Today we welcome fantasy author Eliza Tilton to the blog to feature her novel Broken Forest. Enjoy!
The Book
Hopeless he’ll never be more than the boy who didn’t save his brother, 17-year-old Avikar accepts his life as the family stable boy, trying to forget the past. But when his sister, Jeslyn, is kidnapped, the thought of losing another sibling catapults him on a desperate quest. With his best friend by his side, and using the tracking skills he learned from his father, he discovers Jeslyn has been taken, kidnapped by one Lucino, the young lord of Daath, a mystical place thought only to exist in fables.
And Lucino has plans for Jeslyn.
His shape-shifting brethren feed off the auras of humans, and Jeslyn’s golden hue is exactly what Lucino needs to increase his power. The longer it takes Avikar to reach her, the more entranced she becomes with Lucino’s world, and the harder it will be for Avikar to set her free.
He failed his family once. He won’t fail again.
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The Teaser
My stomach churned as I studied the red stains splattered across the ground. I knelt and swiped a finger across the sticky substance and sniffed. Berries. I should have known it wasn’t blood—the consistency didn’t match—but I had to be sure. My heart thumped and I was sure the kidnappers could hear it, but they were nowhere near us. It was just nerves.
Three deep breaths later, I continued tracking, recalling Calli’s every detail. I examined the footprints smeared on the grass. The large heavy prints of the captors and the faint small prints of my sisters, both crisscrossing each other in a rugged path.
“Find anything?” Derrick said.
“Not yet.”
“Time’s running out.”
I glanced at the sky. The suns were descending. Soon it would be night. My chest tightened, and I had to control my breathing again, pushing aside the fear of losing Jeslyn.
Wild strawberries spread in all directions. By the stream lay two wicker baskets smashed into splinters.
“Do you think she’s still …” Derrick gripped the wooden emblem he always wore—a symbol of The Creator, three wavy lines, representing water, enclosed with a circle.
“I don’t know.”
I traced each step, imagining how the attack unfolded. I pictured the three men Calli described—how did she escape when Jeslyn couldn’t? I studied the dance at my feet—two had fallen, and then they’d stood. I spun to the left, following the vicious display. In one direction were Calli’s footsteps and two of the kidnappers while Jeslyn’s tracks led to where the woods began.
There, on a tree, swayed a red ribbon. I walked over and grabbed it from the branch.
“I gave that to her yesterday,” Derrick said and I handed him the ribbon.
He tied the cloth around his wrist. His jaw clenched.
The dead forest stood in front of us. I squinted past the long line of black and grey trees. “This way,” I said, and slowly we led the horses into the blackened woods.
About Eliza Tilton
Eliza Tilton is the author of the YA Fantasy, Broken Forest, published by Curiosity Quills Press. You can find her blogging about video games and writing on her blog and doing bi-weekly posts on author media over at YAStands.
She graduated from Dowling College with a BS in Visual Communications. When she’s not arguing with excel at her day job, or playing Dragon Age 2, again, she’s writing. Her stories hold a bit of the fantastical and there’s always a romance. She resides on Long Island with her husband, two kids and one very snuggly pit bull. Twitter / Tumblr / Website / Pinterest / Facebook