Cover Reveal- SCALES by Nicole Conway With An Exclusive Excerpt & Giveaway!

Today Nicole Conway, Owl Hollow Press, and Rockstar Book Tours are revealing the cover and an exclusive content for SCALES, her new MG/YA Fantasy Book which releases in 2019! Check out the awesome cover and enter the giveaway!

On to the reveal! 

Title: SCALES (Spirits of Chaos, #1)

Author: Nicole Conway

Pub. Date: 2019

Publisher: Owl Hollow Press

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: ?

Find it: Goodreads

When New York City faces the threat of an ancient evil, a teenage boy must use a magical bracelet to transform into a monster-slaying dragon superhero.

Koji Owens is the new kid … again. As the only son of an Air Force F-16 pilot, he’s learned to adapt and survive every time they move. It’s not easy starting over with new friends and schools every two years, but when the Owens family makes their final move to New York, Koji finally has hope for a normal high school life—that is, until he finds a strange bracelet in his locker.

Transformed into a storm-summoning dragon warrior, Koji finds himself caught up in a world of ancient powers, secret identities, and colossal monsters threatening to destroy his new home. But these awesome powers come with strings attached, and revealing his true identity could mean losing everything he loves. With his family and friends now in mortal danger and New York City in flames, Koji must find the courage to become the hero they need and face down an enemy hiding in plain sight.

A comic-obsessed teenage misfit embraces his inner hero in this action-packed adventure that will leave you ready to get your scales on!

Exclusive Excerpt!

Piercing light bloomed from the totem scale. It swept over me and took away my pain, molding and stretching me into my full dragon form. The instant the searing energy coursed through my body, I launched myself into the sky.

I didn’t have a single second to waste.

Now that I was a beast of comparable size, I crested the skyscrapers in a few powerful beats of my wings. From a few blocks away, the wyvern spotted me. It let out a howl of fury as it surged straight for me. I answered with a battle cry of my own, driving more and more power into every beat of my mighty black wings.

Two F-22 fighter jets rolled in on either side, joining me in aerial formation. Their engines roared, and both pilots gave me a confirming thumb’s up. They were following me in for the attack.

I’d never felt so cool in my entire life.

I clashed with the wyvern in the air over Central Park, clamping my jaws around his throat. I prepared to give him a taste of my lightning, the same way I had the crocodile monster. One good jolt and maybe I could bring him down.

Before I get a good grip, he swung his spiked tail and whacked me across the eyes. I let go, snatching back with a roar.

            He dove at me; his toothy mandible jaws open wide to rip my throat out.

A sudden plume of fire scorched his hide and sent him reeling. I drew back, wary of the blistering flames.

            Another giant dragon clashed in battle, had scales as red as fresh blood and a ridge of tall, slender black spines all the way down her back. My breath caught. Madeline? She’d gone full-form, too?

She attacked the wyvern mercilessly, pinning him under another blast of her fiery breath.

            Shaking off the blow to my head, I charged headlong back into the fight, lightning sizzling and popping off my open jaws. We had to get him on the ground. If we could pin him there, he’d be within range of ground fire and an easier target for our air support. We could contain the damage to the rest of the city, too.

So I went for one of the wyvern’s wings full-force.

            Fyurei had him distracted. He never saw me coming. I swooped in to break one of his wings at the shoulders with a single powerful crunch of my jaws and sharp jerk of my head. The creature screeched and kicked, floundering with his one good wing and swinging his tail like a medieval mace. The bulbous, spiky tip struck one of the F-22 jets and sent the aircraft flipping through the air end over end. Not good. I watched the aircraft fall, waiting for the pilot to eject.

            He didn’t.

            I didn’t hesitate—I dove straight after the jet, summoning every bit of speed I had. The jet spiraled, smoking and streaking toward the ground. I threw myself the final distance with a desperate cry, jaws open wide.

I caught the tail of the jet in my teeth about a hundred feet shy of the ground. As soon as my jaws clamped onto the metal, I reared back, kicked my legs out, and flared for an emergency landing right in the middle of the park.

