Roxanne Rhoads's Blog, page 111
November 5, 2021
A Bewitching Friday
INTERVIEW WITH SUSANNA ALLEN (That Magic Mischief) #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/H60f50GGQ5B
When the shadow invasion begins at Roxie’s high school, she’ll fight for her life and the lives of her family and friends when she discovers she’s the Shadow Slayer, the one human who can save Earth from the shadow onslaught. #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/WRxZ50GGQ44
Demon Shadow The Bishops’ Sacrifice Book One by Timothy Patrick Means - Horror #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/nnpG50GGQ0q
Need by Madison Wentworth - Paranormal Erotic Romance - Sometimes you crave what’s good for you. Sometimes he craves you too. #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/Nq3c50GGPY8
Honour’s Rest by Judith Crow [Tour with Excerpt] #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/bekR50GFWst
She’s a mediocre witch…and an even worse shifter.
Shifting Summer: Mane Shift Book 2 by Laura Bickle
https://amzn.to/2YqYHm3
#NewRelease #OnSale #UrbanFantasy #Shifter #ShifterFantasy #Witches #Shifters #LauraBickle #NewBook #AmReading #WhatToRead
Music Playlist- Demon Shadow by Timothy Patrick Means #Horror
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INTERVIEW - CONTEMPORARY PARANORMAL - THAT MAGIC MISCHIEF by Susanna Allen
https://thebookjunkiereadspromos.blog...
November 4, 2021
A Bewitching Thursday
INTERVIEW - CONTEMPORARY PARANORMAL - THAT MAGIC MISCHIEF by Susanna Allen
https://thebookjunkiereadspromos.blog...
Music Playlist- Demon Shadow by Timothy Patrick Means #Horror http://roxannerhoads.booklikes.com/po...
Shadow Slayer Shadow Series Book Two by Laura A.H. Elliott - YA Paranormal Romance - Shadows Will Do Anything To Become Human #bewitchingbooktorus http://ow.ly/ZahV50GFWuV
Spotlight & #Giveaway ~ Need by Madison Wentworth ~ Paranormal Erotic Romance #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/UQuN50GFWu5
Honour’s Rest by Judith Crow [Tour with Excerpt] #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/bekR50GFWst
She’s a mediocre witch…and an even worse shifter.
Shifting Summer: Mane Shift Book 2 by Laura Bickle
https://amzn.to/2YqYHm3
#NewRelease #OnSale #UrbanFantasy #Shifter #ShifterFantasy #Witches #Shifters #LauraBickle #NewBook #AmReading #WhatToRead
Shifting Summer
Shifting Summer: Mane Shift Book 2 by Laura Bickle
https://amzn.to/2YqYHm3
#NewRelease #OnSale #UrbanFantasy #Shifter #ShifterFantasy #Witches #Shifters #LauraBickle #NewBook #AmReading #WhatToRead
November 3, 2021
Guest Blog- Conspiracy of Cats by B C Harris
Conspiracy of Cats made it all the way out of my head and into the pages of the book, because of a global pandemic. I felt isolated, separated from friends and family. Writing became my escape. Now the story has become a book, and the writer must become an author.
It isn’t enough to just write the story. Being an author is the part where I get to project myself out into the book world. As an author, I need to stand up and be counted. Here I am. This is me. This is what I do and how I do it. Harder than it sounds because, until my book was published, I didn’t ever think about how I did any of it. I just did it. I sat alone at my desk with my music for company, while I disappeared for hours at a time into a world I created.
The world of Conspiracy of Cats is a warm and sunny place. Strange things happen. Some very bad things happen too. But, overall, the story takes the reader on a welcome journey.
Sometimes the trip goes back in time, showing how certain characters got to where they are in the now. Mostly the journey moves forward, away from autumnal Edinburgh and on into a hot Tanzania with its exotic landscape and wonderful people. There are wild animals, and predators on the loose. A lioness is stalking, and magic is crucial to the outcome. Whether it’s a storm to obscure what’s really going on, or the white house becoming sanctuary for a dead man who must wait many years until finally getting his revenge, magic is a character in its own right.
