So I've done the rounds with 'Shift,' and while it scored some great remarks in the RWA Emerald comp (One judge scored it 34/35 and one 33/35), I'm not hanging my hopes on it being published any longer. Am busy with my next novel which I hope to pitch at the RWA conf in August, but I thought I would post my favourite part of Shift on here as a farewell to it haha. So here is the Epilogue (Yes, I like endings).
The mist swirls around me as I pass through the shadows of the trees. The early morning light fights to penetrate the swirling clouds, but cannot win.
It’s freezing this far up the mountain; I shiver and reach to pull my shirt closer around my body. I have forgotten my shoes again and my feet have turned to ice. The sting of the dew has numbed my toes - but I keep moving.
I reach out and touch the heavy iron gates and trace my finger along the snaking tendrils of hair.
Circe smiles down at me. I know her secrets now. I am no longer afraid of her.
A low voice from somewhere behind the gates drifts over me.
Marcus.
I try to push the gates open, but they won’t budge. I look back up at the face of the sorceress with the eagle’s body. Her smile has been replaced by a menacing scowl. The gates burn my hands and I release them with a gasp, and stare down to watch the blisters form on my palms.
The low voice calls something I can’t make out, and I peer through the gates again, careful not to touch them.
And then I see him.
Marcus is sitting on an old garden bench under a huge flowering tree. His back is to me, and he has his arm around a girl with long red hair - my hair.
Is that me? Am I dreaming again?
“Marcus!” I call through the unyielding gates.
He doesn’t hear me, he doesn’t turn around.
But the girl does.
She turns slowly to look at me and smirks, as her hair changes colour. The red drips away, revealing long black tresses, and her eyes glow fiercely at me. She puts her arms possessively around Marcus, and pulls his head down onto her chest, covering his ears with her hands.
“Marcus, what’s going on? Look at me!” I yell, but he still doesn’t hear.
The girl throws her head back and laughs at me, pitilessly. Her black hair tumbles down her back, and writhes like a million serpents. Her skin is pure bronze and glows in the pale light.
I grab the gates again and shake them furiously. They burn into my hands, but I ignore the pain in my desperation to get to Marcus. I scream his name out, again and again, until Serena emerges from the mist, a scowl on her face.
“Keep him away from the Seer!” She commands the raven haired girl.
The girl complies, and pulls Marcus towards the house, throwing me an arch look over her shoulder as they disappear into the mist.
“You should have listened to me, Seer! You don’t belong here - you don’t belong with him!” Serena calls out cruelly, before fading into the mist like the others.
My heart tears in half, and I collapse in front of the foreboding gates, wanting to pull them from their hinges and reclaim what’s mine, powerless to do anything but weep.
