Free Content- Chapter One

Read the first chapter of Memory's Wake for free- Chapter One I'm falling, she thought. Rushing air tore at her like claws and her stomach churned. She knew only darkness and the horrible, hateful wind. She jolted into consciousness as if waking from a nightmare, one so real, so intense, it left her soul shaken. All she could remember from her dream was the noise; a furious, bellowing rumble, like the call of a hungry dragon from a dark and twisted fairytale. It turned her insides as much as the sensation of falling. Now awake, she couldn't understand why she could still hear it, why she still felt like she plummeted into hell. Some other sound teased her, unidentifiable, lost in the wind. "What's happening? Is someone calling me? Where am I?" Pain rampaged through her and the questions fell away. Her scream twisted into a whimper. A voice reached her. Persistent, hysterical, all static and unclear sounds. She called out, tearing her throat raw with effort, trying to reach through the gusting void to whatever had spoken. "Can't hear. Please help, it hurts!" The talking stopped. The wailing wind and painful rumbling continued. Her insides rattled as if her ribcage had been hollowed out and filled with marbles. She thought she might throw up. The feeling of hands grabbing her forced out a harsh scream. Then, like slamming a door on a windy day, the tearing air stopped and the world became solid. Her skin still tingled right to her fingertips but the pain had gone, replaced by burning in her chest. Panic crawled up her back, tugging at her with icy fingers. Stop. Look. Feel, she ordered herself, attempting slow breaths. Her eyes stung as they opened. Dark hair hung around her face, curtaining her vision. She lay on the ground, face down. Had she fallen? Her body hurt all over, so maybe she had. Old blackened leaves spread in front of her eyes and the smell of dirt and rot added to her lingering nausea. Sharp twigs poked through her jeans. She spat soil from her mouth. That other voice spoke again. "By the fae, what has happened? Can you hear me now?" A girl's voice, young, like her own. A strange accent made it curiously elegant and musical. The tremor of fear in it only made it more so. Fighting the weakness in her body, she nodded to the voice and managed to roll over. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked out into a twilit forest of wild briars and giant trees. Beside her, another girl crouched on the ground. Plump but strikingly pretty, with skin and hair so pale it was almost white against the shadowed woods. The long hair tumbled all around the stranger, making her look like a beautiful, scared ghost. Their breathing matched each other's; fast, labored, scared out of their minds. An intense frown of thought and calculation marred Ghost-girl's face, the look of a mind weighing options,...