Damnation Books has released A.D. Roland’s Winterborn in a digital edition selling for only $6.95.

Description: Tamsyn Hallert, an artist, exists in a vicious circle of addiction and recovery, fueled by her husband Sean’s long-time secret affair. The affair ended in his lover’s bizarre suicide, but not before she left a surprise on Tam and Sean’s doorstep — Kevin, the son Sean never knew he had.

Sean moves them to the country, to his familial home near the crumbling Wraithborne Estate, the massive old house with a terrible mythos. The twisted attempt to save their marriage only makes matters worse as Sean’s obsession with his dead lover deepens, and Tam’s grip on reality grows more tenuous. A horrific plot to summon the dark spirits that possess the Estate comes to light, with Tam, Sean, and Kevin in the center of it all. Will Tam be able to save her family, or will the lure of the spirits’ promises be too strong to resist?

Excerpt: “Mine.” The voice stopped her dead in her tracks. The crows vanished, dissolved into a lazy drift of leaves that fluttered to the ground around her. “They’re both mine.”

With her heart nearly flatlining from the adrenaline flooding her system, she turned around. In the middle of the path, just a few yards away, a woman stared at her with huge, bloodshot blue eyes. Long blond hair parted in the middle fell around her face, all the way to her ribs. Red streaks glimmered vibrant in the gray afternoon. Bright crimson droplets fell from the ends of her hair and soaked into the fraying fabric of her vest.

Tam caught her breath when she realized the stuff on the girls short denim skirt and faded pink tights was blood. Handprints, splotches, splatters, streaks. So much blood! Tam stared, morbidly fascinated. The neon-pink vest’s white insulation, grayed from exposure and age, hung out in matted clumps.

“A-are you okay?” Tam asked, backing up a step. The girl, a teenager, sixteen, eighteen at the most, looked like death. Ice blue lips stood out against skin the same gray color as the sky. Tam couldn’t look away from the dull, dry eyes. She aged as Tam watched. The lines around her mouth deepened, just like the crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes.

Tam took another step back. “My husband’s a cop. He’s just down the road. I-I’m going to get him and be right back. Just stay here.”

This is a hallucination, Tam. Turn around and it’ll be gone. Blink, breathe. Just your head, screwing with you.

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