Title: Mermaidia
A Limited Edition Anthology
Authors: Catherine Banks, Kai Ellory,
Viola Mia Ellas, Anthea Sharp, Kristi Lea,
LA Fox, Nicole Zoltak, Mara Amberly,
Raine English, Margo Bond Collins,
Sara Elizabeth, Mikayla Symonett,
Tricia Schnieder, Merrie Destefano,
Bokerah Brumley, Rachel A Marks
and Pauline Creeden
Viola Mia Ellas, Anthea Sharp, Kristi Lea,
LA Fox, Nicole Zoltak, Mara Amberly,
Raine English, Margo Bond Collins,
Sara Elizabeth, Mikayla Symonett,
Tricia Schnieder, Merrie Destefano,
Bokerah Brumley, Rachel A Marks
and Pauline Creeden
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy
Release Date: 1st March 2020
About the Anthology: Love mermaids and all creatures aquatic? This limited time anthology is
just for you! With more than 700 pages of captivating fiction, you’ll be
enchanted by sirens, dive the depths with a mermaid, and fear whether the sea
witch is friend or foe.
Are you ready
to dive in before your chance is lost forever? Then order this limited-edition
collection of exclusive material from USA Today and award-winning authors
Including the following stories and more!
Queen
of the Island by Bokerah Brumley
Fated
to be together, Calder and his mate must overcome the evil nymph that would
keep them apart.
Seize
the Storm by Kristi Lea
An
Isyre hides from the hunters who killed her family, as far from any ocean as
she can be. The fire mage who discovers her secrets has a few of his own. Can
they trust each other to face their pasts
Touched
by a Mermaid by Raine English
A
secret society. A sea witch bent on revenge. An ancient world in peril.
Paranormal
Maritime War by Nicole Zoltack
A
stolen selkie skin just might start a war between the merfolk, the selkies, and
the sirens.
Racing
the Clock by Catherine Banks
“You
will seduce the prince and convince him to give you his soul. If you fail, you
will give me your soul for eternity.”
The Church
of Moon and Sea by Sara Elizabeth
She must choose
between two loves – the sea or the land.
Fury by
Merrie Destefano
To survive, she
made a secret deal in the Underworld.
Soul's
Reef - Kai Ellory Viola
A
mysterious phenomenon. A weird cult. Vaccines needed at the end of the
universe - Captain Holloway just needs to get through the reefs.
The Sea of Time and Stars by Mara Amberly
"A
woman watched from just above the water line, her sleek blue hair drifting in
the water around her. One moment she was there and the next she was gone; so
quickly I could’ve put it down to my imagination or a hallucination from my
injuries.”
PURCHASE LINKS
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
EXCERPT
Chapter
1
San
Francisco
Beneath
a thin sheet, Calder Brumen pretended to sleep, his fingers twisted into his
pillowcase to keep from leaping off the bed.
Gaire,
the vision, had come back. She always returned. More so lately than she ever
had before.
On
the whim of hope, he’d left the sliding door open for her that night. When a
breeze blew in, moving across him in waves, he knew. Wind preceded her. In the
cool of the darkened apartment, Calder bit back a groan. Anticipation set his
skin aflame.
He
imagined her so often. One day, he might find a real woman to take her place,
but it was not this day.
Today, he lived for the few minutes that would have to tide him over until her
next visit.
Another
puff of wind burst over him, ruffling the bed skirt and lifting the sheet. He
gripped the bed, careful to be as still as possible. So many nights had been
the same: filled with the euphoria she brought when she arrived, trailed by the
void she left when she’d gone.
He
took a breath. Then she was there, waiting at the end of the bed.
That
was all that mattered. He had to live in this moment. Too many questions, too many rational thoughts
always drove the fantasy away, and it might be weeks until next time.
She
tugged on the corner of the silken sheets and every nerve ending pricked
beneath the fabric she dragged across his skin. Breath left his body in a rush as he strained toward the
shapely figure standing next to his bedside. He moaned aloud but did not move.
Light
fell over them from the streetlamps outside. Her bare belly button demanded his
attention, resting slightly above the outward curves of her hips. She shifted
and moonlight glinted on the metallic scale markings that covered her skin.
Shadows obscured her torso, but her green eyes glowed. The limited light
illuminated only her silhouette, highlighting her womanly shape.
“Gaire.”
He spoke her name as a wish, enunciating the hard “g” sound and sighing on the
“air” sound in her name.
She
frowned down at him.
“Gaire,”
he said, his voice stronger. He couldn’t wait again.
She
leaned forward and into a pool of light cast from the streetlamp outside. She
clutched her bottom lip between her white teeth as she studied him. Her ginger
hair splashed across Calder’s middle. As each strand fell, Calder’s chest
pulled tighter and tighter with anticipation, his eyes fixed on the face he had
painted on canvas so many times. He couldn’t be certain she existed anywhere
other than his mind.
Her
tongue swiped across her mouth in a nervous gesture. “How do you remember who I
am, my red warrior?” she whispered.
“You’re
unforgettable.” You are more real to
me than any other woman in the world. He willed her to hear his
thoughts, afraid to speak the words out loud, afraid to frighten her away. “Tell
me you’re real. You’re not just a mermaid from my dreams.”
She
didn’t answer, only stared at the ground.
“Tell
me about the tattoos on your hips,” he said, desperate to draw her into
conversation. Conversation could become something else. “I’ve never seen any
like those before. I tried to find the artist who does them…” His voice faded.
So many things he wanted to say.
“Tattoos?”
Her eyebrows lifted. “How do you remember my name? You shouldn’t be able to
recall anything about me.”
“I
never forget.” Even as figment of his imagination, she was lodged in his brain.
He reached for her, but the familiar weakness made his limb useless. “Last
night, you said to call you by…”
He
didn’t mention the other nights, the other times when he heard her name in his
head as she kissed him or the mornings when her name was the first thing he
remembered when he woke.
“You
told me your name,” he said.
She
pushed his hand away. “Hush.”
“Don’t
go,” he begged. Sometimes the fantasy disappeared after only a moment and a
kiss on the cheek and he woke frustrated and angry. Sometimes she stayed most
of the night.
The
corners of her mouth tipped up. “You’re not mine yet, but I came to see you. I
needed to know you were all right.” She pulled the sheet from the floor and
slipped into the bed. She pressed her body against his side, and he rolled
toward her.
“I’m
a hallucination,” she said. “Go back to sleep. Don’t remember me in the
morning.”
“You’re
my dream,” he said, but his words slurred. His thoughts bumped into one
another. “My heart is always chasing you,” he sighed.
When
Gaire’s fingers fluttered across his middle, the edges of the room twisted
inward. The scent of saltwater, coconuts, and jasmine grew stronger, clouding
his mind until his thoughts turned silent, swallowed by the warmth of her
gentle lips on his.
She
murmured something against his mouth. Maybe he tasted the ocean in her tears,
but he could no longer understand the words as he drifted in the confusion her
nearness wrought.
~~From Queen of the Island by Bokerah Brumley
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