April 4&5 FOR FANS OF "A DEADLY EDUCATION" AND "THE RAVEN CYCLE"
MAGIC IN GLASS [Background Information on Bonds of Chrome Magic]
Sam is a peculiar young man plagued by death, whose specter took his parents and sister, Sally, who has long been suspected of witchcraft. But are the deaths mere coincidences? Is the one-eyed crow perched on his gate mere happenstance? Perhaps not, for the weirdness continues around Sam and his circle of friends, getting deeper and darker every time.
Tony, who believes in science and logic, struggles to explain the absurdities happening around him: From floating gemstones channeling magic to an Oak acting as a portal to other realms. Could magic be real?
Parris cannot explain her strong attraction to Sam. She knows his boyfriend, Tony, realizes, but what can she do? It seems fate keeps bringing them together, igniting a spark she knows will one day erupt in tears...and perhaps...Blood.
Gemini, introverted and intuitive, is convinced magic runs through her veins and that of her friends. Her artful dreams are never wrong, and in them she sees her friends tangled in a web of magic, prophecy, and...Death.
Kane prides himself as the comedian of the group, but even he struggles to find humor in the terrifying events unfolding around them. A witch is hunting them, and he's now starting to realize why. He knows she has killed before and will not hesitate to do it again.
Obiscules are glass orbs that channel magic through the user's chakra centers. Deeply magical, an Obiscule chooses the bearer by fate, much in the same way a wand chooses the magician in the Harry Potter series. In the Blood Quintet Series, Sam and his four friends from Candentis Academy happen upon a large, spherical Obiscule, which shatters into five pieces of different colors. Sam's...an obsidian-black stone, Gem's...a blood-red glass orb, Kane's...an aquamarine blue, Parris'... a pearl white sphere, and Tony's... an amber crystal. With their Obiscules bonded to them, the friends begin unraveling the magical abilities inside them. And after a series of dramatic events, they realize their friendship might not have been by happenstance.
Commentary
Deadly Duel
The Taurunox meteor shower had almost peaked when Amonette trudged through the dark Mersi forest. She was deadly resolute in her will to obtain the Seal Of Obsidian tonight. Her master had strongly chastised her for failing to do so on the last occasion and had been prepping her for this very night. Ever merciful, he had spared her life, realizing he had underestimated the nature of the magical protection Sally had placed over the book. There would be no failures tonight, she thought, relishing the bestial energy charging through her like a wild bull. The plan was simple: To lure the boy outside the house and away from the book so she could sever the energy oscillating between them, kill him, then return to retrieve the unprotected book. Though her master wasn't explicit in stating her punishment should she fail, she intuited that she could not set foot back into his presence without his dark gift if she wanted to survive. Amonette shuddered, thinking about the ease with which he could erase her from existence. It wouldn’t require a single word; a fleeting thought could shatter her very soul into a billion unidentifiable bits, scattering her memory with the wind and leaving her with no hope of reincarnation. This was the nightmarish fate she faced despite the steps she had taken to prevent death.
She stopped at the edge of the forest, appraising her target yard. It was dark, all the lights off. Amonette went over the plan in her head as a gentle breeze ruffled her dark coat. Satisfied, she pulled the hood over her head and raised a hand over her head. With a silent word, the illusion-based incantation darkened the yard even further. Finished, she strode to the side of the house, gazing at a crucial element of her plan: the black German Shepherd fast asleep outside its kennel. It slept soundly, none the wiser that a stranger had encroached. She spied a ginger cat crouching on the balustrade. She ignored it and walked by, ready to enact part two of the plan.
“Pow!”
An oblique blue light jetted from somewhere to her left, striking her side. The piercing pain brought her to her knees, writhing in red hot agony.
“Pow!”
Another light streaked at her from the same direction, sizzling a nerve in her spine.
“Ow!” she howled.