It took a second for the dust, snow, and trees to settle.

Picking the jet carefully out of my mouth, I held it up to my huge dragon eyeball like a little kid’s toy. Inside the cockpit, the tiny pilot was giving me a shaky thumb’s up. He was okay.

I gave him my best dragon smile, terrifying as it probably was, and placed his jet, right side up, on a grassy spot in the park. Then I turned around to get back to business. I still had some wyvern rear end to roast and an evil headmaster in dire need of reeducation.

About Nicole:

MY NAME IS NICOLE CONWAY and I love to write stories! I've been writing books since I was very young, and am blessed beyond measure to be able to do it now as a full time career. Although I sometimes step out into other genres, I primarily write Fantasy for teens and middle graders.

​I graduated from Auburn University in 2012, which is also where I met my husband. As a military family, we move frequently and have lived numerous places all around the world. We have one very energetic son, Ethan. We also have two dogs (French Brittanys) named Joey (currently 5 months old) and Phoebe (4 years old) and a ball python named Noodle Nagini.

​For inquiries on how to book me for a school visit, presentation, or interest in my future or current projects, please contact my amazing literary agent, FRAN BLACK, of Literary Counsel.

Subscribe to Nicole’s Newsletter!

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr | Pinterest | BookBub | Amazon |  Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

One lucky winner will win an ARC of SCALES, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cover Reveal- MAYFLY by Jeff Sweat With Exclusive Content & A Giveaway!

Today Jeff Sweat and Rockstar Book Tours are revealing the cover and an exclusive content for MAYFLY, his new YA Dystopian which releases May 8, 2018! Check out the awesome cover and enter to win an ARC!

On to the reveal! 

Title: MAYFLY

Author: Jeff Sweat

Pub. Date: May 8, 2018

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Pages: 320

Find it:  Amazon, B&N, iBooks, TBD, Goodreads

Jemma has spent her life scavenging tools and supplies for her tribe in the their small enclave outside what used to be a big city. Now she’s a teen, and old enough to become a Mama. Making babies is how her people survive—in Jemma’s world, life ends at age seventeen.

Survival has eclipsed love ever since the Parents died of a mysterious plague. But Jemma’s connection to a boy named Apple is stronger than her duty as a Mama. Forced to leave, Jemma and Apple are joined in exile by a mysterious boy who claims to know what is causing them to die. The world is crumbling around them, and their time is running out. Is this truly the End?

Exclusive Content!

The People of Ell Aye

Mayfly is set in the land of Ell Aye, a once-mighty city now in ruins. The old divisions of the past are gone, and in their place new peoples have emerged, each with their own origins and unique cultures.

The Angelenos

The dominant people of Ell Aye, they are a largely peaceful female-led society who live primarily in the hills. They are made of four interrelated peoples:

The Holy Wood

The oldest Angeleno settlement, on the shores of the Lake of the Holy Wood and the old Holy Wood sign.

The Malibu

The farthest west of the Angelenos, who live in the mountains next to the ocean of Malibu.

The Downtown

The Downtown guard the former towers of Ell Aye as sacred ground and live in a giant stadium in a ravine.

The San Fernandos

The San Fernandos live in the great valley north of the Holy Wood and frequently compete with the Holy Wood for scarce resources.

The Last Lifers

A feral band of Children who’ve gone mad in anticipation of their early deaths; they live throughout Ell Aye in violence and chaos because they fear no consequences.

The Palos (The Biters)

A cannibal society from the smoking Palos Verdes peninsula, they are Ell Aye’s most feared enemy. They are intelligent, vicious, and well armed.

The Ice Cream Men

A wandering tribe of traders who travel on three-wheeled ice cream carts, the Ice Cream Men know all the peoples in Ell Aye.

The Kingdom

A mighty civilization built by former gang members, the Kingdom occupies a huge castle fortress in Orange County, the OC.

