Who likes sneak peeks?
I do! I do!
So as today’s part of the week-long sale, I thought I’d give you a little glimpse at Crow, the wily thief of my book, As the Crow Flies.
CHAPTER 15
Ahead of me, the passage split into two in spite of Kem’s assurances that it did no such thing for its entire miserable length. The putrescent wind went one way, and I went the other. I ran until I was sucking furiously at the air to fill my lungs and a stitch jabbed at my side with every breath. Then I had to figure out how to slow the headlong rush of Horse without getting plowed over in the process.
“Whoa!” I gasped. “Whoa!”
She was not much inclined to cooperate. I, unfortunately, couldn’t run as far as she could. To make matters worse, the witchlight I gripped tightly in my hand flared crazily. I shouted in startled dismay. Magic pulled, the voices rustled. Horse jerked me forward and dashed around a corner. White gleamed ahead, and my poor pounding heart achieved new and painful levels of speed; at any moment it would make an emergency exit through my nose. “Stop!” I screamed at Horse, terrified of whatever new torture the Ancestors had devised.
The cloth over Horse’s eyes blinded her to the new danger we hurtled into headlong, and I am not certain vision would have done anything to change her commitment to escaping the terrors besetting her.
“Stopstopstooooop!” I screeched as we burst into the all-encompassing whiteness. Beneath my feet the cave floor dipped suddenly. Fresh, cold air hit my face, right along with the knowledge that three more horses and two people were about to crash into us from behind. My screaming did nothing to keep us from falling. Horse went down first, dragging me with her, and the ground went completely out from under me.
For a terrifying slice of eternity, I hung suspended in space. A heartbeat later—probably ten, given the speed at which it thundered along—I met the earth again as my entire right side crashed into it. Stunned, I dangled with a one-handed death grip on Horse’s reins while she grunted and shuddered above me. Her heaving breaths echoed mine, but bigger and louder. I flailed around until I had both hands on the reins. Burning from fingertips to shoulders, but somewhat safer now, I endeavored to look around.
Blinking madly, eyes streaming, I realized I was face to face with rock, that the brilliant white mercilessly assaulting me was sky, and then, lastly, the ground was actually a good hundred feet below me, mostly hidden beneath a blur of greenery I could only assume was trees. My mind, working far more quickly than one might expect, supplied me with the awareness that the rest of the group would strike Horse any second, sending her over the edge, and that would be the end of the two of us.
Talk about “out on a ledge”!
Author Moira Katson says, “I heartily recommend this book. […] While it’s a holiday and you’re incredibly stressed and just trying to get to New Years…why not do so with a book you can read?” (Read the rest of her excellent review on her website.)
Grab a copy for yourself or as a gift—and enjoy Crow’s snarky humor and misadventures!
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| As the Crow Flies on Amazon.com |
