🌊🔥 "Heart of the Current" – Now Available! 🔥🌊

Third in the Dragon’s Breath, Human Heart series, this new installment dives deeper into magic, motherhood, and monumental dragon awakenings.

📖 Sneak Peek: Chapters 1 & 2 of Heart of the Current

Chapter 1: Moving Day

The skyline of Avalon glittered against the soft pink hues of early evening, the Ivory Spire’s towering buildings reflecting the last gold rays of the sun. Lyra wiped sweat from her brow, rolling her shoulders as she leaned against the open trunk of her car. Her sons’ new apartments loomed ahead, modern, sleek, untouched by time—unlike her.

She watched as her twin boys—Kai and Ren—lugged boxes up the stone steps, their laughter threading through the air like the last remnants of childhood slipping away. The moment was supposed to feel triumphant. Instead, a dull ache curled in her chest. They were leaving her world, stepping into their own.

“I told you that couch wouldn’t fit through the door,” she called up to them, smirking as Kai grunted, his fingers barely gripping the fabric. “You should have listened to your mother.”

“Mom, I swear if you jinx this—” Kai lost his balance for a moment, nearly sending the couch toppling onto Ren.

Ren just sighed, ever the patient one. “This is why we hired movers, Kai.”

As if on cue, the last of the hired crew strode toward them, black-gloved hands shoving a dolly ahead. His presence immediately unsettled Lyra. He was tall, lean, his head shaven close. A thick scar curved along his jaw like a lightning strike. Something about the way he moved made her stomach twist—too smooth, too measured. She had spent enough time in the Labyrinth to recognize someone who wasn’t just another worker.

His eyes locked onto hers as he set down the dolly. And then, barely audible beneath the sounds of the city, he murmured something.

Yuki no Ko.

The words sent a shiver down her spine. Child of the Snow.

Lyra took a slow step back, her pulse thrumming in her ears. He knew something—something she didn’t.

Then, just as quickly as he had spoken, he turned and disappeared into the street.



Chapter 2: The Mark

The apartment was still cluttered with half-unpacked boxes when Lyra found it.

She had been sorting through one of Kai’s shipments when a flicker of something caught her eye—a mark, burned into the cardboard.

Not printed.

Not drawn.

 Branded.

It was circular, intricate, an ancient symbol she couldn’t place. But she had seen enough in the hidden corners of Avalon to recognize intent. This was a message.

Varesa needed to see this.

Grabbing her coat, she barely muttered an excuse to the boys before slipping into the neon-lit streets of Lower Avalon. The Duskbound Labyrinth stretched before her, winding alleys and shifting shadows that never sat still. Her instincts led her down a familiar path, toward the scent of perfume and fire.

When she pushed open the door to Ember & Essence, Varesa’s shop, the bell barely finished ringing before the woman herself stepped forward.

Varesa Nordstorm had always commanded a room without trying. Tonight, she was clad in a silk robe, her auburn hair pulled into a loose braid, sharp amber eyes scanning Lyra with something between curiosity and concern.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Lyra didn’t hesitate—she held up the box.

Varesa frowned, tracing the mark with a careful finger. Then her expression darkened.

“This is a sigil of the Draco Venatores,” she murmured. “But it’s… different.”

“How different?”

“It’s not just a hunter’s mark. It’s a summoning.”

Lyra’s breath hitched. “Summoning what?”

Varesa exhaled. “You.”

🌊🌊🌊🌊

🐉✨ Why You’ll Love This Series:

• Elemental dragon lore that feels ancient and personal

• A powerful, grown woman at the center of the action (yes please)

• Found family, sisterhood, and bonds that defy fate

• Emotional stakes as deep as the ocean

📚 Where to Get Heart of the Current

Ready to meet Lyra? Get your copy here:

🌊 Smashwords (ePub, PDF, mobi, online reading):
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1741759

🍎 Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/heart-of-the-current/id6744248064

📖 Barnes & Noble (Nook and print):
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-of-the-current-rin-nocturne/1147232595

📱 Everand (formerly Scribd):
https://www.everand.com/book/846230195

💬 Fable (great for book clubs and annotated reading):
https://fable.co/book/x-9798227028495

