The
Witch Within
Ancestor’s
Enchantment Trilogy
Jacqueline
Paige
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Eternal Press
Date of Publication: December 1
2014
ISBN: 978-1-62929-185-7
Number of pages: 165
Word Count: 59,000
Cover Artist: Amanda Kelsey
Book Description:
Magic locked up long ago for the
safety of all awakens in modern society where bad intentions are on every
street corner.
Three women unaware of the power
their ancestors passed onto them is the only thing that stands between the dark
magic that lays in wait.
Available at Amazon
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On The Broomstick
Prologue
The sun was long
past setting as the six gathered deep in the darkness and began moving through
the trees. Their only light was that of
the luminescent moon at its fullest. The
youngest of the six led the way, she may have been the least in years, yet the
others knew she was the one that held all the strength.
In her wake,
each would turn and check their trail to be certain no one followed. If their parents were ever to know, it would
be the end of them all. The power and
gifts they held secret had been discovered quite by accident a few years before,
since that time they had honed their great skills of true magic.
Eden quickly
caught up to her sister at the front, a sister of choice and not from
blood. Ducking her head, she whispered
as close to Alana’s ear as she possibly could.
“Do you know of the reason for the summoning?”
Alana shook her
pitch black hair back from her face. “I
do not.” She turned towards the lake and
increased the pace of her step. Peering
back over her shoulder, she gauged the others closeness and then spoke as soft
as a breeze. “A dark feeling has filled
me for many days past, I fear it is not for good reasons we gather on this
autumnal night.” She patted the bundle
she carried from cord at her side. “We
must be wary and prepared.”
Eden inhaled
sharply and dropped back a pace. “I
shall caution Bridget.” Alana only
lifted her face to the moons rays and continued on. Turning to look quickly at the three that
walked a ways behind, heads close together, she turned and gave Bridget a stare
to bring her to hasten her movement forward.
As soon as she was within hearing, she whispered to the ground. “Alana has dark feelings – yet again.”
Bridget sighed
quite loudly. “I have been a feared of
such since two days past, she walks about with that crease on her brow and my
guts supposed it were to be brusquely that our scheme was at hand.”
Eden nodded, but
daren’t say more for fear of the others overhearing.
Once reaching
the lake, the six spread out the distance between their bodies, in habit a
circle was formed. Alana set her bundle
upon the ground at her feet and turned to the eldest among them. “Having done as you stated, not one of us
have uttered a query for this assembly you have called, Ella.” She looked around at her sisters of her
choosing to see their rapt attention on the one she spoke to. “Do end our curiosity, sister and share the
meaning if you please.” She kept her
focus on the crimson haired sister, watching for a sign she prayed would not be
revealed. Ella flipped her long locks back as she let her eyes move over each
girl present. The last she looked upon
was Alana, as she knew to be common with her.
“It is my right
to call each of you – as only sisters of our circle apt to do.” Lenora and Jane were the only of the five
that agreed readily. “The year is now
one thousand, six hundred eighty- five. It has been five years past, since the
night we found our way to one another, as we are. I have a wish to ensure the threats to our
very lives are secure and to behold a power that we six are deserving of.”
Alana shook her
head when Eden inhaled raggedly.
“Sister, Ella, have we not spoke of this to the point of tiring? The
hunts have ceased, no more shall be accused nor sought. We are here, each one of us safe.” She chanced a glance at the others and found
the group was as she knew it to be, split in two groups of three. “Not once during the trials and fearsome
times did even one come to think of us as a sort of betrayer to the
word...”
“Alana, child,
you are what now? Ten and three years?”
Ella smiled in that maddening way she had. “I, having five further years on yours can
feel it in my bones, these outrageous happenings are not at a cease and we are
very much in need of ensuring it does not come to pass again.”
Alana dropped
her head down and let her black hair cover her face whilst she sought out the
vibrations of the others dear to her heart.
Lifting her face she beheld the moon hanging over the lake. “We are but children, Ella. As god fearing as any that step in the arch
of our church, we have nothing to fear.”
“We have
everything to fear!” Ella’s voice rose
through the silence of the night. “I
shall be a betrothed woman in short time and then what will become of me when
my husband discovers what I am?”
Eden replied
before Alana had the chance. “I am
certain William will be ignorant in your habits, sister. How would he ever find a clue unless you told
him you are a witch of magicks.”
Lenora stepped
forward and shook her head. “In less
than the years we have been together, each of us shall be wives – then what
shall we ever do?”
“I agree.” Jane said quietly. “In one year’s time I too will be set to
marry.”
Bridget lifted
her head and glared at Jane. “Whoever
shall marry you shall get what he has coming to him.”
Tiring from the
words they had all said to her many times before, Alana raised her hands in the
air and sent a gust of wind through the circle.
“I cannot bear to hear this again, sisters.” She turned and watched as Ella and Jane
nodded to one another. “I am not taking
part in your scheme of evil darkness.”
Ella snorted in
an unpleasant manner. “You would break
your word to each present here?”
Alana took a
step back, bringing her close to the water’s edge. “I would not.” Her eyes quickly met that of Eden and Bridget
before she finished. “I would choose to
revoke all I that I have been given than do unjust things to others that cannot
defend themselves from your dark ways.”
Lenora
gasped. “You would not...”
Alana raised her
hands. “I would exactly.”
Jane stepped in
front of Ella. “For you to revoke your
gifts, would you not be obliged to take all of ours?”
Alana shrugged. “Mayhap it will take all no one can be
certain.”
Ella shoved Jane
out of her way. “You would not dare to
try, young sister...”
Eden bent down
at Alana’s feet and opened the bundle.
