by HD Smith
Mab stepped forward as if she were just going to whisk me away.
I held out my hand to stop her, but my pathetic attempt was shot down completely when she turned on her mark. I searched the mental landscape of geodes that I used to visualize the power and spells used against me. Mab’s geode was as black as her heart, but there had to be a way to find a matching pair. Mentally I picked up the first half of the geode that represented Mab’s mark. It was cold to the touch. Ignoring the pain in my arm, I imagined the two halves slammed together. I watched as the other geodes scattered, leaving the broken one I needed in plain sight. Grabbing the other half I mentally slammed them shut, the force of which took almost all my power reserves. Mab’s mark was contained, ending the pain in my arm. The effort left me practically powerless.
I remained standing, but it was a huge effort.
“You don’t own me, bitch,” I said.
Mab just cocked one of her eyebrows as if saying, “We’ll see.”
“None of you do,” I continued. “I’ll be going now. Stay the hell away from me.”
I took one step, then fell to the floor unconscious.
~#~
“She must not return to the fourth realm.” Someone whispered as I returned to my senses.
I opened my eyes, planning to sit up, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.
“Glad to see you’ve returned to us, Claire,” Harry said, and it almost sounded sincere.
“Yeah, right,” I said, but it was barely a whisper.
“You’re not strong enough to be on your own just yet,” The Boss said.
“And there’s the matter of the curator,” Mab said, almost pleasantly.
“What about the curator?” I asked.
“We need a new one,” Harry answered.
“And it’s your job to hire him.” Mab sounded down right cheery.
“Obviously there’s a catch. What is it?” I asked.
“We’ll discuss that once you’re recovered,” The Boss added. “I’ve made arrangements for you to have an office in my building. And we’ll assign someone to protect you, of course.”
“Protect me from what?”
“The candidates,” they all said in unison.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
HD Smith has been writing for over ten years. DARK AWAKENED is her second full length novel. She is a software developer by day, working for an awesome cruise line in Celebration, FL.
HD grew up in South Carolina, but has called the Sunshine State home since 1997. She has Computer Science degrees from Clemson University (BS) and Florida Institute of Technology (MS). Her other hobbies include painting and screen printing. She enjoys creating t-shirts inspired by the places in her books. For more information, visit HD’s website at http://www.hdsmithauthor.com/.
Novellas:
Keegan’s Point
Nowhere, NJ
The Devil’s Assistant Series:
Dark Hope
Dark Awakened
Photo by Stacie Lee
The Extras
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