Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Release Date: January 26th 2016
Filled with magic, thrilling adventure, and sweet romance, Elementals is the first in a new series that fans of Percy Jackson and The Secret Circle will love!
When Nicole Cassidy moves from sunny Georgia to gloomy New England, the last thing she expects is to learn that her homeroom is a cover for a secret coven of witches. Even more surprisingly … she’s apparently a witch herself. Despite doubts about her newfound abilities, Nicole is welcomed into this ancient circle of witches and is bedazzled by their powers—and, to her dismay, by Blake—the school’s notorious bad-boy.
Girls who get close to Blake wind up hurt. His girlfriend Danielle will do anything to keep them away, even if she must resort to using dark magic. But the chemistry between Blake and Nicole is undeniable, and despite wanting to protect Nicole from Danielle’s wrath, he finds it impossible to keep his distance.
When the Olympian Comet shoots through the sky for the first time in three thousand years, Nicole, Blake, Danielle, and two others in their homeroom are gifted with mysterious powers. But the comet has another effect—it opens the portal to the prison world that has contained the Titans for centuries. After an ancient monster escapes and attacks Nicole and Blake, it’s up to them and the others to follow the clues from a cryptic prophecy so that they can save their town … and possibly the world.
“Run!” Blake
yelled, grabbing my arm and pulling me off the merry-go-round.
It spun under our weight, and I held onto
the metal bars, pushing off them to leap over the edge. The cedar chips on the
ground cushioned my landing. The car was behind us, which would mean running
towards the monstrous hound, so I bolted for the playground, hurrying up a
ladder of rubber tires that led to the closest platform. Blake followed close
behind. The second he was up he took the lighter out of his pocket and aimed a
blue fireball at the tires. They melted to the ground seconds before the hound
reached them.
It looked up at us and growled—a low,
menacing sound that if I spoke dog I would have assumed meant “I’m going to
have you for dinner”—and tried to jump onto the platform. It missed by only a
few inches.
Blake flicked on his lighter and threw a
fireball at its chest, but the hound jumped to the side to get out of the way.
It turned all four of its eyes up at us, one head letting out a deep roar as
the other snapped its teeth together, taking bites out of the air.
My hands shook, and I gripped one of the
log posts behind me for support. “Have you learned how to fight these things in
homeroom?” I asked Blake, my voice rising in panic.
He threw another fireball, and it missed
the hound again. “No,” he snapped, the flames lighting up his face. “Fighting
legendary creatures isn’t on the syllabus.”
“Maybe it should be,” I said as he
launched another ball of fire, hitting the hound on its front paw. Both of its
heads yelped in pain. The scorpion tail lowered between its legs, and it
growled again before turning away from us and running around the side of the
playground, woodchips flying behind it as it gained speed.
My heart pounded, and I looked around to
figure how to get off the platform. The exit was a slide that dropped off at
the monkey bars. I could get down and run to the car, but I didn’t know where
the hound was, and leaving the platform could give it the perfect opportunity
to pounce.
Then the hound growled again. I turned
around, spotting it clamoring up a ladder of logs that led to a nearby
platform. Only a wobbly bridge separated that platform from our own. My entire
body shook, and I moved closer to Blake, grabbing his arm for support.
The hound reached the top of the platform,
and its glowing eyes narrowed, ready to attack.
Not having anywhere else to go, I launched
myself down the slide and hurried to the monkey bars, climbing up the ladder
and hoisting myself on top of them. Gripping the sides, I crawled to the center
bar, but the ground spun beneath me, my lungs tightening as I looked down. I
had to take a few deep breaths to steady myself. A six-foot fall wasn’t deadly.
Now wasn’t the time to let my fear of heights get to me.
Blake scrambled behind me, and I turned
around to make sure he wasn’t hurt. Sweat dripped down the sides of his face
from the flames, but other than that he looked okay. He took his lighter out
again, holding it up in preparation to create another fireball.
I looked back at the hound in time to see
it run along the bridge and hurl itself towards us. It bared its teeth as it
flew through the air, its arms outstretched as it came closer to the monkey
bars. But it must not have had enough force behind the jump, because it fell to
the ground with a loud thump. It stood and shook the woodchips off its fur, a
low growl coming from somewhere deep in its throat as it turned its heads up to
look at us.
Before I could say anything to Blake about
how completely screwed we were, he threw two balls of fire towards the hound,
hitting both of its faces. It howled and collapsed, whimpering as it buried its
snouts in its paws. The smell of burnt skin filled the air. My stomach swirled
with nausea, and I lifted a hand to my nose to block out the smell.
Only a few seconds
passed before it stood up again. The fur on its faces had changed into a
charred grey. Its yellow eyes glowed brighter now, both snouts chomping madly
in the air, strings of saliva dripping to the ground as it waited to devour
whichever one of us lost our balance first.
Michelle Madow grew up in Baltimore, graduated Rollins College in Orlando, and now lives in Boca Raton, Florida. She wrote her first book in her junior year of college, and has been writing novels since. Some of her favorite things are: reading, pizza, traveling, shopping, time travel, Broadway musicals, and spending time with friends and family. Michelle has toured across America to promote her books and to encourage high school students to embrace reading and writing. Someday, she hopes to travel the world for a year on a cruise ship.
