Thank you to everyone at Harlequin TEEN who worked on this project, and especially to Natashya Wilson and Lauren Smulski for taking a chance on this series (and for giving me the springboard ideas for this novella, which turned out to be the perfect direction for it). I’m thrilled to be working with you both at the most fabulous and fun imprint ever. Lauren, you are the best editor I could ask for—you’re bringing this entire series to a whole new level. Thank you for your endless patience and incredible editing and ideas.
Thank you to Shara Alexander, Siena Koncsol, Megan Beatie, Linette Kim, Evan Brown, Amy Jones, Bryn Collier, Aurora Ruiz, Krista Mitchell and everyone else in marketing and publicity who helped to promote this series.
Kathleen Oudit and Mary Luna of Harlequin TEEN’s phenomenal art department—I can never thank you enough for my spectacular covers and map.
Many thanks to the sales team for their support—and especially Gillian Wise, for your boundless enthusiasm for The Black Witch Chronicles.
A big thank-you to Harlequin TEEN’s digital promoters/social media team: Eleanor Elliott, Larissa Walker, Monika Rola and Olivia Gissing.
Above all, I want to thank my tenacious agent, Carrie Hannigan (Hannigan, Salky, Getzler Agency), for believing in The Black Witch Chronicles for so many years (and through so many edits). I couldn’t ask for a more encouraging or talented agent/reader/editor.
Powerful magic. A deadly legacy. A world at the edge of war.
Continue the magic of WANDFASTED in
THE BLACK WITCH
by Laurie Forest!
A new Black Witch will rise...her powers vast beyond imagining.
Granted the opportunity to study at the prestigious Verpax University, Elloren Gardner, granddaughter of the last Black Witch, finally has a chance to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy.
But the university is a treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch. As evil looms on the horizon and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, Elloren’s best hope of survival may be among the most unlikely band of misfits…if she can find the courage to trust those she’s been taught to hate and fear.
Read it now!
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Discover a dark, irresistible new fantasy from Amanda Foody—
DAUGHTER OF THE BURNING CITY!
Step inside the Gomorrah Festival, a traveling carnival of debauchery that caters to the strangest of dreams and desires.
Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the festival’s Freak Show.
Despite the fact that her illusions are just that—illusions—and not truly real, one of them is murdered. Desperate to protect her family before more of them are killed, Sorina must not only discover the culprit, she’ll have to determine how they managed to kill someone who doesn’t actually exist.
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From #1 New York Times bestselling authors Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings!
ZENITH
♦ Intergalactic adventures.
♦ Dangerous bounty hunters.
♦ A galaxy-wide war to devour worlds.
Coming
January 16, 2018
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Two Realms. One Choice. No Second Chance.
The end is only the beginning. It begins with FIRSTLIFE.
Don’t miss a moment of heart-pounding fantasy adventure in the EVERLIFE series, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter!
I’ve been told history is written by survivors. But I know that isn’t always true. My name is Tenley Lockwood, and very soon, I’ll be dead.
Read it now!
FIRSTLIFE (Book 1)
LIFEBLOOD (Book 2)
* * *
Looking for more great reads from Gena Showalter? Discover the jaw-dropping, zombie-infested bestselling series, THE WHITE RABBIT CHRONICLES!
Step through the zombie glass, if you dare, with ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND...
She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave.
Forever.
Read the complete series today!
ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND (Book 1)
THROUGH THE ZOMBIE GLASS (Book 2)
THE QUEEN OF ZOMBIE HEARTS (Book 3)
A MAD ZOMBIE PARTY (Book 4)
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In a near-future reality, where all forms of communication come with a heavy cost, every single word or gesture needs to count. But what if silence was louder than any word?
In a world where every word has a price, her silence could spark a revolution.
Don’t miss ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
by Gregory Scott Katsoulis!
For Speth Jime, paying for every word (“Sorry” is a flat $10 and a legal admission of guilt), for every nod ($0.99/sec), for every scream ($0.99/sec) and every gesture of affection is just a part of growing up. But when Speth’s friend Beecher commits suicide rather than work off his family’s crippling debt, Speth is unable to express her shock and dismay without sending her family into Collection.
Rather than say anything at all, Speth elects to say nothing. And her defiant and unexpected silence threatens to unravel the very fabric of society.
Read it today!
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Looking for dragons, rebellion and war?
Discover THE TALON SAGA, from New York Times bestselling author Julie Kagawa!
