Book Title: THREE KINDS OF LUCKY
Character Name: Petra Grady, Sweeper First-Class
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
My childhood was about the same as everyone else’s, with the exception that I grew up knowing how to keep a secret, or at least, knowing who I could tell, and who I couldn’t. Sometimes, I think it was easier growing up not being able to do magic. Being able to see bad luck (dross) and avoid it was a definite plus. Not that dross ever gave me bad luck.
What was your greatest talent?
I suppose that being able to see dross could be considered a talent, but it never did anything for me but get me my job at St. Unoc University. You’d think that mages would be able to see it, since they make it, but no-o-o.
Significant other?
That’s a good question. I have a small circle of very good friends, but as far as someone special? Maybe? I have known Benny since high school, and he shut down a stuck-up mage who was trying to belittle me last week. Too bad he’s a mage himself. I mean, there’s nothing stopping mages and sweepers from getting together apart from mages thinking they are all that plus sprinkles.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
If I didn’t work at St. Unoc University, I’d say my biggest challenge in a relationship would be to find another sweeper or mage, so I didn’t have to hide my abilities. As it is, I'm focused on my lucrative, but dead-end career.
Where do you live?
My dad passed when I was a student here at the university, and I inherited his apartment just off campus. Right now, I’m renting out my old room to a mage. Ashley has been working with me for about two years, and I’m going to miss her now that she’s graduating—even if it did take the better part of three months for her to get out of the “my poop don’t stink” stage.
Do you have any enemies?
No enemies, but my job can be hazardous. Dross isn’t bad, but sometimes I deal with shadow, and that can kill you.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I adore living and working at St. Unoc University. All my friends are here, and being a closed campus means I don’t have to worry so much about a mundane catching someone doing magic or handling dross and needing their memory tweaked. The only downside is that the mage population is artificially high. So. Much. Dross. If there weren’t a dedicated team of sweepers to handle it, the entire town would collapse under bad luck.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
Ashley and I rescued a black lab shortly after she moved in. Pluck is my dog, though. He’s a big sweetheart. I don’t expect to have any kids for ages. I am enjoying being single too much. Though, if the right guy came along? Who knows?
What do you do for a living?
I became a member of the sweeper guild right out of university, though I almost went into trap construction and actually minored in it. I can see dross especially well, even for a sweeper. That’s what put me on the fast track, and I haven’t had to empty public dross traps or transport dross to the vault for a long time. Now I’m called in when there’s a dross spill needing skill with fields to pick up. I love what I do, but recently I’ve been running into shadow more than I should, and my boss wants me to take the skills test to maybe move up to manning the vault itself. No thanks.
Greatest disappointment?
My greatest disappointment is how some people, mages, I mean, think they are above common courtesy. The incoming freshmen are especially difficult. Some of them never figure it out that sweepers are not put on this earth to pick up after them, and the “you’re second class” vibes they give off are hard to stomach.
Greatest source of joy?
My dog, Pluck, is one of my greatest joys. I picked him out over the others because he seemed sensitive to fields, and I swear, he can see dross, too.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
If I’m not hanging with my friends at the sweeper lounge, I like to ride my bike in the desert before it gets too hot. St. Unoc is bike-friendly, and there are paved trails everywhere. I’m also pretty good at “bang-go” and can get a ball of dross from one end of the board to the other in less than thirty seconds. They won’t let me play for money anymore, but I use a wand a lot to move dross around, and it’s second nature.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I think mages are stuck-up snots, and I assume the worst when I have to deal with one. Unfortunately, that’s a daily occurrence, so I'm walking around with a chip on my shoulder most days.
What keeps you awake at night?
I sleep very well, thank you. But I am not looking forward to Ashley leaving when she graduates. She’s great, for a mage, and I’m hoping she takes a job on campus so she doesn’t have to move out until she wants.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
I have brought in shadow twice this year, and I swear, it gets worse every time. It’s like that stuff is intelligent, and I can’t wait to dump it in the vault and burn it with dross. If I ever screw up and let it touch me, I’m dead. But I suppose that’s why they pay me the meh bucks. I just wish it wasn’t happening so often.
The Shadow Age #1
Luck is its own kind of magic, in this first book in an electrifying new contemporary fantasy series from the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Hollows novels.
Petra Grady has known since adolescence that she has no talent for magic—and that’s never going to change. But as a sweeper first-class, she’s parlayed her rare ability to handle dross—the damaging, magical waste generated by her more talented kin’s spellwork—into a decent life working at the mages’ university.
Except Grady’s relatively predictable life is about to be upended. When the oblivious, sexy, and oh-so-out-of-reach Benedict Strom needs someone with her abilities for a research project studying dross and how to render it harmless, she’s stuck working on his team—whether she wants to or not.
Only Benedict doesn’t understand the characteristics of dross like Grady does. After an unthinkable accident, she and Benedict are forced to go on the run to seek out the one person who might be able to help: an outcast exiled ten years ago for the crime of using dross to cast spells. Now Grady must decide whether to stick with the magical status quo or embrace her own hidden talents . . . and risk shattering their entire world.
Paranormal Romance | Fantasy [Ace, On Sale: March 5, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593437476 / eISBN: 9780593437483]
The Shadow Age series just might be the best new series of 2024!
Petra Grady may not really be the janitor, but only she can clean up the mages' deadly magical mess.
The only girl in a large family of boys, former tomboy Kim Harrison invented the first Brigadier General Barbie in self-defense. She shoots a very bad game of pool and rolls a very good game of dice. When not at her keyboard, she enjoys lounging on the couch with a bowl of popcorn watching action movies with The-Guy-In-The-Leather-Jacket. She plays her Ashiko drum when no one is listening, and is hard to find when the moon is new.
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