AMID STARS AND DARKNESS Chapter Sampler

By Chani Lynn Feener

Download the first four chapters of AMID STARS AND DARKNESS by Chani Lynn Feener!

Delaney’s entire world is thrown into chaos after she is mistaken for Lissa Olena, an alien princess hiding out on Earth in order to escape an arranged marriage.

Kidnapped by the princess’s head bodyguard, Ruckus, and imprisoned in an alien palace, Delaney is forced to impersonate the princess until Olena can be found. If she fails, it will lead to an alien war and the eventual enslavement of the entire human race.

No pressure or anything.

Factor in Trystan, the princess’s terrifying betrothed who is intent on unraveling all her secrets, and her own growing feelings for Ruckus, and Delaney is in way over her head.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Jun 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781250173966

Chani Lynn Feener

Chani Lynn Feener has wanted to be a writer since the age of ten during fifth grade story time. She majored in Creative Writing at Johnson State College in Vermont, and graduated in 2012. To pay her bills, she has worked many odd jobs, including, but not limited to, telemarketing, order picking in a warehouse, and filling ink cartridges. When she isn’t writing, she’s binging TV shows, drawing, or frequenting zoos/aquariums. Chani is the author of Amid Stars and Darkness and the teen paranormal series the Underworld Saga, originally written under the penname Tempest C. Avery. She currently resides in Connecticut, but lives on Goodreads.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Do we really have to play this game? Delaney asked, the question coming out halfheartedly. She already knew what the response would be.

Come on, Mariana pushed. I’m nervous.

You’re never nervous. The two of them had been friends for four years now, so she would know. Besides, I’m terrible at this. You always win. Hence, why I’m here standing in line, waiting to get into a place I have no interest in.

Don’t be so dull, D. Mariana bumped Delaney’s shoulder playfully. Any time with me is fun time. Now—her deep chocolate eyes homed in on a man standing five paces ahead of them—us or them?

Delaney made a big show of staring at the back of the guy’s head before shrugging pointedly. Us?

Ignoring the fact that Delaney’s heart clearly wasn’t in it, Mariana pondered a moment before disagreeing. Definitely a them.

How can you even tell? Because chances were very good that her friend was right.

It’s in the set of his shoulders.

It is not. Or, if it truly was, Delaney couldn’t see it.

The heavy thrum of music from inside the large warehouse building vibrated around them, the waves rumbling up through their feet. True to its name, club Star Light was a glittering beacon off the fringe of Portland, Maine. The building itself was made of faded brick, and had once been home to some sort of manufacturing company. That was many years prior, and it’d been renovated into one of the hottest dance clubs in the state about half a decade ago.

Tell me again who you’re hoping to meet up with? Delaney asked as the line moved another foot closer.

Being that it was Friday night, it came as no surprise that the place was packed. A curvy stretch of people trailed from the two metal doors all the way to the start of the parking lot to the right. Because they’d traveled the forty-five minutes from their small town, Cymbeline, to Portland earlier in the day, they’d snagged a prime spot in front of one of the buildings across the street. At least leaving would be easier. Too bad they’d spent so long at dinner that they hadn’t gotten here at opening.

"I’m not hoping anything," Mariana answered, though her wide grin gave her away.

Right. Delaney rolled her eyes jokingly. "That’s why you’re ‘nervous.’ What’s this one’s name again? Starts with an O? Owen? Otto?"

Ottus, she corrected, a strand of annoyance slipping past her deep-red-painted lips. Which you totally remembered. His name is Ottus. And you’re supposed to be here for moral support. This is our first time meeting in person, and I want it to be perfect.

Oat-us, Delaney sounded it out, and made a face. She remembered seeing the spelling of it flashing on Mariana’s phone last week. It wasn’t done in the traditional way; it was strange.

But of course it would be, considering Ottus was an alien.

It’d only been three years since the revelation of extraterrestrials. Apparently, they’d been visiting Earth for millennia, and no one knew quite why they’d decided to come out of hiding now, only that they had. After exposing their existence, there’d been talk of a merger, which of course the humans had protested. They’d attempted to fight, but their weapons were toys in comparison to the technology those from Xenith had.

He’s Vakar, her roommate said then, excitement brimming behind her smooth brown eyes. He told me he used to be a soldier.

Mariana was obsessed with the aliens, who she’d dubbed Them. Like they were rock stars she couldn’t get enough of. It was the one thing Delaney was looking forward to now that they’d graduated high school and moved into an apartment: separate rooms.

She loved Mariana, but she didn’t share her interest in the otherworldly. Still, she