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<\/a>Up ahead, under the silver moonlight, mist fogged the air where the river turned to a thundering waterfall. In the mist, I found a man standing on a rock wall. He faced away from me with his hands clasped behind his back as he stared over the edge.<\/p>\nAlthough he wore the same refined clothing as the rest of the gathering\u2014a dark green tunic with jeweled collar and cuffs, dark pants, and tall boots\u2014I knew him immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cKull,\u201d I called, rushing toward him.<\/p>\n
He rounded, his eyes wide with surprise as I neared the distance between us. As I approached, I almost didn\u2019t recognize him. His eyes weren\u2019t his. I stopped and drew back. He looked at me as if he didn\u2019t know me.<\/p>\n
My heart dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cKull?\u201d<\/p>\n
He blinked as if coming out of a trance, and the look disappeared. \u201cOlive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Stepping off the ledge, he approached me, walking guardedly, and then stopped. We only stood a few feet apart, but to me, it felt like miles.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you okay?\u201d I asked him.<\/p>\n
He forced a smile.<\/p>\n
My insides squirmed. This was him, wasn\u2019t it? It felt as if the shadow, that constant companion that had haunted him since his father\u2019s death, that had only recently been lifted, was returning once again.<\/p>\n
I went to him and hugged him gently, resting my head on his chest. His heart beat in steady, slow thumps. It was still him, and I refused to lose him again.<\/p>\n
\u201cKull, what did she do to you?\u201d<\/p>\n
He took my shoulders and moved me away from him, then pulled down his tunic collar to reveal a band of stone around his neck.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s trying to make me one of hers.\u201d<\/p>\n
A clammy sweat broke out over my skin. \u201cWe\u2019ll stop her. I won\u2019t let that happen to you. We can escape.\u201d<\/p>\n
He turned to stare at the waterfall. \u201cThere is a way,\u201d he whispered, and then pointed. \u201cDown there.\u201d<\/p>\n
I studied the water as it barreled over the edge. There was no way to tell what lay at the bottom, but the drop didn\u2019t look survivable. \u201cIs that the only way?\u201d<\/p>\n
He stepped closer to me, took my arm, and leaned toward my ear. The roaring water almost drowned out his voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen carefully. You must meet me here after the ball. There is a hidden staircase that runs the length of the falls. We\u2019ll escape together before she changes me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKull, I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said she\u2019ll kill you if I try to escape.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we must go together. We\u2019ll return to the ball for a time, and we must pretend to not know about the staircase. The queen is smart, but she\u2019s overconfident. No one has escaped from this place, and so she thinks it\u2019s not possible. But that\u2019s only because she\u2019s taken these people\u2019s free will, so they have no reason to escape. She\u2019s grown lax. That\u2019s how I was able to find the staircase so easily.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glancing past him, I tried to see the hidden staircase but could only see the mist reflected in the moonlight. What if the collar were messing with Kull\u2019s mind and making him see things that weren\u2019t there?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re sure there\u2019s a staircase down there?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I discovered it earlier when she was away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you sure we can use it to escape? What if it just leads to another part of the castle?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know, but I\u2019m willing to try whatever it takes to escape this place.\u201d Desperation shone in his eyes.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t sure if I should follow him or not. It didn\u2019t seem as if he were using sound judgment, but I couldn\u2019t blame him\u2014he was about to become the queen\u2019s prisoner for the rest of eternity. Squeezing his hand, I knew I would follow him through hell and back if it meant we were together.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll right,\u201d I said. \u201cAfter the ball, I\u2019ll return here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kull kissed my forehead, and I took in the familiar scent of his skin and hair, the wild essence of dark forests and sandalwood. We would survive this somehow. We always did.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Need to know what happens next? Pre-order your copy today!<\/p>\n
\n>>>CLICK HERE<<<<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nto pre-order!<\/p>\n
Live long and dream on!<\/p>\n
~Tamara<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi Friends! I’ve been hard at work on Deathbringer, the next book after Silverwitch in the Fairy World MD series, which means I haven’t posted much about Silverwitch. Today, I’m fixing that and giving you a snippet. Hope you enjoy! To pre-order your copy of Silverwitch, releasing on December 19… >>CLICK HERE<<< From Silverwitch, Chapter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[148,146,150,5,76,147,130,67,149],"class_list":["post-2015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-releases","tag-dragons","tag-fae","tag-fairies","tag-fairy-world-md","tag-fantasy","tag-magic","tag-new-release","tag-snippet","tag-witches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2016,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015\/revisions\/2016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}