Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Cover Reveal ~ With Visions of Red (Broken Bonds, Book One) by Trisha Wolfe!!


TITLE: With Visions of Red (Broken Bonds, #1)
AUTHOR: Trisha Wolfe
RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2015

 

SYNOPSIS:
Told from multiple points of view, this is a mature dark romance intended for adult readers.

Criminal profiler Sadie Bonds knows blood. Her affair with the gruesome, dark world of killers began long before she started applying her analytical skills to investigate gory crime scenes. She gets inside the killers’ heads, breaks them down, relates to them on an arcane level. She prefers it this way—because it’s safer to ally herself with the villain than the victim. At least, that’s how she’s coped ever since she was abducted and tortured as a teen.
She will never be a victim again.
Now, she’s honed her skills in order to bring justice to these ritualistic offenders. Working alongside her colleagues, armed with sharp wit and a SIG, Sadie always catches her sadist. Until one ruthless serial killer gets inside Sadie’s head, turning the tables. He knows her secrets. Her obsessions. The darkest, most deviant part of her soul.
When she meets Colton Reed, dangerous stakes are raised as he threatens to unravel her control and reveal her darkest fantasies. The sexy-as-sin bondage rigger at an exclusive BDSM club pushes her boundaries, forcing her to acknowledge that side of herself she fears. Plunged into a realm of torture and suffering, pain and pleasure, Sadie balances on the razor-sharp edge of two intersecting worlds threatening to swallow her.
Passion and lust ignite. Dark and light battle. This explosive first installment of the Broken Bonds series sets the exhilarating pace for a cat and mouse game where no one knows who’s really pulling the strings.


ABOUT TRISHA WOLFE:
From an early age, Trisha Wolfe dreamed up fantasy worlds and characters and was accused of talking to herself. Today, she lives in South Carolina with her family and writes full time, using her fantasy worlds as an excuse to continue talking to herself.

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Cover Reveal ~ Pixelated by L. S. Murphy

 
Pixelated
Release Date: 06/30/15
Bloomsbury Spark

Summary from Goodreads:
Senior Year. 

Middle of nowhere. 

What's the new girl to do?

For Piper Marks, the answer is simple. She’s determined to have her photography rock the cover of National Geographic someday, and moving to Clarkton, Iowa for her last year of high school is not going to stop her. Even if her usual subjects have changed from bright lights and skyscrapers to fields, cows…and more fields. 

But when photographer at the local paper quits in a huff, she steps into his spot. Her new job keeps Piper busy capturing tackles, and zooming in on first downs and end zone dances, not to mention putting her directly in the path of varsity football star Les Williams IV. Her new friends warn her off, but she can’t resist the pull she feels toward this mysterious country boy. But this small town is keeping a secret, and it’s one that could destroy any chance they have to be together. 

It’s up to Piper to decide what to do with the distorted truth. Can she risk exposing her heart? It might be worth it, 'cause Les is about to change her world from black and white to fully saturated color. 


Praise for Pixelated: "In Pixelated, L.S. Murphy weaves a complex web of secrets and lies with a ‘will they or won’t they’ romance that kept me turning pages and holding my breath!" ~ Julie Reece, author of The Artisans and Crux

"Beautifully written, with a full spectrum of emotion and complex characters, Pixelated will tug at all your heartstrings. I easily lost myself in the world L.S. Murphy created and couldn't stop reading because I needed to see how the story ended." ~ Kelly Oram, author of Cinder & Ella

"L.S. Murphy brings something for every reader with Pixelated: romance, secrets, mystery, and a main character torn between two choices. Murphy's writing is sharp and steeped in emotions, deftly hooking her readers from the first sentence to the last." ~ Sarah Bromley, author of A Murder Of Magpies 


About the Author:
L.S. Murphy obsesses about St. Louis Cardinals baseball, fangirls over her favorite authors, and watches every episode of Doctor Who like it's the first time. When she's not doing those time-consuming things, the former farm-girl turned city slicker turned suburbanite writes sweet romances for teens and adults.

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Monday, April 20, 2015

Book Blitz ~ Twisted (Deathwind Trilogy, Book 1) by Holly Hook - Giveaway and Excerpt

 

 

by Holly Hook 
Release Date: 12/15/13

Summary from Goodreads:

This novel will be released on December 15, 2013.

Sixteen-year-old Allie isn’t like other girls. Instead of spending her summer break sitting around on the beach, she takes the epic vacation of a lifetime.

