Targeted Age Group:: 16+

Hunters are supposed to hate vampires—but everyone will betray their people for a price. Nathan is about to discover his.
Nathan is a vampire hunter on the cusp of graduation. He’s been training for this his entire life: the moment he qualifies and joins the rest of his family in their noble calling.
If only it were that simple.
His grades are a mess, his social life is a disaster, and what’s worse, his best friend is a witch! Add to that, his vampire uncle is back in town and his crush might just be supernatural too, and you have one big melting pot of potential parental disapproval. Nathan doesn’t think he can take much more, and then the dark mages come to town.
As bodies begin piling up in the streets, Nathan finds himself pulled deeper into political intrigue and a deadly plot that will pit him against his own family. When the girl he likes comes under threat, Nathan races against time to solve the mystery… well aware that with every step he takes, he comes closer to his father exposing all his secrets.

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What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Wicked Magic is set in a world I’ve been developing since 2014. It was inspired by my time at Oxford University and my love of languages and history. Weaving together great locations, rich history, and fascinating creatures is my passion. Throw in a dash of magic, and you have the perfect escape from real life.

How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
Most of my characters walk into my head fully formed. They’re like real people, demanded their stories are told. This was especially true of Nathan. From day one, he had such a strong voice. I just had to write his story.

Book Excerpt/Sample
CHAPTER ONE

‘MAN, THAT NEW GIRL Cynthia Rymes is seriously hot,’ Matt said. ‘That level of hotness in one girl should be banned or something.’
Banned or something. Yeah. Nathan squinted at the girls playing lacrosse in Uni Parks and thought that if anything was going to be banned, it was him and Matt hanging out and ogling the girls from Headington School in the park.
‘Which one’s she?’ he asked, nicking Matt’s bottle of coke because he’d finished his own.
‘Mate!’ Matt whined. ‘The blond one with the two plaits. Front and centre. Seriously!’
‘Yeah, hot,’ Nathan agreed. He peered at her again. Maybe it was because he was exhausted—he’d been up half the night trying to finish his bio homework—but she had a bird in her aura. Like, a swan or something, but black. Nah, couldn’t be.
‘Nice legs,’ he said, flopping back on the grass and staring at the trees.
‘What time did you go to bed last night?’ Matt sniggered. He lay back beside his friend and shoved a handful of crisps in his mouth. Matt always ate like a pig.
‘Dunno, maybe four AM?’ Nathan thought for a moment. ‘Late. I forgot about bio, and Mr Jackson’s homework literally killed me.’
‘Didn’t think it took that long,’ Matt said, spraying crisps everywhere.
Yes, but Matt didn’t have self-defence six days a week, nor all manner of supernatural drama. Monica had wailed on Skype for half an hour about how she was sure that the witch she was training with in Morocco was trying to kill her and make soup out of her entrails, or something. Then Dad had called to cancel Nathan’s trip to London this weekend because he was going on an urgent hunt in Liverpool, or maybe Newcastle. And between everything, he’d just forgotten that bio homework was still a thing.
‘Lucky,’ Nathan said. One of the girls scored, and he watched as Headington’s team did a group hug. Girls were nice to watch. Try and talk to them, and it was a whole different game. He seemed to be surrounded by them, but it never got any easier. Everything he said was wrong, somehow. Even when it was right, it was still wrong.
Monica was Nathan’s closest friend, and her definition of advice was ‘just sleep with her and get her out of your system’. That had not helped Nathan in the slightest when he’d had a terrible crush on Suzanne Ecclestone last year. What Monica failed to understand was that humans did not just sleep with people to get it out of their system. Monica didn’t see any differences between being a witch and being human.
It was completely different.
Maybe he should ask Adrian for help?
But Nathan could just picture how that would go. It wasn’t hard to imagine, actually. Adrian would laugh so hard they’d hear him in Mexico. And then Nathan’s cheeks would explode from blushing so hard, or something.
Not the way he planned on going.
‘Nate, are you even listening to me?’ Matt asked.
‘Sorry,’ Nathan said, not sorry in the slightest. ‘I think I fell asleep for a second. What were you saying?’
‘I was asking if you wanted to catch the new Maze Runner movie on the weekend, but I reckon the only thing you’re going to be catching is forty winks.’
