It’s Jonathan Moeller Novel Excerpt Tuesday! Today we have an excerpt from CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP.<\/p>\n
The name “Armand Boccand” came from a truly egregious mispelling of a name I saw on an insurance form once.<\/p>\n
You can read CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP at\u00a0Amazon US<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon UK<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon Canada<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon Germany<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon Australia<\/a>,\u00a0Barnes & Noble<\/a>,\u00a0iTunes<\/a>,\u00a0Kobo<\/a>,\u00a0Google Play<\/a>, and\u00a0Smashwords<\/a>.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n \u201cDid you bring the tablet?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n I swallowed, desperately trying not to show any of my fear. He would not respond well.<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n He stared at me in silence for a full minute, and I forced myself not to look away. His eyes were cold in that gaunt, alien face, colder than the air in the duct, colder than the blast of the winter\u2019s night.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n I knew my answer would determine whether or not I lived or died.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone else took it before I could take it,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n \u201cWho?\u201d said Morvilind.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d I said. \u201cHe was a human man. Caucasian, probably English, about thirty or thirty-five. Blue hair, brown eyes, about six and a half feet tall.\u201d<\/p>\n Morvilind raised his white eyebrows. \u201cDid he overpower you and take the tablet?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a wizard,\u201d I said. \u201cHe used a spell I had never seen before. It made him disappear and\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d said Morvilind. His voice was flat, hard.<\/p>\n I started talking faster, unable to stop myself. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a Cloaking spell or another illusion, I would have detected it. It looked\u2026it looked almost like a rift way to the Shadowlands, but I don\u2019t think that was it. I\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHis name,\u201d said Morvilind, eyes narrowed. \u201cDid he use a name?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it was his real name,\u201d I said, \u201cbut he called himself Armand Boccand.\u201d<\/p>\n Morvilind went still, and my terror redoubled. His face had become a cold mask, his eyes blazing.<\/p>\n He was angry.<\/p>\n I had only seen him truly angry once before, on the day of the Archon attack upon Milwaukee. Two Archons had made the mistake of attacking him, and their attacks had so offended him that he slaughtered all of their orcish soldiers and butchered the two Archons. It had been a terrifying display of power, and in my bones I knew he was about to direct that wrath at me.<\/p>\n At least it would be quick.<\/p>\n Then Morvilind let out a hissing breath, and I blinked in surprise.<\/p>\n He was furious\u2026but he wasn\u2019t angry at me.<\/p>\n He was angry at Armand Boccand.<\/p>\n \u201cTell me precisely what happened,\u201d said Morvilind.<\/p>\n \u201cI infiltrated Lord Castomyr\u2019s Thanksgiving banquet, as you commanded,\u201d I said, trying to force my exhausted, spinning brain to put my thoughts into order. \u201cWhile I was there, Boccand approached me and asked to dance. I thought he was a Homeland Security agent or one of Lord Castomyr\u2019s security men, but he left me alone after the dance. I then entered Lord Castomyr\u2019s vault, and as I walked towards the tablet, Boccand appeared out of nowhere. He said that I would make the perfect patsy for the crime, took the tablet, and vanished using that spell. The alarm went off, and I hid myself for two days in the ventilation system. Once the guards had relaxed, I escaped and made my way back here.\u201d<\/p>\n Morvilind said nothing. He was glaring, but not at me, at something only he could see.<\/p>\n \u201cI warned him,\u201d he said. \u201cI warned that fool what would happen if he crossed me again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy lord?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n \u201cGet up,\u201d snapped Morvilind, stalking back towards his work table. \u201cThere is work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n -JM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s Jonathan Moeller Novel Excerpt Tuesday! Today we have an excerpt from CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP. The name “Armand Boccand”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloak-games"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pZ6ri-2WX","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/BNShadowJump.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11343"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11350,"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11343\/revisions\/11350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jonathanmoeller.com\/writer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}