Alana opened her hands in front of her and bit her lip to stop from
hissing as her sister placed a small score on each of her palms. Keeping her focus on the three opposed, she
prayed they could not see. When Eden
straightened and walked past Bridget, she knew the task was complete.
Alana clasped a
hand each of Eden and Bridget and raised their arms; the blood from the shallow
scores upon their hands mixed and brought to her a heat of power that only she
could have born.
“Sister, Eden,
stop them!” Lenora cried.
Alana closed her
eyes and felt the winds circle her with recognition. Beneath her feet the ground quivered, waiting
for her to speak to it. As she opened
her eyes and focused on the three sisters she did not now touch, she felt the
spray from the water at her back cover her in small droplets. “I cannot be part of something that goes
against all that I feel to be right, sisters.”
Tilting her head she looked at Jane.
“Join us in protecting what is just.”
Jane’s eyes
widened and for the briefness of a heartbeat, Alana thought there was a small
chance she might agree, but she shook her head and stepped beside Ella. Woefulness filled her insides, even though
she knew the outcome days before, her heart begged her to attempt.
“Lenora?” Once more she waited even
though she knew another sister was lost to her.
Lenora backed further away and looked at the sand under her feet. “So
shall it be,” Alana whispered.
Inhaling slowly
she raised her eyes to the moon whose rays bound her to the sky above. “I call ...”
“Wait!” Ella’s voice was filled with panic. “We can speak more of this and draw an end
that pleases each one of us together.”
The fear jolted
into her from the hands she held.
Without looking at Ella, she sought to feel what was in her soul. Pain enveloped her heart as the truth coursed
into her. “Why speak of falseness,
eldest sister? I know what lurks in your
heart and I must protect the innocent you wish to cause sufferance to.”
Raising her
hands higher she spoke to the night. “I call upon the night and all of her
energy, come to me and abet me with this, my last task.” The winds swirled coloured leaves around her,
she smiled and let the magic wash over, feeling the warm welcome of it just
once more. Lightening streaked through
the clear sky above, she inhaled the power. “I seek to bind this three and three
from doing any harm.” A circle of flames
burst around them, flicking as long tongues of three feet high, blocking the
outside from entering and the six from leaving.
“I send for safe keeping all that we have, the gifts that you gave, to
our furthest ancestors to keep within until there is a dire need of them.”
A stinging
traveled along her flesh as the energies gathered, waiting for her leave go
of. “When a time comes that this three
and three be together once more, awaken and come again...” So much power was collecting inside her she
had no choice but to cry a single tear, knowing that this was the last time she
would feel it in this body. “Collect
inside the generations and carry us forward to a time long from now.” She could hear crying, but was not to take a
chance to see which sister or sisters it came from. “Select the one that bear
good will and hold an honest heart and make her remember. Remember the times of this six and behold the
gifts we pass to her.” A clap of thunder
sounded across the sky, its cry echoing over the lake until it faded back into
the night. “I thank you from deep within
and now set you free...”
A strong tunnel
of wind gust through the circle, stealing any more she had to speak. Opening her eyes wider she watched as each
sister dropped to the ground, leaving her the last one standing. A burning washed over her, pulling at her
until she thought she could bear it no longer, and then it was gone. Emptiness
filled her as the flames swallowed into the ground. Behind her the water was now lying calmly as
it had been when they had arrived. The earth was now silent, as it had been.
The rays of the moon seemed no more than a light in the darkness, without power
and purpose.
A draining
feeling passed through her, causing her legs to weaken under her until she
dropped onto the sand and panted to seek to breathe once again. Looking around, the others didn’t move, they
just lay where they had fallen without a word.
When she glanced upon Ella, the hatred was clearly on her face.
“I will have
vengeance.” Ella hissed at her.
Alana rolled
onto her back and looked at the sky, feeling like nothing more than a child
again. “You may seek to strive for
such.” She answered softly. “My will shall fall to my kin far from now
and we shall see if you find triumph.”
To feel nothing but commonness once more—it was wondrous to feel.
Was she
floating? See seemed weightless enough
to be. Squeezing her eyes shut, she
counted to ten before opening them again.
Hovering above a
lake, she could see her own shadow cast on the water from the moon above her.
A dream, it had
to be a dream. The last time she checked
none of her life skills involved floating.
Glancing around,
she didn’t recognize the area below her. People were walking through trees, or
maybe those were just children...
Where was she?
A void feeling
came over her, like she was fading...
What was that
ringing noise?
Bolting up,
Teegan looked around to realize she was in her own living room.
Review:
Ten words or less for the busy reader:
Witchy read from start to finish.
Suspenseful.
Awesome cover.
3.5/5
About
the Author:
Jacqueline Paige lives in Ontario
in a small town that's part of the popular Georgian Triangle area. No one has ever heard of Stayner, so she
usually tells people she lives near Collingwood and no, she doesn't ski at Blue
Mountain or at all, in fact she's not even fond of snow.
She began her writing career in
2006 and since her first published works in 2009 she hasn't stopped. Jacqueline describes her writing as all
things paranormal, which she has proven is her niche with stories of witches,
ghosts, physics and shifters now on the shelves.
When Jacqueline isn't working at
her reality job or lost in her writing she spends time with her five children,
most of whom are finally able to look after her instead of the other way
around. Together they do random road
trips, that usually end up with them lost,
shopping trips where they push every button in the toy aisle, hiking
when there's enough time to escape and bizarre things like creating new daring
recipes in the kitchen. She's a grandmother to five (so far) and looks forward
to corrupting many more in the years to come.
@JacqPaige
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