Ilona Andrews - Magic Breaks

Dear Readers,

Thank you so much for reading Kate’s adventures for these seven years. We appreciate your support. Your enthusiasm for the series keeps us going.

Some really big things happen in this book. It reads like the final book in the series, but it’s not. As we write this, we are under contract for three additional books. Magic Breaks might finish the story arc, but it doesn’t finish the story. For those of you who are just coming to the series, we’ve included a list of characters and “From the Journal of Barabas Gilliam,” a series summary written from the point of view of one of the series’ most popular side characters. If you are a long-standing fan of the series, the information in those two sections will probably sound redundant, and if you choose to skip them, you won’t lose anything.

Some stories are big in scope, where the future of the world seems to hang in the balance, and some stories are small but no less important. Because Magic Breaks is one of those large-scope stories, we thought you would enjoy a smaller story as well, so we offer you “Magic Tests,” a short story about Julie’s adventures in a new school. The fate of the world might not be in jeopardy, but the life of a child is, and we hope you will like the contrast between the two stories.

As always, we would like to thank the people who helped us bring this story to you. Our wonderful editor, Anne Sowards, and our agent, Nancy Yost, who both strive to keep us in line. The senior production editor, Michelle Kasper, and the assistant production editor, Julia Quinlan. Judith Lagerman, the art director; Juliana Kolesova, the artist responsible for the image on the cover; and Jason Gill, the cover designer.

We would like to thank Jonathon Frisby, attorney-at-law, and his wife; Veronique Cantrell-Avloes, attorney-at-law; Noel Goudreau, attorney-at-law, and her husband; Sarah Javaheri, attorney-at-law; Carol Najera, attorney-at-law; Tiffany Murphy, attorney-at-law; Nina Javan, attorney-at-law; and others for their incredible generosity and knowledge and willingness to entertain hypothetical criminal scenarios involving a weremongoose lawyer. We are deeply grateful. Any errors of fact or law are our own.

We would also like to thank our beta readers, who kindly donate their time and skills to help us make the book the best it could be. They are, in no particular order: Ying Dallimore, Carrie Wassenaar, Omar Jimenez, William Stonier, Stella Won, Julie Heckert, Laura Hobbs, Antoinette Hodges, Nichole Walford, Michelle Kubecka, Melody LeBaron, Wendy Baceski, Shannon Daigle, Cathy Thilmany, Jeanine Rachau, Michelle Kraut, and others.

Finally, thank you once again to you, our wonderful readers.

The Pack

KATE DANIELS: Main character. Female, approximately twenty-seven at the time of the book. Former mercenary, former member of the Order, currently Consort to Curran, Beast Lord of the Free People, and female alpha of the shapeshifter Pack. Carries a sword named Slayer. Daughter of Roland, from whom she has been hiding all of her life, and raised by his renegade warlord Voron. Kate owns Cutting Edge, a small investigative agency bankrolled by the Pack.

CURRAN LENNART: Beast Lord. Alpha and leader of Atlanta’s shapeshifters. Male, about thirty-three. Has been Beast Lord since he was fifteen. Turns into a North American gray lion. Blond, gray-eyed, approximately 5'10" with the build of a longtime weight lifter. In human form, prefers hand-to-hand combat with a concentration on grappling, which utilizes his training in judo, wrestling, and jujitsu.

JIM SHRAPSHIRE: Werejaguar and alpha of Clan Cat. Male, age thirty-five; 6'2" and built like a middleweight boxer. Dark skin, brown eyes. Jim moves with an easy athletic gait that belies the pent-up energy and violence waiting just under the surface. Jim is the Pack’s head of security. He is a paranoid micromanager who sees threats to the Pack around every corner and in every shadow. Has a history with Kate Daniels (nonromantic) going back to their service together in the Mercenary Guild.

BARABAS GILLIAM: Weremongoose but member of the bouda (werehyena) clan; 5'9" and slender. Appearing to be in his late twenties, Barabas is very pale-skinned with a shock of bright red hair, usually gelled and spiked atop his head. He has the lean build of a fencer or dancer. Barabas is the Pack’s lead legal counsel and one of Kate’s “babysitters” appointed by Aunt B prior to her death in Magic Rises . Barabas is a skilled knife fighter with an encyclopedic knowledge of laws both human and Pack.

ANDREA NASH: Female, 5'2", blond. Andrea is Kate’s best friend. Former knight of the Order and expert marksman. Andrea is beastkin, meaning she is the extremely rare offspring of a female bouda and a hyenawere, a hyena who could shapeshift into a human. In many shapeshifter packs, beastkin are at best tolerated but mistreated, at worst seen as abominations and killed at birth. Andrea and her mother suffered unspeakable abuse and cruelty at the hands of her birth pack. As a teen, Andrea escaped and, disguising herself as human, joined and graduated with honors from the Order’s Academy for knights. After the events of Magic Bleeds , Andrea was exposed as a shapeshifter and forcefully retired from the Order; she subsequently joined Kate in the detective agency Cutting Edge. Andrea is engaged to Raphael, alpha male of Clan Bouda, and together they now run the clan after Aunt B’s death.

RAPHAEL MEDRANO: Scion and alpha of Clan Bouda, late twenties and around 6'3". Only surviving son of Aunt B and her late husband. Raphael is a right sexy bastard, tall, dark, and extremely handsome with a devilish smile that hints at exciting sex. Like the majority of Clan Bouda, Raphael is romantically experienced with a long list of partners but fell in love with Andrea Nash at first sight and pursued her relentlessly until, despite her better judgment, she accepted his advances. Curran has a grudging respect for Raphael but until recently viewed him as spoiled and vain, despite his status as arguably the best knife fighter in the Pack.

DEREK GAUNT: Werewolf and protégé of both Jim and Curran. Introduced in Magic Bites as a teen, Derek is now a young adult, about nineteen and an experienced fighter. Once almost pretty, Derek was irreparably disfigured during the events of Magic Strikes . His vocal cords were also damaged in the attack, leaving him with a permanently low and menacing voice. Kate often refers to Derek as “boy wonder” and his devotion to her is almost fanatical, second only to his admiration and loyalty to Curran. Derek, like Curran, has a profound hatred and disdain for loups, shapeshifters gone feral.

ASCANIO FERARA: Teenage bouda, age sixteen. Basically a younger version of Raphael, but even more incorrigible. Introduced in Magic Slays , Ascanio is a young bouda raised until recently in a religious compound and sheltered from the outside world. He’s determined to make up for lost time and sometimes his behavior is extreme, even by bouda standards. His antics often bring unwanted attention to Clan Bouda and the Pack. He is seen by Derek in somewhat the same light that Curran views Raphael, wild and undisciplined. At the time of the book, Ascanio is an unpaid intern at Cutting Edge where Kate and Andrea can keep an eye on him.

DESANDRA: Female, late twenties, werewolf. Introduced in Magic Rises , Desandra is an enigma. Her father was one of the most ruthless and sadistic alphas among the Mediterranean shapeshifter packs. The only one of his children to live to adulthood, Desandra survived by pretending to be vain and stupid. Brought back to Atlanta with her twin infant sons, she has quickly risen through the ranks of Clan Wolf to become beta, second only to Jennifer. Beneath her outwardly crude and shockingly blunt exterior, she is her father’s daughter, cunning, smart, and capable of sudden shocking violence.