Cursed
(Beholder Book 1)
by Christina Bauer
GENRE: Fantasy, YA, Romance
BLURB:
Most days, Elea couldn’t care less about having Necromancer
magick. Who needs to conjure skeletons and sprits when you’re a farm girl? Elea
only uses her powers to speed up chores and scare off suitors.
Everything changes when the evil Necromancer Tsar curses Elea. Now, she only has five years left before she burns as a ghost, tortured for all eternity. They say there’s nothing she can do, but Elea disagrees. She decides to embrace her Necromancer powers, train as a magickal assassin, and kill the Tsar… All before his curse kills her. Impossible as it may sound, Elea thinks she has it in the bag, but then everything goes horribly wrong.
That’s when a handsome mage named Rowan steps up to help. Elea wants an ally, but she doesn’t need all the mixed-up feelings that come along with Rowan’s crooked smile.
An assassination mission is no time to fall in love, but Elea’s heart may have other ideas…
Everything changes when the evil Necromancer Tsar curses Elea. Now, she only has five years left before she burns as a ghost, tortured for all eternity. They say there’s nothing she can do, but Elea disagrees. She decides to embrace her Necromancer powers, train as a magickal assassin, and kill the Tsar… All before his curse kills her. Impossible as it may sound, Elea thinks she has it in the bag, but then everything goes horribly wrong.
That’s when a handsome mage named Rowan steps up to help. Elea wants an ally, but she doesn’t need all the mixed-up feelings that come along with Rowan’s crooked smile.
An assassination mission is no time to fall in love, but Elea’s heart may have other ideas…
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EXCERPT:
“Hail
and well met.” His deep voice rumbled over the sands. “I’m Rowan.”
I
stopped an arms-length away. “Elea.”
“Your
transport spell caught with mine, Necromancer.” The way he said the word
Necromancer, I might as well be dripping with the plague. “Why did Viktor send
you?”
It
was an effort to keep my voice low and features still. Of all the people in the
realm, I would never help Viktor. “It’s not your place to question me, Caster.
I’m going to transport away. This time, you won’t interfere again. Do we
understand each other?”
“If
you’re an agent of Viktor’s, then I’m not allowing you to go anywhere until you
explain yourself.”
After
five years of monotones, his voice sounded positively wild with inflection. It
made me even more anxious to leave this man behind. “I don’t have time for your
nonsense. I’m going and, unless you want to eat a fireball, you won’t stop me.”
I
lifted my left arm and pulled in some magick. My body still felt shredded from
the last trip, but I had to risk it. I must transport to the Midnight Cloister
right away. Energy streamed into my torso. My limbs shook.
Quick
as a heartbeat, Rowan stepped forward and grabbed my wrist. How dare he? Anger
made my vision collapse until all I could see were his determined green eyes.
This man had a lesson to learn.
Well,
I warned him.
I
started the incantation for a fireball spell. My bones glowed blue with power.
Rowan began some kind of counter-spell. I didn’t recognize the words, but there
was no mistaking the surge of foreign energy that coursed through me. The hold
I’d kept on my power shattered. My magick drained away.
I
locked gazes with Rowan. Not even Petra had been able to block my spells so
well. “You’re a gods-damned menace.”
“Interesting
comment, coming from an agent of the Tsar.”
“I
am not aligned to Viktor. I give you my word.”
“You
know how many times I’ve heard that? Your kind does nothing but lie.”
“My
kind?” This mindless thug was calling my sweet Sisters a pack of liars. Well, I
had more than one way to cast a fireball spell. My totem ring was pre-loaded
with a cluster of them. Unlike the traditional spellwork, I only had to speak
one word to launch the magick. It angered me to waste this weapon on some brute
in the desert, but it might be my only way out of here.
I
raised my left fist. “Fire!”
Five
ghostly skulls shot out from the ring, each one surrounded by blue flames. They
slammed into Rowan’s chest, knocking him onto his back. Good. I’d feel sorry
for the dolt, but he had it coming.
After
that, everything happened so quickly, it was hard to keep track. I know the
veins in Rowan’s right hand glowed red with Caster power. Giant worms burst up
from the sand, gulping down my fireball skulls, before burrowing under the
ground once again. I stared in shock. I knew Casters could control nature, but
I’d no idea they could make something strong enough to swallow a fireball
skull.
