*SPOILER ALERT*
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If you don't want anything from my book to be given away, read no further!
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*SPOILER ALERT*
Recently I've had some more free time on my hands, which has resulted in a lot more writing in the sequel to The Iridian Dagger. To celebrate the fact that my very first book signing event is tomorrow (woohoo!), I decided to finally release an excerpt from The Shepherd's Eye, which will be the title of the second book in my Fluents and Shadows series! Happy reading!
“Maggie, have you heard from James and Shane yet?” Sam entered the kitchen and found Maggie at the counter. They had only been at Shane’s vacation home for a little over a month, but everyone had settled in fairly fast. Maggie still missed her beautiful library back in Minnesota, but Tennessee held the huge plus of much warmer weather.
“No, I haven’t. I’m kind of worried about them, actually.” She turned around holding a small pot and a wooden spoon. “Mac and cheese?”
Sam shook his head and laughed. “Do you usually eat when you’re worried?”
She spoke through a mouth full of macaroni. “Not until recently.”
“I thought you were a stress reader, not a stress eater.”
“Well, it turns out I’m both.” She had barely even finished speaking before she was shoving another spoonful into her mouth. “Have you tried calling them?”
“Yes, but it won’t patch me through. I tried James’s phone and Shane’s, but both just send me right to voicemail.”
Maggie set down the pot and spoon to check her phone. “It’s not like both of their phones could have died at the same time.”
“Have they tried getting ahold of you at all? I’ve found that for some reason Shane always contacts you first.” Sam looked up at her as she continued to scroll through text messages and missed calls, waiting for her to notice.
Finally, she recognized the silence and met his smirking eyes. “What’s so funny?” Cheese dust covered the counter, so she brushed it off before sitting down on top of it.
“Oh, nothing.” He turned to retrieve a glass and filled it with water.
“You’re just jealous that Shane finally has a close friend other than just you.” She sent back the same teasing smile. She and Shane had been spending a lot of time together while working on the tracking device, and Sam had been stuck with the paperwork. The Light Keepers had made him the main contact for their rag-tag group, and that meant sending a lot of documents, and making a lot of phone calls.
Flashing lights filled the house. Alarms echoed through every hall. Sam and Maggie jumped with shock at the unexpected outburst of noise. Before Maggie could ask what was going on, the alarms ceased and an automated voice came through. “Incoming call from Shane Mitchel. Accept or decline?”
“Accept!” Sam and Maggie shouted in unison.
“Call accepted. Connection in progress. One moment please.”
Three short beeps sounded, and then fuzzy crackling could be heard over the speaker system. “Shane, are you there?” Sam shouted over the buzz.
“Perfect Pizzas, may I take your order?” Shane’s classic sarcasm made his identity clear, but his voice sounded a bit shaken.
Sam shook his head. “Shane, I told you only to use this line in case of emergency! What are you doing?”
“Oh, believe me, Sam. This is definitely an emergency. I think James is going crazy.” This time he sounded seriously anxious.
James’s voice came from the background, shouting from a distance. “I’m not crazy, Shane, I can really hear it! The voice…it’s getting louder.”
“Voice?” Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “What voice is he talking about?”
Shane came through again. “That’s the thing, I have no clue. I can’t hear anything, and neither can anyone around us. We’re stuck in a traffic jam the size of Texas, the sky has gone completely black with clouds, and no one seems to know why. I was hoping to see if Maggie’s friend could tell us anything.”
Maggie hopped down off the counter. “I’m on it, Shane.” As soon as she spoke Malachi appeared in front of her. She walked through the house, hoping to get somewhere quieter. Thanks to the speaker system, Shane’s voice was coming through all over the place.
“Thanks, Maggie. Let me know as soon as you know anything.”
Maggie locked eyes with Malachi, her guardian angel and constant companion. “Did you hear all that?” This house was older than Shane’s house in Madeline Island, and the floor creaked with proof as she walked along.
He nodded. “I did. It definitely does not sound like the making of a good situation.”
Her thoughts went to the certainty in James’s voice. He hadn’t sounded insane or out of sorts. She could always tell when he wasn’t thinking straight because his tone of voice changed. His voice over the phone had sounded perfectly normal. A little stressed, but still normal. “Well, what do you think could be causing this?” Reaching the den, Maggie finally slowed her pace. “I know James isn’t imagining things.”
“Yes, I heard your thoughts about his vocal stability. I do have one idea as to what could be causing this, but I am not positive.” He sat down next to Maggie, who had planted herself on a leather sofa near the center of the room.
“We’ll take anything you’ve got. Just give us a picture of what we might be up against.”
His partially transparent head shook back and forth. “I cannot do that unless I know for sure what we are dealing with. Tell Shane to alert us as soon as James sees anything.”
Maggie stood and began walking around the room. “Shane, can you hear me in here?”
“Copy that, Book Worm. Mr. Techie hears you loud and clear.”
Maggie released a sigh. “Nice job sounding official, but now is not really the time.”
“Sorry. I couldn’t help it. What did you find out?”
“Malachi is hesitant to release the information this soon. He said to alert us the minute James sees anything out of the ordinary.” The floor creaked once more as she stood to go back to the kitchen with Sam, but Shane’s voice stopped her before she could take another step.
“In that case, he might as well just tell us right now.” His voice shook.
Maggie looked at one of the speakers above her as though it would help Shane see her worried expression. “Shane…what do you mean?”
A long pause ensued in which Maggie could hear Shane and James’s voices going back and forth. She couldn’t make out anything they were saying, but she had a pretty good idea it involved James seeing something weird. The urge to intervene and ask what in the world was going on was overwhelming, but she restrained herself. Whatever they were trying to figure out, any interruption would only frustrate them more. As they mumbled on over the speaker system, Maggie once again began walking back toward the kitchen.
Right as she spotted Sam at the counter, a sharp yell caused the speakers to fuzz.“They’re falling from the sky!”
That was James! Maggie thought.
“What is, James?” Sam inquired.
Before James could answer, Shane’s shouting voice echoed through the kitchen. “Yow! Something just bit me!”
“Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” Sam was pleading now.
“I don’t know, I couldn’t see anything. It definitely felt bigger than a mosquito though.”
“I saw it!” James exclaimed. “It was a snake of some kind. Any ideas, Sam?”
Sam looked white as a sheet. “What, uh, what did it look like?”
“Black with a metallic shimmer, and a flair around its head that popped out like some lizards have.”
“What color was the flair?”
“Reddish-orange. And I’m pretty sure it had horns too!”
He gripped the counter behind him with both hands, eyes wide. “James, you and Shane need to get out of there right now!”
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