Broken Skies

Jastren just wants my link to work. Jace is only worried about saying ‘I told you so.’ Flint is too wrapped up in my brother to really care one way or the other. Not one of them has even bothered to ask me how I’m feeling, how I’m handling everything and, even though I don’t really want to talk about it, not a single one of them has asked about Lir. But wanting to and needing to are very different things. I’ve kept it all locked carefully inside, a concrete rock holding back my pain, my guilt and my loss. The simple splash of kindness and concern in Peter’s eyes smashes that rock.

My eyes burn and a tear makes its way down my cheek. A sob catches in my throat, almost choking me, before escaping from my mouth in a low wail.

Peter’s shoulder is a soggy mess and my eyes are red and puffy before I finally get done telling him everything. And I mean everything, even what I did to Rym. When I finally pull back and wipe my eyes with the edge of my shirt, he smiles softy and places his hands on my shoulders.

“You don’t need to feel guilty for mourning your loss. Even though you believe Lir betrayed you, that does not negate your own feelings for him. Don’t think that having those feelings makes you any less.” He gives my shoulders a light squeeze. “And as for what happened to the other young man, do not hold onto guilt for that either. From the way you’ve described it, you may have given into the darkness at first, but you pushed it away. The first step to making peace with it is forgiving yourself.” He clears his throat and lowers his voice. “And what happened to you before, with the men at your cabin. That was not your fault. Do not let it break you.”

“Thank you,” I whisper.

Peter pulls me into a tight hug. I don’t flinch. I don’t count my breaths. And my pulse stays steady. It wasn’t just Lir’s influence then. I really am learning to overcome my fear on my own.

After a quick goodbye, I stay by the tree while Peter disappears back toward the cabin.

Eyes to the sky, I rub my mother’s pendant between my fingers and watch the storm clouds roll in. A low screech to my right pulls my attention to the underbrush. It’s a Harris hawk and one of his feet is tangled in the vines. By the whitish streaking on his chest and on the underside of his wings, I can tell he’s a young one, likely less than a year old.

Drawing closer, I whisper to him. “Hey pretty bird. Let me help you.”

He does that jerky, rotating head tilt characteristic of birds and studies me as I approach. Surprisingly he doesn’t react when I reach my hand out toward his foot and slowly disentangle him. I lean back until I’m squatting almost right next to him. He still doesn’t move.

“Well, go on then. You’re free.”

He just stands there, moving his head from side to side, never taking his deep brown eyes from my face. He hops forward and angles his wings out a bit, enough for me to see that one of them is damaged. Poor thing probably banged it against the ground or something trying to get free of the vines.

I eye the clouds above. I can’t just leave him here. If he can’t fly, he won’t be able to seek shelter from the storm. Removing my jacket, I wrap it around my arm and hold it out to him. I let out a shrill two beat whistle and he hops onto my extended arm. It’s strange that he’d take to me so easily, but maybe he belongs to someone and he’s just lost. He’s had to have had training of some sort.

I rise carefully until I’m standing with my arm bent out in front of me. The hawk shifts from foot to foot, but continues to stare at me. I reach out with my other hand and stroke the top of his head with one finger. He doesn’t pull away.

I smile and run my finger over his feathers again. Looks like I’ve made a new friend.

And with what’s coming, the interspecies war that’s brewing, the promises I have to keep, the secrets that I have to hide…and a fractured heart that has to mend… I’ll need all the friends I can get.

Want More?

Jax’s story will be continued in Fractured Suns, expected to be released September 19, 2014.

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About the Author

The only person she knows who had a subscription to Writer’s Digest at eleven and was always excited to write research papers, Theresa has been putting words to paper since a young age. She writes predominantly in the sci-fi and urban fantasy genres. Residing in central Virginia, she juggles two kids, a husband and a full-time job in addition to her writing and in her free time she reads almost anything she can get her hands on.

Okay, enough talking about myself in the third person… I love interacting with readers, so if you want to shoot me a line, you can co

www.theresakay.com

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I think this is the toughest part of the book to write. There are so many people that have helped me and inspired me along the way and I don’t want to leave a single one of them out.

Writing has been a lifelong dream of mine, so this book is the culmination of a lot of hard work and determination. I couldn’t have done it without the early support of my family. From buying me the massive number of books I read when I was a kid to reading my young (and admittedly poor) attempts at crafting novels, my parents and the rest of my extended family have always encouraged me to follow this dream.

So I had the desire, but not the confidence or the motivation, and for many years I wrote nothing. Not. One. Single. Word. And then two seemingly random things happened that sparked my creativity again. One was that I discovered NaNoWriMo, the fifty thousand words in thirty days challenge. It doesn’t matter if those words are utter nonsense, just that they get written. The second thing was a question my pastor posed in one of his sermons: “What have you done with your God given creative talent today?” My answer at the time was ‘nothing’ and I didn’t like that, so I picked up my laptop and started typing. That was almost two years ago.

With the growing number of indie authors, I had plenty of inspiration and I’d especially like to thank those that took time out of their busy schedules to answer questions, cheer me on, or sometimes just chat: Elle Casey, Rachel Higginson, and Jason Brant.

I haven’t been alone in this journey to publication either. I had not only the NovelTEA ladies behind me, but the Rebel Writers as well, so special thanks to Elizabeth, A

This story also wouldn’t be what it is without my wonderful beta readers, Susa

Thanks also goes out to all the Reckless Rebels that took the time to read and review for me as well as all the bloggers involved in the blog tour to come.

I’m all for the Oxford comma, but often forget to type it, so thanks to my editor, Margaret Rainforth, for making sure it gets in there and for fixing all my other little mistakes.

And since I can make pictures with words, but otherwise have no visual creativity, thank you to Nicole Spence of Cover Shot Creations for taking my random ideas and my blurb and making me the perfect cover.

Last, but not least, thank you again to my family and also to my friends. And even though he’ll probably never read this (I love you anyway honey!), thank you to my husband, Chris, for letting me lock myself away with my laptop and my music and keeping the kids from burning the house down while I was doing it.