A Southern Girl's Romantic Reads: A Magic Within

Title: A Magic Within

Author: Sara V. Zook

Published: June 18^th, 2014

Genre: YA Paranormal

Synopsis:

Normalcy. I need to get back to a state of normalcy. What’s happened to me? Why am I here in this orphanage, and why am I forbidden to leave? Everyone is so very cruel here. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. It’s the paranoia getting to me. It’s like someone’s always watching, always listening. There’s a general fear around here, and for some reason, it seems fueled by my arrival, but why are they afraid of me? I didn’t ask for this. I don’t even know how I got here. I need to go home. My parents must be worried sick. There has to be someone here who can help me, who can give me answers and lead me in the right direction so I can get out of here. There is this one boy, Lydic. Could he be my key to getting out? I can see it in his eyes he feels sorry for me. He seems to know more than he’s letting on. These people aren’t like anyone I’ve ever met before.

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Excerpt from A Magic Within:

“What is that sound?” I asked in a whisper. It was still far away but growing louder and closer by the minute.

Lydic put his arm behind his back and opened his hand for me to take it. I slid my fingers into his and waited for him to let me know what to do next. My heart was pounding out of my chest. Another second passed and then Lydic turned, his eyes locked on mine as he nodded his head. We took off to try to outrun whatever it was that was coming for us. We had only gotten two steps in before I felt Lydic’s grasp on my hand slip away. I turned around to see what was happening. I screamed out in horror as Lydic was frozen in place. He was still on his feet, but his head was drawn back and his eyes rolling into his head as if in extreme pain.

“Lydic!” I cried out.

The old woman was behind him. She had that stick, the same one I had tripped over, held up in the air and aimed at Lydic’s head. There were bright colors, green and yellow, pouring out from the end of the stick and going directly into his skull. The woman’s expression was one of determination. Her eyes were closed and her lips pressed together as she mumbled something I couldn’t understand.

What are you going to do? Panic seized me. Lydic was supposed to help me, not the other way around. I didn’t know what to do. I had to stop this, but how?

The high-pitched whistling grew louder and more intense. It was starting to hurt my ears. My gut told me that if I didn’t make a move now, it was going to be too late.

I took a step toward the stick and reached out and grabbed it with my hand. I used all the strength I had to yank it from the grasp of the old woman. Lydic fell to his knees. The woman glared at me, a low growl escaping from her throat. She lunged toward me. Without having time to think, I instinctively swung the large stick at her, using it as a bat and she was the ball. It collided with her head making a grotesque sound. She collapsed to the ground. Lydic looked up at me. I was breathing hard, trying to understand what had just happened.

“What do we do?” I asked. The whistling noise was almost to us, but I still couldn’t see anything.

Lydic glanced over his shoulder at the woman. “Run!”

About the Author:

Sara V. Zook is a paranormal/fantasy writer. She is the author of the Strange in Skin Trilogy, Clipped and Evanescent, Book 1 in The Sempiternal Series. She lives in Pennsylvania with her 3 small children and husband.