About Jeff: 

Jeff Sweat has made a living from words his entire career, starting out as an award-winning tech journalist for InformationWeek magazine and moving into marketing.

He led the content marketing team for Yahoo and pioneered its use of social media. He directed PR for two of the top advertising agencies in the country, Deutsch LA and 72andSunny. He now runs his own Los Angeles–based PR and marketing agency, Mister Sweat.

He grew up in Idaho as the middle of eight children—seven boys and one girl—and attended Columbia University in New York. Jeff lives in a big blue house in Los Angeles with his wife Sunny and their three kids, two cats, and a racing greyhound.

He loves to travel and writes everywhere he goes, even when there's not a desk. He likes karaoke, motorcycles and carpentry. He was once shot in the head with a nail gun, which was not a big of a deal as it sounds. But it still hurt like crazy.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon Author Page | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive an ARC of MAYFLY, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Exclusive Chapter Reveal- THE STEEP AND THORNY WAY by Cat Winters!

I am sooooooo excited!!!! Today I get the EXCLUSIVE chapter 1 reveal for THE STEEP AND THORNY WAY by Cat Winters releasing in March 8th, 2016! I adore Cat's other books and am dying to read this one too! Check out the synopsis and the first chapter!!

The Steep and Thorny Way

by Cat Winters

Release Date: March 8, 2016

Publisher: Amulet Books

ISBN: 9781419719158

About the Book:

A thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Steep and Thorny Way tells the story of a murder most foul and the mighty power of love and acceptance in a state gone terribly rotten.

1920s Oregon is not a welcoming place for Hanalee Denney, the daughter of a white woman and an African-American man. She has almost no rights by law, and the Ku Klux Klan breeds fear and hatred in even Hanalee’s oldest friendships. Plus, her father, Hank Denney, died a year ago, hit by a drunk-driving teenager. Now her father’s killer is out of jail and back in town, and he claims that Hanalee’s father wasn’t killed by the accident at all but, instead, was poisoned by the doctor who looked after him—who happens to be Hanalee’s new stepfather.

The only way for Hanalee to get the answers she needs is to ask Hank himself, a “haint” wandering the roads at night.

Find THE STEEP AND THORNY WAY Online:

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | The Book Depository | Amazon UK | Indiebound | Powell's Books

The sneak peek . . .

CHAPTER ONE: MURDER MOST FOUL

I drew a deep breath and marched into the woods behind my house with a two-barreled pistol hidden beneath my blue cotton skirt. The pocket-size derringer rode against my outer right thigh, tucked inside a holster that had, according to the boy who’d given it to me, once belonged to a lady bootlegger who’d been arrested with three different guns strapped to her legs. Twigs snapped beneath my shoes. My eyes watered and burned. The air tasted of damp earth and metal.

Several yards ahead, amid a cluster of maples blanketed in scaly green lichen, stood a fir tree blackened by lightning. If I turned right on the deer trail next to that tree and followed a line of ferns, I’d find myself amid rows of shriveled grapevines in the shut-down vineyard belonging to my closest friend, Fleur, her older brother, Laurence, and their war-widowed mama.

But I didn’t turn.

I kept trekking toward the little white shed that hid the murderer Joe Adder.

Fleur’s whispers from church that morning ran through my head, nearly tipping me off balance during my clamber across moss-slick rocks in the creek. “Reverend Adder doesn’t even want his boy around anymore,” she had told me before the sermon, her face bent close to mine, fine blond hair brushing across her cheeks. “He won’t let Joe back in the house with the rest of the kids. Laurence is hiding him in our old shed. And Joe wants to talk to you. He’s got something to say about the night his car hit your father.”

