Halen knows the sparks igniting under her fingertips are dangerous. She has spent her entire life trying to quell the tingly feelings that make her destroy things, but now that she is back in Rockaway Beach, where she watched her father drown, the flames have become impossible to tame.Halen is trying to hold on, but when she is thrust into a mysterious new world, the underwater realm of Elosia, she unravels the secrets of her past, and can’t help but ignite. As she explores Elosia, she realizes her life has been a lie. And when those who have deceived her come to her for help, Halen must choose—walk away or unleash the magick that could destroy them all.
You know when someone reads you a story as a child and it sticks with you forever? Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid was that story for me. I love the original and I adore the Disney version. But, it wasn't until I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides did I find my mermaid muse for Coral & Bone.
I love mermaids and magick, so I thought why not bring them together. Of course I couldn't leave out shape shifters and sirens. I love fantasy realms and worlds. Heck my husband says I live in one, so why not write about one. Coral & Bone is set in the Earth realm and the underwater realm of Elosia. Coral & Bone is a meld of all my years of watching Disney movies and thrillers.
EXCERPT
Sketching his crooked smile had become a habit for Halen, not
easily tamed. Flipping through her notebook, the boy’s gray eyes flashed back
from the pages—almost one hundred drawings in three months. She turned to a
blank page, not caring if the teacher noticed, and set the tip of her pencil on
the paper. Closing her eyes, she knew the boy would be there. He never kept her
waiting. His face flashed into view. His forehead was creased in the center,
and his usually full lips were pressed with a tight line. Her fingertips
sparked, and when she opened her eyes, her hand was already penciling in the
edges of his jawline. Halen sketched him quickly; she was familiar with the
hallow of his cheeks which dimpled when he smiled, and how one side of his jaw
was a little more round than square, and how his nose hooked ever so slightly
as if it had been broken at one time and had not been set properly. His
imperfections were perfection.
Halen first drew the mystery boy the
morning of the move. Coming back to Rockaway Beach was a nightmare, so when she
had woken from a dream with the boy's face etched inside her eyelids, and her
fingertips igniting with sparks, she feared the worse. She knew the sparks were
a warning; she had fought the flickering flames her whole life. There was more
to this boy, more than she cared to admit. There was more to Rockaway Beach
than she cared to face.
The boy smiled knowingly. Like you care. With a sweep of her hand
she drew a long handlebar moustache under his nose. Then tearing the page from
her book, she crumpled it in her fist. Instantly, her palm warmed as if she
were holding a hot stone. Only she knew the heat was coming from inside her.
She quickly scanned the classroom. Most of her classmates were still filling in
the test answers, with penciled circles. A few students were reading. Her
fingertips flickered with heat, and she dropped the paper, fearful it might
combust in her hand. She hadn't set anything on fire, not in a long time, and
she wasn't about to start. She shook her hands by her side, and as she did, a
jolt of pain gripped her wrists.
She spun around. Toby Creston shot
her an annoyed glare as he shielded his score sheet with his arm. As if she
would copy his answers. She sucked at algebra, but she had studied; Toby would
be lucky if he figured out how to fill the circles in.
Haaaalennnn.
A searing pain spread up her arms,
and she inhaled a sharp breath. She whipped around to face the front of the
class. Mr. Ajax sat with his long nose wedged between the pages of his book. He
peered over the rim of his catlike glasses when she let out a gasp.
HalenHalenHalenHalenHalenHalenHalenHalenHalenHalenHalen.
Beating like the thunderous wings of
a thousand birds, the whispers swarmed her thoughts. Her fingertips pressed the
squishy foam nestled in her ears. No way.
She couldn't take her earplugs out. Her earplugs were her salvation, the only
things keeping her from blacking out. Besides the sparks, sound had become her
enemy since moving back to Rockaway. Her mom's diagnosis—stress. "You're
suppressing your grief," she had said. "You have to let yourself have
a good cry." Her mom overestimated the power of tears. Halen's father's
bones lay in a bed of sand—tears would never bring him back—tears would never
drown the fire raging inside her. Tears would not save her now.
The chants grew louder, now drilling into every crevice of her mind. She
pounded the sides of her head. The blond girl beside her scooted her desk away
from her, shooting her an evil glare.
Stop! Halen begged as the
whispers hammered her brain. She didn't have a choice, she had to…
She tore the earplugs from her ears.
At once the chanting ceased, only now to be replaced with the chaotic clatter
of the classroom. The blond girl now tapped her pencil on her desk. The metal
eraser band hitting the desktop sounded like a jackhammer. She could hear the click clack of some other student's gum,
and the strike of a pointed heel on the linoleum floor. Toby Creston's heavy
breath was a rush of howling wind. The sounds united with the next student, and
then the next, until the whole classroom exploded with a deafening cry. Halen
fought to hold on as the classroom blackened around her. She caught the word freak, someone calling for Mr. Ajax, and
the blond girl shrieking. The last sound Halen heard was the thud of her skull
as her forehead slammed against the desktop.
FREE on Amazon between 18-22 November
About the author:
Tiffany Daune doesn’t get why people want to grow up, or why anyone would ever stop eating candy. Her purse is filled with books, lip gloss and a few pieces of Lego bricks. She writes best with a dish of chocolate chips on hand, and finds licorice makes a better straw than plastic.
She lives on an island and believes mermaids may be raiding her candy stash, though she hasn’t caught them, yet.
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