Chrysalis - The Gifted Series Book 1 by Maria MacDonald Book Tour and Giveaway :)
Chrysalis
The
Gifted Series Book 1
by
Maria MacDonald
Genre:
YA Urban Fantasy
Emery
never realized the kind of power she held.
Her
whole life had been one long battle. Against other children, bullies,
her abusers. Forever the outsider, living her days isolated and
lonely. She didn't know that while waging her own battles, another
kind of war was coming.
In
just one night her whole life changed.
When
she finds herself in danger, the power that was lying dormant inside
of her suddenly releases, surprising everyone.
In
the aftermath, a figure appears in the shadows – Elijah. With an
air of mysteriousness and answers she had no idea she needed, Emery
suddenly understands she’s not alone.
He's
either here to save her or bury her. But with no time to ask
questions, she takes the plunge, grabs his hand, and prepares herself
for a whole new world. One where she will be reborn.
Prologue
I didn’t look back when they called
names. I ignored the sharp pain in my back, from the stones and empty
soda cans they threw at me when I walked by. I kept my face hidden
from them and controlled my tears by biting my tongue, until the
familiar metallic taste flooded my mouth. It’s what I always did.
I was different, and the children
within my small town hated me with a passion that I didn’t
rightfully understand at my young age.
‘Emma the elephant’ and ‘alien
face’ were amongst the common names that were used to describe me
as a young child. It progressed and evolved to ‘salad dodger’ and
‘wide load.’ Though the one I was called the most was ‘rat
girl,’ which was meant to be like Bat Girl, but it was more of an
insult than anything else. They used the name because my teeth were
bigger in the front. Like a lot of children, I had to grow into them.
I was alone. Isolated. Hated and abused. I had no parents, no one to
care for me. My whole life had been hollow, empty, and the feeling,
it seemed, was to be terminal.
The day my life changed monumentally is
one I’ll never forget. It was the day I was reborn.
Walking from my job at the local
bookstore, the sun had set and I wrapped my arms around myself as a
chill started to seep into my skin. That’s when I saw them.
My abusers.
In school there was a bigger crowd, but
tonight I saw only three. Boys… almost men. They were eighteen now,
just like me. They hadn’t stopped dishing out the insults since
they began back in first grade. In fact, after returning this last
year, it’s become worse.
My looks had changed over the summer. I
grew into my gangly body and my teeth, my acne cleared, and my long
blond hair is now thick and lush. These boys noticed me, they all
did. The taunts never stopped, but I saw it in their eyes—there was
an annoyance. Just like it had always been, but now there was also a
want… they wanted the new me. They hated craving me. It was new to
them and they just didn’t know what to do about it. Plus, none of
them were brave enough to admit it. Not that it would have changed
anything. Let’s face it, I hated them all, with a passion.
When they approached me that night it
wasn’t with caution. It should have been. Fear would have served
them well. I was meek, quiet. I didn’t fight back. I was an easy
target… that’s what they thought. That’s what I thought. Why
would they be frightened of little old me?
When they pushed me into the back alley
and tried to rip my clothes off, things changed. I listened to their
voices, heard the evil inside them, and felt the cruel enjoyment that
wept from their pores. I didn’t understand it then. But I do now.
That fight was monumental and thus began my life.
I was reborn. I was new. I became what
I was always meant to be. They started that, but they’ll never
know, never see. I killed them that day—all three boy-men. They
were sons, nephews, boyfriends. Hell, they might have been future
presidents for all I knew. Either way, I ripped their lives from
their bodies in the blink of an eye.
I still feel that evil, the grime under
my fingernails, and it eats away at me. One day it might win and then
all could be lost. For now, I hold it back, like a dam impounding
water, controlling it and stopping it from overflowing and decimating
everything in its path.
That night, as they tried to rape me,
pawing at my clothes and laughing among themselves,while I was on the
floor assured of my death - or at the very least my violation - my
heart rate picked up speed and something sparked inside me. Something
that had lain dormant, something that would set me free. Something
that was so unnatural to me, yet felt so very right.
When the light took over it was
blinding, I couldn’t control it. If I’d have known how, then
perhaps they would have survived—maybe. When I touched them with my
hands, trying to push them off me, they screamed. The sound was
bloodcurdling, and as their flailing arms stilled and their lifeless
bodies dropped to the asphalt, I had no time to recover or to make
sense of the situation surrounding me. A shrouded figure bounded out
of nowhere, grabbed my wrist, and hauled me up.
“Come with me, Emery,” he ordered
softly, but I couldn’t move.
As I tried to blink away the events,
dismissing them as my crazy overactive imagination, he must have seen
the confusion, or maybe it was fear that was clear in my eyes.
“Emery, you killed them,” he told
me as gently as possible, pointing to my three attackers on the
ground.
I looked down at their bodies but felt
nothing. No remorse. No regret. I was just cold from the wind that
whipped against my skin through torn clothing and from the ice that
I’d allowed to fill me inside, shutting out every truth from that
night.
Now that time has passed, I see the
vision that I blocked out back then so clearly in my nightmares
sometimes. I feel it all now.
“I need to get you somewhere safe.
Then I can explain everything,” he told me as he tugged me forward.
I could hear the sirens in the
distance. Someone must have seen something, and the cops were closing
in. I had no time to think, no time to decide if this person urging
me to follow him was good or evil. But knowing what I did, I wasn’t
entirely sure if I could be classified as good anymore. What I knew
was that I had no one in my corner. So, I made a choice that night
and followed the man who seemed to hold the promise of something
else, something better than the lowly existence I loathed.
That was how this started.
Now, the fight that I thought was huge
that first night, seems insignificant to what I face ahead of me.
What we all face. Now I’m in the fight of my life. For everyone and
for myself.
But to tell the story, I need to go
back to the beginning. Back to my emergence.
Maria is a full time working Mum, she has two beautiful daughters, both of whom love books as much as she does.
Maria
has loved to write since she was a little girl.
Reading
and loving books, as well as blogging, has inspired her to write and
publish.
Maria,
her husband and children now reside in Wiltshire, England.
Follow
the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts and a giveaway!
Comments
Post a Comment