THE CERULEANS
5 Book Series
YA Paranormal
by Charlotte Wilson
DEATH WISH (Book One)
Seventeen-year-old Scarlett Blake is haunted by death. Her sister has made the ultimate dramatic exit: run away from school, join a surfing fraternity, drown in a tragic ‘accident’. Following in her sister’s footsteps, Scarlett comes to an isolated English cove to uncover the truth. And, as it turns out, to fall in love with the place and its people, especially a certain blue-eyed surfer with a serious case of the heroics.
But as Scarlett’s quest for the truth unravels, so too does her grip on reality as she’s always known it. Because there’s something strange going on in this little cove. A dead magpie circles the skies. A dead deer watches from the undergrowth. Hands glow with light. Power.
What transpires is a summer of discovery: of what it means to conquer fear, to fall in love, to choose life, to choose death.
To believe the impossible.
The Ceruleans: soulful, coming-of-age romance with a paranormal edge. Five books, one question – if the might of the heavens were in your hands, would you be sinner or saint?
Anniversary
The cake was homemade. Lopsided. Slathered
in gloopy frosting. Judging by Adam’s previous attempts in the kitchen, it was
safe to assume it would be inedible.
Estelle loved it.
‘You baked? For me?’
She reached over and pulled Adam into a
hug, awkward with the massive baby bump wedged between them.
‘Happy anniversary!’ he said.
Estelle pulled back, frowning. ‘That’s
tomorrow.’
A year since she had Become a Cerulean. A year
since she had died.
‘I know,’ said Adam. ‘But I have a surprise
for you. A… gift. And I wasn’t sure how you’d take it, so I thought: give it to
you today, and if you… well, if it’s not what you want, then it hasn’t spoiled
tomorrow.’ He smiled at her – nervously.
‘O-kay,’ said Estelle. She couldn’t fathom
what gift she could potentially dislike that
much. Unless he’d bought her something girlie. She didn’t do girlie.
‘Good,’ said Adam. He grabbed her hands.
‘Ready?’
She’d barely begun to nod when it happened…
the picnic blanket, the beach, the ocean, all gone, replaced, in the
bewildering blink of an eye, by a grimy urban alleyway.
What came next was not pretty. Estelle
hadn’t been that sick since her first trimester.
‘Are you insane?’ she hissed eventually,
when she was done and could get a word in edgeways between Adam’s apologies and
panicked are-you-okay-is-the-baby-okays. ‘You Travelled us to…’ She looked
about and recognition made her jaw drop. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Truro?’
White-faced, Adam nodded. He didn’t say
anything; he just pointed at a shopfront visible at the top of the alley. The
sign was so weathered it was unreadable. That didn’t matter; Estelle knew
exactly what it said: Tattoo Tony’s.
Furious, she rounded on Adam. ‘You’d better
start explaining right now.’
‘The nightmares you’ve been having about…
him. I couldn’t do nothing. It’s not right, Estelle, that he’s living his life
here. Unpunished. So…’ He held out his hands. Ethereal blue light lit the
alley.
‘Quit it!’ Estelle slapped his hands, hard.
‘Adam…’ She stared at the one person she loved, who’d given her a home and a
purpose – to whom she’d confided her deepest, most painful secret: that when
she was nine, the year before her mother ODed, a man named Tattoo Tony had
abused her.
Adam stared right back at her, and there
was a spark in his eyes she’d never seen before. ‘What’s the point of having
power over life and death,’ he said, ‘if you can’t use it to take out a bad
guy? One touch, Estelle. That’s all it would take.’
No! she should have yelled. No,
Adam, that’s sacrilegious, against everything the Ceruleans stand for. But
the words wouldn’t come.
She looked up the alley again, at the shop.
She lay a hand on her swollen belly. Then she reached out and took Adam’s hand,
and they walked toward the street.
They would have looked an odd couple – he
the picture boy for geek chic, her Gothed out from head to foot – had they been
visible. They weren’t, though, thanks to Adam’s power. They could walk right
across that street, into the tattoo parlour and kill a man, and no one would
ever know it was them.
At the door to the shop, which was propped
open, Estelle pulled Adam to a stop. She could see an old man inside. He was
gaunt and stooped, and his breath was coming in wheezy pants.
‘Do you feel it?’ she murmured to Adam.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Lung cancer, I think.’
‘How long does he have?’
‘Months, if that.’
Estelle thought carefully before asking the
next question: ‘Do you feel the pull? Are you meant to heal him?’
She saw Adam shake his head. No. This man
was destined to die. Slowly. Painfully.
Suddenly, she realised that she could see
Adam; he was no longer shielding them from view. That’s how well he knew her.
There would be no wicked deed here today, no Falling from grace. Only justice
of the karmic kind.
‘God I love you,’ she said, and she pressed
her lips to his.
‘Er… can I help you?’ Tony had come to the
door and was frowning at the couple kissing on his doorstep.
Estelle and Adam broke off, but they didn’t
even look at the man beside them.
‘Take me home,’ Estelle told Adam… and he
did.
They stayed on the beach for the rest of
the day, lying in the sun, paddling in the surf. When the sun set there wasn’t
a crumb left of that cake. It was dry. It was salty. It was crunchy with egg
shell. But it was the most delicious thing either of them had ever eaten.
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And here she is. . .
Thirty-odd years later, Charlotte is a professional writer. For authors and publishers, she writes and edits books as The Book Specialist. For herself, she writes soulful, coming-of-age romance for young adults.
Charlotte grew up in the Royal County, a hop, skip and a (very long) jump from Windsor Castle, but these days she makes her home in a village of Greater Manchester with her husband and two children. When she’s not reading or writing, you’ll find her walking someplace green, baking up a storm, or embarking on a DIY project. She recently achieved a lifetime ambition of creating a library in her home to house her ever-increasing collection of books. She pretends not to notice that the shelves are rather wonky.
You can find Charlotte online at:
GIVEAWAY!!!
