Rogue Familiar

Rogue Familiar byJeffe Kennedy He left to save her from herself… But who will save him from her? When Lady Seliah Phel wakes from a drugged sleep to find herself abandoned by her newly bonded wizard, she vows revenge—and to hunt him down. Tracking him through the familiar wilds of the marshlands of her home is the easy part; learning to use her nascent magical skills is something else entirely. So is facing the vast, uncaring society of the Convocation in a time of brewing war. Jadren El-Adrel is not known for doing the right thing, but getting as far away from Seliah as possible before he drains her dry will be his one noble gesture. So what if she weeps a few tears. Better than her dying in his service—or enabling him to become the ravenous beast that crawls beneath his skin. Unfortunately, in his self-imposed exile, and without the power of his familiar, Jadren quickly runs afoul of the enemy. As her vengeful quest for recapture becomes a rescue mission, Selly faces all she still doesn’t know about the greater world of wizards and familiars. And Jadren, once determined to walk his own path and stay far, far away from the idealistic fools of House Phel, finds himself aligning with them against the house of his birth. War is coming to the Convocation, which means a clever wizard should pick the side most likely to win. Sadly, Jadren has never been all that clever… Dedication To Robin Perini, prolific, talented author and generous friend, lost to us tragically too young. We all miss you, Robin. Acknowledgments Thanks, as always, to my wonderful friends, writers and otherwise, who held my hand and fed me drinks and comforting words as I thrashed over how long this book took to write: • Kelly Robson who is endlessly supportive about everything. You are the sun who lights my days and the world is a better place that you’re in it. • Darynda Jones, sister in slogging. We’ll get there! • Grace Draven, who was dealing with cancer as I wrote this and thus was no help at all. What about my needs, Grace?? Love you always. • Jennifer Estep, always willing to offer her sterling insights. You’re the best! • Megan Mulry, for emergency drinks and reminding me of what’s important. I can never pick up the tab enough times. • Alex Gurevich, for catching the (very occasional) error in my worldbuilding logic and for offering timely advice on what Jadren would or wouldn’t do. • Minerva Spencer, for the blazingly fast proofread and for all her savvy insights on the business. • Carien Ubink, who says I think every book will be terrible and virtually pats my hand. She’s also the one who looks everything up, my walking world bible. If there are errors, blame her. (Just kidding.) (Not really.) My Writer Coffee peeps keep me sane and connected. Thanks to Emily Mah, Jim Sorenson, and J. Barton Mitchell for everything. Special thanks to John Murphy, who is not only my SFWA vice-president and doing amazing work to take things off my plate, but also contributed his considerable electrical engineering expertise to the question of magically electrocuting someone. Shoutout to the staff, board, and key volunteers of SFWA. It’s amazing to work with all of you who make my job so easy. Particular gratitude to Kate Baker and Terra LeMay for patience and tolerance—and for being so amazing at all they do. My cover-designer, Ravven, never Copyright © 2023 by Jennifer M. Kennedy Kindle Edition All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or business establishments, organizations or locales is completely coincidental. Thank you for reading! Credits Cover: Ravven (www.ravven.com) Rogue Familiar byJeffe Kennedy Table of Contents Title Page About the Book Dedication Acknowledgments Copyright Page Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Titles by Jeffe Kennedy About Jeffe Kennedy ~ 1 ~ “Did you know about this?” Selly shouted, striding into the House Phel library without knocking—the doors hadn’t been warded or magically locked—and shocking her brother by smacking the letter onto his desk. “And good morning to you, too, Seliah,” Nic said drily, sitting back from whatever she’d been working on and looking her over. As Lady Phel, Nic had a desk near her husband’s. They almost always—unless one of them was unconscious or had been abducted, which was admittedly a fair chunk of their marriage so far—convened in the library after breakfast to handle house business together. They’d been easy to find. “Hi, Nic,” Selly said, searching her heart for some polite chagrin. Nope, none to be found. She was too pissed. “Apologies for the intrusion,” she said anyway. “You’re family, not an intrusion,” Nic replied easily, her brilliant emerald gaze going to Gabriel consideringly as he read the letter,