by Sacha Black
“Oh, come on, darling. Dry those tears, he’s not dead, yet. You haven’t had the exquisite pain of your soul tearing in two - yet.” She sucks in a breath, “I’d say you have at least thirty seconds before that happens.”
She's right. I'm not hurting; there's no searing or burning, I still feel whole. I let myself slip under the comforting control of the Imbalance. I throw my arm up, launching a bolt of electricity out and flick my wrist so it boomerangs and loops around her neck. I draw on wind, picking up tables and yanking CogTVs off the wall to throw at her. She rolls those intense lilac eyes at me as if she’s bored, "Oh, please."
She bats the electricity rope away, and it disintegrates before it hits the ground. She circles me, her white dress dragging over the checkered tiles of Stratera's foyer. We circle each other. An ominous black cloud forms above our heads. The first splashes of heavy rain fall to the floor. I glance up. Error. She launches a stream of fireballs at me. I roll out of the way just in time. The first misses me, so does the second. But the third careers into my side, knocking me to the ground. She sprints, fast, sliding across the floor. And grabs my wrist and snaps my arm, the bone piercing the skin, and blood gushes out around it. I cry out, the excruciating pain making gray smatter my vision.
I plead with myself not to pass out. From the floor, I use my other hand to shoot a patch of ice out making it grow as fast as I can. Icy spikes rear up from the floor like stalagmites. She slips and trips, dropping to the tiles and scrapes her white cheek on the sharp point of an icicle as it spears up toward the ceiling.
“Little bitch,” she says, regaining her composure and wiping the smear of red off her face. Pain-tears sting my eyes, the strength of the Imbalance abandoning me right when I need it. She laughs as she uses my broken arm to haul me to my feet. But she doesn’t notice me breaking another icicle off with my other hand. I slam it into her gut.
She rolls forward, before staggering back. First, she laughs, the light giggle of shock. Then her face grows hard as she examines the deep claret stain spreading down her dress and the drip, drip, drip of her blood pooling on the tiles.
“You got me. You actually got me,” she says, and this time her voice cracks. It’s the first real sign of weakness, and it tells me exactly what I need to know: she isn’t infallible. She can be defeated.
I blink. I’m hoisted into the air by my neck, her hands around my throat, squeezing so hard that the last of the Imbalance that filled my vision spots and dissolves along with any remaining strength I had. As my legs dangle off the floor, my arm bleeds, and she chokes the air out of my lungs.
She lowers me until I am level with her face. Her lips pull into a sneer.
“Do it,” I cough out. “Squeeze the life out of me.” You’d be giving me exactly what I want anyway.
She cocks her head at me, narrowing her eyes as if she’s reading my thoughts.
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” She laughs and spins me around to face the door.
In the hole in the center of the door is a single maroon eye glancing from me to the First Fallon. Rozalyn. A sharp sear follows as the First Fallon slashes the knife that killed Trey over my cheek. Warmth oozes down my jaw. She wipes her fingers over my face and smears my blood on the door. Then she throws me backward, and the wind is knocked from my lungs as I hit a piece of broken furniture and slump to the tiles.
The door shudders in its frame as if the Last Fallon is banging her fists against it. The First Fallon lifts her wand, and the hole in the door fills, sealing Trey and the Last Fallon inside Obex. A white thread drifts from where the hole was and floats across the foyer toward me.
"You're not going to win," I manage to splutter out. As the thread wraps around my arm, it fizzes and sizzles burning a mark on my skin. A mark just like Nyx's. She's making me the new lock.
She crouches down to my level. Staring. Waiting. Silent. What the hell is she waiting for?
Then I realize. Trey.
I scream, my eyes full of fear as a heat that feels like lava coats my heart then shifts direction and streams like a fountain into my lungs. I scream and tear at my chest with my good hand trying to stop the burning, but it's in me. It's a part of me. I drop onto my back, the blistering heat unbearable. Sweat trickles down my temples and drops to the tiles.
“Is that so, Eden?”
My back arches as my chest is yanked upward by an invisible force. My body is intact, but it feels as though I'm being unbuttoned from the inside out. Like I'm a rag doll made of flimsy fabric and stitches, and they're being snipped and pulled until the thread and fabric unwinds. Pieces of me that I didn't even know existed fall away. I want to reach out, grab hold of them, but there's nothing there. More and more of me shrivels and desiccates until there is an expanse of emptiness inside me. A void of nothingness that gouges scars into my soul like a canyon.
“Looks like you’ve already lost to me,” she says, but pauses, her mouth dropping. She coughs, blood spilling over her lips, and the hesitation reminds me she can be killed. Even lying there half conscious, I know with every cell in my body that I will end her. She vanishes in a puff of navy blue smoke.
