New Release: Soothsayer

It's heeeere! And it's so beautiful.

Cillian Kelly can look into people’s eyes and see their fates. He’s running from a past filled with mistakes, lying low and selling his services on the sly. When he learns that Sören Egilsson, a man who sacrificed himself so Cillian could escape imprisonment two years ago, is somehow still alive, Cillian has to find out how. What he gets is the body of the man he loves possessed by an ancient spirit who draws Cillian into a battle to the death for the right to control Sören’s fate, and the power that comes with it.

You can find it at the Nine Star Press website and on Amazon:

http://ninestarpress.com/product/soothsayer/

Soothsayer on Amazon

Right, so, I know a lot of my blog people have read this before. Yes, it's the story I wrote here. It's been spruced up, edited to within an inch of its life, and I've included missing scenes in the blog tour, so if you follow along you'll get more info and a peek into the future. 

http://heartsonfirereviews.com/tour-with-giveaway-cari-z-soothsayer/

Sequel potential? Like, say, what happened in Vegas and what will happen if Cillian has to go there again? Yes, yes, and yes! Check the book out, and if you're interested in more let me know! The more people reach out to me, the higher the probability I'll write the next piece of Cillian's story.

Soothsayer Ch. 15 Pt. 2

Notes: Okay, explanation time! God, I hope this all makes sense. This story has been a bit of a "fly by the seat of my pants" experience, but I hope you enjoy having some resolution. I think all I need to throw in there at this point is an epilogue, and then we're done! And yes, it needs a sequel for things to really be wrapped up, but I'm doing the best I can with the setup I've got. So...enjoy!


Title: Soothsayer Chapter 15, Part Two.

***

“All’s fair in love and war.”

                The first thing I felt—and some little part of me was incredibly pleased to be feeling anything, I remembered enough to be sure of that—as I began to wake up was a fairly hard slap across the cheek. Not quite hard enough to make my head turn on the pillow, but it definitely wasn’t a friendly caress. I groaned and slowly blinked my eyes open.

                “Ah good, you’re awake. You fucking fool.”

                That wasn’t Sören’s voice. That was… “Jakob?” I asked hoarsely.

                “Correct.”

                “Where’s Sören?”

Soothsayer Ch. 15, Pt. 1

Notes: Oh my god, what have I done? What is this madness?!? We're so close to the end, guys, wow. And it's nasty. Never fear, though, we'll get through this.


Title: Soothsayer Chapter 15, Part One.

***



“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” – George S. Patton

“We meet again, Mr. Kelly.”

                “So we do.” I couldn’t make myself smile back at Ólafur, I just didn’t have it in me. “I guess you got pretty much everything you wanted last time though, huh?”

                “Well, you were being recalcitrant, Mr. Kelly,” he replied. Ólafur looked at ease, but just like before I saw the whip-fast capacity for violence inside of him. The last time I’d looked into Papa Egilsson’s eyes, I’d seen him kill, both under the effect of the geas and of his own volition. “I had to make do some way.”

                “Bullshit. You used me to set this up exactly the way you wanted.” I shook my head. “You had this planned from the start. The sacrifice had to be meaningful in order to matter to the landvaettir, and how much more meaningful could it get than your own son?” Now for the part I was really interested in, though. “How did you know to use me, though? Why bother, when you didn’t really need my talent for anything?”

    

Soothsayer Ch. 14, Pt. 2

Notes: Not quite explosive yet, but we finally meet the enigmatic father figure! It's the Egillsons all together at last, oh my god, someone's going to die. Hopefully not Cillian, though. Also, omg Rutger Hauer. Dreamcast, right there. Be my awful, loathsome patriarch.

Title: Soothsayer Chapter 14, Part 2.

***

“The harsh truth of every relationship, even between those who love each other, like fathers and sons…is that the love is always unequal.” – Karl Taro Greenfield, Triburbia

                The SUV wasn’t as luxurious as I’d expected, but it was gratifying not to be cuffed immediately and stripped of everything I had on me. The driver who met us did take my gun, but that was just good business. He considered over the lighter and the pack of cigarettes, but I gave him a look and said, “Those might be my last fucking request, okay? Can I have that?” After a moment he shrugged and handed them back, then showed us into the back of the car.

                The youngest brother was inside, waiting for us. He also held a gun on both of us. “Hello Rolf,” Sören said pleasantly as he settled into a seat.

