Author: Adrienne Woods
Series: The Dragonian Series (#3)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Fire Quill Publishing
Release Date: Mar 9 2015
Editions/Formats: eBook & Print
Blurb/Synopsis:
Losing Lucian McKenzie, the Prince of her heart and discovering her true identity has made Elena Watkins' life almost unbearable. However, new trials will test the 17 year-old's strength and push her to limits she didn’t think were possible.
Only a mysterious offer from Blake Leaf, the Rubicon and a dragon predestined for evil, reveals there may be a light at the end of Elena’s dark tunnel.
With the life she thought she knew crashing down around her, Elena will have to face a monumental decision about the fate of Paegeia. She can either make peace with Blake’s demands or try once again to unravel the Queen’s secrets that lie deep within her dragon, Tanya La Frey’s, heart.
The third heart pounding novel in The Dragonian Series by Adrienne Wood
Excerpt
MY EYES WERE closed and I could hear a deep, raspy breathing
filling the silence around me.
My body ached and the intensity of the sounds assaulting my
sensitive ears told me that I was still in my dragon form.
What the hell had happened and where I was, I didn’t know.
My memory was all a blur after Amy pushed me against the
wall and I began speaking to her in that horrible voice, releasing that first
bolt of purple lightning. I tried to recollect my thoughts and it slowly came
back to me in flashes: I’d changed.
The picture that formed inside my mind wasn’t the
Thunderlight that had been reflected back to me from the glass that lay on the
floor; it was the face of another dragon, dark and dangerous.
I turned to see the colored scales on my paw and found a
deep purple-red reflecting back. The Rubicon.
No, this can’t be. I tried to move but was trapped. I
couldn’t turn or break free from whatever held me to the ground and that
stirred more panic within me.
I froze as I heard a voice. The beast inside of me wanted to
take over again, and whatever it wanted to do, it wasn’t good. I’d known that
from the beginning and nobody had wanted to believe me.
I could hear three hearts beating, and even more voices
spoke softly to one another.
“What the fuck?”
“Watch your language, Blake,” a man said sternly.
“Just be careful. Sir Edward says that she is a Rubicon,” a
woman said, frantically.
“Oh, come on. Only one Rubicon can live at a time,
Constance.”
“I’m just repeating what Sir Edward said.”
I growled as they came nearer.
“She’s here,” the one who’d sworn yelled close to my side
and I growled all the more.
“Is she okay?” the woman asked. I knew I shouldn’t be afraid
of them, but I was. It was such a strange feeling. This happened every time I
became her. I wouldn’t remember anything and I didn’t know if they were friends
or enemies. I knew that in another five minutes, give or take, everything would
come back. But I didn’t have five minutes, they were here now.
My heart was pounding a thousand beats a minute and I
couldn’t calm it down. My belly warmed up and I could feel the lightning
burning inside my throat once again. I tried my best to contain it as my dragon
eyes took in the tall trees surrounding me.
One blast of lightning would set this entire forest aflame
and I would surely die, choking in the suffocating smoke of my own rage and
fear.
“She’s still in her dragon form.” The voice was right behind
me again. “Elena.” He spoke gently.
I couldn’t turn around. My body was in a lot of pain and the
lightning coiled inside my stomach like a viper begging for a reason to strike.
Stop this, I yelled inside my mind but it just kept boiling.
Trying to control it made it worse and the pain was so
intense that it felt as if I was going to explode.
The guy laughed near me but it wasn’t him anymore, it was
Paul. For some reason I always remembered Paul. He came into sight. “Look at
you, a dragon, and not just any dragon, another Rubicon. Goran is going to be
pleased, Elena.”
Another Rubicon? How can this be?
The heat in my body rose a couple of degrees and I released
my purple lightning. The only problem was, it wasn’t purple, it was a vibrant
pink fire.
Paul blocked it with an invisible force and the flames
backfired onto my scales. It felt warm, familiar. He came closer and grabbed me
by the whiskers that had suddenly sprung out of my chin.
Whiskers I’d never had. Then he laughed again. I released
another breath but he froze my fire. The features on his face slowly began to
morph into the face I had seen before it had turned into Paul.
Blake? Everything came back in a split-second wave crashing
down over me.
“I’m sorry,” I yelled and the green of the trees became
brighter. I could feel my skin soaking up an invisible cloak.
“Are you calm?” Blake yelled.
I nodded my ugly head, but the whiskers he had a firm grip
on hurt my chin. “I’m scared,” my deep voice whispered back.
Constance and Master Longwei came into view, and my fear
evaporated as I recognized them.
“Why can’t I control her?” Oh no. I dug my head into my paws
as Sammy’s figure jumped into my mind. I’d blown fire at her when she’d tried
to follow me. I’d almost killed my best friend.
A whimpering sound left my body, reminding me of the calls
made between whales; a sound that always brought me to tears.
“Are you sure you are calm?” Blake asked again.
“She’s calm, Blake. We need to get her out of this,”
Constance said, and for the next couple of minutes they spoke all sorts of
incantations and I began to feel the grip the roots and vines had on me
starting to weaken.
When I was finally free, Blake’s spoke again. “Can you
move?”
I didn’t answer. They should just leave me here. I couldn’t
face Sammy or what I’d done to the cafeteria.
“Look at me,” he demanded.
I didn’t do what he asked.
“Elena, look at me,” he yelled this time.
“No!”
I could hear his steps coming closer.
He grabbed my whiskers again, and turned my head by force to
look at him. It didn’t even hurt this time. He stared at me for a short while.
Then something I’d never seen in his eyes before emerged. It was as if he’d
finally found the answers to all his problems.
His mouth curved slightly upwards. He really was so
beautiful. The slight curve of his lips transformed into his million-dollar
smile. One I’d only seen that first day my eyes had fallen on him, the same one
that resembled my father’s and the one that would make every girl turn to goop
on the spot.
Blake helped me like the last time I’d had to transform back
into my human form. It still wasn’t easy as the shift was just as painful as
the changing into a dragon part. It became a bit easier, though, to clear my mind
when he was near.
Constance covered my naked body with a robe the minute my
human figure re-surfaced and all the scales and talons were gone. When I lifted
my head slowly, I found Blake still sitting on his haunches in front of me.
“Thanks,” I mumbled and clutched the robe tighter around my
body.
“You’re welcome,” he chuckled again, ending it with a huff.
He looked down at the floor for a short second and the expression of what I’d
seen earlier in his eyes became evident on his face. He stood up and walked
toward Master Longwei.
Adrienne Woods was born and raised in South Africa, where she still lives with her husband and two beautiful little girls. She always knew she was going to be a writer, but it only started to really happen about four years ago. In her free time―if she gets any because moms don’t really have free time―she loves to spend it with friends, whether it’s a girl’s night out, or just watching a movie. She’s a very chilled person. Her writing career started with Firebolt, book one in the Dragonian series. There will be four books in total, including a further two to three books, which will be stories that take place within the Dragonian series. Her other series, Dream Casters, will be released mid-2015. She also writes in different genres, and her woman’s fiction, The Pregnancy Diaries, will be published under a pseudonym. And then, she has a paranormal series by the name of the Aswang series, which will consist of about ten novels. And if that wasn’t enough, there is another series, Guardians of Monsters, which will be released in 2016.
Places to find Adrienne
Places to find Frostbite
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