At eighteen, Elise Duxten must end her life. Her younger sister, Marly, lies dead because of her. To pay for her crimes she sells her soul to the devil in exchange for her sister's life.
Matrix, King of the crossroads, the Devil's right hand man for the last twenty years, is willing to make the deal, eager for another pawn. To sweeten the exchange he gives her one year to mourn her decision before he takes her for good.
In that year he's determined to torment her, driven by envy at the strength in her soul. Though having lived years apart, the same heartless man, Manx Sloazan, destroyed their lives.
With her remaining life, Elise must teach her sister to live without her and find the courage to say goodbye. It won't be easy. Sloazan is determined to make Elise pay for a bungled drug sale and Matrix wants to torture her soul. Or does he?
With Elise, Matrix has discovered something he thought he'd lost. His heart. But he is the devil's, without the ability to choose. When the time comes, will he be prepared to let her go in order to save her soul? Or will the Devil make sure he gets what is his due?
**Wattys 2016 Winner!**
Fifteen-year-old Emmeline Jefferson doesn't have time away from the Demons. Not a minute to say goodbye to her family, not a moment to wonder "Why me?" Every second she's not possessed is spent begging stranger after stranger for help. But no one believes a sporadic girl who claims Demons have spent more time in her body than she has. No one until she finds Dumaine.
Dumaine Chartres's whole life fits in his accordion case, his friends are nonexistent, and this fascinating girl is telling him Demons exist. These things all make perfect sense. What he doesn't understand is why humans have such outrageous issues with murder. Death is natural. If he wasn't supposed to kill anyone, they wouldn't have died. Nobody even noticed the bodies anyway.
In return for a break from his internal demons, Dumaine offers Emmeline help, and she's willing to receive it from anyone. Maybe this boy can finally be the keeper she needs. Maybe chasing these Demons can explain why he's so different from everyone else. Maybe this friendship can work.
With a wise but demented old man, and enough determination to perturb the Demons, Emmeline and Dumaine concoct a plan to unriddle their lives. The first step is to confront the Demon's creator. But something else seems to have found the creator first.
And it only looks like an Angel.
Human Spines is part one of a YA dark Urban Fantasy written in a style similar to Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me and Elana Johnson's Possession. It's the first of a series and told from the viewpoints of Emmeline, Dumaine, and their rambling but wise navigator, Hans. Through a diverse cast, it explores themes of learned distrust, fear of the unknown, and the battle against the evil inside us all, in a way similar to a Studio Ghibli film.
Cover by ecclesia-