Like Ivy, Sam and Grip look ahead, only their postures and tight breathing alerting her to horror they feel from the sight and stench of the spectacle. Melchior, nearest the blaze, stares as a riser staggers away from the flaming house toward them, twisting past its fellows, both blazing hands grabbing its face. Mouth open, as though desperate to scream, it reels, thrashing, a work shirt and trousers burning off the body like kindling.
When the fiery specter lurches toward Chucklehead, the stallion apparently decides he has seen all he must. He rears, lashing out with both forefeet, pivoting to face this horror while he shrieks an angry cry. His hooves lash above the flaming riser, which drops, clutching itself as it burns on the ground.
There is one moment, a breath, in which Ivy sees everything about her in shattering clarity and terror. One frozen instant in which a thousand thoughts and visions flash through her mind.
Melchior has a crippled leg and no stirrups. Melchior’s horse reared unexpectedly, now doing a fighting cavalry stallion imitation. This same horse also let out an ear-shattering scream. Risers are attracted to three things: light, noise, and meat. They can be distracted from one by the sudden, vivid appearance of another.
In the same instant everything freezes, a fraction before Melchior hits the ground. A fraction before several dozen risers, some already on fire, turn to stare their way, Ivy hears Sam utter a curse for the first time since she has known him: “Bloody hell.” And she knows that is exactly where they are heading.
To Be Continued In
Book Two
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About the Author
Author of fiction from short stories to epics, designer of award-winning book covers, lover of travel and ice cream, Jordan wrote her first novel at age sixteen and has found it easier to write a book than remember to keep up a blog ever since.
She lives near Seattle with two dogs and a vast array of people who speak in her head until she turns their voices into novels.
Find more Lightfall titles, leave reviews, get in touch, or sign up for the mailing list on Jordan’s Amazon Author Page and at www.jordantaylorbooks.com.
Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth
Seventh
Eighth
Ninth
Tenth
Eleventh
Twelfth
Thirteenth
Fourteenth
Fifteenth
Sixteenth
Seventeenth
To Be Continued
About the Author
Lightfall One: Clock, Cloak, Candle (Lightfall, Book 1) Page 20