Darkness Watching (Darkworld #1) by Emma L. Adams

Published: October 10th, 2013

Description:

Eighteen-year-old Ashlyn is one interview away from her future when she first sees the demons. She thinks she's losing her mind, but the truth is far more frightening: she can see into the Darkworld, the home of spirits– and the darkness is staring back.

Desperate to escape the demons, Ash accepts a place at a university in the small town of Blackstone, in the middle of nowhere - little knowing that it isn't coincidence that led her there but the pull of the Venantium, the sorcerers who maintain the barrier keeping demons from crossing from the Darkworld into our own world.

All-night parties, new friendships and a life without rules or limits are all part of the package of student life - but demons never give up, and their focus on Ash has attracted the attention of every sorcerer in the area. Ash is soon caught between her new life and a group of other students with a connection to the Darkworld, who could offer the answers she's looking for. The demons want something from her, and someone is determined to kill her before she can find out what it is.

In a world where darkness lurks beneath the surface, not everyone is what they appear to be...

Reviews of DARKNESS WATCHING:

"Emma is an amazing writer. She has become one of my favorites. I couldn’t put Darkness Watching down." - Diane at A Creative Mind

"Darkness Watching provides an original world that is fully complete and from a teens POV. It was dark and entertaining and sometimes teen books don’t go full out, this one did. The world building was truly strong in this novel." - Lexi at Book Bliss

"Like good books should, Darkness Watching left me pondering the story after I'd finished reading AND left me wanting more. Adams built a strong world for readers to be immersed. But the regular world retained full realism. Normal every day teen situations felt completely believable." - Erin at Erin Albert Books

I have to say, I didn’t see the ending coming! ... the final showdown left me speechless (You will have to read it!)" - Julia at Never Judge a Book by its Movie

"This was entertaining from the start...I didn’t want to put it down, and fans of urban fantasies I think will enjoy this. Darkness Watching was definitely worth the read." - Jenea at Books Live Forever

"This book is unique, fun and interesting. I kept wondering what was going to happen next...I felt that this book was well written and It was hard to put this book down once I started." -Jessica at Eat Sleep Read

EXCERPT

ReadChapter One

It started out as yet another exam dream. I sat in the school hall, looking at an unfamiliar paper, as all the other students began to write with frantic enthusiasm, pens racing down the page.

I didn't revise this at all. Panic rose within me. I looked around desperately. Everyone else scribbled away. The clock ticked, seconds passing. Minutes. Shit.

I felt a familiar surge of dizziness; my breath stuck in my throat, my heart pounded. I stared at the back of the seat in front of me, which seemed to waver and shimmer before my eyes, turning to blackness―

And a face grinned at me. Sharp teeth formed a malevolent smile. Violet eyes stared at me, unblinking. I could see nothing else for the smoke, which completely obscured everything before my eyes.

Then my chair tipped backward of its own accord. In slow motion, it leaned back, teetered for a moment. The demon grinned as I sat there, powerless to move.

The panic inside my chest spilled over and I tried to cry out. But I couldn't move my jaw, couldn't open my mouth. I was frozen to the seat as it hit the floor with a soundless thud.

I couldn't move.

I couldn't feel anything.

And I couldn't speak, couldn't scream.

I lay on my back, and around me, people continued to write, like robots programmed to scribble endless pages. No one spared a glance for me. I was trapped there on the floor, and no one even knew I was trapped.

The eyes blinked, then vanished.

My heart restarted with a jolt, hammering in my ears. I fought to escape the trap. My eyes felt as though something heavy weighed them shut, but I managed to force my eyelids apart. The sight of my digital alarm clock greeted me, sideways; I'd fallen asleep at my desk, my head resting on my laptop, the cold edge digging into my face.

I tried to lift my head, but I couldn't. I tried to open my mouth, but my jaw remained locked.

Impossible. I'm awake. Trapped again, this time for real. Not a muscle in my body responded to my pleas. I couldn't feel my hands, but I knew my right hand rested under my chin where I'd used it as a pillow. I couldn't feel my face, either.

I'd lost all feeling in my entire body, as if something invisible laid on top of me, pinning me down.

I tried to cry out, but not a sound escaped.

Move! I thought, trying to lift my head. The weight continued to press on me. I recalled one of those websites I'd browsed had mentioned poltergeists that sat on people in the middle of the night, leaving them unable to move. This felt just like it. Terror washed over me, cold and merciless.

Every short breath hurt my chest. Let me go. Please. Please―I'll do anything, just let me move.

"Anything, Ashlyn?"

That voice.

What do you want from me?

