Rise of The Witch – The First Chapter

Looking for the first chapter of my upcoming series?

You have come to the right place! This series is the first series in the Circus of Shifters universe and follows a Phoenix shifter through the past she never knew she had.

I know, vague. But trust me, this is a ride you do not want spoiled!

Today is the cover reveal for the full series, and you can find those beautiful below if you haven’t already seen them.

But for now, enjoy chapter one!

Head over to Amazon to preorder your copy!

Chapter One – Elliot

 

It was hot.

We are talking planet plunging into the sun, surface of hell, grandma has back sweat, hot.

I know that is gross, but sweat was pooling on my upper lip and converging on the underwire in my bra in such a way that I was sure if it didn’t stop it would consume me and I would drown in it.

Yes, I knew that wouldn’t actually happen, but I was also fairly certain that people were not meant to live in this heat. I wasn’t sure how anyone, including me, was meant to survive.

Which was saying something considering I burst into actual flames once a year.

“How you holding up?”

I looked up from the dusty trail I had been trudging along for the past few minutes to the owner of the smoky voice. Mr. Green Eyes, real name Brayden, had been something of a hovering puppy since the moment our tour guide had gathered the group at the trailhead.

Angel’s Landing, Zions National Park.

It sounded calming. Everyone I had talked to said it was terrifying.

I was looking forward to both, but right now I just wanted to feel like I wasn’t burning up on the surface of the sun.

“Great,” I said, forcing a smile that he instantly returned.

His wide grin sparkled in the sun, the light hitting against his teeth so perfectly that it almost seemed ridiculous. Especially when you added in the fact that he also had the perfectly shaggy blonde hair, and oversized muscles that most girls swooned over.

Hell, I was swooning over them, just a little bit. I probably would have been a little more interested in the advances he kept throwing my way if he wasn’t quite so ‘let me carry your fragile human body up this mountain using my big strong man-muscles.’

If there was one thing that was a turn-off for me, it was overly protective males. Yes, my five-foot-four frame may seem fragile and weak, but if I had to venture a guess I would say I could easily bench more weight than he could.

And that wasn’t even counting the <other> stuff.

“Okay,” he continued, his smile continuing to spread. “Let me know if you need any help with your pack or anything. I have been on this hike before, and I know the drop off ahead scares some people.”

I blinked, carefully rearranging my shock into a smile as I looked at my “pack”. It was a battered backpack I had found at a thrift shop earlier that day. It’s sole purpose was to keep me hydrated, and due to my apparent death-by-sun status was almost empty. I think the thing weighed negative two pounds.

“Thanks,” I cooed, trying not to sound too condescending as I fished out a granola bar. “I think I’ll be okay. As long as I get a good picture at the top. I want to look like I am flying,” or falling to my death, I added internally.

“I can help with that.”

I could only smile.

Just as he spoke, the trees and rocks that had surrounded our path broke open, the trail continuing forward into what appeared to be nothing. Just a chain suspended over a narrow strip of rock that extended around a massive valley and sheer cliff face.

Angel’s landing. It was beautiful. Even I couldn’t help but be impressed.

“Perfect,” I said under my breath, the single gasp swallowed by the wind.

“From this point on,” our tour guide announced as he turned around to face the five of us, “you are welcome to explore. We just ask that you remain near the chains that mark the trails. It can be deadly to exit the trails and unless you can fly it is not recommended.”

Everyone else laughed with differing levels of discomfort, and Mr. Green Eyes turned to face me again, checking in.

Eyes forward, bud. I’m fine.

I shot him a smile, which seemed to suffice.

“Please enjoy yourself,” the guide continued. “We will meet back here in approximately one hour to continue to our next destination.”

Everyone nodded and broke off, one half of the married couple in front of me crumbling to tears at the terror of the sheer drop that was just steps from us. A guy about my age was already breaking off to explore, the fearless tourist not even bothering to grab the safety chain. I could tell by his high end pack and camera he was no stranger to adventure. Part of me wished I could have paired up with him; he had probably seen as much of the world as I had.

But nope, Brayden was already turning toward me, concern clearly chiseled on his handsome face.

“You doing okay?”

Hover much?

“Yep,” I said brightly, muscling past him with the full expectation that he would follow me. He did.

Right then, however, I didn’t much care. Lost dog or not, he didn’t detract from the beauty of this place.

The sheer cliff of stone was glistening red in the pending sunset, the jagged line of rock that shot up from the ground, reaching toward heaven like the wing of an angel.

The name suddenly made sense. But it felt like home more than any other place I had pulled this stunt.

I could already feel the song swell from deep inside my soul, the beauty calling to me, begging me to surround myself in it. To unfurl my wings and feel the heat of the breeze against face and feet.

The more the need to fly pulled, the faster my feet moved, my fingers only lightly touching the chain as I pulled myself toward the sandy stone ledge just ahead. The jagged trail rose higher, pulling me closer to the clouds as a breeze circled over me. Warm wind tickled over my skin, igniting my soul’s song until it was echoing through my mind.

“Soon,” I whispered as I reached the top most point, the trail opening to a large flat overlook that was littered with hikers and tourists who had also made the journey. The majority of them were clustered near the center of the rock, as far away from the edge as they could get. No one paid me any mind as I walked past them, right to the chain that was meant to protect the fragile humans. Inhaling the hot evergreen air, I looked out at the canyon, at the specks of green trees far below, the ribbon of a blue river winding through them.

It was beautiful. But it was the clouds that were calling to me. It was the clouds that I wanted.

I lifted my face to the sun, breathing in the smell of dirt and damp that carried on the wind as the long strands of flaming red hair that had come loose from my braid slithered over my face.

