This is the World Calling

By Dayle A. Dermatis

Tansy and Ki’s families are two of the most powerful witch dynasties—and the feud between them puts the Hatfield and McCoys to shame. So why, then, did their parents not care when the two would run off and play as children, lost in their own little world? When they meet again as adults, Tansy and Ki’s mutual attraction makes it vitally important that they find the answer to that question.

"This is the World Calling" is part of Uncollected Anthology, Volume 3: Heartspells.

DAYLE A. DERMATIS has been called “one of the best writers working today” by USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith. Under various pseudonyms (and sometimes with coauthors), she’s sold several novels and more than 100 short stories in multiple genres. She lives and works in California within scent of the ocean, and in her spare time follows Styx around the country and travels the world, all of which inspires her writing. She loves music, cats, Wales, TV, magic, laughter, and defying expectations. To find out where she is today, check out www.DayleDermatis.com.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Soul's Road Press
• Release date: Dec 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310428029

Dayle A. Dermatis

Dayle A. Dermatis is the author or coauthor of many novels (including snarky urban fantasies Ghosted and the forthcoming Shaded and Spectered) and more than a hundred short stories in multiple genres, appearing in such venues as Fiction River, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and DAW Books.Called the mastermind behind the Uncollected Anthology project, she also guest edits anthologies for Fiction River, and her own short fiction has been lauded in many year's best anthologies in erotica, mystery, and horror.She lives in a book- and cat-filled historic English-style cottage in the wild greenscapes of the Pacific Northwest. In her spare time she follows Styx around the country and travels the world, which inspires her writing.To find out where she’s wandered off to (and to get free fiction!), check out DayleDermatis.com and sign up for her newsletter or support her on Patreon.* * *I value honest feedback, and would love to hear your opinion in a review, if you’re so inclined, on your favorite book retailer’s site.* * *For more information:www.dayledermatis.com

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TANSY FELT AS THOUGH her eyelids were lined with sandpaper. She hadn’t been able to sleep on the red-eye from LAX to Vienna—her kind wasn’t good with moving metal vehicles.

Contrary to popular belief, they couldn’t fly. Not even on broomsticks. Pity, that.

So she’d nibbled on candied ginger to keep her stomach from rebelling, cued up her playlist of Tibetan singing bowls, and closed her eyes. But then, all she did was fret over her research project for her Global Theory class at UC Santa Barbara.

The sky was just pinkening in the east as the town car whisked her through Vienna to the hotel. It had rained overnight, and the dark pavement glittered, wet, beneath the streetlights. She was sorry she wouldn’t have time to see anything of the city; she’d heard it was beautiful.

All she’d have time for was the conclave, and any moment she could sneak away from that, she’d be studying. A Masters in International Studies waited for no one, magic or not.

As the eldest, she’d have to run the family business one day.

She caught a brief glimpse of the Wiener Riesenrad, Vienna’s famed giant ferris wheel, alit even at daybreak, before the sleek black car pulled up in front of the hotel where the high houses of witchcraft were meeting for their annual conclave. Heads of houses, spouses, heirs, apprentices, not to mention servants. There would be meetings, and endless suppers, and arguments. There would be schmoozing—and that really meant strengthening alliances and reaffirming who was on your side.