Existential First Snippet: How to Be A Bad Ass Witch Book 1
How To Be A Bad Ass Witch: Book One
A tale as old as time, ” What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” This question is looming over Kera’s head the literal wake up call from her mom is not helping either. She might end up getting more than she bargained for in this self help book.
“Blergh.” Kera MacDonagh poked her head out of the tangle of covers, looking for the source of the beeping in her immediate vicinity. The clock near her bed showed the time 11:42 am. That was well before the alarm she had set, which meant the culprit was her phone. Wild flailing in the blankets produced nothing and she flopped over to reach blindly around on the floor for her phone. “Ughhhhh.”
Her fumbling produced the damned thing, currently displaying with her mother’s contact information. Kera dropped her head back onto the pillow with a groan as she answered. “He—” She cleared her throat. “Hello?”
“Hello, Kera, it’s your mother.” Her mother’s voice had the sort of impeccable diction and unidentifiable accent practiced by news anchors.
“Oh, good.” Kera forced herself to sit up and began wiping sleep crusts out of the corners of her eyes. “For a second there, I was afraid someone had stolen your phone and called me from it.”
“Yes, dear.” There was a little sigh. “I had a few spare minutes, so I thought I would call you.”
Kera, who had been slouching as she rubbed her face and smoothed her hair, sat up a bit straighter. A sigh instead of a joke? Her mother, a devoted philanthropist, had a few spare minutes?
“I’m, uh…” She shoved herself out of bed and curled her toes under on the cold concrete, wincing. Her Spidey senses were tingling. “I’m good. Thanks for calling! Great to hear your voice, but I know you’re super busy, so—”
“Wonderful.” Her mother studiously ignored the implicit request to hang up. “So, how are things going?”
Kera rolled her eyes heavenward. Her mother had a specific question for her, but it would be useless to ask her to cut to the chase. The woman would lead with side questions, maneuver Kera into a verbal trap of some sort, and then pounce. There would be no speeding this up.
“Things are good,” she said finally. “You know, work. The usual.”
The second the words came out of her mouth, she cursed herself. There was no going back, however.
“Wonderful,” her mother said again. “You know, it just occurred to me that today is the two-month anniversary of your graduation.”
“Here we go,” Kera muttered.
It was too early for this shit.
“With your grades, companies should be tripping over each other to hire you.” Her mother’s tone was sweet and cheerful. “And, as we all know, Los Angeles is host to twenty-three of the fifty-seven Fortune 500 companies in California, all of whom need computer science graduates.”
“The only people who know that are the ones who read about Los Angeles on Wikipedia.” Kera rubbed her face. “Look, Mom, I really appreciate you trying to help me get a job, but the fact is—”
“You haven’t gotten a job offer and not told me, have you?”
As a matter of fact, she had gotten a few calls from recruiters, but Kera knew that if she admitted it, her chances of getting out of this conversation alive were slim to none.
“I haven’t been looking for jobs like that,” she said honestly.
“Why is that, honey?” The tone was still sweet, but there was a warning there.
“Because as I’ve told you several times, I have no interest in working with AI developed for customer service robots.” Kera, having been raised by this woman, was able to give as good as she got. “I’d rather be a waitress-slash-bartender, and do you know why? Because when there’s idiocy on the other side of the bar, there’s a reason behind it, compared to the idiocy of the AI, which is usually technically logical but stems from a missing comma or some ridiculous parameter that management insisted on even though they don’t understand AI.”
Mrs. MacDonagh sighed, and Kera braced herself.
Sure enough, the lecture that came next could have filled out a bullshit bingo card in record time. “Kera, you can’t just waste your abilities and potential working on your motorcycle and slinging drinks.” Her mother’s tone was crisp, which was a sure sign that she was angry. The angrier she got, the more formal she became. “I understand that it seems like good money when you’re getting tips, but trust me, a stable job with good benefits is worth far more in the long run. Have you considered the raises? Have you considered the health insurance and the retirement investment matching?”
