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The Viking's Captive

11/27/2018

The Viking’s Captive
Quinn Loftis
(Clan Hakon #2)
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: November 27th 2018
Genres: Historical, Young Adult

Prophecy spoken.

Alliances broken.

Will duty come before love?

The Viking’s Captive is the exciting sequel toThe Viking’s Chosen by USA Today Bestseller Quinn Loftis.

Two worlds collide in this epic historical fiction centered on an undeniable chemistry that smolders against the odds. Richly written and injected with moments of humor, this action-packed romantic tale will leave you breathless.

Novels in The Clan Hakon Series Include:
The Viking’s Chosen (February 12, 2018)
The Viking’s Captive (November 27, 2018)
The Viking’s Consort (Fall 2019)

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EXCERPT:

“If you vomit on my lap, I will most likely throw you overboard,” Dayna, my incredibly helpful sister, told me for the fourth or fifth time.

“If you hadn’t come running after me like a sodding fool, you wouldn’t have gotten yourself captured. Then you wouldn’t even be on this boat, and you wouldn’t have to worry about me vomiting on you, now, would you?” I asked as I clutched my midsection. My stomach seemed to think it should take its cues from the ocean upon which we sailed. It rolled and flipped just like the waves.

“First, if I hadn’t come after you, then that would make me a coward and not much of a sister, so that was never an option. Second, if I hadn’t gotten captured, then you would be all alone with no one to hold your hair while you vomit, now, wouldn’t you?”

“Do we have to use the term vomit in every sentence?” Hilda, the Hakon clan Oracle, healer, and Torben’s mother, asked dryly.

“Apparently, we do since you just used it yourself,” Dayna pointed out.

Hilda shot me a sly grin, with one eyebrow raised, asked, “You don’t mind if I just put a small hex on her, do you?”

“She is my sister, so I’d rather you didn’t.”

“Thank you,” Dayna said a bit smugly.

“But if you feel it’s absolutely necessary, I guess I could overlook it,” I added, earning me a pinch from said sister.

I had no idea how long it had been since Magnus, Torben’s jarl, had captured us. On one hand, he’d done me a favor. I certainly wasn’t going to have to marry Cathal now. On the other hand, my sister and I were now the prisoners of a man who was slowly losing his mind. I wasn’t sure which was worse, being married to a madman or being stolen by one. For whatever reason, I seemed to have suddenly become a hot commodity to lunatics. I chuckled to myself.

“Pray tell, sister, what is so funny?” Dayna asked.

“Madmen want me,” I said as I groaned and shifted my head, which was indeed lying in my sister’s lap, where I very well might have been sick at any second.

“Do you think she’s already delirious from being at sea?” Dayna asked Hilda.

Hilda snorted¾a most unladylike sound. “We’ve only been at sea for half a day at most. If she’s already delirious, then we are going to need to shore up her constitution.”

I was just about to tell her where she could shove her shoring up when I quickly covered my mouth and sat up. I refused to vomit. If I did, it would feel like Magnus was winning in some bizarre, silent game between the two of us. Once I was sure I could open my mouth without anything but words coming out of it, I addressed Hilda. “I am feeling more than just my own illness, worry, and fear.” I pressed my hand to my heart and rubbed it as if that could somehow remove the ache. “There’s a pain deep in my breast.”

Hilda nodded. “That would be the anchor bond between you and my son. You are feeling his worry and fear as well as your own. And knowing how deeply Torben feels anything, I imagine he is in quite a bit of distress, though he won’t show it on the outside.” She shook her head. “No, he’s a warrior through and through. On the outside, he will look as though he could slit your throat without a second thought. But on the inside, he is frantic to get to you.”

“Is that why you weren’t wailing about the possibility of Torben being dead when Magnus said he was?” Dayna asked.

“I would know if he were dead. A part of me would die inside as well.” I looked back to Hilda. “Will he kill Magnus?” I asked.

She nodded. “It is his destiny to become jarl of the Hakon clan, as it is your destiny to rule at his side. For that to happen, the old jarl must die. Magnus will never relinquish power willingly. Our two nations will grow stronger, not only because they embrace one another’s differences, but because they need new blood. Your offspring will be strong.”

The boat gave a mighty heave, and Dayna and I both nearly fell off the small bench upon which we were perched. Hilda didn’t appear bothered at all by the motion. She noticed the expression I was giving her and shrugged.

“I’ve lived at sea a long time. She and I are well acquainted.”

“Forgive me for speaking out of turn,” Dayna said, gripping the seat beneath her as though it might try to toss her into the bottom of the boat, “but your life has been about as fun as a house rat’s on cleaning day if you’ve spent that much time on the ocean.”

Author Bio:

Quinn is an award winning author who lives in beautiful Western Arkansas with her husband, two sons, Nora the Doberman, and Chewy the Cat who thinks he's a dog. She is the author of 17 novels, and 2 novellas, including the USA Today bestseller, Fate and Fury. Quinn is beyond thankful that she has been blessed to be able to write full time and hopes the readers know how much all of their support means to her. Some of her hobbies include reading, exercising, crochet, and spending time with family and friends. She gives all credit of her success to God because he gave her the creative spirit and vivid imagination it takes to write.

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Neron Rising

11/27/2018

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Neron Rising
Keary Taylor
(The Neron Rising Saga #1)
Publication date: November 27th 2018
Genres: Adult, Romance, Science Fiction

“I…am nothing.”
He takes a step forward, shaking his head twice, with absolute conviction. “You’re not nothing, Nova.”

In the Eon galaxy, Dominion controls any planet with solid Neron deposits, and Nova just found out they’re coming for hers. Korpillion isn’t supposed to have any Neron—the galaxy’s purest form of energy—but Nova Ainsley has been working with the owner of a secret mine for months, building highly illegal weapons that can wield Neron. She wants off Korpillion, and selling these weapons will buy her and her father a ticket to another planet in the galaxy.

Neron is incredible on its own, but there are those who can wield it to their will, granting them the ability to read minds, see the future, and destroy worlds—the Nero. But this is a galaxy where they are ceasing to exist, and Dominion owns the last one in the known universe, using him to take over and destroy billions of lives.

An encounter with the last Nero shows Nova her future: it’s with him. She will stand by his side one day, her fingers laced through his, love and adoration in both their eyes, a dark queen to his evil, pawn king.

Fate or destiny, Nova will do whatever it takes to change their future, and that of the galaxy.

The Neron Rising Saga is a series of episodes. Episode One is 30,000 words. Neron Rising is a slow-burn space-fantasy romance.

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EXCERPT:

“What’s wrong?”

I look out over the city, and I can see everything that’s wrong. All these people. Suddenly I feel responsible for all of them. “Have you ever had a secret?” I ask.

“I don’t know a single person who doesn’t have secrets,” he answers. His voice is so calm. There’s this low, deep timbre to it. There’s something about it that’s unique. I’ve never heard a voice that sounds like his.

“Well, have you ever had a secret that would affect billions of people?”

My stomach twists in knots just at the thought of it.

“I can’t say that I ever have had a secret of that scale,” he confesses. “Surely, you don’t actually mean billions.”

I huff one short laugh and nod my head. “Actually, I do. And the thing that sucks about it is that I could tell people, but it would create so much chaos, I might actually make things worse. I hate that. I hate it so much, because it makes me feel responsible.”

“One person can’t be held accountable for billions,” he says. His words are like a soft touch, like a hand on my back, rubbing for comfort and support.

“Sure they can,” I argue, even though I want to accept his words. I’m in a self-depreciating spiral right now, and I have no intent to get myself out of it at the moment. “Look at Cyrillius. He’s destroyed trillions of lives. And he doesn’t even feel guilty about it.”

Just saying his name makes my mouth taste bitter. As the heir and owner of Dominion, he makes all the calls that affect every single solar system. He could make the galaxy a better place. He could stop the centuries of greed and money. But he’s only taken things twenty steps further than his father and his grandfather before him.

