Read Tethered 01 - Catalyst Online

Authors: Jennifer Snyder

Tethered 01 - Catalyst

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Amazon Edition

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Catalyst

A Tethered Novel

Copyright © 2013 by Jennifer Snyder

Cover design by © Regina Wamba from
Mae I Design

Book formatting by
JT Formatting

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the above author of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

Quotes from the Wiccan Rede as well as The Three-Fold Law are assumed to be released into the public domain, since any author accused, credited, or suspected of creating it have denied such claims and disavowed themselves from any ownership of the work.

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Table of Contents

 

Prologue – Good Reason

Chapter One – Aduro Street

Chapter Two – Fisherman’s Brew

Chapter Three – A Sigh of Something Unfurling

Chapter Four – The Red Door

Chapter Five – The Missing Avery Kid

Chapter Six – Something Missing

Chapter Seven – Burnt Toast

Chapter Eight – First Come, First Serve

Chapter Nine – Collette’s

Chapter Ten – Our Bloodline

Chapter Eleven – Paisley’s

Chapter Twelve – Antsy

Chapter Thirteen – To Reveal

Chapter Fourteen – Symbols

Chapter Fifteen – An Elemental

Chapter Sixteen – Someone Wanted Me Gone

Chapter Seventeen – Sexier Than Sin

Chapter Eighteen – One of Those

Chapter Nineteen – Treading a Fine Line

Chapter Twenty – The Cliff

Chapter Twenty-One – Something Made of Red

Chapter Twenty-Two – Skepticism

Chapter Twenty-Three – The Red Creature

Chapter Twenty-Four – Tethered To Me

Acknowledgments

About the Author

 

 

To the many bookworms all across the world,

because without you… our stories would remain unread
.

 

 

Angela Avery snuggled the soft, warm body that was wrapped tightly inside a pink fleece blanket close to her chest. The little girl she held was perfect in every way. Peeling the edge of the blanket back once more, Angela allowed herself a glance at her beautiful baby girl. She stared at her chubby, rose-colored cheeks and her tiny button nose as she gently ran the tips of her fingers through her darling daughter’s feather-soft, caramel-colored hair. It would darken one day to be the same shade as her own; Angela knew this without any doubt because she had glimpsed the future—her daughter’s future—not so long ago.

It had been a game really; at least that was how she had thought of it that day, a bit of entertainment for herself, a little more magick in her life. She had been foolish to think that way—Angela knew this now. She should have stuck with creating energy balls, stone magick, or even candle magick—but she hadn’t. She’d been too interested in clairvoyance and seeing the future. Angela frowned as she remembered the things she had hoped to see that day—herself married and living happily ever after. The vivid clip of her vision from that day flashed through her mind involuntarily for the millionth time since she’d first witnessed it. Closing her eyes, Angela took in a deep breath and pushed the image away, sealing it behind a door in her mind once more.

The little girl snuggled up against Angela and released the most peaceful-sounding sigh imaginable. Contentment relaxed the delicate features of the sleeping baby’s face even more, and a tear trickled from the corner of Angela’s hazel eye as she realized this would be the only time she’d ever be able to hear that tiny sigh of contentment. Footsteps sounded from down the hall. Angela wiped the tears from her eyes and straightened her back. She would not let her final moments with her daughter be tainted by the harsh reality of what she was doing. There was a reason for this, she reminded herself, a good reason.

“I’m doing this to save you,” she whispered aloud, more to tame her guilt and ease her conscience than for her daughter’s tiny ears.

Bending down, she kissed her darling daughter and whispered her name, “Addison Avery.” It was a good name, a beautiful name, and even though Angela didn’t want her daughter to be exposed to the type of lifestyle she had grown up in, it didn’t mean that she wanted to give up on all family traditions. This was why she had chosen a first name for her daughter that began with the letter A, same as hers and every woman on her side of the family, as well as passed down the family last name of Avery. She saw it as a way to give her child a little piece of herself, a tiny piece of her biological family to take with her through life.

The footsteps paused outside the entrance to Angela’s room; time with her daughter was nearing an end. Rewrapping the blanket snugly around Addison's tiny frame, Angela kissed her daughter for the last time on the forehead and whispered, “You are safe, you are whole, you are well. Guided by the light of the Goddess and the God, may happiness come to you wherever you dwell.”

The door slowly creaked open and in walked the plump older lady who had helped with the delivery. Her lips twisted into a sympathetic smile as she crossed the room to stand beside Angela’s bed.

“It's time, Miss Avery,” the older woman said as she extended her arms for the delicate pink bundle Angela held. “You’re doing the right thing, honey. Don't beat yourself up thinking you're not. As young as you are, there’s no way you could raise this little bundle all by yourself.”

If only she knew, Angela thought to herself, how right of a thing she was actually doing. Pulling her newborn daughter tighter against her chest, Angela traced her eyes over every soft curve, every patch of pink skin, memorizing even the most minute details.

“I love you, little Addison Avery. That’s why I'm doing this, because I love. I hope one day you'll understand,” Angela said as she passed over the bundle that was her daughter. Tears blurred her vision and dripped from her chin.

Angela watched as the elderly woman turned and exited the room, closing the door tightly behind her and sealing Angela away from her daughter forever. She reminded herself of the reasons she was doing this, of the reasons she’d given her child up for adoption. The vivid image of a grown-up Addison falling into choppy ocean waters and dying flashed behind her closed eyelids.

As more tears than she ever thought possible flowed from her eyes, Angela prayed silently that the spells she’d done to counteract her daughter’s early death and the fact that she’d given her away would be enough to save her from the magick that stirred within her hometown, the magick that stirred within her.

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