Covid may be receding now, and our opportunities to travel returning, but maybe some of you aren’t ready for that step? I know I’m not. I’m not prepared yet to leave home for the next destination. I’ve been vaccinated, but I still have reservations. For now I’m content not simply to escape into my own stories, but those written by others too.
Books are the greatest escape of all, a way to fly on the winged imaginations of others. Whether it’s an adventure into another dimension, or a trip into the historical past, books can take you anywhere you want to be. You can stay home and stay safe at the same time as you travel with Jos, far from her comfort zone, into the Africa that awaits. Look deep into the flames of the laibon’s fire, sip chai tea with Maasai warriors and bear witness to Peter Sinclair’s ultimate revenge.All you have to do is follow my Conspiracy of Cats to their ultimate conclusion.
Conspiracy of CatsB C Harris
Genre: Contemporary fiction, paranormal, murder mysteryPublisher: Olympia Publishers, LondonDate of Publication: 26th August 2021ISBN: 978-1-80074-032-7ASIN: B09CGHZ7K7Number of pages: 325Word Count: 123,121Cover Artist: Olympia Publishers, London
Tagline: A Beautiful House, A Horrible Death, A Brilliant Revenge
Book Description:
CONSPIRACY OF CATS… a supernatural murder mystery.
An apprehensive Jos Ferguson travels from Edinburgh to Northern Tanzania to visit the house her Uncle Peter built before he died. But Peter isn’t as dead as he should be… he was murdered, and he wants his niece to help him exact revenge upon his killer. With a little Maasai magic and a conspiracy of cats, Jos sets out to do exactly that.
A beautiful house. A horrible death. A brilliant revenge.
Who knew death could be so lively?
Olympia Publishers Amazon.uk Amazon
Excerpt
Looking back, it was as if Peter had known that he was going to die.
It was as if all of them had known, because the Maasai came prepared for their ritual even though their little brother died only a few hours before they arrived. It was the largest group of Maasai Beola had ever encountered at the white house. At least fifty men, most of them warriors, all carrying their weapons and their shields. Their chests and faces and arms painted as if they were going into battle. She watched them from the master bedroom window, just as she’d watched the police arrive, having gone back up to finish changing the bed so it would be clean and ready when Jude returned. They arrived on foot just before sunset, and it would have taken all day to walk from their village on the western side of Mount Kilimanjaro all the way to the white house.
Some of the warriors carried armfuls of wood, and immediately began building a large fire in the middle of the lawn. The elders, including their bearded laibon, sat down on the porch steps to rest and, when Beola went out to meet them, they asked only for water. When she offered food they politely refused. When Beola moved to go back inside to fetch the water, a young warrior stopped her. ‘We must leave the white house in peace, little sister,’ he told her, and then he and several of his fellow warriors guided her towards the lodge where they fetched enough water for all. When that was done, the young warrior told her, ‘Word has been sent into the park so your husband and your son will come home soon. When they do, you must be ready to leave.’
‘But why?’
‘The laibon wishes to cleanse the white house of sorrow.’
Beola knew better than to argue with the wishes of a laibon, and so she nodded, resigned.
‘How long must we stay away?’
‘Moon die and come back again, man die and stay away. Come back with the new moon, sister.’
Back inside the lodge Beola began to pack, without any clear idea of where her family would go or who they would stay with. By then it was full dark, and the fire was burning so brightly she could see its orange glow above the garage blocking her direct view. Kissi and Ben arrived while she was still packing, in shock at both the death of their friend and the large gathering on the white house lawn. The evening breeze was becoming a wind by then, and the stars were obscured by gathering clouds. The warriors had begun to sing a sorrowful sounding song, their beautiful voices competing with the mounting voice of the wind.