“Mom—”
“When things go south—and they will eventually since everyone has bad luck sometimes—you will want stability, and—”
“Mom.”
“No, listen to me, Kera.” She could see her mother drumming her fingers on the kitchen counter. “You always wanted to do something that made a difference.”
Kera clenched her free hand and fervently wished she was holding something she could throw at the wall.
“Be honest with yourself, dear.” Her mother’s tone had gotten slightly gentler. “I know that an entry-level job in IT doesn’t seem like a dream come true, but the ten-year trajectory it puts you on is very different from the one you’re on right now. What are you going to do, buy the bar?”
Kera was sighing when an idea struck her. “Maybe,” she said. “Maybe I will. Maybe I’ll buy the bar, start a chain, and let people open franchises. I’ll rake in the profits while other people do the dirty work, and then we can talk about whether I’d be better off in a cubicle, getting harassed about semicolons.”
There was silence.
Kera sighed. “Mom. Please. I know all the people who ended up in those jobs. They’re not happy, and I wouldn’t be, either.”
“So, you’re still in touch with some of the young men you studied with?”
Kera, sensing that the subject was changing into yet another dangerous area, immediately began evasive maneuvers. “I have to go, but you bring up some good points. I’d love to talk to them another time. How does five weeks from Thursday look for you?”
“Whatever happened to that nice running back you were dating?” her mother asked, determinedly ignoring Kera’s rapid-fire goodbye. “Michael.”
Kera sighed. “That was sophomore year.”
“And?”
“And he is now married, with a baby on the way, living in the suburbs and teaching high school football.”
“Well, strike that option, then.”
“You think?”
“Darling, if you’re attracted to…” Her mother cleared her throat. “Well, please know that if you’re worried about shocking us, we aren’t going to disapprove.”
“Mom. I haven’t had a boyfriend in a while, so you’re asking if I’m a lesbian?”
“I just didn’t want you to be afraid of telling us,” her mother said. “If you were.”
“I’m not. Mom, can we talk about something else?”
“Kera, you’re awfully squeamish. You always were apt to stick your fingers in your ears when it came to talking about sex.”
“Because you tried to give me the talk by telling me where Rob and I came from!” Kera waved her free hand. “Oh, God, and I worked so hard to suppress those memories. When will someone come up with brain bleach? It would make a billion dollars on the open market.”
“There you go,” her mother said smugly. “Now you have a goal—one that isn’t bartending, but also isn’t one of the cubicle jobs you so hate.”
“Sure. I’ll get right on it, thanks.”
“Mmm. I have to go, sweetie. Have a good day. Try not to lose the ability to learn. Grab a business book, learn an extra craft, but do something with your life.”
“Goodbye, overprotective maternal figure with a goddess complex.”
“I can’t help it,” her mother asserted. “Our family—and that means you, too—has had special genes for generations. I’m just making sure you find a productive way of—”
“Wasn’t this the point where you were supposed to hang up?”
“Not without having the last word,” the elder MacDonagh pointed out. “Goodbye, baby.”
Something on the other end clicked and the call ended, the screen returning to Kera’s list of contacts.
“Ugh, mothers.”
It wasn’t even noon, after all. There was no reason for her to be awake at the current hour, but her mother had not only woken her up, but she had also robbed Kera of the ability to go back to sleep.
After all, there was nothing more frustrating than ruminating on the fact that college was a gigantic con and life after it was a glorified hamster wheel.
Not that Kera disliked her job, of course, and she had loved her degree. She had taken to learning the internal logic of how things worked, how to measure them, and how to troubleshoot them like a fish to water.
She just hadn’t figured out what to do next. Working as a bartender wasn’t really changing the world—which, unfortunately, was something she did want to do.
Except that it seemed insufferably juvenile as a goal.
Kera groaned and looked back at the bed, but she knew she wasn’t going to be able to sleep. With a sigh, she headed off to take a shower. Now she had to come up with something to do for the next three hours that wasn’t going to make her feel like an abject failure.
