Author: Kelsey Ketch
Series: Descendants of Isis #3
Genre: Upper YA
Publication: November 11th, 2015
“Set has risen.”
After being on the run from a psychotic cult for a week, Natara “Natti” Stone has finally come to realize she and Seth are the only two people standing between the Sons of Set and the secret name of Ra. Holding a part of the key that unlocks Ra’s power, they relocate to a more isolated location in the California mountains. While laying low, Natti becomes even more determined to understand her mother’s bloodline and her blessing from the goddess, Isis. But when she starts seeing the truth behind her destiny, she begins to doubt her role in the events that are about to unfold.
Then the unthinkable happens . . .
All Seth O’Keefe wanted was to get Natti as far away from his father and the Sons of Set as possible. Unfortunately, after hearing of Natti’s destiny from Isis’s own lips, he realizes they have bigger issues to worry about. Especially when one stupid slip up leads the god of chaos himself straight to their doorstep. Now Natti is the god’s prisoner, and Set holds the key to unlocking the location of the secret name of Ra. Can Seth save Natti from her own destiny and thwart the demented god’s rise to power?
*Note: Content for Upper YA*
Purchase
Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords
________________________________________________________
~ Excerpt ~
When Seth insisted on taking their gear to a guest
bedroom, Natti slowly paced the house, trying to get a feel for her new
surroundings. It made her think back to when she first arrived in Setemple and
how the little grey house she left behind didn’t feel like home. All she wanted
was her little brick townhouse back in London. The cabin, however, was just
plain unwelcoming. Despite the beautiful colored walls, the antique furniture,
the honey-oak cabinets, and stainless steel appliances, something didn’t feel
right about it. Like she was stepping on someone’s grave. Not that Mandy was
dead, though from what Natti understood from Seth about “Thought Reform,” she
might as well be. It just felt . . . wrong.
On so many levels. And the more she explored, the worse the feeling grew. Her
stomach twisted, and a chill took hold of Natti’s soul, very similar to the
chill Sean’s magic had left behind for days after he kidnapped her.
Not really watching where she was going, she turned
into a room that was a mix of pure white and mauve. Her attention was first
drawn to the bed and cherry-stained headboard perpendicular to the threshold
she stood in. The pillow shams were a soft, pastel pink, and a single plush
toy—a black cat with a scarab necklace and earrings—sat on a mauve bed spread.
Natti walked up to the bed and picked up the plush
cat, recognizing it as the goddess Bastet. The same goddess her grandmother had
named Natti’s cat after. She missed the little Egyptian Mau. She also missed
her Anubis, the plush toy Seth had won and given to her at the Pharaoh’s
Festival. She had no doubt Seth had won this Bastet for Mandy from the same
vendor, maybe not too long ago. Yet she couldn’t feel any disgust toward the
toy. In fact, it was the one thing she found comforting in the entire house.
Keeping the cat close to her breast, she walked to a
corkboard where Mandy had pinned up several old beauty pageant announcements
and high school newsletter clippings. The most recent being a black and white
cut out featuring Ky, Seth’s best friend, decked out in his football uniform.
He was obviously getting down with the Setemple High Cheer Squad in what looked
like some sort of victory dance. The caption under the photograph stated,
“Touch Down!”
School spirit must
have really been her thing.
Slowly, Natti took one more turn about the room. Other
than a few trophies and trinkets placed on a few barren shelves, it was much
like the rest of the cabin. The only difference was all the scattered
golden-framed pictures. Most were professional photographs of Mandy. A few were
with her friends or Seth’s. But the one that particularly caught Natti’s eye
was a selfie placed on the dresser. She raised it, studying Mandy’s serene face
and feathered-out, curly blond hair. The image was in a funky, diagonal
perspective that gave little detail of the setting, and a gleaming light took
up the little background that was visible. Yet the subject focus was crystal
clear. Mandy was laying on her stomach with Seth’s bare chest hovering over her
nude body. His lips captured in the middle of tracing kisses along her shoulder
blade.
A sour mixture of jealousy and sorrow percolated in
Natti’s stomach. And here Seth was acting as if Mandy meant nothing. She
couldn’t sense any lie to his words then, but the suggestive form of her lips
and her trusting expression confirmed Mandy felt a bond between them. Something
that wasn’t created through his magic or Connection. Bile rose into Natti’s
throat, and her gut twisted into knots. How could Seth not realize what he truly
was to her? How could he think their years together, magic or no, wouldn’t
affect her emotions?
“Guess the tour is out,” Seth remarked, making Natti
nearly drop the frame.
________________________________________________________
~ About the Author ~
During her high school years, Kelsey Ketch could always be found tucked away in a little corner of the hall or classroom, writing her fantasy worlds and creating illustrations and maps. Today is no different, except now she’s writing in the break room at her office building or at the tables of the Barnes and Noble CafĂ© in Cary, North Carolina. She is also an avid reader, a part-time book blogger at Ketch’s Book Nook, and lives with her two orange tabbies and awesome and humorous flat-mate.
For more information, please visit her site at kelseyketch.com.
________________________________________________________
~ Giveaway ~
a Rafflecopter giveaway