“Seems like a little bit of a jump, comparing yourself to him,” he says quietly. “Just a few days ago you were complaining about your boring life, and now you’re hiding a secret that could affect everyone on your planet?”

“Pretty insane how quickly life can change,” I muse. Though, really, nothing has changed at all. Other than now I have to figure out how to get me and my dad, and Zayne, off-planet. “Know of anywhere good left in the galaxy?”

“Suddenly you’re also ready to move planet?” he asks. There’s a thoughtful probe to his tone.

I shrug, even though he can’t see it. “Know of any place?”

This is where I hate this part of our connection. I hear his voice. But that’s it. I can’t read his body language. I get impressions sometimes, but I don’t know if those are real, or my brain filling them in.

I want to read his face right now. I want to have something to fill these longer pauses, to decipher what he’s thinking.

But I have nothing but his voice, echoing in my brain.

“Do you really think there’s any such thing as a good place, anymore?” he finally asks.

I consider his question as I look out at Korpillion.

This is supposed to be a good place. But, as I look at it, I see the race for credits. I see advertisements flashing bright in my face. I see businessmen talking to prostitutes who are only interested in their connect-link accounts. I see jobs, so many of them, that no one takes pride in, they just do it because it allows them to survive.

I think of Reena, whose goal isn’t to save anyone but herself and her crew.

I even think of my dad, who has no joy in life. He just puts his head down and survives.

“I don’t know, anymore,” I say. I hate the confession, but I am honestly not sure.

“I’ve been to a lot of places, and all I’ve seen everywhere is the innate drive to survive,” he says into my head. “People will do whatever it takes to survive.”

“I wonder when we lost everything else,” I say. “The few books that were stored before all of that was lost talk about all these other things, these principals. Honor, glory, love. When did we become a galaxy full of survivors?”

He doesn’t answer, because really there isn’t an answer. These are just the deep thoughts spoken out loud between two strangers connected by a power neither of us understands.

“I wish I was there with you,” he surprises me with his honest words.

I straighten a little, and a smile creeps onto my face. “I wish you were here, too.” I pause, letting that confession fill me. “Do you think we could ever meet in real life?”

He takes a considering pause. “I think we have to be careful what we wish for, sometimes.”

Author Bio:

Keary Taylor is the USA TODAY bestselling author of over twenty novels. She grew up along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where she started creating imaginary worlds and daring characters who always fell in love. She now splits her time between a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest and Utah, with her husband and their two children. She continues to have an overactive imagination that frequently keeps her up at night.

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Forgotten Ghosts

11/26/2018

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Forgotten Ghosts
Eric R. Asher
Publication date: November 13th 2018
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal

A necromancer’s fear. A family’s fate. An ancient spirit with a new alliance.

I shouldn’t have told myself things couldn’t get any worse. They did.

As Nixie struggles to unite the water witches, the Fae king discovers a spy in his ranks. We’re forced to split our focus and our powers between the unrest in Faerie and the rising tensions in Falias. When Nudd’s latest gambit puts humanity’s most dangerous weapons into his hands, we can’t let anything stand in our way. We’ll need help from new contacts and trusted allies if we hope to stop the Fae king’s madness.

But the award for worst timing in history goes to an old friend: Vicky.

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EXCERPT:

At first, the mass appeared to be a wall of snakes, surging out from one of the cells and splattering against the far wall. But instead of a wet thump, the shadowy forms cracked into the very stone. Among the undulating mass of slithering things, I heard the fall of rock and metal clattering across the floor.

I tried to concentrate on my footing, careful not to twist an ankle, as we attempted to outrun the massive shadows. A moment later, the dullahan’s eyes disappeared in the distance, and those snakelike forms broke into a halo of light. As they crossed through, I could see they were caked in mud, blood, and other viscera I couldn’t identify. One thing I was sure of: they weren’t snakes.

“What is that?” I shouted.

Morrigan glowed. Between one step and the next, the crone became the raven, and she rocketed forward on oily black wings. “Burn them!” the bird squawked.

Throwing an incantation while running was a sure way to miss your target. But one thing Zola had taught me was if you threw a large-enough ball of fire in an enclosed space, you didn’t really need to aim. “Magnus Ignatto!”

I stumbled as the power ripped through me. I felt what was left of the hairs on my arms burn to a crisp. Morrigan, almost distant now, made the turn through the intersection and flew up the stairs. She’d be safe from the heat, though I wasn’t sure if she was susceptible to fire incantations. The chaotic wall of flame shot forward at irregular intervals until it crashed into the writhing mass of what now looked very much like lampreys or dying gray vines draped in gore and dripping blood I suspected was from our allies.

Whatever they were, they were sentient. The instant the flames hit and widened to the point that I couldn’t see down the hallway through the fire and pain in my arms, something else screamed. It wasn’t immediately recognizable as pain, as the sound was so deep and basso it took me a moment to understand the earth wasn’t shaking around me. I let the fires die away and gasped for breath as I stumbled forward, making my way for the staircase as the soles of my boots sizzled on the superheated stone beneath them.

Author Bio:

Eric is a former bookseller, cellist, and comic seller currently living in Saint Louis, Missouri. A lifelong enthusiast of books, music, toys, and games, he discovered a love for the written word after being dragged to the library by his parents at a young age. When he is not writing, you can usually find him reading, gaming, or buried beneath a small avalanche of Transformers.

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Valient

11/26/2018

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Valiant
Merrie Destefano
Published by: Entangled: Teen
Publication date: December 4th 2018
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult

The Valiant was supposed to save us. Instead, it triggered the end of the world.

Earth is in shambles. Everyone, even the poorest among us, invested in the Valiant’s space mining mission in the hopes we’d be saved from ourselves. But the second the ship leaves Earth’s atmosphere, our fate is sealed. The alien invasion begins. They pour into cities around the world through time portals, possessing humans, forcing us to kill one another.

And for whatever reason, my brother is their number one target.

Now the fate of the world lies in the hands of me, a seventeen-year-old girl, but with the help of my best friend, Justin―who’s suddenly starting to feel like more―maybe if we save my brother, we can save us all…

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EXCERPT:

There’s a pain in my chest as I remember the first time I stumbled across a man with fists lined with metal spikes. I was walking through downtown Santa Ana with Justin, and it was one of those times when I thought, He’s totally going to kiss me tonight. It was back before I began traveling through time, before I found out just how dark the world could be. We were laughing and heading toward a frozen yogurt shop, and he slid his arm around my waist.

It might have been the first time I thought, This guy is it; he’s the one I could fall for. I knew he was a Genetic and that nobody wanted us to be together. But I didn’t care. He was sunshine on a dark night. He was heat when the cold winds blew.

I put my head on his shoulder.

It was only natural.

It was exactly right.

Then I saw the metal man, his brow furrowed as if his heart held all the anger in the world. He was chaos and destruction and he was walking toward us, eyes like fire, like he wanted to kill us both.

Maybe he was looking at Justin. Metal men hate Genetics, because in a real battle, Genetics win. It doesn’t matter how much metal you’ve grafted onto your skin or bones—it might make you stronger, but you’re slower, too. Nobody can match the speed and natural strength of a Genetic. So, this guy might have been looking at Justin and challenging him, but it felt like I was going to be collateral damage.

One swing of his spike-covered fist and I’d be dead.

But I didn’t have to worry about it for long, because Justin pushed me behind him. I couldn’t see his face, but I could see the metal man. Doubt flickered in his eyes; he paused and glanced to the side. He was probably looking for a way out.

Justin took a step forward, his hands curled in fists. When he spoke, his voice came out like thunder, a loud, low growl that rumbled through my spine.

“Don’t even think about it,” Justin said. “Take one more step and I’ll rip out your metal implants, one by one. They hurt going in, so you better believe it’ll be a mother when I pull them out.”

