Terrifying Teaser: Midnight Surrender –– Shadow Slayer Lost Excerpt

I’m really excited that one of my stories will be featured in a spooky anthology called Midnight Surrender. It releases on Oct. 11, here’s a teaser from the lost excerpt of Shadow Slayer (Shadow Series #2), the short story The Seven Cities of Gold: (For Cassie Hoffman’s  4-star review of Shadow Slayer click here!)

Drew and I snuck onto the football field ten minutes ago. It’s pretty epic scaling the stadium gates. I’m afraid of heights, but Drew and I climbed the chain link side by side. I feel like I can do anything when he’s with me. He’s the kind of guy a girl would break into school with and not care about what punishment might come down after. I love laying here in the empty stadium with Drew, like this. Like everything’s normal. Like we’re normal. 

“It’s easy, Roxie,” Drew says, laying beside me, inches away.

“What is?” I shift a little in the grass and turn to face him.

“Killing the moon.” It’s the night before the big game against LT, but Drew’s a million miles away.

“If you say so.” I shiver and stare at the huge goal post above us, ghostly against the night sky. He knows how badly I’ve wanted to kill the moon. How important it is. I’ve been hounding him non-stop about it since homecoming––the night my life changed––when he spoke of it at the bonfire.

We are said to kill the moon because its phases are meaningless to us. Time doesn’t matter to us.

I’m not sure I’m ready. I mean, not now. Not this second. Not on a Thursday night. Such a normal night. I like normal. Moon Killing seems more of a Saturday night thing, I guess. Saturday nights are meant for the extraordinary. I stroke my arm and feel the rough edges of my massive scar. There’s not enough Mederma in the world to completely heal my first battle wound.

“Come on!” Drew says, standing over me in just the right spot so that the goal posts stick out of his head like huge horns. I laugh. But he gets all jumpy, searching the bleachers as if he expects to be surrounded. Just like he did at homecoming before he took me to the enchanted labyrinth. When he told me what I was. I love the way he’s looking at me now––desperate and dire.

Drew holds out his hand and I grab a hold of it. He reaches down and grabs my other hand, tugging on my arms. I lift off the grass, out of the end zone and into his arms. He pulls me in close like his shadow had when we danced.

Shadows want to be human more than anything.

I hug Drew, exploring his perfect body. I never want us to be separated again. But we will. I’ll see all I love die.

“Shadows are at play,” Drew says staring at the moon.

“Even more important for me to know how to kill the moon then, right?”

He gives my hand a History Channel kiss.

“Tell me about The Seven Cities of Gold,” I say.

He holds my hand in his and we walk off the field and onto the track.

“First, you need to know…the truth.”

“About what?”

“About me.” Drew glances at the moon again. “Stand here.” He wraps his arms around my waist and gently walks me over by the bleachers. We stop only a few feet away from them. He lets go of me and stands a few feet away, staring at the all- weather track. “Ready?”

I swallow hard. “Sure.”

He smiles and takes guarded steps, one and then another, inching his way toward me. Never taking his eyes off the track. I watch our shadows blend into one. When I feel his hand on my lower back a flash of silver light surrounds us. I jump into his arms, trembling, and search his golden eyes, more gorgeous than ever. He holds tight to me, and whispers, “Close your eyes.”

So I do. His voice is different, deeper, with an accent I can’t place. A chill ripples from my head to my feet.

“Now…open them again.”

I open my eyes to the gentle crash of waves on an enormous beach. The warm evening air heavy on my skin.

“You only know me as Drew, the boy I’ve had to become. But I want you to know the real me. My name is Andrés Carrera De Portolo.”

“Andrés?” I whisper, liking the way his real name leaves my lips––mysterious, foreign and dangerous. Even though Drew doesn’t sound like the Drew I know, his accent makes him hotter than ever. I bend down and run my fingers over the sand, letting it sift through my fingers. This is real.

Stay tuned for the cover reveal next week! Thanks for stopping by.

Shadow Slayer (Shadow Series #2) is available on Amazon.