She picked her phone back up and stared at it for a moment before opening the reading app she used. She navigated to the store and hesitated.
What the hell should she search for?
“How to become a slumlord for bars?” she said aloud. She grinned. “How to…how to… Okay, start there.” She began typing. “How to…”
She blinked. Suggested results had already popped up, and one of them didn’t look like the others. She double-tapped it, frowning. It was a joke book; it had to be.
After all…
No, there was no way anyone thought that was real. On impulse, Kera clicked the Buy Now button, then rolled her eyes at herself.
“Good job, MacDonagh. You’re trying not to feel like a failure, and what’s the first book you download? Something written by a crazy person. Still, as far as How To Be guides go, I do like the idea of How to Be A Bad Ass Witch.”
___________________
I don’t think that is what Mother MacDonagh had in mind in urging Kera to do something with her life.
Check in again to find out the story behind this book Kera has picked up.
How to be a Bad Ass Witch: Book 1 is available for download on November 27th.
Bountiful Basket…. of Free Books! 6 Days of Free Books This Week!
Nothing Says Holiday Like Free books! This week collect 6 of them!
Everyday we will be offering a book from our library for FREE. Check back everyday to Collect yours!
Shield Maiden:
Every time a shot rings out a Valkyrie earns her wings. Mila is earning hers the hard way hunting down the monsters that have taken her sister. It was supposed to be a simple scouting mission. But the trail is leading her to an unexpected discovery. What if the things that go bump in the night start to slither out into the light? An ancient horror, full of malice and nightmares, is coming to the Idaho Wilderness. She should probably run, but Valkyries don’t back down from a fight, no matter the risk. Besides, there are lives at stake, and it’s a Valkyries job to choose the dead. The Dwarf King would be proud.
The Tale of Nefret:
The Story of the Most Mysterious Queen of Ancient Egypt. Explore the Legend of Nefertiti! Twin daughters of an ancient Bedouin king struggle under the weight of an ominous prophecy that threatens to divide them forever. Royal sibling rivalry explodes as the young women realize that they must fight for their future and for the love of Alexio, the man they both love. The Tale of Nefret chronicles their lives as they travel in two different directions. One sister becomes the leader of the Meshwesh while the other travels to Egypt as an unwilling gift to Pharaoh. From the desert to the throne room, The Tale of Nefret is the first book in The Desert Queen trilogy, the fictional story of Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt.
Rogue, Renegade & Rebel:
She is crass, has attitude, drinks too much and is the only living agent working for Queen Victoria, the Paranormal Queen. In 1901, Queen Victoria passed away, and took over the responsibilities of the Paranormal Court. When Victoria ascends to the Paranormal Throne, she acquires the help of a human agent, code-named Rogue. For well over a hundred years, this human has helped settle problems between the normal and the paranormal worlds. Usually with massive displays of attitude and disrespect. And a really, really bodacious set of…guns. Now, Rogue has been sent to the Colonies to help stop a paranormal revolution. Is Rogue over her head, or is someone trying to pull a fast one on her? Either way, America better be ready, because this Paranormal Agent parties like it’s still 1899!
Warmage: Unexpected:
Girl meets dragon. Girl works to befriend dragon. A large, red, dangerous dragon. Raven Alby will have to train her new ride and save the dragon’s life or die trying. Mix in starting at Fowler Academy as a first year, becoming a stronger mage and oh… people disappearing. It’s all adding up to typical teenager stuff for a young mage. First lesson Raven will learn? Don’t ever let anything come between a girl and her dragon.
Steel Dragon:
Dragons rule the world. Their claws are into every aspect of human life, from government to industry. But Kristen Hall is about to throw a wrench into all of that. Because she’s a dragon, too. She just doesn’t know it…yet! A dragon raised by humans, in the human world. After graduating from the police academy, she’s dropped right into the ranks of Detroit’s elite SWAT team. A rookie, in SWAT? Unheard of. But what the dragons want, they get. The reasons behind their machinations become clear as her dragon powers begin to surface. Will Kristen rise to the challenges her new life delivers? What designs do the dragons have for her future? And perhaps most pressing of all — how did she come to be a dragon with human parents?
