Dear friends,

Hugh here.

Turnabout is fair play, and my own file is as cold as any of them. I reproduce it without correction. You’ll see why I prefer to do my correcting in ink, at the bottom, where it can do the most good.

▌ FEDERAL THREAT REGISTRY — FLAGGED DANGEROUS

Field designation: “THE GREAT HUGHDINI” (stage name)

Registry name: Hugh Archibald Harrison

Subject number: 942 — ARCHIVE record, sealed

Physical (on record): Hair Color Unknown ·Eye Color Unknown · 6’2” · 185 lbs

Disposition: Held, Colorado State Penitentiary, Cañon City. Terminally ill — unusual toxin, source ███████. Awaiting trial, alleged murder of one Dale Harrison (sibling). Multiple escapes from custody on record.

Surveillance log (excerpt):

Subject demonstrates anomalous command of light, sound, and mechanical locks of every class. Engages investigators in word games; uncommonly intelligent; unusually calm under interrogation. Recapture priority: HIGH. Recommend no fewer than ██ personnel present at any transfer.

▌ ARCHIVE CROSS-REFERENCE — SEALED

DNA consistent with subject 942, recovered c. 1970s from facility █████ (United Kingdom). Subject escaped containment alongside others bearing comparable anomalies. True appearance and full capabilities: ████████████. Foreign interest in subject’s repatriation: noted.

A note in the margin, from Hugh.

Hair Color Unknown. Eye Color Unknown.

(Reader, I am laughing.)

Let us say only that the government’s description and the man in his mirror have a complicated relationship, and that locks are not the sole thing I can persuade to be other than they appear.

“Considered dangerous” I shall allow — it’s done wonders for my reputation. “Awaiting trial for the murder of my brother” I shall not, because Dale is the cleverest soul I know, and the dead are rarely so irritating by post. Watch that word sealed, dear friends — what the file won’t say about a frightened boy and the place he was taken from is the truest thing in it, and the part I guard most carefully.

The toxin is real. The clock it set is real. I don’t dwell on it, and I’d thank you not to either — there are escapes yet to make and a Safe House to keep.

They filed me under dangerous. I’d have preferred dangerously charming. We compromise, the government and I, on both.

Yours magically,

Hugh

~ Illusionist, Escape Artist, and Super Chap!

PS. My story runs the length of the Black Kat series, beginning with Unlucky Charm — free at the Safe House.

Hello, dear friends, Hugh here.

What Jared pulled from their database is not a tidy little profile. It is a case file, the sort of thing written by people who keep their gloves on and their hearts in a drawer. I’ve set it down exactly as they wrote it. Try not to mind the chill. I’ll be along at the bottom to warm the room back up.

▌ FEDERAL THREAT REGISTRY: ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE FILE

Code Name: “Black Kat” (per intelligence), “Cabrini Kitty Cop” (media-given name)

Subject: Katherine Carter — given name on record; origin unverified

File number: ███ — see ARCHIVE cross-reference

Physical: Black hair · green eyes · 5’0” · 110 lbs

Disposition: Single. Adopted. Five cats. Base of operation: Chicago, Illinois.

Surveillance log (excerpt):

• 10/31: Subject engaged 20+ assailants, south-side project district. All incapacitated. Strength and agility grossly inconsistent with stated physical profile. Incident captured by local media; containment failed.

• Service record: Chicago P.D. Disciplinary history extensive. Conduct repeatedly borders on vigilantism. Tracking instinct exceptional. Recruited under covert contract (U.S. Marshals cover). Subject does not appear to know what she is. Asset, not threat — provisional.

▌ ARCHIVE CROSS-REFERENCE: SEALED

Linguistic match. Subject recovered as a juvenile alongside a second child of similar features, both speaking the unidentified language common to the █████ group. Origin of subjects: unknown. Further detail: ████████████.

There. You felt it too, didn’t you? The moment a person becomes a subject number, and a frightened child becomes a cross-reference, sealed. That is precisely how they see us. It is precisely why the Safe House exists.

Because this is what they do. This is what they always do.

So let me give her back to you properly. The file says strength inconsistent with profile; I say she once put twenty men on the pavement in a cat suit on Halloween and complained afterward only about the ladder in her tights. The file says does not appear to know what she is; I say she has always known exactly who she is, which is the harder and better knowledge, and the rest she’ll come to in her own time. (Watch that sealed line, dear friends. It is the whole of her — and I’ve promised not to break the seal.)