He paused to laugh, but I’d never heard him laugh like that before. It was chilling, like he was a different person. He continued to warn the metal man. “Especially when I twist those implants sideways and the roots tear off chunks of your flesh.”

The metal man narrowed his eyes, and there was a split second when I thought he was going to tackle Justin.

Maybe he would have.

But he didn’t get a chance. It was like Justin knew the metal man’s plan, like it was an open football playbook. Justin rushed him, grabbed the guy around the waist, and slammed him against the brick wall of a local tattoo parlor. It took the wind out of the metal man’s lungs, and he was temporarily stunned. Justin could have slugged him; he could have broken the guy’s arms; he could have killed him.

All he did was lean close enough to whisper in the guy’s ear.

Then Justin stepped back and let the thug slide to the sidewalk in a heap. The metal man caught his breath, his eyes flickered, and he glanced up at us. Then he floundered to his hands and knees and crawled away as fast as he could. By the time he got to his feet, we were surrounded by a Friday-night club crowd, most of them drunk and all of them laughing at the metal man as he ran away.

Justin didn’t even hit the guy.

Sometimes you can win by intimidation alone.

So, do I melt every time I see this boy, who was willing to fight to protect me?

You better believe it.

Author Bio:

Born in the Midwest, former magazine editor Merrie Destefano currently lives in Southern California with her husband, two German shepherds, a Siamese cat, and the occasional wandering possum. Her favorite hobbies are reading speculative fiction and watching old Star Trek episodes, and her incurable addiction is writing. She loves to camp in the mountains, walk on the beach, watch old movies, and listen to alternative music—although rarely all at the same time.

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The Vampire King's Mate

11/26/2018

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The Vampire King’s Mate
C.A. Worley
(Fate of Imperium, #2)
Publication date: November 26th 2018
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance

For five long years, Viktor, The Heartless King of Prajna, has ignored the cicatrice on his palm. The birthmark, which awakens only when a vampire’s fated mate is soon to cross his path, is a complication he does not need. A chance encounter with his true mate unexpectedly rocks him to the core. Unwilling to deny the pull of her soul to his, he bonds with the female, believing he can handle the one major obstacle standing in his way of happiness.

When Eden’s betrothal to the Wolf King of the North falls through, she rejoices. For the first time in her life, she believes her fate is her own. She later finds out how very wrong she was, and runs headfirst into the arms of a vampire. Soon, nefarious forces work against the pair. While Viktor tries to protect his mate, Eden learns the consequences of falling for a king who has no heart.

***The Vampire King’s Mate is the second book in the Fate of Imperium Series. Each book is the story of a different king and his fated mate. While the three books do not have to be read in order, it is highly recommended.

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EXCERPT:

Eden gulped as the huge male was suddenly in front of her, one hand on each thigh, holding them apart, as he knelt between the V of her legs. He had moved so fast, he must have ported. Her heart pounded, and she used her magic to force the oxygen in her bloodstream to slow its speed.

“Do not do that,” Viktor snarled and tightened his grip on her thighs.

“Do what?” she whispered, adrenaline flooding her system. Her skin felt tight as her hormones surged.

“Whatever you are doing to your heart. It’s contracting, and you are denying it its natural response. You could harm yourself. I will not allow it to continue.”

“You think I am hurting myself?”

“Of course, you are. And I. Do. Not. Like. It,” he gritted through his teeth.

Despite his domineering attitude, his command was endearing. In his own way, he was trying to protect her. Her palm buzzed, then pushed itself to the side of his face.

Viktor held still, feeling the cool leather of her glove touch his cheek. He could feel the cicatrice’s pull as it beckoned to his own. He wanted to feel her skin slide along his, to join their hands as he emptied himself inside her.

Eden released the hold on the oxygen in her veins, allowing her heart to thump wildly while her blood flowed through it. Her breathing accelerated.

Viktor’s eyes moved to the artery on her neck and his fangs elongated as his cock became fully erect. He would need to feed soon. First, he would sample her flesh.

He mimicked her touch and ran his thumb along her bottom lip.

“Tell me, mala vestica, has anyone tasted these before?”

“No,” she panted, reveling in the feel of his skin upon her face.

“Good. I’d hate to have to kill anyone who had dared.”

He barely got the words out before his lips were on hers. She groaned when she felt his tongue enter and explore her mouth. Eden tentatively pressed her tongue to his, and a purring sound came from his throat.

She’d been wrong about his laugh. This was the most wonderful sound to ever reach her ears. Her undergarments flooded with her juices and she inched forward, pressing as hard as she could into his stomach.

Viktor’s hands moved to her backside, lifting her slightly off the chair and rubbing her up and down his abdominal muscles. The scent of her sweet honey filled the air and he couldn’t wait to lap it up.

Eden twisted and pulled at his hair as she wrapped her legs around his waist in a feeble attempt to get better purchase, to feel more pressure between her legs. She could sob from the want.

Viktor broke the kiss, needing to see the yearning in her eyes, wanting her to feel as uncontrolled as he felt.

Eden’s lips were swollen from his sensual assault. Her hooded eyes implored him for more. She squeezed her legs tight around him and his fingers dug into her flesh.

When she whined and stretched to kiss him again, his heart thudded heavily. Her fingers nimbly unbuttoned his jacket and slid it down his arms. He let it drop absently to the floor, in a hurry to get her body back in his hands.

Viktor slowed the kiss and his lips drifted across her cheek to her ear. “Do you have any idea what I’m going to do you?”

Author Bio:

C.A. Worley is the alter-ego of Romance Author Cass Alexander. Where Cass tends to focus on humor in her publications, C.A. loves to write fantasy. She chose to write under the two different monikers so as to not confuse (or tick off) her readers.

C.A. currently resides in the Midwest, but was born and raised in the South. She spends her days working from home and her evenings are spent shuttling her kids to and fro. Her dinners are subpar, but she makes a mean dessert.

When she's tired of living her sons' travel sports schedules, C.A. enjoys a glass (or four) of wine. She needs the liquid courage to click the publish button for her fantasy romance novels.

Her motto is, "Be Brave," and she tries to live it every day. It takes a healthy dose of courage to get through this thing we call life.

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Reign Drops

11/25/2018

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A simple Mayan girl. A powerful spirit. A bloodthirsty monster. All leading to a desperate quest. When the Mayan calendar ended some people scoffed while others joked and a few waited for the end of the world. After living half her life apart from her native people, Dalia no longer believes in the supernatural and monstrous things that the final cycle predicted. But unbelief is not protection. Going home draws her into a fight against mythical creatures, limitless power and a battle for humanity's survival. Can Dalia balance an outsider's knowledge and tribal wisdom to give the world a fighting chance? Or will she choose to stay blind and let the world collapse around her?

Reign Drops the running start to launch The Bloodborne Series, a saga of urban fantasy novels. If you like tenacious heroines, Mayan legends, and new twists on magical beasts, then get this book today!

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Love, Music, Madness

11/25/2018

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Love, Music, Madness
Tabitha Rhys
Published by: Soul Mate Publishing
Publication date: April 25th 2018
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult

Songwriting partners Lawson Harper and Jessa Warlow’s musical ambitions are derailed when their so-called relationship ends disastrously. However, neither Lawson nor Jessa are willing to give up on the album’s worth of soul-searing songs they wrote together—songs they’re sure are good enough to change both their lives.

Will the chemistry that fuels their creativity drive them to make the record of a lifetime, or only to absolute madness?

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BOOK TRAILER:

EXCERPT:

I opened up the program Tim favored and selected a file I had created in the days since our meeting at Musso. A slamming four-on-the-floor beat filled the room. It was a simple starter beat I’d created for the first song Jessa and I had written together, from scratch.

Jessa turned to me, chin cocked, guitar at the ready. “What do I do?”

“Play Estrella. Jump in whenever you’re comfortable.”

