As promised, we have here excerpts to Pledged by Gwyneth White. They're pretty exciting :)\
Enjoy!
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THREE SHORT EXCERPTS FROM
PLEDGED
By
GWYNNETH WHITE
We have chosen the
following excerpts to give your readers a glimpse into the lives of the main
characters in Pledged, namely: Seth
and Erin, Jared and Sophia, and Caleb and Talitha.
EXCERPT ONE: Meet
Seth and Erin . . .
Despite the heat, Seth felt icy.
Dread could do that to him. Or so he had recently discovered. Deep breathing
usually calmed him, so he sucked in a lungful of desert air and told himself to
relax. It didn’t help. By the time he’d walked from the aircraft to the
immigration hall he’d ripped off a jagged piece of thumbnail, already bitten
raw. He handed his US passport to the Botswanan border official, and, after a
frown, and a stamp, he joined the crowd at the baggage carousel. Botswana in
southern Africa was the last place on earth he’d ever have picked for a holiday
destination. But he wasn’t here on holiday. Not even close.
His backpack was slow
in coming. Tired from his long-haul flight from New York, he leaned against the
wall and closed his eyes. Almost as if to mock him, the hated vision that had
brought him to Botswana burst into his mind. In an instant he was back in
ancient times, watching a man he knew only as Gideon. As usual, Gideon was huddled
on a windswept hill with his band of hopeless soldiers, waiting to be
slaughtered by a huge army gathered in the valley below.
Seth snapped his eyes
open to stop the battle from waging in his mind. It wasn’t that he was
particularly squeamish; he’d watched enough movies to iron clad his stomach
against gory visuals. But no movie had ever left him icy with dread the way
Gideon’s battle did. And the reason for that was simple. The moment the visions
had started, he had known that the war, fought so long ago in a place he’d
never heard of, was far from over. And, as reluctant as he was, he too was
being enlisted to fight in a cause he didn’t understand or want.
He forced himself to
focus on the present: Erin, who waited for him in the arrivals hall; his
brother Kyle, whom he’d come to Botswana to visit; Kyle’s expedition to find
the Lost City of the Kalahari . . .
He ripped off another
piece of fingernail. Thinking about the search for the Lost City was almost as
bad as the war-vision. I hope Kyle never
finds the damned place. He slapped his hand on his thigh. Enough! Grabbing his backpack off the
carousel, he set his face into a smile and strode into the arrivals hall.
The first hurdle was
finding Erin. She was due to arrive an hour earlier on a flight from Cape Town
in South Africa, one of Botswana’s neighbours. He’d never met her, although
they had spoken over the phone once. Then she’d described herself as “a short,
seventeen-year-old (a year younger than him) with a mass of ginger hair.” She’d
sounded nice. Meeting her was the one ray of brightness in this otherwise dark
picture.
He stopped to scan the
crowd. A petite girl with shoulder length, reddish-blonde curls, dressed in
skinny jeans and a purple blouse, immediately caught his eye. It had to be
Erin. Nice legs. What’s it with girls that they always under-sell themselves? He
studied her face with his artist’s eye.
Vermeer would’ve killed to paint her. Suddenly wishing he didn’t look so
grimy after his three plane-changes, he walked over to join her. “Hi, I’m Seth.
You’ve got to be Erin. My brother’s just married your sister Izzy.”
“And after only
knowing each other for about a week.”
Her dimpled grin was
infectious, making him crack his trademark crooked smile. “Madness.”
“Mysterious.” Erin
cocked her head to one side, seemingly appraising him. He knew he had been
accurate when he’d told her he was tall and dark-haired. But what he had failed
to mention was what girls had often said they liked about him: his strong,
angular face, softened by expressive brown eyes. He watched her eyes rove over
his grey Muse: Resistance t-shirt, taking in his broad shoulders and chest. From
there they darted down his black camo-pants to his boots. Amused by her blatant
assessment, he cocked his head to one side, watching her. Suddenly Erin giggled
– was she embarrassed? – and picked up her bag.
“We’ve yet another
plane to catch. My fourth in the last twenty-four hours,” Seth said, hoping to
explain away his rumpled appearance. “To a place called Maun.”
“So we do. Let the
adventure begin.”
***
EXCERPT TWO: Meet
Jared and Sophia . . .
Jared nodded at Sophia
and Kezeah without any sign of recognition. With two of his Pledged up front
and two at their rear, he marched them down the corridor to a flight of stairs.
Once at the bottom, he ducked beneath an archway, opening onto to a gloomy,
narrow tunnel. Erin, never keen on dark, claustrophobic spaces, took a deep
breath and paused.
“C’mon,” Seth said.
“The sooner we walk through it, the quicker we get to the other side.”
“What happens if
what’s on the other side is even worse?”
