Authors: Jennifer Snyder

Tethered 01 - Catalyst (27 page)

The edge of the cliff rushed up to greet me, and I didn’t stop, I didn’t hesitate as I leapt into the air and tossed my arms out to my sides while closing my eyes tightly. People survived intense falls like this all the time. In fact, some even did stunts like this for fun. With nothing beneath me and nothing above, I felt freer than I ever had before.

“Nooo,” the creature hissed loudly into the night.

My eyes remained closed as I waited to begin the decent downward toward the crashing waves below. I didn’t want to see if there were rocks waiting for me. I could feel the air brushing against me from all sides, but the sinking feeling, the weightlessness of free falling into nothingness I had expected, never came.

Opening my eyes, I realized why.

Theo stood at the edge of the cliff, which was only a few feet away from me still, with his right hand extended toward me. The reason I hadn’t felt the sensation of falling toward the choppy waters below was because I wasn’t falling at all…I was suspended in midair.

My eyes locked with Theo’s. They were determined and focused. He lifted his hand, and I went with it as I was carried on the wind he’d created back to the edge of the cliff to stand beside him. Warmth pulsated through me. It wiped all thought from my mind. As soon as my feet touched the earth again, everything around Theo and me seemed to fade away as we were encased in a perfect orb of white.

Theo’s eyes found mine. His hand was still raised before him even though I now stood at his side. Questions and fears swirled within the caramel color of his eyes, and I wondered what he was thinking, what he was feeling, but mostly…what was happening and how he had done it. I was positive his expression of shock and utter confusion was mirrored on my own face.

“What was once written, I now have changed,

Something destined has now been rearranged.

Hear my calling, answer my plea,

Keep my darling daughter harm free.

In her moment of future prophetic demise,

I call to the power within me that lies,

May a stranger await in the shadows at be,

Let him wield a power that will save thee.

Tethered together their souls shall see,

An it harm none, so mote it be.”

The words seemed to flow from everywhere and nowhere all at once. They were in my head and yet attached to the very wind. The voice was soft and pleasant to listen to, musical in all ways possible. I remained where I stood, my mind fumbling to wrap around the words and grasp their meaning. Where had they come from and who had spoken them? What did they mean?

Without warning the whiteness that had encased Theo and me inside its sphere burst into tiny white butterflies, which fluttered away on the wind. I stared, stunned and dazed by the beauty of it all. Holding out my hand, a single butterfly, its wings paper thin and a brilliant shade of white, landed on the tip of my finger. I smiled as it clasped its wings together quickly, as though taking a break, and then fluttered away once more.

I could still feel Theo’s eyes on me and I shifted to glance at him. He glared at me with a smoldering look that made my heart skip a beat or two and my stomach sink all the way to my toes.

“What the hell just happened? What did you do?” he growled in a low, rumbling tone through gritted teeth.

“What did
I
do—what did
you
—?” I never got to finish my sentence. The red creature I’d forgotten lunged at me. Its claw-like fingers gripped my upper arm before I could dart away this time.

I closed my eyes as I shrank away and let out a startled scream. Its grip was tight one minute and then gone the next. Flickering light lit the insides of my eyelids. Opening my eyes, I realized where the light came from—the creature had somehow burst into flames.

I watched wide-eyed as it dropped to the ground and rolled around in agonizing pain. Its red flesh oozed from its bones and bubbled beside it along the ground. The screams and cries that stemmed from it pierced the night air around me and made the fine hairs along the back of my neck and across my arms stand on end.

And then…the screams stopped.

The creature turned to pure black ash before my eyes and was carried away by the nighttime ocean breeze, leaving nothing besides a scorched mark on the ground where it had been. Anyone who saw the spot would think some idiot had started a fire outside of the designated fire pit at some point and never give it a second thought.

“Did I do that?” I asked in a hushed whisper.

“No, root magick against one another…it’s a Hoodoo law.”

Hoodoo law? Root magick?
It was then that I noticed what Theo had been holding in his hand the entire time—roots. My pulse picked up pace as I shifted my eyes from the dirt-covered roots he held to his face.

“But I’m not Hoodoo,” I insisted as my stomach muscles tightened. “I don’t even know what Hoodoo really is.”

Theo glared at me. He gritted his teeth together and every vein in his neck popped out on display. “No, you’re not Hoodoo…but because of that spell, you’re tethered to me now, which means nothing Hoodoo can harm you.”

And with that, Theo walked away, leaving me standing on the cliff, surrounded by darkness. My limbs trembled as adrenaline began to fade from my system, but my mind still swirled dizzily with his words, those of the spell I’d heard, and images I couldn’t begin to understand. Everything weaved its way through my mind, numbing me suddenly from the inside out.

Finally, my mind settled on three things, each of them standing out like a brightly shining star in an obsidian night sky.

One, no one could do anymore Hoodoo on me.

Two, Theo was an Elemental somehow as well as a practicing Hoodoo person.

And three, I was now tethered to him, whatever that meant.

To Be Continued In…

COMING SOON!

I’d like to give a special thanks to Regina Wamba of Mae I Design for her beautiful cover creation, H. Danielle Crabtree for her amazing editing skills, and Stephanie Parent for her eagle-eye proofreading ability.

More special thanks to my family and friends for their endless support. My mom, who still reads everything I write and claims each book tops the last. My sister, Heather, who enjoys my characters almost as much as me.

Also to Alyssa Rose Ivy, you’ve made this whole writing experience that much better. So glad to have met you along this journey of mine.

And to the readers, for your eager anticipation for this novel to be in your hands. You fuel me without even realizing it.

Jennifer Snyder lives in North Carolina were she spends most of her time writing new adult and young adult fiction, reading, and struggling to stay on top of housework. She is a tea lover with an obsession for Post-it notes and smooth writing pens. Jennifer lives with her husband and two children, who endure listening to songs that spur inspiration on repeat and tolerate her love for all paranormal, teenage-targeted TV shows.

Find out more about her latest novel by visiting her blog:

http://jennifersnydersblog.blogspot.com

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