by S.D. Wasley
Release Date: November 6, 2015
Published by Evernight Teen
YA / Urban Fantasy
“I longed for normality. Even our own, off-the-wall brand of normality.”
She’s finally got things together. Mimi’s dating a hot guy and has a place in the school’s Gifted Program with her awesome friends. Yes, she still attracts the dead. But there’s only one ghost these days, and he doesn’t seem to have an awful lot to say.
Just when Mimi’s life is looking pretty good for the first time in years, the unthinkable happens ... one of the seven gifted teens is torn from their close-knit group. The unity of their circle shattered, things begin to go terribly wrong. It’s ruining their focus—and with the threat of the Astarion cult growing stronger each day, the gifted seven need all the focus they can muster.
“Yes, look! There’s Faith!” I exclaimed, seeing her at almost the same moment as Ed. She was standing on the bottom railing of a fence, looking anxiously back over her shoulder towards the village. She must have run across the roadside paddock to catch us before we left. I experienced a tug of grief when I saw her pale blonde hair and those light blue eyes, so much like Patience’s. As Ms. Deering slowed the bus, we all slid open the windows, hanging out to hear her.
Faith clutched the fence post, calling out in a timid voice, “Thank you for coming to visit Patience. She needs help from good people, and I know you’re good people!”
“Is she all right?” Mona asked.
Faith shook her head, her braids flying. “She’s been caught by the bad man himself. Father and the Pastor are trying to fix her but they can’t do it. Perhaps she needs something else. Some other sort of—help. She’s growing ill. And—” another fearful glance over her shoulder towards the village. “And she’s a danger. Knives and sharp things, and hammers, and all manner of things fly around whenever they try to get the demon out of her.”
Faith’s eyes were enormous as she spoke. “But she’s good. I know Patience is good at heart. She can’t help what the devil does to her, god help her.”
“Knives?” Ms. Deering repeated, her face blank with shock.
“I peeped through the chapel window,” Faith confessed. “Pastor was praying over Patience, his hand on her head like this—” she mimed the action, “—and my father was blessing Patience with his cross, and suddenly a big knife came flying across the room and hit the wall behind Pastor. Sunk deep in the wall, it was—quivering like an axe in an oak tree! Pastor went so white I thought he’d faint dead away. It was dreadful!” Faith spoke with what appeared to be thrilled admiration and I was pretty sure that, if Faith weren’t a Dale’s Run kid, the word ‘dreadful’ would have been ‘cool.’ “Father and Pastor take their guns to chapel now, when they go to try and cast Lucifer out of Patience.”
Drew swore quietly beside me, and my head swam as Faith’s last comment sank in.
“Faith, did some people come to check up on Patience last week?” Ms. Deering asked.
“People from the government, you mean? Yes. The man knew Pastor, and it seemed he was his great friend. Patience was allowed out of the chapel on that day, but she was weak from being awake too long, and not eating properly, so Mother kept her in bed. The lady spoke to Mother for a long while, all about our schooling, and what we eat, and asking how Father punishes us when we’re naughty. Then they went away again in their big car.” Ms. Deering’s shoulders sagged in disappointment.
“What does Patience have to do before the Pastor will let her out of the chapel?” Mona asked the child.
Faith looked surprised. “She doesn’t have to do anything. They have to get the bad man out of her. Then she can come home. Pastor says it might take months, but they won’t give up.”
We heard a whistle from the direction of the village and Faith jumped down from the fence rail without another word. She took off at a run and didn’t look back.
“Knives and hammers!” Mona’s eyes were round. “Do you think Patience is conjuring them to defend herself?”
Ms. Deering looked tired. “It’s possible.”
“She could kill someone,” Ed said.
“She’d never kill anyone,” Drew snapped.
“I didn’t mean she would do it intentionally,” Ed said in a low voice.
Drew had no reply to that. I tucked my hand into his as we took our seats again. Ms. Deering put the bus back into gear and we drove on in silence, our anxiety about Patience suspended like a huge, swinging weight above our heads.
Evernight Teen: http://www.evernightteen.com/the-rift-by-s-d-wasley
Amazon US: http://amazon.com/dp/B015UPOIHU
Amazon UK: http://amazon.co.uk/dp/B015UPOIHU
S.D. Wasley was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. She has been composing literary works since before she could write – at five years of age she announced her first poem in the kitchen, improv-style. About 20 years later she earned a PhD in communications. She writes in a range of genres including young adult, paranormal, mystery, new adult romance, and literary short stories.
Her debut novel was published in early 2015 through Evernight Teen, and her first adult paranormal romance will be released on January 7, 2016. Today, she lives and writes in a wine region with her partner and two daughters, surrounded by dogs, cats and chickens.
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