Reprisal
Ancient Warrior—Vampire—Queen’s Bitch…Akio accepted his Queen’s charge to stay behind and protect humanity from the Forsaken scourge. She never said it would be easy. An isolated police report about an island overtaken by feral, red-eyed creatures savaging humans spurs Akio to investigate. The local police are good at their job, but they’re not well-equipped to handle things that go bump in the night. Especially not the ones terrorizing this once-peaceful island paradise. While dealing with the incursion, Akio discovers new information. The situation is escalating—and all evidence points to enemies from his past. A dangerous science he’d thought was destroyed. The Forsaken are rising to take their place as the alpha predators. Now, it’s a race against overwhelming odds as Akio unravels long-laid complex plans and takes the fight to those who threaten the last bastion of civilization on post-apocalyptic Earth. Can he stop this evil before it enslaves humanity? Or will the Forsaken succeed in taking over the world?
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Conflicted First Snippet for David Brin’s Out of Time- Book 1
They always say ” I just don’t understand this generation”, ” The world is going to crap”, ” Kids today”. We look fondly on the kids of the past as if those very things weren’t said about them. In this case it is actually true, and the kids of the past hold the keys to saving the future.
Prelude: An unexpected and urgent mission
“I am sorry, Doctor Cee. There is no time to follow normal procedures for this mission. We must send a team through that sally port within twenty hours. That leaves us only two possible ways to proceed.”
The scientist—Director of Interstellar Operations at Edge Station Three—stared at a robot standing before her desk, knowing what the sophisticated machine was about to say…and hating it.
“Go on, da Vinci,” she said. “Lay out our options.”
The robot hummed briefly and gestured by raising one flexible tentacle.
“First, we might send to Planet Jump a team of youths consisting only of boys and girls recruited in our own era. We have many candidates. All of them are brave, technologically skilled, and willing.”
Doctor Cee winced. She and her colleagues had been struggling for five years with the horror of this situation that Earth and humanity found themselves in…having to use teenagers for every interstellar task or mission, from diplomacy to colonizing new worlds. From trade to war. Many of the envoys she sent out were little more than children!
“If we do that, what are our odds of success?”
The robot had many human mannerisms. This time, it emitted a sad sigh.
“Rather low, according to the simulators. Our teens are brilliant and well-meaning, but we all know they are unready and ill-suited for this kind of challenge. At least not without help.”
“So…our second option is to use the time-yank machinery.” Cee nodded. “Grab ‘volunteers’ from ancient times, who have skills and grit and instincts that we moderns so desperately lack.”
That was the whole reason for Operation Hourglass, and good results had been achieved a few dozen times.
“But this is no normal mission! With the situation so urgent, we’d have to yank them not only through time but simultaneously from Earth to here, on Edge Station, leaving them with at best a few hours to prepare!”
“In which case, perhaps we should wrap up discussing it?” the robot replied, perhaps with impudence. Da Vinci’s model was programmed to be frank. “The decision is yours, Dr. Cee.”
“All right, then.” She nodded. “We’ll do a time-yank. Have the simulation machines come up with candidates? Young folks from our past who would be flexible enough to help our kids with some chance of success, even tossed into this kind of makeshift emergency?”
The robot spun one of its tentacles, and a set of holograms appeared above the director’s desk.
“It would be as unlikely-looking a ‘team’ as we have ever assembled. Yet, I think you will agree there is real potential in these faces.”
Cee stared at five young visages, four of them figures from the near or distant past. She recognized two of them and quickly absorbed information on the others. Then she sighed.
“You are right. And so are the simulators. If any team would have a chance to land on its feet with scant preparation and deal with strangeness on the fly, it should be this bunch of kids.
