A sneak peek at my novel, Telesa ... YA thriller/fantasy inspired by all the stories/legends of telesa. Its a love story set in modern day Samoa where different telesa can do assorted things like..summon volcanoes, burst into flame, stab you with a lightning strike or trigger an earthquake. Leila has come to Samoa from Washington DC in search of her mother. Daniel is Captain of the First XV at Samoa College ( and suspiciously S.B.W -ish.) JB said make sure theres lots of fight scenes with heaps of blowing things up. Sade asked for heaps of teenage girl angst and a believable relationship between the main characters. Have tried to satisfy both my literary mentors!
Prologue
“No…please….how to stop it? How can I stop it?” I burst into useless tears. Tears that fizzed and hissed in a heartbeat of heat. No amount of crying would help now. I wrung my hands…no, no, no way out of it. It was hopeless. In a few short moments I would be a mass murderer. A killer. In my minds eye, I could see it now. People on fire running in circles, frantically beating at the hungry flames. The smell of flesh scorching, peeling off ashy bone. Screams. Pleas for help. I sank to my knees, drained dry of strength. Unwilling to watch the carnage but unable to take my eyes away. I was drowning in a sea of fiery despair. Suffocating in a red night of terror.
A clear, calm voice spoke from beside me. “Call it back. You can do it. Call it back. Call it back NOW.”
I looked up, eyes glistening with molten tears. He stood as close to me as he dared, shielding his face from the heat with his hands, the edges of his clothes singed and charred.
“I can’t.” Abject despair in my voice. “I don’t know how.”
“Yes you can. You have the power. You know you do. You spoke to it before. It listens to you. Call it back now – before it’s too late. Please…”
It was the ‘please’ that did it. That snapped me out of the depths. He wanted me to call the fire. He believed that I could. And I wanted him to believe in me. Slowly, I raised myself from the ground, closed my eyes and willed that fiery beast to come home. To listen to me – it’s mistress. To return and feed instead on my molten core. I trembled at the very thought of the blaze finding its way back. How could I possibly summon it all when it had grown so exponentially as it fed? But this was my fault. I had to find the strength from somewhere. I opened my eyes and shuddered at the majesty of the sight before me.
Directly ahead of me was a massive wall of fire. It had stopped advancing across the field and now it stood waiting, the beast waited for my command. Now, it asked – what would you have me do? Opening my arms, every ounce of my being quivering with fear, I summoned it home.
I burned. Inside and out. I burned. There was indescribable pain and the knife edge of pleasure. It was ecstasy and hell all at once. Then as swiftly as it had begun, it stopped. I was empty. A dried husk scorched beyond belief. Withered and dead. I fell. The steaming darkness claimed me.