Tornado chasing.

And she’s not disappointed. Just a few miles from the town of Evansburg, Nebraska, Allie meets her dream of seeing a tornado. In person. She can’t wait to tell her friends back home. Never mind that her parents are going to kill her.

But her dream soon turns into a nightmare, and a strange event leaves her shocked. Confused. When she returns home to Wisconsin, something’s…different. Allie now bears a curse so awful, it could destroy everyone and everything she’s ever known.

With her best friend, Tommy, Allie must return to the plains to find a way to reverse it. She enters a world that she had never imagined, where she becomes a pawn in a fight to save the people of Evansburg from her fate…or to destroy them.


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Chapter One
My very first tornado shreds the grass of the plains.
I stand next to the van, mouth dropping open, heart pounding.  It's the moment I've been waiting for.  I’ve saved the money for years and begged my uncle to book us for the Wild Weather Storm Chasing Tours.
Uncle Cassius gasps next to me, equally in awe.  It barely cuts over the wind rushing towards the distant funnel.  Waves of grass bow down to the twister, whipped down by the surrounding air flying in to feed it.  The perfect white cone stands out against the coal sky, slim and graceful.  A skirt of dust spins around its base, signaling its dance through a field a few miles away.  The wind snaps against my jeans, pulling at my new Wild Weather Tours T-shirt.
"Beautiful!"  Kyle, our storm chaser guide, snaps a photo for his website.  He steals a glance at me and smiles.  The wind ruffles his ash-blond hair.  Wrinkles form around his eyes.  He's all enthusiasm, joy that we've found our prey. "Don't worry.  We're safe.  It's heading to the east.  It'll pass no closer than a couple of miles to our north."
I want his job someday.
"I'm not scared," I said, but my shaky voice betrays me.  Who am I kidding?  Kyle's an experienced chaser--twenty years--but this is a real tornado.  In person.  Live.  I never realized it would be this intense, this breathtaking.  A hollow feeling fills my stomach like I'm plunging down the first hill of a roller coaster.  It is scary…but fun.
My parents would murder me and Uncle Cassius both for sneaking away on this trip.  If they find out we’re not really in Disney World being bored to death by Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, well, it’ll be way scarier than this storm.  
The tornado curves, almost like it's leaning to the side for a better look at something.  At us?  It's a weird thought, one that makes me laugh.  The thunderstorm spins slowly above it, low and menacing.  Thunder claps.  It's enough to remind me that the storm in front of me isn't just beautiful.  It's a predator, entrancing like a cobra and ready to strike.
Good thing there's no houses or buildings in its way.  Only farmland stretches from horizon to horizon.  
"Allie.  Forget your camera?"  Uncle Cassius points to my pocket and smiles.  It’s a tense smile.  So I'm not the only one with some nerves going.
Camera.
Yes.  Duh.
I pull it out of my pocket and fumble with the slim case, fingers hunting for the button.  The camera zings to life.  Behind it, the tornado looms a bit larger, gaining strength and racing across the ground.  More dust kicks up around the perfect white of the twister.  
"Now I can really prove to everyone at school how crazy I am."  I give Uncle Cassius a nervous chuckle.  The camera trembles in my hands as I catch the tornado in my view, click, and seal it in my memory forever.
I'm having the most insane summer vacation of my entire high school.  I can’t wait to share this with Tommy and Bethany.  Bethany’s going to beg for all the details.  Tommy will tell me that I’m the bravest, most awesome girl he knows.  
I’ve got to get me and the tornado in the same picture and send it to them tonight.  I dig in my other pocket and hand my phone to Uncle Cassius.  “Photo.”  
He takes my phone.  “Stand back.”
I do.  Now the wind blows my hair back like it’s trying to pull me away, but I stand there, moving to the side so Uncle Cassius can get the whole picture.  I force myself to look at my phone in his hand.  It’s not easy when there’s a twister just a mile or two behind me, ripping up the earth.
“Got it!”  Uncle Cassius waves me back.  
I join him and glance at the phone for just a second.  I’m on the screen, dark hair wild and flying.  The tornado looms large behind me like it’s looking over my shoulder.  It’s the most awesome picture ever.  Tommy’s going to love it.  
I lift my camera for another shot, backing up to squeeze the tornado into the viewport.  I click another picture and lower the camera again for another look.
My heart jumps.
The tornado looms larger, taller.  Kyle holds his hand up to his face, squinting for a better view.  Even Uncle Cassius goes quiet, stiffening and taking a step back towards the tour van.
All at once I understand.
The tornado has changed course.
Kyle turns.  Real fear widens his features.  
"Get in the van," he shouts.
I turn and grab the door, yanking it open.  Uncle Cassius pushes me from behind, making me vault into the van.  “Get in, Allie!”
