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*
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~ 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.
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~ 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 Café 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.
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~ Giveaway ~
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