New Release & Excerpt – To the Nines by Kes Trester
Synopsis
Hidden truths are revealed and loyalties questioned in the third book of The Nine series.
When eighteen-year-old clairvoyant Blake Wilder unwittingly stumbles upon a secret that should have stayed buried, her discovery sets off a chain reaction she won’t fully comprehend until fellow Nines try to frighten her into silence—and a friend turns up dead.
Blake’s troubles continue to mount when a vision paints boyfriend Nicholas Thorne in a duplicitous light, and Jessie McCabe, the man who haunts her dreams, finds love with another. When almost everything she cherishes is tarnished or stripped away, the person she relies on most—her best friend, Scarlett—goes missing.
With her back against the wall, Blake will do anything, risk everything, to divine friends from enemies as she races to uncover the truth behind Scarlett’s disappearance.
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Excerpt
Out Of The Shadows
I just knew today was going to be a bitch, though my ability to see disasters before they happened had nothing to do with it.
Professor Stein charged into class, late as usual. In one practiced move she tossed down her battered briefcase and snatched up a dry erase marker. As she scrawled out a chemical formula that looked alien in origin on the room’s giant white board, she called out, “Yes, this will be on the test.”
The guy on my right swore under his breath. “Can I borrow a pen?”
Scuffed Vans and floral board shorts marked him as a member of the skater crowd. His shoulder-length, tightly waved hair had probably been black once, but long hours in the sun had left it tipped with blonde. His one concession to the cooler fall weather was to throw on a hoodie. This being Southern California, “fall weather” was a relative term.
He reached for my spare ballpoint with a grateful smile, but the moment his brown-skinned hand grazed mine the classroom disappeared, and I slipped out of reality.
That was my secret and my curse, what kept me on the outside looking in. I saw things—emotional, important events in peoples’ past or future. And like it or not, I was about to spy on Skater Boy.
The image was faded and jumpy, a sure sign what I was about to see hadn’t happened yet. He loitered in one of the school’s parking lots, and as if by magic, a red car appeared next to him at the curb. Skater Boy leaned into the driver’s side window, his hands resting on the roof. Maybe his girlfriend was about to break up with him. A tragedy as far as he was concerned, but nothing I’d lose sleep over.
The vision flashed forward again. The paint on the car began to bubble like soup left simmering on the stove, and little wisps of smoke curled up from the hood. Then with a start I was back in Chem 101. Only a fraction of a second had passed, but it always felt much longer.
Future visions were often tantalizingly obscure, and usually more annoying than disturbing. It’s why I always brushed them aside. You try telling someone to cancel a rager because her parents would be coming home early from vacation and see the grief you get. Besides, it wasn’t like destiny needed any help from me.
I suffered a pang of regret when Skater Boy returned the pen at the end of class. He had warm brown eyes and a delightfully lopsided smile, the kind that put people instantly at ease. I would just have to hope he had the good sense to avoid red cars.
About the Author
A native of Los Angeles, Kes Trester is a veteran of the film and TV commercial industry. Her debut novel, A Dangerous Year, is currently being developed for film/television. The Nine, the first entry in a multibook, contemporary YA/NA romantasy series published by Owl Hollow Press, hit shelves October 2022, with the sequel, Alder House, released September 2023. The third book, To the Nines, comes out October 22, 2024. She is repped by Stonesong & UTA.