Somehow, not being able to see the speaker made it a thousand times worse. It felt like a thousand invisible hands gripped me all over, numbing all sensation. At the edges of my vision, I thought I saw dark shapes, but no eyes, no mouth for the voice.

Demons.

Finally, the messages between my brain and nerves seemed to hit home, and I managed to raise my head, to lift my arm an inch. Slowly I regained feeling in my limbs. I shifted, twitched my hands, my feet.

Even then, I knew they watched me.

That day, the fear began.

***********

David turned to me. "You okay? I saw that girl stand on your foot."

"I'll live," I said, examining the ugly purple bruise already forming. "Ouch."

Then I saw something that chilled me instantly. Not two feet away from me―one of those dark spaces, a patch of nothingness, like a tear in the universe. I stared helplessly, waiting for the inevitable pair of malevolent purple eyes to meet mine.

But there was nothing there. Just blackness.

"Ash? What're you looking at?" said Sarah.

"Nothing," I said, tearing my gaze away. "Thought I saw someone I knew."

Out of the corner of my eye, I continued to watch the dark space.

"I think clubbing's kind of overrated," said Alex. "Yeah, it's fun for a bit, but I'd rather be watching a film or sitting in a pub or something."

"Ditto," said Sarah.

I shifted my gaze back to the dark space- and I almost stopped breathing. Something stepped out of the darkness.

The something was a shadow, black as the gap itself, hunched and shapeless, but as it moved, it seemed to solidify into an animalistic shape, crouched on all fours. Shadows blurred around it like a long shaggy coat.

This was no demon; it was something else. I could hear its soft footfalls on the pavement. This creature was here, physically, not hiding behind a dark space. Before, I'd always instinctively known the demons weren't part of the world as I knew it. But this creature was as solidly here as I was.

I backed away, almost tripping over the front step of Satan's Pit.

"Ash? You okay?"

"Fine," I said, amazed at how steady my voice sounded, despite the tremors that made my heart rattle against my rib cage. "It's really cold out here. I think we should go back inside."

"You sure?" David looked at me doubtfully. "Okay, then."

Coward. A sharp voice in my head berated me for running away. But I didn't want this, not now. Not now I'd almost regained a normal life.

But before I could follow Alex, Sarah, and David back inside, someone grabbed my arm.

"It's sensed you," a voice hissed. 'You can't go back in there."

I turned. It was the girl who'd knocked into me earlier, the red-haired girl from the car.

Swaying unsteadily on her three-inch heels, she pointed at the creature, which crept closer until its muzzle almost brushed my feet. It looked like a shadowy, oversized fox, but the eyes it fixed on me were crimson, like bloody gouges in its face.

I felt an icy claw grip my heart, rooting me to the spot.

"Shit," I whispered. "What the hell is that?"

"A shadow-beast. It can't see you, but it can sense you," whispered the girl. "Move."

But I couldn't move. I was backed up against the door to Satan's Pit.

The girl swore, stepping back to stand beside me. Dark tendrils rippled across the pavement like a creeping plant. The creature edged forward, raising its head to bare two rows of teeth. Shit, I thought. It's really going to kill me.

The girl cursed, and moved in front of me, taking something out of her bag so fast her hands appeared blurred. A plain, black Japanese-style fan, patterned with flames. She held it out in her right hand, between us and the creature.

Confusion leaked through my terror. What's she doing?

For a second, I saw something flicker down her arms to her fingertips, then flames appeared out of nowhere, igniting the fan. She made a threatening motion toward the creature, which let out a high-pitched squeal. Faster than I could blink, it leapt at the dark space, vanishing into nothingness.

The girl flicked the fan, and the flames receded, becoming a simple pattern once again. She snapped the fan back into its case and stashed it in her bag. I couldn't stop staring at her, speechless.

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About the author:

Emma spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing fantasy and paranormal for young adults. She was born in Birmingham, UK, which she fled at the first opportunity to study English Literature at Lancaster University. In her three years at Lancaster, she hiked up mountains, skydived in Australia, and endured a traumatic episode involving a swarm of bees in the Costa Rican jungle. She also wrote various novels and short stories. These included her first publication, a rather bleak dystopian piece, and a disturbing story about a homicidal duck (which she hopes will never see the light of day).

Now a reluctant graduate, she can usually be found in front of her writing desk, creating weird and wonderful alternative worlds. Her debut novel The Puppet Spell, published in January 2013 by Rowanvale Books, is a fantasy tale for young adults and the young at heart, inspired by her lifelong love of the fantastical, mythology, and video games. Emma also writes supernatural fantasy novels for older teens and adults. Her next book, Darkness Watching, is the first in the upper-YA/New Adult Darkworld series, and was published in October 2013 by Curiosity Quills Press.

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