“You worry too much.” Cicero plucked the badge from Tom’s hands. “Open your coat.”
Tom did so. “There.” Cicero pinned the badge to his vest. “Yes, there are still bad people in New York City who don’t mean any of us well. I doubt you managed to apprehend every last criminal in your old precinct either. Did you throw in the badge because of that, or did you keep coming in, day after day, walking your beat and making sure you protected those you could?”
Tom’s smile came easier now. “You’re right.”
“Of course I am, amore.” Cicero patted Tom’s coat closed again. “You’ve done a lot of good on your own in this city. So, shall we go visit Isaac, then see what good we can do together?”
The warmth in Tom’s blue eyes set his heart to soaring. “Aye. Nothing I’d like better.”
“Excellent. Then I can stop subjecting myself to this damp sidewalk.”
Tom’s coat made it an easy climb to his shoulder. Cicero draped around the back of his neck, tail curling in front like a narrow black scarf. Tom’s chuckle rumbled up through his broad shoulders.
“Love you, cat,” he said, scratching Cicero under the chin. Then he put his hands in his pockets, and they headed into the city together.
If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review on the site where you purchased it, or on Goodreads.
Thank you for your support of independent authors!
Huge thanks to Kikka for help with Cicero’s Italian! Any mistakes herein are solely my own.
The consolidation of New York was a real event, which took place January 1, 1898. In our world, the celebration was a peaceful one.
“Little Egypt” brought belly-dancing into the national consciousness during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. After her success, the “hoochie coochie” replaced the can-can as the scandalous dance in America (although of course both continued to be performed). Hoping to take advantage of the original’s fame, scads of belly dancers calling themselves “Little Egypt” cropped up over the next decade, with varying degrees of talent and success.
Although the beliefs of the anarchists seem very modern, they were in fact espoused by multiple groups throughout the period. Free love, easy divorce, marriage between any consenting couple, equality of the races, and the vote for women were all argued for passionately and openly. These were no secret discussions; many groups had their own newspapers, distributed as widely as they could afford (which often was not very).
On that note, The Spitting Rooster is loosely based on several Bleecker Street resorts of the 1890s which catered specifically to gay men. These functioned not only as brothels, but as a sort of social club. Additionally, although middle and upper class neighborhoods had the space and privacy to retain a division between “respectable” life and “vice,” such luxuries were not available in the lower and working class areas. Hence the sight of male prostitutes and “fairies” on the street was simply a part of every day life in places like the Bowery. For more information, I recommend the first chapters of Gay New York by George Chauncey as an excellent starting point.
Hainted
Whyborne & Griffin:
Widdershins
Threshold
Stormhaven
Necropolis
Bloodline
Hoarfrost
Maelstrom
Spirits:
Restless Spirits
Dangerous Spirits
Hexworld
The 13th Hex (prequel short story)
Hexbreaker
SPECTR
Hunter of Demons
Master of Ghouls
Reaper of Souls
Eater of Lives
Destroyer of Worlds
Summoner of Storms
Mocker of Ravens
Dancer of Death
Short stories:
Heart of the Dragon
After the Fall (in the Allegories of the Tarot anthology)
Eidolon (A Whyborne & Griffin short story)
Remnant, written with KJ Charles (A Whyborne & Griffin / Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal story)
Carousel (A Whyborne & Griffin short story)
Jordan L. Hawk grew up in North Carolina and forgot to ever leave. Childhood tales of mountain ghosts and mysterious creatures gave her a life-long love of things that go bump in the night. When she isn’t writing, she brews her own beer and tries to keep her cats from destroying the house. Her best-selling Whyborne & Griffin series (beginning with Widdershins) can be found in print, ebook, and audiobook.
If you’re interested in receiving Jordan’s newsletter and being the first to know when new books are released, plus getting sneak peeks at upcoming novels, please sign up at her website: http://www.jordanlhawk.com. Or join the Facebook group Widdershins Knows Its Own.
Find Jordan online:
http://www.jordanlhawk.com
https://twitter.com/jordanlhawk
https://www.facebook.com/jordanlhawk
Hexbreaker © 2016 Jordan L. Hawk
ISBN: 978-1-941230-19-0
All rights reserved.
Cover art © 2016 Jordan L. Hawk
Cover photo: © Jenn LeBlanc//Novel Light Expression
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Edited by Annetta Ribken
Interior designed and formatted by:
www.emtippettsbookdesigns.com
Table of Contents
Title Page
About Hexbreaker
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
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Share Your Experience
End of Book Note
Books by Jordan L. Hawk
About The Author
Copyright Notice