The roar behind me builds, like boulders rushing down a mountain towards me.  The wind whips my hair back, trying to pull me back out of the van.  It feels like the twister's right behind me already, coming down for the kill.
I slam the door on it.  Uncle Cassius moves out of my view, running around the van to the other door.  The funnel's much bigger behind the window, so close that I can't see the top of it anymore.  
Uncle Cassius jumps in through the opposite door and snaps on his seat belt next to me.  Kyle starts the van up, punches the gas, and gets us back on the road to nowhere.
I put my camera on the seat.  My hands fumble with the seat belt.  The van speeds up and the inertia makes me sink into my seat.  Uncle Cassius says something else, but it’s lost on me.  The specter of the tornado closes in, whipping across the field towards us.  I've heard of tornadoes making sudden turns like this but I never realized it could happen this fast.  
It rips across the field.  My heart beats on a runaway course.  My mind locks into overdrive.  I feel like that news crew they always have on tornado shows, that one that survived by hiding under that overpass.  Will Kyle make us get out and climb under one?  They're actually bad places to hide.  That news crew got off lucky.  Kyle knows better.  He's been chasing storms longer than I’ve been alive.
Only green and yellow fields spread out ahead.  There’s no shelter for miles.  The storm radar on Kyle's laptop is covered in ugly red and orange blotches like Nebraska has sores.  
A hole of panic opens up inside me and for the first time, I regret coming on this vacation.
"Can't you go faster?"  Uncle Cassius leans forward in his seat, gaze hard, arms trembling.  His glasses are coming down his nose, ready to fall off.  His normally neat Yoda T-shirt is sweaty and sticking to him so much I can see his ribs.
Uncle Cassius never loses his cool.
Ever.
Not even when I crawled into the dinosaur display at the museum when I was six and climbed up the back of the Stegosaurus.  Not even when I tried to stand on his porch when I was eleven and watch hail the size of tennis balls rain from the sky.
Outside, the tornado grows so close that I can only see the bottom half of the funnel.  The van bounces along every speed bump on the highway, every uneven spot.  My stomach heaves.  I'm going to be sick right here.  It's my stupid fault we're in this mess.  
"I don't understand."  Kyle punches the gas harder, making the van jump.  He turns his head like a guy possessed by a demon, eyes widening.  "The tornado should not be moving this way."
He's right.  It shouldn't.  For the tornado to turn and come right at us, it would have to drag the whole storm with it.  But it’s still coming.  It makes no sense.
The funnel reaches the road behind us, twisting harder, kicking up earth higher and higher.  We've gotten out in front of it.  I breathe a sigh of relief.  Kyle and Uncle Cassius do the same.  It'll cross the road and forget all about us.  
Kyle lets off the gas a little and the whine of the engine calms some.  "We're safe now.  That was highly unusual.  I've never seen a tornado turn like that in my career."  There's a hint of an apology in his voice.
"Well, that was a close one, wasn't it, Allie?"  Uncle Cassius hugs me from the side.  
"Yeah," I say, willing my heart to slow down.  At least I can think straight now.  Can I even do another two days of this?  
Wow, what a dumb idea this was.
But I still can't resist another look at the storm.  I turn as far as my seat belt allows.
My guts fall out of me all over again.
The tornado's still on the road, bigger than ever.  It can't be.  
The twister has turned again.  It's coming right up behind us.  Rolling earth eats the entire highway.  There's tornado taking up the whole view of the back window.  Dust rips to the sides.  The bottom of its funnel spins with fury, big enough to swallow a house whole.  Its roar screams against the outside of the vehicle, shaking the seat, pushing the whole van to the side.  
It's no longer beautiful.
"Ohmigod," I say, sucking in a breath.  "Um…Kyle?  Um…”
"I know!" he snaps.  His knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.  The van lurches again but he maintains control.  
"Allie, get down!"  Uncle Cassius pulls me towards him.  The seat belt cuts into my shoulder.  
What good is it going to do?  If the tornado lifts the car--
I'm going to die.
I begged to go on this trip and now Uncle Cassius is going to die too.  
The windows shatter with a deafening boom and the wind screams in my ears.  AllieAllieAllieAllie…
I can't breathe.  
We're floating.
Uncle Cassius shouts something.  Kyle yells.  If I'm screaming, I can't tell.  The storm's sucking it right out of me.  Windy hands seize my arms, my legs.  
They pull.
My safety belt snaps open, whipping against my leg.  I scream with the sting.  The seat disappears under me and the van door rips open.
I'm flying.
The tornado's ripping me right out of the van.
The world turns to a white and brown roar.  The van's gone.  I have no time to cry out to Uncle Cassius before the world snaps to black and silence swallows me.