I broke away from the creek and hiked up a short embankment covered in sedges and rushes that tickled my bare shins. At the top of the bank, about twenty-five feet away, sat a little white structure built of plaster and wood. Before he left for the Great War, Fleur’s father used to store his fishing gear and liquor in the place, and he sometimes invited my father over for a glass of whiskey, even after Oregon went bone-dry in 1916. Bigleaf maples hugged the rain-beaten shingles with arms covered in leaves as bright green as under-ripe apples. A stovepipe poked out from the roof, and I smelled the sharp scent of leftover ashes—the ghost of a fire Joe must have lit the night before, when the temperature dropped into the fifties.

I came to a stop in front of the shed, my pulse pounding in the side of my throat. My scalp sweltered beneath my knitted blue hat, along with the long brown curls I’d stuffed and pinned inside. I leaned over and drew the hem of my skirt above my right knee, exposing the worn leather of the holster. I took another deep breath and wiggled the little derringer out of its hiding place.

With my legs spread apart, I stood up straight and pointed the pistol at the shed’s closed door. “Are you in there, Joe?”

A hawk screeched from high above the trees, and some sort of animal splashed in the pond that lay beyond the shed and the foliage. But I didn’t hear one single peep out of Joe Adder.

“Joe?” I asked again, this time in as loud and deep a voice as I could muster. Tree-trunk strong, I sounded. Sticky sweat rolled down my cheeks, and my legs refused to stop rocking back and forth. “Are you in there?”

“Who’s there?”

I gripped the pistol with both my hands. The voice I heard was a husky growl that couldn’t have belonged to clean-cut, preacher’s-boy Joe, from what I remembered of him. It and a splashing sound seemed to come from the pond, not the shed.

“Who’s there?” he asked again. I heard another splash.

I lowered the pistol to my side and crept around to the back of the shed, feeling my tongue dry up from panting. I pushed past a tangle of blackberry bushes, pricking a thumb on a thorn, and came to a stop on the edge of the bank. My feet teetered on the gnarled white root of a birch.

In the pond, submerged up to his navel in the murky green water, stood a tanned and naked Joe Adder, arms akimbo, a lock of dark brown hair hanging over his right eye. His shoulders were broad and sturdy, his biceps surprisingly muscular, as though prison had worked that scrawny little white boy hard.

My mouth fell open, and my stomach gave an odd jump. The last time I’d seen Joe, back in February 1921, seventeen months earlier, he’d been a slick-haired, sixteen-year-old kid in a fancy black suit, blubbering on a courthouse bench between his mama and daddy.

This new version of my father’s killer—now just a few months shy of his eighteenth birthday, almost brawny, his hair tousled and wild—peered at me without blinking. Drops of water plunked to the pond’s surface from his elbows.

“You don’t want to shoot me, Hanalee,” he said in that husky voice of his. “I don’t recommend prison to anyone but the devils who threw me in there.”

I pointed the pistol at his bare chest, my right fingers wrapped around the grip. “If you had run over and killed a white man with your daddy’s Model T,” I said, “you’d still be behind bars, serving your full two years . . . and more.”

“I didn’t kill anyone.”

“I bet you don’t know this”—I shifted my weight from one leg to the other—“but people tell ghost stories about my father wandering the road where you ran him down, and I hate those tales with a powerful passion.”

“I’m sorry, but—”

“But those stories don’t make me half as sick as you standing there, saying you didn’t kill anyone. If you didn’t kill him, you no-good liar, then why didn’t you defend yourself at your trial?”

Joe sank down into the water and let his chin graze the surface. Long, thick lashes framed his brown eyes, and he seemed to know precisely how to tilt his head and peek up at a girl to use those lashes to his advantage. “They never gave me a chance to speak on the witness stand,” he said. “They hurried me into that trial, and then they rushed me off to prison by the first week of February. And I didn’t get to say a goddamned word.”

I pulled the hammer into a half-cocked position with a click that echoed across the pond. Joe’s eyes widened, and he sucked in his breath.

“You lied to your family about delivering food to the poor that Christmas Eve,” I said, “and you crashed into my father because you were drunk on booze from some damn party. My new stepfather witnessed him die from injuries caused by you, so don’t you dare fib to me.”

