A mermaid’s supernatural beauty serves one purpose: to lure a sailor to his death.
The Massacre is supposed to bring peace to Eriana Kwai. Every year, the island sends its warriors to battle these hostile sea demons. Every year, the warriors fail to return. Desperate for survival, the island must decide on a new strategy. Now, the fate of Eriana Kwai lies in the hands of twenty battle-trained girls and their resistance to a mermaid’s allure.
Eighteen-year-old Meela has already lost her brother to the Massacre, and she has lived with a secret that’s haunted her since childhood. For any hope of survival, she must overcome the demons of her past and become a ruthless mermaid killer.
For the first time, Eriana Kwai’s Massacre warriors are female, and Meela must fight for her people’s freedom on the Pacific Ocean’s deadliest battleground.
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EXCERPT
Somewhere on the Pacific Ocean
The young man aimed his crossbow at the
water, ready to fire a bolt of solid iron at the first glimpse of flesh beneath
the surface.
“Sir,” he said, “shouldn’t we have seen
one by now?”
The captain turned his back to the salty
wind, jaw tight. “They know we’re here.”
“So what are they doing?”
He followed the captain’s gaze. Blackness
merged with the empty grey horizon in every direction. A long silence passed,
filled only by gentle swells lapping against the ship.
The captain drew his own crossbow.
“Forming a plan.”
All twenty men aboard the ship readied
their weapons, reacting in a chain until the last man at the stern took steady
aim at the waves.
“Make ready your iron, men,” shouted the
captain. “We have ripples approaching off the port side.”
A handful of places in the water puckered,
as if something lingered just below the surface. The sea was too black to tell.
Then it happened. Fifty, maybe sixty sea
demons burst from the water and slammed against the ship. The men wasted no
time. They reacted with trained speed and agility as the demons thrust stones
and jagged shells into the wood, both to break holes in the ship and to scale
the sides. The men picked them off with bolts of iron and watched them fall one
by one back into the sea.
But they were outnumbered. Soon the demons
were upon the ship, pulling themselves across the deck with bony arms.
The young man had already shot a dozen and
the water reddened with each passing second.
Slow scraping sounds threatened him from
behind. He whirled around, crossbow ready. Burning eyes met his, and sharp
teeth, bared to rip into his flesh. He gripped the trigger, felt the bow
tighten—
And the demon was gone. The young man
stared into the wide gaze of a girl his own age. With a startled cry, he jerked
his aim so the bolt barely missed her.
She held a black shell in her hand, sharp
at the edges and ready to use as a club. But she didn’t raise it. She just
looked at him.
He lowered his crossbow.
Her blonde hair fell heavily over her
shoulders, dripping beads of water down her naked chest and stomach, pooling
where her torso joined her tail.
He blinked, but made no other motion—where
her torso joined her tail. Scales faded into flesh like some sort of
beautiful, green and tan sunset.
She pulled herself closer.
“Stay back,” said the young man, unsure
what prompted him to hesitate.
He looked into her eyes—emeralds
surrounded by pearl white—where moments ago they had burned red. Her sharp
teeth had retracted behind rosy lips. The seaweed-coloured flesh of her upper
body was now olive and raised with goose bumps from the icy wind.
“Hanu aii,” she whispered. Do
not fear. She spoke his language.
He loosened his grip on the crossbow,
studying her. She lifted a frail arm and pushed the hair from her eyes, then
motioned him forwards.
His pulse quickened as he stared at the
beautiful girl.
“Hanu aii,” she said again, her
voice resonating sweetly, as if she sang without singing.
Suddenly, he was kneeling in front of her,
level with her luminous eyes. The sounds around him faded but for the soft purr
in the base of her throat.
She reached up and held an icy hand to his
cheek, not for a moment breaking eye contact. The hand slid behind his head and
pulled his face towards hers, slowly but firmly. He inhaled her sweet breath.
“No!”
He flinched. He turned to see the captain
racing towards them, aiming his crossbow at the maiden.
The young man grasped the scene around
him. The ship was empty. A few stray weapons and barrels bobbed serenely in the
water. Blood soaked the deck in places, and even the main mast had a splatter
across the bottom.
The captain fired wide. Before he could
reload and aim again, the sea demon put a hand on the young man’s chin and
pulled his gaze back to hers.
Her eyes blazed red. Her skin rippled into
the rotten colour of seaweed. Her ears grew pointed and long like sprouting
coral. She opened her mouth to reveal a row of deadly teeth.
The young man screamed.
The demon pulled him against her with more
strength than three men combined, and they dove headfirst off the side of the
ship.
They disappeared into the blood-red water.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tiana Warner was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada. She enjoys riding her horse, Bailey, and collecting tea cups.
Author links:
Author Interview
Give us the tweet-sized version of what Ice Massacre is about.
A teenage girl is sent to
battle the hostile mermaids that are driving her people into poverty. A story
of love, secrets, and ass-kicking.
What makes Ice
Massacre unique?
First, I haven’t seen a lot out there that portrays mermaids for what
they really are: flesh-eating sea demons. But I think what also sets it apart
is its almost entirely female cast. This island decides to send female warriors
to kill the mermaids that plague them, because women don’t fall victim to a
mermaid’s supernatural allure. We end up with an all-female war on a ship in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Meela, an aboriginal girl who’s never been away from the tiny island she calls
home, also has a pretty unique journey of self-discovery. I don’t want to
reveal too much. But I think a lot of aspects make this story unconventional.
What’s your favourite thing about the
book?
I love Meela’s antagonists. Meela’s a
tough chick and she has a lot coming at her from all directions. Writing those
opposing forces was so much fun.
What’s next for you as a writer?
The sequel! This is the first in a trilogy, and I’m
hard at work on book two: Ice Crypt.
GIVEAWAY
Blitz-wide giveaway (INTL)
--Signed copy of Ice Massacre
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
