Bit of an Update

So I just wanted to touch base with you guys and basically put a bunch of tiny things into one post so you know what's going on! First, there's still time to enter my 100 follower giveaway. It's a great opportunity to win a TON of amazing books. The writers that have books featured in that giveaway are some of the most amazing people I've ever had the opportunity of getting to know!

Next, if you haven't heard, Amaretto Flame is currently only 99 cents! Woot! So, if you haven't picked it up, you can do that at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords. If you have already gotten it, you can really do amazing things for the book by simply telling your friends about it, posting links to the facebook page, the goodreads page, or threatening to fill peoples' socks with ice cream if they don't read it. ;-)

The sequel to Amaretto Flame (Shadow Wishes) will be out sometime in the fall. I'm currently working on that, and it's so exciting. Things are going to be a little darker, a little sexier, and a LOT more complicated. One of my favorite things about Shadow Wishes is that it takes place back in Eagleton, meaning you guys get to know our coven (Ivanna, Everett, Max, Perry, Sylvia & Charlotte) a lot better!

Amaretto Flame will likely be receiving a new book cover soon! SO EXCITING. I met an artist because she drew a scene from Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series and fell in LOVE with her work. She's helping me to create a cover that speaks a little bit more to the audience Amaretto Flame was written for. I cannot wait to show you guys the cover. However, it's likely that the paperback will be released with the original cover first, and then a second edition will be released with the new cover. So, the original cover won't be around for much longer.

And finally - if I owe you an email, a guest post, winner prizes, or anything else...thank you for being patient. I'm getting caught up after being a little under the weather, so I promise I'll get to you. Thank you so much for your amazing support! <3

May Blog Tour Wrap-Up

The blog tour is over now =( but it was SO much fun. I thank the book bloggers who took time out of their busy schedules to accommodate the coven and me from the very bottom of my heart. These ladies and gentlemen are amazing, y'all...and an indie writer's best friend! Hug a book blogger today. That said, I'm going to be visiting the blogs again to check on comments.

Those who comment on EVERY tour stop are automatically entered to win a big ending prize, and you'll have until Tuesday, May 17th to get your comments in. (Note: For the blogs with more than one appearance/post, it's only necessary to have commented on one.) Below are the links again:

Tattooed Books - Guest Post from Sylvia
YA Bound - Interview with Everett
Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm - Jackson's 'Life Playlist'
Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm - Interview with Olivia
I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read - Review of Amaretto Flame
Jagged Edge - Guest Post from Jenny
The Diary of a Bookworm: Review of Amaretto Flame
K Books - Review of Amaretto Flame
K Books - Jackson's Mother's Day Guest Post
Wicked Awesome Books - Review of Amaretto Flame
Wicked Awesome Books - Author Interview
Aine's Realm - Author Guest Post
Izzie Vandero - Interview with Jackson
A Life Bound by Books - Sammie Spencer Interviews Everett
Pagan Culture - Fiction Journeying
I Heart YA Books - Review of Amaretto Flame

For those of you who commented on the posts, thank you so much! For those who were dedicated enough to visit EVERY stop and comment - you rock my world! For the individual giveaways, the blog owners will be choosing the winners, and for the big giveaway, I'll be choosing the winner. So, please stay tuned. You are my very favorite Wise Ones! <3

Winner of the Vampire Academy Giveaway!

Thank you all so much for entering the giveaway - it was a lot of fun, and great to meet other fans of VA! Some of you were SUPER dedicated and tweeted every single day, earning extra points. That said, *drumroll please* the winner is IZZIE VANDERO!

Congrats! I'm sending you an e-mail! I hope to do many more contests like this in the future, so I hope you'll all stay tuned!

Blog Tour Update

This is exciting! I am having a lot of fun with the blog tour already, and it's only the 2nd day! Remember - if you comment on every stop, you'll be entered to win the bigger prize at the end. Also, most stops have giveaways for that day, too. So far, we've visited:

Tattooed Books
YA Bound

There's still time to go back and leave a comment if you haven't. Thank you so much to all the readers and writers who have supported me and who are following along! I truly appreciate it.

