Dreaming Death
In the Novels of the Golden City, J. Kathleen Cheney created a “mesmerizing”* realm where magic, history, and intrigue combine. Now, she presents a new world ruled by psychic talents and deadly magics…
Shironne Anjir’s status as a sensitive is both a gift and a curse. Though she can sense the emotions of others, her talents come with a price: physical blindness and the constant assault of others’ emotions.
A member of the royal family’s guard, Mikael Lee is able to control his feelings while awake. But in sleep, he inserts himself into others’ dreams of death unbidden and broadcasts them to every sensitive in the palace.
In a perfect world, Shironne and Mikael would maintain their distance… But when a killer brings a reign of terror to the city, using blood magic to appease a foreign god, only Shironne can decipher Mikael’s deadly dreams. And what they find will lead them into a nightmare…
Read an excerpt from the novel here.
Praise for Dreaming Death
“Cheney is very good at sensory detail, especially blind Shironne’s perceptions as she begins exploring Mikael’s world.”—Publishers Weekly
“Dreaming Death is a book of mystery, magic, and overwhelming potential which promises more good things to come from J. Kathleen Cheney.”—The Speculative Herald
“This imaginative new fantasy world is based on a tasty mixture of psychic talents and deadly magic.”—Kirkus, February’s Speculative Fiction You Can’t Miss
IN DREAMING BOUND
What does it mean to be bound? Mikael and Shironne have known for a month now that they are bound, but neither truly knows what their future holds.
When Shironne is kidnapped, Mikael uses the nascent tie between them to get her back, and to keep her safe, Shironne is placed among the Family in their underground Fortress. As long as she’s within those walls, outsiders can’t get to her. That leaves Mikael working to discover who would steal her away in the first place. Her ability to creep into others’ thoughts, memories, and dreams is unprecedented, but who would be able to use that?
And Shironne must deal with a new and frustrating way of life, where contact with adults—including Mikael—is strictly curtailed and her time is constantly monitored. She also has to live among a yeargroup, and the Sixteens are not the calm, unemotional Family she’s accustomed to seeing from a distance. They have their own problems and petty jealousies, not too different from her own sisters. Finding her place among them is going to be a challenge.
Fortunately, Shironne can access Mikael’s thoughts to guide her in her new life… while for some reason, he can’t access hers, leaving him without guidance at times when he could definitely use it.
DREAMS FROM THE GRAVE
Mikael Lee has dreamed of death for a decade now. He shares the last moments of murder victims, usually ones he’s later fated to investigate. But one death has always eluded him: his father’s murder.
Now he’s dreaming his father’s murder again, an old and powerful dream that can drag him to the brink of death. This time, though, he has a witness who can help him find the truth: Shironne Anjir. She’s been dragged into Mikael’s dreams for years. As much as Mikael does, she wants this dream put to bed, the deaths in Mikael’s memories solved once and for all.
And more than that, Mikael wants his father’s greatest secret—the identity of a half-brother Mikael has never met.
SHARED DREAMS
Before they even met, Mikael Lee and Shironne Anjir were tangled together in their need to solve murders.
Mikael Lee, an aide to the king’s brother, dreams his way into others deaths, and then follows the clues within back to the killer. Shironne Anjir, a young girl so sensitive to the stimuli around her that she cannot shut it out, has been sharing those dreams with him, and when a death falls closer to her doorstep, she’s the one who takes up the task of finding a killer…a path that might give her a direction for the rest of her life.
Includes three short stories: “A Mention of Death”, “Touching the Dead”, and “Endings”, along with an excerpt from Dreaming Death.
Also from this world, The Horn Series
Extra Tidbits:
Some information about the Families and the Houses, and a map.
J. Kathleen Cheney 