With This Ring: Inklet, #36

By Amy Laurens

Selkies and swan maidens… Everyone knows the European tales of these innocent changelings, captured by greedy humans. Now meet them Down Under.

Platypuses like Orkney: playful creatures, gentle water animals not known for their aggression. For a collector like Lia? The perfect target.

But once collected, platykies can't remember their old identities. Orkney has a lingering sense of wrongness, of loss… and he can't place it.

Let's hope he can figure it out before Lia collects him for good.

If you believe in the power of love, don't miss With This Ring.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inkprint Press
• Release date: Jun 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393027706

Amy Laurens

AMY LAURENS is an Australian author of fantasy fiction for all ages. Her story Bones Of The Sea, about creepy carnivorous mist and bone curses, won the 2021 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novella. Amy has also written the award-winning portal-fantasy Sanctuary series about Edge, a 13-year-old girl forced to move to a small country town because of witness protection (the first book is Where Shadows Rise), the humorous fantasy Kaditeos series, following newly graduated Evil Overlord Mercury as she attempts to acquire a castle, the young adult series Storm Foxes, about love and magic and family in small town Australia, and a whole host of non-fiction, both for writers AND for people who don’t live with constant voices in their heads. Other interesting details? Let’s see. Amy lives with her husband and two kids in suburban Canberra. She used to be a high-school English teacher, and she was once chewed on by a lion. (The two are unrelated. It was her right thumb.) Amy loves chocolate but her body despises it; she has a vegetable garden that mostly thrives on neglect; and owns enough books to be considered a library. Of course. Oh, and she also makes rather fancy cakes in her spare time. She’s on all the usual social media channels as @ByAmyLaurens, but you’ve got the best chance of actually getting a response on Instagram or the contact form on her website. <3

Book preview

With This Ring

INKLET #36

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AMY LAURENS

www.InkprintPress.com

With This Ring

Orkney slipped into the cool water with barely a splash. The evening afterglow had faded from the horizon, and the river was quiet and still. He shivered in anticipation. Perhaps tonight Faroe would accept him.

A rustle from the riverbank drew his attention upwards. He found himself staring into a pair of stunning blue eyes, the kind one could drown in...

Orkney shifted in the pre-dawn light and stretched into wakefulness. He blinked, disoriented by the room he found himself in. What was this place, with its smooth, even walls and the ceiling so high above his head? What was this softness he lay on, covered by layers and layers of warmth?

The room brightened and the first morning sunbeam shot over the horizon, straight through the clear pane in the wall and into his face. Orkney flinched, shying away from the heat on his fur.

His heart leapt. Not fur. Skin.

He glanced down and his eyes widened. How had he gotten into his human form? He didn’t remember Changing.

Orkney concentrated, taking deep, even breaths. He remembered waking yesterday evening—at least he hoped it was yesterday. He’d stretched, scratched, crawled out of his burrow, and slipped into the stream. He’d meant to swim over to Faroe’s, maybe ask what she was doing for a few hours. After all, it was June. She’d choose a mate any day now.

He remembered a noise, something distracting him. He’d looked up, right into a pair of beautiful, blue, human eyes.

Human.

The word tickled his consciousness, and he rolled over. Human.

He inhaled. Facing