An excerpt...

Hi, everyone.Since I'm using every spare second to get Wait for the Wind ready by deadline, I'm going to throw myself on your mercy and post an excerpt this week. 

From To Take Up the Sword (Elemental Magic Book Two) by Brynna Curry

Coming in September from Lyrical Press, Inc.

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      “Where did you get this?”
      “Serena gave it to me before she was murdered. She said if she didn't or couldn't come back for it, I was to give it to you and only you. Otherwise, mum's the word.”
      She watched as Gabriel laid the statue on the kitchen table and got the meat mallet out of a drawer by the sink. The garishly painted face was in pieces before Lea realized what he was
going to do.
      “You broke it! I know it was ugly, but…”
      He pulled a velvet pouch through an opening at the bottom and shook the contents out on the table.
      “My God.” She hissed in a breath. “Are those…”
      “Yes, the missing diamonds.” He turned toward her. “The last of Gueraldi's men went free because of these. You had them all along. I could charge you with withholding evidence.”
     “Not if I didn't know about them, and I can promise you I didn't.”
     “Ms. O'Neil.” Gabe cocked his eyebrow. “You've got to be kidding me. She had to have told you.”
     “Leannan, but you should probably call me Lea, seeing we've become so well acquainted. And no. She didn't. I knew something was bothering her, but she wouldn't talk about it. Just that she couldn't involve Jack. I never guessed she'd hidden something inside the statue. How could she have done that anyway?”
     “Ever seen Romancing the Stone?”
     “Only a million times. It was Serena's favorite… Oh.”
     “Exactly.”
     A loud crack interrupted the conversation. Glass shattered from the window behind him. Lea screamed. They'd found her. “Did I forget to mention them?”

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