Cover Reveal Day: CAMBION’S BLOOD

CAMBION’S BLOOD is out June 7–that’s less than two months away!

The second book in my urban fantasy series features a half-succubus lawyer down on her luck, a shadowy government agency, a delinquent teenage demon, and a goddess out for the blood of terrible men. And now it has a stunning cover.

The Ukrainian artists at MiblArt really outdid themselves on this one, which captures a pivotal scene from the book. I sent specific ideas for this one, not knowing how that would translate, and they did an AMAZING job capturing my vision.

CAMBION’S BLOOD finds Lily dealing with consequences and a whole lot of guilt. In Cambion’s Law, she realized her role as a district attorney couldn’t bring certain victims the justice they deserved. She took that justice into her own hands, but in going against the system, she paid a heavy price.

Read on for more on CAMBION’S BLOOD…

“I may have been a whole damn mess, but I was a whole damn mess on a mission.”

Half-succubus attorney Lily Knight has blood on her hands.

Haunted by guilt, behind on her rent, and facing professional disgrace, Lily must figure out how to survive in the wreckage of her former life. To make ends meet, she accepts a contract job she never wanted but can’t refuse—hunting another demon murderer. This time, the victims are human, and a shadowy government agency will reward Lily with a way out of her dire financial straits.

If Lily doesn’t solve the case before the news gets out, fear and hatred will put all demonkind at risk from the proverbial torch-carrying mob. But when a young succubus on the run from the authorities begs for her help, Lily faces a new conflict of interest—especially after the suspect, Eve, reveals her father is Lily’s old frenemy.

Now Lily must juggle the pressures of a high-stakes murder case, her complicated relationship with her “not-boyfriend” Sebastian, and responsibility for a wayward teenager as she races to find the real killer.

And when her investigation brings her face to face with an ancient, implacable entity fixated on bloody justice, Lily must reckon with her worst fear: the truth about what went down with Eve’s father in the desert—and its consequences.

Yeah, but what is it REALLY about?

I wrote the first draft of CAMBION’S BLOOD in 2018, around the time the #MeToo movement began to gain steam. An idea that had swirled in my head for a while involved a woman detective investigating murders that targeted abusers. This inspired the books’ central mystery and complicated the role of the antagonist.

Obviously I don’t condone vigilante justice but I’m writing power fantasies over here. For many survivors, any kind of justice or consequences for their abusers is just such a power fantasy. The system we live in does more to protect perpetrators than it does to hold them accountable.

Every time another terrible person launches their comeback tour and wins awards for it, survivors feel their old wounds open and bleed. And though this series definitely leans toward escapism, I find myself returning again and again to themes of justice and injustice. My stories tend to ask how characters can choose the right action in an unjust society, and what the cost of such a choice might be.

Lily is a survivor of multiple traumas rooted in her mixed identity. She grapples with balancing her needs and her principles. She must reckon with doing what she had to in order to to survive and how to ethically use the power she has without harming her loved ones.

In one pivotal scene in CAMBION’S BLOOD, Lily confronts someone close to her, challenging them to recognize how politics are personal for her. When one’s identity becomes a political or cultural football, there is nothing abstract about the principles involved. If your basic right to exist is subject to debate, politics are a matter of existential survival.

At its heart, this is a story not just about guilt, trauma, and the price of justice, but one woman’s journey from enforcer to advocate. With the entrance of a young person in need of her protection, Lily must take on new responsibilities, and those responsibilities change her perspective. At the same time, she struggles to be fully honest with herself and with others about who she is, what she wants, and how she feels.

Because sometimes, facing the truth about ourselves is the scariest thing of all…

If you are an urban fantasy reader, I hope you’ll put this one on your TBR! Preorders will be available soon through the City Owl Press website. The first book in the series, Cambion’s Law, is available now wherever books are sold.