I lie still on the checkered tiles of Stratera foyer. Tears that burn like acid stream down my cheeks mixing with the blood and dirt and pain covering my body. I am broken in body, heart, and soul.
There's screaming and sobbing and shrieking that sounds like the infinite torture of hell. The screams slice through my eardrums, but it's not until I'm aware of people creeping closer, staring down at me, that I realize the harrowing noises are mine. My world tilts and bends, the life I thought I would have splintering into a million pieces and flinging me into a realm of pain I didn't know was possible.
Bo hates me. My parents are gone. Nyx has been murdered.
Blood from my arm and face seeps across the tiles, making me dizzy and nauseous. In that moment of pain and vomit and blood, I am the kind of weak that only has two outcomes: survive or die. I wish for a quick death so I can be reunited with my soulmate. But death doesn’t come. My heart continues to cry and twist and seize, but it never quits. As I slip into a shivery unconsciousness, I am left with one resounding thought:
Trey is dead.
Thank You
EDEN WILL BE BACK…
Thank you for reading Victor. I hope you love the second part of Eden’s story as much as I do. If you did, and you can spare a few minutes, I’d be really grateful if you left a short review on the site you purchased your copy.
You can be the first to hear about the next sequel and rest of the Eden East series in CogMail by clicking/following the eepurl link below.
www.sachablackbooks.com
eepurl.com/cqA2B5
[email protected]
Acknowledgments
At this point, I usually thank coffee, chocolate, and all the bad stuff your mom tells you not to eat. Without them I'd have crashed and burned in a pile of unfinished Victor-like sentences. But more important than the sugary, caffeinated delights, I need to thank the people around me for their relentless support even when I was in various pits of despair.
My wife first, thank you for being so patient, for letting me follow my dream, and for giving up endless evenings together so I can write another book. I promise you, one day, I’ll give you back our evenings. My son, who is a constant inspiration to me, may you grow up knowing you can follow your dreams no matter what.
To Mum and Dad, thank you for giving me books that filled my brain with fairies and vampires and imaginary worlds.
To Bryony Toop, for your endless support, beautiful Instagram photos, and general legendaryness. You’re the kind of reader and friend that makes me feel like a real author.
To my accountability partner, Allie Potts, thank you for continuing to pepper my life with equal doses of back rubbing encouragement and threats of eternal shame and remorse for failing to meet goals. And thank you for not abandoning me during those three dark weeks when I didn’t think I could make it to the end of Victor
.
Helen Jones, thank you for being that beacon of constant positivity and support, for making me feel better about my writing when I’m full of doubt, and for being an amazing and super-fast beta reader, and for teaching me how to bring emotion into my writing. You’re heart is my emotional muse.
Suzie, thank you for being my personal asshole, I love you endlessly, your banter, animal puns and cut throat truths keep me straight.
Lucy, thank you for talking and listening to me on a daily basis and coaxing me off various cliff edges.
Thank you to Geoff for opening his home and providing a beautiful retreat that helped me reach the final hurdle drafting Victor.
To Esther, I'm indebted, always. Thank you for being with me on this writing journey and for taking my rough diamonds and polishing them to perfection.
Thank you to Joseph Salter for his amazing Latin talents.
Adam Croft, thank you for the sprints, unconditionally sharing your wealth of knowledge, and for your occasional banter.
Karli Cook, thank you for your positivity, always spreading joy, for sprinting with me and making me both motivated and accountable.
Last, and most importantly, thank you to you, the readers, without you, I can’t make my dream of writing books as a living come true. So thank you for taking the time to buy and read Victor. I hope you've enjoyed the second installment in Eden's story and want to continue on her journey with me.
About the Author
Sacha Black has five obsessions; words, expensive shoes, conspiracy theories, self-improvement, and breaking the rules. She also has the mind of a perpetual sixteen-year-old, only with slightly less drama and slightly more bills.
Sacha writes books about people with magical powers and other books about the art of writing. She lives in Hertfordshire, England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son.
When she’s not writing, she can be found laughing inappropriately loud, blogging, sniffing musty old books, fangirling film and TV soundtracks, or thinking up new ways to break the rules.
Also by Sacha Black
Keepers - The First Book in the Eden East novels
* * *
Seventeen-year-old Eden East lives in a world ruled by fate.
A fact she accepted, until her soul was bound to her enemy. Now, accepting her fate is impossible, especially when Trey Luchelli appears. There's something strangely familiar about him. Something Eden really ought to ignore. But the more she tries, the more she's drawn to him. Eden is determined to find out what he's hiding, no matter the cost, even if it’s her heart.
Then her parents are brutally murdered, and everyone’s a suspect, including her best friend.
Murder. Secrets. Destiny.
They're all connected.
But the path to answers is fraught with betrayal and danger. And the closer Eden gets, the more she unravels a dark history that will force her to question everything she's ever known.