That said, I have some super exciting projects in the works, including the second book in the Eagleton Coven series. I have also considered creating a small project with some back stories of some members of the coven, like Everett, Max and possibly Jackson. If there's anything you want to see, please feel free to let me know!

Deleted Scene: Excerpt from Amaretto Flame First Draft

If you've read Amaretto Flame (or even if you haven't), then you'll get a kick out of this. The excerpt below is from the very first draft of Amaretto Flame, before a LOT of things were changed, cut, edited, slapped in the face, chopped into little pieces and forgotten about. I chose this one to show you because I believe it is probably the most angst-filled, tortured, brooding, hokey, back-and-forth passage I could find in the whole book and I couldn't help but laugh at it a little. At the same time, I thought it was kind of hot and I'm not afraid to admit that I, as his creator, love Jackson Vance. Enjoy!

********

“I don’t want to stop it.  I want you Jackson,” I whispered back, still kissing him.  His lips found mine again, and then my legs wrapped around his waist.  I was very conscious that I wasn’t wearing a shirt, and my own skin pressed into his skin, sending tingling down the entire length of me.  He tore his lips away from mine again, but his arms stayed around my waist, holding me to him.

“Stop,” he said, breathlessly.

I pulled back to look at him, and his face reflected the tortured feeling that was inside of me. 

“What?” I breathed, not understanding.  Wasn’t this what he had wanted?

“I can’t stop myself.  You have to stop,” he said, closing his eyes and pressing his lips to my collarbone.  I understood.  He thought I cared about him so he was stopping it now.

“No, it’s alright,” I said, and he looked up at me. I kissed him on the lips and the chin again.  The stubble there was rough and thrilling against the softness of my lips.

“I don’t love you,” I said, letting him know it was okay.  His entire body stiffened and he looked at me.  At the same moment, I was filled with horror because I realized that I had lied to him.  This was the other thing that I was terrified of…It didn’t matter, I decided.  It would be my own punishment, as long as I didn’t have to stop touching him now.

“You don’t.”  It was said like a statement rather than a question, but I answered him anyway. 

“No, so this is okay.  We’ll pretend it never even happened,” I added, moving to kiss him again.  He let me kiss him but he wasn’t kissing me back.  After a few more moments of trying, I looked at him again.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, letting my hands fall from his hair.  Then my back was against the cool, stony wall of his house.  He pressed me there, gently.  I felt completely wrong, having lied to him.  Now that the intoxication of the moment was wearing off, I knew that I had been wrong.  This wasn’t the way to fix me.  Suddenly, tears were in my eyes again.  I moved my legs and let myself slide to the ground, where I stood, looking at him, the wet jeans sticking to the skin of my legs.

It was only three weeks until Midsummer anyway.  I had nearly made it through my banishment.  I would go home and forget about all of this, but I couldn’t lie.  I wanted to tell him the truth.

“Okay, I lied to you again, Jackson.  I do love you and I’m sorry about that, but it’s the truth.  I don’t even know how it happened, I…” I paused, flicking my eyes to his face, and then continued.  “I know you’re used to that by now—with Paula and all of the other girls that must love you, but I just thought you should know,” I said.  A furious, confused tear fell from my lashes as I looked up at my tormentor.

“I’m going home anyway, so it doesn’t matter,” I said.  Apparently he was finding pleasure in my pain.  I nearly passed out when he smiled at me.

            Furious, I pushed past him and grabbed my shirt from the seat of the four-wheeler.  Slinging my arms into it, I buttoned it quickly, refusing to look at him. The red tint was starting to invade my eyes and for a moment, I thought about letting it out, but then I pushed it back.  Sure, right this moment I was enraged at him, but still, I did love him.  I loved him so much that it ached.

             I went to his jeep and retrieved my things, and when I started walking through the yard toward the highway, he ran up and stood in front of me.