They filed her under provisional asset. We file her under ours.

She’d hate the fuss. She’d never admit she read this twice.

Yours magically,

Hugh

Illusionist, Escape Artist, and Super Chap!

P.S. Kat’s story begins in Unlucky Charm, Black Kat Book One: free when you cross the threshold of the Safe House. Come join us!

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You found us. Good. The line’s secure (I checked it myself), the kettle’s on, and there’s a chair by the fire with your name on it. Come in, come in — and do lock up behind you. One can’t be too careful when the government has a habit of hunting people like us.

This is the Safe House: our little hideaway between two worlds, where I send word of what the Supers (and the occasional Rogue) are up to, on Earth and on Ellandria, our home planet. Cross the threshold and you’ll find:

• News & dispatches: first to know what the Supers are up to, every time.

• Meet the Supers: the people behind the powers. Some of them are even trustworthy.

• Learn Ellandrian: the language, the legends, the twin suns, and why you should never accept a silver griffin feather without asking what it cost.

• Hugh’s Reviews: what I’m reading when our author isn’t chaining me to a deadline (spoiler-careful, I promise).

• Bonus scenes, sneak peeks, and the odd bit of mischief my brother Dale would much prefer I keep quiet about.

And because you’ve been kind enough to find your way here, allow me to press a gift into your hands:

A free copy of Unlucky Charm, Book One: the night a too-much Chicago cop named Kat Carter discovered that too much was exactly enough. It’s where the whole mad adventure begins. No charge. Consider it a thank-you for crossing the threshold.

Buckle your seat belts, dear friend. There’s danger, there’s romance, there’s a great deal of trouble. And cats. Lots and lots of cats.

Join the Safe House & Get Unlucky Charm Free 👇

Subscribe now

Hope to see you inside.

Yours magically,

Hugh

Illusionist, Escape Artist, and Super Chap!

(Kat says hello. The kittara is on the keyboard. Send help. Or chocolate.)

Dear friends,

Come in, come in. Mind the threshold, it sticks.

Hugh Harrison, at your service. Kat’s around here somewhere, pacing a hole in the floor and muttering about a Rogue she swears she spotted on the rooftops. She’ll be back when she smells the coffee. She always does.

You’ve found the Safe House.

Out there, being Super isn’t safe: the cameras, the Review Board, the Rogues, and the shadowy suits who recruit you whether you fancy it or not.

In here? You’re off the grid. The doors are good and heavy.

(Dale reinforced them, between experiments he absolutely should not have been running. “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!” I told him. I’m fairly certain he wasn’t listening).

This is where we keep the people worth keeping.

That’s you, now.

I’ll confess something: it has been far too long since I last wrote. Our author vanished into a great pile of work somewhere. No one’s seen her for the better part of a year, but we’ve revived her with the usual remedy (chocolate and wine, in case you were wondering), dusted off the lamps, and the lights in the Safe House are on again.

Here’s your kit: Hit the subscribe button below👇, then check your inbox 📩. I’ll slip you a private entry code. Take it to the supply room (the store, for those not yet fluent in safe-house) and it’ll unlock Unlucky Charm (Black Kat, Book One.) Yours, free.

Subscribe now

We don’t leave the good stuff lying about in the open; that’s rather the point of a safe house, isn’t it?

(No code in your inbox yet? Give it a moment. Dale may be “improving” the mail system again. Check your spam, and reply if it doesn’t turn up.)

What happens in here. About once a month I’ll send word from the field: new releases first, bonus scenes, the odd character file (we call it Meet the Supers), a little Ellandrian to learn, a book or two I simply couldn’t put down, and yes, the occasional Rogue we’d rather you knew about. Reply anytime; the line’s secure, I checked it myself.

For those who’d like deeper in, there are doors beyond this one. Supers get the back room: bonus scenes, early chapters, a new book unlocked each month. Founding Supers get the keys to the whole place at once, and a few honors besides. But there’s no rush at all. A Friend of the Safe House is always welcome at the table.

That's enough from me for one evening. Kat's back and giving me that look… the one that says she'd like some attention. I've never once been able to refuse her. Coming, love.

It’s not easy being Super, but it sure is fun. 😉

Lock up behind you. 🐈‍⬛🖤

Yours magically,

Hugh Illusionist, Escape Artist, and Super Chap!