“That is,” she added in a low voice, “if they can learn very quickly to believe in themselves.”
_____________________
Isn’t it actually everyones dream to time travel and save the world? I guess we will find out! Stay tuned for more sneak peaks, or head over to Kindle Unlimited and Pre-order David Brin’s Out of Time: Yanked. This books will be hitting your devices first thing November 27th.
Saunter into this Week in Review November 15th-21st, 2020
Slow down a little bit and explore the new books released in this, Week in Review for November 15th-21st
Ease into some new books here: Week in Review
Never a Dragon:
Dragons used to rule the world; those days are over. But humans, mages, and dragons have just begun learning to co-exist without conflict. Kylara Diamantine has never met another dragon. Raised by her mother apart from the rest of their society without any idea why, she’s always been curious about the rest of their species. She wants to get out there, to meet other dragons, to explore! To stretch her wings. Literally.
Battle Magic:
Every lesson Leira Berens has learned since she found out she’s a Jasper Elf is about to be put to the test. Magic has come out into the open with a bang and everything is in peril. The monster will have his day or die trying. Wolfstan Humphrey is losing ground but he’s not going down easily. He’s built an army of twisted magicals ready to attack. Will his quest for power succeed?
The Auburn Rebellion:
Centuries ago, humanity crawled inside its bunkers and vowed never to come out. But Jessica13 and her little service mech Mini leaped head-first into a wide-open world that’s every bit as grand and lethal as she imagined. They discover Auburn, a village with apparent freedoms they didn’t know existed, but all is not what it seems. Can she protect the people of Auburn from the iron-fisted rule of Lady Hoot? She’ll need to rely on her wits, Mini’s speed, and a hell of a lot of engineering skills to try and save the people of Auburn.
Final Chance:
Justin is acclimating inside the virtual world, but can he find the final element he needs to escape from the world of PIVOT? With Prima’s help—or, perhaps, despite it—he has gotten to Insea, the capital of the Elven lands. Aided by Tina, who is desperate to help Justin recover from the accident she created, Justin decides to fight in the Tournament of Insea. The one problem? His chief rivals are a set of twins who believe they’re reincarnated gods—and they’ll stop at nothing to make sure they take power.
Wizardborn:
The War to End All Wars just got personal. The World’s First Wizard was dragged into this fight kicking and screaming, but now that the dark conspiracies have dredged up specters of his past, Milo is determined to put them down once and for all. His power growing with the stakes, Milo faces foes, human and otherwise, with aims that threaten to reshape the world, and they’re willing to do it at the cost of millions of souls. Milo, hero or not, can’t stand by, and so with his deathless bodyguard and fey girlfriend, he plunges into the dark, swimming upstream all the way.
Determine the Future:
A new set of dragonriders are in town. And they don’t play by the rules. Actually, for the Rogue Riders, there are no rules. There is just what belongs to them and that which they take from others. The Dragon Elite have never had such a huge problem to deal with. Fighting magitech armies is one thing. Cyborgs another. But battling their own, this makes it personal.
Follow the stories of some of our favorite heroes here: Week in Review
Festive Fan’s Pricing Saturday November 21st, 2020
Load up on books in preparation for Thanksgiving week.
Fan’s Pricing Saturday: November 21st, 2020
Note: We requested the price changes from Amazon on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, they don’t change all of the prices at one time. Please double-check the price before clicking “Buy”.)
All of these new releases are 99c for one day only!
And they are also available for FREE in Kindle Unlimited!
Grab them today before the prices go up!