About the Author:

Holly Hook is the author of the Destroyers Series, which consists of five young adult books about teens who are walking disasters...literally. She is also the author of the Rita Morse series, a young adult fantasy series still in progress, and After These Messages, a short ya comedy. Currently she is writing Twisted, a spin-off of the Destroyers Series due out in December. When not writing, she enjoys reading books for teens, especially ya fantasy and paranormal series with a unique twist.

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Friday, April 17, 2015

Blog Tour ~ The Truth About Jack by Jody Gehrman - Promo Post

 

  

The Truth About Jack
Release Date: 04/14/15
Entangled Crush

Summary from Goodreads:

Dakota McCloud has just been accepted into a prestigious art school. Soon she'll leave behind the artists' colony where she grew up―hippie dad, tofu since birth, yurt―and join her boyfriend and best friend on the East Coast. It was the plan…until Dakota finds out her boyfriend and best friend hooked up behind her back.


Hurt and viciously betrayed, Dakota pours out her heart on a piece of paper, places it in a bottle, and hurls it into the ocean. But it doesn't quite go where she expects…

Jack Sauvage finds the bottle washed up on the shore and responds to Dakota's letter. Except what if his straight-laced life doesn’t jive with the free-spirited girl he’s only seen from afar? As Jack creates a persona he believes she’ll love, they slowly fall for each other with each new letter. Now Jack is trying to find a way to make this delicate, on-paper romance happen in real life…without revealing his deception.



Buy Links:

Two Truths and One Lie About Jack

Can you tell which is which?

1. Jack’s mother is extremely overprotective. Jack’s uncle died in a car accident a couple decades ago, and ever since his mom’s been paranoid about anyone she loves hitting the road. As a result, Jack’s the only person in his hometown with a full time chauffeur. Well, Attila used to be a part-time tutor, part-time chauffeur, before Jack got into Julliard. Now that the academic pressures’ off, he doesn’t need a tutor, so voila! Attila became his full time driver. It’s both a luxury and a source of extreme embarrassment, according to Jack.

2. Jack’s got a burning desire to be a winemaker, just like his father. He stays up all night in the wine cellars of his family vineyard trying to blend the perfect merlot. His love of wine makes him dangerously boring at parties. If someone so much as cracks open a wine cooler, Jack insists on analyzing its bouquet.


3. Sometimes Jack can lose himself entirely in his music. He delves so deeply into the notes that he can feel each chord vibrating inside his chest, like he’s not just playing music--he is the music. He’s the moody smokiness of Rachmaninoff and the soft pastels of Chopin. This is what he lives for, this total surrender to the moment, when he’s so lost in the notes he forgets his own name.

About the Author:

Jody Gehrman is a native of Northern California, where she can be found writing, teaching, reading, or obsessing over her three cats most days. She is also the author of ten novels and numerous award-winning plays. Her Young Adult novels include The Truth About Jack, Audrey's Guide to Black Magic, Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft, Babe in Boyland, Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty, and Triple Shot Bettys in Love. Babe in Boyland was optioned by the Disney Channel and won the International Reading Association's Teen Choice Award. Her adult novels are Bombshell, Notes from the Backseat, Tart, and Summer in the Land of Skin. Her plays have been produced in Ashland, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and L.A. She and her partner David Wolf won the New Generation Playwrights Award for their one-act, Jake Savage, Jungle P.I. She is a professor of English and Communication Studies at Mendocino College.

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Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Cover Reveal ~ Illuminate (The Light Key Trilogy #3) by Tracy Clark

 
Release Date: 10/06/15
Entangled Teen
320 pages

Summary from Goodreads:
Can one girl be the light in a world spiraling toward darkness?