By the time the Nyerere’s were readying to leave, a storm was in full flow.
The perimeter of trees bent and swayed in the wind that had initially made their leaves whisper. That wind was howling and shrilling by then, a tempest that thrashed and whipped the leaves and branches. Storm clouds had gathered so close, they were piled on top of one another, grumbling, rumbling, crashing with thunder directly overhead. Lightening split the night over and over. Up on the roof garden, a solitary figure braved the onslaught. The old laibon was yelling into the night, his spells snatched away by the wind that seemed, in turns, to want to blow him away and push him down. Rain pelted down upon him, it blinded his eyes, dripped from his beard, soaked his shuka and chilled his bones. He fought against it, at the same time as he embraced it, arms stretched wide and high. Calling out, over and over, to the spirit of his friend.
As the Nyerere’s were loading up their jeep, another vehicle arrived, lights sweeping across the scene as it circled the lawn. Beola thought that it must be Jude, but it was Henk de Vries, pulling up in his flatbed truck. She assumed he’d heard the news and had come to pay his respects. She ran towards him, but half a dozen warriors barred Beola’s way. They told her to go, to never speak of this night to anyone. Beola struggled against them, and called out to Henk in some distress, but either the wind stole her voice, or the Dutchman chose to ignore her. Kissi was next to her by then and had to impel his wife bodily into the back of his Land Rover as Ben sat quietly weeping in the front. He then got in himself and set off for his father’s home in Arusha, having called ahead to stay there were sanitation issues at their home, so they needed a place to say for a while. As they were moving around the lawn towards the drive, Beola watched Henk lower the tail gate of his truck and saw two warriors lift and carry something towards the fire. Meat for the funeral feast, he told her much later.
When Kissi’s Land Rover reached the foot of the hill, he turned north towards the main road that would take them to Arusha. They left the storm behind almost immediately. When they reached the top of the escarpment, he stopped and got out. Ben and Beola joined him. Together they stood atop the ridge, watching a small storm rage over the white house.
About the Author:
B C Harris is a Scot who, at the time of writing, had just finished renovating a farmhouse in France. A labour of love that began from first sight back in 2016. No sooner had the final length of flooring been laid and the last paintbrush dried, than disaster struck in the form of pandemic. France went into a strict lockdown and, with time to do more than simply daydream about writing books, a new project began to take shape.
Writing began as an escape from the fear and isolation that was soon affecting us all, and quickly flourished to become ‘Conspiracy of Cats'. The global pandemic seems to be receding now, but the passion for writing has taken root. Find out more about B C Harris online.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BCHarris64
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBCHarris
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beverleycharrisauthor/
Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuiVm2B-_bo
Second interview https://anchor.fm/donna-morfett/episodes/BC-Harris-e16hvnk
Facebook book group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2890431834618695
Goodreads Author page https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21921104.B_C_Harris
Article About Author: https://chrisrobertsmbe.co.uk/scottish-authors-first-novel-could-be-the-next-netflix-film-or-series/
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A Bewitching Wednesday
That Magic Mischief by Susanna Allen Virtual Book Tour #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/gNL650GF1ps
Shadow Slayer by Laura A.H. Elliott #YAPNR
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Interview with Laura Elliott
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Sometimes you crave what’s good for you. Sometimes he craves you too.
