Teaser # 3

Hello everyone! I’ve got Qeya posted on Amazon now officially. I’ve been remiss in my blogging, mainly on my website. So tonight I thought I’d post another teaser trailer of Qeya. Though by now you could just go and check out the book for yourself, I’m a believer in freebies 😉

We must have traveled those caves the entire night, because a bright light greeted us on the other side. It was impossible for any of us to stop. Somehow I think we knew that if we did stop, our grief would get the better of us. Until we were safe again we must keep going no matter how badly our heaven legs trembled.

“I think I see something,” Kahne breathed.

In his usual sarcastic drawl Bruv groaned, “That’s what you said last time. You’re always seeing things.”

Gem and Menai preyed on Bruv’s short temper, an unwise thing to do to the prodigal blade user. Bruv may have been younger than the twins by two years but he was much stronger than they were and they knew it.

“Hear that sound, brother?”

“Shiver me aching bones, it’s the bloody kraken!”

“Calm your waters!” I hissed back at them with a threatening glare.

“Better listen to her, boys.” Arvex spoke sarcasm as his first tongue. “She’s a dangerous Hunan if I ever saw—”

Jymee had been lagging behind until Arvex set him on his shoulders. Now he squirmed to get back down. “Look! Kahne, I see something too!”

“Shut your traps,” Ohre growled once the bright hole appeared before us, shoveling us all behind several teeth like rocks. Me, of course, he had already dragged back against his chest while he fastened another tool to his gauntlet. The soft-spoken miner’s warning had the desired effect. Even Arvex sank until not a sliver of light reflected from his golden head.

Tilting back my neck I glanced up and met Ohre’s strong jaw above me, wondering how his skin could still smell like the essence of other planets. “What is it?” I whispered.

Eyes never ceasing their constant scan of the cave entrance, his words rumbled through his chest and into me. “Something’s out there…something big.” No shadow eclipsed us, no creature jumped out of the shadows or into light. But shivers prickled up my spine when I too sensed something else was watching. He spoke into my hair then, just above my ear. “You have weapons?”

Clutching my retractable scythe, I did not mention the fact it was nearly impossible to catch us in a fight. Only our own kind could nick us with a blade given the chance. Ohre felt the movement, my arm edging deeper into his chest.

“Good,” was all he said before slipping away and walking into the light.

“What is he doing?” Hissed Arvex, blade already held out in front of him.

I shook my head. I had no reaction to this other than the fleeting thought that we were as good as dead if the miner was killed. I blinked and his silhouette disappeared before our eyes. During those tense moments of silence, I found my eyes wandering the floor of the cave. A foul stench hung on the air that only now blasted our faces with the draft. The twins wrinkled their noses, shared a glance.

Kahne’s yelp was strangled by Bruv’s strong hand. I turned to find her eyes widely fixed on something before us, at the other side of the cave. And that was how we found the source of the bad smell. A pile of rotting meat and bones waited for us in the monster’s lair.

A strange blood-curdling screech pierced through the air of the cave, followed by the flash of a shadow and blur of something clawing straight for us. Arvex edged around me to face the brunt of the attack. Fear wafted off of him like a permanent stench.

“Stay back!” he warned, scythe held up in defensive attack.

The beast ran on all fours, its front two feet shorter than its hind legs, spikes growing from a spine sharp as its leaking teeth. My eyes desperately searched for Ohre and gasped when a tall shadow stepped from behind the rocks.

With the dying sun behind him, the lights of his gauntlet recharged with a high-pitched squeal. Before our scythes could cut the beast, a silent disc of concentrated energy sliced through the air and severed the head from the alien’s body.

Kahne muffled her screams into Bruv’s shoulder when the head rolled up against her feet.

Hissing ooze dripped from the creature’s exposed neck and I ran to the flailing corpse and sank the end of my blade through where I estimated its beating heart to be. My own heart pounding, I waited for the memories to fade, the ones that recalled battle and even found satisfaction in the blood at my feet. Shivering, I pulled my scythe free and moved to stand.

When I looked up, Ohre was finishing off two smaller versions of the monster. He turned to meet my eye once he untwisted the device and stashed the tool back on his belt. My gills flared, gulping down extra air. The intense focus of his gaze didn’t help to settle my breathing any.

“Gully! What a kill!” Gem kicked the head back into the cave passage, Menai laughing with him. Now that the beasts were dead, the twins acted as if they had been the ones to kill it.

“Greasy! Yuck! How can you even touch that thing?” Kahne gasped, jerking out of Bruv’s arms now that the moment had passed.

Bruv brushed past them, muttering under his breath. “Water-clogged ears…”

Arvex led the others into the light. “Wrecked if I ever dash miners again! This is one royal who won’t wipe their boots on our cousins anymore.” His grin made the carnage seem trivial.