(Originally posted 3.25.15)
The next book in Shades Below is officially underway! Here’s a peek, then off to the writing cave for me…
It was not accustomed to being summoned.
The night began like any other, not that it normally had much use for mundane notions of time. All nights bled together in the dark wasteland where it preferred to hunt. It was hot on some hapless creature’s trail when it first felt the pull.
Ignore.
A gust of unearthly wind carried the unmistakable scent of its prey. Fear was a potent stench; addictive, impossible to mistake. It lifted its nose and drank it in.
Another pull, stronger this time. It snarled. No one, not even The Lady, had ever attempted anything so blatant, so invasive. Invisible coils wrapped around its insides and tightened painfully. Confusion. This was a magic it did not recognize.
But then, no one in its long memory had ever tried to bind it before.
Another gust of wind. Another whiff of fear. It shook itself and continued on, tried to ignore the increasingly sharp bite of this new magic. Surely no one in their right mind could actually be trying to capture it. The very idea was so foreign it barely registered; a distant, amusing flicker on the far horizon of its mindscape.
But there it was again, not a tug this time but a yank. It dropped to its knees mid-stride with a yelp that echoed across the barren terrain. An unfamiliar voice filled its head.
You belong to me.
L.J.K. OLIVA 