Behind the Mask

Over the next week, following Behind the Mask's release, I thought I'd post a few excerpts.

Here is the first one:

He froze when he stood at the bottom of the stairs. The pungent odor of dark magic filled his nostrils and put him on alert. Had it happened right here? He looked down at the bottom step and stooped to run his hand lightly over it. It was there, but it wasn’t right there. He held his hand lightly over the banister and moved slowly up the stairs. Five steps from the top, it was the strongest. Someone had used dark magic in this very spot. And chances were that the person it was used against had stood at the bottom.

He was going to have to find out what happened to the oldest sister, Faith. He didn’t know anything for certain yet, but the older women had said she was a spiteful child, and to him, that meant it often led into doing nasty things as the person got older. Had she cursed her own sister?

Evan continued up the stairs, and he checked each room carefully. Slight tinges of magic were throughout them, but nothing strong enough to gauge anything. The last room he checked brought him to a stop as he entered it. It was heavy with despair, and somehow, he knew this had been Gracie’s room. “Why did you leave?” He turned in the room slowly and then spotted a picture hanging on the wall. Frowning, he walked over and looked at it. A couple stood with their two daughters in front of them. He touched the frame gently and leaned closer so he could see in the fading light. One daughter had coal black hair, and something told him it was Faith.

He took the picture off the wall carefully and walked over to the bathroom to turn on the light and get a better look. The picture was probably five years old, judging by his guessed ages of the girls. He studied the auburn-haired girl. Even in a photo, her aura was lit with joy. She appeared graceful and carefree. It had to be Gracelyn. “Where are you?” he asked the photo.

He turned back toward the door and wandered around the room. “I’ll find you and give you back your home, Gracelyn.” Still holding the picture, he went to the back to the stairs. He had a lot of ground to cover and very little time to do it, but he knew one thing—no one was going to take this house away from that girl in the picture.

Behind the Mask was reviewed at Seriously Reviewed!

The concept of the story was great. The main characters were enjoyable and well written. It was titillating and enjoyable...

Check out Seriously Reviewed to read more.