“Don’t you dare shoot me before I talk to you about that stepdaddy of yours.”

“I don’t want to hear what you have to say about Uncle Clyde. I’m not happy he married my mama, but he’s a decent man.”

“Stop pointing that gun at me and let me talk.”

“Give me one good reason why I should listen to you.” I aimed the pistol at the skin between Joe’s eyebrows. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t squeeze this trigger and sh—”

“You should listen to me, Hanalee, because you’re living with your father’s murderer.”

About Cat: 

Cat Winters is an award-winning author of YA and adult fiction. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, In the Shadow of Blackbirds, received multiple starred reviews and was named a Morris Award finalist and a School Library Journal Best Book of 2013. Her second novel, The Cure for Dreaming, was named to ALA’s 2015 Amelia Bloomer Project list and the 2014 Tiptree Award longlist. Her newest YA novel, The Steep and Thorny Way, is a 2016 Junior Library Guild selection. In a starred review, Kirkus called the novel “A riveting story of survival, determination, love, and friendship.” Cat lives in Portland, Oregon. You can find her online at www.CatWinters.com and at Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram.

Find Cat Online:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads 

Cover Reveal- BANISHED by Kimberly Griffiths Little With An Exclusive Content and a Giveaway!

Hey everyone! I’m thrilled to be helping out with the cover reveal for Banished by Kimberly Griffiths Little! The cover is absolutely gorgeous and I have a special exclusive excerpt to share! Also make sure to stick around for the awesome giveaway!

Now on to the reveal!

Title: BANISHED, Book 2 of the FORBIDDEN trilogy

Author: Kimberley Griffiths Little

Release Date: February 2, 2016

Publisher: Harpercollins

Find it: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | The Book Depository

She thought she’d lost everything . . .

After spending months traveling the harsh, unforgiving Mesopotamian desert, Jayden reunites with a broken, injured Kadesh. Although everyone was convinced the violent and unpredictable Horeb, Jayden’s betrothed, killed the handsome prince, Jayden knew in her heart that her love was alive and safe. But their reunion is short-lived, as they learn Horeb is on their trail and determined to take back the girl he has claimed. Soon, the two star-crossed lovers are on the run toward Sariba, Kadesh’s homeland, where, as heir to the Kingdom, he plans to make Jayden his princess.

But the trek to Sariba is fraught with heartache and danger. After narrowly escaping being stoned to death for a crime she didn’t commit, and learning that her sister has disappeared, Jayden’s only solace is her love for Kadesh. But even he is keeping secrets from her . . . secrets that will change everything.

This gorgeous and enchanting sequel to Forbidden, is full of love, danger, and heated passion that will leave readers breathless.

Awards for FORBIDDEN:

Whitney Award Finalist

Letters of Mormon Arts Award Finalist

BOOKLIST Top 10 Historical Novels of 2015

Editorial Reviews

*STARRED* in BOOKLIST
“At its core, this is a romance, with all the push and pull that goes along with impossible love, and Little elevates the story by creating a perilous landscape, both outward and inward, as Jayden must deal with the hardship of desert life as well as her own desires.” Little elevates the story by creating a perilous landscape, both outward and inward, as Jayden must deal with the hardship of desert life as well as her own desires."

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “A fast-paced, entertaining choice which will appeal to fans of historical fiction and romance.”

BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS: “Rich historical details are deftly woven into Jayden’s narration, and the dynamics of Jayden’s tribe are vividly drawn. Jayden’s story becomes as much about finding herself as it is about finding love.”

"Lush, lyrical, romantic. Forbidden transports readers into a vividly imagined place and time." 

--Claudia Gray, New York Times bestselling author

"The beauty of the desert of ancient Mesopotamia comes to life in Forbidden . . .Your heart will break as you root for Jayden to triumph over the struggles that tear her world apart, and the ending will leave you thirsting for more!"

--Sara B. Larson, author of Defy

Exclusive Content!