            “Where are you going?” he asked, smiling.

            I hated that he could find something to smile about.  Another heart he’d captured?  Did he get enjoyment from this?

            “I’m going home,” I hissed, furiously.

            “Why?” he asked.

            “Because you’re cruel and I hate you,” I said. Damnit Olivia.  Another lie.

            “But you just said you loved me,” he said.

            I stopped walking, and he stopped walking backwards.  I was tired.  I felt as if all of my energy had been drained.

            “What do you want from me, Jackson?” I asked, near tears again.

            He approached me and I stayed, ready for whatever form of torture he wanted me to endure next.  He cradled my face in his hands and forced me to look into his eyes.

            “Sometimes you’re such a stupid girl,” he said, grinning at me.

            “Yeah?” I asked squaring my shoulders.  “Well you’re an a…” He pressed his lips against mine, cutting off my words.  When I yanked back from him, he kept his hold on my face.

            “What I want from you, Olivia, is for you to realize that I am completely, madly, head over heels in love with you,” he said, gazing into my eyes.  My knees buckled and for a moment I thought I would fall, but he scooped me up in his arms, cradling me.

            “No,” I said, struggling to get down.  Confusion flashed across his beautiful face before he put me down. 

            “What’s the matter?” he asked, gazing into my face as if he could find the answer to his question there.

            “I can’t…you can’t.  You don’t even know what love is,” I said stupidly, trying to find a way to stop the tidal wave of emotion that was threatening to knock me over and drown me.  It was fine for me to punish myself worse by loving him, but this couldn’t happen…

            “I know how I feel about you Olivia.  I’ve waited a long time to feel this way.  I’ve spent so long wondering what was wrong with me…why I couldn’t love anyone…” His voice was more gravelly than silky now, his face tortured.

            “Shhhh,” I said, putting my hands over my ears.  I couldn’t hear these words from his mouth.  I was leaving.  I was going home.  I was different than he was and I couldn’t live the rest of my life with these words playing over and over in my mind.  The painful tugging at my chest was much more pronounced now.  It was more like a slow ripping.

            He gazed at me, several emotions flickering over his face now.  I didn’t know what to say to him to make it better.  This was all my fault.  I should have never told him the truth.  I should have let him believe the lie but I never imagined that he would love me back.  Gently, he pulled my hands away from my ears.

            “Olivia, what is it?” His voice pleaded with me and it twisted my heart, making my chest ache. 

            “I’m different than you,” I said.  “Very different.  We don’t fit.  This can’t happen,” I started walking toward the highway again.

            “Olivia, I like different,” he said, walking with me.  “Different doesn’t matter when you love someone,” he added.

            “I don’t believe in love,” I said.  Another lie.  I had to make him get away from me.  I had to have time to think.  Somehow, I had to unravel the threads in my mind and make sense of the things that were happening to me.  I couldn’t bear to ask him to risk himself… 

            “Yes you do,” he said. “You told me you loved me.”

            “I lied,” I said.  Going for a record today, Olivia?  Shut up.

            His arm shot out and stopped me.  I turned to face him, trying to conjure the worst words I could think of to make him go.  I just had to think and it was impossible to think when his eyes were burning into me that way.

            “What?” he hissed.  “Do you feel anything for me or not?  Which is it?  I can’t keep up with you.”

            “I can’t talk to you right now.  I have to go,” I said, my face twisting with the pain I felt inside.

            He gazed at me, waiting for something.  I could see that I was hurting him.  I hated myself just then.  I was always messing things up…I could never just do the right thing.  Why couldn’t there just be one simple answer instead of everything being so complicated?

            “We’re friends, remember?” I whispered.

            “Olivia, friends do not kiss like we did back there.  Friends don’t feel so drawn to each other…not the way I do to you.  I can’t stand being away from you,” he said.

            “You’re just mad because I won’t sleep with you,” I hissed, trying to push a button somewhere that would make him let me go.

