Title: Darkness Watching
Author: Emma L. Adams
Series: Darkworld #1
Publication: October 10th, 2013 by Curiosity Quills Press
Category: Upper Young Adult/New Adult
Genre: Paranormal | Urban Fantasy
Synopsis:
Eighteen-year-old
Ashlyn is one interview away from her future when she first sees the demons.
She thinks she's losing her mind, but the truth is far more frightening: she
can see into the Darkworld, the home of spirits—and the darkness is staring
back.
Desperate to escape
the demons, Ash accepts a place at a university in the small town of
Blackstone, in the middle of nowhere—little knowing that it isn't coincidence
that led her there but the pull of the Venantium, the sorcerers who maintain
the barrier keeping demons from crossing from the Darkworld into our own world.
All-night parties,
new friendships and a life without rules or limits are all part of the package
of student life—but demons never give up, and their focus on Ash has attracted
the attention of every sorcerer in the area. Ash is soon caught between her new
life and a group of other students with a connection to the Darkworld, who
could offer the answers she's looking for. The demons want something from her,
and someone is determined to kill her before she can find out what it is.
In a world where
darkness lurks beneath the surface, not everyone is what they appear to be ...
Excerpt:
It started out
as yet another exam dream. I sat in the school hall, looking at an unfamiliar
paper, as all the other students began to write with frantic enthusiasm, pens
racing down the page.
I didn't
revise this at all. Panic
rose within me. I looked around desperately. Everyone else scribbled away. The
clock ticked, seconds passing. Minutes. Shit.
I felt a
familiar surge of dizziness; my breath stuck in my throat, my heart pounded. I
stared at the back of the seat in front of me, which seemed to waver and
shimmer before my eyes, turning to blackness―
And a face
grinned at me. Sharp teeth formed a malevolent smile. Violet eyes stared at me,
unblinking. I could see nothing else for the smoke, which completely obscured
everything before my eyes.
Then my chair
tipped backward of its own accord. In slow motion, it leaned back, teetered for
a moment. The demon grinned as I sat there, powerless to move.
The panic
inside my chest spilled over and I tried to cry out. But I couldn't move my
jaw, couldn't open my mouth. I was frozen to the seat as it hit the floor with
a soundless thud.
I couldn't
move.
I couldn't feel
anything.
And I couldn't
speak, couldn't scream.
I lay on my
back, and around me, people continued to write, like robots programmed to
scribble endless pages. No one spared a glance for me. I was trapped there on
the floor, and no one even knew I was trapped.
The eyes
blinked, then vanished.
My heart
restarted with a jolt, hammering in my ears. I fought to escape the trap. My
eyes felt as though something heavy weighed them shut, but I managed to force
my eyelids apart. The sight of my digital alarm clock greeted me, sideways; I'd
fallen asleep at my desk, my head resting on my laptop, the cold edge digging
into my face.
I tried to lift
my head, but I couldn't. I tried to open my mouth, but my jaw remained locked.
Impossible.
I'm awake. Trapped again,
this time for real. Not a muscle in my body responded to my pleas. I couldn't
feel my hands, but I knew my right hand rested under my chin where I'd used it
as a pillow. I couldn't feel my face, either.
I'd lost all
feeling in my entire body, as if something invisible laid on top of me, pinning
me down.
I tried to cry
out, but not a sound escaped.
Move! I thought, trying to lift my head. The
weight continued to press on me. I recalled one of those websites I'd browsed
had mentioned poltergeists that sat on people in the middle of the night,
leaving them unable to move. This felt just like it. Terror washed over me,
cold and merciless.
Every short
breath hurt my chest. Let me go. Please. Please―I'll do anything, just let
me move.
"Anything,
Ashlyn?"
That voice.
What do you
want from me?
Somehow, not
being able to see the speaker made it a thousand times worse. It felt like a
thousand invisible hands gripped me all over, numbing all sensation. At the
edges of my vision, I thought I saw dark shapes, but no eyes, no mouth for the
voice.
Demons.
Finally, the
messages between my brain and nerves seemed to hit home, and I managed to raise
my head, to lift my arm an inch. Slowly I regained feeling in my limbs. I
shifted, twitched my hands, my feet.
Even then, I
knew they watched me.
That day, the
fear began.
Emma L. Adams spent
her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly
average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing
fantasy and paranormal for young adults. She was born in Birmingham, UK, which
she fled at the first opportunity to study English Literature at Lancaster
University. In her three years at Lancaster, she hiked up mountains, skydived
in Australia, and endured a traumatic episode involving a swarm of bees in the
Costa Rican jungle. She also wrote various novels and short stories. These
included her first publication, a rather bleak dystopian piece, and a
disturbing story about a homicidal duck (which she hopes will never see the
light of day).
Now a reluctant
graduate, she can usually be found in front of her writing desk, creating weird
and wonderful alternative worlds. Her debut novel The Puppet Spell, published
in 2013 by Rowanvale Books, is a fantasy tale for young adults and the young at
heart, inspired by her lifelong love of the fantastical, mythology, and video
games. Emma also writes supernatural fantasy novels for older teens and adults.
Her next book, Darkness Watching, is the first in the upper-YA/New Adult
Darkworld series, and will be published in September 2013 by Curiosity Quills
Press.
Visit the Darkness Watching book blitz for a list of participating blogs and to to learn more about the book.
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Thank you for sharing! :)
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