Tempest
C.J. Campbell
(The Veil Chronicles, #1)
Publication date: August 31st 2021
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
To unearth the truth, she must embrace the legend within.
For eighteen-year-old Lexi, freedom is a luxury. She’s spent her life evading capture for a genetic gift that feels more like a curse. Her bulletproof immunity and monstrous disfigurement is of great interest to a secret organization, but they aren’t the only ones. A cryptic tip alerts Lexi that something else hunts her–something darker.
Desperate to enjoy her life before it’s too late, Lexi leaves the protective cocoon her parents created for her and signs up for art classes at her local college. There she meets Conner, who is confined to a wheelchair, and they become friends who are willing to share each other’s secrets. But a chance encounter with Connor’s foster brother Killian changes everything.
Killian shares the same mysterious secret within his blood as Lexi. Their fateful meeting sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic events that exposes the terrifying truth–Lexi is a celestial queen of a bygone race. Connor is their last royal heir, and Killian is a half-breed abomination hated for his very existence. With Connor kidnapped by an ancient god determined to rid the world of the stain of humanity, Lexi and Killian find themselves under the protection of the secretive Order of Kings.
Lexi believes she’s been thrown into a world of myths and legends, but things are not as they seem. Lexi becomes convinced the Order is keeping dangerous secrets that threaten not just her but all of mankind.
A thrill of excitement runs up my
spine. With itching fingers, I reach for Sebastian’s smooth neck.
An awakening, feral instinct guides
me, with the greatest of ease, onto Sebastian’s back. The powerful water energy
courses between us, mingling with jittery excitement. Wildness surges through
my veins as my kelpie turns to face the open water. I inhale the wet air, and
my lungs burn with an all-consuming need. I need to be as free as the water
beneath me. I must be free of this restrictive skin.
I need to be free.
“Lexi.”
The glorious sound of crashing waves
and the water’s gurgling swirl drowns Killian’s warning.
I don’t listen.
I won’t listen.
Sebastian launches against the
rolling waves. I marvel at how the water crashes against us, how each pound is
like being shocked with paddles. Someone is calling for me, trying to pull me
back to land, back to restriction and dulled senses. I happily ignore them.
The kelpie launches into a strange
gait, swimming, no more ground beneath his feet. With the next wave, my comrade
releases a high-pitched keen and crashes into the sea foam.
We dive into the water, like a rock
shattering glass, and we separate. My fingers slip from Sebastian’s silken skin.
Thousands of tiny, shimmering bubbles rise between us. Their heavenly glow
chases the darkness from the murky water until it gleams, clear and unpolluted.
My eyes follow the source of the glow to my arm, where light bursts from my
veins. The bubbles are my flesh, consumed by my own light.
I gasp, but I have no voice, and
breathing water causes me no pain. I should be frightened, but I feel only
relief. Like I’ve been holding my breath for a long time, and now I can
breathe.
With one more churn of the waves
above my head, I close my fleshly eyes and let the current roll me away.
It’s like letting go of heavy
weights I didn’t realize I was carrying. One moment I am a solid thing with
limbs and skin holding me in, and the next there’s only my mind, or at least
the sensation of awareness. Instead of disappearing, as I thought I would, I
find I am the water, the very essence of it. I feel strong, unhindered. Neither
blind nor deaf. The earth grumbles below, echoing through me. I hear the air
above, how it tickles and dances over my surface. I hear the longing call of
the land, its distant voice the only thing enough to remind me of what I left
behind.
The whole expanse of water is my
vision, the dark depths and the wavering light of the shallows. I see the
animals hiding in the coral, seaweed, and rocks. I sense their cold blood and
how their lives are tied to the water’s energy. My energy.
For a time—uncountable, because I
don’t have need to measure it—I simply exist, stretching and filling up the
whole of the lough. Finding mouths of rivers that feed into it, and where it
joins the ocean. I could continue to follow the currents, travel farther, go
beyond just this little place, but as my essence touches the very bottom of the
lough and roams over the surface, I become aware of something new. Not earth,
or rock, or anything natural. It’s crystal. Strange crystal; not an element of
this world.
A wide basin of crystal stretches
for miles under the surface of the lough. Intrigue draws me deeper. I reach
into the gloom, my free form dancing over the jagged, crystalline basin. Like a
fogged mirror. I settle over its blinding surface, searching for a reflection, only
to catch a glimpse of a fish swimming on the other side.
This is no mirror. It’s a window to
another world.
My world? The matrix between us and
them?
A doorway to the Veiled Lands?
The waters beyond that crystal basin
sing to me like a siren call. I want to flee into that place, into that
powerful current. I test the surface, searching for a crack or chink in its
armor to slip through, but there is none.
The key. . . I need that
key.
Author Bio:
Clare is a successful and highly popular author of award winning Fanfiction, with thousands of online fans and over 2 million reads on her Lord of the Rings Fanfic epic. Clare has also won several writing awards within the Fantasy, Inspirational, and Short Story genres. Her story Refuge was a top prize winner and as a direct result published in Faith & Freedom anthology by EA books. She has recently been shortlisted for Writer of the Year 2019.
As well as writing, Clare is an experienced Occupational Therapist, with a passion for enabling people. She has contributed articles for online organizations aimed at highlighting disability as a positive influence in modern literature. Her love of storytelling, merged with her positive messages inspires her to create meaningful narratives that represent diversity, and promote unity.
You can learn more about Clare by visiting www.CJCampbellOfficial.com
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I like the unique cover. Sounds like a terrific YA read.
ReplyDeleteCool cover
ReplyDelete