The
next thing I knew, I was pinned to my back with Rowan’s bulk on top of me.
Panic skittered down my spine. I tried to summon power into my body, but his
damned counter-spell was still in place. With his right arm, Rowan held both my
hands above my head. His torso and legs pinned down the rest of me. That got my
blood boiling and how.
I
writhed and kicked, but he was so huge, my movements barely made him shift his
weight. “Get off me, you sick son of a bitch!”
“You
serve the Tsar, I know it.” His left hand gripped the neckline of my robes and
tore down.
I
fought harder than ever before, not that it did any good. Well, there were
spells that could make him pay, now or later. “Leave me alone or you’ll regret
it!”
Rowan’s
warm fingers brushed the bare, smooth skin of my left shoulder. “You were
telling the truth.” His eyes widened. “You don’t have a mark.”
“Of
course, I was telling the truth. Now get off me or I swear, I will find a way
to kill you, in this life or the next. You can rely on it.”
Rowan’s
voice turned pleading. “I’m so sorry I did that, it’s just—”
“I
said, off!”
“I’ll
get up slowly now. No need to keep fighting.” He gently rolled his massive bulk
away. Why would anyone need so many muscles, anyway? It was bad enough the guy
could cast like he did. I’d never seen anything like it.
The
moment his weight lifted, I hopped to my feet. My throat tightened with rage
and hurt. The Zelle worked me hard, sure, but no one ever raised a hand against
me, let alone pinned me down.
This
is the big, bad world, Elea. If you’re going to kill the Tsar, then you have to
get used to such things. Maybe even worse.
With
trembling hands, I tried to retie the ribbons on my shoulder. I didn’t want to
transport into the Midnight Cloister looking like this. A real Grand Mistress
never let her robes get messed. But there were too many torn ribbons, and my
coordination was shot. I couldn’t risk casting a spell just to fix my robes
when I needed all my strength just to transport to the Midnight. I redid my
shoulder into some semblance of proper form and then focused my attention on
Rowan.
“You’re
a bastard.”
My
Review:
Elea is a nineteen year old girl who has finally became
the rightful owner of Braddock Farms. Ever since she has become the owner she
has had more suitors than a princess, one more than she ever wanted. All she
wants is to be left alone to do her chores and to live her life in piece
without someone always knocking on her door.
One day she gets wood that her best friend Tristan is in
trouble and needs her. When she makes her way to Tristan she finds that he has
been cursed and is dying. He explains how the curse works to her. After words
the only thing she is concerned with is finding a way to break the curse
otherwise she will die too. She has five years to break the curse or it is
lights out for her.
Elea is also a necromancer and knows how to use her
magick for helping out with the chores on the farm sometimes but nothing that
is considered very powerful. And powerful she must be if she is going break the
curse. So what does Elea do? Well the only thing she can do and that is to find
someone who is willing to train her.
And five years later she emerges from the depths of a Cloister
as a Grand Mistress Necromancer. She is known as the last Grand Mistress
Necromancer alive and the most powerful. Now Elea is on a journey to save not
only her friend but all her new friends that she has made along the way.
On her journey to break the curse she meets a powerful
Caster, Rowan, and the sparks begin to fly between them. This is something that
necromancers have no knowledge of or at least they are supposed to have more
control than that over their feelings or so she has been taught by her sisters
in the Cloister.
Can Elea break the curse before her time is up? Can she
save Tristan? Can she save all of her new friends from the hands of the
Tsar? As Tristan says “I can’t tell you”.
You will just have to pick up your copy to find out. You won’t regret believe
me cause I sure haven’t. Cursed will take you on an adventure of a lifetime
filled with magick in only one weeks’ time more or less. I can’t wait for book
two to see where Elea and her friends take us next in their journey.
AUTHOR BIO:
Christina graduated from Syracuse
University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in English along with Television, Radio,
and Film Production. An avowed girl geek, Christina loves creating immersive
fantasy worlds with action, adventure, romance, and kick-ass female
protagonists. As part of her work in Ink Monster, Christina has co-developed
the ‘Heroine’s Journey,’ a blueprint for telling female myths inspired by the
work of Joseph Campbell. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and
golden retriever Ruby.
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