
The Inkwell of Shadows
Newlywed, but not newly-dead. At least, not yet…
Daniel Hawthorne thought marrying his long-time fiancée, Cassidy—a shapeshifting bat-creature called a skinshaper—would be the hard part. Especially compared to quitting his workaholic job as a software engineer to run his late uncle’s antique shop in a quiet Southern town.
Sadly, not so much.
After a supernatural enemy crashes their wedding night with blood and fire, Daniel and Cassidy barely escape with their lives. The old storefront is smashed. Their honeymoon? Ruined. To rebuild, they’re forced to take a dubious job investigating a set of antique fountain pens. Ones with a long and deadly history in their wake.
Now they find themselves caught up in a century-old problem steeped in ink and blood. At the same time, a mysterious figure is also looking for the pens—and is willing to kill anyone to get them. Worse? It all might have ties to the monster that nearly murdered them.
To protect home, sanity, and each other, Daniel and Cassidy must uncover the truth—at least before their names are written in blood.
Daniel Hawthorne thought marrying his long-time fiancée, Cassidy—a shapeshifting bat-creature called a skinshaper—would be the hard part. Especially compared to quitting his workaholic job as a software engineer to run his late uncle’s antique shop in a quiet Southern town.
Sadly, not so much.
After a supernatural enemy crashes their wedding night with blood and fire, Daniel and Cassidy barely escape with their lives. The old storefront is smashed. Their honeymoon? Ruined. To rebuild, they’re forced to take a dubious job investigating a set of antique fountain pens. Ones with a long and deadly history in their wake.
Now they find themselves caught up in a century-old problem steeped in ink and blood. At the same time, a mysterious figure is also looking for the pens—and is willing to kill anyone to get them. Worse? It all might have ties to the monster that nearly murdered them.
To protect home, sanity, and each other, Daniel and Cassidy must uncover the truth—at least before their names are written in blood.
The story
Chapters
- Copyright
- Chapter 1: Till Death Almost Part
- Chapter 2: Briarwood Beatdown
- Chapter 3: Vows and Fangs
- Chapter 4: Echoes of the Past
- Chapter 5: Skullduggery and a Soft Reopening
- Chapter 6: Dusty Decimal Systems
- Chapter 7: A Safe And Other Lies
- Chapter 8: Backyard Bodies & Other Ideas
- Chapter 9: Murder Most Mummified
- Chapter 10: Mostly Murdered All Day
- Chapter 11: If Walls and Ink Could Talk…
- Chapter 12: Pies, Lies, and Other Appetites
- Chapter 13: Trust and Consequences
- Chapter 14: Double, Double, Toil and Trouble
- Chapter 15: Whacking Weeds and Other Wild Hopes
- Chapter 16: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
- Chapter 17: Professors, Problems, and a side of Peril
- Chapter 18: Death’s Own Trail
- Chapter 19: Rumors Of Root and Bone
- Chapter 20: Pages Better Left Unread
- Chapter 21: Roots Beneath the Floorboards
- Chapter 22: Dead Secrets Never Stay Buried
- Chapter 23: Ink Under the Fingernails
- Chapter 24: Stories That Refuse to Die
- Chapter 25: Chained by Evidence
- Chapter 26: Out on a Limb
- Chapter 27: Bait and Switch
- Chapter 28: Never Deal with a Dryad
- Chapter 29: The Final Draft