Malachi and the Deadly Pool: Eve and Malachi, #3

By Abigail Hilton

Malachi the boa constrictor is happy living with his friend Eve and her family of rats in the blackberry bushes. They escaped from the humans together. They don't quite fit with the wild animals, but they protect each other.

 

However, when Malachi tries to shed his skin for the first time in the wild, he discovers that the blackberry bushes are too dry. To survive, he will have to venture to the pool in the woods, which is more dangerous than it seems. Of course, Eve won't let him go alone.

 

This is book 3 in the Eve and Malachi Series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pavonine Books
• Release date: Mar 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386064879

Abigail Hilton

Abigail Hilton is a traveling nurse anesthetist, based in Florida. She has spent time in veterinary school and done graduate work in literature. You can connect with Abbie and find all her social media links at www.abigailhilton.com. Abbie also writes steamy fantasy romance under the pen name A. H. Lee. If that sounds interesting to you, check out Incubus Caged. Warning: those books are edgier than her epic fantasy series.

Book preview

Malachi and the Deadly Pool

Eve and Malachi, Book 3

By: Abigail Hilton

Published by: Pavonine Books

Cover art and illustrations by: Sarah Cloutier

Cover Design by: Jeff McDowall

© 2018 Abigail Hilton. All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This material may not be reproduced, modified, or distributed without the express prior permission of the copyright holder. Artwork is displayed by agreement with the artists.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Normal for Snakes

Chapter 2. In Which Eve Plans to Disobey

Chapter 3. In Which Beautiful Places are Dangerous

Chapter 4. In Which Eve Overhears a Troubling Conversation

Chapter 5. The Pool in the Woods

Chapter 6. Not Quite Human

Chapter 7. In Which Gwen Tells a Story and Athena Gives a Warning

Chapter 8. Everything Happens at Sunset

Chapter 9. In Which the Pool Proves Deadly

Chapter 10. Grow or Drown

Chapter 1. Normal for Snakes

There once was a boa constrictor named Malachi who lived with a colony of rats in a dense stand of blackberry bushes behind a small farm. The rats and the snake had helped each other escape from humans, and they called each other family. It was a strange sort of family, but they were happy. Malachi’s particular friend was a young rat named Eve, and he was also quite fond of Eve’s little sister, Athena. Eve’s mother and father and aunts and cousins and brothers and sisters all enjoyed Malachi’s protection from dogs and stray cats and foxes and coyotes.

Even the farm cat, Maleficent, who had once been an enemy, was cautiously friendly with the rats and the snake. They had helped her deal with a dangerous ghost house earlier that year, and they had rescued a tiny black kitten who now lived on the farm. Maleficent had been the one to show Malachi how to get into the hen house, so that he could eat eggs, and