Title:
Reflection Pond
Author:
Kacey Vanderkarr
Release
date: April 1st, 2014
Genre:
Young Adult, Fantasy
Book
Description:
Sometimes you find home, sometimes
it comes looking for you.
Callie knows a lot more about pain
than she does about family. She’s never belonged, at least, not until she falls
through a portal into her true home. The beautiful faerie city of Eirensae
doesn’t come free. Callie must find her amulet and bind herself to the city,
and most importantly, avoid the Fallen fae who seek her life. Seems like a
small price to pay for the family she’s always wanted.
Then she meets cynical and gorgeous
Rowan, who reads the darkness of her past in her eyes. He becomes Callie’s
part-time protector and full-time pain in the ass. He has secrets of his own
for Callie to unravel. What they don’t know is that the future of Eirensae lies
with them, and the once peaceful city is about to become a battleground for
power.
Book Excerpt
Rowan stood in
the emerald grass, barefoot, the sun glinting off sweat on his chest. Callie’s
steps faltered as he lifted a staff, the wood smooth and wrapped with thick
leather on each end. He swung, the staff arcing in a great circle over his head
that ended with a sharp jab.
She watched,
transfixed, as he retrieved the weapon and stretched his neck. Callie’s gaze
followed the gentle curve where it met his shoulder, and lower, where muscles
rippled beneath his skin. Rowan had the body of a dancer, long, lean. And flexible, she thought as his feet
flew over his head and he landed in a defensive pose. He pushed his staff in
front of him on a horizontal, sliding one foot behind the other for balance.
His body was fluid, mercury allowed to slide across a tabletop as he repeated
the motion. Rowan was breathing hard when he settled the length of the weapon
on his shoulder and flicked hair out of his eyes.
Here is beauty and grace,
she thought. There was passion behind the movement, restrained desire. Where
he’d learned to fight like that, and worse, had he ever needed to use that
knowledge?
Rowan cleared
his throat.
Heat filled
Callie’s face. “What are you doing?” she asked, gathering the length of her
hair over one shoulder, realizing how terrible she must look, dirty and hung
over. Whereas Rowan, dripping sweat, looked beautiful and all sorts of
indecent.
He scratched an
exposed hipbone, drawing Callie’s eye to the flat expanse of his stomach, the
ridges of muscle there. As she watched, dry-mouthed, a bead of sweat dripped
from his chest to the waistband of his loose pants and disappeared. Callie
couldn’t drag her eyes away; they kept going to the little V created by bone
and muscle. She wanted to touch him there, see if his skin was as smooth and
perfect as it looked. She dug her nails into her palms.
“Callie?”
She startled,
blush burning hotter. “What are you doing?” she repeated, finally forcing her
gaze to his face.
The skin around
his eyes crinkled and he lifted one eyebrow. “I said, I’m training.”
“With that
stick,” Callie said, knowing the moment the words left her mouth that they were
horribly inaccurate. It wasn’t a stick,
it was a flowing extension of Rowan’s body that he handled with intimate
knowledge, as one might know a lover. She waited for the acid of his tongue,
and it came, right on cue.
“That stick is a quarterstaff,” he muttered,
gaze sweeping over her like a touch.
Callie pressed
her arms over her stomach, recoiling as the blue goo smeared, cold and sticky,
across her skin.
“You look
awful,” he said.
“Thanks,” she
said. She suddenly felt okay and was certain it had something to do with the
adrenaline rush of watching Rowan train. She imagined learning to move like
that, with lightness and confidence. She pointed to the men in the distance,
desperate to change the subject. “What’s that?”
“Funeral pyre
for the prophetess.” He came closer, so that Callie could smell the sunshine
and sweat on his tan skin, sense the shiver of energy. “After they burn, we
scatter the ashes in the river.”
Horror clogged
Callie’s throat as visions of burning bodies filled her mind. It seemed
inhumane, barbaric, even. She ripped her eyes from the pyre, turning so it was
behind her. “That’s kind of awful.”
“It’s the way of
our people.” He tapped the end of his staff against the ground, distractedly.
“So this stick…”
“Quarterstaff.”
“Quarterstaff,”
she corrected. “You fight with it?” Callie poked at the stretched leather, intrigued.
“Why a staff?”
“For shits and
giggles, mostly. Occasionally, I use it to intimidate Ash and unsuspecting
humans.” His expression sobered. “If you haven’t noticed, someone breached our
wards and killed the prophetess. We could all use a little more training around
here. Eirensae is complacent, has
been for a while. The people are weak, but don’t listen to me. I’m just the
illegitimate, unimprinted idiot. I wouldn’t know anything about fighting or
strategy. It’s not like I’ve read all the history books in the library.” His
lips twisted.
Callie digested
that. Rowan had read all the history
books. She hadn’t counted, but there had to be thousands of thick bound volumes
in Eirensae’s library.
“Will you teach
me?” Callie asked, looking up at him. Rowan stood half a foot taller than her,
making Callie feel tiny.
“Will I what?”
he snapped.
“I want to learn
how to fight.” Her thoughts went to Elm, to the energy pulsing beneath her
skin. Maybe it would help her learn to control it. “If the people that killed
the prophetess are after me, at least teach me to protect myself.”
Rowan’s glare
turned wary, and then interested. He sucked his lips inward, deciding, and then
blew out a breath. “Fine.”
Callie hadn’t
expected him to agree. “Fine?”
“Fine.” He held
up a finger. “One condition.” She waited, expectant. “Go shower. No way am I
touching Willow’s puke.”
About
the Author:
Kacey
Vanderkarr is a young adult author. She dabbles in fantasy, romance, and
sci-fi, complete with faeries, alternate realities, and the occasional plasma
gun. She’s known to be annoyingly optimistic and listen to music at the highest
decibel. When she’s not writing, she coaches winterguard and works as a
sonographer. Kacey lives in Michigan, with her husband, son, crazy cats, and
two bearded dragons.
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