Excerpt from Essence

With my book 50 unedited pages away from finally being completed, I decided to share an excerpt from the book. This section happens near the end of the book. I hope you enjoy this teaser! 


Chrys couldn’t help being pulled toward the light. It was so beautiful, so alluring. It didn’t feel wrong to her. In fact, it felt like a part of her. A part of the earth.

Chrys took a deep, steadying breath, and plunged her hand toward the little orb. She closed her hand around it and was surprised that it tingled. She expected it’d feel hot, cold, or maybed even airy. But, it was soft and made her hand feel like it had fallen asleep.

Chrys cupped it between her hands and parted them very slightly. The light shone out brightly, but the little orb didn’t seem to try to escape. When Chrys was little, they use to catch frogs, and when they would try to peek at them, they would always try to push through the hole. But, this wasn’t like that.

It nestled into her palms, and started to vibrate. Chrys let out a gasp of surprise and tried to drop it like a hot coal, but her hands wouldn’t pull apart. She pulled and jumped and swung her arms around, but they wouldn’t move.

The orb vibrated faster and Chrys’ heart sped up. The light shone even brighter, almost blinding Chrys. Just as she thought she was going to pass out, it stopped. There was no more light, no more vibration, and no more glued hands.

When Chrys peered at her hands, a tiny gray mark was on the outside edge of her right palm. It was about an inch wide and looked like a three-leafed clover without a stem. Chrys rubbed her hand on her dress but it didn’t go away. She scraped at it with her fingernail, but it only irritated her skin.

The orb had marked her.