Need by Madison Wentworth #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/iqsS50GF1lo
Honour’s Rest by Judith Crow #YAMagicalRealism #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/AwgM50GF1j2
Spotlight - The Demon Shadow by Timothy Patrick Means #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/NUeC50GF1ht
Author Interview- Shadow Slayer by Laura A.H. Elliott #YAPNR #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/ytvm50GCbmV
In the Kitchen with Susanna Allen - Irish Soda Bread #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/u2Z250GCbpL
Flash Fiction and Book Tour Stop with Timothy Patrick Means #Horror #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/ycHW50GCbhf
November 2, 2021
A Bewitching Tuesday
Book Spotlight ~ Demon Shadow: The Bishops’ Sacrifice, Book One by Timothy Patrick Means @TimothyMeans17 ~ #Horror #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/b5zM50GE63g
When the shadow invasion begins at Roxie’s high school, she’ll fight for her life and the lives of her family and friends when she discovers she’s the Shadow Slayer, the one human who can save Earth from the shadow onslaught. #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/fMR850GE6ah
Honour’s Rest The Rite Way Book 1 by Judith Crow - Young Adult Magical Realism #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/c3ri50GE64E
Need by Madison Wentworth [Tour with Excerpt] #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/kZWk50GE66O
Author Interview- Shadow Slayer by Laura A.H. Elliott #YAPNR #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/ytvm50GCbmV
In the Kitchen with Susanna Allen - Irish Soda Bread #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/u2Z250GCbpL
Flash Fiction and Book Tour Stop with Timothy Patrick Means #Horror #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/ycHW50GCbhf
That Magic Mischief by Susanna Allen #PNR
That Magic Mischief Susanna Allen
Genre: Paranormal contemporary romancePublisher: Ally Press Date of Publication: October 01, 2021ISBN Print: 978-1-953290-12-0 ISBN eBook: 978-1-953290-13-7 ASIN: B09G97RGZFNumber of pages: 326 pagesWord Count: 82,000Cover Artist: Tamara DeStefano
Tagline: A heartbroken amateur witch is in over her head after casting a spell that actually works—will the handsome Irish artist she fancies come to her rescue?
Book Description:
What was the point of being a witch if Annabelle Walsh couldn’t manage a spell to fix her broken heart? As a dedicated dabbler in all things esoteric, she figured she could speed up her healing process when she’s dumped out of the blue by her boyfriend... but nothing’s working.
An idle wander into an unfamiliar new age shop adds the bit of magic in her life that she’d been looking for: an interfering, mischievous Pooka called Callie who’s determined to turn Annabelle’s life around— mostly by turning it upside down.
Suddenly, Annabelle’s too busy to brood, and her writing career begins to take off; in fact, it’s during a brainstorming session for an off-off-off-off Broadway theatre production that she meets tall, dark, and handsome Jamie Flynn, an Irishman in New York who seems to be keen at first sight, if not in love quite yet. As Annabelle gets her life back on track, she starts to see the difference between a real life, a real career, and a real man… and all it took was a little magic mischief.
Amazon BN AmazonUK Kobo
Excerpt:
Annabelle lit candles and sat down on the floor. She tried deep breathing for a few seconds, and feeling slightly calmer, took her tarot deck out of its wooden box and shuffled the cards. She let her breath flow in and out; it lulled her, cleared her head, calmed her down, and the smell of the burning wax soothed her, as she tried to formulate a mature, non-attached-type question. Not: Will Wilson come back to me, please, please?
Her breathing hitched. Yeah, definitely not that. “Okay. The issue is… Wilson. Um. Do we have a future together?”
She turned over a card. The Knight of Pentacles, reversed.
“Damn it.” Reversed, this Knight meant carelessness, a standstill in affairs. “Okay, so if things are at a standstill, that means they can move forward again, right?” She turned another card.
Three of Swords. Sorrow due to loss. Well, duh, Annabelle thought, and then winced, as if she’d said it out loud. As if the cards could hear.
She turned over the next card. The Wheel of Fortune. Not always a good sign, though, as it could mean an unexpected loss rather than a gain, even when in the upright position as it was now. “I don’t know what any of this means,” Annabelle mumbled, knowing full well what it meant. This was all about the now, and she didn’t like the now.
At moments like these, Annabelle found it was usually a good thing to stop pulling cards.
Queen of Cups. She shivered. That was her court card. Good natured, intuitive, a loving female figure, one whose imagination often outweighed her good sense.