THE DRAGONS OF TALON: Once hunted nearly to extinction, they are now poised to take over the world.
THE ORDER OF ST. GEORGE: The legendary dragonslayers will stop at nothing to wipe dragons from the face of the earth.
These mortal enemies are locked in secret and deadly combat, and humanity is none the wiser. But one young dragon has discovered not all is as it appears to be…
Read them all!
TALON (Book 1)
ROGUE (Book 2)
SOLDIER (Book 3)
LEGION (Book 4)
* * *
Want more from New York Times bestselling author Julie Kagawa? Enter the world of The Iron Fey!
Destiny awaits. It begins with THE IRON KING.
Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…
Something has always felt slightly off in her life—never quite fitting in at school or at home. But everything she’s known is suddenly about to change.
Because Meghan is the daughter of a mythical faery king…and a pawn in a deadly war. And she’s about to discover just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face...and find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.
&
nbsp; “Julie Kagawa is one killer storyteller.”
—MTV’s Hollywood Crush Blog
Read them all!
THE IRON KING (Book 1)
WINTER’S PASSAGE (Novella)
THE IRON DAUGHTER (Book 2)
THE IRON QUEEN (Book 3)
SUMMER’S CROSSING (Novella)
THE IRON KNIGHT (Book 4)
IRON’S PROPHECY (Novella)
THE LOST PRINCE (Book 5)
THE IRON TRAITOR (Book 6)
THE IRON WARRIOR (Book 7)
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The future of Gardneria—and the fate of Vale and Tessla—now hang in the balance. Return to Erthia twenty years later in this exciting excerpt from THE BLACK WITCH and enjoy the fantastical tale of Vale and Tessla’s daughter, Elloren. Available now from Harlequin TEEN!
Chapter One
Halfix
“Take that, you stupid Icaral!”
I glance down with amusement at my young neighbors, a basket of freshly picked vegetables and herbs balanced on my hip, a slight near-autumn chill fighting to make itself known through the warm sunlight.
Emmet and Brennan Gaffney are six-year-old twins with the black hair, forest green eyes and faintly shimmering skin so prized by my people, the Gardnerian Mages.
The two boys pause from their noisy game and look up at me hopefully. They sit in the cool, sunlit grass, their toys scattered about.
All the traditional characters are there among the brightly painted wooden figures. The black-haired Gardnerian soldiers, their dark tunics marked with brilliant silver spheres, stand valiantly with wands or swords raised. The boys have lined the soldiers up on a wide, flat stone in military formation.
There are also the usual archvillains—the evil Icaral demons with their glowing eyes, their faces contorted into wide, malicious grins, black wings stretched out to their full size in an effort to intimidate, fireballs in their fists. The boys have lined these up on a log and are attempting to launch rocks at them from the direction of the soldiers with a catapult they’ve fashioned from sticks and string.
There are assorted side characters, too: the beautiful Gardnerian maidens with their long black hair; wicked Lupine shapeshifters—half-human, half-wolf; green-scaled Snake Elves; and the mysterious Vu Trin sorceresses. They’re characters from the storybooks and songs of my childhood, as familiar to me as the old patchwork quilt that lies on my bed.
“Why are you here?” I ask the boys, glancing down into the valley toward the Gaffneys’ estate and sprawling plantation. Eliss Gaffney usually keeps the twins firmly near home.
“Momma won’t stop crying.” Emmet scowls and bangs the head of a wolf-creature into the ground.
“Don’t tell!” Brennan chastises, his voice shrill. “Poppa’ll whip you for it! He said not to tell!”
I’m not surprised by Brennan’s fear. It’s well-known that Mage Warren Gaffney’s a hard man, feared by his fastmate and children. And the startling disappearance of his nineteen-year-old daughter, Sage, has made him even harder.
I look to the Gaffneys’ estate again with well-worn concern.
Where are you, Sage? I wonder unhappily. She’s been missing without a trace for well over a year. What could have possibly happened to you?
I let out a troubled sigh and turn back to the boys. “It’s all right,” I say, trying to comfort them. “You can stay over here for a while. You can even stay for supper.”
The boys brighten and appear more than a little relieved.
“Come play with us, Elloren,” Brennan pleads as he playfully grabs at the edge of my tunic.
I chuckle and reach down to ruffle Brennan’s hair. “Maybe later. I have to help make supper, you know that.”