                “Just keep your mouth shut,” Rolf snapped, his eyes darting anxiously between us. He was shorter than his older brothers, a little slimmer and had none of the stolid forcefulness of Artύr or the whiplash intelligence of Jakob. He looked even younger than Sören, honestly, and I was a little surprised that he was the one who’d been sent to fetch us. “Both of you.”

Soothsayer Ch. 14, Pt. 1

Notes: Oh my god, what's this, a vaguely naughty chapter at last? How have I written this much and not had any sex in it so far! Goddamn plot. Still, slightly elevated rating for this one, darlins, and we're careening toward the end now! Woooohoooo!


Title: Soothsayer Chapter 14, Part 1.

***



"Failure to plan is planning to fail." -- Adam Lakein

                There was a long list of stuff I needed to go over before my actual confrontation with Olafur and his brood. The trouble was, I couldn’t quite remember any of it. Most of it was set-up, things that I needed to do at just the right time in order to get the result I wanted. I was heading out to conduct a symphony of violence and lies, and there was no time for rehearsal. Everything had to happen just right, and that would take an unholy amount of concentration, but my mind swam around like a drunk fish, turning circles and not getting anywhere at all.

          

Soothsayer Ch. 13, Pt. 2

Notes: More Soothsayer, wherein we meet Roger's wife (based on a real person, I know a lot of characters), get drunk in planes, and make decisions about the future. We're careening toward the finish line, guys! One more month, maybe? A little more? I'm so excited!


Title: Soothsayer Chapter 13, Part 2.

***

“Where there’s a will, there’s a weapon.” – Yuri Orlov, Lord Of War

By the time we reached Roger’s plane, the last of my adrenaline was finally worn down to the point where the aggression was gone, mostly replaced by exhaustion. I had just…holy shit. I’d just blown up a car. Well, I hadn’t blown up a car, but someone had blown up a car on my orders. It was a spiral of flame and hate and violence and I’d fed right into it, and yeah, that wasn’t really my fault, but it still didn’t make me feel good.

Soothsayer Ch. 13, Pt. 1

Notes: Wow, so much has happened in the past week. I officially sold my super villain story to Riptide, which will be getting a name change. Also, it might become a series, which is amazing. Also, there's a lot more that I'll talk about later this week, but for now! Have some Soothsayer confrontation, Texas-style. This was such a fun chapter to write, oh my god.


Title: Soothsayer Chapter 13, Part 1.

***

“Two things scare me. The first is getting hurt. But that’s not nearly as scary as the second, which is losing.” – Lance Armstrong

                Naturally, once Sören knew about the confrontation that was looming he insisted on being there. I figured it would be easier without him there but he thought, and probably correctly, that since he was the one we were fighting over he should have a say in our negotiations.

                “Fine,” I said, “but you keep your mouth shut for the most part, okay? Please? Because you’re not good at defusing these sorts of situations, and I think you know that.”

                “Defusing such situations would be boring,” he told me with a smirk. “I much prefer when you fight over me.”

                “And I much prefer living through these things, so don’t push it, okay?”

  

Soothsayer Ch. 12, Pt. 2 + announcements

Notes: Oh wow, guys! First off, thank you to everyone who commented on Dando Bola going live, I will reply to each and every one of you as soon as I can. Spanish isn't a language I'm very good at, so this takes me some time but I'll get there. Also, the Cody/Ten vignette is being written as we speak, but taking some time. It's coming though!

Secondly, I have tentatively got a new release scheduled with Riptide. Yes! That villain story I posted an excerpt of a long time ago? With the bomber and the guy working at the bank? Yeah, that's the one. This is awesome because I love that story and I really wanted another release with Riptide. Depending on how quickly I get through the edits (and there will be a LOT) it could be out as soon as April. Which is so soon, oh my god.

Thirdly, here's more Soothsayer! We're setting up for a massive confrontation, I'm loving it :)


Title: Soothsayer Chapter 12, Part 2.

***

“The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” – Tony Robbins

                Sören didn’t talk to me at all after that, even though I couldn’t stop asking him if he was all right. It had to have been a terrifying thing for him, to be swallowed up by a greater force than he himself was. Like Jonah and the whale, only the whale was just as smart as Jonah and they both knew it. Hell, I’d have been scared under the circumstances. I had been scared just watching it.

Bobby was kind of a bastard, but I took his meaning. Sören wasn’t a big fish in America. I needed to find him somewhere to put down roots—literally and figuratively—that wouldn’t chew him up and spit him out. If I couldn’t do that, then honestly I wouldn’t blame Sören for not wanting to stick with me, because everyone needed a home. Just because I didn’t know exactly where mine was didn’t mean Sören had to suffer along with me. Fortunately, I knew someone in the oil business that I could talk to about that.

