Saving Imani

By Meyari McFarland

Visiting the beach hadn't been Haruka's best idea. It was hot, sandy, and her shoulders were already burned. Leaving seemed like the best option.

Until martial artist Imani Bakalov ran up with a problem that Haruka should ignore.

She didn't. Because Imani's ridiculous plan promised things that Haruka had long fought for and there was no way that she'd turn Imani away when Haruka could save her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MDR Publishing
• Release date: Apr 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311241818

Meyari McFarland

Meyari McFarland has been telling stories since she was a small child. Her stories range from SF and Fantasy adventures to Romances but they always feature strong characters who do what they think is right no matter what gets in their way. Her series range from Space Opera Romance in the Drath series to Epic Fantasy in the Mages of Tindiere world. Other series include Matriarchies of Muirin, the Clockwork Rift Steampunk mysteries, and the Tales of Unification urban fantasy stories, plus many more. You can find all of her work on MDR Publishing's website at www.MDR-Publishing.com.

Book preview

Saving Imani

By Meyari McFarland

Other Books by Meyari McFarland:

Matriarchies of Muirin:

Tales from the Dana Clanhouse

Repair and Rebuild

Storm Over Archaelaos

Coming Together

Facing the Storm

Fitting In

Following the Beacon

Mages of Tindiere:

Artifacts of Awareness

City of the Dead

Transplant of War

Running From The Immortals

Hearts of Magic

Triumph of the Artificer Mages

Debts to Recover:

The Nature of Beasts

The Manor Verse:

A New Path

Following the Trail

Crafting Home

Finding a Way

Go Between

Like Arrows of Fate

Clockwork Rift

Blood Worms

Copyright ©2016 by Mary Raichle

Cover image © Essik9 | Dreamstime.com - Man Hugging Woman Photo

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be emailed to [e-mail]

This book is also available in TPB format from all major retailers.

Dedication:

This story is dedicated to Kristine Kathryn Rusch for her Romance Workshop, where this story was written—thanks so much Kris! I learned a lot and hope to go to more in the future.

Table of Contents

Saving Imani

Coming Together

Afterword

Saving Imani

Haruka shifted on her beach towel. There was sand under her toes, gritty, coating her feet with dust because she had been very careful not to walk at the water's edge. Before Dana left, Haruka would have been willing to walk in the water, to get sand all over herself, just to spend time with Dana. Not now. No reason to put up with her skin reacting or to chance actually touching the clumps of slimy, disgusting seaweed lurking under the water, baking on the shore.

The sun beat down on her head, already scorching her scalp where her hair parted. Her shoulders felt like they were already turning lobster-red. Sweat had beaded her chest, her forehead, long before she'd even gotten to the lake. The office's AC had been broken for months. No one had cared until the heat wave hit, no matter how hard Haruka complained to Julian, her manager. He'd dismissed the entire issue out of hand, patting her shoulder and telling her that she should stay to her files and computers, not concern herself with how the company ran.

As if there was any difference between the two.

The man was annoying as Haruka's father, always assuming that a girl, especially a small girl with Asian features, had nothing substantial to offer to the discussion. That had changed as the heat rose and Julian began to sweat. He'd taken Haruka's offered business card, the one she'd gathered while researching the best commercial AC service companies, and not met her eyes. When the service technician had arrived and said that the parts wouldn't be in until tomorrow, Julian had bowed to Haruka's glare as he always eventually did, sending everyone home or, as Julian put it 'off to have fun at the beach'.

The breeze off the lake was nice enough if Haruka ignored the smell of rot. She splashed a little of her bottled water on her face. That helped though not enough. Nothing was enough when the heat rose over eighty. Most of her coworkers had AC at home. It was too expensive so Haruka had never invested in it. A window unit for her bedroom was definitely going into the budget, even if she only used it a few weeks out of every year. Expensive, yes, but mandatory.

Still, little splashes of water were better than going into the