“Soon,” I said again, just as hesitant steps came up behind me. Brayden’s ragged breathing was so loud that I was sure everyone within a five foot circle could hear him coming.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” He asked, his voice so strained that for a moment I almost felt bad for him. “Have you ever seen anything like it?”

I wanted to tell him yes, tell him I had stood at the top of Mount Fuji, The Eiffel Tower and so many other places. I wanted to brag that I had felt the wind of the Andes, smelled the eucalyptus in Vietnam. Instead I just nodded my head in agreement and shook my way out of the very empty water-pack and dropped it to the ground, sending a small plume of dust to tickle my ankles.

“Take my picture?” I asked as I turned to him, pulling the broken digital camera out of the front pocket of my cut-offs.

Brayden stood, heaving, his muscles constricting as he pulled his arms around himself, as if making himself smaller would somehow keep him atop the cliff. “How are you not scared?”

I shrugged, “Heights have never bothered me. Perks of being a corporate accountant, I guess.”

He didn’t seem convinced, which was fine. I had never been a great liar. But, my stellar fibbing skills was not why I was here. I waved the camera at him a bit more.

“Or maybe I just think I can fly.”

With a curious twitch of his eyebrow he finally took the tiny beaten box I had found abandoned at a gas station on the way here. The chip in the corner was so large that I was surprised he didn’t say anything.

“You don’t need to be right against the barrier to get a good shot, you know.” His voice was shaking so deep with nerves that I was a bit shocked he could form a sentence.

“Oh, I know.” I twisted my face up as I watched him, suddenly feeling bad for the poor guy. As much as he talked, he really couldn’t handle the heights.

Ugh. This was going to mess him up.

I took one glance around but the fearless tourist had vanished, I was stuck with Mr. Scaredy-Pants. Now was not the time to second guess myself, I quickly kicked off the beaten sneakers, thankful to finally get out of them. They were a size too small, but all the thrift store had.

“There is just something exhilarating about being right there, about facing death. Looking it right in the eye.”

I said it darkly, and for a brief moment I could tell that he may have been concerned for my sanity. Then I took off my shirt and his look faded to shock.

“What are you doing?” He said, his eyes unabashedly staring at the bright red lace of my bra. The color perfectly matched my hair, and I kind of loved it. But I also knew it would look glorious on the way down.

“Taking a picture,” I said, stripping off my cut-off shorts to reveal equally as lacey, equally as red panties.

“Umm… uh….” He obviously didn’t know what to say, either that or his brain had shut off.

Fit, muscular girl in red lace underwear had a habit of doing that. No matter where in the world you were.

He wasn’t the only one either. Men and women, they had all begun to turn toward me, the looks on their faces registering from embarrassment to confusion to a weird lust that always made my inner soul prickle.

“You’re going to take the picture, right?” I snapped, quickly unwinding my braid and letting the long lengths of hair get pulled and tugged in the breeze that was already starting to fill with the high operatic tones of my song, although I wasn’t sure any of them could hear it.

“I… uh…” He couldn’t seem to pull himself together, which was awesome because I was quickly running out of time.

More and more people were starting to take notice of me standing there in my underwear, and the tour guide was making his way over.

Great.

It’s not like I was going to keep the picture anyway, even if there was one.

I shrugged my shoulders, gave Brayden one last look, and a chance to pick his jaw up off the floor, before vaulting over the chain and right to the edge of the cliff face.

The shock of everyone on the landing quickly turned to panic. Screams echoed around me as I bent down, setting my palms flat against the edge of the cliff face.

“Miss!” The tour guide’s voice echoed over the screams as I quickly found my balance, my muscles rippling as I lifted my feet from the stone. Balancing on my hands, I pointed my toes and bent myself into a near perfect arch, butt against my head.

The shock faded, as I swayed in the air, my body flowing elegantly in the wind as my bright hair rippled around my face.

Keeping my right hand firm against the ridge of stone, I lifted my left hand spreading it away from me like the wings that were inside of me, letting the wind tickle my fingers. Calling to me.

Sitting there motionlessly, my song lifted above the sound of the wind, and a hush fell over the screams for one single breath as everyone listened, as everyone felt the calm of my magic.

And then I sprang into the air.

I pushed my hands against the stone, vaulting myself into the air in an arch and a twist, moving and spinning like a diver from a board. Except there was no water, only air. Only the plunging abyss that my inner animal begged for.

The screams of panic from the people were swallowed by the wind as it ran over me, rippled through me. As I gave my soul what it wanted.

I danced through the air, spreading my arms from me as the ground grew closer… closer…

Warm air prickled against the gooseflesh of my skin as my body began to heat, as my inner fire threatened to break free.

“Not yet,” I whispered, pressing against the heat as I attempted to keep her restrained. “Not yet.”

I said it again, wanting to feel the air, feel the fall for just one more moment, just one gasp.

“Now.”

I couldn’t hold it in anymore. With the snap of flame over my skin everything rippled and burned. And I changed.

Fire erupted around me moments before I hit the ground, my arms spreading wide as wings took their place and I arched up into the air, leaving a streak of flame behind me as the bird inside took my place.

My bright, beautiful song echoed through the canyon, the release of my soul playing in a masterpiece of sound.

I wasn’t sure if anyone would hear, I wasn’t sure if anyone would care.

I just soared away under the trees, my powerful Phoenix refracting the light of the sun as the shifter I kept hidden inside of myself soar.

Letting myself be free.

Head over to Amazon to preorder your copy!

This series is going to be amazing, and I am very excited to share it with you!