‘I’ll be fine by Saturday,’ Nathan said. ‘We can do the movie. Will you check the screenings?’
‘And dinner at the Noodlebar,’ Matt demanded. ‘You owe me dinner.’
‘I do?’ Nathan asked.
‘I paid last time!’
‘Shit, I totally forgot.’ Nathan sighed. ‘Fine, dinner at the Noodlebar, but we have to do the late screening because I’m probably training Saturday.’
‘You and your karate shit, man, so boring,’ Matt said.
‘Shut up!’ Nathan reached over and hit his friend. Matt tried to roll away, but if there was one thing being a vampire-hunter-in-training was good for, it was hitting bratty mates who had exceeded their daily witty quip quota.
‘Oi!’ Matt sat up suddenly. ‘Hey, match’s over. Looks like Headington won.’
They supported the Headington team, mostly because Matt found Cynthia Rymes hot. Well, also because they were playing some Witney team, so Nathan supposed that he had some loyalty towards the local girls. With reluctance, he sat up.
‘What would Poppy say if she knew you were checking out the lacrosse team at the park?’ he asked, watching idly as the girls shook each other’s hands.
‘Poppy and I aren’t together,’ Matt replied. ‘We’re taking a break.’
‘For what, the fifth time?’
‘No!’
‘Maybe the sixth,’ Nathan said.
‘Nate, don’t be a dick.’
Nathan was considering pointing out that Matt should just break up with Poppy, but then Cynthia looked over at them and waved, and he forgot what he was planning on saying.
‘Mate, wave back!’ Matt hissed, elbowing him hard. Nathan obediently waved, trying not to wince. Matt had sharp elbows.
Cynthia beamed and jogged over to pick up the cones on the edge of the field near where they were sitting. Was she exaggerating the way she bent over a bit? Damn, she had nice legs. Wait, wasn’t it rude to stare? Shit.
Cynthia picked up the last cone, hesitated for a moment, then stepped towards them. ‘Hey, you guys are from MCS, right?’ she asked shyly.
‘H—hi,’ Nathan said. Was he blushing? His cheeks felt hot. Damn!
‘Aren’t you Poppy Wiggen’s boyfriend?’ Cynthia asked Matt.
‘Matt,’ he called back cheerfully. Matt was very suave when it came to girls. Nathan theorised that this had something to do with having a girlfriend or losing his virginity, probably the latter, because it was a recent development. Matt of his youth had not been suave. He added, ‘My friend Nate’s a big fan of lacrosse, actually.’
Nathan’s cheeks heated up even further. Hello, death-by-exploding-cheeks. ‘Um, uh,’ he stammered, searching for an excuse. ‘My sister plays lacrosse.’
‘Oh, cool.’ Cynthia smiled. She shifted the orange cones under her arm then came over and held her hand out to him. Nathan stared at it with extreme panic for a second, until he received another elbow to the gut from Matt and remembered that human beings shook hands when they met. He stood, awkwardly, and grasped her hand.
‘I’m Cynthia,’ she said.
‘I know,’ he blurted out. Fuck. He was too tired for this; his brain was on holiday or something. ‘I mean, uh… your name’s on your jersey.’ Nate, shut up!
Cynthia’s cheeks went pink. It was adorable. At least she was blushing too. Solidarity in blushing—or wait, did that mean he’d embarrassed her? Shit, he didn’t mean to embarrass her!
‘I guess it is,’ she said wryly. ‘And you are… Nate?’
‘Nathan,’ he said. ‘Um, Nathan Delacroix.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ she replied. ‘Our next match is next week. You could bring your sister, I guess?’
Nathan nodded like the idiotic nodding dog his sister had stuck on the rear dash of his aunt’s car when she was six. ‘Sure, why not?’ he asked, forcing himself to stop nodding. ‘I’ll, um, see you then?’
Cynthia beamed at him. ‘Cool!’ she said. ‘I’d better, um, get these back to our teacher.’ She pointed at the cones. ‘And, you know, go home and shower. Gosh, I probably smell.’ And then she blinked at him, went scarlet, and turned and fled. Nathan stared after her, completely bemused.
‘You’re a wanker,’ Matt said cheerfully from behind him.
‘Why?’ Nathan complained.
‘You embarrassed her.’ Matt looked way too happy. ‘I think she likes you.’
‘Sure, I’m likeable, right?’ Nathan asked.
‘No, you’re awful.’ Matt smirked. ‘Ask her out.’
‘Not in this lifetime,’ Nathan said. He looked over his shoulder at Cynthia, in time to see her bury her face against a friend’s arm. ‘Girls like her don’t date guys like me.’
‘What, hot sporty girls don’t date athletic guys with stuttering problems?’ Matt teased. ‘You don’t say!’
Nathan slugged him hard on the arm. ‘Come on, arsehole,’ he said. ‘I’m exhausted, I have training, and I still gotta write that economics essay for tomorrow. Let’s get home.’

Author Bio:
Margot de Klerk is an author of all things paranormal fantasy. She is most often found in her favourite coffee shop typing furiously on her computer with an iced late at hand. When not writing, she enjoys photography, travelling, sewing, and various sports.

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