Jesse took a deep breath and began to strum. In no time, she was locked into the beat. Clearly, she hadn’t abandoned our songs the way I had. She wasn’t rusty in the least.

When Jessa added her vocals, I shivered. I’d forgotten how full and warm her voice was. How it rattled with just a touch of gravel on the high notes. I had also forgotten just how good our songs were. All through the cold Gunther winter, Jessa and I had altered them and played them back over and over, making sure the flow was just right. The arc. The mood.

While Jessa strummed and sang, I made adjustments to the beat. I switched up the bass tone so it was even more thudding and added a ghostly echo to the snare. At first, I wasn’t sure how to approach the toms, but I ended up dialing them back by removing a few hits from the loop.

By the time Jessa hit the bridge, I was just listening. Layered over the beat, her voice took on a haunting quality. The result really was just as I’d imagined. A strange, but synergistic juxtaposition.

After Jessa’s last note, I hit the spacebar and halted the beat.

In the sudden silence, Jessa’s eyes widened. “Lawson. I can hardly believe it. That was our song. But it was so much more.” She shook her head.

“Should we try out a few more options? You know, keep searching for our sound?”

“Searching for our sound? Lawson, we just found it . . .”

Author Bio:

Tabitha Rhys is a writer and mom with a passion for music, misfits, and subculture. She grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and now resides in Riverside, CA with her husband and son.

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Soul Remains

11/25/2018

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Humorous Fantasy

Date Published: April 23, 2019

It’s Dark in the Old Country.

Where do goblins come from? Why do they only turn up in the Old Country, and why do they like swearing so much? In the second book of Terribly Serious Darkness, Sloot Peril—a “hero” who’s staunchly averse to heroics—goes looking for answers. Much to his chagrin, he finds them.

Everything changed after the Fall of Salzstadt, but try telling that to the people of the city, whose capacity for denial is unmatched. They have yet to acknowledge that Vlad the Invader cut a bloody swath through their city, that the dead are walking the streets, or that the Domnitor—long may he reign—has fled to wherever despots go on very long vacations while goblin infestations take care of themselves.

The worst of villains holds all of the power, unspeakable dark forces are on the rise, and everyone wants to kidnap the Domnitor—long may he reign—for their own nefarious ends. If all of that weren’t bad enough, Sloot’s got the fate of his own soul to worry about.

Can his girlfriend help him save the Old Country from annihilation? Is Myrtle really his girlfriend? If all goes well for Sloot—which it never does—he might just sort it all out before the Dark swallows them all up.

About the Author

photo author-photo-sam-hooker_zpsg6opc75h.jpg

Sam Hooker writes darkly humorous fantasy. He is an entirely serious person, regardless of what you may have heard. Originally from Texas, he now resides in southern California with his wife, son, and dog.

Contact Links

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Twitter

Blog

Purchase Link

www.blackspotbooks.com

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Fraud at Snowfields

11/24/2018

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photo Fraud at Snowfields_zps6tv5iiin.jpg

Children's/Middle Grade Fantasy

Published: September 2013

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B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree: This tells a reader that this book is well worth their time and money!

Finalist "The Wishing Shelf Book Awards"

Only a short time after a strange nightmare about Bluerorcs (what the heck are they?) Will again feels like he is caught in a dream—but this time the best dream he has ever had. For Mr Chevalier visits him at his parents' house to invite him to join the White Christmas Organisation—the secret organisation that handles the production and delivery of the Christmas presents and that is headed by Father Christmas himself. Will had always been a firm believer in the magic of Christmas and now he is on his way to be part of it all as he begins his job training at Snowfields. And—while traveling with the amazing cloud-based delivery system—he has no idea what other wonders he is going to see or what he is getting himself into...

For just as he is having the time of his life with his new friends at his new school with amazing subjects as well as hard hands-on training, he is caught up in the biggest conspiracy Snowfields has seen in decades.

Praise for Fraud at Snowfields:

“The excitement and magic seem to just jump off the pages as you are reading. This is one book that will become a tradition at my home at Christmas!” (Reviewer on Amazon)

“Daniel Klock has created a holiday classic, sure to be passed down from one generation to another.” (Reviewer on Amazon)

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Excerpt

They hurried on towards the lawn at the back of the school, their red Christmas robes flowing behind them. On the platform just outside, they stumbled to a sudden halt. And stared. The lawn was full of sleighs. All of them were brightly and festively decorated with red ribbons, ties, golden and silver bells, and fir garlands. Four proud reindeer were hitched in front of each sleigh. They were also outfitted most festively with shiny, brown tack with silver bells and red ribbons. Even their antlers were polished and almost gleaming with an inner light.

Students and teachers scurried across the lawn, loading sleighs and getting ready to leave. Will and Annabel watched, spellbound, as a sleigh took off just a few feet away from them.

‘Can you see Contractus anywhere?’ Annabel asked after the sleigh had gone.

‘Hmm.’ Will scanned the area. ‘No, there’s too much bustle out there.’

‘What now?’

‘Well, Miss Dustfall said to wait by the sleigh. Contractus will find us there.’

‘Yes, he will indeed,’ said a deep voice right behind them, making them jump.

‘Hello, Annabel. Hi Will,’ said Contractus as they turned around. ‘Sorry I’m late, but I had to pick up our flight plan on the way here, and there were quite a few others there who wanted the same. However, I’m here now, and’—he rubbed his hands together—‘I’m happy that I have the pleasure of working with you two today.’ He grinned. ‘I have to admit that even I, even after all these years I’ve been here, get excited on Christmas Eve. After all, this is what we work for all year long! So let’s get started. We’ve been allocated one of the toughest areas. There’ll be loads of work waiting for us already. Follow me!’

And he led them onto the lawn, finding his way around the parked sleighs and through the chaos of students and teachers hurrying everywhere. Will and Annabel hurried after him, trying not to bump into other people. Contractus led them to one of the beautifully-decorated sleighs. He helped them up onto the rear seat and then jumped up onto the driver’s seat. He shook the reins, and the reindeer took a few quick steps forwards. Will and Annabel gripped the railings beside their seat tightly. Then the sleigh smoothly lifted off the ground. It quickly gained height, and Contractus flew a wide circle, passing over the school and then over the village of Snowfields. The sleigh glided through the air easily, so Will loosened his grip on the railing. But then he had expected that Contractus would be a good pilot.

He looked over the side of the sleigh and saw the school and the village getting tinier and tinier as they spiralled upwards. Suddenly Will felt a jolt, and an urgent-maintenance sleigh from Cloudy’s overtook them at high speed. It went by so closely their sleigh was hit by the slipstream.

‘Oi,’ Contractus shouted after it. ‘Watch it!’

But it was already far ahead of them, heading as fast as it could to wherever the problem was.

Rising higher and higher, he guided the sleigh in a helix so they were soon as high as the mountains surrounding the village. Above the mountains was a huge circle of clouds. Contractus flew the sleigh along the face of the clouds until they reached a wide tunnel that led through them. It did not take long to fly through, and they passed two other sleighs that were flying back towards Snowfields. The other drivers waved at them cheerfully. Soon they had cleared the tunnel, and Will could see the snow-covered countryside far below.

‘Where are we going?’ he asked.

‘In front of you is a small screen, the grey rectangle. If you tap on it, you’ll see a map,’ replied Contractus.

Will looked in front of him, at the back of Contractus’s seat. There was a grey, smooth, and rectangular surface there. When he tapped a finger on it, it lit up, and he saw a map just like on a tablet computer. The map showed a part of the country. He could see lakes, rivers, hills, villages, and towns. Part of it was enclosed by a red line.

‘Can you see it?’ asked Contractus, looking back over his shoulder.

‘Yes, I can see it. The area inside the red border is ours?’

‘That’s right.’

‘It looks rather small,’ said Will dubiously.

