“Speak!” Kerrol twisted free and raised his hands apologetically. None of his unparalleled skills at reading people were required to understand how close to the edge Evar stood. “I’m sorry for your loss, brother.” “You said you could find her!” Evar snapped, unwilling to let go of the offered hope but also unwilling to believe it. “I needed you to come with us.” Kerrol lowered his gaze. “Couldn’t leave you there for the next skeer that happened by.” Evar wasn’t aware he’d swung for Kerrol until Clovis caught his wrist and pulled the blow aside. “Enough!” She pushed between them. Kerrol stepped back, unruffled, as if he’d anticipated both the attack and their sister coming to his aid. “You don’t even know!” Evar shouted at both of them. “You don’t even know . . .” He jerked his arm free of Clovis’s grip. “Livira was the Assistant!” He tried to stop shouting, tried to steady his voice, but it kept breaking around surfacing emotion. “Her spirit. Her ghost. It entered the Assistant centuries ago. She was trapped in there ever since. The other one, Malar, was trapped in the Soldier. Until . . .” Clovis stepped back, frowning, minute shakes of her head to express her…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE BOOK THAT WOULDN’T BURN This is not a challenge, but if you do manage to burn a copy then the prize is buying yourself a replacement. 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? My earliest memories are of towering bookshelves and a vast library. I was two and my mother was a librarian. This book tries to capture that magic. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? It always had to be a library. Quite how vast and how old and how strange that library was had yet to be decided. I decided to max it out on all fronts. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? There are two point-of-view characters in the book. One is a young girl with a brilliant mind and an excess of personality, the other is a dangerous young man who his family describe as “cursed with kindness”. The girl, Livira, has a studious and rather repressed friend who she variously shocks, outrages, drives mad, and inspires. I’m like that friend, and like him I’d probably end up following her into trouble. 5–What are three words…