No. Please No.
“Mom!” I gripped her shoulders, shaking her like a rag doll. “Wake up, Mom. Mom!” I held her closer, willing life to return to her limp body, wishing my heartbeat could somehow enter her body and sustain her. Her lips parted slightly but her beautiful face remained expressionless. I shook her again and her head sagged against my shoulder. Breath, faint at first, feathered my cheek. She was alive!
“Wolf!” I cried. “Help me!”
Wolf rushed to me and grabbed my mother from me, carrying her in his burned arms, rushing to the pickup. “Go open the truck door!”
I bolted ahead of him and lunged for the door handle. I swung it open as he put my mother inside and quickly climbed in beside her. Her eyes fluttered open. “Dharma,” she whispered. “I had the worst dream. I thought you were lost.” She frowned, her eyes filled with confusion. “I've been so worried. Where's Benny?”
My heart flipped, tears rushed to my eyes. Mom really did care about us, even though she wasn't the best mom or the most perfect. I wrapped my arms around her. “No Mom, everything is okay now. Benny's fine. He's with friends and I'll take you to him.”
Mom released a heavy sigh, leaning her full weight against me. “I’m so tired, Dharma. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I feel so weak.” She struggled to sit up but collapsed against my shoulder again.
“You need to rest Mom, everything’s okay now.”
I held onto her tight, staring out the back window at the swamp as we drove away. The decayed wreckage of weeds and plants, the thick cypress stumps, the silent watchful eyes of the slough. All witness to my struggle with its tainted waters. Hangman’s Tree loomed in the shadows. Its twisted black branches reached out with clutched fingers. I shuddered, thinking how close we all had come to being one of its victims, our bones resting in a boggy grave.
Mom spent the next few days in the hospital. Once in a while, bits and pieces of her experiences would come flooding back to her as she struggled to remember. All she really cared about was that me and Benny were okay. Seeing her worry made me realize how much she really did loved us.
Wolf recovered quickly from his wounds. He made me promise not to ever go back to the old house—at least not alone. Even though I gave Wolf my word, there was something about my ancestral home that pulled at me, that beckoned me to return. Maybe someday I’d go back and face whatever evil might still lurking in the shadows.
I would like to thank everyone at Clean Teen publishing for making River of Bones come alive in print. I would like to thank my boss Dale McGarvey for his continued support and all my critique friends and family.
Angela Townsend was born in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Missoula, Montana. As a child, Angela grew up listening to stories told by her grandparents, ancient tales and legends of faraway places. Influenced by her Irish and Scottish heritage, Angela became an avid research historian, specializing in Celtic mythology. Her gift for storytelling finally led her to a full time career in historical research and writing. A writer in local community circulations, Angela is also a published genealogical and historical resource writer who has taught numerous research seminars. Currently, Angela divides her time between writing, playing Celtic music on her fiddle, and Irish dancing.
Angela’s first novel, Amarok, was published through Spencer Hill Press in 2012. Her newest novel, Angus MacBain and The Island of Sleeping Kings, was signed for publication with Clean Teen Publishing in 2013.
Angela resides on a ranch, in rural Northwestern Montana, with her two children Levi and Grant.
Angus MacBain is unaware that his ancestral roots hail from an ancient sect of Scottish kings. When his dying grandfather gives him a dragon pendant, thirteen-year-old Angus learns of a legacy that will take him across an ocean to the island of Iona and thrust him into a heritage he did not know he had. He soon discovers that his mother, whom he had believed dead, is really a seal fairy, in hiding from a dangerous enemy. To save her, Angus must undergo a perilous journey of destiny and power to battle an evil Dacian knight and those who serve him. With only his family shield and the advice of a wizened vampire hunter to protect him, Angus must navigate dangerous terrain and dark enemies, in a land where the past and the present mingle, and sleeping kings wake.
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