Seraph of Sorrow

Read Seraph of Sorrow Online

Authors: MaryJanice Davidson

Tags: #Fantasy

BOOK: Seraph of Sorrow
9.35Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Epigraph

PREFACE

 

PART 1 - Jonathan Scales

CHAPTER 1 - Schooling

CHAPTER 2 - Secrets

CHAPTER 3 - Schemes

CHAPTER 4 - Skills

 

PART 2 - Glorianna Seabright

CHAPTER 5 - Tested by Fire

CHAPTER 6 - Tested by Love

CHAPTER 7 - Tested by Family

CHAPTER 8 - Tested by Faith

 

PART 3 - Skip Wilson

CHAPTER 9 - Subtraction

CHAPTER 10 - Addition

CHAPTER 11 - Division

CHAPTER 12 - Multiplication

 

PART 4 - Winona Brandfire

CHAPTER 13 - Following Rules

CHAPTER 14 - Following Instincts

CHAPTER 15 - Following Footsteps

CHAPTER 16 - Leadership

 

PART 5 - Henry Blacktooth

CHAPTER 17 - Perfect

CHAPTER 18 - Threatened

CHAPTER 19 - Flawed

CHAPTER 20 - Ruined

 

PART 6 - Everybody Else

CHAPTER 21 - Rebirth, Afterlife, and Everything in Between

CHAPTER 22 - The Seraph

 

EPILOGUE

Praise for
Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light

“A delightful story . . . fun to read.”—
Midwest Book Review

 

“Filled with humor, friendship, and fierce loyalty . . . Jennifer’s character and attitude fly off the pages.”


BookLoons

 

“A truly wonderful read . . . This is one series that earns its place in any keeper shelf.”—
ParaNormalRomance.org

 

“A book to ignite the senses . . . The plot is original, the characters charming, and the dialogue enchanting and engaging . . . If you like dragons, mystical creatures, secret societies, and reading about the things that go bump in the night, this is definitely a book for you.”


Romance Reviews Today

 

“Amazing! . . . wonderful . . . The characters are well crafted and believable . . . You will love the witty dialogue.”


Roundtable Reviews

 

“Lighthearted . . . with a regular laundry list of preternatural creatures . . . strong story line and humorous touches.”


Monsters and Critics

 

“The writing . . . rolls right along, interesting and imaginative. The dialogue is witty and sharp, and the characters and world setup are great to read. Fun for all ages, this writing duo has hooked me into this series.”


The Romance Readers Connection

 

 

Praise for

 

Jennifer Scales and the
Ancient Furnace

“A wonderfully funny read! . . . a thoroughly engaging and captivating story.”—
ParaNormalRomance.org

 

“A good, entertaining story filled with some intriguing turns and surprises . . . giv[es] off a Buffyesque vibe. Jennifer is a good, strong character with a lot of potential, and I look forward to future offerings in this series.”—
SF Site

Titles by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi

Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace
Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light
The Silver Moon Elm: A Jennifer Scales Novel
Seraph of Sorrow: A Jennifer Scales Novel

 

Titles by MaryJanice Davidson

 

Undead and Unwed
Undead and Unemployed
Undead and Unappreciated
Undead and Unreturnable
Undead and Unpopular
Undead and Uneasy
Undead and Unworthy

 

Derik’s Bane
Sleeping with the Fishes
Swimming Without a Net
Fish out of Water

 

Anthologies

 

Cravings
(with Laurell K. Hamilton, Rebecca York, Eileen Wilks)

 

Bite
(with Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Angela Knight, Vickie Taylor)

 

Dead and Loving It

 

Mysteria
(with P. C. Cast, Gena Showalter, Susan Grant)

 

Demon’s Delight
(with Emma Holly, Vickie Taylor, Catherine Spangler)

 

Dead Over Heels

 

Mysteria Lane
(with P. C. Cast, Gena Showalter, Susan Grant)

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196,
South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

SERAPH OF SORROW: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the authors

PRINTING HISTORY
Ace mass-market edition / February 2009

Copyright © 2009 by MaryJanice Davidson Alongi and Anthony Alongi.

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form
without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in
violation of the authors’ rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

eISBN : 978-1-440-68652-8

ACE
Ace Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

http://us.penguingroup.com

For our moms and dads,
who were once fifteen, too

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.

—W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

PREFACE

This fourth book in the Jennifer Scales series has been our favorite. It’s also a touch aggressive and complicated, particularly for those of you who may not have had the good manners to read the first three. Rather than chastise you or callously insist you put this book down right now until you’ve paid twenty or so bucks for our earlier paperbacks, we’re going to help you out. Because that’s the kind of people we are. Well, it’s the kind of person Anthony is. MaryJanice would rather let you hang.

Here’s the minimum you should know (or remember) from the first three books:

To start,
Jennifer Scales
is our hero, and she’s a
weredragon
. That means she’s one of a rare breed that turns into a dragon every crescent moon. Weredragons have a hidden refuge called
Crescent Valley
. Jennifer’s different from her kind (a “freak among freaks,” as she would put it) in that she can change shape whenever she wants. Lately, she’s found a way of passing on that power to other weredragons, which makes her popular with many of them, including
Catherine Brandfire
, who’s just old enough to drive the Ford Mustang convertible her grandmother
Winona
owns. (
What, no boldface font on the Ford Mustang convertible?
you ask. It’s a good car, folks, but it doesn’t drive the plot here. Try to stay focused.)

Jennifer would be even more popular among dragons if she weren’t also half
beaststalker
. A beaststalker is a warrior bred to kill dragons and other monsters. They run
Winoka
, the town the Scales family lives in. In fact, beaststalkers invaded Winoka about sixty years ago, back when it was called Pinegrove. They “cleansed” the town of its dragon populace and pretended the old town never existed. The mayor-for-life is
Glorianna Seabright
, an elderly woman with unusual eyes who barely tolerates the Scales family but appears to have a soft spot for Jennifer’s mom,
Elizabeth
. Also in a position of power is
Hank Blacktooth
, husband to
Wendy
and father to
Eddie
. Eddie and Jennifer have been friends for years.

Jennifer also has
werachnids
to cope with. All right, everyone, you’ve all taken this sort of test:
weredragons
is to
dragons
as
werachnids
is to . . . guess what? (
Kittens?!
Start over!)

Despite their terrifying spider and scorpion shapes, werachnids are not all evil. Sure,
Skip Wilson
, Jennifer’s would-be boyfriend, betrayed everyone. And sure, his father,
Otto Saltin
, tried to put Jennifer in a coma and kill her father,
Jonathan
. And sure, a half dragon, half arachnid (name of
Evangelina
) came blazing through this dimension for a few weeks to terrorize her family. And sure, a powerful arachnid foursome (called the
Quadrivium
, of which there are two confirmed survivors, a girl named
Andi
and a teacher named
Mr. Slider
) recently tried to scrub out beaststalkers and dragons completely from the universe.

But really, they’re nice guys and gals. Sometimes. Like dragons, and beaststalkers, and normal people like
Susan Elmsmith
(Jennifer’s best friend) and you and us.


MaryJanice and Anthony

Other books

Doosra by Dhamija, Vish
From Cape Town with Love by Blair Underwood, Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes
Whitefeather's Woman by Deborah Hale
Hakusan Angel by Alex Powell
Selby Speaks by Duncan Ball
The Runaway Heiress by Anne O'Brien
Plague War by Jeff Carlson