Haunted by the loss of her loved ones, Cora Sandoval, one of the remaining few of an extraordinary race known as Scintilla, holds the key to disentangling the biggest conspiracy in human history...and its link to the fate of the human race. As Cora follows a trail of centuries-old clues and secrets, she collides with a truth not only shocking, but dangerous. 

With enemies both known and unknown hot on her trail, Cora must locate each of the ancient clues hidden in the art, religions, and mythologies of humankind. And through it all, she must keep her heart from being torn apart by the two boys she loves most. One is Scintilla, one is Arazzi. 

 Save herself. Save the Scintilla. Save the world.

Or die trying…


 
Book One: Scintillate

 
Book Two: Deviate 

About the Author:
 
Tracy Clark is a young-adult writer because she believes teens deserve to know how much they matter and that regardless of what they’re going through, they aren’t alone. In other words, she writes books for her teen self.

She grew up a “Valley Girl” in Southern California but now lives in her home state of Nevada, in a small town at the base of the Sierra Foothills. Her two children teach her the art of distraction and are a continuous source of great dialogue. She’s an unapologetic dog person who is currently owned by a cat.


Tracy was the recipient of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Work in Progress Grant. A two-time participant in the prestigious Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program where she was lucky enough to be mentored by bestselling author, Ellen Hopkins, who taught her so much about the art of writing and cured her of her ellipsis addiction.

Her debut novel was inspired by her enchantment with metaphysics as a teen, seeing it as the real magic in life. Tracy is a part-time college student, a private pilot, and an irredeemable dreamer.


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Monday, April 13, 2015

Release Day Blitz ~ Beckon Me (Beckoner #1) by Cindy Thomas

 

About BECKON ME: 
Everything nineteen-year-old Karina Mitchell knows about death changes the instant that she and her best friend, Rainey, are shot. For one, souls don’t die. They cross over. Only, Rainey’s soul hasn’t, and her ghost is hell bent on haunting Karina.

When Karina begins her sophomore year of college and moves into the apartment that she was supposed to share with Rainey, she learns a few shocking truths from her mysterious and gorgeous blue-eyed neighbor, Eli.
One: Karina has been chosen to become a Beckoner—an immortal conduit of the dead who helps safely guide souls to the other side.

Two: She’s the reason that Rainey’s soul can’t cross over—Rainey followed her back from death and missed her window to be at peace.

Three: Eli is hot. As in swoon-worthy, to-die-for, will-make-you-forget-yourself hot. And it turns out, Eli is a Beckoner, too.

Despite her attraction to Eli, the decision to become a Beckoner isn’t an easy one—it would mean giving up her own mortality … her own soul. But if she doesn’t, her best friend will be left to suffer an eternity at the hands of the evil Ceptors, dark creatures that feed on the souls left behind. After all, it’s her fault Rainey is haunting her.

Time is running out, and Karina needs to decide: Are love and loyalty worth sacrificing her soul?

Links to buy:

About the Author:
Cindy Thomas is a YA and NA author. She lives in PA with her husband and three boys. When she's not writing, she's also a senior publicist and the manager of marketing at Spencer Hill Press. 

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Friday, April 10, 2015

Book Blitz ~ Scar of the Bamboo Leaf by Sieni A.M.

 

 

Scar of the Bamboo Leaf
by Sieni A.M. 
Release Date: 07/09/14

Summary from Goodreads:

"That boy is like the bamboo...foreign and unknown in this environment. But like the bamboo, if you plant and nurture it in the right soil, it has the potential to grow vibrant and strong."

Walking with a pronounced limp all her life has never stopped fifteen-year-old Kiva Mau from doing what she loves. While most girls her age are playing sports and perfecting their traditional Samoan dance, Kiva finds serenity in her sketchbook and volunteering at the run-down art center her extended family owns, nestled amongst the bamboo.

When seventeen-year-old Ryler Cade steps into the art center for the first time, Kiva is drawn to the angry and misguided student sent from abroad to reform his violent ways. Scarred and tattooed, a friendship is formed when the gentle Kiva shows him kindness and beauty through art, until circumstances occur beyond their control and they are pulled away.

Immersed in the world of traditional art and culture, this is the story of self-sacrifice and discovery, of acceptance and forbearance, of overcoming adversity and finding one’s purpose. Spanning years, it is a story about an intuitive girl and a misunderstood boy and love that becomes real when tested.


