Release Date: 19th May, 2015
Her fall has just begun.
Only his touch can save her from the shift that could destroy it all.
Within my blood runs a thing our kind calls the Shadowing Disease. It shadows over, and bends everything to its will. When the first blood- shift came, it tore through flesh and blood, threatening to bend me, break bone, shatter my mind and entrap my heart with its honeyed, seductive poison. It came with vicious intent, moving my thoughts and altering me forever. The shift has caused a rift within me. No one was safe when it entrapped me in its claws of foul lust.
But I have the only antidote against the evil that becomes me – his touch alone has the power to release the spurs of sweet darkness that clung on for dear life.
I knew what I had to do; the desperation pulled my mind with the deep determination of a hungry predator. By the time the revelation raised me from the dark dungeon of my bounds – it might have been too late.
Only his touch can save her from the shift that could destroy it all.
Within my blood runs a thing our kind calls the Shadowing Disease. It shadows over, and bends everything to its will. When the first blood- shift came, it tore through flesh and blood, threatening to bend me, break bone, shatter my mind and entrap my heart with its honeyed, seductive poison. It came with vicious intent, moving my thoughts and altering me forever. The shift has caused a rift within me. No one was safe when it entrapped me in its claws of foul lust.
But I have the only antidote against the evil that becomes me – his touch alone has the power to release the spurs of sweet darkness that clung on for dear life.
I knew what I had to do; the desperation pulled my mind with the deep determination of a hungry predator. By the time the revelation raised me from the dark dungeon of my bounds – it might have been too late.
EXCERPT
I awakened with what felt like a bolt of lightning to my
chest. There was nothing before that and for a moment, there was nothing after.
A tingling sensation engulfed my entire body, then fazed into my brain.
Slowly,
I opened my eyes to darkness, dry and hot darkness crushing down on my body,
into my mind. The memories came
crashing back, one wave over the next, pushing my breath from my lungs.
Memories become a tangled mess; I did not know what the last thing I had done
was, or how I had gotten to be in a state of mental suspension. The only thing
familiar was him, and the darkness exuding from his being was not a familiarity
I wanted, nor needed.
The
Shadowing disease had come back for me. I choked on the air filling my lungs,
like I was breathing for the first time. Something strange was happening to me
as my life came pouring back, one cruel flash at a time. I started to remember.
I had fallen in a trap, the consequences coiling around me, and I suddenly
remembered how I had gotten there.
His
presence had me shifting dark-side; the poison that ran through my blood, ran
through his, and it drew me near. He summoned me that way, and it all made sense.
I was reliving it all. Enoch’s kiss, and the push of his poison had become my
own. The night we were kidnapped played back in my mind, and my awareness
transported all of me into the physical state of the memory. That was the
mind-shift’s way of imprinting on me, its sick way of reminding me of who I
was.
The
blow to the head that had sent me crashing into the cold, wet mud; the pain
that echoed through me; my fingers clawing up the dark, muddy, river bank on
that fateful night of my seventeenth birthday; fighting consciousness out of
desperation to get to Troy’s sword as I watched helplessly from the wet, cold,
stuck-in-the-mud ground. Fireworks in the dark, windy night echoed and ebbed
out. The fight to the death between Enoch and Troy shook my insides once more,
as if it was happening all over again. The moment that altered my former
forever. Then, awakening with a cold, hard thrust of the canoe into my ribs,
hands bound, body bleeding. Troy’s sunrise smile from across the wooden vessel
as I came to; his warmth filling in around me as I sat on his lap while he
slipped the dagger from my boot. His fingers working delicately and swiftly,
sending my pulse racing as we fell face first into the ice-cold river,
attempting escape from Enoch and the Zulus. Spears rained down, piercing the
water, slicing between Troy and me. I couldn’t get to him, could not swim fast
enough, his blood clouding the water around me; the pure, rich, virginal color
of it violated my heart.
***
But,
he smiled. “I don’t need your thoughts, Ava, I can feel your intentions, I can
feel… you. We are the same now.”
I
narrowed my eyes, my flames slowly subsiding once again, heavy emotion
crippling my powers, fear, doubt. Get a
grip, Ava, I willed myself. He is
manipulating you, testing your boundaries, learning how to work you.
“Perhaps
I should thank you for killing me,” he said with tangible cruelty.
I
dangled from his grip as it tightened around my throat, feeling him holding on
to my life. I tried to numb myself against him, his touch, because him being
near me would always affect me in some way. He would always represent my fall.
He pulled my face to his, our lips almost touching. I drew him in with my
stare. I waited until his lips were so close, his smell repulsing me, our breaths
melting into one. I went in for the kill. Thankful for my petite body and
gymnastic abilities, I was able to raise my legs between the tiny gap of his
chest and mine, and kicked into his metal plate as hard as I ever imagined I
could, using all the confusion and anger he was inflicting upon me to propel
myself the other way.
I
screamed as his grip around my throat almost ripped it right out. But my
instinct was quick, and a shockwave exploded throughout my entire body,
temporarily stunning both him and me. A low buzz, and then he was at me again.
His golden chest plate crushed me into the wall, and for a moment I lost all
strength. I regained myself, stuck between the cold stone and Enoch’s
unrecognizable face. His body threatened to drive me right through the wall.
Once again, instinct was quick. My flame raged out alongside a huge,
electrical, shockwave – bigger, brighter and with more wrath than before. I had
to get away from him. He couldn’t know that he still had an effect on me, and I
couldn’t allow it; he was a threat to my entire being.
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About the authors:
Carlyle is an South African award winning author, with a flair for mixing genres and adding loads of drama to every story she creates. For now she is happy to take over the world and convert non Sci-fi believers.
Her goal as an author is to touch people’s lives, and help others love their differences and one another by delivering strong messages of faith, love and hope within every outrageous world she writes about.
“I love to swim, fight for the trees, and am a food lover who is driven by my passion for life. I dream that one day my stories will change the lives of countless teenagers and have them obsess over the world literacy can offer them instead of worrying about fitting in. Never sacrifice who you are, it’s in the dark times that the light comes to life.”
Carlyle used writing as a healing tool and that is why she started her very own writers support event – SAIR bookfestival.
“To be a helping hand for those who strive to become full times writers, editors, bloggers, readers and cover artists – it’s a crazy world out there you don’t have to go it alone!”
Would love to read your book and keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteThese books look amazing!
ReplyDeleteWould love to read your books!!
ReplyDeleteHow do I get my book?
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