An Excerpt from When
Copper Suns Fall: a YA Dark Urban Fantasy
By
KaSonndra Leigh
Forcing my eyes to
open, I found myself outside the Cradlehack. I was standing in Faris’s arms, my
head against his chest, my fingers entwined in his black vest. It was a smooth
fabric that felt like silk. A cloth no one had worn outside of ceremonies since
before the Tidal Years. This boy was no common citizen. His earthy-sweet smell
made me feel hypnotically safe, as we stood among the crowd fleeing down the
hillside. He lifted my chin, stared in my eyes. But this wasn’t some dumb
player’s move.
No, a mysterious
thing stirred behind his silvery-gray eyes.
“Feel better,
Chela?” he asked. I nodded.
“Thanks for helping me,”
I said, still fighting a light head. Still afraid the dreaded black blobs
lingered somewhere around us. Somewhat ashamed I’d spoken so horribly to him
moments ago.
“You probably
shouldn’t do that,” he said.
“Do what?”
“Thank me.”
“Why? Because I
caught you using alchemy? That’s what your kind does. Make magic in the
shadows, right?” I said.
His left eye
ticked. The girl in the hoodie had called him a Caducean. Could it be possible?
Father told me Caduceans were a mythical group—demon slayers from a time long
gone. Yet, here I stood with a boy who didn’t deny my claim.
Around us, fewer
people were leaving the Shack. They paid no attention to the two idiots
standing and staring at each other. Did Jalen and Lexa make it out safely? They were taking forever to reach me.
Did I really want
them to find me?
“They’ll call me,
now, and make me a witness against you. I’m sorry, but I already have too many
problems. So I—I have to tell the truth,” I said.
“That won’t be a
problem.” Faris smiled, a catchy one that lit his face up. I couldn’t decide
whether it was angelic or downright wicked. Just like I couldn’t remember where
I’d ever heard an accent like his. What kind was it? Old southern? Old English?
Irish? It sounded like a mix of all three, but with a deep timbre, making him
sound god like. “In a few minutes, you won’t remember me or any of this.”
“Really? How do you
figure that?” I asked, heart racing.
“Because my gift to
you…” He moved his face closer to mine, pulling me into whatever was happening
in his head. “My gift is to remove memories that cause you pain.”
“Okay, um, right.”
Had I lost my mind? It probably wouldn’t have hurt to scream.
He held my gaze, locking me into something I couldn’t
explain. A tear puckered up in his left eye, and slid down his cheek where it
stopped on his top lip. Then he blinked, snapping us out of whatever place he’d
taken us to, and glanced behind my head. “Here comes your dark knight,” he
said, easing his arms away from me.
He strolled off
into the last group of stragglers hanging around the Shack. How did he know my
nickname for Jalen?
I wiped away a tear
rolling down my right cheek.
“Chela, there you
are. You scared me, girl.” Jalen’s voice cut into the moment. He spun me around
to face him. I blinked, clearing my eyes. “What’s wrong? Did you get hurt?”
I glanced around
us. The boy was gone. A dull headache joined the fuzziness in my head. Lost
inside a clouded mind, I forgot what I wanted to say. The entire night’s events
were hazy.
I fumbled with my
thoughts.
What happened to me
in there?
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