly, he brushes a strand of hair away from my cheek, his thumb lingering on my jaw. And with that single, unguarded movement, the last of my hesitation falls away.

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If you preorder, make sure to submit your receipt here to receive a rose jewelry charm in the mail! 🥀 It looks great next to the fang charm from The Scarlet Veil’s preorder campaign.🩸

That’s all for now! More from Célie and me soon! 🦋