Excerpt
Bryn swayed her body to the last of the music, the night ending slowly as people stumbled and laughed after having allowed themselves the pleasure of being human one night of the year.
Soon enough, only the light of the torches were left aside from the fires that burned only once a year along the street. The shadows took over the celebration as they danced along the buildings.
The feeling in her gut, the warning, grew at a rapid rate and she found herself standing and looking around.
“What’s wrong?” Niamh asked, standing as well, looking for a threat.
“I’m not sure. I’ve had this bad feeling…” Bryn whispered as her system flooded with adrenaline.
The warning horns split open the joyous atmosphere of the night like a knife. The screams of the people matching the horns as they ran from the streets to take cover from the unknown danger.
Bryn and Niamh both turned as one toward the gate as small dust devils made their way along the street, trailing the panicked townspeople as they ran, shoving at each other like wild, mindless animals.
“Sandstorm,” Niamh whispered, her eyes focused on something past the gates. Words in another language Bryn had never heard soon left Niamh’s lips.
In her own panicked state, Bryn tried to calm her nerves, debating on if she could make it back to her apartment or if she needed to take cover with Niamh. The fact that Niamh was in a trance, staring intensely at the gate, made her hand twitch with the urge to slap Niamh out of it.
“Sandstorm!” Justin yelled as he ran down the road toward them. “Get inside and take cover!”They’d never had a sandstorm bad enough to cause such panic before. The walls usually took the brunt of the weather for them.
“Now!” Justin was suddenly in her face, shoving at her shoulder and pushing her and Niamh into The Sanctuary. A horrifying cloud of red dust enveloped the town right as Justin slammed the door shut behind them. The entire road engulfed in tornadic sand was the last visual she had of Saint’s road.
“Away from the windows!” He herded them to an inner room in The Sanctuary, yelling for the others in brothel to do the same. Bryn didn’t look to see what men from town were here.
She didn’t want that on her conscience and since she was a horrible poker player, she didn’t want to pretend in public when she watched them walking with their families to church service before she turned in for the day.
Settling down in one of the supply rooms, Bryn put her head to her knees, wrapping her arms around her legs. Focusing on her breathing and not the glass breaking, Bryn worked to calm her heart rate, trying to ignore the sobs of the other women in the dark room as the glass broke and the wind howled.
Finian whined, having moved back to Justin’s side.
The only light was from the cracked door Justin looked through, flinching every once in a while as he watched the storm bear down on their little town.
“Calm yourselves. Your yelling isn’t going to change the course of this storm,” Niamh chided, her voice barely audible over the furniture breaking outside of their little room. Bryn was surprised by the calmness in Niamh’s voice as her business was being torn apart. Her whole life was in The Sanctuary.
A tingling started in her fingers and toes, as well as the all too familiar feeling of ants under her skin. Bryn rubbed along her arms at the same time as Justin, their movements mirroring each other.
Looking to Niamh, her eyes focused on the wall as if she could see through it, as if her focus could stop the destruction, Bryn patted the woman on the shoulder before she pulled back.
Her skin was growing more sensitive and the anxiety building up inside her was becoming a raging inferno.
“I am here, come to me, my child,” Bryn heard the whispered words, and looked for who was speaking. No one else looked around for the voice, as if they hadn’t heard it.
Bryn was sure her heart stopped. Was this a vision? It didn’t feel like one.
When Justin looked at her, his eyes confused, she realized it wasn’t just her who had heard the whispered plea.
The distraction of Justin kept her from noticing one of the men in the room sitting too close to her, his fingers brushing hers and she knew before it happened she was going into a vision.
Feeling it come upon her, she scooted away from him, further into the corner of the room right as the black stole over her vision.
I love the cover art, synopsis and excerpt, Prophecy of Gods and Crows sounds like an epic read and I am glad that there are more stories to come
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