Contractus laughed. ‘Remember what I’ve told you before! That sector is the worst, for there are so many areas in there where Cloudy’s coverage is just terrible. We’ll have enough to do for sure. Well, hold on, it will take us a while to reach the sector!’

They flew high above the snow-covered countryside. Will enjoyed the flight greatly, taking in all the sights. He enjoyed the cool air on his face and, he realised with a start, also the company of Annabel sitting so close beside him. He sneaked a stealthy look at her from time to time, and—to his relief—she also seemed to enjoy being close to him, though he turned slightly red at this thought. He decided he’d better concentrate on the countryside again.

Finally Will felt that they were losing altitude. Suddenly there was a chime, and the screen in front of him lit up. In the corner of the map, a small, red square had appeared and was flashing.

‘Oh, great,’ said Contractus, who had heard the chime as well. ‘The first call, and we’re not even there yet. Will, if you’d please have a look at the message?’

‘Sure. Er, how do I look at it?’

‘Just press on the red square, and the message will pop up.’

‘Okay.’

Will pressed a finger onto the red square in the corner of the screen. Promptly a window opened on top of the map.

‘It says here: “Job 01, Area F8, Code blue-3. Please confirm.” That’s all,’ Will told Contractus. Annabel had been reading the message as well and nodded.

‘Okay,’ replied Contractus. ‘I assume you recall what a “blue-3” is?’

‘Sure,’ said Annabel. ‘A failed delivery, but quite near the target, in a perimeter of five to ten yards around it.’

Will nodded as he recalled the lectures that had so bored him in the autumn, but now he could see how important they had been.

‘Good!’ replied Contractus. ‘That’s correct. A blue-3 should mean little trouble for us, as it’s so close to the target. So let’s go there. If you’d please confirm the job, Will? Just press the confirmation button.’

Will pressed the button marked ‘confirmation’. The window closed, and a red, flashing dot appeared on the map. On the side of the screen, a small window opened in which Will could still see the job description.

‘You should now see a flashing dot on the screen. That’s our goal,’ said Contractus.

‘Yes, we can see it,’ replied Will.

‘Okay, then let’s go,’ said Contractus, and steered the sleigh into a tight turn to the left. ‘I guess it’ll take us ten minutes to get there,’ he told Will and Annabel after a glance at his own screen.

They flew on over the snow-covered landscape. Will could see them nearing their goal as the blue dot on the screen, representing their sleigh, was getting close to the red flashing dot. Contractus angled the sleigh gently downwards. He turned slightly round to Will and Annabel.

‘Okay, you two. I’ll activate full screens and security measures for now, as it’s still broad daylight and there’s no sense in letting Father Christmas appear at this time of the day. His domain is the night. So the two of you will also need full coverage.’

‘Sure,’ replied Annabel, and pulled out her wand. She turned to Will. ‘Do you want me to cover you?’

Will grinned. ‘Please. You’re much better at this than I am.’

Annabel grinned too. ‘Oooh, you finally recognise that, do you?’

She pointed her wand at Will and performed the complicated pattern of the cover spell. She looked at Will critically, then nodded to herself in satisfaction. She pointed the wand at herself and repeated the spell. Then she frowned.

‘You know, it always seems harder to spell yourself than to spell others. Somehow it’s easier to make the movements with the wand when you’re pointing it at somebody else. It’s rather different, like the wrong way round, or like doing it in front of a mirror, when you have to point it at yourself.’

Will saw Contractus nod absently to himself as Annabel said this, as he was concentrating on lowering the sleigh and reducing the speed. Then Will saw Contractus take out his own wand, point it at the sleigh and the reindeer, and perform the necessary spells to hide them all from visibility or other forms of detection. Even any sounds they might have made would be covered from ordinary people—ordinary like Will had been not even a year earlier, he reflected wistfully. But only for a moment. Then he looked back at the screen and saw that they had nearly reached their destination, for the red and blue dots were almost overlapping. Contractus flew lower and lower until they were just above the houses. Finally he circled above a certain house, and Will saw on the display that they had reached their goal.

‘Can you see—’ began Contractus, but just then Annabel called: ‘There! Over there, next to the tree.’ And she pointed to a jumbled heap lying in the snow beside a large beech tree.

Contractus looked where Annabel was pointing, then he nodded and grinned.

‘Right you are. That mess looks like the misplaced items.’

He turned the sleigh round and headed straight towards the untidy mound. As they got closer, Will could see it was indeed a pile of presents wrapped in bright and colourful wrapping paper. Contractus stopped the sleigh right beside them.

‘Now, I know you’ve trained for this thoroughly, but this is your first time in the field, so I’ll do this the first time and you can watch once more how the situation is handled.’ He grinned. ‘Don’t worry, the next job will be yours. Just stay on the sleigh for now.’

He jumped off and went to the pile of presents. He looked at them critically. Will could see that some snow had already settled onto them. Contractus took out his wand and pointed it at the packages. When he performed the spell, the snow vanished, revealing undisturbed parcels that looked as if they had just left the stores at Snowfields. Contractus looked pleased. Then he began to walk around them while holding his wand close to the ground, pointing straight downwards, drawing a fine line of Bluerin in the snow and completing the circle when he reached the starting point. He looked over to Annabel and Will, to make sure they were watching him. Then he turned back to the presents, raised his wand and pointed it straight at them. He swung his wand in the complicated pattern of the final transfer spell—the spell which Will remembered all too well from the summer, as it had taken him ages to learn it. The pile started to glow, then it shimmered and seemed to shrink, and then it was gone. Contractus swung his wand a last time at the impression left in the snow. And where just a moment earlier a huge pile of presents had been lying, there now was just an unbroken and untouched layer of snow that looked exactly like the snow around it—just as if there had never been anything lying there at all.

Annabel nudged Will, grinned mischievously, and started to clap her hands. Will suppressed a laugh and joined her. Contractus looked at them in surprise, but only for a second; then he recovered and ripped off a gracious, majestic bow, twirling his wand through the air like a cowboy would do with his colt. Annabel and Will laughed. Contractus grinned, walked back to the sleigh, and climbed onto his seat again.

‘Okay then, that was one of the easy ones! You’ll do the next one. Are there any new assignments yet, Will?’

Will looked quickly at the display, feeling slightly guilty that he had not checked already, but then he thought that Contractus had told them to watch him closely—and not the screen. But there was no new red square waiting.

‘No, Mr Contractus, there isn’t one yet.’

‘Okay. We still have to confirm the completion of the first job. You can still see it in the window at the side of the screen, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Just tap on that window.’

‘I’ve done that.’

‘Now the window is larger again, and in the centre of the screen.’

‘Yes.’

‘Good. To confirm that the job is done, just tap on the button “job done”.’

Will pressed the button. The window with the job description turned from red to blue, and a ‘done’ mark appeared in front of the description, together with the current time.

‘Now you can close that window. Press on the small red circle in the top right corner.’

Will did just that. The blue window vanished.

‘Okay,’ Contractus said, and shook the reins. The reindeer started into a trot, and soon the sleigh lifted from the ground. Contractus guided them upwards again.

‘We’ll go back a way, more into the centre of our area, so we can respond more quickly to the next call,’ he said back over his shoulder to Will and Annabel.

They had only been in the air for a minute or two when Will heard the chime again. He immediately looked back at the screen. Once again a small, flashing red square had appeared in the corner of the map. Will pressed his finger onto it, and the description window opened up.

‘What does it say, Will?’ asked Contractus from his front seat.

‘It says “Job 02, Area A3, Code green-1. Please confirm”,’ Will replied.

‘Ah, it would have been too easy if it were nearby, now wouldn’t it,’ Contractus mumbled, more to himself than to Will and Annabel. ‘Go ahead then and confirm it, Will.’

‘Done, sir.’

Contractus shook the reins once more, and the reindeer made a wide curve towards the north-west. Will followed their course on the screen, where the blue dot represented their current position and the red one showed their goal.