            He chuckled, bitterly.  “Yeah.  That’s what it is, Olivia.  I could have made love to you minutes ago, but I stopped myself.”

            “Well you should have just done it so you could have thrown me away like all of the other girls,” I spit.

            “Don’t be an idiot,” he said.  “I never felt a thing for any of them.  If I didn’t love you, I would have taken you just then without a thought for anything but my own pleasure.”  His words sounded sarcastic, but his face was pained.  It was the very picture of pain and confusion.

            “Well it’s a good thing you didn’t, because that’s exactly what I had planned for you,” I answered stupidly, still trying to press buttons.

            “You were going to make love to me and that’s it?  Don’t joke with me Olivia.  I know you better than that.  You’re so much better than me.  You could never have done a thing like that.  If I’d had any idea how ignorant and selfish I was being, I wouldn’t have done it in the past.  Now I see how I must have been hurting them…” His words trailed off and he looked so distressed, I thought I’d give up right then and there and jump into his arms. 

He glanced down at the ground, trying to gather his thoughts and when he looked back up at me, my heart shattered.

“Olivia, love has never been real to me…not this kind of love.  It never existed before you.  I had no idea how it felt to miss someone or how it would feel to have your entire existence resting in the palm of someone else’s hand,” he said, his eyes flaming.  I wanted to go to him, to comfort him and to protect what he was giving me.  Instead, I drew on my training and tried in vain to push the pain to the back of my mind.

            I smiled a fake, blasphemous smile at him.  “Well, I guess you’ve learned your lesson then.  My work here is done,” I said.  I turned and started walking again, praying he wouldn’t follow.  I hurt everywhere.  The blood in my veins hurt.  I kept walking until I reached the highway and started back the way he’d driven me.

            When I turned, I could see him peripherally; standing in the same spot he’d been in when I whirled away from him.  He wasn’t moving.  He was standing very still, the sunlight glinting off of his copper hair.  Keeping my face calm when all I wanted to do was scream or cry was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. 

Vampire Academy Prize Pack Contest and Giveaway - More Than 40 Chances to Win!

Hi all you dhampirs and moroi! Love Vampire Academy? ME TOO! Here's your chance to win a huge Vampire Academy prize pack, and learn about another paranormal romance series at the same time! Before we get down to business, check out what the winner will get...

• 1 "Little Dhampir" Pin from the Arcane Vault

• 1 "First Lesson: Don't Hesitate" Pin from the Arcane Vault 

• 1 Red Leather Vampire Academy Bookmark from the Arcane Vault

• 5 Vampire Academy Scrabble Tile Necklace Charms (Team Lissa, Team Christian, Team Adrian, Team Dimitri, and Team Rose) 

• 1 Copy of Blood Lines Pre-Ordered; To Be Shipped to Your Address Upon Publication (August 2011)

Note: To enter the contest, you MUST be a Google Connect Follower of this blog (gotta see your pic over to the right). It just takes a second to follow! :-)

How to Enter:

Download paranormal romance Eagleton Coven: Amaretto Flame in your preferred format from Smashwords for FREE. Just shoot me an email to get the coupon code! This coupon will expire May 5. This earns you ONE entry into the contest. Keep reading to learn how to get MUCHO extra entries and increase your chances of winning. (Note: you can get the plain text, HTML, or Java versions if it's easier for you. You'll find the list on the bottom of the Amaretto Flame page.)

EXTRA ENTRIES:

For TEN Extra Entries in the Contest:  Send me an e-mail (eagletoncoven@gmail.com) with the answers to the following questions (after reading the book):

1. What color is Jackson's jeep?
2. Who loves blue eyeshadow?
3. What was the name of the scary ride at the carnival?
4. What are Olivia's two nicknames?
5. Name 3 drinks featured in the book.

For TEN Extra Entries in the Contest: Post a review of Eagleton Coven: Amaretto Flame on your blog or here on Amazon.com. When you add up your points in the comments below, leave a link to the review.