   

Soothsayer Ch. 12, Pt. 1

Notes: Okay, picking up where we left off...sorry for the delay in posting, my work schedule was crazy this morning. Also, I got a request for another Cody/Ten vignette and it's been too long, so look for one of those later this week! Thanks for reading, darlins! 

PS--thanks for the recs too, I'll get back to you on those but I'm definitely doing some buying this week ;)


Title: Soothsayer Chapter 12, Part 1.

***



“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir

                It took us two days to get through Missouri, Oklahoma, a sliver of Texas and finally end up in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Two days for what should have been a fourteen-hour drive, because ha-fucking-ha, there was no way I should have expected Sören to sit in the passenger seat and play with the Nintendo. No. He preferred to Google bad roadside attractions with his phone and then compel me to go there by bitching non-stop, or occasionally just staring at me with cloudy purple eyes until I gave in. Not that I could give in, because—hello—no distinguishing locations, which led to several arguments before he gave up.

“Next time,” I swore to him, “after we’re not being hunted down by your dad’s soothsayer, I’ll let you plan a road trip and we’ll waste time all over the country, but for now we just can’t. Not if we don’t want your brothers crashing the party.” I let him read to me about them as a poor substitute for seeing them in person.

     

Soothsayer Ch. 11, Pt. 2

Notes: Okay, so we dive hardcore into more plotty stuff next week, but this is all still relevant. And also, for those who read the below and think to themselves "That's not how people camp," oh yes it is. In my family, tents are for wusses. Even in the winter, we've built snow caves over sleeping in tents. Every summer backpacking trip I've ever taken with my dad, who is a former Army Ranger, we've slept under strategically-tied tarps on sleeping bags and pads. In his older age he's condescended to add an air mattress for the sake of his hips, but the rest of it? Rain or wind or mosquito season, it's plastic tarps. Yep. I like it a lot more than these guys do, though :)


Title: Soothsayer Chapter Eleven, Part Two.

 ***

                Don’t get me wrong. I was not, and had never been, big into the “great outdoors.” My mother might have liked roughing it in a little cabin with unreliable electricity, and I may have spent more than my fair share of time tied up in uncomfortably rural locations, but I’d never enjoyed it. It wasn’t the sort of thing I put up with for enjoyment, it was what happened when there were no other options and I had to suck it up. I figured it would be second nature for Sören, though. After all, he was a freaking landvættir. If getting comfy on the actual land wasn’t a part of that, I didn’t know what was.

                Living in ignorance was way better than finding out the truth.

Soothsayer Ch. 11, Pt. 1

Notes: Happy reunion time! Or something like that. Another chapter that happened rather unexpectedly, I hadn't figured on doing this here but...shit happens. In other news, the preorder page is up for my, and four other awesome authors, Riptide stories. The collection is called Rules To Live By, has a discipline theme--yeah, that's one of the Ds in BDSM, its that kind of story-- and you can read more about it here: http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/rules-to-live-by.

Now, on with the show!


Title: Soothsayer Chapter Eleven, Part One.

***

“My heart is ever at your service.” – William Shakespeare

                I was getting paint on Andre’s seats. He would probably be pissed about that whenever I got this car back to him, but at least it wasn’t bullet holes. Chock that up in the ‘win’ column, I guess. Ha, this was my life, where not being actively shot at with a deadly weapon was the best thing that had happened all day to me. I should’ve probably ditched the car, honestly, gotten a new one just in case they had some way of tracking this one, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. I settled on switching out the license plate at a gas station instead and just kept going.

Soothsayer Ch. 10, Pt. 2

Notes: On to the theme park and a lot of questionable decision making, woohoo! We're rolling right along with this story. I estimate we're over halfway at this point, which is kind of nice but kind of sad. So goes the blog. Thanks again to everyone who entered my giveaway, I'm so pleased you played and I'll get to your comments asap! If you won, congrats, if you didn't...well, at least you get free fiction.

PS: I've neither played paintball nor do I speak Icelandic, so I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies.

PPS: My bespoke story winner gave me this amazing picture as a prompt. What could I not do with this? So many options...

Title: Soothsayer Chapter 10, Part 2.

