As promised, here’s a behind scene for Strings of Magic, my latest release on Amazon! If you’ve grabbed yourself a copy and had the chance to read the book, then this is definitely something you don’t want to miss. But… if you haven’t read the book, then perhaps you should wait before you read any further. Spoiler alert.
Behind the Scenes – Luke discovers Liv’s gone.
Hudson and I finally reach Bear Creek Cabins, and it’s definitely an isolated place. Each rustic cabin sits along the rugged terrain as if someone wanted the mountains to ward off any trespassers. It’s dark and bleak, but streams of light emit from the windows as we park.
Hudson looks over to me and shrugs. “Hailey said this is the place.”
I hop out of his truck and reply, “Next time, we’ll pick the place.”
Hudson slaps the back of his hand against my arm. “Hey, isn’t that car over there Liv’s friend… the one Jacob’s been banging?”
“Fuck Hudson, why do you make it sound like that?” I ask as we walk toward the first cabin.
“What? Want me to rephrase it for you? He’s gettin’ him some on the side besides Luke. She’s human. He’s a witch… see the problem?” he questions with a straight face.
I lift a shoulder nonchalantly. “I dunno, man. If Jacob doesn’t see it as a problem, then why should we fuckin’ care?” I press my hand against Hudson’s chest as we reach the front door. “Hey… wait, do you feel that?”
Hudson slowly creeps his eyes toward me. “Magic…” we both say in unison.
I open the door and charge through the small hallway, Hudson’s following close behind me. My eyes immediately land on Summer and then Jacob because they’re nose to nose in some kind of heated argument. Off to the side, something ripples and rolls back and forth like a watery doorway. I lower my eyes and notice a stone circle. Quickly, I scan the room, Taylin’s holding two phones and a wad of clothes. She looks like she’s on the verge of tears. “Luke?”
“What the fuck is goin’ on?!” I shout, still glaring around the room. There’s one person I’m desperately hoping I’ll find. Maybe she’s in another room, but before I search, I tip my head directly at Summer and ask with a menacing tone, “Where’s Liv?”
Hailey, Taylin, and Jacob all start talking at once, and none of it makes any damn sense.
“We were casting a circle and….” Taylin starts to ramble.
“It was more than just a fuckin’ circle, Luke. They opened up something… and I tried to stop them,” Jacob shouts over Taylin’s voice.
Hailey shoves between them and grips my shirt. “Please don’t be upset with us, Luke. Summer pushed Jacob, and now Liv’s gone. We… we don’t know where she is.” Hailey releases my shirt and rubs her forehead as if she’s on the edge of losing her shit.
“She’s in there….” Summer calmly answers, pointing toward the wavering doorway in the center of the circle.
I glance over my shoulder in the direction Summer pointed, and then I snap. “What the fuck?! Summer, what the hell is wrong with you? You think this is one of your little games that you like to getting off on? Huh?” I shove Jacob back and stand so close to her that I can see every cruel thought behind her eyes.
She backs away from me and crosses her arms. “It was an accident, Luke. Besides, let’s see what water girl can do,” she remarks coldly. “Since she acts all smug and tough, then it shouldn’t be a problem for her to figure it out.” I turn and head straight for the portal, but Summer quickly grips my arm. “Luke… you don’t have to prove anything to us. Just wait and think this through first. We don’t know what’s on the other side.”
I jerk her hand from me. “I’m not fucking waiting, Summer. I have to find her,” I state angrily and lunge myself into the unknown.
My feet hit the ground hard as if I had just leaped from a seven-story building. I stand, center myself and start to brush myself off, and quickly discover my clothes didn’t make it through the passage. That’s why Taylin was holding Liv’s things. Son-of-a-bitch, that means she’s here somewhere naked. And soaked to the skin because it’s raining its motherfuckin’ ass off. I’ve absorbed so many emotions within the last few minutes my adrenaline is staggering off the charts. I use it to my advantage and run through the woods. It’s dusky and moonless, but I weave a trail back and forth, making sure I don’t lose the portal. I cast a spell to conceal it from anyone snooping around and softly call out, “Liv?!”
