Inner Demons: Soul Dominion, #0.4

By Georgiana Kent

Every Hero Has a Past

Soul gatherers, quondams, Chinese demons, celestial beings... Sounds like your average night for KeyMaster Michael Nicholas and his Faerie Ashayla.

Despite battling his own demons, when his friend, Anatole, is in trouble, Michael doesn't hesitate to help. But he gets more than he bargained for when he's thrown in the middle of a case of Truth or Dare gone wrong. Horribly wrong. The kind of wrong when a Chinese huapi demon rampages through London on a killing spree. Thank goodness the nine-tailed Kumiho, Jade Fox, can help. But, can she be trusted?

Shadowhunters meets The Guild Codex. Welcome to Inner Demons, a prequel to Georgiana Kent's Soul Dominion series. This adventure takes place before Soul Dominion 1 - 3, and introduces key characters and events that feature in Keys of Time, Keys of Fate and Keys of Death. Soul Dominion is perfect for fans of adventure, magic, Time travel, diverse strong characters, immortal cinnamon rolls, found family and slow-burn romantic tension.

This series is for you if you love:

• mysteries galore with twists and turns...
• a wide array of supernaturals from vampires to kitsune, Chinese painted-skin demons to angels, shifters and more!
• Time travel shenanigans
• snarky Faeries, sassy best friends, and found family fun
• British humour and sarcasm
• love triangles with slow-burn romantic tension
• Global destinations with East Asian influences
• Diverse characters with LGBTQ+ representation

• Language: English
• Publisher: Urban Myth Publishing
• Release date: Apr 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224898350

Georgiana Kent

Georgiana Kent is a writer of fantasy romance and urban fantasy. She has always been creative and loves telling stories of enchanting worlds brimming with magic, mystery, and romance. Having had a lifelong love of the Far East, she studied Mandarin at university and spent many years living and travelling East Asia. Her novels are grand fantasies on an epic scale marked by unique world-building, and a host of strong, diverse characters waiting for you to fall in love with. For fans of contemporary fantasies featuring mystery, shifters, time travel, and slow-burn romance, the Soul Dominion series is a must-read. But if you prefer steamy fantasy romances with 'who did this to you' morally grey characters, you'll love her Warring Hearts series. Stay updated on giveaways, releases, sales, cover reveals, and more by joining Georgiana's urban fantasy and/or romantasy mailing lists. Sign up here: https://beacons.ai/georgianakentbooks

Book preview

Also by Georgiana Kent

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SOUL DOMINION (1-3)

Keys of Time

Keys of Fate

Keys of Death

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WARRING HEARTS

Standalone fantasy romance retellings with ACOTAR-vibes and spice. HEAs guaranteed.

Of Blood & Roses

Of Wings & Fury

Find out more here:

https://beacons.ai/georgianakentbooks

Inner Demons

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Soul Gatherers, quondams, Chinese demons, celestial beings... Sounds like your average night for KeyMaster Michael Nicolas and his Færie Ashayla.

Despite battling his own demons, when his friend, Anatole, is in trouble, Michael doesn't hesitate to help. But he gets more than he bargained for when he's thrown in the middle of a case of Truth or Dare gone wrong. Terribly wrong. The kind of wrong when a Chinese huapi demon rampages through London on a killing spree. Thank goodness the nine tail Kumiho Jade Fox can help, but can she be trusted?

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Welcome to Inner Demons, a prequel that will introduce you to some of the key characters in Georgiana Kent's Soul Dominion series. Perfect for fans of Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments and Annette Marie's Guild Codex series!

Dear Reader

In the Soul Dominion you will find everyone: humans, Lost Souls, KeyMasters, Soul Gatherers, Færies, Fæ, Dæmons, Angels, Demons, Werewolves and Vampires. Overall, they are self-explanatory, and I don’t wish to spoil the experience for you (so I won’t!) But my Færies might puzzle you as they are referred to as ‘it’. This is purposeful as they are Elemental Beings and do not consider themselves male or female. They simply adopt their chosen appearance when with humans on Earth, but they are able to freely take on other guises. In their elemental world, they are elements and, as such, aren’t limited to genders. Furthermore, inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s Elvish languages from The Lord of the Rings, I have also developed a language for my Færies. A taste of which you will find here.