***

“Running away will never make you free.” – Kenny Loggins

  

                You weren’t supposed to bring a firearm into an amusement park. Well, who knows, the rules were probably different in a place like Texas, but in Missouri the prohibition stood. More than that, I wasn’t comfortable carrying and possibly firing a gun in a place where a lot of children were going to be running around. There was disregarding my own safety, and then there was being okay with copious collateral damage, and I wasn’t going to be that. So fine, no gun. It didn’t matter. I just needed to find Sören and get out of here. Hopefully I could snag him as he came off of a rollercoaster and get him out before his brothers even got close.

                Yeah. And how often did things work out for me like that?

Soothsayer Ch. 10, Pt. 1

Notes: I sat down to write this today and I thought about what I had planned, then thought, "Oh man, that sounds boring. And if I'm bored readers will be bored. What else can I do?" And then this arc started, and it's going to get crazy in St. Louis, folks. Enjoy part one!

Also, check back on Thursday to find out who wins my giveaway!


Title: Soothsayer Chapter 10, Part One.

***

“Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil’s alphabet—the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies.” – Michel de Montaigne

  

We reached St. Louis by early afternoon, and it wasn’t hard to find Six Flags. Just look for the enormous rollercoasters, which I expected I’d be spending some time on. Again, not something I’d done since Vegas. Sören was a bad influence.

He was also incredibly impatient. “I want to go in now.”

Soothsayer Ch. 8, Pt. 2

Notes: So, not a super long one today. My parents are in town, the wedding is nigh, there are many preparations and not a lot of time, but I think it's still an interesting addition. Plus there's a song link! It's an Icelandic lullaby that I reference down below. It's beautiful, but kind of haunting. Anyway. Story for you. Happy Tuesday, darlins!

Title: Soothsayer, Chapter 8, Part 2.

***

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4qECgRnV64

(The link to the lullaby)

“Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love.” – Mahatma Gandhi

The smart thing to do would have been to keep going, in line with my original plan. After what happened with the cop though, my eyes burned like my body was trying to cry and my magic just wouldn’t let it. The guilt didn’t abate after two hours, and I wasn’t about to hand the keys over to Sören again, so I pulled off the highway at the next hole-in-the-wall motel I saw.

“Why are we stopping?”

I didn’t say anything, just got out of the car and slammed the door shut. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to that fucking dick right now. I headed into the tiny front office, where a boy who couldn’t be more than eighteen looked up from his video game a little incredulously. “Seriously?”

Soothsayer Ch. 8, Pt. 1

Notes: More Soothsayer, and the competition is taking an interesting turn. Also a kind of sad one. I had no idea it would happen until I wrote it, blame the boys.

Title: Soothsayer, Chapter 8, Part 1.

***

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” – Albert Einstein

                Going from the incredibly optimistic app on my phone, it should have taken about 18 hours to drive from Illinois to the tiny town of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, home of the Blue Hole and, occasionally, Bobby Garcia. Bobby was the man I needed to see about nature magic, so New Mexico was where we had to go. One really long day, maybe two if we were wasting time sleeping and eating, and then we’d be there.

                Ha-fucking-ha.

                “You should let me drive,” Sören said once it was after midnight and the highway had cleared off a bit. We were headed south toward Missouri—it wouldn’t be long before we crossed the border and hopefully made it that much harder for Papa Egilsson and his crew of vicious offspring to find us.

   

Soothsayer Ch. 7, Pt. 2

Notes: Oh my gosh, major revelations at last! A new quest, new trials and tribulations and a whole lot of WTF, honestly. Where do I even get some of this? This one was super fun to write. Enjoy!

Title: Soothsayer Chapter 7, Part 2.

***

“I wonder what inspires gamblers. Is if the adventure or the love of laziness?” – Paul Bamikole

                I woke up and realized I couldn’t feel my arms. It said something about my state of mind that the first thing I thought was, “Where is Sören?” It was quickly followed by “Oh my fuck, what the hell is wrong with my arms?”

                It took a few seconds for my mind to clear enough that I could figure things out. I was still outside, although now the sky was completely dark, the sun gone and the moon obscured by cloud cover. I wasn’t in the dark, though. The car was about ten feet in front of me, well into the field—how the fuck had it gotten there? Had Sören driven it there? Had he dragged it? Either way, the car was facing me, headlights on, so bright that it hurt to look at them. I could barely make out the silhouette of a man crouched in front of them, rifling through a bag—my bag.

