Novels by Ndidi Otuya

“Will she be okay?" Hannah asks, bending over her grandmother, tears running down her face. She had faced a hard hit when the Athanatoi had thrown her aside, and Hannah was sure they had been cruel to her even before they reached the castle. It made her angry just thinking about it. Made her sad looking at Grandmother, the way she looked frail and vulnerable. Her parents had said Martha was Welcome, shwe just wished Martha had been there sooner, then those ancient devils would never have gotten a chance to touch her. But nevertheless, she was with them now, and by God Almighty, as long as she lived, they’d never lay a hand on her grandmother ever again. Neither they nor anyone else."Just a few bruises, but they'll heal." Queen Anastasia said, but she too worried about her mother"What aren't you saying mama?" Hannah asked, looked at her mother, beg

Myeen, you seek my own. And even now, you hold my own captive."The Athànatoi gave a blood curdling laugh as he held on to Martha, whose face was unearthly serene."Your own? But you cast this poor old lady out of your castle, Your own mother-in-law." He spat out the last phrase. "You just might be worse than me. And where is that little wife of yours? How about a little mother-daughter reunion?" He rose on his toes and craned his neck, as if searching for Anastasia. And it hit Jasper, that maybe, just maybe, he was looking for Hannah."She is not here, Myeen." The Athànatoi

She ran down the stairs –no, scratch that– She flew. And Jasper came right after. "They're coming, Jasper! And they have Martha!" She shrieked as she made for the door of the library. The passage that led to the rooftop was in the library. She wondered vaguely just how many more passages in this place were hidden doors that looked like walls. Jasper grabbed her and hugged her hard against him. He held her and she could hear his racing heart and joined him as he began to recite 'our father.' And their voices became one cry. "–Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us," She heard bells ring and believed someone had spotted the

" Hannah?" Jasper asked as he walked into his bed chambers, completely startled to find her in there, straightening his bed, as though she'd laid in it. Which she had, she'd watched Jasper enter the throne room and turned away somewhat hurt that he hadn't shared the fact that he had been summoned by her father, with her. She had walked back to her bed Chambers and sat on her bed, standing again several minutes later, telling herself she would not mope. Instead she had a bath, had a maiden do up her and walked to Jasper's newly assigned room. it wasn't that hard to find, the guards could be very helpful when they had a mind to. And so she waited for him to come back and wondered what it was that was being said between both the king and Jasper that took so long. She wasn’t nosy, she didn’t see herself as nosy anyway. She chose to call her behaviour curious. Exactly, she was simply being curious.

"two more have joined her. I think one of them is a man fairy, he's wearing pants.""Or maybe she's a princess on an adventure who is wearing pants as a disguise." Jasper chuckled and she smiled, she enjoyed making him laugh. They were lying down now, watching the stars aligned high up in God's majestic heavens."It's crazy. Being able to see tiny flying human-like creatures." He said,"With wings.""With wings." He concurred, She scooted closer to him and put an arm across his midsection. He ran an his hand down her hair and watched the three sprites flying above them. He could see them, and he watched them, but he wondered if they could see both him and Hannah, or if they could choose to stay oblivious to them, oblivious to the part -fairy in their midst who coul

It was night time when Hannah looked out the window of her bed Chambers. It had been a long day. She had turned to leave the throne room, when her father had bid Jasper to wait. She didn't want to leave then, but had done so with great reluctance after Jasper had nodded at her, which she took for an 'it's okay." But it wasn't okay, not to her. She had no idea why king Asher would want to talk to Jasper, or what he had in mind to speak to him about. It caused her great anxiety . She had inquired of his whereabouts from one of her ladies but they gave her no answers and curious looks to which she rolled her eyes internally.She could just go to the king himself, but that required courage. Because Jasper was right, she thought of him more of a king than her father, and a king in all he was, demanded respect just for being a king. Just once, she wished, closing eyes, just once again, he would be 'papa.'

