Before the Claiming

Book 0: Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories

by Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

Genres: YA Fantasy

Synopsis

You can't hide from fate...

While looking through her grandmother Emmaline's keepsakes, Lena Duchannes comes across a little blue book with a big history – a book that changed Macon Ravenwood's life and saved Lena's.

When Lena was a baby, Seer and gifted card reader Amma Treaudeau saw a terrifying future in the cards that sent her to Emmaline's door. When a powerful Dark Caster sets fire to Lena's house with baby Lena and her father trapped inside, Amma, Emmaline, and Macon vow to protect the child. Lena's grandmother and her uncle Macon whisk Lena away, protecting her and moving her to a new place at the first sign of trouble. But a Caster can hide for only so long, and Macon must rely on the teachings in an ancient book to control his Dark nature. Ultimately, it will be his job to protect Lena - and keep her from surrendering to a Dark fate.

New York Times best-selling authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl revisit the events that would define Lena's future in the third installment of Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories.

A Hachette Audio production.

Release date: October 13, 2015

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Print pages: 32

Sample

“I’m sure I have something blue in here,” Lena’s grandmother Emmaline said, digging through the Victorian trunk at her feet.

“Why would you think that?” Gramma’s daughter, Delphine—more affectionately known as Aunt Del—asked. “Your entire wardrobe is black and ivory. I’m beginning to think you’re the Palimpsest in the family, and you’re stuck in a time before talkies.” Aunt Del was the Palimpsest in the family. Within the Caster world, where powerful Supernaturals had different magical talents, she could see the future and the past in any given place—an ability that rendered Aunt Del confused, to say the least.

Gramma glared at her. “I’m simply trying to fit in with the other women in the community without attracting any more attention.”

Mitchell Wate’s upcoming wedding had forced Gramma out of the privacy of Ravenwood Manor and into the Gatlin public eye of Main Street—where all the best (and only) shops in town were located. It seemed Mitchell’s fiancée had lost her mother at a young age—which, according to Aunt Mercy and Aunt Grace, meant the poor girl didn’t know the first thing about planning a proper Southern wedding. Of course, they had offered their expertise without waiting to be asked, and after tasting six hummingbird cakes (even though she asked for a buttercream) and trying on a dozen antebellum wedding gowns (even though she wasn’t a fan of hoopskirts), Mrs. English had begged Emmaline Duchannes to step in and help.

Lena’s grandmother was flattered. She hadn’t gotten to watch Lena’s mother tie the knot (Cataclyst weddings weren’t exactly popular with Light Casters), and she had always dreamed of planning a wedding. A Mortal one would have to do. The only problem was that she knew a lot more about ordering candied sea horses and braised peacock than honey ham and pigs in a blanket. And now she was in charge of finding “something blue.”

“Why blue? Why not, I don’t know, something diamond? Jewel-encrusted? What’s so special about blue?” Gramma sighed.

Ethan smiled and helped Gramma lift an unwieldy box out of the footlocker. It looked like the archival boxes his mother had used for historical documents and photographs.. . .