Battle Magic
Unfaithful Covenant
Calculated Risk
Final Chance
Moonlight Detective Agency: Boxed Set
Never A Dragon
The Auburn Rebellion
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LMBPN Story Featured in Nebula Showcase #54
The Nebula Awards Showcase #54 features the Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, as selected by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Volume #54 is the latest volume of the prestigious anthology series, which has been published annually across six decades. The Nebula Awards Showcase volumes have been published yearly since 1966, reprinting winning and nominated stories of the Nebula Awards, as voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
You can find both digital and print purchase options for the showcase here:
https://nebulas.sfwa.org/2020-nebula-showcase/
This volume’s editor is Nibedita Sen, a Hugo, Nebula, and Astounding Award-nominated writer and editor. Volume #54 collects stories and excerpts from works nominated in 2019, including the following winners and nominees (an asterisk indicates a winner):
Introduction by Nibedita Sen
“It’s Dangerous to Go Alone” by Kate Dollarhyde
“Into the Spider-verse: A Classic Origin Story in Bold New Color” by Brandon O’Brien
“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” by P. Djèlí Clark*
“Interview for the End of the World” by Rhett C. Bruno
“And Yet” by A. T. Greenblatt
“A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies” by Alix E. Harrow
“The Court Magician” by Sarah Pinsker
“The Only Harmless Great Thing” by Brooke Bolander*
“The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections” by Tina Connolly
“An Agent of Utopia” by Andy Duncan
“The Substance of My Lives, The Accidents of Our Births” by José Pablo Iriarte
“The Rule of Three” by Lawrence M. Schoen
“Messenger” by R.R. Virdi & Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
Excerpt: “The Tea Master and the Detective” by Aliette de Bodard*
Excerpt: “Fire Ant” by Jonathan P. Brazee
Excerpt: “The Black God’s Drums” by P. Djèlí Clark
Excerpt: “Alice Payne Arrives” by Kate Heartfield
Excerpt: “Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach” by Kelly Robson
Excerpt: “Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries” by Martha Wells
Excerpt: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal*
LMBPN congratulates all of the authors with selected stories, but we’re especially honored to have Messenger by R.R. Virdi & Yudhanjaya Wijeratne selected for this prestigious volume.
If you’re interested in more great stories from LMBPN Publishing, please click here to join our email list to be notified of new releases and sales!
Blended Wild Wednesday November 18th, 2020
A little something for everyone, and at a great discount!
Welcome to Wild Wednesday for November 18th, 2020
Each week we bring you a list of books from not only LMBPN authors, but also friends of ours, that are on sale! Here’s a fantastic opportunity to discover some new authors or some exciting books you may not have seen yet.
Most of these books are FREE in Kindle Unlimited, but all are on sale today.
Please remember to double-check the price before you one-click.
Never Split the Party
Moonlight Detective Agency Complete Series
The Dream Travelers Ultimate Boxed Set: Includes 3 Series
End Days: Complete Series
The Dark One’s Reign
Don’t miss out on these other fantastic promotions! Just click the banner and go to the web page.
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Exhilarating Week in Review November 8th- 14th, 2020
It’s such an exciting feeling when the next book in a series comes out! This week was full of that very feeling.
Catch up on your favorite series here: Week in Review
Don’t Give A Dwarf:
Johnny Walker, Dwarf Bounty Hunter is back on the hunt. WANTED: Dead or Alive. Logree Creature. Origin is Oriceran. Intelligent, flammable, displaying purple goo and tentacles. Do not approach. Leave to the professionals… like Johnny Walker. Just what the Everglades needed. But who’s going to watch the teenage shifter staying in his cabin? Turn your back and she’s wrestling an old Gator from the swamp. Johnny knows what to do. A little magi-tech and a few favors can get the answers he needs.
Unfaithful Covenant:
Erik and Jia have to build more resources into their team, and one isn’t so happy with Jia. Will she be able to change the agent’s opinion, or will they have to toss her off the team and forego her expertise? The enemy’s cracks are starting to be visible. One of them is showing their hand early. Will the covenant created before Erik and Jia be strong enough to withstand the focus of their enemies?