Soothsayer Ch. 7, Pt. 1

Notes: I know this isn't the longest post, but I'm setting a lot of stuff up. Plus, wow, it's been a busy week and we've barely started! Full Credit is up in Spanish on the blog (see the right hand side under Pages), I just got cover art for an anthology I'm in that gets released next month (more on that later) and we can't forget last week's Academy vignette, which apparently a lot of people liked. Thank you! For now, though, on with Cillian and Sören, or...whatever is in the trunk.

Also, I'm sorry, all my Icelandic comes from translation sites, I apologize if there are egregious errors.

Title: Soothsayer, Chapter 7, Part 1.

***

“Your voice has haunted every inch of my soul since the last time I heard it…my world had been so dark, void of sound and then I heard you sing again—and it exploded.” – Cassandra Giovanni, Finding Perfection

                It took for fucking ever to get out of Chicago. Seriously, I don’t know how they even called it all Chicago, it was like, “Oh, the city center!” and then hours’ worth of suburbs before the highway suddenly spit me out into farmland. I could smell the cow shit from here, and it was not lovely. I would stand out like a five-alarm fire in one of these little farming towns, not that I expected the Egilsson family to be on my tail quite yet. Still, Andre was right. I needed to sleep, and that meant I needed to stop for a while. Sören was safe in the trunk—god, and I hated that he was stuffed back in the trunk but there really was no good way to explain the functional equivalent of a corpse to someone if they happened to look inside.

  

Soothsayer Ch. 6, Pt. 2

Notes: Finally picking things up again! I now this isn't the resolution you were looking for, but it's the last chapter before we get to meet Sören, so there's that! Yes, next chapter I introduce our mystery man, who is not about to become less mysterious, unfortunately. However, would you like a picture of him? A beautiful picture courtesy of http://tavvi.deviantart.com/ ? Because it's beautiful and wonderful and I love it.

PS, there will be an Academy post later this week as an apology for being behind. Stay tuned!


Title: Soothsayer, Chapter 6, Part 2.

***

“I can’t be a legend yet. I’m not dead.” – Maynard James Keenan

                Andre obviously didn’t share my relief at escaping relatively unscathed from the Omni parking garage. He was silent for the first few minutes of our drive, opening his mouth every now and then to start yelling and then stopping before more than a hitch of breath emerged. It happened five times before I finally spoke.

                “Just get it off your chest; I don’t want you to have a stroke.”

                “And I don’t want to punch you in the face so hard your daddy feels it, but that’s where I’m at right now, so you give me some goddamn space.”

Soothsayer Ch. 6, Pt. 1

Notes: Oh my gosh, this one was so much fun to write! We're getting in deep now. I also have pictured for you, this time of Roger and Phin. I love Tumblr, I find the best artists there. Next week, Tuesday comes right after I get back from a trip to Chicago celebrating my sister's bachelorette party, so while I think I'll have something for you, I can't absolutely guarantee it yet. Anyway. On with the show!

Title: Soothsayer, Chapter 6, Part 1.

***



“Death is the only thing that could have ever kept him from you.” – Ally Carter, Out of Sight, Out of Time

                There was a body on the bed. It didn’t move, not even the barest rise and fall to indicate breathing. The head was turned to look my way, eyes open and sightless, pupils tiny and fixed. There was a dead body on the bed, and I recognized it. It took me a few seconds of deep breathing and biting my lip so hard that I drew blood before I could acknowledge that yes, the body was Sören’s. I forced myself to step closer and take another look.

Yeah, it was Sören…but dead might have been an overstatement.

Soothsayer Ch. 5, Pt. 2

Notes: We're almost there! We've got breaking and entering, people, so get ready for the next post, because things are going to start to happen fast. In the meantime, enjoy Cillian in another suit.

**Bonus points if you recognize who Cillian is referring to down below :)


Title: Soothsayer, Chapter 5, Part 2.

***

“Since knowledge is but sorrow’s spy, It is not safe to know.” – William Davenant

Far be it from me to confess to a fault, but if I had to name one off the top of my head, it would be vanity. Used to be pride, or maybe arrogance, but you get kidnapped and tied up and threatened with death enough times and the arrogance bleeds out of your system. Literally, in some cases. So, while I might be confident in my abilities, I wasn’t arrogant.

Vanity, though…well, fuck it, I looked good. I had my mother’s eyes and nose, and her rail-thin build, but my naturally dark hair, the shape of my jaw and my decent height all came from my unnamed sperm donor. I might look like a tattooed punk, but I had put a lot of thought into my tattoos. Every one had a meaning, every one was a little slice of purpose inked into my skin.