Stacia Kane: The Downside Ghosts Series Books 1-3: Unholy Ghosts, Unholy Magic, City of Ghosts

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Harper Voyager

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright © Stacia Kane 2012

Unholy Ghosts © Stacia Kane 2010

Unholy Magic © Stacia Kane 2010

City of Ghosts © Stacia Kane 2010

Stacia Kane asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Ebook Edition © JULY 2012 ISBN: 9780007493036

Version: 2016-11-18

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Book One: Unholy Ghosts

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-one

Chapter Thirty-two

Chapter Thirty-three

Chapter Thirty-four

Chapter Thirty-five

Chapter Thirty-six

Chapter Thirty-seven

Chapter Thirty-eight

Acknowledgments

Book Two: Unholy Magic

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-one

Book Three: City of Ghosts

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-one

Chapter Thirty-two

Chapter Thirty-three

Chapter Thirty-four

Chapter Thirty-five

Chapter Thirty-six

Chapter Thirty-seven

Chapter Thirty-eight

Chapter Thirty-nine

Chapter Forty

Acknowledgments

Keep Reading

About the Publisher

Dark urban fantasy.

I find those words so exciting. Because urban fantasy can be anything, really; you can do anything with it. You can write about a drug-addicted witch who works for an atheistic totalitarian magic-based “Church” who runs the world after a ghost apocalypse. You can write about a punk-rock ghetto run by drug lords, where the aforementioned apocalypse means basics like electricity are hard to come by. You can write about ghosts walking the earth, using weapons, killing people. You can write about those same ghosts captured and forced to “live” in a vast underground cavern from which escape is almost impossible.

And you can play with that. You can think of what sort of world blossoms around such basic information, about revolutionary groups and legal vs. illegal magic and the mix of tech and magic, and what knowing exactly what happens when you die does to humanity at large. You can explore how the basic characteristics of humanity, both the good and the bad, might be heightened or suppressed by such a world, and in what ways they might stay the same.

But it’s not just fantasy worlds and the greater issues of humanity. It’s individual people. One of the things that appeals to me so much about dark urban fantasy – that has appealed to me ever since I read NEVERWHERE fifteen years ago (I know there’s some debate over this, but as far as I’m concerned NEVERWHERE is indeed urban fantasy) – is the lack of rules. It may not be a new genre, but it’s a genre still finding its classifications and tropes, which means there’s plenty of room for experimentation. You can do so much with it. You can write very unconventional heroes and heroines, you can write very dark worlds, you can explore just about anything.

So many genres seem very set in their ways at this point. And I know there are people who think urban fantasy is nothing more than kick-ass chicks in black leather slaying and sleeping with nightclub-owning vampires, written in a sassy first-person voice. But it isn’t. The book you’re holding right now isn’t. That doesn’t make it any less dark urban fantasy, anymore than it makes those other books any more dark urban fantasy. It’s all dark UF, and that’s why the genre is so exciting, and why I love writing it.

The Downside Ghosts series is about a witch plagued by the figurative ghosts of a horrific, abusive childhood that she takes drugs in a futile attempt to forget, living in a world plagued by literal ghosts who want nothing more than to destroy every living being they find in a futile attempt to steal that life energy for themselves. It’s about black magic and punk rock and drugs and sex and horror and misery; it’s about finding acceptance in unlikely places and about looking for acceptance in the wrong places; it’s about how one cannot hide from the world forever; it’s about our weaknesses and our strengths; it’s about hope and despair.

And hopefully it’s pretty damn scary and exciting, too.

I certainly hope you think so, and that you enjoy it.

To Cori. Not just my best friend, but my best reader. Her enthusiasm for this book in its earliest stages and beyond kept me going; her friendship kept me sane.