Strength. The beautiful woman grasped the lion by the jaws, symbolizing the power of the human spirit to overcome any obstacle. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The Sun. “Summertime? Two months from now? I’ll be better in two months?”
Annabelle gathered up the reading and returned the deck to its box.
She continued to sit. She tried to go back to the deep breathing but got bored. She thought about how she’d never had much luck reading Wilson’s cards. Maybe it never worked because it was almost always post-coital, the only time he was ever mellow enough to entertain the idea. She could never make sense of his configurations, none of the images seemed to relate to the others, she’d pull card after card and make a spread that was meaningless, confused. He would lose interest and patience. She would feel as though she’d failed. Ugh.
She’d like to blame it all on him, but she supposed her own muddled thinking got in the way as well; always hoping he was asking about the future of their relationship, whether she would marry him, whether she would like an emerald-cut diamond in a platinum setting, as opposed to a three carat marquis-cut in white gold.
Someday, maybe, she’d find that remotely amusing.
But not today. Rising, she left the candles burning and got some incense going as well.
Lavender: soothing, healing. She wanted healing. She wanted that fistful of pain out of her chest. She wanted all her lessons learned in a six-week correspondence course, she wanted a whole, strong heart, she wanted Wilson back, she wanted all the sadness to leak out of her pores, she wanted her life back. Herself back. Now.
About the Author:
Susanna is a graduate of Pratt Institute with a BFA in Communication Design and counts The Village Voice, New York Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly as past design experiences. Born in New Jersey, she moved to Ireland for twelve months—in 1998. She is the author of the Shapeshifters of the Beau Monde series, published by Sourcebooks: A Wolf in Duke’s Clothing, an Amazon Editor’s Best Book of the Month, is available now; A Most Unusual Duke debuts in December 2021.
Writing as Susan Conley, she is the author of Drama Queen and The Fidelity Project, both published by Headline UK; Many Brave Fools: A Story of Addiction, Dysfunction, Codependency…and Horses is available from Trafalgar Square Books. Susanna is living her life by the three Rs—reading, writing, and horseback riding—and can generally be found on her sofa with her e-reader, gazing out a window and thinking about made-up people, or cantering around in circles. She loves every minute of it.
https://www.susannaallenwriter.com
https://twitter.com/susannaawriter
https://www.instagram.com/susannaawriter/ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20487105.Susanna_Allen
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November 1, 2021
A Bewitching Monday
In the Kitchen with Susanna Allen - Irish Soda Bread #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/u2Z250GCbpL
Flash Fiction and Book Tour Stop with Timothy Patrick Means #Horror #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/ycHW50GCbhf
Author Interview- Urbantasm Book Three The Darkest Road by Connor Coyne #YA #MagicalRealism #TeenNoir
#bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/QA4V50GCbtN
INTERVIEW - FANTASY - UNTAMED ISLES: The Path Awakens (Untamed Isles, #1) by Aaron Hodges #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/qGXf50GCbru
Author Interview- Shadow Slayer by Laura A.H. Elliott #YAPNR #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/ytvm50GCbmV
Author Interview- Dead Man Walking by Zach Adams #Horror #authorInterview #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/3P8B50GCbeY
Smoke and Mirrors: A Vampire Romance by Elise Nelson #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/yphI50GCbog
Need by Madison Wentworth - Book Tour + Giveaway
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Book Spotlight & #Giveaway ~ Honour’s Rest: The Rite Way, Book 1 by Judith Crow @jayzed_kay ~ Young Adult Magical Realism
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Check Out BEHIND THE VEIL by E. J. Dawson #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/h7Vt50GCbbK
Untamed Isles: The Path Awakens by Aaron Hodges
Untamed Isles: The Path AwakensUntamed Isles Book OneAaron Hodges
Genre: Epic FantasyPublisher: Aaron HodgesDate of Publication: 26th OctoberISBN: 978-1-99-101803-8Number of pages: 400Word Count: 105,000Cover Artist: Nikko Marie
Book Description:
On a still and peaceful night, the world shook, and light split the sky asunder.The seas parted, an island rose.
