Welcome to the Release Day Celebration for
Iron Circle (Yellow Locust #2) by Justin Joschko
presented by Month9Books.
CONGRATULATIONS JUSTIN!
Iron Circle
(Yellow Locust #2)
By: Justin Joschko
Publication Date: 3/26/2019
Publisher: Month9Books
The path west is long, but despite Selena’s progress, New Canaan is never far enough behind her. It was there that her parents were killed, forcing her and her little brother Simon to flee the tyrannical state. Now, New Canaan wants control over every last inch of America-That-Was. Only the Republic of California can stand against it—but not without the data stick in Selena’s pocket, rumored to contain vital information about New Canaan’s deadly new weapon.
As winter closes in, Selena races south in search of an open passage to the coast. She must pass through Nuevo Juarez, where a ruthless leader named Thorin has seized power. Selena runs afoul of Thorin’s men and is separated from her brother, captured, and auctioned off at the city’s thriving slave market.
Her only way out is through the Iron Circle, a fighting ring where the city’s most fearsome warriors pit their skills against one another. As the populace and Thorin watch Selena rise through the ranks, Selena earns a reputation she doesn’t want and the attention of man with the power to destroy her and what’s left of America-That-Was.
Metl: The Angel Weapon by Scott Wilson
Publication Date: March 5, 2019
Publisher: Month9Books
Publication Date: March 5, 2019
Publisher: Month9Books
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Selena
grabbed her opponent’s left wrist. His skin was hot and clammy, its greasy
expanse flecked with patches of flaky, dry crust. Suppressing her revulsion,
Selena brought the man’s arm up behind his back and, with modest but steady
pressure, eased him to his knees. The man obeyed without struggling. Whatever
spirit his disease hadn’t eaten away had been beaten out of him by Thorin’s
strongmen. He was defeated before he’d even entered the Iron Circle. The least
Selena could do was signal this defeat gently.
She laid him on the ground and pressed his shoulders
into the dirt. He seemed to get the message, for when she released him, he
stood slowly, nodded at her in uncomprehending thanks, and scuttled out of the
circle. She imagined he wouldn’t get far and would likely face his punishment
in some other form. There was nothing she could do about that, but at least she
wouldn’t be the one providing it. In recognition of this resolve, she stepped
back and raised her arms to the crowd, beckoning their ire.
The crowd obliged, hurling incomprehensible epithets
and pounding their fists on the railings. Selena ignored them, summoning her
inborne Seraphim’s hauteur. She set her eyes instead on the clutch of fighters
awaiting their own bouts, scanning for an ideal target. There was no shortage
of options, but Selena was choosey. It would have to be someone who appeared
unbeatable, and he would have to be among Los Hermanos.
One presented itself almost immediately. The Hermano
who’d gestured obscenely at her before the fight was now tapping his friend on
the chest with the back of his hand, signaling his derision at the spectacle
before him. She scoped the topography of his muscles, sized up his potential
speed and power, noted points of weakness: long hair and beard for easy
grabbing, an offset knuckle that would weaken his left jab, a peculiar slope to
his jaw hinting at an old break. He commanded respect from his peers, which
meant he was good—but also meant he was cocky. Selena was good, too, and no one
here had seen her fight.
She approached him with casual strides, thumbs tucked
into the waistband of her pants. He smirked as she loped over the iron circle
and cleared the remaining distance between them. She stood uncomfortably close,
her eyes level with his chin, gazing up with a defiance that denied the
slightest difference in their sizes. He cocked his head to one side and spoke a
query in Mejise. She knew it for a question for its rising cadence and guessed
its derogatory nature by the simian guffawing of his compatriots. In response,
she smiled, took his vest in her hands, and noisily blew her nose into it.
The man’s smirk flattened into an ugly line. Its ends
peeled upward a moment later, purporting a levity that didn’t match his eyes.
He wiped his vest clean with one hand and flicked the snot from his fingers.
Selena walked back into the ring, turned, and beckoned him forward.
Justin Joschko is an author from Niagara Falls, Ontario. His writing has appeared in newspapers and literary journals across Canada. Yellow Locust is his first novel. He currently lives in Ottawa with his wife and two children.
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