Of course I will post a snippet or two! I won’t do any spoilers here LOL but will give you all a peek!! Buy link info in the initial post and the yummalicious cover. It really looks like Zeth–or how I envisioned him–and the real red rocks at Sedona. I grew up about twenty miles from them and could see them from any hill near my house!!
Excerpt:
Northwest of Sedona, Arizona
The present day
He came with the dark…
The first night in her new home, Arabella fell asleep on the pallet she spread among the boxes in the great room downstairs. Exhaustion claimed her almost before her head touched the pillow.
By the next night, she’d set up her beloved antique sleigh bed in the strange upper room she’d claimed for her private sanctuary. And that was where he came to her the first time…
She’d heard about Sedona forever, what a Mecca it was for artists and of all the mysteries and wonders locked amidst the rosy turrets and towers, the coral battlements and castellations of Coconino sandstone. Six months earlier, she’d held an exhibit in Talaquepac, spending three weeks in the area while her paintings and photographs were on display. Now she was back to stay.
The real estate agent had seemed almost too eager, insisting she had just the house for an artist. Perhaps she had been right, although it was by far the strangest house Arabella had ever seen, much less occupied.
The structure twisted around two pillars of stone, rooms linked one after another like the cars of a freight train, some at odd angles to each other. Some rooms were higher or lower than their companions, with ramps or steps connecting them. Yet the moment she stepped through the arched front door, Arabella felt a strong sense of coming home. This was her place, the home she had always longed for, almost without knowing she longed.
He came with the dark.
The second night, she had trouble falling asleep. She’d never been uncomfortable or fearful about being alone. In fact, she was used to solitude. She’d locked all the doors before climbing up to bed, more out of city-bred habit than from any need to bar intruders. This five-acre lot sat at the end of a winding dirt track, which forked off from a maze of other gravel roads that ultimately led back to a normal paved street–actually the highway between Flagstaff and the Verde Valley communities. If a person didn’t know the way, his chances of ending up here were slight indeed.
Still, as she lay staring up at the myriad stars visible through the round skylight, she had a sensation of being watched. The room’s shape was irregular, odd nooks and crannies in all but one wall, as the space flowed around the larger of the stone pillars. Although the starlight provided some illumination, there were dark corners into which she could not see at all.
The shivery sensation grew stronger until her skin quivered as with a chill. Then, at last, she saw the eyes, two almond-shaped amber eyes, shining from one of the niches set in a hollow of the massive wind-carved pillar of stone.
::I come in peace, in harmony.::
The words came not to her ears but directly in her mind. Although there was no sound, she imagined a rich, deep voice, clear as the tolling of a heavy brass bell.
::I came to see who now lives here in my place only to find a lovely woman. I salute your beauty.::
Arabella bit her trembling lip; gasped in a quick, hard breath. Am I losing my mind? I’m not a person who hears voices, not one given to hallucinations. And it’s been years since I used any recreational drugs.
::You worry; you fear. That is not necessary. I will never harm you; never invade beyond the barriers you set for me.::
“Who are you? What are you?”
The echo of a gentle laugh came before his words. Instinctively she labeled the entity male. How she knew, she could not say, but she sensed nothing feminine about the presence at all.
::I am one of the Ancients, one who lived in this place long ago. A part of me has stayed, awaiting the opening of a gate to come again into your world. There are things I must do, duties unfulfilled in my past and errors to be set right.::
“Why me? Why now?”
::I sense you may be the One. Others who came before were too fearful, too filled with disbelief. I sense in you an openness of spirit, a willingness to accept that which you cannot understand, and talent to visualize and to create. Last night, when I watched you sleep, I recognized you are not like the others.::
Arabella drew a deep, shuddering breath, fear and curiosity dancing a pas de deux in her heart. She felt the strange entity told the truth, that he would never harm her, nor would he invade her mind, although he had the power to do so if he wished. That mysterious power excited her, called to a wildness within she had always kept under wraps.
“I…”
::Hush.:: Light as a wisp of fog, she felt a fingertip press against her lips. ::There is no hurry. We have as long as we need, even forever. For tonight, this is enough.:: A caress as soft and cool as the breath of a moist breeze brushed her cheek. Then he was gone.
She fell asleep almost at once and woke the next morning to ponder whether or not it had all been a strange dream.
Leave a Comment