Counting Shadows (Duplicity #1) by Olivia Rivers
Publication Date: June 30th 2013
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
~Summary~
Two hearts, one kiss…
…Nothing left.
Faye’s soul-mate is everything she should hate—an Angel, an outcast, an enemy. Ashe is just one more imperfection in her life that somehow makes everything… perfect.
Until he’s murdered.
With the only person she loves ripped away, Faye sets out to avenge Ashe’s death. The task seems impossible, until she finds Lor—an Angel who looks nearly identical to Ashe’s killer. Arrogant and hot-headed, Lor is everything Ashe wasn’t. But Lor is connected to her soul-mate’s past, and Faye needs him to find the killer—even if Lor is potentially deadly.
But when Faye discovers that Ashe’s past isn’t as black and white as she thought, she faces an impossible choice: Give up the hunt, and risk the lives of others. Or continue pursuing Ashe’s murderer, and forfeit the lives of everyone in her family—including herself.
~Excerpt~
I face a dark cell, one far from any window and trapped in shadows.
I take a step toward it, and then back, unable to see anyone in the darkness.
Then a figure steps forward into a faint patch of light, and
I let out a choked sound.
It’s him.
Young, about my own age. Tanned skin. Muscular and
well-built, but taller than any Irradorian. Sharp facial features, strong jaw,
and the scar that runs from his right eyebrow down to his bottom lip—
The scar. It’s not there. I frantically scan the man’s face
another time, but the scar is still missing.
The man in front of me raises an eyebrow and leans against
the bars of his cell. “You like something you see?”
“No,” I blurt out.
I don’t like this. I hate
this. This man looks exactly like Ashe’s killer, but… he’s not. As I look
over him a second time, I notice a few more subtle differences; this man is a
little taller than Ashe’s killer, a little younger, and he has a tattoo on his
collarbone. I can only see a portion of the black ink, but it’s enough to prove
this isn’t who I’m looking for. Ashe’s killer didn’t have any tattoos.
But maybe he just got the tattoo after he killed Ashe. Maybe… No. He could gain a tattoo, but he
could never lose a scar.
This isn’t the man I’ve been searching for.
The man in the cell hisses in a breath, reminding me that I
said something offensive. “Ouch.” The way he speaks reminds me of Farren’s
sarcastic drawl, only this man’s is much more practiced. He has a slight accent
that somehow manages to make his husky voice sound elegant, but it just makes
me shudder. His voice sounds so much like Ashe’s killer’s. “That hurts,
sweetheart. Like an arrow through the heart. Words can kill, you know.”
My chest constricts, knowing how right he is. Knowing he knows how right he is. It was words that
killed Ashe, just a few whispers in the ear of Father. And, somehow, this man
is tied to that.
I glare at him, doing my best to look intimidating, despite
the shivers crawling over my skin. “What’s your name?”
He bows deeply, the motion even more sarcastic than his
words. “My name is Lor. At your service, sweetheart.” He looks up and winks.
“Any service.”
“I’m not here to play games with you,” I growl.
“Too bad.”
“I want to know right
now. What part are you playing in this? How do you know my Guardian’s
killer? What did you have to gain from his death?” I gasp in air, suddenly out
of breath.
Lor tilts his head and stares at me for a long moment, his
eyebrows raised in amusement. “You know,” he says, his voice softening to a
tone that’s darkly patronizing. “Where I come from, it’s considered rather rude
to come barging into someone’s prison cell and accuse them of murder. That’s
usually done before the whole
incarceration thing.”
Olivia Rivers is the author of five novels, ranging in genres from Epic Fantasy to Contemporary Romance. Along with being a writer, she’s a freelance digital artist, a literary agent assistant, and a high school student. She’s a nerd at heart, and is a hopeless fan-girl for Doctor Who and Pokémon. Olivia lives in California with a dog who thinks he’s a cat, a cat who thinks he’s a dog, and a kitten who is just generally confused.
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