Writing time has been minimal this past week, thanks in part to the Silver Hollow Release Tour (happening over here) But I’m excited to share a teaser from the end of Episode 1. Hopefully revisiting it will give me further inspiration for Episode 2. Hope y’all enjoy & happy reading!
Angel Blue: Episode 1 Teaser
The moonlit silhouette of soldiers drift along the perimeter, more than capable of covering the league between the fence and anyone seeking death.
Eanna crosses the distance between the mansion and perimeter, her speed driven by the memory of the ash on her tongue.
Once, a long time ago, the cursed came on the coldest night of the year, on her birthday. They destroyed her, but she will ruin them. She will take vengeance, and then she will take Etlu.
And then we’ll be free.
She hears the guards’ voices on the wind, senses them long before she creeps upon the sentinels like a formless shade. Though they exchange radio communication with command, they remain steadfast as the trees they watched. The Redum, Etlu’s personally trained army, will not be easy to slip past.
But it is Eanna’s true gift that allows her to do what no one alive can do. A gift from grandfather Emim and the one great secret she has kept from Etlu. This same gift is the only reason she is alive and not buried ash.
She dares rise as she pushes her bare feet over the soft snow, until her legs no longer sink. Snowflakes fall slowly round her in perfect detail, yet so abruptly they sting her cheeks. The wind catches beneath her arms the same moment the shadows unravel from her back. They stretch to catch the current as her legs continue to pump, to climb air. The fence is invisible to the naked eye, an electric web of limb-splicing current between towers. She hasn’t dared this before, though she knows this is the lowest point in the perimeter.
Not enough!
The fence burns the tips of her toes and tears escape her eyes as she reaches higher, desperate. The pain causes her to waver as she glides, her arms reaching for the kiss of solid ground. The impact is agony. She shudders against the effort to recoil the fluid wings at her back.
No alarms blare. No shouting or pounding feet approach. She opens her eyes to find trees centimeters before her face.
I made it.
A shuddering gasp escapes her and she twists to find the towers at least twenty yards behind. The sentinels continue their watch, as if they hadn’t seen. These aren’t lesser guard. These are elite killers. She has never flown this far and a shiver of fear slices through her pride.
Don’t lose focus.
There was only one good chance of ending the threat for good. The cursed have been hunted nearly to extinction, after all. Etlu made sure of that.
End this tonight, then take him and run.
Eanna crawls ten more yards into the forest. They didn’t see her before, but they are watching the forest for cursed. She won’t risk this chance.
The stars gleam with the same ferocity burning in her heart. Snow begins to fall in light waves over the valley. Silence breathes in the forest, until the cry pierces it.
The howl is so faint, many Annunaki would miss it. Grating and haunting, the sound makes her blood burn for revenge.
Shouts erupt from the fence and the sentinels shift nervously in their posts. From the forest echo shouts in the pure tongue of her people. And then another howl catches the wind. The creature’s song breaks halfway through into an unnatural broken wail.
A lesser calls up to the towers with harsh, barking orders.
Wind grazes her cheek, pulling her attention back to the forest and carries the whimper of a wounded creature. Her blood stirs at the distantly familiar sound and she remembers why she risked so much to come here. Her toes have already healed by the time she stands and begins to hunt.
Branches crack ahead to her right, followed by another whimper.
Eanna crouches, pulls up her skirt and removes the dagger she keeps hidden from the strap at her thigh. The metal catches snow and she rubs her thumb over the jeweled hilt. Tears spring to her eyes and she brushes them aside before they can freeze on her cheeks. Grandfather Emim gave her this dagger in that other life.
“You are never safe, not even among friends,” he had told her.
She clutches the hilt and carefully makes her way closer to the scent of blood.
to be continued…
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Her House is gone, making her the last of a powerful, ancient line.
Her Guardian is determined to make her into a queen, sacrificing his happiness.
Her quest for the truth of what happened the night they burnt her home and people to ash will tear their world apart.
AUGUST 2018
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Jennifer Silverwood 