Sneak Peek: Good Intentions IV! Now with BIG SPOILERS! (Patreon)

I want to start with an apology: I missed the mid-month preview post because of travel this past month. I visited friends in Iceland on my way to Ireland for Worldcon, and as such I was away from my desktop and my story drafts. I am sincerely sorry if anyone feels they missed out.

To make up for it, I thought I'd lean a little deeper into the forthcoming novel--this time with some potentially big spoilers. Mostly I wanted to introduce a new friend, but that might tell you a bit more about what happens across the course of the story.

If you want to go in unspoiled, you might want to pass on this one. If not? Meet Katerina! She's adorable! Also dead. Kinda.

Alex grimaced from his very first steps. His feet weren’t used to bare, wet rock. They especially weren’t used to barnacles and the brush of seaweed. High school field trips and vocabulary came back to him with thoughts of upper and lower intertidal zones and all the forms of life he could identify if he gave it a moment’s thought, but such thoughts soon vanished under alternating sensations of alternating rough and slick textures under his feet, and all of them cold.

Then he stepped into the water.

“Fuck fuck fuck it’s cold!” he hissed. He pushed forward, stepping a little deeper, and froze in place in hopes of shaking it off. It didn’t happen easily. “Fuck!”

“Hey, what was that about how you used to be a Viking?” Drew asked from the comfort of shore and shoes. He got an upturned middle finger as his answer. An upturned, shivering middle finger.

Alex sucked in another breath, then another, trying to steady his throat. He didn’t want to make a bad impression. For all he knew, he’d already done that, but he hadn’t called yet. He also wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say beyond what she instructed.

“Katerina? Are you there?” he called out to the open water. “It’s Alex. From the party?”

A cold wind blew his jacket open. He didn’t need that. One rock beneath his feet slid to the side, providing a heartbeat of worry about falling he also didn’t need. “Katerina, can you hear me?”

He waited.

“She didn’t tell you how long it took her to hear, did she?” asked Wade.

“If you think about it, sound travels at a known speed,” Drew began.

“Oh, shut up,” Alex shot back, and then blinked and whirled around to face the open harbor. “No, no, sorry, not you, Katerina,” he corrected. “Sorry. Can you hear me?” A ripple of water hit the edge of his jeans. He’d have to live with that until it dried. “I don’t know how to tell if you can hear me.”

“Yeah, I can,” said a voice at his feet. She floated on her back in a funeral pose with her head near his feet. The lifeless eyes of a pretty but deathly pale Chinese face stared back at him. Her black hair dangled horizontally in every direction. Alex yelped and jumped back, giving her a good laugh.

“Jesus, what the—aw, man,” he groaned. Though he kept his footing, cold splashing water now soaked his jeans and part of his shirt.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry. But your face!” Katerina rolled over in the water before standing up to face him. The light of life returned to her eyes. Her ball gown was gone, replaced now by a grey sweater under a black denim jacket and a black pleated skirt over shiny blue leggings—all of it soaked through and dripping with water like her hair. Her laughter and smile faded when she noticed the group behind him. “Oh. You’re not alone.”

“I’m not. Thank you for coming. Katerina, these are my friends. Hey, you mind if I get out of the water? You’re safe. Nobody’s gonna hurt you.”

“I know.” She gestured for him to move. Alex forgot about gingerly picking his way over the rocks. Katerina followed with some trepidation, though apparently not from physical danger.

“S-so this is Molly and Onyx, Drew and Sierra, Wade, Taylor, a-and Zafirah was at the party, like you said.” Alex sighed with relief when Lorelei took his hand. He noticed Katerina’s eyes on the move. “She’s warm,” he explained.

“I’ll bet.”

“So what about the rest of you?” Katerina looked to Zafirah. “Any other demons or angels?”

“I am one of the jinn,” said Zafirah.

“Witches,” said Onyx, gesturing to herself and Molly. “Everyone else is normal, if that means anything in these circles.”

“Is it rude to ask about you?” wondered Molly.

“Only if you’re rude about it,” said Katerina. “I don’t have a lot of answers. One of you might know more about what I am than I do.”

“Your aura is, um…did you die?” Molly asked.

“Sort of? I got pushed off a boat on a field trip a while back and they never found me again. Right here in the harbor, actually.”

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.”

“Y’know, that’s the natural reaction, and thanks, I guess. Honestly I think I’m better off. My home life was pretty shitty and I was kind of a mess. But I woke up at the bottom of the harbor with a couple of giant octopi cuddled up to me and I heard the whales sing and I could see perfectly, even though it was night. Then a few other people who drowned came to say hi and they were really nice. Didn’t have bodies anymore, though. That made it weird.”

“…um,” said Molly.

Katerina snickered. “Your face. Seriously, though. I’m not lying, I just like being all ‘no big deal’ about it. I’m good.”

“Do you reside in the harbor now?” asked Zafirah.

“Mostly. I’m in and out, but the harbor’s cozy. I haven’t figured it all out yet. Only been a few months. I’ve haunted the fuck out of those bitches who drowned me, though. Some I Know What You Did Last Winter shit.”

“I am really sad Rachel isn’t here right now,” murmured Taylor.