“Then you’ll know for
sure that the dead guys are leading this expedition,” Seth said, wanting to
deny the painful burning in his heart that reconnected him with a cursed Jared.
He grabbed Erin’s arm and pulled her into the passage.
They’d taken no more
than two tentative steps along the uneven floor when Sophia stopped. “Commander,
I am not walking through this
snake-hole!”
Jared turned back to
look at her. With none of the fear or diffidence Erin and Seth expected from a
boy with limited to exposure to girls – especially beautiful ones – he
answered, “Of course, my lady. You’re from Norin, where I understand you live
in grass huts.” He gave a sardonic smile. “But don’t despair, you’ll soon get
used to bricks. Even our own Outcasts have learnt not to flinch at the sight of
them.” He continued down the passage.
Seth’s mouth dropped at Jared’s rudeness;
this was so foreign to the Jared he had seen just moments ago in his vision. It
just added to his anger at Reuel’s Curse.
The Pledged at
Sophia’s rear prodded her back; she gave him a fierce look and started walking.
For Seth and Sophia,
both taller than Erin and Kezeah, negotiating the tortuous twists and turns of
the tunnel was no easy matter. Stooping, cursing each time they bumped their
heads on the rough ceiling, they struggled after Jared, but he kept up the
merciless pace until they reached a dark staircase.
Her temper now as
short as her breath, Sophia stopped walking and locked her arms across her
chest. “Having just cracked my skull open, you now expect me to scramble up
those treacherous stairs too. No doubt hoping I’ll fall and break my neck.
Well, forget it. I’m not moving.”
“Sophia!” Kezeah
whispered, jabbing her in the ribs as she stepped gingerly onto the first
narrow step.
Sophia ignored her.
“Only savages and rats live in places like this.”
Jared’s
eyes narrowed. “Savages and rats, you say, my lady?”
Sophia set her face
into a cold stare, locking her hypnotic blue eyes on his.
He surprised her by
holding her gaze. “I hate to disappoint you, my lady, but Lord Rustus, Lord of
the Household, under the direction of the Overlord himself, has chosen your
apartment. Surely you don’t question their judgment in this matter?”
“As a
matter of fact, I do.”
“In
that case, I’ll gladly pass on your concerns. If that’s what you really want.”
“Enough,
Sophia. This isn’t a fight you can win.” Sophia’s Guardian had joined
them.
***
EXCERPT THREE: Meet Caleb and Talitha . . .
Erin flicked her hair
behind her ear and watched Caleb straighten his clothing. He took a deep breath
and entered the hut. They followed right after him, drifting through the closed
door as if it didn’t exist. Seth laughed, holding his hand up to Erin for a
high-five – until he noticed that
Caleb’s Gefallen had also wafted into
the cabin with them. Even though he had no idea how to defend Erin from a ghost,
he stepped in front of her to protect her. But the wraith ignored them and
sailed over to Caleb.
A tall, blonde-haired girl with
almond-shaped brown eyes was waiting for Caleb. For Erin, the recognition was
instantaneous; it was Talitha. “She’s so beautiful!”
“She’s okay,” Seth replied, looking her
over critically. “But I don’t think Caleb’s here for her looks.”
“What’s
that supposed to mean?”
“You
said yourself that Caleb’s a good-looking guy. I bet he could have any girl he
wants around here.”
Erin frowned; then she
smiled as understanding dawned. “So, in guy-talk, you’re saying he loves her?”
Seth chuckled as he
picked up Erin’s hand and put it on his heart. “Tell me what you’re feeling?”
Erin gasped at a
disconcerting pulse thrumming in Seth’s chest, over-riding his own heartbeat.
“It’s . . . no . . . It’s not possible.”
“I’ll bet it is. It’s Caleb’s heart beating.”
“How do you know it’s
him? It could be Talitha.”
“It started the moment
I saw him. It’s like it’s there to stop me denying that he and I were once
friends. And I was watching Talitha when he walked in. She smiled, and it felt
as if someone had just shot a thousand volts through him.”
“It’s amazing you’re
so connected that you can feel him.”
Seth wasn’t so sure he
agreed; it made being here just a little too real.
Erin felt her own
heart and could faintly discern Talitha’s heartbeat; it was nowhere near as
strong as the thump in Seth’s chest, but then, she figured, she wasn’t in
denial the way he was.
They fell into silence as Caleb opened his
arms to embrace Talitha. She draped her arms around his neck, twisting the dark
curls tumbling onto his shoulders. He kissed the nape of her throat and ran his
lips up her neck, over her chin to her mouth.
“This is awkward,”
Erin murmured, looking away.
“You don’t say. All
this way just to watch them making out.”
*****
These excerpts are
issued by Swallow Press for use by bloggers participating in launch and blog
tour of Pledged by Gwynneth White.
Any queries can be addressed to Andrew at sethanderin@swallowpress.com