The first book of the trilogy, Forbidden, has some very romantic kissing in it. Because of their culture Jayden and Kadesh can barely acknowledge each other or talk, let alone KISS. But their attraction is electric, intense, and passionate. The scenes between them, especially their first kiss were rewritten dozens of times as I tried to get the right mood and atmosphere and emotions across.

So then I get asked: Tell us about your first kiss and I say, “Eek, do I have to think about that?! My first kiss at 14 was nerve-racking and sloppy (and he was 17!) Not what I expected, actually . . . But later, something compelled me to go back for more . . . like it does for all of us, *winks*. Kissing is fun to write about and I tried to bring to life those first kisses with Jayden and Kadesh to show the romance and passion teens experience.

About Kimberly:

Kimberley Griffiths Little grew up in San Francisco, but now lives in an adobe house on the banks of the Rio Grande with her chaotic, messy family. She’s drunk so much Land of Enchantment water that some of that ancient magic got into her blood and now spurts out her pencil—um, ergonomic keyboard.

Kimberley has slept in the haunted tower room at Borthwick Castle in Scotland, sailed the Seine in Paris, walked the beaches of Normandy, ridden a camel in Petra, shopped the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and spent the night in an old Communist hotel in Bulgaria.

P.S. She also writes award-winning middle-grade novels with Scholastic. :-)

 Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest

Order FORBIDDEN on Kindle for only $5.99

Order FORBIDDEN in hardcover for only $11.99

Order FORBIDDEN in paperback (coming Jan 5th) for only $9.99

Pictures from my trip to the Middle East: https://www.pinterest.com/kimberleylittle/petra-jordan/

Gorgeous belly dancers: https://www.pinterest.com/kimberleylittle/belly-dancing/

Sign up for Kimberley’s Newsletter: http://www.eepurl.com/LCVjX

Must-See Book Trailer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3ncXetDyG8

Giveaways (US Only):

One grand prize winner:

1. Signed ARC of FORBIDDEN & BANISHED when available

2. $25.00 Amazon Gift Card

3. Middle Eastern Earrings

4. Paper Blanks Magnetic Notebook

5. A set of beautiful FORBIDDEN & BANISHED Bookmark Club Cards

7 Winners will receive:

1. $10.00 Amazon Gift Card

2. Middle Eastern earrings

3. Paper Blanks Notebook

4. A set of beautiful FORBIDDEN & BANISHED Book Club Cards

EVERYBODY WHO Orders or Pre-orders copies of the books receives a set of gorgeous BOOK CLUB CARDS and an autographed book plate! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the rest of the participating bloggers for more exclusive content!

Alyssa @ The Eater of Books! 

Amber & Stacey @ Page Turners

Jaime & Erin @ Fiction Fare

Jaime @Two Chicks on Books

Kathy @ I Am A Reader 

Katie @ Mundie Moms

Martina @ Adventures in YA Publishing

Also here's some fun graphics!

Blog Tour- NOBODY'S GODDESS by Amy McNulty A Special Excerpt and a Giveaway!

Hey y'all! I have an awesome exclusive excerpt from Amy McNulty the author of the amazing High Fantasy book NOBODY'S GODDESS for you today! Oh and stick around for the giveaway!
Haven't heard of NOBODY'S GODDESS ? Check it out!

Title: NOBODY'S GODDESS

Author: Amy McNulty

Pub. Date: April 21, 2015

Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.

Pages: 274

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Find it: Goodreads|Chapters Indigo | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | TBD

In a village of masked men, magic compels each man to love only one woman and to follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. And a man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she can’t or won’t, he remains masked forever.

Seventeen-year-old Noll isn't in the mood to celebrate. Her childhood friends have paired off and her closest companion, Jurij, found his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man has ever chosen her.

Thus begins a dangerous game between the choice of woman versus the magic of man. And the stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and neither is willing to lose.

Now on to the excerpt! 

A NOBODY’S GODDESS Scene from the Lord’s POV

If this did not go well, there would never again be an opportunity to gaze upon her through anything but this veil before my face. I had been a fool during that first meeting all those months prior, and it was only by her kindness and determination to keep her eyes shut that I still breathed.

