Fire Marked

Ten years as an assassin did not prepare me for customer service.

Once I was called the strongest fire elemental in a generation. All that got me was sentenced to serve as a supernatural assassin for a crime I didn’t commit. Now that my name’s been cleared, the powers-that-be cut me loose.

Their only rule? Keep my head down and leave missions to other Shadows.

Sinking my blood money into a magic shop, I try to be a good little witch. I run my shop, join a geriatric coven, teach fire hula hooping classes on the side, and adopt a klepto packrat as my familiar. Avoiding Rafe Blackwell, the golden-eyed lone wolf charged with keeping me in line, is harder. And ignoring the vampires attacking witches in Kansas City? Impossible.

When bodies turn up with veins full of the same blood additive that landed me that ten-year sentence, I can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. Going rogue risks my newfound freedom, but the alternative is a city overrun with demons and Nectar-addicted vampires in a feeding frenzy. When my fire magic fails, it’ll take every skill I earned as a Shadow to take down the Nectar ring despite the enforcer determined to keep me out of it.

But if running a witch shop has taught me one lesson, it’s how to face anything with a potion bomb and a smile.