‘What kind of job is this?’ asked Contractus. ‘I’m sure you can tell me, Annabel.’

While Will was trying to remember, Annabel answered seemingly without having to think about it at all. ‘A green-1 is a minor misplacement in the correct room, for example the presents might be in the corner opposite the tree.’

‘Right you are, well done!’

They passed over the snow-covered houses, dazzling in the bright sunlight. Will traced their path on the screen, trying to get a feel for the distances. He thought the area to which they had been assigned was in fact rather large, especially as Contractus had said this was one of the areas with the most work. But then he did not really mind, for this was what he had worked for all year long. He grinned.

‘What are you grinning about?’ asked Annabel, looking sideways at him.

‘Oh, I’m just enjoying this—the fact that we’re finally helping with the delivery of the presents. Aren’t you?’ he asked back.

‘Sure. But remember,’ she added, ‘we’ll have to deal with this one on our own.’

‘Well,’ replied Will, ‘that’s what we have been training for, isn’t it? And’—he grinned mischievously—‘I’m sure you’ll manage it perfectly!’

‘Oh now, none of that! We’ll do this together!’ Annabel replied firmly.

‘Sure.’ Will grinned. ‘You’ll do, and I’ll make sure you’re doing it right.’

Annabel poked him in the ribs—hard.

‘Ooof! That was a joke,’ Will said.

‘It better have been!’ snapped Annabel, but she grinned all the same.

Contractus finally guided the sleigh towards the ground. He took out his wand and spelled the sleigh, the reindeer and himself again, making them invisible. Annabel followed his lead and pointed her wand at Will and then at herself, hiding them both. Contractus took the sleigh farther down and constantly corrected its course as directed by the map on the screen in front of him. Finally he reached the front of the house that was their goal. The sleigh touched down on the snow-covered lawn with hardly a bump, and came to a halt.

Contractus turned around to Annabel and Will. ‘Now it’s your turn! It should really be no problem for you. As you said before, you’ve been preparing for this moment during the last months. I’ll accompany you for now. But I’ll stay in the background—you’ll do the job! Of course, if you should run into problems you can’t cope with or other difficulties, I’ll help you. Don’t worry, you’ll just do fine.’ He smiled at them encouragingly. ‘Let’s go for it!’

‘Yes!’ Annabel exclaimed, and punched the air. Will looked at her in surprise.

‘Well, let’s go,’ she said to him pertly. ‘What are you waiting for?’ She grinned at him brightly.

‘But…you…’ Will did not know what to say.

Annabel grinned at him even more brightly. ‘Yes? Was there something?’ she asked him sweetly.

Will sighed. ‘Nothing.’ Girls, he thought, and refrained from shaking his head as this would certainly do him no good. He slid down from the bench and stood beside the sleigh. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Of course. I was only waiting for you,’ Annabel replied loftily and stepped down from the sleigh gracefully. They walked towards the house with Contractus following closely. Annabel stopped after a few yards.

‘Door? Window? Chimney? How do we get in? What do you think?’ she asked Will, not pertly or teasingly anymore, but all business.

‘Hmm,’ Will said. ‘I think we should just use the door. It’s the easiest way, and we are covered anyway. And as it’s broad daylight, we’re not supposed to be seen or to act like Father Christmas at the moment, so there’s no need to use the chimney.’

‘Yes,’ said Annabel, ‘I’m thinking the same.’

Behind them Contractus nodded.

‘Okay then,’ said Will. ‘You want to do the spells? You’re better at them than I am.’

Annabel smiled, this time just pleased. ‘Of course. Are you ready? Let’s go on in then.’

She walked towards the front door of the house, stopped in front of it and raised her wand. Will stood at her side and waited. Just at that moment, a cat came round the far corner of the house and froze as it saw them.

Saw? Will thought. But they were covered by the spell! He looked closely at the cat and had the feeling that it looked right back at him. Alarmed, Will looked back at Contractus and said, ‘I don’t think the spells are working. It looks as if the cat can see us!’

Contractus replied, ‘Yes, as a matter of fact, cats can see straight through our hiding spells. Nobody knows why, that’s just how it is. But it really is nothing to worry about. Normally they just leave us alone. And if not, well, we have spells to deal with them. You’ll learn them in time.’

‘Is it just cats, or can other animals see us as well?’ asked Will.

‘No,’ replied Contractus. ‘Somehow it’s only cats. And snow leopards—but it’s not too likely you’ll run into one in this area,’ he added dryly.

Meanwhile the cat had taken a good look at them, decided they were not interesting at all, and gone on its way. They turned their attention back to the door. Annabel gestured with her wand and spelled the door with the secrecy spell they had learned for this. It effectively hid them from sight when entering the house by projecting the image of a closed door while they opened it and went through. The only thing that could happen was if anybody was standing close to the door, they might feel a draft from the air that passed through. But that should not have been a serious problem.

Annabel finished the spell, and to their eyes the door began to glow faintly blue around the frame. Contractus looked at it for a moment, then nodded with satisfaction and smiled at Annabel.

‘Well done! Let’s go inside.’

So Will stepped forwards and opened the door gingerly. There was nobody to be seen. The others followed him, and then they were standing in a dimly lit hallway with traditional Christmas decorations.

‘And where do we go now?’ asked Annabel. ‘Should we just try every door and hope one is the living-room?’

Contractus chuckled and reached into his pocket. ‘No, no. That would be rather tedious, and would also rather increase the risk of discovery or mistakes. We’ve got these mobile screens on which our position and the goal are marked. They’re just like the screens on the sleigh. See?’

He held up the device he had taken out of his pocket, and showed it to them. And indeed it was a mobile version of the screen they had used on the sleigh. It showed a floor plan of the building they were standing in—not with many details, but Will could make out the walls, the doors, and a staircase, though no furniture or windows. Again there were the blue and red dots for their orientation on the screen.

From the visible contours Will drew the conclusion that the blue dot, which represented their position, indeed showed them standing in the hallway, for the outline on the screen had the same oblong proportions. The flashing red dot seemed to be in the room on their left. And right enough, as Will looked up he could see a door to his left. He pointed at it and looked at Mr Contractus.

‘So we have to go in there,’ Will whispered.

Beside him Annabel nodded, for she had also been studying the image on the screen.

‘Yes, but you don’t have to whisper. With the spells we can’t be heard,’ replied Contractus. ‘If you perform the spell, then we can go in there.’

Annabel did not need to be told twice. She quickly drew her wand, pointed it at the door, and again performed the spell that would cover the opening of the door. When the frame began to glow faintly blue, Mr Contractus nodded approvingly, opened the door cautiously, and went into the room that lay behind it. Luckily there was nobody in there. It would not have mattered anyway, for they were covered by the hiding spell, but Will was still relieved that they did not encounter anyone, because he was nervous enough as it was, being on his first field deployment. And doing the job unseen while other people were moving around in their own home was something he was not looking forward to.

The living room was neat and orderly. Nothing was lying around, and it was nicely prepared with Christmas decorations. And, of course, there was a large Christmas tree standing in one corner, colourfully but not gaudily decorated. Will liked it. But he was there to do a job and not to enjoy himself. He looked around the room and saw the pile of presents that were scattered in one corner. Contractus and Annabel were already standing in front of them, surveying the mess. Will joined them and saw roughly a dozen presents all jumbled together.

Mr Contractus cleared his throat. ‘Well, you’ve got two options now. You can either just carry the presents over to the tree, or you could use the spells you’ve learned for this.’

‘I think we should just carry the presents over there. That will be much easier and quicker than using the spells,’ replied Will. He saw that Annabel was nodding her agreement beside him.

‘Good. That’s what I’d do. Just remember that when you pick the presents up, they will disappear behind your covering spell. But there’s nobody here who’d see them disappear and then reappear again, so you can do it this way. There’s no need to waste time and energy with the spells. You’ll need them soon enough anyway.’