One of my many jobs is a language teacher. I teach Mandarin Chinese, French and Spanish and have lived and travelled China, Japan and Malaysia. I love the Orient, and this comes through in my writing. Here you’ll meet a huapi, a Chinese demon that I first came across when studying Classical Chinese texts for my Undergraduate course at Durham University. Not to mention, Jade, my Kumiho. I purposefully used the Korean for the jiuweijing, the fox spirit, as Nathaniel Lee is Korean.

Names are particularly important to me. Some just came to me, like the names of Michael, Erica, Ashayla, Christian and Nathaniel (dear old Nathaniel), some have been inspired by films or found on the sides of lorries (!), some have personal significance, but others required research. Generally, when researching names, I looked initially at the character’s nationality then meaning. For example, the werewolf Lunita is Peruvian, and her name comes from the Spanish ‘little moon’. Then there’s Anatole’s Færie, Vozdukh. Since Anatole is Russian, I wanted a Russian name, or word, for his Færie. As Vozdukh’s element is air, I chose the Russian word for ‘air’.

Michael’s London is influenced by my morning commute from my student digs to High Street Kensington where I either caught the No. 9 bus for work or the Tube for Uni where I studied my first postgraduate degree (I have two, I know, I’m greedy). I counted myself lucky to live in such an amazing neighbourhood, it really fired my imagination. His house, with no front door, actually exists. I walked past it every day and it was the catalyst that sparked off the whole Soul Dominion!

But, I’ll reveal more in my monthly newsletters. For now, I’ll leave you to enjoy Inner Demons. Let me know what you think!

Ever yours,

Georgiana

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PS – Find me on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok! @authorgeorgianakent

#georgianakent #souldominion

Guide to Pronunciation:

Dæmon – day-muhn

Færie – fair-ee

Fæ - fei

Huapi – who-ar pee

Jiuweijing – gee-o way jing

Written during the Covid-19 Outbreak of 2020 in Lockdown.

Dedicated to George Floyd

#blacklivesmatter

1

Betrayal

Nigeria, 1830

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The full moon hung heavy in the night sky. It was lower than its zenith, having already started its slow descent across the heavens. Its pale light bathed the world below, casting obscure shadows across the rolling hills and forests surrounding the city of Nnewi, Nigeria. It was on the outskirts of this city that a young girl waited within the shadows of a palm oil plantation, hiding beneath the dense, spiky foliage of the stubby palm trees, a cloth bag in her hands. She was a beauty, with her smooth dark skin, large almond-shaped eyes, full lashes and maturing curves.

They had purposely waited until the early hours of the morning to ensure no one was awake. Not even the guards, who she had sneaked past with ease. She tutted her tongue: Father would be displeased. And you did not want to displease King Eze Okezie, Igwe of Nnewi.

She smoothed the gentle bump of her belly. The baby was kicking, awake just like his mummy. She obviously didn’t know whether it was a boy, but she felt sure it was, and her gut instinct was rarely wrong. Just like when it had told her that the white anthropologist, Philip Carmichael, was her one true love, the one who would change her life forever.

Princess Chinasa had always had a gift for languages and knew Igbo, the language of her people, as well as Hausa and Yoruba. As such, she frequented her father’s court, assisting with interpretation and diplomacy, which her hot-headed father sometimes lacked. When the white people came, she pleaded with her father to let her learn their odd language. Seeing it as a political advantage, the Igwe agreed and would invite British explorers, harmless, at that time, into his court.

Then, one day in the spring of 1829, when she was seventeen, Philip Carmichael and his small team appeared in Nnewi. He introduced himself as an anthropologist from a London university, betrothed to the Countess of Wessex, expressing a desire to study the Igbo people, their language, culture, and customs. The Igwe found this most bizarre, but, thanks to some persuasion on Chinasa’s part, reluctantly agreed. Nonetheless, the number of guards on duty increased with each passing day.

Assigned to look after the anthropologist, Chinasa taught him the language and customs of her people in exchange for learning English. She had met several oyibo—white men—before him, with their stark white skin that reddened unbecomingly in the blistering sun, their colourful hair, arrogance and a seemingly innate sense of superiority. But Philip was different. He was gentle, curious, and kind, with his fair hair and startling aquamarine eyes. She, despite everything, being already intended to the eldest son of the chief of a neighbouring tribe, fell in love.

Weeks later, he admitted his own feelings for her, announcing his desire to break off his engagement to the countess and marry her. Thrilled, Chinasa said yes, and their lessons took on a whole new curriculum. Eventually, she built up the courage to speak