Dark
Promise
By
Julia Crane and Talia Jager
Book
Description:
Rylie
has it all - great friends, dream boy, loving family. But on the eve
of her sixteenth birthday, her perfect little world shatters. A
stranger claiming to be her real mother appears with a secret: Rylie
is a faery whose powers will be unleashed on her birthday. Captured
and forced into a new life, Rylie struggles to keep everything she
loves and discovers a terrifying truth: some promises cannot be
broken.
About
the Authors
Julia
Crane
Julia
Crane is the author of the YA paranormal fiction novels: Keegan's
Chronicles, Mesmerized, Eternal Youth, and Dark Promise. She was
greatly encouraged by her mother to read and use her imagination, and
has believed in magical creatures since the day her grandmother first
told her an Irish tale. Julia has traveled far and wide to many of
the places her grandmother told her about, gaining inspiration from
her journeys to places like Nepal, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Italy, France
and many more. And who knows? Maybe the magical creatures she writes
about are people she met along the way.
Keep
updated by joining
her mailing list.
Talia
Jager
When
Talia isn’t hiding in the closet from her six children munching on
a chocolate bar, she enjoys hiking the red rocks in Utah or sitting
on the beach with a Kindle in her hands and her toes in the ocean
Talia
has written a number of books for young adults, including Damaged:
Natalie’s Story, Teagan’s Story: Her Battle With Epilepsy, If I
Die Young, Secret Bloodline, Lost and Found, and The Gifted Teens
Series. Connect with Talia online at http://www.taliajager.com
Dark
Promise
Excerpt
My mother led her
into the living room. The lady’s piercing green eyes rested on me,
sending a chill down my back. My father followed her gaze. “Rylie,
do you know this woman?” Dad asked.
“No.” I shook
my head slowly. “I’ve never seen her before.”
“Rylie, maybe you
should go to your room,” Dad suggested, his gaze demanding I do as
he said.
“No. If this has
something to do with me, I want to hear it.” I crossed my arms and
sank against the back of the couch.
Mom and Dad
exchanged a worried glance, but turned back to the lady on the couch.
“Please, go on.”
Without taking her
eyes from me, the lady calmly stated, “My name is Azura, and I am
Rylie’s birth mother.”
My father, who was
always a level-headed man, was on his feet in seconds, his face hard.
“What are you talking about?”
I felt like I had
fallen into some kind of parallel universe. Did
this woman just say she was my birth mother? How could she be
my birth mother? That would mean I was adopted, but wouldn’t my
parents have told me something like that?
My mother shook her
head. “Birth mother? Rylie isn’t adopted.” She reached over and
took my hand. “Believe me, I’ll never forget the eleven hours of
labor.”
The woman sat
perfectly still in the blue armchair across from us, with her hands
clasped on her lap. “I know it’s hard to accept, but it’s true.
Your daughter died shortly after she was born. I switched the
infants. Rylie is mine.”
The wind left me as
if I had been punched in the stomach. I couldn’t breathe, and the
room spun. I gripped the pillow next to me with my other hand as I
clung to my mother.
Silence filled the
room for a moment, and then my father exploded. “You need to leave
now!” He pointed to the door. “Get out of this house and don’t
come back without a court order.”
The lady smiled
sincerely, her face still as calm as it had been when she walked in
the door. “Please, hear me out. I realize this is a lot to take
in.”
“No! This is
preposterous! Nobody died. Rylie is ours.” Dad’s voice was like
thunder.
I studied the lady.
She seemed so honest and soft-spoken. Why would she pretend something
like this? Why would she ruin our family if it weren’t true? And if
was true, why was she coming clean now? Something in me believed her
even though I didn’t want to. I swallowed hard and rubbed my sweaty
palms on my shirt.
“Let her talk,”
I said hoarsely.
“Rylie, you can’t
believe her.” Dad looked stricken.
“I’m curious as
to why she thinks I’m her daughter. Let’s hear her out.” I
crossed my arms and scooted closer to my mother, comforted when she
wrapped an arm around me.
Dad turned back to
the woman called Azura, and his frown deepened. “Fine.” He sat
back down in his seat and glared. “Talk.”
“Thank you. I’m
going to tell you something not many humans know, and I have to trust
you to keep it secret for Rylie’s sake.” She addressed the
statement to my parents.
Humans?
Who talks like that?
Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeletethis is awesome I love Julia's writing. Keegan's chronicles were very good. so this should be awesome as well.
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