Holiday Postscript (aka Snippet III)

Just got back into town late this afternoon after spending Thanksgiving at my folks’ place in Georgia. My cousin and her husband from Plano, Texas came into town with their two kids and my other cousin, her husband and two kids also crashed at the house. Add my wild man to the crew and you’ve got all kinds of madness.

The best part was that the kids basically took care of themselves the whole time, and when they needed ANYTHING, my parents were so psyched to have a house full of screaming kids again after all these years, that they handled everything, giving us overworked, sleep-deprived parents a nice break. Of course, we used the opportunity to ingest vast quantities of tequila and moonshine.

Oh yeah, that’s how we get down.

So now I’m back to reality and need to blog but am kind of wrapped up in my Book Two writing and if I’m being really honest here, am just really fucking tired. Which, of course, means I’m going to cheat and publish a snippet from Book Two.

Here you go:

Ava sat cross-legged in bed with her blade resting in her lap, watching every move Carter made as he prepared to leave. Good riddance, she thought to herself, amazed it took this long for them to reach this point of no return, relieved it finally happened.

“Don’t come back to this room,” Ava spoke to Carter’s back as he dressed, “ever again.”

He remained silent.

“And once you get settled in one of the other wings in this building or wherever it is you plan to live, you might want to think about getting back to your share of the leadership of this Academy. I cannot constantly be expected to handle everything.”

“You don’t handle everything, Ava,” he turned back to her and replied flatly.

“Oh, but I do, Carter,” she smiled as if they were the closest of lovers, “you know it as well as I. Your father implored us to get married because he knew he couldn’t entrust the family power to you alone, his weak-minded, easily-tempted, malicious, only son. And your dearly departed mother, that monster of a woman, always understood I was a necessity to the family well-being, for you do nothing properly and have absolutely no foresight. The bottom line is everyone knows who is leading this family and unless you start holding your own and doing as I see fit, you will lose the little authority you have left.

“So you take that information with you, love, wherever you are headed tonight and you think on it, long and hard. And you keep telling yourself that Maxwell botched New York if that makes it easier to sleep at night, but we both know that is hardly the truth. Your son has eclipsed you, Carter, in all ways as a leader of this family. I know it, you know it and The Sanctum knows it. I can either act on that and publicly strip you of everything or I can allow you to continue your figurehead ways. The decision is all yours.”