For FIVE Extra Entries in the Contest: Tweet about this contest from your Twitter account using hashtag #ECAF. Leave the link to this as well. You can tweet about the contest once a day for ONE extra entry per day. You'll need to leave another comment every time you tweet it, though.

For FIVE Extra Entries in the Contest: "Like" Eagleton Coven's Facebook page and 'share' it with your Facebook friends.

For THREE Extra Entries in the Contest: Follow me on Twitter. Leave your Twitter name in the comment box when you add up your points.

There you have it!!! Once you've taken the steps above, add up your points for the steps you completed and leave the total in a comment below. ((There's more than 40 chances to win!)) Make sure to leave any important links in that same comment box. Also make sure you leave your e-mail address in the comments if I can't view it on your Google Friend Connect profile. I'll need this to contact the winner!

One winner will be chosen randomly on May 6 at 8PM EST. The contest is open to everyone. Good luck!

Eagleton Coven: Amaretto Flame Book Trailer

Check out the book trailer for Amaretto Flame!

Eagleton Coven: Amaretto Flame Chapter Excerpt

Great news - Amaretto Flame (the first in the Eagleton Coven series) has just been published and is available via Amazon for Kindle.

I will have it available in other formats soon, including regular ebooks if you're interested in reading that way. In any case, I'm super excited to hear what everyone thinks, and I am including the first chapter here. Unfortunately, the first chapter does NOT include one of the best parts of the book, and that would be Jackson Vance. ;-)

So, if you like the first chapter and you want more, you can get it for Kindle here. Without further ado...

Chapter 1

I was angry. I was so angry that I felt as though my body could burst open with that anger. Red, pulsating streaks of fury rushed through my limbs, building the pressure until I thought something inside of me might snap.

This is how I felt as I ran…it’s why I was running. I had knocked over a chair in my haste to get outside, to escape the confines of the small room I had been sitting in. The daylight and fresh air didn’t help, and so I kept running over the grounds of Eagleton. My feet pounded over emerald grass as I sought some solitude; some place where the concerned eyes of my family couldn’t reach me. I ignored their gazes as I passed, even as some deep part of me registered that only my sister, Sylvia, kept her eyes on the ground instead of looking at me questioningly.

I could hear his footsteps behind me as I rounded the pond, and it only made me angrier. My coven brother, Everett—who was also my best friend—couldn’t leave me alone in this desperate moment, even though that’s all I wanted him to do. My lungs burned, though my muscles were accustomed to working even harder than this. I turned my head slightly as I pounded forward, getting a view of Everett in my peripheral vision.

“Go back!” I yelled. I didn’t want him to see me like this.

“No,” he shouted back. “I’m not leaving you.”

His refusal only made me run faster, and as I reached the forest that he and I both knew as well as our own selves, I stopped. The anger had built in me too long, and I knew it actively sought its escape now. With the furious red haze in my vision, I opened my mouth, looking forward to letting all that anger go. My hands shot out to either side, and with the last moment of sane thinking, I made sure Everett was behind me. Then, I screamed.

A shrieking, high-pitched wail shot its way out of my mouth. I watched the forest change with clarity that I usually didn’t possess. The glistening green leaves and carpet of grass before me turned black, as if they’d met the hot end of a blow torch. The air shimmered and shifted and I felt for a moment like I was looking through vapors. Somewhere in front of me, a tiny sapling snapped under the force of my anger, and a shower of dead leaves fell to the ground. It was like the whole earth was moving for a few seconds, and then the scream quieted and died.

I surveyed the damage with sorrow for only a moment, and then the tears came. This was my power. Olivia Landry, future high-priestess of Eagleton Coven, destroyer of life. Maybe that wasn’t a fair assessment. You see, I was born with an extraordinary power, one that was unheard of. With a scream, I could obliterate anything and anyone that stood before me. I had used this power before on people, and those weren’t even people. They were the deadly Venator, hunters that wanted to track down all of my kind and kill them, or turn them into slaves in mills. That had been different. There had been a kind of triumph when that had happened.

