Can y’all believe it’s December?? Holidays in America tend to make this time of year rush by. Especially now that I have a kid. Soon we’ll be diving right into Christmas madness, including my kid’s birthday. What am I most excited for? Re-creating that magic for him that my parents made for me. I’m so used to conserving my magic to stories 😉 I hope y’all are excited for the coming holys, whatever you celebrate. I’ll have several fun deals coming this season, so do stay tuned!
Meanwhile, here is another #teasertuesday featuring the fantastical world of Blackbriar Cove. If you’re new to the story, Blackbriar is the upcoming sequel to Silver Hollow. Every week (or so) I share little snippets as I write the next chapter in the Borderlands Saga. If you already know Silver Hollow, welcome back! I hope you enjoy this week’s teaser.
This episode was brought to you by magical fae queens everywhere.
*major spoilers for silver hollow below*
Blackbriar Cove
Borderlands #2 Teaser
“You know,” Grim crooned, “I could almost think you wanted to get me alone after that lovely act you gave, dearie.”
As soon as they entered the inner garden, with its flowerbeds circling around the small hill that supported the ancient arch, Amie turned.
Against the moonlight and faint lamplit glow from the windows behind him, Grim seemed to carry the light of the sun. Someone so awful shouldn’t have been so handsome, or smelled like summer flowers and rain and comfort.
Grim’s eyebrows lifted at her quiet perusal.
Amie grimaced as she twisted her hand on his arm and caught his gloveless hand in hers.
“My, this is a pleasant sur—” his words fell into a hiss as Amie pushed the moonlight she was pulling through their connection.
Grim sucked in a sharp breath through flared nostrils and Amie involuntarily gasped as he pushed his power back into her. No longer did it only smell of summer, but winter’s breath and roses, sharp and cold clashing against his heat. To hold his hand was painful, even as she wielded magic the way he’d been teaching her.
His smile tightened. “You really have been paying attention, haven’t you, lovey?”
Silver and golden glows emanated from their skins. It was snow melting in the glare of the sun and snow falling on desert sands at once. Madness and chaos, fire and ice.
Amie managed to hold her own, grit her teeth and bear it. “I didn’t have much of a choice did I? It was either let you teach me or start an actual war.”
Grim leaned in closer so she could see the faint lines at the corners of his eyes and the sweat beading on his forehead. His breath against her cheek smelled of cinnamon and spices she didn’t know to name. “Come on, Amie. You know I never do anything without perfectly good reasons.”
He was too close and she was struggling to breathe. Her need to overpower him wasn’t as important as her need to get away from the heat of him.
Grim let her go the moment she pulled back her nixy and she stumbled beyond his reach. She pressed a hand to her heaving chest to calm her racing heart. It was still painful to look at him, as if she could still feel the sun trapped beneath the palm he’d held.
She closed her eyes and struggled to focus on the cooling relief moonlight offered. “Why are you here, Grim?” She opened her eyes to find him exactly as she left him.
He watched her a moment, and then clasped his hands behind his back, the only tell he was uneasy as she. “You changed the game when you confronted my little sister’s golem, dearie.”
Amie bit her lip and cursed the involuntary reaction. She had been working so hard to control her facial expressions, ever since they began meeting by mirror.
Grim’s brilliant white smile twisted into a knowing grin. “The others were ordered to destroy themselves as soon as you ended the golem’s existence. She knows that you know, now.”
Amie forced her hands to her side and lifted her chin before daring to shift her gaze from his smirk to those beguiling eyes. “So you’re saying we’re doing this now?” She shook her head. All the planning for this eventuality and she wasn’t anywhere near ready. She hadn’t told anyone.
Arms tucked safely away, Grim slowly approached. “It would have happened regardless or in a fortnight at the most, you know. In fact, I can name at least three spies you’ve had dancing and dining in your honor this evening.”
Amie crossed her arms over her chest but he brushed past her to inspect the swaying night blooming Jasmine to her left. “I’m not stupid. We have plans in place. And I’d thought no one at this party would try anything tonight.”
His answering smile showed he was fully aware of her implications. Nothing prepared her for the flourish of his glowing hand before her face.
Silver moonlight burned brightly in her clenched fists but she wasn’t fast enough.
The scent of spring unfolded from his fingers as Grim opened his palm to reveal freshly magicked wild violets.
Amie’s breathe fell from her lips in a shudder and she watched in fascination as he took one of her silver hands and placed the flowers in her possession. “How…”
They felt so real. She couldn’t look away, even as her heart fell through her chest with his words.
“The Unseelie clans are gathering in Blackbriar Cove, the first clansmeet since the rebellion that forced you and your uncle from your home.”
Had he given her the flowers to soften the blow? Amie couldn’t mask her confusion or her fear anymore. “But…why couldn’t you tell me this through the mirror? Why tonight?”
Grimwich glanced from the violets he’d created from nothing to her face and grinned. “This is far more fun, dearie. Is it so far-fetched that I might have missed my favorite storyteller?”
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)
is available where eBooks are sold
Jennifer Silverwood 