🎧 Hoopla (library app – check if your library carries it!):
https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/18195255

📲 Kobo (international friendly):
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/heart-of-the-current

📘 Vivlio (ePub format, EU-friendly):
https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9798227028495_9798227028495_10020/heart-of-the-current

🇩🇪 Thalia (Germany/Austria/Switzerland):
https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1074951614

✨ You can also revisit the Smashwords link for direct downloads and reader reviews:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1741759

And here's a bonus treat to bring you back:

The Ripple Beneath Their Bones
A Non-Canon Bonus Story Set After "Heart of the Current"

By Rin Nocturne

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Parental anxiety, child endangerment (magical), brief mention of trauma-related flashbacks, emotional distress

****

The Labyrinth never really slept. Not even when the rains came.

It was the kind of storm that Avalon called a lullaby. Gentle and persistent, laced with memory. The scent of wet stone and salt-slick alleyways clung to the walls of Lyra’s apartment above the perfume shop. Some people found the rain soothing. She didn’t. Not anymore.

It reminded her of that night—the night she changed. The night the sea answered back.

“Mom,” Ren’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. He stood barefoot at the kitchen threshold, curls a mess, wearing his favorite dragon hoodie backward. “Kai is being weird again.”

Lyra sighed, placing her teacup on the windowsill. “Define weird.”

“He’s staring at the bathtub. Again.”

Ren's twin, Kai, had always been the quieter one—strange in the way certain flowers bloomed too early or too late. Now seven years old, he was beginning to speak in riddles even when he wasn’t trying to.

She found him crouched by the tub, one hand resting on the porcelain, head tilted like he was listening.

“It talks,” he whispered when she entered. “The water. It remembers you.”

A chill trickled down Lyra’s spine. It wasn’t a lie. Not exactly.

****

Kai wasn’t the only one who changed.

Ren, more impulsive and fiery (despite being born of water), had begun holding his breath for minutes. Once, he dove into a city canal and emerged two blocks down like it was a game.

Clarissa had warned her. “Power doesn’t always skip generations. It echoes. Especially in those tied to the Tides.”

But how could she teach them when she was still learning herself? When the very thing that made her powerful also terrified her?

“I don’t want them to live hunted,” Lyra told Varesa over tea one evening. “I want them to live...normal.”

Varesa only gave her a sad smile. “Normal isn’t what you are, Lyra. And it’s not what they are either.”

****

It happened on a Thursday.

The rain came harder than usual. The shop flooded in minutes. Lyra rushed upstairs—only to find the apartment empty. Panic tore through her chest.

She followed the pulse of water magic like a string. It led her through forgotten tunnels of the Labyrinth, down spiral stairs that hadn’t been touched in centuries. The deeper she went, the more the air shimmered with old power.

And there, in a cathedral of broken tile and water-soaked murals, were her sons. Standing in the center of a glowing pool. Singing.

Or rather—something was singing through them.

It wasn’t a trap. It wasn’t possession. It was a calling. One she barely understood. One she had answered years ago.

“Mom?” Ren looked up, eyes glowing faintly blue. “Do we have to stop?”

No. She couldn’t.

Her knees hit the stone. “I’m scared,” she admitted. “But I trust you. I trust the magic in you. Just come back to me.”

****

They did.

When the boys emerged, the light had dimmed. The song had ended. But the echo lingered in their veins.

They hadn’t become dragons—not in body. But the spark was there. Coiled. Waiting. Something she’d never seen before: a shared current. One soul split between two hearts.

They were still her sons. Still loud and messy and strange. But more.

She tucked them in that night with salt-dried tears in her eyes.

“Will we change again?” Kai asked.

“Maybe,” she said. “But you’ll never be alone in it.”

Ren grinned. “We’re gonna be awesome dragons someday.”

Lyra smiled, brushing hair from his forehead. “You already are.”

*****

The three of them stood ankle-deep in the labyrinth’s hidden lake, under the glow of a fractured moon. The boys’ reflections shimmered, scales glinting just beneath the surface.

They had inherited more than her magic.

They’d inherited her heart.

And maybe...just maybe...that was what the tide had always intended.