This, I thought as I looked over the blackened trees and scorched grass, was just unfair destruction. Then, with a bitter note, I reminded myself that I’d been messing up a lot lately. Why stop now? Why not just scream until every tree of the forest was black and lifeless?

Everett was there a moment later, his arms going around me protectively as he murmured comforting words. He was shaken. I could see it in his face as I turned to look at him. He’d never seen me use my power before, and that, combined with what we had just been told, left him reeling. But he didn’t stop comforting me.

“It’s okay, Olivia. It’s all out now. You’re okay,” he said.

“I’m not okay,” I argued.

His sky-blue eyes took me in for a long moment, and his hands ran down long ribbons of my dark hair. “Yes, you’re okay.”

I didn’t reply. He wasn’t the one being forced to leave his home—the only home he’d ever known. Still, it was my fault. I had broken the rule. Not him; me. I deserved this. With a deep breath, I collapsed onto the forest floor, Everett shifting his body so that he could sit with me, his arms still trying to comfort me.

Today had started well. Everett and I had been chosen for a special mission. He’d been chosen for his unique ability and I had been chosen because I needed the experience. Ivanna, our coven mother and high-priestess, had prepared us in the usual way. She’d briefed us on the situation and what needed to happen. With the wave of her hand, she’d disguised our faces, making us appear years older than we truly were.

Just a few hours away from Eagleton—our home—a boy was being held in a group facility; an orphanage. The boy was one of us, a Wise One, born with the ability to wield the ancient magick. Not long ago, his entire family had been killed in a raging fire at their home. Joshua, the boy, had been the only survivor. At just fourteen years old, he’d been turned over to the state for care. It was our mission to get him, or at least to offer him the chance to come with us; to learn how to properly control the magick.

But the boy wasn’t cooperative. It didn’t surprise me. Each one of my coven brothers and sisters had suffered through something similar before coming to Eagleton. In what seemed a cruel cosmic joke, most Wise Ones were born to ordinary human parents. Imagine walking into the room one day to find your young child moving things through the air with his or her mind, or creating a storm in the middle of your living room. I glanced at Everett. Or, what if your child could speak directly into your mind with his mind, excitedly telling you about a bug he’d found on the playground? Imagine that his voice took over all of your thoughts, making it impossible for you to concentrate on anything else.

It’s not odd that parents of Wise Ones often thought that their children were evil; incarnates of some black demon that went against everything they’d been taught in chapels and churches. That’s why these Wise children often ended up abandoned or victims of their own parents’ attempts to free the world of their evil. But Joshua’s fate had been different, maybe even worse than the rest of ours.

He was a fire-wielder, and in the grips of a nightmare, he’d inadvertently used his powers. The house had gone up in flames quickly, destroying his family and his life. The firemen and police thought it was a miracle that the boy hadn’t been hurt. They’d rescued him from the charred and burning home, thinking that he had a guardian angel watching over him. What they didn’t know was that he had been immune to the flames as he slept, because he’d created them.

It was absolutely understandable that he’d be bitter, angry…that he’d hate the world. He’d tried to ignore Everett and me from the moment the lady had led us out to the courtyard to speak to him. We had tried gently persuading him that we could help, using the disguise Ivanna had given us—hopeful foster parents. Nothing we said got through to him, until Everett had told him that we were like him, that we understood what was going on with him.

He’d snapped his head toward us quickly, those sky-blue eyes burning through me.

“If you’re anything like me, then I hate you almost as much as I hate myself,” he’d said, his voice dripping with disgust. After a few more attempts to talk to him, he shut down completely. His finger jutted out toward the ground. I’d panicked, knowing what his plan was. I shook my head no, even as a small flame leapt up from the grass. The other children were in the courtyard too, some of them jumping rope while others dribbled basketballs or played hopscotch.

