It may be Wednesday but we had some mighty amazing teasers yesterday – and I REALLY don’t want you to miss them 🙂 I think you will really enjoy the first one 😉

All work Copyright Rebecca Ethington 2013, all following unedited and subject to change.

From Soul of Flame (Imdalind #4)

“Ilyan,” I said again, his eyes opening slowly to stare at me, “you are behind my anger.”
My words were clear, the emotion strong and pulsing through me. Ilyan opened his eyes and I looked into the endless depth of him. The ocean of his eyes swallowing up the last of my nerves and my insecurities. I let myself get lost in his eyes as, for the first time in what felt like months I felt like me.
Just Joclyn Despian. Not the girl who had lost everything. Not the girl who was hunted, and tortured, and broken. Just me.
Everything was clear inside of me.
I could feel everything. My magic stretched away from me, touching every bit of the world around me and soaking it up. I felt the stretches of the large Abbey we were closeted in, everyone milling around, huddling around loved ones. Beyond the walls of the Abbey that secured us I could feel the armies that surrounded us, the light from their fires, and their thirst for blood. I could feel the gentle buzz of the fireflies as they warned of wars, the nervous magic of the earth as it feared the blood.
Ilyan was a bright spot in the darkness I was surrounded by. His powerfully calming emotions echoed in my own heart, the slow and gentle flow of it calming and I felt myself relax further, the worries and fears that had taken over seeping away into nothing.
Through that calm I had been granted I could feel my own emotions clearly for the first time, I understood everything.
Everything that had happened, that was going to happen. It all stretched before me like a carpet, a welcome mat to what could be. In the blue of his eyes I could see every good, every bad, and in that look I knew I wanted it. Every bit of it.
I wanted him.
“I always will be,” he whispered, his breath warm against my fingers, the warmth surging through me and I felt my muscles tense. My heart beat faster.
He was right, he always would be. I had seen it. I hadn’t accepted it, but now, feeling my emotions so strong and clear for the first time; I knew. My own emotions mirrored his, my heart slowed down to beat in time with his, and I couldn’t help it. I felt his breath against my fingers, his emotions growing and my love for him swelled, and I leaned forward and I kissed him.
I had never kissed someone before. Yes, I had been kissed. But to make that last move, the final step before lips press against lips, and warmth and skin blend together in a orchestra of emotions and need and magic. I had never done that before.
And I could have never have prepared myself for the strength of the connection I would feel with Ilyan.
I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his, the skin hot and wet as we connected. My heart beat faster at the touch, my magic heating almost instantly as it rushed through me, wild and uncontrollable. I would have fought for control, I would have calmed. But I couldn’t focus beyond the feel of Ilyan’s lips against mine, the way everything inside of me was on fire. The way everything around us seemed to rejoice.

From Through Glass – Sept. 20th 2013.

They were coming for me.

The screech grew at I heard the front door to my house grind open, as I heard the quick click of talons against the floor. I tensed, everything tight inside of me as I tried to fight the cry that still flowed from my mouth. I clawed at it, my ears perked at every sound as I listened, waited.

No.

This was not what I had chosen; this was not what I had fought for. I hadn’t fought hunger and starvation and darkness and loneliness only to end up like all the others, a circle of ash in the darkness.

This couldn’t be happening.

I wouldn’t wait. I couldn’t let this happen.

“No!” I yelled in fear and pain as the screech attempted to incapacitate me, my voice barely able to make it above the sound that filled my house.

I pulled myself up, trying my best to ignore the weakness of my body, the pain in my eyes as the scaly feet of the monster that had come to kill me stepped into view, the clawed toes clicking against the slick linoleum.

“NOOOO!” I screamed at him, my voice rocking as I screamed in its face. Its eyes looked at me from behind the sharp black spines that covered it, the blackness of them deep in anger.

Do not defy us.

I could hardly see how that mattered anymore. How the rules mattered. They didn’t and I wouldn’t let them.

I looked at the thing with all the strength I could muster, my teeth grinding themselves together with each pulse of anger I felt. I didn’t care that I had just broken another rule. I didn’t care if it was here to kill me, I wouldn’t let it.

It raised its hands, each finger a large golden talon waiting to dig into me. I squared my jaw as I looked at the ugly half human being in front of me. Determination thrumming angrily through me.

My heart beat heavy in my ears, my pulse quick through my body as the fear that was threatening to take over met with my anger and swelled into something tangible. It rocked through me and I screamed.

It wasn’t a scream of fear; it was a battle cry that ripped out of my tender vocal cords until I tasted the blood that now lined my throat. I didn’t care if it was useless; I wasn’t going to end like this.

I refused.

“NOOO!” I screamed again as I rushed it, my tiny body running into the heavy torso of the Ulama. The screech of the monster increased in confusion as I made contact with the razor sharp feathers that covered its body. A million points of pain and pressure cut into my skin as I collided with it, the sharp point of each spine cutting into my skin and seeping warm wet trails of my own blood out of my body.

I ignored the pain, I didn’t care. I would not just let him win so easily. It was my life and I would fight for it.