Book Excerpt: As Fairydust Settles

She wanted sleep, but needed to study, and neither involved picking up her phone.

Still, she answered after the third ring, right before the voicemail caught it.

“Is this the Blake residence?”

She nodded. “Yes…who is this?” Mical released a silent yawn as she waited for the response.

She heard only breathing on the other end for a moment.

Prank caller. She yawned again and moved the phone away from her ear to hit ‘End’.

“Miss…” the voice was slow, almost forced.

She held the phone up again. “Yes?”

“I’m with the Ellsworth Police Department. I understand your husband was David Blake?”

She hesitated. “Yes…?”

“I have some bad news.”

Mical listened in silence as the officer explained.

“There was nothing we could do,” he said, his third or fourth cliché since the conversation began. “I’m sorry.”

She swallowed, not wanting to comprehend his words—not wanting to accept them as truth.

As Fairydust Settles has an expected release date of Christmas, 2013.