Stone Guardian
Witches Amulet #1
Paulina Woods
Genre: Fantasy
Romance
Date of Publication:
November 18, 2014
Price: 0.99
Cover Artist:
Fantasia Frog Designs
Synopsis:
Element – Fire (Healer/Destroyer)
Royal House – Purple
Under the guise of progress an ancient evil is rising. Humanity will fall, along with all other species, if five girls, hidden at birth, are not found.
Milcah has lived her life being ridiculed by others for her looks and upbringing. Wanting to leave the small town behind she longs for the day she can pack up her small apartment and see the world. She never imagined her vacation would lead to her destiny.
Jarod is general of the gargoyle army. He's a force to be reckoned with and in a fit of anger a witch turns him and his men into stone statues. For centuries they have stood waiting for someone to free them from their prison.
Can two beings from two different backgrounds find common ground before the world falls into chaos?
Excerpt:
“Damn it. How can
I get lost with MapQuest? Stupid directions.” Milcah bangs her fist against the
steering wheel. Two weeks ago driving across the country alone seemed like a
great plan but now that she is actually doing it, not so much. “If I had known
driving was going to be more stressful than work I would have flown.” After
leaving Tucson, Arizona she had gotten lost on all the small highways and now
she is on a godforsaken two lane highway where she hasn’t seen another car for
ages, her phone refuses to get reception, and to top it off there are storm
clouds in the distance.
“Fuck me. I should have stayed home.”
Something had told her to fill up at the last gas station so she is going to be
ok there, but she needs to find somewhere to hole up until this storm passes.
Getting stuck in the middle of the desert during a thunderstorm in an older
Honda is not a good idea.
After driving another twenty minutes,
Milcah spots a sign announcing a small mining town. Even small towns have hot
food, hot water, and a nice warm bed. Glancing back at the clouds, she ignores
her misgivings and turns right onto a small, barely paved road.
“Ouch!” Her left tire hits a pothole
and she hears the bottom of the car scrape. Milcah hopes the older car she is
driving is made out of tough material, she can’t afford expensive repairs.
Like a horror movie, the road starts
to look overgrown and all but disappearing in some places. Milcah is sure the
last time this road was paved was when pavement was first introduced. But with
storm clouds riding her ass, there is no way Milcah is turning around. Reaching
across to the passenger seat, Milcah picks up her phone, hoping the closer she
drives to the town the better her reception will get. No such luck. Throwing
her useless phone on the passenger seat, she passes under a sign that reads
“Welcome to Beacon”.
“Beacon of what?” Looking around at
the empty streets, Milcah feels a chill run down her spine. “This town should
be named Forsaken.”
There is no other way to describe the
sad, abandoned town. It has overgrown grass on the sides of the road, buildings
with blank empty windows and the only sound is the shutters blowing in the
wind. The town looks like it had been built in the early gold rush years and
then abandoned soon after. Turning onto what she assumes is the main street,
Milcah feels an oily sensation pass over her. It reminds her of her dreams.
“What have I gotten myself into? I
don’t think phones were invented when this place was a booming town. There’s no
way I am sticking around. I can make it to the next town.”
Making a U-turn, Milcah slams on her
brakes to avoid hitting…what the hell was that? She knows it wasn't in the road
a few seconds ago. Scared but curious, Milcah studies the object. Standing at
over seven feet tall, it can’t be mistaken for human. A ghost? But a ghost of
what? A little transparent, it has wings, which reach from the middle of its
knees and come to a point a little above its head. Wanting to get out the car
and investigate but knowing that’s when people are killed in horror movies,
Milcah presses the gas pedal, swerves around the creature, and heads for the
road out of town. Gripping the steering wheel Milcah tries to stop her hands
from shaking. What the hell was that? As she reaches for her phone,
again hoping it will work, Milcah feels her hand pass through something warm.
Glancing over, Milcah screams as she stares into the eyes of the creature, now
calmly sitting in her car. Hitting her brakes to avoid running into anything
and putting her car in park, Milcah turns in her seat to stare at it.
