Harsh Gods (44 page)

Good luck.

Bobby pushed back from the table again, skin taking on a greenish cast as he blanched. He took a long swallow of coffee, staring at a point beyond my ear. The sound and feel of all the people swelled suddenly, pressing like some rough beast against my cowl.

A sigh escaped him. A portion of the young detective’s innocence seemed to flee with the sound.

“The human monsters are bad enough,” he murmured.

“What happened to Garrett wasn’t usual. Things like that…” I trailed off, acutely aware that my next word could be a lie.

The time for lies was over.

Bobby studied me for a long moment, then his gaze strayed to the people gathered in the coffee house. He lingered on each in turn, keen eyes taking in details of their stance, their dress—all the little stories each telegraphed unconsciously about their lives. He turned solemn eyes back to me, all but pleading.

“Can we protect them?” he asked. “Is there even a chance?”

The inside of the coffee shop grew cavernous, like I might lose myself if I relinquished my grip on the back of the chair. Fiercely, I dug my fingers into the metal.

“I’m going to try,” I said. “I swear it.”

Many thanks to Lucienne Diver at the Knight Agency for continued help in navigating the daunting territory of contract negotiations and industry jargon. More than that—I value you also for your willingness to listen as a friend. Steve Saffel—you’re in the same boat. In your role of Dark Editorial Overlord, your uncanny talent for crawling into Zack’s head has vastly improved me as a writer, but it’s your candid insight that makes the whole process enriching on a personal level.

To all the people at Titan whose hard work ferried
Harsh Gods
from manuscript to mass market—Miranda Jewess, Cat Camacho, Vivian Cheung, Nick Landau, Laura Price, Paul Gill, Lydia Gittins—rarely do your names get attached to all the work you help bring into the world, but without your tireless effort and support, the Shadowside series would still be living on my hard drive. Among the Titan crew, special thanks go out to Chris Young, whose email responses are as speedy as the Internet realm which he oversees, and also to Julia Lloyd for transforming my sketchy notes into amazing covers. I can’t believe you found a jambiya!

Finally, to my devoted Elyria, bringer of tea, wrangler of emails, and distractor of cats—you are the reason I can keep doing this no matter what else is raining down on me from life. Thank you for reminding me to get out from under the keyboard once in a while.

Michelle Belanger
is most widely recognized for appearances on television’s
Paranormal State
. A leading authority on psychic and supernatural topics, her non-fiction research in books like
The Dictionary of Demons
and
The Psychic Vampire Codex
has been sourced in television shows, university courses, and numerous publications around the world. She has worked as a media liaison for fringe communities, performed with gothic and metal bands, lectured on vampires at colleges across North America, and designed immersive live action RPGs for companies such as Wizards of the Coast. Her research on the Watcher Angels has led to both a Tarot Deck as well as the album, “Blood of Angels.” Michelle resides near Cleveland, Ohio in a house with two cats, a few friendly spirits, and a library of over four thousand books. More information can be found at

www.michellebelanger.com
.

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