Calculated Risk:
What do you do when the other side uses your son’s life as a negotiating ploy? Mary and Senator Tad Williams will learn what it means to play hard ball. Can they play just as hard? Amber, Nick, and Jacob now have the responsibility that came with their sudden decision to help a kid. Are they up to the task? Justin is acclimating inside the world. Will his need to connect with another person extend to feelings for a fake character? There is more going on here than dirty politics, questionable business ethics, and cutting-edge science that might kill.
What will happen next for these heroes? Find out here: Week in Review
Mischievous Snippet #2 for Dragon’s Daughter book 1
Never A Dragon : Dragon’s Daughter Book 1
After a while, in a safe world we create for ourselves sometimes, we forget that there are real dangers out there and realities we don’t even know to be concerned with. The same is true for dragons I suppose. But you know what they say, curiosity killed the cat.
Sixteen years later: Somewhere outside Little Water, New Mexico, USA.
The wind felt amazing under Kylara Diamantine’s wings and so much better than the stuffy air of their home—more like cave—half-buried in a mountain. The red rocks and sands of the New Mexican landscape below her had baked in the sun all day. They belched heat into the air that she caught with her wings as she spiraled higher into the sky.
She wasn’t strictly supposed to be out flying—not without her mom—but what Hester Diamantine didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. The young dragon was almost seventeen now, but her mom still treated her like she was nothing more than a dragonling.
There was no reason why she couldn’t fly by herself. She was certainly good enough at it. She flapped her wings and forced herself into a dive that took her from the cool air that lingered high above the mountains to the heat-baked landscape below. As the air grew hotter around her, she whooped with delight. This was living!
Instinctively, she spread her wings and caught another thermal of hot air to drift higher again as effortlessly as a bird. She circled continuously and increased speed as she added her strength to the power of the heated air to drive herself so high that the air became cold enough that when she breathed it in, it almost hurt.
When she reached that elevation, she leveled off and studied the landscape below her. Kylara had never known any landscape but New Mexico. She longed to see a lush forest, a meadow, a jungle, or even a city, but she could admit that she lived in a beautiful place. Below her, different shades of stone battled for dominance of the high desert landscape. Red rocks, yellow rocks, and pink boulders flecked with crystals that glimmered in the sun all poked from the sand and scrubby soil. Some people might see a wasteland, but not her. She saw a hundred kinds of cactus, dormant grasses, and scrubby trees ready to force out a year’s worth of growth whenever the sky decided to let it rain again. It was beautiful there, yet she wanted to see what it looked like somewhere else—anywhere else.
She had been to nearby Farmington any number of times and even to Santa Fe a precious few, but she wondered what else was out there beyond the beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows of her home. Sometimes, she envied the cars that gleamed in the sunlight as they moved freely through the landscape. They only needed gas to escape their environment, not their mother’s permission.
Kylara sighed and her gaze followed an old beat-up truck until it rounded a mountain road and vanished. Another glint caught her eye, this one higher up. A plane? No, it was too low for that and there wasn’t an airport in that direction, anyway.
She almost gasped when she realized that it wasn’t a plane but a dragon. It was a long way off but she had seen it bank and saw its dark silhouette against the reddish earth below. Its wings and tail were unmistakable. This was a dragon—the first she had ever seen besides her mother and herself.
Curiosity surged through her. She seldom had an issue with her aura as her mother constantly reminded her. While it was what Hester described as closed off, even the lizards hiding in the scrub below, she was certain, could feel her desire to find out more about her kind.
The curiosity was as quickly followed by caution. Her mom had forbidden her from meeting other dragons. It was the number one rule she had to follow and Hester had drilled it into her head since before she could fly. For whatever reason, she had never told her why.
At times—especially over the last few years—the rule had been frustrating, but it hadn’t exactly been difficult to follow. Kylara had never even seen another dragon. To attempt to break the rule would have involved either stealing her mom’s car or flying hundreds of miles through the desert. Neither was an option that she particularly wanted to take.
But now, one flew in view of her land.