Bryan registered the look on Aine’s face and promised himself that if he ever came across the Callum bloke he was going to give him a good pounding.“Do you... do you want to open it?” She asked Bryan, looking at the letter as though it was a key to unlock all sorts of vile evil things.“I should be asking you, Aine.” He said and place a hand on her cheek. She was pale and clammy and although he touched her gently, he was brimming with absolute anger.“I don’t, not really. But if it’s connected to Rhoda in any way. Connected to everything that is happening, then I suppose I need to. I don’t want to, but I might need to.”“Inside. We will take this inside.” He opened il the door and took her hand in his, leading her into the house,“Lord, why won’t these people leave us alone.” She groaned out as she sat on the couch, burying her face into her hands.“Hey, hey.” He sat beside her, and place a hand over her shoulders, gently dropping her hands and lifting her head by her chin. “It’s oka

“I get really worried when you get quiet this way,” Callum said as he stood watching Rhoda while she brooded at the dining table in the home they shared.“What do you care?” She said, without looking up at him. “I’m sure you can’t wait for the day this is all over so you can be rid of me.”True, he thought. But said nothing. Sometimes he asked himself why he even said yes to her in the first place.“Here we go.” He said, and sat on ie of the chairs, “alright, tell me. What’s got your buns in a twist?”“That’s highly unlikely. C’mon, tell me about it.”“As you’re aware, the officer is on to me.”“So you see, that I was right and that we need to leave .”She turned to face him and shot him daggers through her eyes,“Leave? Leaveeee? I’m not going anywhere! Well, of course, I need to hasten up now. But I’m not going anywhere until I’m done.”He shook his head.“Your desire for revenge is going to send you to jail.”“My desire? This was our desire, Callum. Remember? Me and you? It was what

Bryan drove back to Aine’s shop with a lot of questions. He might have asked Winslow about them, but the thing was, he wasn’t sure even Winslow had the answers he was looking for, not when the questions sounded like,‘Why? Why did it all have to be happening? In what way could he have stopped it?’Those questions played over and over in his mind, and sadly, they remained rhetorical .Endlessly Rhetorical, even to the point of unease.He did not step out of the car the moment he got to Aine’s shop, instead he looked around him to spot the discreet way Winslow’s team was parked far behind him. If he wasn’t aware of the plan , there was no way he might have known about them. And of course, that was the point. At least, where Aine was involved.He spotted her through the glass doors, speaking to a customer and just watched her. The lady she spoke to was pointing at a vase and he seemed to him that Aine was answering some questions, soon after , Aine walked to vase , picked up and carried

She cursed them as she watched them walk into Aine’s shop. No disguise, she was too angry to care about a disguise. But she kept her distance and did so in a newly rented car.She had thought to wait for it all out a bit. Watch, plan and make sure that the injury she inflicted was lasting. One that they both would feel for a very long time.And then there was Callum. Some days, some days she felt like sparing him. Felt as though she could simply inflict her revenge on Aine and Bryan and move on, starting afresh. Maybe even start afresh with Callum himself. But then she would bring up the idea of all the hurtful things she would like to do to Aine and he would bulk, he would try to play her down and it made her so angry, and so hungry to hurt her even more and hurt him too, because he was choosing Aine over her.“Aine, always Aine.” She said and nearly spat. Nearly.Then there was the officer. The Officer had threatened her with the idea of jail so that she no longer thought about prec

“You’re not going to tell me then,” Aine said to Bryan, sometime in the evening when they both had gotten home. He had brought her back from work and although he didn’t think she knew, she was well aware that he had gone to see Winslow if Winslow’s card she had seen on his dashboard that morning was any indication. She had reached for it and when she asked why he had it, he just shrugged and said Winslow had given it to him in case.But she knew him well enough to know that there was more. And as the overthinker that she was, it was all she could think about during work that day. And making up her mind that it was only hurting her unnecessarily to constantly think about it that way. She decided it would be best to ask him. Only in a much more sly way.“ Tell you what Aine?” He replied, his back toward her as he searched the fridge for cheese. He had the mind to make her a hamburger. He knew she had a tenderness for it.“Tell me what you discussed with Winslow?” She noticed his pause,

Meet me Halfway(chapter 30)“What do you mean leave?” Rhoda asked Callum in disbelief and he turned toward her in frustration,“You want to go to jail?” He asked bordering close to hysterics. He was so close to jail once, and there he was, teetering close to that point once again and it was not sitting well with him.“No one’s going to Jail, Callum. I’ll go see the sheriff as he requested, and that will be the end of it. You worry for too much, Callum puff.” She walked to where he sat on the bed, and sat beside him, linking their fingers.“You’ve never been close to losing your freedom, have you?”“And you have?”He turned to look at her at that moment, looked into her eyes. There was nothing in there, no feeling, no emotion, but a cynical glint that bordered on scary.What had he gotten himself into? And where was his way out?For if there was one thing that he was sure of, it was the fact that Rhoda would not leave well alone. She was going to push and push until she got what she wa