And beneath the earth, an ancient power stirred.
Zachary Sicario thought he’d finally turned his back on the underworld. For ten years he was content with his cottage in the highlands of Riogachd. But a master thief never truly retires. When Zach is struck down by a wasting illness, he is left with two options: accept his fate, or return to his criminal past in search of a cure.It isn’t a difficult decision.
With rumours of a mysterious island circulating the kingdom, Zach goes in search of old contacts. They speak of strange lights and disappearing ships, of treasure and riches promised for the first to reach its distant shores. Zach has little interest in trinkets—but there’s another tale, one that whispers of the power to change a man’s fate.
With a secret expedition departing in the coming days, Zach decides to roll the dice. But he’s not the only one interested in magic. His competition are warriors and thieves, noblemen and assassins, all in their prime. And Zach is far from the man he once was.
Can the master thief beat the odds one last time?
Excerpt:
Crouched atop the walls of the palace grounds, Zachary Sicario watched as the lanterns below flickered into life. His keen eyes tracked the path of the young servant as she scurried through the manicured gardens, passing from one lamp to the next with hardly a pause for breath. Bit by bit, the night was pressed back by the shimmering lights, until the palace formed a bubble of luminescence against the oppressive gloom of Leith under nightfall.
“Palace” might be overstating things a little, Zachary thought to himself as the servant retired, her task complete for the evening.
In typical aristocratic fashion, the noble owners had done their best to replica the grandeur of the royal palace back in Londinium. But Zach had visited those grounds himself on a number of occasions, albeit in a less than official capacity. He knew a cheap knockoff when he saw one.
The fountains might fill these gardens with the same joyful whispers as in Londinium, but he could see where the paint had begun to flake from the “marble” statues that adorned their waters. Neither did he see the same careless displays of wealth typical of the capital. No golden inlays around the windows and doors, no bejeweled eyes on the sculptures for passing thieves to filch. Even the gardens lacked the same carefully manicured touch as those found at the royal palace.
But then, that wasn’t so surprising. Zach had tried his hand at gardening since retiring; he knew well the difficulty of finding good help this far north. The dark spots infecting several of the rosebushes should have been trimmed days ago.
Breathing in the sweet scent of the flowers, Zach stifled a sigh. He’d enjoyed the quiet of his garden, the homely feel of the cottage in the highlands, far from Leith and its dark underbelly. He had thought this world far behind him. But alas, fate had other plans.
“Mansion” is probably more appropriate, Zach thought at last, returning to the task at hand.
In addition to the palpable absence of real wealth, the grounds of the mansion lacked one other key feature. Security. Zach had spent the past few days staking out the noble’s property. There were just two guards patrolling the outer gardens—and on this cold winter night, both had already retreated to the burning hearth in the guard house. Tonight would be like stealing gold from, well, a noble.
Still, years had passed since Zach’s last job, and he lingered a while longer in the shadows, watching for something he might have missed. Even with these rich aristocratic sorts, one had to take care.
Especially with these sorts, he reminded himself. Not even Zach’s reputation would survive being caught by the likes of Roy Whitfield.
Truth be told, he’d been surprised to find the man’s name on his list, given so many of the others were less than exemplary citizens. But then, the aristocracy always had considered themselves above the rules. It made sense that at least one of their kind would be interested in the Anomaly.
Three months had passed since the storm had wreaked havoc throughout the island kingdom of Riogachd. Most of the fishing fleet had been lost, either destroyed at sea or sunk in harbours across the nation, inundated by the waves that had swept the coast. Not even those citizens further inland had been safe, as storm surges broke through seawalls and rivers flooded lowland villages.
The storm of the century, people had called it. Yet even as the battered communities of Riogachd struggled to rebuild, the King’s Royal Navy had been deployed not to the clean-up, but to a blockade deep in the Northern Sea. It hadn’t been long before the rumours began to circulate.
