A Tale of Masks, Monsters, & Chai
Kate McGovern has survived her first job long enough to get fired from it. But she has not come out empty-handed. Now a Pillar of Heaven, Kate bears the weight of a quarter of the sky. And she is looking forward to her next chapter, whatever that is. But the world is still in danger.
When another Pillar of Heaven is killed in a natural disaster, Kate must travel to Indonesia to locate the body and pass the Pillar on before the sky teeters and falls. Soon enough, Kate and her team realize the natural disaster was, in fact, supernatural. As powerful enemies strive to destroy the world, Kate, with the help of some new friends, fights to restore the balance. Oh, and she needs to find a new job too.
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EXCERPT
Kate McGovern did not work for Mr. Waites, billionaire businessman, evil overlord, and general pain in the ass anymore. She had yet to sign a short-term contract he’d offered her as a consultant on an artifact retrieval mission because, well, the delay annoyed him. She knew it annoyed him because she could read minds and she was very practiced at reading Mr. Waites’s mind. He called her into a meeting at his office last week to discuss the contract a.k.a. demand that she sign it so they could get on with finding the missing Pillar of Heaven. Kate had very happily told him she was still considering her options, and then delighted in his chagrin.
However, she wasn’t reading his mind right now. No, she was standing in a faded Starbucks t-shirt and flannel shorts, leveling a Medusa-style death glare at Jack, who did work for Waites, evil overlord that he was, as an executive assistant. Jack had also woken her up at 2 a.m. He grinned then winced, clasped his bandaged ribs while shifting on her pea green couch uncomfortably.
His face was fully healed from the beating he’d taken at the hands of the bad guys, who’d tried to steal a Pillar of Heaven. There was a scar on his temple where a steel-toed boot had nailed him, but Jack had survived. He walked slowly, shuffled really as he battled the pain. The bandages around his trunk secured his fractured ribs, and the gunshot wound in his side was now a scab. He was alive, but not quite whole.
“Why are you out of bed, let alone bothering me on a Monday of all days?” Kate demanded, crossing arms over her braless chest. Any other male would have immediately stared. Her assets were quite lovely. Jack didn’t notice her breasts. He did, however, spot her unshaved legs and made a mental note to send her a coupon for a good waxer. His waxer did excellent work.
For her part, Kate thought that if it had been anyone else knocking on her door at 2 a.m., she would have shut it in their face and gone back to bed.
“That’s why,” Jack said, referencing her thoughts. Jack was a telepath too. Annoyingly so. “He knew you wouldn’t answer for anyone else.”
Kate narrowed her eyes. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re out of bed.”
Jack ignored the question and petted her pea green couch instead. “I think this is the ugliest couch I’ve ever seen,” he murmured.
Kitty Shields (she/her) lives outside Philadelphia, where she writes to overcome the fact that she was born a middle child with hobbit feet, vampire skin, and a tendency to daydream. She has a book coming out with The Wild Rose Press in August 2023.
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