Spotlight Feature of Waterborne by Katherine Irons (& Giveaway)

Waterboune
by Katherine Irons
Release date:  June 26, 2012
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A Force Of Nature
Ree O’Connor is more than she seems to be. Despite her delicate appearance and her broken heart, she sees what others don’t. In fact, she is an agent of a clandestine world court, about to bring down a monster when a stranger springs her trap instead. The mistake nearly costs Ree not only her prey, but her life, too–until mysterious Alexandros spirits her to an underwater world she never suspected, even with all her secret knowledge.
As a prince of Atlantis, Alexandros has centuries of experience in love and battle. His magic draws from the power of the ocean itself, and he can be just as beguiling–and just as unfathomable. Could any man heal Ree enough to become more than a sometime lover? And can she trust her heart to a soldier-prince of the deep?

Excerpt:

Nick . . .

The pain tore at her, ripped and chewed with savage ferocity.  Ree opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out.  Her skin was on fire . . . her tongue swollen and dry.  If she believed in hell, she could have believed that she’d died and ended up there.  But she didn’t . . . she’d given up believing in anything when she was six years old.

Flash!  The pictures were back, jerking across a tattered gray screen.  A ship’s galley.  Flash! Nick’s head on the pillow next to hers.  Flash! A cavalcade of black limousines and the cloying scent of lilies.

“No!”

Nick’s arms were around her, lifting her, carrying her.  His mouth covered hers in a searing kiss of passion as a wall of water engulfed them.  She wasn’t afraid.  The water felt good on her hot skin; it soothed the raw ache that gnawed at her stomach and sent shards of glass through her head.  She felt the water on her parched lips, tasted the salt, and inhaled the cool moisture deep into her lungs.

The blackness came and went, came and went.  In between, she thought she saw impossible scenes around her . . . walls of ancient cities, fallen columns, and a road of giant blocks of stone that stretched out to the curve of the earth.  Swaying forests of green kelp rose around them.  Red and yellow, blue, and purple fish darted and floated between the leafy fronds of foliage.  Massive creatures slid past amid the haunting songs of ghostly leviathans.

She had so many questions she wanted to ask Nick.  Why was his hair so light and how had his beautiful brown eyes turned to green?  How had he found her on the deck of the Anastasiya and why was she so thirsty?  But, try as she might, no sounds would pass her lips.

She wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and feel his mouth on hers, but she found it impossible to break free from her crystalline prison.  And this time, when the dark tide threatened to sweep over her, she didn’t fight it.  Nick was here, and he would take care of her.  If Nick had found her, everything would be all right.

She opened her eyes to see a wall of molten lava erupting from the forest around them.  Heat flashed against her skin, and she clamped her eyes shut against the glare.  But not before she’d seen the impossible, seen the tattooed men with their flashing spears and heard their hideous war cries.

“Don’t be afraid,” Nick said, and this time, it seemed that she heard his voice in her head.  “I won’t let them hurt you.”

Why would they hurt me? she wondered.  They aren’t real.  Any minute the piano will begin to play and the Little Tramp will throw his hat and knock them all down. They will fall like dominoes. Flash.  Flash.  Flash.

Giveaway details