Happy #teasertuesday! Hope y’all have had fun browsing other author’s teasers today. I’m a book nerd to the point I get excited for my fellow authors, especially my Indie brothers and sisters. 😉 So if you’re an aspiring author, pick up that pen, that story you haven’t finished, update the next chapter in your fanfiction. Let’s create words today!
P.S. Angel Blue will officially release on Amazon on August 17th!
Angel Blue Teaser
Present Day
Eanna
The dream is so vivid, Eanna wakes with the taste of ashes on her tongue. Shadows loom everywhere, made sharper by the smoke clouding her vision. This time of year, when snow and ice hold the world in winter’s grasp, she always dreams of fire.
“Sorry to disturb you, milord, but she gave me such a fright!”
Eanna follows the sound of Irnini’s voice, but cannot see her lesser. Her body is too heavy. The gift has used her up. Slivers of the events leading to her latest episode quickly come back to her: humans burning, cursed howling, and a man with amber-flecked eyes smiling at her.
“I’ve never seen her take a spell like this, milord,” Irnini says. “She keeps crying in a language I have never heard before in my life.”
No, you were not born yet, were you?
Irnini was young when she entered Eanna’s service, three hundred years ago. Now, her voice rasps and crackles like the embers in the nearby hearth.
“You were right to call for me,” Etlu answers. “That will be all, Irnini. I can manage. You may go about your business.”
She shivers at the sound of his voice, the one which pulled her from her dreams. “Do not leave me, or I may tear the world apart to bring you back,” he had said. Or was that a dream, too?
“As you wish, milord,” Irnini replies. The door softly clicks shut behind the lesser.
The bed dips as her guardian sits beside her, his clothed flesh cool against her overheated thigh. She turns toward Etlu and awaits his judgment.
Silence ensues until she cannot stand it anymore. “Go ahead and say it.”
A heavy pause, then Etlu’s cool fingers brush against her heated skin. “What would you have me say?”
She clenches her fists. Her sheets have burnt again in her sleep.
I destroy everything I touch.
The truth wells in her throat, along with tears she refuses to shed. She’s still too close to the fire. “I killed all those people.”
Etlu doesn’t hesitate. “I would sacrifice all of those humans again, if it meant I could keep you safe.”
“How can you say that? They were innocent, and I butchered them, just like…”
“Eanna, listen to me.” His voice draws nearer as he presses a hand on the other side of her torso. “The fault is mine.”
“Stop pretending like this doesn’t change everything! I should have listened and waited for you to celebrate my birthday as you asked. But then Nina said Malku wrote to her mother about my birthday, and I was so angry with you for not telling me. I acted like a spoiled child rather than a sarratum. I killed people. I drew the cursed to our location. I should be punished.”
Strong arms gather her into his embrace, and she realizes she is crying hot tears. Again, she is a child, and he is lifting her corpse out of the snow, bringing her back to life. In all the years since the cursed murdered her family, her guardian has been a constant refuge.
“Anu?” His lips brush her ear. “Open your eyes.”
Her body responds to his gentle command.
“I am your guardian.” His gaze is cool steel-silver, contrasting with the warmth in his voice. “The burden and responsibility fall to me. Do you think Malku will care that you acted on your own?”
He brushes a thumb against her open lower lip. “The fault is mine, Anu. I have already spoken with the council. I told them how I accompanied you to the human city, where the cursed attacked us and caused the fire. I will accept the Lady’s punishment.”
She can’t breathe, but manages to speak. “Why haven’t you told them the truth about me?” Eanna barely thinks of her unique gifts. She is fortunate Irnini is so loyal. Etlu’s reasoning has long escaped her.
His hand drops to her exposed shoulder. “After all this time, you question my devotion.” The skin about his gray gaze tightens, the only break in his mask.
“How can I not?”
Irritation wrinkles the smoothness of his brow. “I should have known it would happen today. I should have damned the council and the cursed and been here with you, instead.”
She threads her fingers hrough his feather-light hair. “You can’t always put everything aside for me. I am twenty celestial years old now.” Her cheeks strain against her forced smile, pulling slightly farther to the left than she would like. Etlu once said it was yet another lasting effect of the stress her episodes placed on her body.
Besides the fact I struggle remembering what happened after.
She had hoped, once she came into her power, the side-effects of her episodes would subside. Now she’s not so sure.
Etlu turns his chin away from the crackling hearth. “Nina was right about Malku.”
The name of Eanna’s future husband and king wenches a hard and cold wedge of fear in her gut.
“He brings half the royal retinue with him this time.”
“How long?” she whispers.
His expression darkens, and she feels his power flex about them, a momentary lapse of control. “A fortnight, maybe less.”
A contract was written the day she was born. She should have known Malku would want her once she came into her gifts.
Run away with me, is on the tip of her tongue, when the doorknob twists.
Eltu is laying her head back against the pillow one moment, his hair brushing her cheek and his breath ghosting her skin. The next moment, Irnini walks in with a golden tray, and Etlu is standing an appropriate distance from her bed.
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 17, 2018
Jennifer Silverwood 