Dangerous Dream: A Beautiful Creatures Story Read online

  Everything started long before that, with a pair of gardening shears stuck halfway through an Incubus’ chest. There were blood debts to be paid—though this time it wasn’t up to a Caster or a Mortal to pay them.

  Ethan and Lena? Liv and John? Macon and Marian? Whatever. This wasn’t about them anymore.

  This was about us.

  I should’ve known we wouldn’t get off easy. No Caster goes down without a fight, even when you think the fight is over. No Caster lets you ride off into the sunset on some lame white unicorn or in your boyfriend’s beat-up excuse for a car.

  What’s a Caster fairy-tale ending?

  I don’t know, because Casters don’t get to have fairy tales—especially not Dark Casters. Forget the sunset. I’ll tell you how the whole castle burned to the ground, taking Prince Charming down with it.

  I’ll tell you how to turn that prince into a frog and spin a little gold into straw—just in time for the Seven Dwarfs to go all ninja and drop-kick your butt straight out of the kingdom.

  That’s what a Dark Caster fairy tale looks like.

  What can I say? Payback’s a bitch.

  But here’s the thing:

  So am I.

  About the Authors

  Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl came up with the concept for Beautiful Creatures, their debut novel, over lunch. Margaret had always been captivated by fantasies, while Kami loved stories set in the South. With nothing to write on, they scribbled their ideas for a story that combined their shared passions on a paper napkin. By the time they left, Beautiful Creatures was born. Kami and Margie live with their families in Maryland and California, respectively. Now they write on computers instead of napkins. Margaret and Kami are currently working on their solo series—Margaret Stohl’s Icons and Kami Garcia’s Unbreakable are available now. They invite you to visit them online at margaret-stohl.com and kamigarcia.com.

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  Also by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

  READ ALL THE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES NOVELS

  Beautiful Creatures

  Beautiful Darkness

  Beautiful Chaos

  Beautiful Redemption

  “A potent mix of the gothic, the mythic, and the magical… With original characters, complex world building, and crackling prose, this is masterful storytelling.”

  —Deborah Harkness, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches

  ICONS

  By Margaret Stohl

  “Epic in scale and exquisite in detail—a haunting futuristic fable of loss and love.”

  —Ally Condie, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Matched

  UNBREAKABLE

  By Kami Garcia

  “Tense and deliciously twisty, Unbreakable is a breath-stealing midnight run through some of the creepiest locales I’ve seen rendered in fiction.… I loved it.”

  —Ransom Riggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

  Available Now

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Welcome

  Dedication

  Before: Ethan Wate

  After: Wesley Lincoln

  Aftermath: Ridley

  A Sneak Peek of Dangerous Creatures

  About the Authors

  Also by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

  Copyright

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. To the extent any real names of individuals, locations, or organizations are included in the book, they are used fictitiously and not intended to be taken otherwise.

  Copyright © 2013 by Kami Garcia, LLC, and Margaret Stohl, Inc.

  Excerpt from Dangerous Creatures copyright © 2013 by Kami Garcia, LLC, and Margaret Stohl, Inc.

  Cover design by David Caplan

  Cover photograph copyright © Stephen Mulcahey / Arcangel Images

  Hand lettering © 2013 by Si Scott

  Cover © 2013 Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  lb-teens.com

  beautifulcreaturesnovels.com

  Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  First ebook edition: December 2013

  ISBN 978-0-316-40501-0

  E3