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!
Last 500:
“How’s Priscilla?” I ask instead.
Cornelia shakes her head, her gaze
fixed on the green book. I can’t see the title from here but the way she’s
fixated on it, it could hold the answers to defeating Numina. “She’s mostly sleeping.
She woke up once to eat and drink something, and she recognised me but—”
At the strangled quality of her
voice, I slide from the seat and put my arms around her. I expect her to push
me away or for fingernails to dig into my sides but she only holds onto me
tightly. I wait for her to continue at her own pace.
“She asked for Fray instead of me,”
she says through gritted teeth.
“Because you were there,” I say
gently. “If you hadn’t been there, she’d have asked for you.”
“You don’t know that.”
I pause, thinking my words through.
“If I woke up after going through what Priscilla did, I’d ask for Guy and
Mavers. I’d ask for my brothers.”
She nods against my shoulder, the
movement clipped. “I’d ask for Priscilla.”
“See? She’d have asked for you, I
know, if you weren’t there.”
“Maybe you’re right.” She pulls away
and savagely wipes her face to obliterate any evidence of tears.
When she
lowers her hands, she’s composed, even if her eyes are red and her cheeks
flushed. She takes a deep breath, then surprises me by saying, “Tell me what
you need, Yasmin. Whatever I can do to help you get to the Otherland, ask me. I
don’t care what the others say—they’re too worried about you to see clearly.
You need to get to Pluto and you need to make that bargain; I see that even if
they don’t.” She touches my arm fleetingly. “Priscilla needs me to stay here
with her, and there’s absolutely no way I’m leaving her when she’s this sick,
but you can ask me for anything else. You know I’ll do it.”
My eyes prick with tears. I almost hug
her again but I know she won’t allow it now she’s in control of her emotions.
Instead I nod, throat tight, and say, “I love you, Cornelia. I’m glad you’re my
friend.”
Cornelia traces the grain in the
nearest bookshelf, murmurs, “I love you too.”
I smile. “I have a sort-of-plan to
get there. But there’s no way I can get anywhere with Guy and Fearne watching
the Ward. I think my brother will know when I pass through—he’s expecting me to
leave. He’ll be ready to stop me.”
“Yes,” Cornelia agrees, her mouth pursed.
“I bet he will.”
“I might be able to get through at
night, when Fearne’s asleep. She won’t be watching the Ward as closely as Guy,
not for people leaving, just people
trying to get in. I hope. I’m kind of pinning my one shot on that.”
She nods. “That seems safe to
assume.”
“But Guy’s never gonna let me
through, not even when he’s sleeping, and he hardly ever goes to bed lately.”
Cornelia rubs the bridge of her nose.
“You want me to distract him.”
“I need you to distract him. The only problem is I don’t know how.”
She drops her hand, smirks. “I have
an idea. I’ll steal his precious journal.”
“He doesn’t let it out of his sight,
though.”
Cornelia pats my shoulder. “Don’t
worry about that. I’m a skilled pickpocket. Just tell me when you plan to leave
and I’ll make sure he’s not paying attention to the Ward.”
I really hope you enjoyed this The Powers of Callaire excerpt!! The book comes out TOMORROW, and you can get the first book free right now!
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.
