Fairy, Texas
By Margo Bond Collins
Release date: 2014
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Fairy, Texas. A small town like
any other.
Laney Harris didn't want to live
there. When her mother remarried and moved them to a town where a date meant
hanging out at the Sonic, Laney figured that "boring" would have a
whole new meaning. A new stepsister who despised her and a high school where
she was the only topic of gossip were bad enough. But when she met the school
counselor (and his terminal bad breath), she grew suspicious. Especially since
he had wings that only she could see. And then there were Josh and Mason, two
gorgeous glimmering-eyed classmates whose interest in her might not be for the
reasons she hoped. Not to mention that dead guy she nearly tripped over in gym
class.
She was right. Boring takes on an
entirely new dimension in Fairy, Texas.
“Okay, girls,”
Coach Spencer yelled above the chatter around me. “We’re going to get warmed up
for this year with a little run around the outer track.” She gestured toward a
field off to the right of the building. I could see a dirt track wending its
way along the edge, disappearing into a copse of stubby trees and scrub brush
at the far end. “Four laps,” Spencer added. A general groan went up, and I was
glad that the discussion at lunch had distracted me from eating too much. Late
August in Texas is hot.
“Well?” the coach
said. “Get going!”
We started off at
a trot toward the field, many of the girls around me still complaining. For a
moment, I considered hanging back with the crowd, but Andrew had told me that
Spencer coached the girls’ track team. I wanted to impress her. So I stretched
my legs out as I hit the track and settled in to a long stride, my breathing
still easy.
The afternoon sun
beat down on my head. I watched the small grove grow closer, anxious for some
shade. By the time I hit the bend in the track that led into the thicket, I was
yards ahead of the rest of the runners—so when I rounded the curve and tripped
over the body, I was all alone.
It didn’t take
long for everyone else to catch up, but it seemed like an eternity as I
scrambled back, crab-like. It took a moment for my brain to translate the
messages my eyes were sending it—the images coalesced slowly, like one of those
magic pictures with the 3D images inside.
He had been
stretched out spread-eagle across the trail, head and feet half-concealed in
the brush on either side. Blood pooled around him, sticky and half-dried at the
edges. His shirt had been ripped open and a slash opened him from his throat to
his stomach.
As the other
girls rounded the bend, I realized that the high, keening noise in the
background was the sound of my own screaming. As soon as I realized it, I stopped,
but several of my classmates picked up where I left off.
My hands and
knees were coated with blood where I had landed; my skin was tacky with it. I
crawled over to the nearest bush and vomited.
Coach Spencer
shoved her way through the girls and stuttered to a stop, her hand to her
mouth. “Oh, God,” she said. “It’s Cody Murphy.”
Margo Bond Collins is the
author of Legally Undead, first in an urban fantasy series coming in 2014 from
World Weaver Press, Waking Up Dead,
first in a paranormal mystery series from Solstice Publishing, and
Fairy, Texas, a YA paranormal romance series (also from Solstice). She lives in
Texas with her husband, their daughter, several spoiled cats, and a ridiculous
turtle. She teaches college English online. She loves paranormal fiction of any
genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts,
zombies, werewolves, and other monsters.
Oooh.... I like the sound of this book! Seems to me she's moved to a Fairy land in Texas! Bit that excerpt really grabbed my attention... That can't be a good thing! lol
ReplyDeleteNaomi @ Nomi’s Paranormal Palace
I liked it too, I know right?! It stands out for me as well :)
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