We’re back for another #teasertuesday featuring the epic and bombastic Blackbriar Cove. If you’re new to our crew, Blackbriar is the upcoming sequel to Silver Hollow. Every week I share little snippets as I write the next chapter in the Borderlands Saga. If you’ve already read Silver Hollow, welcome back! I’m probably the most excited to hear your opinion on the sequel. I set a very high bar for myself while re-writing the first book last year, so I’m attempting to take it to yet another level this year. I hope y’all are ready for another crazy ride.
This episode was brought to you by Faye Blackbriar, twin, Unseelie rogue and long-suffering friend of the Queen of Silver Hollow.
*major spoilers for silver hollow below*
Blackbriar Cove
Borderlands #2 Teaser
Faye’s thoughts ran on a torrential circuit as she cut through the back way into Wenderdowne’s garden. She hadn’t had time to remove her heels or dress but it didn’t matter now, did it?
Battling the bubble of hysterical laughter back down, Faye pushed her senses to the shadows between pixie lights. At this point she could care less about the flora she trampled on, because Amie would just magic or “nix” it back.
She half expected her brother to appear out of the shadows like a wight. He took too much fun out of surprising her. She wasn’t nearly as sneaky.
Faye paused to lift her skirts and remove her favorite daggers from the sheaths on her thighs. At least she’d come prepared for the inevitable.
The other within her had been chomping at the bit ever since she and Jo felt the golems advance just in time with the arrival of the other party guests.
“Can’t ask for a nice party with goblin wine for just one night, can we?” she grumbled under her breath as she passed through the hedge maze.
While her inner sense could always track her twin and Amie easily, James was another matter.
One day she was gonna determine whether he was only human or not.
A familiar blue hat darted just around the corner as Faye entered the inner garden and her focus sharpened. She didn’t trust a gnome as far as she could throw them—which was surprisingly hard as it happened, like lifting a boulder.
Periwinkle didn’t make another appearance, but she knew he was watching just as closely as Amie’s pixie friends. She pretended her shudder was from the wind.
Light drinking little monsters.
A distant hum of strings and percussion floated up from the big house behind her and Faye was instantly jealous of all the wine her twin was about to consume.
“So gonna get her back for this later,” she hissed.
The cold press of a sharp blade caught the corner were her chin met her neck and Faye bit back a scream.
“You’re getting soft living here,” came her brother’s humored whisper in her ear.
Faye growled and used her dagger to shove his blade aside, then step beyond James’s reach. “All right, that’s it! Get ready to sleep alone for a month, cause I am officially stealing my twin back, you idiot.”
James chuckled as he replaced the knife at his hip and adjusted the strap of his gun. “You can try, queenie.”
Faye scoffed at the old nickname. “So did you really lure me out here dressed like this for that? Or are we hunting golems?”
James’s jaw set as he turned to slowly take in the garden and the hill at its center. “Ever since Amie took out that one earlier, the others came to the edge of the forest and just… left. None of them have come within a hundred yards of the main house, far as I can tell, and I’ve got Llewyon keeping an eye on the tower.”
Of course he did. The gryphon only ever haunted his domain in the mostly-ruined West Wing, unless he was hanging out with his new best buddy, her idiot brother.
James finally returned his worried gaze to her. “The real problem isn’t whether the golems plan to attack, but where they went.”
Faye twirled her daggers. “Guess we’re going for a run?” She followed her brother’s glance up to the arch where Amie held her daily vigil…and where she spoke to her ghosts.
“Llew will stay here and keep an eye on things with the Cutterworthy’s, but you and me are going hunting.”
Faye cursed under her breath as she tightened the straps of her heels and pressed a bit of extra magic in her limbs. This was shaping up to be a long night and not in the way she’d originally intended. “You owe me a whole bottle of that duke’s goblin wine after this,” she said as she followed James towards an exit she’d never seen before.
“Sure thing, string bean.” James’s smile didn’t go past his eyes, but it was there all the same.
No matter how they teased each other, Faye was glad to have him at her side. They’d been through a lot together over the years as he learned just what she and Jo were and how Amie fit into everything. He’d come with she and Jo when they’d left their human way of life behind. He hadn’t once talked about going elsewhere. They were in this together, he’d simply said the one time she asked. They were true siblings, in more ways than most blood siblings could hope to be.
Faye embraced her Unseelie half enough to carry the shadows with them as they crossed through the fields and ran east towards the looming forest.
to be continued…
“In a single night of madness, Amie won the battle and lost the two people she loved most. As she struggles to be the queen her people need, her family band together against the hidden threat at their borders.
Haunted by the ghosts of her past, Amie strikes a pact with an ancient being called The Storyteller. In order to see Emrys again, they must put aside their blood feud, and cross the veil to a place of spirits and monsters.
Blackbriar Cove is a land where superstition and chaos reign, and spirits plague dreams. A dark curse has twisted the Unseelie who once lived in the home the Blackbriar twins vowed never to return. But death is not the end in Silver Hollow, and the war for the Borderlands has only begun.”
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Silver Hollow (Borderlands #1)
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Jennifer Silverwood 