          I was beginning to think it was a kindness I had imagined.

          We were eating now, and I had removed the veil I usually wrapped around my face, instead relying on a curtain of the same material that separated my end of the table from hers. That kept my face safe from the scorn in her eyes. That kept her beauty swathed in a haze of material through which I could never truly see her.

          She was not eating much. The food ought to have satisfied her. My servants were surely better cooks than her sister had been. I did not taste the stew the woman had offered, but I could tell from scent alone she had a long way to go before she could match the skill of one who had more years to perfect his art than she could imagine living. “Is the venison not to your liking?”

          The clink of her fork on the plate was too loud for it to have been an accident. I waited for her reply. There was none. “Olivière?” I asked instead.

Still, she did not answer. The end of the table at which she sat was far from my own end, and I strained to hear what she might be doing. Damn this veil. I could not see clear enough. My own appetite unsettled, I carefully set my knife and fork on my plate. “Olivière? Are you all right?”

There was no response. By now, that did not astonish me. I was certain my voice carried well enough over the length of the table in the cavernous room. She would not make any of this easy for me.

I motioned for the nearest servant to refill her drink, hoping for some sort of response, even if it just be for her to refuse my hospitality. She did not. Even through the veil, I could see her snatch the goblet out of the servant’s hand as she tossed her head back and downed the entire beverage at once.

Oh. She was choking. She was in danger. My goddess was…

 “Are you all right now?” My hands clutched the edge of the table so tightly, I almost tore the delicate lace. I could not go to help her, even if she were dying. I had to go, but I could not. I wanted to—but I would not. I could not risk it. I had to… “Olivière? Answer me!”

“Yes!” It was the first word she had spoken all evening—all day, since the moment she had arrived in my castle. The sound of her dropping the goblet onto the table was loud enough to make me think the glass had broken.

She was fine. But she had nothing more to say. I picked up the knife and fork again and went back to cutting the meat on my plate. If she refused to enjoy the resplendent meal before her, there was no reason I had to do the same.

Her response was to push her plate away from her.

I had to take a deep breath to calm my beating heart and that cursed notion inside of me to satisfy her every whim. She could not think she ruled over me like all of the rest of the goddesses did over their men in the village. She could not know how hard it was for me to stay calm. “Would you care for another dish for dinner?” I speared the meat on my plate with a little too much vigor, shoving the piece inside of my mouth to force myself to remain focused on the task instead of on that voice inside me that wanted me to worship her. That foolish voice that had almost gotten me killed the moment I had seen her trespass into my castle.

 “I’d like to be excused now.” Olivière pushed her chair back and stood.

Six of my servants moved toward her without my having to order them. Their primary instruction was my safety, even above the quiet forcefulness of obligation they or I might feel toward her as my goddess.

“Sit down,” I said. “Please.”

Her response sounded strained. “I’m not feeling well.”

I would not give in. I could not. If I let her know how easily she could harm me, if I gave her even the slightest indication that I valued her satisfaction over my own life—and damn it, there was a part of me that did just that, that cursed part of me, that cursed woman—she would never see me as her equal, as someone she could love. I attempted to keep eating, to diffuse the anger I knew she was feeling. The anger that seeped into my every pore, that cried out to be assuaged. “You have not eaten enough. Food will improve your temper.”

I could hear her take a deep breath, and I knew, before she even spoke, that the words she would say next would challenge all of my strength to resist her every whim.

“Let. Me. Leave.”

The fork fell from my hand and I held onto the table tightly if only to weigh myself down in my chair. I wanted to let her go. My servants were already complying without thinking, some making way for her to pass by. If she pushed it, she could walk outside the door and I would be powerless to stop her—and she would walk right past where I was seated, my face only protected by the veil that hung between us.

She could not know how much my every bone screamed out to gratify her. I would not have it.

