Mythical Books: the last thing she expects - Elementals: The Prophecy of Shadows by Michelle Madow

“Fighting legendary creatures isn’t on the syllabus.”
My world had gone from normal to magical in only a few days. Everything I’d once believed to be true had been turned upside down, and even though it was crazy and possibly dangerous, I loved every second of it.

Description:

Release Date: January 26th, 2016

Filled with magic, thrilling adventure, and sweet romance, Elementals is the first in a new series that fans of Percy Jackson and The Secret Circle will love!

When Nicole Cassidy moves from sunny Georgia to gloomy New England, the last thing she expects is to learn that her homeroom is a cover for a secret coven of witches. Even more surprisingly … she’s apparently a witch herself. Despite doubts about her newfound abilities, Nicole is welcomed into this ancient circle of witches and is bedazzled by their powers—and, to her dismay, by Blake—the school’s notorious bad-boy.

Girls who get close to Blake wind up hurt. His girlfriend Danielle will do anything to keep them away, even if she must resort to using dark magic. But the chemistry between Blake and Nicole is undeniable, and despite wanting to protect Nicole from Danielle’s wrath, he finds it impossible to keep his distance.

When the Olympian Comet shoots through the sky for the first time in three thousand years, Nicole, Blake, Danielle, and two others in their homeroom are gifted with mysterious powers. But the comet has another effect—it opens the portal to the prison world that has contained the Titans for centuries. After an ancient monster escapes and attacks Nicole and Blake, it’s up to them and the others to follow the clues from a cryptic prophecy so that they can save their town … and possibly the world.

EXCERPT

Everyone stared at me, and I looked to the front of the room, where a tall, lanky man in a tweed suit stood next to a blackboard covered with the morning announcements. His gray hair shined under the light, and his wrinkled skin and warm smile reminded me more of a grandfather than a teacher.

He cleared his throat and rolled a piece of chalk in his palm. “You must be Nicole Cassidy,” he said.

“Yeah.” I nodded and looked around at the other students. There were about thirty of them, and there seemed to be an invisible line going down the middle of the room, dividing them in half. The students near the door wore jeans and sweatshirts, but the ones closer to the wall looked like they were dressed for a fashion show instead of school.

“It’s nice to meet you Nicole.” The teacher sounded sincere, like he was meeting a new friend instead of a student. “Welcome to our homeroom. I’m Mr. Faulkner, but please call me Darius.” He turned to the chalkboard, lifted his hand, and waved it from one side to the other. “You probably weren’t expecting everything to look so normal, but we have to be careful. As I’m sure you know, we can’t risk letting anyone else know what goes on in here.”

Then the board shimmered—like sunlight glimmering off the ocean—and the morning announcements changed into different letters right in front of my eyes.

***

“There’s energy everywhere.” Chris moved his hands in a giant arc above his head to demonstrate. “Humans know that energy exists—they’ve harnessed it for electronics. The difference between us and humans is that we have the power to tap into energy and use it ourselves, and humans don’t.” He smiled at me, as if I was supposed to understand what he meant. “Make sense?”

“Not really,” I said. “Sorry.”

“It’s easier if you relate it to something familiar,” he said, speaking faster. “What happens to the handle of a metal spoon when you leave it in boiling water?”

“It gets hot?” I said it as a question. This was stuff people learned in fifth grade science—not high school homeroom.

“And what happens when it’s plastic?”

“It doesn’t get hot,” I said slowly. “It stays room temperature.”

“Exactly.” He grinned at me like I’d just solved an astrophysics mathematical equation. “Humans are like plastic. Even if they’re immersed in energy, they can’t conduct it. Witches are like metal. We have the ability to absorb energy and control it as we want.”

***

“There’s a reason we’re required to take Greek mythology.” Blake scooted closer to me, as if about to tell me a secret, and I leaned forward in anticipation. “Did you know that we—meaning everyone in our homeroom—are descended from the Greek gods?”

I arched an eyebrow. “Like Zeus and all of them living in a castle on the clouds?” I asked.

“Exactly.” He smirked. “Except that they’re referred to as the Olympians, and they call their ‘castle in the clouds’ Mount Olympus.”

“So you’re saying that we’re gods?”

“We’re not gods.” He smiled and shook his head. “But we have ‘diluted god blood’ in us. It’s what gives us our powers.”

***

“I heard that you and your friends don’t like humans very much,” I began, watching Blake in the hope that the question wasn’t too personal. “Is that true?”

He kept focused on the road, his jaw muscles tight. “It’s not that we don’t like them,” he said simply. “But we are more powerful than humans. Is it so bad to see them as weak?”

“It’s not their fault that they don’t have powers,” I said. “We’re not any more deserving than they are. We didn’t do anything special to be like this. It’s just the way we were born.”

“It’s different when you’ve grown up knowing about what you can do,” he said. “Humans are weak. We’re powerful. Think of it like … natural selection.”

I looked out the window, not wanting to hear any more. Because it just reminded me that Blake only liked me because of my powers. He wouldn’t have noticed me at all if I were normal.

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About the author:

Michelle Madow grew up in Baltimore, graduated Rollins College in Orlando, and now lives in Boca Raton, Florida. She wrote her first book in her junior year of college, and has been writing novels since. Some of her favorite things are: reading, pizza, traveling, shopping, time travel, Broadway musicals, and spending time with friends and family. Michelle has toured across America to promote her books and to encourage high school students to embrace reading and writing. Someday, she hopes to travel the world for a year on a cruise ship.