“We’re defeating the Icarals!” Emmet exclaims. He throws a rock at one of the Icarals to demonstrate. The rock collides with the small demon and sends it spinning into the grass. “Wanna see if we can knock their wings off?”
I pick up the small figure and run my thumb across its unpainted base. Breathing in deep, I close my eyes and the image of a large tree with a dense crown, swooping branches and delicate white flowers fills my mind.
Frosted Hawthorne. Such elegant wood for a child’s plaything.
I open my eyes, dissolving the image, focusing back in on the demon toy’s orange eyes. I fight the urge to envision the tree once more, but I know better than to entertain this odd quirk of mine.
Often, if I close my eyes while holding a piece of wood, I can get the full sense of its source tree. With startling detail. I can see the tree’s birthplace, smell the rich, loamy carpet beneath its roots, feel the sun dappling its outstretched leaves.
Of course, I’ve learned to keep these imaginings to myself.
A strange nature fixation like this smacks of Fae blood, and Uncle Edwin has warned me to never speak of it. We Gardnerians are a pure-blooded race, free from the stain of the heathen races that surround us. And my family line has the strongest, purest Mage blood of all.
But I often worry. If that’s true, then why do I see these things?
“You should be more careful with your toys,” I gently scold the boys as I shake off the lingering image of the tree and set the figure down.
The sound of the boys’ grand battles recedes into the distance as I near the small cottage I share with Uncle Edwin and my two brothers. I peer across the broad field toward our horse stables and give a start.
A large, elegant carriage is parked there. The crest of the Mage Council, Gardneria’s highest level of government, is artfully painted on its side—a golden M styled with graceful, looping calligraphy.
Four military guards, real-life versions of Emmet and Brennan’s toys, sit eating some food. They’re strapping soldiers, dressed in black tunics with silver spheres marking their chests, with wands and swords at their sides.
It has to be my aunt’s carriage—it can’t possibly be anyone else’s. My aunt is a member of our ruling High Mage Council, and she always travels with an armed entourage.
A rush of excitement flashes through me, and I quicken my pace, wondering what on all of Erthia could have possibly brought my powerful aunt to remote Halfix, of all places.
I haven’t seen her since I was five years old.
* * *
We lived near her back then, in Valgard, Gardneria’s bustling port city and capital. But we hardly ever saw her.
One day, clear out of the blue, my aunt appeared in the front room of my uncle’s violin shop.
“Have you had the children wandtested?” she inquired, her tone light, but her eyes sharp as ice.
I remember how I tried to hide behind Uncle Edwin, clinging to his tunic, mesmerized by the elegant creature before me.
“Of course, Vyvian,” my uncle haltingly answered his sister. “Several times over.”
I looked up at my uncle with confused surprise. I had no memory of being wandtested, even though I knew that all Gardnerian children were.
“And what did you find?” she asked probingly.
“Rafe and Elloren are powerless,” he told her as he shifted slightly, cutting off my view of Aunt
Vyvian, casting me in shadows. “But Trystan. The boy has some magic in him.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Vyvian, quite.”
And that was when she began to visit with us.
Soon after, my uncle unexpectedly soured on city life. Without warning, he whisked my brothers and me away to where we now live. In tiny Halfix. At the very northeastern edge of Gardneria.
Right in the middle of nowhere.
* * *
As I round the corner of our cottage, I hear the sound of my name through the kitchen window and skid to a stop.
“Elloren is not a child anymore, Edwin.” My aunt’s voice drifts out.
I set my basket of vegetables and herbs on the ground and crouch low.
“She is too young for wandfasting,” comes my uncle’s attempt at a firm reply, a tremor of nervousness in his voice.
Wandfasting? My heart speeds up. I know that most Gardnerian girls my age are already wandfasted—magically bound to young men for life. But we’re so isolated here, surrounded by the mountains. The only girl I know who’s been fasted is Sage, and she’s up and disappeared.
“Seventeen is the traditional age.” My aunt sounds slightly exasperated.
“I don’t care if it’s the traditional age,” my uncle persists, his tone gaining confidence. “It’s still too young. She can’t possibly know what she wants at this age. She’s seen nothing of the world...”
“Because you let her see nothing of it.”
My uncle makes a sound of protest but my aunt cuts him off. “No, Edwin. What happened to Sage Gaffney should be a wake-up call for all of us. Let me take Elloren under my wing. I’ll introduce her to all the best young men. And after she is safely fasted to one of them, I’ll apprentice her with the Mage Council. You must start to take her future seriously.”
Wandfasted Page 24