I let go of the table, taking careful measures to draw in my bated breath quietly, so she would not hear the inner struggle. I picked up my napkin. “She means to let her retire from the dining hall for the night. And so shall I.” I dabbed at my face and felt my muscles relaxing. Yes. I could do this. I could interpret her commands in such a way she might be satisfied but might not be tempted to use her power over me so often, so harshly. She wanted to leave, and I would let her. We could end this first dinner together pleasantly. There was hope for me. For us. For this village.

The servants sensed my calm and went back to their work attending to me. One picked up the fork I had let fall from my fingers, while the others formed a line between me and the doorway, keeping me from view should Olivière immediately exit.

She did not.  “No, that’s not the full extent of my wishes,” she said, a strange falseness to her voice. “Let—”

“Do not speak further!” My hands shook. My legs would not support me. I leaned against the table with my fists, forgetting for a moment how I came to be standing, how the veil curtain wafted as if in a breeze. A servant righted my chair behind me. I must have knocked it down trying to stop her from speaking.

My words had been so loud, they continued to echo against the walls.

She would not let that be the end of it. “I don’t think you understand how this works—”

“Silence!”

“No! Who do you think you are? What do you think you’re supposed to mean to me? I don’t even know you. I don’t want to be here, and you’re expecting me to perform the Returning!”

That felt like a rather low blow. When I had so foolishly thought today would be our Returning, that today I would be free of this curse, free of this veil, free of… I was blinded by these feelings I had for her. Feelings I never asked for. I pounded the table with both of my fists. “Was it not you who first sought me out?”

She flung her hands around her wildly. “Not for this! I never asked to be your goddess! I just wanted—” She stopped suddenly.

I knew what she had wanted. “You wished to free your friend so you could steal him from his goddess.” I summoned the nearest servants, and they went to her side, escorting her by the arms. I could not look at her. I could not stop my heart from pounding. It was maddening. She had not asked to be my goddess? I had not asked for it to be her. I was so tired of this. Of hope. Of everything. “How unfortunate that I was unable to help you with such a generous act.”

I would have to show her. There seemed to be no other way to win her love, to get this wretched existence over with. I moved toward the doorway, knowing my servants would step in to protect my face from her if she did not think to stop them. They did, wrapping my veil over my head, pinning it at my shoulder and placing my hat atop it before I appeared around the other side of the curtain.

Now the whole world was veiled to me, but that was the price I had to pay for movement around the eyes of one who would not love me.

I exited the room first, leading the way. “Come with me!” I heard her struggling to escape from my servants’ escort behind me, but I did not hesitate.

“Stop!” she screamed.

I stopped. I had no choice. There was such power and anger in that one word.

“Let me—”

She could kill me, if I let her.

“Silence her!” I ordered, and one of the servants holding her produced a piece of the veil material from his pocket and wrapped it around her mouth. She stared at me as it happened, and it was as if she were studying the veil keeping me from her, keeping her forever in a haze before my eyes, looking for a rip through which she could send me to my death.

The look pained me. My whole body hurt.

I walked forward again. I had stopped when she had asked me to stop, after all. I was under no obligation to stay that way.

My legs throbbed with the effort it took to move forward, knowing as I did, beneath my conscious thought, I was disobeying her desire.

Stop her from speaking, and I will not have to hear of her desire. Let me show her that she is not the only one here with desires. Let me show her that she has a reason to be grateful to me. Let me show her the gift I would have happily bestowed upon her today, if she had been willing to perform the Returning.

About Amy:

Amy McNulty is a freelance writer and editor from Wisconsin with an honors degree in English. She was first published in a national scholarly journal (The Concord Review) while in high school and currently spends her days alternatively writing on business and marketing topics and primarily crafting stories with dastardly villains and antiheroes set in fantastical medieval settings.

Connect with the Author:  Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of Nobody's Goddess (The Never Veil #1) by Amy McNulty (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Go to Chapter by Chapter to check out the Tour Schedule for more awesome posts!