Excerpt from ENTER THE NIGHTMARE by Jayne Castle:
The masked figure reached the bed and looked down at the bundled shape beneath the quilt. In a horrifyingly swift, efficient motion, he yanked back the covers. He raised his other hand in preparation for plunging a small weapon of some kind into what he assumed was a sleeping woman.
Moonlight sparked briefly on the syringe. At least it wasn't a knife. Maybe murder wasn't the goal. Of course, you could kill a person quite easily with the injection of a lethal drug. Nevertheless, it was starting to look like someone wanted to abduct her-not kill her-again.
She jerked open the bathroom door, clutched the flamer in both hands, and tried for a firm, authoritative voice. Attitude was crucial in situations like this. She could not let the incipient panic show.
"Stop or I'll fire," she said.
Everything happened very quickly after that. Too quickly. The situation became a blur.
The intruder realized that the bundle on the bed was made of strategically arranged pillows and swung around to confront her. Most of his face was concealed by the mask, but there was no mistaking the violence that blazed in his eyes.
He tossed the syringe aside and pulled a pistol out from under his jacket.
A flamer set on stun was no match for a high-powered weapon like a mag-rez, a gun that was illegal to carry unless you were in law enforcement.
Not that her flamer was entirely legal, either, but that was a different issue. Sort of.
"Stupid bitch," the intruder growled. "Drop the flamer. Now. We're supposed to take you quietly, but if you want to do this the hard way, that's fine with me."
Sebastian, evidently realizing she had lost control of the situation, took matters into his own paws. He raced out of the bathroom, moving low and fast. In the shadows, his target never saw him coming. He darted up the intruder's pant leg, heading for the throat.
The man yelled and batted furiously at his nimble assailant.
"Get it off, get it off, get it off."
The door of the room slammed open. Another masked figure loomed.
"What the fuck?" the newcomer snarled. "What's going on? Where's the woman?"
"Right here," Alice said.
She aimed at him and rezzed the flamer. Miraculously, in spite of her trembling fingers, the bolt of energy struck the second man in the vicinity of his chest. He grunted but he did not go down. She caught a whiff of singed fabric, but that seemed to be the extent of the damage.
Should have set it on high, like Vinnie the Broker said.
But she had wanted to avoid murdering someone, and at close range a flamer on full burn could kill.
"Well, shit." The man in the doorway produced a mag-rez. "Nobody said you would be carrying, but it doesn't matter. Ditch the flamer. Now."
"I'm not going back to Serenity Gardens," she said. "Ever."
"Got news for you, bitch."
The first intruder yelled again and dropped the mag-rez so that he could use both hands to fight his small attacker. He finally managed to flip Sebastian off his chest.
Sebastian sailed through the air, landed on the bed, and prepared to launch himself at his target again. The intruder shuffled backward, bent down, and tried to grab the pistol. Sebastian changed course and leaped onto his target's arm. He drew blood from a hand before bouncing adroitly out of range.
Distracted, the second intruder turned to see what was happening to his partner.
Alice seized the opportunity to shift the flamer setting to medium. She rezzed another little lightning bolt. The shot struck the wall behind the second intruder.
"That does it," he snarled. "You're fucking lucky the boss said you were only good to the client if you were alive. But you're not going to enjoy waking up after getting hit by a mag-rez stun shot. This is no wimpy flamer."
Alice fumbled with the buttons on her weapon, desperately trying to shift to the highest setting. This was the result of ignoring Core Principle Number Three: Expertise in any endeavor comes with practice.
A bolt of miniature lightning flashed from the doorway. It struck the second intruder in the upper shoulder and spun him around. A second shot took him down.
Startled, Alice reflexively rezzed her flamer. The shot went wild. Before she could figure out what was happening, two more shots from the other weapon sent the first assailant to the floor.
Sebastian leaped aside to avoid getting trapped under the weight of the falling body.
Neither of the downed intruders moved.
Alice turned back to the doorway. It was empty.
A man spoke quietly from the hall. "Please don't rez the flamer, Ms. Radstone. I'm not wearing a vest like those two."
He knew her real name. Another wave of near panic slammed through her.
"Who are you?" she managed.
"My name is Owen March. I swear I'm on your side. I owe you an apology. I'm afraid this disaster is my fault."
Excerpted from ENTER THE NIGHTMARE by Jayne Castle Copyright © 2026 by Jayne Castle. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Harmony #19
Nightmares become real when a woman trying to rebuild her life enters the Hotel of Dreams in this exhilarating Harmony novel by New York Times bestselling author Jayne Castle.
Alice Radstone should have known not to return. Her life before the Hotel of Dreams had been the perfectly cloistered world of a teacher at the Ballantine Academy. When the death of her mentor forced her out, she was left to reinvent herself in the big city. Since then, things have not gone well. Ten months ago, after her first trip to the hotel, she woke up in the locked ward of a hospital for the criminally insane, told that she had murdered her husband on their wedding night. She has no memory of the husband or the wedding but after escaping the asylum, one thing is certain—she is never going back.
Unfortunately, Alice’s second reinvented life is also deteriorating rapidly, which is why she finds herself once again at the Hotel of Dreams—this time hiding in the shadows of her room, a dead body in the shower, and two men wearing masks creeping toward the bed to kidnap her. Again.
When the enigmatic and decidedly dangerous Owen March shows up, claiming he’s there to rescue her, she has no choice but to accept his offer—and hope that he doesn’t intend to kidnap her, too.
With Alice and now Owen in the killer’s sights, time is running out. Alice and Owen must trust each other and the electric passion between them if they are to make it out of this hotel alive.
Romance | Science Fiction [ Berkley, On Sale: June 30, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9798217187386 / eISBN: 9798217187386 ]
Jayne Castle, the author of Guild Boss, Illusion Town, Siren's Call, and a variety of other novels set on the futuristic world of Harmony, is a pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz, the author of more than fifty New York Times bestsellers. With more than 40 million books sold, she is one of the most successful commercial fiction authors writing today. She writes contemporary romantic suspense novels under the Krentz name, as well as historical novels under the pseudonym Amanda Quick.
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