I thought I would do something a bit different today. This is a clip from my fantasy novel. I’m putting up chapters on Wattpad. Since the whole trilogy is complete, I expect to post there regularly. I hope it piques your curiosity and you want to read more. 😊 You can find it under BobbieF, or by the title, Taking the Stars.

A strange fire burned in front of her. Its flames reached up like liquid purple fingers, its light like a flat smear that blanked things with its color. Her whole essence tried to recoil from that putrescent, vile glow, but the force that held her would not allow it. Instead, she was forced to watch as small pieces of the flames broke away from the heart of the fire and swirled about, eventually moving to join with other pieces into a sign, as yet uncompleted, that hung in the air before her. The chanting was stronger in her head now, pounding with her pulse. It beat heavily: binding, tightening, closing about her like a net. It was in her body, in her blood, in her life-essence. Across the glow of fire, she finally saw a dark, faceless figure tracing shapes in the air. The flames licked out, filling the tracings and giving them their foul, blackened form as the drone of the spell increased.

There was power here, but not power as she knew it. This was perverted–soiled with something unfamiliar and evil. And someone was trying to bind her to it!

Horrified, her mind shrieked sudden denial. It would not, could not prevail! This perverse force would not bind her!

Her essence struggled backward, away from the sickening purple light of those blackened signs, preferring the questionable security of infinite darkness to the vile evil being worked before her.

Ruthlessly, with its unrelenting drone, the power-user dragged her forward again into the ill light.

Desperately, terrified almost beyond comprehensive thought, Kaphri fought to awaken from the spell-induced nightmare. Her mind reached out, seeking a way to resist. She had to find a way back to her room. She had to find–

Gemma!