Phoenix Agency, Arizona, USA Halloween If he was human, he’d be vomiting from stress. Someone – multiple someones – called his name, but he couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t focus. Someone grabbed his arm, and he screamed, the drying blood around his mouth cracking and pulling on his skin as his face distended. If he screamed long enough, hard enough, maybe it would all rewind, go back to how it had been before- ‘Jonathan!’ The someone hadn’t let go of his arm and now had a hand on his shoulder. No. No contact. No touch. He had to be- Needed space. Needed to scream until he woke Chaos, and the…

Queen St Agency, Brisbane, Australia Halloween ‘I hate this.’ ‘Newbie, you have to understand, on the scale of things, this isn’t so bad.’ Stef rummaged again through the decorated pillowcase to look at the goodies he’d brought back. Halloween, trick or treating through the Tech Department, Tech Treating, and she was too Top Secret to attend, even in disguise. At first, when Curt had told her about Tech Treating, she’d imagined people handing out the kind of thing you’d expect – or what a basic amalgam of real and assumed knowledge had told her to expect. When she’d been a little kid, Halloween wasn’t something people did in Brisbane –…

Welcome to Ebb and Flow, Book #4 of Ash and Blue. For Stef, it’s time for her first proper steps as an agent – and her first assignment brings her face to face with the undead mermaids that inhabit the river…and the long-ignored reality that they represent. For Curt, he’s juggling Stef as well as Brisbane’s newest newbie, an international transfer that Ryan has taken in as a favour to be called in later. And for Vincent, it’s time to figure out how many of Australia’s animals can kill you, and what happens when you get swooped by a magpie. Ebb and Flow will introduce us to the Phoenix Agency,…