I remain about twenty feet away from where I entered, hoping I’ll see her wandering through the trees. But with the rain and the darkness, it’s nearly impossible to see anything. “Liv! Can you hear me?!” I raise my voice up a notch, but the rumbling thunder drowns it out. And then, through the haze, there’s a soft afterglow of light in the distance. I trudge a path toward a hill and figure out there’s a village burrowed in between the high foothills. I rest my back against a tree and try to sense her magic, her essence, anything that I can get a trace of, but I get nothing but dead air. She’s not here.
Maybe she’s in the village.
I can feel the minutes slip through my fingers like sand as I wander around the outdated structures. What the hell is this place? There are no streetlights or cars. Nothing is modernized, and I’m half expecting a farmhand troweling through the fields. I shift over to a barn or what looks like a barn with a door barely attached. The second I sneak inside, I kick something with my foot. A pair of shoes and pants are scattered out. I grab what I can and put them on, and luckily, they fit somewhat. And then I catch sight of a shirt and women’s clothing tossed farther away. I inch closer, and that’s when I hear a woman giggling and whispering softly, “Aron, doesn’t your wife wonder why it takes you so long to get firewood each night?”
“Why would she wonder, Elsie, when she’s fast asleep,” the male’s voice whispers back.
“But doesn’t this blustery weather frighten her?”
“Nah, she wouldn’t notice if the top of the house blew away. Don’t you worry, Elsie, no one’s going to notice we’re both gone, especially in this here weather. They’d be a damn fool for comin’ out,” Aron reassures the woman.
I reach for the shirt beside a makeshift wall that separates me from them, and just as I’m about to grab it, the woman suddenly says, “Oh, I made you something… I tucked it inside my bonnet….” She moves around, and a touch of light shimmers outward. It’s a lantern swaying back and forth, brushing the darkness aside. She’s cradling her bare breasts as she crawls and pats the ground, searching for whatever it is she made for him. But then she glances up and sees me.
I don’t have to read her emotions to know what will happen next. Her mouth pops open, her lungs suck in a hefty amount of air as her eyes grow wider, but before she lets out a blood-curdling scream, I whisper, “Somnum, this is only a dream.”
I catch her before she falls face first into the dirt and gently place her down. I scarcely have enough time to tug on the shirt when the guy gets up and starts calling out to her, “Elsie?”
When he locks eyes with me, the first thing he asks is, “Who are you?” But as I watch his eyes lower and he sees the woman lying on the ground, every emotion from him hits me like ammo. Bang-confusion. Bang-annoyance. Bang-fury. I don’t have enough time to cast the same spell on him because he’s coming at me like a loose grenade.
He balls up his fists and starts swinging. I dodge the first strike and catch the next one with my hand and growl, “Would you fuckin’ stand still for five seconds?!”
And then he does something I didn’t think he’d do. He plows into me using all of his weight and slams us into a nearby wall. I ram my knee into his side, making him release me and stagger back. I shift a few feet away and wait as he steals enough air to stand upright. He tightly grips his ribs and slowly drags his scowling eyes over me, and asks, “Who are you?”
I tilt my head and coldly reply, “You don’t really wanna know because… Somnum, this is only a dream.”
I button the shirt up as he slumps to the ground— I don’t even flinch when he lands with a loud grunt. And then I comb through the rest of the area and find a long dark cloak hanging from a crooked hook. I shake it off, slide it on and lurk toward the weathered door as it rattles against the howling wind. Now, it’s time to find Liv.
I hope you enjoyed that small glimpse into the behind-the-scenes! Just so you know, Strings of Magic is solely through Oliva’s perspective, her POV. And since I had several requests for this particular scene, I knew I had to write Luke’s perspective. Now, before I go, I want to announce there will be a book two, (Yes, I am currently working on it), titled Wishes of Magic. Plus, don’t forget there’s a Goodreads Giveaway going on right now for a chance to win a free ebook copy of Strings of Magic! So be sure to enter!
Happy reading! xoxo
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