Crooked Magic: World Breaker Beginnings, #3

By N. R. Hairston

A normal day for me is hiding thieves and criminals in alternate universes where their pursuers can't find them. I'm in the process of relocating a new client when my boyfriend Trent steals him for his bounty.

Before I can get him back, he's stolen again. This time by the ruthless government who wants him dead. Now Trent and I will have to team up to get him back.

We come up against an enemy like we've never seen. The client must be protected. I just hope Trent and I are left standing when it's over.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fire Ink Media
• Release date: Jul 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386488668

Book preview

Chapter 1

H ow long are you going to be a criminal, Rekia?

I looked at my sister and laughed. Sunlight shined in from her kitchen window, illuminating the stove and refrigerator, giving the place a slight glow. My sister lived in a small three-bedroom house, which often time smelled of gingerbread and cinnamon.

She passed me on the way to her kitchen counter, not saying a word. We were only a couple of inches apart in height, with her being only slightly taller than me. We looked a bit alike, both of us had black hair, but where she wore hers to her shoulders, I kept mine short and trimmed. It was just easier to manage that way. 

Is that what you call me behind my back, a criminal?

She turned off her coffee maker and shrugged. I’m saying it to your face.

I bit my bottom lip and wondered if my parents and two brothers felt the same. Knowing my family, I was sure they had some type of opinion on the matter. You guys been talking about me? I thought it best to just get it out in the open.

She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she busied herself with pouring two cups of coffee. She kept one for herself, and then pushed the other one over to me. I took a seat at her small wooden kitchen table, while she stayed standing. I had another assignment, that’s what I’d stopped by to tell her, yet now that the time was here, I felt the words freeze in my throat.

Not knowing what to say, I picked up my cup and took a small sip. The liquid was good and hot, the bitterness making it all the sweeter to my taste buds.  

Coffee mug in her hand, she leaned against the side of the table. Mom thinks you’re nuts, but she doesn’t understand much about what we do anyway. She tries, but world hopping, telekinesis, some of the other stuff we do, nah, she’s never understood that.

That much I knew to be true. My dad was originally from Julem, an alternate universe. It sounds strange when said like that, and my mother had thought so too when they’d first met. Being from right here in Southern Virginia things like parallel universes and psychic abilities were just stuff she’d read about in books or saw on her favorite TV show. It certainly wasn’t something real and tangible.

My father, always able to turn a profit, had businesses in multiple worlds. He’d met my mom when he’d come here on business. They’d hit it off, and eventually, he’d told her everything.

She didn’t believe him at first, who would? Then he’d opened a portal and took her home to meet his family, after that, there wasn’t much to deny.

Still not knowing what to say to my sister, I took another sip of my coffee. It was still hot and had cooled only a little, which meant it was still good to me. What about dad? I finally asked. I had a sneaky suspicion he felt differently than my mom.

She shrugged, lips pursed as if annoyed with his answer. "He says you gotta let a