Her hands groped madly inside her cloak for her Obiscule. Writhing, she caught sight of the culprit morphing from a cat into an old, plump woman with a monocle. The woman assumed a dueling posture, slightly crouched, facing her side-on. As her injuries eased, Amonette realized the woman had wisely concealed herself as a cat in the chaotic array of magical signatures stamped on and around the premises. Amonette would have had to spend hours appraising the place to detect such a presence.
“Leave now in peace,” the cat woman warned.
Amonette scowled testily.
“I can say the same to you,” she said, her excitement mounting as the pain from the initial onslaught waned. Another blue light shot at her, but this time Amonette was ready, deflecting it with a disdainful wave of her hand. The heat from it still managed to singe her spell-fortified hand, annoying her. The monocled witch seemed surprised at the defense, her eyes widening. Amonette rose slowly as she watched the witch conjure a larger than life aquamarine bear made of intense polarized light. Its ethereal essence illuminated the entire yard like a circus stage. The witch wanted to kill her, Amonette thought. She readied herself for an attack that came posthaste, the bear charging as fast as light, latching onto her. Amonette shrieked, blinded by the intense light and the pain from the animal gouging out her throat, draining her of vital energy. Amonette was under no illusions that the attack would have been fatal to a normal witch.
“Forgive me,” the bear’s owner murmured. “But I did warn you. I’ve had a long day. I need to rest my old bones.”
Amonette smiled despite the beast being halfway into severing her head. The woman's arrogance was normal yet amusing. Calm as the eye of a storm, Amonette reverted to the basic approach of trying to decipher where the witch was pulling her magic from. It was what she taught her granddaughter, Serafina less than a month ago. “No magic can be done ad infinitum. Either the source was somehow limited, or the wielder themself harmed through its use.” So far she was clueless how the witch was fueling her witchery.
“No worries. You’ll get to rest,” Amonette said. In one fluid motion, she dispelled the bear and sent a beam of her own upon the woman. The witch flashed her hand in an arc in what was an impressive display of reflex and counterspell intuition alike. Amonette nodded, the woman's resistance reminding her of her last substantive duel with none other than Sally Ferrywell.
“Very nice,” Amonette piped.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” the cat woman inquired.
Amonette smirked, contemplating if she should oblige her. She assumed the cat woman was there to protect the book from people like her.
“My name is Amonette, and I trust you know your soul will not survive the night.”
“You didn’t answer the last half of my question.”
“What do I want?” Amonette repeated. “Well, since you’re already dead, I shall reveal my intentions— The Seal Of Obsidian.”
Her revelation left the woman agape, which Amonette took as an invitation to strike. She let one of her most fearsome killing spells rip through the night air, laser-like and as red as blood. Again, the woman surprised her with her speed. But she failed in her method, for the Obiscule-fortified arm that she swung in an arc melted away. The cat woman screamed louder than her fragile frame suggested, dropping her orb. A fatal sin. Amonette began her slow advance toward the grounded woman, scoffing at her pathetic squirming. How easily had the arrogance transformed into fearful cowering?
“I made it fun, didn’t I?” Amonette mocked. “Made your pet bear have a bite.” She cackled as the woman scrambled backward from her, the injured hand already covered in bubbling pustules. The curse would eventually strip all meat from her body.
“Is that all?” Amonette asked calmly. “I’m disappointed.”
She raised her hand like the blade of an austere executioner and growled another spell, even fouler than the first. The woman was silenced in a heartbeat, her head snapping backward, almost unhinging from her spine. The killing spell’s signature gust swept through the yard like a legion of moaning spirits. Amonette watched the cat woman’s soul dismount before being whisked away in a rapturous wind. In times past, even her victims’ souls felt her wrath. Tonight, however, time was of the essence. Her dark urge sated, Amonette erupted into a fit of mirthless laughter as the witch’s body morphed back to a now lifeless cat, its head folded neatly under its body. The spell continued its ravenous decomposition. Smiling, she climbed the steps and knocked on the door. In a few minutes she would commit the murder that mattered most.
The magical journey deepens in Binds of Silver Magic and Souls of Dark Magic
