Heart Blade, Book 1 of the Blade Hunt Chronicles, is the debut young adult novel by Juliana Spink Mills. Heart Blade will be released on February 14th, 2017. Cover art by Merilliza Chan.
Blurb:
She ran along the dark alley, heart thumping and feet scuffing the ground. The knife in her hand gleamed. Behind her, the demon advanced, never hurrying, steady, sure of its prey. She came to a dead end and the demon laughed.
“Are you going to kill me?” she asked.
“Not this time,” the demon answered from the shadows that pooled between one streetlight and another. “This time you’ll join me.
Working frantically, she dug the knife into her arm. It hurt every bit as much as she thought it would, but she gritted her teeth and kept carving.
Teenage half-demon Del Raven wears a promise in scarred letters upon her skin. Now, pressured to make her first kill and seal her demon nature forever, she flees her pack and forges a dangerous partnership with young angel-blood Ash.
But Del isn’t the only one on the run from the demons. For seventeen years the Guild of Saint Peter has done its best to hide orphan Rose, a key player in the centuries-old Heart Blade prophecy.
The threads tangle, and soon Del, Ash and Rose find themselves in the crosshairs of an ancient war between demons and angels…and the hunt for a mythical weapon that could change the balance of power forever.
Excerpt:
The SUV rocketed along the dirt track, right on the motorbike’s tail. The surrounding trees were a dark blur in the night, lit only by their headlights. Ash realized he was holding his breath, and let it out in one big exhale. Becca heard and chuckled.
“Apprentices,” she said, shaking her head. “So darn cute. Hey, don’t worry, kid. We’re in good hands. Your old man’s the best in the business. You don’t get to be Scion of the New England Chapter of sentinels for nothing.”
Ash would have protested, said he wasn’t worried, but it would have been a lie. Becca would have known; they all would. You couldn’t lie to a sentinel. Instead he gritted his teeth and tugged at his bulletproof vest. The borrowed body armor he wore was too tight across his shoulders. His whole chest felt too tight.
Becca drew closer to the stuttering motorbike, still trailing acrid clouds of smoke. The trees opened suddenly into a vista of dark fields, and Becca accelerated, throwing the car off the road. They ripped through the tall grass, stems slashing viciously at the sides of the SUV.
There was a sudden impression of approaching buildings, and then the side of the SUV hit the bike hard. The bike went down in a tumbling crash, the engine’s growl cutting out abruptly as the vampire fell head over heels to land on his back. The SUV skidded to a stop, high beams raking the black. The vampire scrambled to his feet and took off, Deacon in pursuit with his sword over his shoulder as Ash leaned over his cousin to watch.
Becca snagged her hunting rifle from the back of the car and turned to Ash and Jordan, still inside. “Well? You here to learn, or what?”