* * *
Keepers will transport fans of The Red Queen, The Young Elites and The Lunar Chronicles to a world unlike any other...
The Eden East Novels:
Book 0 - Sirens (early 2019)
Book 1 - Keepers
Book 2 - Victor
Book 3 - Trey (Late 2018)
Also by Sacha Black
13 Steps To Evil - How To Craft A Superbad Villain (and Workbook) For Writers
Your hero is not the most important character in your book. Your villain is.
If you’re fed up of drowning in two-dimensional villains and frustrated with creating clichés, this book is for you.
In 13 Steps to Evil, you’ll discover:
How to develop a villain’s mindset
A step-by-step guide to creating your villain from the ground up
Why getting to the core of a villain’s personality is essential to make them credible
What pitfalls and clichés to avoid as well as the tropes your story needs
Finally, there is a comprehensive writing guide to help you create superbad villains. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned writer, this book will help power up your bad guy and give them that extra edge.
If you like dark humour, learning through examples and want to create the best villains you can, then you’ll love Sacha Black’s guide to crafting superbad villains. Read 13 Steps to Evil and the companion workbook today and start creating kick-ass villains.
Glossary
Balance - The fundamental rightness of fate; the result of a met destiny; the correctness that comes from following the right path. Peace, unity, clarity and light must be strived for in order to achieve Balance.
Balancer – The Keeper or Fallon Bound to another; the one true soulmate.
Balance Scriptures - The Balance Scriptures are a powerful fate reading device capable of being read only by the First Fallon.
Barrier – The fabric of the universe that separates each world and realm.
Binding - The moment two perfectly Balanced souls are joined for eternity.
Binding Scar – The physical mark of a Binding. Usually in the form of string-like scars in the state colour of both Balancers in the Binding. The scar resides on the right forearm stretching from wrist to elbow.
Bound – When a Keeper or Fallon has been through their Binding Ceremony and has a Balancer.
CogTracker – A handheld cog-like computer device that has multiple functions: a communications mechanism for CogMail and CogCalls and it’s also a Balance scanner.
Double Binding - Double Binding – Myth, a Binding that occurs between three Keepers.
Dryad - A form of Keeper closely related to the trees in the Ancient Forest. They have particular abilities to heal others, to aid in the keeping of fate.
Dust – A magical particle used in funerals that can Bind to the essence of a Fallon and subsequently forms a protective barrier over their city for a short period of time.
Dusting - The funeral ceremony of a Fallon.
Dustoria - The momentary euphoria a Keeper feels when a particle of Dust makes contact with their skin.
Elemental – A form of Keeper with particular abilities to control one element – their essence trace, to aid in the keeping of fate.
Essence – The core of a person; the sum of the soul. The essence is the manifestation of the heart and spirit of who and what a person is.
Essence heads – Physical and immortal representations of a pair of Keepers or Fallons that manifest during a Binding. The essence heads are the record of a Binding’s life and a physical representation of the Binding and the unbreakable bond it forms.
Fallon – A royal Keeper who is able to control all of the powers of their state.
First and Last Fallon - During the creation of Trutinor, the First and Last Fallons were born. Sisters of Balance, they were created to bring peace to the worlds they preside over.
Imbalance - A fundamental wrongness that must be eradicated. A darkness that infects the soul, leaving damage, destruction and chaos in its wake. It must always be eradicated.
Inheritance - A mythical occurrence when two Fallons (parents) die simultaneously; part of their essence is transferred to their eldest heir. There are no official recorded instances of this happening.
Jugo - Unlike a Binding, which seals souls and magic, a Jugo connects two lives. If one lives, so does the other. If one perishes, they both do.
Keeper – A being from Trutinor, whose purpose in life is to keep the Balance of fate.
Obex – The world between all worlds. Nestled inside the fabric of the universe where time no longer exists.
Potential - the most likely candidate fated to be Bound to a Keeper or Fallon, as decreed by the First Fallon.
Shifter – A form of Keeper with particular abilities to shift into one animal – their essence trace, to aid in the keeping of fate.
Simulator – An augmented reality machine used to recreate Earth-like situations in order to examine Keeper students.
Siren – A fo
rm of Keeper with particular abilities to control one emotion – their essence trace, to aid in the keeping of fate.
Sorcerer - A form of Keeper with particular abilities to control one form of sorcery magic – their essence trace, to aid in the keeping of fate.
Steampunk Transporter - A Steampunk Transporter has the duty to protect, serve and ensure the safe passage of their state’s Fallons, using whatever magical means necessary.
The Six – Trutinor’s six highest ranking generals.
Trace – The physical mark of magic left on a body.
Unbound Baby - The birth of a highly Imbalanced baby caused by the lack of Bound parents.