Invisible

Some things lie beneath the surface.

Invisible. With the power to change everything.

Joy Malone wants it all—power, freedom and the boyfriend who loves her. Yet when an unstoppable assassin is hired to kill her, Joy learns that being the girl with the Sight comes with a price that might be too high to pay. Love will be tested, lives will be threatened, and everyone Joy knows and cares about will be affected by her decision to stand by Ink or to leave the Twixt forever.

Her choice is balanced on a scalpel’s edge and the consequences will be more life-altering than anyone can guess.

Praise for Dawn Metcalf and Indelible, book 1 of The Twixt

“Fans of fae fantasy, YA paranormal and modern fantasy will adore this novel and find themselves willingly trapped within the Twixt. Read. This. Book!”

—Serena Chase for USATODAY.com’s Happy Ever After blog

“Regular readers will know I’m an unabashed fan of faery books, but as a fan, I’ve read a lot of them, and it takes a lot to impress me. Indelible definitely impressed me.”

—Niko Silvester for About.com

“This exhilarating story of Ink and Joy has marked my heart forever. Dawn Metcalf, I am indelibly bound to you. More!”

—Nancy Holder, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked

“[Metcalf’s] rich physical descriptions create a complex fey world that coexists uneasily with the industrialized human one. An uneven but eventually engaging story of first love, family drama and supernatural violence.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Dangerous, bizarre, and romantic, Indelible makes for a delicious paranormal read, and I for one can’t wait to see more of the Twixt.”

—Bookyurt

“I was hooked from the very first page to the very last. I couldn’t stop reading. The way Metcalf’s writing style flows and the way the plot is perfectly paced just left me completely obsessed.”

—Gabby for Chapter by Chapter

Books by Dawn Metcalf available from Mira Ink

The Twixt series

(in reading order)

INDELIBLE

INVISIBLE

The Twixt Book Two

Invisible

Dawn Metcalf

www.miraink.co.uk

This is for all the heroes around the table

(you know who you are!)

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Praise

Booklist

Title Page

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

EPILOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Extract

Copyright

ONE

JOY STOPPED ON the sidewalk at the sound of creaking wood. It was a wintry sound, both ominous and familiar. Despite the July heat, she shivered. She was just leaving work, exhausted and perfumed in garlic, cooking oil and sweat. Joy glanced around the back lot behind Antoine’s Café, adjusted her black apron over her arm and walked a little faster.

Fishing inside her purse, Joy skipped over her keys and her phone and went straight for the scalpel she kept hidden in the side pocket. She stumbled on a crack in the cement and cursed her decision to wear chunky heels to work. Clomping down the concrete, her footsteps obscured the sound of whatever followed. A prickle at her neck brought back icy memories and a half-remembered twinge in one eye. Should she shuck off her shoes or was she being totally paranoid? After all, it could just be the wind.

Right.

Contrary to the four-leaf clover in her wallet, it would be just her luck to be harassed by one of the Twixt on her way home from work.

She crossed beneath the overpass, echoes of her shoes bouncing over themselves in her haste to leave the busy downtown area. The Folk were notorious busybodies, but they could also be dangerous to humans. Curious as cats, they’d been peeking out at her from between buildings or through broken windows or from under birds’ nests, wanting to catch a glimpse of either the ex-lehman who’d escaped her bonds to the Master Scribe or the infamous girl with the Sight who’d somehow managed to keep both her freedom and her eyes. Joy wasn’t sure why she’d suddenly become more interesting over the past month, but the strange, inhuman paparazzi were getting bolder.

Those who had first appeared had been harmless, if unnerving, and Graus Claude had said the attention would pass once the novelty wore off. Then, last week, two dryads had whispered warnings to stay out of their world. Three days ago, a short, furry-haired creature had said that she should watch her back. Yesterday, a sprite wearing a floppy red cap had stood on the corner, smiling serenely while picking his fingernails with a serrated knife. The Folk were growing more menacing by the day.

Another scrape. Closer this time.

Joy’s heart thudded in her ears. She’d been preparing for this.

When the shadow moved, Joy lifted the scalpel, a thin stroke of silver that identified her in the otherworld. Knees bent, she readied herself for what she might see.

An armored knight, the color of old blood, emerged from behind a large fir tree. He held a longsword at attention, sunlight streaming down its length. Joy stared at the blood-colored knight, frozen in a foggy trance of disbelief.

His foot hit the pavement, a gritty scratch of metal on stone. The sound snapped her awake.