The Avid Book Collector: Blog Tour & Giveaway ~ The Dawning of Firebird Alex by Orren Merton

Welcome to my tour stop for The Dawning of Firebird Alex by Orren Merton. The tour will consist of reviews, interviews, guest posts and spotlights and runs April 27- May 8th. Check out the tour page for more information.

The Dawning of Firebird Alex by Orren Merton

Eighteen-year-old Alexandra Gold is a Seduman: her humanity and compassion come from her deceased human mother, and her powers over spirit fire and super-human strength from her demon-like Sedu father. Collecting the first three novels in The Sedumen Chronicles, this volume includes:

Firebird Alex: When Alex unearths her father’s Sedu blade, it sets in motion a journey that challenges everything she thought she was. Rescuing her friends from another Seduman gives her a taste of the heroine she might become.

Lady Firebird: Her old nemesis, down but not out, executes a horrific plan to conquer both Earth and Sediin. It’s up to Alex to assume the mantle of Lady Firebird and hunt her adversary across universes.

Firebird Vengeance: Just when Alex thought she’d won, she discovers her victory has unleashed a horrible vengeance that threatens to destroy human and Sedu alike. In order to save everyone, she must convince skeptics in both universes that she truly is the heroine that she claims to be.

Also in this collection Firebird Manor: In this bonus novelette, Alex and her friends unwittingly awaken a murderous eldritch horror in a beachside manor. They must defeat the monster before it kills again.

Kindle * Amazon Paperback * iBooks * Google Play * Kobo * Nook

Goodreads

“Hold on!” Pelegor spun around and galloped, first haltingly then confidently toward the Possessed blasting away the side of the house. It was a short, heavy woman wearing a dark colored dress. As soon as it—or was it still a she—saw us, it stopped blowing holes in the house and blasted away at us, but I held the shield in front of Pelegor’s face and ducked my head under it. The blasts slammed the shield so hard that I had to brace it with both arms, and my shoulders felt like they were being hit by trucks. Rachel tightened her legs around Pelegor and pressed against my back, trying to help absorb some of the impacts.

Only Rachel could see where we were going, cautiously looking around the shield. “Slight left!” she called out. “Straight! Tiny bit right! Dead on!”

Pelegor smashed into the Possessed and knocked it flat on its ass. As it hit the ground, Rachel aimed her crossbow downward and shot a Kesed-blessed bolt right into one of its eyes.

Pelegor swung around and reared up, intending to smash its head in, but the Possessed shot a blast from its remaining eye into his leg armor, sending Pelegor staggering to the side. I grabbed Rachel and sprang off Pelegor’s back, landing on my feet but stumbling a few steps until the wall of the house stopped us. Thankfully, Pelegor’s cheetah-like legs were a lot sturdier than the horse-like legs of our other Mazzikim, and he was able to keep his balance as he too stumbled into the wall.

Rachel re-slung her crossbow across her back and I handed her my shield as we ran toward the fallen Possessed. I pulled out my blade as Rachel caught the Possessed’s blast with the shield and practically fell into me, but I held her. I willed my blade to ignite with blue flames, Rachel moved the shield out of my way, and I swung down and stabbed into its other eye. After a quick blinding flash, the body stopped moving.

Rachel and I both trembled with adrenaline. My eyes fell on the body on the grounds. Lying there, unpossessed, I could see the woman that she had been. Rachel had fired a crossbow bolt into the eye of a middle-aged woman, and then I had skewered her other eye. But I couldn’t stop to think about that now. I couldn’t afford to have second thoughts. I couldn’t afford to think of them as human.

“Shield,” I said. Without a word Rachel handed back my shield and reloaded her crossbow.

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Orren Merton started writing fantasy and science fiction at an embarrassingly young age. In high school, he picked up guitar and start playing up and down California in a few bands, culminating in his industrial rock band Ember After. During that time, magazines, developers, and corporations began to pay him to write and edit music software related articles, manuals, and books. Since then he has written the urban fantasy novel The Deviant and the science fiction novel Skye Entity before working on his current series of YA novels. He lives in Southern California with his family, pets, collection of sci-fi/fantasy memorabilia, and curiously large stuffed animal collection.