Accidental Magic
Authors: P. C. Cast
Dear Reader,
My Mysteria novellas grew from two of my favorite things: wine and Gena Showalter (though not necessarily in that order!). Gena and I have been friends for years. I can’t remember exactly which RT Booklovers Convention we were at (lack of memory attributed to the wine), but it was during some heavy “working” at the RT bar that Gena and I came up with the idea to create a magical town—somewhere gorgeous, like Colorado—where our characters, especially our heroines, could interact with each other and have fun, funny, and sexy adventures. This RT convention was so long ago that Gena and I were scrambling to pay for the convention (and the wine), our room (which we shared—Gena was a good roommate, except she shed like a cat), and food (and drink). The reason this little financial fact is important is because if we hadn’t been stuck together in a hotel room, we probably never would have followed through on our alcohol-soaked anthology idea. Well, we sobered up and wrote an outline, a world bible, and a proposal for
Mysteria.
I then sent everything to my longtime editor at Berkley, Christine Zika, having no clue that Berkley had never before published an author-incepted romance anthology. Get this:
Berkley bought the idea!
Gena and I did a bunch of high-fiving and then got down to the business of playing in each other’s literary sandboxes.
Guess what happened? We had an awesome time! The novellas Gena and I created still make me giggle. Writing is a solitary profession; it really is magic when authors get the opportunity to work together on projects, especially when the authors are good friends. I think you’ll appreciate what we created. May our combined awesome times bring you giggles, too, and maybe your own little glimmer of magic.
Happy reading,
P. C. Cast
Stay tuned for Gena’s novellas, which will
continue the Mysteria fantasy and fun!
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF P. C. CAST
“Sexy, charming, and fun,
Goddess of Love
is the fantasy romance of the year! You will fall in love with this book. (I did!)”
—Susan Grant,
New York Times
bestselling author
“Ms. Cast has taken mythology, Cinderella, a bit of Shakespeare, and a dash of Shaw and mixed them with her own style of comedy for a winning read that is [as] heartwarming as it is funny.”
—
Huntress Book Reviews
“Most innovative…From beginning to end, the surprises in P. C. Cast’s new page-turner never stopped. Its poignancy resonates with both whimsy and fantasy…I loved it!”
—Sharon Sala,
New York Times
bestselling author
“An amusingly tongue-in-cheek take on the Trojan War featuring a modern-day heroine…Funny, irreverent, and clever…You can’t go wrong.”
—
The Romance Reader
“Outstanding…Magic, myth, and romance with a decidedly modern twist. Her imagination and storytelling abilities are true gifts to the genre.”
—
RT Book Reviews
“Pure enjoyment…Anything can [happen] when gods and mortals mix.”
—
Rendezvous
“A fanciful mix of mythology and romance with a dash of humor for good measure…Engages and entertains…Lovely.”
—
Romance Reviews Today
“One of the top romantic-fantasy mythologists today.”
—
Midwest Book Review
“Captivating—poignant, funny, erotic! Lovely characters, wonderful romance, constant action, and a truly whimsical fantasy…Delightful. A great read.”
—
The Best Reviews
“A fun combination of myth, girl power, and sweet romance [with] a bit of suspense. A must-read…A romance that celebrates the magic of being a woman.”
—
Affaire de Coeur
Berkley Sensation titles by P. C. Cast
GODDESS OF THE SEA
GODDESS OF SPRING
GODDESS OF LIGHT
GODDESS OF THE ROSE
GODDESS OF LOVE
WARRIOR RISING
GODDESS OF LEGEND
Anthologies
MYSTERIA
(with MaryJanice Davidson, Susan Grant, and Gena Showalter)
MYSTERIA LANE
(with MaryJanice Davidson, Susan Grant, and Gena Showalter)
MYSTERIA NIGHTS
(includes
Mysteria
and
Mysteria Lane
, with MaryJanice Davidson,
Susan Grant, and Gena Showalter)
ACCIDENTAL MAGIC
(includes P. C. Cast’s novellas from
Mysteria,
Mysteria Lane,
and
Mysteria Nights)
ACCIDENTAL
MAGIC
P. C. Cast
Previously published in
Mysteria Nights,
Mysteria Lane
, and
Mysteria
.
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Novellas previously published in
Mysteria Nights
,
Mysteria Lane
, and
Mysteria
.
“Introduction” by P. C. Cast copyright © 2006 by P. C. Cast.
“Candy Cox and the Big Bad (Were)Wolf” by P. C. Cast copyright © 2006 by P. C. Cast.
“It’s in His Kiss” by P. C. Cast copyright © 2008 by P. C. Cast.
Excerpt from
Goddess of Legend
by P. C. Cast copyright © 2010 by P. C. Cast.
Cover design by SDG Concepts.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-101-61134-0
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
BERKLEY SENSATION
®
is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation trade paperback edition / September 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cast, P. C.
Accidental magic / P. C. Cast.
p. cm.
1. Divorced women—Fiction. 2. Vegetarians—Fiction. 3. Werewolves—Fiction. 4. Magic—Fiction. 5. Vampires—Fiction. 6. Paranormal romance stories. I. Title.
PS3603.A869A33 2012 2012022743
813’.6—dc22
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
Candy Cox and
the Big Bad (Were)Wolf
Once upon a time in a land closer than anyone might be comfortable with, a demon high lord was sent to destroy a small, starving (and, let’s face it, weird) band of settlers who were fleeing the last town they’d tried to settle in (a place eventually known as Kansas City, Missouri, the Show Me State, which did indeed show them tar and feathers and the road west). The group was composed of magical misfits and outcasts: a bloodaphobic vampire, a black-magic witch and her white-magic husband, a pack of amorous (translation: hump-happy) werewolves, and a man named John, who had gotten confused and joined the wrong wagon train. When the demon spied this ragged, rejected bunch, he (for a reason known only to himself but which had to do with uncontrollable random acts of kindness) decided not just to spare them but to create a magical haven for them.
And so, nestled in a beautiful valley in the Rocky Mountains, the town of Mysteria was founded. Over the years, it became a refuge for creatures of the night and those unwanted by traditional society. No one—or thing—was turned away. Magic thrived, aphrodisiacs laced the pollen, and fairy tales came true.
The first settlers eventually died (those that weren’t already dead or undead, that is), but they left pieces of themselves behind. The vampire invented a powerful blood-appetite suppressant for any other vampires with a fear of blood. The witch and the warlock created a wishing well—a wishing well that swirled and churned with both white and black magic, a dangerous combination. The hump-happy werewolves left the essence of perpetual springtime and love (translation: they peed all around the boundary of the city, so that everyone—or thing—that entered or left Mysteria was, well, marked). John, the only nonmagical being in the group, left his confused but mundane genes, founding a family that would ultimately spawn more humans of nonmagical abilities who remained in Mysteria because finding their way out was just too much like geometry.
Each of the settlers thought, as their spirits floated to the heavens—all right, some of them went straight to hell, the naughty sinners—that their best contribution to the fantastical town of Mysteria was a happily-ever-after for their descendants. If only they could have known the events that would one day unfold…
CANDY COX
AND THE
BIG BAD
(WERE)WOLF