Knowing he wasn’t going to come with us, Everett and I prepared to leave…to get out of there before we angered him and pushed him to do something we would all regret. But something wouldn’t let me leave just at that moment. Maybe it was the look in the boy’s eyes; the lonely, desolate look. I recognized myself in him, and my mind went back over the time I’d spent in a foster home before being brought to Eagleton. I’d remembered just how lonely it had been; how I thought I’d never be able to pull myself out of the dark misery. In a last minute, desperate attempt to do something for the boy, I’d leaned over and given him the numbers of the phone back in Eagleton.

It was untraceable. Surely it wouldn’t matter too much, and I was confident that the boy would call when he came to terms with what was happening to him. We wouldn’t have to lose him, and we could still keep him safe from them…the hunters. So I’d said it twice, reciting the numbers slowly so he would memorize them. That’s where I’d gone wrong. It was absolutely forbidden to reveal anything about Eagleton to anyone who didn’t live here.

Everett and I had gone back to Ivanna after escaping the group home without the boy. I knew a punishment was coming, but I wasn’t prepared for what she would say. She focused her dark, piercing eyes on me in a way she never had before. Ivanna was beautiful, with black hair as shiny as glass, and high cheekbones. She was a tall woman, but even without her height, she had a presence that made her seem imposing and large. We’d met with her in her cottage behind the main house, Everett insisting on going with me although I told him to stay in his room.

Nervously, I told her the entire story as she perched on the edge of her desk in the small library. She was quiet as I described the boy’s demeanor, and when I talked about him using his power on the patchy grass outside the orphanage, she stayed calm. There was a long moment of silence after that, and Everett made no move to speak up about what I had done.

“There’s one more thing,” I’d said. “I gave the boy our phone number.”
Again, I was met with Ivanna's piercing gaze. Her face was unreadable, the muscles under the skin relaxed. I thought she might not get angry after all, but then suddenly, her expression changed. It was as if she just remembered that it was one of the most important rules in Eagleton not to give out any contact information. Her brows drew together and she moved to sit at the desk, clasping her hands together.

“I’ve never been this disappointed in you, Olivia.” Her voice was as chilling as her eyes. “You have always been ruled by your emotions, but I expected better from you in this situation. What if the boy had been a plant for the Venator? What then? I don’t have to remind you what would happen if the hunters found our location…what would happen to every single one of us.”

I wished she would scream in rage rather than focus her icy quiet wrath on me, but the demeanor with which she delivered the words didn’t cut as deeply as the words themselves. I’d trained for years to fight the Venator. I’d seen the trophies of their kills; I’d heard horror stories about the hidden locations full of Wise Ones and humans that they’d enslaved. The thought of the Venator coming anywhere near my family sent an arch of terror through my bones.

“Ivanna,” I said, “it was just a number. It was an untraceable number. You can’t think that I’d ever willingly endanger any of you.” Did I have to say this to her? She of all people should know that I’d walk out into a crowd of Venator if it would save my family.”

“But you have endangered us,” she argued. “When you break a coven rule, you endanger the coven. That’s why those rules are in place. I could toss you right out for this.”

An odd feeling crept over me as she said those words. It was as if the words weren’t matching up with her external display of anger; she should be screaming and shouting, with her eyes flashing. If her face showed a lack of anger, Everett’s showed an overload of it.

“If you toss her out of the coven, I’ll be right behind her,” he said loyally, his hands gripping the arms of the chair as if he were prepared to jump up at any moment and follow through on his threat. While he spoke calmly—because he would never dream of raising his voice at a woman—his jaw was clenched and the air around the three of us was practically crackling.

“Peace, Everett,” Ivanna said, holding up a hand toward him. Her eyes remained on me. “Do you see the kind of loyalty you’ve placed in danger?” A sharp pang of guilt flamed up in my stomach, and I felt the sting of threatening tears. I was too prideful to let them show as Ivanna spoke again.

“You must be made to realize the magnitude of what you’ve done, Olivia.” She heaved a long sigh, as if the old thing parents said was really true; as if this would hurt her more than it hurt me. “You’ll be leaving the coven tomorrow.”