And he just bent down, picked up two presents, carried them over to the Christmas tree, and placed them underneath. Will and Annabel quickly followed his example, and after a few passes to and fro, all the presents were lying underneath the tree. Mr Contractus rearranged the presents with a few quick and precise movements that told of years of practise. Then he nodded, satisfied.

‘Okay, well done. We’ve finished here. Let’s get back to the sleigh.’ And he led them out of the living room, carefully checking that the spell was still covering the door before he opened it. They passed through the hallway and reached the sleigh without incident. They climbed up and settled into their seats.

Mr Contractus turned back to Will and Annabel. ‘Well done, you two. I’m quite pleased. It was just as I would have done it. Now all that’s left to do is close the job in the distribution system.’ He turned back round and looked at his screen. ‘Oh, I see we’ve got two new jobs waiting already.’

This time Annabel leaned forwards and operated the screen. She closed the current job and opened the next one.

‘“Job 03, Area B3, Code yellow-2”,’ she read aloud.

‘Good. That’s not far from here. Off we go.’

And they took off again.

Contractus turned partly round to them again and said, ‘As you know a yellow-2 is a bit more challenging, so I’ll handle it, especially since we already have another job waiting and have to hurry. But you can help, of course.’

‘Okay,’ replied Will and Annabel in unison, and Will certainly did not mind. He was happy just to watch and learn how to handle the different jobs. Because, he realised, even if they had trained and practised at school, being out there and doing the job for real was quite a bit different.

Soon they had reached their destination and Will could see the problem. Just as the code implied, the presents were all scattered around at the far back of the garden of the house. One was even up a tree; another one was stuck in the branches of a bush. Contractus hurriedly performed the cover spell on the sleigh and on himself, then jumped down from the sleigh as soon as it had slid to a stop. He hurried over to the scattered parcels, closely followed by Will and Annabel, covered once more by Annabel’s spell.

When they reached the presents, Contractus took out his wand, swept it around in a wide circle to include all the packages, and performed the rather complicated spell that would relocate them to the inside of the house, directly underneath the Christmas tree. Will was impressed by the ease and grace with which Contractus performed the spell. Annabel—and Sabrina of course—could probably have matched it, but Will could still well remember his first tries with the spells in the training area at school. He certainly had not managed to relocate the presents, but had ended up with them scattered even more about the place than when he had started.

Meanwhile the presents had disappeared, and there was no trace of them left in the snow. Contractus looked pleased, and led Will and Annabel over to the house. There he waved his wand again in the pattern of a complicated spell that Will did not know, and part of the wall in front of them turned transparent, so they were looking directly at the Christmas tree inside the living room and could see that the presents were arranged neatly underneath it.

‘Wow,’ Annabel said. ‘That’s a fabulous spell. I’d like to learn that one!’

Contractus smiled. ‘Yes, it can be very helpful indeed. But it’s quite complicated, and unfortunately has much potential for misuse, so I’m afraid it will be some time before you’ll learn it.’

‘Oh.’ Annabel looked rather disappointed.

‘Let’s go back. We’re done here, and we already have the next job waiting.’

Will was the first to climb back onto the sleigh. He quickly closed the current job and opened the next one.

‘The next job is in Area F7, and again a blue-3,’ he told the others.

‘Okay, let’s go,’ said Contractus, and shook the reins. They took off and rose into the air again. Soon they had reached their next destination. This job was similar to their first one, and they encountered no problems. After they had finished, there was no new job waiting for them.

‘Good. A break is most welcome,’ said Contractus. He flew them back into the centre of their area. He landed the sleigh on a small, remote hill where they could rest without the risk of being seen. They rested for perhaps fifteen minutes, and Will and Annabel used part of the time for an impromptu snowball fight that left them both panting and slightly wet. Then Contractus called them back to the sleigh.

‘Hurry up. We’ve got an urgent red-5! We’ve got to leave immediately.’

Will and Annabel ran back to the sleigh and quickly climbed up onto their seat. Contractus took off as soon as they were settled.

Will looked at Annabel. ‘Red means someone has discovered the presents that have been delivered to the wrong location. But what does five mean?’

‘The same as with the other codes: the wrong location is another building within five hundred to a thousand yards of the intended destination.’

‘Oh, I know that, but I thought it had a different meaning with a code red.’

‘No, it hasn’t. You thought wrong there,’ Annabel replied snootily.

Will let it pass. They were flying over the countryside at high speed, and Contractus still urged the reindeer to go faster. Then he took the sleigh downwards so rapidly Will could feel his stomach protesting. Soon they had landed on the lawn in front of the house that was marked with the red dot on the screen. Contractus hastily performed the covering spells on himself, the sleigh, and the reindeer, and covered Will and Annabel far faster than they would have been able to.

Contractus jumped down from the sleigh as soon as it touched the ground, with Will and Annabel right at his heels, and jogged over to the house, pulling his wand out while running. He stopped right in front of the main entrance and quickly spelled it. He glanced at his hand-held screen, then quickly opened the door and walked inside with Will and Annabel close behind. Contractus passed through the hall and went up the stairs. At the top he glanced at his screen again, then backed up against a wall as a door opened and a boy about the age of twelve came out. The boy went past Contractus and then Will and Annabel, who had pressed themselves against another door, without taking any notice of them, and skipped down the stairs. When he was gone, Will took a deep breath, realising he had been holding it while the boy had walked past them.

But the spell had worked! There was no indication that the boy had noticed anything unusual at all. Will felt quite relieved now that he had experienced this for the first time. There was quite a difference between being told that the spell worked and actually seeing it work so well.

Contractus directed a short spell at his hand-held screen, glanced at it again, then waved his wand at the door of the room from which the boy had come and performed the secrecy spell on it. Then he opened it, motioned for Annabel and Will to follow him, and went in. When Will entered he could see it was the typical room of a teenager, with lots of posters stuck on the walls, clothes lying around everywhere, magazines scattered around—all in all the usual mess of a growing boy. He had to think briefly about his own bedroom at home; he felt slightly guilty, but quickly decided his had not been too bad—and he certainly had never made such a mess, had he?

But then Annabel quietly said, ‘There.’ And she pointed towards a corner in which several presents had been discarded.

Contractus checked his screen again and said, ‘There should be seven presents there.’ He stepped over to the heap, picked up a parcel, and handed it to Annabel. Then he picked up the next one and also passed it back. ‘One, two, three…seven. Good, they’re all here. The boy must have found them outside and brought them home.’ He turned back to Annabel and Will. ‘Okay, we’re finished here. Let’s take them to the house next door, where they belong.’

‘Er, Mr Contractus?’ asked Will. ‘Wouldn’t it be faster and easier to move them there with a spell?’

‘Hmm,’ replied Contractus. ‘You might be right. It definitely would be faster. Okay then, put the parcels down here on the floor.’ Annabel and Will placed the presents where he had pointed. Contractus pulled out his wand again, waved it at the parcels, and performed the transfer spell. They shimmered blue for a brief moment, then they were gone. Contractus aimed his wand at his screen again, performed a brief spell, and nodded in satisfaction.

‘All good, all done. They are exactly where they belong. Let’s get out of here,’ he told Annabel and Will, and led them from the room. ‘On our way out, we still have to spell the boy and modify his memory so he doesn’t remember the presents. Otherwise it would be very awkward, and he would be wondering what happened here.’

‘Sure,’ Will replied.

They walked down the stairs. Then Contractus checked his screen and pointed at another door, performing the hiding spell once again. He went inside the room. Annabel and Will followed, and Will saw they were in the kitchen of the house. There was the boy they had seen upstairs, standing by the open fridge and rummaging through its contents. Mr Contractus looked at Annabel and Will, then raised his wand, pointed it at the boy, and waved it in the complicated pattern that Will recognised as the mind-modifying spell. The spell had been demonstrated to them, but they had not been taught how to perform it yet.

