Lily Writes

When I was writing the Beaumont Series, I always knew Teddy’s story would be different. There were faint glimmers of it in Isabella’s book (Forbidden Love), but nothing overt—just a whisper of something… more.

Because Teddy isn’t just special. She’s extraordinary.
A woman with an almost supernatural warmth, that sunbeam glow people can’t help but gravitate toward. She calms stormy waters. She notices things most of us would miss. And when she chooses to step in—she changes lives.

Here’s one of my favorite early glimpses of Teddy’s gift:

Excerpt

I’m halfway around the restaurant when I notice them—a couple just seated, not speaking. At first, I think: argument. Ugly. Avoid.

But then I feel it. Not anger. Sadness.
She’s sad. He’s sad. Both cloaked in loneliness.

I open myself, let their auras spill into view—and it hits me. Not loss past tense. Loss coming. Something close. Someone dear.

The weight of it steals my breath. Dark blues. Purples. Almost black. They should be holding each other, but they’re retreating inward.

I reach for the darkness, pull it toward me. Fold it. Knead it. Warm it. My heartbeat syncing with the rhythm. Inhale. Exhale. Until the black turns gold. Until grief softens into something lighter.

When I blink back to the room, my mother is there, martini in hand, wearing her signature expression of withering disapproval.
“At last,” she says. “Still doing that woo-woo stuff, I see?”

Teddy’s adventure would eventually take her to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—where an ex-military bodyguard soulmate shadows her every step, determined to keep her alive after a kidnapping attempt. But psychic interference during the rescue brings in someone new: an agent called Ghost, who calls in “the experts.”

That’s how The Riders came to life.

The Rider siblings live with one foot in our world and one foot in the paranormal. Some blend in, living undercover. Others embrace their abilities fully, using them to tilt the balance toward good. At the heart of it all are their parents—Aurora Star Rider and Quill Fox Rider—shamans, scholars, and peacekeepers whose influence reaches far beyond what they let on.

By the time I closed the last page on The Beaumonts, I knew The Riders needed their own spotlight. And when The Riders series wrapped? I was already diving headfirst into The Vanguardians.

But it all started with Teddy—Rhys Griffen’s Solstråle.
Queen of the Locks. Rooftop leaper. The woman who could save herself, then grin and throw herself into her rescuers’ arms with a laughing, “Rescue away!”

And honestly? She’s still one of my favorites.