Hi everyone! To celebrate the impending release of The Powers of Callaire, I'm releasing 500 words of the book per day. Come back to Words From Saruuh each day to read the first 2 chapters!
Third 500:
Every time my mind trips over it,
that word I refuse to think, it gets a little less painful. I’m worried I’m
slowly shutting down my emotions, but if that’s what helps me get Fray’s soul
back, I’m not going to complain. And she’s not really gone anyway, not
completely. She’s in an unchanging state, kept safe in my Earth Majick where
nothing can hurt her. What would happen
if you didn’t get her soul back, a reluctant voice asks. Would she stay youthful and unmoving until
the end of time?
I ignore it.
I
push to my feet, leaving her there, protected by Earth Majick and an ancient
oak tree.
“Thank you,” I say to Cornelia. At
least someone believes I’m doing the right thing. I glance from Minnie’s
crumpled face to Rowan’s guarded expression to Vic, scuffing his feet on the
floor, and know I’ll find no support there. Maybe they’re just worried for me,
maybe they just want to protect me, but don’t they know protecting me will only
ensure Fray dies for real?
As if facing an executioner, I turn
to Guy. His eyes are narrowed, his brown skin flushed with anger. “You’re not
going anywhere.”
That’s a death sentence to Fray. Why
can’t they see that? Or do they? Do they know keeping me here means Fray’s
permanent death, and they just don’t care? Have they weighed my life against
hers and found Fray lacking? A rumble builds deep in my chest, fury rousing the
Manticore. If they’re not careful, I might choose to let the beast in my blood
take over. If it saves Fray, I’ll abandon my human-like self altogether.
“Fine,” I spit. “Lock me up.”
“Yasmin?”
Cornelia lets me lean on her for support. “What did you do?”
“I
made her safe,” I reply in a flat voice.
I’ll find a way out. I’ll do whatever
it takes.
chapter two
Guy didn’t
exactly lock me up but he did lurk outside my bedroom all night; I could smell
his aftershave through the door. I sat folded up on my window sill, staring out
at the trees and shadows on the Academy grounds, missing my flat, missing Fray.
I sat there most of the night until finally, near dawn, with my eyes struggling
to stay open, I crawled into bed and slept fitfully.
Over a tense breakfast, with all the
Red squashed into the narrow kitchen, elbows jostling for room among the plates
and jars and cereal boxes on the table, Amity tells us she stole something from
Laverna’s house—from her mother. It’s a journal, battered and leather, and
written in a Numen language. Luckily, Guy can translate it. In a hopeful voice,
Am says it might hold some answers. Maybe the Rogues’ plan. Maybe when they’re
going to strike at us, how much time we have left. Something, at least.
I try very hard to care about the
journal—distantly, I know it’s important—but all I can think about is Fray,
forever in stasis.
Come back tomorrow for the next 500 words of The Powers of Callaire!!
Yasmin’s girlfriend is dead, but she will stop at nothing to bring Fray back. Even if that means going to the Otherland and making a bargain with the Ruler of All Souls. If Yasmin finds Pluto’s lost power, they’ll return Fray’s soul to her body.
Yasmin’s search takes her, and two of her friends, from Bucharest to France to Wales, and exposes a horrifying secret with Venus, Yasmin’s mother, at the heart of it. With a murderous, fiery god and the incarnation of death in her way, Yasmin will have to compromise her morals and harness the Legendary power in her veins. If she fails, Fray’s soul will be lost forever.
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