It was like the world went black for a moment, and my whole body was numb. It was like I wasn’t really sitting here listening to what she was saying, and briefly, I thought I might wake up and realize this was all a dream. Everett stiffened in the chair beside me, and as my mind reeled, Ivanna clarified things.

“You’ll be staying in the house in Staves until Midsummer. You can prepare anything you want to take with you and I’ll provide the rest. I’ll need you back here in a few days for a meeting, but otherwise, you’ll live as a normal human until the solstice.”

“Ivanna,” Everett said tensely. “We need her here.” Without looking up from the top of her desk, Ivanna nodded.

“You’re absolutely right. We do need her here. Perhaps this lesson will teach her just how badly we do.” Her words had a certain finality to them, and quickly, my disbelief turned to rage. I’d given the boy a number. That’s it. She was acting like I’d handed each of my family members over to the Venator, one by one. The pressure built in my head until I could finally feel my limbs again, and that’s when I’d made my escape from her cottage.

I hadn’t stayed long on the edge of the forest with Everett. I wanted to be alone; to wallow in the heat and anger inside of myself. By the next morning, it had simmered and boiled so long that it blocked out the self-pity, which was a small relief. I packed my clothes carefully and slowly, trying to delay the final moments I guess, because there are only so many ways you can fold jeans and t-shirts. When I was just about done, Everett knocked on the door to my bedroom. His pale blond hair was cropped short, but it looked as if he’d been running his hands through it all morning. He helped me carry my bags downstairs, through the massive main house, and out front to where a car was waiting.

It was as if my family had shown up for a funeral. Charlotte and Perry, the eldest coven members, stood closest to the door as I exited. Perry was our coven brother, but also Ivanna’s real brother, and although he was a giant, burly man, his dark eyes were exact replicas of Ivanna’s. Charlotte smiled weakly at me, and smoothed her strawberry-blond hair, gray strands here and there shining in the sunlight.

I noticed that Max was holding Sylvia’s hand, and I willed her not to become emotional. She was by far the most sensitive and outspoken one of our group, along with being the youngest. Max was five years older than me, with dark eyes that sparkled and shaggy dark hair. The tattoos that covered his chest, back and arms made him look more like the singer in a heavy metal band than a Wise One and computer genius. Sylvia was usually all sunshine, with glowing mocha skin and caramel eyes, but today, she kept her eyes on the concrete and her face was long.

I gave them all a quick smile. I couldn’t do more than that, because my anger kept threatening to turn sad at the thought of leaving them. As for Everett, I could barely look at him. Without pondering how I’d survive the time away from him, I paused long enough to squeeze his hand and then I walked to the car. Ivanna was standing near the passenger-side door as I placed the bag I was carrying into the trunk with the ones Everett had already deposited.

To my relief, Charlotte walked around and got into the driver’s seat. I gave Ivanna a quick look, and then side-stepped her and got into the car. If she was waiting for me to kiss her goodbye, she’d be waiting a long time. I could sense her disappointment as the car pulled away from the main house, but I decided to focus on other things…like how I was supposed to behave like a human. Surely Ivanna didn’t expect me to actually communicate much with humans?

A thread of fear shot through me. To be honest, I was terrified of them. There had only been one point in my life when I’d lived with them and communicated with them every day, and that simply hadn’t worked out. Since leaving the foster home, there had been very few humans I interacted with. I wondered if I could blend in with them. As I watched the miles fly by, I imagined all sorts of scenarios involving humans. I imagined me talking with them, telling them who I was and where I came from.

“Oh, you didn’t know there’s a battle going on between good witches and bad ones? Well, there is. You should watch out, too, because if the bad ones get you, you’re toast. What’s that you say? I’m completely bonkers?”

It was almost amusing enough to make me crack a smile. Still, none of the fantasy images my mind could create would prepare me for the real interaction I was about to have with humans.