The boy froze for a second, looked around in disorientation, then shook his head and started rummaging in the fridge again. Contractus nodded, winked at Will and Annabel, and led them out of the kitchen, through the hall, out through the main entrance, and back to the sleigh.

When they were climbing up into the sleigh, Will finally asked the question he had wanted to ask for some time: ‘Mr Contractus? Inside the house you spelled your hand-held screen several times. What did you do to it?’

‘Oh, nothing special. I checked what people were in the house and where they were located. The other time I ascertained that the presents were in the right place. And then I used a spell to find the boy. You know, this hand-held is really a great tool if you know how to use it.’ He grinned at them. ‘And you can look forward to it. You two will receive your personal screens next year at school, and then you’ll start learning all the tricks and spells.’

Will was stunned. ‘Oh, that’s fantastic!’

Even Annabel looked amazed.

Contractus laughed. ‘Yes, it'll be great, you’ll see. I can’t even imagine anymore how we were able to manage without them. Well, I see we don’t have a new job waiting at the moment, so we’d best go back to a more central position,’ said Contractus, and gathered the reins in his hands.

Then suddenly a loud and piercing whistling noise made Will and Annabel jump.

‘Oh no,’ groaned Contractus, ‘what now?’ He let go of the reins and touched his screen. Thankfully the piercing noise ended. Will and Annabel also looked at their screen. A large, red-bordered rectangle had appeared and flashed quickly. Inside of the rectangle, Will could read in large, red letters: ‘2-black-black—All Units Respond Immediately!’

‘Oh dear!’ said Contractus. ‘That one’s really bad.’

He pressed the confirmation button, swiftly picked up the reins, and jerked them abruptly. He barked a quick ‘hold tight!’ back at Will and Annabel, who did not really know what was happening, and took off at high speed. Only when they were high up in the air, moving fast, did he turn around to Will and Annabel, who were hanging on to their seats, rather bewildered by this sudden take-off.

‘Sorry to frighten you. I don’t suppose you know what a double black is, do you?’ he asked. They both shook their heads, and Will was a bit surprised that even Annabel did not know. ‘A double black is the worst that can happen on this particular day,’ explained Contractus. ‘It’s a complete failure of Cloudy’s Transportation network with a total disruption of the present distribution! I’ve never experienced that before, although there have been simulations and plans for this case. We’ve got to leave here immediately and head for the nearest distribution hub of Cloudy’s.’ He urged the reindeer on even faster.

Annabel clung to the railing of the sleigh. ‘But wouldn’t it be faster if we used the transfer system—you know, like via street lanterns?’

‘Yes, normally it would,’ replied Contractus, ‘but with a double black, that system is also down.’

‘Oh.’

‘Yes, that sums it up pretty well,’ replied Contractus dryly.

‘But what about our work? What about the wrongly delivered presents? Are we going to leave them just lying about?’ asked Will.

‘They are not so important right now. The double black comes first. We’ll have to take care of the presents after this is sorted out,’ answered Contractus.

‘And the code-red jobs?’ pressed Will. ‘I thought they must be dealt with at once, before anyone messes about with the presents.’

‘Yes,’ answered Contractus, ‘they do need to be taken care of immediately. And for this reason not everybody gets called back, so one of the teams located in the adjacent areas is going to cover our area for the code red jobs.’

‘Ah, I see,’ replied Will.

By then they were high above the ground and nearing the clouds. Will looked at the screen in front of him. He saw that Contractus had entered their destination, and that they were getting closer fast. That was fine, for he had looked down a moment earlier, which had not been a terribly good idea, as his stomach was telling him quite pointedly. An enormous cloud loomed right in front of them.

Contractus turned slightly back to Will and Annabel. ‘We’re getting near to Cloudy’s regional hub, but we have to pass through some clouds to get there. I’m afraid it might get a bit wet. Sorry.’

And he flew the sleigh right into the huge white cloud. Will held his breath and closed his eyes, as he did not quite know what to expect. But all he could feel was a slight cold mist on his face, so he opened his eyes carefully and saw—nothing. Only white fog that was wet on his face. It was so thick he could not even see Contractus on the seat before him, or Annabel at his side. He could only make out vague shapes.

‘We’ll soon be there, no need to worry,’ Contractus called back to them, his voice slightly muffled by the fog.

Suddenly the mist parted, and they were flying into a large, open area that looked like a hangar. And in fact that was what it was: a hangar for sleighs, with a roof and walls made out of cloud. As Contractus flew their sleigh in, Will could make out about a dozen sleighs already standing there. Students and teachers hurried from them over to the main entrance on the far side of the hangar.

Contractus landed the sleigh quickly but smoothly in a free space near one of the walls. He grabbed his hand-held screen and turned around to Will and Annabel. ‘Let’s get inside quickly and see what’s going on here!’

He jumped down from the sleigh and hurried over to the entrance where the others had already disappeared. Will and Annabel followed right behind him. While they were running across the hangar, Will could see a few other students and teachers he knew from the school, but none of his immediate friends or classmates. They passed through the entrance and hurried down a corridor. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made out of cloud. To Will it looked exactly like the facility he had passed through on his way to Snowfields less than a year earlier.

Contractus called to another teacher: ‘Inventus! Do you know what’s happening?’

‘Not any more than you. We just received the double black and left immediately. Now we’re here.’

Author Bio:

Written by a young trauma surgeon during his time outside of the emergency room. And - against all odds - it is not bloody in the least, but full of the magic of Christmas.

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Seven Steps to Heal Your Thyroid

11/22/2018

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Book Details:

Book Title: Seven Steps to Heal Your Thyroid: A Proven Plan to Increase Energy, Elevate Mood & Optimize Weight by Dr. Meghna Thacker
Category: Adult Non-Fiction, 164 pages
Genre: Health and Wellness
Publisher: Self-published
Release date: November 15, 2018
Content Rating: G

Book Description:

If you are someone who has low energy and has to push yourself to get through your day or suffer from mood swings that may alternate between depression and bursts of anger, or has a difficult time losing weight after trying all the diets and exercise programs out there, then this book is for you.

The Seven Steps to Heal Your Thyroid gives you a Step by Step approach to get to the root cause of your thyroid problem and helps to find the solution along the way. The first step begins with introducing you to how your Thyroid Gland works and which hormones does it produce and what influences its function. In step two, you will learn about the different naturopathic treatments to heal your thyroid problem. Step three will address the important role of our gut and how conditions like leaky gut are related to autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Step four addresses the Environmental influences on the thyroid. In Step five you will understand why it is important to keep all the hormones balanced, not just the thyroid. Step six addresses the important aspect of stress and emotional health and its affect on the thyroid function and last but not least, Step Seven brings it all together by treating the person as a Whole. Finding the balance in Trinity of Life- Mind, Body & Spirit.

I have written this book from both my personal struggle with this condition which went un-diagnosed for years and my clinical experience treating patients for more than a decade. I hope that you find it helpful.

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Meet the Author:

Dr Thacker is a compassionate healer and has a passion to help people with thyroid disease, drawn from her personal struggles with this condition. She has created a protocol, Seven Steps to Heal Your Thyroid for everyone to feel like themselves again while increasing their energy, elevating their mood and optimizing their weight. She is a licensed Naturopathic Physician in the State of Arizona.

She graduated from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine from Tempe, AZ in 2007 upon completion of her Bachelors in Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery from Mumbai, India in 2002.

She has worked at Sottopelle for more than a decade and learned the pellet therapy from the pioneer, Dr. Gino Tutera himself. Her focus in practice is balancing hormones in women and treating thyroid disorders, naturally.

Besides her work, she loves to spend time with her husband and two boys. She loves dancing and outdoor activities like ATV riding.

She believes that Life is about finding Balance in this Trinity- Body, Mind & Soul

Life is simple. Life can be simple again.

Connect with the Author: Website ~ Facebook ~ Instagram

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