Teaser Tuesday: SON OF A MERMAID by Katie O’Sullivan

Every author has a favorite excerpts from our novels. The excerpts we authorize for use on the publisher’s website, or on our blog tours. This is not that excerpt.

Since this is the Darkly Delicious Blog, I thought I’d share a slightly darker excerpt… the part where my hero Shea MacNamara first confronts the villain. Unfortunately, he’s been captured by the bad guy’s army and is totally at the mercy of the most evil merman in the ocean.

Although, that’s not his biggest problem.

Shea has no problem standing up to bullies. He’s been doing that all his life. But what should he do when the bully threatens the mermaid he’s just fallen in love with?

About the Book:

Shea MacNamara's life just got complicated.

After a freak tornado devastates his Oklahoma farm, the fifteen-year-old orphan moves to Cape Cod to live with a grandmother he's never met. Struggling to make sense of his new surroundings, he meets a girl along the shore who changes his life forever.

Kae belongs to an undersea world hidden from drylanders. The daughter of royal servants, she knows the planned marriage of her Princess to the foreign King should put an end to the war between the clans. Two things stand in the way of lasting peace: an ambitious Regent and rumors of a half-human child who will save the oceans.

Sparks fly when she meets Shea, but could the cute drylander really be the Son of a Mermaid?

Excerpt from SON OF A MERMAID, May 2013 from Crescent Moon Press

“I must return to the Great Hall before I’m missed,” the dark Prince snapped as he entered, not bothering to disguise his impatience or his anger. He stopped in front of the bound pair, eyeing the thick ropes with disdain. “How can I question two prisoners if I can only look at one of them?”

One of the guards sprang forward to untie the knotted fishing net. The Prince rolled his eyes as the soldier fumbled with the rope. “Can’t you move any faster, you insufferable wad of eel slime?”

“I’m doing my best…” the soldier’s voice trailed off into a yelp. Shea turned his head to see the Prince’s knife slice through the netting that bound him to Kae, lopping off two of the soldier’s fingers in the process. Thick blood oozed from the fresh wounds, clouding the water around the soldier’s hand.

Shea’s nose prickled at the scent, the blood filling the seawater with the strong scent of iron. His stomach clenched down tight, a twisted knot forming in his belly. Death, he thought. This is what death smells like. He could hear the excited thoughts of the sharks penned outside as the strong scent wafted out through the open window.

“My time is more valuable than you seem capable of understanding,” the Prince growled through clenched teeth.

The guard named Griffin rushed forward. “Let’s keep the blood to a minimum,” he said, his voice anxious. He wrapped a kelp rag around his comrade’s hand to stem the ooze of red. The sharks outside thrashed restlessly, banging against the side of their cage with a resounding clatter. “My girls get easily excited.”

“Now then,” the Prince drawled, locking eyes with Shea. He pulled the net off his head and reached out to snap the cord holding the transmutare stone. “No need to have you contacting any friends.” He handed the medallion to one of the soldiers and motioned for him to take Kae’s transmutare as well.

“Tell me your name, you pusillanimous little squid, and why you felt the need to spy on a public procession?”

Shea stared silently into the Prince’s dark eyes. He’d dealt with plenty of bullies back in Oklahoma. The boys who played football and thought the world owed them everything. The kids who didn’t have to rush home to do chores after school, the ones who lived in town and thought they were so much better than a farmboy.

Give them an inch and they’ll take the whole farm, his dad always said. Shea had no intention of giving the Prince that inch.

Prince Demyan pressed his lips together tightly. “Do you need further motivation to talk?” He slowly scraped his bloody blade against the boy’s neck. Shea shrugged, as if to say “So what? I dare you,” but kept his mouth firmly closed.

“Or perhaps,” began the Prince, removing the blade and swimming backward a few inches. He wiped the blade along the left side of Shea’s vest, leaving a dark bloody stripe on the green seaweed. “Perhaps I’m threatening the wrong mermaid.” He reached over and grabbed a handful of Kae’s blonde curls, yanking her toward him as she winced in pain. He pulled her head backward, fully exposing her delicate neck. With slow precision he raised the knife and rested its shining blade against her skin, where the blood pulsed through her carotid artery.

***

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