Kylara thought about her mother’s rule and how serious she had always been about it. She was not to meet another dragon…but could she look at one? After all, it wasn’t like she had been raised in a vacuum. Her mom had taught her about dragons, their history, and even their current events—an especially exciting topic for the young dragon, as the exploits of the Steel Dragon and the new organization she had created a year before were more exciting than any book. She had told her daughter not to meet a dragon. It seemed logical that there was probably a reason for that. But to peek at one? How could that possibly hurt?
Her mind made up, she tucked her wings and dropped to glide over the arid landscape. She wanted to see this dragon but that didn’t mean she wanted to be seen. Fortunately, her dragon form was perfectly suited for her environment.
In this light, her scales varied from copper to red. In reality, they were like her mother’s—the color of a diamond—with the same hard, crystalline edges that made her mom’s dragon form so tough. But the underlying shade was different, exactly like her skin was only a few shades darker than Hester’s.
In the light of the late afternoon sun, she looked like a mirage floating over the desert, an apparition of heat hardly any different than the colors of the desert itself. She looked nothing like her mom, not in her dragon form or in her human body, but Hester had always explained that the magic in dragon blood made hereditary traits more interesting than they were in humans.
Kylara flew low and slow over the landscape, keeping her gaze fixed on the dragon as she drew closer to it. She could not sense its aura yet. If she did, she did not know what she would do. Even that might be enough to satiate her curiosity. But she couldn’t sense it yet so she flew closer.
It was hard to tell in the light, but it looked like the dragon was coming closer. Did that mean it had seen her too? She had been up quite high—higher than her mom liked her to fly when they were anywhere but the very center of their land—but had the stranger seen her before she had seen it?
She knew these questions would not be answered. Certainly, she’d be lucky to even see the true color of the dragon’s scales without it seeing her. But maybe, after seeing this dragon, she could finally get some answers from her mom. She knew some of the girls in the area had a Quinceanera celebration. Could it have something to do with that? A coming of age ritual? She decided she would ask her mom—after she had a better look at this dragon.
Her mother, however, had other ideas.
Hester Diamantine—her scales the color of diamonds frozen in ice and eyes burning with rage—screamed into the dry desert air behind her errant daughter. “Where on earth do you think you’re going, young lady?”
“Mom!” Kylara responded, grasped for other words, and found none.
Her mom caught up to her extremely quickly. The young dragon forced a smile on her face but her mother showed far more teeth in her fury.
“Well?” Hester demanded. “What could possibly compel you to break my single most important rule?”
In the face of her mother’s wrath, she didn’t have an answer. She knew her mom would demand far more than, “I only wanted a peek.” In an effort to preempt the inevitable lecture, she chose her only viable option. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
“You’d better be, young lady. You’re off our land, were flying so high everyone in the four-state area must have seen you, and when I catch up to you, I see another dragon who you seem to be approaching? Have you lost your mind?”
No, I finally started using it, Kylara wanted to say, but she didn’t. Instead, she fell in behind Hester, caught her wake, and used it to glide home. Still, she couldn’t help but glance at the other dragon with longing. If it was so bad to see the other dragon, why did she want to so badly
_________
I have some sympathy for Kylara, I would also want to meet a dragon. This snippet really got me thinking, in fact I have more questions now than I did before. But don’t worry all will be revealed November 15th when Never a Dragon: Dragon’s Daughter book 1 is released. Until then head over to Amazon and pre-order your book!
Dwarves, Aliens, and Boxed-Sets Oh My! Fan’s Pricing Saturday for November 14th, 2020
Dwarves, more Dwarves, plus some Space Opera Action on this Fan’s pricing Saturday for November 14th, 2020
Note: We requested the price changes from Amazon on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, they don’t change all of the prices at one time. Please double-check the price before clicking “Buy”.)
All of these new releases are 99c for one day only!
And they are also available for FREE in Kindle Unlimited!
Grab them today before the prices go up!
Go Dwarf Yourself
Don’t Give a Dwarf
Shadow Vanguard Boxed Set
Enter for your chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card
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