Milcah is able to make out more
features, a heavy brow covering deep-seated eyes, a semi-flat nose resting over
plump lips. Though not a classic beauty in any sense of the word, the thing
still doesn’t look like a monster. Curiosity over shadows fear and Milcah
reaches out and runs her hand through the creature again feeling the warmth and
a slight tingle. Reaching for her amulet in a nervous gesture, Milcah tries to
remember what she has read about ghosts and the proper thing to do. She doesn’t
have any holy water but it doesn’t look like the thing is trying to suck out
her soul or kill her.
“I think I have read way too many
supernatural novels and need to get my head checked.” Milcah looks out the
window, making sure she isn’t hanging upside down after crashing her car. A car
crash would go a long way to explaining what is happening. She turns her
attention back to what’s sitting in her passenger’s seat. It seems to be
studying her just as much as she is studying it.
It seems fascinated by the amulet
Milcah is playing with and reaches out as if to touch it. Moving the amulet out
of reach, Milcah tries to figure out what she is going to do. She is not a very
brave woman and has trouble stepping outside of her box but somehow, she feels
like she is supposed to be right here, at this moment. Looking at her amulet
again, Milcah longs to be able to ask her mother to explain what is
happening. Milcah glances at her phone
again, hoping to see it has reception. Growling to herself, she looks back at
the creature to see he is following the movement of her thumb as she rubs the
amulet.
“What would Mary do?” Milcah envies
Mary’s ability to believe in the supernatural outside of books. Milcah believes
in the goddess and to honor her, humans need to take care of the world they
have been given. She lights candles during the full moon and reads her own
tarot cards. She even went to see a few mystics with her mother. Yet nothing
has prepared her for what she is facing in this small deserted town. She always
believed people move on to the next cycle and supernatural beings like
vampires, werewolves, and gargoyles were fantasies made up by humans to explain
evils in the world.
Last year she had decided to see why
she was having nightmares and a psychologist told her she was suppressing
memories from childhood. He believed Milcah had been abused as a child and the
dreams were her mind’s way of dealing with the trauma. Milcah never told anyone
about the visit and never went back. Now she makes a mental note to call the
doctor when she returns home.
Help us. The sound of
a deep male voice overlaid with many others causes Milcah to jump. Shaking her
head, Milcah tries to ignore the voice echoing around her. Help us.
“I’m going insane,” Milcah grimaces.
“I need to get to the next town.”
As soon as the words leave Milcah’s
mouth, thunder rolls across the sky, quickly followed by a flash of lightening.
“Dang it. I cannot drive in a desert rainstorm. What if there’s a flash flood?
I have to think of something. I can’t stay here.” The GPS is useless but
Mary had been thoughtful and placed a paper map in the middle console. After
looking at the confusing lines on the map for a few minutes, Milcah gives up
and tosses it into the backseat. Crossing her arms, she sits back and tries to
think of another plan.
Help us. There it is
again. Glancing over at the creature in her passenger seat Milcah wonders if
he’s pushing his voice into her head. Before she can ask him the voice echoes
again. Help us. With that last plea, something unlocks in Milcah’s mind.
Something akin to a memory surfaces and Milcah loses focus, in the real world.
Purchase: Amazon
Coming Soon...
Synopsis:
Element –
Fire (Primal)
Royal House
– Purple
High above
New York, in a gilded cage, Marcus lives out his lonely life. Born in
captivity, he has been told he has one purpose in life, to produce powerful
female witch offspring.
Michael is
second in command to the general of the gargoyles army. He lives a fast and
dangerous life, always looking for the next adventure. When he is captured,
bound and tossed into a cage all thoughts of revenge go out the window when he
is faced with his mate.
Can Michael
convince Marcus that they are meant to be together or will he lose his mate
before he a chance to know him?
This is book
2 in The Witches Amulet series.
The Author:
Paulina
is a small town girl with big dreams. She is the second oldest of three
talented siblings.As early as three she was directing her family around acting out whatever current story was in her head. At four between her older brother and her, a whole universe was created which the younger siblings were introduced into as they were born.
Her natural ability to tell a story took her down many paths. She wrote plays, poems, small children books and short stories all before she went to high school.
When picking a career her councilor told her writing was a dying art and so she went to school for veterinarian science. Three years later she dropped out of university and went to a community college with journalism major.
In 2008 she graduated with her BA in Communication/Journalism from Cal State Fullerton.
Life got in the way but in 2013 she started a review blog and November 2014 her first book was published.
Find Paulina at:
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