WHEN THE BEAST RAVENS
Home
Who I Am
My Books
Photos
What's New?
Reviews/
Feedback
Links
Novel Chapter:
Bryte’s Ascent
(Book 4 in the
Arucadi Series)
Archived Chapters of
Bryte's Ascent
|
sequel to A School for Sorcery Gray Becq was rescued from the Dire Realms, but he may have brought a demon back with him. When murder strikes in the Simonton School for the Magically Gifted, Gray is suspect--but so is Lina, who in her panther form could have left the wounds on the victim and the tracks around him. Or Oryon, who has the power to break wards and to cloak himself with invisibility. Rehanne Zalos wants to absolve Gray of suspicion; to do so, she must find the real murderer. But even she is not convinced of Gray's innocence.
Trade paperback in Tor's Starscape YA line
Cover art by Marilee Heyer, ©2005 |
EXCERPT
In his room he transferred clothes from his suitcase to dresser drawers, hung shirts and trousers in the armoire, shoving aside Reece’s things to make room for his, performing the tasks mechanically while his thoughts remained fixed on Rehanne.
He shouldn’t be angry with her; he should go down, find her, and apologize. She’d been helping her roommate, nothing wrong with that. It was an example of her kindhearted ways.
But an earring! She’d broken her promise over such a silly trifle. Hunting for her roommate’s earring. Valuable it might be, but it wasn’t hers and she hadn’t been responsible for its loss.
An earring. For another, darker reason that particular excuse had upset him.
His hands clenched. He crashed a fist against the dresser, kicked the bedpost, hurled the empty suitcase to the floor, then stood in the middle of the room shaking until the violent rage subsided into icy resentment.
He picked up his suitcase, latched it, and set it aside to be stored in the attic. The mess Reece had left on the floor offended him. He kicked the shoe under Reece’s bed, threw the wet towel out into the hall, and gathered up a handful of trash that included three red and silver candy wrappers. Sitting in his desk chair, he methodically reduced the candy wrappers to tiny scraps.
He tossed the bright shreds into the air. His power held them and sculpted them into a crescent moon of silver filigree the size of his fist. A needlelike knife pierced a small, pulsing crimson heart in the center of the crescent, and blood dripped through the delicate lacework.
The macabre sculpture hung in the air, the embodiment of his defiance. Scarcely breathing, he counted the seconds. “Six, seven, eight, nine, ten . . .”
He’d reached thirty-two when the room door opened, breaking his concentration. Reece burst in, stopped, stared at the floating artwork, mouth agape.
The bloody crescent quivered and slowly burst into fragments that drifted down like tainted snow.
More than thirty-two seconds. None of his creations had lasted that long before.
Gray bent and scooped up the debris as Reece eased around him.
“Man, I’m sorry I left things in a mess. I meant to get back and clean it up before you got in, but . . .” His voice trailed off into confused silence.
Gray shrugged. “It seems like everyone’s good intentions got sidetracked. It doesn’t matter. I don’t plan to spend any more time in here than I have to.”
He tossed the red and silver scraps into the wastebasket and walked out of the room.