Whispers had spread about strange lights and disappearing ships, though of course the King’s Council refused to even acknowledge the Anomaly.
Which, of course, meant half the populace was convinced the Council were covering up a secret treasure to be had out in the Northern Sea. No one could quite decide on the nature of that treasure—some claimed it must be a sucken galley carrying gold from the bank of Londinium, others that the princess’s ship had gone missing on the raging seas.
As the days turned to weeks, the rumours had grown in size, and now people spoke of portals to another world, of islands of gold risen from the depths, of magic and sorcery, of the power to fulfil a man’s greatest desires.
The last had really caught Zach’s attention.
Eventually, some had tried to slip past the naval blockade. Amateurs for the most part, those with access to a skiff or steamer that had survived the storm. Some had been caught and after a public trial, hanged. The rest had never been seen again.
Now three months had passed, and the amateurs had long since given up trying to uncover the secrets of the Anomaly.
It was time for the professionals to give it a try.
On the wall of the mansion, Zach drew in a calming breath. A cloud drifted across the half-moon, darkening the sky but doing little to dim the lanternlight in the grounds below. But it finally stirred Zachary into action. He made one last check of the knives hidden on his person. Maybe they weren’t as effective as one of the modern revolvers carried by the upper echelons of society, but they were useful in a pinch. And quiet.
Finally satisfied he was ready, Zach stepped from the wall and dropped to the ground with a soft thump. He crossed the lawns quickly, slipping from shadow to shadow, keeping as far from the lanterns as he could. Only once did he stop, when a sudden sound came from overhead. A flash of white feathers was all he glimpsed of the owl as it dove; a moment later it rose on languid wings, the dark body of a rat clutched in its talons.
Frozen in the shadow of a plum tree, Zachary held his breath, waiting to see whether the creature had drawn the attention of the guards. Seconds slipped by and he found his mind drifting back to those first whispers of the Anomaly. He’d always had a nose for a good mystery, and he’d needed the distraction, something to divert his mind from his…other problems.
Even in retirement, Zachary was more resourceful than most of those clinging to the underbelly of Leith. It hadn’t been hard to find a soldier from the royal navy. Most of those in the blockade around the Anomaly spent their off-duty days in Leith. It had been even easier to convince the man to join him at the local tavern. Several rounds of mead later, he’d had the truth straight from the horse’s mouth.
It wasn’t just strange lights and fog that had appeared out in the Northern Sea. An island had apparently risen from the depths, though not of gold. Even so, its appearance had caused much consternation amongst those back in Londinium, for it spoke of great power, one outside the Council’s control.
But when the armada had tried to investigate further, a great mist had risen around the island, and those ships that had drifted too close had been swallowed up, vanishing without a trace.
The soldier had seen the lights himself, great flashes of white and green and blue in the darkness, but his ship had thankfully escaped unscathed by whatever phenomenon surrounded the place.
The entire island was a mystery wrapped in impossibility.
Just the sort of false hope a dying man could cling to with his last days.
About the Author:Aaron Hodges was born in 1989 in the small town of Whakatane, New Zealand. He studied for five years at the University of Auckland, completing a Bachelors of Science in Biology and Geography, and a Masters of Environmental Engineering. After working as an environmental consultant for two years, he grew tired of office work and decided to quit his job in 2014 and see the world. One year later, he published his first novel - Stormwielder - while in Guatemala. Since then, he has honed his skills while travelling through parts of SE Asia, India, North and South America, Turkey and Europe, and now has over a dozen works to his name. Today, his adventures continue...
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October 29, 2021
Trick or Treat for Free Books with Bewitching Book Tours #FreeBooks #TrickOrTreatForBooks
Trick or Treat for Free Books with Bewitching Book Tours
Download fabulous reads from Bewitching Authors October 30 & 31
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