Buy Links:



Excerpt:
Poised along the far wall to avoid distraction, Kiva perused the students scattered around the room, heads and shoulders bent over their wood carvings, the clink and thud of the chisel and mallet competing over each other. Mau paced his time with each student evenly, making his way around, offering guidance when needed. Kiva couldn’t make out his words from where she sat, only a few low mutterings accompanied by the shake or nod of his head.

Her eyes strayed until they settled on the boy with the mysterious tattoo. Ryler. Her suspicions were correct about his work when she noticed the slab of wood with the sliced words in front of him. He hadn’t spoken a word to any of the other boys, didn’t acknowledge them, and they avoided him too, as if he’d erected an invisible wall and they were aware of it.

Her uncle had no problem stepping through it though. He was with him now, speaking in low tones and gesturing to his work. What was he saying? Kiva strained to hear, but nothing came to her over the cacophony of sounds in the room. A muscle in Ryler’s jaw ticked as he sat, head bent, listening to him. Mau remained with him for some time, talking and listening, acknowledging the need to spend more time. Finally, he gave him a tap on the shoulder and a satisfied nod before moving away.

Kiva noticed when Ryler picked up a carving knife, pausing in concentration, his face tentative and contemplative, before he met it with wood, the muscles in his broad back contorting and flexing from the grip and release of the tool. What had he decided to carve? Kiva wanted to inch her way forward to find out but kept herself firmly planted. An hour passed and still she sat riveted to her spot.
A couple sharp drops on the roof were the only warning to the torrential downpour that followed.

“Makiva!” Hana’s voice shouted from across the yard and made her jump. “It’s raining! Get the laundry!”

Kiva scrambled off the floor, the noise drawing attention, and limped as quickly as she could to the line. The knifelike raindrops hit her on the back, stinging, and soaked through her shirt. Ignoring the pricks, she rushed to unpeg each piece of clothing, throwing it in the bucket and returning for more. The rain came down harder and faster, blurring her eyesight, the sound of a thunderclap roaring in her ears. Tea towels, Mau’s shirt, Hana’s school skirt. Breathless, her quick movements had long ago uncoiled her hair, wild and swirling in the wind; the pencil slipped out, lost somewhere. She was nearing the end of the line, grappling with a sheet, when she glanced up and noticed the boys running from the center to the van, their lesson over.

Ryler appeared last through the door, his brown eyes trained on her, and descended the stairs with heavy, deliberate steps. Kiva stared wide eyed as he stepped into the rain and came toward her with unhurried, even strides. She watched as raindrops pelted his gray shirt, soaking through to his shoulders until the wet dots spread and connected.

When he was a foot away, he lifted his hand.

“You dropped this,” he said, his voice low and hoarse, as if he was just getting over a cold. He smelled of wood dust and sweat.
She glanced down at his hand and saw the pencil she used to pin up her hair. It must have fallen in the art center in her haste to get to the laundry. Reaching for it, she noticed the deep scars on his left wrist and paused. From this close they looked even worse.
“It’s not what you think,” he answered, interpreting her thoughts.

Kiva snapped her eyes to his face. His brown eyes penetrated hers, thick lashes dripping from the rain, a line formed between his eyebrows. She tried not to fidget under his gaze and glanced to the right of his face. She saw a scar near his eye, something she hadn’t noticed before.

She calmly returned her gaze to him. “And what do I think?”

Ryler took a step closer. “You think that I did this to myself on purpose.”

“Did you?” She breathed.

He shook his head. “It was from a fight. The other guy had a broken bottle and I tried to block him.”

Kiva hissed as if she had been the one cut open and bleeding. Her eyes found the scar again and her stomach plummeted at the thought of the pain it must have caused. She felt suddenly light-headed and blinked to clear the blur clouding her mind.

The sound of the van’s horn blared from the drive way.

“Ryler! Hurry up, we’re going!” A superior impatiently gestured for him in the rain.

“You better go,” Kiva said hastily. “Thanks for returning this.” She took the pencil from his hand and curled her fingers around it.

Ryler remained unmoving. Why wasn’t he going? Did he want to get into trouble? He finally stepped away and turned, jogging over to the waiting van, his shirt now drenched through and stuck to his retreating back.

Kiva watched him go before letting out a shaky breath. She gathered her long hair in a bun, wrapped it once, twice, before stabbing the pencil through.

 

About the Author:
Sieni A.M. is a coffee addict, world traveler, and avid reader turned writer. She was born and raised in the South Pacific, graduated from the University of Canterbury, and is currently living in a port city near the Mediterranean with her husband and two daughters.

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